October 22nd, 1972

"Remus is sick again," Peter announced as he entered the dormitory. Sirius and James didn't even look up from their game of Exploding Snap.

"He really needs to drink more orange juice or something," James said absentmindedly. "This is the second time since school started." He eyed the cards in his hand speculatively.

Across from him Sirius nodded, glancing down at his own cards before giving James a mocking grin. "Come on Jamsie, what's taking so long?" he said flicking his fringe out of his eyes.

James scowled at the nickname but laid down a card in front of him gently. For several seconds nothing happened and James relaxed. A bit too soon it seemed as the second he looked toward Peter and opened his mouth to speak, the cards in front of him exploded with a bang. Over the sound of his own violent coughs he could hear Sirius howling with laughter. James waved a hand in front of his face in an effort to clear the smoke and Peter handed him a goblet of water from the jug on the window sill which James took gratefully, taking several large swallows.

"You are a pillock," he said finally tossing a pillow at the still laughing Sirius. Sirius just grinned unrepentant and together they gathered up the cards.

"Up for another game?" Sirius asked, shuffling gingerly. James glanced down at his watched and sighed.

"Can't. I still haven't started that essay for Charms," he said, wrinkling his nose.

"C'mon mate, you have plenty of time!" Sirius said.

James just shook his head and started to gather up his school bag. "I need to head to the library anyway. I talked to Madame Prince last week and she said she would see if there were any books on spells for map making."

"Isn't that being a bit obvious though?" Sirius asked. "I doubt there's a specific rule against making a map of Hogwarts but we'd still probably get in trouble for it."

"I told her it was for an extra credit project," James said, shrugging. "She seemed to buy it. Don't worry."

"'don't worry' he says. I'll remember that when we're in detention together!" Sirius called after him as he went out the door. James headed down into the Common Room and dodged around a couple of first years tossing around a quaffle. As he made his way to the portrait hole he spied Lily Evans sitting on couch with several other girls and boys.

He quickly looked away, and tried to ignore the surge of jealously that came whenever he saw someone talking to her. Lily Evans was a second year like him, and very clever. She was a bit of a bookworm and got very good grades, but she was also very popular as well. Deep down James could admit that he liked her, but he didn't dare say or do anything about it. Sirius would tease him mercilessly.

Stepping out of the portrait hole, James started down the stairs, eager to see if Madame Prince had found anything for the map. So far they hadn't found anything on their own and so James had asked Madame Prince about map making spells while Remus had asked Professor Dallaper, who taught Art, about ways of animating words and drawings. Hopefully he'd managed before he'd taken ill again. Whenever Remus came down with something he inevitably ended up spending several nights in the hospital wing.

Remus really did need to do something about his chronic illnesses. Anytime someone asked about it Remus said it wasn't anything serious, just that he had a weak immune system, but even so he got sick atleast once a month. That could not be normal.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Remus nearly always got sick every thirty days or so. It almost seemed to be on some sort of schedule. James frowned and turned off into the third floor corridor to the Library. Why on earth would someone get sick on a schedule? Although, a couple times it hadn't been Remus that was sick, but his mother or father and he'd had to leave school for a day or two. But when he returned he always looked ragged, like he'd been ill too.

It was strange, and James resolved to think more about it later. For now, he'd reached the Library and quickly headed for the front desk. Madame Prince looked up as he approached and he tried to keep an innocent expression on his face.

"Mr. Potter, there you are!" she said, putting down the book she'd been flipping through. "I looked through the whole of this library and only found one book about magical map making. But I have it here and you're welcome to check it out."

James nodded and tried to hide his disappointment. Well, one book was better than none he supposed. "Thanks, Madame Prince."

"No problem, dear. I hope it helps," she said, handing the book over to him after tapping it with her wand. "You have it for a week."

He nodded and thanked her again. Turning away, he stuffed it into his book bag and made for the study tables. Hopefully between this book and whatever information Remus could get they would be able to actually start making the map. They'd already found another passageway leading out to the greenhouses since they decided to start making a record and James was eager to start putting everything down on paper.

He was so distracted with his musing that as he turned the corner he ran headlong into someone. Their book bag fell to the floor and James stepped back quickly. "Sorry 'bout that, mate," he said, resituating his own bag on his shoulder as the other boy picked up his. After a moment James recognized him as the Gryffindor boy with the exceptionally long sorting. "You're… uh Hadrian right?"

The boy nodded and glanced over to him. "Yeah, Hadrian Moores. You're James Potter right? I heard you got on the quidditch team as reserve."

"Yeah," James replied. He supposed reserve wasn't bad for a second year, but he was privately looking forward to the end of the year when two of the team's current Chasers would graduate. He would definitely be on the team next year.

"Anyway I've got to go," Hadrian said. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too," James said as Hadrian stepped around him. James turned back to the table and noticed only one was empty, though given it was a Sunday afternoon James wasn't surprised. He made his way over and sat down, reaching over to close the open book that had been left when the contents caught his eye.

'XXXXX BEASTS' was at the top of the page while directly underneath was the subheading 'WEREWOLF' and a gruesome looking picture of what appeared to be a man undergoing a transformation. Beneath were several bullet points describing werewolves and the second to last caught James' eye.

'Werewolves transform into their monstrous state during the full moon, which happens approximately every 27 days.'

For several seconds James stared at it as a thought started to coalesce in the back of his mind. He glanced at the picture of the transforming man and tried to imagine the amount of pain that such a thing would entail. Pain that, James supposed, would leave you feeling ill for several days afterwards.

James never did end up working on his Charms essay that afternoon.