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"But how do you know when humans are near when you're — you know — in your wolf form?" Sirius asked, looking up from his Potions textbook.
Remus groaned. Ever since his friends had found out that he was a werewolf a few weeks ago, they'd been full of questions about the whole process. Remus couldn't complain too much. He was still amazed that they hadn't immediately broken off their friendship and reported him to the authorities. But he wasn't used to answering questions about his condition in such a casual fashion. His parents always spoke of his lycanthropy in only the most serious tones. Other people who knew like doctors or Ministry officials treated him like a horror. But after the initial shock, Remus's friends just acted like it was the sort of thing that could be discussed over dinner.
"I've told you," Remus replied, not looking up from his own Potions textbook. "I can smell them. Werewolves have a very good sense of smell."
"Like dogs?" Sirius asked.
"Sure, I guess," Remus replied with a shrug. They were both canines, after all.
"But what do they smell like?" Sirius asked.
"Like lots of things," Remus said. "But mostly, I smell their blood."
"Oh," Sirius said, in a surprised voice.
Oh no. Remus shouldn't have said that. It sounded so violent and awful. He couldn't always remember what happened to him during his transformation, but the times that he'd caught a whiff of human blood were fairly clear memories. There was nothing quite like it. Sometimes, Remus could even smell human blood when he was still in human form, when it was close to the full moon. He definitely wouldn't be telling Sirius that.
Remus looked at the other boy, but Sirius's face only turned back to inquisitiveness after his initial surprise.
"So what does it smell like?" he asked.
"What?"
"Human blood? What does it smell like?"
"Oh … um, like you'd expect, I guess," Remus said. "Sort of rusty and rich. But it smells really good to me … I mean, this is probably too odd to talk about."
He studied Sirius's face carefully, but his friend didn't appear disturbed.
"Nah, you can't shock me," Sirius said, with a shrug. "My family's into dark magic. They talk about worse stuff than this all the time."
Remus took a moment to bask in Sirius's easy acceptance before changing the subject.