James Potter
Saturday, 17th February 1973.
Hogwarts
On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, James and Sirius bragged about their perfectly executed prank to one another. They kept retelling the event even though both of them were there and saw what had happened. Needless to say, they were quite satisfied with the outcome, especially the part when Slughorn accused Snape of always mentioning James.
They just stepped onto the seventh floor. James was laughing about the ink mark on Snape's nose, but then he remembered what happened before the Slughorn part. Snape tried to hex him.
"By the way, did you hear what spell Snivellus tried to use?", James asked Sirius. He remembered the anger on his friend's face, so he was quite sure that Sirius knew what spell it actually was.
Just like back at the Restricted Section last year, Sirius had a disgusted tone to his voice while he answered James' question, "He used the Knee Reversal Hex. I read about it back at the house. It would have hurt like hell if he managed to hit you with that one."
The disgusted voice now made sense to James. Not all of them, but some hexes had dark magical roots and, from the look on Sirius' face, James was quite sure that Knee Reversal Hex was one of them.
"Thanks for saving me.", James said while ignoring Sirius' tone. He didn't want to say anything about it and ruin the happiness from their revenge.
"Any time.", said Sirius, now with a smile, while bumping his and James' shoulders.
The two entered the dorm only to be met with sleepy Peter, "Hey Pete. Where's Remus?", James asked once he noticed Remus' empty bed. The two pranksters wanted to tell everything about their revenge to their friends and Remus missing wasn't part of their plan.
"Hospital Wing.", Peter said as he put some shoes on to go and have dinner. The small boy threw one glance towards the end of the dorm and, naturally, James followed his gaze. It fell on a half-finished portrait of some aristocratic-looking man. James' attention was back on Peter once the boy spoke, "You two coming?"
James knew that there was a possibility of them missing dinner since they didn't know exactly when Snape will show up, so he came up with a plan to make sure him and Sirius didn't starve.
"Nah, we brought some food from lunch. We can share it if you're too tired to go down?", Sirius offered while gesturing to the trays full of sandwiches on his and James' desks.
Peter shook his head, "No, thanks. I'm gonna go insane if I spend one more minute in this room.", he said with a shiver and then left the dorm for dinner.
James saw Sirius shrugging and taking a seat at the desk, but then Sirius turned to him, "You joining?"
He was still stood near the door, "Yeah, but I'll first go and return those library books we left in the common room. We can't leave any traces behind.", James winked at Sirius while grabbing the door handle.
"Suit yourself.", the curly haired boy said as he took a huge bite of the sandwich.
James slipped out of the dorm and closed the door. He strode downstairs, still very satisfied with the prank they did. The books were right where they left them, at the table closest to the fireplace. James knew that there was seven books in total, so he just counted them and made his way to the Library.
Needless to say, Madam Pince didn't look pleased to see him, but, once she saw that he was bringing her precious books back, her face relaxed. James wanted to take advantage of this slightly positive reaction from her, so, once she checked the books, he offered to put them back in place.
Library was one of the most important rooms to the Marauders, so making the librarian a fan of them was the top priority. This was the first time that James saw a chance to make Madam Pince like them, so, naturally, he had to take it.
She smiled at him for the first time. Yes, actually smiled. James saw this as a huge victory so putting some books back in place was nothing compared to the progress he had just made with Madam Pince.
Contrary to the Restricted Section, the main library was organized by topics. James went to the spell section and then searched for charms bookcase. He returned the Annoying Charms and their usages and C for Charms. Then he found the transfiguration bookcase and returned Transfiguration: Human Body, From Toenails to Birds and Written Guide to Transfigurational Ugliness. Finally, he found the jinxes bookcase and returned Jinxes for Jinxters.
The only problem with this was that James was left with another book in his hands. It didn't look familiar to him, he was actually quite sure that he never saw this book in his life before now, so James turned it over to look at the title.
"Full Moon with ...", he read in a whisper. Why was Sirius researching werewolves? Didn't he and James decide to leave that adventure for sixth year? And his dad already engraved their brooms so there was no need for Sirius to continue this research.
"Odd...", James said to himself while he neared the Magical Creatures section of the Library. He found the Dark Creatures bookcase and placed the book on the first free space he saw.
There was a slight white light showering the end of the bookcase. It was coming from a nearby window, so James curiously turned towards it to see the light's source.
The full moon was shining brightly, lighting up the Hogwarts grounds. The only part that was still pitch black was the Forbidden Forest. Some sadness overtook James.
There must be hundreds of werewolves suffering tonight, he thought to himself. His mom told him about one wizard she used to take care of back when she still worked as a Healer. James knew just how awful it must be for the poor people who got bitten or who were born with lycanthropy on days like today. When he thought about it in this way, his and Sirius' adventure to find a real werewolf seemed quite silly.
He propped his elbows on the window seal and placed his head in his hands. Full moon just stared innocently back at him, like it wasn't currently creating the most insufferable scenarios for who knows how many people. James just couldn't understand why no one came up with some solution for this. They were wizards after all, there must be something they could do to help werewolves.
Wizards usually don't care about the suffering of werewolves. They look at them as inferiors.
Euphemia's words echoed in his head and James took off his glasses to rub at his eyes. It was just so unfair to look at someone like they were below you only for something they couldn't control. There must be something, he thought to himself, but nothing came to his mind.
If it was this frustrating for him to think about how unfair wizards were to werewolves, James didn't even want to know how people who suffered from lycanthropy really felt.
He sighed defeatedly and turned away from the glowing sphere decorating the night sky. Then he said goodbye to Madam Pince and left the Library. Since he was still lost in thoughts, James mistakenly took the left moving staircase instead of right one. This resulted in him standing on the platform that faced the descending staircases instead of ascending ones which he needed to go back to the Gryffindor Tower on the seventh floor.
Another sigh escaped his mouth. Just as he was about to turn around and go back, the staircase he used to get there moved, leaving him stranded on the platform and with no other way than going down.
Maybe I can visit Remus since this stupid staircase won't let me go up, he thought to himself as he took a step forward.
Soon, James was outside the Hospital Wing. The doors were wide open, but he still knocked just to ensure that Madam Pomfrey won't yell at him, "Hello?", his words echoed in the seemingly empty room. One bed was occupied with drawn curtains, but the one Remus always used was empty.
He probably wanted a change of scenery, James thought, Who could blame him.
Since nobody said anything to James' previous attempt at announcing himself, he figured that Madam Pomfrey must be in the Great Hall having dinner.
James neared the only occupied bed, "Remus! I know that you are bored, so it is your lucky day! I wanted to go back to the Tower, but the stupid staircase changed and then—"
But James' words died in his throat once he withdrew the curtains. He was met with sleeping Bertram Aubrey, a fourth year Slytherin who he and Sirius hexed for calling James a blood traitor couple of days ago. Merlin, they even got double detention for that from McGonagall.
James wanted to laugh seeing as Aubrey's head was still twice its size, but the laughter never came. Before his brain could even process the laugh, James realized what this meant.
Where was Remus?
James turned around to check if maybe he didn't see some occupied bed, but no. Besides him and Aubrey, the Hospital Wing was completely empty.
Maybe he went back to the dorm, James tried to justify the absence of his ill friend, but deep down he didn't really believe this. Nonetheless, he turned around and left the Hospital Wing.
James finally got onto the right staircase and started to climb up, back to the Gryffindor Tower. His brain was half worried half confused about Remus so he tried to push away the thoughts of the tall boy. You'll see him in the dorm.
In an attempt to forget about his missing friend, James' mind wondered back to the mysterious book Sirius had next to his bed. Why is he still researching werewolves?
The staircase James was currently on started to move, so he got ahold of the railing and waited. Once they finally stopped, James found himself next to a stained-glass window. Even through it, he could easily see the full moon shining brightly.
Maybe he and the Marauders can come up with something to help the werewolves once they leave Hogwarts. They were on top of their year after all. Okay, maybe not Pete, but he was still smart, he just didn't try hard enough for his grades. They found numerous of secret passageways in just year and a half and they did some really amazing pranks. Merlin, they were even in the process of creating a literal map of Hogwarts, something that probably no one else has even attempted.
Why couldn't they be the ones to finally help the werewolves? Plus, Remus was really creative when it came to pranks, so there was no doubt in James' mind that the tall boy could think of something no one else still has.
If anyone can find a solution to this it is Remus. It's a bummer that he is ill almost every month—
James' train of thought stopped. Wait...
Remus is ill almost every month... Sirius, for some reason, became obsessed with werewolves...
The conversation they had at the end of September came back into James' mind.
"I... Well, yes... I mean no, I feel ill... I told you guys... at breakfast, didn't I?", Remus stuttered. James could swear that sweat started to form on his forehead.
He thought back to breakfast, but there was no recollection of Remus mentioning anything about being ill, "I don't think you—"
"YEAH! You said it to me while James and Peter were talking about that giggling powder.", Sirius yelled from his bed.
James let go of the topic then, but later that night he came to the conclusion that the giggling powder conversation happened the day before.
James could swear that the world was spinning, or maybe it was just the staircase moving again. He wasn't really sure for how long he didn't move. James clutched more tightly on the railing, but another scene appeared in his head. This one was from the end of the Christmas break.
"What are you doing?", James said as he entered the Potter library. Sirius immediately shut the book he was reading, "Nothing. Just... research.", he said, but James saw him looking at his rings which indicated that Sirius was lying. He got comfortable in his chair, "About?"
"Just on... how to... ehm... engrave our brooms! Yeah! We can write Marauders on them.", Sirius said, but James' eyes fell on the book title, "You are researching how to engrave a broom in Dark Creatures and their Anatomy?"...
"Do you want to engrave our brooms or not?", Sirius questioned impatiently.
"Yeah", there was a pause, "So where do we find a werewolf?"
"No idea, mate.", Sirius said coolly while closing The Mystery of Werewolves and their Transformations with another loud thud.
When the Hogwarts castle finally came back into his view, James found himself sitting on the moving staircase while still clutching on the railing. He let go of the railing, took his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes. As soon as James calmed himself down, his brain managed to process what he actually discovered.
"Shit...", James whispered breathlessly.
His friend is a werewolf and his other friend knows.
Some new strength appeared inside James as he quickly got up which made him quite dizzy. After another calming session he ran up the stairs. James almost got caught in one of the sinking steps, but he was running so fast that his foot didn't even sink all the way in. The portrait of the Fat Lady was in front of him in no time.
"Password?", she asked.
"Hippogriff!", James yelled while trying to catch his breath.
The Fat Lady huffed, "No need to yell—"
"Open the freaking door!", James wasn't exactly in the mood to wait.
The portrait seemed to figure this out since the door opened immediately, allowing James to run through the common room.
"Potter! No running!", Anthony yelled, but James wasn't planning on listening. He briefly wondered if Anthony will give him detention, but then he heard Frank's voice in the distance, "Leave him. He seems upset."
James thanked Merlin for Frank Longbottom.
He barged into his dorm and was met only with Sirius which just confirmed his suspicions.
"You alright?", Sirius asked him. He was going through his nightstand, searching for something, his sandwich tray now empty.
"I know what you know.", was all James said before he slammed the door shut and charmed them locked.