The chill Autumn air of late October whistled through every conceivable crack in the castle, carrying with it the unmistakable smell of leaves and the hint of something like memories, or the otherworld. James Potter took a deep breath from a common room window, which he'd opened a crack, and grinned to himself. He eyed the Moon. It had a frosty halo around it.
"Mate, close the bloody window!" Sirius complained from his perch in a corned of one of the couches. He rubbed his arms vigorously, exaggerating for effect. "It's too cold for you to be taking the air; we're all freezing in here."
"Really, Sirius, you have such a flare for the dramatic," Remus said mildly, not looking up from his thick book. Sirius made a face at him, which went unnoticed.
James closed the window. They were nearly the only ones in the common room; most everyone else had gone to bed or had snuck out. It was Friday night, and with Halloween nearing, everyone was restless. James came back to the couch where the other Marauders were seated (slightly squished together), but kept looking out the window, at the clouds scudding across the Moon and the waving branches.
"Windy out," he said absentmindedly. He began to jiggle his leg. Peter just continued staring into the fire, Remus glanced up a little before returning to his book, but Sirius reached his leg across Remus' lap to come down heavily on top of James' jumping leg. They exchanged glares, and Remus looked at Sirius' leg stretched across his lap with an air of resignation and tamped down aggravation.
"Restless?" Sirius asked pointedly.
"What?" Peter asked from the other side of James, confused. The word sounded like "wot."
Remus sighed.
"Well come on, this is ridiculous," James said, pushing Sirius' leg off him. "How can you lot be content to sit round doing nothing? In case you're all going senile, Halloween is coming. How can we just sit here?" His leg started jiggling again.
Sirius, however, didn't try to stop him this time. "Hm," he said, looking more thoughtful than usual, which worried Remus. "You're right." He retracted his leg and swung himself back into a sitting position. "So what should we do?"
"If we get caught," Remus warned, but Sirius cut him off. "We've got the cloak, haven't we? Seriously, Moony, where have you been?"
James ran upstairs and came back down with the invisibility cloak and, after a quick glace around the room, the four Marauders disappeared underneath it. Mostly.
"This thing would be perfect if it grew with us," James muttered.
They carefully exited the common room, stepping out into the darkened hall outside the Fat Lady's portrait. "Now what?" Remus asked, but James was already tugging them to the left. They went silently, having removed their shoes for the time being. James clutched the Map in his hand, using it to keep an eye on Filch and Mrs. Norris. So far they were staying out of their path.
They came to the secret passage and passed through, tugging the cloak off of themselves and putting their shoes back on. James, still in the lead, lit his wand. A quick glance at the Map reassured him that there was no one else in the vicinity.
"So, where exactly are we going, Jamesy?" Sirius finally asked. James shrugged. "Outside."
"To freeze our asses off?" Sirius asked, but James ignored him and walked on ahead. The others ended up following.
They felt the cold air rushing to meet them before they ever saw the sky. The cold gave them piercing clarity, and there were only a few clouds in the sky, so that the Moon and stars looked sharp and bright. The light of the Moon cast soft shadows, despite its waning. Remus glanced upwards and self consciously rubbed at a bandage.
James set off at a brisk walk, and the others followed, Peter already turning pink. The shadow of the Forbidden Forest loomed up ahead, and James was contemplating a nice nighttime stroll around the perimeters when they heard the scream.
"What the f--" Sirius started, but James clamped a hand over his mouth. The four of them looked around with widened eyes, trying to peer into the darkness, though becoming increasingly terrified of what they might see there.
"This was a stupid idea," Sirius whispered behind James' hand, his heart thumping in his throat.
"It could have been a bird," Remus suggested, his voice tremulous. No one could find the courage to tease him about it. "Some bird calls could be mistaken for screams."
James shook his head firmly. "That was a scream. It was coming from"-- he waved a hand vaguely-- "somewhere over there. In the Forest."
"Could it have been centaurs?" Sirius asked, prying James' hand off his face. "An argument, maybe?"
"I don't know," James said, and stepped into the trees.
"Oh God, no, mate," Sirius groaned, but followed anyway, Remus right by him. Peter made a gurgling sound of fear and glanced back across the windswept castle grounds before plunging in after his friends.
The Forest was nearly pitch dark. Little moonlight penetrated the dense foliage, so they all lit their wands, except for Peter, who, not anticipating a midnight jaunt into the Forbidden Forest, had left his on his bed. The shadows and scarce light began to play tricks on their eyes, and they jumped at every little noise, even if a squirrel could have made it. James and Sirius debated in low but heated tones as to what each noise was, and what-- or who-- could have screamed.
Then James stepped on something that crunched differently than the leaves under his feet. It was a skeleton.
"Holy God," he snapped, and Sirius, who had continued walking ahead, stopped and turned around. His face paled. "God," he breathed, his eyes widening. They found James'. "We have to get out of here."
"What is it?" Remus asked, coming up alongside them.
"James," Sirius said, his voice rising, becoming more insistent, "we have to get out of here." James stayed rooted to the spot. Then another scream rent the chill air, causing them to all jump.
"This is stupid," Peter blurted fearfully, eyes darting from side to side. "James, listen to Sirius. It's time to go."
Remus nodded. "We can report this in the morning."
"Are you joking?" Sirius said, looking up at Remus. "'Why, hallo there, Professor, we were out being illegal last night and happened upon a skeleton!' That'd go over real well."
"I'm just saying--"
Snap.
They all froze.
"Nox, dammit," Sirius hissed, and they doused their lights. Remus felt Peter and Sirius, on either side of him, clutch his arms. He couldn't decide who was squeezing harder.
Twigs and leaves were being crunched underfoot by something or someone. Logical explanations were plenty, Remus thought. The Forest, being a forest, was of course home to many creatures, both magical and not. Centaurs, squirrels, wolves. There were also reasons as to why it was off-limits to students. Danger lurked in woods, and here it made itself known. But tonight, the danger seemed more palpable, more serious and sinister than anything the teachers had warned them about.
The footsteps were drawing closer. Sirius and Peter's grips tightened on Remus' arms; James stiffened, his muscles tensing to run. Sirius was growing increasingly terrified, and for once wasn't putting on a brave face. Being Animagi, something of the animal could still surface at times, and he swore it was happening now. He felt he could smell danger, his own fear, that of his friends, could feel that there was something coming they did not want to meet, something other than any creature that stalked the Forest. He tugged on Remus' arm. Maybe he felt it, too, being a werewolf (and so recently, too).
The footsteps came to a stop.
"We. Have. To. Go." Sirius hissed as low as he could. He just barely saw James nod and heard his whisper. "Count of three, we run. Ready?" Peter whimpered a "no."
"One, two, three. Go," James hissed, then turned and fled.
They ran faster than they could remember ever having done; even Peter, who often had difficulty with running was doing a remarkably good job at keeping up. They could hear the footsteps resume, only faster now. Chasing them. Sirius wished wildly that they had changed into their Animagi forms before running, but it seemed like James was still as fleet-footed as ever. Then he remembered that Remus couldn't have changed. Such thoughts were fleeting, coming in briefly before being pushed out by the overwhelming fear that pounded through him as he thought God, God, God, like a mantra in time to his heartbeat.
The edge of the Forest was coming up ahead. Sirius, tempted by curiosity despite it all, turned his head to look back, and promptly tripped over an exposed tree root. He went down hard, landing on his face and skinning his hands. The footsteps were on top of him. Someone grabbed his hand and dragged him along until he found his feet again.
The four burst out of the Forest and kept running across the grounds. They didn't care if they were seen, not anymore. All they could think of was to get to the safety of the castle. James sped back towards the secret passage, or where he thought it was. His mind raced as his eyes searched wildly for the slight discrepancy in the stone wall. He found it, nearly shouted the spell to open it, and bolted inside. His friends weren't far behind.
Inside, in the dark, with the passage closed securely behind them, they sat down heavily to catch their breath. James relit his wand. All the Marauders were present and accounted for-- no more, no less. Remus was still grabbing Sirius' arm from when he dragged him from where he had fallen. They were all panting, all wide-eyed, all pale. Remus was the palest and the most winded; he was still woozy over the blood loss from his last transformation. "You ok, Moony?" James asked when he'd caught his breath. Remus nodded, and Sirius thumped him lightly on his back.
"So," James said, "did anyone see what it was?"
"No, but it was definitely chasing after us," Sirius replied. "I'm pretty damn sure we weren't dealing with some random sort of animal. It didn't sound like one."
"James," Remus said, voice weak. "Was it-- are you certain it was a human skeleton?"
James pursed his lips. "It looked like one, but I'm not really sure," he said. "I'd say I'd want to go back when it's light to get a better look, but..." He trailed off and looked down at his hands. They were shaking.
"I still think we should let someone know," Remus said. "I know we'd get in trouble for going against school rules, but if there's someone out there killing people, they should know." Peter shuddered and hugged himself. James nodded a little. He didn't want to get in trouble, but if someone was out there doing that, they were all unsafe. If there were people being killed by a psycho in the forest on school property, the teachers should know.
They headed back to the common room under the cloak and went up to their room, though they couldn't sleep. James kept looking out the window, trying to see into the Forest from a distance. They didn't think they had been pursued across the open ground, that their pursuer had stopped at the edge of the Forest. But who had really cared?
The next morning, they were almost late for breakfast, but last night's occurrences didn't leave them with much of an appetite. Even Lily Evans noticed their abnormally subdued demeanors and secretly wondered what had wrought such a change, especially in Sirius Black and James Potter.
Dumbledore called for silence near the end of the meal, looking very grave. "I regret having to tell you this, everyone having just eaten, but I must tell you that, for your own safety, you are all expressly forbidden to enter the Forbidden Forest, even for classes. I have been informed that human bodies have been found there this morning, and that their deaths were not caused by any known creature, magical or otherwise."
A hush had fallen; all the students looked stricken. Even Snape, but Sirius wasn't in the mood to relish his obvious fear. "How did he find out, d'you think?" he whispered to James.
"Groundskeepers," James replied, feeling very sick. "Maybe we weren't the only ones who heard the screams last night."