Of course, Madam Pomfrey was completely confounded by Remus’s blemish-free night in the shack.
“Amazing!” She kept repeating, “Completely amazing…”
Remus fobbed her off with some mad theory that he was ‘maturing’, and that must account for it. She didn’t seem convinced, but the sweet nurse was just so pleased to find him unharmed that she didn’t ask any questions about it. She kept him in the infirmary to sleep through Sunday, but by midday he felt as alert and energetic as he did when the moon was waning.
“I’ve no reason to keep you here,” Madam Pomfrey smiled, still not quite believing it. “I don’t believe in cluttering up my ward with healthy patients.”
Remus practically skipped back to Gryffindor tower, taking the stairs two steps at a time. He was unsurprised to find the marauders all in bed still, though James and Peter were showing signs of life.
“All right, Moony?” James smiled sleepily, pulling back his bed curtains at the sound of the dormitory door.
“All right,” Remus whispered back, not wanting to wake Sirius. He hated having his sleep interrupted at the best of times, and today Remus really felt he deserved a lie in. Plus, ‘you were beautiful’ had been ringing in Remus’s ears all day, and he wasn’t sure yet how he would ever be able to speak to Sirius again.
“Pomfrey say anything?”
“Nah, she can’t work out what she did differently. We got away with it.”
“Great!” James yawned, “We’ll have to get some ‘pepper up’ pills or something for next time - it’s a Monday.”
“You don’t have to do it every month…”
“Shuddup, Moony,” Peter called out, groggily, “We’ll do whatever we like.”
Remus smiled to himself, collected his books and crept down to the common room so as not to disturb them any further.
“Remus!” Marlene cried, “Thank goodness, I am so stuck on this stupid History question…”
“Which one did you pick?” Remus settled down at a desk with the girls. “Goblin rebellion?”
“Troll uprising.” Marlene sighed mournfully. “I thought it would be easier.”
“Mmm,” Remus replied, sifting through his notes to see what he had on the troll uprising. He found trolls pretty dull, himself, but he had dutifully taken down everything Professor Binns had said. Even though Sirius had been passing notes all the way through that lesson.
Beautiful. Beautiful. What did that mean? It was a good thing, obviously. A word that could only ever be positive. But Sirius had said it. Worse, he had said it about Remus’s wolf form. So, it might mean any number of things – Remus had created a shortlist in his head.
For example, ‘you were beautiful’ might mean:
“You were beautiful last night, as a wolf, but you are not beautiful this morning as a human.”
“You were beautiful last night because I was a dog, and dogs are in a good position to judge canine beauty.”
“I am telling you that you were beautiful, even though it isn’t true, because I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“I think you are beautiful all the time and would very much like to snog you.”
Remus was willing to admit that option 4 was the least likely. He finally found the notes and passed them to Marlene.
“Skim through and let me know if you get stuck. Some of it’s a bit confusing, but I’ve got some good tricks for remembering the key dates.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Remus!” Marlene gushed, looking relieved.
