Remus wandered back to Gryffindor tower in a daze, he couldn't believe he'd even remembered the password to get through the portrait hole. He still had so many butterflies in his stomach he thought they might lift him up off his feet. Or make him vomit, but either way was good because he was about to spend an evening with Caelan Cunningham!
Control yourself Lupin! You're starting to think like someone's little sister, he slapped himself on the face as he went up the stairs to his dorm, he opened the door, to find, Peter messing around with a miniature toy broom, James bent over his DADA book and a rather worried looking Sirius.
*
Sirius had been pacing up and down the dorm before Remus came in, he looked weird. He had this odd looking wonky grin slapped across his face.
"Where've you been?" asked Sirius
"Just the library, what's up?" the grin quickly faded from his face
"Oh... you were there for almost 2 hours you know" Sirius trying to suppress a sternness that seemed to naturally appear in his voice
"Was I?" Remus raised his eye brows and James looked up from his book
"It wasn't... you weren't hiding... because of what we said, were you? We erm...don't think... well we do... but not that... anymore"
"James, you're crap at this you know, you've gone all stuttery"
"I know"
"Crap at what? What's going on?" asked Peter
"Yes, what is going on Sirius?" Remus folded his arms
"Okay, just a second" Sirius cast a silencing charm around the door of their room, he then locked it "Remus, we don't think your Dad is hitting you"
"Oh" Remus's arms unfolded and his gaze dropped to his feet
"What!? When did you say he was?" Peter had dropped the toy broom and was staring at them with his lip curled
"We think we know what's going on" Sirius stepped towards Remus, who was trying to control his voice which had begun to shake with fear
"What? What's going on?" asked Peter again
"Shut the fuck up Peter" hissed James
"What do you think is" he cleared his throat and gulped "going on?"
"We know about you, we know why you disappear every month, every 28 days, every full moon" Remus was shaking violently, he stumbled to the nearest bed and sat down, his eyes still fixed on the floor "We know why you're always hurt and pale and sick looking when you come back and we know why your eyes are gold... Remus, there's no delicate way of putting this but, we know you're a werewolf"
"Shut up" said Remus, tears splashing onto his knee's eyes still fixed on the floor
"What the FUCK?!" squealed Peter he leaped from his bed and ran for the door, James raised his wand and swiftly put a body bind on him
"It's okay Remus, we don't care, and we still want to be your friend even if you are..."
"I said Shut up"
"Remus! I just said we don't care"
"And I just said, shut up" his voice was all over the place, it was thick with tears "I'm not a werewolf, so just shut up" Sirius sat on the bed next to him, he went to put his arm round Remus "Don't touch me" he shrugged his arm away and stood up, his knees quickly buckled and he fell back down onto Sirius, Sirius held him to his chest "Let go of me Black!" he wriggled around weakly, no longer able to disguise his tears
"Remus, we know, there's no point in denying it now. We don't care, we're all still your friends, we're not scared of you, because no matter what you become once a month, you're still our friend, our best friend" Remus stop wriggling, he looked up at Black, his eyes bright gold against a sore burning red
"You mean it? You're not trying to trick me or anything?" Sirius shook his head and smiled and Remus went limp and collapsed against Sirius's chest. Sirius wasn't sure what to do; he hadn't seen a boy cry since he accidently set fire to Regulus when he was 6. He then instinctively held his arms tight around Remus
"It's okay Rem, calm down"
"No one" muffled against Sirius's torso, he gasped "Was supposed to" he sniffed "find out about me" he gasped again "Dumbledore made me swear, not to tell!"
"But you didn't tell us, we worked it out!" Sirius said reassuringly, but it was too late, Remus had already begun to panic about breaking Dumbledore's trust. He began to gulp at the air heavily, and began wheezing and coughing, turning an odd shade of pink. James, ran over and sat on the bed, he pulled Remus off Sirius on to the floor and slapped his back, then his face
"Get a hold of yourself Remus!"
"James, it looks like he's having a panic attack! Hitting him won't help!" He pushed James aside and sat in front of Remus "Try and control your breathing, slow deep breaths, slow... deep... breaths" Remus's breathing was still gasping and rapid, he flopped forward, his head now pushed against the floor, still gasping.
Slowly, Remus's breathing returned to normal, but it was not long before he stumbled in to the bathroom, hitting his head on the toilet before vomiting into it.
*
Remus had been sitting with his head in the toilet for a while. He definitely hadn't felt this humiliated since the veritaserum incident. A soft knock at the open door
"Are you okay Remus?" it was Sirius
"I'm sorry" his own voice echoed back at him, the smell of vomit burning his nostrils
"You shouldn't be" That was James
"It was silly for me to react like that... with the crying and the er... panic attack and everything"
"We should've been more... uh..."
"Considerate?" Suggested James
"Yeah, that'll do, we should've been more considerate"
"What is there to considerate, I'm a werewolf, you worked it out, and you had to tell me, the truth hurts and it's not your fault I'm er..."
"Sensitive?" proposed James
"Yeah, thanks Captain Vocab" he lifted his head from the toilet and smiled his crooked smile "Please promise not to tell Dumbledore you know"
"We promise" they answered in unison
"And never mention the crying to anyone. Ever."
"We promise" they said, again, in unison
"So... what do we do about Peter?" asked Remus
"I don't know, but did you see his face? Absolutely fucking priceless" Grinned Sirius
"I suppose we'll just have to ease him into it... he'll have a hard time with it probably, but if he's going to hang round with us the he'll have to deal with it" said James thoughtfully, Remus felt a pang of fear
"But it's not as simple as that... what if he tells someone?" Remus felt vomit rise in his throat again before Sirius started to smirk
"If James tells him not to say anything, he won't breathe a fucking word"
"Shouldn't one of you reverse the..." began Remus, smiling again
"... No, I'm enjoying the silence, so Remus, Master Black and I are off to the dungeons to prank Snivellus, would you like to join us?"
"I can't, I made other plans" Remus felt a flush creep up to his cheeks
"You can miss studying for one evening..."
"I did not make plans with a book; I made them with a person"
"Who? Evans? Don't tell me you have other friends Remus" Sirius said dramatically, an evil grin appearing on his face
"No, not with Evans and he's not really a friend"
"He? Who's he? Has our little Reemy gotten himself a hot date?" said James mockingly, but Remus didn't answer; he just smirked and wiggled his eye brows "No Fucking way! Who with!?"
"Caelan Cunningham"
"NO!" shouted James "NO WAY IN HELL!" his grin now matching Sirius's
"Honestly, he told me to meet him by the Room of Requirement at 11" James was shaking his head, Sirius was strangely still and silent, his beaming smile still etched on his face, thought the hint of mischief had dropped from his eyes and they stared flatly at Remus "Honestly! Look!" he took the note with instructions as to how to get to the room of requirement Caelan had written, James read it aloud:
Go to the seventh floor, it's opposite the big tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls ballet, if I'm not there, just wait
Caelan x
"Ugh! He put a kiss and everything" exclaimed James
"What's wrong with that? He thinks I'm cute you know" He smiled, feeling the butterfly's comeback to his stomach, Sirius spoke this time, grin completely gone and replaced with a look of horror
"Well, Remus, he's a sixth year, so he must be at least 16, 17 probably and you're 13... It's creepy" He felt the Butterfly's sink; it was creepy, wasn't it. He tried desperately to convince himself it wasn't as bad as it had sounded when Sirius said it
"I'm 14 in November... Oh good god, he's a paedo." Remus felt sick, his face must've reflected it because James piped up
"Well maybe not Reem, you're tall for your age, you're good looking, you're voice has, at least, started to break" He felt a little better
"Thanks James"
"No problem" Sirius whacked James on the back "Ouch! What was that for?"
"Don't try and make it sound like it's not seriously wrong James! It's not fair, him dragging you down to this "Room of Requirement" in the dead of night, you're young and you're fragile"
"I am not fragile" Remus scowled harshly, like he intended to burn a hole in Sirius with his gaze. Of all the words he could've picked to describe him, and he went with Fragile. Sensitive he could understand, but fragile? For Christ's sake he went through worse than 100 Cruciatus Curses once a month he could deal with a little date with an older kid
"Well... I didn't mean it like that"
"How did you mean it?"
"I meant" Sirius shuffled uncomfortably, biting his lip a little "I just meant, what if he tries to take advantage of you?"
"What if I want to be taken advantage of?"
He smirked, Sirius and James both squirmed like he'd never seen them squirm before
