Disclaimer: Harry Potter, all places and characters, the names etcetera belongs to Mrs J.K Rowling, her publishers (there are so much of them, so, well …), and Warner Brothers™. All rights reserved. This is not meant as theft or insult – I wrote it for fun. I own the story.
Rating: PG (K+)
Word Count: 873

A Night with the Friends

Remus Lupin climbed through the portrait hole. He and Madam Pomfrey had decided to met in the Entrance Hall. Remus was a werewolf. He went bite when he was five years old, which was ten years ago. Remus had not watched for himself enough, and he had get caught by Fernier Grey back. Remus had always blamed himself for that.

When he was about to begin at Hogwarts, he didn't think he was going to have any friends. Now he had three of the best friends you could ever have; James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. He had reached the Hall now. Madam Pomfrey was not there. But when Remus looked at his watch he saw that it was a quarter to nine. He and Madam Pomfrey had decided to met at nine o'clock.

Remus hated to wait. But afterwards he had learned that he was always to early, he had brought a book: 'Supplementary Charms Studies'. He read everything that came in sight for him, what it was didn't matter to him. He liked all his school subjects. Mostly he liked Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Arithmancy and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

'Hello, Remus!'

'Good day, Madam Pomfrey. How are you?'

'I'm fine, thank you,' Madam Pomfrey said. 'How are you yourself? And haven't I told you to cal me Poppy after all these years?'

'Well … Poppy … Myself, I'm feeling as good as I can now, in my condition, thank you.'

'Have you waited?'

'No.'

'Remus, I know you're lying.'

'All right … A quarter.'

'Why so long?'

'Ma … Poppy, you know me after all these years.'

'Well, I should know that you can't come in time or to late by now.'

'You've got a point there.'

Both Remus and Poppy laughed and started to walk down to the Whomping Willow.

'How is school? Are you doing well?'

'Well, not as well as I should. The other three tricked me to visit the kitchen. We ate all night before our latest Charms test and I only get an "A".'

'But an "Acceptable" is good enough, and if you didn't rehearse, it's very good. And you have "yourself to blame", you know.'

They both laughed again. A little moment later, they had reached the Whomping Willow.

'Well, Remus, now we're here. See you at five o'clock!'

'Yes, we'll do. Bye!'

'Bye, Remus!'

And Poppy left Remus, who took a stick and pushed it onto the tree, which suddenly froze. He went under it and climbed into the secret pass way. Fifteen minutes later, he had came to the Shrieking Shack. He sat down on the bed, waiting for the others to come, and for the Transfiguration to begin. He did not dare pulling his book out in case the Transfiguration would begin. He knew that he could not control himself while he was a werewolf. No, Remus heard footsteps in the stairs.

'Have the Transfiguration begun yet?'

'Not yet, but I'm quite sure it will very soon.'

'OK,' James said, and he, Remus and Peter went into the room. Remus smiled at them.

'You would better transform yourselves, I think,' Remus sighed. He felt the moon draw closer as the others did as their friend just had said; suddenly Remus did not see three boys in front of him. He saw one stag, one dog and one rat. Remus were about to smile to them, but he could not. The Transfiguration that would turn him into a werewolf had just begun. He felt his body shaking and a fluffy fur started to spread all over his body. He suddenly felt mad, but when he saw his friends inside his head, he calmed down.

A little moment later the transfiguration was completed, and Remus was no longer a human. His three friends put the Invisible Cloak over Remus. Rats, stags and dogs did not attract attention, but seeing a werewolf in Hogsmeade people would find strange. Tonight, the three friends decided to investigate the mountains behind the village. They had only been there once before, but it was in the small hours of the morning; Remus would soon be transformed back into a human, so they had not very much time then. Now, they had. They found a lot of caves there, which they went into and searched, but they did unfortunately not found anything in the caves. The Marauders enjoyed it, though.

Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail went into the passage soon, as the dawn was about to occur. Remus began shaking again, and slowly but steadily the fur disappeared. A little moment later he was ready to go back to the castle of Hogwarts.

He went down the stairs to the Ground Floor of the Shrieking Shack and went into the passage, he too. He wandered for about fifteen minutes before he had reached the very end of the secret passway that was built just for him almost five years ago.

'Good morning, Remus!'

'Good morning, Mad … Poppy.'

'How was your night?'

'It was the best up to now. I didn't hurt myself much,' Remus said.

'I'm very pleased to hear that.'

And I'm very pleased that my friends are with me, Remus thought.

Author Notes Hm … It is good, I think, and it is my longest One-Shot, I think, since 'An unpleasant meeting' is six handwritten A5-pages, and 'Gilderoy's Ordinary Day' is four handwritten A5. This is eleven such. Review in English, and review constructive, please. Thank you!

P.S. This was, as the end of my Swedish story 'Où sont les Horcruxes?' and my other two One-Shots 'An unpleasant meeting' and 'Gilderoy's Ordinary Day', written during my journey to Tunisia 27th to 24th May 2006. D.S.