Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter related. Unfortunately.

Playing God

Chapter Fourteen

"Well, we could break into the TriWand and steal a whole vat of Fire Whiskey – Then we could just hole up in the Shrieking Shack with it until dawn breaks then scurry on home," James finished telling Sirius his 'elaborate' plan for the Full Moon that night.

Sirius shook his head slowly and clicked his tongue, "oh James, what a simple mind that you have," Sirius grinned wickedly, doodling a picture of a lion (ever the Gryffindor) on some incredibly important document…Or whatever Kingsley had placed in front of him an hour ago. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

James scowled across the office towards his best friend and threw a roll of Spell-o-tape at Sirius' head with surprising accuracy that caused Sirius to duck before it indented into his beautiful head.

"No, no sneaking around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade – we do it so often that I'm surprised that we haven't been seen yet. No, we're going somewhere else."

James stared at him blankly, twirling his quill around in his fingers, resting his head on his hand, "You're being strangely cryptic, Sirius."

"Yes! I'm building the suspense," Sirius explained as he lounged back in his chair, lifting his feet to rest them on the corner of his desk, his fingers interlocked behind his head. "Have I succeeded?"

"Oh yeah, I'm on the edge of my seat." James said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and sat back in his own chair, his arm coming up to rest along the back of it as he twisted his body sideways.

"Well, if you're gonna be a bitch I just won't tell you." Sirius shrugged as he blew a strand of ebony hair away from his face and it moved back to rest against the side of his head away from his line of sight.

After a few moments of awkward silence, James sighed loudly and his head fell foreword so that his chin was pressed against his chest.

"You sighed audibly. Why?" Sirius asked, a huge grin adorning his face. He'd been James' best friend for nine years – of course he knew anyways.

"Are you gonna tell me what your idea is?" James asked, annoyance tinging his words slightly.

Sirius clicked his tongue once and shrugged. James quite literally growled low in his throat in frustration.

"Okay," he said excitedly, swinging his feet down and leaning across his oak desk in his excitement – he could feel an adventure coming on and that always got the adrenaline pumping through his veins, lifting his spirits. He knew it was cruel to think this but the Full Moon was his favourite time for two main reasons: 1) He got to be with his three best friends every month without fail, no matter what life had thrown at them and 2) it was adventure time! "We're going on an expedition – We're going to explore the Forbidden Forest in-depth over the next few months."

James stared at him blankly, blinking once as Sirius' words entered into his mind and he attempted to make sense of them. Sirius was practically bouncing in his seat in pure happiness.

"…I don't know, Sirius. I mean, we do some dangerous stuff but we've always steered clear of the Forbidden Forest." James bit his lip in thought as a frown furrowed his brows together and Sirius nodded, having expecting this response from at least one of his friends, although a tiny bit disappointed that it was James who had argued with him.

"Of course we have, because we didn't want to put any of the Hogwarts students in danger but we're not going to go through it that way. We're entering through the back –" and, just because they were immature, both of them stopped momentarily to giggle at that particular wording before Sirius carried on, "– and explore that section before moving further foreword every time. Think about it, James, who else would have done that?"

"What do you mean?"

"We could be the first people to completely learn the way of the Forbidden Forest."

"Sirius, I think that belongs to Hagrid."

"Nah," Sirius argued, waving that comment away with his hand, "he has a great handle on it, sure, but we – you and I…as well as Remus and Peter – will be the first ones to fully understand it. Hell, if we needed to we could live in it."

James shook his head, "how on Earth would that help us?"

"It would if we were being hunted down." Sirius retorted, crossing his arms across his chest, confident that he was going to win this.

"Sirius, there's…horrible things in there." James said quietly, a hint of embarrassment tinging his cheeks pink as he lowered his hazel eyes.

"You are aware that we will have an eight-foot tall werewolf with us, right?" Sirius asked rolling his own eyes at his best friend.

"Oh yeah!"

Before Sirius could insult his best friend for his own stupidity, Kingsley walks into their office like he was freaking God or something and perched himself on the edge of the desk, rolling up the royal purple sleeves on his robe. "I need you two."

"I don't know, Kingsley, I'm not really into threesomes with two guys, but if it'll give me a promotion then come here bab-Ow!" Kingsley's hand coming into contact with the side of his head hurt and Sirius rubbed the aching skin with his left hand, his right sending his boss a very rude gesture.

Kingsley laughed at Sirius and shook his head as if he had no idea what he was going to do with him and Sirius grinned doggedly, pushing his chair away to stand up and reach for his star, feeling the thrill of the chase already seep into his bones. "What do you need us to do, boss?"

"I need you two to track down Jamie Lynn Hollow – Dan Tussal has identified her as a co-conspirator about the attack on firmitas the other week."

Sirius frowned as he remembered the desperate sounds of Hermione as first she tried to get him to let go of her so that she could go help Cal (he even though the name with anger), the heat-wrenching sound of her sobbing as she collapsed to her knees and then the hollow tone of her voice as she told him that she viewed herself as a monster.

Speaking of Hermione… "We're on it, Kingsley…I was just wondering sir if you could do a little tiny favour for me?"

00000

Hermione leaned against the counter as her fifth customer left the book store, a paper bag clutched in her left hand, her bright neon nail varnish striking against the bland brown. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her face wearily letting her eyes scan the book store, noticing that Caitlyn was stood by the romance novels that Hermione hated to admit that she read as her guilty pleasure.

She stood straight and walked towards her. As she neared the small woman, she noticed that she was swaying on her feet lightly, humming a song happily under her breath. Hermione felt a smile tugging on her own mouth at the innocence that radiated off the woman before here

"Hey, Caitlyn." She greeted as she leant against the wooden bookshelf, "need any help?"

"Hermione!" Caitlyn's blue eyes widened as she looked up at Hermione and she threw her arms around her in a tight bear hug that took Hermione by surprise and made her feel a little uncomfortable – being friends with boys for almost ten years, their hugs were few and far between and when they happened (Aside from life-or-death situations) they lasted all of three seconds – Caitlyn was holding tight to her. "Oh! I know that you've been here for like, a month already, but I really think that we should throw you a party!"

"Caitlyn, I don't –"

"Great! I can go and buy some balloons, but I think that I might already have streamers in here…" she let go of Hermione to open her bright pink satchel and streamers literally exploded everywhere, causing Hermione to jump and everyone in the store to look at them. "Yay! I do have streamers!" Caitlyn clapped her hands happily before she cleaned up the mess with a simple wave of her wand and they all flew back co-operatively into her bag. "Oh, this is going to be So. Much. Fun!"

Hermione once again tried to tell her that parties weren't really her thing, that she'd much rather just curl up in her bed or on her sofa reading a book, but she was already talking again, "sorry that I didn't stop and talk to you this morning, but I was on a mission! You see, Cal has been mister secret keeper these last couple of days and I wanted him to go out with me, because we used to go out all of the time, but then he got all moody and broody and it's my job to turn that frown upside down!"

Hermione's smile widened as Caitlyn rambled on, her right hand gesturing wildly in random movements that had nothing to do with what she was saying; a girl like Caitlyn, early twenties and dancing through life, not letting the Worl knock her down, was really hard to find and she was reminded almost painfully of Luna and she felt a pang in her heart as she remembered that she hadn't even said goodbye to the blonde who had been her firm friend since her fifth year.

"Caitlyn –"

"Yes, Hermione?"

Hermione chuckled as Caitlyn's eyes fixed on her, seemingly sparkling as the sun slid through the window panes, illuminating her. "…Do you happen to know why Cal changed?"

"No." Caitlyn said sadly and her whole body sagged, like a deflated balloon – even her insane curly blonde hair seemed to straighten slightly. "I wish he would just tell me…It's not like I'll judge him or kill him…Well, unless he's become a Death Eater, in which case then, as my duty as a human, I'd have to tell Sirius and James about him, but…" She looked sketchily sideways before leaning closer to Hermione and lowering her voice to a whisper, "I went snooping around in his apartment and found nothing. Plus, no Dark Mark, so he's good, he's just being sad…" She tilted her head at 90 degree angle, tapping her chin in thought, "maybe it's the lack of parties…"

Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes in amusement as Caitlyn babbled on about this party that she guessed she had no choice but to attend and she took a mental step back, just letting her words wash over her. It wasn't unpleasant. Although Hermione was surprised that Caitlyn had just handed over the information about her to Cal after only having being asked.

"What do you think? I know that you're pretty close friends with Madame Rosmerta, so we can invite everyone in the complex as well as your friends! Ali!" Caitlyn yelled and Ali popped up from behind the bookshelf next to them, a bright warming smile on her pixie face.

"Yeah?"

"Party. In four days. My Courtyard. 6pm." She nodded once at her instructions, "my immediate thought was, 'tonight, right?' but then I remembered that Remus is visiting his mum today and it would be a shame for him to miss out on this!" she clapped once, turned on her heel with her arm above her head, pointing at the ceiling, "I'll be back, young Miss Jean. I need to buy supplies!"

And with that, Caitlyn was gone. Hermione was surprised that there wasn't a dust shaped cloud where she was just stood. And so had ended her first real encounter with Caitlyn and Hermione chuckled as she replayed the conversation over and over again in her head. Her mind told her that she should really be annoyed by everything that Caitlyn was, but the years of fighting in a war had taught her that people with the same mind-set as Caitlyn were rare and should be kept that way.

She remembers the first time that she saw Luna Lovegood cry, it had torn at her heartstrings and made her ache deep inside, knowing that the war was killing the optimistic nature of the good and innocent and Hermione herself had cried as Luna was being consoled by George Weasley as they took in the destruction of her childhood home.

"Galleon for your thoughts?"

Hermione jumped and spun around to see Cal stood there, his eyebrow raised in amusement as Hermione's skin flushed in embarrassment at being caught not doing her job properly, "oh, Cal, sorry I was just—"

"Don't worry about it," Cal chuckled, sliding his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket a small smile on his face, "I was just looking for Caitlyn."

"Oh, she's gone." Hermione told him, a little disappointed that he had come here to talk to her, which would have just made her plan a little easier to follow.

"Of course she has," he sighed, his hand smoothing over his light brown hair that was secured in its usual ponytail at the nape of his neck, "I swear, you can't keep tail of the crazy midget. I don't know how Jack does it." He shook his head, following Hermione as she moved back to the till.

"Well, he loves her." Hermione said, leaning over the oak wood as Cal's hands slid across the wood and he hunched his back, balancing his weight foreword.

"That he does." Cal nodded, his long fingers tapping on the wood. "I haven't seen you since firmitas …How you holding up?"

Hermione blinked in surprise, for some reason not expecting Cal to bring the incident up, "I'm okay now." She said truthfully, "what about you?"

Cal shrugged one shoulder, sighing lightly, "I can hold my own, Hermione."

"So I've been told."

"Listen…" Cal starts, but he's interrupted by an old woman with a kind smile ready to purchase her choices. Hermione greeted her fondly, recognising her as someone who frequents the book shop often. After she'd rang up the books, the woman left with a friendly wave and a promise to come by next week to buy some more books.

"You were saying?" Hermione asked patiently, returning to her previous posture of leaning her elbow on the counter, her brown eyes looking up at his questioningly.

"Yeah…Hermione, I know that the last time wasn't brilliant…In fact, it was awful, but I was wondering if…maybe do you want to try again?"

Hermione blinked rapidly as she tried to make sense of what she'd just heard…Cal was asking her out?

Should she really be surprised? He had asked her out the first time, maybe that was more than just a friend-date?

"Sure," she smiled gently, "tonight?"

"Well, we are eager, aren't we?" Cal grinned, but Hermione could tell that he was just teasing her.

"Guilty," her smile widened.

Cal nodded and opened his mouth to tell her something else, but the door opened quickly and Caitlyn ran in, her arms laden with bags and bags of what Hermione just knew were party supplies. "Okay, I have everything except for the cake, because of course I have to bake it, so I have all the ingredients."

As she was babbling, Cal had rolled his eyes and had taken half of the bags off of her, placing his hand low on her back and leading her to the door. "I'll pick you up at nine?"

"Nine it is!" Hermione called after them as the door shut. She watched through the large window as they walked down the street, Caitlyn bouncing with each step as if the pavement was made of trampolines.

A part of her was seriously looking forward to this date as more than just finding out what Cal was up to – he was nice, sweet and charming – why couldn't she be excited?

While Sirius was busy with busty, tall, model-esque girls, couldn't Hermione be with someone else? Her and Sirius had to be end game – that was the whole reason that she was here – but it hadn't happened right away, so why couldn't Hermione have fun?

Sirius sure was.

She tried to stomp down the feeling of guilt that festered under her heart.

00000

Jamie-Lynn actually hissed at them as they shoved her down into a seat in an interrogation room, her dark green eyes narrowed into slits as she attempted to scratch James with her talons.

James just slammed her hand onto the table and the chair instantly sprouted chains that wound around her skinny arms, legs, torso and even wound around her neck, immobilising her.

"You will all pay for the mistake that you've made today," she threw her head back as best as she could in this hard back chair, her long brown hair becoming tangled in the chains, "he'll find out that you have me and he'll come save me. He'll save me…"

"News flash," Sirius said as he rounded the table and spun the chair around so that he straddled it, "he doesn't care."

"You don't know!" She shouted, struggling against the chains, "No! You don't know the power that he possess!"

"I can tell you that he won't win." James said, leaning against the wall.

"No! You lie! You will be punished!" She screeched, her dark eyes rolling in their sockets. "He'll find you! He'll find you and kill you!"

"I'm sure that he will," Sirius said sarcastically, resting his arms across the back of his chair. "He'll rip the bones from my flesh or something, right?"

"No." She said quietly, "he'll come into your house while you're sleeping and take everything that you love from you. Then, and only then will he kill you. First your children and then your wife and then…then you."

Sirius looked at James in his peripheral vision, knowing that since he'd got married and now that Lily was pregnant that the death of his family had been one of his greatest fears, particularly since both his parents had died the year before.

"We've heard it all before," James said dismissively and Sirius was relieved that he hadn't been affected by this threat.

"Then more reason to believe it, don't you think?"

Before either of them could retort, someone knocked on the two-way mirror that Sirius had insisted that the interrogation rooms get after seeing a muggle TV cop-show that featured them.

They both left the room and Jamie-Lynn Hallow laughed hysterically as they clicked the door shut.

"James, are you sure that you're able to conduct this interrogation?" At Kingsley's question James seemed to contemplate it and Sirius felt bad for him – but he also knew that if he showed weakness then he could get penalised for it by the Minister.

"Sir, I'm sure." James eventually answered and Kingsley nodded, directing him to go back into the interrogation room. However, when Sirius went to follow, Kingsley stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Not you, Black. There's something that we need to discuss." With a raise of his eyebrow Sirius steps back away from the interrogation room as James begins to question Jamie-Lynn Hallow again, his voice with a certain edge to it that made the hair on the back of Sirius' neck rise in concern.

"What is it?"

"Well, I looked up Hermione Jean's past like you asked and I think that you should see it." Kingsley says, holding a light blue file in his hands.

"Kingsley, I've already told you that I don't want to read it, I just wanted to know if she has some horrible past and I didn't want specifics on it." He knew that if Hermione found out that he'd been snooping around into her past, something that she hadn't told him about yet, she'd most likely just kill him and that would be the nicest thing she could do. Still, he couldn't help but be curious about her life before she arrived here and just why she spoke like a soldier when all of the fighting is happening in Britain. Just a ballpark was what he was asking for here.

"Black, look." He opened the folder and Sirius' eyes were instantly drawn down onto the papers before him – or, more correctly, paper.

All that was in that file was her home address, work address, Gringott's bank Vault number and a brief witness statement from when they were investigating the murder of Jacob Gregan from over a month ago. That was her file. There was nothing in there about her past, her life, her family, her school, nothing. It was like Hermione Jean had appeared from nowhere.

00000

The pain was excruciating – as soon as the moonlight touched his skin it scorched as if it was on fire, sending him to the deepest caverns of Hell. He couldn't help the low moan of anguish as his head fell back and banged against the crumbling wall and he felt plaster settle on his shoulders and down his neck.

His lungs expanded rapidly, desperate to intake air as a hand, warm, calloused and strong settled on his shoulder, anchoring him. "It's okay…" it was saying soothingly, the thumb rubbing in small circles keeping his grounded momentarily before the hand disappeared and a quick "it's time," sounded before being followed by a gruff bark that echoed around him, drilling into his mind as his eyes came into sharp relief – he was staring at the lone light bulb hanging from a frayed cord in the middle of and he was almost blinded by the sheer brightness illuminating from it, seemingly trying to be the sun. With a low moan he buried his head in his hands, not at all surprised by the feelings of his nails – which had sharpened into points – digging into his scalp. A lone drop of liquid travelling down his temple and the bitter scent of it told him that he had drawn blood.

The worst was yet to come.

His body was thrown unceremoniously foreword and he landed on his fists, his fingers cracking and twisting as they fused together and he developed a strange pins and needles sensation over his entire body that was only growing more prominent as the hairs pushed violently through his skin; the pain was so intense and so unexpected that no matter how many transformations he went through, that would still cause a ghostly scream to fall from his lips. He screwed his eyes shut in preparation for the next stage of his transformation as he could feel his teeth all move in his mouth as his jaw unhinged and was pushed forward, his scream turning from a humans into an animals.

His shoulders broadened, his feet elongated as his heels left the floor and his weight was pitched foreword – his spine stretched and he could feel his vertebras crack and strain, trying to accommodate to this new change brought on by the silver surface of the full moon. His tail bone snapped out and he bit into the hairy flesh of his forearm to try and quell the howl of pain and he winced as he tasted the coppery flavour of his own blood before a red mist circled his brain as the transformation was complete.

With shaking, shuddering breaths, he lay still on the floor for a few moments waiting for the pain to alleviate even just slightly before he dare move.

Something cold and wet pressed into the back of his head and he started in shock, his head moving back quickly and a snarl making its way onto his mouth, ready to protect, defend, survive…

It was a dog. A big, black scruffy dog. The werewolf blinked slowly before throwing his head back and howling, hoping to hear an answer so that he wasn't alone in this world.

The Dog barked once, happily, and jumped around, his tail waving happily from side to side and The Werewolf followed it in confusion before thinking that The Dog needed to go because he needed to get out, to go home, to survive…

Before he could even think about it, his hand (claw…paw…) lashed out through the air as quick as a whip, intending to slice across The Dog's face. Instead of making contact with the matted fur though, a stag appeared from nowhere and slammed into The Werewolf, pushing his body up against the wall before The Dog joined him, barking once more as it wrapped it's body around his feet, stopping him from lashing out.

Not that The Werewolf didn't try. With a cry of outrage and fear, it mustered all its strength and used its powerful muscles to propel both animals across the room, where they landed with a painful sounding thud, a whimper emitting from The Dog.

Good.

The Werewolf descended upon them, his jaws gnashing fiercely, desperately, and his teeth clamped around the back leg of The Stag and was ready to bite down and pull back when something small and brown dangled in front of his eyes, obscuring his view.

Another enemy.

He needed to get away, needed to fight, needed to survive…

He let go of his first prey and shook his head, trying to get rid of the small rodent nested on his head, but the sharp sting of tiny claws in his skin told him that The Rat wasn't going anywhere.

Panting desperately, he looked at The Dog and The Stag, both already on their feet but not poised to attack. The black Dog barked again and sat down, his tail wagging happily as his tongue lolled out his mouth a grin plastered onto its face. Beside him, The Stag was leaning elegantly against the wall, his hoof crossed over each other – it looked well at ease, but more than ready to defend.

The Rat had since scurried down his body, as if sensing the change in The Werewolf's demeanour and it moved rapidly across the floor, The Dogs nose moving down allowing the rodent to jump onto it and crawl on top of its own head.

These animals had distinctly human tendencies and that made The Werewolf curious…They were calm, as if they already knew what was going to happen, already knew him. Did he know these creatures?

The Dog barked a few more times and stood up, padding over towards The Werewolf and boldly jumping up so that it's front paws were resting just on The Werewolf's shoulders. The Werewolf grunted in annoyance and confusion and went to move back, but the dog held on tight and seemingly refused to let go, slopping licking The Werewolf's face. Looking towards The Stag he didn't seem to want to disagree when it tilted his head, his antlers pointing out the only door, which had broken off its hinges and had claw marks scrapped all on the inside. Did I do that?

Fear suddenly coursed through his veins as he realised that he didn't want to hurt these animals because they weren't afraid of him. He watched as The Rat scampered out the room and the dog pushed off his shoulders and landed back on all fours, his nose in the air as if he had just caught the scent of a nearby hare. He too bounded out the room after the small Rat, leaving only The Stag and The Werewolf.

Another tilt of The Stag's head told him that he should go first. The Werewolf shook his head once, still not sure about these creatures, unsure whether to befriend them or kill them.

The Stag nodded his head again and The Werewolf slowly moved forewords to rest his weight on all fours and he slowly moved to the door, keeping his eye on The Stag, the most dangerous of the four. It was then that The Werewolf realised that he wasn't leaning against the wall in an effort to look elegant, but because his back leg had been injured when The Werewolf attacked.

What had he done?

He lowered his head in regret, but The Stag merely pressed his head against his own, conveying that he knew and that he didn't mind – forgiveness had just been handed over without needing a single word.

Still, there was one word spinning around The Werewolf's head…

…Adventure.

A/N: So, here's chapter 14! I hope you like it!

Caitlyn, by the way, is based on Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...I don't care that I'm almost 21, I love that show! She's going to be the comic relief character when things are getting a bit dicey...She's very Luna-esque but more so :)

This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer but I think it was getting too long, so I split it into two seperate chapters...You should be getting Part Two very shortly, I'm more than half-way through with it.

Writing Remus' transformation was incredibly difficult - probably the hardest thing I've ever wrote so I hope it's okay to you guys!

Thanks for reading!

Kelly

xxx