The large castle door creaks open and four sets of feet walk slowly and painstakingly out into the grounds. The cloak doesn't cover them properly anymore, and the breeze stirs the silken folds of invisibility. The grounds are lit by the emerging stars of twilight, like all of the clouds have whispered 'Lumos.' A distance away, across the grey blanket of grass, the Willow waves its arms at the sky, twisting to free itself from its sunken roots, down in that earthy tunnel that the four boys have crawled along so many times. They are barely boys now, with the map of adulthood unwritten before them, stretching in a hundred different directions, a hundred different paths that they could create. Remus thinks of the past, and looks at the future, and wonders if things will be the same.
Will he feel the comforting masses of his friends on either side of him, close enough to feel each other's ragged breaths under the cloak, or are their adventures child's plays now, leaving them with every breath they blow out, leaving them along with their youth? He thinks of their past here, the last seven years, and remembers how it felt to be noticed and included, to have people this close to you in whom you could hide all of your secrets. He remembers running with them, and thinking of how he hoped one day far away in the future, when their days of night time adventure were just distant memories in the past, they would be able to break their bread together again, and to remember the exhilaration of racing, unbounded, under the blanket of the night, above all things, together.
Pulled from his moment of reminiscence by the presence of the writhing tree before them, waving its arms threateningly in their direction, Remus waits expectantly for what has happened a hundred times before. As Peter shrinks suddenly and vanishes into the shadows around the roots, James rumples his hair unconcernedly and asks, 'So, Moony, how'd you manage to get down here alone?'
'I told Madam Pomfrey I could make the journey alone now. Even after seven years, I'm still not entirely sure she trusts me, but there we are.'
'Reckon Dumbledore's onto us?' jokes Sirius, an unruly glint appearing in his eye.
'Nah, he couldn't be,' replies James, 'we've always been careful, haven't we?'
Remus says nothing, but as his friends disappear one by one into the tunnel at the foot of the now placid Willow, a knowing smile touches his eyes. 'Careful' is not a word he would have chosen when describing James and Sirius.
Remus glances once at the star-spattered sky before descending into the tunnel after his friends. Not long now, before the wolf will take him again.
As he emerges into the battered and crumbling Shack, Remus takes a look around at the familiar surroundings. James, Sirius and Peter are already transformed: they are Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail now, and soon Moony will join them, the fourth of their brothers and the last Marauder.
The moment creeps closer until it is upon them. The shrieking that gave the Shack its name begins. Fur appears, claws shoot from fingernails, a grotesque transformation from man to wolf. The stag and the dog are undeterred by this strange event unfolding in their midst, but the rat shifts uncomfortably, his watery black eyes changing direction rapidly. As the wolf fully emerges, he gives a single howl of celebration, before the four animals set off at speed into the night. They race through the fields, a scrambled mix of pawprints and hoofmarks, unstoppable and undefiable. Remus's worries evaporate in the exhilaration of the chase, in the sheer joy of racing his three best friends through Hogsmeade in the dead of night. He is Moony the wolf and they are the Marauders, and they are together.
They slow to a trot closer to the houses, the distant sounds of Madam Rosmerta throwing some drunken warlock out of the Three Broomsticks ('-and STAY OUT!') echoing back to them across the misted air.
As they snake around the other side of the village, away from the noise of the pub, the houses sleep silent, and Remus can almost believe that they are the only four souls in the world. As they slow to a stop, Remus gazes up at the orb-like moon above, and thinks:
I was bitten by a curse, but it was a bitter sweet one.
—
Remus Lupin looks up, hearing his name, and hears Kingsley Shacklebolt saying how they will lead groups of fighters into the grounds, preparing the school for the battle against Lord Voldemort. He thinks of his wife, of his wonderful Tonks. He thinks of his tiny son, Teddy, and wonders what colour his hair is now. He thinks of night time wanderings through Hogsmeade with his three best friends.
A thousand years ago.