"Jes up this a'way, Garm, not more 'n a few steps," Frek guided Garm Tyr down the corridor to the Defense classroom, intent on getting to Garm's quarters. Garm leaned on Frek and his cane, feeling the pain of every step all the way up in his hips. They turned the corner at last and found, standing outside the door of the classroom, Sirius Black. "Wott're you doin' up here?" Frek demanded of Sirius, suspiciously. 

Sirius held up the confetti popper he'd just detached from over Garm Tyr's office door. "Undoing a trick I'd done earlier," he confessed.

Frek opened his mouth to snap at Sirius, but Garm held up his hand, "So you're the one," he said quietly, his voice unsteady, "Who is responsible for all of the confetti on everyone down there."

Sirius nodded, "Yeah. But I reckon you've been through enough, sir, and I didn't fancy adding on to it."

Garm chuckled quietly, and winced when a pain went up from his ribs at the motion of the laughter. He kept his eyes shut longer than he really needed, then slowly opened them to study Sirius for a long moment. "What're you supposed to be dressed up as, then?" Sirius's pointed ears, attached by a plastic headband that went over his skull, reminded Garm of the ones that must spring forth from his own head once a month these days...

Sirius replied, "A dog, sir. A dog named Snuffles."

Garm nodded slowly. "Ah, I see." He nodded to Frek, who rushed around Sirius and unlocked the DADA door. "Well... thank you for disarming the confetti," he murmured, "I'm not one for glitter and sparkles, myself..." And Garm began his slow shuffle toward the office.

Sirius nodded, holding onto the confetti canon and keeping his eyes down so he didn't stare at the way Garm walked past him slowly and agonizingly. Then Sirius turned around. "What happened to you?" he asked. "You look like something bit you pretty deep."

Frek was bracing Garm again as he came to a stop to look back at Sirius. "You know bloody well what happened to me," Garm murmured, "Don't act like you don't."

Sirius hesitated. Then, "Was it Greyback?"

Frek's eyes were wide, he stared between Garm and Sirius, a panicked expression on his face.

Garm's fingers went to the fang on the necklace. Sirius caught the motion. "Did you kill him?" he breathed.

Garm shook his head, "Not yet," he murmured, "But I will. And I'll fly his pelt like a flag from the spires of Fallengunder." With that, he shuffled through the door and into the office. Frek stood there a moment, his eyes connecting with Sirius's meaningfully, then ducking in after Garm quickly.

Sirius's mouth had gone quite dry. He stood a moment, holding the confetti canon, and then suddenly broke into a dashing run, his ears falling off and tumbling to the floor behind him as he raced from the Defense corridor up the moving staircases. "Quaffle!" He yelled to the Fat Lady, and he scrambled through the portrait hole as she complained she'd need to set a new password, as he'd gone announcing their current one to the world. Sirius fell on the steps going up to the dormitory, tripping an nearly knocking over a first year. He broke the confetti canon and it busted a whole load of confetti into the air, a great shower of teal that puffed around him.

There was shouting behind him as he went on up the stairs, and, expecting  it was about the mess of glitter and confetti that he'd just made, Sirius ignored it, too focused on his destination upstairs to even really listen to what was being said, nor whom was saying it... And so it was that, covered in teal glitter that stuck to the sweat of his brow and panting loudly, Sirius practically fell through the door of the Marauder's dormitory...

And right onto James Potter's bed...

...which was occupied

....by James Potter and Lily Evans.

There was a thump as Remus ran into the back of Sirius, and a second thump as Peter did, too, and they stood there like a crashed train, as Sirius's eyes took in the sight of Lily, clutching James's quidditch robe to her chest, a startled expression on her face, as she sat up, James Potter thrown askew beside her, wearing naught but his underpants. 

Sirius blinked.

"Oh no," Peter ducked back out of the room quickly, and Remus apologized, quickly following after him. Sirius however, stood there in the door frame smirking wildly for several long moments before Remus returned, grabbed hold of Sirius's shirt collar from behind, and hauled him out into the hall, slamming the door shut behind them.

"RULE NUMBER ONE!" Sirius bellowed at the closed door, but he was laughing all the way down the stairs to the common room.

"Now that we're all properly attired," Sirius cleared his throat as Lily flushed and worked at braiding her hair to avoid Sirius's coy glance at her, "I've got to tell you lot what happened in the Defense corridor, alright?"

James and Lily -- whose amorous activities having been interrupted decided to call it quits for the evening --had gone to collect Sirius, Remus, and Peter only moments later. Sirius was a buzz with excitement, not just over his need to tell them about the conversation he'd had with Garm Tyr, but also over the opportunity to mercilessly torture James about breaking the rules.

Sirius was hesitant to tell the boys about his discoveries with Peter in the room - though he didn't say so, he did give Peter a bit of side-eye as he came into the room behind Remus. But there was little he could do about it. After all, if the others were willing to include Peter the same as they'd been before until they figured out what to do about the Vow thingy, then Sirius couldn't really change their minds on it, then he'd have to simply make do. But he'd keep his eye on the pudgy little rat, he decided, and if even so much as a toe was stepped out of line... well, Sirius Black would see to it that his dues were paid.

"Garm's bite out of his shoulder? It's from Fenrir Greyback," Sirius announced.

Remus balked, standing and pacing in his reaction. Peter crawled down the length of his bed and reached out a hand for Remus's hand to comfort him, and Remus paused at the end of Peter's bed to take the offered hand, a look of disgust and fear on his face.

Lily's eyes were wide with surprise at the announcement. 

"How do you know that?" James asked.

"He told me," Sirius answered. "I was taking down the confetti canon and him and Frek come down the hall and I just... I dunno, I talked to the bloke. That necklace he's got? The new fang on it is Greyback's." 

Remus murmured, "He took Greyback's fang?"

"Apparently."

Remus brought his hands to his mouth, covering the teeth with in. "Bloody hell." He set to pacing again, clutching his jumper 'round him tighter as he walked back and forth.

James shook his head in amazement as Lily took his hand. He squeezed hers reassuringly. "Alright so -- even if he wasn't a werewolf before, he definitely is one now, we all agree on that, yes?"

"Yes," everyone, including Remus replied.

"That was a bloody huge chunk of flesh the bastard took out," Sirius commented. "It's even worse up close, I'm telling you."

Remus murmured, "I mean, I have a gouge in my side still, haven't I? Greyback doesn't mess about. When he bites, he bites." There was a pause and Remus stopped his pacing and looked about at them. "That fang that he's got on that necklace... that fang is one of the fangs that... that bit me. That made me like I am."

Sirius said, "He's against Greyback, Moony. Garm is, I mean. I don't reckon he's evil. He said that he's trying to kill him."

"Good riddance," Remus said thickly.

"He says he'll kill him and fly his pelt like a flag," Sirius remembered, grinning.

"Bloody ugly flag that'll be," commented James.

"Bloody ugly," Remus echoed, nodding.

Suddenly Sirius's eyes clouded. "Wait a mo'..." They all looked to him, concerned with the tone of his voice. "He said... He said he'd fly the pelt from the spires of Fallengunder."

They looked about at one another.

"So... so he was at Fallengunder. During the full moon," Remus murmured.

James nodded, "No wonder he wasn't attacking us at the Shrieking Shack, then. Iceland is an awful long way to come to go after a teenage werewolf and his mates."

"Yeah well, we'll keep on the watch next month, too," Sirius said, and his fingers absently went to the little folded pocket watch in his vest pocket.

Peter's eyes widened suddenly. "Ohhhh... oh no."

"Peter?" Lily scooted forward to the edge of the bed, worried for the pale expression coming over Peter's face. "What is it?"

"Yeah, speak Lassie," teased Sirius, "Gonna play some more charades for us, are you now?" He snickered, but Remus elbowed him good in the ribs and he stopped, rubbing the spot where Remus's bony arm had jabbed him.

Peter's voice trembled. "What if Remus isn't the good wolf after all? What if it's Professor Veigler?"

Silence fell over them.

Remus's panic only rose at this suggestion.

Sirius pointed at Peter's bag of stones, at the crystal ball and tarot cards, the Horary chart, and rolls of bound up sage and incense piled up on Peter's bedside table. "Well bloody find out!" Sirius demanded. "Hurry!"

Peter scrambled for his divination tools, his hands shaking, "I - I dunno if it'll tell me - I -"

"It's worth a try, Pete," James said.

Lily asked, "What is Greyback after the good wolf for, anyway? Has any of your tools told you that yet, Peter?" she asked.

Peter shook his head, "Only that the good wolf will die."

Remus let out a long, low whimpering cry that set Sirius jumping to his feet, wrapping his arms about Remus protectively. "Shh, Moony, it'll be alright. We're not gonna let that old bastard hurt Ned, alright? I'm sure that Mr. Scamander is there, too, helping to protect him, and all the other werewolves at Fallengunder, too."

But the words were of little comfort because in Remus Lupin's experience the way that things should be were never the same as the way that they were. The way that things were was much crueler, particularly to him, than they ever were for others, it seemed. It fit the narrative, he thought, that Ned Veigler would be taken away next - after all, what else was left to lose for Remus?

But try as he might, Peter could not get the stones to reveal the identity of the Good Wolf.

Ned Veigler pushed his way into the pub in the village. His knees were still sore, his bones still cracking, but he'd come down the long path from Fallengunder Castle to the Greenwood Pub, desperate to see Elva again. The pub was quiet, dark but for a couple lights that burned low on the tables, and empty. No patrons sat in the booths or at the bar, and the strange silence that filled the pub felt uneasy. The village itself had been devoid of its typical liveliness, and he realized as he marveled at the empty pub that he'd not seen a single soul out on the street, save one young man who had been running down one of the cross streets ahead of him.

"Hello?" he called out, his voice echoing throughout the pub. "Anyone here?"

Elva came from the back room, her apron clean and her long, pale white hair hanging about her shoulders in a cascade of messy curls. Her piercing eyes studied him long and hard, and she came out, throwing a towel down on the counter as she passed, an angry expression on her face.

"You have a lot of nerve showing up here," she hissed.

Ned blinked in confusion. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.

Elva shook her head, "After the other night? After the - the full moon."

Ned flushed. "I'm sorry. I thought --"

"Your kind... filling the woods... You swore to me that you were different than the others," she continued on, her voice hard and hateful. "You lied."

Ned paused, "Hang on, what are you on about?"

"What am I on about?" Elva grabbed up a paper from the counter behind her and shoved it down before him. A paper from a press in the nearest big town, and on the front page a cover about a massacre of wild wolves that had torn apart a young hunter from the village the night of the full moon. There was a call out in the article, citing the village's superstitions about werewolves and marking the so-called irony that the attack had happened on the night of the full moon.

Ned stared, gape-mouthed at the paper. "We didn't do this. We were all in the castle. The entire night. We all had the wolfsbane potion. We were in control. None of us did this. Trust me."

Elva shook her head, "I never should've trusted you... and I don't trust you now." She pointed at the door. "Get out."

"But --"

"Out," she commanded, "Or I'll tell my brother what you are, here and now."

Ned got up shakily from the stool and he hurried to the door, glancing back over his shoulder to look at her one last time before he stepped out into the street.