Disclaimer: I only own the Muggles. I do not own the Marauders or any of the places.
A/N: Okay, this may take place in the USA, but there are NOT going to be any self inserts. This story is going to have some OC's in it, but none of them are going to have a huge impact on the Marauders. That being said, I hope you enjoy this story! Oh, and a huge thanks for my beta Authoressintears!
"C'mon guys, hurry up!" James yelled to his friends. They were celebrating their graduation from Hogwarts by having a week long hiking trip in the Northwest corner of Connecticut because, as Sirius put it, "What's the fun in having one last hurrah if you don't even leave the country?"
"You can always slow down you know," Remus yelled back. "Peter is already gasping for air and Sirius feels the need to stop and sniff every little thing." He gave the black dog a little kick to get him moving again. "I think we should stop here, it's the best place we've seen all day."
"It's too rocky and hilly here though!" Peter protested. "Let's see if we can find a better spot."
Sirius, who had now changed back into a human, rolled his eyes. "We're in the Northwest corner of Connecticut, Wormtail! It's going to be rocky and hilly everywhere." He began rifling through a bag, muttering to himself, "Now, where did I put those tents…?"
"Why can't we stay in one of those Muggle campsites?" Peter asked.
Without looking up from the bag, Sirius replied, "Well, for one thing, we don't have a lot of Muggle money left and whatever we do have is going to go towards buying food in the next town we come across, which should be Kent, if I remember correctly and the full moon is coming up soon, so we need to be as far away from people as possible."
"Don't remind me," Remus mumbled, enlarging another bag and looking through it for the tents as well. It seemed like all he could think about recently was the full moon. He was constantly worrying about whether his friends would be able to control the wolf or whether he would escape and attack someone. He was tired of the different scenarios running through his head and just wanted to stop thinking about it.
"And the most important reason as to why we can't stay in a Muggle campsite is the fact that we couldn't do magic and our entire evening would be ruined!" Sirius said quickly, trying to distract his friend.
"Well, maybe not Moony's." James said, picking up on what Sirius was doing. "After all, he'll probably be the good one and spend the entire night reading."
Remus smiled. He knew what his friends were trying to do and appreciated it. "Well I don't know, I think Muggles would get slightly suspicious of the moving drawing on the front of my book…"
The group chuckled and began setting up the tents that Sirius had dug out of one of the bags. This should have been a relatively simple task, except that it was the Marauders who were doing it. Eventually, three hexes, two jinxes, nine collapsed tents, and uncountable curses later they had four small one-man tents set up. Yet even after all of that was set up and they had to set a large number of wards and protective spells to stop Muggles from discovering them. This took awhile since one of them, usually James or Sirius, would distract someone else, once again, usually James or Sirius, when they were trying to work. Finally they did manage to get everything set up and could settle down to just relax for the rest of the evening.
Well, perhaps relax isn't the right word. There were quite a few jinxes being cast and many more spells were used on each other, with the main perpetrators being Sirius and James. Remus chose to stay off to the side, quietly reading his book, though he did watch his friends 'attack' each other with a small grin on his face. Even when the other three moved on to safer pastimes, like Exploding Snap, he didn't join in the fun.
Truth be told, the only reason he wasn't joining them was because he was still too preoccupied with thoughts of the approaching full moon. It was only a few days away and he was constantly worrying about one thing or another. It seemed like every little thing made him think of him. A glance at his friends would remind him that they may not be able to control him. The moonlight reminded him of the moon getting closer and closer to full. He just needed to get away from it all, he just needed to forget it all…
He put his book in his bag and stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I'm going for a walk," he told his friends, who were busy throwing Exploding Snap cards at each other. "I'll be back in a couple of hours."
Sirius looked up with a frown on his face, which quickly turned into a grin as he saw the bag of books his friend had. "Well, with all of those books you may not even return tonight," he joked. "You'll be out there reading them for the rest of the week!"
Remus scowled at his friend. "You know I'm only bringing these because I don't trust you around them."
James laughed. "Oh c'mon, you aren't still angry at us for that trick we played back in second year, are you?" he asked. "How were we supposed to know the words would get rearranged?"
Remus just shook his head and walked away, leaving his friends to their crazy games. He was just about to leave their soundproof barrier when he heard a series of loud explosions behind them, followed by lots of screaming and the sound of water being poured on something. Remus laughed and crossed out into a world of near silence.
James, Sirius, and Peter didn't even hear him laughing at them, since they were too busy dealing with a mild fire. One of Sirius' cards had hit a pile of about fifteen or so cards that exploded at once, causing a pile of dried brush to catch on fire. This caused a small amount of screaming, mostly from a startled Peter, and them trying to put out the fire. By the time they had everything under control and had calmed down they had nearly completely forgotten about Remus.
They spent the rest of the night playing slightly calmer games, like wizard chess. After a rather vicious match between James and Sirius, which resulted in a minor scuffle and several jinxes being fired, the three decided to call it quits for the night. They had nearly fallen asleep when Sirius's voice drifted through the camp. "You know, I was only joking when I said that Remus wouldn't return tonight," he said. "When do you think he'll come back?"
"Dunno," James said. "He'll return soon though. Just go to sleep Padfoot."
Once Remus had left the camp he hadn't known exactly where he wanted to go. He didn't want to head left, down to the river, so he figured he would go right and hopefully find an area where he could just settle down and try to forget about the full moon. Eventually, after walking for about fifteen or so minutes, he saw a small cluster of rocks ahead of him. They stood about ten or so feet high, but there were 'steps' leading up to the top. Remus carefully made his way up and sat down in the center of the top rock, on an area that was mostly flat.
He set his bag down on one side of him and placed a small handful of flames on the other side of him, in a small scooped-out area of the rock, so they wouldn't roll away. He randomly grabbed a bag from his bag and was surprised to see his choice. It was a book full of various spells. The page it fell open to was well worn, since Remus had been looking at that page for the past few days. The page had the directions for a spell that would, if done correctly, erase a certain topic from a person's mind. However, the spell had a time limit, so it would run out after a specific amount of time.
Remus twirled his wand between his fingers and continued to weigh his options, as he had been for the past few days. He wanted to perform the spell, but on the other hand, there was a good chance it would go wrong. Yet the thought of not having to worry about the full moon for the next couple of days overrode his common sense. Without thinking the matter through anymore, Remus placed the tip of his wand against his head and quickly said the spell.
He knew instantly that something had gone wrong. The book had described a feeling of peace and contentment, but all Remus could feel was pain. Wave after wave of pain pounded in his head. It felt like it was literally ripping his mind apart. He screamed until finally, blissfully, he blacked out.