A/N: Yay! I finally managed to write a chapter on time. Thank you again for all of your support. Please read and review.

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Chapter 11: Wormwood Visions

When Remus returned to the Gryffindor dormitory, he found that his friends had moved from James' bed and were now sitting on the floor. All three heads turned to look at him as he closed the door behind him.

"That took a while," Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"We were just about to go look for you," Peter added.

"Sorry," he replied as he handed back James' cloak and pulled the wormwood out of his pocket. "I ran into your brother in Slughorn's office. I had to wait for him to leave."

"What the hell was Regulus doing there?" Sirius frowned.

"Probably trying to kiss Slughorn's gargantuan ass," James quipped as he threw his cloak onto his bed. Peter giggled.

"But he's in Hogsmeade all day today," Remus explained as he gingerly sank to the ground beside Peter—he was still slightly sore from the full moon.

"Was he trying to steal potion ingredients?" Sirius asked tightly.

"I don't think so," Remus replied with a shrug, "Although, even if he was, I don't think we're in any position to judge him."

Sirius looked like he desperately wanted to protest, but forced himself to stay silent. The werewolf found himself studying his friend's face carefully, wondering what he was so worried about.

James cleared his throat, "Will Slughorn notice some of his wormwood is missing?"

Remus managed to tear his gaze away and shook his head, "He's got loads of it: the third years are working on Shrinking Solutions now—if some extra goes missing, he won't notice. I've also seen it growing in the Forbidden Forest, if we find ourselves going through a lot of it, we could always just go foraging."

"Do we just start burning it?" Peter quirked his head to the side as he stared at the pile of leaves in front of them.

"Light it, let it burn for a second, blow it out, and let it smolder," Sirius eagerly pulled out his wand.

"We should probably grab some lunch first," James quickly intervened, "It'll be easier to 'clear our minds' if we aren't starving."

"So, we've got to wait even longer to start the boring stuff?" Sirius grumbled.

James rolled his eyes, "You can wait another half hour, mate. Come on…"

"Fine," Sirius stood up and stretched.

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After lunch, the Marauders returned to the dormitory. James, Sirius, and Peter sat cross-legged on the floor (despite Sirius' protests) while Remus watched from his bed.

"We're supposed to focus on our breathing and nothing else. Apparently the wormwood will do the rest," James explained as Sirius lit the wormwood and then blew out the flames—it began to smoke as it slowly smoldered. He then muttered a spell to help the wormwood last longer.

There was a lag of a few seconds before the extremely bitter smell of the burning plant caused all of the Marauders to start coughing. Remus was particularly affected by the smell, thanks to his sensitive nose; he had to cover his face with the sleeve of his robes.

"How're we supposed to empty our minds when this stuff is burning our sinuses?!" Sirius spluttered.

Peter sneezed several times in rapid succession, as his body tried to clear the smoke from his nostrils.

"I'm sure we'll get used to it if we just give it some time," James tried to sound optimistic.

Even through his sleeve, the smell was enough to make Remus' eyes water, "I don't think anyone can get used to this!"

But, sure enough, after a few minutes, their protests died. The smell was too strong and bitter to forget entirely, but once it had completely saturated the room, it wasn't quite so overwhelming. Remus, however, did feel a headache beginning to form as a result.

To the werewolf's amazement, his friends eventually shut their eyes and fell silent.

He watched them quietly for a few minutes, just listening to their breathing—maybe it wouldn't take them months to master after all, they seemed to be doing very well for their first attempt.

With the headache now gnawing at the back of his eyes, the smoke was beginning to make Remus feel drowsy; it wasn't long before he was slumped against the headboard of his bed.

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Remus was standing in the middle of the woods. There was a thick fog all around him which made it impossible to see beyond the immediately surrounding trees.

For a long time, there was nothing but silence; yet, just as he was about to start wandering through the fog, he heard a branch snap nearby. Under normal circumstances, he knew he'd be frightened—it was a natural instinct to be wary of something he knew was there but couldn't see; but instead, he found himself taking a step towards the sound.

There was another snap of a twig, this time it came from behind him and sounded even closer. Remus spun around and saw a vague and indistinct shadow watching him through the fog. He took several steps towards it, but the shadow never got any closer. He began running towards it, suddenly feeling almost desperate to know what was watching him, but it remained elusive and just beyond reach.

'Come here,' he tried to say, but the words never left his throat. The shadow began to disappear, deeper into the woods and Remus felt a spike of frustration.

'Come back!' he tried to shout, but once again, he couldn't make a peep.

Once the shadow had disappeared entirely, Remus heard another sound coming from behind him.

This time the sound wasn't a branch cracking, but a low growl that made the hair on the back of his neck rise. Something else was in the woods with him and unlike the shy creature from before, it clearly meant him harm.

Remus backed up slowly as the growling got closer and closer. He knew that he couldn't outrun whatever it was. The creature barked sharply and suddenly, he knew exactly what was stalking him and the fog seemed to open up, revealing a snarling werewolf standing within arm's reach in front of him. Its eerie, golden-green eyes were staring into his, unwaveringly.

The werewolf snapped menacingly and Remus continued to back up slowly until he bumped into a tree. His heart was pounding in his throat. Baring its massive, razor-sharp teeth, the werewolf lunged towards him. Its claws sunk into his chest as it pinned him to the tree, he tried to push it off but his hands just passed straight through the creature. The werewolf jerked its head forward with every intention of biting his shoulder but just as its teeth were about to make contact, an unseen force pulled him back into the tree.

Remus started violently. He was still sitting on his bed in the smoky dormitory; Sirius was leaning over him with one hand on his shoulder.

"What—" he started to say, but Sirius put a finger to his lips before pointing to James and Peter who were still sitting on the floor with their eyes shut and their breathing steady.

Remus tried to steady his owning breathing, his heart felt like it was about to break through his ribs.

Sirius stood and made his way to the door before waving his hand, indicating that the werewolf should follow.

Once out on the landing, Remus sat on the stairs next to Sirius. The fresh air was already helping his headache.

"Well, that was disappointing," Sirius sighed. "An hour of my Saturday, gone. Just like that."

"You didn't see anything?" Remus asked quietly—still shaken from his own meditation session.

"I didn't say that," Sirius chuckled, "I saw a moor, which is weird because I don't think I've ever actually been to a moor before. I kept seeing something in the distance, but it must've been a mirage because no matter how far I walked, it never got any closer." He rolled his eyes, "I'm sure there's some deep symbolic meaning buried in that, but I can't be bothered to find it."

Remus smiled weakly in response.

"Anyways, I got fed up and woke myself up and that's when I saw that you'd joined in and it didn't look like you were having a very good time, so I woke you up as well," he frowned slightly, "What did you see?"

"A forest. Same sort of thing—I could see something hiding in the fog but couldn't get close enough to it to see what it was."

"That's it?" Sirius asked skeptically.

Remus shook his head, "No. Whatever it was disappeared and the wolf appeared…"

"The wolf?" Sirius quirked his head to the side curiously.

He fidgeted uncomfortably, "A werewolf," he whispered, "It was stalking me, it'd just cornered me against a tree when you woke me up." He tugged the collar of his shirt up anxiously, "And… I don't really know how to explain this, but I know that it was me—what I look like when I'm transformed."

Remus glanced at his friend, expecting him to dismiss it all as nonsense, but Sirius was surprisingly silent.

"It was going to hurt me and I couldn't do anything to stop it," he felt a lump in his throat and he blinked quickly to get rid of the tears.

To his surprise, Sirius chuckled, "Don't tell James that I said this, but I'm sure there's some deep symbolic meaning in the fact that I woke you up before it could hurt you."

He grinned cheekily at Remus who let out a shaky laugh.

"You're fine," Sirius said reassuringly as he patted the werewolf's back, "you just had a bad trip."

"'A bad trip'?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well wormwood is a hallucinogenic. Everyone has bad trips, I'm sure that we'll all have had a few before we're done." Remus smiled weakly, and, taking it as a sign that he should continue, Sirius plowed on, "I'm sure that at some point I'll get trapped by my lovely parents, James'll run into a bunch of headless corpses, and Peter'll have to face one of the many, many things that Peter's afraid of."

Remus laughed and shook his head.

"But maybe, given your predisposition towards… er…" he hesitated.

"Having nightmarish visions?" Remus supplied helpfully.

"Yeah... It may be easier if you sat the next few sessions out," he shot his friend an apologetic look, but Remus just shrugged.

"I agree. I can't stand the smell anyways." Sirius visibly relaxed.

"How much longer do you think they'll be?" he asked.

Remus shrugged, "No clue."

"Let's go down, my arse is going numb sitting here."

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Remus and Sirius were in the common room for about ten minutes before James and Peter came down the stairs and joined them.

"The wormwood burned out," James said as he sat next to Sirius.

"That was really weird," Peter frowned. "I was standing in the middle of a massive field and I could hear something running around me in the grass but I couldn't find it."

"I was in a forest," James added, "I could see something in front of me but it was too foggy to make out."

The similarity to Remus' experience surprised him.

"Remus saw the exact same thing," Sirius seemed to put his thoughts into words.

"Really?"

"Well, not exactly the same thing," Remus clarified—he could almost still feel the wolf's claws on his chest. "But I also saw something in a fog-filled forest."

"I didn't even realize you had meditated with us," James replied, "I wonder if the similarity means anything." Sirius scoffed.

"What did you see?" Peter asked Sirius.

"Some sort of moor," he waved his hand in front of him vaguely. "There was something in the distance but no matter how far I walked, I couldn't get any closer so I gave up."

"I wish you'd take this a bit more s—" James cut himself off, realizing his mistake.

"Siriusly?" Sirius asked, grinning cheekily. Peter laughed—apart from Sirius, he was the only one who still found the play on words funny.

"You know what I mean…" James rolled his eyes.