Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Eleven- Going Feral

TWs: Implications of Abuse

.................................................

"Are you happy, Sirius? Is this what you wanted?" James snapped, trying the doorknob again. "Remus, let us in!"

"NO!" the hysterical boy screamed. "Go away!"

"S...should we get a teacher?" Peter suggested helplessly.

"No, we could get him in a lot of trouble. We aren't allowed to magic our doors like this. I'm surprised he even can." James sounded calm and in control, which was a hell of a lot better than Sirius. He stood slightly behind James, feeling ill. He hadn't meant to hurt Remus. Well, certainly not this much.

"James just...tell him his blanket is still fine...it was just a prank," he whispered the words finding them rather hard to pronounce, his voice hoarse and thick with guilt. Sirius tried to assure himself that this wasn't his fault, that it was justified.

After all, Remus was two-faced. Sirius had just been trying to get a rise out of him to see his roommate's true colors. The Black heir had often done the same thing with several distant relatives of his. They all seemed nice but were the opposite as soon as they didn't have to worry about their 'precious' reputation. Sirius had been sure Remus would go off at him, or at least confess to writing those terrible letters.

That's really all Sirius had wanted. He just hated the way Remus could sound sincere, stupidly apologizing whenever Sirius pranked him, then send him nasty scathing letters. Those particularly awful letters revealed what Remus really thought of Sirius. It just wasn't fair! And now even James and Peter, who had been on board when Sirius had first told them about the letters, were beginning to doubt him. After this, they might not even want to be his friends anymore.

He felt an intense wave of anger crash into him. This had been what Remus wanted all along, hadn't it! Remus was faking it, of course he was faking it. No one was this bent up about a dumb blanket, even if it was some childhood memento. To think he had almost fallen for the act!

Remus was good; he had to give him that much. Better than his mother even. But Sirius wouldn't fall for crocodile tears, even well-executed ones.

"Come on mates, he's faking, he has to be. I told you about the letters he keeps sending," he complained, but James shot him a glare that quickly shut him up.

"Gee Sirius, he sure doesn't sound like it to me. Besides, don't you think there might be the slightest chance you were wrong?"

He wanted to assure James that no, he was not wrong. But another stifled heart-wrenching sob from behind the door turned Sirius' flood of anger into a wave of panic.

"I... don't know..." he admitted hesitantly. James rolled his eyes, appearing more mature than Sirius had yet to see him be throughout the fun weeks they'd had so far.

Sirius felt sweaty and jittery and could hardly keep still. Meanwhile, James was just standing there calmly trying to explain to a hysterical boy who clearly wasn't listening that the whole thing had been a prank. James was trying his best to get Remus to listen and open the door.

"James, I think we should get a teacher. He sounds really upset," Peter insisted, though he looked as shaky as Sirius did. James sighed heavily and pinched his nose. James only did that when he was very stressed, as Sirius had learned after a revealing game of truth or dare.

"Yeah...that might be what we have to do. Let me just...try one more time." James' eyes hardened with determination. He banged on the door even louder than last time, speaking in a loud but calm voice.