Moony paced around the room restlessly as Padfoot lounged comfortably on a nearby rug in the Shrieking Shack. James and Peter couldn't come out with them tonight, so the two of them had to stay in the Shack. It was just too risky to take Moony outside with only Padfoot to try and keep him from wandering too far. Moony clawed at the locked door and whimpered pathetically at Padfoot. Moony felt trapped, and he wanted out now! There was something new inside him. It was a new feeling that Remus hadn't been aware of just yet. Now that Moony was in control that feeling was driving him crazy! It was screaming inside him and he couldn't take it. Everything Remus wouldn't let himself feel, the wolf felt. Everything he kept held inside came out with the wolf. Padfoot could tell that Moony was a bit on edge so he got up from his place on the rug and inched up to Moony so that they were side by side. Padfoot lowered his head and nudged Moony's neck with his nose. Moony lashed out with his claws and scratched Padfoot across the snout. Padfoot let out a whine as Moony growled and continued to pace in front of the door. Padfoot crawled behind a nearby chair, staying as far away from Moony as he could. Moony had never hurt any of them before and he couldn't understand why he would now. Padfoot was just glad that Prongs and Wormtail had skipped out for the evening.
In the morning Remus woke up all rigid and sore. He searched around the room for Sirius and finally spotted him curled up behind a chair.
"Sirius are you…shit, oh shit! What have I done?" Remus thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't bitten Sirius and had only scratched him. Remus rushed to Sirius' side and shook him lightly. Sirius had a great bloody gash across his nose and part of his right cheek. Sirius stirred slowly and winced, causing his cut to begin bleeding again.
"Moony?" Remus silenced Sirius.
"Shh! Sirius you need to keep quiet." Remus crawled across the room and grabbed his clothes and pulled them on hastily before helping Sirius on with his clothes. "Sirius, I'm so sorry. I don't know what got into me." Remus helped him up and they made their way back to Hogwarts and into the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey was waiting for them. Remus collapsed on the nearest cot from exhaustion as soon as he had handed Sirius over to her. It was normally Sirius who carried Remus back to the school, not the other way around. Madame Pomfrey rushed out of her office to meet them armed and ready with bandages and her wand.
"No worries Mr. Black. I'll have you fixed up in no time. I don't promise anything about you not having a little bit of a scar though. That is one nasty scratch. What happened?" Sirius cast a look over at Remus' prone body sprawled across the nearby cot.
"I got carried away messing around with this stray cat that was hiding in the shack." Madam Pomfrey eyed him suspiciously before finishing up with him and moving on to examine Remus.
"You're free to go Mr. Black unless you'd like to stay and give me a hand."
"Yeah, I think I'll stay for awhile." Sirius was normally the one to stay behind with Remus in the hospital wing the mornings after his transformations. It took a lot out of him and Sirius didn't think it was right for Remus to be alone after going through something as painful as that.
"Very well Mr. Black. Give me a hand then. He seems to have a few cuts and bruises on his side here and on his arms, and as soon as he wakes up we need to get some chocolate in him." Sirius whipped out his wand ready to help.
Luckily Remus was up and about in time for dinner that evening. Sirius hadn't spoken to Remus all afternoon so they walked in awkward silence into the Great Hall. Sirius sat down next to James, and Remus sat across from them by Peter. James immediately let out a wail as he inspected the scar across Sirius's face.
"What in Merlin's name happened to you Sirius?" Sirius's brow furrowed and he was about to answer but Remus chirped in before he could say a word.
"James you wouldn't believe it! We were on our way out to the Willow and all of a sudden one of those…one of those…you know those one things that Hagrid's always got chained up? The ones with the teeth and the claws you know? Well, we were almost to the Willow and it just…it came out of no where! It was coming right at me! It was horrible, because I could feel the transformation getting closer and closer and I knew I had to get into the shack pronto. So, Sirius he just let out this yell and charged at that thing! He rolled up his sleeves and man, Sirius have you been working out? That thing was just scratching and clawing at him…and yeah it got him right across the face there and he threw it off and it hit the tree! It landed head first! Sirius had thrown it so hard that it got knocked out. Then we ran all the way to the shack. You guys should have been there. Sirius totally saved the day." Remus gave Sirius a little wink as Sirius beamed brightly at Remus from across the table with an astonished look on his face.
"Yeah…It was…" Sirius couldn't give his account of the "attack" because his name was being shouted behind him.
"SIRIUS!" Amilye had been standing nearby and had heard the whole story. She grabbed Sirius's hand and pulled him to his feet. She touched his face gently before pulling him close to her cradling him. "Sirius, I can't believe it! You could have been killed! What would I have done without you?" Sirius took this moment to his advantage and buried his face in her neck and breathed in deeply.
"It was nothing really. Amilye, mmmm you smell so," Sirius straightened up and looked around at all the glances he was getting from almost everyone in the Great Hall. He straightened his robes and shrugged his shoulders casually and broke out that ever charming grin. "Yeah, well." Sirius turned around and smiled gratefully at Remus.
