Hello everyone! I'm so sorry that this took so long to get out to you guys! I'd like to thank all of you lovely reviewers who kept me writing this summer: secretreviewer7, Anna (twice!), 10th Avenue (twice!), Dawn Lovix, and several Guests! Also all the people who followed and favorited! Thank you!

Chapter 21: Under the Wild Moon

Remus honestly didn't know how he dealt with it. Sirius and Marlene were arguing about something or other in the common room, Peter was writing to his mother, Lily was completely mad at him for 'siding' with James and Sirius, exams started on Monday, and the full moon was happening on Friday night. James had pulled him aside earlier and had asked him to consider letting Peter in on the fact that Remus was far more sick than his mother was, and now he kept dropping hints.

Why couldn't his life just be normal?

Remus felt the stirrings of resentment and pounced on the feeling, trying to find its source. He'd been wondering about it ever since he'd gotten so mad at his parents over Easter Break. Did the full moon make him more angry than usual? If so, why? The full moon was happening tomorrow night; Remus could practically feel it in his bones. Could that have something to do with it?

Even though it wasn't the full moon until the next night, Remus considered going down to the Hospital Wing just to get some answers. Maybe Madam Pomfrey would know a solution to his problem.

Remus was contemplating this very idea when Sirius burst in through the door. "Marlene is such an idiot! Why can't she just let it go?" he grumbled. "I swear, if it wasn't wrong to hit a girl… oh, hi Remus."

"Hi," Remus muttered, flopping on his bed and glaring at the ceiling.

"You look more stressed than usual. Exams getting to you?"

Remus groaned. "Yes… no… ugh! I just feel a little off."

Sirius stiffened immediately. "Are you OK? Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing? 'Cause I can totally go with you if you do. Is it because of your, you know, sickness?"

Remus shuddered. Sometimes he wished Sirius didn't catch onto things quite so quickly. "Yeah, it might be, but I can get there on my own. Thanks though."

"I'm not letting you go alone!" Sirius yelped. "You're sick! I'm coming with you. No arguments."

Remus shut his mouth and rolled his eyes. As he had not yet managed to win an argument with a stubborn Sirius, Remus didn't think that he was going to win this one. "Fine."

All the way down, Sirius talked. He told stories about pranks that he had played on his parents at some point or another ("and then she yelled at me to come in and there was flour all over her dress and in her hair, and father looked completely mortified!"), speculated about James' crush on Lily ("he definitely likes her, but there's no way it'll actually work out. She's friends with that Snape git, and she hates our guts."), expounded on the merits of food in general ("I love food. What about you, Remus, do you love food?"), or almost anything to make Remus laugh. Remus couldn't say that he didn't enjoy it, but he was glad when Sirius left him at the door to the Hospital Wing. He could do with some peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, peace and quiet were hard to come by in the Hospital Wing at the moment.

"Oh, Remus, you came already? There should be a clean cot in the corner, just give me a few minutes and I'll be right over!" Madam Pomfrey called over her shoulder, looking quite harassed as he came in. "There's been a Dragonpox outbreak in Hogsmeade and half the older students have come in today showing symptoms. I swear it started with those Prewett twins sneaking into the village and trying to cover up that they got it… but anyway, right there in the corner, Remus."

Remus dodged between the many beds sickly sixth and seventh year students that had had unfortunate contact with the Prewett twins in the last day or two. Many were sporting the telltale green spots of the magical virus, and one poor girl was even breathing smoke. Gideon and Fabian were the two sleeping closest to Remus' own cot, each covered in a thick blue cream that looked a lot like toothpaste, an empty vial of sleeping potion beside each of their beds.

Carefully, Remus drew the curtains around his own bed and laid down, listening to the groaning of the bedridden teenagers and the clinking and fussing of Madam Pomfrey as she administered different potions and remedies. Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep punctured by odd flashes of the Wolf covered in toothpaste, Madam Pomfrey blowing up into a cloud of flour, and Sirius eating a hotdog, which then turned into a potion vial that bit his finger.

Needless to say, Remus woke up feeling quite confused, but quickly dismissed the dreams for more important things. Namely, Madam Pomfrey, who was already bringing over a sleeping potion and a headache potion to see what he wanted.

"Which one, Remus?"

Wordlessly, Remus gestured to the headache potion and she poured him a measure, watching as he slumped against his pillow after downing the whole thing. Then Remus watched as she bustled away, probably to tend to more victims of the Dragonpox.

"You are one of them, aren't you?"

The voice startled Remus, and he turned to his right to see one of the Prewetts staring at him. The sleeping potion must have worn off.

"One of what?" Remus asked quietly. The older boy couldn't be talking about werewolves… right?

"The Marauders," Prewett said like it was obvious. "It had to be Potter and Black, and probably Pettigrew too, but you I wasn't sure about until you helped lose those 80 points for Gryffindor. So you are one then?"

Remus nodded. There was no denying it at this point, and they both knew it. Whichever Prewett it was broke into a large, if slightly evil, smile.

"In that case, Mr. Loony Lupin, Myself and Mr. Gideon Prewett would like to formally suggest an alliance for the end-of-the-year prank. We pull one every year," he added when he saw Remus' face. "This is just so that we don't get in each other's way. What do you think?"

"I'll have to speak with the others of course," Remus said formally. Then he let the mask drop and grinned a little wickedly. "I'm sure they'll agree."

"Great!" Fabian said. "I'd shake you by the hand if either one of us was allowed to get out of bed. What have you got, anyway? I don't see any spots."

"Oh, not much," Remus invented, thinking quickly. "It's just the flu or something. I came in feeling gross and discovered… all this. Did you really sneak into Hogsmeade?"

Fabian took the bait. "You bet! It's not even that hard if you know where to look. Me and Gid found a passage that gets us there ages ago, so we went to pick up some Butterbeer for a break from exams. Madam Rosmerta, the barista at the Three Broomsticks, never says anything."

"A passage?" Remus asked. Could Fabian and Gideon have also found the way out behind the mirror?

"Yeah." Fabian looked around furtively, and finding Madam Pomfrey at the other end of the room, he continued even more quietly. "There's a statue on the third floor. A humpbacked witch. You tap it and say Dissendium and it opens into the cellar at Honeydukes."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart!" Fabian actually did cross his heart, and then gave Remus a more serious stare. "Now listen, I don't tell things like this to just anyone. That passage is a secret-no one knows about it, not even Dumbledore or Filch."

"Why me then?" Remus asked curiously. What had he done to earn such trust from Fabian Prewett?

"You're in the next generation of pranksters. Me and Gid heard about the passage and password in our first year from the legendary Fortescue and Longbottom duo. They made us promise to pass it on when we reached seventh year. I think this passage has been passed down from prankster to prankster for generations without any teachers knowing, or at least telling anyone that they knew. You and the others have to make sure to pass it on to the most promising younger students when you reach seventh year!"

"We will," Remus whispered reverently. Wow… A passage like that was probably full of history and stories of old students and pranksters long past… "Thank you."

"No problem," Fabian grinned easily. "Just remember what I said, and about collaborating for the end of the year feast too. Let your people know as soon as you get out of this white room of doom!"

"Will do," Remus laughed quietly.

"Attention students," Madam Pomfrey called, "this is lights out for the rest of you! Anyone that needed them has been given sleeping potions, and anyone that didn't need them had better go to sleep anyway. No more talking! Good night."

The lights flickered, and Remus realized that it was far later than he had thought. Rolling over, he called out "Goodnight!" to the room at large. Sever chuckles were heard and a smattering of voices calling "Goodnight" echoed throughout the room for a few minutes before they descended into silence once more.

The next morning, Remus woke up feeling irritable and grumpy once again. Everything bothered him, and he didn't even know why! Why did the other kids stuck in here have to mumble so loudly or move around so annoyingly? Remus' head felt like it was bursting and exams were coming up and the full moon was tonight and… and…

Remus really did need to ask Madam Pomfrey about this.

Said nurse was currently walking out of her chambers and yawning-it must be quite early. They were the only two awake.

"Madam Pomfrey?"

She jumped as if she had received an electric shock and whipped around in his direction before placing a hand over her heart. "My goodness, Remus, don't scare me that way!"

Before he could stop himself, Remus huffed and rolled his eyes. "It wasn't my fault, Poppy." There was a second of silence as Madam Pomfrey stared at him before Remus realized what he had said and slapped his hands over his mouth, his eyes widening.

"Sorry," the word came out muffled, and he removed his hands. "I've started getting really annoyed and angry before the full moon. That's actually what I wanted to ask you about…"

"Of course," Madam Pomfrey whispered, slumping down into a chair beside his bed. "I recently read a report about-well, Remus, yours is not a unique case, but it is a rare one to be chosen for study. There were few reports to work with when learning about the medical aspects of your condition, and only one about a werewolf that had to go through puberty with the condition." Remus blushed, but Madam Pomfrey didn't pause.

"Apparently she was prone to anger and temperamental outbursts during her early teen years as her body grew and so did the wolf that she turned into. Unfortunately, the report didn't have much information that I could understand to work with. The rest of the section had something to do with an 'inner wolf' and I didn't quite see what it was talking about after that. I'm sorry."

"No, no, that really helps," Remus tried for a smile. "At least I know that I'm not going crazy or anything. It's just something about being a teenager. Thanks." His smile was a little more genuine this time.

"Well, alright then, Remus. It's still quite early in the morning, but did you need any potions yet? Headache or sleep?"

"Sleeping potion, please. I'd rather not snap at anyone accidentally, and I'm not sure that a potion could help this monstrosity of a headache."

"Alright then," she gave him a wan smile and handed him the potion from beside her. "Sweet dreams, Remus. I'll wake you tonight."

Remus pulled the top off of the gluey potion and drank deeply.

He didn't even remember his head hitting the pillow.

-M-

Remus woke slowly to the sound of quiet complaints and the clinking noises of potion bottles being administered. It took him a moment to remember what had happened, and that he was in the Hospital Wing with nearly a dozen upperclassmen infected with Dragonpox. As if his life wasn't already messed up.

At least Remus knew that he probably wouldn't get the sickness. Despite what he told his friends, Remus hadn't gotten anything worse than a cold since he had become a werewolf, and he doubted the streak would break now. If he had been feeling better, Remus might have smiled outwardly at the mental image of a wolf living in his body and eating all the germs before he got sick, but as it was, he just felt a little disturbed by his own imagination.

"Oh good, Mr. Lupin, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey hurried over to his bedside and leaned down beside him. "The moon rises in two hours," she whispered. "I can't leave all these poor students alone to escort you down to the grounds, so I've asked Professor McGonagall to do it for me. She'll have a protective bubble spell around her to protect her from the Dragonpix, but it only lasts a few minutes, so you'll have to get out of here before it's used up. I'll still return when you turn back, of course, but I hope it's OK that I've asked Professor McGonagall without-"

"Don't worry," Remus cut her off. "I'll be fine. I am used to this, you know." She gave him a sad little smile that he returned, and patted his shoulder gently.

"I know."

Suddenly businesslike, she stood and made her way back over to the older students, carefully shutting Remus' curtain behind her. If all went well, no one would even notice that he had left.

Professor McGonagall arrived precisely one hour before the moon would rise, discreetly slipping over to Remus' bedside and helping him up.

"You'll have to forgive me, Mr. Lupin," she said quietly. "I'm afraid I've no idea what you usually do. Can you walk there yourself, or do you want me to levitate you?"

Remus tried to sit up, and found that he was only a little dizzy when he did so, though his muscles seems much more inclined to melt into a puddle than to support the rest of his body.

"I can walk, I think, but you might need to give me a hand now and then. Especially on the stairs."

She nodded briskly and stood straight again, watching as Remus pulled himself slowly out of bed and made his way to stand beside her. He only paled a little.

"Now," she added quietly, "we're going to walk out of here as if I have to inform you of a recent development about your mother's health, and if we're lucky no one will question where it is you've gone. None of the students should be awake enough or care enough to look into it too closely."

Remus nodded, saving all his energy for remaining upright when his body so dearly wished to collapse, and followed McGonagall out of the room. Gideon and Fabian looked better than before, Remus noticed distractedly. Fabian's eyes followed him curiously out of the room.

Remus and his Head of House made their way precariously down to the grounds. Remus felt awkward with the McG there, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it. For her part, the Professor was strictly poker-faced, and Remus was glad that she wasn't giving him buckets of pity. He had never expected her to. Still, Remus was uncomfortable walking, or rather, stumbling down the hall, with her beside him, and was quite glad when they reached the Whomping Willow. Helping sick students was simply not something that the stern Professor did, and it was disconcerting to realize that she did anything other than sit in her classroom and grade papers.

The McG hesitated out of range of the thrashing branches. "Does she usually take you all the way in, or do I leave you here at the entrance?"

Remus nearly breathed a sigh of relief. "You can leave me here," he told her, though Madam Pomfrey never had. "I'll just go through the tunnel and lock myself in. It's not hard." She nodded and left him, and Remus was alone once more.

He grabbed the stick that conveniently sat on the ground near the willow, and pressed the knot with shaking hands. It took several tries to hit the right spot. Remus crawled down into the tunnel, stopping every few minutes, and wondered whether this had really been his most brilliant idea. He hoped he could control his achy, twitching muscles enough to get all his things locked in the box before moonrise.

Finally, Remus reached the trap door that led up into the Shrieking Shack. He clicked open the lock with his wand and pulled it open, wincing. He'd never noticed how loud the creak was, or how creepy the spiderwebs and shadows when he had come here with Madam Pomfrey. But now that he was alone, everything seemed twice as big, twice as silent, and twice as likely to jump out at him from the shadows.

Shivering a little, and not from his hurting muscles this time, Remus undid the latch on his box and gently laid his clothes and wand inside. Shutting and locking it once more, Remus went over to the window to wait for the moon to seal his fate once more.

-M-

The Wolf reared, feeling the last bit of human leave its body, at least for the night. It looked around. The place was familiar, but there was no prey here. It ran through all the rooms, just to be sure of what its nose and eyes had already confirmed. There was not a living thing other than the Wolf inside the shack.

Angered by the lack of fresh food, the Wolf scratched and clawed at the walls, the window, the floor, but there was no escape.

The Wolf scratched more furiously still, driven mad by the desire to hunt, to feast on blood, to howl at the clear moon…

Thunk!

The Wolf paused.

Clawing at the floor had done something. That was new. It clawed again, deeply, and found that the floor pulled back more the harder it clawed.

Determinedly, the Wolf clawed and clawed, until the small section of floor pulled up and over with a loud creak, and a tunned was revealed.

There was a scent of prey at the end of the tunnel. Prey, and the Wolf was the predator.

The Wolf ran into the darkness.

-M-

James was worried. Sirius had told them that Remus had been feeling a little funny and gone to the Hospital Wing last night. He still hadn't returned. James, of course, remembered what Remus had confided in him and Sirius over Easter Break, and he dearly hoped that his friend would be able to recover quickly from whatever he had caught.

They hadn't told Peter about Remus' bad health yet, but James vowed to pester Remus until he allowed them to. James wouldn't go back on his promise, but he hated keeping the truth from his friend.

"You're still worried," Sirius observed from the other end of the couch in their new clubhouse. James' best friend was lounging around, and Peter sat in his chair across from them. Somehow, the room didn't seem as fun without Remus there to pester them, James mused. Strange, since Remus was usually the one trying to stop said fun.

"Yeah, I'm worried," James finally sighed. "Remus went to the Hospital Wing last night. How many things could he have that Madam Pomfrey couldn't have cured by now?"

"Dunno," Sirius shrugged, trying to look casual. James knew better: Sirius was just as worried as he was. "But he's probably completely stressed about exams now, not being able to study for them and all."

"Why don't we go visit him?" Peter suggested. "We could bring over his textbooks and see how he's doing."

James stared at his friend in shock. "Peter," he declared. "That's the best idea you've ever had! Let's go!"

Sirius jumped up. "Last one up to the common room is a bag of bottubur pus!"

"You're on!"

The three friends raced back to their dormitory, grabbed as many of Remus' books as they could find, (Merlin, but Remus had a lot of books!) and brought them all along to the Hospital Wing for their impromptu visit.

"What the-" James spluttered, dropping the books he was holding on Peter's foot.

Sirius walked up behind him. "Under quarantine until further notice," he read. "Beware Dragonpox. If in need of serious healing, St. Mungo's is available to students with permission from their Head of House and accompaniment of a responsible adult of their choosing."

"I got all that," James complained. "How are we supposed to visit Remus now? Maybe she'll just let us in for a minute..."

"And let you get Dragonpox?" Sirius snorted. "Not likely, Mate. Remus will just have to be bored without us for a while.

"Yeah, yeah…" James grumbled. She couldn't even let him in? Even for a minute? He sighed and turned back to his friends. "So what do you want to do?"

It wasn't a very exciting afternoon. None of the boys could come up with a good plan that would actually work, so instead they spent a while sitting in the clubhouse, studying a bit, and thinking of outrageous ways to get Snape expelled without getting caught. None of them would ever work of course, but it was still fun to talk about.

The real excitement came that evening, and James couldn't wait to tell Remus all about it when the quarantine was finally lifted. Not long after sunset, when James had been brushing his teeth, a loud announcement had gone through the entire castle and, James suspected, had even been heard in Hogsmeade.

"Your attention please," said the loud, calm voice of Headmaster Dumbledore, "I have just been informed that a werewolf is loose on or near the Hogwarts grounds. Please remain cautious, and I do not advise stepping far out of doors tonight, and it is absolutely prohibited for all Hogwarts students to leave the castle at this time. That is all."

His words left a ringing silence. James wondered if anyone even dared to breathe in the whole castle for a moment. A werewolf? On Hogwarts' own grounds? This was the most interesting thing that had happened all year! James burst out of the bathroom, toothpaste still foaming on his chin.

"Did you hear? A werewolf! Here!"

"Yeah James, we heard. Along with the entire castle and village of Hogsmeade," Sirius pointed out dryly. "Who do you think it is? Why did they come here? Are they trying to bite Hogwarts students?"

"What if it can get in the castle?!" Peter squealed, pulling his blankets around him tightly as if they were a shield.

"Dumbledore wouldn't let it," James assured him confidently. After all, Dumbledore had defeated Grindelwald! What single werewolf would be able to get past the Headmaster?

"Then again," Sirius said with an evil grin in Peter's direction, "I've heard stories of werewolves getting into houses before. They usually search for the person with the most fat, because they're always the tastiest!" Peter whimpered, staring at Sirius wide-eyed. He pulled the blanket even tighter around himself. "Then it likes to take a big bite and chomp the poor bloke all down at once. And when it's finished, it runs out into the open air with blood dripping down its front and howls at the moon-"

Sirius was cut off by a real, honest-to-goodness werewolf howl. The timing was so perfect that he might have planned it, and Peter jumped so high that his blond hair nearly hit the top of his bed hangings. "Stop it!" he cried, huddling on his bed and pulling the blanket over his face. "Just stop it!"

"It's alright, Peter," James grinned. "Nothing can get us in here."

"Yeah," Sirius said, looking a little remorseful in the face of Peter's fear. "You've got nothing to worry about-we'll scare that terrible werewolf away for you!"

Peter's eyes peeked out from under the covers.

"You be we will!" James agreed quickly. "I think Sirius' singing voice would scare anything off."

A small chuckle from the lumpy form of Peter.

"You wound me, James! Does our friendship mean nothing to you?"

"I am your bestest friend, Sirius. And that is why I am telling you that your singing voice is terrible."

Sirius placed a hand over his heart. "How can you say no to this voice?" And then he began to sing the hit song of a new singer, Celestina Warbeck. His voice was horribly off-key, and James would have covered his ears if it wasn't so hilarious at the same time. "My waaaand makes sparks flyyyyy, whenever I'm with you, baaaaaby!"

Someone pounded on their door. "Shut up in there! Some of us are trying to study, you know!"

"Sorry!" James called back, choking back his laughs and covering Sirius' mouth with his hand. "Won't happen again!"

The angry student stomped away, and James, Sirius, and Peter collapsed on the floor laughing. The only thing that could've made it better was if Remus had been there too.

-M-

The Wolf ran.

Somewhere… somewhere there was prey. And it was the apex predator.

Out of the tunnel, away from the thrashing tree, into the dark woods.

There were creatures here, but they hid from the Wolf, and it did not bother them. Not yet. The Wolf did not eat such creatures.

Instead it followed its nose to a clearing. The trees parted, and a small village came into view for the first time.

If the Wolf could've smiled it would have.

There were many lights glowing dimly through windows in the village. No people were on the streets, but the thin, inconsequential doors of wood would not hold it back for long.

Greedily, the Wolf lunged against the nearest house, determined to devour the innocent flesh inside. It clawed and tore and growled, but the barrier that gave shelter to the prey did not budge. Angered, the Wolf tore across the space to another human abode. It's claws left deep scars on the wood of the doorframe, and it's teeth broke through the handle on the door. It's crushing weight banged on the windows, but the Wolf could not break through.

The Wolf saw red. People were here, just inside these shelters, but it could not reach them. It could not-

A scent.

A scent fresher than the others. Younger. Closer.

A human cub, female, was sticking its head out the door of one of the shelters nearby. Something bright and colorful shone in the moonlight, a little ways from the door. The cub's nose twitched as if scenting the air, and a small human hand reached out into the night.

Prey.

The Wolf lunged, snarling and deadly, at the child. A scream echoed from inside the house, mirroring the scream of the child at the door and the scream of the Wolf as it bore down upon her. The foolish prey tried to slam the opening shut again, but the Wolf was quicker. It stretched out its claws and snagged the child, drawing her out through the door just before it slammed behind her.

The Wolf let out a victorious howl.

Prey. Prey for the predator.

The wolf stalked toward it slowly, planning to enjoy the feast that had been denied it for so many years. The girl was silent and shaking, water streaming from her overlarge eyes as she stared at the Wolf. Her fear smelled delicious.

A door opened behind it, but that did not matter anymore. The Wolf had its prey.

Something soared just passed the Wolf, nearly hitting it. A small stone, jagged on one side. The Wolf spun furiously, ready to inflict its rage upon whomever had dared oppose it. It was the apex predator of the magical world. No one angered the Wolf and got away with it. The foolish creature was prey. A man, larger than the girl cub. The Wolf growled, the fur on its back rising. It would see this creature dead and eaten. A small sound, fabric on stone. The Wolf whirled around once more, back to the girl, only to see her disappear in a flash of blue light. Gone.

A roar of pure rage broke from the throat of the Wolf, and it shot toward the man that had somehow taken his prey from him. Fear shown on the man's face. He would die tonight. The Wolf took another step forward, showing its teeth.

An arm reached out and grabbed the man, pulling him into the shelter just as the Wolf lunged. Its teeth bit into wood, and splinters tore into its paws.

NO!

It had escaped him, somehow. The prey was gone, the scent fading. The Wolf circled the house, searching for any weak point, a break in the cursed magic that held it together and kept him out. There was none.

The Wolf ran from the village in a swell of fury that rose to the moon, which was setting behind the mountains. It hacked and tore and bit at the branches in its way. It howled its anguish to the moon, the only one who would listen to its cry. No creatures of the Dark Forest were stupid enough to show themselves that night. They knew the cost of getting in the way of an upset werewolf. Barks and howls echoed through the Hogwarts grounds, waking some students in their beds and sending more teachers than would ever admit it to the bathroom. For it was the apex predator, and tonight it had hunted and failed.

Dawn came. The light filtered through the trees, showering green light on the Forbidden Forest. Slowly, the creatures came out, instinctively knowing that the danger of the night had passed. The Wolf was gone.

The birds came first. A single songbird, safely flying and singing, heralding the sun and the morning appeared. By the time it had finished its song, what appeared to thousands of other birds had joined in with their own chirps and twiddles and flaps. The forest awoke. Next came squirrels, and bugs. A niffler even stumbled through, though it saw nothing of interest and moved on. Scurrying creatures and lazily buzzing bugs began collecting food.

And Remus Lupin woke up.

Remus was confused at first. He was warm, but had no blankets. The full moon had just happened last night, he was sure, and yet his injuries were not so significant. There were splintered bits of wood stuck in his fingers and in his mouth. A few small cuts were on his arms, but they looked to be more likely from running through branches than from the Wolf's claws.

Branches.

Remus' eyes opened then, and he realised what must have happened. He was in a small clearing in the woods. The sun shone on his naked form, and an ant was crawling over his left toe.

Slowly, in case there were injuries that he didn't know about, Remus sat up. Nothing. His muscles were a bit achy, and his body felt exhausted, but that was from the transformation alone, which couldn't be helped. Escaping from the Shrieking Shack had left him relatively unharmed.

Remus had no wand to cast a spell and get rid of the bits of wood in his fingers and mouth. In fact, he had no wand, no clothes, and no way of knowing what had happened. Remus froze midway through assessing himself as a horrible thought struck him.

What if he had hurt someone?!

Involuntarily, a memory seemed to rise from the depths of Remus' mind. A house, one of the ones in Hogsmeade, and a little girl. Tears streaked her face. She had her hair in pigtails and was wearing a set of pink play robes. She couldn't be more than four or five. Remus felt sick. He had been bitten when he was four years old. He wanted to shy away from whatever this strange sort-of memory was, but he wanted-needed-to know what had happened.

The girl had been crying. Something had happened, but it was fuzzy, and then she was gone. Remus felt a strange lurch of anger and resentment as if a rancorous Wolf was stirring inside him. He pulled away. She had escaped. Remus let loose a huge sigh of relief and fell back on the grass beneath him. She had escaped.

But now what was he going to do?

-M-

Madam Pomfrey had been tied into a great number of wards on the Shrieking Shack. She knew what damage had been done to it, she knew when anyone got within ten feet (about 3m) of it, and she knew whenever anyone entered or left both the tunnel and the Shack. There were strong repelling wards around it as well, but it never hurt to be sure.

As soon as the werewolf left the Shack, Madam Pomfrey knew it. To be fair, she couldn't know for sure who had left the Shack, except that Minerva had already returned from escorting Remus down, and no one else had been inside to being with.

Quarantine be darned, Poppy Pomfrey had flooed Dumbledore. He had made the announcement immediately.

Now it was daylight, and Poppy wanted desperately to be one of the teachers frantically searching the forest for Remus Lupin before they were missed. She was, however, restrained by her own order of quarantine, along with the knowledge that she was much more needed here than she was in the Forbidden Forest.

That didn't mean she had to like it.

The Dragonpox patients began to stir. It was 8:30 AM and the others still hadn't returned. Luckily it was Saturday, and there were no classes to teach.

Poppy sighed and began dosing students with fever reducer and anti-itching cream. Their bodies would have to do the rest themselves, poor dears, but the Hospital Wing should be empty again by next week. It was just their luck that the epidemic had broken out just before the full moon.

She was giving Fabian Prewett what she hoped would be one of his final bottles of potion for a while when they finally brought Remus in. To her surprise, he was walking on his own, though accompanied once more by Minerva McGonagall.

"What's happened now, Mr. Lupin?" she asked sternly, giving a significant glance at the other students that could hear.

Remus hung his head, for all as if he had been severely reprimanded. "I'm sorry I snuck out of the Hospital Wing last night, Madam Pomfrey. It won't happen again, I promise." He raised tear-filled eyes to the Matron and whispered, "Please don't expel me." His face was slightly pale.

Even Minerva looked surprised for a moment before regaining her composure. Merlin, that child could act!

"I'll leave him to you then, Poppy," Minerva said briskly. "It's a good thing Mr. Lupin tells me he had already had Dragonpox as a young
child. He will, of course, be serving detention with me anyway as a consequence for his actions."

"Of course," Poppy quickly agreed, noting Minerva's sly wink. That woman was more of a Slytherin than she'd ever admit to the likes of Horace Slughorn.

Remus stepped forward like the chastised student he was pretending to be, and Poppy Pomfrey set in to give him the biggest lecture on sneaking out of his life. It didn't matter that he hadn't done it-nearly all the older students watching would expect it. Remus understood. He followed her docilely behind his curtains and waited for her to cast a silencing charm before speaking. "What went wrong? What if I had hurt someone? Do I even have to stay? I'm not hurt."

It was the last that caught Poppy's attention quickest. "You're not hurt? What do you mean, 'not hurt'?"

The boy shrugged. "I'm not. I think the… the Wolf had something else to focus on, so it didn't try to hurt itself. I'm just a little sore and really tired. Oh, and there were a lot of splinters in my fingers and mouth, but McG already took care of those."

Poppy shook her head slowly to clear it. No injuries? It was unheard of, for Remus at least, but she supposed it made a certain type of sense. Why would the werewolf hurt itself on purpose if there was something else to focus on?

"So can I go?" Remus asked hopefully, although now that she looked Poppy could see the dark circles under his eyes and the pink marks on his fingertips.

"No." she decided. "Not only will the older students be suspicious, but you need rest. Your body probably feels like it has just been up all night clawing at the houses in Hogsmeade, which, to some extent, it has. Get in the bed."

Remus only put up token protest as she tucked him in, and he was asleep in seconds. Poppy took a moment to stare at the boy sadly before she hurried out again, administering more itching cream and pretending to mutter darkly under her breath about students sneaking out before it was healthy and breaking the quarantine and how Mr. Lupin was lucky to be alive.

A nurse's work is never done, after all.

-M-

"Lupin! Hey, Lupin!" someone called. Remus glanced up from the Transfiguration book he had been scrutinising. Having been deprived of his study material for the past two days, Remus was determined to make up for lost time before exams began tomorrow. He, James, Sirius, and Peter had opted to study outside in the beautiful summer sun instead of in their clubhouse, but at the moment Remus was wishing they had stayed inside. The twins had caught up with them at last, apparently having finally escaped Madam Pomfrey's clutches.

"We just wanted to congratulate you-" one began.

"-on your stellar sneaking out from the Hospital Wing last night," the other finished.

"And we were wondering if you had consulted your people yet-"

"-about what I said the other day."

Remus blushed a little, glancing at his confused friends along with the twins. "I hadn't exactly had time. Exams start tomorrow, you know, and I missed the last two days' worth of studying."

"Well ask them right now then," Fabian prodded, grinning. "Exams suck all the fun out of life."

"Can't say I don't agree," James spoke up.

"Me either," Sirius agreed. "But what's this about sneaking out of the Hospital Wing. You never visited us, Loony, and we thought it was under quarantine!"

"Well, I didn't exactly sneak out…"

"That's what McGonagall said happened," Gideon interrupted.

"Yeah, it was the same night as the werewolf scare," Fabian told the others.

James' eyes lit up. "Did you guys hear anything about that from the Hospital Wing?" He and Sirius had been trying to figure out who it had been since Remus had gotten back. Remus hadn't had to act to look surprised and frightened when they told him all about the announcement and the howling they had heard.

"Nothing," Gideon said dejectedly. "It might not have even been someone who lives around here." This was exactly what Remus had tried to tell them, but he hoped they'd listen to Gideon. James and Sirius endlessly idolized the two pranksters, and Peter idolized James and Sirius. The friends looked incredibly disappointed by the twins' lack of information.

"Oh well," Sirius sighed. "They said you snuck out, Loony, you didn't happen to see anything did you?"

"I said I didn't really technically sneak out… The McG was with me when I left, and-"

"So then why did she tell Madam Pomfrey you snuck out?" Fabian asked quickly.

"I give up!" Remus cried. "Madam Pomfrey knew I was with the Professor, and I had Dragonpox when I was little so I wasn't in danger from the disease. Professor McGonagall pulled me out to give me an update on how my Mum was doing and you were all awake when we got back. I just didn't want to share with the room."

"Your... Mum?" Sirius asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah," Remus nodded, sending a sort of play-along glance in Sirius and James' direction. "She wasn't doing too well, but by the morning she was feeling a lot better. The McG was just keeping me posted. My Mum has a bad muggle disease," he added for the twins' benefit. "I just… sometimes I go and visit her and.. I don't like to talk about it."

"Sorry, Lupin," Fabian said.

"We didn't mean to pry," Gideon agreed.

"Talk to your people, and let us know what they think of the deal!"

"Meet us in the Great Hall at dinner."

"Bye fellows!" Fabian called, strolling away with his brother in the direction of some of the girls.

James rounded on Remus immediately. "What was that all about?"

Remus shrugged. "I guess you got the gist of what happened with the McG, but my bed was next to Fabian's in the Hospital Wing. He asked if we wanted to work together on an end-of-the-year prank, and told me that he and Gideon had promised to pass on some information to the next generation of pranksters." Remus beckoned the three of them closer, making sure that no one was listening. "There's a secret passage to Hogsmeade behind the humpbacked witch on the third floor. You tap it and say Dissendium. It lets out in the cellar at Honeydukes."

"Wicked!" James cried out, before quickly clamping a hand over his own mouth. Then, in a much quieter voice, "How'd they find it?"

"Apparently some seventh year pranksters from their first year told them about it. Fabian reckons that it's been passed down through pranksters for generations without any teachers finding out or telling Dumbledore!"

"No way," Sirius whispered, awed.

"We'll have to try it next year. We don't have any time anymore with exams, and now this prank to plan." The others grumbled, but Remus held firm. There was a brief silence, then-

"We are going to work with the twins, right?" Peter clarified.

"Of course!" James grinned broadly. "Someday we can say we worked with the famous Gideon and Fabian Prewett!"

"More like they'll be bragging about how they worked with the famous Marauders," Sirius corrected slyly. "Let's get working!"

-M-

Whew! That was, by far, the longest chapter I have written. I almost gave you all a horrible terrible cliffhanger in the middle of the werewolf bit, but I just couldn't get the chapter length to work out for the rest of them. As always, thanks for reading and please shoot me a review or a PM to tell me what you thought! The next couple chapters will be posted in the coming days, so watch out for them.

Always keep reading and writing! ~Meg