The Darker the Moon the Brighter the Star -DISCINTINUED

Chapter 2

James Potter reread the page in the book, his eyes growing slightly wider as he did so.

"Sirius-this is more advanced than we thought." James said. They had quit on trying to read together and instead decided that James would read it, because Remus wasn't going to be an animagus, Peter didn't feel like reading, and Sirius had lost the hurried Rock Paper Scissors game to see who would read first.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, leaning forward slightly from his seat next to Remus.

"I mean just look at this." James pushed the book over to Sirius who glanced over the page, gasping as he read over what could happen if they got it wrong.

There were three common consequences of getting it wrong.

One, being trapped in the body of an animal forever.

Two, extreme pain spasms for an unknown amount of time-usually about a week or more.

And three, an extremely painful death.

"Well." Sirius said, the usual carefree tone of his voice sounding slightly forced. "Let's just not get it wrong, okay?"

"Let me see." Remus said. Sirius glanced at him and quickly handed the book back to James. "Sirius."

"No! You'll try to talk us out of it like you did when we first decided we would try this."

"Well-Just let me see it, Sirius!"

"I don't have it." Sirius grinned. James rolled his eyes and continued reading. Peter had fallen asleep about two minutes into the train ride, which was two minutes later than usual.

~

Remus Lupin sat in the corner next to Sirius, trying not to pay attention to how quickly his heart was racing, how his palms were slightly sweaty. Remus didn't feel that way about Sirius.

Did he?

Remus had come to terms with his sexuality about a year ago when he had kissed a boy. The boy had been muggle-but not a bad kisser at all.

Remus remembered everything about that day.

"Remus-go hang out outside. You need to make friends here, too. And muggles won't suspect anything." Lyall Lupin said. Of course, he was right. Muggles wouldn't notice if Remus did anything on the full moon. He could make up almost any excuse-his mother wanted him, he needed to go do something with his family-and, of course, there was always the sleeping option.

"Fine." Remus said, deciding that there was nothing better to do. James, Peter, and Sirius would always be his best friends-they were doing so much for him, despite the fact that he had tried to convince them not to. This whole 'becoming Animagus thing' was going to be dangerous, and after a few well-chosen words from Sirius Black, Remus had decided he would help them.

"Hey look! It's that Lupin kid!" a muggle girl called. She had long blonde hair, pale skin, and icy blue eyes. She looked to be about eight or so.

"Jackie-be nice!" A boy yelled back. He had the same color of blonde hair, but it wasn't long. It was quite short, actually-you could almost see his scalp. His eyes were the same icy blue and his skin the same pale color. It was obvious that they were siblings, although the boy looked fourteen-the same age as Remus.

The girl-Jackie-stuck out her tongue at her brother and ran off somewhere.

"Sorry about her." the boy said, walking forward and holding out his hand. "I'm Oliver."

"Remus," Remus said, taking Oliver's hand and shaking it. His hands were soft-much softer than Sirius' or James'. Then again, they spent a lot of time on brooms, their hands gripping the rough wood.