AN: Next chapter. I am starting to wonder why I bother with the author note at all if that is all I have to say. I mean, if this wasn't the next chapter, then it wouldn't be here. Any way, here you are, hot off the press! :D
Chapter Eight: Shrieks, Nerves, Bacon, and Boys
Remus was currently sitting in what would come to be known as the shrieking shack, looking out an old cracked window up at the shadow of Hogwarts as it was reflected onto the black lake. It was a site that had enchanted him when he first arrived, now it filled him with a sense of doom. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the moon would rise and he would no longer have control over his mind. He would leave his human mind and trade for that of a werewolf. A mind that aloud him close to no self control, and always caused him pain.
Madam Poomfry had taken him out here and shown him around the old house, Remus had aloud her to do so only because he was afraid of upsetting her again. He was very much so hoping that she would allow James and Sirius to visit him at some point tomorrow. He had felt very lonely in the hospital, all by himself.
Though her needless anger seemed to have evaporated as soon as James and Sirius were out of sight and she turned and saw Remus wincing in pain from the sudden change in sound. She had run over to him and put a cool hand to his face to offer him some comfort, apologizing for all the shouting that she had done. He tried to tell her it was okay, but his head was pounding too much and he had thrown up instead.
But he was alone now. There was no one to go through this with him.
Though he was used to it being this way. No one could be around him while he transformed. It was too dangerous. Even people that Remus loved weren't safe when he was in the wolf state. He couldn't stop himself, he knew that. He had never been stupid enough to test it, but he knew that he would not be able to prevent himself from attacking if a human were to be so unfortunate as to cross his path.
He tried not to think about the thoughts of the wolf the following morning. The insistent yearning for human flesh and blood made the wolf mad. Though it was mostly the blood. The thought of the warm, sweet blood trickling down its throat made the wolf drool in great puddles, and try desperately to escape from its place of imprisonment, and to no prevail.
Remus tried to distance himself from the wolf. To think of the wolf and himself as two different beings. He was a boy, all the time and he just ceased to be for a few hours every month. He no longer existed. For a while, Remus went somewhere else, probably some where safe and warm. Some where that didn't have people who looked at him harshly, or judged him so quickly. A place where he had friends and his family was happy. And when the moon set, he would return to his body on earth. He was here again. He tried not to let himself think that once a month he was monster. A nightmare, a thing of terror, a beast.
He traced patterns into the dust that had settled over the window sill as he sat in the dark room. He had about 5 minutes left before the transformation started. He sighed, and tried not to feel so helpless.
This was the part that was the worst.
He could deal with the pain once it was here; he could handle waking up in a pile of his own blood, the looks that knowing strangers gave him, the looks of sorrow his father tried so desperately to hide from him, and the weight of carrying around the knowledge of what he was. But this…the waiting.
The knowing what was coming, the dread that filled him, the not being able to stop it. He hated this part. It was torture for him. He expected it to get better every month. That he would finally come to terms with his fate and feel better about it, but it was yet to happen. He still went numb whenever he thought about it.
He took a deep breath and put his hand in his lap. Despite all of this, he couldn't help but feel calm, happy even. Even now, when impending doom was upon him, he still felt warm with happiness, the tingles it left in his fingers and toes.
Remus Lupin had friends. He was accepted, and he was at Hogwarts. He felt as though he was the luckiest boy in the world.
And with that thought still strong in his head, the wolf descended upon him.
Sirius and James were gathered in a small circle in the middle of their dorm with the other boys. James and Sirius said that they would allow three others now that Remus was too ill to participate in their shenanigans, and the other boys were fighting over whom else got to go.
"Look," Frank said looking down at Orian and Stephen, the two boys vying for the open spot. "It seems to me that there is going to be more of this in the future, so just flip a coin for it, or one of you bow out gracefully." Sirius nodded in agreement. He was getting a bit put out with his dorm mates and wanted to just go do their prank already. If he had it his way, he would have just left with Frank and James and left the rest of them to fume. He was not so well practiced in the art of patients. That was a trait that he got from his lovely mother. And he had been on the wrong end of her lack of patients a few times more then he would have liked.
"Fine, I call heads." Stephen said pulling a gallon out of his trunk and handing it to Frank to flip.
"No, if we're using your coin, I get to pick first. I want heads!" Orian shouted.
"Pick a number 1 through 5, both of you right now." James shouted suddenly, quite exasperated.
"3"
"1"
"1 was closer, Orian gets to come. Now let's just leave already." James said pulling his cloak on and walking towards the door with Sirius, and Frank in tow. Orian smiled very widely and then grabbed Ian and followed the other three.
They split up once outside the common room and took their separate paths just as James had originally planned. James and Sirius were together with Frank and they had let, more like made, Ian take Orian.
"So what was your number?" Frank asked once they were well away from Orian.
"I didn't pick a number; I just didn't want Stephen to come. He was really getting on my nerves. More so then Orian. I mean, the kid is basically a spoiled brat." James sighed as Sirius and Frank laughed at him.
"Well, I for one am glad you ended it. If I had to stand around and hear them argue over an effing coin, I was going to throw myself out of the window." Frank said as they bounced down a set of stairs that would take them to the great hall.
"Why throw yourself, I would have helped you chuck those two loons." Sirius said with a smirk. James laughed and Frank nodded.
"I will have to remember that next time."
"There better not be a next time, or we will have to stop sharing our brilliant ideas." James said bitterly. They walked the remainder of the way in silence, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves, seeing as how they were most defiantly supposed to be in bed at this hour of the night.
Eventually they met up outside in the light of the moon, near the black lake.
"What are we going to write?" Ian asked as he trudged up from the black lake with an armful of rocks weighing him down a bit. James laughed for a moment before leaning over and whispering the message into his ear. Ian's face broke into a smile and he laughed. "Who thought that one up?" He asked looking between James and Sirius. Sirius raised his hand and pretended to look abashed. "Nice." Ian smirked.
"What is it?" Orian and Frank asked at the same time also carrying an armload of rocks. James leaned over to whisper it in their ears as well.
"You don't have to whisper it, we are alone here you know." Sirius said rolling his eyes. As if to contradict him, a blood curdling howl ripped through the night air causing all of them to jump. The howl was followed by another, and then what sounded like a shriek which sent a chill down all the boys' backs. They all looked at each other and then towards the direction of the sound.
"You can never be too careful." James said to Sirius.
"Well if you want to keep our message a secret from whatever that thing is, I just want to let you know that I am not going to argue with it if it comes over here asking." Sirius said trying to lighten the mood. Even in the light of the moon, all 5 boys were pretty shaken.
"Let's not stand around and pretend that we are all brave." Frank said in a loud whisper. "Let's do what we came here to do and get out of here before that thing gets any closer." The other boys agreed and they got to work. No one pretended to be brave until they were back up in their dorm, safe from harms way, and in the comfort of their beds. But even then, they didn't dwell on it when the other boys asked them how it went the next morning.
At breakfast, the boys did their best to keep their game faces on. But no one seemed to be acting any different. No one seemed to notice that anything had happened at all in fact. The teachers were sitting up at their table eating quietly while conversing with each other, and the students were all looking rather tiered and trying to get something to eat before they were expected to be in class.
James looked over at Sirius, but didn't say anything. After all, this could be a trap. They all sat down and began eating. Ian leaned over to say something to James, but James cut him off. He could have sworn that he saw McGonagall look right at them as they had this silent exchange. Sirius didn't like the silence that was ensuing and decided that he didn't care to keep it up.
"Do you think that we could go and visit with Remus before classes start?" He said looking at James.
"Ooo!" Peter said looking between the boys with wide eyes. "Do you think that I could come with you?"
"No." Sirius said not bothering to look at him.
"Madam Poomfry doesn't like too many people in there at once. She won't even let us stay in there for more then a few minutes." James explained to the crestfallen boy.
"Oh." He muttered dejectedly.
"Yeah, we could probably do it if we leave right now." James said, grabbing a bagel off the table and standing up. Sirius followed his lead and grabbed a handful of bacon strips. "See you guys in class." James waved to the Gryffindor boys.
"Bye." Their voices rang out.
Sirius and James were almost to the door when they were stopped by none other then Professor McGonagall. They looked quickly at each other and then down at the ground, hoping against hope that nothing that they had done had gave them away.
"And where do you boys think that you are off to?" She asked sternly, her eyes shooting daggers at them over her spectacles.
"We are off to the hospital wing to visit with Remus Lupin Ma'am." James muttered at the ground.
"And why is your friend in the hospital?" She asked, changing lane rather quickly. She was now more anxious then angry.
"He is sick ma'am. We took him their yesterday before playing baseball." Sirius said looking up at her.
"Well if he is sick, do you really think he wants you two to go down there and bother him?"
"Yes." Sirius said with a bit too much cheek for her liking. James turned his head to glare at him before making a mental note to kick him as soon as McGonagall was out sight.
"Oh and why is that?" She said raising a sharp brow.
"He asked us to come see him today ma'am. Honest, he did." James said, not really remembering if Remus had said that or not. But whatever was going to get her to let them leave, he was going to say.
"I don't think that it is such a good idea-"
"Please Ma'am. If we don't go now, we won't have time to visit." James said with an almost irresistible puppy dog face. She looked down at him and James could see her resolve melting away.
"Well, I guess. But you are not to be late to class, do you hear me?" She said in her stern mode again. They had her class first today, so she was going to know if they were late or not. "I will not hesitate to throw the both of you in detention."
"Of course we'll be there on time." Sirius smiled. "Thank you Professor."
"Yes, well… Run along." She said waving them off. "And don't drop any of that food in the halls. Filch has already banned enough stuff."
"Yes ma'am." James called over his shoulder.
They boys ran down the corridor and to the doors of the hospital wing.
"Oh that was close, I was sure that for a moment there…" James trailed off.
"Yeah I know." Sirius said. "How did you do that thing with your face?"
"What?" James laughed.
"You know, that- that look."
"The puppy dog face?" James asked incredulously. "You don't know how to do the puppy dog face? And you look like you would be really good at it too." He laughed at his friend and bumped him in the arm.
"Well, fine then. Don't tell me." Sirius said bitterly.
"No, I'll teach you the art latter, but right now, let's go say good morning to Remus."
James didn't know what he had been expecting, but he was defiantly not expecting what he saw.
Remus had switched from the bed in the middle of the ward, to the bed in the far back corner. He was propped up on a few pillows and his left leg was in a cast that went from his upper thigh all the way down to his toes. He looked as though he had gotten into a very bad fight as well. His whole face was scratched and bruised. But he was awake and his face lit up for a moment when he saw his friends. Then he looked down at his leg and brought his hands up to his face and his smile vanished.
The two boys rushed over to their injured friend with a look of absolute confusion on their faces. Sirius was the first to break out of the trance.
"What the he-"
"Don't you finish that sentence young man." Madam Poomfry said sternly coming out of her office with an arm load of clean sheets. She set them on a table that was against the back wall and then walked over to the three boys.
"What happened to him?" Sirius asked looking at the nurse. "He wasn't like this when we gave him to you."
"It's not her fault." Remus said looking quite taken back at the conclusion that Sirius seemed to be jumping to.
"No, but I could have prevented it if you had told me that you were a sleep walker." Madam Poomfry lied easily. Sirius and James exchanged a look of doubt.
"Sleep walking?" James asked.
"Yeah, woke up to give him his position and he was gone. Went out and found him at the bottom of a staircase holding that leg of his. Suit of armor was lying on the ground next to him. Nasty sight too. Blood every where." She said running her hand over Remus' face.
"Well, are you feeling any better?" Sirius said deciding to believe the tale.
"Yeah, loads." Remus smiled. He really was looking as though he was back to his old self again. He was a bit pale and his face was a bit harsh looking, but there was life in his eyes again.
"Yes. I think that we may be able to have him back in class by tomorrow." Madam Poomfry said smiling. "Now mind that you boys don't be late to class. I have got some stuff to do in my office." And then she turned to leave.
Sirius turned and smiled at Remus. "This is the first time that she didn't throw us out." Remus laughed. "No really. Every time that we've been here, she's thrown us out."
"Yeah, she is sort of strict with you two. Don't know why, she likes me." He said in a boastful tone. Sirius snickered. "So, how did your plan go last night?"
"Don't know." James said looking at the nurse's door. "No ones seems to have noticed anything, but McGonagall was acting a bit odd this morning."
"Well, at least you didn't get caught." Remus said sensibly.
"Yeah." Sirius said looking disappointed. "But we didn't get any credit either."
"It's not like we were going to tell people it was us." James said quickly, making sure that Sirius understood that.
"I know, but no one is talking about it or anything. It's like we did it all for nothing."
"You'll just have to come up with something better next time." Remus said smiling. "And maybe wait until I can actually join you?"
"Sure." They said at the same time. Remus beamed.
"You guys should go now. I don't want you to be late on account of me." James picked up his bag and swung it over his shoulder before nodding.
"Kay, we'll come by later. Probably the other boys too, they are worried about you." James said waving as he walked towards the door with Sirius.
"See ya Remus." Sirius said also waving back at Remus.
When the door closed Remus started laughing, he had never felt so elated the morning after a full moon. He had never felt so strong either. He couldn't figure out why this was exactly, but he sure wasn't going to complain.
AN: Hey guys, hope you liked. Please Review, I would love to hear from you! 3
