The Marauders spent the entire weekend in the storage room; exploring, finding things, playing games… and while Sirius was more cautious, James and Peter kept putting their hands on whatever they could find. Remus wasn't much better with the books until he found a journal from the eighteenth century, and spent hours reading the young witch's account of student life two centuries ago. The only time Remus wasn't with them in the storage room was Saturday night, when he had Magical Theory.

They even went early Sunday morning as James's Quidditch practice had been exchanged for a Ravenclaw one, since Ravenclaw's game against Slytherin was later in the month. By that afternoon, James's interest in the storage room was waning a little and they left before supper and didn't go back that day; James wanted to pull some pranks since he hadn't done anything that weekend. Exploration was fun, pranks were better.

Plus, he wanted to get a plan ready for Valentine's Day. No dessert this year, which a lot of students were annoyed about. Even a lot of the Prefects—who were in charge of things like that—were annoyed. However the Head Boy and Girl both vetoed it, saying there were more important things to deal with. Apparently three of the Prefects had even gone to Professor McGonagall to see if they could put together the dessert, but McGonagall said without the permission from either the Head Boy or Girl… there was nothing she could do. It seemed vastly unfair, but that's how the rules were set, since the Head Boy and Girl were in charge of it.

"Remus, when you're Head Boy make sure we have dances and desserts and stuff to go to," James complained on Monday after lunch.

"First of all, I won't ever be Head Boy, and second of all…" Remus tilted his head. "You never seemed interested in that sort of thing before." A tiny stab of fear went into him at the thought of James finally turning into Sirius and Peter when it came to wanting to go after girls.

James paused, soup spoon frozen part way to his mouth. "Are you joking? The Valentine's dessert is one of the most fun things we could prank!" Remus tried not to slump in relief, glad he wouldn't feel too left out yet. "Ditto for dances. We should have pranked the winter dance last year when we had the chance. I don't know what we were thinking in our second year."

"I was too busy thinking about the fact I was actually going to the dance," Sirius pointed out. "You're right, though; the dance would have been terrific to prank. Maybe next year we'll have one."

"Then we can all go," Peter piped up. "Since it's for fourth years and up. We won't need to hafta get an older girl to ask us out!"

"I am not going to a dance," Remus spat out, but they all ignored him.

"Considering how much the Prefects want that stuff, we'll probably get one next year," James said excitedly. "We'll get to see the results firsthand!" He began giggling like a demented squirrel at the idea.

"In the meantime we need to focus on Valentine's," Sirius said with a nod.

"Beard potion, right?" Pete whispered, making sure nobody could hear them.

"Yes," confirmed James. "What day is Valentine's?" He began counting on his fingers.

"Thursday," Remus told him.

"Thursday. Good, I won't have practice."

Remus tuned them out as they whispered their plans, mostly thinking about this coming Thursday—and Wednesday. Full moon again, already. Only two nights again, which was a huge relief; hopefully they'd go okay. The previous moon went fairly well, so as long as nothing happened between now and Wednesday—

He quickly stopped himself there, not wanting to jinx it. Instead, he shook his head and focused on something else. "We shouldn't talk about this at lunch when there's hundreds of people around us," he said, breaking into their conversation.

"Right, right," James agreed. "We can talk later. Hehehe… I cannot wait to see Evans with a beard!"

X

Later in the afternoon, Remus accompanied Peter to the hospital wing, since the wound on his hand from Friday night hadn't healed yet. Remus berated him all the way over not going sooner, and Pete said he had been too distracted by the storage room to think about it. He wanted Remus to go, to answer any questions Pomfrey might have.

As soon as Pomfrey approached them, Peter's face lit up. "Hi Madame Pomfrey," he said, voice pitching a bit. "Erm, I hurt my hand." He held his hand out, tugging the bandage off to show her the wound.

Pomfrey took his hand to inspect it, and Pete began to grow pink. "What happened? It looks like it's a couple of days old but it isn't healing properly."

Peter looked at Remus. "It was an accident," he said and Pomfrey looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"You and your friends seem to get in quite a few accidents, Mr. Lupin. What happened this time?"

"It was my fault." He hung his head, trying to look a little ashamed. "It was an early nineteenth century anti-thievery apparatus. James said he had one and I wanted to see it. I was interested in what it looked like in person. I left it in my desk. When Peter asked to borrow some of my notes from class… I—I forgot about it. It was old, and I managed to get it off of him—"

"You should have come straight to me," Pomfrey scolded, leading Peter to a bed to sit down. "Those can be dangerous. You shouldn't have had one to begin with!"

"I know," he said, feeling guilty for lying about the origins. He figured it'd be best to be honest about what caused the wound in case it was obvious. But now Pomfrey was giving him a scowl, and he wondered how disapproving she felt towards him.

"You're lucky to still have your hand!" she told Peter.

"Can it be fixed up?" he asked, brow wrinkling in concern.

She touched the red splotch gently. "Yes, though it may leave a scar. Did you use anything on it?"

"Klean-Kut," he answered, looking relieved.

"That probably saved it from getting any worse. Does this hurt?" She began prodding at various parts of his hand with her wand and was satisfied when he yelped every single time. "Good. You haven't any nerve damage."

Pete stared wide-eyed at Remus, who was angry at himself for not making Peter come right away. He should have; he was the responsible one!

Remus sat with Peter for a while, but couldn't stay since he had Study of Ancient Runes. He gave Pete a hug, promising to swing by after class to see if he was still there. Then he grabbed his satchel and left, swearing at himself the entire way. Stupid, dangerous, arrogant… he really should have dragged Pete right to Pomfrey instead of trying to get the thing off himself.

He was smacking his own forehead when he ran into Aegis—almost literally. They both managed to stop before the collision and Aegis raised his eyebrows, gaze focused on Remus's forehead.

"I did something stupid," Remus explained.

"That hardly seems likely," Aegis responded as they began walking together. "However, even if you did, you shouldn't hurt yourself like that."

It doesn't really matter, he thought, keeping his mouth shut since he couldn't exactly point that out. "I wasn't thinking," he settled on saying.

Aegis studied Remus's forehead. "Do you need something in case it bruises?"

"I—I didn't hit myself that hard," he said, then frowned. "Do you still need to carry that around?" Aegis shrugged, lowering his gaze to the floor. "Aegis."

"He hasn't bothered me much lately," Aegis promised. "Not since the incident with Mulciber and Avery, and the devil's snare. When he loses his temper, he focuses on them. I've kept to myself and out of the way. I've been fine. I promise. Hullo Lily."

Lily came running up, gasping a little for air. "I'm so glad I wasn't late! The girls all went to Quidditch practice together a little early, and I walked with them. I don't know how they're going to do the practice, the snow's getting worse."

Remus paused to look out a window. When they had gone to Herbology earlier it had been snowing enough that their next class, Care of Magical Creatures, had to be done indoors; now it was looking a little like a blizzard. It's supposed to be like this for a couple of days, he thought, hoping that it would be cloudy enough that he wouldn't transform during the full moons. Crossing his fingers in his pockets, he followed Lily and Aegis into class.

X

Remus hastily whispered his story to James later that night, and James complained immediately, insisting Pomfrey hated him enough as it was; she didn't need more reason. Remus promised Pomfrey didn't hate him, but James didn't seem to believe him.

"She's mad at me for it," Remus explained.

"She'll find a way to blame me," grumbled James.

At least Pete was all right. He had spent a long time in the hospital wing and only came back to the dorm a little before curfew. He was disappointed he didn't need to stay in the hospital wing overnight and when James asked why, Peter said to get away from him.

James threw his hands in the air. "Everyone hates me!"

"That's true," Spinnet said as he came into the dorm.

"It was only a joke," Pete whimpered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you!"

"Mine wasn't, and I'm fine upsetting you," Spinnet said with a smile.

James folded his arms, glaring at Spinnet. "I knew it was a joke, Petey, you're fine."

Remus looked at Peter's hand. There was a scar on it, but Peter said it would most likely fade, and that he had a special potion he needed to rub onto it three times a day. Spinnet asked what happened and James told him to get bent; Spinnet replied that that was why everyone hated James, and James said nobody hated him. Spinnet pointed out that Marcade Kirke certainly seemed to hate him and with good reason, and a muscle in James's cheek twitched.

That's when Sirius walked in, having been in detention all evening. He paused, sensing the tension and seeing James and Spinnet glaring at one another. Immediately he sauntered between the two, smirking at Spinnet.

"It is four against one, Spinster. Choose your battle wisely. Not that you do much with 'wise."

Spinnet huffed. "Threatening me as always, Black. I didn't do anything. And you shouldn't speak for Loopy or Pettigrew, even if they are your house-elves."

Sirius straightened up. "Don't call him Loopy, and don't call either of them house-elves."

"Then don't treat them like it."

Remus rushed over to grab Sirius. "Don't," he whispered, but Sirius shook him off. Before he could say anything, James pointed out that Spinnet had started things, being rude to him.

"And he doesn't treat us like house-elves," Peter added.

Spinnet glanced between the four of them then backed up. "Right, I keep forgetting, the four of you gang up against everyone you don't like. I don't want to go to the hospital wing tonight, so I'm done." He brushed past Sirius and Remus, leaving the dorm.

"Thank you for not fighting him," Remus told Sirius, knowing how angry his friend was.

James threw himself onto his bed, kicking his shoes off. "I swear he's a Slytherin in disguise." He glowered at Spinnet's bed then yanked his dirty, smelly socks off and went over, rubbing them all over Spinnet's pillow before Remus could stop him. "Probably won't notice it, with as disgusting as he is."

"James…"

"What?" He spun around, shoving his glasses up. "It was downright rude to bring up Kirke after what that wanker did to me. Anyone else—anyone! Mulciber, Snape, Evans, I don't care! But Kirke? The guy who drugged me to get me kicked off the team? No."

"What did he say about Kirke?" Sirius asked.

James sighed as he trotted back to his own bed. "Said Kirke has good reason to hate me."

He got undressed, each movement jerky and furious. Remus realized then that James had never really talked about what happened with Kirke, and that whole ordeal. The previous year James had bottled things up until it spilled out in tears about his grandfather. Was he bottling things up again?

"If you need to talk…" Remus started slowly.

James glanced at him. "About what?"

"Er—anything, really."

"If you're referring to either Spinnet or Kirke… no." James was in nothing but pants as he began ransacking his wardrobe. Then, "Damn, we have Astronomy tonight." He threw a pair of joggers on his bed then pulled the uniform he had been wearing earlier in the day out of his laundry bin. He sniffed at the clothes before putting them back on.

Since he wasn't saying anything else, Sirius turned to Peter to ask about his hand. Remus retreated to his own bed, planning on taking a nap before Astronomy if he could. He glanced at James's angry face before shutting his curtains. But when he got up again three hours later for class, James was in a better mood. He skipped along the corridors, chattering at a million miles a minute, and kept goofing off in class until Spring yelled at him.

On the way back Remus asked if there had been a fight or something he missed. James laughed. "No, I just decided Spinnet wasn't worth it. Besides, he went right to his nap on his pillow without noticing anything. That's some good revenge, don't you think?"

X

The next morning Remus slept in a little more, forgoing breakfast for sleep; which he regretted as soon as he got into Arithmancy and saw dozens of very complicated formulas on the blackboard. He sank down in his seat, head throbbing a little when Talkalot began going on about it being called algebra and that it would be the focus of their study for a while. He said it shouldn't be difficult, as they should have been learning the foundation of this type of maths in Transfiguration, which they had… it was just seeing in Arithmancy made it feel more annoying to Remus. Plus it looked more complicated.

He still had his headache when he left although Aegis was excitedly chattering on. When Remus admitted some of it confused him, Aegis stopped in his tracks, mouth open in surprise.

"You are usually very good at these sorts of things. You look pale. Are you all right?"

He rubbed his forehead, realizing how tired he was. Down to his bones. The full moon was the next night and already had him in its grips. "No," he mumbled. "I don't feel well."

His head continued to hurt through Muggle Studies, proving it wasn't just the algebra thing. Miss Lewis let everyone out early like usual, and Remus went back to his dorm to sleep until lunch. When his friends woke him up to eat, he wondered vaguely if he was mistaken about when the full moon started. As he walked down to the Great Hall, he scribbled down some calculations. No, he was right: it wasn't for another night. He was just prematurely exhausted.

"You all right?" Sirius asked, echoing Aegis's question earlier.

They sat down at a table and Remus folded his arms, putting his head down. "Just tired. Really tired."

He ended up sleeping through lunch and not eating again, though Sirius grabbed an apple and shoved it in his hands on their way to Transfiguration. Remus halfheartedly ate some of it and gave the rest to Peter. All of his muscles were starting to ache and his bones felt like they were being squeezed. It continued like this all day and he slept through most of supper too, though his friends did force a sandwich into him.

Afterwards, Sirius, Peter, and Remus headed to meet Miss Fawley while James went to serve his detention with Sprout. Remus told Sirius to go ahead and chat to Miss Fawley first if he wanted.

"Why do I need to talk to her?" he asked, frowning.

Remus blinked, struggling to remember their conversation in the middle of the other night. Had he made some of it up? Dreamed it? "I thought you wanted to? Didn't you say something like that the other night?"

Sirius folded his arms and shrugged. "No, I'm all right."

"Are you s—"

"I'm sure," he said quickly. Too quickly. They stared at each other for a moment before Remus gave in, too tired to argue. Peter had been looking between them, confused about what was going on. He asked Sirius as Remus headed on to the room, and Sirius said it wasn't important.

Miss Fawley gave Remus a hug, and then it didn't take long into their initial conversation for her to tell something was wrong. He explained how tired he was, to the point where he had been concerned earlier about making a mistake about when the full moon was. Fawley told him that there were months like that for her sister, too; that sometimes she'd be too tired to even move for a day or even two or more before the full moon.

"It's even harder for you since you're in school," she said. Then, "Come here. Lay down for a moment."

"Shouldn't we work on Occlumency?"

She gently pulled him down so he was laying on the couch, his head in her lap. "We will," she said, running her fingers gently through his hair, her fingernails lightly scratching at his scalp. "In a moment."

His eyelids drooped and soon he fell asleep, not waking up again until a little after their session usually ended. He accused her of doing that on purpose, and she readily admitted that she had.

"You need sleep right now," she said, her hand cupping his cheek. "I don't know what it is like personally, however, I know what Morrigan went through. I think you should let the others know you won't be waiting, and go straight to bed. Also don't push yourself tomorrow."

"James won't be in, he's got detention…"

She nodded. "All right. Send Peter in, and then go to bed." She bent in to kiss his forehead and he left the room feeling like a failure for sleeping instead of working. He was so far behind in Occlumency, he needed every minute he could get! Peter had already surpassed him, and James was catching up… and Remus had been doing it for nearly two years longer than them!

He sent Peter in and then instead of going to his dorm, he sat down and got his homework out. Sirius was still there, not having anywhere else to be since he and Cassie were still fighting. As Remus slowly worked on the algebraic problems Talkalot had given them to practice, he was aware of Sirius staring at him. Finally he looked up, wanting to know what was going on.

"Worried about you," Sirius replied. "You don't look good. And if you say you never look good I'll slug you."

"Well. I don't ever look good—ow!" he yelped as Sirius punched his arm rather hard; he hadn't expected it to be that rough, if Sirius was so concerned.

"I warned you. Anyway, you look worse than usual. Are you going to leave for Pomfrey early tomorrow?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm going to go to as many classes as I can."

"What time will you be leaving?"

He yawned. "I don't know. The sun sets a little before five. I'll definitely make Herbology, and should be able to go to Magical Creatures." He narrowed his eyes, cutting Sirius a look. "Why?"

Sirius scooted closer. "What did I say five seconds ago, dummy? I'm worried."

"It's nothing I can't handle. Nothing I'm not used to handling." He yawned again, eyes fluttering shut for a second before he jerked awake. "Stop giving me that look."

"Come on." Sirius got up and grabbed Remus's wrist, pulling him up. "Stop arguing. You're going to the dorm. I'll come back and wait for Petey."

"I need to—"

"You need to rest." Sirius grabbed his things and shoved him out of the secret passage.

"Dumbledore thinks my session lasts until eight!" Remus hissed out, struggling against him. "If I leave early and he somehow finds out, and also finds out Fawley didn't leave until eight, he might get suspicious!"

"I'm sure Fawley can think of an excuse."

Remus dug his heels in. "I'll sleep in the passage." Sirius hesitated and he took that chance to wrench free. "All right? I've done it loads before."

"Fine."

They went back in and Remus bunched his robes up as a pillow and just before he fell asleep he felt Sirius put his own robes over him as a blanket. He slept soundly until Peter came back, and groggily went with them to the dorms where he climbed into bed and fell right asleep again.

X

On Wednesday morning it took a lot of effort to get out of bed, and even more to get dressed and go to class. He would have slept through breakfast, but stupid Sirius kept shaking him awake, demanding he eat since he had barely eaten the day before. Remus choked down a bowl of porridge before Sirius gave up and let him sleep through the rest of breakfast.

He struggled through Potions, slept through the morning's free period, and kept drifting off in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Instead of lunch he went to the hospital wing where he took a nap but when he tried to get up to go to Herbology, Pomfrey stopped him, pointing out how strange it would look for him to leave the hospital wing for one lesson and then come back.

"But—"

"No buts," she said sternly, pushing him back into his bed.

Remus argued for about five minutes before sleep dragged him back into unconsciousness, the darkness taking over until Pomfrey woke him up a little after two-thirty. She wanted to go ahead and take him to the Hogsmeade house before the snow started again. She helped him get bundled up and put the cloak on him that disguised him. They left the wing, Remus putting one foot in front of the other, fighting to stay awake. When they stepped out into the icy cold, that woke him up enough to get him to the Whomping Willow.

As Pomfrey picked up a long stick to poke at the trunk, Remus wrapped his arms around himself and glanced around, an uneasy feeling slithering down his spine. The weird feeling disappeared by the time they were halfway down the tunnel, or perhaps it was because he was fighting sleep again. Pomfrey helped him up into the house and told him she'd see him in the morning.

Remus was asleep before the trap door shut.

X

While it didn't snow much that night, the clouds stayed and so Remus spent the first night of the full moon as a shivering, naked human, clutching Peter's blanket around himself and Sirius's stuffed dragon against his chest while he lay as close to the fireplace as he could get. He was jerked in and out of nightmares until morning and Pomfrey came.

Since he hadn't really used an excuse before going to the hospital the previous day, Pomfrey wanted to know about visitors. Remus finally said if anyone wanted to visit him that it was fine, and an hour later he had his first one. One Pomfrey didn't know about, since he came through the walls.

"Theodore," Remus said after Theodore woke him up by putting his cold hands near his shoulder. "Hello."

Theodore smiled then frowned, looking at Remus as he shifted himself into a sitting position. He pointed at Remus and then held his hand palm-up, tilting his head.

"I—I don't know what you mean, I'm sorry." After nearly a full minute of motions Remus finally got what the ghost was trying to communicate. "Are you asking about my health?" A nod. "I'm okay. It's a blood disease. I'm mostly tired and weak—"

Theodore shook his head.

"Erm. I—I… huh?"

Theodore frowned again then pointed at the window then made a circle with his hands. Then pointed at himself, the wall, and made his fingers look like they were walking. Then he pointed at Remus and shrugged.

"You—you came in last night?" Remus guessed nervously, and Theodore nodded. "Oh. Erm, I—Pomfrey took me to her office for a while to—to do blood work and—"

Theodore was shaking his head and flapping his hands. Then he shrugged again, smiling. Remus wasn't sure what he meant by that. The ghost proceeded to do several motions which took a long time to translate. He pointed up, then held seven of his fingers, waved his hand at the wall, and finally pretended like he couldn't go through the wall.

"Oh, the spot on the seventh floor!" he said and Theodore nodded before settling into a seat. "Yes, we found out what it was. It's a room that… changes size. I'm not entirely sure what it is about, but it mostly seems to be a storage room. But there is a room there. I guess whoever made it somehow put the protection on it that you… mentioned when it happened."

Theodore slowly nodded before opening and shutting his mouth a few times. He looked frustrated.

"Are you okay?" Theodore shook his head sadly. "What's wrong?" He stared glumly at Remus and held both hands out in a beseeching manner. "I don't know what that means." Theodore shook his hands, nodding. "Er, is—that what you mean? That I don't know what you mean sometimes?" Another nod, and a sad sigh. "Oh. I'm sorry."

Remus chewed at his lip, staring at the teenaged ghost with concern. Theodore seemed to really want to tell him something he simply couldn't convey. Then an idea popped in his head and he sat bolt upright.

"Theodore. Did you know you can talk with your hands?"

Theodore looked at his hands then squinted at Remus.

"One of the boys in my year is deaf and he can't talk. He wears gloves and when he makes specific motions with his hands, those mean words and the gloves translates. But if you know what the motions mean you don't need the gloves to translate. I—I can see if he can teach me a few words—or maybe the alphabet—and I can teach you."

Theodore stared at him, shocked. He looked at his hands again then back up at Remus.

"If you want."

The ghost was nodding before Remus could even finish the sentence, smiling now. He clutched his hands in front of his heart as he stood up, then he bowed.

"Um, you're welcome," Remus said, hoping that it was a thank you. It seemed to be, and Theodore gave him another brilliant smile before drifting through the wall, radiating excitement.