Eleanor had no idea what to do. The three of them were staring down at her, waiting for a response, but she just couldn't think of anything to say.
"Well?" James pushed on.
She shook her head, "H-How- How did you-" then her eyes widened when she figured it out, "You!" she pointed at Sirius, "You followed me!"
"And I had my reasons!" he yelled, slamming his fist down on the table, "I knew something was up the moment you said you were going to pay Remus a visit!"
She buried her face in her hands, tears rolling down her cheeks. This was getting too much for her, this wasn't how she planned things to go. They were never supposed to know!
More Gryffindors were walking in and out of the common room, throwing annoyed glances at them. They had to go somewhere else.
Like the boys had been reading her thoughts, Peter got her bag, James grabbed her stuff from the table, and Sirius helped her out of her chair. They walked up a flight of stairs and she was sat down on a bed. Sirius sat down next to her.
"H-He'll never f-forgive me," she sobbed, shaking a little.
Sirius gulped and put an arm around her, "Hey, hey it's okay," he said softly, "I-I'm sorry if I scared you, Ella, that was a bit foolish," he bit his lip.
"You don't say," Peter mumbled.
James shot daggers at him with his eyes, "Yeah, I also want to apologize, Ella, I was being a bit of a git," he sat down on his bed.
She looked up, not even bothered to dry her tears. Their dorm was an absolute mess. Clothes were everywhere, literally everywhere; on their beds, on the floor, on top of their desks, even on the windowsill. Not to mention their school supplies.
"It looks like a pigsty in here," she said in between tears.
"Hey, hey, that's our pigsty you're talking about okay?" Sirius said in an offended tone, which made her chuckle.
Sirius grinned, "Ah, see, she can laugh again!"
She smiled and shook her head.
She sighed, "How did you even find out?" she asked, looking at Sirius.
"Well, when I told you in the Library that Remus had left you said you were going to visit him," he explained, pulling his arm away from her, "Which was strange, because Remus had told us your mum had fallen ill again, and he was going home to look after her with your dad."
Eleanor had a moment of realization and then nodded, "So you followed me to the Hospital Wing and eavesdropped on Madam Pomfrey and I talking."
"Exactly," said Sirius.
The four of them fell silent.
"How did it happen? You know - the thing," Peter asked softly
"Er, well," she cleared her throat, grabbing the attention of the others again, "When Remus was about five, dad had a case on Fenrir Greyback, who supposedly had murdered two children, but he portrayed himself as an innocent Muggle tramp. Only dad knew what he really was and he said 'the only thing werewolves deserved was death'," she gulped, "So when Greyback was released because there was no hard evidence on him, he took revenge on my father and he attacked Remus in the middle of the night."
James looked down at his feet, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
"Merlin..." Sirius whispered, "That's horrible," he looked up at Eleanor, who had been staring ahead of her all this time.
"I don't understand why he didn't just tell us though, instead of coming up with those excuses every month," James frowned.
"Well, it's quite obvious isn't it?" she said, "He's scared you'll leave him, and don't want to be his friends anymore." She wiped the last tears from her face.
"That's ridiculous," Sirius said, furrowing his eyebrows, "It's not his fault he's a- a werewolf. He's just the same old Remus to us," he shrugged.
Eleanor smiled.
Peter nodded in agreement, "Yeah, who cares? He's our friend."
James nodded as well, "And we'll do anything to help him get through it. Every month." he looked up with a serious face.
"I really don't understand you guys," she chuckled, shaking her head.
"How do you mean?" Sirius asked her, sounding amused.
"Well, first you're fooling around all day, and the next minute you're discussing very serious matters like mature people," she said.
James made a puking sound, "Did she just say, ma- mature?!"
Sirius stared at her in horror, "I think she did... Quick! Do something stupid!" he panicked.
Eleanor burst out in laughter as she watched James jump from his bed to grab a dungbomb and throw it down the stairs into the common room. He waited for the sounds of disgusted people before closing the door with a proud grin on his face.
"Phew, I feel much better now," Sirius sighed in relief.
"So the full moon's tonight," said Peter, who wasn't impressed by their sudden actions.
Eleanor nodded, "He's always like this on those days, that's why he made up those excuses all the time," she explained.
"So your mother's fine?" Sirius looked at her.
She smiled en nodded.
"I-I'm sorry for asking so many questions, Ella," Peter said shyly.
"Oh no, go ahead, it's fine. I think I'm more willing to answer them than Remy," she smiled gently at the blonde boy.
Peter nodded, "What do you do when he well, has to transform at home?"
"We have a basement. You could say it's reinforced. Dad puts a lot of spells on it so we for example can't hear him. He stays with Remus the entire time though, protected by charms of course," she explained, thinking about the situation back home.
She had been in their basement once, after a really bad night, and their father hadn't cleaned the room yet. Eleanor would never unsee the bloodstains and scratch marks on the walls.
"But then, where does he go when he's here at Hogwarts?" James asked, frowning.
So Eleanor told them what Remus had explained to her just the other day, and the three boys found it pretty cool that there was a secret passageway out of Hogwarts.
"We have one slight issue now," Sirius said, "How are we going to tell Remus we know about his furry little problem?"
Eleanor laughed, "Furry little problem, that's the best one I've heard so far."
Sirius grinned.
"Well, there's no point in hiding it, we should just tell him whenever he gets back from the Hospital Wing," James suggested.
They all nodded.
"I hope he doesn't get too mad at me," she mumbled.
"I bet he'll take it just fine," Sirius reassured her.
Eleanor smiled and grabbed her stuff.
"I, er, better get back, I'm not supposed to be here anyway," she raised her eyebrows.
"Why," Sirius smirked, "Because it's a boys' dorm?"
She blushed slightly, "Well, yeah."
With that, she opened the door and went down to the common room. Because nobody was there, she assumed it was time for dinner already, so she left her stuff on the table in the corner and headed down to the Great Hall. She sat down next to Kathy.
"Oh, there you are," the girl smiled at her, "I haven't seen you all day. Where have you been?"
Eleanor filled her plate, "Oh, you know, walking around the castle, getting some fresh air," she lied.
She looked up as the three boys sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"Oh, I'm hungry as a wolf," James groaned.
"Yeah me too, howl about a nice steak?" Sirius added, grinning.
Eleanor rolled her eyes, wishing she could take back what she said earlier because these two would never grow up.
But deep down, she knew she didn't really mind it.