Monday morning dawned bright and early in the fourth year boy's dormitory. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew began to prepare for the day of classes ahead of them. Each boy donned their usual house tie, and put their wands into their book bags, along with their necessary materials and, in Moony's case, the Lord of the Rings. Each boy threw on their robes as they stepped out of the bedroom, and slipped out the portrait hole, heading for the great hall, and food.
The pain had started after breakfast. Remus had been on his way to potions when the pounding in his ears began. It soon became a dull throb behind his eyes, but the pain seemed to continually increase. It was difficult to concentrate in class, and Remus ended up doing most of the steps out of order, which resulted in snickers and jeers from the Slytherin portion of the class, and confused looks from the Gryffindors.
Remus rubbed his eyes, trying to make his vision go singular so he could read the next step and hopefully fix his potion. That only made it worse. The headache was building, and Remus felt like it would crash down at any moment. The boy felt like blacking out, as the fumes from the potions had begun to make his head fuzzy, but that wouldn't do. He had to finish this potion, it was worth 100 points. The only problem was, Remus couldn't remember what the potion was. Was it doxycide part 1? Or maybe the draught of sleep?
And was it supposed to be dark blue? Remus shivered. It was suddenly very cold in the potions classroom. He glanced up at Slughorn, hoping it was almost time to get out of class. Remus jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see James, looking at him with concern.
"Uh, Remus," he said, "you've been staring at the blackboard for, like, ten minutes."
Remus shook his head.
"Sorry," he said, "I must've zoned out."
James nodded and went back to his potion. Remus looked down at his own cauldron and attempted to fix the mess that was beginning to boil over.
Divination wasn't much better. Remus's headache had increased tenfold, plus Professor Orcland had paired him up with a Ravenclaw girl named Sybil Trelawney, who claimed to have "the eye." The perfumes coming from the fireplace made Remus's head spin, and Trelawney's nonsense about pain and death in his future wasn't helping much. Remus let out a small sigh as he stared at the dregs in his tea cup, trying to find a picture in the blurry mess in front of him.
Sybil was almost impatient as he attempted to decipher it, asking if she would become a famous seer every ten seconds, her glasses making her eyes pop out of her head.
Finally, Remus gave up and made up the prediction that Trelawney would someday predict the death of two dear friends. The girl nearly jumped to the moon with joy. Strange. Moony had also begun coughing. Hoarse, deep coughs that seemed to scratch his throat. The three other Marauder's looked at him with concern, but Remus brushed it off with a quick, "I'm fine," and dashing off to lunch.
Charms was a flop as Remus's words were slurred, causing the poor boy to not be able to annunciation the incantation for Aguamenti. The worst part of the day though, by far, was DADA. This year's professor, Professor Jaggery, was having the entire class attempt defensive spells that they had not prepared for, night a pop quiz. Remus' mind was so fogged that he couldn't focus on the spells, and was worse than Peter. Homework that night was to practice the stunning spell until it was perfect.
The Marauders stepped into the Great Hall, Remus about three paces behind the other three. The group plopped down at their usual spot, but instead of filing his plate with food, Remus rested his head on the table and closed his eyes. Sirius eyed his friend with worry.
It wasn't like Moony to fall asleep anytime before bed, even in History of Magic. Sirius signaled Peter, who was seated next to Remus, to wake their friend up. Peter, who apparently got the message, began gently shaking the werewolf, saying, "Remus! Wake Up! It's dinner time!" Remus groaned and lifted his head up.
"But Peter," he said, "It's so hot in here. I don't think I could eat a thing, it'll all be scalding."
It was not hot in the Great Hall. It was a comfortable seventy degrees, perfect for the autumn chills outside. Peter, James, and Sirius shared a look as Remus rested his head on his plate again and drifted off. James, who was seated across from Moony, chucked a piece of chicken at him, once again waking him up. Remus moaned, and stood up.
"I'm heading up to bed," he said.
Sirius stared at him. "Uh, Remus, don't know if you remember, but we have a boat load of homework tonight. Orcland's predictions, Slughorn's essay on Bundimun, and Jaggery's stupid Stunning Spell," he said.
Remus shrugged, and plopped back down in his seat.
"Fine," he muttered. Sirius, looking quite pleased with himself, nodded and went back to eating. None of the Marauders noticed Remus grow a shade paler.