(A/N): Hey Guys! So, right now, I'm listening to select songs from the Country Strong soundtrack, which has my ultimate favourite actor, Garrett Hedlund as one of the male leads, yay! He has an AMAZING singing voice, so if you love country songs, look him up!

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.

Remus

It had been about a month since we arrived at Hogwarts, and with Leo still considered to be on red alert, I was trying to find something to occupy my time. At first, I didn't understand why everyone was so worried about Leo's current condition even though Madam Pomfrey had flushed his system of the spharmus, but after a few times of noticing certain things, I steadily began to give him more space to recover. These were things such as: His eyes turning black, his hands twitching randomly, his eyes lingering on my jugular...

So, while I was overwhelmed with boredom, my mind flitted back to something Leo had said in second year. Or maybe it was first year... whatever, it was at least like, almost three years ago, you can't blame me for forgetting exactly when it happened. When Sirius and James had presented him with the idea of the Marauders, he had suggested, on top of nicknames, that we get a trademark item. Such as a map. And, after not being able to find Sirius for two hours when Leo had attacked us and thus flying into a panic thinking he was dead or dying, I decided maybe the map wouldn't be such a bad idea. Especially not when there was a risk of Leo attacking us...

I had thought he was acting strangely, that morning on the train, but I hadn't thought- well, why would I? I hadn't known there was such a thing as a mind control herb for vampires, but even if I had known- I mean, if it had been Elaine acting weird, I wouldn't have immediately jumped to thinking she was imperiused, so of course I hadn't thought that Leo was acting weird because he wasn't. Leo. It all made sense now, though.

The unidentifiable scent I had smelt on Leo when he had first entered the carriage? That had to be the spharmus, right? The way he had waved off the fact that he was bleeding, but had then tugged Mia's hand into his? At the time I had thought he was seeking his own comfort, but it had been an act. Someone was trying to play the role of Leo's big brother to Mia's little sister, not knowing that Leo would never have pushed that sort of contact onto her.

Mia had later confirmed for us that she hadn't been with Leo when it had happened- that her mother had let her get onto the train without an inkling of what was about to happen, and that the first time she had seen Leo since the ill fated gala had been when he had grabbed her arm on the train- she had also assumed at the time that his slightly too tight grip was a side effect of the cut on his forehead, and waved it off. Leo rather blandly agreeing that his tendency to not die was a 'fairly useful talent' hadn't seemed all that off at the time, but I had figured he was just distracted- not that the person who most often forced him to put that particular talent to use was the one controlling him at that moment. His smiles being off made sense now too- a smile that was more a show of teeth? Of course Cipicia Joannis wasn't going to be able to give a real smile to a bunch of- muggleborns, half bloods and blood traitors. Even the smug smile he had worn when Elaine had taken over cleaning the blood from his face made sense- it was smugness that she was playing her part so well that she had gotten one of his friends to fuss over her.

'Bright as a button, aren't you?' Merlin, even in the moment it had given me pause, thinking to myself that I had never heard Leo use that phrase before- and there was good reason for that. Leo wasn't Leo. Leaning back, out of the kiss from Brooke- of course Leo's mother wouldn't want to kiss Brooke, the girl who was dating her fourteen year old, half-vampire son at all, let alone want to allow her room to deepen the kiss. I had thought it was because he didn't want to kiss her properly right in front of Elaine- now I knew Elaine's reaction probably wasn't even in Cipicia's head at the time.

What didn't line up to me, even now, was the way Leo- Cipicia- had crossed his- their? Legs. Leo always crossed his legs at the ankles to avoid taking up space- and surely someone like Cipicia Joannis had been taught that crossing their ankles was the most ladylike way to go about it, right? Resting an ankle on your other knee seemed too... indelicate, for a woman of Leo's mothers' breeding and status. After all, if Leo had been wearing a dress the way I assumed Cipicia did at just about all times, we would have seen everything in that position. It seemed an odd choice, when everything else was so... perfect.

I had thought I had been in a bad mood because of my less than pleasant reaction to Leo, I had even likened him to a stranger when he had cut me off in conversation- maybe somewhere deep down, I had known that something was wrong with him. Maybe... Maybe the wolf had been able to tell.

(A/N): So, sorry for the shortness of the chapter, but the next one is... erm... yeah. Just... yeah.

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This chapter has had major edits made to it on 31/12/22 - To add Remus elaborating how everything that he had noticed in chapter 207 didn't add up, made sense now that he knew Leo was being controlled by Cipicia. Of course, as we find out later- SPOILER: Cipicia wasn't the one controlling him, which explains the one thing Remus still thinks is odd, which is the unladylike way 'Leo' had sat.