Disclaimer: I do not own the Potterverse, JK Rowlings does.

Authors Note: This is the first piece in a series of vignettes I am writing about the Marauders back in there school days. Consider it a bunch of one-shots strung together. My inspiration for these often comes from a writing prompt/challenge, a song, or something of the like. For each vignette I will state what my prompt was. Some of these vignettes may have more than one part to them, and will be labeled as such; otherwise, there is no reason to assume they are in any kind of order.

Marauder Vignettes:

Lost in the Woods: Part I

By: Irish

Prompt: RL/SB fuh-q-fest challenge #4: One night, during a full moon romp, someone gets lost in the Forest.

-O-O-O-O-O-

Remus opened his eyes slowly; already aware of how badly he hurt. Of course Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail had been with Moony last night, but that didn't change how hard it was on his body to simply transform. Besides, "better" didn't mean things went smoothly. It just wasn't torture.

The scent of forest loam filled his nose, not at all the smell of the shrieking shack. The shack smelled like dust, blood and piss from Moony marking his territory. The light was brighter, and greener, than it should have been. Remus rolled over on his back with a grunt of pain, then a gasp of alarm. He was still out in the forest! The canopy over him was thick and shaggy with new spring growth, letting the early morning sun through with a greenish filter.

Remus sat up, stiff as a bolt, looking around him wildly terrified that he would see a bloody lifeless body or three right next to him, that something had gone terribly wrong… but no, there were no bodies. There was blood, but the smell was his own.

"Oh thank God," Remus whispered, allowing himself to collapse back to the ground again, the relief and pain making him black out again, the world going dim, gray, than black.

-O-O-O-O-O-

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Sirius half-shouted. "He's not here, Jamie!" His gray eyes, stricken, met the brown eyes of his best friend through James' coke-bottle glasses. Still in the doorway of the tunnel that lead out, Peter wrung his hands, teeth fretting his lip.

"M-m-maybe he's just gone back to the castle already, we did get back here awfully late." Peter offered, looking hopefully back down the tunnel.

"Nope, no dice," James said tensely. He had moved to one boarded up window, peering through a narrow crack. "Because Madame Pomfry is on her way down here. At least I assume that white blob moving towards the willow is her."

"Fuck!" Sirius said again, striding over to the window and looking out another crack. "Yeah that's her… Merlin, she's going to think Remus let himself out, before he changed!" Sirius' eyes went huge and round all over again.

"Oh shit…" Now it was James who looked stricken. "And he won't tell anyone, either, no matter what."

James' last statement rung in the room. If Remus had done something, had attacked someone, and all indications were that he'd intentionally given his wolf-self the opportunity, it could mean that he'd be "humanely put down."

"No. No. Here's what we're going to do. James, go to the front door. Kick it in, or something, I'll transfigure, and go at it from this side. If it looked like someone was stupid enough to try and break in, damaged the door, and Moony was able to get out that way…"

James and Peter didn't even reply, just running for the front door. Sirius transfigured to his Padfoot and bounded after them. It was very hard on all three of them. Peter and James threw themselves at the door, and kicked at the latch until they were both bruised and hurting. The second it was damaged enough that Padfoot could get a tooth-hold on where it gaped, he tore into it with teeth and claws. They finished the job just as Madam Pomfry opened the door that lead from the tunnel to the bedroom of the shack. All three boys shifted into their Animagus forms and ran for the forest, Padfoot letting Prongs lead so it looked like a stupid dog had gotten it in his head to chase a deer. Padfoot's sharp ears could hear the gasp of Madame Pomfry as he ran. It took everything in him not to throw his head back and howl with anguish.

Padfoot and Prongs stopped well into the forest and transformed back, waiting for Wormtail to catch up.

"We have to get back to the tower, they'll come check with us as soon as Pomfry gets to Dumbledore. If we're gone—" Peter called, panting, as he trotted up to them, apparently having shifted further back than the other two, his rat form not able to cover much ground.

"They'll think we're doing a panty-raid on Hufflepuff, or snuck out and came down to Hogsmead and are passed out on the floor of the Hogshead or something." Sirius scoffed. "We need to find him, before someone else does."

-O-O-O-O-O-

Remus came back to his senses slowly. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out. The light hadn't changed much, though, so it couldn't have been too long. This time, he simply lay still, taking inventory of his hurts. It wasn't too surprising that he felt worse than usual. Moony had been a real wanker last night, he recalled vaguely. Prongs and Padfoot had been very hard pressed to keep him in line. In fact, they hadn't, obviously, since he was lying alone in the Forbidden Forrest.

This was bad, Remus was realizing slowly. Not only was his own risky behavior and betrayal of Dumbledore's trust going to become immediately apparent the second Madam Pomfry came looking for him, he might be very lucky to get back to face his punishment all. Moony could keep up an easy lope for hours that was almost twice as fast as Remus could run in human form, and could sprint short distances fast enough to pace a muggle car on a residential road. It was theoretically possible he wasn't even in the same county any more. He was hurt, naked, without food or water (both of which he was usually in desperate need of after the full moon) in a forest full of things that would eat him as a light snack.

Remus sat up again, this time, slowly and controlled, the muscles in his torso protesting loudly. When he started to give himself a look over, though, he almost passed out again. His left leg had been hurting furiously, but he had assumed it was a wound he'd given himself, a cramp, or a combination of the two. As he actually looked at it to inspect the damage, he realized it was far, far worse. His leg was a mangled mess, his ankle turned at a nasty angle, clamped between the jagged teeth of a steel wolf trap. Deep furrows were carved not just into his flesh, but deep enough that the white glimmer of bone could be seen, starting just below his knee. He had stepped in it as Moony, obviously, and the trap had caught higher on the wolf's shorter and narrower leg. When Remus had changed back, the trap didn't make any accommodations for the shift in size of its prey. He leaned over and wretched violently. There was nothing in his stomach so nothing came up, but he wretched all the same.

Remus lost another chunk of time to hysteria. He wasn't prone to it, usually calm and rational, nor was he unaccustomed to being badly hurt. It was different though, to have it inflicted on him by something else. He knew what to expect from himself. He'd chewed off his own fingers before— and then thrown them back up—but he'd come to expect that kind of thing. Having his leg mangled by an antiquated trap? That was a bit out of left field.

He gathered himself slowly, forcing himself to stop gagging, to stop crying, and to stop wishing for his parents. They weren't here. No one was. Unless he planned to just lay here and wait to die, he had to get it together and cope. No one was going to save him; his only choice was to save himself.

It took a while to psych himself up to it, but finally he managed to shift, very carefully, so that he could reach the steel-jawed trap. First, he tried simply prying it open with his hands, but even with the extra strength his lycanthropy afforded him, it didn't so much as budge. The mechanism that released the trap was rusted, and Remus couldn't actually see it to try and find another way to release it, it bypass it. Out of options, he found the chain attached to it, and followed it back to the stake in the ground. Even that didn't go easily, and by the time he'd freed the stake from the earth, his head was spinning and he lay back again, closing his eyes until the light headed feeling eased. He was no longer tied in place, but he had no idea how he was going to cover the ground between here and Hogwarts and now that the adrenalin he'd been feeling wore off, and shock set in a little, he was starting to feel cold.

-O-O-O-O-O-

"Can you track him? Can Padfoot, I mean?" James asked looking around the woods, chewing his lip.

"I can try, but I wasn't able to last night after we lost him. He crossed that creek, and I lost his scent. One of us should go into town, though, just in case." In case the worst had happened, and instead of continuing deep in the woods, Moony had doubled back and had slaked his blood lust. "Peter, you go, take my mirror, if anything's happened…" Sirius fished in his pocket and got out the enchanted mirror he and James used to communicate across distance.

"I'll let you know right away." Peter nodded solemnly and took the mirror from Sirius. The gravity of the situation was evident, as the chubby boy found his way to a trot. Sirius turned back to James. "This is our fault, Prongs, we have to find a way to fix it."

"We will, Si, We'll get it sorted out. Maybe he's already back at the castle, ya know?" James offered bracingly. "His mum…"

"She'll skin us alive," Sirius replied without inflection. "We have to find him. It has to be okay, that's the only option. Come on, let's go back to where I lost the scent last night, and work from there."

-O-

There was nothing, the scent disappeared in the water, and Padfoot couldn't find it on the far bank no matter how he sniffed. There was another distraught conversation, and although Sirius was nearly pulling his hair out, managed to come up with another idea. They ran back to the castle at a dead sprint, reaching the courtyard just as Dumbledore strode with worried purpose out the front door of the castle with McGonagall at his heels.

Sirius and James both froze as the eyes of their Headmaster and Head of House locked on them, like a pair of falcons on a pair of mice. Sirius couldn't help it; he froze where he stood, his face stricken.

"Boys!" McGonagall shrilled. "Where in Merlin's name have you been! What's wrong with you two, have you seen Mr. Lupin?!"

"Ur, I… we… uh…" Sirius stammered, his entire brain locking up, like the gears of a rusty clock.

"Looking for him, we… we snuck out last night." James said quickly. "Went into town, ya know? On the way back, we heard he'd gone missing. We've been to all his regular spots. We thought he was just late in the library, we swear!"

It wasn't great, Sirius thought, heart still pounding, but relaxing just a little. They weren't going to be caught, at last not yet. His moment of relief was short lived, though. The headmaster's eyes hadn't left him, as James made his frantic denial for the both of them. Now the imposing man took three steps forward and seized Sirius by the front of his very rumpled shirt.

"What do you know Black!" He demanded, actually raising his voice. "What do you know about all this!" His blue eyes, usually twinkling good-naturedly were stormy and hard, his face inches from Sirius'. Sirius forced himself to think only about what he didn't know, thoughts circling on only that Remus was gone, and Sirius had no idea where he was, both of which were perfectly true. He wasn't sure if the Headmaster would go so far as to use legilimency on him, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

"I swear… we don't know…" Sirius meeped. "We're worried sick, sir… we're going to go get our brooms and fly over head, see if we can see anything." It was more than he meant to admit to, but it could have been far worse. Dumbledore seemed unsatisfied with his response, but let him go, brushing his hands over Sirius' shoulder to straighten his shirt.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, we're just very worried for him. This is unlike him, and he is… unwell. Please, go to the tower and stay there. We'll let you know when we find him." The Headmaster said more calmly.

"Sure… sure…" Sirius said shakily. The headmaster angry was not an experience he ever wanted to have again. He took a couple awkward steps back and ran into James, who wrapped an arm around his shoulders and all but dragged him past the two authorities and into the school.

They ran up to the their bedroom, grabbing their brooms, James grabbed a pair of binoculars he had for watching quiddich games. Sirius found Remus' satchel and pawed through it. It was enchanted to carry five times its actual physical volume, while remaining light and unbulky. Remus usually had it stuffed with all kinds of random emergency supplies, first aid things, spare clothes, in addition to things like safety pins, muggle matches, and whatever books and notebooks he wanted to have with him. Remus' mother was a midwife and herbalist, and his father was involved with a Republican paramilitary in Remus' hometown of Belfast. Between the two of them, Remus had been raised to always be prepared. Sirius just threw a blanket in the satchel as well, and called it good.

"Good call," James nodded. They took off right out of their bedroom window in the tower and headed straight for the forest.

-O-O-O-O-O-

Remus was able to smell the running water of the creek he'd crossed over once he managed to smell past his own blood. Unable to stand, he'd simply crawled back to the small river. He dragged himself to the very edge of it and drank deeply. It tasted like dirt and if Remus hadn't had the constitution of werewolf, he might have thought twice, as he was practically begging to contract dysentery. As it was though, he was sure he could fight it off. Besides, if he wasn't found before nightfall, it might be rather moot. Although he was able to heal wounds with great speed, and suffer far more damage than a normal human before he even slowed down, exposure could kill him. Further more, he couldn't heal the damage to his leg with the trap still holding the bone out of alignment. Or if it did start to heal, it would only heal improperly, as the torn-away flesh and muscle was already starting to do.

Thirst slaked for the moment, Remus turned over on his back and looked up at the bright sky. The canopy parted here for the water. The sun warmed him a little too. There was very little else he could do in his current state. There were a lot of skills he had acquired from his parents over the years, survival skills that he'd read about just for the sake of knowledge, but he doubted he'd have the skill to rub sticks together and make fire. Nor would whatever meager shelter he could manage to scrap together be any help when he was starkers.

Remus lay quietly for hours, drinking when he was thirsty, tossing rocks into the river just to watch them splash, but his stomach complained mercilessly about being empty. He was weak with hunger, as he fasted almost the entire day of the full moon. With the blood loss he'd suffered, and the shock, and everything else, he was already quite woozy with hunger even though it had only been a little over twenty-four hours since he'd last eaten. As the sun started to sink again he simply laid back, shivering. Deer came right up to him, giving him only a few meters berth as they came down to the water to drink as well. The moon, faux full, slowly rose in the sky, drowning out the stars with its light. That was too bad, Remus thought; he'd have liked to find the Dog Star. Between that and the deer near at hand, it would have been almost like having his friends with him. He was glad when the shivering stopped, it hurt to shiver.

Author's Note: Watch for Part II coming soon!