fatal love

Chapter 12

The room sat in a shocked silence. Then, all at once, James and Peter burst into questions.

"You're a werewolf ?"

"You're a werewolf?"

"Since when?"

"Is that where your scars come from?"

"Does Dumbledore know?"

"Do your parents know?"

At that last one, Remus looked at James in disbelief. "Yes, James... Obviously my parents know? How could I possibly hide something like that from them?"

"I dunno, you hid it from us!"

"Hey, don't get mad at him!" Sirius jumped in. "He didn't have to tell us anything."

"That wasn't your attitude last year," Peter pointed out, and Sirius chose to ignore him. Bloody Peter, always pointing out when he was being illogical.

"What's it like?" asked James, "do you have any cool powers?"

"Uh... I guess I have a pretty good sense of smell?"

"Awesome!"

Finally, Remus started to smile. "You have a weird definition of awesome, Potter."

"So what's it like, really?" asked Peter, "being a werewolf?"

"I mean... not good. Transformations hurt like a bitch, and I'm terrified of hurting someone. But I was bitten when I was five, so I can't even really remember not being one."

"You were five ?" gasped Sirius.

"Mhm."

The room was silent for another minute, as Sirius imagined what it must have been like, to be attacked by a werewolf at only five years old. And to have gone through a transformation every month since.

"Dumbledore does know," Remus continued, "He set me up with a safe place to transform every month. But when I'm a wolf, I still want to attack, I guess. So I scratch myself. Magic won't heal the scars, they come from a Dark Creature."

The room nodded as they digested this information.

"So you guys are like... okay with this?" Remus asked in disbelief. "You're not... scared of me, or hating me or anything?"

James stood up and strode over to Remus, clasping a hand on his shoulder. "Remus, you're a Marauder. A little bit of lycanthropy isn't going to change that."

The next week involved a huge amount of werewolf puns, that Remus did not find amusing.

"But your name is literally Wolfy McWolf, " Sirius laughed one day as they walked to Herbology. "It's like destiny!"

"It is a very unfortunate coincidence," Remus groused. "My dad thought he was being clever."

"Come on, you've got to give me this! You've been making serious/Sirius jokes for months now!"

"And those are real comedy! You're just using my suffering for cheap wordplay!"

"Cheap?" Sirius gasped, mock-affronted, "It's not cheap! I put a lot of thought into those jokes!"

"Well, I think that says more about your intelligence than anything else."

"James, help!" Sirius cried dramatically. "Remus is being mean to me!"

"Don't worry," James laughed, "he's all bark and no bite."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Oh, for the love of God..."