Ephitymia

It was a cat and mouse hunt.

He’d rather be the prey again, dreading to kill whoever he was following or worse, turn them, but he wasn’t left with a choice. It wasn’t a full moon night, he wasn’t in his beast form, but Remus was being controlled by the wolf. Following a scent all too familiar, but he couldn’t place where, too busy trying to fight the wolf in his head and regain control.

The floor he was in seemed empty, but his sense of smell knew better.

Behind the armour in the hallway was an entrance. A hidden room that few knew existed, and the most delicious scent he had ever smelled exuded from there and trapped the wolf in an intense desire.  The earthy smell mixed with dread made him salivate in the most animalistic way possible. While Remus, the human, was disgusted by himself.

Barring the entrance with his whole body, he opened the door without haste, increasing the tension for those on the other side and consequently accentuating its aroma.

A predator stirring up its prey.

The room was pitch black, only a sliver of light leaked through the open door, but Remus would recognize the gleam of those grey eyes anywhere. And it was obvious that the wolf would recognize the only eyes capable of making Remus give in completely to the one who was controlling him. Making him shiver in excitement.

Licking his drenched lips as he finally reached his prey, Remus attacked.

“Oi, Remus, wake up. You are going to be late” Wormtail yelled in his ear, running to the other side of the room before Remus could push him.

Groaning, he got up wishing for another five minutes, even though he knew he wouldn't be woken up until the last minute. Knowing as well that if Peter was awake, he should’ve been earlier.

“Good morning to you too” Wormtail wished, and Remus flipped him off.

 The bathroom door was closed, and Remus could hear James’s singing “dancing queen” through the door. James couldn’t go five minutes without music in the morning.  Otherwise, he would be grumpy all day. He was so obsessed with music that one time, James watched his first musical and became so obsessed with it that he made Peter and Remus sing all day, otherwise he would ignore them.

“I’m off. James is taking his fare time today in the bathroom and I am hungry.”

Remus saluted him and Peter closed the dorm door the same time James opened the bathroom, the smell of soap filling the room. Remus loved when it happened. The dorm stink most of the time, due to his sensitive nose he felt the most, it was nice to smell something good first thing in the morning.

“Oh, I see someone was having a good dream” James looked at him and wiggled his eyebrows. He had his glasses off, the towel just covering his hips and his hair soaking wet. His friend was hot, and he told him that.

“Oh my god, how can I survive sharing a room with someone this hot” he put his hand over his eyes in a dramatic gesture, dragging a warm laugh out of James.

 “Aw, did you have a wet dream? Six in the morning and you are already horny” James put his boxes and did a little show for Remus, that was more ridiculous than anything, making Remus laugh loudly. “I bet you dreamed about me, or better, about your arch nemesis.”

Remus choked back a laugh and stopped finding the joke funny immediately. Normally he would follow the flow, but the memory of their detention together resurfaced and with it, a feeling of despair. After two weeks in the hospital wing he should be better prepared for this conversation. But now he could feel his palm sweating, his heart beating faster and his throat getting dry. 

“I urr, I have to tell you something.”

Sensing the mood changing, James stopped joking around and began to really put on his clothes.

“Okay. Spill.”

James sat in his bed, not minding that they would be late to Slughorn’s class. Remus took his time to make himself comfortable while he thought about what to say. James waiting him patiently.

Remus took a deep breath.

“Sirius knows I am a werewolf.”

“Okayy. Not funny, Remus” he denied. His eyes getting terrible wide matching the mixture of expressions that passed across his face as he realized that Remus was not joking.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are joking.” He pointed at him. Remus face was drained of any indication that he was anything but serious, terrifying James.

“How- How does he know?”

“Apparently Blacks have the moon phases decorated at birth" he felt like rolling his eyes but the bug in his stomach reminded him that this is not the time.

“Oh, fuck. Remus, this is not a prank, is it?” he tried once more, clinging to his last shred of hope.

“You know I wouldn’t joke about this” Remus sights and close his eyes. A migraine starting to get place in his head.

“Does this” James closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened it, they were red and shy tears began to fall down his cheeks. “Does this mean you are leaving?”

“I don’t know. I mean he told me he knows it since first year and”

“First year?” James shouted. Remus flinched, not used to having James scream at him. He couldn’t shake the feeling that, somehow, James was disappointed with him.

Maybe he should’ve hidden it better or create a whole different persona or bow down to Sirius that first time in the train.

Remus slowly nodded.

“This is good. Yeah, it’s a good thing.” James got up and started pacing around. One of the things he does when he is thinking about something that really needs his attention. “I mean, he knows for six years, and he didn’t tell anyone or... was Sirius the one who told Snape?”

“No.”

“Okay, them this means that this is too low even for him, and his not going to tell anyone or he intend to blackmail you with it. Is this what he is doing? That´s how you know? He is blackmailing you. Ohh, I am gonna kill him.”

“James” Remus got up and hold his friends by his shoulders, stopping him in his tracks. “He is not blackmailing me. He told me he wouldn’t do anything because of Alphard and that it doesn’t change anything.”

“But he could still hold this against you.”

“Oh, yeah, you are right.” Looking defeated, Remus throws himself in his bed. James follows him and sits by his side. “What am I going to do?”

“Hm, you know what? Let me handle it” James gets up and leave the room, leaving an extremely confused Remus behind.

After their talk in the morning, both James and Peter vanished. They don’t normally spend all day together, as Remus was always in the library, but they would at least spend the classes together. Remus couldn’t stop feeling a little left out.

James and Peter skipping class is nothing new, but they always invite Remus. This time they didn’t.

Maybe James finally understood how dangerous is to befriend a werewolf and Peter always follows James’ lead. Maybe James’ way to take care of things with Sirius is pushing Remus away so the repercussions of Remus’ leaving don’t fall on them.

Remus can’t worry about that now. He trusts James enough to make the right decision and if the right thing to do is not being friends anymore, Remus will accept it. Now, he needs to think about Sirius.

Sirius said nothing changed between them and that it was his time in their game. And getting stuck in the hospital wing got him a lot of time to plan something, well, a few things. But with this new information should he really?

Now he knows that Sirius got him in the palm of his hand. All he did was play a silly little game with him, when he could destroy his whole life in a matter of seconds.

Can he trust Sirius’ love for Alphard?

“...mus?” Lily called him. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, getting Remus out of his haze. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?” Remus needed a few seconds to understand what was going on. “Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

“You were staring at your book as if it had murdered your mother” Regulus said, and Lily agreed. While Regulus looked at him as if he had something strange on his face, Lily stared at him with concern. Remus didn't know who made him more uncomfortable to look back at that moment.

“Well, I was thinking of someone who killed my mam once. So not so far of the truth.” He shrugged and pretended to go back to his transfiguration book.

“Oh, so this is about my brother” Regulus sounded unamused. “Don’t tell me he was the one who put you in the hospital wing for two weeks.”

“No, not this time” Regulus groaned in understanding and returned to study.

“Them what is it?” Lily asked. She took his book out of his hands and closed it. Demanding his full attention. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but you got us all very worried. What happened, Remus?”

“I thought James told you I fell from the Grand Staircase and fractured my ribs” he tried to get his book back, but Lily put it above her head.

“As if I believe in anything James Potter say” she scoffed. Remus rolled his eyes and supported his head with his left hand, turning his body towards Lily, who was standing next to him.

“Well, this time is true”.

“Hum, I am believing it because you said it” Lily said it after a few seconds searching Remus face. She rolled her eyes and gave Remus his book.

“Thank you” he said as he grabbed his book and opened it, Lily nodded to him.

“So” Lily was looking at her book, pretending to be disinterested. “What has Sirius done now?”

“Nothing” both Lily and Regulus, who started paying attention to them again in the mention of his brother’s name, stared at him with a look of disbelief. “No, really. I was wondering if it is worth it continuing this game of cat and mouse, but I don’t really want to waist more of my time on it. I don’t really wanna talk about it.”

“Hm, okay” Regulus and Lily shared a look and went back to study. Remus mind was elsewhere for a moment, but after a few minutes Regulus asked him something about his own homework and got Remus undivided attention, getting his mind back to earth.

A few hours later, Regulus left them, not long after, Lily left him. Madam Pomfrey was looking at him through her glasses, piercing him with a “I wanna go” stare that she only gives to the students when it’s past the time to close.

Slowly, Remus started packing his things. He dreaded going back to his shared dorm room only to discover that James and Peter are not his friends anymore. He took his time. He slowly left the library, he slowly walked through the hallways, he even stopped to ask some paintings about their day.

But he couldn’t avoid it forever.

He hoped that the Fat Lady would take her time talking to him, but even her didn’t want to collaborate with him today. Then he faced the wooden door sooner than he would have liked.

From the outside, he couldn’t hear a noise coming out of the room, which was unusual. Pete and James probably didn’t come back from wherever they were. With a breath of relief, he opened the door.

“What the fuck?”

“Oh, hello, Remus” spoke James. Peter waved at him, and Sirius glared at him so angrily that if looks could kill, he'd be dead.

“What the fuck, James. What is he doing here?” he closed the door as fast as he could, but not before checking if there was someone there, watching the same scene as him.

In a chair in the middle of the room, Sirius was tied up, without his wand and partially petrified. James and Peter looking completely disheveled and while James grinned, Peter broke into a cold sweat.

“I can assume this is not your doing then?” Sirius asked wryly.