CHAPTER 6: The Night Before The Full Moon

For the most part, the next two weeks of Hogwarts passed by quickly without much changing. James and Sirius, after being forced to study and do a dreaded thing called homework by Remus, learnt a new jinx and promptly tried it out on Severus Snape, the boy from the train. He was, as predicted, sorted into Slytherin, which only intensified Sirius and James's dislike for him. Peter would cheer them on as they complained about him or jeered at him or jinxed him but wouldn't actually join in and Remus would simply sigh and look away, not taking any part in it. At times, Severus would try and retaliate and end up only making things worse for himself. It wasn't long before the two Gryffindors had turned it into a sort of sport. It had already earned them a grand total of three detentions and a loss of a countless house points. In fact, as they were going to bed one night the conversation had already turned to the Slytherin boy.

'How about this? Tomorrow, we send him a Howler!' Sirius suggested, his eyes lighting up. 'Teach the git to mind his own business and not laugh when I got mine.'

'Can't you just leave him alone?' Remus suggested.

Both Sirius and James spun around to stare at him, with shock in their eyes.

'Remus John Lupin! How very dare you suggest such a thing?' James cried dramatically.

'This is war, Remus!' Sirius added.

'How is it war? What has he ever done to you? I hate to say it but it's bullying,' Remus said, not looking up from the book he was reading.

'Well, it's more the fact he exists,' James replied, earning him a raised eyebrows look from Remus.

'He laughed at my Howler. Made fun of me for it for ages, he did! I can't let him get away with that,' Sirius threw in looking more determined than ever.

Realising it was a lost cause Remus sighed and left the dormitory to read his book down in the common room in peace. He sat down in his favourite seat next to the fire and resumed where he had left off.

'Remus?'

The small boy looked up to see the red haired girl that he saw on the train.

'Oh, hello, Lily,' he replied, grateful that he had remembered her name. He was proud of that. He was quite good with names.

'Where are your friends?' she asked.

'In our dorm. They kept distracting me so I came down here,' Remus answered, looking at her over his book.

'You're not like them Remus.'

The boy felt his heart alternate between stopping beating and beating a thousand times a minute. The full moon wasn't until tomorrow, how could she possibly have found out already? He hadn't even spoken to her until now, if she had figured it out, who else had? The boy's breathing picked up and he started to feel dizzy, his eyes darting around.

'Remus? Are you ok?' Lily looked at him, concern in her eyes and walked over to kneel in front of him. 'What's wrong?'

'I…you…how…what do you mean?' Remus managed, closing his eyes, trying to get the room to stop spinning.

'The way that they are always picking on Severus for absolutely no reason, the way that they do nothing but muck around in class, the way that they don't do homework, the way that they don't seem to care about anyone but themselves? You aren't like them Remus. You're a nice person. I don't understand why you are friends with them, really,' Lily explained, watching Remus who still had his eyes closed. 'Remus, are you ok?'

He sighed with relief, became even lighter headed with joy. He felt faint after panicking so much, but opened his eyes to the spinning room and smiled at Lily.

'Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit dizzy, that's all,' he said, deciding that she deserved to not be lied to; especially after the compliments she had just given him. He smiled at her, and as she smiled back he wondered if they were friends now. Having had hardly any friends when he was growing up because of his lycanthropy, Remus found it difficult to understand the concept of friendship. He liked having friends, he was glad that he had friends, but he was never sure how it was that he had come to be friends with them. How could one tell if they had made a friend? Had he now found a friend in Lily Evans?

'Do you want me to go and get someone?' she asked, holding onto his arm for support as he made to stand up.

'Oh no, I'll be fine,' he replied as he headed off towards the stairs back up to his dorm. 'I think I'll just go to bed now.'

'I'll help you up,' Lily said, walking behind Remus with her hand on his back.

'Really you don't have too-'

'Stop arguing and get to your bed, Lupin,' Lily ordered, with such a Professor McGonagall tone to her voice that Remus laughed and was still laughing when he opened the door to his dorm. He turned to say goodbye to Lily but she walked straight into the room behind him.

'Evans! To what do I owe the pleasure?' James said, turning around to grin at the girl.

'I didn't come here to talk to you, Potter. I was just saying goodbye to Remus,' she replied, stony faced.

'Well then please do so and kindly leave, Evans, you're interrupting our chat,' Sirius said, with a smirk and a quick gesture to the door.

'Oh yes, planning another attack on Severus, no doubt!' Lily huffed. 'You are pathetic. Goodbye Remus.' And with that she walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

James, Sirius and Peter all turned around simultaneously to stare at Remus who was sitting on his bed with his head down trying to stop himself from feeling so dizzy. Stealing a glance out of the window he could see the swollen moon, almost at it's full. 'It's full moon tomorrow,' he thought. 'That'll be what this is.'

'Remus. What were you doing with Evans?' James shot at him, taking the boy aback with the change of subject.

'She was downstairs when I went down. We were talking. Is that alright, mother?' Remus answered, not lifting his head and taking deep breaths.

'Remus, are you alright, mate?' Peter asked, looking at the pale boy with his head cocked to the side as if trying to perceive him from a better angle.

'Yeah, you look quite pale, Remmy. Paler than usual, I mean,' Sirius agreed.

'She hasn't cursed you or anything, has she?' James asked, worried.

'She's not like that James. She doesn't like cursing people for no apparent reason, and she also doesn't like people who curse other people for no apparent reason, which is precisely why she doesn't like you,' Remus replied.

Whilst James's eyes widened and he began to stutter a lot of nonsensical gibberish, Sirius and Peter looked at each other, then back at Remus.

'That doesn't answer our questions, mate,' Sirius pointed out.

'I'm fine,' Remus said.

'You're not a good liar, Remus,' Peter replied.

'I'm fine,' Remus insisted, not completely lying. His head was starting to clear a bit and it was making him feel better knowing how much his friends really did care about him. He crawled over to the front of his bed to get to his trunk, pulled out some pyjamas and stood up to go to the bathroom and get changed. His head spun as soon as he stood up but he tried to hide it as best he could and left the bedroom. Once inside the bathroom he slid to the floor and began to change slowly all the while muttering in his head about stupid dizziness, stupid moon and stupid lycanthropy. For as long as he could remember, he had always been ill the day of the transformation, which was tomorrow, but he couldn't afford to be. If he kept disappearing so much then people would get suspicious. People would get nosey. People would investigate. And people would find out.

James, Sirius and Peter were all sitting on James's bed and alternating between looking at each other and at the bathroom door. Remus had been in there a long time. It doesn't take anyone that long to get changed. Something was obviously happening.

'I'll go ask if he's ok,' James volunteered, getting up from the bed and beginning to cross the room but stopped dead halfway there when he heard a loud THUMP from the bathroom and then silence. Whipping around to share a worried look with Sirius and Peter who had jumped off the bed at the sound, the three ran to the door and started banging on it.

'Remus! Remus, what happened? REMUS!'

'He's locked the door!'

'Get out of my way!'

Sirius stepped forward with his wand and practically screamed 'Alohomora' in his frantic state and they heard the door unlock.

'Alohomora?' James questioned.

'When I was at home I read my textbooks to get out of being with my family,' Sirius muttered, pushing open the door.

'Blimey! Remus! He's fainted!'

Upon seeing the pale boy unconscious on the floor, the three gently grabbed hold of him and carried him onto his bed, Sirius getting his arms and James and Peter with a leg each. Once Remus was deposited onto his bed the three Gryffindors looked at him worriedly.

'Should we go and get someone?' Peter whispered, his face pale and his eyes frantic.

'We should give him some time until he wakes up and see how he is,' Sirius said. 'It might freak him out if he wakes up somewhere else and then he might faint again.'

'So we'll give him five minutes?' James suggested.

The three agreed and all sat my Remus's bedside. After two minutes he began to stir and with a groan woke up to see three worried faces hanging over him.

'I'd rather we didn't make this a habit,' Remus said weakly. 'You three aren't the best sight to wake up to.'

The boys didn't smile.

'You wouldn't have had to wake up to us if you hadn't gone and fainted in the bathroom,' Sirius frowned.

'We had to unlock the door,' Peter put in.

'And carry you out,' James added.

'Sorry,' Remus muttered, looking away. The glare of the moon seemed to be taunting him from outside the window and he didn't want to look at it.

Sirius sighed and scrambled up onto the bed next to Remus and was soon joined by James and Peter. Remus couldn't help but laugh at the three of them hanging off the edge and, in the case of Peter, grabbing onto the sheets for dear life, and soon enough they were all joining in.

'Seriously though, are you ok, Remus?' Peter asked.

'Yeah, I feel a lot better now, thanks Pete,' Remus replied. He wasn't totally lying. The room had stopped spinning so much but the intensity and almost fullness of the moon taunted him as his dizziness was replaced with a headache.

'What happened?' Sirius enquired.

'I don't know. I, um, I think I must have just stood up too fast or something,' Remus improvised, glad to see that his friends believed him. With a frown he realised that he must be getting better at lying. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

'Why didn't you just tell us that you didn't feel well?' James asked.

'I don't know. I didn't want to bother you, I guess,' the small boy replied.

'Remus John Lupin that is the most absurd thing I have ever heard! We're your friends, we're meant to look after you and care for you and all that. You better tell us the next time you're ill. That goes for everyone, in fact!' James scolded.

Remus laughed and told James how much he acted like a mother, which earned him a hit in the face with a pillow. Grinning, Remus retaliated and soon all four boys were ducking for cover and throwing pillows across the room, although no one would let Remus leave his bed. Eventually the night wore on and James, Peter and Sirius all fell asleep, blissfully unaware of the feeling of dread that the thought of tomorrow night brought for their friend. Remus sighed, rolled over and closed his eyes knowing that he would need all of his strength for the night that awaited him the next day.