"Wakey, wakey!"

Remus groaned, opening his eyes and flinching, finding James leaning over him anxiously and identifying the painfully loud voice in his ear as Sirius'.

"You're in the hospital wing so much mate I think you should have your own room," James grinned looking relieved when Remus' eyes opened.

"Ha….ha….ha.." Remus replied dryly. "Ow," he added more out of annoyance than pain as James flicked his forehead looking cross.

"You should have said you were cursed!" James pointed out sternly and Remus could hear Sirius suppressing his snickers.

"I didn't know," Remus protested, feeling dread fill him. He knew his friends chiding would be nothing compared to the matrons….

"But you were on the ground and you lied to me even after…" Peter trailed off as Remus shot him an angry look that must have actually looked threatening since the smaller boy gulped.

"Even after what?" Sirius asked immediately, always annoyingly quick to pick up when something was being hidden from him.

"Even after I asked him if it was the truth."

"It was the truth," Remus replied stubbornly, his head still aching. "Well some of it," he amended at the three disbelieving looks his friends shot at him. "Why are you wearing those?" Remus asked tiredly, finally noticing the very large badges on Peter, James, and Sirius' chests.

"Nuhu you aren't changing the subject that easily! So what actually happened?" Sirius asked, settling down on Remus' bed.

"Yeah mate, it sounds like quite the story," James added, joining Sirius in sitting on Remus' bed.

"It really isn't. I overheard some students, they caught me…..it's a little fuzzy but they must have cursed me then as I was walking back I lost my balance and tripped."

"But why didn't you say you had been cursed? We could have gone right to the hospital wing?" Peter asked sitting at the foot of the big bed. Remus bit back a pained smile, it appeared that whether they were in their dorm or anywhere else they somehow ended up gathering on his bed.

"Well, I was really excited about the egg. I had to tell Gideon immediately. You can't tell me the three of you wouldn't have done the same thing," Remus replied, only half lying which he had found was the safest way to hide facts from his friends. Part of Remus wasn't sure why he didn't just tell them the truth but something about having his memories tampered with seemed humiliating, shameful, and extremely intrusive. Besides then the awkward conversation would have to happen about Remus being with Greyback for a month….months? Remus swallowed down the revolting feeling and inhaled slowly through his nose.

"Well…. yeah, I guess that's true... but still," Sirius huffed but said nothing more, because as Remus suspected his friends really couldn't argue with that sort of logic.

"So how many eggs has he collected?" Remus asked excitedly, sitting up slightly, glad to find he was feeling much better than he had been.

"That's what these are for!" Peter piped up happily.

"We were tailing you and the Prewetts…. well sort of, someone took some shaking before he came to," Sirius stated pointedly and James' cheeks heated.

"But both of them were in our dorm at once! How could I not be shocked over that?"

"Yeah, yeah but anyways they caught us!"

Remus paused for a second, Sirius looking at him expectantly.

"What? Wait caught you in the invisibility cloak?"

"That's right!" James exclaimed looking as if this was sole proof that the Prewetts were the coolest people ever.

"How did they do it?" Remus asked, also impressed by this.

"Don't know, maybe Peter's stinky breath gave us away."

"Hey, I'm not the one whose feet should be considered hazardous!" Peter shot back and they all laughed.

"I think I know how they did it, guys." Remus pointed out keeping his facial expressions neutral.

"Of course you figured it out can't you at least pretend you aren't smarter than us," Sirius groaned in mock irritation. This caught Remus aback though.

"What? I'm not smarter than you," Remus gasped, the very notion astounding to him. He was a werewolf. How could he be smarter than anyone? Plus, he had to study while James and Sirius excelled with barely any effort…..

"Well, Gideon called you a genius mate, pretty sure that cements it in stone," James pouted slightly and stuck his tongue out at Sirius who had called him a 'poor sport'.

"But how did they do it, Remus?" Peter asked, getting them all on track after James and Sirius' insults to each other had dissolved into utter nonsense.

"I think the sheer power of James' fanatic admiration alerted them to your guys' presence," Remus stated with as much seriousness as he could muster. Peter and Sirius cracked up at this. However, James actually seemed quite proud about the fact which made Remus, Sirius, and Peter laugh all the harder at him.

"All of you out before I take points," Madam Pomfrey scolded and the previously laughing boys jumped to their feet, all but Remus.

"Aww come on Poppy," Sirius whined.

"Out!" the matron barked and Remus had never wanted his friends to leave the hospital wing less. He could tell that Madam Pomfrey was not pleased. "Those boys blatantly breaking curfew,"

"Curfew? Wait, is it still Monday night?" Remus asked, pleasantly surprised. He was so used to waking up the next day in the hospital wing that he had never stopped to consider that it could have actually still been the same day.

"No, Remus it is Tuesday. You were out all day long. I could not figure out what was wrong. Your poor friends thought you were in a coma again, scared the bejeezus out of them. Which is the only reason I'm not taking points from those rule-breakers mind you."

Any pride over helping Gideon and joy over his friends' casual teasing of each other withered and died in Remus.

"Does my father know?"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips slightly then sighed heavily, a gentler expression filling them.

"Remus, what did I tell you last year?"

"To….try to stay out of trouble," Remus stammered, feeling tears fill his eyes.

He was always so bad. Even when he tried not to be he was always so bad the second he let his guard down.

"Hmph, well your father has been informed. I don't suppose you are going to tell me who cursed you?" Madam Pomfrey asked sharply.

"No….."

He didn't dare lie to Madam Pomfrey right now!

"Thought not," she sighed, sounding disappointed, "you need to think about yourself a little sometimes dear. I understand you don't want to get anyone in trouble but they should be in trouble for cursing you."

"It…..it was an accident," Remus explained.

"I very much doubt that but I won't pry."

That was new! Remus frowned, finding the matron's hastiness to drop the subject extremely odd.

"Do you know what curse it was?" he asked casually, not letting himself dwell on the consequences him getting into more trouble would have with his father.

"No dear," Madam Pomfrey replied shortly, her eyes shifting away from him as she busied herself with fixing his sheets that the three boys on his bed had messed up.

Odd….

"I'm sorry Madam Pomfrey…."

She looked at him with a sadness in her eyes that surprised him and made him feel a flutter of nervousness. It sometimes looked like the matron didn't expect him to reach year seven….though he supposed with how much trouble he got into he couldn't really blame her for that.

"I know dear. Just try to keep your head down a little more, yes?"

The words sounded so similar to ones that his uncle and father had shouted at him many times before that he flinched.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now none of this ma'am business. You just lie back down and get some rest. If you are feeling well in the morning you may return to your dorm."

Remus nodded not daring to point out he felt fine and would prefer to return to his dorm tonight.

"Goodnight Madam Pomfrey."

"Goodnight dear," she whispered softly leaving him alone in the dark with his thoughts that seemed intent on spilling and which led to complicated confusing dreams which he was glad to forget the next morning.

….

Upon leaving the hospital wing the next day Remus had discovered from his friends that the buttons they were wearing had been enchanted to start feeling really cold whenever they were near someone who had an egg. Peter had demonstrated this on Remus twice finding it absolutely fascinating at how accurate the buttons were. Of course the downside of buttons which Fabian and Gideon had created the night they had 'heroically whisked Remus to safety'; according to James, were that they got cold even around eggs that had already had the necessary spell cast on them.

Apparently, after the first task, the champions had been given a slip of paper with a very complicated spell they had been told to 'use at the right time' and had been instructed not to share with anyone. Remus wasn't sure if Mihaela had found out first or the Abraeselts champion Anders Olsen, but somehow one of the champions had realized the incarnation wasn't for the actual task but for building up their time to complete the task. The whole thing was very clever and each champion had different ways of gathering eggs, since they would all rather have too much time than not enough. Mihaela was, Remus guessed, using her friends' skill with Obliviate to basically bully the eggs. There was a rumor that Anders was offering gold for eggs while Gideon was using the badges to track down egg owners and then persuading them with his good-natured manner.

It wasn't against the rules to track down egg users from the opposite schools but Gideon had, probably wisely, not even attempted to and in three short days had collected three eggs which was only one behind Mihaela and two behind Anders. Obviously, the whole school was abuzz with the whole thing by the time the weekend rolled around.

Remus however was much more concentrated on his egg whose writing had changed as soon as Sirius had placed the thing into Remus' hand explaining they had all tried to hatch it with no luck. As soon as Remus had grabbed a hold of it the letters that had spelled out Gideon's message had shifted resulting in the following puzzle that Remus had to solve to get his egg to hatch; What a dragon can't live without…..

Well, at least it seemed like a more doable puzzle and far more pleasant than finding out the truth about his past. So Remus decided to put all of his anxious energy about what Greback was trying to keep from him into his egg. Lily's egg had hatched, though her clue had been different and required her to spin her egg around really fast before it had hatched into a miniature welsh green dragon. Remus didn't know what Dorcas had done but her egg had hatched into a Hungarian Horntail which she took to keeping on her shoulder and threatening anyone who was annoying her that she would let her dragon bite them. All the other Gryffindor's eggs had hatched and Remus was sure most of the eggs at this point had transformed into the little dragons. It felt like only his was left which was a rather depressing thought. But James and Sirius took it as a challenge which Remus was glad about….mostly.

So throughout the rest of the week, the eggs and upcoming second task were all anyone ever talked about. Remus had to catch up with his studies, upset that he had missed yet another day of class on Tuesday. But in the evenings the Marauders bent over the egg and throughout wild ideas of how to open it, though Remus put his foot down to stabbing it or prying at it with anything sharp.

Over the weekend Sirius and James, despite Remus' worry it would hurt the dragon, had taken the egg to Hagrid's and set it in the fireplace of the gamekeeper who was extremely eager to help. Hagrid offered to take the egg into the forbidden forest, his reasoning being that dragons couldn't live without prey to hunt. James had whispered to Remus later, still being quite sore about the forest, that the only reason Hagrid wanted to go in that awful place was because it was a chance to extend the amount of time he had the egg for. Remus would have let the gamekeeper hold onto the egg as it made him so happy but Sirius convinced him the Marauders as a group needed to focus on hatching the thing and they could then let Hagrid play with the miniature dragon.

Sirius had let Elvis, now fully grown, bite and bat at the egg. The justification for this was Sirius figuring that maybe dragons needed danger. While the frenzy of the eggs had taken over the Marauders' weekend, with a slight break in which they had to cheer up Sirius whose meeting with Regulus had not gone well to the amusement of several foreign students in the courtyard. Come Monday they were all out of ideas and quite frustrated about the notion of trying to hatch the egg, some more than others.

"Maybe kiss it, Remus…..perhaps they need love or something," Peter suggested hanging upside down off his bed a parchment in his hands filled with a disordered jumble of secret passages. Besides Operation Hatch the Egg, James had also declared Operation Marauder's Map much to Sirius' displeasure since apparently only Sirius 'the leader' could alert the Marauders of their missions.

"Peter, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard," Sirius scoffed, ink smeared across his face as he continued to doodle aimlessly, giving up on his task to enchant a very poor rough draft of the castle to get the ink to disappear from prying eyes when they wanted it to.

Sirius was sure that the map would be confiscated if they didn't somehow figure out a way to hide it.

"Maybe you should just flush it down the toilet," James grumbled, pouring over a book on map cartography.

"I'm not doing that. Besides I'm pretty sure it would hurt her." Remus insisted, already having had to stop Sirius from dropping the egg out the window the other night. It seemed the presence of the egg served as something of a constant reminder to the prouder Marauders of a puzzle they couldn't fix.

"I thought it's a toy? How do you know it's alive?" James asked flopping over on his bed so he too could dangle off it, pinching a quill between his upper lip and his nose, looking absolutely ridiculous.

"I just…..well you still wouldn't flush a portrait down a toilet," Remus attempted to make them understand.

"Speak for yourself mate," Sirius scoffed, sitting cross-legged on his bed, the mess of ink all over his bedsheets an equal effort of both him and Elvis who pawed at the inkwell from his comfortable spot curled up between Sirius' legs. "If I had the chance to flush my great grandfather Phineas down the toilet I wouldn't hesitate. It would have to be a big toilet though mind you."

"Ok well, most people wouldn't do that. And even if they can't feel the pain they still can become afraid. Pretty sure she is the same way," Remus insisted, trying and failing to read a page on illusionment charms in application to the paper.

"There you go saying 'she' again. I get it, same as the portraits or whatever, but how do you know it's a she?" James asked, sounding more curious than grumpy now. He had been in a bad mood since messing up during Quidditch practice. Sirius had tried to convince James everyone made mistakes but had given up when James loudly declared he was 'too good of a flyer to make mistakes'. Sometimes there was no reasoning with James.

"Um….I don't know I guess I just….know…?" Remus struggled to explain since he hadn't given it much thought until James pointed it out.

"Is it…..a werewolf thing?" Peter asked in an almost fearful tone and Remus could feel the tension in the room grow until Sirius broke it by bursting out laughing.

"Blimey Peter you have the weirdest ideas. It's not like Remus is some sort of animal whisperer…..Wait...are you….?" Sirius gasped looking down at Elvis then at Remus then back again. "Hang on is that why he likes you so much? Shouldn't he….I don't know, be afraid of you?" Sirius asked confused, poking Elvis as if expecting him to explain himself.

Remus tried not to groan unsure if he should be relieved by Sirius' ease about the topic or annoyed.

"I don't know Sirius. As far as I know, I'm not some sort of animal whisperer."

"Pity, would have been nice if there was something useful to it all," James remarked then fell quiet, Peter audibly gasping, all eyes glancing uneasily at Remus. A twinge of something Remus never thought he would have felt over anything even nearing the subject of werewolves overtook him; amusement.

"Actually I can speak to animals. I have magical powers and can even control them," Remus replied trying not to smirk as Sirius hopped off his bed thrusting Elvis into Remus' face with gullible eagerness. Remus glanced at James who was smirking having caught the slight undertone of sarcasm in Remus' tone. Remus pretended to listen to Elvis nodding as if he was taking personal note of everything the cat was saying. James fell onto the floor shaking with quiet laughter but Sirius didn't notice and focused so intently on Remus with such excitement that Remus almost felt a little bad, almost.

"Oh wow….hm well, he's being pretty chatty right now. He has a lot to say about how you should shower more and that your impersonation of Elvis is a personal affront to him,"

"And his name is awful," James shouted laughing so hard tears were forming in his eyes.

"And his name is awful;," Remus repeated, unable to keep the slight smile of his face at Sirius' slack-jawed shock.

"You suck!" Sirius roared, dropping Elvis and pouncing on Remus with an ease that still surprised Remus. He was joking with his friends. He was having fun with them. They still liked him and were ok being in contact with him!

Remus was pretty sure no matter what the truth was about his memories, that it would be ok as long as had his friends.

"Kick him in the nuts Remus," James cheered encouragingly

"Go for the throat," Peter added as if he and James were watching a match to the death.

"Yeah, the throat!"

"You arses….pft…...ow….why are you…..ugh…...supporting Remus…." Sirius grunted as Remus attempted to throw him off him. He wasn't about to ruin the mood, he wasn't about to put his friends on high alert around him but the monthly abuse Remus' body had been through semi-recently meant that wrestling like this caused him quite a bit of discomfort.

"Not my hair, that's cheating!" Sirius laughed pinning Remus' arms beside his head with a gloating look. "Give up, Your fluffy little problem can't help you now."

"Furry," Remus corrected, pulling up his knees so they were against Sirius' chest and sending him flying off of him. "Are you ok?" he asked preemptively, still not comfortable with this roughhousing James and Sirius seemed fond of since Remus was painfully aware a scratch on his friends could lead to unpleasant consequences and permanent scarring. Even though Remus bit his nails down to the nubs, he still didn't like the idea of even accidentally hurting his friends.

"Hahaha, I'm fine!" Sirius shouted leaping onto James and throwing him into a headlock with more force than Remus knew Sirius had been using on him. He both appreciated and resented the difference. "Come help me, Remus!"

"Me too!" Peter shouted gleefully, rushing over and jumping on Sirius' back sending the three of them toppling to the ground in a heap of giggles and good-natured insults.

"Knock knock…., do you boys need a minute?" Patricia laughed looking quite fondly at the entanglement of limbs that was Peter, James, and Sirius since neither James nor Sirius seemed keen on admitting defeat, and Peter was trapped beneath them.

"No…..no what's up?" James asked as he and Sirius immediately stopped their wrestling, looking at Patricia with hopeful expectation.

"Ow, you guys are standing on my hand," Peter complained, pinching James' leg so he'd move his foot.

"Oh sorry, Peter."

"So what trouble are we getting up to now Patricia? Are you finally going to show us how to do that mass enchantment so we can carry out Operation Group Fight?"

Remus rolled his eyes wondering just how many 'operations' James and Sirius had ideas for.

"You two loons can wait until our weekly prankster meeting. I need to borrow Remus," Patricia explained gesturing for Remus to come over to her. Remus wondered what this was about and his hesitation must have shown.

"Hey kid, remember that favor you owe me from calming you down before the Yule Ball. Well, I'm cashing it in. Now get over here," Patricia called impatiently and Remus followed, aware of Sirius' eyes boring into him.

If Sirius had forgotten about the damn bunny he sure remembered it now…..