A/N: This is a short test of the first chapter of this story: it is not finished or BETA'd and things may change.

Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter, only this story idea.

Remus Lupin sat reading one of his favourite muggle mystery novels under the famous, large oak tree at Hogwarts with his fellow Marauders; James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. It was a lovely spring afternoon and the boys had just finished their lessons for the day – well, all of course Remus himself, who had potions later – and were basking in the glory of free periods. James lay on his back with his arms folded behind his head; Peter was stuffing his face no more than usual; and Sirius Black was looking as dreamy as ever as he waved at three passing Ravenclaw fifth-years.

"They mature very quickly, don't they?" Sirius mused as a rather developed one of the fifth years gave him a blushing smirk.

"Padfoot, you dog." James commented.

"Well, I really have to be lately," said Sirius, directing his attention to Remus, "ever since I was informed that our dashingly handsome Moony here is the most eligible bachelor in the sixth-year!"

"Really? And who told you that?" James tried to keep an indifferent tone, hiding his sudden annoyance.

"Ebony Yychovich, Ravenclaw."

Remus blushed slightly as he turned a page of his book. "That's not true."

"I think it is. To be honest, Moony, you're quite attractive. And I think Yychovich wants to shag you."

"What?" Remus raised his head, looking redder than ever. "You're making that up! Stop it."

"Ah...perhaps you want to do her too?"

"No," Remus said, looking down to the mystery harder than ever. This wasn't true. To be quite honest, Remus had an embarrassing little crush on Ebony, ever since he found her once in the library reading one of his favourite author's works.

"I'm a sucker for mysteries," she had said with a sheepish smile.

The memory made Remus' sink onto the tree trunk and slide slightly.

As if on cue; Ebony Yychovich was walking up to Remus, a mystery book in her hands, and sat down beside him with a kiss on the cheek.

At that moment Remus Lupin knew he was dreaming. The kiss seemed to deform the scene and it suddenly morphed into another. Although Remus was still sitting under an oak tree, reading probably the same mystery novel; this dream was different and disturbingly familiar. Firstly, the oak tree was not the one at Hogwarts, but the one near the boy's home; secondly, it was night, with a dominant moon lighting the sky; thirdly, he wasn't in sixth-year, in fact, he looked almost as young as six; and lastly, there were no marauders to accompany him. He was alone, alone in the moonlight.

Remus wanted to wake up, badly. The boy tossed and turned in his sweaty bed for breakout of this terrifying memory.

No, it would not go away now; it had begun and had to finish before Remus could get any refuge.

The Remus in the dream was still happily reading away under the blue light of the moon, in which he found it the most exciting place to read mystery. It really set the mood, he thought.

However; when he had reached the last chapter of the novel he heard shifting in the bushes. The wind had picked up and ruffled his muggle novel's pages. They flicked to the third chapter: Beastly Horrors.

The young Remus – slightly nervous of the spooky feeling creeping up his spine – thought it was about the right time to leave the oak tree and return to his warm cottage, where his mother would be wondering where he'd been. As the wind blew stronger the boy bookmarked his novel and started to get up from the damp grass, when something caught his eye.

There, nothing but a silhouette in the moonlight stood a giant, growling werewolf.

The little boy's screams were muffled by a sickly ripping sound and a loud crunch; and the scene was masked by blood splatters and yelps of horrible pain.

There was black, and somewhere far away; a wolf howled.

The boy in his bed now couldn't feel or hear anything. Nothing except coldness.

"Moony! Moony! Guys? He's not waking up," James Potter's voice broke through Remus' deafening numbness, though it didn't exactly revive him –

"No! Sirius –!" hissed James at the same time someone said, "Aguamenti!"

Splash!

Remus sprang up to a sit in shock and his eyes burned as they snapped open. "What – where – werewolf –!"

"Ruddy hell! It's alright, Moony, you're at Hogwarts!" said a now irate – and soaking wet – James.

"W-why did you wet me?" asked Remus. His eyes had adjusted to the dorm room the marauders shared, lit only by Peter Pettigrew's lumos.

"Sorry, mate..." Sirius said, slightly amused and with damp hair, as he stuffed his wand back into his pyjama pocket.

Remus looked at his bed sheets; they were drenched. By the looks of things, someone would have walked in the room under the impression that the boy had wet the bed, and all three of his friends.

"Now, are you fit enough to go back to sleep or do we have to sing a lullaby?" teased James.

"I'm a terrible soprano," Peter added. The three boys at the bed chuckled lightly.

"No, no," Remus answered sheepishly. "I have to – I have to..." he trailed off while he slide into his soggy slippers and dropped to his trunk. He was looking, of course, for the one brown and sugary treat that he ever so yearned for after nightmares, in which involving terrible memories. Though, besides how desperate his was, he did not forget his manners.

"Chocolate, anyone?" he offered as soon as he had retrieved the new block from under his underwear.

"Oh, yes please – we only had soup for dinner and I'm starved!" said Peter, taking a generous amount.

"Let's go down to the common room," said James. "It's obvious that we can't sleep here, since Padfoot flooded the place."

"Laugh all you want, my dear Prongs," Sirius said smartly. "But it will be I that will accidently cause the Great Slytherin Flood; it will remembered for generations to come.

The four boys sniggered their way down to the Gryffindor common room, where sat Lily alone looking into the burning flames in the fireplace. Remus, Sirius and Peter rolled their eyes as they knew what was about to come.

"Ah! Lily, my sweet, you look like the sunrise after years of ni –"

"I'd beat you, Potter, but even that would be a waste of my precious time." Lily interjected sharply, now standing. She walked to the boys but kept her eyes on Remus. "I heard a loud bang...and I thought it might be the full moon...so I waited out here for a while."

"That loud bang loud bang would have been Sirius' remarkable water powers," James smirked, though he seemed to still be hinting hurt at Lily's one-thousandth insult.

"Well that explains the wetness," Lily took in the boys' dampness.

"I just had a dream, Lily," Remus told the girl. "Go back to bed, it must be – what? Two in the morning?"

"I don't mind staying up!" Lily snapped, "I want to be involved too," she explained, as the boys looked rather taken aback.

"What about Snivellus, then?" James said offensively.

"What about Severus?"

"Well, isn't he your puppy, or-or something?"

Remus couldn't help but remember how Severus Snape always followed Lily around like he'd never seen a girl before. He gave out a light snigger at the mental image.

"If he was, I've cut the leash now!" Lily turned her head back to the fire. "It was never going to work out, with his friends anyway. He's just so...mean sometimes."

The boys all felt James' wheels turning in the back of his head as he heard this. Sure, they had all been there when Snape had called Lily a Mudblood, and James had tried his chance to look noble in front of her at the time, and the boys knew he'd take another chance to do this.

"I'll hex him if you want," he blurted out, wand at the ready. "If he dares to come near you again –"

"Would you shut up, James?" Lily huffed, her attention now to the boy with glasses. "All I wanted to do is check on Lupin and it ended up being about Snape! It's always about that git! Why do you care?" With that the girl stormed back up to the girls' dormitories without another word.

"Because I love you," James said heavily and sunk over to the couch Lily had started off sitting on.

"Why can't you just get over her?" Sirius said before Remus could.

James didn't appear to be listening. "She called me James. She called him a git!"

"As do I, Wormtail and Moony, what difference does it –"

Sirius stopped dead as Lily made a reappearance. James stood up quickly as she stormed across to the boys once more with a hard face.

"Just one more thing," she said, her face turning soft and concerned as she turned to Remus. "I'm glad you're alright," she put her hands on his shoulders, "I just want to let you know that you can count on me to keep a secret, and I can be as much of a help as these sods." She stole a look at James before disappearing again.

"She's nuts not to like me," was all James said as he collapsed on the couch again. The other marauders made themselves comfortable near the fire to warm up. Remus, however, was already feeling warm. Quite warm and fuzzy. He took a moment to ponder over how Lily's touch seemed to send comfort down his spine, and how he had practically melted at her assurance. He couldn't help admiring her long, fiery-red hair as she had left gracefully.

Oh god. No, this didn't mean anything. Remus even nodded at his thoughts. Defiantly not.

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