Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. I really need to come up with a better disclaimer, don't I?

They really need to work on their timing. Remus thought as he sat in the Shrieking Shack, waiting for his friends to arrive. Well, that wasn't really accurate. He was waiting to transform; he wasn't sure if he wanted his friends here for this, so he couldn't really say he was waiting for them.

The door gave a small creak and James, Sirius, and Peter came in. "Sorry we're late, we-" Sirius stopped as he took in his surroundings. They had never seen the inside of the Shack before and all of them were stunned at its condition. All of the furniture in it was completely shattered. Claw marks covered the walls and floor which they realized were covered with dried blood. In the center of this sat Remus, completely naked except for his underwear, looking worried, but otherwise calm.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Remus hunched over as the first wave of pain hit him. "Change. Now." He ground out as his body started to shake. His friends changed quickly, though their eyes never left their friend.

None of them would forget Remus' transformation. How could they? They couldn't forget the sight of their friend moaning and then snarling, his bones crunching as they reformed, his body changing into that of a wolf's. When he turned to stare at them, the golden eyes held no sign of recognition. Remus hadn't been lying; their friend was gone.

Or was he? Moony padded over to them and the all pressed together, each of them silently regretting their decision. He stopped about three feet in front of them and stared at them. He then padded forward again, and Sirius growled a warning.

Surprisingly, Moony stopped. He tilted his head to the side and sniffed. There was something familiar about these animals, but he had never seen them before. He didn't even know why they were familiar; he just knew that they were. Well, if they were familiar then they must have met at some point and, since none of them were attacking him, they must be alright.

James, Sirius, and Peter were still tense, but they did relax a bit after seeing that Moony wasn't going to attack them. Moony turned his back on them and padded over to the wall. He stared at it and something in him changed. He was no longer interested in finding out why these animals were familiar. He wanted out, he wanted food. He lunged at the wall, clawing at it, trying to get to out. He backed up, sat down, and slashed at his leg, whimpering softly before lapping up the blood.

James was the first one to react. He ran over to Moony and hit him with his antlers, sending him sprawling across the floor. Moony growled, got up, and padded towards James. Sirius ran over and grabbed his tail in his teeth. Moony spun around, sending Sirius tumbling onto the ground. Peter ran to him and began scratching his hind feet, jumping off before Moony could attack him.

They continued to do this for a little bit, each of them distracting Moony so he couldn't attack himself. After awhile, Moony growled and padded away, lying down in the corner. He sighed, lifted his head up, and howled. There was something different about this howl though. Sirius's eyes widened as he realized what it was. This howl didn't sound like it was filled with pain, it sounded sad, depressed, like a child who-

-couldn't play anymore. That was it. Moony just wanted to play with them. He wanted to be the ones to tag them, to catch them, but they weren't letting him. Sirius walked over to him, shooting his friends a look that quite clearly said "Stay where you are". He stopped behind Moony and pounced on his tail. When Moony spun around to glare at him, Sirius just barked and wagged his tail before bounding to the other side of the room.

Moony raced after him and pounced, knocking the wind out of Sirius, but not doing too much damage otherwise. He then got up and raced across the room. James, who had caught on by this point got to Moony first and tagged him, before retreating to a safe distance. Moony however, was too fast and "tagged" him back, before jumping as a rat landed on his back, having jumped from one of the stairs.

They continued playing for the rest of the night, even after James, Sirius, and Peter were completely exhausted. The three of them knew that if they stopped, if Moony was no longer distracted, he would attack himself. They knew when the moon was about to set because Moony suddenly sat down on the floor, completely out of energy. He lifted his head and howled again, but this time it wasn't sad, or full of pain. The closet word to describe it would be happy, but even that was off. It was more of a bittersweet thing, like Remus was poking through and howling because it was nearly moonset, but also like the wolf was howling because his time was up.

Sirius sat down next to him and howled as well, expressing his relief that none of them were injured, other than Remus' scratch on his leg and that this was all going to be over in a few minutes.

When the wolf froze and began shaking, the three of them were torn between wanting to look away and being unable to tear their eyes from the sight. In what seemed like both an eternity and a second, their friend was lying on the ground in front of them.

They rushed over to him, but he didn't seem to notice them. "Remus? Remus!" James said, shaking his friend.

It was a few moments before Remus responded. "Sorry." He said softly, his voice hoarse. "I'm usually out of it for a few minutes after the transformation." He slowly stood up, walked over to a cabinet set in the wall, and retrieved his clothes and wand. It was only then that he noticed the wound on his leg.

"Sorry about that Moony." Sirius said. "It was in the beginning, before we really knew what you were doing…"

Remus shook his head and quickly muttered a charm to help it heal. "Don't apologize." He said, pulling on his clothes. "You guys… I don't know how to describe. Usually I block out the memories of the full moons. They're usually filled with pain and darkness… and blood. This one was… it just wasn't. The wolf was playing with a pack last night, he howled with his pack. It was the best full moon I've had since I was bitten."

"Well, there's going to be a lot more full moons like this Remus." Peter said. "Don't worry, we aren't going to leave you."

Remus just smiled and said, "You guys need to go back to the castle, before Madam Pomfrey comes to get me. I'll probably see later this afternoon."

For the first time since finding out that their friend was a werewolf, the Marauders were actually happy after a full moon. They didn't stop their friend's painful transformation, but they stopped him from hurting himself while he was a wolf. As Sirius collapsed on his bed and tried to get some sleep, extremely happy that it was a Saturday, he couldn't wait for the next full moon, when Moony would howl with his pack, instead of by himself.