Monday 18th January 1976
Remus Lupin had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the Forbidden Forest at any other time of the month. Care of Magical Creatures had given him a healthy respect for the beasts who lived there, and he was inclined to give them a wide berth.
The wolf clearly felt otherwise. James and Sirius - or rather, Prongs and Padfoot as they were now known - had very little trouble leading the werewolf out of the shack and into the green velvet darkness of the woods. Remus’s memories of the full moons were much better than they ever had been - but still not quite human, and therefore less complete. He remembered scents, shapes, noises and even tastes, sometimes.
“We can’t stop you chasing rabbits if you want to chase rabbits,” James shrugged, when Remus woke up that morning distressed by the blood on his tongue. “You seemed pretty happy about it at the time.”
“It was bloody good fun,” Sirius put in, licking his own lips.
“You were encouraging me!” Remus accused, pulling his trousers on underneath his blanket. “You ought to know better, you have self control!”
“Yeah,” Sirius shrugged, “But when I’m a dog, I’m a dog. It’s what we do.”
That was Sirius all over. Have all the fun and take no responsibility.
“Don’t worry, Moony,” James yawned, “We wouldn’t ever let you hurt a person. And you did have fun, I promise.”
He didn't need James to tell him that. As much as the human Remus prefered to remain aloof, and separate himself from those baser instincts the wolf represented, he couldn’t wait for the next moon.
“You’d better be off,” he yawned back, “See if you can get a bit of kip before breakfast.”
“Yeah, all right,” James nodded sleepily, “See ya, Moony.”
“Bye Prongs.”
‘Prongs’ had been a stroke of genius one afternoon, when Peter had forgotten the word for ‘antlers’. They’d all laughed so hard the name had stuck. Remus wasn’t sure where ‘Padfoot’ had come from. Likely a private joke between James and Sirius. Anyway, it made sense, and they had settled into their new names comfortably, sealing them into the marauder’s map.
Madam Pomfrey gave him the once over when he arrived, then just sent him on his way.
“I don’t even need the stretcher anymore,” she marvelled, “And you’ve got a good colour in your cheeks. Rest this morning, but if you're feeling up to it you may as well attend your afternoon lessons.”
He felt terrible for lying to her about the reason for his miraculous recoveries, but it couldn’t be helped.
Remus managed to sleep through the rest of the morning, and awoke a bit too early for lunch. He went down to the common room to sit by an open window and smoke while he went over his history notes for the afternoon. All things considered, he thought to himself, other than the Sirius problem, life was going pretty well.
Sirius had bungled an apology, about the Astronomy Tower incident - Remus heavily suspected this was a result of a conference with James.
“Sorry, Moony, I should have checked with you, or used the map or something, I know you hate all that girl stuff, and I know you’ve done loads to keep us out of trouble this year…”
Remus had put on a great show of mulling this apology over, then forgiving his friend, because anything else would have been highly suspicious. He was mortified when even Mary came to offer her own apology, and spluttered that he hadn’t minded in the least.
