Chapter 152

The Full Moon

Sirius gave James a look behind McGonagall's back, rolling his eyes and heaving a silent sigh.

He wished he'd paid more attention to Stubbin's girlfriend's name when he'd seen it on the map. He wanted the snitch to join Stubbins in the hospital wing.

"Immature, irresponsible…" McGonagall continued to struggle to find words to describe them.

They had more important things they could be doing right now. Sirius had an Arithmancy test coming up, and they had a stupid Ravenclaw girl to teach a lesson, and instead of doing all that fun stuff they were here getting lectured by McGonagall.

"He was bullying my team," James explained though his face made it obvious he didn't think McGonagall would understand what was a perfectly reasonable excuse.

"Then you come to me." She said her lip thinning again. Sirius always found that amusing. "You don't send him to the hospital wing with a third eye." Sirius chuckled, James spellwork had been brilliant, she glared at him.

"I personally thought it was an improvement." James shrugged a cocky grin on his face, encouraged by Sirius' laugh.

"Fifty points," She said looking ready to explode.

"Oh, good. She agrees." Sirius winked at James who laughed.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor," she reiterated not amused by his joke. "And you!" she turned her angry face to face James entirely. Sirius was surprised to see his brother stiffen at the address. "I gave you that badge as a gesture of trust, it hasn't even been three months and you're already using it as an excuse to bully other students."

James' gaze dropped, he didn't have a joke for that. Sirius watched with curiosity. McGonagall had managed once or twice to make Sirius feel genuinely guilty for something or other, but that was Sirius. Sirius would never admit it but he'd always thought James was tougher than him. It was odd seeing James looking so unsure.

"I'll give you one last chance, Potter, because I know you can do better, but if I catch you pulling a stunt like this again…" She paused, her eyes softening a bit at the obvious guilt in his body language. "You will behave yourself, Potter, or so help me I will have your badge. Yes, even if it means we lose the cup."

They were halfway to the great hall before James spoke again.

"So, full moon's tonight," he didn't appear shaken, but Sirius knew him too well to be fooled. He chose to play along anyway for James' sake.

"Sure, but that's not for hours," Sirius shrugged, "what'll we do until then."

They walked into the great hall for lunch, Sirius scanned the Ravenclaw table for the unnamed girl who'd gotten them in trouble missing Alice, who'd came up to greet them until she grabbed ahold of his arm. She knew better than to try for his hand.

"Wha'd McGonagall want?" She asked with a sinister grin. Sirius' eyes flickered to the Gryffindor table and saw Frank roll his eyes and say something to the other sixth year beside him. He didn't look even remotely jealous, curse him. Nearly every witch in the school did, though.

"Oh y'know, the usual reminder that we're immature bullying tossers." James shrugged, playing it off as nothing.

"Well, you are." She said her smile more cocky than sinister now, it still annoyed Sirius though. They found their seats across from peter and a werewolf who was glaring daggers at anyone and everyone within his line of sight.

"Alright there. Moony?" James asked and received only a few choice swear words in reply. Alice raised an eyebrow, not used to seeing this side of Remus before. "Good to see you too."

Sirius stuffed his plate full, not surprised to see Alice's plate just as full. How that girl managed to stay so tiny was beyond him.

"Why is she here?" Remus asked, no doubt trying to be as rude as humanly possible, and then adding a touch of werewolf rudeness as of the marauders so much as blinked at this as it was mild for Remus the day of the full moon. Sirius had once suggested they lock him in their dorm the day of his transformation, but no one listened.

"It's a free country, Moony," Sirius said with a grin.

"Not for long," Remus said, his eyes narrowed and his face turned away from them.

"What do you mean by that?" James asked now looking concerned. Remus just pushed a newspaper at him. Sirius leaned over James' shoulder to read it as well.

It had finally happened. The Ministry had finally approved the new werewolf restrictions they'd been threatening to carry out ever since that attack in Diagon Alley.

"Werewolves may not enter listed public streets without a keeper." James quoted with a sneer, "and look at this one," he said pointing, "no werewolf may live within ten kilometers of a muggle city. Now really?" James looked furious.

"Those poor people," Alice said sorrow in her eyes, "as if they don't have enough problems."

Sirius felt a wave of affection for Alice, but then she touched his hand and it was gone like magic.

Remus' head fell on his thankfully empty plate. "It's all my fault." He murmured, the sound of his voice was muffled by his arms. All three Marauders were quick to deny his claim.

"Why ever would it be your fault, Remus? Did you know these people or something?" she asked, her hand reached out to touch Moony's shoulder, he flinched at the contact. He didn't like to be touched much this close to the full moon either, but they certainly couldn't tell her that.

"No," James, Sirius, and Peter all replied very quickly, Remus just muttered something inaudible, probably something rude or self-depreciating, favor the latter.

She looked at them eyebrow's raised. It was obvious she didn't believe them but she just grinned and shook her head letting the subject drop and returning to her potatoes.

Sirius smiled, she was annoying and creepy but she didn't pry and knew when to keep her mouth shut. That was good enough.

He heard ripping next to him and looked over to see James carefully ripping the article out of the Daily Prophet. Even Remus looked up watching him. Once successfully torn out James laid the newspaper aside, then eyes still watching him, he hovered his wand under the clipping and whispered "Incindio." The paper caught fire immediately it was a satisfying feeling, watching the article burn.

"Doesn't matter anyway," he said tossing what was left of it onto his plate. "It's gonna be as lousily enforced as that stupid registry. Won't change a thing."

Remus' mood lifted considerably after this. He was still moody but much less rude.

They managed to lose Alice in the free period after lunch as she had class so they returned to finalize their plans for that night, but when Sirius entered the common room, nearly empty due to classes, he found something better to do. Frank sat by the fire a textbook in one hand and a quill in the other. When Sirius approached he could see a very detailed image of a Snargaluf plant. His essay was blank, but there was a set of notes resting on the open page.

"Snargaluf thorns are poisonous, Frank. They're not used in cooking," he corrected the sixth year's notes pointing at the incorrect information.

Frank looked at his notes, "but it said…" he turned to the page and pointed at where he'd found the info.

"Ricinus communis is a poison, Longbottem. Not a dessert."

"Oh," Frank held out the word with an air of understanding. "I'm rubbish at herbology," he said shaking his head and crossing out the offending bullet point.

"Padfoot?" James called curiously, Sirius waved him off and he shrugged sitting on the opposite side of the room so Frank wouldn't overhear them.

"I need to talk to you," Sirius said to the older student, he didn't need much excuse to push his homework away.

"Let me guess, Alice." He predicted looking exasperated.

"You have got to get her away from me!" he pleaded sitting on the coffee table. "She's driving me crazy!"

"Dump her," he gave the obvious answer.

"I can't…" he whined, "she keeps crying anytime I get close to it and it makes me feel mean."

"Who would have guessed Sirius Black is just a big softy." He teased a glint of humor in his eyes.

"Shut up, I am not," Sirius didn't go red, but he did look around to make sure James and the others weren't listening. "She's just… my friend and I don't wanna upset her is all."

"Uh, huh," he said with a grin.

"Please!" he begged doing everything short of getting on his knees to emphasize his desperation.

Frank sighed, " Why are you two even going out anyway? It's clear neither of you is really interested."

"She said she was trying to make you jealous but that's clearly not working."

"It was also a lie," Frank added, "she knows full well I couldn't care less who she dates. We're sixteen, for heaven's sake, no one marries the people they date at sixteen."

"She also said I was the only person you'd believe she could be interested in."

Frank exploded with laughter causing the Marauders and the few other students in the room to glance over.

"And you believed her?!" he asked when he could breathe again. "You are the last person she would ever be interested in."

Sirius didn't take offense, in fact, it was such a relief to learn that Alice hadn't been hiding a secret crush on him, as he'd assumed from her words, that he felt happy enough to go straight to her charms class and dump her in front of everyone… and then give up when she started crying again.

He really was hopeless.

"Then why is she tormenting me like this!?"

"I have no idea," Frank admitted shaking his head. "Look, I'll talk to her after classes. If we can figure out what she wants then maybe we can persuade her to end this ridiculous charade before one of your fan club decides which curse they want to kill her with."

After thanking him, most profusely, Sirius returned to his friends where they spent the rest of the period throwing around ideas on how to convince a transformed werewolf to not kill James, who most certainly could not transform inside the tunnel to the shrieking shack, wishing the day would hurry up and turn to night.

When sunset finally came, Sirius and the others hurried to the forest watching the Marauders map, his eyes following the little dots named Remus Lupin and Poppy Pomfrey. Wishing the latter would hurry up and leave.

Remus had tried to get her to let him go by himself this time so they didn't have to wait, but she wouldn't hear of it. So now they were stuck on the edge of the forest playing the waiting game. The two were walking slowly also.

"Calm down, Padfoot. We've got all night." James said with a grin.

"I'm bored!" Sirius complained before handing him the map and transforming into a dog. Entertaining himself by chasing his tail until Peter picked up a stick and threw it. Sirius chased after it failing to catch it in the air, but happy to bring it back. They made a game of it while James watched the map and laughed at them, cheering when Sirius made the catch.

"She's on her way out," James warned, causing both of them to stop what they were doing and watch the entrance. Peter transformed and Sirius changed back, picking up his rat friend and putting him on his shoulder. It was so much easier to move in the invisibility cloak with just the two of them, especially now that they'd all hit their growth spirts, so Peter just transformed now anytime they needed to use the cloak.

They waited, James watching the map, until they saw her climb out of the secret passage and head for the castle.

Anxious, they walked quickly, the grounds were dark so they weren't too worried about being seen. The sun was almost down, and they weren't sure if they wanted to hurry, to get there before he transformed, or wait a little so they didn't have to witness it.

Peter slipped under the cloak, the whomping willow was unbothered by his presence. As he pressed the knot, the tree froze, allowing Sirius and James to cross and drop into the hole, Peter preceded them. They had to duck in the tunnel, making it very uncomfortable but they pressed on unbothered. They no longer needed the cloak, thankfully, that would have been a nightmare. James led the way, though Peter had gotten in first, the rat no doubt wanted to be the last one to come face to face with a transformed werewolf. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, they'd already decided that Sirius would have to go in first, partially because the tunnel was too short for James to safely transform, and partly because they hoped the wolf would be more receptive of another canine. They had no proof, of course, but it was a plan, which by itself was more than they usually had.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever, no doubt the sun was already gone and the wolf was already out, Sirius wondered if it would resemble Moony at all. He knew what werewolves looked like, but he still wondered. Would there be any characteristics of his friend left? Or would it be all wolf?

Would the wolf attack him? Or would it recognize his smell?

From everything he knew, everything he'd learned about werewolves there was no doubt the wolf would attack him. A werewolf would attack their best friend if they came across them, but this was Moony.

Moony couldn't hurt someone, not one of them anyway. He'd seen his friend duel Slytherins with the best of them, but this was different.

He was deluding himself, he knew, but he just couldn't see Remus in any form actively hurting one of them.

When they reached the end of the tunnel they stopped, silent as the grave, listening for sounds on the other side of the trap door. There was something, a heavy breathing and a sniffing sound, the wolf must smell them, why else would it be waiting there. Then it got angry, they could hear it tearing things apart and letting out this hair-raising growl, unable to locate where the smell of prey was coming from.

"This is bad, if it's already angry before we even get in there then there's no way it won't attack us," James said lowering himself to the ground in a thinking position.

"It'll be fine." Sirius disagreed, "just open the door for me, I'll get out real quick, it'll chase me and I'll lead it away from the door you can change, and voila, no human smells."

"Sirius that isn't a good…"

Sirius ignored him, changing into the dog and waiting by the door, his tail wagging without his consent. James sighed, "Don't fight him, just let him chase you around for a while."

Sirius barked in confirmation and James opened the trap door, letting the puppy out to play. Sirius jumped out, it didn't take long for the werewolf to notice his presence. It didn't automatically jump at him like he'd expected, instead just stood there and stared at him. Sirius thought that the poor thing had never seen another living creature, always being locked up in the basement or the shrieking shack. It was shocked into silence and appeared to be frozen in place.

Sirius barked at it playfully, and it jumped, almost hissed to the smaller dog's amusement, and Sirius ran. He didn't doubt that it would chase him, it was curious and interested now.

It didn't look frightening in the least. It looked like a large wolf, he couldn't see anything that would cause James to collapse covered in his own sweat, or to make Snape run with his tail between his legs like that. Sure, Snivellus was a coward, but it was just a wolf.

Moony didn't exactly chase him, but it did follow him from room to room, watching him curiously. He wondered if it was deciding if he was a threat or not, and then tried to think of ways to make himself appear less of a threat, he tried chasing his tail (it was surprisingly fun) but there was no response. He was going to try playing hide and seek, but a large stag with a little rat on it's back made its way into the room just then.

The wolf reacted immediately. Growling a deep angry growl, it's curiosity was gone. Sirius wasn't sure if it felt threatened because the stag was so much different than it or perhaps because it was larger, or was just intimidated by the fact that there was more than one creature around now.

Prongs didn't show any signs of surprise or fear, he stood tall and proud, no doubt attempting to establish himself as the head of the pack. Sirius hadn't thought about it, but it was a good idea. They certainly shouldn't follow the werewolf's lead.

This, however, only angered the wolf even more, causing him to start to circle the stag. James' eyes met Sirius' and Padfoot could see some nervousness there as though unsure of what to do. The werewolf was clearly going to attack so, at least in Sirius' mind, it made more sense to attack first. Establish dominance, that was more a dog thing than a deer thing so it might be a little difficult for James. Sirius nodded in the direction of the wolf. The stag was hesitant, not wanting to hurt his friend, but consented, charging at the wolf before it could do the same.

Peter quickly jumped off the stag's back and scurried back over to Sirius hiding behind one of his paws. Sirius stood very still, instinct driving him to protect his brother, but he knew he couldn't interfere or it would invalidate the challenge. He'd done plenty of research on wild dogs and, by extension, wolves; they're habitats, habits, and instincts and this wasn't something he could interrupt. But it was hard when the wolf took a swipe at Prong's flank, leaving shallow gashes. He even whimpered lowering himself to the ground in a sad sort of state. Peter used the opportunity to climb on his head.

The wolf was violent and angry, but James was smarter, being human after all, so Moony didn't really have much of a chance. It was interesting, seeing the monster that everyone was so horribly afraid of whimpering on the floor when Prongs struck the finishing blow. That's when Sirius finally approached, though cautiously, not wanting to frighten the injured animal. It watched his approach wearily as though expecting them to finish it off. James lowered his head, sniffing at the wolf in what appeared to be an attempt at a friendly gesture and Sirius gave Remus a lick on the face. It seemed to recognize the gestures and stopped whimpering, tilting its head in curiosity again. It licked Sirius back causing the pup to get excited and start running around like a crazy person again barking at them to play with him some, entertaining them both, but neither consented, their fight taking its toll.

Peter squeaked on his head, having not been given a chance to climb off before he went hyperactive again.

Prongs was looking pale by the time the sun started to rise, he wasn't bleeding badly, but his condition was still bad. The werewolf was slightly hardier due to the frequency it inflicted injuries on itself, and was up and playing with Sirius not too long after the fight, but James found it difficult to even stand once he'd lowered himself to the ground. Sirius was enjoying himself, but was relieved when the werewolf showed signs of transforming back, the sooner he got a chance to heal James the better. Thankfully, they'd learned that the magic that made werewolf scratches unhealable didn't affect animals, so they wouldn't have to think of an awkward excuse to give to Madam Pomfrey later.

He wasn't prepared for the transformation itself however, the wolf howled in pain, lashing out at whoever was closest to it as though they were causing it. It didn't look particularly painful, but it certainly sounded like it. Whimpering and growling, crying and sobbing, the sounds became more human and Sirius judged it safe to change himself, rushing over to James before Remus could see his injuries. No doubt his friend would feel bad about that when he woke up. He didn't have much time, Remus never really knew how long after sunrise Madam Pomfrey came after him but it wasn't long.

He heard footsteps up the stairs and knew he didn't have nearly enough time. "Hide," he said quickly. Peter, who had remained a rat, went straight under the bed, but it was a bit more difficult to hide a stag, and James couldn't change back or the magic in his wounds would take effect. Sirius pulled out his wand and led James over to a corner of the room. "Indespectus"

Sirius shivered as the feeling of something cold ran down his back before doing the same to James. "Stay very still." He said though James didn't need the reminder. Madam Pomfrey pushed open the door her eyes not swaying from the teen laying unconscious on the floor. She knelt down beside him, muttering something about his condition and examined him. Sirius wished she'd do that later, he was too frightened to even breathe. She pulled out her wand and worked some magic on him, muttering to herself the whole time, before finally levitating him out of the room. He was still unconscious.

It wasn't until the sound of her footsteps disappeared that Sirius breathed a sigh of relief and removed the spells from James and himself. He took his time now to heal his friend and when James was able to change back to a human he was good as new. Peter also appeared from seemingly nowhere. It was difficult to keep track of a rat in the midst of all this debris.

"That… was terrifying," James said, breathing heavily. "We need to leave before he changes back next time, we'll get caught eventually otherwise. Besides I don't really want to watch…"

"Can't argue with that." Sirius agreed, interrupting him though he didn't mind. "Let's go, she'll think it's weird if we're not in the medical wing by the time she gets there."

James and Peter both nodded and they hurried through the passageway and into the castle, taking every shortcut they knew and only just barely making it there before her.

"He's in a much better state than normal," she told them, used to them being there by now. Sirius wasn't sure what was more depressing, the fact that this happened enough to be predictable or that his fight with James had caused him less damage than he did to himself regularly.

Remus didn't wake up until the classes for the day had ended, more because she was giving him potions for pain than because he was that injured, but once he did wake up she let him go pretty quickly. This was nice because they couldn't talk about last night with her buzzing around like she was.

"I remember most of it, it gets a little blurry there towards the end but from the time you guys came in till the pain started I remember," Remus said after Peter had inquired about it. They were now lounging in their dorm, ignoring the fact that they had unfinished homework due for tomorrow.

"Sorry about hurting you, I didn't want to."

"Good thing you did, though. You don't want him to think he's in charge." Remus shook his head, not bothered in the slightest.

Sirius grumbled, "you act like it's some other being, it's not. It's still you. I could tell."

"That… doesn't make me feel better."

"Maybe it should," Sirius replied, "I thought you were pretty cool, to be honest."

"All I did all night was attack James and chase you around!" Remus laughed, amused by his idea of cool.

"Eh, James is pretty tough, and it was fun. Dogs like being chased around, it's like a thing, I guess."

"If you say so, Pads."

"What's important is that no one got seriously injured, James piped in. "Remus is in better shape than normal, I'm perfectly fine, and Sirius and Peter came out without a scratch."

"Which means this is actually legit," Remus concluded nodding in James' direction, looking relieved, and more than a little excited.

"It better be! I worked too bloody hard on this for it to have not worked." Sirius crossed his arms stubbornly.

"We… we actually did it, didn't we?" Peter asked, as though he could not believe the truth. "We actually pulled this off."

James grinned at him, "Merlin, we're brilliant!"