𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗔𝗭𝗞𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗡 [𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚍]

Chapter Twenty Eight: Furry Little Problem

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Remus was granted access without fuss but Sirius, James and Peter had to turn out their pockets to prove they were dungbomb free for Madam Pince to let them into the library.

"Miserable old bat." grumbled James but she probably heard him, as she kept giving him the evil eye.

The boys searched the many towering shelves and dusty volumes, trying to read their titles through centuries of dust that had settled on their once elegant leather bound covers. It took some time, and a lot of sneezing on Sirius's part, but they had finally pulled out enough books which might be related to werewolves and wolves or any book that looked like it could help.

Remus picked up a dog eared book the size of a window pane titled Lycanthropy: Disease or Curse, its cover adorned with a picture of a cartoonishly monstrous looking werewolf.

Remus looked at it a little while before pushing it as far away as possible from himself with a frown and flipped open Finding the Cure to All Your Magical Disease and Problems instead.

James took over looking through Fenris and Lycan: Unveiling the Mystery, Peter took it upon himself to search through Magical Maladies and Illnesses which left Sirius with Nocturnal Creatures: Shedding Light on Their Nocturnal Nature.

And that's how James and Sirius overcame their fear of books and became regulars at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's library. Love does conquer all. Even fear of books and crazy old ladies with an excess of leathery skin under their necks.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

It was almost two months before they found anything of significance at all in all their research because most of the books were disgustingly prejudiced and only talked about werewolves being foul monsters. As if Remus could be foul even if he wanted to, Sirius had scoffed as he read.

"Listen to this." said James in a rather loud and excited whisper as they sat in the library one cold February Saturday evening after dinner. "It's about this mental block who conducted an experiment on his werewolf friend. (Don't look at me like that, Remus. He didn't harm him). Says here that the werewolf seemed somewhat calmer when they put a rabbit in his cage with him. Didn't even try to eat it."

"Maybe we should get Remus a bunny then." Sirius said, rubbing his tired eyes with the back of his knuckles. "Then it'll be a real furry little problem. What color do you want, Remus?"

"I don't think that's a very good idea." Remus said, looking up from the book James was reading from. "It also says here that the rabbit died of heart failure after it's third visit."

"Oh, yeah." said James, running his fingers through his hair and making it impossibly messier. "Maybe I should have finished reading before I showed it to you guys."

"But maybe . . . maybe this could be a step in the right direction." Sirius said quickly because the hopeful gleam that Remus had had for some time now was fading before their eyes. "It could be that we just need to find an animal that won't be scared to death of a werewolf."

"That's going to be a little hard to find." pointed out Peter while he sneakily ate some chocolate frogs he managed to smuggle past Madam Pince. "Even wolves are scared to death of werewolves."

"Not helping, mate." Sirius said through gritted teeth.

James gasped so loudly this time that Madam Pince kicked them out of the library and also confiscated Peter's chocolate frogs.

"Miserable old bat." Sirius grumbled after Madam Pince had thrown them out of her precious library and gone back in with a satisfied smirk. "What was that all about?" he added, looking at James and how he was basically skipping.

"I'm a genius, that's what that was all about." James all but sung. "Maybe we can't get an actual animal that's not scared of a werewolf but we might just be able to make one."

"How's that?" asked Peter, still mourning his lost frogs. "Transfiguration won't work."

"No. Not Transfiguration. Can't we use polyjuice potions to turn to animals and be with you?" said James, looking up at Remus expectantly.

"Don't you lot ever read?" Remus asked with a frown.

"I thought you'd learn to stop asking that question by now." Sirius muttered.

"Polyjuice potion doesn't work for non humans. Not goblins, not giants, not elves and certainly not animals." said Remus, with the patience of someone explaining to a toddler.

"Oh." sighed James. "Second bad idea of the day."

They walked in silence a little before Peter asked, "Does it work for you?"

"I'm still human, Peter." answered Remus in that guarded tone he uses whenever someone gets crude about his "furry little problem".

It was very hard to resist the urge to punch Peter's face into the back of his head for being so daft. But Sirius swallowed it down and tried to change the subject. "What happens if you put your own hair in polyjuice potion and drink it?" he asked instead.

"Nobody dumb enough to try that, Sirius."

"What if you saved your hair when you were young and drink it when you get older? Will it make you young again?"

"We're still not giving up." said James, after his momentary absence from the conversation, before Remus could answer Sirius. "We'll just have to find another way. There must be another way."

"I appreciate it, James." sighed Remus and stopped walking so suddenly that Peter bumped into Sirius. "Really, I do. But my father's been looking for seven years now and hasn't found anything that helps. You guys have tried a lot too. But maybe it's about time you stopped wasting your times on me and go back to your normal lives." he said and upped his pace so they were left behind.

"It's just the full moon's coming." Sirius said, watching the last of Remus' robes disappear behind a corridor. "He doesn't actually mean that."

"Yeah." James said.

Remus wasn't in the common room by the time they slipped in through the portrait hole of the Fat Lady. They gave him a half an hour to pretend to be asleep before they went up to the dorm to go to bed too.

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

All of the books stated in this chapter (with the exception of Magical Maladies and Illnesses), are of my own creation.

•Lycanthropy: Disease or Curse
•Finding the Cure to All Your Magical Disease and Problems
•Fenris and Lycan: Unveiling the Mystery
•Nocturnal Creatures: Shedding Light on Their Nocturnal Nature

‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ･⋆✵⋆･ ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾