Disclaimer - This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N – Previously this fic was at , but I have since gotten tired of the whole process of uploading it there.
About a week later, on a rather mild Saturday morning, Emma walked down into the common room to find everybody gathered already. Remus and Peter were playing Wizard Chess, Sirius was pointing his wand at an old piece of parchment, James was staring at Lily and Katrina was watching the tiny chess pieces beat each other up, egging them on excitedly.
"Hey, Sirius, have you seen my underwear?" Emma started casually.
"Oh, yeah, they're on the top of one of the posts on my bed," Sirius answered without looking up from what he was doing. Remus gave them a suspicious look.
"Oh no, Remus! It's okay; we were just having a competition to see who could get it stuck up the highest!" Katrina explained hurriedly.
"How did you take your underwear off without Sirius seeing?" James was momentarily drawn out of his Lily induced stupor.
"All females can take their undergarments off without showing anything. Watch," Emma stated, reaching under her shirt to unhook her bra. After a few seconds she pulled it out and held it up. "There, see?" she finished.
All the male eyes in the common room turned to stare at her.
"Who won?" Peter piped up.
"Yes…well…disregarding that, you know it's a full moon tonight, right Moony?" said Sirius, attempting to avert his eyes as Emma struggled to put her bra back on.
"Of course Sirius, how could I forget?" Remus said dryly.
"Er, right. Well, we going with the usual plan then?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't we?" Remus asked in confusion.
"No reason, just wondering," Sirius turned back to the parchment he'd been working on.
Remus slowly turned back to the chess game, only to see that his queen had decided that she and his king weren't meant for each other, and had run over to join the other side of the board. He sighed. Muggle chess was so much easier, when the little pieces didn't all have personalities…
* * * * *
James shook Sirius awake. Sirius slapped his hands away angrily. "Five more minutes…" he mumbled.
"Sirius! We have to go! Moony, Shrieking Shack, remember?" James said urgently.
Sirius shot up on the couch. "Right! Where's the cloak?" he asked, looking around.
James pulled it out from one of his seemingly bottomless pockets, swinging it around himself and Sirius as he did so.
"Where's Wormtail?" Sirius asked. A large rat poked its nose out of James's shirt pocket. "Ah, good idea, it is getting a bit hard to fit us all under here," Sirius whispered.
They crept out of the portrait hole, the Fat Lady rolling her eyes as she heard a whispered "Dammit James! Stop stepping on my feet!" "Maybe I wouldn't step on your feet if they weren't so huge!" There was a sound of flesh colliding with flesh, and "Ow! Sirius!"
They spotted Dumbledore going for a late night stroll around the third corridor, so they took a detour through a secret passageway hidden behind a picture of Gwendolyn the Gassy, which took them right down to the entrance hall. With a whispered 'Alohomora,' they were out onto the castle grounds.
"James, look!" Sirius hissed, elbowing James in the ribs as he did so. Rubbing his ribs, James looked in the direction Sirius was pointing – it seemed that McGonagall had just sent Remus down the tunnel under the Whomping Willow, and was walking straight towards them. Hastily getting out of her way, they practically ran the rest of the way to the Willow.
"Go on, Wormtail," James whispered urgently to the rat, setting it on the ground where it ran right to the stump of the homicidal tree, and put its small paws on a knot in the trunk, causing the man-slaughtering branches to stop flailing about violently.
James folded the invisibility cloak and put it in a small hole near the base of the trunk, before removing his glasses and putting them on top. "Right, ready Padfoot?" he asked, squinting at where Sirius had been standing. A loud bark answered him.
"Right, you know the drill, you go first, I can't transform 'till we get to the end,"
The large dog that had once been Sirius held up a paw and cocked its head.
"Oh, don't play dumb with me," he admonished it. The dog wagged its tail and disappeared down the small tunnel under the tree's roots, James following. Wormtail hopping onto his shoulder as he walked, then stooped, down the long, winding tunnel that he had trekked many times before. He heard growling from up ahead – obviously Remus could sense they were coming. A loud, high-pitched yelp followed. It sounded like Sirius had reached the end. Speeding up, he slowly pushed his head out of the hole in the floor, seeing Padfoot struggling to keep Moony away from the tunnel. Hastily pulling himself out, he immediately transformed into a large stag. Moony leapt past Padfoot and went flying straight at James – Prongs. Prongs bowed his head and used his antlers to fling the werewolf into the opposite wall. Padfoot raised his hackles and bared his teeth as Moony got back to his feet. After several minutes of shared growling and attempted attacks, Moony finally calmed down enough to sniff Padfoot, recognizing him as a friend. Padfoot, of course, took this as a perfect opportunity to decide to wrestle with Moony.
Prongs let out a frustrated snort, tossing his head towards the door. Padfoot looked up and let his tongue hang out as he once again cocked his head to the side. Prongs rolled his eyes – an action that would have been much more effective if a stag rolling its eyes didn't just look demented. Padfoot snorted, probably with laughter, though it was hard to tell with dogs.
Trotting over to the door, Prongs lifted the latch with one of his antlers, and the door swung open.
His ears pricking up as the scent of the fresh night air reached his nose, Moony turned to look out onto the sleeping village of Hogsmeade.
Prongs gave Moony a warning look, the wolf baring his teeth in reply, but calming down nonetheless. Padfoot and Prongs escorted Moony out, Wormtail sitting on Prongs' head, squeaking every now and again when Moony would look up at him, a savage look in his eyes.
The strange group of animals walked down one of the main streets, Padfoot bounding off every so often to chase a rabbit or squirrel, but always returning at Prongs' loud grunting. Moony sniffed eagerly at the bases of small trees, Prongs watching him warily the entire time. Just then, a small cat dashed across the path in front of them, and, letting out simultaneous excited barks, Moony and Padfoot each rushed after it. Prongs shook his head, letting Wormtail know to hold on, and took off after the two. Moony dashed into the forest, and Prongs followed, finally catching up with him and jabbing him in the side with his antlers. Shepherding the seemingly abashed werewolf back to the main street, he only just realized that their party was missing one.
A loud yelp came from just beyond the trees, and Prongs rushed over to see what was happening.
Padfoot was engaged in a battle with a man who had some sort of contraption around the dog's neck, and was trying to pull him into a truck of some kind. Padfoot attempted to bite the man's foot, but the man jerked away, causing Padfoot to yelp in pain as the thing around his neck tightened. Getting behind the large dog, the man was able to shove him into the back of the truck and slam the door shut on Padfoot's frenzied barking.
"Stupid mutt…" he muttered, getting in the vehicle and driving off. Prongs watched worriedly as Padfoot's head appeared repeatedly at the small window at the top of the doors, but couldn't go after him, lest Moony run rampant on the village.
Moony growled behind him, sensing something was amiss, and Prongs hastily shoved him back towards the Shack, where they would have no choice but to wait out the night.