Hey, there! Welcome back to... whatever you wanna call this! I call it "The Reason I Get No Sleep," but that's just me.

So, my writing has been getting very infrequent. Sometimes I can finish a chapter in one night, sometimes I can finish half a chapter in a week. It varies. Because of this, my updates will probably be getting more infrequent, but I promise to update at least once a week.

Onto this chapter. I'm actually not really fond of it. I just don't like the beginning or the end. The only parts I actually like are the middle and the last 4 lines, but that's just my opinion. Trust me, it doesn't matter. However, your opinion does, so please tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. If I had a genie, it would be a different story, but I don't.

Recap: (Idk. I think I should do these, maybe they'll help? Tell me if you would like recaps at the beginning of each chapter.) Both Marlene and Eli are having sibling problems. Eli's sister Terri, keeps trying to talk to her, however Eli refuses to listen. Marlene's twin siblings have gotten themselves into trouble with numerous illegal objects. Meanwhile, the entire school waits excitedly for the arrival of the new Defense professor, James, Sirius, Eli, and Marlene keeping their conspiracy theories very much alive...


It was Saturday afternoon, and Lily was sitting at a table in the library, her boyfriend, Tommy, across from her. She was working on her essay, and talking to Tommy.

"Lily," Tommy said, interrupting her as she was writing a sentence about where Bowtruckles live.

She looked up at him, feeling guilty for zoning out. "I completely agree," she said.

"Do you?" he asked, laughing a little.

"Yup!" Lily said, nodding sincerely.

"Well, I was just telling you how my sister was thinking of moving to America, and pursuing an acting career."

Lily looked at him for a moment. She did not completely agree with that. In fact, she completely disagreed with that. Lily loved Tommy's sister, Avery, but she was impulsive and never thought things through. And while she was a great actress, Lily doubted she would make it far, and being in another country was just dangerous.

Lily nodded not admitting to her guilt. "I know. And I completely agree with that. She's a great actress, and I support her artistic choice."

Tommy nodded, smiling at her stubbornness. "Okay. Lily you are obviously not going to pay attention to me, so I am going to go."

"I'm sorry," Lily said, apologetically. "I just really wanna finish this essay."

"It's okay, Lily," Tommy said, reassuringly. "I understand. Now work hard."

Lily smiled at him as he walked out. She looked back at her essay, but had only gotten to the period at the end of her sentence when she felt someone sit across from her.

"Okay," she said. "I admit it, I wasn't paying—" she looked up to meet the eyes of James Potter. He grinned. "What are you doing here?" She realized this was the first time she was talking directly to him that school year.

"Well, good afternoon to you, too," he said. "I couldn't help but overhear you're conversation."

"I'm sure you could," Lily muttered.

He ignored her, saying, "And I am curious about a few things."

"Big surprise," Lily said, glaring at him.

"For starters, I was not aware that Petch had a sister!? Is she hot?"

Lily rolled her eyes, disgusted with him. "She's a muggle, didn't inherit any magic. And I will not answer the second question."

"Well if she looks anything like Thomas, then she can't be that hot," he said, casually.

"And you came over here, why?" Lily asked, annoyed. "I really need to finish my essay."

"No." James said.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How do you just zone out like that? Like he was having a full conversation with himself, and you didn't even look at him. And then you screw up like that…"

"You know, I was having a pretty good day, until you came."

"And then it got better?" he asked, smiling.

"Quite the opposite, actually," Lily said, sternly. "Can you just tell me what you want and then leave?"

"I want to talk to my favourite ginger! How was your summer?"

"We've been here for four days. Why the sudden interest?" Lily asked, suspiciously.

"I've been busy," James said, flatly. "Don't you want to talk to me?"

"No."

"Well, I'm better than Snivellus, aren't I?" he asked.

Lily met his eye, glaring at him.

"Okay, struck a nerve! But c'mon, I'm not that bad!" James said, defensively.

"I prefer Arabella Layfield to you." Lily said, coldly.

"Ouch. That's harsh, Red. I'm hurt." Lily just shrugged, so James continued, "But, really, why can't we just have a nice conversation?"

Lily's eyes widened and she grew visibly angrier. She opened her mouth to list off all the reasons, most likely very angrily, but was interrupted when someone sat next to her.

"Hello Lily, James," Marlene said, brightly. James couldn't help but feel like she had just saved him from a massive explosion.

"Hullo, McKinnon!" James said, grinning.

Lily sighed, her anger fading. "Hello, Marlene. What are you doing here?"

"Avoiding my siblings," she said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. She got out some parchment, ink, and a quill and started to copy Lily's essay, changing the words around.

"Why?!" James exclaimed, looking at her incredulously. "Your siblings are awesome!"

"Well, with the twins getting a head start on their careers as criminals and Bradley being a bitch all the time, I find that being away from them is usually easier," Marlene explained.

"Hey!" James defended. "Bradley is amazing! He's a star seeker!"

"Speaking of which, when are tryouts? Because we need to start practice as soon as possible!" Marlene asked.

"I will put up a sign next weekend," James groaned. Many people had been pestering him about it.

"Good." Marlene said, nodding.

"Glad I have your approval," James muttered, but Marlene ignored him.

"Lily, why isn't your essay done?" Marlene complained.

"I've been a little distracted," she glared at James.

"James, get out!" Marlene said, her attitude doing a complete 180 and coming out terrifyingly threatening.

James put his hands up in surrender and stood. "Alright, alright! See ya, McKinnon. Bye, Red!" he grinned and walked away.

Lily shook her head and sighed. "I cannot stand him," she said softly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Now hurry up and finish this essay!" Marlene said, her voice returning to its normal cheeriness.

Lily sighed and dipped her quill in ink.

xoxo

In the Gryffindor sixth year boys' dormitory that night, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were talking. Eric was in the common room, so the four had the room to themselves.

"So, Prongs," Sirius said, turning to James. "I heard you and Evans were in the library earlier, talking. First time this year."

"What happened to being done with her?" Remus asked.

"Well, it's hard to be done with someone when your obsessed with her," Sirius said, nonchalantly.

"I am not obsessed with her!" James defended.

"Then why do you always stare at her?" Sirius asked.

"Especially when she's with Tommy," Peter stated, Sirius nodding in agreement.

"I realized something, boys," James said, casually leaning against his bedpost. "I don't care about Evans."

The three other boys started to laugh, Sirius the loudest. "Good one, mate!" he said.

"Let me finish!" James spat, resentfully. "I don't care about Evans, but I do care about her caring about me."

The other three stared at him.

"Um... Prongs," Remus said cautiously. "I don't think I follow."

"I don't have any real feelings for her. I never have! All I care about is the fact that everyone loves me, except her—"

"I don't think that's accurate," Peter said, but James kept talking even as Peter spoke.

"So, upon coming to that conclusion, I realize that I must fix this universal imbalance."

"And how do you expect to do that?" Sirius asked.

"Make her like you?" Remus asked. "No offense, Prongs, but I don't think that's possible at this point.

"He's been known to do far more impossible things," Peter muttered.

"No!" James shook his head. "She doesn't need to like me! She just has to be impressed with me and my skill."

"What skill?" Remus asked, sarcastically.

"Magic, quidditch, charisma, attractiveness, anything I guess. I am skilled at many things," James shrugged.

"How can you be skilled at attractiveness?" Remus asked.

"Do you think all this comes naturally?" James gestured at his body.

"I always assumed you used an allusion charm, to fool everyone into thinking you looked like that," Peter said. A pillow was thrown lightly at his face.

"I'm hungry!" Sirius complained, already getting up.

James nodded, "Me too." He grabbed his Invisibility Cloak from his trunk. "Let's go to the kitchens."

xoxo

The next day, Sunday, everyone was outside. It was perfect weather, and barely anybody had work to do (those who did have work did not plan on doing it anyway). The Marauders were tormenting the giant squid, and Lily and her friends were sitting under a large tree.

Lily and Tommy were sitting with their backs against the trunk, her head on his shoulder. Marlene was laying on her back in the grass, next to Eli, who was sitting upright, cross-legged. Maria was sitting next to her boyfriend, Albert Fulker.

"Tomorrow's the big day!" Marlene said, excitedly.

"What's tomorrow?" Lily asked.

"We get to meet the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!" Eli said, just as excited as Marlene.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Lily said. "What do you think she'll be like?"

"She's gonna walk in, riding a unicorn, and she'll have the cloak of a dementor wrapped around her shoulders, like a prize," Eli fantasized, gesturing with her hands. "She'll have hair as dark as children's fears and be terrifying, like a basalisk!"

"That's ridiculous," Maria said, shaking her head.

"Yeah," Marlene agreed. "Aurors don't kill dementors, and they don't ride unicorns. You're too muggle for your own good. I think she'll levitate in and be wearing a dragon-skin cloak. And a necklace made of troll teeth. She'll definitely be terrifying, but more in a McGonagall type of way."

"You two need to give up these insane ideas," Lily said. "It's not healthy!"

Eli opened her mouth, but her sister, Terri, chose that moment to walk up to them. She was wringing her hands nervously, and looked very tired, like she had not slept in days.

"El," she said, softly. "I still really need to talk to you." It had been three days since the first time she had tried talking to Eli in the common room, but had tried every day.

Eli did not even acknowledge her. She simply got up and started walking back towards the castle.

Everyone looked up at Terri, whose eyes started to water. Lily immediately stood, wrapped an arm around the girl, and led her away from everyone.

"Terri, what's wrong? You can tell me," Lily said, encouragingly.

Tears started to make their way down the girl's cheeks as she said, "It's a family problem, but Eli won't even look in my direction for me to tell her what's going on… I'm just scared and, right now, I just really, really need her." She began to cry harder.

Lily hugged her and calmed her softly, and when Terri's tears had slowed, she asked, "Terri, are you alright? Are you eating enough? Or sleeping enough?" Terri only shook her head. "Why?"

"I'm too scared to eat. Or sleep. Or work. I stay up all night worrying, and spend all morning thinking. When I do sleep, I have nightmares, and when I do eat, I throw it back up. Then when it comes to classes, I can't think because I'm too tired. And when it comes time to eat again, I just feel sick, from lack of sleep and food or just from worrying, I'm not sure."

Lily straightened and made her decision. This poor girl in front of her was not, by any means, okay. And she would fix that. "I'm going to talk to Eli," she told Terri.

"Lily, you don't have to," Terri said, hoarsely.

"Oh, trust me, I do."

xoxo

"What the hell, Eli?" Lily said, opening the door of their dormitory to see Eli sitting on her bed, reading some letters.

Eli looked up in surprise, her face growing angry at Lily's words. "What do you mean?" she asked, indignantly.

"'What do I mean?'" Lily asked, finding herself shouting. "'What do I mean?' What is going on? You have been having crazy mood swings, especially when Terri's around. You don't concentrate on anything. You won't even look at Terri long enough to realize that she's starving herself with worry over Merlin knows what, and that she can't even sleep without nightmares! She needs you and you won't even say a word to her, so what's going on?!"

"Lily, look," Eli said, her voice cold. "I know that you like to play hero and get in everyone's business, but I don't need your 'be good and kind to everyone' speech. I don't need you to tell me how to be goddamn perfect like you!" She walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

xoxo

Late that night, in the common room of Gryffindor Tower, Terri Smith sat at a table in a corner, alone. Her friends had gone to bed, and it was mostly upperclassmen in the room, and even then there weren't many. She sat with her head resting on her hand—it was too heavy for just her neck to hold up. She watched the fire crackle in the fireplace, because, what else was there to do? But then, she felt someone sit at the table across from her.

She used her hand to turn her head to look. "Hi, James," she said, her voice coming out so softly and so hoarsely that James thought he had the wrong person.

"Whoa," James said, raising his eyebrows. "You don't look so good, Terri." He had gone over there because he liked the attention she gave him. She would blush and fawn over him. And he might have gone over because it was odd for a fourth year to be up so late with no friends around, and he was a little worried.

"Yeah, well, I haven't slept in…" she thought for a moment before slurring out, "six days. And I haven't eaten in three."

James's eyes widened. "What? Why? What's wrong?"

"Family problems," Terri said. "But Eli doesn't even care about me anymore, so what's the point?"

James stared at her for a moment. "Okay, Terri, I'm going to the kitchens and I'm going to get you some food, and when I come back, you are going to tell me what's going on with you and Eli." He stood and walked out of the Common Room without giving her a chance to answer.

By the time he came back, the only people in the room were Terri, and three seventh year boys. James checked the time—12:36. He went up to Terri and put three warm, fresh rolls down in front of her. "Eat," he ordered.

Terri reached out the hand that wasn't holding her head up and picked up the bread. It did look good, and it smelled divine, but then again, she was so hungry that rotten eggs would probably smell divine, too. She nibbled the edge of it while James sat down. "This isn't necessary," she said. "I'm perfectly fine."

James snorted. "No. You're not. What's going on?"

"I can't tell you," she said. "It's private, family matters."

"Well, have you told anyone?" James asked.

"No," Terri said, softly.

"Why?"

"Because," she said. She had planned on ending the sentence there, but James gave her a look that forced her to continue: "It's hard to talk about. With anyone."

"Well you can't bottle up everything! What does that solve?"

"I wanted to talk to Eli, but, like I said, she doesn't care," Terri said. She tried to put the roll down, but James glared at her, so she continued to nibble it.

"How can she not care? I have never seen her not care about you! She once took a month's worth of detentions for you!" James said, incredulously.

"Yeah, well, one mistake can do a lot of damage to a relationship, I guess," Terri said, glumly. She took the last bite of her roll. James smiled triumphantly and handed her a second. She looked at him like she was going to be sick, but he forced her to start eating it.

"I'm just going to throw it up later," Terri mumbled.

"No," James said, matter-of-factly, "you won't. I put a charm on them." He took the third roll and bit into it. "So, what mistake did you make with Eli?"

She hesitated, thinking about how to say it without divulging too much information. "I was stupid. I took the wrong side in an argument that I shouldn't have been in. Neither of us should have, but, that's life."

"Is she the reason you're like this?" James finished his roll—Terri was about half-way done with hers, choosing just to nibble it.

"Partially. But, it's also that argument I mentioned. It's taking its toll on me as well," She said, sadly.

"Terri," James said it so softly, and with so much kindness, "you can't let yourself waste away like this. It will only hurt you and the people who care about you. Your parents, your family, your friends, Eli, her friends, hell, even me!"

"Eli doesn't care about me," Terri interrupted.

"She does. She's just mad, and anger clouds people's judgments," James said, reassuringly. "She will come to her senses, eventually."

"I hope so," was all Terri said. She finished her last bite, and glared at James, challenging him to force her to eat something else.

He grinned and put his hands up, showing her he had nothing. "You're done! But now, you should sleep."

"I can't, remember?" Terri said.

"Yes you can. At the very least, you need to lay down, and rest your head on a pillow, not your hand. Now, I know it's supposed to give you nightmares, but," he waved his wand and a small piece of chocolate appeared on the table. "It's yours, if you want. Sort of a reward for eating the bread."

Terri grinned and popped it in her mouth. "Thanks," she said. She turned and started to walk towards the girls' dormitories, but stopped and turned. "You are very surprising, you know."

James shrugged, casually, "I know."

Terri nodded and continued to her dormitory.

That night, Terri slept better than she had in six days, because she actually slept until her dorm mate woke her up at eight. And she didn't have nightmares. And she didn't throw up the rolls, either. And, even though she didn't eat at breakfast, and was still very tired, she felt better than she had in a long time.

xoxo

The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was filled with excited sixth years, who were talking louder than ever. The classroom was now filled with artifacts—a dragon-tooth here, a pixie wing there—and books lining the shelves, a sure sign that the new professor was there. However, there was nothing with a name, Marlene, Eli, and the Marauders had checked.

The classroom became silent as the door opened, and everyone turned in their seats to see who came through the door. As everyone watched her come in, Lily couldn't help but think that Marlene and Eli weren't that far off from their predictions about her entrance: It was nothing short of magical.

The professor was tall, with sharp facial features, and a stern, but somehow kind, presence. Her dark hair was pulled back in the strictest bun Lily had ever seen. She moved down the middle aisle, to the front of the room, her deep green robes sweeping around her in a way that made her look like she was floating. She had her wand raised in her right hand, evidently levitating various piles of books that floated in after her. A single book was levitating, open, in front of her, while she read. Her very being radiated a severe tension, keeping everyone in the class silent.

As she reached her desk, the book in front of her lowered onto it, remaining open. She turned and waved her wand, the piles of books in the air flew to the last empty bookshelves with lightning speed.

She sighed, and smiled slightly. "Sorry," she apologized. Her voice was surprisingly sweet, probably because she was so young. "Just moving the last of my things in. Which brings me to my next apology: I am truly sorry for not being here last week, I had something come up that had to be taken care of before I came.

"Now, if I may introduce myself, my name is Professor Turing." She waved her wand and a piece of chalk wrote her name on the board in beautiful writing. "Now, I believe I assigned this class essays? If you could please take those out."

Everyone who had actually did it, took theirs out. With one wand movement, all of the essays flew into Professor Turing's hand. She placed them on the table and looked around the room at everyone. No one had spoken since she got in, not even the Marauders.

"This year is very important. This is when we start to work with some of the most complex spells, and start honing your skills with nonverbal spells. Also, you will be learning apparition, as that is quite important. Half of this class will be written work, half of it will be hands on. Both are required for you to succeed. Any questions so far?" She had spoken quickly and to the point, and no one had questions. No one, that is, except for James Potter, who's arm was casually raised at the back of the classroom. "Yes?"

"Is it true you were an auror?" James said bluntly. "And if so, why aren't you anymore?"

Professor Turing gave a small smile, the kind that threatened. "Yes, it's true, I was an auror." Her voice was sharp and somewhat terrifying. "And I am no longer one because of a particularly bad day at the office. Any more questions, Mr. Potter?"

Everyone knew what that meant: something horrible had happened to her on the job. Everyone waited to hear if James would pry, most hoping he wouldn't. "Yeah," he said, arrogantly. "How do you know my name?"

Professor Turing snorted. "Your father was my boss. He is every auror's boss. And the resemblance between you two is… uncanny. Plus, he warned me about you. I was given specific instructions not to listen to your threats, not to give you special treatment, and to make sure you actually wrote home once in a while. Any more questions, James?"

The class giggled as James narrowed his eyes. "No," he said, teeth gritted.

"Well, alright then. Today we are going to discuss bowtruckles, and next class I will have one to show you all."

xoxo

At dinner, everyone was discussing the new professor and her class.

"It was interesting enough," Marlene said. "I'm just excited to see a bowtruckle! They are really hard to spot."

"Oh, please," James said, him and the other Marauders sitting down. "She can't get a bowtruckle! She would need the entire tree that it lives in. How is she going to do that?"

"Well," Lily said, glaring at him. "Why would she lie about it?"

"To seem cool?" James suggested.

"Probably thought that we would forget by next class," Sirius added.

Eli rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. She probably has some dealer."

Remus sighed. "Don't start with—"

"Conspiracies!" James, Sirius, Marlene, and Eli chorused the word.

"You're ridiculous, all of you," Maria sighed.

Just then, Bradley walked by, but Sirius grabbed his arm and sat the boy in between himself and Marlene. "How's our Boy Wonder?"

"Hungry," Bradley complained. He started piling food onto a plate. "You all see the new Defense professor?"

"She's hot," Sirius said, nodding.

"Definitely," James agreed, grinning. The girls rolled their eyes.

"Yeah well, I heard that the reason she wasn't here last week is because there was some raid and the aurors needed her," Bradley said, through a mouthful of chicken.

"Hmm," Sirius looked between Lily, Maria, and Remus. "Now, let's just say she had something horrible happen to her, so she quit being an auror and became a professor. Then, she goes back to being an auror for one job? Sounds suspicious…"

"There has been nothing in the Prophet about it," Lily said, matter-of-factly. "There's no proof that there was a raid, let alone that Professor Turing was a part of one." Maria and Remus nodded.

"Yeah, but they always wait awhile before releasing information," James argued, glaring at Lily. "Especially if something big was found."

Lily opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by someone yelling, "MARLENE!"

They all turned in the direction of the commotion. Valerie and David McKinnon were storming their way to the Gryffindor table, Valerie having been the one to screech out Marlene's name.

As they approached, David said, "You had the Ravenclaw prefects check our bags every night?"

"I'm surprised it took you so long to notice," Marlene said, casually. "And here I thought you were observant."

"How could you?" Valerie asked.

"How could I?" Marlene said, incredulously. "How could you bring all of those illegal things here, and then be perfectly fine with me getting in trouble?"

"We said we were sorry!" Valerie defended.

"And promised not to again!" David added.

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, we all knew those were lies." As the McKinnons began to argue, Lily looked at them curiously.

Marlene was the oldest, yet she only resembled the youngest, Bradley. They shared the same golden wavy hair, and hazel eyes. Even there facial structures were the same: rounder, with big chins and cheekbones that melted into the rest of their faces. Their mouths were larger, to match their larger body structures. But their personalities were also the same; hot-tempered and sarcastic, yet incredibly sensitive and caring when needed.

The twins, on the other hand, were nothing like the other two. Their brown, straight hair framed their pale faces. Their features were sharp, with high, angular cheekbones protecting their dark, brown eyes. Both were thin and wiry, yet that didn't stop them from being beaters for Ravenclaw. They were cunning and made every calculation before doing something, choosing brain over brawn, where Marlene and Bradley would choose brawn. They thought about every angle before doing something, whereas Marlene and Bradley would dive right into it.

Lily saw the differences between the Gryffindor siblings and Ravenclaw siblings, and couldn't help but think that they had, perhaps, no similarities at all.

xoxo

Professor Turing was accepted with open arms at Hogwarts. She did, actually, bring the Bowtruckle for her class, though not to the classroom. The tree was taken from Scandinavia and moved to the Hogwarts grounds, where Hagrid was keeping an eye on it until Professor Turing was done and they could send it back.

The Bowtruckle had been happy to attack everyone that went near it, but it was only able to scratch Professor Turing and Hagrid with its claws. The seventh year Gryffindor boys had named him Agnes, Protector of the Tree that Looked Like Any Other Tree—or Aptllaot for short. The name caught on quickly through the school.

When the classes were done with Aptllaot, Professor Turing told them she would have to bring it back, but the seventh years who had named him begged her not to—"He's so nice." "He only ever scratched you!" "Put him in the woods, he won't mind."—and after talking to Professor Kettleburn, the Care of Magical Creatures professor, she decided to keep him.

So, within one week, the new professor had gotten everyone to like her, put James Potter in his place, kept a bowtruckle on school grounds, and discovered Remus Lupin's werewolf secret.

Wait, I didn't tell you about that? Oh, my. Well then, I'll tell you now.

It started on Wednesday, the day of the full moon.

xoxo

You see, Remus Lupin was a werewolf. On full moons he became a gigantic wolf whose only goal was to kill everything in sight. Few knew about this because of the way werewolves are treated in the magical world—very badly indeed.

The only people who knew were as follows: His parents, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey (the nurse), and the Marauders.

Remus Lupin usually suffered through school the day of, and the day after the full moon. Usually the Marauders would cover for him in various ways. But nothing compared to what they did for him at night.

When they had first discovered Remus's secret, at the end of first year, they had told him they would help. They spent five years learning how to become Animagi. Once they learned, they spent all night, roaming the Forbidden Forest as animals, a werewolfed Remus by their side. It prevented him from hurting himself, locked up in the Shrieking Shack.

Bust most importantly, it lead to their nicknames. Remus was named for the thing that Turned him: Moony. Peter, a rat animagus, was named Wormtail. Sirius, the large, black dog, became known as Padfoot. And James, a beautiful stag, was Prongs. Collectively, the Marauders.

This particular Wednesday wasn't too bad for Remus, it never was at the beginning or end of the year, because there was less schoolwork. But the effect was obvious, he was worn down and barely spoke, not even to the Marauders. He barely ate either, but he tried his best to act normal, and that seemed to work for those who didn't care about him that much.

That night however, Madame Pomfrey was running late, and was trying to get Remus out of the castle before the moon rose over the horizon. She had been tending to a first year boy who had been turned into a harp-human hybrid by accident. It had been painful for Remus to watch, never mind to be the poor boy.

But their running through the castle had caught the attention of Professor Turing, who had been walking into the entrance hall when she had seen Pomfrey and Lupin walking quickly to the large doors.

"Madame Pomfrey," Professor Turing called out. "Where are you taking Mr. Lupin?"

Madame Pomfrey and Remus turned to the woman. Madame Pomfrey was stuttering out a reply when Remus gasped in pain—it was getting close. "Just tell her," Remus had gasped out.

Madame Pomfrey had looked at Professor Turing and said, "This boy is a werewolf and needs to be taken far away."

Professor Turing had stared in shock while Madame Pomfrey and Remus Lupin hurried out the door.

Madame Pomfrey had only just locked the door of the shrieking shack when she heard Remus Lupin howl. She hated that; he always howled when he turned. She always wanted to cry at that.

Such a young boy did not deserve that much pain.

xoxo

The next day, Remus was even worse than the day before. The Marauders took him from the hospital wing in the morning straight to breakfast to eat.

He didn't eat much. He did not look good either, but acted like he was okay. When someone did ask him if he was alright, he said, "My great uncle passed away. I didn't really know him, but my mom won't stop crying," he waved a letter from his mom to show (the letter just said that she hoped he was okay and had arrived with usual chocolates to make him feel better).

But it was after Defense Against the Dark Arts that Professor Turing asked him to stay, that he felt at his worst: she knew. After waving away Peter, James, and a very jealous Sirius, who all promised to wait outside, he approached the Professor's desk.

"Remus," she said, softly. "I just want you to know that this in no way affects how I will treat you, and I will tell no one. I can see why you would want this to be a secret."

Remus just nodded, looking at the floor.

"So," Professor Turing continued. "I just want to clear things up. I'm assuming Dumbledore knows, and I know Pomfrey does. Anyone else?"

Remus nodded at the first two names and added, "Professor McGonagall, James, Sirius, and Peter. That's it. Oh, and you, I guess."

Professor Turing smiled. "Very well. You can go." She handed him a pass. When he read it, he was surprised to see four names on it, not one.

"How did you—?"

"They wouldn't leave you after the night you had last night. They are good friends, don't ever lose them."

Remus smiled genuinely for the first time that day. "I won't," he said, shaking his head.


How to pronounce Aptllaot: Apt-lay-ot. Whenever I say his name, the 't' is usually barely heard/not heard at all, so if you're having trouble with the 't,' just drop it. I only say this because I plan on bringing him back later.

Please tell me how you liked this chapter, reviews make me smile! The next chapter is titled "Trials and Tribulations." I don't know when that will be out because my week is busy, but probably either Monday/Tuesday, or Saturday/Sunday. It depends on how willing I am to write the chapter I'm on. And, if I remember correctly, chapter 5 is a good one, so keep an eye out for that! See ya next time!

~Jill
MissSlytherinxoxo

XOXO