A/N I'm ba-ack. And I'm sorry it took so long. For all the die hards like me, I've shifted the moon a week because I was looking at the wrong calendar and this suited my idea better.

Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you enjoy.

1 December 1973

"Lupin, Lupin, hold up." Regulus Black was jogging down the corridor, a small pouch clasped in his hand.

"If that's a dungbomb you'll wake up sorely regretting your actions." Remus turned, crossing his arms. His sleeves pulled halfway to his elbows. Feigning discomfort, he rolled his shoulders and dropped his arms, allowing the sleeves to fall back down over the scars that littered the skin on his arms.

"If- what? - No, I - bloody hell," he muttered, "I need to ask you a favour."

"Oh?" Remus cocked an eyebrow, and strained his ears, expecting to have a handful of Slytherins teaming up on him in retaliation for - James and Sirius' most recent prank; he'd begged ignorance on the details for plausible deniability, but he doubted Snape and his lot would care for the particulars.

" Could you pick something up in Hogsmeade for me?"

"What?" That was not what he thought was going to happen. "Why not just ask Sirius, or one of your housemates? Why me?"

"Well, I can't exactly ask my brother to pick up his own birthday present, now can I?" Regulus shrugged. " If I asked Severus to do it, Cissa's sure to find out and…" Regulus trailed off, defeated and made to turn away.

"It's Sirius's birthday?"

Regulus shrugged again. "It was November third."

"He never said."

The Slytherin grimaced. "Yeah, he wouldn't've. His birthdays haven't exactly been pleasant in the past.I reckoned if I avoided the day itself it'd be less conspicuous, with fewer chances of him being miserable Still, though... "

Remus huffed a sigh and clapped a hand on Regulus's shoulder. If nothing else, he understood discretion when talking with a blacklisted brother. . "What do you need?"

"Hey Hagrid!" Sirius called, an impish grin on his face. The groundskeeper looked up as he closed the door to his hut, crossbow balanced on his shoulders and a bucketful of something that smelled like dead fish and James's lucky socks. After winning his first quidditch match in a mismatched set of yellow, crimson, and orange socks, the chaser had deemed them lucky and decided that washing them would make the luck run out. Remus made him keep them in a sealed container from which they were only to be removed in the locker room. They made the fish smell like lavender.

Hagrid set his bucket down on the stoop and took a few steps across the lawn to the path. "C'n I help you boys with summat?" he asked slowly, as if expecting something to pop out at him or explode any second.

Remus snorted at the gamekeeper's posture. "Oh, come on, Hagrid, we only wanted to know when the Christmas trees are going up. We're not going to set anything on you." Remus kept a straight face, but he was the only one to do so. They weren't planning to do anything to Hagrid directly, and certainly not when they were finally getting to go to the village for the first time. Fortunately, Hagrid didn't notice the quirk of Sirius's mouth, or the smirk that James was fighting. It was however, rather impressive that he wasn't deterred by the grin or slightly shaking shoulders that Peter struggled to contain.

"Oh, tha'." Hagrid let out a sigh as he released the nervous energy that so often appeared when the four Gryffindors made an appearance. ""Should be cuttin' em this afternoon. Got some business ter tend to in the fores' firs'." He patted the crossbow with a deep chortle and the revealing grin on Peter's face was instantly replaced with a horrified frown. "Then there's the match tomorrow, so I imagine I'll be gettin' 'em up an' decorated termorrow afternoon."

"Perfect!" James exclaimed. Hagrid frowned and gave him a quizzical look.

"Excellent!" Remus jumped in, hoping to cover his friend's mistake. "These sods have been moping about the castle for days! Frankly, no one else is in a festive enough mood."

Hagrid just laughed and strode back to his foul bucket, whistling for his mastiff as he went. "You lads stay outta trouble in the village, y'hear!" he called before disappearing into the dense brush.

"Oh thank Merlin, Remus." Sirius cooed, slinging an arm around Remus's shoulder. Sirius had grown taller than him since the summer. Remus made a note to return the gesture soon. . "James doesn't have the finesse required to lie."

"No, Sirius, you don't have to-"

"Be a mate and shut up, would you?," Sirius swept the pile of chocolate off the counter and into a bag before holding it out to Remus. "I don't have to, but I want to."

"Yes, but I haven't got the money to pay you back." He didn't. Even though Regulus had given him plenty enough sickles- blast the demons who decided silver should be used for wizarding money- to purchase his gift to Sirius, and though Regulus had insisted that the remainder was for Remus to do as he pleased, he had spent it on his own gift for Sirius: a twelve-month subscription to Zonko's trial merchandise.

Sirius shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Remus, I want to." He reiterated as the four boys headed out into the street. "I'd happily empty the entire Black family vault to help you continue your love sessions with chocolate."

"Love sessions?" Remus gawked.

"You do seem to have a thing for sweets" muttered Peter.

"And there are days when you look like you've been snogging a vat of brownie mix. So it's either you've got a thing for chocolate, or you've been sneaking down to the Hufflepuff common room at night to see Courteny Johnson."

"I've not been anywhere snogging with anyone, thank you very much!"

"Shame, that is." Peter, of all people, said, at the same time Sirius spoke up again.

"Oh good, because that girl needs a lesson on makeup. I mean, brown lipstick? With her complexion? I don't think so. And really, she needs to lighten up on the sparkly gold highlighter before someone mistakes her for a bloody snitch, poor thing doesn't have the undertones for warm hues like that," Sirius huffed as he continued on his way, oblivious to the baffled stares of his friends frozen on the path behind him.

James cracked first. "Sirius, mate, where the hell did you pick up all that?"

Sirius whirled on his heel, looking every bit like a deer caught in headlights. "Honestly, Jamesie, it's embarrassing that you haven't, growing up with old wizarding blood as you have," he stammered, "it's all but a requirement of claiming toujours pur. Anyways, Rem, this here's all yours, and no, I'll not hear another word against it!"

Remus decided to give Sirius a little slack on his makeup know-how - interrogation to come at a later date - but didn't hold back on his groan. "I told you, it's your money, you don't need to spend it on me."

Sirius simply shook his head. "This is not my money, this gold comes from the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, and I, for one, am more than happy to piddle it away on the likes of," pause for effect, "a half-blooded disgrace to society, Mr Lupin, do take this into account." His features curdled into a disturbingly accurate impression ofWalburga Black, though Remus had seen the woman all of twice and only ever heard her barking out orders. But nevertheless, it stung despite knowing it was not how Sirius felt. It wasn't pleasant to be reminded of what he was to the rest of the world.

"See, Remus, now you get to slap him for being an arse, take the candy in revenge, and we all get to rejoice." James took the bag and shoved it into Remus's arms.

Remus didn't slap Sirius, nor did he snip at him. Instead, Remus waited until there was a sufficiently large puddle and swiped at his feet, cackling at Sirius's screeches when he hit the mud.

"Remus I'm gonna-"

"You sure Moony hasn't been snogging you? Lots of brown all over your face." Peter cut in, dodging the handful of mud that was flung in his direction.

"I don't think he'd snog Remus, his hair isn't long enough to hold." James quipped, shifting left when he should've gone right.

"At least Remus has some semblance of how to groom himself." Peter shot.

"Are none of you going to touch on the fact that Remus is a bloke here?" Remus asked indignantly, somehow the only one of the four who was still clean.

James held up his hands in surrender, "Hey, you do you, we won't judge."

James got another faceful of mud.

"How about we stop talking about snogging?". It was bound to fail, but he had to at least try. Otherwise Sirius would do the dare in the name of his honour.

To the surprise of no one, he was ignored

"So," Peter began, a curious grin on his face, "We've established that Remus hasn't snogged anyone, and that apparently, Sirius isn't into birds,-

"I am too into birds you whelp." Sirius grumbled as he made Peter join him on the ground. "But for the record, if I weren't, it wouldn't be you or James that I'd choose."

Peter let out a snort of amusement while James's was one of indignation. Both raised a brow at Sirius and then cocked their heads at Remus.

"No!" Remus cried, putting his hands up. "You know what? Fine."

"Wait," Peter said, aghast.

"You're actually going to kiss Sirius?" James finished.

"Merlin, no! I'm going to go find Evans and have a reasonable conversation!"

"Alright, alright," James relented. "We'll stop."

"You're only saying that because you don't want Remus spending a day in Hogsmeade with Evans before you do." Sirius grinned and pulled Peter up with him.

"Look James, she's been saying no for a week. Let it rest."

"She can't say no forever."

"Come on, let's go check out the Shrieking Shack." Sirius pleaded, half dragging Remus out of the Three Broomsticks behind James and Peter, who were all too eager to check out one of the most reportedly haunted buildings in Britain.

Peter turned around and started walking backwards. "What's wrong Remus, are you afraid of the ghosts that haunt the place?"

"I'm not afraid of the ghosts!" Remus let out with a defeated sigh.

"I really don't see the problem then." James teased, slinging his arm around Remus's shoulders. He'd had over a year to get used to the gesture, but he still didn't like it.

"Come on Remus, I bought lunch, "Sirius chided, "I think that earns me the right to pick what we see next."

"I distinctly remember asking you not to buy my lunch."

"Too bad. We're going to see the Shrieking Shack now."

Remus had to force his legs to move, or risk getting dragged through the mud as they made their way up the High Street and out of the village towards the decrepit-looking building on the hill.

"Well, this is a bit disappointing." Sirius grumbled, leaning on the fence.

"Great, the shack's a disappointment. Let's go see something interesting then." Remus mumbled, turning to head back to the village,

But Sirius continued, "I mean, they say this place is haunted with screams of tortured souls or ghouls or something. I don't hear any."

"Maybe we have to get the spirit's attention?" Peter picked up a few rocks from the ground and lobbed them at the house.

The only sounds to be heard were the thunk of the stones as they hit the wood and Remus's increased breathing. His plea of "Peter, could you stop?" was drowned out by James suggesting that they go inside.

"No!"

"Remus, what's with you." James asked, his concern rising as he noticed how pale his friend had become. It was eerie that someone as pale as Remus could get paler, but he managed to do so at least once a month. "It's just a haunted building. Nothing in there can hurt us."

Not right now it can't.

"What do you mean by that?"

Did I say that out loud? I did, they're all staring at me. Why did I open my mouth?

"Remus?" Peter was tapping his shoulder. "Remus, are you alright? You look ill."

"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

"Is it the moon?"

Remus shook his head in response to both James and Sirius's questions, though he did feel ill, it wasn't the moon causing it. Well, not directly anyway. Feeling overly warm and shaky, Remus found a dry rock and dropped himself down, hoping that it would ease his stomach. He tried not to look at his prison but his eyes were drawn to it. His friends' voices faded and his ears were filled with the sounds of his own screams before they turned into howls. He was thrown nine years back in time and heard the howling of the wolves the night he was bitten. A cold hand on his neck shocked him back to reality and he shivered in his cooling sweat.

"It's not really haunted, is it?" Peter asked gently.

"If it's not haunted, why would the villagers say they hear ghosts or ghouls or whatever screaming and howling every so often?" Sirius asked, only to be given a glare by Peter. Remus was shaking, his eyes trained hard on his feet, his hands gripping his knees, knuckles white under his gloves.

James's mouth made an 'oh' of understanding. "Remus, we can-"

But Remus was already gone.

Reshaping the way he organized the inside of his head was going slowly. Very slowly.

Initially he'd thought that simply caging the wolf would work. Trap it in some dark corner at the back of his mind. Out of sight, out of mind and all, right?

Wrong.

Locking up the wolf, Remus had learned rather quickly, only made it howl louder and rattle the cage. It made the wolf snarly and anxious.

It put Remus on edge.

The fuse for his temper got so short that it was nonexistent. His instincts had landed him in detention more than once in the month he'd tried that approach. He'd even been tempted on numerous occasions to mark his territory only to be dragged off to the bathroom by James before he could embarrass himself.

Just James had been embarrassing enough, and that was not a conversation he wanted to revisit.

Recently, he'd been experimenting with locking himself up. Or rather, containing himself to a fortress in the forest of his mind. That way, his alter ego would be free to wander and Remus himself was more isolated from his influences.

It was working, well, better than the alternative anyway, but otherwise he didn't really have anything to measure it against.

And then the door creaked open.

"Gah!" James screeched as his roommate tackled him to the floor. "What the fuck Remus!"

Remus had James pinned to the floor- making it hard to breathe- with a hand on his chest, and head cocked and mouth open as though preparing to bite before he was fended off with a sharp knee to the groin.

The werewolf came back to himself rather quickly with a yelp and curled inward, wincing in pain.

As James watched, his friend's eyes shifted from a fierce gold back to his usual soft green. And, painful as it must have been, he was rather glad that he'd broken the focus in that moment.

"You all right?' he asked, keeping his distance in case Remus decided to pay him in kind.

Remus responded with a glare, but nodded nonetheless as he breathed through his nose. "Not like I can have kids anyway." he wheezed.

Once Remus was able to sit up and his breath had evened out, James offered him a hand up off the floor. "I know you were happy to see me, but I told you, I'm saving myself for Lily."

Remus broke his glare with a snort and accepted the outstretched hand. "Where're Sirius and Peter?" he asked as they made their way down the dormitory stairs.

"Dinner." James stuffed his hands in his pocket and nodded at Evans as he walked past her in the common room. She rolled her eyes and raised a concerned brow at Remus's limp. Remus waved her off and slipped out into the corridor after James.

"What were you up to in there anyway? Someone we should know about?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I got a bit lost in my head, is all."

"Sure you did Moony-" Remus scowled at the nickname- "Maybe hang a tie on the door next time?" The scowl deepened and the werewolf spun himself in front of his friend and jabbed a fist into him, intentionally avoiding the kidneys.

"Fuck Remus! It was a joke!" James groaned, doubled over in shock. "The bloody hell was that for?"

"Oh, I'm sorry,-" Remus drawled, "-would you like me to return the favour?"

"No!" James reflexively blocked the proposed threat with his hands, turning his toes and knees inward as well. "But in my defense, I'm pretty sure I sacked Moony, not Remus."

"Well they aren't Moony's bits!"

They did it on the way to lunch, hidden by a horde of highly energetic Hufflepuffs who had been celebrating their first win in three years against Ravenclaw. They'd seen Hagrid head back to his hut after the match for his own meal as he often did.

Remus split from the other three after lunch, headed up to the common room where he planned to work on his correspondence courses, while the other three headed to the library to work on the coursework they'd been procrastinating over all weekend. Remus was rather relieved that they'd decided to head to the library instead of lounging around their dormitory and spouting nonsense about their essays as he tried to explain the functions and operations of the digestive system. But it was unusual. Generally they only ventured into the library to fetch him for some finicky plot.

He gave it twenty minutes before Pince kicked them out. Five sickles- blasted currency- from Lily said they lasted ten.

Remus hadn't actually put any money on a time- he couldn't afford to, but the winner of the pot was a fifth year prefect at Thirty-two minutes. They'd agreed to meet up in the common room before heading down to dinner amongst their peers to admire their handiwork.

'All I'm saying is that we don't actually know if they made it that long, or if they were goofing off in the corridors the rest of the time." Lily muttered to Remus as they descended the stairs to the second floor just behind his roommates. "Who knows, maybe they set it up with her…"

Remus could only laugh. "Did you notice who showed up right after they did?"

Lily's brow furrowed in thought trying to figure out where her friend was going with this. "Aikens wasn't it?"

"Ever notice-" he continued with a nod to her observation, "- who always shows up right after there's a pool like that going?"

Her brow didn't unfurrow and her hands clenched as she cocked her head and declared "Aikens!" The second year jumped ahead of them and turned back, but was quickly waved off by both Remus and Lily. "You mean to tell me that he spies on Black, Potter, and Pettigrew?"

"More like, referees." Remus shrugged. "Got to play fair, don't we?"

A cry of outrage cut off any potential reply as Mr. Filch stormed away from the cluster of Christmas trees in the entrance hall. He was covered in tinsel, the floor was specked with bits of shattered baubles and holly. "I blame you Hagrid!" The groundskeeper merely shrugged patiently and rifled through a box by his feet. "I bet you and that horrid umbrella of yours cursed these trees just to make a fool of me!"

"I can assure yeh Argus, I did no such thing." Hagrid replied calmly before pulling out a handful of stars from the box in victory. Filch scowled and began to shuffle his way down to his office, apparently having had enough of decorating for the day. Hagrid took his stars and stretched up to reach the tops of the trees- something that anyone else would've needed a decently long ladder for- and stepped back once all the trees had a star adorning the top to admire his work with a weary but satisfied smile.

"Is he done?"

"A star? That's it?"

"Aren't the decorations usually a little more, well…"

"Spectacular?"

Remus struggled, but succeeded in smothering his laughter as the whispers raced through the castle's entryway. James, Sirius, and Peter made no such effort.

Filch had just made it to the stairs, and the groundskeeper was smiling proudly at the trees when the stars sprung off and shot in all directions. Several landed back in Hagrid's box, while others shot into the great hall and took up places amongst the candles. Students shrieked and dodged out of the way of the pointed metal objects being launched about, and Filch cried out several expletives as one of the stars caught the back of his robes and hoisted him into the air.

That wasn't supposed to happen… Remus thought, quirking an eyebrow at Sirius, who grinned, shrugged, and then flicked his wand to deposit the grumpy old caretaker on top of the furthest tree.

Even Hagrid seemed to be having some difficulty containing his amusement, though the large man was beginning to show his annoyance. "Yeh know Argus," Hagrid said after waiting a few moments. "I've half a mind ter leave yeh there. Firs' thing in three hours to stay up for longer than thir'y seconds."

The hall erupted in the laughter of dozens of students making their way to dinner and Hagrid reddened, suddenly reminded that he was surrounded by students and that while not a professor, he was still a member of the staff and as such, he was expected to set an example.

"You get me down this second or I'll-"

"Relax, relax, was a joke is all." said the groundskeeper sheepishly as he reached up to lift his colleague down. "Go on," he gestured around the hall, "Off te dinner with all of yeh."

"Here Sirius, this is for you."

Remus had waited to return to their room before pressing the two packages into Sirius's hands.

"What is it?" Peter asked, eying the brown paper parcels with curiosity.

"How come I don't get presents Moony?" James whined, but his smile betrayed his feigned offense.

"You don't get presents because it isn't your birthday you twit."

James turned to the boy who'd essentially become his best friend in first year. "It's your birthday!" he cried out in an almost scolding tone. "Why didn't you say anything? I thought it was over the summer or something!"

Sirius merely sat on his bed, looking mildly uncomfortable. Peter had hopped up beside him, looking at the packages in wonder.

"Well," Remus said, sitting on his own bed, "It was last month, but Regulus said-"

The head of the belated birthday boy snapped up. "This is from Regulus?"

"One of them is, or I guess both technically are because he paid for it, but the other's from me."

"What the fuck just happened?" James asked, picking himself up off the floor.

They'd been thrown out of the room and the door slammed in their faces before they could even notice that it was happening.

Remus stared at the wooden door for a moment, and without even bothering to try the door, set off slowly down the stairs.

The first thing Peter did, however, was try to open the door, but to no avail. Once James and Peter had each tried to force it, they too, made their way down the stairs, only to be nearly run over by Remus halfway down.

Three gentle knocks sounded on the dormitory door, but Sirius ignored them, opting instead to continue his pacing of the room while staring at the parcels on his bed.

"If you want to be alone, that's fine." Remus's calm and gentle voice filtered through the door. "But can I at least have my Maths book so I have something to do that doesn't involve writing horrible poems for Evans?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and grabbed a brightly coloured book from the stack on the nightstand, cracked open the door, and shoved the text through, shutting himself in with his parcel once more when he heard the heavy thud on the floor.

Remus hopped back when the book popped through the gap between the door and the jamb, grateful that he had, because the Physics book weighed about twice as much as the Mathematics one he had requested. "This isn-" You know what, sod it. I can do this too. "Thanks Sirius." Remus returned to the common room and left Sirius to his pacing.

An hour later, Remus was done his assignment, and had been drawn into discussion with Lily, who had gotten fed up with the poetry spouting origami swans that had been following her, and resorted- in a moment of weakness- to hexing the pair responsible. James and Peter were stumbling their way to the hospital wing in the hopes that reversing reversed knees would be a simple process.

Two hours after getting kicked out of his room, Remus found himself- aided by his muggle born friend- trying to explain that airplanes were not a breach of the International Statute of Secrecy because they were entirely mechanical and flew without magic. If he had to explain Bernouli's Principle once more, he feared that he might just lose it.

Fortunately, the reappearance of James and Peter in the portrait hole scared most of them off to bed, Lily left with them, glad that she was finally free of questions about simple science. Because, honestly, what kind of seventeen-year old asks 'why is the sky blue?'

James, Remus, and Peter were half asleep on the couches by the fire in the common room, having resigned themselves to spending the night, by the time the portrait hole opened to admit Frank Longbottom, back from his prefect rounds. With a huff of exasperation mixed in with exhaustion, Frank slogged the extra distance and nudged each of the sleepy boys to make sure they were awake.

"Come on, up." he commanded, "you have classes in the morning and you'll regret sleeping down here."

"Can't" James muttered into the armrest.

"Why not?" The prefect himself looked as though he were prepared to join them by the fire,

"Sirius locked us out."

Frank almost screamed. He was done. He wanted to go to bed and then shot like this always got in the way. "Up. I'll get you in."

There was some grumbling from Peter and Remus, both seeming quite content with their places on the couch and, in Remus's case, on the floor by the fire on a heap of cushions. Together, they staggered up the stairs and past the current sixth year dormitory to that of the third years.

The boys had fully expected Longbottom to pull out his wand and attempt to open it with something like alohamora, but they were too tired to be prepared to say that they'd tried it two hours earlier. Instead, the prefect dug around in his robe and retrieved a key that looked as ancient as Hogwarts itself. The heavy key was inserted into the lock and the door swung open soundlessly.

With a nod of thanks, the third years filed into their room and Peter closed the door softly behind him. Too tired to bother with pyjamas, they climbed wordlessly into bed. Just as Remus was about to drift off to sleep, Sirius shifted in the bed across from his and a flash of moonlight caught his eye. Groaning internally, Remus withdrew himself from his blankets and tiptoed across the room. He gently prised the small rectangular mirror from Sirius's sleeping clutches and set it safely on the nightstand where it wouldn't fall. Then he crept back to his bed, slipped between the sheets, and fell asleep to the sound of snores and howling winds.

"You expect me to believe that you have some sort of telepathic link that can hold up over thousands of miles and that you just happen to have stumbled across the ability recently?"

Alastor Moody was even less pleasant as a fully-badged auror than he was a trainee under James's father. He was gruff, stiff, suspicious, and jumpy. But since Moody had dealt with the Lupin brothers in the incident- that was still unresolved to Remus's knowledge- the year previous, he'd been assigned to interview the younger of the pair. It felt more like an interrogation.

"I don't expect you to believe anything Moody, I'm just answering your questions."

The auror looked like he was about to correct his interviewee on his title, but something about the boy made him hold his tongue. "How do I know that you aren't the one who's hidden him away?" Moody queried. "Holding back information are we?"

While, technically, he was, Remus didn't think that his being a werewolf was prevalent to the investigation. "If I had my brother hidden away, why would I want to find him? Why would I be worried sick about him?" The 'Why would the lupine subconscious I'm forced to live with be so goddamned restless to the point of maiming me if he knew where Romulus was and that he was safe?' was thankfully left unsaid

"I've met a lot of twisted folk in my day, boy, and it wouldn't be the first time."

"I don't know where he is all right? I told you what I saw."

"You said you saw a hospital?"

Remus nodded sharply, trying to beat down his exasperation and wrangle in his temper.

"None of the hospitals in Europe or North America have any unidentified wizards in their records."

Remus rolled his eyes at the suspicious look he was given and crossed his arms. "I said I recognized the word doctor, not healer. Besides, from what I remember, it looked like a muggle hospital." Remus felt like he was being x-rayed. Moody's look was more unnerving than anything he'd ever gotten from McGonagall. "I fell out of a tree in primary school. Broke my arm, and got sent to the hospital."

"Mmhmm." Moody's tone was placating and Remus had had enough of being treated like a five year old telling his mum that a gnome was had gotten into the kitchen and knocked the jar of chocolate off the cabinet. He'd since figured out how to eat chocolate without getting it all over his face. When he felt like it.

"And it sounded like french or spanish or something latin-based."

"Oddly specific. Almost as if-"

"Can we get back to the point please? You're supposed to be collecting information for the DMLE and BEAR so that they can launch investigations and figure out where my brother has been since September!"

The outburst, which had been observed with a critical eye, seemed to satisfy the newly badged Auror that Remus was not behind some nefarious plot to hold his sibling hostage. "That'll be all lad. I'll keep you informed."

The young Auror stood and departed without another word and Remus felt his anger and frustration swell inside him. His word was being taken at less than half-value and his instincts were going on overdrive. It felt like it was trying to seep out of his pores but was being blocked. The werewolf leapt to his feet and sent a swift kick at the wastebasket by the desk, the flurry of papers and the accompanying rush of adrenaline filled him with momentary euphoria.

He kicked the desk.

Then he punched the door to a cupboard, knowing better than to punch the stone wall. The way the wood cracked, the way it splintered up from the knot that he'd struck, was far too reminiscent of the scar that drew up from Moody's right eye.

Remus punched the wall.

By the time Minerva entered her classroom to pick up the essays she needed to grade from the desk, it looked like a tornado had ripped through the room, and Remus sat on the floor clutching his wrist to his chest and growling at the open door and the professor who stood in it.

She took note of the gold in his eyes, the sounds coming from his mouth, and his posture-defensive, but aggressive nonetheless; it would likely be unwise to advance. Witnessing Lupin snap once was enough, and she desperately wanted not to use magic on a student. With a resigned sigh, the transfiguration professor shifted in the doorway and entered the room, watching her student carefully for any sign that he was about to lash out.

With the werewolf seemingly passive about the presence of a feline, she approached him and leaned against his side in an attempt to his nerves.

She was expecting his breathing to calm.

She was expecting his posture to relax.

Hell she was half expecting to be swatted away.

Minerva McGonagall was not expecting to be picked up and nuzzled.

Had it been any other student or in any other situation, she would have protested vocally, and with tooth and claw. As it was, however, she could see the green returning to Lupin's eyes as the gold slowly faded out.

A few moments after Remus's eyes were back to his usual colour, he froze and sniffed the cat in his arms. Then, in his haste to remove himself from embarrassment as quickly as possible, he threw the tabby across the room.

Fortunately, cats have a habit of landing on their feet, and as soon as she had, she was back on two and looking over the rim of her spectacles at a student who was red as a lobster and spouting nonsensical apologies. McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose and took a breath. "For Merlin's sake Lupin, I just got you calmed down!"

"Professor, I'm so sorry, I didn't know what I was doing, not that that's an excuse, I know I should have had better control of my actions and I didn't mean to- I would never intentionally- "

"Take a seat Lupin." McGonagall ordered, and- thankfully- the boy shut up. Looking fearful and embarrassed, he complied.

"Have a biscuit."

As it turned out, they hadn't jumped right into werewolves after spirits in Defense. They'd started with Manticores, then Erklings, Sphinxes, and then they got to werewolves. The essay was due Monday, so they had the entire weekend to research the traits, characteristics, and methods to subdue the beasts. Surprisingly, this was one assignment that Remus's roommates decided not to ask his opinion on even though the werewolf had finished the essay by Saturday afternoon, With the light fading so quickly as it did in winter, Remus would have to excuse himself from lesson before Professor Patton's classroom which meant he had to hand it in as soon as he returned to classes.

It was with inevitable timidness that Peter found Remus alone in the dormitory sunday evening, essay and books in hand. "Remus, can I ask you a favour?" he inquired shyly.

"What is it Pete?"

"Could you have a look at my essay for me?" The boy was trembling and his straw-like hair was plastered to his face with nervous sweat. Remus looked up from his book and fed a piece of chocolat into his mouth, curious as to why such a common request was making his friend so nervous. "It's just… I want to make sure I didn't miss anything, but I also don't want to it to sound like I'm… you know… advocating murder or anything like that."

Realization dawned on Remus. It was that essay. The one James and Sirius had tried to boycott on his behalf. The plan being that they'd just skive off when they were supposed to hand it in. Remus suppressed the urge to gulp and instead nodded reassuringly. "Sure. You can take a look at mine if you'd like a framework while I read."

Peter nodded in thanks and accepted the roll that Remus drew out of his bookbag. Remus frowned at the parchment in front of him. Peter's work, though well put together, was significantly lacking in information. It was even less well-researched than was usual.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Peter voiced the opposite. "Hey, Remus," he began, looking up from the assignment, "where did you find all this information? I could hardly find anything."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I looked it up in a bunch of books and they all said the same things. Short snout, tufted tail, and the eyes. Then they raved on about werewolves being savages but we know that's not true." The last bit was added frantically and Remus just shook his head.

"They're not wrong Peter." murmured Remus quietly.

Peter stood quickly, feet thudding as they hit the floor. "Yes they are!" he protested. "But despite that, there's a bunch of stuff missing from all the books."

"Really? like what?" Remus asked, digging into his bookbag for his textbook.

"Page 439" Peter offered, enabling Remus to skip straight to the section on werewolves. "Like your eyes when you get angry, or the hearing, or…" Peter glanced at Remus's writing again and squinted as though it would help him decipher the chicken scratch. "The silver thing is real? I always thought that was just a myth!"

"No, it's true." Remus said with a sigh. "I'm grateful for the clark James gave me last Christmas, but the thing is tricky to put on without getting burned."

Peter winced. "I can swap out the fastenings on mine, brass is ok right?" Remus nodded with an uncomfortable smile. "Why isn't any of that other stuff in books then? It kind of seems like useful information."

Rolling onto his back, Remus frowned at the ceiling. "Because nobody cared enough to do their research properly I guess. And because the werewolves aren't about to tell people something that can be used against them. Hey! You people who have ostracized us from society and, quite frankly, want to murder us for the sake of erradication? Here's a list of our weaknesses."

"I don't see how super human hearing is a weakness though" Peter wondered aloud. "Are dog whistles painful?"

"You test that theory and I'll pulverize you." Remus half-growled, sitting back up on his four poster.

"I give!" Peter raised his hands in surrender. Then, with a mischievous glint in his eye, he cocked his head at Remus and murmured "Please don't eat me?"

It was the first time that Remus had ever felt genuine humour from anything related to his lycanthropy. Dark, self deprecating, bitter humour, he'd had a few laughs at those before, sure, but joyous laughter at a werewolf crack? No, this was definitely a first.

"Shit." Remus said suddenly, cutting off his own laughter.

"What? Did I say something-"

Remus shook his head. "Nah, Peter, nothing you said. I just realized I have to rewrite that entire thing by lunch tomorrow."

"Well, shit."

He managed to get it done, but just barely enough time to spare so that it was out of the way in time for him to be knocked flat on his back by the demon rising inside him.

The next morning, in Gryffindor tower, James, Sirius, and Peter listened at the window that opened towards Hogsmeade, cringing at the tortured howls that carried over the grounds. Sirius slammed the window when the howls became more human and had to steady himself, fearing that his stomach would try to empty itself.

"It's agreed then?" James asked with a forlorn glance back out the window.

"We're sure it'll help?" Peter asked, following his eyes out the window.

"McGonagall did apparently." James said with a nod.

"Then it's agreed."

A/N So... that's that. I hope you enjoyed it.

I've got another chapter in the works so hopefully I'll not take two scratch more like three months.

Fic Rec: Seeing Grey, by Iggie. It's complete and It's on FFN and goodreads- not that I know how to use it.

Completely different take on Lupin's life, and it's where some of my ideas were inspired. I will note though, that it can be a bit confusing, and that punctuation/formatting is a bit lacking. But even as someone who abhors stuff like that, I stuck with it because it was a really interesting take on Remus.

Happy reading and to a good summer. Oh, and I've decided to try tumblr. I'm still clueless though.

The One-Eyed Wolf-OUT 6 July 2020