When Remus and his friends arrived in front of Slug and Jigger's Apothecary, laughing and talking all the while, Remus realized something that was potentially very important.

The last time he had visited Diagon Alley for school supplies, his father had gone in and gotten the ingredients for him—and maybe, now that Remus thought about it, there had been a reason for that. Remus hadn't even entered the shop yet, and he could already tell that it was filled to the brim with wolfsbane.

Remus, being a werewolf, did not have pleasant reactions to wolfsbane (even airborne). There was no way he could go in there without getting lightheaded and possibly fainting. Normally, he might not mind fainting so much (he needed a good nap, anyway), but around his friends it was a bit of a giveaway.

"Er..." he said. "Dad already got my supplies for Potions when he was here last week."

James narrowed his eyes, clearly suspicious. Fiddlesticks. "You father got you Potions supplies... but nothing else?"

Remus' friends had been quite suspicious of Remus over the last year, especially James. They'd even come to the conclusion that Remus' mother was a werewolf (Remus disappeared on the full moon, he came back with scratches, he'd claimed his mother was ill—Remus' friends had decided that Remus was an Animagus and went home every month to keep his werewolf mother under control, which was ridiculous). Yes, Remus' friends were suspicious, and now was the chance to deflect all that. He had to last another year at Hogwarts. "My dad didn't get me much because... he knew I wanted to go shopping with you," said Remus helplessly.

"Then why did he get you supplies to begin with?"

"He was already there."

"That makes no sense, mate."

Remus fumbled for something to say (but what could he say? James was absolutely correct—it didn't make sense), but Sirius swooped in before Remus could even formulate a half-baked response.

"Makes perfect sense to me," said Sirius, and then he gave Remus a small, furtive glance.

Remus wasn't sure what the glance was supposed to mean, but he was thankful for the confirmation nonetheless. "See?" he said with a shrug. "Perfect sense. Anyway, I've got to go to the loo. May we meet up by the Magical Menagerie? I need to get more food for Bufo."

"Come into the Apothecary with us," encouraged James. "You can help us. You can always identify potions ingredients when we're trying to find good ones in class—you always know which ones are the most ripe or whatever. It's like a superpower."

A superpower that was likely to make Remus faint, perhaps. "No... I really need to go to the loo."

"There's one in the Apothecary."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Fine. I didn't want to have to tell you, but..."

James leaned closer eagerly.

"My parents are super overprotective, and I'm supposed to meet up with them. Right now. So that they can make sure I'm doing all right." Perfect. Embarrassing details always made lies more authentic, and Remus' helicopter parents were certainly an embarrassing detail—and, to top it all off, it was an embarrassing detail that was actually perfectly true.

"Great!" said James, but he looked sort of disappointed. "We'll go with you, and then come back here and shop together."

"They want me to come check in alone." Okay, now things were getting a little dicey. But what was Remus supposed to say?

"That's stupid," said James. "Why...?"

"Ah, don't push him," said Sirius. "Come on, James. Let the man go check in with his mum."

"Thanks," said Remus; with that, he hurried off to find his parents and wait for his friends to finish shopping. It wasn't until Remus arrived back in the Leaky Cauldron that he realized why Sirius was defending his poor excuses.

Sirius probably didn't want him there.

And why would he? Remus was high-maintenance and annoying and couldn't always keep up with the rest of them. It was only natural that Sirius would want to have fun with James, who was his best mate, and Peter, who mostly stayed out of the way.

Remus felt ill.

Remus found his parents waiting anxiously at an outdoor café, talking quietly and drinking coffee. When they saw Remus, their eyes immediately widened in perfect synchronization. Had Remus not been so jittery from the close call with his friends, it might have been comical.

"Dad," said Remus.

"Remus! Where are your friends? Why are you back so early? Oh, heavens, please tell me they didn't..."

"Calm down!" said Remus as he watched his father's face turn paler than a piece of paper. "It's fine, Dad. They wanted to go inside the potions shop to get some supplies, and I... didn't want to. So I said that... you know, overprotective parents... and I had to check in with you."

Remus' mum's mouth fell open in mock horror. "Overprotective?"

"A smidge."

"How dare you?" said Remus' mum, but she was smiling all the same.

"So they didn't find out?" said his father.

"No! Goodness, no. No."

"Good. I'll pick up some potions ingredients for you later."

"Thanks so much," said Remus. "Well, good talk, but I'd better go sit and wait for them at the Magical Menagerie. I told them we'd meet up there. See you later."

"Later," said Remus' mum.

Remus left, but he didn't actually walk away—he simply ducked behind a wall so that he could spy on his parents a little. Remus heard his mother lean over and whisper to Remus' father, "He's doing well, isn't he? This is going well."

"Sure," said Remus' father. Then Remus detected a bit of a smile in his voice as he added, "It absolutely is."

Silence.

Remus couldn't resist.

He poked his head out from behind the wall with a smirk. "Yeah, your twelve-year-old son is walking around a friendly alley without tripping over his shoelaces, all right," he said.

"Scram!" shouted his father, and Remus ran away with a grin.

Remus walked through Diagon Alley alone, listening to the bustle of shopping students around him. He heard a scandal about Amanda's boyfriend, though he didn't know who Amanda was. He heard something about a dead toad, and he panicked for a bit before remembering that Bufo was back home. He heard Dumbledore's name. He heard Professor Questus' name.

Honestly, it made sense that people were talking about Professor Questus. Some of them probably didn't know that he'd quit teaching yet, and here they were with Shakespeare and a book of bad poetry on their book lists. That, Remus figured, was bound to inspire some interesting discussion.

It was odd, walking across the cobblestone on his own. He felt strangely vulnerable. If someone were to recognize and attack him, he wouldn't be able to defend himself at all. He had his wand in his pocket, yes, but he was hopeless at duelling. He may be able to cast a few nonverbal charms, but he most certainly would not be able to hold his own against a perfectly qualified wizard. Not yet. Maybe someday.

He walked into the Magical Menagerie and smiled at the manager. The emporium smelt strongly of owls. "Anything I can do for you?" said the manager brightly.

"No, thank you, sir. I think I know where to find everything."

"Good, good," said the manager, returning to his magazine.

Remus wandered around the store for a bit, fingering the change from the Galleon that his father had given him for shopping. A whole Galleon—they were being very generous indeed, and Remus wanted to return as much as possible. He looked for the best possible price of toad food and—perfect!—found that the brand that Bufo liked was on sale. He brought it up to the manager to pay.

At this rate, he'd be able to return enough money for his parents to put towards another Pain-Relieving Potion for a future full moon. He knew that was selfish, but it couldn't be helped. Remus had grown used to Madam Pomfrey's seemingly endless potions to help with the pain following a full moon, and home full moons felt infinitely worse nowadays.

"This it?" asked the manager as he eyed the toad food.

"Yes, sir."

"You have a toad, then?"

"Yes, sir. Just a common toad."

"Ah. I don't see many Hogwarts students with toads nowadays. They were popular when I was in school, but they're going out of style. Does it have a friendly disposition?"

"Yes, sir. Quiet. Well-behaved." That was an understatement. Bufo had sat with Remus after many a full moon with hardly a croak, and he'd only ever run away once. For a toad, Bufo was practically an angel.

"Good, good, good. Keep it around. Toads are loyal."

"Of course, sir," said Remus. He sensed his friends walking near the door; as the door tinkled with their entrance, the entire room seemed to light up. James and Sirius certainly had loud presences, and Peter's bright smile didn't help, either. "James! Peter! Sirius!" Remus cried. "Those are my friends," he told the manager (oddly proud of the fact). The manager nodded and smiled.

"Did you get everything you needed, Remus?" asked James.

"Of course. Did you?"

"Yep. I think we've practically finished our shopping lists, in fact. Mum's taking me to a better location for broom shopping since I'm definitely making the team this year. I'm getting the Nimbus 1500!"

"Lucky," said Sirius, though Remus doubted he was envious. He didn't seem to care much about Quidditch. "Oi, Remus. We still need the Shakespeare books. Can your mum take us to that Muggle bookshop right now?"

"I don't know," said Remus. "We can ask. Thank you, sir," he said again to the manager, and the manager gave him a friendly wave.

"Take care of that toad."

"Of course, sir."

Then Remus and his friends bounded down the cobblestone streets.

It was a lot more fun to walk around Diagon Alley with friends, Remus decided. It had been scary and uncomfortable alone, but it was quite the opposite with the Marauders. He could do this all day.

When they finally arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, they found that Remus' mum was overjoyed to take them to a Muggle bookshop. "There's one right here in London," she said. "Just across the street. We can walk."

"Hooray!" said James. "But do we have to walk?"

"What do you want to do?" said Remus. "Crawl?"

"No, silly. Let's hop."

Remus blinked. "Hop...?"

"Yeah!" James started hopping down the street. "Come on, slowpoke."

Remus glanced at his parents and rolled his eyes. He did not hop, but he carried his friends' bags as they hopped and teased them about how ridiculous they looked.

That, in Remus' opinion, was way more fun.

"What's that, Mrs. Lupin?"

"That's a water fountain."

"And... that?"

"That's a jacket. I probably should have let you change into Muggle clothes first, hm?"

Remus was wearing a jumper and trousers, but James, Sirius, and Peter were wearing standard black robes. "It's okay, Mum," said Remus, looking around. "It's a bookshop. Everyone's weird here."

"Nice self-insult," said Sirius with a chuckle.

James wrinkled his nose. "But robes aren't weird at all. Much more normal than whatever all that is. Merlin's beard, Mrs. Lupin. What a getup."

"James, dear, that's a baby in a onesie. And don't point," said Remus' mother. That was funny. Remus' mother often used pet names, and hearing her call someone other than Remus or his father "dear" made Remus smile.

"Should we go to the poetry section or the play section?" asked Remus.

"Let's ask the manager," decided Remus' mum. "Hello? Hello, ma'am, do you know where..."

"Don't tell me," said the manager grouchily. She had grey hair, a gravelly voice, and smelt faintly of mothballs and oranges. "People have been coming in here all week looking for Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. That's what you want, innit?"

"Yes," said Remus' mum, faintly taken aback.

"Well, we're all out. Ordering more as we speak. You can order at another shop, I suppose. Or you could wait a few weeks. The waiting list is already long."

"Well, boys, what should we do?" said Remus' mother after the manager left. "Lyall? Any ideas?"

"Well, Remus already has his," said Remus' father.

Remus nodded. "Yeah, and I finished reading them. I could lend them to one of you, perhaps. And we could switch them back and forth until the shop has more books in stock."

"Give them to Pete," said James with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I wasn't planning on reading them before school starts, anyhow. Honestly, this is just a brilliant excuse to come to class without books."

Sirius nodded eagerly. "Yes. Don't worry at all, Mrs. Lupin." Remus noted that he seemed a lot more comfortable around Remus' mum now than he had at the train station... perhaps because James had told him that she wasn't a werewolf after all? "My mum and dad'll get me a book from somewhere. They hate how it's Muggle, though, so they'll probably complain to the school. That'll be a lark."

"If you're sure, Sirius," said Remus' mum. "And Peter, I must warn you that Remus' copy was mine when I was in school..."

"She wrote all over it," said Remus, grinning. "It's brilliant. You'll love it."

"I have half a mind to leave you here, Remus," said Remus' mother in mock anger.

"He'd actually like that," said James in a stage whisper, and Remus' mum audibly laughed.

"Suppose he would. Well, it's nearly time for dinner. We should probably get home. Can you three get home by yourselves?"

"Me and Sirius can," said James. "Peter? Do you need us to take you? We were just going to Floo from Diagon Alley."

"That would be wonderful," said Peter. "Last time I used Floo by myself, I ended up in Russia. The Kremlin, to be exact. Mother would be here to pick me up, but she expected us to finish shopping at seven."

"We could stay until seven," said James. "Is that okay, Mrs. Lupin? We can walk around London for a bit. Hop around. It'll be fun."

Remus' mum glanced at Remus, and then at Remus' father.

"No," she decided, and Remus' heart deflated. "I'm sorry. I'm... well, Remus isn't..."

"Are you feeling ill again?" said Remus, though he knew full well that it was his health that his mother was worried about.

"Er, yes. Yes, that's it. I need some sleep," said Remus' mum, smiling weakly.

"Oh, of course!" said James. "We can take Remus home after. What's the address?"

"No, I should go home, too," said Remus. "You understand, right?"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then...

"Of course," said Sirius. "Whatever you want, mate."

"I'll write to you later."

"Of course!"

"Bye," said Remus, and his mum started leading him out the door and to the car. His father followed. As soon as they were all in the car, Remus' mum sighed and rested her forehead on the wheel.

"I'm sorry, honey," she said. "But the... I mean, it's five days away now, and you really need to rest..."

"S'alright," said Remus. "I was feeling a bit tired anyway."

"It's not all right," said Remus' father. "None of this is all right. It's more like all wrong, actually. I'm so sorry."

"Dad! Stop it with the apologizing. It's just my life. I'm fine. Can we go home?"

"Sure," said Remus' mum, and then she placed the key into the ignition. The car roared to life, and Remus flinched. He always flinched when the car was turned on. His parents had teased him about it before in years past, but they didn't seem to have the energy at the moment. "You have good friends, Remus," said Remus' mother as she drove. "If not a bit clueless sometimes."

"More like a lot clueless, all the time," Remus corrected. "But yeah. I do, don't I?"

Remus was waiting in the cellar. It was especially dark tonight, and Remus couldn't see his own hands—even when he put them right in front of his face. His heartbeat seemed to echo around the room. He lied down on the cold, hard floor, curling into a ball and pressing his fingers into his eyes. He wished there was something he could do—anything—like read a book, or play a dusty old piano, or—if it had been Madam Pomfrey, Remus would have been tempted to let her wait with him, even. She asked if she could every single month, but Remus never let her—even when she promised to leave a full hour before the transformation began. The full moon was private, in Remus' opinion.

But private or not, Remus didn't want to be alone.

He wasn't sure what was wrong. He was going back to school in seven days, so he should have been excited. Why was he so apprehensive—even more so than normal?

He just... felt like something bad was going to happen tonight. He wasn't sure what, but he felt like something was going to happen. Were the charms on correctly? Remus' heart sped up even more. What if they weren't? What if...

"DAD!" he yelled. No answer. He yelled again, but his voice echoed around the cellar—unheard by all but Remus—before disappearing completely. Thank goodness. He'd known that the Soundproofing Charms were working, since he couldn't hear his mum and dad chatting in the other room, but he'd wanted to make sure. And if the Soundproofing Charms were working, then everything else probably was. Remus' father was no idiot when it came to magic, Remus knew. And he trusted him.

But he was still so anxious.

He shakily stood up and started to pace. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Why did this feel so wrong?

Poetry. He needed to recite poetry. That usually calmed him down.

"Two households, both alike in dignity," he muttered, "in fair Verona, where we lay our scene... from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; whose misadventured piteous overthrows do with their death bury their parents' strife..."

He ran his hand across the wall, trying to remember the rest. He couldn't, so he skipped to the last part.

"The which if you with patient ears attend, what here shall miss; our toil shall strive to mend."

He waited. And waited. And waited.

And then he wasn't waiting anymore, but he almost wished he still was as pain flooded his senses and the world became one big blur.

He came back to human form still filled with dread. He was still in the cellar. He hadn't escaped. So why...?

Oh.

Oh, no.

"Dad!" he yelled. "Mum!"

The Soundproofing Charm was still on. He sat up, leaned against the wall, and inspected his injuries. Nothing too bad. But that was the least of his worries.

He moaned and spat out some blood, and then he heard the rush of outside noises return as the Soundproofing Charm was finally taken down. Footsteps. Breathing. Heartbeats that weren't Remus'. Voices. "Remus," said his father, still behind the heavy door. He needed to check if Remus was human before entering the cellar.

"Here," called Remus; no sooner than he'd said it, his father burst into the cellar and ran to his side.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah," said Remus sarcastically. "I sure am. Dad, why...?" But his father was already muttering healing spells. "Dad, wait...!"

"You're rambling, love," said his mother gently.

Yeah, Remus sometimes did that after a full moon. Usually his mother's assurance that he was not making any sense helped bring Remus back to his senses, but not this time—because he wasn't rambling. "No, I'm not!" he said. "Dad, wait! Stop! Stop... healing me...! I have questions!"

"Shhh," said his father. "Calm down. Everything's fine."

"Everything is not fine! Why were James and Sirius and Peter here last night?"

Everything froze.

"How... how did you know that?" said his mum.

Remus tapped his nose. "Duh. couldn't hear them, but their scents were distinctive. I don't think James ever showers."

"Oh..." Remus' mother didn't seem to have the heart to laugh at Remus' halfhearted jab at James. "Oh, Remus. It's all right. Nothing's wrong. We'll explain when you're well, okay?"

"I am perfectly well," said Remus stubbornly. "Perfectly. Now tell me what they wanted."

Remus' father raised an eyebrow. "Perfectly well, hm?"

"Absolutely. I could run all the way to Scotland... ow!" His nerves were gradually regaining feeling, and Remus gritted his teeth. "Perfectly," he said again.

"If you say so." Remus' father scooped him up and carried him to the couch, and Remus screwed his face up and started muttering under his breath.

"What did you say, dear?" said his mother, trailing behind them and looking utterly useless.

"I said," said Remus, as clearly as possible, wiping some more blood off of his mouth, "I hate this I hate this I hate this."

"That's what I thought," said his mum, and she swept his sweat-soaked hair away from his eyes.

"Now tell me why my friends were over here last night!"

"Well," said his mum, hesitating. "I think they might be..."

"They might be on to you," said Remus' father bluntly. "I think they have suspicions."

"What?!" Remus jerked, nearly fell off the couch, and accidentally moved his injured wrist. He gasped in pain. "Wh-what... sssstart from the t-t-t-t-t-toppp... the b-beginning...p-p-p-please."

Yeah, no. This wasn't working. Remus' speech was absolutely terrible today.

"Isn't there any potion left?" said Remus' father to Remus' mother, and she shook her head no. Ah, pity. It seemed as if the money that Remus had saved hadn't been enough yet after all. Maybe next month.

"I'm fine!" shouted Remus.

"You're not," insisted Remus' father firmly. "Give me five minutes to heal the worst of it, Remus. Then I'll tell you."

Remus bit his lip and waited. His heart was beating like it was trying to escape his chest. What if his friends knew? What was his father so reluctant to tell him what had happened? He didn't remember anything except smelling the boys whom he recognized to be the messy black-haired boy, the shorter blond boy, and the boy who stood up straight all the time. He felt a little ill as he remembered how much he'd wanted to eat them. Gross.

Remus looked up at his father, who was muttering healing spells, eyebrows knitted... he felt his bones snapping into place, his skin tingling under the silver and Dittany, and his fingers curling from the pain. It did feel a lot better now, though Remus' father's worried expression was doing nothing for Remus' beating heart. Remus leaned back and observed the blood spreading on the couch and dripping to the floor, a sight to which he was far too accustomed. And werewolves very rarely shed, but there was a bit of fur under his nails. Remus cringed. He didn't much like fur.

His father stopped trying to heal him and looked at Remus, helplessness in his eyes. That was always the look that he gave him before he took a break and allowed Remus some sleep. That look meant that he was finished—finished, at least, until Remus was coherent enough to tell him what else he needed.

"Talk," Remus ordered.

A sigh. "Very well. But then you're going to sleep, you hear me?"

"Yes, ssssir," said Remus, trying to salute but hissing in pain instead.

"Okay." Remus' father hesitated, as if he was trying to figure out how to break it to him.

They know, they know, they know, they know, they know...

"Your friends stopped by last night. Apparently, they'd owled us... and then followed the owl on their broomsticks."

Remus wanted to chuckle, because that was such a clever, dangerous, and James-y thing to do. But the chuckle died in his throat.

They know, they know, they know, they know, THEY KNOW...

"They were polite. A little giddy from flying all the way here. I was asleep." Remus' father trailed off. Remus knew why: it was because he always felt so incredibly guilty for sleeping on full moon nights. Remus had heard him complaining to Remus' mum when Remus was supposed to be napping. If Remus escaped, his father couldn't protect Hope... Hope was distraught and he needed to be there for her... it was terrible of him, to sleep while Remus was suffering... they were all stupid reasons, really. Remus knew his father needed his sleep. Healing magic was extremely strenuous, and Remus was thankful that his dad slept enough to perform it the following day. Not to mention Remus didn't want his parents to stay up all night worrying about him—worrying never changed anything. But Remus couldn't tell his father that, because that would be admitting that he'd heard another one of their conversations. That would make Remus' father feel even more guilty.

Remus clenched his jaw. "Keep going, D-Dad."

"Right... well, your mother answered the door. And your friends expressed... surprise... that she wasn't a werewolf."

Remus groaned. "I thought... I thought they'd b-believed me and Professor Questus!"

"What?"

"I..." Remus cringed. "Look, just t-tell me what they know and I'll explain l-later when I'm not..."

"Yes, of course," said his father hurriedly. "They don't know anything right now..."

"They don't know a thing, Remus," interrupted his mother. "Not a thing, dear. That's all we wanted to tell you. They no longer believe that I am a... that I'm that. Not one bit. And I was tired enough to look ill, which convinced them of your story even further. So just go to sleep... and we'll discuss it in the morning, dear."

"I don't w-want to..." Remus gave a frustrated cry as his mum started stroking his hair. "Ssstop."

"The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all its might; doing its very best to make the billows smooth and bright..."

Remus was supposed to narrate—that was their whole thing with The Walrus and the Carpenter! And Remus didn't want to fall asleep! But his mother, either oblivious or ignorant, kept reciting and stroking his hair until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer...

That's a dirty trick, Mum, thought a half-asleep Remus. A dirty trick worthy of a Marauder.

AN: Just did my first editing pass of the next chapter, and hoooo boy... some Stuff is about to happen