Towers - Fred Weasley

15

Lupin and Ebony start to laugh.

"Right again, Hermione!" he says. "But the Ministry never knew that there used to be three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts." He looks at Ebony. "Actually, make that 6." Ebony stops laughing and stares at him. 

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus," snarls Black, who is still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right . . . but you'll need to help me, Sirius," Lupin replies, "I only know how it began . . ."

Lupin breaks off. There has been a loud creak behind him. The bedroom door has opened of its own accord. All six of them stare at it. Then Lupin strides toward it and looks out into the landing.

"No one there . . ."

"This place is haunted!" says Ron.

"It's not," Lupin says, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted. . . . The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

He pushes his graying hair out of his eyes, thinks for a moment, then adds, "That's where all of this starts — with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten . . . and if I hadn't been so foolhardy. . . ."

He looks sober and tired. Ron starts to interrupt, but Hermione beats him to it, "Shh!" She is watching Lupin very intently.

"I was a very small boy when I received the bite. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform. . . . I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again.

"Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me.

"But then Dumbledore became headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school. . . ." Lupin sighs, and looks directly at Harry. "I told you, months ago, that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is that it was planted because I came to Hogwarts. This house" — Lupin looks miserably around the room — "the tunnel that leads to it — they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous.

"My transformations in those days were — were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor. . . . Even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it. . . .

"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black . . . Peter Pettigrew . . . and, of course, your father, Harry — James Potter.

"Now, my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her. . . . I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione, worked out the truth. . . .

"And they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."