The Brothers Black

Chapter 36

James helped Regulus and I back to what he explained to be the Shrieking Shack from Hogsmeade, and we sat around a kettle of tea that Hagrid lent the Mauraders. 

"You knew, didn't you?" asked James.

Regulus shifted his jaw. "Sirius went to the library for the first time in second year. As if that wasn't enough to make me suspicious, he started checking out books every week, all about magical creatures. I found his trunk packed with notebooks about werewolf cures that holiday break."

"You were watching him," I noted, not realizing I said it out loud until Regulus shot daggers at me with his eyes.

His gaze shifted to James. "I was not! Just, making sure he was okay. He's my brother, you know," Regulus grumbled.

James wasn't paying attention. "He was the one who came up with the idea, for us to become Animagi. To give Remus some company. It was all Sirius."

"I didn't know about the Animagi part," Regulus nodded, playing with his cup.  Sirius must've transformed at home, though. I've seen that dog around before."

"We had to practice," James said. "Addy, you must've seen me once or twice. Mum always gets mad when the deer eat her hydrangeas, but they taste great." 

I stared emptily into space. My brother, an part-time stag? One of my closest friends, a werewolf? All this happened under my nose for years, and I never even guessed it. I felt stupid.

James must have sensed my distress. "We couldn't tell you, Addy. It was better for it to be a secret."

"I wanted to tell you about Remus, too, but I didn't want you to go looking," Regulus said.

"I know," I sighed, looking up at their apologetic stares, ready to change the subject. "Will they be okay out there on their own?"

"Oh yeah," James nodded. "The first few times we had to control it, but now it knows us."

"It?" I asked.

"The werewolf," James explained. "They're racing around the forest right now, hunting rabbits and whatnot. Peter's less helpful, but Sirius and I can each handle it on our own. We usually both go, though, for the fun of it."

"The fun of it?" Regulus drawled. 

"It's a blast. Carry a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month, then you can transform and come with us, too."

As if on cue, the door opened to Sirius and Remus dragging a bruised, depleted Remus into the kitchen.

"Not a bad one, eh?" James said, walking over to ruffle Remus's hair.

The werewolf-boy mustered a loopy smile. "Not bad at all."

I jumped up, running over to the shivering boy laying on the floor. "Not bad? Remus, you have a fever and you look like you fell off the Astronomy Tower. Grab me those tea leaves, James. And he's bleeding all over his back. Are there bandages in here?"

Remus looked up at me in a dreamlike state. "Mom, leave me alone."

"So," Sirius released his grasp of Remus,  dusting himself off. Like the other boy, he was scraped and bruised all over, too. His voice was grave, in a manner that made me scared to respond. "Care to explain why you're here?"

"We followed you guys," I looked down. 

"Followed us?" James said. 

"I was mad at you all and sick of you knowing where we were all the time. We thought you were staging a prank, and we wanted to mess it up. It was a dumb idea, anyway."