Chapter 2: Werewolf

James's POV

"I have to go," Remus said, glancing up at the clock that hung in our dorm room.

I shared my dorm with Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and my best friend Sirius Black.

"Where are you going this time?" Sirius asked in a bored voice I knew meant he was annoyed.

"My Uncle Albert died yesterday, he and my mum were close," Remus said.

Sirius snorted quietly so only I could hear him. Remus had been going away every month since we started school and giving us excuses each time. This was the third time his 'Uncle Albert' had died.

"You don't seem too upset," I pointed out.

"I didn't really know him that well. Anyway, I'll see you when I get back," Remus sighed.

He left the dorm room.

"Who wants to follow him?" I asked, holding up my dads' old invisibility cloak.

"Sure," Sirius stood up.

"I'm in!" Peter nearly fell off the couch in his eagerness.

"Smooth Pete, real smooth," Sirius snorted.

"Come on," I flung the cloak around us and we followed Remus into the common room.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, your family seems to have the worst luck, I remember just last month your Aunt was ill," Lily was saying to Remus when we got to him.

He had obviously just given Lily the same excuse he had given us. I automatically messed my hair up when I saw Lily. Sirius must have noticed because he laughed quietly.

"Yeah, well, bye," Remus muttered.

We followed him as he climbed out of the common room (this was not easy to do under an invisibility cloak) and made his way outside.

Moon's pretty tonight, I thought as we tromped across the grounds. Looks full tonight.

Remus stopped next to the Whomping Willow and started looking around.

What on earth is he doing here? I wondered.

After a while he found a long stick and poked the tree. Amazingly, the tree stopped trying to reach Remus and stayed still, even letting us go through its branches and through a tunnel at the base of its trunk.

Wonder if this is a secret passage leading out of Hogwarts, if it is then that's four we've found now. We should make a map. I thought randomly.

Remus led us further down the tunnel until he pushed at a spot on the roof and a trap door appeared. Up we went into a grey coloured room. We didn't stop there though. Remus closed the trap door (it was a challenge to get in before he did) and then continued up the stairs.

I made sure to dodge all the steps that creaked when Remus stood on them and heard Sirius whispering for Pete to do the same.

Quietly, we followed Remus into the last room on the corridor. The room looked awful. The walls were streaked with red and there was a mess of wood and ripped material in a corner that may have once been a bed.

I touched a red streak close to the door and nearly threw up. Blood. It was dry but still defiantly blood. I'd had my fair share of injuries to know the feel of blood, both dry and fresh. I looked around the room again, there was so much blood on the walls, like someone had cut several people open and smeared them on the walls. I felt even more ill after that image.

Then Remus began to undress and I forgot about the blood, because Remus's body was covered in scars. He looked like he'd gone through a paper shredder a few times (a Muggle contraption that Pete told me about). Unable to help it I gasped, I heard Sirius and Pete echo my gasp.

Remus spun around and I knew it was pointless to pretend we weren't here, I tugged the cloak off us.

"Out! Now! Go!" He snapped, his voice sounded deeper than normal.

"Remus, What's going-" Sirius was cut off as Remus let off a pain filled scream for no reason and collapsed.

He twitched and continued screaming, he looked and sounded like he was being tortured.

"Remus! What's wrong?" I asked, taking a step towards him.

"Run…Werewolf…Not…Safe!" Remus gasped out between screams.

Sirius swore and dragged me and Pete out of the room; he slammed the door behind us, dragging us into the next room and shut that door too. The room was a bathroom, which was lucky because Pete ran straight for the toilet and threw up.

"Well, we now know where he goes every month," I said shakily.

In the next room Remus's screams turned into howls.

"What do we do?" Peter asked once he'd finished throwing up.

"We stay here the night, talk to him in the morning, tell him we don't care that he's a werewolf," Sirius looked at me as if daring me to disagree.

Sirius knew if I agreed then Peter would follow what ever I did.

"And we find a way to help him through it," I said, adding onto Sirius's speech.

He grinned at me and I saw Peter nodding weakly.

That night was one of the worst nights of my life, hearing the wolf howl and cry, knowing it was tearing itself up and Remus was going to be the one to pay for it. Unable to do anything to help was killing me, I knew Sirius agreed, his eyes looked haunted by the time the moon went down and the howls in the room next door turned to screams. When the screaming was finished the house went completely silent.

"Come on, we'll be safe to talk to him now," I stood up and helped Pete up.

Peter looked scared as we walked out of the bathroom, Sirius just looked determined and I knew I probably looked the same.

We pushed open the door and I nearly screamed at what I saw. The floor and walls were wet with fresh blood, but I was focusing more on Remus. He was laying in the middle of the room and was red. I could see fresh scratches all over him and he seemed unconscious.

"Remus!" I yelled.

The three of us ran up to him, I didn't know what to do; I didn't want to move him in case we made it worse, but we couldn't leave him here, and if we told Madame Pomfrey and she didn't already know he was a werewolf then Remus might have to leave.

"Remus? Are you decent dear?" Madame Pomfreys' voice called from outside the door, solving the problem for us.

It was then I realized Remus was still naked (not that you could tell since he was laying on the stomach and was caked in blood), I threw the invisibility cloak over Sirius, Peter, and me.

We'd moved away from Remus just in time; Madame Pomfrey walked into the room and let out a gasp that sounded like a repressed scream. She muttered a spell that lifted Remus up and carried him out of the room.

"What do we do now?" I asked when I heard the trap door close, letting the cloak go.

"Hospital wing?" Peter said.

I nodded, throwing the cloak back over us.

Slowly (to give Madame Pomfrey a chance to clean Remus up a bit) we made our way out of the house, through the tunnel, and back into Hogwarts. Luckily, we managed to get up to the hospital wing without too much hassle.

"Boys! What are you doing here? Don't tell me you've been in another fight with Mister Snape," Madame Pomfrey said.

The cloak was safely hidden in my pocket.

We're here to see Remus," Peter said.

"Mister Lupin is not here, as far as I know he went home for a few days," Madame Pomfrey snapped.

"Please, Madame Pomfrey, we know Remus is a werewolf, we want to see how he is," Sirius said, a bit bluntly in my opinion.

"How?" Madame Pomfrey paled.

"We figured it out and got him to admit it before he left last night," I said, knowing it wasn't a complete lie.

"Please can we see him?" Sirius asked again.

"Yes, of course, he's in there," she pointed to a private room.

We rushed over to the room to find Remus bandaged up but still unconscious. Luckily, it was a Saturday, so we were able to sit around his bed and wait for him to wake up.

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