Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Sixty-Seven- Mr. Lupin

TW: Mentions of Abuse

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Usually, Remus was gone for two days, maybe three. By day five, in which Remus had succeeded in missing the last three of their exams, Sirius' forced calm was no more.

"His mother must have died. He wouldn't miss class, not miss three exams. Right, Lily?" James asked a bit desperately.

Ever since she had rushed out of the portal crying, Lily had been getting a lot better at avoiding James and Sirius. Both boys had taken it upon themselves to hound her.

"Quit following me Potter, or I'll hex you again."

James reflectively grabbed his nose and grimaced. Two days ago, Lily had sent a well-aimed bat bogey hex at him which he said still left his nose sore. Sirius took a step back too, not wanting to be on the other end of any of Lily's hexes. She was particularly upset with James, who had beat her in Transfiguration to her displeasure.

Of course, she had also lost to Remus in History of Magic by one point, and Defense Against the Dark Arts by a whole bunch. But she didn't seem at all a sore loser about that.

"Come on, Lily. We're worried about him."

"So am I, but you don't see me sulking about. I'm sure he's fine and will be back soon," she replied with much more confidence than she should have had. Sirius suddenly understood, his eyes going wide. He pointed at her accusingly, raising his tone in outrage.

"You saw him, didn't you?"

"I...no...of course not! Sirius Black, you're batty...he's at home," she lied very poorly, satisfyingly poorly. After all, it wouldn't be fair if she was insufferably good at everything! Sirius was irritated to no end that she had seen Remus without saying anything. After a few brief moments, relief that Remus was at Hogwarts triumphed.

"He's alright then?" Sirius pressed anxiously.

Something about the question and the amount of concern made her shoot him an irritated look, as if she wanted to go off on him and lecture him about something. Though what, he wasn't sure about.

"Yes, he's ok. He got sick visiting his mother. I hope she's not contagious, maybe that's why he always seems so ill afterward," she pointed out mildly.

But something about her tone, about the way she said it, gave Sirius the distinct impression she was covering for Remus. Lily was trying to lead them down the wrong path. It wasn't his mum then. Whatever it was, it had absolutely nothing to do with his mother, of that Sirius was certain.

In fact, he had a feeling that the night Lily had broken curfew she had gone to the hospital wing to see Remus. Sirius had the suspicion that whatever was going on didn't even have to do with Remus going home. But what could be so terrible that Remus would rather let Sirius think he was at home with his abusive father, simply kept evading him.

"Look, don't tell us. I don't care. All I want to know is if he told you or not," Sirius muttered.

Lily looked surprised then frowned, "No, he didn't. Unlike some people, I don't plan to make him. It's his business and if you don't leave him alone you're going to regret it. He probably won't be your friend anymore."

Sirius would expect her to sound pleased about this outcome. Instead, she sounded worried. As if she really thought their friendship with Remus would end and that would be bad. He couldn't tell if she meant Remus would stop being friends with them, or they'd stop being friends with him. It must be the former, because the latter was seriously out of the question.