Ara was sitting in Potions, listening to Professor Slughorn drone on and on about the uses of Bicorn horn, when three troublemakers stumbled into the classroom.
"Sorry we're late," they apologized, taking their seats.
Slughorn glared at them, but otherwise continued with the lesson. It's not like they were learning anything useful. Lily had told Ara that they had learned all about Bicorn horn in their second year. Ara had already read about its uses in a book.
"Where's Remus?" Ara whispered to Lily.
"I dunno, probably sick again," Lily shrugged indifferently.
"What do you mean again? When was he sick last?"
"Merlin, why do you care so much. I guess he was sick about a month ago. James said in a letter that Remus was under the weather so he couldn't come school supplies shopping with us," she raised an eyebrow suspiciously, then smirked.
"What?" Ara questioned. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Oh, nothing. You just seem very worried about him."
"There's nothing wrong with being worried about him," Ara snapped. "He is our friend after all."
Lily raised her hands in mock surrender, "I didn't say there was anything wrong with it."
Ara zoned out for the rest of class, deep in thought. She had already figured out that Remus was a werewolf. In fact, she was a bit disappointed in herself that she hadn't figured it out sooner. Was Remus undergoing a werewolf transition? Where? There was no way he could do it in he castle. It would cause too much noise and she couldn't imagine the alarm it would bring up in parents. Ara decided that she was just going to have to ask James, Sirius, and Peter about it.
The bell rang and everyone shuffled out of the Potions classroom. The Gryffindors had a free period before lunch, so Ara caught up with her friends and followed them down to the lake. They lounged under a tree, watching the clouds lazily drift across the sky.
Ara desperately wanted to talk to the boys, but she didn't want to bring anything up about Remus while Lily and Mary were around. Sure, Lily could've been covering for Remus when she said he was sick, but Ara happened to be pretty good at picking out lies.
"So, where's Remus? Our dear Ara was very worried about him," Lily teased.
"He woke up with a pretty bad stomach bug," James said, not missing a beat.
Ara uncovered several truths from this statement: This was a lie. Remus wasn't at the school. He was close by, but not on campus.
"Our Beauxbatons beauty was worried, huh? Interesting," Sirius spoke, stroking a fake beard.
Two more discoveries: Sirius, James, and Peter had just visited Remus this morning. Also, he was somewhere in Hogsmeade.
Mary laughed, "Come on guys, leave her alone. Look, she's red from embarrassment."
Ara wasn't red from embarrassment though, color had risen to her cheeks from thinking so hard.
"I've got to run to the library to grab a book before lunch. Anyone want to come?" Lily asked, standing up and grabbing her bag.
"I'll come. Professor McGonagall recommended a book for me," Mary said, getting up as well.
"Ara, you wanna come?" Lily offered.
Ara did want to go to the library. The other day she saw a book that caught her eye, but unfortunately she had reached the maximum on books she could check out. This was a perfect opportunity to talk to the boys, though, so she politely turned them down.
"I'm alright. You guys go ahead."
"Ara's turning down a trip to the library? Never thought we'd see that happen," Peter joked.
"No kidding," James chuckled.
Once Lily and Mary were a good distance away, Ara scooted closer to the boys.
"Listen, I need to talk to you guys about something."
The three friends exchanged looks of worry.
"Alright, what is it?" Sirius asked.
"Remus."
They were all extremely well practiced in hiding their friend's secret. Ara, being who she was, saw right through their convincing masks.
"What about him? You want to know who he likes?" James inquired, smirking.
"No, don't be stupid. It's much more serious than that."
Remus liked someone? Who? Focus, Ara reminded herself.
Ara lowered her voice to barely a whisper, "I know that Remus is a werewolf."
She expected looks of horror and shock, maybe even a gasp. But all she got were blank stares. Sirius even looked amused. Ara was so surprised by their reaction, that for just a second she doubted her suspicions.
"What makes you think that?" Sirius asked.
She took a second to collect her thoughts, "I like to read people, remember? And in Divination I saw a full moon in the crystal ball and an image of a werewolf, rat, dog, and stag. Remus is the werewolf, Peter is the rat, Sirius is the dog, and James is the stag. It can't be a coincidence that Remus has been 'sick' two months in a row. Lily told me about how he wasn't able to go school supplies shopping with you."
Ara was sure she'd gotten to them this time, but their expressions didn't change. She knew that they were keeping a secret from her. Why couldn't they just admit it?
"I don't know what to tell you. Apparently you've had your first wrong prediction,"James shrugged.
Ara was about to burst with frustration. Did they not realize she saw straight through their little act?
"What about the crystal ball, then? The four animals? I know you're all Animagi," Ara whispered harshly.
And there it was. Just for a second. Peter's calm expression flickered. Ara met his large brown eyes and stared intensely. Peter flinched.
"I'm sorry, Ara. I don't know what you're talking about," James said calmly. His face held the same confused look, yet she could feel his anger at Peter radiating off of him.
"Look. I know you're all lying and I'm not going to tell anyone, okay? I think it's wonderful that you all turn yourself into animals and go down to Hogsmeade to visit him. Only the most loyal group of friends would be willing to do that," Ara complimented.
Then the mistake she had been waiting for came.
"How'd you know he was in Hogmeade?" James asked, incredulous. Potter realized his mistake as soon as he'd said it. He stuttered frantically, trying to recover.
Sirius punched James hard in the shoulder.
"You idiot! Look what you've done!" Sirius whispered as angrily as he could.
"She already knew anyway," Peter offered, defending James.
"Shut it," Sirius seethed at Peter.
Pettigrew shrank away and it reminded Ara of a rat.
Now James was angry as well. "How'd you know all that?" he demanded. "How'd you know about our Animagi forms? Who are you? Some entitled girl from Beauxbatons who thinks she can come and mess up our system?"
Potter looked apologetic as soon as he'd said it. He looked down and sighed, running a hand through his messy black hair.
"I'm sorry, okay? It's just, it's hard. I don't want Remus to get hurt. I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at myself for giving it away. I didn't mean it," James apologized.
Ara smiled, "It's alright. I don't really know how I know. Things just come to me and they make sense. I don't really know how to explain it."
They were all silent for a moment.
"Now what?" Sirius asked.
"Don't tell Remus. We should be the ones to tell him and obviously it shouldn't be right now," James said.
"Wait, but I want to come with you guys," Ara pleaded.
The idea was shot down before she could even finish speaking.
"Absolutely not! Remus would go insane! He's already angry at us for putting ourselves in danger!" Sirius exclaimed.
But Ara had all the information she needed. The boys weren't going to visit Remus tonight because they had quidditch practice later and Peter wouldn't go by himself. All Ara had to do to get to the Shrieking Shack (yes, she now knew the exact location) was go through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.
How difficult could it be?
~~~~~
A/N: I feel like these chapters are really boring. I hope they're not. I just really love writing dialogue. The next chapter should be pretty exciting.
The Fever Code came out today!! I'm so excited!!! I've been waiting so long!!!
Thanks for reading! (: