Disclaimer: Thanks to JK Rowling for writing Harry Potter and giving me the basis for this fanfic.

Harry Potter and the Sand of Time

By Willowcharm

Chapter 10: Full Moon

As the full moon drew closer Harry began to get rather nervous. This resulted in him making mistakes in class almost worthy of Neville Longbottom. This didn't matter too much in Potions where Professor Slughorn had no great expectations of Harry and cheerfully explained where he went wrong. But after a week Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were getting rather irritated and threatening detentions. Fortunately a little help was on its way.

McGonagall had decided to revise some O.W.L. work and they were supposed to be transfiguring hedgehogs into pincushions. Harry had just managed to produce a pile of pins and was wondering how to rectify the situation before the teacher turned his way when he felt a hand on his wand arm. James said 'Let me' in an undertone and with a quick wave of his wand Harry had a perfect pincushion in front of him. By the time McGonagall was looking, James was busy at his own desk repeatedly changing the design of his own pincushion.

When Harry tried his usual trick of going to mope alone in the dormitory that night, James followed him and after shutting the door produced his pincushion from under his robes.

'I thought you could use a bit of practice,' he said, waving his wand to obtain a hedgehog once more. 'I'm not going to help you in class unless you make the effort to learn to do it properly yourself. Come on, wand out.'

Harry could hardly argue with this. After half an hour of James' help he could perform the transformation to a slightly better standard than he had been able to back in fourth year. Then James insisted on him practising charms for the next half hour. Then James left, saying he had 'things to do'. Harry could only assume that James was helping him out of guilt, but he was grateful. He wasn't normally so incompetent, but the stress of his situation was getting to him. At least now he might be able to avoid detentions for poor work.

Over the next few days Harry received more help, sometimes from Sirius too. James and Sirius seemed to have a knack for being able to help Harry without the teacher realising. But they always insisted on Harry practising in the evenings any charm or spell he was unable to do in class. This had the effect of tiring him out, so he usually fell asleep quickly, leaving him little time to worry about the impending full moon.

On Friday morning it was announced that the weekly apparition lesson would take place at four o'clock instead of the usual time. Harry wondered if Dumbledore might have arranged that so that Remus would not miss it. Remus had mentioned that his mother wasn't too well and that he'd be going home for the weekend after the lesson was over. Now that the time of his first transformation was so close, Harry was extremely nervous and he wondered whether he should even bother attending the lesson. But that might arouse curiosity, so he went along anyway. As usual he had no success but that was only to be expected as his mind was anything but focussed on moving from one place to another. As soon as the lesson was over he made his way up to the Room of Requirement making sure that no one was following him.

Once there, he concentrated on what he wanted and the door appeared. But he stood there for several minutes wishing he didn't have to go in and wondering nervously if his plan really was failsafe. Eventually he decided that waiting was only making matters worse and entered the room, shutting the door firmly behind him and telling the room that nobody must be able to come in after him.

The room was empty, save for a stool with an old blanket on it and a very large iron cage. With his heart thumping, Harry stripped himself of his clothing, wrapped himself in the blanket and placed his clothes on the stool with his wand on top. Then he entered the cage and, as he had planned, the door shut with a clang. Harry rattled it hard, but there was no way of getting out. He wished for a key to unlock it, but nothing happened. That was good. When testing his system, Harry had locked himself in the cage and got out by asking the room for a key, but he had requested the room not to provide a key so long as he was a danger to anyone. Although that did mean Harry's faint hope that he might not be a werewolf after all was dashed. Now, having done everything possible to keep him from being a danger to others, all Harry could do was wait.

And it was a long wait. He had not brought anything to do since he suspected he would destroy any books once he transformed. He tried going over potions recipes in his head but his heart wasn't really in it. So he sat for what seemed like an eternity against the bars of his cage wishing for it to be all over.

Eventually he began to feel a dull ache in his bones. He thought that maybe it wouldn't be too bad after all, but after a couple of minutes he noticed his body beginning to change and the ache gradually increased until Harry was in excruciating pain. He held off screaming for as long as possible but eventually had to give in. As the wolf's mind and body took over his own, the screams turned into howls. Once the transformation was complete the pain subsided but the howls continued as the wolf paced around the cage looking for prey and wanting to find a way out so it could go and hunt. Being unable to find an exit, the wolf started to lunge at the sides of the cage but to no avail. Harry had planned well and there was no escape. So for the next few hours the wolf howled, paced, lunged and finally started to bite and scratch itself in desperation until worn out, it collapsed onto the floor of the cage and fell asleep.

It woke up in agony as it started the transformation back into boy. Howls soon turned into screams, to be followed by sobbing once Harry was finally himself again.

After several minutes Harry pulled himself together and wished for a pain relieving potion which the Room of Requirement instantly provided along with a salve to put on his bites and scratches. With another wish, a key appeared in his hand and Harry was able to unlock the cage and retrieve his clothes and wand. A glance at his watch told him it was late on Sunday night, so he left the room and made his way to Gryffindor Tower being careful not to be seen by Filch.

There were only two people in the common room; his parents. No sooner had he entered than Lily turned on him.

'Where have you been all weekend? You have no right to spend the night outside of your house. You seem to think rules are beneath you just like Potter here.'

'Shut Up!' James broke in on Lily's rant before Harry could even begin to think up an excuse. His father continued.

'Just leave him alone. What's he ever done to you other than stand up for you against the biggest git who's ever entered Hogwarts? But all you do is go and grass on him to McGonagall and get him detentions. You go around making out you're so perfect and then treat Jenkins like dirt and make his life miserable just because he can't stand hearing someone insult muggleborns. You make me sick!'

Lily paled at James' speech and at its end turned and headed to the girls' dormitories without another word. Exhausted, Harry made to go to his own bed but before he could reach the door his father had positioned himself in front of it and drawn his wand. Harry stopped in his tracks, wondering what was going on.

'Sit down.' James' voice was commanding but still Harry hesitated. James repeated the order.

'Sit down. It's time that you and I had a little talk. Father to son.'

Once again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews. Ness Lupin: This story was supposed to have a lot more Remus in it, but James seems to have muscled his way into a prominent part uninvited. I do hope to get Remus a better part sometime though. YumuFukushima: I don't think that Ron or Hermione will be coming to get Harry. It's more of a grownup's job.