"That's where he goes every month, when he says that he visits his mum and whatnot," Sirius said, talking faster and faster until he was practically throwing the words from his mouth. "That's where he gets all the scratches, why he spends so much time in the Hospital Wing!"
A memory resurfaced in James' mind. "After you ran out on Umbridge the other day, right after Remus stopped me from hexing her, Umbridge said something like, 'Trying to win my favor, Mr. Lupin? You can't tame a monster,'" he remembered.
"His hand," Peter said. "When we pulled that one prank."
"'Monster,'" Sirius breathed, looking up at his friends. "That's what she made him write."
There was a minute of silence as the pieces fell together. This was no conspiracy theory, this was reality.
"Why didn't he tell us?" Peter asked quietly.
James replied even quieter, "Wizards look down on so called 'half-breeds.' I bet he thought…."
"He thought that we'd go public," Sirius finished. "Get him kicked out."
Peter paled. "He thought we would do that?"
"I probably would, too, if I was in his situation," James said.
"We have to tell him that we won't," Sirius decided.
"Yeah. That conversation is going to go real well," James said sarcastically.
"Well, we owe him that," said Sirius, "He's going to figure out we know at some point, and I think it would be better for him to hear it from us instead of thinking up worst case scenarios."
"How are we going to tell him?" Peter said.
"Up here, where no one will over here. Once he gets back," Sirius said.
"Are we betting tomorrow?" James asked.
"Probably. He's usually gone for only two or three days," Peter said.
Again, they lapsed into silence.
"If we want any lunch, we should head down," James said finally.
"Alright," Peter agreed, though for once he didn't seem too excited to eat.
Their minds strayed from lessons for the rest of the day. None could focus, the reality was sinking in. After History of Magic, they skipped their homework to go to the library, where they immersed themselves in books about werewolves. They had to understand.
They only left the tomes for a quick dinner, then it was back to the library.
The information varied greatly. Some books depicted them as malicious beasts, others misunderstood creatures. None of the volumes depicted them as human.
"Oh, it's hopeless, we're never going to figure out the truth!" Peter said angrily. "This one says that they have control when they transform! The last one said they didn't!"
"We can just ask Remus when we talk to him," James reasoned, though he, too, was frustrated.
"Minnie might know, she does Transfiguration," Sirius halfheartedly suggested.
"Come on, it's late," James said. "We should sleep. Let's figure it out tomorrow. This isn't helping."
Reluctantly, they put the books back and trudged back to their dormitory.
"Some of the stuff in those books," Sirius said slowly, "it was awful. If Remus has been going through that every month…." He finished buttoning his pajamas.
"I hope it's fake," James said.
They crawled into their beds and fell asleep, thoughts swirling in their heads like snow in a blizzard.
The next morning, the three boys were anxious. Peter had no breakfast. Sirius didn't stop to say good morning to 'Minnie.' James obsessively drummed his fingers on his desk.
What if they screwed this up?
What if someone overheard?
What if Remus had to leave Hogwarts?
No, they wouldn't mess it up. They couldn't. Nevertheless, after classes, they waited in the Common Room, waiting for Remus to appear. It was nearly midnight when he slipped into Gryffindor Tower.
"I thought you'd be asleep," Remus said, surprised to see them up that late.
"We- we figured we'd wait for you," Peter said.
"Er, thanks," Remus said awkwardly, "but you didn't have to. We've got class tomorrow."
"Not a problem," Sirius said.
"Okay…." Remus headed for the dormitories. "Well, I'm going to get to bed, it's been a long week."
"Alright," James said. "But first, can we talk?"