second year - revelations
The evening of the 29th March - 1st year
Remus was off visiting his mum despite the fact he was ill, James and Peter had just gone upstairs and Sirius was hurriedly scooping up all his school stuff so that he could join them.
As he was standing up from his squashy armchair he looked out of the window to see the moon. Lupin had been right yesterday - there had been a piece missing. It looked so much bigger now, round and full giving off a pale celestial light.
He then trudged his way toward the stairs, hearing a wolf howl in the distance.
Probably a werewolf in the forbidden forest, since it was a full moon and all.
Sirius found Werewolves quite fascinating and wondered what their lives were like. Every month they’d just turn into this whole other animal, sort of like McGonagall and how she could turn into a cat, but also not like that at all because werewolves had no choice in the matter.
At that point his mother’s voice appeared in his head talking about ‘nasty half-breeds'. Pft.
Society pretty much hated them because of how dangerous they were.
Sirius didn’t hate them. They were dangerous, but if the right precautions were taken they really weren’t all that harmful.
Werewolves weren’t just going to jump up and bite you whenever they felt like it. They’d only do that if they were actually in wolf form.
And that happened only once a month.
To a werewolf though ‘only once a month’ probably seemed like a lot. Too much even.
Because every month they had to go through something which was probably quite painful.
Every month when the moon was full.
And then it clicked.
Sirius dropped everything in shock, almost tripping over himself. He stood frozen before the steps going up to his dorm.
No. It couldn't be.
He had clearly eaten something funny for dinner. But what? Or maybe he was just going insane like Bellatrix.
Remus Lupin could not be a werewolf.
But… it made sense.
And the reasoning felt right.
To make sure he was absolutely correct he'd have to wait until the next full moon and do a bit of research. He was still going to be there for Remus, and was still going to be his friend.
Remus wasn't scary. His wolf form might be. But Remus wasn't scary. Unless his temper was high, but that was a different type of scary altogether.
To say the least, Sirius was shocked.
"Sirius... Black? Is it?" he turned around, mouth gaping wide open
"You alright?" It was Alice Fortescue, a fourth year Gryffindor.
Sirius hadn't talked to her much before, but what he did know was that she was well-liked, a sunny, joyful girl who seemed always happy to help.
Sirius closed his mouth and blinked.
"Did someone hex you or something?" Alice took a step closer, looking concerned.
"Oh. Er. No.” he blubbered, his brain a little slow from his newest revelation “Sorry. I'm fine... Just a bit lost in thought" Sirius attempted a smile to make him seem a little less crazy. It probably didn’t have the effect he wanted.
"Understandable. I'll help you pick this stuff up then." She moved closer to where Sirius had dropped his stuff but before she could bend over to help, he swiftly gathered his two books, some fly away pieces of parchment and his now broken quills into his arms with no order whatsoever
"Thanks so much, but you don't have to. I can manage" he gave her a more convincing smile this time and Alice smiled back.
"Ok then. If you say so. Would you like a sweet?" the girl rummaged around in her robe pocket and held out what looked like to be a piece of Droobles Best Blowing Bubble Gum. She looked closer at it, pulling an ‘oh well’ face "Well, this isn't really a sweet is it? I usually have something other than gum with me." she smiled again and carried on rummaging around in her pocket until she found another brightly wrapped something.
"Here, this might be better. I don't have anything else, my stock is running low"
Sirius took the confection a little hesitantly
"Go one take it, you’ve looked like you’ve had a day” she encouraged
"Thanks” he then grinned at her and turned to climb the stairs, wishing her a goodnight.
He didn’t remember much of his actions after that. His mind had blanked out as he walked up the rest of the stairs, only vaguely remembering unwrapping the sweetie Alice had given him.
He couldn't believe it. A werewolf.
Remus Lupin was a werewolf.
And oh that made Sirius laugh because Lupin in Latin literally translated to wolf. And his first name came from the story of two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus who had literally been raised by a wolf.
He was glad to know his Latin lessons had been good for something.
As he went to bed he wondered and he wondered about the story of Remus Lupin, when had it happened? Why had it happened? Where did he go when it happened?
What? How? When? Where? Why?
Maybe tomorrow he’d be in the hospital wing, and Sirius severely hoped so because he was adamant on visiting him, desperate to see Remus Lupin and just be there, to sit by his side.
And the next day, he got what he wanted.
Morning of the 30th March - 1st year
Sirius watched Remus gradually open his eyes and jump as he was met with the unexpected sight of Sirius lounging in a chair next to him.
"Hey there" he greeted casually
"What" Remus rasped. He tried to clear his throat and carried on "What are you doing here?" he asked, voice still raspy - clearing his throat had no effect.
Sirius was here for many reasons, but he wasn’t going to tell his friend that.
"I could ask you the same” he then handed Remus a glass of water Pomfrey had set down earlier
“Ta”
Sirius looked at him, confused. Werewolf transformations didn't mess with your head did they?
“What did you say?”
“...Ta?”
“What does that mean?”
Remus looked at him like he was the weird one “Thank you”
“Oh…how weird”
“You’re just posh”
“No! I am not”
Remus laughed croakily which then prompted Sirius’ next question, interested to see what he would say
“So why are you here?”
“I er…well I wasn’t feeling well so I took Lily’s advice and decided not to go home and see mum”
Psh. Lily Evans’ advice. More like Sirius’ and even James’.
Sirius didn’t say anything though, because he knew the real reason why he was here, and just nodded thinking up an answer to the question that was about to come
“How did you know I was here?”
Sirius waved a hand, looking away from Remus and instead focusing on a curtain so that his lie wouldn’t be found out, because his eyes were the window to the current deceit in his soul.
“Oh we got into a fight with Snivellus and his weird friends. Peter got hexed by Avery who was hiding around the corner like a coward so we didn’t see it coming. We did eventually win though and then we took Peter up to the hospital wing where we saw you”
“We?” Remus’ eyes widened
“Well only me. Peter was too busy panicking, James was too busy trying to reassure him that his toenails would indeed not stay that length and when I did see you lying here in the corner I decided not to say anything” Sirius shrugged and Remus looked a little bit unconvinced by the last part but if he was suspicious he decided not to say anything straight away, and if he was going to say something in reply eventually, Sirius didn’t give him the chance to.
He stood up "what do you want for lunch?"
"M'not hungry" Remus grumbled
"Are you sure?"
Remus nodded, but as if to reveal the actual truth, the other boys stomach growled, proving that in fact he was probably utterly famished.
Sirius gave a small laugh cocking his head "So, what do you want?"
“Anything"
"Right then, cabbage it is" Sirius swiftly smiled, knowing that Remus despised cabbage, and said it reminded him of grandma’s.
"I will not hesitate to poison you if you bring me back cabbage"
"Ta for your lovely comment!" he had already started walking at that point and so he looked back and grinned.
After a trip to the kitchens he re-entered the hospital wing doors holding a tray full of food acting like a fancy waiter
"Monsieur Lupin" Sirius gave a small bow without moving the gold platter an inch "I present to you" he put the food on his lap "Ton déjeuner" he said with a perfect accent
"Since when did you know how to speak French?" Remus snorted, his voice was a little less raspy now.
"The Black family teaches all of us French and Latin" Sirius threw himself into the chair next to Remus' bed losing his overly high class demeanour.
"That's silly" Remus picked at the lasagne Sirius had gotten him with his fork.
"Yeah, I think so too.. But it's kind of cool knowing that you know the language of love" Sirius took a grape from the fruit bowl Pomfrey had put out on the little side table "and another weird old language that no one ever uses" he ate the grape.
"You use it" Remus then cut a piece of lasagne and put it in his mouth.
"Not really. As I said, unlike French it's a dead language." he leaned back into his chair
"Why do they bother teaching it then?" Remus shovelled some peas onto his fork and ate them.
“Tradition” he said glumly, hating that the word had just come out of his mouth. Tradition was never seen as a good thing for Sirius because it contained memories of a stiff childhood, full of vicious lectures and bouts of prejudice that just simply couldn’t be uprooted because it was how The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black had always been.
“Your ancestors are all in their graves, why bother?”
Sirius laughed. Loudly, clearly. Because Remus’ humour was different, special, something he had to treasure like an oyster treasures its pearl.
“I don’t even know, they can all piss off” he smiled wildly
Remus nodded in agreement and reached over to grab a handful of grapes, rolling his shoulders as he did so. Remus then decided to chuck a grape at Sirius which then landed in his lap.
"Oi"
Remus shrugged in reply as Sirius then ate the grape in his lap.
They sat in comfortable silence a while longer until Madam Pomfrey came bustling over, shooing Sirius away.
“Where in Merlin’s name have you been?!” James exclaimed as Sirius opened the dormitory door
“Oh just out and about” Sirius waved a casual hand “Fancied a morning walk is all”
“Right…” James peered at him through his glasses “I was just a bit concerned you know, losing one marauder for the day is bad enough”
Sirius scoffed "Well I'm here now"
"Morning walk?! For half the day!"
"I don't see the problem" he shrugged, smirking at James slightly who was looking just a little bit confused.
He wasn't lying, he had been for a walk. What did James think he was getting around on? A trolley?
* * *
Summer Holidays - 25th June
“You look depressed”
“That’s because I am”
“Awh why” Philomena pouted mockingly “Because Mummy didn’t let you invite your friends over for your birthday?”
“They’re coming around anyway just at night time”
“When did you become so rebellious?”
Peter frowned “Don’t snitch”
“I wasn’t going to” she ruffled his hair which Peter usually didn’t mind if it was anyone other than his older sister doing it - still he kept quiet.
“Remus can’t come”
“I’m just going to pretend I know who that is”
“My friend!”
“I got that”
“His parents won’t allow him to come over or something I don’t know”
“Maybe he’s a werewolf”
“I’m depressed, you should be consoling me not making jokes”
“You’re not depressed” she snorted “I never pinned you to be a dramatic,”
He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Being around James and Sirius probably did that to him.
“And anyway..” she continued “How do you know I’m not joing ?” she teased, eyes glistening in the way that Peter recognised whenever she was in fact making jokes.
“Because you’re you”
“It’s a full moon tomorrow”
“No it’s not”
“Look it up”
Peter didn’t need to look it up to know she wasn’t lying. Peter could always tell when Philomena was lying.
He narrowed his eyes at her and then she snorted, rolling her eyes in a joky way “I can’t believe your friend is a werewolf and you didn’t even know”
This. This struck him oddly. Peter knew from the way his sister’s eyes were shining that she was joking, but this didn’t stop him from being perhaps a bit gullible and entertaining the idea, the possibility that Remus could be a werewolf.
And oh. That was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
A very very bad idea.
Very bad.
Not good.
Bad idea.
Very bad idea
His mouth fell open and Philomena looked like she wanted to laugh, but Peter paid no attention to her and instead slowly rose up from his chair and went over to look at the calendar on the wall, showing all the important dates, such as his Birthday which was tomorrow the 26th and sure enough the little moon symbol on the bottom of the day was full.
Ok.
He tried to remember another time Remus had disappeared overnight.
He flicked the calendar to February showing that the 15th of February was pancake day the 18th of February was his Aunt Maggies’ birthday and sure enough on the 29th of February (because it was a leap year) the little full moon symbol was there again.
“You’re so gullible”
Peter turned around to face Philomena, mouth still hanging open
“I was joking!” she stated obviously
Peter looked at the calendar. He looked at Philomena.
He mumbled "I need to sit down"
And so he sat, whilst his sister watched him with interest.
Peter just stared at the wall, mouth still open
“Merlin Pete the werewolf thing was a joke!”
Peter looked at her, mouth still open, trying to process the realisation that had been thrust upon him.
And really he should’ve tried to contain himself a little because this wasn’t something Phil could know. But when he did in fact think to himself ‘oh maybe I shouldn’t be looking like I’ve had the most terrible news of my life’ it was already too late.
“Oh” Philomena breathed, all traces of humour draining from her face “Oh…I can’t believe your friend is a werewolf and you didn’t know”
Yeah. He couldn’t believe it either.