Once in a Blue Moon (COMPLETE)

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Heading for Disaster
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Remus screwed up yet another sheet of parchment and tossed it onto the floor. He had spent the last two hours trying to compose a suitable letter to Greyback, but nothing seemed right. He wanted to appear thankful for the chance to visit him, but without actually promising that he would.

He started the letter again, only to stall after a couple of sentences and toss another futile effort to the floor.

This sheet was Remus’s last piece of parchment and after a fruitful search of his trunk, his bedside table, and the bottom of his wardrobe he realised that he had actually run out completely.

He was tempted to go downstairs and get some from the student supply cupboard, but he knew that Charlene was in the common room, and he didn’t really want to see her just now. She was asking about coming to his house during the full moons again, and he was running out of excuses for why she shouldn’t.

He knew that Sirius had a supply of parchment in his trunk and he made the decision to flip open the lid. He promised himself that he would replace it later as he rummaged through the messy contents… that is, he would replace it if he could actually find it.

His hand was groping underneath a dirty shirt that should probably have been placed in the laundry basket for collection by the house elves, when he felt paper beneath his fingers. He grasped the paper and pulled it out, only to find that it wasn’t blank parchment he was holding.

His face flushed as he looked at the cover of the magazine and realised what it was he had found. He knew he should put it back and pretend he had never laid eyes on it. But the temptation was too great, and before he had even really thought it through, Remus was flicking through the magazine, drinking up every word of every article and – although he wouldn’t admit it to anyone – savouring the sight of the partially and entirely naked men spread out before him.

Some of what he read caused him to shift uncomfortably, nearly wincing at the thought of doing what was described in the articles. But, stronger than the trepidation, was a sense of curiosity at what might be like if he and Sirius were to do some of those things.

Only the sound of someone outside the door diverted his attention away from the magazine, and he quickly stuffed it under the mattress, out of sight, though it was still at the forefront of his mind.

He realised that Sirius’s trunk was still open, but when the door opened it was only Peter, searching for his Herbology project – it had escaped from it’s pot again – and he took no notice of the trunk. Remus offered to help him in his search, during which he casually closed the trunk again. He hoped he would get the chance to sneak the magazine back inside again before Sirius noticed that it was missing.

-o-xXx-o-

“Is there something going on between you and Sirius?” Charlene asked quietly, but impatiently.

Remus frowned as he looked up from untying the laces of his Quidditch boots. “You do know this is the boys’ changing room?” he commented.

“I’m the Captain,” Charlene replied, as though this gave her the right to be there. It wasn’t that any of the boys really minded, in fact they were joking that her presence in their changing room made it fair game for them to sneak into the girls’ room.

“You can’t,” Charlene told one such joker.

“Why not?”

“Because the moment a boy steps into the girls’ changing room the bludger attack starts,” she explained. “So, unless you want to spend the rest of the day in the hospital wing, I’d rethink trying to get in there.”

Several of the boys grumbled at another display of the double standards of Hogwarts, but Charlene ignored them. Instead she glared at Remus, waiting for him to reply.

“Can we not do this here?” Remus asked.

“So, there is something going on,” Charlene concluded.

“No, there isn’t,” Remus told her in a harsh whisper. “And would you keep your voice down, you know that Sirius isn’t exactly out, but he will be if you don’t shut the hell up.”

“No one’s listening to us,” Charlene pointed out. “No one cares what we’re talking about.”

“You don’t know that,” Remus replied impatiently. “Me and Sirius have both had enough of being written about in Rita’s bloody newsletter, and the last thing we need is another bit of gossip doing the rounds.”

“I’m not gossiping,” Charlene argued. “I’m just asking a simple question.”

“And I gave you a simple answer,” Remus replied. “There’s nothing going on, so just drop it.”

Charlene looked like she didn’t believe him, but she left the changing room, her bat swinging rather threateningly as she stalked past the rest of the players.

“What was that all about?” James asked from where he had clearly been lurking and eavesdropping.

Remus shook his head. “Nothing. She’s just got a snitch up her arse about not coming over to my place for the full moon tonight.”

“And Sirius doesn’t like the idea?” James asked.

“Not just Sirius,” Remus replied. “She’s never seen a werewolf at the full moon, it’ll scare the hell out of her.”

“Scare Charlie?” James asked with a laugh. “I doubt that very much.”

“The wolf would scare anyone, including you and including her,” Remus told him.

“It doesn’t scare Sirius,” James pointed out.

“It did at first,” Remus admitted. “Terrified him. Anyway, that’s not really the point.”

“So, what is the point?”

Remus ran his hands though his hair and sighed. Suddenly he had the attention of not just James, but the rest of the students as well. He had no idea that they were so interested in hearing about his Lycanthropy, though he supposed that they were eager to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

“Moony, the wolf, gets agitated when someone new is around during the full moon,” he explained. “He’s used to my brother being there, and he’s used to Sirius. I don’t know how he would take the presence of another person there. It’s all well and good if it goes smoothly, but if it doesn’t then I end up spending time in the hospital wing. Would you want to risk it?”

James and the other boys shook their heads.

“So, it’s not because there’s anything going on between you and Black?” Richard, one of the Chasers, asked.

“Of course not,” Remus replied impatiently.

“Only asking,” Richard replied. “I mean, everyone knows that Black’s as bent as a three winged snitch.”

The other boys snickered at his remark, but Remus felt increasingly uneasy at the comment. “What do you mean?” he asked, knowing exactly what Richard had meant, but wondering just how much the other boys knew.

“Well, you know…” Richard said as he shoved his gloves into his locker. “Black never seems to have a date, does he?”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Remus replied. “Neither does Gordon, but I don’t see anyone calling him bent.”

Gordon, the team Seeker, was rather unfortunate in the looks department, and had long since given up on the girls at Hogwarts.

“Gordon at least tries to get a date with a girl,” Richard countered. “Black hasn’t even asked a girl out. You can’t get to seventeen without a date and not expect people to wonder whether he’s playing for the home team.”

“Yeah,” Gordon agreed. “And it’s not like he’s bad looking either. He could get a date every week if he tried.”

“So, you think he’s good looking do you?” James teased. “Something you’re not telling us, Gordon?”

Gordon picked up the quaffle and threw it at James with a good enough aim and more than enough force for the other boy to wonder why he had been made Seeker.

Richard laughed as they continued to joke and tease each other. Only Remus remained quiet, listening to them as he continued to get changed.

“Anyway,” Richard said as they left the changing rooms. “It’s not that I’ve got anything against that sort… live and let live, that’s my motto.”

Remus nodded and smiled, he was in complete agreement.

“And it’s not like he’s on the Quidditch team,” Richard continued. “And I don’t have to share a dorm with him… or even the bathroom since he’s a prefect.”

“I thought you didn’t have anything against people like that?” Remus asked, the feeling of uneasiness returning.

“I don’t,” Richard assured him with a grin. “But that doesn’t mean I want him checking me out or anything.”

“Good job you’ve got a girlfriend,” Gordon added from behind them, and Remus turned to see that the comment had been directed at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Remus asked.

“Well, Black’s your best friend, isn’t he?” Gordon pointed out. “If you didn’t have a girl, people would think that you’re his boyfriend or something. He’s always trailing around after you.”

“He’s my best mate,” Remus replied. “Of course he hangs around with me.”

“Just saying,” Gordon said, raising his hands as a sign of peace at Remus’s shorter and sharper tone.

“Well, don’t!” Remus snapped.

“So, is he?” Richard asked. “Black, I mean… is he a shirt-lifter?”

Remus was about to open his mouth to reply, ready to lie through his teeth for his best friend, but someone else spoke up first.

“Even if he is, it’s not really any of our business, is it?” James said. “I share a dorm with him, and I’ve never caught him checking out my arse.”

“Why would anyone want to?” Gordon teased. “Scrawny thing like that, no wonder you can’t get Evans to give you a second look.”

“Nothing wrong with my arse,” James huffed, spinning round and giving it a wriggle in the direction of the other boys.

The rest of the boys laughed loudly and they carried on up the path. As they neared the castle Remus could see a familiar figure sitting on the steps.

“Look!” Richard said with a grin at Remus. “Your boyfriend’s waiting for you.”

Remus felt his face flushing, even though he knew that the other boy was only teasing him, trying to get a reaction out of him, and apparently doing quite a good job of it.

As they neared the steps he could see that Sirius was smoking again, and he swore under his breath at the sight.

“Hi, Remus,” Sirius said as they approached him. “Been waiting for you.”

Remus tried to ignore the knowing look that Richard was giving him as he frowned at Sirius.

“See you later, Lupin,” Gordon said as the rest of the boys traipsed up the steps, dragging a fair amount of mud into the Entrance Hall. The sound of a furious Mr Filch echoed down from one of the upper floors when he saw the mess they were making.

Remus chuckled, but stopped when he turned back to Sirius. He frowned pointedly at the cigarette, and Sirius gave a sigh and stubbed it out on the step.

“You’re late this evening,” Sirius commented as he stood up.

“You’re not my keeper,” Remus grumbled as they headed inside towards the kitchens.

“I’m just saying,” Sirius replied. “We’ll have to just grab what we can from the kitchens and eat on the way.”

“Fine with me,” Remus said.

They munched on pasties as they walked down the tunnel to The Hog’s Head for the final time.

“Next month we’ll be able to floo there from the common room,” Remus said. “That’ll be much better, won’t it?”

Sirius nodded as he crammed the last of his pasty into his mouth. “Charlie was looking a bit peeved when she came back from the pitch,” he commented. “She still going on about tonight?”

Remus nodded. “I don’t think she’s going to give in,” he admitted. “I’m thinking about telling her she can come visit during a full moon in the summer.”

“What?”

“It’ll get her off my back about it,” Remus pointed out. “Plus, I bet her parents won’t let her. They’ve only met me once, and they didn’t look that thrilled to see she was dating a werewolf.”

“You sure it’s the werewolf they have issues with?” Sirius asked. “They could just be normal parents who aren’t pleased that their daughter is dating anyone…”

“I don’t know. I just figure that if her parents say she can’t come on the full moon, then at least she’ll stop hassling me about it. It won’t be my fault she can’t come.”

They reached The Hog’s Head and headed up the stairs to the main pub. Aberforth was behind the bar and he greeted them with a curt nod. “Hear you had your seventeenth birthday,” he commented as they closed the door to the cellar. “Think you can make your way to your place without an escort?”

Remus nodded. “Sure. Thanks for walking us over there all this time,” he offered.

Aberforth nodded and mumbled something under his breath. “Better get a move on,” he advised. “You’re cutting it fine as it is.”

With that final piece of advice, Aberforth turned back to his customers, who were demanding his attention, and didn’t look like they were going to wait patiently for him to serve them.

Remus and Sirius left the pub and hurried along the road. A quick glance at the sky told them they had less than thirty minutes to get there. They made it in plenty of time.

“Hey, want to see what I’ve been practising?” Sirius asked, pulling out his wand with a grin.

“Sure,” Remus replied as he unbuttoned his shirt.

Sirius turned and pointed his wand at the stairs. One quick incantation later and the stone steps were transformed to sort cushions.

Remus chuckled as Sirius sat himself down on the newly transfigured stairs. “Better?” he asked.

“Much,” Sirius replied with a grin. “I’ve been practising that one for months.”

Remus rolled his eyes and continued to undress. “Nice to know someone’s going to be comfortable tonight.”

Sirius’s smile disappeared from his face and was replaced with a look of guilt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think.” He stood up, and Remus could tell that he was going to undo the spell.

“You don’t have to do that,” he told him. “I was only teasing.”

Sirius halted his wand and turned to face him. “I’m going to find a way to help you, too,” he said. “One day I’ll find a cure for you.”

Remus sighed. Sirius had said as much on so many occasions he had long since lost count. Sirius seemed to accept everything that life threw at him, but when it came to his Lycanthropy, he was just not prepared to believe that there was nothing he could do about it. Remus knew differently though. Wizards had been searching for a cure for Lycanthropy for as long as there had been werewolves. If there was a cure out there, surely they would have found it before now.

Remus had told Sirius all of this, but the words had washed over his head like water off a duck’s back. Sirius Black was determined to prove the world wrong. He had told Remus he would find a cure, and a cure he would find. Despite the fact that he was seventeen years old, Sirius still held tight to the belief that he could do anything, and nothing Remus or anyone else said could shake that conviction.

He would probably have said something to Sirius tonight about wasting his time, but the full moon robbed him of the chance of saying anything at all.

Sirius sat down on the stairs, cursing his foolishness at transfiguring the steps into cushions, when he could have simply summoned cushions from the sofa upstairs. He turned the steps back to their usual hard stone and summoned a couple of cushions instead. Then he turned back to Moony, who was trying to play with the newly appeared Romulus. He smiled and settled back to watch.

They didn’t need anyone else here, messing up their routine. It was bad enough that there was the threat of Ministry of Magic Inspectors showing up without warning; they certainly didn’t need Charlene interfering as well.

Once Moony had settled down somewhat, Sirius approached the barrier and sat down on the floor.

Moony approached him and tried to nuzzle at him through the barrier.

“He doesn’t seem dangerous any more,” Sirius commented quietly.

Romulus shook his head. “It’s only because he recognises you and can’t smell that you’re human.”

“I know,” Sirius replied. “I guess I just want to believe that maybe there’s enough of Remus in there for him to know who I am.”

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.”

Sirius looked at the wolf and wished more than anything that it did.

It was about two hours before dawn when Romulus disappeared upstairs, saying that he thought he had heard something.

Sirius looked at Moony. The wolf had been lying down, stretched out on the floor near to where Sirius was sitting, but he had clearly heard something, too, and he was now sitting back on his haunches, ears pricked back and eyes alert.

“Hush, Moony,” Sirius whispered as he looked up the stairs. He suspected that the sounds were nothing more than the normal creaking of the house, sounds which they had heard before and had never found any cause of. But, lurking at the back of his mind, was the fear that perhaps it was someone from the Ministry, coming to check on them. It was Remus’s first full moon since he had become an adult, and the Ministry hadn’t exactly shown itself to be trusting of him. He also suspected that his father might ensure Remus was investigated simply because he knew him.

It was therefore with some unease that Sirius looked up towards the doorway to the kitchen as he waited for Romulus to return.

Then he heard the sound of voices and realised that they had underestimated Charlene’s persistence.

“You can’t stop me,” she said. “I’ve permission from Professor McGonagall to be here.”

“I find it difficult to believe that McGonagall would agree to this, not when Remus has said no,” Romulus replied.

“I’ve got every right to be here,” Charlene argued.

“No! You don’t!” Romulus shouted. “I won’t have you upsetting my brother like this. Now, go back to school and Remus will see you in the morning.”

“I will not,” Charlene insisted, right as she appeared at the top of the stairs.

Sirius pulled out his wand and pointed it at her. “You really don’t want to come down here,” he warned.

“You think you can stop me?” Charlene asked with a harsh laugh. “I don’t know what you two think you are hiding from me, but it ends now.”

“What are you talking about?” Sirius asked in confusion. “There’s nothing going on between us, you know that.”

“Isn’t there?” Charlene replied as she came down a couple more steps. “Then why is it Remus spends more time with you than with me, and why do his eyes seem to be following you round the room all the time, just like yours follow him?”

“They don’t,” Sirius argued. “Do they?”

“Yeah, they do,” Charlene said. “Which is why I am staying here until morning, to see what Remus has to say for himself.”

Romulus followed her down the stairs, but Sirius’s attention was on the werewolf behind him.

Moony was no longer sitting watchfully; instead, he was stalking along the edge of the barrier, snarling and growling.

“Fine,” Sirius said. “But go back upstairs and wait in the living room or something. You can’t be down here.”

“And give the two of you time to get your stories straight before you see me?” Charlene asked. “No chance.”

Sirius cast a cautious glance at Moony. “Why now?” he asked. “Why are you wanting to go through this now?”

Charlene scowled and folded her arms across her chest. “Some of the boys from the Quidditch team were talking in the common room this evening,” she said. “They think there’s something going on between you two.”

“Well, there isn’t,” Sirius snapped.

“I want to hear it from Remus,” Charlene insisted.

“Well, as you can see, he’s not exactly able to talk to you right now,” Sirius pointed out sarcastically.

Moony was getting more and more angry, and Sirius knew that raising his voice at Charlene wasn’t exactly helping matters.

Charlene was, not surprisingly, giving as good as she got, and Moony was becoming ever more enraged.

The two sixth years only stopped shouting when Moony charged at the barrier, baring his teeth and snapping at them. When he found he could not get at them, he threw back his head and howled.

Sirius cringed slightly, but stood his ground.

Charlene on the other hand was only now seeing her first glimpse of a fully-grown werewolf, and an angry one at that. He howled again and tried once more to get through the barrier.

Sirius knew that Remus would not want Charlene to see him like this. He also knew that it was one of his friend’s greatest fears that everyone who saw the wolf would reject him, just as his parents had done. The only ones he trusted to stay by his side were Romulus and Sirius, both of whom had proven their loyalty.

Sirius knew he should be forcing Charlene back up the stairs, but a small part of him was pleased to see the fear in her eyes, and secretly hoped that she would do what Remus feared. He knew it was a selfish thought, and he knew that Remus would be devastated, but he still hoped that if Charlene was out of the picture, Remus might now be ready to have him instead.

Charlene’s eyes were wide and although she wasn’t moving any closer, she wasn’t leaving either.

Moony stared at the intruder through the barrier. He sensed that she was familiar, but did not know where from.

He knew the other two though. The misty one, who vanished and reappeared, playing with him when he was bored, was familiar, as was the dark-haired one who talked to him when he had tired himself out.

Moony didn’t know the other one, but he could tell that that one was stopping the dark-haired one from talking to him. He snarled at her and charged the barrier again, screaming in the only way he could for her to go away and leave them alone.

“It’s okay, Moony,” the dark-haired one said, moving to the edge of the barrier and crouching down.

Moony howled and charged the barrier again, making it as clear as he could that it wasn’t the dark-haired one he wanted to get at, but the stranger.

The stranger wasn’t leaving and so Moony howled again and again. He could hear the dark-haired one saying something, but he didn’t understand the words, he never had. He howled again until finally the stranger turned and ran.

Moony howled again, this time rejoicing in the victory of chasing the stranger from their midst.

He turned to the dark-haired one and gave a quiet whimper. He tried to convey to him that he wanted him to talk again, like he had before, and eventually he did.

Moony settled down on the floor again. The floor beneath his fur was damp with blood, although he didn’t recall how it had got there. He didn’t want to move though, not when the dark-haired one was stretching out on the other side of the invisible wall that always separated them, talking as he had earlier that evening.

“He’s hurt,” Sirius said, looking back at Romulus. “The pool of blood is getting larger.”

“I think he’ll be all right,” Romulus said. “You know what to do when he turns back.”

Sirius nodded. “You sound like you’re not going to be here?” he said, making it a question.

Romulus scowled. “I’m going to speak with Professor McGonagall, try and find out if Charlie really did have permission to be here or not.”

“Is she okay?” Sirius asked.

“She’s upstairs in the bathroom,” Romulus said. “I’ll take her back to the school as soon as she’s done in there. Foolish, foolish girl.”

Sirius nodded. “Thanks.”

“The wolf would scare anyone,” Romulus said quietly.

“I know.”

“It scared you the first time you saw it.”

“Yeah,” Sirius replied. He looked up at Romulus curiously. “Did it scare you?”

“I’ll say it did,” Romulus replied. “I hadn’t figured out how to set up this barrier when the first full moon came round. Or rather, I had set one up, but I didn’t trust my own abilities enough to rely only on that. The door at the top of the stairs wasn’t very secure, and so I had to chain Remus to the wall as well.”

Sirius looked across the room at where Romulus was pointing. He wondered how he had never noticed the hooks in the wall, hooks that were thick, sturdy and strong enough to stay firmly in the wall when a werewolf was trying to pull them out.

“They probably wouldn’t be enough to hold him now,” Romulus said. “But back then he was small enough that the chains could hold him almost all night.”

“Almost?”

“It was about half an hour before dawn when he finally broke loose. Even at six years old a werewolf is a mighty powerful creature. He tore loose and charged right for me. I had no idea whether the barrier would hold him, and for a while I thought I was about to meet my maker.”

“But it did hold him, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’ve changed the spells I’ve used since then, several times in fact, and added to it so that he can’t smell the humans in here, but that night I hadn’t done any of that and Moony was after my blood. He hit the barrier with enough force to knock him out for the rest of the night. I don’t know what scared me more, the wolf coming right at me, or waiting for the barrier to drop while wondering if, by trying to save him, I’d actually ended up killing my little brother.”

“How come he attacked Charlie?” Sirius asked.

“Because Remus didn’t want her here. Moony probably doesn’t even know who she is, but he knows that Remus doesn’t want her in here and acted accordingly.”

“You think Charlie will come to accept the wolf, don’t you?” Sirius asked.

“I think she might. I’ll go and see if she’s ready to go back to the castle.”

Sirius nodded and turned back to Moony, intending to wait out the rest of the night.

He only moved when the transformation began, at which point he made his way back upstairs to the kitchen. He wondered how Remus would take the news of Charlene appearing here tonight, and felt more nervous than he had in a long time.