Hi guys! I know you all probably hate me now, this is really super really late. I apologize greatly for this fact! Real life sort of hit me really hard. I take a couple of classes online out of school, and they all were due this week so I was really behind on that and needed to finish them. And I thought I would have this up last night, but then I went to see an opera! It was the first opera I've ever seen, and actually, it was quite awesome. Have any of you ever seen Tosca? If you haven't, it's very good! So I apologize loads for the huge delay, but this one is fifteen pages long! Fifteen! So please love me. I'll try to have another chapter up on Monday or Tuesday. Really! I promise it! You can hold me to it. Enjoy! Thank you all for reading so much. I love you all! Even though you probably hate me right now. By the way, I don't own this. Quite unfortunately.

Saturday morning dawned all too brightly for the boys in Gryffindor tower, where, surprise surprise, they were awoken by another howler. Peter awoke with a very unmanly shriek of surprise and fell out of bed onto Sirius' foot. That caused Sirius to join in with the shrieking of the howler, although the howler was still louder. Peter noticed that Sirius tended to shriek in the same pattern as the howler, or at least he thought he did. He could only see Sirius' lips move. But he yelled in the same manner Mrs. Black did, and he wondered if Sirius had often grown up being yelled at often, so that he would develop this same pattern to his words.

After the howler was finished, Sirius continued to hop around on one foot, yelling curse words that would have made a sailor's ears hurt. Finally, he stopped and sat down on James bed, sighing overlydramatically.

"I hate to break this to you mate, but this howler thing is really getting old." James said as he burrowed back under his covers.

"She'll probably get bored with it soon." Sirius said, climbing under James covers as well. Peter had noticed that about Sirius, he seemed to survive on human contact, and took every opportunity he could to stop from isolating himself. Peter wasn't used to having his shoulders patted so much, and was defiantly unused to anyone clambering onto his bed as Sirius did. But Sirius did these things, and Peter supposed that he would need to stop flinching every time someone touched him.

"Why doesn't she send them to you at breakfast like everyone else does?" Remus said quietly from his corner of the room. Peter hadn't noticed that he was awake, although he supposed one had to be deaf to ignore the shrieks the combined force of the Blacks produced. Peter had been wondering about that too, why they were forced to wake at the crack of dawn to hear Sirius' mum scream, but he didn't feel comfortable enough with Sirius to ask him.

James snorted in response to that question then answered for Sirius. "The Blacks advertise what a disgrace this dork is? They would never want to admit that Sirius is in Gryffindor, they'll hide out until this is all over. But Sirius and his dorm mates still need to be woken up early every day of course."

Sirius nodded along with what James was saying, shoving James nearly off the edge of the bed when he called him a dork.

"When will she be done sending them?" Peter asked. Now that James was in the conversation he felt safer asking questions. Even though Peter would insist that he was one of Sirius' friends, Sirius still worried Peter with that intense scowl and aristocratic attitude.

"Oh, next year when Regulus is safely sorted into Slytherin and they can forget about me." Sirius said, with an air of Peter's stricken expression Sirius

laughed, then corrected his answer. "Probably within a week or two, she doesn't have much patience for me anyways."

"Who's Regulus?" Remus asked, as he got out of his bed.

"My little brother. My parents are perfectly proud of him at least." Sirius said, with a scowl in his voice, and the hint of one on his face. Peter suspected that even though he was resentful of his brother's position, he liked his brother. That's why Peter was never unhappy with being an only child, he would have hated to deal with sibling rivalry. Siblings were rumored to be awful anyways, he wouldn't have wanted one no matter what. They would have just made him nervous. More nervous anyways.

Peter noticed that Remus was taking his clothes out of his trunk and preparing to go into the bathroom to change, as he had every day since they had first arrived.

"What time is it?" Peter said to Remus, since the sun was barely up. "It's a little after six." He replied, shutting the trunk's lid quietly. "And you're getting up already?" James said incredulously.

Remus blushed a little at this, then replied sheepishly "Once I'm woken up I can't go back to sleep. So I suppose I'll just go to the library or something until you're all awake." Peter burrowed back under his covers as Remus walked to the door, but stuck his head back out as Remus hesitated for a minute.

"Peter?" Peter nodded, and Remus continued. "Be careful when you get out of bed." Peter looked over the side of his bed, but couldn't see anything. Remus gave a soft laugh and left the room.

Three hours later, Sirius woke up for good, and that meant that everyone else had to be up too. Peter woke up a second time to shrieking, but this time it was just Sirius. Peter looked up at Sirius groggily, eyes blinking rapidly. Sirius was hopping around on one foot, the other foot clasped between his two hands.

James looked at Sirius with a mildly curious expression, but still a very calm one. Peter was just bewildered. The two watched Sirius dance about for another few minutes before saying anything.

"So what are you doing?" James asked, finally halting the circles Sirius was spinning in.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I hurt my foot!" Sirius said after pausing for a second, before going back to his circles and swearing. Peter was mildly impressed with

his vocabulary; as shocked as he was by the curse words, he did have to say that Sirius had a very colorful choice of words. And in several languages from the sound of it.

"How?" James said, after another few moments, also listening to Sirius' word choice.

"Well, I hurt it yesterday, then some great lump-" here he stopped to scowl at Peter, who visibly receded into his covers, "- fell on it this morning. Then I hurt it again, but worse!" Sirius said this all while jumping in place on one foot, a feat(tehe) that Peter was sure he couldn't have managed.

"Well, maybe you could stop hopping and we could go and eat?" James suggested, in the sort of calm tone one uses with a child throwing a temper tantrum.

To Peter's amazement, Sirius did stop his useless hopping, and sat down on the floor, and pulled his socks off. He then proceeded to throw a robe on, but one without the Gryffindor emblem. James looked mildly impressed at his speed, and he got out of bed to put on some clothes of his own. Peter resolved that he wasn't going to get any more sleep, and got out of bed as well, completely forgetting about Remus' warning.

With a yelp, Peter fell to the floor, clutching his foot in agony, much as Sirius had been minutes before. Peter stopped shouting long enough, it was some sort of clamp. Peter ripped it off of his foot, and the clamp turned invisible as it hit the floor. Suddenly, a lot of things fit into pieces in Peter's mind. Sirius, who had hurt his foot, two times other than when Peter had landed on it. And Sirius, who had been beside Peter's bed before the owl came, despite Sirius' bed being on the other side of the room. Remus warning him about his floor, then shooting Sirius a look before he left. Peter had dismissed it at the time, but now it all made sense. It was Sirius who had done it; Sirius who was now laughing hysterically, while James just had a confused look on his face, though he was laughing along with Sirius.

"Sirius!" Peter yelled, as it all fit together.

"Yes?" Sirius gasped out, trying to talk between fits of laughter. "Isn't it awful? My uncle bought it for me one year. I used it on Regulus more times than I can count, but he got used to it after too long. It turns invisible as soon as you set it on the floor. It's great!"

"Can we use it on Slytherins?" James asked, an excited look on his face. Peter was stepping around the room like it was a minefield, he wasn't sure where he had flung the thing.

"Yes! The only thing is, I'm not sure how Remus knew it was there. Peter, did you see it before you stepped on it?"

"No. And I'd rather like Remus to come back and find it before I step on it again."

Peter said warily, sitting on the floor as he tried to get dressed. A task that was proving surprising less difficult than it would seem at a first try.

"Let's go and find Remus!" Sirius shouted, in another one of his seemingly random outbursts. Peter had noticed that Sirius had a lot of these outbursts; one day he supposed that he would find a pattern to it all.

"Ok, let's go then!" James agreed as he hopped out of bed, looking around the floor carefully as he walked. Sirius continued to dance around the room, throwing clothes at James occasionally and tossing shoes at Peter, who was looking for his. None of the shoes Sirius tossed were Peter's, but James and Sirius were getting impatient. Since Peter refused to go anywhere near his bed, where he would have to go to fetch his shoes from under, Sirius finally decided that he would go. So carefully, Sirius tip-toed over to Peter's bed, and was just about to retrieve his shoe when suddenly..

"OWWWWWWW!" Sirius yelled, pulling the clamp off of his foot and throwing it across the room.

"Great!" James said. "Now we'll never find it! Peter, just wear a pair of my shoes, let's just get out of here before it eats us all."

Peter hurried to get a pair of James' on, then rushed out of the room with the other two boys to find Remus, and hopefully some breakfast.

~Cese~

Sirius Black was oddly thin, James thought as they walked downstairs. Or rather, James and Peter walked downstairs. Sirius was riding piggy-back style on James' back, since it was soon determined that he couldn't actually walk due to the number of clamp bites on his feet. Sirius had managed to get out of the dorm room, but after that he had collapsed and fallen down the stairs, finding it impossible for him to walk. So James had been elected to carry Sirius until they found Remus. They were hoping that Remus would know where the infirmary was since they were all helpless with directions, and got lost four times trying to find the library. Granted, Sirius and James hadn't even been to the library yet, and Peter had relied on Remus to lead the way on their previous visit.

Even though it was quite a lot of walking to do with a boy on your back, James wasn't having many problems with it. Sirius was oddly thin, although he was the tallest of the four, he was very light to actually carry.

The three walked down another hallway that Peter thought "looked familiar". Unsurprisingly enough, it wasn't at all familiar, and in no way led to the library. But luck was with the boys that morning. As they were just about to go down another hall they heard a whistle. James turned around to see who would be whistling at them, after all they were the only students in this hallway, and was pleasantly surprised when he saw a small figure rushing towards them.

"Remus!" Peter cried, overjoyed to have found their savior.

"Remus, are you all right?" James asked as Remus got closer and he could see the shockingly pale color Remus' skin was.

''Yes, yes. I'm fine! Don't worry, I'm just a bit tired." Remus replied. James was appeased with the answer and missed the panicked look that came into Remus' eyes while he answered.

"I greatly apologize for my mother's bloody owl." Sirius said to Remus, lifting himself up to his whole height. Well, most of it. He was still on James back after all, and although it was uncomfortable to have him squirming up there, James laughed at the tone of pureblooded snobbiness he used to apologize.

"Sirius? Why are you on James' back?" Remus asked, apparently just now noticing the walking arrangements.

"Oh I'm fine! I just got into a bit of a scrape or four with my foot." Sirius replied, trying to pass it off as no biggie. James snorted, recalling the howls of pain Sirius had let loose when he first tried to walk.

"We were looking for you and the library and the infirmary!" James said to Remus. "Why on earth were you here in the castle? Where is here by the way?"

Remus bit back a smile, and replied with "We're on the fourth floor. I'm on the fourth floor, the hospital wing is on the first floor, and the library is on the third floor."

"Why were you on the fourth floor? What's so exciting here?" Peter asked.

"Not much. There's Professor Binns office, and a few classrooms, storage rooms. The general stuff. A bathroom. Fairly boring as far as floors go. I was trying to get a better understanding of the castle until you lot woke up." Remus looked at his watch. "Nice, only nine thirty. I was giving you until ten before I was going to wake you up myself. So Sirius, did you manage to step into your own trap?"

"Four times, Remus! Four! I can't even walk!" Sirius complained, very loudly right beside James' ear.

"How could you see the trap?" James asked, rubbing his ear a bit. "We were hoping you could come and find it for us. It's over on your side of the room now."

"Well, that's just great. Sirius, exactly how legal is that thing?" Remus replied. James noticed that he didn't answer how he could see it, but he figured if Remus didn't want to share, it was ok.

"Well, my uncle got it for me..." Sirius' voice trailed off. "Probably not very legal."

Remus just rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh of exasperation.

"Wait.." James said, as what Remus was implying sunk in. "We can't take Sirius to the hospital wing because it's illegal for him to have that stupid trap?"

"Yes. So...let me see your foot Sirius."

"Are you a qualified healer?" Sirius said, unable to take any situation, well, seriously.

"Absolutely." Remus replied, with a raise of his eyebrow that implied shock at Sirius' lack of trust.

"Well, ok." Sirius said, somewhat begrudgingly. James helped him down, relishing the feel of no one on his back, and then watched in horror as Sirius took his shoes off.

"Crikey Sirius, how many times did it get you?" Remus asked in shock. Sirius' left foot was crisscrossed in tiny jabs from it, and had swelled up. And it was purple. His right foot wasn't nearly as bad, it only had a few of the tiny teeth mark cuts and had only turned red.

"Four..." Sirius said, looking disgusted with his foot.

"Four? I thought it only got you twice?" Peter commented.

"No, it got me a few times before you all got up. Plus Peter fell on my foot. And it bit my hand." Sirius said, holding out his hand for Remus' inspection.

Remus sighed as he rummaged through his pockets, and brought out his wand. He pointed it at Sirius' hand, and murmured a few Latin words that James didn't quite catch. Instantly, his hand was back to normal.

"Great!" Sirius said, looking at his hand in happiness, awe painted on his face. "Will that work on my foot?"

"Yes.." Remus said, hesitant for some reason though.

"What's the matter?" James asked Remus, worried that Sirius' foot might be permanently damaged.

"Nothing." Remus said, giving them all a weak smile, and pointed it at the less beat up foot of the two. He murmured the same words from before, and although it helped Sirius' foot, it was proved to be bad for Remus. Remus winced as he let loose the second spell, and bit his lip. James grabbed Remus' arm, afraid that he would pass

out or something, Remus' face was so deathly pale. More so than normal, more than should be normal for anyone.

"Remus! Are you ok? Do you need to sit down?" James asked, getting increasingly worried as Remus didn't answer. But Remus slowly regained his breath and sat down on the floor.

"I'm fine." He said with an air of finality that suggested none of them should question his statement. But James had to. He had just almost fainted from that spell, there was no way that that was normal.

"Remus.." Sirius began. "Let's just go to the hospital wing. Maybe the nurse will have something for you too. 'Cause that's not right."

"No, I'm really fine Sirius. It's nothing. The spell itself isn't the problem, I'm just not used to using a wand and spells for magic." Remus replied, sounding awfully like a professor. A professor who held his classes on the floor in deserted hallways.

James was remembering how Remus had used wandless magic several times throughout their stay at Hogwarts, and each time had performed spells that were too complicated for James to even know the spell for. How was such a wimpy looking kid so good at wandless magic? And why wasn't he supposed to do it?

"Right. Now, for your other foot. James, do you suppose you could do it? The incantation is fairly simple and there's no wandwork involved. Just point and aim." Remus said, a brisk and businessman like tone to his voice, dampened somewhat by the fact that he looked like he was about seven, and was sitting on the floor.

"Is the spell safe?" Sirius said. James was kind of wondering that too, especially if he would have to perform it. What if he couldn't? James suddenly had images of he and Remus, collapsed on the floor from the spell, Sirius unable to walk, and Peter being the one to save the day.

"Oh yes, the spell is safe. It shouldn't cause any side-affects to James. He'll be fine. This spell requires a lot of just raw power, James has plenty of that." Remus said, in a confident tone. James couldn't doubt him; he sounded so sure of himself, so he supposed he could do it.

"Right. So how does the spell go?" James asked

The remainder of Saturday spent wandering the castle as they all wanted to know every inch of it by the year's end. They stayed out long past curfew, to Remus' horror, but they didn't get caught. Remus could hear footsteps from forever away, and every time he heard someone coming, Peter would point out some kind of passage or side room that they hadn't noticed before. James and Sirius each saw several places that would be ideal for pranks, and they whispered quietly about them as they walked

through the halls. James was sure that Sirius would always be his best friend, they already seemed to click together so well, and they both had a love for pranks. Yes, Remus and Peter did too, but Peter was afraid of being caught, and Remus just seemed reluctant for whatever reason. James just hoped that Remus would get over his reluctance soon.

~Cessare~

Sunday morning dawned clear and bright, the birds chirping outside, the sun and a cool breeze coming through the window. And Sirius was terribly bored.

Due to his nature, whenever he was bored, he had a tendency to want to make something happen. Due to his inability to sleep longer than the sun, he was always up before anyone else in the dorm. So these two facts combined caused Sirius to be rather mischievous in the morning. Since he wasn't sure how early they were allowed to be up, he didn't leave the dorm and instead contemplated what to do to his friends that morning. He had pranked Peter successfully(well, semi-successfully at least) the day before, and had caused plenty of mischief other days. But Sunday was a day of rest, he had to do something special for that day. This required extra materials from his trunk, and possibly from James as well.

The plan was to place some itching powder in someone's shoes. But since Peter was already wary of Sirius, and Remus had an uncanny ability to know what he was planning, this meant he had to prank James. But James was pretty smart himself, and if no one else got pranked, James would be suspicious. So Sirius had to toss in an extra prank, which he decided wouldn't be that bad. So he dug through James' trunk, pulling out all of his socks. Then he went to Peter's and Remus' trunks and dug all of the socks out as well. James trunk was easily the messiest, and most of his things were no longer in the trunk, even though they hadn't even been there a week yet. Peter's trunk looked as though it used to be well arranged, all his clothes were in haphazard stacks in the trunk. Remus' was the easiest to find all the socks in though, he had organized all of his clothes neatly, and had cardboard pieces to separate his clothes and books. Sirius had laughed when he saw that, but appreciated how easy it was to take all of the socks.

Now the two plans could be put in motion. Sirius decided that the best place to put the socks would be the bathroom. He carefully took every sock from the dorm, including his own, into the bathroom, and contemplated for a minute. The showers, he thought, would be the best place for them.

He first unrolled every sock, then got out the spellotape he had filched from James' trunk. Then he started taping the socks to the walls of the shower. He continued doing this until he was out of socks, so he sat down to think about what else to do. The itching powder thing kind of paled in comparison to this idea that was purely a distraction, so maybe he better rethink the itching powder.

Finally, Sirius had his final plan. He would put itching powder on James' pillow, he wold itch all night that way, but still be caught unaware. And if Sirius had enough, he would put some itching powder on Remus' and Peter's pillows as well!

Good. Now that his plan was all worked out, he could just sit and wait innocently until the rest of them woke up. But if his mother planned to send another howler, it should be soon..

And it was soon. Not twenty minutes after Sirius finished taping socks to the walls an owl came in through the window, and a howler exploded from it. As usual, Peter freaked and jumped out of bed as though someone had shoved him. James blinked sleepily and looked around, vaguely confused, but not at all alarmed with the situation. But Remus reacted differently.

Remus normally woke up like a rocket, and would look around with wide eyes, as though he thought they were under attack. But today, he didn't just react like they were under attack, he responded to the attack. Sirius was turning to Remus, ready to reassure them that no one was hurt, and he saw the panicked look on his face was even more intense than usual. All of a sudden, the howler just, well, exploded. A bright flash of light enveloped the whole room, and when Sirius chanced to open his eyes again, the howler was gone. Sirius turned the rest of the way to Remus, who was sitting on his bed looking very ashamed of himself.

"Did you just explode that howler?" James demanded. Remus nodded miserably in response, not looking up to speak.

"That was amazing!" Sirius said. Remus looked startled at Sirius' view on the event, but his glum face lifted just a little.

"How did you do that?" James asked, a bit in awe at the power Remus occasionally wielded.

"I didn't really mean to.." Remus trailed off, the miserable look returning to his face. "I mean, I'm not really supposed to do wandless magic, but I really didn't mean to. It was just accidental." Remus' voice got higher and faster as he spoke, the panic in his voice evident to everyone.

"Whoa, Remus, calm down. Do you see any of us crying over my stupid howler being gone?" Sirius interjected, cutting Remus off before he could get any more upset.

"I guess not." Remus said, but he didn't sound convinced of what he was saying.

"Then don't be upset about it!" James said. Sirius noticed that Peter had remained silent throughout the whole conversation, and looked over at him curiously.

Peter was fairly quiet, but he normally tried to put himself into a conversation at least partially.

Peter was staring at Remus still, a look of amazement on his face. Clearly, Remus was his new favorite person. Either that or he was afraid of Remus, afraid that he would explode him next. Sirius bit his lip to keep from smiling at the idea of being afraid of Remus, the shortest and smallest of them all.

"That was so. so. so. cool!" Peter finally burst out saying.

Remus blushed as he mumbled something incomprehensible, and was in the bathroom before any more could be said on the matter.

Remus came out of the bathroom and without saying a word, gave Sirius a look that told him he was utterly confused with Sirius' actions. Sirius gave him a look that implored him not to say anything, to let the distraction go through. Remus hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Sirius was allowed to keep the socks taped to the walls.

Peter walked by on the wa

y to the bathroom, and gave Remus a strange look.

"Hey Remus? Why aren't you putting on socks with your shoes?" Peter asked.

"Oh, uh, I just couldn't find any this morning. I guess I just misplaced them?" He answered. Sirius was very impressed with how well Remus could lie, and if he didn't know any better, he would have had no reason to suspect Remus of being untruthful.

"Oh. That's funny, I couldn't find any either." Peter responded.

"You couldn't either?" James said. "I have no socks anywhere in my trunk. Or on the floor."

"Yeah, mine are missing too." Sirius said, after James gave him an expectant look.

"That's weird. I'm going to take a shower, hopefully they'll show up." James said, as he walked into the bathroom. Mere moments later, a shout and then laughter was heard, to the amusement of Sirius and Remus, and the confusion of Peter.

"Sirius!" He heard James shout. "I'm hiring a baby-sitter to entertain you next weekend!"

"Where did Remus go?" Sirius said as he walked down into the common room where Peter and James were waiting for him. His feet were rather uncomfortable, wet socks weren't very pleasant.

"I'm not sure. When we got out he was already gone. Maybe he went down to breakfast already?" Peter said.

"Yeah, maybe. Let's go and hope we run into him." James said, and so they went down to eat a lavish meal.

For the rest of the day, they didn't fine Remus, but they had lots of fun anyways. In the morning they went on a walk around the grounds of Hogwarts, and went down to see the Quidditch pitch. None of the teams had held try-outs yet, but there were still plenty of people out practicing to watch. Periodically they would return to the dorm room to see if Remus had returned, but they didn't come across him all day. They even walked down to the library at one point, braving the harsh stare of Madame Pince. For almost an hour they were at the library, winding their way through the shelves, poking their head in every corner to see if Remus was there. They got lost several times in the labyrinth like maze of books, and hadn't even gotten halfway through the library when Sirius demanded that they leave. However, he had good reason to ask to leave. James had been reading a book. Granted, it was one about hexes, but still. A book! Sirius put his foot down then and they all left, Peter looking relieved to leave. Then for another half hour or so they were lost getting back from the library. They eventually found themselves in the great hall, just a bit before dinner, and decided that they would just sit down there until dinner time in case they were lost again and missed eating that night. None of them were confident that they could find the kitchens without Remus' help.

After dinner, James and Sirius were working frantically on their homework, trying to ignore Peter's smug grin. They really wished that Remus would show up soon, he would be a lot more help than Peter was being. Peter knew that he had done his homework, he just didn't quite understand the answers well enough to help James and Sirius with theirs.

Finally, at night they were forced to conclude that Remus really well and truly was gone. Completely gone, vanished without a trace. When Sirius stuck his head into Remus' trunk and in his stack of books he discovered that his school books for Monday were gone as well. So worrying greatly, the three boys concluded that Remus would be missing tomorrow as well. With heavy hearts, and all too focused on the absence of their friend, the three boys prepared for bed, much subdued. They all secretly missed the sound of Remus yelling at them to settle down though.

~Cesser~

Remus had been feeling awful all week, it was just an effect of the moon, but the day of the full moon was always the worst. He woke up with a pounding headache and the owl and howler only made it worse. He didn't quite mean to snap so badly that morning, he was just overly cranky. But he knew that he would have to be more careful for now on if he wanted to avoid suspicion. He had tried to avoid his roommates all weekend; he knew that they would notice how overly pale he was.

The howler. He was rather ashamed of how he had just snapped so badly at the howler, no matter how the boys tried to reassure him otherwise. But they didn't understand why he was so ashamed. He knew that doing accidental magic was directly linked to the wolf, he wouldn't have done it at any other time of the month. That was why he was so upset about the magic, he really was quite glad that the howler was gone. But he was upset that the reason he had the courage to explode it was due to a piece of him that he'd rather have no part of.

Early in the morning, he was feeling awful, and once again cursed that howler disrupting his sleep. All he wanted to do on full moons was sleep, sleep for hours without being awoken. But once he was awake, he was awake, and it was impossible for him to fall back asleep. So when everyone else was getting ready to go to breakfast, he instead walked down to the kitchens.

It was much lonelier in the kitchen without James laughter, or Sirius throwing food at him. He missed Peter's quiet remarks as well, but he knew that he simply couldn't eat with them. On full moons his appetite was very peakish, and all he could stomach was chocolate and meat that was nearly raw. Anything else made him ill, which may arouse suspicion with his roommates.

Remus was realizing now how foolish he had been, allowing himself to become friends with these boys. But it was still early days in his friendship, he had known them for less than a week, so there still might be time for him to isolate himself, refrain from being friendly. Yes, the next seven years would be lonely, but much much safer. Perhaps he could break it off slowly, just start spending more and more time in the library, miss a meal here or there. That's really the right thing to do, he realized. It would be safer for his friends (roommates. He would have to get used to not speaking as if they were friends.), and safer for Remus. After all, every other boy in his dormitory was pure blooded, and as much Remus wanted to think that it didn't count, they had all been raised differently. He wasn't even truly half-blooded, he was more of quarter blood than anything else. No. His secret could never be discovered if he wanted to get an education. Or at least his O.W.L.S., he needed to get those at least.

Remus quietly thanked the house elves for the odd assortment of food they had given him as he left the kitchens. He decided that he would head down to the library. But no, that's where he would be looked for. The boys all knew that he liked books, the library would be the first place they looked after he was discovered not to be in the dorm. So instead Remus decided he would go wandering, just like they had so often already. The difference was that the other three boys were helpless with directions, even Sirius with his memory. But Remus wasn't. He had silently been composing a map of Hogwarts in his head ever since they had started exploring so he wouldn't be late for lessons. But this gave Remus an advantage over the other boys, he could explore uncharted territory without the others with him.

Even though he still had a pounding headache and was incredibly tired, Remus had an unusually high pain tolerance. He knew that the nurse would not understand this though, and would only insist on babying him. He had met the nurse, Madame Pomfrey, over the summer and knew that she would fuss over him. So due to no other place to go, Remus kept walking. He mentally marked locations as he went so he could find his way back to the dorms or infirmary if needed, but kept walking. Finally, Remus realized that it was almost lunchtime, and that the halls had been emptying considerably since he had started his walk. He decided that the dorms were likely to be vacated by then, and slow and rather unsteadily, he made his way back to the dorms.

To his immense relief and seldom apparent luck, the dorm was indeed empty. He quickly grabbed a few textbooks he needed to read through, and stuffed them into his bag. He also grabbed a few bars of muggle chocolate since he knew he would be hungry for them tomorrow. A pair of robes and a few muggle clothes went into his bag, and he was ready to go. With a slight sigh and a hand on his bedpost to steady him, he grabbed his bag and walked out of the dorm.

Remus reached the hospital wing on the very last traces of his energy. Giving Madame Pomfrey a rye smile, he was settled down onto a hospital bed off in his own private room, that way he could be kept safe from other prying eyes. Madame Pomfrey, as predicted, mothered him, offering him soup and pain potions interchangeably.

For the rest of the afternoon he lounged around in the bed, carefully taking potions as he was given them. He was thankful for the pain potions, he had never had the luxury of them before a moon before. His parents didn't exactly have the most money, and all that they had was used for potions for the day after when his pain was worst. Having potions before was certainly a blessing, and Remus was able to read ahead on subjects he knew that he would be missing. No matter how fast his recovery was, he knew that he'd be missing at least a day of school. He really hoped that this wouldn't impact his schoolwork, he really hoped that he would be able to keep up.

Late in the evening Remus was awoken from the slight nap Madame Pomfrey had coaxed him into. He was glad for this new method of waking up, a gentle hand on his shoulder rather than the explosive sounds of screams. He was less likely to explode a hand.

Madame Pomfrey carefully helped Remus put on his shoes, but frowned a little.

"Remus? Where are your socks?"

"Oh. I don't have any." He replied, his brain too tired to remember why he didn't.

"You don't have any? Do you own any socks?"

"Yes. I own socks. But not on my feet." Now that he thought about it, he was a little puzzled why he didn't. But it was too late to worry about that. He soon found himself being walked outside, the sun still up, but just barely.

"Now, Remus. This is the whomping willow, Professor Dumbledore told you about it, correct?" Madame Pomfrey said, shooting out a spell and pushing a knot in the tree.

"Yes. I go into the tree then to a shack?" He said. He remembered this much, but most of his brain was still occupied with the sock conundrum. Conundrum. What a strange word..

"Yes. I'll walk you there tonight, there is still an hour before the moon rises. Now, in the morning I will come and fetch you. I'll take you up to the hospital wing before anyone else is awake, and you can rest and recover there." Madame Pomfrey continued on with instructions for the next day as they walked through a long tunnel. A tunnel is awfully hard and cold if there are no socks. Remus still was stuck on socks.

"Well, here we are. It's a whole house, lots of room of course."

Remus was so tired he was barely able to stand up straight, his eyes kept shutting themselves. But as tired as his body was, his brain was awake. So painfully awake, and still overly focused on socks.

"Sirius took them!" Remus burst out suddenly, shocking the matron as he interrupted her talking. "He taped them to the bathroom walls."

"What was that dear?"

"Socks. Sirius took my socks. All of our socks." Remus was immensely relieved that he had remembered this fact, now he could concentrate on what was happening.

"Right. Well, I'm glad to hear that..now, the moon should be rising soon, so I'm going to go. I'll be back for you in the morning, all right?"

"Ok. Good night. Sirius doesn't normally take my socks. It was just for a trick."

"Right dearie. Good night Remus." Madame Pomfrey hesitated for a minute as though she wanted to say something else, but she couldn't find the words to say. Instead she hurried out through the door to the tunnel. Remus heard several magical locks be enacted, and an involuntary shiver ran through him. The moon was near.

~Cesso~

That night was an uneasy one for all of the lion-hearted boys. Three boys were worrying about the empty bed, an empty bed that soft moonlight poured onto. Two of these boys were incredibly itchy, but both of them assumed that it was just nerves and didn't mention it. The last of the three boys was worrying about his brother at home, and worrying about how he was faring without his protector. The final bed was empty, the boy who normally resided in it was faring the worst. He was not even a boy anymore, instead he was a monster, screaming at the world. He howled at the moon, cursing the day it existed and trapped him. He tore himself to shreds, impatient since he could smell humans oh so very close, but still too far for him. He was stuck in these magical confinements, forced to disfigure his own flesh in frustration. All night he would continue to howl and destroy, never sleeping, never ceasing. All night long, the monster raged, and three boys worried, listening to the howls of the night.