This story takes place in the marauders era.
It's my version of how the other Marauders found out about Remus' moonlit secret :D
Enjoy!
'How had everything gone so wrong so quickly?' James wondered, as Sirius, Peter and he were staring motionlessly at Remus. Loud, shrill screams emitted from him, as well as blood-chilling cracks and snaps, as his bones shifted into new positions.
Sirius, James and Peter had decided to follow Remus, when he left earlier in the evening like he always did once a month. They had followed him with James' invisibility cloak hiding them. Remus had walked right up to the Whomping Willow – much to his friends' surprise and wonder – and picked up a long stick, which he used to prod a knot on the trees roots. The tree had frozen and Remus had went into a small opening in the ground beneath the tree. Sirius, James and Peter had hurried after him before the Whomping Willow began to move again.
They followed him through an underground tunnel, which led to a house and then up some stairs and into the room, that they were now in.
Remus sat in the middle of the room and began to scream out in pain, causing the others to reveal their presence with worried exclamations.
Remus had looked up with a mortified expression, which shortly distracted him from the pain, but not for long. Remus doubled up with pain.
"What's going on!?" Sirius exclaimed panic-stricken.
Sirius took a step towards Remus, but the other boy let out a blood chilling feral growl, causing him to freeze in place.
"GO!" Remus' voice was hoarse, as he screamed out the word.
"Come on!" James exclaimed, as he tugged on Sirius and Peter's sleeves, pulling the frozen boys with him.
The three friends ran out the room, followed by the screams of the transforming boy, which were gradually turning into animalistic howls and whimpers of pain.
They ran down the stairs already panting, more out of fear and shock, than exhaustion.
They heard the clicking sound of clawed paws against the floor and a deep, panting breath, as the creature began to chase them.
"Hurry!" James exclaimed, as they had almost reached the door leading to the underground tunnel.
Behind them, the creature was sprinting down the stairs, while howling and growling at them.
Sirius was the first one to reach the door, he tore it open and held it, while Peter and then James ran past him and into the safety of the tunnel. During these short seconds, Sirius was able to get a good look at the beast.
Remus was a big, as in very big, sandy brown wolf. His face was screwed up in a terrifying, feral snarl, with Remus' – usually calm, intelligent – amber eyes, flashing with a dangerous fire. Had Sirius not just seen the brown fur emerging from Remus' skin, he would not believe it could be him.
When James had run past him, Sirius smacked the door shut. Seconds later, the beast on the other side crashed into it with deadly force, the three boys listened in petrified shock, as it slashed at the door, while howling and snarling menacingly.
"WHAT IS THAT!?" Peter exclaimed, already a good ways away from the door.
Sirius and James, who had thrown themselves to the ground, when the beast had collided with the door, looked up at Peter.
"I… I don't know, but… OH NO! WHERE'S REMUS!" James eyes widened, as he stared fearfully at the door again, where the beast was still snarling.
"You… don't think…" Peter began looking at the door again with a deadly pale face, "that he was killed by that monster!?"
"ARE YOU TWO DENSE?!" Sirius suddenly yelled, causing boys of the others to flinch, "You just saw it happen!" Sirius was looking and sounding angry, despite the fear coursing through him, "Our little, shy, book-loving Remus is a werewolf!" Sirius ended with a dramatic tone, which was emphasized by the beast attacking the door again.
"WHAT!?" James exclaimed shrilly.
"B-b-but werewolves are… evil…" Peter trailed off, as he stared at door with newfound panic.
All three of them slowly began to back away from the door, which was rattling in the doorframe.
"Yes… they are." Sirius slowly agreed.
"I say we get out of here." James whispered, as a loud thud emitted from the door, as the werewolf possibly threw itself at it.
"Agreed," Sirius answered, before they all turned around and ran down the tunnel.
It didn't take them as long as earlier to get through it, since they ran the entire way, followed by anguished howls, as the wolf's preys got away.
When they reached the exit of the tunnel, the wails of the beast had turned into barely audible echoes, like the wails of a ghost.
Sirius went out first, prodding the knot on the tree's root that made it stop moving. The three of them walked in a quick tempo all the way up to the castle, occasionally they glanced up at the full moon above them, which shone brightly. The moon was, for all of them, the final confirmation they needed to be convinced.
They went inside the castle, but as they closed the door after them, they just stood there in silence, none of them moving.
"What should we do?" James finally asked, breaking the silence.
"I don't know," Sirius admitted sadly.
"Shouldn't we go to Dumbledore?" Peter was fidgeting nervously.
James and Sirius was quite for a second, before James said, "No, not yet. Let's go to the library and investigate. If he is in fact… evil..." James choked out the word, "then we can go to Dumbledore."
"James…" Sirius sighed, sadness clear in his grey eyes, "even my family has always hated werewolves, they're even blacker than the Blacks," he joked humorlessly.
"I've always heard they're one of the worst kind of dark creatures." Peter piped in, his blue eyes filled with fear.
"We can't count on that!" James exclaimed, flaring up at the suggestion that Remus definitely was evil, "There's a chance…"
"Ok," Sirius said softly, "let's investigate; we have the entire night to figure out what to do."
Peter reluctantly agreed as well.
They covered themselves with the invisibility cloak and went to the library –which was the first time they'd done so willingly, without Remus dragging them – and went straight to the section on magical creatures.
The moonlight shining from the window gave them enough light to read the titles, as they searched through the section on werewolves, before they each chose a random book.
They took the books to a table, where they with a quick spell lighted some lanterns.
A deep silence came upon them, as each of them grew tenser and tenser, as they read their books. Hours went by, before it was interrupted, as Peter shrieked and closed his book with a smack.
Both James and Sirius immediately shushed him, while glancing nervously to the entrance.
"What is it, Pete?" Sirius asked in a whisper.
"They… they eat human flesh." Peter gulped.
James nodded gravely, "Yeah, it says here that the infected person's human mind," James began, before he looked at the book and quoted, "slowly crumples away until nothing else than a sly diabolical beastly mind, which only crave human blood and flesh, remains." The trio exchanged frowns and worried looks, before James continued reading, "Werewolves are known to infiltrate densely populated areas and wait until the full moon, before they strike." James stopped reading with an unreadable expression.
"Remus would never…" Sirius trailed off with a haunted look.
"This is Serious, guys." Peter shook his head, "we have to tell Dumbledore or McGonagall or…"
"No, Pete! We can't." James bit him off, "I refuse to believe that Remus would do that." James crossed his arms determinedly, "Right?" he added with a frown, when neither Sirius nor Peter said anything.
"Right." Sirius nodded; "I don't think that Remus is like that." he nodded towards the book in front of James.
"But why hasn't he told us?" Peter shuddered.
"I don't know," James whispered, "maybe he was afraid."
Sirius nodded in agreement, "I would have done the same thing."
"But we still don't know how human he is." Peter stated with wide eyes.
They were all quite for a while.
"I think we should continue reading and find out." Sirius suggested, the others nodded and once again, silence filled the library.
They read on for hours; occasionally discussing something one of them read, they slowly became more and more uncertain of what to think. While their friendship with Remus screamed that he was trustworthy and good, the contents of the books, the lies and the secrets insisted that Remus was an evil dark creature determined to kill them.
"Um… guys," Sirius said from the window, after several hours of reading about the dark, evil werewolves, Sirius had decided to open the window to get some fresh air, "The moon. It's almost setting."
James and Peter came up behind him to look at the descending moon.
"What are we gonna do?" Peter asked, glancing at the books on the table.
"We get some answers." Sirius stated determinedly.
"Right, we go back," James agreed, putting on the same look of determination.
"But… but…" Peter began stammering, but seemed to regret it, as he instead just nodded.
They gathered the books, put them back on the shelves and turned off the lanterns, before they left the library under the invisibility cloak.
They sneaked through the deserted corridors and out through the same door they'd used earlier. They didn't hurry down to the Whomping Willow, since the full moon was still half-visible in the horizon, but eventually they reached it and eventually the moon was gone.
James picked up the long stick they had seen Remus use earlier and tried to prod the knot on the root, after many tries he finally succeeded and they went into the underground tunnel.
It was deathly quiet, as they made their way through the tunnel, none of them dared to speak.
They reached the door sooner than anyone of them wanted to.
Sirius took out his wand, before he took a hold of the doorknob. They listened intensely for a while, but the only sound was their own breaths.
Sirius opened the door carefully, as James and Peter grabbed their wands as well.
It creaked open, as Sirius carefully stuck his head into the room. The sight that met him made him gasp.
"What is it?" James whispered from behind him, as he and Peter looked over Sirius' shoulder and gasped as well.
The floor in front of the door was clawed up, as if the beast had tried to dig its way under the door. The floor and the deep claw-marks was covered with blood, which laid in a thick layer everywhere. Sirius even spotted some big lumps of fur sticking to something, which looked disturbingly much like bloody skin. All in all, it was a bloodbath.
Sirius swallowed and forced himself to look away from the floor, as he walked forwards, followed by James on his left side and Peter a bit behind on his right side.
They went into the next room, which was also much bloodier, than before the full moon.
They walked up the creaking staircase with blood smeared on every step, it created a trail to the room in which it had happened last night.
On shaky legs, the boys approached the door, which was open.
They exchanged fearful glances, before stepping through it. Peter shrieked, James gasped and Sirius couldn't as much as blink.
The room, which had once been a bedroom, was not as covered in blood, as the one downstairs, but a big pool soaked the middle of it. In the middle of the pool laid a bloody figure.
At first glance, all of them thought he was dead! No one could still be alive after losing that much blood, but upon a closer look, the shoulders were obviously shaking and the heartbreaking sound of a weeping and whimpering Remus was heard.
"Re… Remus?"
Remus felt pain. Excruciating pain. It was always extremely painful, when he transformed and turned back human, but this time it was almost unbearable.
Apart from the fact that his bones was twisting and cracking to become human bones once again, the pain remained even after his transformation was finished, implying he had several broken bones.
His skin hurt everywhere, and he knew without looking, that he was covered in gashes, cuts and wounds from top to toe.
He was unable to move, as he laid there with his broken bones and severe wounds, he couldn't help wondering why the wolf had been so angry.
Then it hit him, he remembered his friends confused and scared expressions, as he transformed. He remembered…
Remus sat up quickly, or well, he tried to, he only succeeded in flinching violently, causing a lot of the wounds, which was slowly clotting, to reopen. He hissed in pain, as he forced himself to lie still.
He had attacked his best friends. His only friends.
'Not anymore,' he thought sadly, as he once again slowly tried to get up, but gave up.
They were definitely not his friends anymore. They hated him, he was sure of it. How could they not hate him? He was a dangerous beast, a monster.
He couldn't help but huddle into a foetal-like position, as the realizations slowly dawned on him.
They had told everyone. He would have to leave Hogwarts. It wouldn't be long before angry letters from worried parents would be arriving in Dumbledore's office. Not even he would have any choice, but to expel him.
Remus began to sob quietly. His mother would be so disappointed; he was usually very good at keeping his secret, except for a few – painful – slipups.
Remus' sobs had turned into crying by now, although he was almost too weak to cry and every sob hurt in his body.
His parents and he had always moved around a lot, never being able to settle in one place for long, before someone became suspicious of the small, pale, scarred boy.
Now they'd have to move again, maybe leave the country, if the entirety of Hogwarts knew, the secret would soon reach the ministry and he would be caught. Remus shivered at the thought of what they did to unregistered werewolves, who failed to come forwards themselves.
"Re…Remus?"
Remus froze in place. The voice belonged to James, but there was no way he was here, not after what happened last night. Was he imagining things?
He suddenly felt a piece of fabric covering his naked body; he ignored the screaming and searing pain, as he flinched away from the touch.
Remus managed to turn himself around, so that he could look at the intruders.
James, Sirius and Peter was standing there, shock and fear clear in their faces, James stood closest to him, it was apparently him, who had draped Remus in his cloak.
Remus' eyes were big with terror and pain. His movement had caused his right leg, which was definitely broken, to flame up, as well as his chest, which probably harbored a few broken ribs.
Remus grimaced, but wasn't really paying any attention to the severe pain, his focus was on the three boys in front of him.
"Ple… ease…" he began weakly with a hoarse and shaky voice. The only reason for them to be back there, must be to punish him for his lies and his revolting secret. And he couldn't take it, not right then. He had lost too much blood, had too many broken bones and was far too weak, to take a beating. Plus he didn't think he could bear to see his friends turn on him like that.
James stepped forwards and reached out his hand to touch him, but Remus ignored the pain again and cringed away.
"Please… don… don't…" Remus cried, cowering away from them.
"Remus." This time Sirius spoke, as he and Peter stepped forwards as well.
"No!" Remus wailed, he shut his eyes tight, as he began shaking, "Please… I can't… I can't ta-take it. Not now," Remus pleas was desperate and stuttering, "Don't… don't… hurt me…"
"Hurt you?" James' voice was thick with worry and confusion, but Remus was too caught up in his own terror and agonizing pain to realize that.
James reached out to hold a comforting hand on Remus' trembling shoulder, but it didn't quite have the calming effect he hoped it would. Instead, Remus went rigid and then limp.
"Oh Merlin! Remus!?" James gently shook Remus' shoulder, but he was unconscious.
"Is he alright!?" Sirius exclaimed shocked, as he hurried over to sit next to him.
"I think so, he just fainted."
The three of them exchanged confused and deeply worried looks with each other, as they looked at their heavily wounded friend.
"What should we do?" Peter finally said after a while.
"I… don't know. Do you think Madam Pomfrey knows this? These wounds will definitely need healing." Sirius said worriedly, as he pulled a bit at the cloak, to expose some of Remus' chest.
"They… they can't be healed." Peter put in nervously, "remember what the books said about wounds inflicted by a werewolf?"
"The bleeding needs to stop and the scars won't be as clear with the right treatment." Sirius argued.
"Guys, what do we do?" James cut in, but the others didn't get a chance to answer, as a door suddenly creaked downstairs.
All of them jumped, Sirius was the first one to react, he jumped up and took the invisibility cloak from the floor, where James had dropped it.
"Hurry! Someone's coming." He whispered, as he unfolded the cloak.
Sirius, James and Peter disappeared, right as someone entered the room.
It was Madam Pomfrey, she gasped, when she saw the state of the room and again, when she saw the small bloody figure on the floor, still draped with James' cloak.
Madam Pomfrey wasted no time, she levitated Remus' limp body and hurried back out the room, oblivious to the three stunned boys, she left behind.
When Remus awoke, his head was spinning and throbbing, much like the rest of his body, which was coursing with pain.
He was squinting his eyes closed, due to the light and the bright white sheets on his hospital bed.
At first he had to strain his memory in order to remember what had happened, but when he did it felt like his blood turned to ice.
They knew. They knew. They knew. Remus couldn't think of anything else.
He closed his eyes with a shaky breath.
The whole school must know. Everyone. He'd have to leave Hogwarts.
Remus sighed and tried to roll over to find a more comfortable position, but just as he did, he gasped, as pain erupted from… well, everywhere.
The wolf was incredibly angry last night, he thought bitterly, as he tensely waited for the pain to subside slightly.
The curtains surrounding his bed was pulled aside, as madam Pomfrey stepped in with a worried expression.
"Remus," She greeted with a sigh, as she closed the curtain after her, "I thought I heard you,".
Remus was about to answer, but only managed a hoarse croak.
"Here, you need some water," she said, as she conjured a glass filled with water out of thin air.
He tried to sit up, but found it impossible. Madam Pomfrey saw this and hurried forwards, to help him raise his head slightly, before she held the glass to his lips.
Remus drank thankfully, as the cold water eased his dry throat.
"Thanks," he whispered hoarsely, when the glass was empty.
"You're welcome, dear. Now how are you feeling?"
Remus was taken aback a bit. If the entire school knew about him, wouldn't madam Pomfrey tell him, as the first thing? Wasn't it important? Or was she trying to spare his feelings? Or… had he imagined it? The entire thing?
"Um…" Remus realized that he hadn't answered her question, "not good."
"Hm, well no surprise there," She said, as she shook her head sadly, "This was by far the worst moon you've had, Remus. What happened?" she asked with a concerned frown.
She didn't know that James, Sirius and Peter had seen him, Remus concluded. If she did know, she wouldn't ask what happened.
"N… nothing."
"Hm," she didn't look convinced, "You had 16 broken bone"
Remus' eyes grew wide. 16.
"Fingers, toes, legs, arms, ribs." She listed, while counting on her fingers, "Quite a bloody mess in the shack." She sighed. (Remus shuddered; his friends had seen that 'bloody mess') "I healed the bones, but, as you know, I couldn't heal your wounds. However, you've been unconscious for a while, so most of it has healed a bit on its own by now."
'Unconscious for a while' he thought nervously.
"How… long?" His voice was still raspy.
"A week." Remus gasped, "8 days to be exact. You'll have to come up with a good excuse to your friends, they've been here quite a few times, demanding to see you."
"Wh... what?" Remus gulped nervously.
"Of course I didn't let them, but they were quite persistent." Pomfrey continued, before she noticed how pale Remus had went. "Dear Merlin, are you alright? You're very pale."
"Fine,"
"Well, I should tell you, dear, that you've acquired a new scar to your face." She said sadly, "Not a very big one." She quickly added, when she saw Remus' face drop, "would you like to see?" she asked uncertainly.
Remus nodded. Madam Pomfrey conjured a small, round mirror, which floated just above Remus' head, so he didn't have to sit up.
Ignoring the pain, he reached up and gently brushed his fingers over the small cut, which went over the bridge of his nose. It wasn't much longer than an inch.
Madam Pomfrey removed the mirror again.
"Try to rest now," She said, as she turned around to leave.
Thanks for reading!
Please tell me what you think. Reviews are greatly appreciated and great motivation!
Next chapter will be up asap.
