In the flickering light of the fire in Gryffindor common room sat three boys, each barely over thirteen years old. A shaggy, black haired youth lounged in the chair closest to the fire, his hair hanging in lazy tresses about his handsome face. There was something in his smile, or in his grey eyes, that simply oozed elegance, and arrogance.
Another boy was short and plump, with a round face framed by sandy blonde hair. He sat close to the boy with long black hair, as though in hope that some of this glory would reflect onto him. His watery blue eyes stared in wonder at the boy beside him.
The last boy was also black haired. This raven hair would simply not be combed into submission, but even so, it had the look of a carefully maintained mess, as though the boy relished the rebelliousness of his hair. His brown eyes were reminiscent of a deer caught in a pair of headlights- wide and fearful of things to come.
However, the three looked somehow... incomplete, as though a piece were missing from their entourage. The missing piece, the last marauder, was one Remus John Lupin. The boys had been told that he was visiting his mother, who was ill. However, none of them believed this tale anymore, since the shaggy haired boy, Sirius Black, held in his lap a pocket calendar, belonging to the afore mentioned Remus Lupin, which said that the fifth anniversary of his mother's death was a few weeks since. It was this deceit that the group now pondered in the suspicious absence of their friend.
"Maybe he's ill!" Sandy haired Peter Pettigrew looked hopefully for the approval of the other boys. Both gave him looks of distain.
James Potter turned to him, "If it were something that simple, Peter, why didn't he tell us?" His voice was flat, pained by his thoughts.
"And what illness requires him to disappear from school for two nights every month, through the Whomping Willow?" Sirius Black turned his whole body over, and rested his chin on his palms on the arm of the chair. He could easily remember the night in the year before when they had wall watched as Remus walked across the grounds with Madam Pomfrey, towards the infamous willow.
Another long silence ensued. Slowly, James raised his head from its resting place on his knees. "I have an idea," he muttered, in sorrowful tones.
"What?" Sirius sighed, not looking up.
"Well," he began, already regretting his words, "I suppose he could be" he gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat, "a werewolf."
Sirius snorted. "Don't be ridiculous. You're joking, right?"
"No, it makes sense! Wait a minute," James leapt up and ran up a short flight of stairs at the back of the common room. A moment later, he returned carrying his Astronomy notes.
Peter looked at him curiously. "What's that for? We don't have any home-"
James snatched Sirius' calendar from his lap, and laid both papers out on the table in front of them. He found his notes on the lunar cycle, and his lunar calendar. He pointed at both triumphantly.
"See? Tonight's a full moon! And" He flicked backwards through Sirius' calendar until he found the date he was looking for, and then found the same date in his lunar chart. "it was a full moon last time he was gone as well."
"Coincidence," Sirius dismissed. He would not allow himself to believe that such a kind, quiet and intelligent boy could be a monster- the idea was laughable.
"No!" He checked several more dates, and he found that Remus' 'visits home' all coincided with the full waxing of the moon.
"Then why is he gone for two nights, huh?" Sirius intoned, unimpressed by this theory.
"Well remember that time you heard him talking to Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing, when he was supposed to be at home, and when we asked him he just said he'd gotten ill and come home early? So he'd stay there while his wounds are healed, since he would have hurt himself if he couldn't hurt anything else. Werewolf-inflicted wounds are harder to heal, and take longer. Think about the amount of scars he has, Sirius!" James persisted, feeling the theory strengthen in his mind as he defended. It made sense.
Peter squirmed between the two. He didn't know what to believe.
Sirius raised an eyebrow contemptuously. "James, listen to yourself! Do you honestly believe that Remus, as in Remus Remus, turns into a blood-crazed monster, howling at the moon et cetera, once a month? This is stupid, James. Let it go."
"There must be a logical explanation for this," Peter shifted towards Sirius, making allegiance with the stronger party.
James laughed at him, but the laugh was cold. "Now, there's someone who's been spending too much time around Remus. This is a logical explanation."
"As if Dumbledore would let a werewolf into the school, James. It wouldn't be safe." Sirius turned back over again onto his back, tired of the dispute.
James rose from his chair, nearly shaking with rage at Sirius' total rejection of his idea. "Fine! I'll prove it!"
And with this statement, he threw his invisibility cloak, which he had been sitting on, over his shoulders and stormed out of the room.
"No, James, the Willow!" Sirius bounded over the back of his chair, but the portrait hole slammed into his face. "I've got to get there first," he muttered to himself, then ran to the dorms. Within milliseconds, he returned, carrying two brooms. He tossed one to Peter, at the same time mounting his. He flung open the nearest window, and leapt out.
Peter was frozen in awe, but a voice broke through his reverie.
"FOLLOW!"
This time he barely hesitated, and he leapt out of the tower window himself, broom in hand. He mounted as he fell, and pursued the black streak across the deep blue sky that was Sirius on top of the broom that belonged to James Potter.
James thundered down the stairs, taking three or four at a time. When he reached a statue of a wild boar, very out of sync with the rest of the castle's decor, he stopped, and hurriedly tapped his wand on its nose, muttering "aper non claustras" over and over. The statue sunk into the ground, revealing a narrow passage. James hurled himself inside, and began to slide at break-neck speed to the ground. Within mere moments he was at the outer wall of the castle, and he stumbled upright. He began a staggering sprint through the darkness, toward the thrashing shape of the Whomping Willow which guarded the passage he had seen Remus disappear into.
Ducking and weaving, he avoided the branches of the tree. He saw a dark hole at the base of the trunk, formed by the roots, and dived into it without hesitation.
Sirius hurtled through the sky, the full circle of the moon the only light in this dark night. As he squinted through the darkness, he saw a dark shape dodge the swaying branches of the tree and disappear at its roots.
"James!"
He dived towards the ground, and darted towards the tree. He tried to get to the hole, but was thrown back. After another failed attempt, he desperately began hurling stones at the tree. Miraculously, the branches stopped their deadly motion, and Sirius followed James into the hole.
James crawled along the dirty tunnel on his hands and knees until the tunnel was wide enough for him to crouch in. He stood up as soon as he could, and began to run.
"James!" Sirius' cry caused him to pause for a moment, and as he turned to answer, an inhuman howl split the air.
An ear-splitting howl reached Sirius' ears, and there was no doubt in his mind. He scrambled down the tunnel, crying out as he went.
"James, James stop! He's not safe! Get away!"
A thundering crash came from the end of the tunnel, the sound of wood breaking under some great weight, and he heard a terrible snarling noise. Remus had entered the tunnel.
James turned back towards the light, realising that he had finally gone too far. But as he glanced behind him, he saw a clawed paw coming around the corner, accompanied by the sound of hot breath and snarling. He froze, a rabbit in headlights, as a scarred muzzle rounded the corner.
"Remus," He gasped, but looked away before he could see anymore. He ran as quickly as he could, feeling the threat of the curse on the breath of the beast.
Then he collided with something very warm, very solid, and very terrified. Sirius grabbed his wrist and together they tried desperately to escape their friend, but Remus was not far behind them, and gaining with every moment, stirred by the smell of human flesh.
They kept on running, sure that the end was nigh, when they heard the howls receding- getting further away. Sirius chanced a backwards glance.
"He's stuck- the tunnel is too narrow this close to the tree!" Sirius and James both felt that they could breathe again, but they carried on regardless, lest Remus dislodged himself and followed.
A few hours passed, and three boys sat around the huge tree in the light of the rising sun, waiting for the moon to set once more. The two black-haired boys were covered in cuts and bruises which they had received as they had tried to get out of the tunnel and past the tree, and they slumped tiredly against each other. The other boy was slightly better for wear, as his ineptitude for flying had caused him to miss the confrontation in the tunnel, and had meant that he had arrived only to be given a brief description of event by the other tired boys. As they had before, in the common room that seemed worlds away, the group waited for their friend to return.
As the last of the moonlight disappeared from the horizon, they saw the figure of the Hogwarts matron coming towards them, carrying blankets and a bottle of potion. Without thinking, James grabbed his invisibility cloak from the ground beside him, and threw it over Sirius, Peter and himself. Once the matron had passed, without a word they followed her back through the tunnel that had almost become their tomb.
Whilst they were walking, Peter held up the hem of the cloak, so that it did not snag on the splintered pieces of door which littered the wide end of the tunnel. Madame Pomfrey gasped as she saw that the door had been clawed away, and the boys had to stop themselves from doing the same. The door had not simply been torn off its hinges or broken down, it had been completely ripped apart in a way which may be expected of a bear or suchlike, but certainly not of the thin, sickly boy who had entered the tunnel only hours before. They did not have time to dwell on this, however, for the matron quickened her pace and proceeded through the doorway, into the room beyond. Though fearful of what they would find, the boys continued to follow, and soon they found themselves in a wrecked bedroom. The curtains hung off the rusting rail in tatters; the wardrobe and dressing table, both barely recognisable, were damaged beyond repair as though with a club, or a wrecking ball; the faded wallpaper was slit and peeling; claw marks gouged deep into the floor.
Sirius couldn't help but feel his breath catch in his throat. Remus had done all this? When he imagined the contained, calm boy he knew, this seemed unthinkable. Impossible.
And unshakeably true.
In his fascination with the state of the bedroom, Sirius had completely ignored the most prominent feature: the once-beautiful four-poster bed with moth-eaten hangings and faded sheets upon which lay an unconscious, bleeding, naked boy.
"Remus!"
He heard James gasp, only audible in the close proximity of the cloak, but he himself suppressed any sound, and Peter seemed too shocked to speak, barely grasping the situation and its dreadful implications.
Madame Pomfrey picked her way across the floor, and covered Remus Lupin in a thick blanket.
"Come now, child, drink this." She lifted his head, and his eyelids fluttered open. His irises were not their usual brown-gold hue, but rather a deep and poisonous yellow. She tipped the potion into his mouth, and he let out a small groan as he swallowed with obvious effort.
"Remus, you'll need to walk I'm afraid. I'm not strong enough to carry you any more, and we don't want to irritate these cuts now, do we? Pretty bad one this time, wasn't it? I think it's the stress- I keep telling..." She continued to ramble on as she helped Remus to his feet, his legs shaking like a newborn lamb's. It was her way, and Sirius found it oddly comforting.
Now Remus was upright, the trio could see the full extent of the damage to Remus' body; deep scratches criss-crossed his arms and legs like chicken-wire, and blood oozed from a small welt on his forehead. His sandy brown-blonde hair was matted with sweat and blood, and darkening bruises littered his body. He shook out the blanket with trembling limbs and draped it around his sore shoulders. He tested his feet for a few steps, as though unsure that they would support him, and then he turned to Madame Pomfrey.
"O-okay Poppy, I'm ready." Once more, they couldn't help but be shocked by how thin and rattling Remus' voice was, as though it had been sand papered during the night, and by the double-blow of Remus using the matron's first name.
"Good. Down we go then," Madame Pomfrey gestured to the trio, who stood in front of the door that led down the stairs and into the tunnel beyond. James, Sirius and Peter tried to get out of the way and to scramble down the stairs, but in their haste the invisibility cloak's hem (having been dropped by Peter when they had entered the room to hide their feet) caught on some splintered debris and was pulled off their shoulders, leaving them exposed.
Madame Pomfrey's mouth formed a small 'O' of surprise before she unleashed her personal denizens of hell. "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU BOYS DOING HERE?" She screamed, with murder in her eyes. "GET OUT!"
Remus placed now even more trembling hand on her arm and whispered a quiet 'no'. She calmed herself at once. Then he turned to his friends, still quivering and averting his yellow eyes. "What are you doing here?"
For a moment none could speak. How could they explain to him the events of the evening that had led them there? That James had had a good hunch and for once it had been true but no-one had believed him? That Sirius had flown to the tree after James to try to prevent the deaths of two friends? That Peter's poor flying had nearly cost them dearly, and then their near fatal curiosity had led them to Remus? This was hardly enough. It was in fact Peter who was the first to speak, though quiet ad squeakily.
"We- we just wondered why you had lied to us about your mother. She's not sick Remus, she's dead. She's been dead for five years."
Remus looked down at the floor, so that no-one saw the tear in his eye. He had forgotten, but just the mention of her brought back memories: laughter turning to screaming, blood on the floor.
Next, it was James who spoke up. "So I checked the dates, and I came down to the Willow, 'cause I'd seen you go there before, and I got into the tunnel. I wish I had thought first."
"Then I flew after him and followed him in. We heard crashing and snarling and howling and then it- you- broke down the door and got stuck in the tunnel. We ran outside and waited 'til dawn, then followed Pomfrey in. I'm sorry." Sirius looked down, feeling more ashamed with every breath.
Remus nodded, but his voiced cracked as he spoke. "So I guess this is the end. D-don't tell anyone. Please."
James was dumbstruck. "What do you mean, 'the end'?"
"Well you won't want to be friends with a- a- me." There was no question, simply the statement of fact.
James knotted his eyebrows in a confused frown. "Why not?"
"Well, because it's dangerous, I'm dangerous." He looked James straight in the eye for the first time that night; his yellow eyes near luminous in the morning half-light. "I'm not safe to be around."
Looking Remus up and down, he forced a laugh. "I think you're more of a danger to yourself than us," he would have continued, but Madame Pomfrey took that as her cue to resume matronliness.
"Precisely! Now, Remus, we should get you back to the castle and get you cleaned up, and you boys should go back to bed and pray I don't report your actions to the Headmaster. Shoo!"
"But Re-" James began, but Madame Pomfrey interrupted him.
"No! Remus and I have more pressing issues to attend. Go back to the common room."
Once more, he opened his mouth to protest, but Remus silenced him. "Just go, we can talk later."
AN: This is a story I wrote about two years ago now, but it's still one of my favourite things that I have written. The complete story is in three parts, which I will publish if there is demand to do so or if I simply get bored enough to do it :P If you liked, or hated and wanted to stab me in the eyes, please tell me in a review and you can have a free hug :D