Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Twenty-Seven- The Shrieking Shack

"Oi, what's the matter, mate?" asked James, for they were now, fortunately, all talented enough to alternate lighting the tip of their wands to avoid blindly stumbling in the dark. But unfortunately, that meant they had seen Remus go deathly pale and fall against the wall with eyes wide with terror.

"Come on Remus, you're as bad as Peter! Honestly, it's not like the ghosts can get you," Sirius grumbled

"Hey, I'm not afraid of ghosts!"

"No, but you're afraid of Peeves."

"So are you!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are too!" added James, all eyes off Remus who was trying to calm down.

Remus suddenly felt a surge of anger rush and sink into him. Dumbledore hadn't said anything about this. He had no idea that people had been able to hear him! He should have been told! They shouldn't be able to hear him! Maybe something had gone wrong during the last full moon? How long had this been going on?

"Remus."

"Remus!"

"Oi, LUPIN!"

He jumped realizing his three roommates' eyes were on him.

"What's wrong? You look dreadful?"

"You allergic to chocolate? Or did you eat too much of it?"

"M...must...of...," he stammered, glad for an out. He put an arm around his stomach as if that was the cause of his distress. Sirius shot him a weird look but soon became preoccupied in fighting back James who had already eaten all his candy and now wanted the candy he had given to Sirius.

"Back off mate, they're mine!"

Remus trailed behind the three, thoughts racing all the way back to the dorm. They tried to drag him into the conversation again but realized he was in one of his "withdrawn moods." Sirius came up with the title to goad him into speaking. It never worked though, because at those moments Remus had much bigger worries on his mind than whether his roommates found him temperamental and antisocial or not.

They let him go to bed without complaint and he listened to them whisper about him and his weird behavior once they thought he had fallen asleep. Hours later and still unable to sleep, Remus got out of bed and left the room and his three fast-asleep roommates with it. He paced the common room, trying to wrap his head about what he had learned.

Shame filled him thinking about how people had heard him...heard him screaming and howling like some beast. That they had contributed it to some occult ritual the ghosts had every full moon wasn't exactly comforting. How long until people realized what was in the shed weren't ghosts at all but a werewolf? Why, oh why had Dumbledore let this happen? He was one of the most powerful wizards of their day. Surely he could make the shed soundproof if he wished.

It took him about another half hour of pacing before he realized there was an easy solution to this, well sort of. He allowed his anger to carry him through the halls of Hogwarts and up to Dumbledore's office, who had given him the passcode for the next month in case he needed him for an emergency. Well in his anxiety-riddled brain, this indeed seemed like an emergency and at the moment he was too upset to be worried about bothering the Headmaster.

It didn't surprise him to walk into the office and find himself alone. So he paced back and forth, finding himself angrier than he had been when he first had to adjust to being a werewolf, being a monster. One that people were laughing at and telling ghost stories about.

It wasn't fair!

"Mr. Lupin, is everything alright?" Dumbledore asked, appearing into thin air in the center of the room with a slight 'pop.'