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The day before the full moon was the worst for Remus.
Sirius always said it was strange.
"You'd think it'd be the day of," he would say. "When all of your symptoms are the most painful and you can hardly control your senses."
"Yeah," Remus would answer. "You'd think."
While it was true that on the day of the full moon Remus's limbs felt thin as twigs and his hunger ate him inside out and his anger spilled over his skin like gasoline, it was not true that this was the worst.
Because on these days, there was an end in sight. Remus was entirely exhausted and wholly fragile, but within hours the moon would rise and set and the wolf would be finished.
On Wednesday, however, the end seemed so very far. It seemed unreachable.
Remus sat in the Great Hall and he refused to touch the huge assortment that James had put together. Just looking at the eggs and the toast and even the bagel with strawberry cream cheese made him feel nauseous. James was frustrated, Remus knew, but he hardly cared about James's feelings at the moment.
The rest of the table was chatting distantly about their first period Transfiguration presentations, but Remus wasn't listening. He had the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes as he failed to drive away the migraine that shot flashes of royal blue and vibrant red through his brain every two seconds.
And then someone nudged his knee.
Remus rolled his head to the side to find Sydney looking carefully between himself and James.
"Will you take these?" She whispered.
She tilted her plate slightly to show him a bunch of small yellow fruits.
"What's wrong with them?" Remus whispered back.
"Nothing," Sydney promised. "I just can't have pineapple."
"Why'd you take some then?"
"James made me."
"Just put them back."
"Have you met James?"
Remus exhaled and then lifted his head off his hands.
"Fine," he said, scraping the fruit off of her plate and onto the only empty space on his own.
"Eat some," Sydney urged. "It'll seem less suspicious."
Remus looked at her for a long moment and Sydney smiled slightly.
"Okay," Remus caved.
It was the first time he had eaten before one o'clock that entire week.
Remus finished his lunch in the opposite manner. There seemed to be a switch that flipped within him, devouring the pineapple from breakfast and demanding immediately for more. Remus finished all of his mac and cheese, two turkey sandwiches, beef stew, a baked potato and three cups of water before Sydney had even surpassed the first half of her pb&j.
