But what surprised him was that neither Little Sirius nor James thought it was a big deal that he was a werewolf.
It was as if he wasn't a werewolf, but an Animagus who could transform into a wolf—or as if they thought he was a harmless fluffy toy.
"James..." Lupin tiptoed forward, his head lowered as he approached James.
He was a bit afraid to look up at James, fearing that all of this was just a dream.
Who would accept a werewolf as a friend? Especially as a roommate...
"Yo, buddy." James laughed, "If it weren't for Little Sirius and me telling you this, seeing you act so shy, I'd definitely think you were a little girl—heavens, if you were a girl, then you'd have an excuse to sneak into the girls' dormitory and help me pursue Evans."
Harry didn't know if he should be touched by his dad's words or what, he just thought that sometimes his dad was quite... quite silly.
Hearing James' words, Lupin barely managed a smile, keeping his head down while nervously twisting the corner of his shirt, "You, you really don't mind that I'm a werewolf? You know, werewolves are forced to transform during the full moon and at that time they're uncontrollable, madly attacking any human they see..."
"Oh, that sounds a bit scary, you almost made me cry."
James said emotionlessly, reaching out to pinch Lupin's face, pulling up an unwilling smile.
"Listen, Lemy." James said very seriously, "I don't care whether you're a werewolf or whatever, the most important thing is, you're my friend. The worries you have are just small fuzzy issues, we're not going to not recognize you because of that."
After saying that, James turned back to Little Sirius and kicked him lightly.
"Hey, Little Sirius." He said, "Is this the big problem you mentioned?"
"I think it's cool too, buddy." Little Sirius struck a cool pose in response.
James was visibly nauseated by Little Sirius's pose, he gagged and mocked, "Oh heavens, this is the dormitory, don't be pulling stunts like that—are we shallow girls to be charmed by your handsome face?"
"Haha—" Little Sirius laughed in return.
"However, you did raise a valid point, Lemy." James propped his hand on his chin, seeming to ponder over something.
Lupin's heart, which had just settled, rose up again with worry.
"Actually, I, uh..."
Before he could finish, James spoke to Little Sirius, "Just think about it, Little Sirius, every time Lemy transforms he spends time alone in the Screaming Shack, he must be incredibly lonely—perhaps we can practice becoming Animagi together, I heard that werewolves don't go crazy attacking animals, so maybe we can—accompany Lemy in the Screaming Shack, what do you think?"
"That's so cool!" Little Sirius's eyes lit up, "Animagus! Such a great idea..."
"Yeah," James looked around, "Where's Peter? Where did Peter go?"
"I've been here all along..."
A timid voice spoke up, and Harry followed the sound to see a short boy.
"Oh, Peter." Little Sirius fiddled with his bangs and asked, "But what about Peter? He's really dense, can he learn to become an Animagus?"
"Don't worry, isn't that what we're here for?" James sighed, glancing at Peter, "We've got to teach him something, with how timid and dense he is, what will he do if he encounters a dark wizard in the future? Maybe we should turn him into a smaller animal so he won't get discovered by those dark wizards and end up getting killed off nonexistent customer base." James said.
Peter lifted his head and gave them a shy smile at James' words.
"Yeah, that's what friends are for." James gave Little Sirius a pat, laughing, "We're responsible for taking on You-Know-Who and his brainless followers, while Peter... Peter is better off staying in the background, helping with communication or something like that."
"I'll follow James's lead." Peter said obediently.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, buddy." James kicked at the foot of Peter's bed, "Can you stop being this way all the time? We're good friends, there's no need for you to be so cautious, if you ever run into that old Snot Spirit and his gang alone, they'll pick on you for sure."
The mention of Snot Spirit turned Little Sirius's expression dark.
"That wretched Snot Spirit..."
Before he could continue, James interrupted him.
"That's not the right way to put it, Little Sirius." James said seriously, "Snot Spirit is a jerk, sure, but he's not a piece of garbage—look at him, relying on those Little Death Eaters to not give Gryffindor any respect, we need to find a way to knock him down a peg!"
The scene abruptly stopped there, and Harry felt the world spinning again as his feet landed solidly on the ground.
"That's James." Lupin smiled at Harry, "He may not be perfect, but he was definitely my best friend."
Harry nodded in agreement with Lupin's words.
He wasn't a kid anymore, the world wasn't just black and white, at least it wasn't like a magnet with only two poles.
As Professor Lupin had said, at least his father had changed his shortcomings.
"But I still need to add one more thing, Harry." Lupin said again, "Like in that incident by the Black Lake that you saw in the memory, the Magic Spell your father used to hang Severus upside down was actually invented by Severus himself."
"He wasn't entirely innocent—back then there were Slytherins who idolized You-Know-Who, and Severus was a devoted follower—Lily broke ties with Snape not just because of the word 'Mudblood', he probably didn't tell you, but Lily repeatedly warned him not to go down that dark path, yet he kept banging his head against the wall trying to get into You-Know-Who's embrace."
"Also, Snape didn't frequently attack others, but the spells he invented were learned by the little Death Eaters and used on innocent Gryffindor students." Professor Lupin added.
Harry recalled the Evil Curse used by the two Slytherins on Marlin McKinnon in his mother's memory.
"If that's the case, it makes sense." Harry smiled at Snape—this way, he felt less sympathy for Snape.
No one's an innocent little flower, some things you might deceive yourself about, but don't try to deceive others.
"Of course, I'm not denying Severus is a genius." Lupin smiled at Harry and said, "I happen to have a collection of the spells he invented, maybe you could take a look—but I wouldn't suggest you follow James's example of using those spells against Severus."
"Why?" Harry asked curiously.
"He'd be furious." Lupin said concisely.
Harry imagined it for a moment, easily picturing Snape's rage.
"You dare use my magic against me? Potter?"
Thinking about it, Harry couldn't help but chuckle.
"You imagined how it'd be played out, right?" Lupin said with a laugh, "That's why I'm advising you against it."
After chatting with Lupin for a while longer, Harry bid farewell to him and planned to visit Mr. Leme.
Tonight, he intended to summon the Death God, hoping everything would go smoothly, he thought to himself.
(Revised several versions of the Death God, still not satisfied, just 4000 for today)