The library was silent, save for the ghosts that occasionally drifted through. Hazel was completely alone and completely fine with it. There was a lot she needed to get done, after all. The Hufflepuff-Slytherin Quidditch match had been that afternoon, and most of the school was off celebrating or trying to drown out their defeat. Though she had been invited to the Slytherin party, she'd been forced to decline. There was a History of Magic paper due soon, and she'd locked herself away in the library to finish it. Normally Remus would have joined her, but he was otherwise occupied.
The Marauders had all disappeared after dinner, escorting their friend to the Hospital Wing before racing to Gryffindor Tower and grabbing the Invisibility Cloak. It was going to be a long night for all of them.
Bathed in the light of the full moon, she kept a careful eye on the candle that was burning down in front of her. Madam Pince bade her a good night hours before, leaving her the only person still working. Part of her wondered where Sev was, but she assumed he'd gone to the Slytherin party. It was his friends who had won, after all. A small, nagging voice in the back of her mind still wondered if everything was alright. He normally didn't stay at parties very long, if at all. It would've been nice to have him there for company, but she resigned herself to the idea that he was probably still with the Slytherins.
A door swung open, hurried footsteps racing towards her. Drawing her wand as a precaution, she lowered it as soon as she saw him. Sev was covered in dirt, sweat, and a fair amount of blood. He was practically shaking in terror as he stood there, Hazel gaping at the sight before her. "What happened to you? Sev, what the hell? Where have you been?" She jumped out of her seat, staring in disbelief. "What did they do? Oh Merlin, are you okay? I'm going to kill James and Sirius if-"
"Lupin is a werewolf," he managed, tripping over his words as Hazel looked him over. "I very nearly - James Potter… I'm going to kill Black… I… the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack were -"
"Sev, deep breath. Here, hold on." She waved her wand over him, removing the dirt and cleaning up the scratches he'd gotten from the Whomping Willow. She'd never seen him that rattled before, even when James and Sirius had done real damage."Alright, what's going on?"
He numbly reached out for a hug, Hazel not letting him go as he talked. "Black told me… I followed them down there. I've always wondered why they would sneak around and now… The Whomping Willow was planted to cover it all up. Lupin's a werewolf, and he transforms in the Shrieking Shack every month. He would've killed me or turned me if Potter hadn't pulled me back. I hate that I owe him, I… thank you," he breathed, stepping back when he realized how long he had been holding onto her in an attempt to keep himself from trembling. Realization flooded his face as he remembered who he was talking to. "You already knew. You and Lupin… you must have known."
Forced to admit he was right, Hazel nodded. "I've been their lookout a few times when they were coming back in the mornings. I've known for a while. I never would've let you go down there if I had known you were planning on it. I'm so sorry, Sev. I - Professor!"
Snape wheeled around to see who she was addressing. Dumbledore had materialized behind them, intent on finding the young man. "Good evening. Severus, if you would please come with me." He and Hazel exchanged a glance, Dumbledore assuring him that he wasn't in trouble. "Miss Ashmore, if you would like to talk to him about tonight's events in Ravenclaw Tower, I would not blame you at all. He could do with a cup of tea and a nice, warm fire in, shall we say twenty minutes?"
Taking the hint, Hazel began to pack up her things, telling Sev that she would see him soon. He looked back at her once more, trailing behind Dumbledore and wondering what the Headmaster had in mind.
Dawn had barely broken when Hazel extracted herself from the blankets she'd been hiding under in the Ravenclaw common room. Leaving Sev on the sofa, she grabbed her cloak and left the tower. She took off for Dumbledore's office, finding the door already open for her. McGonagall, Slughorn, and Flitwick were already assembled there. "I've been expecting you," Dumbledore smiled, telling her to take a seat. But she remained standing, crossing her arms. "Well then. Where is he now?"
"Still asleep in front of the fire in Ravenclaw Tower. He's got an hour or so before the Sleeping Draught wears off. You can't punish him, Professor. It was Sirius, at least he said Sirius was the one who -"
"Miss Ashmore, as I'm sure Mr. Snape told you last night, he will not be punished. He's a curious boy, and it only makes sense that he wanted to know where Mr. Lupin and his friends were sneaking off to every month."
"That's what I came to see you about, Professor. You mustn't punish Remus either. He had no idea about any of this," she insisted, looking between Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, the head of his house. "He - he didn't know his friends were going to use him as a weapon. He couldn't have known. There was no way he would've supported it if - Sirius was trying to kill Sev, Professor. He knew… down that tunnel there was going to be a fully transformed werewolf, and he knew that a werewolf will attack any human it sees if it doesn't have any other source of blood - that's why I stay away from there no matter how much I want to be there for him - and Potter only pulled him back because he knew they'd have real blood on their hands if he got all the way to the Shrieking Shack and -"
Dumbledore interrupted her fury, if only to get her to take a breath. "Miss Ashmore, that is exactly what we are all here to discuss. As Head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall will have the final say about what happens to Mr. Black and Mr. Potter."
"But professor, it's not a good-natured prank or however they're trying to spin it," she insisted. "They were going to let him die. Remus never feeds on anything as a wolf, so he wouldn't have just bitten for the sake of biting. He would've killed Sev, and that would have been on... on all three of them. Remus wouldn't have been able to help it, but just taking points away or giving them detentions -"
"Professor Slughorn, as Head of Slytherin House, is here to discuss what will become of Black and Potter as well. He should have a say, as it was one of his students at the center of this," Dumbledore continued calmly, almost as if Hazel wasn't there. None of the others spoke, but he continued in the same placid tone. "And Professor Flitwick is here because right now there is a traumatized young man sleeping on the sofa in the Ravenclaw common room. You know, Madam Pomfrey insisted that she keep him overnight, but," he exchanged a quick glance with Flitwick, "I knew he would be better off in your care. Now Filius, I need to speak to Horace and Minerva a little more, but if you would kindly escort Miss Ashmore back to Ravenclaw Tower..."
They were interrupted again, this time by a frightened Remus racing in, his robes dirty and torn. "Professor, James just told me - I swear I didn't - did I?" He seized Hazel by the shoulders, knowing she was there for a reason. "Please tell me he's alive. Oh Merlin, did I - Hazel, I'm so sorry -"
"Ah, Mr. Lupin," Dumbledore said kindly, "Mr. Snape is perfectly fine. A little shaken, I am sure, but resting up in Ravenclaw Tower. Please take a seat."
"How dare you?! Do you know what could've happened? Best case he gets maimed. Or ends up a werewolf himself. Sorry, Remus, I don't mean it like that... Worst case he ends up dead!" Hazel had stormed up to the Marauders that afternoon, who were busy lounging in their usual spot by the Black Lake. Sev trailed in her wake, desperately pleading with her to leave them alone. He didn't want to fight. After the night he'd just had, the last thing he wanted to do was face off with them.
Sirius stood up first. Of course she knew. Of course he ran off to tell her, the little prat. Probably ran right to her after squealing to Dumbledore. "Hazel -"
"Shut it. You used your own best friend... you could've turned him into a murder weapon!" She turned to Remus, who had hopped to his feet. James had told him everything at breakfast, and he'd been meaning to find the two of them all day, but he couldn't get away from James and Sirius. "You can't help it," she said, stifling his objections. "But he used you, and he nearly killed Sev."
It was James' turn to interrupt. "Hey -"
"You've stopped bullying first-years. You… you hardly look at him as human." She crossed her arms, not caring that all four of the boys had gotten to their feet. Sirius had his wand in hand and Peter was bracing for a fistfight. "You better hope I don't knock you off your broom next time we face Gryffindor in Quidditch."
"He goes around calling people... that word," James said, glowering at Sev, who still stood a couple of steps behind her. "He could use a little putting in his place."
"He lashed out like he'd been taught by his entire House, by his family..." She turned to Sirius, only looking at him to make a point. "I'm sure, given the circumstances, you wouldn't have done much better. Besides, that's no reason to try to kill him." Before he could object, she turned to Snape, who had mercifully been forgotten for once. "C'mon Sev, we have better things to do than debate with these idiots."
"Hazel -" Remus stepped forward, trying to broker peace between them.
"I'll talk to you later, Remus. Alone. I just can't stand looking at them right now."
She turned on her heel and led Sev away, neither of them giving the Gryffindors as much as a passing glance. "You really shouldn't have done that," he mumbled as they set up across the lake.
"Sirius really shouldn't have done what he did," Hazel reasoned, fishing her Defense Against the Dark Arts book out of her bag. She opened the book to the chapter on vampires, but set it aside rather quickly. Instead of working, she turned to him, noticing how exhausted he was. The circles under his eyes were darker than ever. After he'd returned from his talk with Dumbledore, they'd sat up on the sofa in Ravenclaw Tower, not saying much. Both of them were too stunned to form proper sentences. They'd finally fallen asleep there, but they both woke up every hour or so. Hazel would try to roll over, nearly falling to the floor, and then decide to check on Sev. Half of the time she would find him staring out the window in the direction of the Whomping Willow.
He'd sat with her at breakfast, most of the Slytherins not noticing that he was missing. The tables were allowed to mix, after all, even though they rarely ever did. Neither of them mentioned what had happened the night before, and soon enough, they were headed off to Potions. The first opportunity they had to talk came when they had all settled in and were working on a wit-sharpening potion. "We're going to need more armadillo bile than that," Sev commented as he worked.
Hazel turned to look at him, his face dark in the flickering light of the blue flames below their cauldron. "Sev, you should skip Herbology next hour. You already know everything about aconite, and the chomping cabbages aren't going to be ready for another week. You need sleep."
"I'm not tired," he lied, starting to grind more bile into a fine powder. He avoided making eye contact with her until Slughorn had passed them by, commenting that their potion was the perfect shade of red, "as always" and awarding Ravenclaw and Slytherin a couple of points each. "Just leave it alone."
"Okay, but if you need anything, I'm here," she smiled, giving his hand a quick squeeze before reaching for their textbook.
They didn't mention the werewolf incident until they were headed out to study near the lake that afternoon. That was when Hazel sighted the four Marauders, all of them avoiding the Transfiguration homework except Remus, who was carefully balancing his parchment on a stack of books and trying not to doze off.
In time, James and Sirius would get back to their normal selves, but for now, they gave Snape and Hazel some peace. Even if they continued their tirades, they would never again do anything that could prove to be fatal.