Remus trudged up the stairs to the dorm, feeling faintly surprised to find it empty when he pushed the door open. It was late at night and he had expected to find his friends in their dorm after seeing they weren't in the common room. Shrugging to himself, he crossed over to his bed, dropping his bag of books on his trunk. He was about to search for pajamas, when a bit of parchment on his pillow caught his attention.
'Moony,
Meet me in the abandoned classroom on the 5th floor. I hope you haven't worn yourself out studying so much, I'd like you to have a bit of energy when you reach me.
Padfoot'
Remus scowled. He had exhausted himself studying, he didn't want to go running around the castle avoiding teachers to go to a classroom for something he and Sirius could do in their room.
A night alone with Sirius was too tempting though, so stuffing the note in his pocket, he exited the dorms, hoping the few kids that remained in the common room wouldn't notice him leaving.
It was just a few days until Halloween, and there were already quite a few decorations up. Black, purple, and orange banners were strewn about the walls, cobwebs were clinging to corners(though some of those were there year round), and a bat or two were found flying around the corridors. Remus stuck to traveling though passages to avoid the professors and reached the classroom Sirius had specified with no trouble. He opened the door, pausing for a moment in surprise when he saw it was pitch black. 'Sirius should have lit a few candles,' he thought grumpily. He stepped into the room, pulling his wand out of his robes and waving it vaguely at the ceiling. A huge, dusty chandelier lit up, dim with only a few half-burned candles. He glanced around. Rows of five-person desks filled the area, only a narrow walkway led to the other side of the room where the teacher's desk and chalkboard were. The light didn't reach that far; the whole wall was obscured in darkness.
"Sirius?"
No answer. He couldn't see Sirius anywhere. Maybe he had gotten bored waiting for him and left, or fell asleep behind the professor's desk. Remus walked down the aisle, lighting his wand as he reached the more gloomy side of the room. The professor's desk was a tall, very old fashioned trunk-looking thing, decorated with strange carvings and what appeared to be huge claw marks. Since this used to be the Care of Magical Creatures classroom, this wasn't surprising. What was a little concerning, however, were the bloodstains on it. And on the floor. Remus paused, brow furrowing when he noticed one of the bloodstains were shining in the light of his wand.
Fresh blood.
He glanced around again, stomach dropping into his feet. Something was wrong, he could sense it now. Sirius wouldn't tell him to meet him someplace then abandon him; he should be here. Maybe he was.
Remus slowly crept around the desk, heart pounding, but found nothing. He almost didn't believe there was nothing, he had been so sure he'd see something, more blood or even Sirius.
He was about to look around the other desks when something caught his eye. A small puddle of blood half under the desk, slowly growing larger as the bottom of a huge drawer dripped into it. The drawer, like the rest of the desk, was carved. Into the shapes of creatures, Remus noticed now. This drawer specifically depicted a Nundu - a huge, leopard-like beast - terrorizing a village, killing a dozen wizards with just one swipe of its paw. At least it had; huge claw marks had slashed through half the scene.
Remus's heart skipped a beat when he saw a long tuft of black fur caught in the drawer. What was that doing there? Then he realized it wasn't fur. It was hair. Human hair.
It had to be Sirius's hair. But why would it be hanging out of a drawer? A drawer that was dripping blood.
Hardly breathing, he reached for the handle, hesitating for a moment before pulling it open, its weight adding to his unease.
The face he saw was hardly recognizable. A huge set of claws - or perhaps a knife - had ripped across Sirius's once handsome face; Remus could see strings of muscle and bone in his jaw, teeth visible where a cheek had been practically torn off, blood streaming down into his already soaked robes.
All he could do was stare, mind refusing to comprehend what he was seeing. It wasn't possible. Something like this shouldn't have happened, not at this school, not to Sirius...
He was hyperventilating, frozen to the spot. This has to be a nightmare, logic whispered, even as tears blinded him. It felt too real to be a dream. He could even smell the blood now.
He didn't hear the low growling behind him. He was openly crying; he knew he should go get a teacher but he still couldn't move. Sirius was dead - murdered... Why?
Remus finally tore his gaze away from the mutilated face when he heard a loud crash. A student desk had been toppled, nearly broken in half with the impact. There was no one he could see, though that was probably due to his tears blinding him. Wiping his eyes quickly, he jumped as another crash sounded. Another desk closer to him fell, on the opposite side of the room as the first. He held his wand out, hand shaking uncontrollably, mostly from grief than fear. Whatever had killed Sirius was still in the room.
Yet another desk crashed, the last in the row. He caught a glimpse of a dark shape behind it; the candlelight shone on a sleek black pelt. A head craned around the corner of the fallen desk, green eyes narrowed, huge bloodstained teeth bared.
A nundu, he realized. Here? How?
It was much smaller than the books and photos described, this must be little more than a cub. But still very deadly, that was obvious. It was almost as big as a full grown panther.
With a growl, it crept out from behind the desk, its paws making no sound. Remus felt dizzy. This creature had killed Sirius. He was considering letting it kill him too, he couldn't imagine living without Sirius...
The nundu suddenly leaped at him, and he bit back a frightened yell as he slashed his wand through the air instinctively, he didn't even know what spell he used. But as soon as the hex made contact, the huge cat vanished in a puff of smoke.
He stood still, trembling. Was teleporting an ability nundu had? Invisibility? He gazed slowly around the room, expecting it to reappear suddenly, leaping at him from the shadows before he could react. Remus heard a small clunk next to him, and he whipped around, preparing for another attack. But to his amazement it was Sirius, hauling himself out of the deep drawer and kneeling down beside it. Blood was still pouring from his body, robes covering any other injuries he must have had.
"S-sirius!" Remus's voice cracked, but he didn't care. He didn't understand how he could be alive but crying again from happiness anyway. Sirius was breathing heavily, whole body shaking with the effort. A gargling noise came from his throat while a sudden gush of blood poured from his mouth, and it occurred to Remus that he wasn't going to live long like this. It was a mystery how he was alive now at all. He took a step toward his friend, intending to help get him to the hospital wing, stopping when something behind Sirius caught his attention. The nundu was creeping around the other end of the teacher's desk, eyes fixed on its earlier victim. With a snarl, it pounced, and Remus couldn't do anything without catching Sirius in the spell as well.
Remus's gasp turned into a scream as the nundu pinned Sirius down, his wandlight glinting on its teeth as it snapped at his throat. Hand shaking so badly he feared he was going to miss, he sent another spell at the beast, and yet again it turned to smoke and disappeared.
Panting, he dropped to Sirius's side. His back was covered in blood. He was making a strange noise, and Remus thought he was struggling to breathe.
"S-sirius... Sirius, please be okay... I-I'll get you help..." He didn't know how to do that though, he couldn't move Sirius without hurting him, nor could he leave him alone, the nundu might come back...
Remus froze when he identified the sound Sirius was making. He was laughing.
He pushed himself up a bit, grinning at Remus with his shredded jaw, blood still pouring freely from his wounds.
"...S-sirius?"
"Got you good, Moony," Sirius chuckled. "Since you refused to go to that haunted house with, we figured we'd scare you some other way. Tis the season and all."
Remus just stared. He couldn't understand what Sirius was saying. He was ripped to shreds, Remus had just fended off a nundu... and Sirius was very much alive, laughing, telling him it was a joke? He was trying to scare him?
He heard another voice laughing, too. He looked over at the wall nearby, where James was sweeping the invisibility cloak off himself and Peter.
"That was fun," James said. "Have you ever seen this spell, Moony? It creates projections; Peter stumbled across a book about it recently in the Restricted Section..." He made some complicated pattern in the air with his wand, and the black nundu materialized before him.
Remus was still in shock. He looked back at Sirius to find him removing some kind of charm that had given him that horrifying appearance.
"Y-you... A prank?" he finally choked out. He was still trembling, face tearstained.
"Yes, I suppose so," Sirius said. "A little Halloween fun. We should use this on the rest of the castle, what do you think, James?"
"It'd be brilliant."
Remus's mind was clearing. His fear and shock slowly dissipated, replaced with rage.
"How could you do that to me?" he suddenly yelled, causing the other boys to jump. "Do you know how scared I was? I thought you were dead! I thought others were in danger! I was considering letting that monster kill me, because I had lost you! I-I can't believe you'd do something like that, worry me so much!" He was crying again, the others just staring at him with as much shock as he had earlier.
"Moony, it was just a joke," Sirius said, puzzled. "I'm fine, it was never real -"
"THAT DOESN'T MATTER! Y-you're so -" Remus couldn't think of what to say. He was still trembling, though now from anger. He sliced his wand at Sirius, sending him crashing against the wall. He hung James by his ankle and sent a jinx at Peter, finally disarming them all. Throwing their wand across the room, he stormed out, still crying.
The attack was so sudden and unexpected, the boys just sat there, stunned.
"What-what is his problem?" Sirius gasped, rubbing a bruise on his shoulder.
"Something tells me we went too far," James said, ineffectually waving his arms in an attempt to get back down. "Could you go get our wands and help me?"
Remus wasn't in their dorm when they returned. They had expected it; when Remus was as upset as he was now, he hid from them for as long as possible.
"We should really try and find his hiding spots," Sirius mused, crossing over to his trunk.
"I don't think so. It might be best if we leave him alone until he gets over it..." Peter muttered.
"You know Remus. He doesn't just get over anything, he needs to be talked to."
"He might be in the library this time," James suggested.
Sirius shook his head. "Not this late." He sighed. "We'll just have to talk to him when we see him for classes tomorrow."
They tried to talk to him, but the werewolf ignored everything they said. He ignored the notes they tried to pass to him during class, Sirius's whispered apologies from the seat behind him, and after class he disappeared so quickly they didn't have time to say anything in the hallways.
After dinner, Sirius told the others they should let him handle it. Shrugging, they agreed. If anyone could calm Remus down, it was Sirius.
He found him in the library, where he usually was at the end of the day. He was in one of the most abandoned corners of the library, writing things down in one of his Muggle notebooks. He didn't seem to notice Sirius approach.
"Moony?" he said gently, setting a bucket down on the table. Remus ignored him.
"I'm sorry," Sirius said. "Really. We didn't know it would upset you do much, it was just a little prank."
"It was a cruel prank," Remus snapped, looking up. "How-how would you feel if you saw someone you cared about lacerated and stuffed in a drawer, with a dangerous beast nearby that has the potential to cause harm to others?"
Sirius paused. He didn't have a lot of people he loved. But all he had to do was picture Remus in the situation he described to understand.
"I-I'm sorry, Moony," he said again. "I really just didn't think of it. I'm stupid and insensitive - you know me. You know I'd never purposely do something I thought would hurt you..."
Remus just snorted.
Sirius couldn't think of what else to say. "I'm sorry. I love you," he murmured.
The werewolf sighed, looking back down at the book that was open in front of him. Sirius tentatively sat on the bench next to him, kissing his neck gently.
"I brought you a present," he said quietly, tapping the bucket he had set down. "Lots of candy, see? I painted the face on the bucket myself. I'm so sorry, Moony, please forgive me..."
Remus looked up slowly, gazing at the present. He smiled slightly. "You should be sorry. You ruined a perfectly good bucket."
Sirius stared for a moment before it registered that Remus was joking. He smiled, giving the werewolf a sloppy kiss on his cheek, making him giggle slightly.
"The candy will make up for it. It has all your favorites."
"Not my favorite sucker, obviously," Remus grinned, pulling the bucket over and peering into it.
"I can give that to you later, if you like," Sirius promised, wrapping his arms around the werewolf, homework forgotten as he picked through the goodies.
"I look forward to it," he said, voice distant as if he had already almost forgot that Sirius was there as he pulled a large chocolate bar out of his bucket.