Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 17: Discovery

Remus didn't respond right away. He couldn't respond. He just allowed all the dread in his chest to fall down and settle into a growing pit in his stomach.

"W– what?" His voice cracked, this time from plain fear more than anything. His mind ran circles trying to figure out how to get out of this, how to lie his way to safety. One thing was for sure, though: he had to find out what Tobin knew before he said anything else.

"You're a werewolf. An actual, real werewolf..." Remus may have misread Tobin's expression. The boy looked more fascinated than scared, but this added no comfort to an already disastrous situation.

"What the hell are you on about?"

"You see it was Jethro who noticed it, but he didn't really care. But I did some reading on it, and, well..." He looked awkward, his previous excitement disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.

"What?" Remus asked, hoping his encouragement wasn't mistaken for confirmation that what Tobin was saying was true.

"I... well, I sort of followed you. Last night." Oh God... this was worse than Remus could have imagined. Tobin saw him?

"What do you mean you followed me? I didn't see you following me." Perhaps Tobin was bluffing, trying to trick Remus into confessing. It wasn't exactly easy to follow a werewolf and go unnoticed the whole time, and Remus was sure that he and Hagrid had been the only two outside.

"Well... let's just say that's James isn't exactly careful about hiding the fact that he's got an invisibility cloak." That added up. James was as careful as could be, but sometimes he slipped up. He'd be talking to Remus and Sirius and fail to notice if someone entered the room. Remus could even remember when James was telling him about a prank he was planning with the cloak, when Tobin had walked in a few seconds before and had almost definitely heard every word. Remus hadn't said anything at the time. He'd let it go and forgotten about it, mainly because he hadn't expected Tobin to be so sneaky. Remus hadn't received that impression from him, but apparently he was wrong. Instead the boy went behind people's backs to steal things and follow people. It was rather unnerving to say the least.

And whatever the case, if Tobin had taken the invisibility cloak to follow him, then surely that meant Tobin was telling the truth...

No. No, he could still be bluffing. Just because he knew about the invisibility cloak didn't mean he actually used it.

"You're lying," accused Remus. "You couldn't have seen anything because there's nothing to see—"

"There's no point. I already saw. I got out of the forest just after you turned into a wolf. Or a werewolf. You didn't look like an actual wolf, your legs are too long."

"You're insane," concluded Remus. He was full on panicking now; there was no doubt about it, Tobin definitely knew. Remus's only options were to either come clean, or question Tobin's own sanity. He chose the latter, and Tobin didn't like that.

"No I'm not! The proof's all there, I saw it!"

"You didn't see anything. You're freaking me out."

"Oh yeah? How d'you injure your leg then?"

"Twisted my ankle on the stairs."

"Liar."

"I'm the liar? You're mad." Tobin was having none of it, and Remus was fairly certain that he wouldn't be getting away with this, but something propelled him to keep trying. Self-preservation propelled him.

"I don't care if you are a werewolf," said Tobin, predictably refusing to let it drop. "I know you're not gonna hurt me or nothing, I can see that. But if you keep calling me a liar, I'll have to prove it, and you don't want that." The two stared at each other, Remus not saying anything. Was Tobin blackmailing him? That certainly did nothing to increase Remus's trust, but he was quickly tumbling down the rabbit hole of disaster, and he really couldn't see any way out of this. He needed time. Time to think. He didn't have an answer to give Tobin right now.