Discoveries

The weeks flew by, and soon it was Halloween night and the Great Hall was elaborately decorated with glowing pumpkins and live bats. Remus was sick. Lily's brow furrowed as she stood in her dorm, brushing her hair in front of a mirror. She was almost positive that there was some sort of pattern in his absences.
"Hey, Lily," Melanie said, bursting into the room. "Did you know that this is the first full moon on Halloween in the last 13 years? Pretty cool stuff, huh?"
Suddenly, a thought came to Lily. If Remus was sick every full moon, maybe he was... She shivered.
"What's the matter?" Melanie asked, seeing the expression on Lily's face.
Lily barely heard her as she dug out a calendar from her trunk. She opened it up to September and looked for the day of the full moon. She sat and thought for a minute, then decided that Remus had been sick that day. That was the day when Peter had enlarged his nose in Charms class. She flipped to the next full moon in her calendar and concluded that Remus had been sick that day as well. The same was true for the rest of the full moons leading up to today.
She looked up from her research and saw Bekki and Melanie looking at her as though she were sick.

"You guys," she said, hesitantly. "I think there's something Remus hasn't been totally honest about."
Melanie jumped to a conclusion immediately. "Is he cheating on me? That tramp! I'll go talk some sense into him right this instant!"
Bekki caught her arm. "Let's hear what Lily has to say, first."
Lily wondered how she could tell them without making Melanie pass out, then decided to just show them the evidence first.
"You know how Remus is sick tonight?" Lily asked them.
"Yeah."
"And you know how it's a full moon and all?"
"Yeah."
"Well," Lily paused, wondering what to say. "I don't think it's a coincidence. He's been sick every full moon for the whole school year."
Lily watched them as they put two and two together.
"Oh Lord," Bekki breathed.

"What?" asked Melanie, not catching on. "Did I miss something?"
"Do you remember what the first thing we studied in Defense Against the Dark Arts was?" Lily asked.
"Werewolves," Melanie replied. "I don't see what that has to do with Remus being sick every..." She trailed off into utter silence, then put a hand to her forehead and sat down quickly on the bed next to Lily. She looked a bit dazed. "It can't be," she whispered, half to herself.
"All of the facts lead up to it," Lily said gently. "And remember how nervous he was when we started the topic?"
"Why didn't he tell me?" Melanie asked, sounding sad and angry at the same time.
"Do James and Sirius know?" Bekki asked.
"Probably," Lily said. "They're his best friends. But where does he transform?"
Bekki sat down on Lily's other side, fingering her chin. She looked deep in thought. "It would have to be somewhere outside of school, where he wouldn't hurt anybody. Not Hogsmead, there are too many people there."
Melanie was lying, face up on the bed now, moaning softly to herself. "I should have seen it coming," she mumbled. "I should have known it was too good to be true."
Bekki frowned at her, then turned back to Lily. "Can you think of anything put on the grounds in the first year that might be the passage to some underground room?"
Suddenly, a thought came to Lily. "The Whomping Willow."
"It all just fits!" Bekki said. "There's probably a button on it somewhere to make it stop, too."  
Lily nodded, then glanced at Melanie, who was moaning louder now and covering her hands. "Could you be quiet, Mel?"
"How can I?" Melanie sobbed. "I just found out that my boyfriend's a werewolf."
That just sounded hysterical. Lily and Bekki couldn't help it. They started laughing.
"Oh, shut up, you two," Melanie said, working her mouth to keep from smiling. "I know it sounds funny, but think if it were James, or Sirius."
That made them be quiet.
"You should talk to him, Mel," Lily said. "Saturday."
"But that's tomorrow," she said.
"The sooner, the better," Bekki told her.
Melanie sighed. "All right."
"Come on," Lily said, setting down her calendar. "Let's get ready for the feast."

The next day, Lily and Bekki accompanied Melanie as she went to tell Remus what she and her friends had figured out. It was not going to be an easy task. They had decided to bring James and Sirius into it, since they most likely knew what Remus was. They walked side-by-side into the boys' dormitories and found the 7th year boys' dorm. There were Sirius, Remus, and James, playing a game of cards, while sitting on one of the beds. There was no one else in the dorm. Remus looked exhausted.
"Where's Peter?" Bekki asked, as they stepped into the dorm. It was rather messy.
"We think he broke his arm," Sirius said, amusement clear in his voice. "He fell out of bed this morning. What are you doing in here? Trying to get back at us for the crabs?"
Bekki frowned at him. Lily looked at her two friends, who nodded grimly at her, then said, "We noticed something about Remus last night."
Those simple words sent all three boys into stunned silence. After a moment or two, they set down their cards and turned to face the girls. Remus ran a shaky hand through his hair and sighed. "They were going to find out sooner or later," he told James and Sirius.
Melanie scowled at him. "But you let us find out for ourselves, rather than telling us straight out," she said angrily. "I'm ashamed of you, Remus. I thought you trusted me."
Remus stood up. "I'm sorry Mel, but nobody wants to go out with a, well, with someone like me."
"Oh, Remus, how could you think that?" Melanie asked, anger replaced by shock. "I don't care if you're a...a, well, if you're you." Remus smiled at her, but that reminded Melanie to be mad at him. "When were you going to tell me?" she asked heatedly. "When the kids started to turn into monsters?"
That produced a stunned silence. Realization of what she had just said hit Melanie and she clapped hands over her mouth.

Remus finally spoke up. "Did you say the..." He stopped to swallow. "...the kids, Melanie?"
Melanie flushed as red as a beet behind her hands. Lily wondered if she and the others should leave the two of them alone when Melanie finally found the courage to resume speech. "I..." she didn't seem to find anything to say. "Well..."
Remus shook his head slowly, breathing deeply and closing his eyes. He put a hand to his forehead and ended up scratching his scalp vigorously. Lily suddenly had an idea. She picked up the small handbag that Melanie had dropped on the floor and dug around in it until she found what she was looking for, then started to take pictures. Melanie and Remus seemed not to notice, but James, Sirius, and Bekki all smiled at her, because they knew that Melanie and Remus would want copies of these pictures once they got over the shock of what Melanie had asked Remus.
After the third picture was taken, Remus realized what Lily was doing and said, "Hey! When did you start doing that?"
That brought Melanie out of her trance and she gaped as the fourth picture was taken, then snatched the camera from Lily's grasp. "What do you think you're doing?"
Lily grinned at her. Melanie grinned back, then glanced at Remus, who raised an eyebrow at her. Melanie smiled at him. He smiled back. Lily decided that now as a good time to leave. She stepped out the door, followed by Bekki, James and Sirius. As soon as the door shut behind them, James and Sirius knelt on the floor, then pressed their ears to the door. Lily smiled, then looked at Bekki, who was imitating the two boys, and did the same.
"So, what did you mean, Mel?" Remus was asking.
"You can't really believe that you're going to find some other girl besides me to spend the rest of your life with?" was Melanie's reply.
"No, but..." Remus trailed off.
"That's what I thought, too," Melanie said, cheerfully. "And eventually, we will have kids, Remus."
Lily could almost see Remus's cornered expression through the door. "Maybe."
"What do you mean, maybe?" Melanie asked. "I've made up my mind and don't you dare try to change it."
There was a pause, then Melanie giggled. "Sometimes, Remus, you're almost too cute for my liking."
After that, there was silence, and Lily knew what was going on between Melanie and Remus at that moment. She looked at James, who slipped an arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek. She smiled at him. Suddenly, the door opened and Melanie and Remus stood there, looking down at the guilty party as though they had expected them to be there. They were holding hands, but that didn't stop Melanie from taking a picture of them, squatting on the floor of the boys' dormitories.