All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Second Year : What's in a Name ?

Monday 19th March 1973

The full moon that month fell on a Sunday night, so none of the marauders were surprised when Remus didn’t show up for class in the morning. More often than not, he spent the entire day after a full moon in the hospital wing, downing sleeping potions and being fussed over by Madam Pomfrey. She usually let them visit, although she sometimes turned them away. On those days, Sirius knew that his friend had had a particularly bad night—but Remus never complained, even when he returned to their dorm with freshly healed wounds and new bandages.

The marauders tried to visit their friend at lunch, but Madam Pomfrey sent them off, immune to their heartfelt pleading. It had been a bad one, then.

As classes wore on with no sign of their friend, Sirius felt a bit guilty. He’d intended to do more with his animagus research, but he’d been so busy marauding with Peter and James that he’d let it fall to the wayside. It wasn’t that he was giving up—he was going to do it, nothing could stop him—it was just that to get started he needed to sit down and really focus on his research, and that was very difficult to do when you were friends with James Potter.

Of course, James cared just as much as Sirius about becoming an animagus. He had more than enough drive and passion when it came to helping their friend. But while James was great at taking charge and inspiring those around him to follow his lead, he often got so caught up in the big picture that he forgot to pay attention to any of the details—and animagi magic was very, very detail oriented.

So Sirius had resigned himself to doing the bulk of the research they needed to get started—which was fine. He just had to find the time to actually sit down and do it...

The moment their classes ended, the three boys hurried to the infirmary to check on their friend. In fact, they were in such a rush that Peter, in a moment of distraction, walked smack into a cabinet door that had been left open, causing a couple of bedpans to come clattering out. He winced at the noise.

Madam Pomfrey’s head popped out from behind the curtains drawn around Remus’s bed.

“Mr. Pettigrew!” She barked, “What do you think you are doing?!”

“S-s-sorry Madam Pomfrey—we were just...”

“Pick those bedpans up right now and put them back in the cupboard! And you can wipe that smirk off your face, Mr. Black, give him a hand.”

Sirius abruptly stopped snickering and frowned—but he wasn’t about to defy the stern medi-witch, so he stooped to help collect the bedpans. James had gone over behind the curtains to talk to Remus, so Sirius nudged Peter with his elbow.

“Look out, Pete,” he said, slyly, “There’s a spider on your shoulder.”

“What?! Where?!” Peter jumped, dropping the bed pans he’d collected with an awful CRASH.

Sirius attempted to stifle his laughter as Madam Pomfrey marched over, shouting, “MR. PETTIGREW, WHAT DID I SAY?!”

Peter shot Sirius an irritated look as he apologized once more to the nurse, and Sirius hurriedly shoved his own armful of bedpans back into the cabinet before dashing over to their friends.

“REMU!” He whipped back the curtain with a flourish, “You’re ALIVE!” Sirius collapsed dramatically at the foot of the bed, “I was convinced she was trying to cover something up, the old bat wouldn’t let us come over.”