"Where are you going?" inquired James as Remus stood at the door of the boys' dormitory with his backpack packed. "To my aunt's. She's very ill and I need to visit her," Remus replied, averting his eyes.
"Really? Your family seems very prone to illness. Including you. You had a fever and now all of a sudden you're fit enough to visit your aunt?" he asked sceptically.
Remus shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm better and my aunt needs me," he said evasively and left the dormitory. As soon as he was gone, James jumped onto Sirius' bed and shook his best friend awake. "What are you doing? It's still the middle of the night," he muttered. "Remus is sneaking off with some flimsy excuse again," he said.
Sirius was now awake and straightened up.
"What is it this time?"
"Sick aunt."
"I see, we'll look into that."
He stood up and threw a pillow at Peter.
"We're going after Remus, come on."
The three friends hid under James' cloak of invisibility and followed Remus stealthily. As they did so, they were careful that their friend didn't hear them.
The little chase led them to the hospital wing.
All three wondered what Remus was doing here.
But one thing was clear. The story about the sick aunt was a lie.
"Hello Poppy. I'm ready," Remus greeted her.
The healer looked at him with a warm smile.
"Ah, Remus my boy, I've been expecting you."
She gave Remus a few more potions to put in his backpack, then they set off.
Between the three of them it was a little difficult to move under the cloak of invisibility. But fortunately the healer and Remus weren't particularly fast.
At the whipping willow they stopped. Madame Pomfrey touched the knot on the ground and the tree did not lash out at them. She led Remus into an underground passage. The three friends hurried and slipped in after her.
It was almost an hour before they came to a door that looked rather shabby. Some wood had already peeled off. The room they advised also looked bleak. There were deep cracks on the walls, as well as on the floor. Boards were nailed in front of the small window and there was only a cupboard and a dusty bed in the room, on which Remus sat down. He also looked sick and unhappy.
The healer stroked his back soothingly. "You'll make it through the night too. I'll pick you up the next morning," she said gently and then left the hut.
As soon as Madame Pomfrey was gone, James pulled down the cloak of invisibility.
Remus' eyes widened when he saw his friends in the hut.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, startled.
"We could ask you the same thing," James returned. "You claimed you were visiting your sick aunt."
"As your friends, we don't like being lied to," Sirius added.
"Go away please," Remus said, looking down at the ground in dismay.
"No, first you tell us what's really going on," Sirius countered, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
James and Peter sat down on the bed with Remus.
"We weren't going to keep secrets from each other," James spoke gently to him.
"We won't tell anyone either," Peter promised.
Now Sirius settled down to join them as well.
"We're not leaving until you tell us the whole truth."
Remus bit his lower lip. He wouldn't get his friends to leave unless he told them the truth. But would they still be his friends after that? He was afraid of losing them, but the fear of hurting them badly outweighed that.
He took a deep breath.
"I am a werewolf," he said softly. There was silence for a blink of an eye. "Then you turn in here?" asked Peter.
"Yes, I'm not dangerous in here," Remus replied.
James put a hand on his shoulder. "Why didn't you say this before?" he asked. "Then we would have helped you."
"You can't help me with this and you shouldn't be with me. It's far too dangerous. I have no control over myself when the moon is full."
"But it will be a while before the full moon. Until then, we'll stay with you," Sirius said firmly.
And they kept their word. They stayed with Remus, telling him some silly stories and making shadow plays on the wall, just to cheer him up.
At dusk, the three friends left the howling hut.
Remus had had another hard night this time, biting and scratching himself, and yet something was different ...
When he was in the hospital wing, his friends came to visit him and brought him an excessive amount of chocolate. James put the pile down on his bedside table.
"Eat, you'll feel better," he said. Madame Pomfrey came rushing in, bracing her hands against her hips.
"Remus needs rest! You can't just show up here like this!" she scolded.
"Please," Remus breathed. "I feel better when they're with me."
The healer sighed. It was hard to refuse the boy. "All right, but don't make any noise," she said and went back to her office. His friends squeezed in with him on the bed and entertained Remus again as before in the hut.
Yes, that night was terrible too, and yet there was a ray of hope for Remus. Now he knew that his friends would never leave him.