James had been sulking ever since his broom had tragically died. Remus watched from the side-lines slightly amused at the boys suffering both because it meant no new pranks on the horizon and the other because he was still feeling a little resentful to James for trying to kill him. True it wasn't really his fault but Remus couldn't really control his emotions.
They were all seated the in the great hall the weekend after Valentines day. In his sulk James had skipped over even thinking about ruining the love filled teens day and elected to spend the afternoon weeping into his pillow. McGonagall had made it imperative that they all show up in the hall for dinner since the headmaster had an important announcement to make. Thankfully he was waiting until after desert otherwise Remus would have probably tuned him out.
The hall went silent as Dumbledore approached the podium. He sent the students a soft smile before his voice carried towards the end of the hall "Myself and the staff have been talking and it has come to our attention that a new rule should be instated in this school. As most of you might of heard a little troublemaker almost got himself hurt last Sunday and since then the staff has been meeting for the week to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again." Remus didn't think this was good. It seems like the other students agreed since James was quickly on the receiving end of icy stares. "We have decided that first years shall not be allowed to bring their brooms to school. If they wish to bring one they will have to wait until their second year. Thank you for listening," to which he retired to his seat.
The other students had quickly relaxed when they realised that the rule wouldn't apply to them. The same couldn't be said about the first years though. Ravenclaw looked positively livid at James and Remus half expected them to start hissing like Slytherins.
"What's wrong with them?" he asked Sirius under his breath. He kept one eye on them in case they started to advance.
Sirius sighed before nudging Remus to get up also "They start training for the Quidditch team in first year. Despite not being able to play until second they like to know what their strengths are. It also means that they have to bring their own brooms since the teachers won't allow them to use the schools outside of flying lessons." No wonder they were angry.
The four boys slowly backed away from the hostility directed at them and made quick work of the stairs back to the common room. James went back into his sulk and flung himself dramatically on his bed. Sirius on the other hand just kicked the leg hanging near to him before digging through Remus' for some parchment.
"I was thinking of going to explore the rest of the dungeons," Sirius told him "I want to see them for myself."
"You do that," Remus agreed "But there's something we need to establish before we think about going off tonight," Peter and Sirius were all for hearing it. Remus pulled James up so that he could too. "Who's actually going to draw the map. I mean out of all of us can any of you draw? And how are we going to structure it in the first place. Like diagrams or a key and objects that show specific things." He could tell the others hadn't been thinking about this and now that it was out it seemed like such an obvious problem.
"Well," Sirius started before trailing off into silence. He seemed to think on it a while before his train of thought caught up to him "How about this," He proposed "We all take a scrap of parchment tonight and draw down what we think. We do it how we think the map should look and when we come back to the dorm we can judge who's is better."
"What if no one's is," James moaned "What if it ends up another failure." They all groaned at the reference to his destroyed broom.
"Don't you think you're over exaggerating this a bit," Peter whined. James snapped up his face betrayed as his number one fan went over to the dark side "I mean it was just a broom. Not to mention an accident. Shouldn't you just be glad that you're alive?" the last came out as a question as James' face became redder.
"'Just a broom' my god Pettigrew it wasn't just a broom. It was marvellous piece of craftsmanship! A broom isn't something you..." Remus tuned him out and gestured for Sirius to join him on their nightly excursion.
He smirked before picking up more parchment and joining him in the common room. They both made plans about where they were going to be and what time to meet up before they were off. Remus had volunteered to explore the kitchens since he had heard it was near the Hufflepuff common room. If they could break into that it would mean they had access to three of the four houses.
The kitchen was teeming with house elves when he popped in. Five minutes later he had to beg to be let out though but made sure he took a few treats with him. He sat outside of the portrait for a couple of minutes munching on a brownie as he sketched out the kitchens and the floor it was situated on. He left out the details surrounding it and focused on the placement of the kitchens before folding the parchment back up and looking for the common room.
He knew that the common rooms were reflections on what the founders had thought their houses would be like. Gryffindor was in a tower since he guessed that was where most of the saving took place in the story books he read. Slytherin was in the dungeon locked away from the impurities the other houses cast upon them. Not to mention a criminal in a dungeon usually had some level of ambition and cunning to be landed in such a place.
But what about Hufflepuff? They were loyal which didn't really tell him much. He huffed and started pacing the corridors. He looked for anything that was amiss in the corridor. The kitchen was behind an inconspicuous painting which made itself known to Remus because it was the only painting that didn't move. Remus checked the other paintings in and around the corridor but they all had people inside of them. So perhaps it wasn't a painting.
He moved onto the doors and noted quickly the insides of them on his scrap of parchment. The rooms proved fruitless. The doors he went through had nothing odd inside apart from one that he saw something rattling in a desk. Remus sighed and drifted on top of some barrels for a think. He kicked the bottom absently and pulled out his parchment to neaten his work up. He hoped Sirius had a more interesting night and wondered at what he could have found in the dungeons. Something interesting like a skeleton probably and Remus was missing it because he had wanted to find the stupid Hufflepuff common room. What good would knowing its location be anyway? He only wanted to know because he could. He was here and he had the initiative to find it. Or so he thought.
It was times like this that really made Remus think about how much he had taken for granted. Who was he to break school rules and break into restricted places? He had been allowed here on the kindness of an old man. Butt instead of devoting himself to showing how grateful he was he was sitting on a barrel trying to invade students privacy on a prideful whim.
Footsteps sounded from the edge of the corridor. Jumping from his seat Remus hid himself in one of the rooms and watched from the gap in the door as two students walked hand in hand. They were in their school robes, one of them being a Slythetin and the female a Hufflepuff. They embraced tenderly at the kitchens painting before the Slytherin boy left. Remus un-clenched his face to watch as the girl skipped over to the barrels he had been sitting on and tap one of them five times. The barrels parted to reveal a small door to which she disappeared into.
Remus felt his previous wallowing escape him. It was here, he had been right! Looking to make sure no one was coming down the corridor he went over to the barrels and made a note of which one she had tapped. He was about to tap it himself when his wand glowed red signalling his lack of time left.
Cursing his friends as he stomped back to Gryffindor Remus couldn't help feeling elated at his discovery. Now there was only Ravenclaw to break and they would have access to every students room in the school. He knew that he should feel a little worried with what his friends might do with that information but chose to think about it another day.
Peter was the only one there when he got back. Apparently he had went to look in the great hall before coming back and showed Remus his map. It was neater than his and easier to understand. If anything he knew that his artistic skills wouldn't be used for the maps creation.
He held off telling Peter about his discovery until the other two had returned. James had taken a risk and went to Filch's room so there was little chance of seeing him again. Sirius turned up a ten minutes later with a nice story about some rat skeletons he had found. They ventured down into the pipes of the school and Sirius had a theory that there was something down there killing them.
"They're rats," Remus objected "They were probably killed by cats and rotted away during the years."
Sirius shook his head "It's not like that. The way they're positioned doesn't look like a cats kill."
They left the discussion at that since James emerged triumphant in the doorway. He slammed his parchment down on Peters bed before hopping next to the disturbed boy and crowing about his stint in Filch's..
He hadn't been caught and told them all about the torture devices he had hidden in there. Some of them were nightmarish to Remus and for once he was glad the caretaker couldn't use magic. Who knows what creative punishments he would have thought up.
"So what do you think?" James asked pulling all four scraps together. He already knew that his was the best presented and Remus could tell he was just waiting for them to acknowledge it.
"You have the best Potter," Sirius gave and they all sighed at James' triumphant whoop.
"So I guess this means you'll be staying here and drawing whilst the rest of us tour the castle," Remus told him. He tried to keep his face serious despite the devastated look on James' face.
"But-"
"No come on Potter," Sirius joined "You have the best skills so it's only fair that you draw up what we find. We can't force any more work onto you after all," he teased.
"It won't be so bad James," Peter chimed quietly "Just think of what we'll have by the end of it."
Remus was the first to cave into laughter. James' face had reached beyond a pathetic puppy dog look and was full on house elf like. Peter and Sirius joined in soon after when he was forced to dodge James' swipes.
Now that they had all finished establishing their artist it was time for them to pool together their ideas. Remus gave James his hastily scribbled work on the kitchens and glanced at the scratched markings of the great hall.
"I don't think this is going to work," Peter worried. They all looked at him like he was mad. Weeks of work had been put into an idea he had thought up and he was having doubts now.
"And why is that?" Remus growled.
Peter paled a little and even Remus was taken aback at the animalistic undertone in his voice. Peter glanced at the others before smiling pleasantly back at Remus like nothing was wrong. He glanced towards the other two who were shooting Peter warning looks. He was missing something here "It's nothing bad Remus. Just that I think we started off wrong. We need to start in the middle or at the bottom and work our way up. Otherwise we'll have twenty seven different maps because we hadn't thought to get the information in the right order."
Now that he had heard about it Remus conceded that Peter had a point. The way they had gathered their information meant that James would be drawing blindly a whole floor of the castle before getting to the bits that had been noted down. The only relevant one that was in the pile was Sirius' since his was the lowest in the castle. Then again that was what they had thought about the Slytheirn common room and the potions classrooms before Sirius had discovered the other dungeons.
"Peter's right," James agreed when the silence had grown uncomfortable. "Tomorrow I say we go with Sirius to the dungeons and explore all of it properly. All of us this time," He clarified "So that we can build a foundation for the map."
"No," Remus argued "We need to start at the top. There could be something below the dungeons for all we know. Not to mention all the secret passages that are there." He scratched his head in thought "I think we should start with the towers and work our way down. It'll give us time to get the castle fully sorted out before we venture onto the grounds and look for passages out of school."
James revised his opinion on this new idea and declared that the towers should be investigated first. He ended up writing out all of the towers on another scrap of parchment and ripping them up to put in a used every flavoured beans box.
"Pick a tower and that's where you'll start tomorrow. By the end of the month I want all of these places picked clean of their secrets," He ordered and drew the first one out. Remus followed and got the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower. When the other two had picked theirs James set aside the box for later and declared there was to be no swapsies.
"But I've got Dumbledore. Come on James it's impossible to break into," Peter whined.
Sirius scowled "Speak for yourself. I have to break into Ravenclaw." He peered over Remus' scrap.
He held it up for him "Defence," he smirked but inside wasn't so pleasant. The defence teacher didn't like Remus at all. Dumbledore told him that he didn't know about Remus' condition since he was only a temporary teacher but even still Remus knew he had his suspicions. It wasn't going to be easy to sneak around up there.
"Hah to all of you," James gloated "I got the hospital wing. I figure a good broken wrist will get me in for the night and after that the cloak will do all the work."
Peter gasped in shock "You'd break your wrist on purpose just to get into the Hospital Wing?" Even to Remus that sounded a bit far.
James just shrugged it off "I'll just put myself in a situation that would end up with a broken wrist. It's no big deal Pete."
Sirius made a coo-coo motion with his wrist to the side that made Remus smile. "Speaking of common rooms," Sirius chimed "Did you get into Hufflepuff?"
"Not exactly," He said vaguely and waited until their curiosities got the better of them. It didn't take long. Soothing them he answered with "I saw a girl go into the common room. It's a small door behind those barrels next to the kitchens. All you do is tap a specific one five times and it lets you in."
"What happens if you tap the wrong barrel?" Peter asked.
Remus shrugged "Dunno but I guess you don't get in," He answered obviously.
James was ecstatic that Remus had got another common room off their list whilst Peter made more complaints amongst James' compliments that Remus should get the job of breaking into Dumbledore's office since he had gotten them into most things so far.
"Hey I found those dungeons," Sirius snapped. Remus nodded at him to placate him before catching up to James telling Peter off for trying to switch out on them.
"No one else is swapping so man up Pete," He sighed "Honestly you were placed in Gryffindor so find some of that courage and just do it. You don't see those two wanting to swap." He pointed at Remus and Sirius.
"That's because they would if they asked you. It's just because I want to swap that things are becoming a problem!" Peter argued. Remus had never seen the boy stand up for himself. It was both uplifting to see because it was about time and annoying at the same time. James wouldn't have allowed Sirius and Remus to switch. Nor would he have switched with one of them if he didn't like his choice. James wasn't that kind of person to back out of something he had chosen himself to do.
The argument was going to take a while since once Peter was on a role it seemed he was finding it hard to stop. Remus edged away from the bed and fetched his pyjamas. He figured since he wasn't required for the rest of this conversation he was going to try and get some sleep. This week hadn't been kind to him either.
Sirius was still nice about it all. He woke up in the mornings and saw that Sirius had opened the curtains if they were in Remus' bed so the sunlight would be on him. He knew Sirius hated sleeping with any kind of light in his face so it was nice that he was doing little things like that. Then there was the fact that he never mentioned them. Remus didn't want to talk about them and Sirius knew this. He respected that Remus wanted to keep his dreams to himself just as Remus had before Christmas.
But still it didn't help him get any sleep. He had actually slept though one of his active lessons and ended up getting house points taken off him. It had been embarrassing and made worse from the ink that had coincidently spilt on his face. He knew that Dolohov was behind it when he heard the moron put his wand away and high five Carrow. They had earned themselves another prank from him which Remus was more than happy to carry out now that he had access to two other common rooms.
He tossed Romulus to the other half of the bed and climbed in whilst rolling his eyes at the heightened tone Peter's voice had taken. He wondered what it would take for Peter to stand up for himself outside of their circle of friends as Sirius climbed in next to him. The wolf was moved to his usual spot on Sirius' chest as they both tried to tune out another argument in the dorm. It was only their first year and already that had fought worse than Dumbledore and Grindelwald. His parents had warned that when you were put in a room with strangers or friends sooner or later arguments were bound to break out. But he didn't think it would happen quite as often.
Still it was better to hear shouting voices than the hissing whispers of his parents as they fought silently at the farm. He wondered how Sirius' parents fought but then amended his ideas since he had seen how they took their rage out. Remus sighed as James' broom was brought into the fray. Peter hadn't even been a part of that incident but then his lack of support before they went exploring was bound to cause some tension.
"So have you done your charms homework?" He muttered watching Sirius' mouth quirk at the obvious attempt to ignore the two outside the curtains.
"Nope," He popped "I figure I'll just do it on Sunday. I have that boils hex I need to learn for Professor Lupin on Sunday morning to focus on," he grinned.
"He sounds awful," Remus joined "Giving you homework on a Sunday. For shame."
Sirius exaggerated a sigh "Tell me about it. And even when I do learn it I've got more to learn after that."
Remus thought and snapped his fingers "You should do something about him. Maybe break into his office and steal something of his. Like his wolf," He ribbed.
Sirius held the wolf away from him as Remus made a grab for it. The past week the boy had taken a shine to it. It had made Remus wonder if Sirius had ever had something like a cuddly toy growing up.
"No," Sirius gasped as he almost fell out the bed "He likes me better and you know it," he laughed and Remus relented moving back to his side of the bed. Sirius pouted for a couple of minutes before settling down again. "He's not all bad anyway. I've learned loads more than I do in classes and I'm pretty sure I could probably beat third year in a duel," he bragged.
"Well I guess that's something," Remus agreed proud to hear praise for his work.
They lay in silence for a while. Checking on the raised voices that were still going. Remus pulled his side of the curtain shut after ten more minutes of this and eclipsed both of them in darkness.
"Hey Rem," He hummed "When I think I might have a bad dream I try and think of something good that happened. Something that gets my mind off whatever it is I'm worried about."
"Like a patronus?" he had read about that spell a lot in his Defence books. He couldn't wait until fifth year when he could cast his own.
"Yeah like a patronus. So if you like you can think of something good that's happened recently and use it to shield all the bad stuff away. Like," He paused trying to remember something he thought Remus would like "when the elves made you that massive chocolate cake last week."
"The one Peter and James ate on Monday," Truly a devastating loss and worth the five cannons he had wake James up on Tuesday. And the ice hex that made them fall over every smooth surface until Wednesday.
"Fine not that then," Sirius huffed.
"Thanks," He said stopping Sirius from becoming mad with him "I'll try and think of something."
He thought back to his parents back home. They had good memories together like the time his dad had taught him to ride a horse when he was five. But that was before he had taken ill. Every memory he had with them good or bad was always tainted now with his illness. His memories with them like the scars he had on his body. It looked whole but they were still there and always would be.
The only other people were the ones at Hogwarts and there was so many happy memories to choose from despite all the worry they were causing him. Remus found the perfect memory just as he was drifting off to sleep. It was the first day of the school year when the seventh year had left him in that hallway. Sirius had come and helped him and even though they hadn't been friends then it filled him with happiness the hope and anticipation that the memory brought. It was the start of his life with his friends and made him believe that even if he would get stuck in another hallway there would be three boys looking for him to make sure he was alright. Including the arguments Remus was happy that Sirius was the one to find him that day.
Saturday had them staking out the Hufflepuff common room. Despite them investigating towers that night the three boys wanted to see for themselves the entrance to the common room. Remus made Sirius take his charms homework with him and helped him as they waited in the room opposite the kitchens for someone to try and enter the badger's burrow.
Sirius had written two lengths of parchment when the Slytherin boy from last night came strutting down the hallway. He paused at the barrel and the four of them watched eagerly as he tapped the barrel Remus had noted down. Five times he rapped quickly on the barrel. But instead of them parting to let him through they sprayed him with a torrent of vinegar.
Remus clasped his hand around James' mouth to stop him giggling to loudly and made sure Peter and Sirius were holding their amusement in. The Slytherin on the other hand didn't find it so funny. He cursed under his breath before stalking back up the corridor.
"I don't understand," Remus said with a frown "He tapped it five times why didn't it work?"
James pried Remus' hand away to fall into louder laughter "Maybe it was the wrong barrel," Peter suggested offering to get a closer look.
"No," Remus shook his head looking back at them. He had tapped the second one down which was the same as the one the girl had "It's the same and so was the number of taps with his wand. Something else is going on," He mused and went back to getting Sirius to concentrate on his work.
Footsteps sounded soon after James had calmed down and they all watched as the boy came back with his Hufflepuff girlfriend in tow. They were arguing about a meeting place or a surprise, Remus wasn't really following, and the girl was showing him specifically what to do with the barrels. The boy pointed out when the barrels moved that the sequence was precisely what he had done.
"Oh so you tapped it to the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff," She snapped and stalked into the common room as her boyfriend trailed behind.
"So that's what it was," Remus sighed noticing the difference between the girls taps and the boys.
"Huh?" Peter squeaked asking for an explanation.
"It's five raps but in the rhythm for Helga Hufflepuff. There's five syllables in her name but the boy rapped them too quickly on the barrels. There should have been a pause after the second one and the third and fifth one should have been drawn out in comparison to the sharp rap of the fourth."
"But they're Hufflepuff," James muttered "How come they have a cooler security system than we do. All we have is a painting that sleeps most of the time. What good is she if there's an intruder. If they know the layout all they have to do is find her and say the password. But this," He gestured "This is brilliant!"
James wasn't the only one marvelling at the difference in common room security. It seemed that Godric Gryffindor for all his talk of bravery didn't think he needed more than a simple password for his common room unlike the others. Even the Slytherin common room had two of them to let you out and back in! Remus shuddered to think what Ravenclaws would be like if this was Hufflepuffs. They were known for their brains and he dreaded to think what would happen if someone got the password wrong. It seemed Sirius shared his opinion since he had grown considerably quiet at the revelation of the password.
"You'll be fine," Remus promised and made him focus on his conclusion.
The defence tower was as dark as dark magic. The windows were few and far between which meant that candles and wands were usually used to light the way. This was in daylight, Remus on the other hand was visiting at night which meant that all the candles were out and lighting his wand was a sure way he would be spotted.
The darkness was easier to see in once his eyes had adjusted but it was still difficult navigating himself along the corridors. Twice now he had bumped into a suit of armour or ornament of the castle. He rubbed his sore head and turned towards where he thought the wall was. If he could feel his way along it would mean he didn't run into as many things. That was the theory anyway. The reality of it was that there was more things leaning against the wall than there was stranded in the middle of the corridor. He landed flat on his face after tripping over a fold in the rug and promptly woke several portraits with his attempt to get up again.
The defence classroom itself was only slightly brighter than its corridors but Remus would have to be even more careful in here. Despite there being windows to light the desks and chairs a small scrape of a pencil skittering across the floor would wake the sleeping teacher in the rooms above the classroom.
Naturally creatures of every species were labelled or even kept in cages around the foreboding classroom and Remus shuddered at a graphically detailed drawing of a man in mid transformation. He wondered vaguely if he looked like before snapping out of his daze and retreating to the farthest corner of the room behind the professors desk.
He checked for wards which was something he had become quite good at after his trips to the restricted section. Sitting down at the professors desk quietly Remus took out his parchment and noted everything he could see in the classroom. He plotted out the shape of the room and after a wave of his wand jotted down the measurements of the room also. Once every detail of the classroom had been done he knew he couldn't put off his trip to the professors private quarters and gently removed himself from the desk.
He thought of James who was having it easy in the Hospital Wing. He had decided to wait to break his wrist for the next week or the week after and use the cloak this week to sneak around Pomphrey's tower. He wished that he had a cloak like that right now before thinking of poor Peter. He had it much worse than him since he had to contend with the might of Dumbledore. It wouldn't be easy breaking into there. Nor would Ravenclaw be simple.
He counted each step on his way up and noted it down before checking for wards on the door to the defence teachers office. There was one alarm spell that was easily deflected and another one that Remus could vaguely detect waiting for any intruders further in. It seemed odd that he should pick that up so Remus tried a different spell and noticed three other hidden wards that the faint trace of the other one was masking.
Two of them were difficult to crack and Remus was sure they were going to trigger some kind of alarm as he swished his wand the way Sirius had taught him. But when none came and the last of the three wards were gone along with the masking one he pushed the door open with little resistance.
The gap he left was just big enough for him to sneak through as he crawled over to the large bookcase nearest the door. Lifting himself up he peered timidly at the desk that was streaming with unmarked defence essays. He cast his wand around in a detection circle every time he took more than three steps further into the room until he was at the professors window. Using the light from the half cast moon he noted the measurements again before aiming his wand at the door leading off from the defence office.
There was more wards on this door and would take more than one night to crack. For now Remus just worked on the ones that wouldn't be noticed and left the larger ones hoping they would do what the other spell the teacher had cast on his office door had. But this time mask the spells that were missing.
With that done Remus backed away out of the defence office and recast some of the wards he recognised in his disarmament before he skipped down the stairs and into the dark corridor beyond. The other rooms in the tower needed to be explored so Remus felt his way along the wall until he found the stairs again and journeyed to the next floor of the tower.
By the end of the night he had mapped out four rooms and gleefully gave them to James for him to copy up onto their map of the highest towers. Sirius had managed to break into Ravenclaw hence the smug look on his face as he entered the dorm with his head held high. He told them it was Remus' dream home full of books and smart people. Remus just rolled his eyes and congratulated him on his success.
James had gathered a lot of information about the hospital wing. Like Remus he had mapped out a few of the other rooms in the tower instead of just the part they knew about. Apparently there was a whole floor dedicated to potions and bandages packed in shelves and another with a bathroom that looked like it had a swimming pool in. Remus didn't know whether James was exaggerating that part but he didn't rule it out as a possibility. Perhaps next time he was up there he would see for himself this swimming pool.
Peter was the last one back and looked miserable as he relayed the news that he couldn't get into the headmaster's tower. He said that there was a stone gargoyle blocking the way and he had spent the better part of the night guessing passwords and hoping no one found him.
James offered to help him think of some more during the week which earned him a glare from the sullen boy. Needless to say Peter went to bed early that night whilst the others stayed up watching James draw the map.
"Do you think Filch is still camped down in the dungeons?" Sirius asked suddenly.
"I never really thought about it," James mused and neither had Remus. For the better part of the term they had spent it gallivanting around the dungeons. But now they had moved onto the towers. The caretaker wasn't to know this and Remus guessed that Sirius' thoughts were right.
"So long as he stays down there a couple of weeks more," he said thinking how unnerving it was in the defence tower earlier. Add a caretaker out for blood into the mix and he was sure to never sleep again.
"Maybe next week one of us should go down with the cloak and taunt him a little. Just to keep him from investigating the rest of the castle for a while," James suggested.
Remus nodded his agreement and made sure that James "Make it Peter," nodding towards the closed curtains. "I think that maybe we should give him something else to do after that anyway. Dumbledore looks like a job for all of us."
James sighed but agreed with him whilst Sirius didn't look like he cared much what Peter did.
So that Friday Peter was down in the dungeons whilst Sirius took up the Divination tower. Remus continued with his exploration of the other rooms before journeying back down into the defence classroom. Every night that week he had been coming into the class to make sure that the wards surrounding the professors quarters were still down and checking which ones he needed to look up.
Now he was confident that he could get in and back out undetected Remus decided it was time to break in. The wards came down easily after his practice with Sirius' charms and soon Remus was faced with a lavishly dark room. He measured the small living area and carefully tip toed over towards the bedroom. There were curious objects lying around but Remus knew better than to touch any of them.
He was in a Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors classroom after all, and if there was one thing they knew how to do it was defend. The door to the professors sleeping area was unwarded meaning that he thought the first two would be enough to catch the moronic person breaking in. Remus made sure that if he ever got a teaching job he would make his wards airtight and placed more carefully. It was easy to break into the professors quarters once he knew how.
The man was snoring as Remus opened the door and waved his wand around. He noted everything he needed before returning the closed door to its previous state and retreating from that wing of the castle.
He was hyped when he got back to Gryffindor. The adrenalin still pumping through him that would only get worse in the next two days. No one was back yet so Remus allowed himself to whoop and cheer all he liked in his dorm.
Changing he waited impatiently for the others to come back from their excursions and went pacing around the room. He was on his fourth lap when something caught his eye. It didn't blink out at him but was odd in that it was a book lying under Peter's bed. The boy would never read anything that wasn't forced onto him so it was odd to see an unfamiliar cover peeking out from Peter's side of the room.
He knew he shouldn't pry but it was nagging at his brain wondering what could have caught his friends eye in the literature world. He didn't need to read the title to know that he wouldn't like it though. Two steps towards it and the light had caught the picture that adorned the front of the book. A man, much like the one in the defence room, was in mid change on the front. His body was hunched and his features distorted in a monstrous look that even frightened Remus.
His back hit the post of his bed and he crumpled to the floor. Why did Peter have something like that?
His hearing went fuzzy and his eyes blackened out. When they cleared it was to two brown ones looking back at him. James was mouthing something but was quickly pushed to the side by Sirius barging into his line of sight.
"Rem can you hear me?" He nodded jerkily not noticing his hands were clenched in his hair until he tried to move. They wouldn't unclench and it was becoming quite painful for him to keep them clawed up like that. "Thank Merlin," Sirius breathed "Is everything alright?"
Remus couldn't answer. How could he with that book in the same room as him. But then he would have to. After all surely if they knew they would have confronted him about it. He tried to take deep breaths and calm himself. They couldn't know, he reasoned which seemed to help a little. Sirius sensed the change and relaxed himself as James peered at Remus tentatively.
"Why don't you have a lie down," James suggested already reaching for him. His hands seized up again when James got close and the boy was quickly pushed back to the side as Sirius tried to calm him down again.
"Rem you're tired. Come on, let's go to bed," Sirius murmured slowly moving closer to him. He wanted to tell him that he wasn't a skittish animal but the incident with James proved that he probably did need some caution right now. "Come on," Sirius repeated slowly untangling his hands from his head "Your mum won't like it if you turn up on Monday all tired out," he grinned but Remus felt tears pooling as the lie he had told them unravelled before his eyes. "Oh Merlin," Sirius grunted spotting the tracks that were making their way from his eyes.
"Move Sirius," James pushed and Remus was enveloped in a hug. "Is it your mum?" James muttered "Is it bad news? You don't have to tell us, just come on and get into bed okay. Everything's going to be alright."
It was a collective effort to get him into bed. James volunteered to stay with him that night since Sirius was apparently hopeless at consoling someone who was crying. The boy objected and soon all three of them were camped out awkwardly on Remus' bed. It was a tight squeeze and Remus was glad when Peter had opted out of trying to make him feel better. He knew that he was going to have to get himself together. They couldn't suspect anything.
Saturday was bad. Remus was shaking all over when he woke and no amount of blankets or forced cups of hot liquids would stop it. He had never been like this before and was at a loss to how he could remedy it. All three of them had opted out of map duty that night in favour of looking after Remus. Despite his protests otherwise they said that they needed to copy up last nights map rooms and practice some of the spells he had found that week. Sirius sang his praise for Remus when he saw the rooms marked 'defence quarters' but even that couldn't help him.
Sunday was worse. As soon as he woke he had a fever and was sick over the side of his bed. James screamed for a teacher whilst Peter fetched water from the toilets. Sirius was trying to get him to stand up when McGonagall came bursting through the door. She obviously hadn't believed James when he had woken her from her lie in but did as soon as Remus' legs collapsed under him in another vomiting attack.
Pomphrey couldn't do anything. She told him it was to do with the full moon and asked privately if anything like this had happened before. He told her no in-between bouts of retching and asked where the other three had gone.
James had retreated back to the dorm with the other two to get his things. They spent all day nagging at Pomphrey asking her why she wasn't doing anything when Remus spat up blood. Peter tried to engage him in a game but after the blood made its appearance retreated to the dorm. Sirius tried to keep him hydrated all day and practically forced it down his throat when he retched up more blood.
By the time Pomphrey shooed them out and took him to the shack he thought he was going to die. His bones ached so much that to move caused agony beyond anything after a full moon. His throat was sore and his stomach wasn't worth mentioning about.
He was surprised to wake up on Wednesday. It was noon from the look of the sun in the room and also from the fact his friends were eating around his bed. He wondered why he wasn't sectioned off for a minute before realising there was no need. They knew he was ill this month and therefore there was no need to hide him from the rest of the students.
He could feel his bandages pulling on his chest and upper arms but thankfully nothing seemed to be missing or gouged below his sleeves. His face felt full and so did his neck so he hoped there was nothing there either.
Tossing his head to the side to dislodge a loose bit of hair he watched the others gazing worriedly at him. They needn't have since he felt much better than he had before the full moon.
Offering a timid smile he asked them if "You have any chocolate?"
Sirius grinned and tossed him a little cupcake that the house elves had made. He caught it with a little pain but the promise of chocolate overrode anything his body was sending him at the minute.
"How are you feeling?" Peter asked looking slightly nauseous.
"I'm not going to be sick," He reassured making Peter relax and James frown more intently. "I'm fine, really," He insisted.
"We thought you were going to die," James stated. "You were coughing up- and Pomphrey-" He had started to choke up. If Remus could have moved his bottom half safely he would have reached across but instead he let Peter pat him on the shoulder.
"I'm fine," he said.
Pomphrey let him leave the hospital wing with only one foul potion to take before bed. The others helped carry him and his stuff back up to the dorm and Remus was pleased to note the house elves had been cleaning.
Even so he insisted that they sleep in Sirius' bed that night to which the boy grinningly agreed. Three more chocolate covered sweets later and he was climbing under the covers, safe for another month.
He was drifting when he heard James hiss to Peter "Get rid of it. I don't care what you think if that happens again I swear-"
"James," Sirius intervened "Leave it. Peter get rid of it," he ordered and the next thing Remus knew the curtains were being pulled back and Sirius was climbing over him. Romulus was placed on the pillow between them as Sirius made himself comfortable.
"Sirius," The boy looked up "I'm sorry abou-" He was crushed in a hug that left his bandaged ribs aching again "What?"
"I thought you were dead," Something wet fell on Remus' neck and he realised Sirius was crying "You were gone and I thought... But Pomphrey said you'd just went to Mungos or home I wasn't really listening," He sobbed.
"I'm sorry," he didn't know what else to say.
"Just don't do that again," he couldn't promise Sirius that so he didn't say anything. Instead he let him curl himself tighter into Remus and finally drift off to sleep.