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interlude; second year

note: this will be the only time there's a flashback. just some lovely second year fluff.

-o-

- moony -

"What happened, Rems?" James asks while he, Sirius, and Peter crowd around my bed in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey doesn't look too happy about this; clearly, she would much rather them leave so that I can recover in peace.

I feel awful, and it's not just because of how beat up I am after the full moon last night. "I ... got caught in one of my mom's briar bushes when I visited her..." I hate lying to them. But I would hate to lose the best friends I've got even more, so I can't tell them I'm a werewolf, now can I?

"Must've been some awfully big briars," Sirius says suspiciously, eyeing one of the slash marks on my stomach. Madam Pomfrey's medicine is working quickly, so it's almost gone, at least. I'll miss my first class, probably, but after that I'll get back to my normal schedule.

"Oh, yeah, you know she's ill, she's letting her garden get overgrown..." I sigh, my gut twisting. I hate, hate, hate lying to them all the time. I know they're suspicious; they have been for months. But what else can I do?

Madam Pomfrey seems to notice how I'm feeling, because she tells the others, "Wrap it up, boys. Mr. Lupin needs his rest."

"Hope you feel better," Peter chirps. He seems less suspicious than James and Sirius, and it's nice to get concern without a dose of guilt.

James and Sirius echo his sentiments, but they're still watching me suspiciously. I can tell they aren't happy I'm not telling them the truth; no question about whether or not they can see through my lie. Of course they can. They wouldn't be good friends if they couldn't.

"See you in Charms?" Sirius asks, and I nod dully. Madam Pomfrey shoos them toward the door, and they troop out, shooting a few odd glances back at me.

Once they've gone, Madam Pomfrey sits a tray of food on my lap, fluffing my pillows up behind me so I can sit up. "I know you probably don't have much of an appetite, dear, but you need to eat. Don't worry about your friends, they'll forget about this in a few hours," she adds, smiling maternally at me.

She knows me remarkably well, which isn't surprising considering the amount of time I spend in the Hospital Wing and the number of times she's taken me to the Whomping Willow where I change every full moon. James, Sirius, and Peter, though, she doesn't know at all. They won't just let this go by lunch. But I nod politely and try to eat despite the way my stomach's twisting and turning in knots.

- padfoot -

"So, what do we know?" James asks, flipping through the pages of a book on magical trees idly as he sits at a table in the library. We're all talking in hushed tones so the librarian won't notice what we're doing. Before Peter and I bother to answer, James is ticking our clues off on his fingers: "He disappears once a month. Madam Pomfrey takes him to the Whomping Willow when he disappears, he always looks sick around that night, and he comes back the next morning all scratched up."

"I think we're on the wrong track," I mutter, sighing. "Maybe it doesn't have as much to do with the Whomping Willow as we think—it hasn't even been in any of the books in the library, anyway."

James nods, shrugging. "Yeah, but the older students say it was planted the year we came to school, and since Rems is the only one who goes near it..."

"I guess it might explain the scratches, too. That thing's vicious," I add. "But whoever heard of needing to get beat up by a tree once a month to keep from getting sick?"