My Beautiful Monster

"Today we shall be doing the topic on," the tall lanky teacher spun around, speaking in his scaly voice, "werewolves." He had articulated the last word with a tinge of bitter coldness.

Remus choked, and coughed a little, catching the attention of Sirius, who immediately turned to him and started thumping him gently on the back. James looked over at Remus in mild concern but, seeing Sirius making sure he was alright, turned his attention back to the teacher.

Remus waved a hand at Sirius, "It's- I'm okay..." He leant onto his elbow and faced his textbook. He heaved heavily. Sirius saw his back rise and fall slightly.

"If you say so," Sirius turned back to the teacher, who was now making a terrible ear-splitting noise by writing with the chalk in such a way it was screeching with every move. "What an idiot," muttered Sirius, eyeing him in annoyance. Remus didn't say anything, although usually he'd be telling Sirius not to scold teachers under his breath. In fact Remus felt a smile tugging his lips, but restrained it and kept his eyes on his textbook. *What a nasty author...* Remus thought as he read through how the textbook portrayed werewolves. "Werewolves: horrifying beasts running around dangerously, untamed and wild, in the dark night with the full moon. They will go through a hideous process from human to wolf, as their bones and joints mould and lengthen, their hands turning into grizzly paws with threatening claws sharp and long enough to slice through your neck. They begin to look like mutated wolves, as their backs hunch with the huge shoulder blades. The public ought to be very careful around these potentially-dangerous beings, as you never know when you might get a painful bite and fear the moon for the rest of your life..."

It struck Remus worse as the teacher decided to read through it like he was drinking medicine. Sirius looked at Remus, and stared as he was watching the teacher with a look of utter dislike and disgust, his brows furrowed in the middle. His eyes seemed to be burning, and Sirius glanced away when Remus realized Sirius noticed. Sirius was in slight surprise, for the first time in his life he saw Remus give a teacher a hateful look.

"What's up, Rem?" he prodded Remus in the shoulder.

"Nasty bastard," Remus retorted, eyes burning with painful hatred.

Now even James looked around. He seemed pleasantly surprised, and had a small smile on his face.

Sirius was caught short.

Remus attempted to relax under his friends' gazes, and reasoned, "Well, doesn't he just sound very malevolent about these creatures? I mean, sure, they may be ugly and all. But that's not their fault!" And Remus had actually burst out that last statement, six eyes darted to the teacher and, to their alarm, saw him stiffen. He must have heard it. Pretending to ignore it, he moved on, scribbling something on the board. Remus breathed, and continued, "Don't you think so?" He seemed aggravated that his friends weren't responding.

"Hell yeah," Sirius mumbled.

Remus sighed and shook his head. "Sorry about that... Guess I'm just being... over-sensitive..." Then he caught himself, and quickly corrected, "Uh, I mean I was just over-reacting..." James didn't seem to notice, he was busy scribbling stuff on spare parchment.

Sirius wasn't convinced, however. He waited for Remus to look up again.

"Remus, can I... ask you something?" He wasn't sure this was a very good idea, but were the Marauders not best friends? Okay, maybe Pettigrew was kinda weird...

Remus looked up. And Sirius saw, as his breath caught, how very soft and pained they were.

"Erm, are you... one of them?"

Sirius' mind panicked when his black eyes saw the brown ones harden in a flash.

"One of what, a werewolf?"

Sirius nodded. "Sorry..."

Remus' eyes softened slightly, and he looked down. "Don't be. Yes, I am a werewolf..."

Sirius looked down, and for the first time in his life, he felt slightly awkward. James put an arm around Remus' shoulders; he had caught the ongoing conversation. And Remus truly knew then who his friends were...

As Sirius looked away and James withdrew his arm to support his own seemingly-heavy head, Remus swallowed. Throughout the minutes he had felt his pulse rising, his heart beginning to hammer, and his breath speeding up. His palms were rather sweaty now and he felt just a little dizzy. How did Sirius do this to him?? An unwelcome thought spoke cheekily, "Oh wow, he's hot..."

And another voice, belonging to Remus' controlling side, reprimanded, "Shush! He is but only your friend! Only a best friend, no more..." Remus sighed, half-glanced in Sirius' direction, then began scribbling notes on werewolves. However, halfway through, he dropped his pencil subconsciously. Sirius probably didn't know that somewhere on page thirty-four of his textbook was a messily-written "I LurVe yoU, PaDfoOt..." Remus blushed slightly. He had been studying late at night and was feeling so sleepy. Imagine if James were to see that.

Remus' mind wandered to the eyes which were as black as the Animagus' animal form, how they had softened with concern and, for the first time he saw, slight embarrassment. He felt his eyes grow warm as he thought about how Sirius seemed to love the girls, and how he watched a few of them. However, he did not realize Sirius watched both genders the same. He liked to watch and observe people. Neither did he realize Sirius didn't really find girls hot at all. He only did it to look social and cool.

Sirius was watching Remus out of the corner of his eye, mentally taking note of how Remus was behaving. He wondered if Remus ever went beyond the line of 'just-a-best-friend'. No, he never did. He never knew anyway; and he probably never will. Sirius had copied down all the notes for that topic, but finished early so he simply sat there with his chin in his hand wondering if Remus had ever felt deeper. Sirius frowned as he angered at himself for falling for a friend - a best friend. *Would he be my best friend anymore? What if something happened? Would I never see him again?* Sirius shook himself mentally. *Boy, I think too much...* He took a deep breath as he recalled how and why he fell into that trap. A voice whispered at the back of his mind, "Look into those eyes..."

*I already have...*

"No, do it again."

*But why?*

"Just do it."

*Would it make a difference??*

"Perhaps..."

*No, it would not. Not at all. How can it possibly make a difference anyway?*

"Perhaps, perhaps... Read his brown eyes..." the voice suggested gently.

*It won't make a difference anyway! Remus just doesn't feel the same!*

"That you don't know. Give it a try," the voice tugged softly. Sirius took his chance.

And when he turned his head, Remus was looking right at him. In fact Remus seemed to jump a bit when Sirius' eyes met his. Just at that moment Sirius' heart skipped a beat. Had Remus been watching him? And the voice suddenly instructed sharply, "DO IT!"

And without even thinking, he kissed Remus. Right in the middle of the lesson, at the back of the classroom, where the teacher stopped dead and dropped his chalk, eyes wide and mouth gaping.

Congratulations to the Werewolf!