Wow... the last update got double the amount of reads I normally get for a new chapter! Thanks :D And now I present to you the most important chapter so far (and the longest!), hope you enjoy, please drop a review if you do, or if you have any constructive criticism to share :) It's all appreciated.
"If we were Animagi... what animals do you think we'd turn into?" Abigail asked absent-mindedly as she scanned over her Transfiguration textbook. Frowning in concentration, she played with a strand of brown hair that had escaped her ponytail. Slumped on the desk across from her in apparent despair, Avery mumbled into the table,
"I'd be a bear. That way I could hibernate instead of having to do these exams."
"Bears hibernate in winter," Abi reminded him as she turned the page, immediately forgetting everything she'd just read. "Exams are in summer."
"Bears can't hold quills," he countered, lifting his head up from the table for a moment, his blue eyes surveying her. "Or wands. Or textbooks. Or McGonagall." Resting his chin on his hand, he looked to be deep in thought, before he said, "I think you'd be a dolphin."
Abi's eyes finally lifted from the page and the corners of her mouth curved upwards slightly. "I can't see a dolphin being much use in an emergency. Imagine walking alone at night, with no wand, and hearing someone following you. Turning into a dolphin would definitely not help matters." She paused. "Why?"
"Why what?" he asked with a yawn.
"Why a dolphin?" she said patiently.
Avery opened his mouth to speak, then it snapped shut and he shrugged. "I dunno."
"You're as bad as Sirius," she said rolling her eyes. "I asked him what animal he would be, he said, and I quote: "I'd be a sperm whale. Cos they're massive and well the rest of the clue is in the name."" She imitated his wink, sending Avery sniggering.
For once, it was only the two of them sitting in the library for their normal study night - which usually consisted of gossiping with Lily and laughing at the boys' stupid remarks rather than any actual productive work - and Abi was enjoying spending time with the slightly ... well "dopey" was the only word she could find to fit him, boy. Both Slytherins had grown up a lot over the past three years: Avery, while still a firm believer in the pureblood ways, wasn't quite as outspoken, and Abi wasn't quite as defensive about her heritage.
"Abigail..."
A tentative voice brought her attentions back to the sandy haired boy seated across from her who was looking down at the table, looking uncharacteristically embarrassed.
"What would you do if... if you found yourself..." he forced out the next sentence in a rush that she barely caught, "in love with someone you knew your parents wouldn't approve of? And I mean, really wouldn't approve, I'm talking being cut out of the will, disowned, the whole package."
Stunned, Abi just stared at him for a moment. He doesn't mean me does he? "Ummm..."
"It's just," he pressed on, "I can't stop thinking about this person. Ever since I met them it's been like that."
She felt her face heating up slightly and replied, "I-I think you should tell them how you feel if it's that strong."
Avery still looked troubled. "It's not that simple. Maybe I should just forget about it and focus my attention on finding the ideal pureblooded woman to marry."
The words stung, but Abi had gotten good at hiding it. "Maybe you should think about doing what you want for a change instead of what your society wants."
"It's not that simple," he repeated, sighing and lying back down on the desk. "Forget I mentioned anything, Miss Dolphin."
She smiled despite herself. "If that's what you want, Mr Bear."
Sirius lay spread-eagled under the emerald green covers, groaning loudly enough so that the other boys couldn't forget how awful he was feeling. His head was pounding, for once not the result of too much firewhiskey, and he clutched his forehead dramatically as he continued his complaining. Mulciber, having had enough, launched his DADA book at him none too gently.
"Ow!" Sirius yelped, the heavy book smacking him on the forehead.
"I'm trying to sleep," the other boy snapped irritably. "Shut up or go to the Hospital Wing."
"Charming," Sirius muttered, chucking the book back across the room. All was quiet for several minutes, before Sirius's ears perked up at the sound of someone creeping towards his bed. His eyes adjusted to the darkness just in time to see Snape sitting down on the side of his bed.
"Sorry, you're not my type," he said warily, scooting away from the scowling Snape.
"Can we talk? In private?" he whispered, dark greasy hair falling across his face.
Sirius edged further away quickly until he realised too late that there was no bed left, resulting in him falling out of the bed with a crash and a loud groan.
"What are you doing?" Snape hissed looking over the edge of the bed. Sirius was sprawled across the floor. With the news he wanted to share with Black, he was in no mood to deal with his stupidity.
"Trying to get away from your creepy advances!" Sirius shot back, trying to untangle himself from the bedcovers. "What do you want to talk about at this time of night?"
"In private!" Snape insisted.
Down in the deserted Slytherin common room, Sirius glared across at Snape. Slouching back in the armchair he had claimed for his own and putting his feet up on the table in front, he shrugged his shoulders. "So... talk."
Snape launched into his carefully rehearsed speech, he knew he'd need to make it sound convincing to get Black on his side, otherwise he'd just brush it aside and laugh at him with the others. Sirius looked bored for most of it, but as Snape carried on he could see a faint spark of interest in those grey eyes.
"It's happening tomorrow night," Snape finished off. "It'll be the perfect opportunity to see if it's the truth or not."
Andromeda hadn't left her private study for three days, she'd even transfigured the desk into a semi-comfortable bed. Yaxley occasionally came and hammered on the door, demanding that she stop acting so childish and come out. She was a much more powerful witch than he was a wizard and she felt no need to hide it for the sake of propriety any more, instead she put her strengths to good use on keeping the door and windows sealed firmly shut.
Her shoulder length dark brown hair was lank and unwashed, her face was pale except for the redness around her eyes caused by hours of endless crying, and she hadn't eaten since shutting herself away. Nothing could have prepared her for seeing that body; it had only been then that she realised how deep her feelings still ran for Ted.
Yaxley paced up and down the hallway outside the study. People were starting to talk, his mother had stiffly informed him the last time they had spoken. Plenty of pureblooded couples forced into arranged marriages were unhappy, but they did not show it. They appeared in public, they had children, that was the way of things.
"We want to see her."
He whirled round to see Narcissa and Bellatrix striding haughtily towards the door.
"You can't-"
Bellatrix shot him a glare and with a swift wave of her wand the door flew open and she strode inside. Yaxley grit his teeth but followed his sister-in-law into the room. Andromeda stood at the furthest away corner, her own wand brandished.
"Oh put it down, Dromeda," Bella snapped, rolling her eyes at the state her sister had gotten into. She turned on Yaxley and looked him over with a sneer akin to derision. "I don't think you're needed here."
Before he could protest, the door slammed in his face.
Andromeda let the wand drop from her fingers and it fell to the floor with a clatter. Once again, she started to sob.
Narcissa strode towards her and gave her a shake. "Stop that. Merlin, you look awful." With another quick flick of her wand, she performed a rapid cleaning spell on her despondent sister.
"What are you doing here?" Andromeda asked shakily, trying to pull herself together.
"Mother sent us," she replied shortly. "He was a mudblood, Andromeda. You're embarrassing us all by acting like this!"
"You wouldn't understand," she replied accusingly. "You and Lucius have your perfect engagement, you're planning your perfect marriage to be followed by your perfect blonde little babies. And you and Rodolphus... well you two are just made for each other."
"Yaxley was as good a match-" Narcissa began.
"Yaxley's a bastard!" Andromeda exploded, her grey eyes flashing with anger. "I'd rather be married to a troll than him!"
"Don't say things like that!" the blonde sister's voice had a hint of pleading now as she glanced back at the door. "You're causing a scene!"
"And there it is!" Andromeda said with a cold laugh. "The unwritten rule of the Black family, never mind Toujours Pur! 'Never cause a scene'! Do you know the French for that, Cissy? Maybe we can redo the family crest, get it emblazoned on all the walls just so we don't forget-"
The sharp sound of hand colliding with cheek echoed around the room and Andromeda let out a gasp as her hand flew to her burning face. Bellatrix had never slapped her before. A slap in the face was a sign of humiliation, something reserved for servants and enemies. Not for sisters. But it was all Bella needed to say, that simple action conveyed more than mere words ever could. Still slowly rubbing her cheek, now sporting a red handprint, Andromeda stared at her sister in defeat.
"What do I do?" she whispered.
"What all of us do," she replied bitterly. "Without complaint."
Remus had been feeling more tense than normal in the week running up to the full moon. As usual, his senses were heightened to an uncomfortable level and he was having a hard time concentrating. Normally his friends were sympathetic, but tonight, James was having problems of his own. He watched him rummage through his trunk for the fourth time that night, then give up and move onto searching underneath his bed, for the sixth time. The door opened and James looked up hopefully, but Peter trudged in with a shake of his head.
"I searched everywhere, it's definitely not in the common room."
"You must have dropped it somewhere," Remus said, trying to hide his irritation at all the noise as he drew the curtains around his bed. "Just wait until the morning and retrace your steps, James."
"That map took months," James groaned, too distracted to notice his friend's mood. He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and went back to sorting through his trunk. He yanked out the invisibility cloak and swung it round his body, immediately disappearing. Peter watched as the door was thrown open and James's voice called out, "Go back down to the common room and keep searching!"
The next night, Sirius and Snape crept down the stairs from the dorms. The few students left in the common room paid the two fourth years no attention, meaning they could leave the dungeons with no problems. The unlikely duo stopped as Sirius pulled out the Marauder's Map and quietly recited, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The usual greeting appeared on the parchment, followed by a series of black lines that formed the layout of the castle. Snape pointed at a name on the map.
"There they are, in the hospital wing." His voice held a tinge of excitement, the plan so far was going as he had told Sirius it would. "They'll start moving out of the castle in a few minutes."
Sirius made a non-committal "hmm" sound and went back to looking at the map. One name caught his attention: Lily Evans... "Why didn't you ask Lily to go with you instead of me?" he asked Snape as they walked down the corridor. "Or Abi?"
Snape flushed and muttered something unintelligible. One reason occurred to Sirius and he let out a short bark of laughter. "I suppose if there really is a werewolf down there then you would have no problems running and leaving me behind. How noble of you to not want to endanger the girls."
"You can go back to your bed if you want, Black," Snape spat out. "But we both know, you're as curious as I am about what's really in the Shrieking Shack, you're just so used to disagreeing with me that you don't know how to do anything else! And with the others not believing me, you definitely couldn't disagree with a whole crowd now could you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius replied sharply, bristling at the comments which were starting to hit too close to home.
"For all your talk, you're the same as the rest of your family," Snape continued, too angry to care that he was losing his only 'ally' in his quest to uncover Lupin's secret. "You ended up here didn't you? Just like the rest of them. Why do you think that happened, Black?"
Sirius glared at him for a moment then shook his head. "Screw you, you miserable bastard."
As his temper began to cool down, Snape watched with dawning dismay as Sirius stormed back in the direction they had come in, back to the dungeons.
Abi had been staring into the fire still mulling over what Avery had said the night before in the library. She knew there were many people he could have been referring to, but she still couldn't help blushing whenever she thought about it. Mrs Abigail Avery...Oh stop acting so stupid, Abi!she scolded herself. An angry Sirius storming into the common room pulled her back to reality.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked as he marched towards her.
"Snape," he muttered, pausing beside her chair. "Stupid git."
"Where is Severus? I haven't seen him for ages," she asked, feeling a little guilty that she'd just noticed.
"He's off on some stupid trek to the Shrieking Shack to see if his theory about Lupin is true," Sirius muttered, his head starting to hurt again. "I'm going back to bed, see you at breakfast."
"Yeah, see you." She watched him go with a frown. Sev just hadn't been able to let the whole Lupin thing go. If he was caught out after hours with that map out in the grounds... and God knows what was actually in that shack... Making her mind up, she quickly ran up to her room to pull on a cloak and dashed out of the common room in search of her friend.
Remus followed Madam Pomfrey out of the castle, dread filling him up and making his feet drag. She gave him a sympathetic smile, but Remus could see as always that it didn't quite reach her eyes. No, there was a totally different emotion there. He went through the motions as if on auto-pilot, Pomfrey froze the Whomping Willow and gave him the usual reminder to come back to the hospital wing in the morning. With a nod, he ducked down into the tunnel, knowing it wouldn't be long until the burning agony consumed him, and he became a monster.
The corridors at night were eerie, to say the least. Only the sound of her shoes clacking on the cold stone floors echoed along them and she was beginning to give up hope of finding Severus in time to stop him, until she rounded the next corner and saw him staring back at her.
"What are you doing here?" he hissed. "Go back to bed!"
"I was about to say the same thing to you," she retorted. "You're going to get caught, Sev!"
"Not when I have this," he said brandishing the map. With an impatient sigh, he whispered, "Look, either come with me and keep quiet, or go and let me see for myself whether this is true."
"And what are you going to do if it is all true and you find yourself staring at a werewolf? Roll the map up and him in on the nose with it?" came her retort. "I'm coming with you."
"Fine," he snapped, already moving outside. Abi quickened her pace to keep up with him and they walked along in silence, finally stopping at a safe distance from the dangerous tree that for some reason Dumbledore had decided to have planted in the grounds.
"Why are we here?" she whispered, shivering and pulling her cloak further around her.
"There's a passage running from under the tree to the Shrieking Shack," he muttered. His suspicions had been confirmed as he had watched Lupin and Pomfrey's names pause at the base of the tree, then Lupin's had disappeared while the matron's name had started moving back to the castle.
"But we can't get past that thing!" she said staring up at the imposing tree.
"Of course we can," Snape replied simply. Pointing his wand at the tree, he stated clearly, "Immobulus!"
The charm was mostly successful, Snape grabbed Abi's arm and pulled her towards the tree as a few branches made half hearted swats at them. As they got closer, she could see the mouth of the tunnel ahead and her heart began beating faster. What if he was right... what if there was a werewolf on the other side of the tunnel... Before she could back out, they heard a loud screech and something large and white was in front of them, flapping its wings angrily in an attempt to stop them going down.
"Sev!" she yelled. "What's happening?"
"It's just an owl!" he said. With some effort, he pulled her inside the tunnel leaving the bizarre owl screeching behind them. Until...
"Merlin, it's following us!" Abi shrieked as they hurried down the dirty tunnel. "Maybe it had a nest down here or something?"
Remus could feel his heart beating faster and louder, his skin was starting to crawl. It was almost time. His ears perked up as he heard strange noises coming from what sounded like inside the tunnel but he dismissed it as the wind. His mind was getting confused, more so than was normal and his last Human thought was one of horror. A familiar bird flew into the room but stayed at the entrance to the tunnel, still screeching and flapping it wings in an effort to block the entrance. Excruciating pain ripped through Remus and he fell to the floor, writhing in agony as his limbs began to lengthen and hair was forced up through his skin, although it may as well have been needles for the pain it caused.
He let out an involuntary scream, his capacity for normal thought had disappeared, as the two students stumbled into the room. Abi's mouth fell open in a silent scream, while Snape felt anything but triumph as he stood frozen to the spot. The red mist descended on Remus. Letting out a howl, the now fully transformed werewolf lunged.
Dun dun dun...