I barely slept that night. How could I have? After all that new information and knowing that I was going to get more coming? It would have been impossible for the most sane person. When the sun finally rose in the morning, I got up, anxiously slipping on clothes and went down to breakfast. I knew that Remus must be in the hospital wing, if Dumbledore knew, Madam Pomfrey did too, she would be the only one to help him heal.
Just before I was about to head to see Remus, I stopped by my dormitory to grab a few chocolate frogs. I knew that those were his favourites. I then proceeded to walk towards the Hospital Wing but was stopped before I could enter.
"What the bloody hell is up with the three of you?" I exclaimed as they exited the Hospital Wing. James, Peter and Sirius were covered in scratches and bruises. I reached up to wipe away a drop of dry blood from Sirius' face and he flinched.
"Don't worry about it." He told me, taking ahold of my wrist and bringing it down to his side. I took it out of his hold. He was still not telling me the truth. What was this boy's problem.
"You know what? I don't want to know, It just better have not been the two of you having a row in your bedroom. Did you talk to Dumbledore?" I turned to James and asked him the most important question.
"Yeah, I went first thing this morning, and Snape's promised not to tell anyone." He told me.
"Good" I said, "Excuse me." I pushed past the three and entered the Wing, closing the door behind me before any of them could speak anymore. I immediately spotted Remus as the only occupied bed, closer to Madam Pomfrey's office. I started towards him with a smile on my face.
"I heard that you have a ill-behaved rabbit." I joked as soon as Remus noticed he had another visiter. I saw him crack a smile at my feeble attempt to make his situation all the better. It was true, there was a rumour going around that Remus had a badly behaved pet rabbit as James uses the term 'furry little problem' when ever he talks to Remus about what I now know as his lycanthropy condition. I took a seat on the edge of his bed and passed him the Chocolate Frogs.
"It is to my understanding that you now understand the extent of my illness." He said as he winced into a sitting position.
"I'm sorry that I found out that way, and not by you, when you were ready." I told him. A strange look crossed him face that I couldn't quite place.
"Well, sooner or later you would have figured it out, with all the time you're spending with Sirius. Now you can start to fear me like everyone else will as soon as Snape tells the rest of the school." He said, almost harshly. I was taken aback. I didn't recognize this mind, sitting in Remus' body, speaking for him.
"Remus, why would I fear you?" I asked him softly, afraid that he would explode if I pushed him too far.
"Because I'm a monster!" He exclaimed.
"Oh, get over yourself," I scoffed at his outbreak, "And eat your chocolate frog." I threw it at him. He stayed very still, shocked at how I had reacted towards his exclamation.
"But it's true." He mumbled as he opened the package of chocolate and quickly bit off the head.
"Remus, if you're a monster then I'm a freak. I'm not exactly the quietest person, or the most sane, we've all got our woes, but they don't make up who we are as a person. You are by far the kindest, smartest, and most well-rounded person I have ever known, who cares what skeleton you keep locked away?" I ask him before whispering, "Besides, we've all got one."
"You really think so?" He asked me, "And all the scars, you're not afraid of why or how I got them?" He continues, and I take a quick look at the fresh and healed cuts around his face and arms. Sure he's got a few, but it's never been the focal point.
"I think they give you character. If you're looking for someone to give you pity, then you've got the wrong girl here. I've seen enough to know that what you've got going for you isn't going to scare me away. I don't think any less of you, and I definitely am not going to treat you like a fragile doll." I told him, laughing slightly and smile when he gives into his own small chuckles.
"Thank you. You'd be the first, James and Sirius are always coddling me, making sure that I'm alright." He explained to me and I laugh. I could see James trying to tuck Remus into his bed, making sure he gets the right potions and care.
"Well, James' motherly instincts always come out when he's caring for someone he loves dearly." I quipped before getting up from his bed, "Get some rest, before those three lads come busting in and ruining all the quiet."
"Thanks for the chocolate." He said, finishing the frog.
"Anytime, and Remus," I paused, "Snape's not going to tell anyone, we made sure of it." I said, remembering what he had said earlier about Snape telling the whole school about his condition. He just smiled at me as I walked out of the hospital wing.
I spent the rest of that Sunday working on the rest of my homework, thankful that I had gotten my Transfiguration essay out of the way yesterday. Julia sat with me, trying to get me to share my essay with her so she only have to do half the work. After a while of her constant pleading and me saying no, she gave up and resorted to trying to figure it out herself.
"Eliza," Sirius had come up to my couch, "Can I talk to you, please." He asked me. I was having a really hard time ignoring him, but it hurt to know that he was lying to me all the time. I looked up at him, waiting for him to speak. He had cleaned up his face, and all of his cuts seemed to be healing.
"Can I talk to you alone?" He pressed and I signed, gathering my stuff and getting up.
"What is it?" I asked him as soon as we stepped out of the Common Room.
"Can we go for a walk outside?" He was asking another question instead of answering mine.
"Sirius, no, it's cold out, and I didn't bring a coat." I told him, trying to supress my annoyance.
"Please, it's important." His voice seemed to quiver, like he was close to breaking down, and I wasn't sure why. All he had to do was tell me the truth.
"Okay." I breathed out and let him take my hand, steering me towards the exit. When we got outside, the ground had solidified from last weeks rain, but the biting wind was still present.
"I don't want you to be mad at me." He said as we took a walk on the grass. I hesitated.
"I'm not mad at you," I said slowly, "I just hate it that you feel like you can't tell me anything. I'm not going to spill your secrets." He stopped us.
"I tell you everything, I promise, everything that pertains to me. But some secrets aren't mine to tell." He told me.
"I get it, Remus' secret was something that you couldn't tell me, but you have seemed so distant this last week, after detention, how many secrets could you be holding that don't pertain to you?" I asked him.
"I'm sorry, love, I really am, I would have told you in an instant, but you didn't know about Remus, and all the others relate to that one fact." He explained me as we stopped walking, "The thing is, Remus suffers a lot during the full moons, and since we've known from second year on, we've been trying to find any way to make it better for him." My heart twisted at that thought of Remus going through his painful transformations every month and at the sweet gesture that those boys had made.
"And did you?" I asked him. He didn't reply, but he took off his jacket and slung it around my shivering shoulders.
"Yeah, we did, during the summer before fifth year." He told me.
"Sirius, take your jacket back, you're going to freeze."
"No it's fine, I'm going to show you something anyways. When we were younger, we realized that the only way to help Remus make his time during the moon more pleasant, was to become things he wouldn't hurt. Werewolves are only dangerous to humans anyways." He gave me a smile and I started to put all this information together.
"Are you serious? Are you telling me that James, Peter and yourself became animagus?" I gasped before seeing Sirius turn himself into a large, black dog. His coat was scruffy, but soft and shiny as he barked and wagged his tail. It was hard not to laugh and love him even more. The dog was just so bloody cute. He hugged my side, warming my leg as I scratched behind his ears, looking out at the green around us, where we were in total private. I guess I really had nothing to worry about, when he didn't tell me his secret, after all how could I have known unless I knew about the other pieces to the puzzle. I had been over-reacting.
"I'm sorry I ever doubted you." I whispered as I bent down and looking into his eyes. It was hard to give an apology to a dog however, and I ended up giggling as he licked my face. Now that I knew this side of him, I felt like I knew every side of him. I stood back up and he turned back into himself. I pulled him in for a hug and kissed his cheek lightly.
"There's more you ought to know." He said as we walked back into the castle, hand in hand.
"How much more can you four keep secret?" I asked him, joking slightly but still completely shocked.
"James has an invisibility cloak, which we use to sneak out of the castle in, and we made a map that shows the whereabouts of everyone in the castle." He said all of this information quite fast and I had to shake my head to get it to focus on any of the words.
"So that's how you get all of those treats for the parties we throw in the Common Room." I said, almost laughing. James would be the kind of person to have an invisibility cloak.
"Yeah, it's almost too easy, with all of our tools." He winked at me and I rolled my eyes playfully.
"And this map, you made that too?" I asked him. He pulled me to the side of the corridor and pulled out a piece of parchment that I had seen them use before. Only every other time I had seen it, it was being whipped quickly out of my sight.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He tapped his wand at the parchment and I watched in wonder as ink blossomed onto its surface. When it had become fully inked, I saw little footprints of everyone in the castle. I quickly spotted ours as well and gave a little laugh at their genius.
"You boys really are Marauders!" I exclaimed, giggling as I watched for a while longer, as dots labelled James Potter and Lily Evans stood rather close to each other in a classroom. I took in the title of the map as well, 'The Marauders Map.' Very fitting.
"What are those names?" I asked him.
"Oh! Well, we made up nicknames for each other after we became animagi, just to, I don't know, solidify our friendship. Remus is Moony, Peter's Wormtail, I'm Padfoot, and James is Prongs." He explained to me as we continued to walk back to the Common Room. I guess that they related to their animagus and patronus'. Moony was obvious, and now was Padfoot, I wondered what James and Peter turned into.
"Thanks for telling me, Sirius. It really means a lot." I said to him as he said some more words that cleared the paper and stuffed it back into his pocket. He looked back at me and smiled.
"Anytime, Trouble." He winked, "Besides, now that I've told you everything, you can finally tell me what you hid so well in fifth year." He said as we walked into the Common Room. This time, there were a lot more people down, finishing up homework and relaxing with friends. It was only about a month and a half into term, but at least for the seventh years, we had a lot more homework than normal. I turned to Sirius once he had come through.
"That is a thrilling tale for next time." I said to him with a mischievous smirk and gave him a kiss. He started to protest my secret, but was quiet after a while. When we broke apart, he was smiling. Nothing could really damper my mood in this moment but as I looked over, my smile faded fast. Marlene had seen us kiss, and now she had tears in her eyes.
"Marlene? Marlene, wait!" I called after her as she tore her way up to our dormitory. What was wrong? Was it something I did?
Cheers to a great 2019 xx