CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Almost a week had passed, and no matter how hard James tried to convince Jane that Aaron Ashby was a terrible person, she still wanted to be his friend. In fact, however hard James tried to pull her away from Ashby, she seemed to try twice as hard to get back to him. So against the will of James Potter, Jane and Aaron became really good friends. And it was one of the hardest things he had ever had to deal with.

But on the night of the tenth, James had bigger things to worry about than that slime ball, Ashby. Remus had been sick again today; he was currently supposed to be staying in the Hospital Wing. This was the third time this school year that he had gotten sick, and James' suspicions had been growing over recent discoveries he and Sirius had made. Jane, unfortunately, wouldn't listen to them when it came to this subject.

As the common room cleared out that night, and Jane finally went up to bed, James, Sirius, and Peter all huddled under James' invisibility cloak and left through the portrait hole. They were headed to the Hospital Wing, trying to prove to themselves that they were not making things up in their heads.

Once they made their way down to the Hospital Wing, they silently crept from bed to bed, checking everywhere for Remus. However, he was nowhere to be found. James had a mind to drag Jane out of bed and show her that Remus wasn't here, that Remus obviously was hiding something, but he didn't.

"Well," Sirius started, "what do we do now?"

James sighed.

"We wait," he said.

The trio of friends sat in the far corner of the Hospital Wing. This way, they'd be able to see any and all movement, or at least they could kind of see it through the dark.

"We're supposed to stay awake all night?" Peter complained.

"Of course we are, you git. That was the plan," Sirius said, smacking him in the arm.

"Ouch!"

"Hush! Both of you. Just because we're invisible doesn't mean people can't still hear us," James said.

"Guys. Guys, wake up!" James whispered in a harsh tone, shaking Sirius and Peter awake.

"Get off," Sirius mumbled as he pushed a sleeping Peter off of him.

"What time is it?" Peter mumbled.

"Early," James said. "The sun's just only started to come up."

James pointed towards the door, where Madam Pomfrey was rushing a student inside. They watched as the student crawled into a bed and waited for Madam Pomfrey to finish tending to him. Then, after Pomfrey closed the curtains around that bed in particular and walked to her office, they all three peeked behind the curtains to find Remus, looking just as sickly as ever.

James yanked the invisibility cloak off of them and pulled the curtains around them. Remus almost let out a yelp of surprise, but Sirius quickly put a hand over his mouth.

"Shush!" he ordered before removing his hand.

"What are you three doing here?" Remus asked.

"Why so startled to see us? We always come and visit you," James said innocently.

"Yeah, but it's just—it's so early," he said. "You don't usually come until after breakfast."

"Actually, we came last night, but, and funny thing really, you weren't here," Sirius said. "Care to enlighten us on that?"

"I, uh, I-I did wake up last night. I had to go to the loo. Maybe you came then," Remus stuttered.

James shook his head.

"Not a chance, mate, we stayed here all night."

"Why have you been lying to us?" Sirius asked. "And think about this before you answer: we already know the truth."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Remus asked.

"You know," James started, "we didn't really put the dots together until a few weeks ago. Obviously, we knew you had been getting sick a lot."

"Then," Sirius continued, "we put it together that you got sick once every month, but still, we were kind of lost as to what that meant. You know, we never would have figured it out if it hadn't been for Janie."

Remus' brow furrowed.

"You see, last school year, when Jane didn't make first string, Sirius and I decided that we'd help her. So once every month we'd go out in the middle of the night so that Jane could practise with the Quaffle," James said.

"What does this have to do with me?" Remus asked.

"Well, just recently it was recalled to our memories that every night we took Janie to practise was a night that you," Sirius said, pointing at him, "were in the Hospital Wing."

"Mere coincidence," Remus said.

"No, mate, we don't think it was," James said. "You see, every night we took Jane out for practice was every night on the full moon."

"We know, Remus," Sirius said.

Remus swallowed hard. He hadn't wanted anybody to know, but James and Sirius were two of the smartest guys he knew. Eventually, they would have. Maybe he had just hoped that they wouldn't have gotten suspicious. But now they knew, yet they weren't running for their lives.

"So why are you here? Why are you standing so close to me? You should be avoiding me like the plague. Anybody else would," Remus said.

James sat down on the edge of the hospital bed.

"Because we're your friends. Just because you are what you are doesn't mean you deserve to be treated any less," he said.

Remus half smiled. Was he actually hearing them correctly? They knew what he was but still wanted to be friends with him? He wanted to cry, but he thought that that might be followed by ridicule. Besides, he had another problem to worry about.

"Does Jane know?" Remus asked frantically.

"Not yet," James said.

"Yeah, she said that she didn't want anything to do with this. She told us that you weren't hiding anything. I can't wait to tell her 'I told you so,'" Sirius said, smiling a bit.

"No," Remus said a bit too loudly. "Please, don't tell her."

"Come on, Remus. It's Jane," James said. "She's our friend. She's your friend."

"I know. Believe me, I know, but I'm not sure she'd be as…understanding as you are," Remus said.

"It's Janie we're talking about, Remus," Sirius said. "She's not going to run away from you."

"You guys don't get it. Last month, she was flipping through her Defence book and saw a page on—well, on what I am, and she told me how scared she'd been of them ever since she figured out that they really existed," Remus said. "Then, back at the end of October, when you guys were checking out the Shrieking Shack, she just kept talking about how scary she thought it was and how she didn't like it."

"What does that have to do with you?" James asked.

"Because I'm the reason it's even called the Shrieking Shack. I'm the reason that everyone thinks it's haunted. That's where I go when I transform. All the screaming the villagers hear is me. The one thing in the world that Jane is scared of more than anything is the monster in the Shrieking Shack, and I'm the monster!" Remus said.

They boys were quiet for a while.

"She wouldn't be scared if she knew it was you," Peter said.

Remus just shook his head.

"You don't know that," he said quietly. "She's a good friend, and the thought of her being too scared to be around me, it's—I don't want that. I mean, you weren't even supposed to know. I didn't want you to know. You found out, and I have to live with that, but Jane, she doesn't have to know."

"But—"

"Please?" Remus begged. "Don't tell her."

James sighed and looked at Remus. No matter how wrong James thought Remus was about Jane, it wasn't his place to tell her.

"All right, mate. We won't tell her," James agreed.

Remus looked relieved.

"Oh, hey, before we leave," Sirius said. "I was wondering how you liked the nickname, Moony. I've been dying to call you that ever since we found out."

Remus kind of laughed.

"I'd rather you not."

"I think I'm going to anyway," Sirius said with a straight face.