The
lights in the dormitory were off , the students in bed. Night time
had fallen and the 1st year students in Gryffindor were fast asleep
in their four poster beds. The only other first year boys in
Gryffindor was Remus's best friends. James Potter, Sirius Black, and
Peter Pettigrew.

I
hope they don't ever find out why I am gone once a month . . . I
cannot lose such great friends such as these people. They must never
find out that I am a werewolf. Remus
thought this to himself as he headed to Gryffindor tower.

Remus
was quiet as he slipped underneath the covers of his bed. He needed
sleep, since tomorrow was the last day before the end of the year
exams. The night before was a full moon, and Remus was just coming
back from the hospital wing, feeling almost completely recovered.
Before Remus could close his eyes, the lamp next to Sirius's bed
flickered on.

"Hey Remus, about time you came back from
visiting your ill mother." Sirius said with sarcasm in his
voice.

Remus shuddered as he noted from Sirius's tone that Sirius
did not believe his story. "Yeah, she seems to have gotten
better, so I did not have to stay there for a long time." Remus
said convincingly.

James and Peter got out of bed and sat
themselves at the end of Remus's bed, Sirius sitting in a chair next
to Remus's bed.

James was the first one to speak. "Remus,
why do you lie to us, your friends? Why don't you tell us why you
really left?" James pleaded.

"I told you, I had to
visit my mother who had fallen ill." Remus replied, feeling
nervous. Had they found out the truth?

"Remus, that is a lie
and you know it. We know why you are always gone, every month."
Sirius said, his voice soft and quiet.

"Y-you do?"
Remus asked, shaking slightly.

James answered, "We do know.
You seem to be always gone once a month. And when we looked at the
days you have been gone, we noticed that you are always gone on the
full moon."

James paused and Sirius picked up where James
stopped speaking. "Then we started to read about creatures
related to the full moon and their characteristics. We found some
interesting things out about werewolves." Sirius's voice was
still calm, as if this was an everyday conversation they were
having.

There was a moment's silence as Remus thought about what
he heard. After a minute, Remus spoke, his voice shaking slightly.
"And w-what did you f-find out?" Remus asked stuttering,
not wanting to hear the answer that he knew was coming.

"We
know that you are a werewolf, Remus." Sirius muttered clearly,
his eyes full of sympathy.

Remus threw the covers off him and
stood up, facing the three of them. When he spoke, there was anger in
his tone, a tone that the others had never heard before from Remus.
"And so what if I am? If you don't want to be my friends, then
fine. I don't care!" At this, Remus headed for the door,
flinging it open and going to the common room. In truth, he did care
if they stopped being friends. But he knew that they would never want
to be friends with him. It has happened before. Before he went to
Hogwarts, he made a friend. After two years of their friendship,
Remus admitted to his so called friend on what he was. Their
friendship ended immediately.

He heard people coming into the
common room. Sirius, James, and Peter caught up with him. Remus made
a run for the portrait hole, not wanting to face them. Before he
could get near the door to get out, he was stopped, as Sirius and
James held his arms, pulling him back. "Remus, wait, we need to
talk to you." James said, struggling for breath as he held Remus
back. Peter stood in front of the door, blocking it in case Remus
escaped the other two's grip.

Remus relaxed a little, allowing
James and Sirius to guide him back upstairs to their dormitory. They
softly pushed Remus back down on his bed. As Remus sat there, he
could feel tears quietly finding their way down his cheeks.

"Remus,
we would never stop being your friends, just because you are a
werewolf." Sirius said, sitting down next to him, rubbing his
back.

James sat down on the other side of Remus, taking a
handkerchief and whipping away Remus's tears. Peter sat on the ground
in front of Remus.

"Remus, do you really think that we care
that you are a werewolf? It doesn't change the person you are, the
person we know." Peter said.

After a minute when Remus felt
a bit better, he spoke. "Do you really mean that? Are you still
interested in being a werewolf's friend?" Remus asked,
uncertain.

"We aren't interested in being a werewolf's
friend. But we are interested in being Remus Lupin's friends. But
only on one condition." Sirius responded.

"What is that
one condition?" Remus asked, uncertain.

"Never keep a
secret like this from us again." Sirius pleaded.

Remus
smiled. "I promise I won't keep secrets again." Remus
paused before speaking again. "Thanks you three. For being there
for me. I am sorry I didn't tell you guys this."

"It's
alright, we understand why you didn't tell us. But did you seriously
think we wouldn't be your friends if we knew what you were?"
James asked.

"I did actually think that. It has happened to
me before." Remus said, blushing. How could he have thought that
these great friends would abandon him if they knew? He should have
known that they would not have left him.

"Well then, shame
on them. They lost a good friend." Peter said, James and Sirius
nodding their agreement.

Remus
had finally fallen asleep. The other three went to sleep as soon as
they saw that Remus was asleep.

The next morning, Remus woke up
before the others and went to the great hall to have breakfast. When
Sirius and James finally joined him at the table, Remus had just
finished eating and left as soon as they sat down to eat, trying to
avoid them. He knew that they were still friends, it just felt
awkward to be near them, knowing that they knew what he was.

"I
think that he feels uneasy about us knowing his secret." James
said, a frown on his face as Remus got up and left.

"We
should do something to help him feel better. Hey, you remember on how
the chapter about the werewolves it said that werewolves are only
harmful to humans?" Sirius asked, continuing as James nodded.
"Well, what if we weren't humans?"

"What are you
getting at, Sirius?" James asked confused.

"Just think
about it! What if we could transform into something else? Like an
animal." Sirius said, the idea coming to him.

"You mean
become animagi?" James asked, getting what Sirius was hinting
at.

"Exactly. If anyone could do it, we could. Come on, lets
go to the library and see what we can find out about animagi."
Sirius said, getting up and stuffing a piece of toast into his
mouth.

James did the same and together they left for the library.
When they entered the library, they found out where Remus had
disappeared to. He was at a table near a window, his head bent over a
book. Sirius went down an aisle of books and found what he was
looking for. A book for animagi. He and James went to sit at the same
table as Remus and started reading through the book, taking
notes.

Remus's curiosity got the best of him, and finally he had
to ask. "What are you two up to?" Remus asked
suspiciously.

"We had an idea after you left from
breakfast." Sirius answered simply.

"What kind of an
idea?" Remus asked, getting up and looking at the cover of the
book. "Wait a moment...animagi? Don't tell me you two are going
to attempt to become animagus."

"That is exactly what
we are trying to do." James replied.

"Wait, you can't
do that! It's illegal!" Remus said softly, since Madam Pince was
near.

"Yes we can, and we will. This way we can keep you
company on the full moons." Sirius said, his eyes gazing over
the pages in the book.

Remus sat down, not knowing what to do.
Them doing this for him sounded like a good idea. But if they got
caught, they could go to Azkaban or get expelled.

"Remus, we
would do anything for you to make you happy about your
transformations, even if we got caught, it would be worth it."
James said, seeing Remus's sad look.

Remus smiled, looking down
at the ground. "Just be careful...Thanks." He said, feeling
happy for the first time in a long time.

Sirius looked up at
Remus. "Don't worry, we have it under control. If we find out
that this will be too hard for us to do, we won't do it. Sound
good?"

Remus looked up at Sirius, smiling. "Sounds
great to me actually. Just be sure to hurry up in here, first lesson
is going to start in three minutes." Remus said, getting up,
swinging his bag on his shoulder and leaving to go to
transfiguration.

James looked at the time, "I didn't realize
that class was going to start so soon. Lets go." James said,
putting the book in his bag and heading off to
transfiguration.

There, James and Sirius met up with Remus and
Peter. Quickly, James explained to Peter in his ear what they were
going to do for Remus, thinking it best to include Peter in this
project.

Mrs. McGonagall opened the classroom door for class to
start just as James finished explaining it to Peter.

The four of
them spent the whole lesson in the back of the room, discussing the
difficulties of becoming animagus. Remus mostly sat there the whole
time, being quiet. Occasionally speaking when he felt something
needed to be said. Class ended in no time, and for the first time,
Remus did not even bother to take notes. He did not even pay
attention to the lesson.

"Mr. Lupin, please come here for a
minute." Professor McGonagall called out to Remus from her
desk.

As the rest of the class filed out of the classroom, Remus
went up to McGonagall's desk and waited for her to speak. Sirius,
James, and Peter stayed at the table they were at to wait for
Remus.

"You three go ahead, I need to talk to Remus
privately." Professor McGonagall told them. The three of them
looked at each other and shrugged, leaving the classroom. "See
you in the hallway, Remus." Sirius called behind his back.

Once
the door had closed, McGonagall spoke. "I thought that you would
have stayed in the hospital wing longer. Are you okay to be going to
your classes?" She asked.

"Yeah, I feel fine. I just
don't want to miss lessons since exams are coming up. But why did my
friends have to leave for you to ask me this?" Remus asked,
smiling to himself.

"Well because I didn't think you would
want to try and come up with an excuse on why you were in the
hospital wing in the first place." McGonagall replied, her voice
soft.

"Oh that. They know that I am a werewolf, ma'am."
Remus stated innocently.

"They know? But you aren't supposed
to tell anyone this, Remus." McGonagall said concerned.

"I
didn't tell them. They figured it out on their own and they just told
me last night that they knew." Remus said with a shrug.

"They
figured it out on their own?" McGonagall asked,
surprised.

"Yeah, they did professor. May I leave now?"
Remus asked, wanting to get a good table in potions.

"Sure.
Just make sure that your friends don't tell anyone." McGonagall
said, worried.

"They won't. Bye professor." Remus said,
walking to the door to meet up with his friends, who were leaning up
against the wall next to the classroom door.

"Why did the
professor want to talk to you?" James asked, curious.

"She
was just wondering why I wasn't in the hospital wing, since I usually
stay there longer." Remus thought no more about it and walked on
to their next class, potions, with professor Slughorn.

The
day went by fairly quick. Before Remus realized it, the day was over.
He sat himself in front of the fire in an armchair, getting started
on his homework, which was considerably longer than usual, since
exams were near and he had missed a couple days from his
transformation. Sirius and James finished their homework first. Peter
still had quite a bit to do and Remus was nearly done. James pulled
out the animagi book, taking more notes. After an hour or two, James
closed the book, a satisfied smile on his face. "I just got
through the whole book, and I think I have enough information for us
to start the process to become animagi."

Sirius beamed.
"Great! So how long do you think it would take for the process
to be done?"

"I would say that we would be able to get
it done by the end of our fourth year. I know it seems like a long
time, but it will be worth it." James said with a slight frown
from the thought on how long it would take.

"Well, that is
not too bad." Sirius said, thinking about it while looking over
James's notes.

"So, are you three sure that you want to do
this?" Remus asked uncertain.

"Of course we are sure!"
James replied.

Night time had fallen a long time ago and all of
the other Gryffindors were already in bed. The only ones left in the
common room was Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus.

The portrait
hole opened, and to the surprise of the four of them, professor
Dumbledore came in.

"Ah, I thought that you four would still
be up." The headmaster said as he took a seat next to James in
an armchair. "I wanted to talk to you three." Dumbledore
said, indicating his head to Peter, Sirius, and James. "I heard
from professor McGonagall that you three now know that Remus is a
werewolf, correct?"

Sirius nodded, lost for
words.

Dumbledore continued speaking. "I just ask that you
three keep this a secret and do not mention this to anyone. It would
be extremely bad if this information got out."

"Professor,
we would never tell anyone this. Remus is our friend and we would do
nothing to harm him." James replied.

"I am glad to hear
that. I am also glad to know that you three will continue to be
friends with Remus." Dumbledore said, clearly happy. "Well
then, I guess that there is no more reason for me to be here. Good
night." And with that, Dumbledore got up and walked out of the
portrait hole and was gone.

"Well, that was interesting..."
Sirius said, laughing softly.

"Yeah, no kidding. I never
thought that Dumbledore would simply come here just to talk to three
first year students." James nodded in agreement with
Sirius.

"Come on, lets go to bed." Remus said,
noticeably happy.

First
year at Hogwarts went by quick. The train departed from Hogsmade
station. Remus sat in a compartment with his fellow three friends.
The ride to Kings Cross station was exceptionally quiet. The train
came to a stop and there were noises as everyone excitedly got off
the train to enjoy summer.

"Hey, we have to make a promise."
James said as they got off the train. "Lets make sure to write
to each other during the summer." James said, putting his hand
out for the others to put their own hands on. They all put their
hands on top of James and gave the knot of hands a little
shake.

"Bye, I have to go. My parents are over there waiting
for me." Remus said with a last wave to them. He hurried off and
entered the barrier back into the muggle world with his parents. The
other three gradually separated as well. First year done, another six
awaiting them.