Remus came back into the common room an hour later. He sat on the couch and ran his fingers through his hair. He knew his friends wanted and deserved an explanation.
Sirius and James came over and sat around him.
"What's up, mate? That was some display of animalosity. Never did like that Walter prat. Way to poncey, if you ask me."
"Sirius, you say that about everyone who gives you competition with the ladies."
"Yeah, well even if he didn't, he still is a dodgey character. I think most tolerate him because he's in Gryffindor. That is the one and only time I think the sorting hat totally screwed up on its choice. He's a Slytherin all the way."
"Regardless of what you think he should be, he is a Gryffindor and I shouldn't have attacked a fellow house member."
"Why did you attack him and why didn't you get expelled or even a detention?"
"He was hitting on Hermione."
"That's it?"
"What do you mean, that's it?"
"You went berk on the guy because he wanted to have a little slap and tickle with Mi?" Remus growled at his messy haired friend.
"Hey, easy, I wasn't the one hitting on her!"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I just got so furious when I saw him over by her and when she pushed him away and he attacked her, I lost it."
"You have got it bad, mate. And I thought Prongsie here was loopy over Evans."
"You don't know the half of it."
"Well tell us all of it. It's not like we're going to abandon you. I think we've proven we're pretty trustworthy blokes."
"Yes, you have, I couldn't ask for better friends." Remus ran his hands through his hair again, for the millionth time that night. "This is hard; where to start?"
"I always found that the beginning is the best place."
"Thank you, Pads, you are the master of the obvious."
"Hey, just trying to give our fuzzy friend here a bit of advice."
"Ok, if you two want to hear it, then shut up. I am having a hard enough time as it is. You have to promise you will hear the whole thing first before you jump on me and start hexing me."
"Of course. Why would we want to hex you, it's not like you went and bit her or anything."
Remus looked at both his friends with a pained expression and put his face into his hands.
"WHAT! You mean to tell me you bit the poor girl? What were you thinking, Moony? What made you go stupid all of a sudden? I can't believe this, of all the things..."
"Pads, settle down. You're not helping. He feels bad enough already." Both men looked over to their sandy haired friend who was sobbing quietly into his hands. James placed his arm around his friends shoulders.
"What happened mate? You know we'll never stop being friends, right?"
"I fell in love."
"You fell in love with her, so you bit her?"
"Not helping, Pads."
"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll listen to all you have to say, but if I don't like it, I'm not promising I won't hex."
"We were on her bed and I was giving her a back massage. She was making all kinds of noises and it was driving me insane. Next thing I know we're snogging like it's going out of style. I had this overwhelming urge to mark her. I've never felt like that with any other girl before; it was almost driving me nuts. I asked her if I could and I figured she would scream at me and throw me out of the room. I even explained to her what it all would mean and how it would feel and where I would have to mark her. Do you know what she said? She said for me to mark her, to make her mine and then she opened her legs so I could. All rational thought had already left and I just went on instinct. She passed out and I brought her to the hospital wing, where Madame Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore found out what happened. I was expecting to be kicked out of school, but the headmaster just smiled at us. This morning I almost bit Madame Pomfrey's head off for upsetting Hermione and Professor Dumbledore came in and told us he arranged for us to share a dorm from now on. Then there was the incident in the common room and here we are."
"Wow, you dog you." Remus looked at his girl-crazy friend and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, but why would you go berk just because you shagged a girl? You have shagged girls before, not a lot mind you, and you always act all prude, but I know you are no virgin."
"We didn't shag at all, at least not yet. I marked her. A werewolf mates for life. We mark our mates and that way we can scent them out and others can tell if someone is already taken. I had to bite her in an intimate spot in order to mark her. From now on, any one who hits on her or is getting too comfortable with her, I will want to kill them."
"Ahhh, that explains Walter."
"That about sums it up. It will be even worse when I transform. My senses will be heightened and I will know my mate is around some place and want to mate."
"Tough luck for her. What can we do to help?"
"Keep being my friends. When I transform, make sure Mi is as far away from here as possible, although I think the headmaster has that covered already. Just make sure I don't do anything stupid in general; keep control of me."
"You weren't exactly controllable back there, mate. It seemed that only Mi could get you to calm down."
"She will be the only one who can get me to calm down. I need to know that she is safe and only she can give me that proof. One other thing is that there is a possibilty she may turn also. We have to wait until the next full moon to find out if she is going to be cursed."
"Oh man, if this wasn't complicated enough."
"That isn't the end. She is also the headmaster's granddaughter."
"Moony, when you mess up, you go all the way. I didn't know he was married or even had kids.''
"Neither did I." The three boys sat on the couch for a while absorbing all that had happened and all that they had learned. A figure in the shadows stepped out and walked to the couches.
"Remus, stop worrying about what my grandfather will think. He has too much respect for you three to ever hate you. Besides, you know he isn't that kind of person."
"How can you be taking this so calmly, when I could have turned you. Aren't you furious with me?"
Hermione laughed and shook her head full of bouncy curls. "No, should I be? I want to show you something." Hermione lifted up her top part way and slid down the side of her pants to expose her hip. There on her hip was a nasty looking scar. The other two whistled and Remus immediately bristled.
"Easy, Moony. We were just commenting on your girlfriends battle wound there. That looks pretty nasty, where did you get it from?"
Remus knew as soon as he saw it, what it was. He had a similar looking wound on his shoulder. He looked to James and said, "It's a werewolf bite."
"That's where you bit her?"
Remus looked to Mi, to get her permission to tell where he had bit her. She nodded her head.
"I bit her on the inside of her leg. Some other wolf had to have bitten her."
All three males waited for Hermione to explain. Remus could feel the jealousy welling up and Hermione could see his facial expressions changing.
"You better stop that train of thought right now, Remus John Lupin."
James and Sirius laughed at their friend for getting in trouble with his girlfriend, though they were amazed that he settled down as soon as she told him to.
"Yes, I was bitten by another werewolf, but I wasn't marked. He was biting me to kill me. We were in a battle and I was helping my friend, who was also a werewolf. The other one attacked him and he was already weak from fighting. I watched as half of his back was ripped out, then the werewolf turned on me and bit me. I felt like I was going to pass out, but I was going to make sure that bastard came down with me, so I cast the killing curse. I pushed him off and crawled to my friend, where I watched him die." Hermione left out that her friend she watched die was Remus and what he had said to her. The next part she knew she would have to tell a half truth. "I got myself to safety and a nurse fixed me up. When the next full moon came, I had my grandfather and Aunt Minerva lock me up and waited to transform, but I never did. I told my grandfather and Aunt Minerva and he said that meant I probably wouldn't."
Remus listened to her story. He had seen the scar before, but he felt it wasn't any of his business to ask her about it. "You know this means that you won't transform. If you didn't transform the first time, you won't at all."
"I thought anyone who was bitten would be transformed?"
"Not necessarily. There are very few people who will not. They carry a gene that protects them. No one really knows how, it's kind of like the people who survived the black plague. Researchers found that they carried a gene that fought off the plague and even went as far to test other diseases with the gene. It was found that whatever disease came in contact with the gene, the disease would be destroyed. But they haven't been able to replicate the gene. They found it can only occur naturally and it's very rare." Hermione, James and Sirius looked at Remus and James shook his head. Remus was very smart and retained whatever he read.
"So, you're saying Mi will not become a werewolf? Then what are you so worried for?"
"I didn't know she carried around the gene until just now. This is actually very good news. It means any kids we have will be immune to lycanthropy."
"Isn't it a little early to be thinking about kids?" Sirius would get the heebie jeebies whenever someone mentioned long term commitment.
Hermione laughed at her nervous friend. Remus got a lopsided grin on his face and decided to tease Sirius.
"Well, Pads, we are already each others mates. Werewolves mate for life, so I know I won't be choosing anyone else and hopefully neither will Hermione." Remus looked at Hermione, who was shaking her head no. "Why not talk about kids? I definately want some." This time Hermione was nodding her head. "You never know there, Padfoot, you could end up like James and I and find a girl you want to settle down with and start a family. You know, make the "big" commitment with." Remus and James were both watching Sirius slowly turn green and loving every minute of it.
Hermione was remembering what had happened to the Sirius that she knew in the future. "Sirius, you should never dismiss something just because it scares you. You never know what the future may hold and if you have a chance to do something, no matter how scary it is, you should take a chance at it because you may never get another opportunity again."
The three boys thought about what Hermione had just said. She had more wisdom than most people twice her age. She had the kind of wisdom that only came with experience, but where would someone her age get that kind of experience? The three boys brushed it off as Hermione just being really smart.
Hermione said goodnight to everyone and turned to Remus. "Will you be very long?"
"No, I'll be right there."
"Goodnight, James; goodnight, Sirius. See you two in the morning."
She walked into the room and closed the door. As soon as the other two heard the door click shut, they rounded on Remus.
"So, Moony, you get to share a room with your totally hot girlfriend. Can't say I see any down side to that. In fact, I think I may just have to go around biting random girls so I can share a room with them," Sirius said.
"Padfoot, you need to get another hobby besides girls. Dumbledore put us together for everyone else's safety. If I know where she is and I can see she is safe, then I'll be a little calmer."
James was trying to understand what his friend just told them. "Let me see if I understand this correctly. You have to be around your girlfriend all the time, so you can see that she is ok and no guy is trying to hit on her? If you can see she is ok, then you won't go nutters? What about the full moons?"
"You've got it in one go. As for the full moons, we still have to keep her away, but I won't be as aggressive if I have been around her all the time before then. We need to be around each other all the time for the first little while so we can establish our relationship and get our pheremones in sync so we will be able to find one another no matter what. Once that is done, then we can be apart for short periods of time, but we will still need to be around each other right before the full moon, or I will turn into the worlds scariest beast; even all the women with pms wouldn't compare to me." All three laughed at this statement. Sirius was always teasing Remus that he was just like a woman, he turned into a scary beast once a month. But Sirius said he would rather take on Remus in his werewolf form than any woman at that time of the month.
Remus stood up and said goodnight to his two best friends and went into the room to join Hermione.
"There goes one lucky bloke. I would gladly sacrifice myself for that kind of reward." Sirius was smiling and thinking of what Remus could be doing with Hermione's gorgeous body.
"You had better not let Remus hear you say that or we will be one Maurader short. It would be such a shame to have to go and take your name off the map because Remus killed you off." James was cautioning Sirius, but laughing at the same time.
The two men went into their dorm and laid down. It was strange to be the only ones in there. Remus was with Hermione now and Peter still wasn't back from his home. James drifted off to sleep thinking about Lily and what he would do with her if he had the same opportunity as Remus. Sirius fell asleep thinking about which girl he should try and go after next.