Peter might not have been the strongest or the bravest of the group, but he was the most quiet and that got him secrets. People never paid attention to the shadows. Except maybe Remus, who seemed to be as well acquainted with the shadows as Peter himself but in a completely different way. Instead of using them, it seemed as if Remus was being sucked in slowly by some unseen force that created the bag's under Remus' eyes and the scars on his body.

"Stop staring, one of the Slytherin's will start a rumor that you fancy blokes if they notice," James hissed in his ear. Though Peter thought there was no shame in it, contrary to the majority, he stopped observing Remus as he snored atop his toast.

"He's always been weird, running off once a month to do something or other and he's got all those scars. Do you think he's sick? Maybe he has to get surgery to remove tumors or potions or something which would explain why…" Peter stopped himself from babbling too much right as Lily plopped herself down next to their sleeping friend. "You don't look worried this time, why is that?" Peter knew he was going to get kicked for it, but he knew Lily tended to worry about as much if not more about Remus than he did.

Lily rolled her eyes, but the kick never came. "Because I was the one up all night with him getting caught up on notes and assignments, neither of us will have any work to do for the rest of the week so we can focus on other...projects." Her smile was far too devious to warn them off, as both Sirius and James perked up.

The other two boys pestered her about what Lily Evans, the golden girl of Gryffindor, could possibly be up to with the fourth member of their group until they had to run to class. "We'll find out you know," Sirius warned as she stuck her tongue out at him, separating only when they had to take their seats.

Peter wasn't as interested in the side project as he was in how Lily explained away Remus' absence that night. He could have sworn there was no one in the common room much past eleven when he had finished with his charms work. So unless the two of them were in the library, which wasn't likely, or had been in the girls dorm, impossible as he was positive the other girls would kill them, he was sure Lily was lying. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have cared but it was Lily. She didn't lie unless she was protecting someone, so the question was, whose secret was she protecting? And how did Peter not already know it?

Research was the most important part of discovery, because usually when you knew at least half of what you were talking about the suspect would fill in the blanks. The others would just shut up until they knew how much you had uncovered. If it was enough, they started to defend themselves or make threats. Either way it was important to have evidence.

This was why Peter found himself in the library during his free time looking through a book on magical ailments which might explain what was happening to Remus. All of his information on Remus was listed on one half of a small piece of parchment with the other covering his ideas. So far, he only had that Remus was born with different genitalia and he was not going to think about that longer than he had to. It did cover all of the bases; changes in behavior towards a certain part of the month, food cravings, exhaustion...but the scars didn't make sense though unless he was hurting himself on purpose. Even then, they were too jagged and oddly placed. "Ugh…"

"You should really stop looking into things that are none of your business," someone sneered. Peter looked up to find Severus glaring at him for no reason. The Slytherin continued without pause,"you might think that you're protecting someone and all you're going to do is hurt them. How awful for everyone involved."

"Shut your…" He tried to say something back, but Severus was already walking away from him and out of the library. "Weird," Peter mused as he went back to looking through his books. By chance, or perhaps because someone in the heavens was looking out for him, but the next page he turned to covered everything he was looking into. And suddenly Peter knew were those scars came from, feeling stupid that he had so quickly ruled out self harm. Normally he refused to talk to Madam Pince, but he had to show his friends and they wouldn't believe him unless he showed them the book.

Luckily, she must have been in a good mood and only lectured him twice on its proper care, and he made it just in time to crash into the dorm room when Remus was gone. Sirius looked at him weirdly. "What are so excited about?"

"I know why Remus has been acting so weird," Peter informed them and seeing their eye rolls, added, "and I think I know what project Lily is working on." That got their attention. "It's all connected, Lily has been helping Remus cover it up this whole time. They were never studying, she was covering for him so we wouldn't suspect anything! I can't believe he told her before us, but I think she might have figured it out like I did which would explain why the girls were acting weird…"

James smacked him upside the head, startling him out of his ramblings. "What are you going on about, and why do you have a book from the library?" He was staring curiously, obviously intrigued but not enough to be patient. Or too much. Either way, he was now glaring at Peter.

"Remus has been getting sick around the same time every month and we could never figure out why. He's covered in scars that he refuses to talk about even though we don't judge him for it. He eats everything in sight around the same time he gets sick and his mood gets all weird. It all points to the same thing!" Peter exclaimed, handing them the book flipped to the page he wanted to show them. "He's a werewolf."

Anger was not what he expected, but both Sirius and James looked completely mad. "How could you say that about him? You're supposed to be one of our friends, one of his," Sirius growled before storming out the door with James close behind, too angry to add anything else.

Peter couldn't understand why they reacted the way they did, this changed nothing about the way he viewed Remus, except that he was even more worried than before. He didn't know how to feel; anger at his friends reacting strangely and confusion about it too. He knew that werewolves were viewed as dark creatures who ate babies and stole children, but maybe Remus was saved and that's why he was a werewolf. He couldn't imagine Remus hurting anyone unless they were evil. Or were a bully and if they stayed that way would become evil.

When everyone was in the dorm that night, he decided he couldn't just sit there without it all coming out. "Remus, are you a werewolf?" James looked ready to hit Peter, but Remus had frozen in place and paled considerably.

"Who told you? The girls weren't supposed to tell, they promised they wouldn't tell…" Remus was hyperventilating and his fingers had curled into fists, like he was going to need to protect himself. He backed towards the door slowly, getting ready to run away.

Peter rolled his eyes. "No one told me, mate. I figured it out like they did, I'm guessing. James and Sirius didn't believe me, so I wanted to ask you to be sure. It's not like it changes much, only now you don't have to lie when you're sick."

While Remus relaxed slightly, the other two looked like they were going to burst. "HOW are you so calm right now, he's going to kill us in our sleep or something when we're older. We have to tell Dumbledore, or the ministry!" James was white as a sheet and holding his wand out defensively, absolutely terrified, and Sirius wasn't much better.

"What are you going on about, you tosser?" He snapped. "Remus has lived with us for over a year already and you two gits haven't figured out that he's not a monster? You know he's got wizard parents that raised him, he wouldn't have a wolf pack to make him blood thirsty! Dumbledore also isn't so stupid as to not know that he's here, the school wards would have noticed!" Peter found himself between Remus and the others, his anger making him brave. He might not be the biggest, but he was right and that was what mattered. "If Dumbledore says he can be here, he can be here. And if he's been our friend this whole time and a werewolf too, why in the bloody hell are you so upset that he's one now?!"
Peter was sure he was going to be hexed. But it seemed like everyone else in the room was too stunned to do much else but stare, most likely surprised that their tag-along had dared raise his voice against them. Peter wasn't just there, he was a part of the group and they would listen. They had too.