A/N: This chapter is quite a bit longer than usual—but I wanted to get the rest of the drama out of the way. I love writing the angsty stuff but I'll admit that I feel a little guilty for giving Remus such a hard time lately. I've been trying, to the best of my abilities, to make this story as canon as possible, but every once in a while I have to take a leap of faith—this chapter has some pretty dramatic revelations that I'm not certain would happen canonically but let me know what you think.

Chapter 24: Caught

At first, Remus simply believed he'd been furious that his friends would be so reckless, but it was more than that; he felt violated, betrayed, and scared. The Whomping Willow was closely tied to the most private and shameful part of his life—seeing the tree being provoked was almost like watching a wild animal, locked in a cage, being poked and prodded by onlookers who had no concept of the danger they were in. In some strange way he felt connected to the tree, he'd felt just as threatened and cornered as the sensitive plant. And the worst had happened: someone had been seriously hurt.

After blindly wandering the grounds in a feral rage, Remus had hidden in the Forbidden Forest. He didn't venture too far though and stayed within eyesight of the tree line. Obviously, the forest was forbidden, but it was the only place he felt safe: safe from others and safe from himself. There were dangerous things in the forest, of course, but considering how close he'd come to hurting his only friends, Remus convinced himself that he'd fit right in.

The sun was beginning to set and he knew he should return to the castle, but he couldn't bear to face his friends. Were they even still his friends? It seemed unlikely. Remus shuddered as his original bite scar throbbed. In a matter of seconds, he'd managed to destroy three year-long friendships.

Peter hadn't been there to witness Remus' meltdown, but he knew it wouldn't make much of a difference: the smallest Marauder would side with James and Sirius—no doubt. Lily probably wouldn't turn her back on him, not yet anyways. She had other friends though: Severus, Marlene, and Alice—Remus knew that even if Lily never discovered his secret and remained his friend, the next few years without the Marauders would be very lonely. The only silver lining was that if the other Gryffindor boys were no longer his friends, they'd probably lose interest in his mysterious disappearances.

Part of him wanted to stay in the forest forever, but the moon's increasingly strong tug on his body was hard to ignore. He couldn't transform in the Forbidden Forest: the risk of the wolf wandering into Hogsmeade or onto the grounds of Hogwarts the following night was too great.

Remus had just begun pondering the logistics of getting up to the dormitory, grabbing his school books, and retreating to the Hospital Wing unseen when a branch snapped nearby, startling him. A massive mastiff was heading towards him, its nose pressed firmly to the forest floor. The dog didn't shy away from Remus, much to his surprise, and when it finally reached him, it placed its droopy, slobber-covered head on his knee and gave him a doleful look.

"Spike?" Hagrid's booming voice seemed to echo in the opposing darkness of the forest. "Where've yeh run oft to?" The dog, Spike, made a low whining sound and soon Remus could hear Hagrid approaching.

"What've yeh found?" The groundskeeper peered around the tree Remus had been sitting up against. "Remus?"

"Hi Hagrid," he sighed sadly, ignoring the way Spike's drool had begun to soak through his trousers.

"What're yeh doin' out here? Students aren't allowed in the forest."

"I know, I'm sorry. I just wanted to be alone for a while…"

"Best get yeh back to the castle," Hagrid smiled sympathetically as he helped Remus to his feet. The werewolf swayed on the spot slightly as his body protested the change in position and the groundskeeper put his hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Alrigh' there?" Hagrid asked worriedly. It seemed as though Remus still had at least one friend no matter what happened.

"I'm fine," he smiled weakly, "Thanks Hagrid."

Remus was sorry to see Hagrid and his dog, Spike, leave at the castle doors. Spike's presence was oddly soothing and Hagrid was, as always, welcome company.

Dinner was nearly over and Remus knew he'd never make it up to the dormitory and back down to the infirmary without running into at least one of the Marauders. Sighing, he decided he'd rather get behind on his reading than encounter James or Sirius, and Remus headed towards the Hospital Wing.

Passing through the doors, he was caught completely off-guard when Madam Pomfrey cried in relief, "Remus! Oh, thank goodness!"

The matron hurried forward and wrapped the shocked werewolf in a tight hug, "I was so worried!"

Remus tried to pull away, "Worried?"

"No one knew where you'd gone!" Pomfrey mercifully released him, "Professor McGonagall was about to start a school-wide search."

"What?" He was dumbfounded.

"After what happened down at the Whomping Willow this afternoon, she was very concerned when you weren't at dinner, especially when your friends said they hadn't seen you since the incident."

Remus shifted guiltily as he spotted the curtains drawn tightly around one of the infirmary beds.

"Is Davey alright?" When his rage had subsided, Remus had been too upset about yelling at his friends to wonder if the Hufflepuff was going to be okay, but suddenly it was all he could think about.

Madam Pomfrey sighed sadly as she glanced towards the occupied bed.

"We've had to call in a specialist from St. Mungo's. We didn't want to risk injuring him further by moving him there," Remus felt sick, "It was a close call, for a while there, it looked like he was going to lose his eye, but he should make a full recovery."

"His eye?" He felt dizzy but Madam Pomfrey gave him an encouraging smile.

"If you hadn't been there, dear, his eye would've been the least of our worries. He'll be fine in a week or two." Her words did little to comfort him though.

Remus allowed himself to be ushered towards the familiar back room. Madam Pomfrey had to go over a treatment plan for Davey with the St. Mungo's healer, so she left him with a vial of a dreamless sleep draught (to be taken at his discretion) before bustling back out to the ward.

Remus tried to do some reading, but he wasn't terribly successful—he only managed to read through two pages in the span of an hour; his mind kept drifting off and every once in a while, Davey would cry out in pain or distress and the sound would echo through the infirmary. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. Gudgeon must have arrived because a woman wailed, "My poor, poor baby!" It made Remus' stomach twist uncomfortably.

Eventually, the commotion outside of his room died down and Remus was just about to drink the potion the matron had left for him when there was a soft knock on his door.

"Hello?" He called out uncertainly; Madam Pomfrey had never knocked before.

The door opened and Professor Dumbledore entered his room.

"Good evening, Mr. Lupin," the headmaster smiled gently.

"Good evening, sir," Remus sat up a little straighter. Dumbledore sat down on the foot of the bed and was silent.

Recent events considered, Remus found the silence to be more than a little unsettling and, desperate to break the tension, he blurted out, "I'm sorry".

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, "Sorry? Whatever for?"

"For…" What was Remus sorry for? "I'm sorry for what happened to Davey."

The headmaster chuckled quietly, "You are not responsible for what happened to Mr. Gudgeon."

"I am though." All traces of amusement left Dumbledore's face, "I am responsible. If it wasn't for me, the willow wouldn't be here and Davey wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Perhaps not…" Dumbledore admitted thoughtfully, "But in all my years here at Hogwarts, I have seen students come up with countless ways to endanger themselves and others—if you hadn't decided to attend Hogwarts and the Whomping Willow had never been planted, Mr. Gudgeon might have found himself in an equally grave situation, but you would not have been present to help him."

Remus allowed the headmaster's words to sink in.

"In my experience: it is never wise to dwell on what might have been. Such thoughts are enough to drive a person insane. You very well may have saved a young boy's life today, Mr. Lupin, and as far as I am concerned, that is the only outcome that matters."

Remus stared at his hands, feeling distinctly unheroic. Dumbledore patted his knee.

"We can talk more about this later, when you're feeling better. I just wanted to thank you—you did the right thing today." And with that, the headmaster stood and exited the room, leaving Remus alone to contemplate everything that had been said.

The full moon the following night was hellish. Remus' turbulent mood before the transformation was enough to rile up the wolf: at some point during the night, it tore off a hunk of flesh from the outside of its own thigh.

Remus slipped in and out of consciousness for hours and couldn't remember the change back or the trip to the castle. Madam Pomfrey worked tirelessly to heal his leg and by mid-afternoon she'd finally managed to stop the bleeding. The matron had pumped the werewolf full of so many potions he was completely zoned out the entire day—bizarre waking dreams flashing before his eyes. At one point he could've sworn he heard James' voice nearby.

When Remus' head finally cleared, it was late at night. Madam Pomfrey had placed a large assortment of potions on his bedside table, but his leg had begun bleeding again and she hadn't left him anything to help him with that. The pain wasn't too bad, so he pulled himself up into a sitting position—the nurse was bound to be asleep and although he didn't like the idea of waking her in the middle of the night, he knew he needed her help.

He rose to his feet unsteadily, nearly collapsing as he put weight onto his injured leg. After a few painful steps, Remus figured out he could walk if he moved in a very specific way. It was awkward and far from painless, but he was able to hobble his way out of the room and towards Madam Pomfrey's quarters at the end of the ward.

He knocked on her door and Madam Pomfrey was up in a matter of seconds looking completely disheveled and worried.

"Remus! What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to disturb you but…" he indicated to his now blood-soaked pajama leg. Pomfrey grimaced at the sight and led him inside her room, sitting him on a chair next to the door.

She removed the bandages, applied a green salve which stung but stopped the bleeding, redressed the wound, and gave him a new pair of pajama pants.

"There you go. Good as new," Madam Pomfrey gave Remus a tired smile, "Now let's get you back to bed."

"That's alright. I can do it myself," he already felt badly enough for waking her at such an unholy hour; he didn't want to trouble her further.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Remus said reassuringly. Madam Pomfrey gave him an appraising look but nodded in consent.

He did his best not to heavily limp out of her office and he was relieved to hear the healer's door click softly behind him.

Davey Gudgeon was snoring in the bed nearest to Madam Pomfrey's room so Remus was surprised to see the curtains drawn around a second bed a little further down the ward, but he didn't think too much of it. As he passed the bed though, he felt every inch of him seize up when he heard a familiar voice call out, "Remus?"

Shit.

James' head poked through the curtains, "What are you doing here?"

Remus opened and closed his mouth soundlessly.

I wasn't feeling well, he willed himself to say the excuse his brain was urging him to use, but nothing was coming out.

"Professor McGonagall said you'd gone home because your mother was sick again."

"I-I was at home." It was as if a dam had been broken and all the words began tumbling from him at once, "But… but I wasn't feeling well. My parents decided it was probably best that I just went back to school because they didn't want my mum to catch whatever I have. She's already sick, she doesn't need to be sicker, you know?" Stop. "I was only home for a day, I just got back this afternoon and I've been here ever since," Stop talking. "I would've come by the dormitory when I first got back, but after everything that's happened I didn't think…"

"You 'didn't think' what?" James interrupted.

"I didn't think you wanted to see me…" The stream of words finally dried out on his tongue.

"Remus, we've been worried sick. No one knew where you'd gone. Of course we wanted to see you!" James took a step towards him and Remus took a painful step back, forgetting, for a moment that he was injured. He whimpered as his leg threatened to buckle under him.

"What's wrong?" James was beside him in an instant, ignoring Remus' feeble attempts to shoo him away.

"Nothing. I'm fine," he insisted even as he stumbled backwards further. James helped guide his protesting friend towards the nearest bed. Remus sat on the edge, refusing to meet James' concerned gaze or break the silence.

"Sirius was right," The messy haired boy muttered quietly after a moment as he knelt beside Remus, "Something is wrong with you…" Tact was not one of James' strengths.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied stubbornly.

"When I asked Professor McGonagall where you'd gone, she told me you'd gone home to see your mother," James said thoughtfully.

"So?"

"But when Sirius asked Professor Rabnott where you'd gone, he said you were probably ill again."

Shit.
A desperate, nervous laugh bubbled out of his throat. All this time, Remus was relieved that so few of the professors knew the true reason behind his absences, but it had come back to haunt him.

"I'm ill," What more did he have to lose? At this point, it seemed that the best he could hope for was some more time at Hogwarts before the Marauders found out the whole truth, "My mum's fine. I'm the one who's sick…" He drew a shaky breath and waited for James to start yelling at him for lying.

"Why wouldn't you just tell us that?" James sounded hurt and worried, but there wasn't any anger in his voice. Remus wished he could make out his friend's face better in the darkness.

"Whenever people find out, they treat me differently. I didn't want you to treat me differently." It was the truth after all.

Much to his surprise, James didn't protest. He merely sighed and said, "I guess that makes sense. Still, I wish you would trust us a little more."

"You're not mad?" Remus could scarcely believe it.

"Of course not!"

"But," he hesitated, "I yelled at you and Sirius."

James scoffed, "Trust me, we deserved it."

"I've been lying to you for months…"

James shrugged, "Well, we didn't deserve that, but I understand your reasoning."

It felt too good to be true, "Are you going to tell Sirius and Peter?" James was handling the information well, but Remus doubted Sirius would have the same tempered reaction.

"I won't say anything if you don't want me to…"

Remus sighed, "Thank you James, it means a lot to me." That was an understatement. "I suppose they have to find out at some point."

"Don't worry, I'll break the news to Sirius gently," James laughed and Remus couldn't help but chuckle along with him.

"He's going to kill me," he sighed. "What are you doing in here anyways?" Remus asked his bespectacled friend.

After quickly muttering 'Lumos', James held his lit wand over his arm which was covered in a fine black fuzz.

"Slughorn paired me and Mulciber together for detention. The prat 'accidentally' splashed me with whatever was left in the bottom of the cauldron he was cleaning. When I first came in, I was completely covered in this gunk. Slughorn had no idea how to get rid of it, but Pomfrey's got it under control. Nox."

It took a moment for Remus' eyes to readjust to the darkness.

"Madam Pomfrey told me that Davey's going to be alright," said James.

"I know," Remus shifted awkwardly.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened and thank you for being there. I don't know what you did to stop the willow, but you probably saved his life."

Remus remained silent.

"I er… I hope the stress this whole thing caused didn't trigger an episode of… whatever illness you have…" Even in the darkness, Remus could tell James was blushing.

He couldn't help but laugh, "Don't worry, you didn't."

"Are we going to be alright?" James asked uncertainly.

"I think we are," Remus smiled.