Chapter 5: Research and Lies
Summer. A time that is traditionally happy �“ warm weather, no school, lots of ice cream. But for Sirius Perseus Black, this was not the case. True, the weather was warm, if blindingly overwhelmingly boiling counted as warm. And yes, there was the advantage of no lessons or detentions, but Sirius would have preferred either of those to his family. And ice cream? He might as well as asked for a hug and for his mother to play Quidditch with him. It was ridiculous.
Instead he sat in his room, writing letters to anyone and everyone and doing homework. He went downstairs to eat, and that was about it. Until one day in early August, a letter from James arrived. What made it different from the many others he had got from his best friend, was the post-script at the end.
Sirius!
It’s me, James, again. Thought I would reply to your latest letters. Is it that boring at home that you send me one every day? And just how many owls do you have anyway, as Remus, Peter and Lola tell me that you are bombarding them too?
Things are ok over here, Mum is feeding me constantly, she thinks I am too thin. Still, I’m not complaining. Just be warned; when you next see me, I maybe even larger than Professor Slughorn! Dad, on the other hand, keeps quizzing me on what I’ve learnt at school and is trying to teach me about some of life’s finer things. Art, music, literature ... But Mum stopped him before had the chance to show me some of life’s finer wines, so there really isn’t much benefit.
Have you started any homework yet? I tried, but then I got distracted (i.e. Mum was baking cookies).
Well, that’s all I have time for, Dad is taking me to see another of life’s finer things. Although why fat Italian ladies singing ear splittingly high is considered “finer” I have yet to find out.
Your mate,
James
PS: Do you want to come over to my place sometime? Mum says you can stay the night if you like. You could enjoy the REAL finest thing life has to offer: My mum’s cooking! Oh boy!
It would be perfect. A win-win situation, for everybody. His family could be rid of him for a day, and he would be rid of them! He would be with James! He wrote back immediately, suggesting that Remus and Peter were invited as well. Over dinner, he proposed the idea to his parents.
“The Potter family? The Potter’s are inviting a Black?” His mother asked him.
“Well, yeah, you could put it like that,” Sirius shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was.
“I’m not sure. Seems suspicious to me,” she said. Regulus sniggered and Mr Black grunted in agreement.
“But why?” Sirius moaned.
“It just is! Although it would mean that I could be rid of you for a day. I could drop Regulus with his cousins, and have the day doing something I want for a change!” she reasoned. Sirius tried to cross his fingers in hope, while holding his knife and fork, which was proving difficult. There was no way of telling what his mother was thinking, which answer she was leaning towards. “I suppose, it may be possible,” she sighed, and Sirius tried to conceal his grin. He didn’t want his mother to think she was making him too happy, or she might change her mind.
“Thank you, Mother,” was all he said instead, but in his mind he was cart wheeling around the room. He would be seeing James, far sooner than he could have hoped for.
The day came by very slowly. But as soon as Sirius got to the Potters’, it seemed to speed up. He arrived two hours early, but no one seemed to mind. James answered the door, and let him in, slightly bemused.
“Um, not that I mind, but you do have clocks at your home, right?” James asked.
“Yes, Hogwarts has clocks,” Sirius told him. James looked confused for a moment before comprehension dawned on him.
“Oh, right, Hogwarts is your home, I get it. But I meant where your family is? You know, what’s it called? Grimmy Square or something.”
“Grimmauld Place. And yes, we have clocks, but Mother dropped me off early, so she could spend as much time as possible alone,” Sirius shrugged, taking off his coat, and handing it to James, “are the others coming?”
“Just Peter. Remus said he’s ill, and he’s very sorry. Come on, Mum’s dying to meet you,” James lead the way to the kitchen.
James’s mother was the opposite of Sirius’s. She was plump, and friendly, and seemed to love James in a way Sirius’s own mother had never done. She took to Sirius immediately, and began trying to feed him, proclaiming him far too thin for his age. Sirius wondered what would have happened if she had seen Remus.
Peter arrived on time, and soon he was being introduced to Mrs Potter as well. Peter, however, was apparently not too thin for his age, Mrs Potter subtly didn’t give him quite as much to eat as Sirius.
Mr Potter arrived home from work, and began talking to the three boys about a Muggle painter named Van Gough. The artist, apparently, produced life’s ‘finer art’, but the boys soon grew bored. They snuck out of the living room and upstairs while his back was turned, but when they saw him next, he didn’t mention it, nor was he deterred. Sirius imagined that he had simply laughed when he realised the boys were gone.
The day went by, and soon the three boys were upstairs in James’s large bedroom, talking past midnight. The main topic of discussion was Remus, and his supposed illness. The boys were growing suspicious �“ their friend often missed a lot of school too, because of “illness”.
“I mean, is anyone ever ill, that often?” Peter asked.
“Unless it runs in he family. He goes to see his Mum a lot during school, doesn’t he?” James pointed out.
“Well, that’s what he tells us,” Sirius muttered.
“What do you mean?” James inquired, looking confused.
Sirius lowered his voice, “Well, come on. Surely Dumbledore would have noticed how often he misses school. It’s gotta be like, once a month.”
“So, you think he’s lying to us? Why would he do that?” Peter asked. “He’s our friend.”
“Well, maybe he’s embarrassed,” James suggested. “Once a month, right? What kind of things can happen monthly?”
“My mum gets really moody about once a month,” Peter said. James started coughing and Sirius quickly cut in.
“I don’t think that has anything to do with it. Some clubs meet monthly.”
“You think he’s in some kind of evil cult or something?” James asked, surprised.
“Wait, I never mentioned evil!” Sirius quickly said, holding his hands up.
“Why else wouldn’t he tell us?” Peter reasoned. “It must be evil!”
“You’re probably right,” James nodded, “Remus is evil, who would have thought?”
“Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions!” Sirius said, “There could be another reason.”
“Well, lets ask him,” James suggested, “and make him tell the truth.”
All four boys met on the Hogwarts Express in the end compartment, as they had already planned. James stuck some parchment on the door, with a dire warning to anyone who dared enter (except the woman with the food trolley). After a couple of minutes of small talk, Peter blurted out, “Remus, are you in an evil organisation?”
“What?” Remus blinked, “Evil? Me? What are you talking about?”
“Well, you go away every month! It was suspicious, and the only reason we could think of as to why you wouldn’t tell the truth, is that you’re part of an evil cult or something, that meets monthly,” James explained, frowning at Peter and his bluntness.
Remus paled, “W-Well, I ... I do t-tell the truth. I ... I get ill a lot and s-so does my m-mum,” he stuttered, “I’m telling the truth!”
The other three Marauders exchanged glances, “Do you swear?” asked Sirius, and Remus nodded.
“Marauders oath?” James pressed on, and Remus gulped, and nodded again. There was silence.
“Well,” Sirius said, coughing slightly, “that’s that then. Who wants to play exploding snap?”
Despite what Remus had told him, the other three still weren’t entirely convinced. One night, when Remus was “ill”, they sat in the dormitory, discussing their friend again, the light of the full moon giving them eerie looks on their faces, as if they were ghosts.
“I just don’t know,” James was saying, “it’s so unlikely that he’s ill every month, or whatever his current excuse is,”
“We should keep a record of when he’s away. See if there’s a common factor or something.”
“Good plan,” Peter nodded. And thus, the ‘Remus diary’ began.
It was soon realised that Remus did indeed disappear once a month �“ almost to the day. His three friends hit the library, much to Madam Pince’s amazement. She was wary of the new regulars, and watched them closely. She was soon given the flattering nickname “Pincer”. After a few days of this heavy research, Sirius found something very interesting.
“Werewolves!” He exclaimed, loudly. Madam Pince gave him a warning look, and he apologised, leaning in closer to James and Peter, “What if he’s a werewolf? They change once a month, don’t they? And it would explain why he doesn’t tell us the truth.”
“It’s so obvious,” James whispered, “why didn’t we think of it before?”
“Well, has either of you even seen a book about werewolves in here? Because I haven’t. This one only mentions them in passing.”
“So, we should see if someone’s checked out the books on werewolves,” Peter suggested, “but how?”
James lowered his voice even more, so the other two had to strain their ears to hear him, “You distract Pincer, I’ll go through her files,” He stood up, and said, unnecessarily loudly, “Ok guys, I’ll go get another book on, um, starfish.”
“Star �“ oh, right,” Sirius got up and pulled a book off the shelf. It looked boring, but then it was about Arithmancy so Sirius wasn’t surprised. He pulled out his wand and set the book on fire.
Madam Pince exploded. She grabbed him and Peter by the neck and dragged them to Dumbledore’s office shrieking all the way. Sirius found it immensely funny, and relished in the odd looks being sent their way. He grinned and waved as he was bodily dragged to the statue guarding the headmaster’s office. A lot later that day, he and Peter returned to the Common Room, where James was waiting by the fire.
He looked over at them, and grinned, “All you had to do,” he began, “was spill some pumpkin juice on the book or something. Not set one on fire!”
Sirius grinned back, “Well, if you’re going to cause a scene, you might as well make the most out of it. I’ll never forget the look on Pincer’s face. It was priceless. But that’s not the point. Did you find anything, uh, interesting?”
James nodded, and indicated for them to sit down, “Every book on lycanthropy or suchlike, was checked out by Remus Lupin. And they have been consistently since we got here.”
“This year?” Peter asked.
“No, since we got to Hogwarts in our first year,” James said, and Peter looked incredulous.
“Somebody didn’t want anyone to get even a slight clue about where he really goes every month,” Sirius stated, and James nodded. Sirius thought some more, and said, “he probably just keeps them in his trunk and renews them when he’s had them too long.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell us?” Peter sounded betrayed, “We’re his friends,”
“He probably thought we’d hate him or something,” James shrugged, and Sirius agreed. He felt terrible. He could only imagine what his friend went through once a month. It didn’t bear thinking about.
“We should help,” he decided.
“How?” James asked, “There’s no cure, and even if there was we couldn’t look it up. He has all the books.”
The three boys sat, glumly trying to think of ways to help their friend, but their minds just wouldn’t give them a solution.
It wasn’t all research in the libraries, and boring lessons, although this did happen often. There was something much more exciting going on �“ Quidditch! The tryouts for the Gryffindor team were about a month after school began. James, Sirius and Lola all went together. James and Lola tried for Chaser, and Sirius was a Beater. These were the only places available, and it was a hard competition.
They were tried in alphabetical order, which meant Lola was first. She hopped on her broom, and tried passing to the different players already in the air. She hadn’t got the best aim, but was confident and managed to catch most of the throws. Then she tried to score, and got three of the five throws through a hoop. She landed, stumbled a little when she dismounted, but was smiling.
Immediately after was Sirius. He picked up the bat, and felt the weight of it in his hands. It was heavy, and he swung it, just to test it out. A fifth year had to duck out of the way, but Sirius was oblivious. He mounted his broom and took off. Once he was in the air, he smiled but didn’t have long to enjoy the sensation. There was a bludger speeding towards him. For a moment he blinked, his mind was blank. Then he lifted the bat and swung it, and the ball went ricocheting off towards the other beater, Frank Longbottom. Sirius flew after the other bludger which was heading towards the seeker, a fifth year called Toby Johnson. He caught up with the ball, and hit it towards a target, floating around in the air. He was pleased with himself, and the rest of his go went well. He almost got knocked out by his own bat, a bludger and a team mate, but overall, he didn’t do that badly.
After a few others tried out, it was James’s turn. Sirius was speechless, as he watched his friend zooming around the pitch. Lola came up to him, and smiled, “You’ve both got in,” she said.
“Let’s hope so,” he replied, still watching James score five times in a row in quick succession.
“I know so,” Lola told him, and he looked at her, “I just do, ok? Don’t ask how.”
Sirius nodded, understanding, “What about you?”
She shrugged, “I’ll try again next year,”
“You might get a place!” Sirius protested, but she shook her head.
“No, James and that fifth year over there will,” she pointed to a girl who had previously tried for Chaser. She had been quite good, and Sirius wasn’t all that surprised.
“Ok, as long as you’re not too upset about it,” he said, and she shook her head. She was right too, of course. James and the girl, Stephanie, were the Chasers, and Sirius was Beater. He was pleased with himself. He had his own broom, which his Uncle Alphard had given him for his birthday a few years ago, and he flew it a lot at home �“ it was a good way of escaping his family.
The team practised often, and they won their first match, which was against Slytherin. James had been the star, scoring ten out of the fifteen goals. The Gryffindor team were most definitely on form.
Meanwhile, no one knew whether to confront Remus outright about being a werewolf, so they decided to let it lie. James thought they should go for it, and tell him that they knew. Sirius thought they should work out a way to help first. Peter was in the middle, and could see both sides. They were discussing this issue again one full moon, as they sat around the fire in the Common Room. The Marauders were always guaranteed these most sought after armchairs, since they had claimed them a month or so before. No one seemed to mind, it was just natural now for the four in a semi circle around the fireplace to be left vacated.
“Look,” Sirius sighed, for what felt like the thousandth time, “all I’m saying, is that we should find a way to help him. If it can’t be cured, there must be a way we can be around him without getting eaten. There has to be a loophole, there always is.”
“And what I’m saying,” James began, annoyed, “Is that he should know that we know. What if he just needs someone to talk to?”
“A Marauder always helps another Marauder in need!” Sirius cried, passionately, “That’s what we need to do, help him, not say ‘yeah, we know you suffer every month, but there’s nothing we can do, sorry mate.’”
Peter was sitting in his chair, watching the two of them argue. He agreed with them both, but knew better than to say so.
James slumped back in his armchair, running a hand through his hair, without even thinking about it, “There’s no getting around the fact that Remus is a werewolf. We need to �“”
“What did you just say?” came a shocked voice. Standing behind James’s seat, was Lola, her mouth open.
James faltered, and Sirius quickly tried to save the situation, “Yeah, Remus is a real wolf when he gets mad. Or hungry. Or horny.”
“What?” Lola looked confused.
“Ok, not that last one, he’s thirteen years old, obviously, ha ha, silly me, bye then, Lola, thanks for stopping by!” Sirius said, in a rush. Lola ignored him.
“Remus is a werewolf?” She asked, looking shocked.
“Seriously?” Lily came up to the four of them, “Remus? A werewolf?”
“You’re kidding!” a girl in their year, Tara, came up to them as well. She was friends with Lola and Lily, but the Marauders didn’t know her too well. She was blonde, and pretty. Not very clever, but she seemed nice enough.
“Oh sweet Merlin,” James muttered, under his breath.
“That explains a lot,” Lily nodded, thinking, “about where he goes every month. Did you tell him that you know?”
Sirius sighed. There was no way he could convince the girls they had got it wrong, now. “That’s a topic of discussion,” he sighed again.
“You should tell him,” Lola said immediately, “it’s stupid not to.”
Sirius looked put out, “Ok, we’ll tell him tomorrow.”
They found him at breakfast the next day, eating a boiled egg.
“Did you get back from the Hospital Wing ok?” asked James, as they sat around him. Remus nodded.
“So, where do you really go when you change?” asked Sirius, oh-so-casual.
“Shrieking shack. Wait, what?” Remus looked up suddenly, his eyes sharp.
“Come on, man. We know,” James told him, and Peter nodded.
“But ... how did you ... when ...” Remus shook his head, as if trying to clear it of all thoughts, “how did you find out?”
“It has something to do with us not being stupid,” Sirius told him, but not unkindly.
“Oh,” was all Remus could reply, quietly, “who else knows?”
James shrugged, “Just us. Not another soul. Please, like we’d go blabbing to just anyone about you? No way, we Marauders can keep a secret.”
“Uh, James, nothing you just said had one iota of truth,” Sirius pointed out. James looked downtrodden. Remus sighed.
“Who did you tell?” he asked, tiredly.
“We didn’t tell anyone! Lola overheard, that’s all,” Peter reassured him. Remus nodded, knowing that he could trust Lola.
“And Lily,” James added, “but that’s all!” Remus looked unsure, but he at least he knew Lily could be trusted.
“You forgot Tara,” Sirius stated matter of factly.
“TARA??” Remus cried, “Tara knows? We don’t even know her!” the other three Marauders looked guiltily at their empty plates. Remus sighed, “Ok, fine. I can deal.”
The rest of their third year mainly involved his friends researching hard about werewolves, trying desperately to find a way in which they could help Remus. It wasn’t looking too bright. Although, Sirius and James had Quidditch practise often, so they weren’t always available to help. This paid off though, when Gryffindor won a stunning victory against Slytherin, and the party in the Common Room lasted all night.
Eventually, however, it was time to leave Hogwarts, and they all swore to keep studying at home. On the train back to London, Sirius wondered if he could chain himself to the Hogwarts express, and refuse to move. It was a good plan, he thought. He could just conjure food when he got hungry, and he wouldn’t ever have to see his family. But as the train slowed, he reluctantly followed the swarm of students, out of Platform 9 ¾, to his family, who were looking menacingly at passers by, and standing as far away from anyone as possible. He began to walk towards them, mentally preparing himself for another summer.
AN: Hey there, thanks for reading. I’m sorry there wasn’t much detail on the Quidditch stuff, I can’t write about sport, as I hate it all so much. While Quidditch far better than any other sports I know, I still don’t enjoy writing about it. Oh yes, and just a word to say that I have planned everything out, and this will have approximately 20 chapters. Also, I have to warn you that because they are young and innocent at this point, so is the story. But it will get darker, and a lot less innocent, so just be warned.