27th March 95

"Wormy, why exactly haven't you finished your Charms essay yet?" I asked, lounging on my bed with my head falling off the side, my Runes textbook held above my head. "We're due to hand that in tomorrow afternoon, and the rest of us completed ours on Tuesday!"

"I know, Rosie, but I fell asleep Tuesday, remember? Still trying to remember how the banishing charm should work."

"Well, here, take a look at my notes – it's not as refined as the essay, but you'll find most of the information there." I handed him the parchment after rummaging for a bit. There was a bit of quiet as Peter went over them – quiet which was wholly unexpected and appreciated in my life right now. It was James's birthday, so we'd woken up early to surprise him, but it was also the full moon, which meant we would be up all night as well. Sirius and James had been pranking students all morning, claiming it was for his birthday, but we knew it was for Remus's benefit as well – anything to distract him from his impending transformation. Remus had already gone down to the Shack, and I'd expected James and Sirius to return a while ago, but they had probably gotten involved in some other prank, or hopefully just getting more snacks from the kitchens. Deciding that I would go looking for them in ten minutes, I went back to my Runes text, where we had just started reading some complex passages.

"Rosie, these notes are brilliant! Why did you say they aren't as refined as the essay – I'd rather read these than the textbook before exams! All the information's there in one place, and I don't have to look through fifteen pages of theory in three different books to find it."

"You think so?" I asked, sitting up. I pulled my folder of notes closer – even though I used parchment and quills on a daily basis, some things, like folders and highlighters, the muggles got just right. "I've been keeping a ledger of the spells and potions we learn about this year – we'll need them for our OWLs. Maybe it would be useful to study from these, if I added some more information on their history and some –"

Just then, the door burst open, and a wild-faced Sirius fell in, and clambered up.

"Sirius what happened?"

"I – I told – James went – Remus –" I was by his side in an instant, getting him to sit down on one of the beds, and shook him slightly.

"You aren't making sense – start from the beginning, what was that about Remus?" His eyes suddenly found mine, and he looked haunted.

"We have to find a teacher!" he grabbed my shoulders and got to his feet. "James is headed down the Whomping Willow!"

"What? Sirius, why? What is James doing?"

"I – I told Snape how to open the Whomping Willow," he barely whispered.

I felt like the world had stopped. Snape, who had been, for months, trying to find out what Remus was doing every time he missed classes, knew how to get to the Shrieking Shack. And if he went down there tonight –

"Remus is there! Moonrise was half hour ago! How could you Sirius?"

"It just happened! I couldn't take it back once it slipped out. I told James and he went running from outside the Common Room –"

James would stop Snape. But who knew how long that would take? And how would he get Snape to stop in the first place?

I had already crossed the room and picked up my wand. "You'll be lucky if they both don't end up dead tonight," I snarled. "You've done enough damage, go tell McGonagall, get help!" I didn't wait to see if he had listened.

"Rosie, where are you going?"

I didn't stop to answer, and ran out the portrait hole, and took the fastest possible path down to the Entrance Hall. The door was still open, as it was not yet curfew, and I slipped out and ran even faster. At this pace, I had just caught sight of the Willow when it froze, and someone slipped under the tree – James was not much farther – so I only hoped Snape wasn't too far down the tunnel.

It took a few more minutes before I got to the Willow and used the same branch that James had probably used and slipped into the tunnel. Unlike our earlier trips into the Shack, speed was critical, and I made no effort to silence myself while I ran through the mile-long tunnel.

"Rosie?" James's voice came from ahead and I slowed. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"No time, no time, let's get Snape and get out of here," I hissed, pulling him along when I saw he meant to slow down and stop me.

"You could get hurt – you know what, I'm not even going to pretend to try to send you back. I have no idea what to do."

I might have smiled if the situation was different and we weren't running inside a tunnel to stop our evil arch nemesis from getting killed by our werewolf brother. "First we catch up to him, and then we stop him."

"Well, I know we need to do that!" he panted.

We had almost reached the house, when we could see the light of a wand ahead. Knowing it could only be Snape, we ran even faster. Our thunderous approach alerted him, and he turned, putting his back to the tunnel, and aimed his wand at us.

"What are you doing here?" he snarled at us.

"Rescuing you, you idiot," I said, breathing heavily as I held the wall for support. "What sort of a madman thinks of coming down to a haunted house through a tunnel under a murder tree?"

"I know that Lupin is there," he jerked his head toward the door, which was, astonishingly, open. "I know that he's a werewolf. I heard the howls," he smirked as Remus howled again, "I just need proof."

"That proof is going to get you killed so let's go back the way we came," James said, finally grabbing Snape by the arm. He let go with a startled hiss – Snape had hexed him.

"Don't touch me, Potter!" he snarled. He waved his wand again, and I felt my legs give out – the Jelly Legs curse – and James falling next to me. "I'm going to do this no matter what."

"Snape, you fucking idiot," I hissed, as I tried to get my wand out. Snape had not wasted any time and crossed the door, into the Shack. James had already pulled his out and whispered the counter-jinx and was doing the same for me. "Thanks," I said, accepting his hand and getting to my feet. "Now what?"

"Now we go in, get him out. I say we Stun him, so he doesn't protest."

"Even considering that we would have to carry him back up the tunnel, that seems like the best course of action."

Wands drawn, we approached the hallway with caution. We could hear Snape in the next room, and Moony was thumping about upstairs, so we went ahead to the next door.

"Snape," I hissed, making him turn. "It's not safe, get back here!"

"You're not going to stop me Cooper!" he said, raising his wand again. I raised mine in warning. "Don't even think about – "

"Dormio," James whispered, and Snape suddenly closed his eyes, sleeping soundly.

"That was well done," I whispered, right before Snape swayed and thunk-ed onto the floor.

"That," James muttered, as the thumping from overhead halted, "Was not so well done."

The thumping became a run, and suddenly Moony was on the stairs. James had run forward to grab Snape by the arms and pull him out, as quietly as he could, and I ran in between them and Moony, keeping my wand up, trying to grab Snape's legs.

We got through the doorway before Moony spotted us. James was dragging Snape though the first door, the door which if it was closed would keep Moony at bay.

"Rosie, now!" James whispered, but Moony had already come into the hallway, giving me my first look ever at him.

He was twice as tall as Remus, with long legs and hands, and a snout-like face. His bones protruded outward from his body, and there were scratches on his forearms. But most importantly, his eyes were still brown. I could still see Remus in there, and for a moment, he recognized me. I smiled, hoping this wasn't a big mistake.

"Remus," I whispered softly, extending my left hand to him. "It's me, it's your Shaz." He sat down, looking at me patiently.

"Rosie, get out of there now!" James hissed in a slight undertone, but I could hear the urgency in his voice. I was almost at the door.

"You recognize me, don't you Rez?" I smiled.

And then he lunged.

Some force pulled me back, through the doorway, and then suddenly, the door closed. A mighty thud against the door indicated that Moony tried to slam the door open, but it would not budge.

I found myself lying on top of James, who had, at the last second, cast a summoning charm on me to pull me to him. I rolled over next to him, and we both lay there for a few seconds.

"Thanks for that," I said after a moment.

"Wish I'd thought of it sooner," he muttered. "Would have saved us the trouble of going after Snape into the house."

"It wouldn't have worked," I countered. "Summoning a person, it's tricky; if you gave me time to think about it, I'd have blocked it."

James sat up. "Are you saying if the hallway was long enough, you'd have blocked me trying to save your life?"

I laughed. "Not me," I said, "Generally. Snape wanted to go in, he'd have blocked you."

"Oh, makes sense now," James said dryly, getting to his feet and offering me a hand. "Snape's over there, still slee – Rosie, why's your arm bleeding?"

I looked at the hand I'd just put in his. I wasn't wearing robes over my tank top and jeans, so my arms were free. There, on my forearm, were two long cuts, from my elbow to the middle of my arm, and it was steadily dripping blood.

"He got you," James whispered, as he put his other hand around me and pulled me to my feet. I was still staring at the gash, unblinking. "Moony bit you!"

"No!" I yelled, a little hysterical. "No, it can't be, he didn't get close enough. He swiped his hand, this might just be a cut from his claw." James had started to shake, and I pulled his face to me. "If this was a bite then I wouldn't be standing right now talking to you. You've heard what it was like the night he was bitten. I don't feel anything!"

"Right," James said, shaking. "Try to grow your skin over it." I glanced back at the cut, and did as he suggested, but even when I concentrated, I could not.

"It's not working," I whimpered, suddenly scared. "I can't concentrate." James pulled out his wand.

"It'll be fine," he said, trying to put some confidence into his voice, "I'm going to try to get the bleeding to stop, okay? Then we can get it checked by Pomfrey."

"You don't know any healing spells, James," I said, "Let's get up to the castle, and we'll figure it out."

James hesitated, trying to remember any healing spells. Then, he produced a long piece of cloth and tied it carefully over my elbow to staunch the flow. "Let's go," he said, casting a levitation charm at Snape.

The walk back was long, and somewhere along the way the adrenaline drained out and I started to feel that cut. I kept tripping, since I couldn't use my left hand to balance, and James kept trying to catch me, which meant Snape kept hitting the wall. "I could care less about a bruise or two on his head," James muttered. "We're almost there." It was his form of self-motivation, I knew we had almost a third of the way remaining; James was getting tired of maintaining the levitation. I rubbed his hand, about to say that we could just rest for a moment, when we heard someone approaching us from ahead. It was only a few minutes later that Dumbledore himself came into view.

"Headmaster!" I cried in relief, almost sagging into James.

"Are all of you alright?" he asked, voice unnaturally serious, glancing down at Snape.

"Yes," James said, putting Snape down. "Snape's asleep, but Rosie has a cut on her arm."

Dumbledore glanced away from Snape, and his eyes locked on my arm. "It's not a bite," I reassured him, "he didn't get close enough."

I could see his sigh of relief. He conjured a stretcher, and put Snape on top of that, ("Why didn't I think of that", James muttered) and one on which he asked us both to sit and waved his wand around us.

The next moment, we were in the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey was upon us.

"No one is bitten, Poppy," Dumbledore said calmly. "You should have a look at Miss Cooper, but everyone is safe."

Poppy wasted no time in ushering James and I onto one of the beds, all the while yelling things like what we you thinking, going after a werewolf. James and I remained silent. Dumbledore opened the doors, and Sirius and McGonagall ran inside, to stop in front of us.

"Are you okay?" Sirius yelled, and Poppy stopped us from answering.

"Mr. Black I will not have yelling in my Hospital!" she yelled herself, as she put Snape on the bed next to James.

McGonagall had approached James's bed quietly, and done her own assessment of his health, and then come over to me, where she saw the cut.

"I'm fine Professor," I said, before she could overreact. "It's just a scratch."

"You better hope it is, Miss Cooper!" I could see the anger in her eyes, and more importantly, the fear, that another one of her students would have to face the same fate.

"If it was a bite, I wouldn't be sitting here so calmly and telling you this," I pointed out, and she sighed visibly.

"Whenever there is trouble in this school, why does it have to be you lot?"

"Beats me, Professor," James said cheerily. Sirius, standing next to him, chuckled, but sobered when both of us glanced at him.

"Mr. Snape is alright, Headmaster, just under a sleep spell," Poppy announced, while simultaneously casting the counter charm. "He should wake in about half hour."

"Thank you, Poppy," Dumbledore said softly. "Minerva, once Miss Cooper's treatment is seen to, could you escort her, and Messrs Potter and Black up to my office? I shall go back to the Whomping Willow and reinforce some wards, and I will be back with Mr. Snape." With this, he strode to the Floo and disappeared.

McGonagall took a seat right in front of us, as if we might run away if she didn't and did not move until Poppy had healed my arm and given me three different salves to apply on the scar.

"Wouldn't I be able to grow skin over the scar?" I asked, looking at McGonagall. She glanced at Poppy and back at me, and gestured for me to try. When it didn't work she nodded, as if she expected it.

"Scar from a werewolf, even if it did not transmit lycanthropy, it won't go away so quickly." I sighed and collected the salves. James had already gotten up and taken the salves from my hand; and we followed McGonagall out of the Hospital to Dumbledore's office.

Through this whole time, Sirius had remained silent. The first few minutes, I had resolutely not even looked in his direction and neither had James, judging from the fact that Sirius stopped talking. He walked quietly next to us, caught me when I tripped, but stayed to himself.

I was having a hard time believing that Sirius was capable of this. How could he do that to Remus? When Remus woke up, if he found out that he had attacked someone, he would be crushed.

We had reached Dumbledore's office, and quietly sat on the chairs McGonagall conjured for us. Sirius sat next to me, but he nudged his chair slightly away from us.

Soon enough, Dumbledore arrived, with Snape in tow. Snape glared at us, and if looks could kill he'd have murdered us right there. But he remained quiet, as Dumbledore had probably asked him to, and pulled his chair as far away as possible from James while still being behind the desk. Dumbledore had meanwhile walked around the desk and taken a seat, and McGonagall took the seat beside him.

Dumbledore took his time, looking at each one of us in the eye, before starting to speak. "I must say that I never thought this day would come," he said sadly. "I never imagined that a student could send another toward almost certain death and that student would, in fact, run toward it knowing the consequences."

"I would like an explanation from each of you, but no one is to interrupt the other. Mr. Black, if you would please begin."

"I didn't mean for it to happen," Sirius whispered, looking down at his knees, before he took a deep breath and began. "We normally spend full moons in our dorms, doing anything to keep ourselves busy, because ever since we found out about Remus, we don't – we can't – sleep on those nights. Rosie and Peter had finished dinner and were waiting in the dorm, and James and I had just finished detention. James left early, he was meeting Winters for a Quidditch discussion. I was talking to Regulus, he – Snape saw me leaving, and he kept making comments like he knew where Remus was going and what was happening and – and it sort of slipped out."

"That's a lie!" Snape exclaimed, but a glance from Dumbledore had him go quiet again.

"I couldn't take it back, Snape was determined to go down there, and we were at the third floor," Sirius continued. "I tried to jinx him, so that he would stop, but he stunned me and left." I gasped, and James, who was holding my hand, went unnaturally still. Sirius then recounted how Alice found him and unjinxed him, and how he ran to tell James, and then me, and then McGonagall. He became quiet after that, and Dumbledore asked Snape to say his side.

"He didn't let it slip, he said it like he meant it!" Snape declared, and then went on to say that Sirius goaded him into going to the Willow and getting proof if he was so sure about Remus. He made his way to the Shack, where he opened the door, and then he said that James and I arrived there, but then he went inside, saw the werewolf and got the proof that he was after. "That's all I remember," Snape said, with a haughty look at the three of us.

James had been getting angrier with every word out of Snape's mouth. "How dare you accuse us of trying to lock you inside a house with a werewolf, when the both of ran down from Gryffindor Tower to save your arse," he snarled at Snape. I squeezed his hand, trying to calm him down. "Headmaster, when Sirius told me what had happened, I ran down to stop him because if we went to you or McGonagall it might have been too late. It was almost too late when I got there," he whispered, and I gestured that I would continue.

"I realized that James had gone without help, and Sirius was too hysterical to actually help, so I asked him to inform you, Professor," I said looking at McGonagall, "and then went down myself. I caught up with James when he was a third of the way down the tunnel, and then we both got to Snape when he was still outside the house, yet the door was open."

"You had to have known earlier, there was no way you could have reached me that fast!" Snape spat out. Dumbledore raised his hand toward Snape and gestured for me to continue.

"James and I were running to save your and Remus's lives, Snape, so obviously we were more motivated to get there before you did," I said, before continuing. "We could have stopped Snape before he entered the house, and left undetected, but Snape cast a Jelly Legs on the both of us, and walked in, not listening to us." McGonagall had taken all our wands and cast Priori Incantem, which confirmed our side of the night's events. This earned Snape a couple of glares from McGonagall and the Headmaster, though he tried to hide it. I told the rest of the story as it was, until we met the Headmaster in the tunnel, and we fell quiet. I leaned into James's shoulder, completely drained, and he put his arm around me.

Dumbledore sighed and leaned back in his seat. "In all my years of teaching such an event has never occurred. Mr. Black, Mr. Snape to say that I am disappointed, would be an understatement."

"I know I messed up," he whispered. His voice was full of remorse, and I couldn't help but feel bad for him, but he'd made his own bed. "I'll accept any punishment you give me. I'll leave the school if you want me to." James turned sharply to look at him then, and I couldn't help but follow suit. "I only ask one thing – that I can tell Remus what happened myself. He should hear it from me." He looked at us then, holding our gaze until finally, James nodded. Unable to look into his hollowed eyes anymore, I turned away and burrowed into James's shoulder.

"Very well," Dumbledore said, and I heard something like approval in his voice. "You will be serving detention with Prof. McGonagall until she sees fit, and I shall reserve judgement on further punishment until the end of the week." Sirius nodded solemnly. "Mr. Potter, Miss Cooper, your actions while they may have been from the heart, and saved a life, you must understand that there is always another way, rather than to charge headlong into danger."

"Apologies, Sir, but if we'd waited to explain the situation to you, most likely, Snape would have been dead, and Remus would never have forgiven himself for it," James said, not hesitating a single bit. "With two lives at stake, I don't think I did anything I should regret, and since Rosie followed me, I'm pretty sure she feels the same way."

I looked up in time to see Dumbledore and McGonagall share a look, and then Dumbledore nodded.

"Professor," I said, straightening. "For four years, we were the only ones who knew Remus's secret. And while I know that tonight's events were caused by one of us spilling that secret," I heard Sirius sniffle next to me but charged head-on, "I know that Sirius has learnt his lesson, and this will never happen again. Not because of the four of us, but Snape, -"

"Miss Cooper, I intend to have a talk with Mr. Snape as soon as I send you off to bed, Madam Pomfrey warned me that you would need to rest to recuperate. Rest assured, what you fear shall never come to pass."

I nodded, and James lifted me as McGonagall ushered the three of us outside; and to the Tower in silence. We made it up to the dorm, where Peter looked up and jumped at us.

"What happened? Did you stop him?"

"We stopped him, Peter, no one was hurt," James said, helping me to the bed and placing my salves on my nightstand. Sirius simply went into the bathrooms. "Where were you?"

Peter looked at James, shocked. "I didn't know what to do. You and Rosie had already run down, and Sirius went to the teachers, I figured I would be more of a hindrance," he said meekly.

"We needed help, Pete," James said angrily, "you realize what could have happened?"

"James," I stopped him before Peter said anything. "Calm down, you're not thinking straight."

"Of course I'm not thinking straight! Rosie, –"

"What could we have done differently if Pete was there?" I asked, sitting back in the pillows.

"It doesn't matter, he should have been there – and you!" he rounded on Sirius, who exited the bathroom. To his credit, Sirius did not even flinch. "How could you even think of doing something like this?" And then I heard the thump and looked up – James had punched him in the face.

Sirius looked at James levelly, holding a hand to his nose. "I know it was wrong. And I'll be paying for that mistake for the rest of my life. I don't expect him to forgive me, and I don't expect the two of you will, either." He looked at me, and I turned away, very obviously not making eye contact. "Thought so." He walked to his bed and got on, drawing the curtains all the way.

"You didn't think, Sirius," I whispered, and he pulled the curtains back a few inches. "If you only stopped to think for a bit, this would not have happened."

"I know I didn't Rosie, and it almost got you and James killed. I didn't think, I never do when I'm under duress. I say the first thing that comes to mind. But I've thought this through," he looked at James and then at me. "Once I tell Remus what happened, I won't stick around. You guys can't even stand looking at me, and it'll be even worse for Remus. I'll remove myself from your lives, until you want me there, and I'm not holding my breath for that to happen any time soon."