Eclipsed

“Welcome to Quidditch Trials, Gryffindors!” 

“We’re so  glad you’re here–” 

“Honored, truly–” 

“And are excited to get started!” 

The news of the Prewett twins being awarded the titles of Co-Quidditch Captains came as a surprise to James. He hadn't even known there could be co-captains. However, after some reflection, he realized it made perfect sense. Gideon and Fabian were inseparable, not only because they were twins, but also as a formidable duo on the pitch. Their talent as beaters was undeniable, and James was happy with McGonagall's decision to let them lead together.

Despite his slowly deteriorating vision, James wasn't overly concerned about securing his spot on the team for another season. He had proven himself as a strong player in the three previous seasons, even breaking school records, and the goggles and helmet that Madam Hooch had provided him with gave him a similar field of vision to his teammates with fully functional vision. James felt relatively secure in the air, and was enjoying his warm up as he watched prospective candidates float into the air and join him as he made laps around the pitch.

As he flew alongside Archie Johnson, the other remaining chaser, and the prospective candidates to fill Flora Brown's Chaser position, James couldn't shake a sense of unease, despite proving over and over again his competency. While he had practiced diligently over the summer without any major vision-related incidents, the prospect of new teammates brought along a slight twinge of nervousness. Brown, their previous captain, had been perceptive enough to notice James' burgeoning struggles with his vision without him having to say a word. She had implemented changes to the Gryffindor team strategy which lent themselves to hiding James’ weaknesses, such as labeling the Chasers as A, B, and C and shouting out to whom they were throwing with each pass. It not only alerted James to the ball's trajectory but also gave the Beaters crucial information on who to defend.

James hoped that Fabian and Gideon would select the new chaser from the reserve players who were already familiar with this technique. He wasn't eager to explain the reasoning behind it, preferring to keep his vision issues private for as long as possible. Luckily, he was granted his wish, and Fourth Year Sam Parkin moved up onto the first-string team. Much to James’ surprise, Marlene McKinnon had tried out as well, and was set to be the reserve beater. 

Flying back down to the ground after the trials had ended, Fabian and Gideon gave a rousing, celebratory speech to the remaining players on the field, and they set off for the locker rooms, ready for dinner after a long day of flying. James hung back a bit, eager to congratulate Marlene for securing her place on the team. 

“Marlene! Congratulations! I didn’t even know you were interested in Quidditch!” He gave her a big hug, and pulled away to see her flushed, cheeks pink from exertion and excitement. 

“Thanks James! I’m pretty excited.” She shook out her hair a bit, which had been plastered down by her own sturdy Beater’s helmet. “I’ve always played at home, but since I practiced quite a bit this summer with one of my brothers who actually plays for the Tornados, he encouraged me to go out for the team and… Well, here I am!”

James kept an arm around her shoulder as they walked; although it was completely bright out and he could fully see where he was going, it felt right to keep her close. “Talent must run in the family, right McKinnon?” She smiled and looked down. “How many brothers do you have, then?” 

“Too many,” she replied, “well, brothers and sisters. There are four boys and three girls… I’m the youngest. But aside from Danny, my brother at the ministry, and Henry, who’s playing for the Tornados, everyone else is still at home, studying or saving up some money to move out. ” 

“That sounds amazing. It’s just me and my parents at home… Well, Pete lives next door, so it’s not so bad, but I can’t imagine what it’s like to have so many people around all the time.” James swung his broomcase next to him as they walked, trying to imagine having to share two parents with so many kids. 

“You’ll have to come visit then, see what it’s like,” she offered shyly, and James smiled. 

“I’d love to.” 

James and Sirius had been up until dawn, arguing over how to break the news to Remus about their Animagus forms and their plan to join him for full moons. Consequently, the next morning found Sirius in a less-than-cheerful state, him being someone that couldn’t survive on less than the recommended eight hours.

“Who pissed in your pumpkin juice today?” Peter quipped, observing Sirius's moody demeanor as he jabbed at his sausages.

"None of your business, Pete, fuck off!" Sirius snapped back, somehow even more terrifying in his energy-deprived, zombie-like state.

“Relax, mate. Pete was joking, you asshole,” Remus intervened, shutting down any potential fights between the two. It was five days until the full moon, and he wasn't in the mood for any Marauder antics. He had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a tough moon this month; he had Prefect rounds scheduled for two nights before, and his pre-moon symptoms were starting earlier each month, and increasing in severity. Stress and fatigue always made the transformation more challenging, and with O.W.L.s looming, there was no time to relax. On top of his own studies and prefect duties, McGonagall had also asked him to tutor some younger students who were struggling in Defense and in History of Magic, a request that he felt obligated to accept. The thought of it all made him audibly groan as he returned his attention to his breakfast.

“Rem, what’s your patrol schedule like this week?” James inquired casually, spreading butter on his toast and inadvertently knocking over the salt shaker with his elbow, which Peter promptly set upright.

“Uh, patrols on Tuesday and Thursday, 8 o’clock until eleven,” Remus replied wearily.

“Great, that’s not too bad,” James remarked cheerfully, taking a hearty bite of his toast. “Marauder meeting, Thursday at 11:30.”

James stood. “Come on Sirius, Muggle Studies time!” He dragged Sirius out of the hall, Peter following. A lack of sleep wasn’t going to stop James from living his best life, and as the three boys left the hall, James pulled them in close. “Phase two of the Animagus plan is a go!” 

At 11:30 pm, Remus trudged up the stairs, his mind wandering in anticipation of the Marauder Meeting. He had tried to guess what mischief his friends might be plotting, and hoped it wouldn't involve anything too outrageous. As he reached for the doorknob, he took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for whatever awaited inside. 

As he pushed the door open, Remus froze in surprise. There, in the center of the room, sat a small creature with light brown fur and a slender pink tail—a mouse or a rat, perhaps? It regarded him with curious eyes, unafraid, and very unlike any rodent he'd encountered before. Confusion over the rat’s presence, and his friends’ absence, took hold.

"Hello?" Remus called out tentatively, looking around the dark room before eyeing the tiny brown creature warily. As he knelt down to get a closer look, a pair of glowing green eyes blinked back at him from beneath Sirius' bed.

"Ahh!" Remus exclaimed, instinctively reaching to grab the rat as he jumped up and away from the big black dog hidden in the shadows. To his astonishment, the rat nestled comfortably against his chest, seemingly unperturbed and behaving unlike any other rat he’d ever encountered. Bewildered, he glanced from the rat to the glowing eyes beneath the bed, his heart pounding with uncertainty. “Grim!”  While he was the least superstitious of them all, he was raised in a wizarding household, and knew to fear the grim. 

"Is this some kind of prank?" he muttered to himself, trying to rationalize the surreal situation. “It’s either that, or I’m finally going mad.” With a resigned sigh, Remus decided it must be a trick of his tired mind and resolved to splash some water on his face to snap out of it.

“Let’s go then,” he said to the rat, who squeaked in response. Although his body wanted nothing more than to lie down, Remus headed towards their bathroom, and when he flicked on the lights, there was a stag staring right back at him under the fluorescent glow. 

“Alrighty  then.” 

Remus calmly turned off the lights, and turned them back on. The stag was still there. Remus smiled uncomfortably, unsure if he was hallucinating or if this was indeed reality.

“Very funny, lads. You can come out now.” No response from the boys, but the rat did squeal and squirm until Remus put him down. “Please let these animals go, or at least transfigure them back to whatever they were before!” 

The grim had come out from under the bed, and gently dragged Remus by the pant leg back to the center of their room, pushing him towards his own bed so that he was close enough to lean on it. The three animals seemed to look at each other for a moment, then in the blink of an eye, there were three people sitting in front of him. His three best friends, his roommates. 

“Well, you did say to transfigure the animals back to whatever they were before,” Sirius said cockily.

Remus rubbed his eyes, the surrealness of the situation sinking in. "This cannot be happening," he murmured, torn between laughter and disbelief. In his exhaustion, he ended up doing both, tears mingling with chuckles as his emotions spiraled out of control. Peter, being a good friend, rushed over to him, while James sauntered over to join Sirius on the bed.

"No, Re, it's okay," Peter said soothingly, awkwardly rubbing Remus' back in small circles. "It's just a little Animagus transformation."

"I think we broke him," James muttered under his breath, exchanging a knowing glance with Sirius while Peter tried to hug Remus, who’d surrendered most of his body weight onto their smaller, struggling friend. "Hey, isn't this when you'd usually take over?"

“Very good point, Jamie.”

Sirius sprang into action, stepping across the rug to take Peter's place, who was grateful for the relief; crying people were not his forte. Sirius enveloped Remus in a tight embrace, offering some comfort as his friend cried out his confusion. Sirius flashed their friends a thumbs up behind Remus’ back.

"I wasn't expecting so much crying," Peter whispered to James, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. "We haven't even told him anything yet."

James shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess the shock was enough to get him going." He smirked mischievously. "Guess it's almost his 'time of the month,' he does get pretty emotional, you know."

The two stifled laughter at the whole ‘time of the month’ concept before turning their attention back to Remus.

"Re, do you know why we did this?" Sirius asked gently, noticing Remus finally beginning to collect himself.

"I... I think so," Remus replied shakily, wiping the last of his tears away. "You're all incredibly stupid, I hope you know."

"We know," Peter replied proudly, puffing out his chest.

"You could've died. You could still die!" Remus' voice cracked with emotion, his fear and concern bubbling to the surface.

“But we didn’t,” James said, “and we probably won’t die.” 

“Well we could die from natural causes,” Peter added thoughtfully, “but not for a while.”

“And not because of you,” Sirius said firmly. “We’ve done so much research, and we know this will make your transformations better Re.”

“But what if I– “

“No,” James cut him off, coming over to stand next to Sirius, Peter quickly following. “We did this for you because we know you wouldn’t be able to harm us in animal form. There are no what-ifs here. We know it’s a solid plan through and through.” 

Remus took a long, deep breath in, and closed his eyes. He breathed out, opened his eyes, and made eye contact with each one of his friends. “On one condition, do you understand?” 

They all nodded obediently. 

“Do you promise to leave the very second things start to go downhill? If, for whatever reason, the wolf doesn’t want you there, you go. Is that clear?” Remus’ eyes were clear, his expression grave. 

They all agreed. 

“I need you all to swear it.” 

James stuck out his hand. “I solemnly swear it. You can count on us.” 

The following morning, the day before the full moon, James was woken up far too early by the patter of bare feet slapping on the stone floor, the creak of the bathroom door, and the clang as it swung shut. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, James reached for his glasses on the bedside table and slipped them on, curious as to what was going on. 

According to the clock above the door, it was only 5:27. Peter’s bed curtains were parted slightly, and James could hear his trademark snores from across the room. Directly across from his bed, and in the light of James’ bedside lamp, Remus’ curtains were swinging, and since James could see Sirius getting comfortable beneath the quilt alone, Remus had to be in the bathroom.  

Not wanting to intrude on anyone's bathroom time, James lay in bed for a while, hoping to drift back to sleep before getting up again for classes. The unmistakable sound of retching soon reached his ears though, prompting him to abandon that plan in favor of being a good friend. Concern outweighing any discomfort, he decided it was best to check on Remus.

Slightly worried, James rose from his bed and made his way to the bathroom. It was still dark, being so early, so he didn’t hesitate before switching on the light. However, his intentions backfired and Remus cried out almost immediately.

"Please, please turn it off, turn it off!" Remus pleaded, his voice strained with discomfort.

Quickly complying, James flicked the lights off immediately, and his eyes struggled to adjust. Instead of stumbling around in the dark, he cast a modified version of the Lumos spell he had recently learned with Felicity. 

“Lumos Mansues”, he whispered, conjuring a softer, gentler glow on the tip of his wand. 

Using the dim illumination from his wand to guide him, James found Remus huddled between the toilet and the wall. Remus's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, fingers clutching at his scalp and palms covering his ears. 

"I'm sorry, James, I'm so sorry it's dark, I know you can't-- but I'm--" 

Remus cut himself off by gagging and throwing himself back over the toilet, where he heaved a few times but not much came out. James had seen his friend like this a few times before, and as if channeling Effie’s healing spirit through his own body, quickly summoned a washcloth and wet it with an aguamenti. He approached Remus, who was doubled over by the toilet, and knelt beside him, gently rubbing his back as he spat into the bowl. After a while, James coaxed Remus away from the toilet and leaned him against the wall, placing the cool cloth against his forehead, hoping to relieve the migraine James knew was brewing. 

They stayed there for a while, on the tiled floor beside the toilet, James holding Remus’ hand comfortingly, waiting for a signal from him that the worst was over. 

"Feeling a little better now?" James whispered, mindful of Remus's sensitivity to noise.

"A bit, yeah. Thank you," Remus murmured, his eyes fluttering open to gaze weakly at James's comforting figure illuminated by the soft wand light.

"I might stay here a bit longer, though, in case it spikes again. You can go back to bed, though," Remus suggested.

"Nonsense, dear Remus," James chuckled, shaking his head. "You're stuck with me now."

A small smile tugged at Remus's lips. "Thanks."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, Remus leaned back against the bathroom stall, and James next to him, fiddling with the hem of his pajama shirt. 

Hey, can I ask you something?" James ventured softly, breaking the early morning quiet.

"Sure thing," Remus replied, shifting to face James, though he knew James wasn't looking directly at him.

"Do you think us becoming Animagi is going to really help?" James asked, doing his best to be sensitive to the situation. "I mean, beyond what we've read and what you can kinda remember, we don't really know what it's gonna be like when you're transformed and what's gonna happen, right?"

Remus nodded thoughtfully, then realized James probably wasn’t watching. "Right. I'm guessing that you will probably be really helpful in keeping the night itself a bit safer, you know, stopping me from running into things or biting and scratching myself, which is huge, you know? If I can be more in one piece afterward, I can go back to classes quicker, which is a big, big help."

"But would it help like... this part of it all?" James gestured vaguely, encompassing the entirety of Remus's pre-moon ordeal.

To be honest, no, not directly," Remus admitted with a sigh. "Indirectly, though, I think it might make a bit of a difference, if it works out."

"In what way, indirectly?" James inquired, curiosity piqued.

"Well," Remus began, adopting a teaching tone despite the early hour, "a lot of my pre-moon symptoms are in relation to my pain and exhaustion levels."

"Are they?" James interjected, surprised by the revelation. "I thought they were like... actually moon-related." 

"They are, at the core of it all. But when my baseline of health is already in pain and tiredness, adding the moon stress on top of that is often too much for my body and brain to handle, which is why things have been getting progressively worse," Remus explained, before taking a sudden, sharp inhale, and a measured breath out. “Sorry just–” he closed his eyes, “just need a sec.” James reached over and grabbed his friend’s hand again, letting him squeeze as hard as he needed to. 

“We can talk later, Remus, if you want to go back to bed now,” James offered, but Remus swiftly shook his head. 

“No, I’m… I’m good now.” He took another second before clearing his throat. “So basically sometimes when I have my issues before the moons, like trouble remembering things or just like, not functioning like a normal person, it’s not actually because of the moon itself. It’s more that my brain can’t get over the pain and get to the normal things I would need to remember or know… there’s too much stimulus.” 

“I think I understand,” James said, quietly. The reality of lycanthropy's toll on Remus’ life was a sobering realization.

"So that's why I say that you all becoming Animagi might actually help this part of it all, indirectly. It'll bring my baseline up, so that when my body becomes stressed pre-moon, there will be more energy to draw from in the first place. Does that make sense?"

“Yeah, it does.” They sat for another second, before Remus began shifting around a bit.

“Fuck, James, I think my ass is asleep,” Remus snorted, and James couldn’t help but laugh. “Help me up, would you?”

Remus raised his arms, and James reached under his armpits and helped him to get up from the ground. 

“I really hope this works,” James said, slowly making his way back to the bedroom with Remus. 

“I hope so too.” 

It was 6:28. Remus slipped back between the curtains surrounding his bed, Sirius instinctively curling around him. James returned to his own bed and drew the curtains shut, closing his eyes and surrendering to the embrace of early morning slumber. Tomorrow would be a big day, and he needed as much rest as he could before then.