AN: I am SO SORRY I haven't updated this in forever! I have been super busy revising and preparing for my exams I have had 0 time to write and or update. I owe you all Redvines! I am the worst Fanfiction writer in the world :( There is a wee bit of violence in this so don't say I didn't warn 'yer.
DISCLAIMER; I do not own any HP-related thing. It all belongs to the supermegafoxyawesomehot J.K. Rowling!
CHAPTER FOUR; THE SHRIEKING SHACK
"Are you ready Moony?" I asked as I put on my outdoor robes. Remus nodded. Tonight was the night of his transformation. He had asked me to come with him, not a lot of people knew this but along with the other Marauders I was also an animagus. I learnt alongside the other guys, but it took me longer, which was why I hardly ever talked about it. James never let me forget it, always bragging about how long it took me to become one. James can be a right prick sometimes.
Whenever I change into my animal form, I turn into a panther. I was pretty impressed with myself the first time I did it, so much so I knocked James through a wall with a swipe of my paw. I told everyone I did that by accident, of course(!)
"Yeah, just give me a minute," Moony said nervously as he put on his outdoor robe.
"You don't have to do this you know," Remus said as we headed out of the Gryffindor common room.
"As I seem to recall you're the one who invited me to come with you," I teased.
"I know, but I don't want you to get hurt," Remus said, stopping and turning to look at me. Wow, I'd never seem him so up close before, his honey coloured eyes were full of understanding, intelligence and concern. A few scars littered his face, but they didn't take away from his looks. It gave him more character. Woah, look at me being all poetic, and Beth-like. Shutupbrain!
"Pfft please," I scoffed batting my hand.
"I know I said you can come with me, but I never said you could stay afterwards. It's too dangerous!"
"I can turn into a goddamn panther, you remember what I did to you that time you tried to go for me last year!"
"I don't recall it, but yeah, I've still got the scars," Remus said shyly.
"It proves that I can defend myself, come on. You've been able to control yourself better than you have before. I'll be fine," I said stubbornly. I was not going to back down.
"I can't take that risk Dylan, I would never forgive myself."
"Then why do you let Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail come along, why not me?" I asked, starting to get a bit annoyed. We had left the main gate now and were only a few minutes away from the Whomping Willow.
"Because. Well, it doesn't matter. You're going as soon as we get to the Whomping Willow," Remus stuttered. I rolled my eyes, it was probably because I'm a girl. He's old fashioned like that.
"I'm not leaving Remus. We can go through your transformation together. We're friends after all." I said, stepping in front of him. Remus almost tripped and scowled at me before walking on again.
"Fine," he hissed as we stood in front of the tree.
"Immobulus!" I yelled as a branch threatened to knock me off my feet, a jet of light came out my wand and the tree stood still, as if paralysed. I shot a smug look at Remus before climbing down the hole into the Shrieking Shack.
We made our way through the passage-way and came to a halt in front of a rickety looking staircase. I stopped and let Remus past me.
"Werewolves first," I said with a grin as Remus rolled his eyes and climbed the stairs. Once at the top we set our bags down in the room Remus had become accustomed to. I sat in the furthest corner of the room and sighed.
"Anything wrong?" Remus asked as he sat on the frail piano. I laughed sardonically.
"You painfully transform into a mythical beast every full moon and you ask ME if there's something wrong?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Remus replied sheepishly, scanning his eyes across the room. He checked his watch. "Just over 10 minutes until the full moon comes I think. We best get ourselves prepared."
I stood up and stretched dramatically as we started to build a makeshift barrier around Remus. It helped, momentarily to stop him from attacking anyone.
"I wonder where James and Sirius are," I said thoughtfully as I assembled a blockade of chairs.
"Peter too," Remus replied. I rolled my eyes, I never liked Peter, his face annoyed me.
Just as we finished building the barrier, it looked very impressive from my end, I must say. We heard a commotion downstairs. It sounded like the scatter of hooves and paws.
"Well here they are," I said as I saw the animagus forms of Peter, James and Sirius burst through the door.
"Not one for a dramatic entrance are we?" Remus said in what he thought was a comical tone. I stared at him until his eyes fell to the floor.
Sirius barked and went to stand next to me. James shook his antlers and stood next to Sirius before changing back into their human form.
"Didn't think you'd transform without the Marauder's help now did you?" James said proudly.
"Guys, it's okay. Dylan is here," Remus said shyly.
"And you thought she'd stop you from killing everyone at Hogwarts by herself?" Sirius said jest fully, although you could see the hurt in Remus' eyes.
"Forgetting that time I kicked your arse then Padfoot?" I said as I turned to scowl at Sirius. Sirius blushed slightly and pretended he didn't hear what I just said. Ha, 1-0 to Dylan I think.
"Jeez will you two just get a room?" James said in exasperation. Me, Sirius and Remus (I assume) all looked at James in horror. Way to make it awkward James.
"Yeah, I think I'm about to transform now," Remus said as he yelped in pain. I looked out of one of the few windows in the room and I gasped as I saw the moon uncover itself from the clouds. It was time.
Instantly myself and the others changed into our animagus forms. I stretched my joints, it had been a while since I was last a panther. The only real distinctive feature about me was my eyes. As a human I have quite bright blue eyes, and when I turn into my animagus form, my eyes are still the same shade.
Remus let out another yelp, and made a loud CRACK noise, that must have been his limbs stretching. I always found that bit to be really gross. I moved to stand in front of the door, to block Remus from escaping just as I heard another yelp, it seemed more pained that time. Even though the barrier between us was quite high, you could now see Remus' transformed head peak out from the top of it.
"Get ready Richards," Sirius said.
"You're the one that's going to need it, Black," I replied. The reason why we could talk to each other is that when we all became animagii we, with a little bit of help from 'Minnie' established a mental link between us all so that we could communicate when we were in our animagus form. That meant we could hear and talk to each other, like our own thoughts.
"Will you two shut up and focus on not getting ourselves killed?" James said angrily in my head, I turned to look at the stag and hissed at him.
Remus screamed in agony. All I could hear were sick CRACK noises as Remus morphed into a werewolf. It lasted like that for at least 10 minutes, until the screams were replaced with a howl. He had changed.
"Let's do this," Sirius said determinedly.
"Come on guys, let's not lose focus," I said as I looked at the other Gryffindors. Tonight was going to be very interesting indeed.
"Wait, where's Peter gone?" Sirius asked. I scanned the room, he had seemed to have disappeared.
"What the- that little rat made a run for it!" I said irritably.
"You know for a Gryffindor he is such a coward," James said, clearly annoyed.
Our thoughts were interrupted when one of the chairs from the blockade came flying towards James, luckily he ducked out of the way, only to be bombarded with even more chairs.
"Man, Moony is pissed at you!" I shouted as I dodged a table. The barricade didn't seem to be good enough to hold back Remus, bits of it were flying everywhere, I was becoming tired, it was hard to avoid being hit by a wardrobe you know!
"I don't think he's ever been so angry!" Sirius yelled as he narrowly avoided a chessboard.
"What do you think's wrong with him?" James replied.
"I don't know, but I think he's gotten through the barrier," I said in horror as Remus' head poked through a growing hole in the barricade.
"Shit. Here we go. Don't let him out guys," Sirius said with a false tone of calm.
"DYLAN WATCH OUT!" James yelled as the piano Remus was sat on earlier came hurtling towards me, I couldn't get out of the way quick enough and the piano knocked me flying. I hit the wall quite hard and it took me a minute or so to get back up. That hurt like hell. I was so going to make Remus suffer for that when he's back to his normal self. I yelped in pain as I picked myself back up, I barely got out of the way in time to dodge another flying object.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asked as I got back in front of the door, James and Remus were currently mano-a- mano.
"Yeah, Moony won't forget that though," I said angrily, trying to hide my limping paw.
Unfortunately Remus turned his attention away from James, who had now received a few nasty looking cuts and he was now charging towards me and Sirius. I was ready for him this time. Remus swung his paw/claw at me, luckily I ducked and swiped at him knocking him back slightly.
"Nice hit, Dylan," Sirius said as he avoided a blow to his body. Remus was really mad tonight, I couldn't help but wonder why when I took a pretty hard blow to the side of my face.
I yelped in pain, and tried to hide my annoyance at being hit twice, by slashing Remus' face with my claws. The werewolf cried in pain and turned its attention to James. I breathed a sigh of relief and limped back over to the door. This was going to be a long night.
"Are you sure you're okay Dylan?" Sirius asked as he leaped in to help James against Remus. I growled in frustration.
"Yes." I just wanted tonight to be over and done with, I was tired, a lot of me ached and I was sure I was bleeding. Will Remus just go back to being human, please?
The rest of the night seemed to drag. We were battling with Remus for hours, I'd received a few more scratches and I was flung at a few more walls. James and Sirius seemed to get the same treatment, the barrier had been completely dismantled but luckily Remus never escaped the confines of the room.
Remus fell to the floor and roared in pain, it looked like he was changing back. I flinched when I heard a few snaps and cracks as Remus was morphing back into his normal self. I came out of my animagus form and I collapsed to the floor. Wow, the pain really does hit you when you're not a panther anymore. I clutched my side, Remus must have scratched me there pretty bad, I think I might be bleeding.
James and Sirius had changed back too, all of us were breathing heavily. Fighting your friend/werewolf really does take it out of you you know! Sirius was clutching his leg and James was holding his arm. Remus had gotten all of us. Hopefully his injuries won't be too grave, he was still screaming in agony.
"Sirius, Dylan. Are you guys okay?" James gasped out after a few minutes. Of course we weren't alright!
"I think so, although I'll probably have to get my leg amputated," Sirius said dramatically, me and James looked at him and rolled our eyes simultaneously.
"I'm going to kill him," I muttered angrily.
"Who, Remus? Come on Dylan, you know he can't control himself," James said as if he was telling me off or something. Jerk, I didn't mean Remus.
"No. Peter," I bit out, wincing slightly. My side and left leg was killing me.
"Oh. Yeah, fair enough," James replied.
"How long do you think it'll take before he's back to normal?" I asked, Remus was still screaming in agony.
"It depends, it usually takes about half an hour. Sometimes a bit longer," James said, gasping between words.
"Bugger really likes to stretch it out doesn't he?" Sirius wheezed, I laughed weakly.
We were sat in silence as we waited for Remus to turn back. More out of anticipation than awkwardness, my side was still killing me, it was beginning to bleed through my cloak.
I lay on my back, I started to feel extremely weak.
"Ow," A muffled voice moaned. I sat bolt upright as I searched for the source of the voice. I winced as my side seared with pain. Sitting up was a bad idea.
"Moony, are you alright mate?" Sirius asked as he looked at the now-human figure sprawled on the floor.
"Yeah," Remus groaned. Thank God it was over.
AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I've been writing it in parts for the last few weeks. I will try my hardest to update when time allows. Until then, PLEASE review and read and.. forgive me! xoxo