Hey guys, this is just a little side story to my main work, A Hunter and a Metamorphmagus Walk (Are Abducted) Into a Dungeon.
It...could probably be read as a stand alone, but really works better as a tie in to the story. Enjoy!

Sherman Blackwell was a man with many skeletons in his closet. Literally. Eleven young men and women, all between the ages of sixteen and twenty, one for each year that had passed since Sherman had moved to the village.

Somehow, the police hadn't made the connection. To be fair, Sherman was meticulously cautious: all but two of the young people had been passing through, he never 'picked up' any of them from the same spot twice, among other precautions. In fact, about half of the cold-case missing persons files didn't even have a concrete place of disappearance.

And now, it was July Fifth: time for Sherman to pick up his next victim. He was already in Blackwell's sights; an American tourist, just arrived two days ago, somewhere around...nineteen-ish. Perfect.

Sherman Blackwell was careful. He was smart. He was very, very good at the whole 'serial-killer' thing. Too good. If he'd been just a little less meticulous, slipped up just once and been caught by the local DI, he'd have been tried in court, convicted, and thrown into a high security prison (or mental institution) for the rest of his life.

Really, that would probably have gone better for him.

Instead, he'd caught the attention of Loki, who had found himself in a bored lull and had noticed Sherman whilst looking for trouble in random small English towns. A quick poking around the human's house while he was sleeping and a quick peek inside the killer's mind told him everything he needed to know: this guy needed to be taken down a peg or twenty (or killed; Loki still wasn't sure what he was going to do with Sherman once he'd caught him, but eh. He'd figure it out.)

Anyway, Loki had established himself two days ago as a clueless twenty-ish American tourist on a roadtrip in the UK, perfect bait...and then the little bastard went and tried to abduct some other kid. Ugh.

He'd been so sure that Sherman had decided to go after him, what the hell had happened?

Gah. Whatever. He'd ask the creep when he caught him, but the kid he'd nabbed into one of the very few alleys in the village needed to come first.

Though...huh. Judging by the look of things when he went to interrupt the serial killer mid-abduction, he might not have needed to interfere after all. Sherman's intended victim was in the sixteen/seventeen range and thin to the point of being downright scrawny, but that didn't seem to be stopping him from putting up a truly impressive fight. Sherman had scratches on his face, a new bald patch, and what would, by the next day, become a beautiful shiner.

Oh, the irony was almost as perfect as one of Loki's own punishments, and so he sat back to watch the show. The way this was going, human law enforcement would show up soon enough and Sherman Blackwell wouldn't be laying so much as a finger on another kid so long as he lived. And if the slimy creep somehow managed to weasel his way out of the legal system? Well, then, Loki would have something to do after all.

Satisfied with that plan, Loki snapped himself up a Mars Bar and leaned on the building closest to him, completely invisible to the human eye. Of course that was pretty much exactly the moment when the kid went rigid and collapsed, twitching slightly. Because Sherman had a fucking taser. Apparently. UGH.

With a put upon sight, Loki shoved the rest of his chocolate into his mouth and levered himself off the building, snapping himself visible as he did so.

The kid had been so close to kicking Sherman's sorry ass too.

"Sherman, Sherman, Sherman," he said, affecting a disappointed air. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. That was not very nice."

Sherman jumped. The kid let out a small groan. Loki took a few slow steps, then paused. There was something...ah. The kid was a wizard. Damn, and he'd held his own in his fight with Sherman without going for his wand once. Even more impressive.

Aaaaaand, now Sherman was pointing the taser at him. Ooookay. Time to get to work. Hmmm. Eh. Yeah, he could deal with Sherman later. This teenager was much more interesting. Another snap, and Sherman was off to one of Loki's...less pleasant pocket dimensions. Whatever. He'd be fine.

Now, for the kid. Loki crouched down to where the baby wizard was still twitching from being so rudely electrocuted, but bleary blue eyes told the Trickster that he was more or less conscious. A light hand to the kid's forehead and once again, Loki was impressed. He didn't know what Sherman had done to that taser, but it sure as hell wasn't standard issue. This kid was ridiculously resilient.

Loki let a little drop of power flow into the kid, smoothing over any lasting side effects. He'd still be sore as hell for a day or two (maybe less, Loki had no idea how wizarding healers treaded electrocution) and oh ho ho, what did we have here? No wonder the kid was so damn tough, he was a werewolf.

That was...actually really pretty sucky for the kid now that he thought about it, and for a moment Loki was so, so tempted to fix that for him: well he'd never tried with a wizard and lycanthropy interacted differently with them than non-magical humans and he thought just maybe...but that was when he heard the shouting.

"Remus! REMUS!"

"Moony, hey, Moons! Where are you?"

The kid stirred, trying to sit up. Alrighty then, so now Loki knew his name. Probably. Also, who the hell calls their werewolf friend Moony? Ugh, whatever, not his business.

"Hey kiddo, you Remus?"

A mumbling affirmative. Okay.

"Those your friends shouting for you?"

"Yeah," Remus managed.

"Okay, let's see if we can get you to them. How are you feeling about standing?"

And whaddaya know, but the baby 'wolf actually managed to get himself to his feet. Granted, he immediately wobbled and would've fallen right back down if Loki hadn't caught him, but still. For such a stick, this guy was really something else.

Now to get him back to his friends and firmly ignore the little voice niggling at the back of his mind, saying:

'If he hadn't just been tased and was of age-'

Yeah, no, not happening. Stop it.

Loki wrapped Remus' arm around his shoulders and together, they staggered their way out of the alley. Immediately, they were spotted by another baby wizard with glasses and some of the most gravity-defying hair Loki had ever seen, who then ran straight for them.

"Sirius, over here, I've found him!"

The as-yet-unnamed wizardling (Loki would later learn that his name was James) came at them so fast that he skidded to a halt a bare few inches short of plowing straight into them.

"Remus! Are you alright? Where have you been? What in Merlin's name happened to you-who's he?"

"'M okay Prongs," Remus mumbled, still leaning heavily on Loki.

'Prongs' (no way that was his real name) only looked more alarmed.

"What happened?" he repeated, and stepped forwards to take his friend's weight from Loki. He staggered slightly but held firm, so Loki stepped away to let him.

"REMUS!"

Aaaand, baby wizard #3, presumably Sirius, this one improbably tall. He came careening around the street corner towards them and somehow managed to collide with the other two boys and wrap Remus' free arm around his shoulders at the same time without anybody getting knocked over.

"Moony, you look awful, what happened?"

Seeing that Remus was still pretty out of it, (and not entirely sure why he hadn't just left as soon as 'Prongs' had shown up), Loki decided to step in.

"Asshole no-maj in that alley over there," Loki told them, "had a taser, got your friend pretty good but he'll be fine. No-maj ran off when he realized he had a witness. Probably just some mugger."

Not his best story, but not his worst either. It'd do. Remus almost certainly wouldn't have been in any state to notice anything that would contradict him, werewolf or no.

Prongs and Sirius frowned.

"Who."

"Didn' get a g'd l'k," Remus told them. "'S f'n."

To their credit, both boys were very clearly of the opinion that no, it most definitely was not fine, but they both backed down easily enough with just a little nudge from Loki.

"If you say so. Let's get you home, Moons," Prongs said gently. "Mum can take a look at you and then you can lie down."

"I'll make you some hot chocolate," Sirius added earnestly. "The way you like it, with the cinnamon and whipped cream."

Remus smiled at them then, small and genuine, and Loki's chest gave a sharp ache that he immediately shoved down. It was time for him to make his exit.

"Well, everything's figured out, glad you're okay kiddo, I'll just be on my way," Loki said brightly, turning to go.

He was quickly stopped by a hand on his wrist.

"Wait!"

That was Sirius and Prongs both. Damnit. He really, really, should go. He turned around.

"Just-you saved Rem," Prongs said. "And, um…" He trailed off, apparently not having thought this through, only for Sirius to pick up where he'd left off.

"Yeah, you saved him, and we don't even know what your name is, how're we supposed to thank you?"

And even decades later, in an old manor with the only one of those three boys still living, a hunter, and Remus' son, Loki would never be able to explain, even to himself, what exactly had prompted his response.

"Gabriel. My name's Gabriel."

Thanks for reading! The next chapter of the main story will be up just as soon as I can get it done, which hopefully won't be too long.
For now, this is all I'm actively planning as far as Gabriel and the Marauders go. I am, however, open to doing, probably not a full blown prequel, but maybe some more short stories of that summer.
I'd love any ideas for stories in this verse that you guys might want to see, so please comment and let me know!
Happy Reading guys!