Hi everyone! Wow, this took me a really long time to get up. Sorry, I really don't know where my head has been these past few days, but it certainly wasn't on writing this chapter! The good news is I've written a bunch of chapters for later years. But I still haven't finished writing all of them for first year...sorry! I will get the chapter up really really really soon! I can't promise you any days, but it will be up sooner than this one was. So enjoy reading! And thank you everyone who has been reviewing, and thank you everyone that has favorited or alerted this story! I feel so proud of it. And thank you if your just reading it! So thanks all around for all! I don't own the marauders unfortunately.
Within two weeks of being at Hogwarts, Remus had caught a cold. Or two. Maybe it was the flu. He wasn't quite sure what exactly he had caught, but he felt really quite awful.
His nose was completely stuffed up, his throat burned every time he tried to talk, and his head would begin spinning periodically. Being sick was awful, Remus thought, as he laid his head down on the breakfast table. A few strands of his hair landed in his coffee, but he couldn't be bothered to pull them out. He was trying to concentrate on what Peter was saying to him; other than hearing his name a few times he really was quite lost as to what he was saying. After a minute of trying to listen to Peter, he closed his eyes and thought instead of hearing Peter's urgent tone. Suddenly, he found himself being hoisted into the air. It would appear that he was being carried out of the great hall, but Remus couldn't even care enough to be embarrassed. It was shaping up to be an awful day, and he still had potions to struggle through.
He had gotten very little sleep, due to astronomy the night before. This already was recipe for a bad mood, without the factors of a rather unfortunate morning added in. Remus' morning had been terrible, apparently an omen that he should have stayed in bed. When the howler began its first few notes, Remus had lost sight temporarily. Stars swam behind his eyes as he tried to sit up, he actually fell out of his bed. After he fell out of bed, he hit his head on his bed table hard enough to black out for a minute. When he came to, the howler was gone, and James was pouring water on his head.
After changing out of his soaking wet pajamas, he was informed that he had exploded another howler. He had then fallen down a flight of stairs and run into a wall on the way to breakfast, but he still refused to go to see Madame Pomfrey. But during breakfast he found that he couldn't eat anything, and instead was gripping his coffee like a lifeline. Eventually, even his coffee was deemed useless, and Remus found himself being carried to the hospital wing.
He really did try to protest being carried. Unfortunately, he felt sick as a dog, or a wolf, at that moment and his protests were very ineffective. He was trying to kick the person who's shoulder he was strung over but had found that his legs had been turned into jelly since he last used them. So Remus instead tried to focus on what was happening. Remus thought that Peter might be calling his name again..
"Remus! Remus! Oi! Remus!" Several voices were chanting. His head swam as he tried to open his eyes to see who was there. But opening his eyes was just painful and left him feeling dizzy, so he returned to a world of blackness where his eyes were closed. He focused instead on the large yard outside of his house. It was large. It was smooth. It was clear. It did not make him dizzy. It did not make him sneeze. It was a very nice yard.
"Hello Mr...Potter. What seems to be the problem?" Remus vaguely heard Madame Pomfrey say. Madame Pomfrey. She was nice. She was motherly. He had a mother. She was not a nurse though. But the matron was nice.
"Oh! Mr Lupin! Oh put him down on this bed over here. Yes, very gently." Remus felt himself being lowered onto a bed, his cheek hitting something much softer than the table or a bony shoulder. This bed was very nice, much like the matron. And his mother. Yes. His yard was nice too. His mother didn't go into the yard, even though they were both nice. Nice. What a nice word. Friends. Friends were nice too. Much like this soft pillow. Remus decided that he would sleep on the soft pillow. Sleeping was much nicer than being awake.
When Remus woke up, he was immediately inclined to go back to sleep. His mouth was dry, the lights were extremely bright, and his ears felt like someone had been putting cotton in them. Not to mention the fact that his head felt as though it had been trod over by a hundred or so hippogriffs. Yes, sleep was defiantly better than this. But no matter how hard Remus shut his eyes, his brain would not surrender itself to sleep. That was unfortunate. Deciding that it was a very lost battle, Remus opened his eyes and abandoned all pretenses of sleeping.
After opening his eyes for a few moments, he retracted his earlier statement about the lights being too bright. In fact, there was almost no light in the infirmary, the only light coming from the matron's small office. Strange. Remus suddenly realized how dark it was, and he realized just how many creatures could be lurking in the shadows. He began to hyperventilate, biting his tongue in hopes of calming down. His wand. If he had his wand, he could magic up a light. He knew a spell for light. But he couldn't find his wand.
In a fit of panic, his wand suddenly lit up from it's position. It was in his school bag beside his bed, cheerfully showing Remus it's place. Now that the room was lighter, Remus began to breathe normally again, just as Madame Pomfrey came out of her office.
"Remus!" She cried. "Here, here's some water for you. Now, I can imagine that you're feeling quite awful, correct?" Remus nodded, and she continued. "You've managed to contract quite a few diseases now. First, you've caught an unpleasant cold. You also have down the muggle version of the flu, though I'm quite unsure how you managed to achieve that. It seems that you've had milder symptoms of the flu for a bit now though. "
"My-" Remus' voice cracked, and he cleared his throat in an effort to talk. "My mother is a muggle. That it different than a coffee mug. I like coffee. Could that be it?"
"Yes, I suppose that could be. Now, I've gathered from your friends that you had astronomy last night? That appears to have aggravated the flu, and also made you unable to fight off the cold. Your friends also mentioned that you've been feeling badly for a few days now, but only when you fainted at the table this morning you came up here. Now why is that?" Madame Pomfrey asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
"I get sick quite often, and it always goes away in a short amount of time. Besides, I didn't want to miss class. Charms, potions, transfigurations. I hate potions." Remus said, struggling to sit upright in his bed.
"What else happened Thursday morning? Mr Potter mentioned you hitting your head?"
"I fell out of bed and hit my head on the table. Not for math though. Then I fell down a few stairs and sort-of ran into a wall. One in the I did not faint, merely rested my head for a minute or two, and found myself here."
"How many stairs? And do you normally fall out of bed?" Madame Pomfrey was giving Remus quite a strange look as he unintentionally kept adding in extra words and phrases.
"I've never fallen out of bed before, and it may have been a flight. Flight of birds. Or so. What have I missed?"
"It's currently very early Friday morning. You missed all of Thursday, and have slept for a solid seventeen hours. Now, I need to check a few things, so please be silent for a bit, but do not fall back asleep."
In the end, it was determined that Remus acquired a harsh cold, the muggle flu, and a mild concussion. And even better, it was soon discovered that normal treatments for cold, such as pepper-up potion, didn't work for him.
"It's probably due to your lycanthropy." Madame Pomfrey said, apparently trying to make Remus feel better. It wasn't working.
There was nothing for a 'mild concussion', since all wizarding spells were only for severe concussions. And due to the fact that Remus had the muggle flu, wizard medicines would not help with that either. But Madame Pomfrey was going to try and get ahold of a few basic muggle remedies. Until then though, Remus was resigned to bed rest until he could at least talk normally. Because of his concussion, he couldn't even read for another few weeks, and Remus was bored out of his skull. Sighing unhappily, he accepted a sleeping draught, and tried to get some of the rest out of the way.
Remus awoke several hours later when he heard a soft whispering outside of his dream. It was a nice dream, about dogs and yards and mothers. All wearing socks. When he opened his eyes, he found three boys staring at his face, all with worried expressions.
"What the hell? Hell. Hello." Remus said, since he really couldn't remember where he was.
"Hello to you too, Remus." Sirius said, his mouth smiling and eyes twinkling.
"Are you alive now?" James said, but more concerned than laughing.
"Oh damn. I'm in the hospital wing. Wings on a bird." Just like the flight of birds he had fallen down earlier.
Sirius was now outright laughing, Peter looked appalled that Remus could swear.
"Do you, uh, normally swear when you have head trauma?" James asked, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
"I don't have head trauma thank you very much. Just a mild concussion. Cussing with a concussion. It was the birds' fault."
"Um, the birds? Who were the birds? I uh, don't remember any birds." James inquired.
"I don't remember who the birds were. But the flew. And drank coffee. It was their fault. Maybe Ravenclaws. Eagles. Snakes. Badgers. Lions. We're all lions."
"Um. Yes. We're lions, Rem. So, uh, do you know what's wrong with you?" James asked. Peter appeared to be shell-shocked, and Sirius was still laughing in the background.
"I have a cold. And muggle flu. And a mild concussion. Eagles eat mice. I have a bone to pick with you, James!" Remus said, suddenly remembering.
"You do? What does that even mean?" James' confusion just sent Sirius into a new wave of laughter.
"It means that I have a complaint to address. Like an envelope. With a big bird stamp. Maybe an owl delivered it. You have an owl. Maybe it was your owl's fault." Remus continued to chatter about birds and owls until James interrupted him. Sirius was busy making large flapping motions with his hands in Peter's face.
"Remus? Focus, alright? What bone do you have to pick?" James said, his forehead creased with worry.
"You told the matron that I fainted! I did not! You're making me seem like a girl, James! Probably a conspiracy by the owls. Maybe you should have been in Ravenclaw. They could use your clever plots and schemes with birds and fainting."
"Remus, if it wasn't fainting, what would you call it?"
"Simply resting with my eyes closed temporarily. No, I was meditating, and fell asleep. I was clobbered over the head by a plethora of insane owls. I did not faint though." Remus said, wishing that he really could stop talking about birds. Birds hated him, even more than most animals, and he wished that his brain would stop adding birds into everything he said. Birds. Ugh.
"Remus, you fainted. Why didn't you let us take you here before we had to carry you?" James said. Remus thought that he was the only one who really was keeping his head. Remus was very glad that James was able to overlook all of the bird comments.
"I thought I'd get better. I get sick often enough that this is a fairly regular occurrence. Maybe I have avian flu. Muggle flu. Muggle's need magic. And coffee."
"Do muggles have coffee?" James asked, looking at Sirius and Peter.
"I've never even seen a muggle before the train platform. But I suppose they might." Sirius said, looking very confused and oddly pensive.
"I think that they do. Coffee sounds like a muggle word." Peter contributed. "Remus, isn't your mum a muggle?"
"Yes. But she doesn't drink coffee. I've only ever had it at St. Mungo's. And at Hogwarts. My dad doesn't drink coffee either though. I hope that they have it. Coffee is wonderful." Remus said, a dreamy tone invading his normally factual voice.
"Have you ever seen any other muggle drink coffee?" Sirius asked, the same time that James said "Why were you at St. Mungo's?"
"I've never seen another muggle. James, I achieved three ailments all within a few days. I'm a regular to St. Mungo's." Remus was vaguely amazed with how Sirius and James spoke so often at the same time, yet they both had completely different questions or comments. He was also pleasantly surprised that the longer he talked, the less birds had to do with his thoughts. Good.
"So let's assume that muggles don't have coffee." James said.
"Do you know what happens to assumers?" Sirius asked. Remus had to bite back a giggle. A giggle, he decided, would not help his 'I'm-not-a-girl-so-I-don't-faint' theory. Also, Sirius did not need encouraging.
"How do you drink that vile stuff, Remus?" Peter asked. In the corner of his brain, Remus realized that this was the first comment that Peter had said the entire visit. Did the infirmary make him nervous, or was it Remus putting him off-ease?
"It's not vile at all! It keeps me awake, tastes wonderful, goes well with chocolate, is warm..."
~Cesso~
Early Thursday morning, James soon became aware of the fact that Remus wasn't quite up to par that day. First, when the howler arrived, Remus fell out of bed. Normally, falling out of bed was Peter's job, and Remus being clumsy was a very worrying fact. Then Remus was temporarily unconscious, and James was very very worried He knew that Remus hadn't been feeling well the night before, but he assumed that a bit of sleep would make him feel better. So when Remus fell unconscious, James immediately went into full panic mode.
"Try to wake him up!" James shrieked at Peter, who was staring at Remus in amazement. James meanwhile ran into the bathroom.
"Cup..cup..cup!" James muttered as he cast frantically around the bathroom for a cup. He had remembered that when a person was unconscious, it was good to pour water on their head to wake them up. Maybe. At least, James hoped that that was what was supposed to happen. When he finally saw a cup, he immediately filled it up with water from the sink, cursing the fact that he did not yet know how to make water appear from his wand.
James sprinted back into the dorm, dashing over to Remus' huddled form, Peter and Sirius crouching around it. Unceremoniously, James dumped the entire contents of the cup on Remus' head, and when he started to stir, ran back into the bathroom for another cupful.
After three cupfuls of water, Remus finally stopped woke up. Sirius laughed with relief, James joined in with his own weak laughter.
"Ow." Remus said. "James, why am I wet?"
At breakfast, James was overjoyed to find that he was only a few seats from Evans. James watched her talk, laughing a little at the grand gestures as she talked.
"James Potter!" Sirius shouted, while giving James a small smack on the head.
"What?" James said angrily, hoping that Evans hadn't noticed his unmanly yelp. James tore his attention away from her to look at Sirius, who was giving him a look.
"Oooh, our Jamesy boy likes Evans!" Sirius sang. "James and Evans, sitting in a tree- ow!" James took that moment to kick Sirius, as Sirius wasn't exactly quiet.
"Shut up!" James hissed, shooting another look in the girl's direction.
"Ha, you do like her!"
"No I don't! Shut up!"
"Yes you do! Reeeemus, Peterrrr" Sirius called, looking to where they sat.
"Remus! Peter! Help me here!" James yelled, stopping when he saw Remus' slumped form. "Remus?"
"I've been trying to get his attention!" Peter wailed. "But he won't look at me, and when I thought I had his attention he went to sleep or something. I think that he's fainted."
James frantically looked around the hall, cursing softly to himself when he saw that no teachers were left, and first years were really the only ones left in the hall.
"Right. We need to get Remus to the infirmary. Sirius, you're the tallest, can you carry Remus? I think I can remember where the hospital wing is. We need to go." James said, standing up and hoisting Remus' and Sirius' bags over his shoulder.
The boys hurried along the corridors, Peter talking frantically, James hurriedly trying to remember where the hospital wing was.
"I think that he hit his head. I mean, he fell out of bed. Then he fell down those stairs, and he ran into a wall. When he laid down on the table that made a large clump too. Maybe he's sick. He didn't feel well last night. Or maybe he.." James had to stop listening to Peter talk, he was making the situation more urgent than it seemed. But he frowned a bit, he hadn't noticed that Remus wasn't feeling well, and he had no idea what wall Peter was talking about. He had noticed the staircase tumble Remus did, but Remus had stood up and laughed it off, so he had assumed that he was ok. James decided that he would need to keep a closer eye on Remus.
"Down this hallway, I think over here. Yes, down here at the end! Here it is!" James cried triumphantly as they reached the hospital wing.
"Excuse me?" James shouted as he threw open the doors.
"Mr.."
"Potter!"
"What seems to be the problem?" She said, apparently not having seen Remus yet.
"It's Remus ma'am. He was here a few weeks ago, and he fainted at breakfast. And he ran his head and fell and wasn't feeling well and" James rambled on, well aware of the fact that he was rambling, but glad that an adult could now take care of Remus.
"Oh! Put Mr. Lupin on this bed over here. What happened to him? Thank you so much for bringing him. How long has he been passed out?" The matron fussed as she rushed around trying to make Remus comfortable. James tried to answer her questions the best he could, but Sirius and Peter kept adding to the story.
"Um, he passed out at breakfast-" James would start.
"At exactly 7:13 he fell down some stairs. Then four minutes later he ran into a wall." Sirius would butt in.
"Last night he had a sniffle." Peter would suddenly remember. Then Sirius would mock Peter for using the word sniffle. James would try to sort it out...and so on and so forth. Eventually, the matron was tired of listening to their slapped together tale, and dismissed them to go to class.
'Do you think he's ok?' James wrote to Sirius during charms.
'I don't know. He seems to get sick a lot.'
'And he's all skin and bones. And barley any bones.'
'James, you sound like a mother. Also, your handwriting gets more atrocious every day I do believe.'
'Sirius, I think that if your handwriting was any more perfect you would be a girl.'
'No, really, I can barely tell what you were writing there. I thought that you had written "sad hiss all skint sad pomos". Plus you misspelled barely. Barley is a plant. A green one I think. Not a speculation.'
'A speculation? Your such a pureblooded brat. You do realize that no one but Remus uses those terms?"
'It's you're Jamesy-dearest! At least I'm a cute pureblooded brat with nice hair. Plus I can spell and write nicely unlike the pureblooded brat to my left...'
'Hey! This hair will woo many girls someday.'
'Ooh, like Evans? Maybe I should tip her off...'
'NOOO!'
'James, you are only eleven. There's plenty of time to go and kiss her or whatever. We're trapped in this place for another six years and eight months and thirteen days and nineteen hours!'
'Did you really just do all of that math?'
'No. I made up the hours part.'
'You need to tone down on the smart thing. You may beat Remus for that, and then we'll all have to tease you instead.'
'I am not smart! A good memory is much different than actually being smart. Remus is the smart one. But he's not very good at accepting help.'
'Next time let's take him to the hospital wing before he actually faints at breakfast.'
'Agreed.'
~Cessare~
"I'm bored." Sirius announced from his perch on the bedside table. It was another slow evening, an evening that was once again being spent in the hospital wing. Remus still wasn't better, even after eight days of being confined to bed. So every spare moment was spent with Remus in the hospital wing, the three boys sprawled out on every surface as they tried to entertain the small boy.
"You really don't need to stay here," Remus started.
"Remus? Shut up. We're staying here. That's what friends do, they entertain each other when they're sick and dying of some strange muggle disease." James said. Sirius noticed the bored tone to his voice as James rambled off these reasons. Sirius was glad though, he was getting quite frustrated with Remus' obvious guilt at being sick.
"Besides, Remus, Sirius gets bored doing almost anything. I'm impressed that we've entertained him this far already." Peter said, casting a quick glance towards the taller boy. Sirius was actually pretty impressed that Peter had managed such a comment. Maybe he was getting over his strange fear of Sirius? Sirius hoped he was.
"Hey! I do not need constant entertainment! Why are you all so mean to me?" Sirius replied, adding in a fake sob at the end. Since Peter was obviously getting more comfortable with him, he felt at perfect liberty to tease the boy a bit.
"Sirius, you're like taking care of a dog for Merlin's sake. Not even a dog, more like a hyperactive puppy! You wake us up all hours of the morning, prank us every time we turn around, whine, eat like a horse, and never sit still!" James said with a large grin. Sirius suddenly had a flash of a puppy running around Grimmauld place, and he couldn't help but laugh at the image that conjured up.
"Sirius, as much as I hate to agree with James, it is true. You do tend to run around quite a bit." Remus said, his soft tone only heard when Sirius stopped his laughter.
"Fine!" Sirius said, pouting. He turned around in his seat, forgetting that he was sitting on a table, and promptly fell to the floor. He made sure to give them all a pureblooded scowl as he dusted himself off.
"We could play truth or dare." Sirius said mildly, as he situated himself onto the table once more.
"What's truth or dare?" James asked. Remus and Peter also had confused looks to their faces.
"Well, it's basically how it sounds. You either choose to answer a question, or you do a dare. You've never played it before?" Sirius finished with an incredulous look around him.
"No, we haven't. So how do you start?" James said, a frustrated sigh tacked on to the end of his words.
"Truth or dare?" Sirius asked Peter, his tone lighter than the smirk in his eyes.
"Um..truth." Peter said. Sirius smiled, apparently he was worried what kind of dare he would be forced to accomplish.
"What's the most humiliating thing you've ever done?" Sirius asked, a malicious grin on his face.
"Oh. Well, um.." Peter thought about it for a few minutes. "I once spilled lemonade on my great-aunt. She hasn't visited since."
"Just for spilling lemonade?" James asked incredulously. Sirius didn't see why he was so surprised; Sirius had been forced to write apology letters for less petty offenses then that.
"Mostly." Peter said, unwilling to offer up more details.
"Ok, Peter now you get to torment James." Sirius said, interrupting James before he could bug Peter even more. As much as Sirius was sure to bug Peter, he didn't want James to start digging into family matters. Family just made Sirius uncomfortable.
"Ok. Dare or truth?" Peter said to James.
"Dare!" James replied. Sirius smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Wait, don't get too outrageous. This is an infirmary, and Madame Pomfrey might kick you out if you're too loud. Unless you want to go. Then you can go. I don't really need company that badly." Remus said, his words picking up speed as they left his mouth.
"Relax Remus. We're not leaving. It's Peter making the dare, not Sirius. So don't worry." James reassured him.
"Sides Remus, do you realize that you've officially spent more time in the infirmary than in actual class?" Sirius contributed.
"Really?" Remus said, a slightly fearful look emerging on his face.
"No. You've spent fourteen days in school and eight days in here. Well, technically thirteen days in school since one day was spent on the train." Sirius said after doing some quick math.
"Why on earth do you know that?" James said, giving Sirius a rather suspicious look.
"Photographic memory, my dear Watson!" Sirius said with a grin stretching a mile wide. He knew that being able to recite useless facts like that generally annoyed people, but annoyed them in an admiring way. Not like he wanted his friends to get annoyed with them, but it was kind-of expected to annoy friends. And Sirius was pretty sure that his dorm mates would be his friends for a long while. Plus the Watson comment was sure to confuse James, and after Sirius looked at his face, it did look rather confused.
"Wait." Remus said, jerking Sirius out of his thoughts. "You just referenced Sherlock Holmes."
"Yes?" Sirius said, not quite understanding Remus' point.
"It's a muggle book, muggle author. I thought that you weren't allowed any muggle things." Remus said, biting his lip slightly, a wrinkle between his eyes.
"Muggle things annoy my mum." Sirius said, after freezing for a minute. In truth, Sirius rather liked a good book. After watching Remus practically worship the books for a few weeks, Sirius was infinitely curious. But he couldn't let anyone know that he actually enjoyed books for fun, he teased Remus about it enough. So when Remus had passed out and ended up in the hospital wing, Sirius had taken to reading the mysteries in the early hours of the morning. He still pulled a prank every morning, but found himself getting up a little bit earlier every morning to give him extra time to read. But James would tease him mercilessly if he knew, so Sirius just devoured the books in secret. But muggles certainly were good authors.
"Hm." Remus replied, a frown like he knew Sirius wasn't really telling him everything.
"I got it!" Peter shouted after a few moments of awkward silence. Sirius jumped, once more falling off of the small table.
"You know, " Remus said, giving Sirius an amused look to see him on the floor again, "that table is only meant for a small lamp, or maybe a pitcher and bowl. Why do you insist on sitting on it? I know you're skinny, but you're not exactly a short child. You're rather tall, and you don't fit on it at all."
"Remus, I am deeply grieved that you feel it necessary to insult my tall stature and lack of flesh on my bones. In fact, I think I will go and cry myself to sleep. Quite tragically too, be assured! I will sob such impressive tears that it will be almost as though I have become a modern day, and much better looking Noah. I will luckily manage to build a much better boat though, because it will be a broomstick! I'll bring along sensible creatures too, such as therestrals, or flobberworms. Although I secretly think that Peter is a flobberworm due to the amount he eats. I will also tame several herds of dragons! They will all fly this miraculous broomstick of mine, pulling it much like a herd of reindeer can pull a sleigh. Trust me, it would be much better for us all if you just apologized now!" Sirius finished with a haughty sigh. He then felt it necessary to faint onto James, causing James problems as well.
Remus appeared to be laughing too hard to actually respond, and he kept ticking things off on his fingers. After a minute he seemed to collect himself though, something Peter and James hadn't managed to do.
"So you've actually read the bible? And stories about Santa?" Remus asked with an incredulous look.
"Yes. No. I don't read books." Sirius replied with an exaggerated sigh.
"You don't read books?"
"None at all. Ever!"
"If you're so sure.."
"I am!"
"Alright. Peter, what was it that you were trying to say before our resident drama queen had his feelings hurt?"
"I am not a drama queen!" Sirius said with a heavy lower lip.
"Shush Sirius, it's Peter's turn to talk." Remus said, putting his finger to his lips.
~Cesser~
"I came up with a dare for James." Peter said, with a rather devious smile on his face. But he now knew that he had good blackmail for Sirius; that was a book of Remus' he had caught peeking out of Sirius' bag the day before.
"Is this a devious horrible dare that will embarrass him for all of eternity?" Sirius asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly. James did not look as pleased.
"Yes. Are dares allowed to be mean?" Peter asked Sirius.
"Yes. As mean as you want!"
"No, nothing too mean. Don't do something that will permanently embarrass James or anything." Remus said, as usual being the voice of Remus. Peter frowned slightly at this.
"Well, I don't know how embarrassing it will be. I mean, it'd embarrass me or you, Remus, but I don't think that James will be too scarred by it." Peter said, noticing that Remus flinched slightly as he said 'scarred'. Strange.
"Whisper it to me and Sirius first." Remus commanded. Peter once again had to hand it to Remus, he managed to sound commanding no matter the situation.
"James, go away." Sirius said simply as he sat down on the edge of Remus' bed.
"Please." Remus stressed with a slight glare towards Sirius. Peter smiled, Remus was determined to teach them all manners, despite the fact that Sirius and James had probably had manners drilled into them as soon as they could talk.
"James, please go away. Immediately. I want to hear this devious plan of Peter's." Sirius said, giving James a slight shove towards the door.
"Fine, fine! I'm going!" James said, throwing up his hands in exasperation as he stalked towards the infirmary doors.
"Good." Sirius yelled at him.
"Sirius, remember that this is a hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey will probably kick you out if you're too loud. Peter, please tell us your excellent dare."
"Ok. He has to very publicly tell Evans that he likes her." Peter said.
Immediately Sirius was clapping Peter on the back and grinning very widely as he loudly exclaimed what a good idea it was. Remus merely looked pensive, probably trying to decide if it would embarrass James too much.
"I think it's a brilliant idea!" Sirius yelled, only to be shushed by Remus once more.
"Ok. I think it's acceptable. Although, are you sure that James likes her, Peter?" Remus said before going back to biting his lip. Peter laughed a little at how many nervous habits Remus seemed to have; he was always doing something here or there. He wasn't a flurry of activity like Sirius, or a loud presence like James. But Remus was never really still, he was always writing or reading something, humming or tapping his foot. The calmest one in the group really might be Peter. That was a strange fact, considering how flighty his mother was.
"I'm sure. He always is looking at her and blushing, and his mom's a redhead." Peter stated, ignoring Sirius' loud laughter at hearing the last fact.
"How do you know what his mom looks like? And what does that have to do with this?" Remus asked, clearly not seeing the logic in this.
"I've met his mom, and he has a picture of his folks up in the dorm. And since his dad fell for a redhead, he has too." Peter said in a calm tone. Sirius was now laughing loudly enough that Remus hit him to shut him up.
"Alright then.." Remus trailed off, doubt still in his voice.
"Trust shortie here Remus, James really does like Evans. Why anyone would like someone that loud, I'll never quite understand though." Sirius said. Peter snorted a bit at that, Sirius was the loudest person he knew. Then he remembered what Sirius had called him.
"Hey! Remus is way shorter than I am!"
"For now maybe. But I betcha that Remus outgrows you." Sirius said, his tone smug, absolutely firm in his opinion.
"I bet that I outgrow all of you. Now, someone go and get James." Remus said, rolling his eyes a bit at the competition about heights.
"You do it." Sirius said, poking Peter in the stomach.
"No. You do it." Peter had decided that he wasn't afraid of Sirius that morning, so he was determined not to be bossed around any longer. Besides, Sirius most of the time was just bossy for the sake of it, not because he actually didn't want to do something.
"Fine." Sirius said, rolling his eyes as he stalked to the door.
"How do you notice these things?" Remus asked softly, as soon as Sirius left. "I mean, you take notice of all the small details that no one else really seems to get.
"I'm not sure. I've just always noticed them...too bad I can't remember these types of things for tests and homework." Peter replied.
"You're fine at homework Peter, you just need to have it checked through first. And you're not so bad at remembering things that you'll fail all tests or anything. Don't worry about it." Remus reassured him.
Peter started to reply, but they both were distracted by the train wreck approaching the bed that was James and Sirius. Sirius was being dragged by his arms back into the hospital wing, laying limp on the floor.
"Sirius? Are you ok?" Remus asked in a worried tone.
"The oaf is fine, he told me that the dare was to drag him inside though." James said, slightly out of breath from dragging 'the oaf'.
Peter started laughing immediately, while Remus was more polite. Remus just bit his lip as to keep his smile from becoming vocal.
"Wait."James said, dropping Sirius' arms quite unceremoniously. "Was that not my dare?"
"No, James, I'm afraid that it wasn't. However, I request that your dare is done after I'm out of this hell-hole." Remus said, sighing in frustration.
"You swear a lot when you're sick" Peter observed out loud.
"I suppose I do. It's a bad habit, I'm trying to get out of it." Remus admitted.
"James, your dare is that you have to tell Evans how you feel. Now give Remus the question." Sirius ordered from his spot on the floor. He was still laying sprawled out, eagle style, on the middle of the hospital wing floor. Peter was just glad that Remus was the only patient at the moment.
"Ok. Truth, Remus?" James said, apparently not fully digesting his dare. Peter smiled, he couldn't wait to see the explosion when he did realize what the dare truly was.
"Nah, I think I'll take a dare." Remus teased. "Truth I suppose then."
"Ok. What's your greatest fear?" James replied.
Remus suddenly got a panicked look in his eyes and he gave James a pleading expression. But James didn't notice it, as his jaw had just dropped wide open. Apprantly, James had just recognized the true essence of the dare.
"What?" James shrieked. "No fair! No way! I'm not doing that! No!"
"Remus said that it was legal." Sirius defended himself. "Besides, it was Peter's idea."
"Sirius said it was a good plan!" Peter retorted.
For another few minutes chaos ensued, as the boys accused and condemned each other. Finally Madame Pomfrey came out to quiet them all down. But she got the shock of her life when she realized that it was Remus yelling the loudest.
"Boys, I'll let you stay for another half hour. Then Remus has to rest. Remus, no more shouting. It's not good for you." Madame Pomfrey lectured. But she let them stay for a bit longer, so Peter wasn't too put-out by being yelled at.
"So Remus, what's your worst fear?" James said with a pout, deciding that Remus was mostly to blame for allowing Peter and Sirius to think up such tasks. James still hadn't agreed to the dare, and just appeared to be deflecting the attention away from him.
"Well. Um." Remus started, a small shiver running through him as he started to talk. He froze then and wouldn't say anything more.
"Remus, we'll all say ours if you tell us yours." James offered. Peter had been thinking the same thing, but wasn't fool enough to volunteer Sirius for anything. Sirius looked hesitant at James suggestion, but eventually submitted a soft nod.
"I'm afraid of hyenas." James offered
"Hyenas? Have you ever met one or anything?" Sirius laughed.
"No. But when I was little my dad told me a story about hyenas that eat little kids. Then two days later my uncle who I hated bought me a stuffed hyena. He swore it was a dog, but I know better. Two months later I left that stuffed thing at my uncle's house, and he died overnight. So it's perfectly reasonable to be afraid of hyenas." James finished with a huff.
"Right James. That's pretty reasonable." Sirius said sarcastically. James gave him a look.
"Are you being sarcastic?" James asked.
"Never!" Sirius said with a flourish of his arm.
"Right. Let's hear yours then!" James demanded.
Sirius looked reluctant to share, and shook his head.
"No, you have to. You said that you would." James insisted.
"Fine. My mother and my cousin." Sirius said, his face flushing with embarrassment.
"Why?" Peter asked curiously. His mother was Peter's favorite person, and he wasn't sure how anyone could be afraid of their. Cousins though, those could definatly be scary.
Sirius gave a dry laugh to Peter's question. "You just never want to meet them. What's yours?"
"I'm not sure." Peter said, trying to think of what he really was most afraid of. He would say that he was afraid of being friendless, but here he was, surrounded by friends. "Maybe snakes. I always thought that it would be awful to be eaten by one." He decided, knowing that he would be laughed at for being afraid of snakes. But it would be awful. He could just imagine some big scary Slytherin transfiguring themselves into a snake, just to eat Gryffindor first years.
"Of course, Peter." Remus said, trying to hold back a laugh. James and Sirius weren't even trying, they were just laughing outright at Peter's fear.
"What? Snakes eat very viciously!" Peter said defensively.
"Whatever you say, Peter." James said, quite patronizingly. "So, Remus? Want to tell us, or should we guess?"
"Um. Well, if you guessed, you'd probably get a few things. I'm afraid of just more than one thing...so I should probably just let you guess. Or maybe I just shouldn't tell anything." Remus said. Peter could guess from the unnecessary phrases that Remus really was quite reluctant to share.
"Just tell us the top few." James said, giving Remus a smile. Peter also gave Remus what he thought would be a comforting smile, so he hoped that that was what it turned out to be.
"Well, um, the dark, nighttime, the moon, death, being alone, having people know me, and therestrals." Remus spit out, all in one big breath, very very quickly.
"Oh. Um, wow." James said. Peter and Sirius both were dumbstruck, neither appeared to be able to say anything.
"We're a bit of a pathetic group!" Sirius finally announced. "Afraid of snakes, therestrals, the moon, dark, snakes, and hyenas! Pathetic!"
Remus cracked a slight smile at this, and James allowed a slight laugh. Peter gave a rye smile also, but all he could really think was how awful it must be for Remus, always being so afraid.
~Cese~
An hour later, three boys left the hospital wing. They had begged and pleaded with the matron to be allowed a little more time, but eventually Remus had been demanded to go to sleep. The three boys walked loudly back to Gryffindor tower; without Remus they were quickly becoming known as the loudest boys in the school. Remus normally would have calmed them down, pleading that other students needed quiet to study.
The only good thing about Remus being sick was the fact that the boys spent most of their free time visiting him, and less time planning pranks for the other students. That isn't to say that they hadn't been pulling pranks on others though, they certainly were.
The first week that Remus had been ill, the boys had released several dungbombs in the middle of dinner. But without Remus' finesse, they had immediately been blamed as the culprits. Two days later, they had read through several charms books, to learn how to turn hair different colors. The best part was, that it was from a second year charm book, and no one suspected the three boys as the perpetrators.
Now every few free moments were spent charming unsuspecting passerby's hairs different colors, and enjoying the chaos that ensued. But they all wished that Remus would be there to give them all a proper scolding.
Meanwhile in the hospital wing, one lonely boy cried himself to sleep for another night. He was extremely happy to have friends, but he was living a life of fear. He was terrified that someone would discover his secret, and he was appalled that he had listed to moon as one of his fears. He hoped that no one would ever discover who he truly was. Quietly, the boy stopped his crying as he drifted off to the soft world of sleep, under the comforting light of the hated moon.