House: Ravenclaw
Class: History of Magic
Category: Themed
Prompts: Theme Isolation; Camping Trip
Word Count: 2991
5:30 AM
Wizarding National Park
Remus
Remus stirred and stretched, pulling his wand from his pyjama pocket. A small orb of crisp cerulean light appeared at the tip of his wand, a Night-light Charm, smaller and fainter than the Lumos, out of consideration for his sleeping comrades. His breath puffed out white in the cold air like a mist of snowflakes. He shoved his feet quickly into his fur-lined boots and wrapped the robes he'd been wearing before bed tightly over his shoulders. It was freezing in the tent; he missed the comfortable heat of higher-end Wizard tents dearly. So much for Lily's ideas of going camping Muggle-style! He saw little romance to it. Especially now when he had to go find somewhere to go to the loo… He shoved his feet deeper in his boots as the tent flaps revealed more frigid air, and tucked his robe tighter about his sides.
If Lily really thought this was a superior manner of doing things, she had lost her marbles.
He paused before letting the tent flaps fall and sent a whispered Atmospheric Charm into the tent to warm his friends. They looked so perfectly happy, particularly Lily curled up with James, spooning in the same sleeping bag. The contentment on their faces stirred a touch of something warm, yet also something sour and envious in his heart.
Then his gaze raked over Sirius, and he regarded the sleeping man with darting eyes. He might have shifted his stance a little bit so the cerulean rays of the nightlight he'd conjured could better reach him; how he appreciated the quirk of his lips in what must have been a mischievous grin in his dreams. Those lips...the things he thought of doing to them struck awe in his heart. But he dared not consider such things for very long. Chiding himself on leaving the flap open and staring like a regular old creeper, he headed off to find the godforsaken latrines. Whoever thought it was a humane thing to make a camper leave their tent in the cold at 5:30 AM or any other godforsaken hour of the night to find a bloody toilet?
He huffed as he tromped over the rocky ground, nearly tripping a couple times as his boots caught on roots and stones that hid in the deep shadows of the wee hours.
He'd just found the sign that indicated the latrines, a rustic wooden post with the words emblazoned onto them, and had made his way to the corresponding outhouse building when a cracking twig sent his senses to red alert. He extinguished his wand, pitch blackness soaring in to take up the room that the cerulean glow had left in its wake.
He heard someone whisper, "Lumos," and a wand came roaring to life with blinding white light.
He squinted due to its brightness. "Well well, who do you think you are, trespassing on my family property?" The wizard tsked, stepping into the light. He wore black robes, with a hint of red peeking out the sleeve, with a logo on them unlike anything Remus had ever seen.
"I'm just going to the bathroom, mate," Remus yawned.
"Aye, but tha tisn't who you are."
"I'm…camping…with my mates? Who are you anyway?"
Instead of answering, the strange wizard sent a cloud of some sort of powder into Remus' face with a flick of his wand.
Remus gagged and his eyes began streaming as he retched. He could no longer see, but he heard, "Expelliarmus," and tendrils of something tightened painfully around his wrists and ankles. He tried to scream, but a charm he hadn't quite placed had silenced his voice.
"Accio unused silver dust."
The stranger was towering over him now–Remus could see the shadow through his burning half-closed eyes. He longed to scream and rip out the stranger's throat, but alas, he was restrained and muted, ineffectual as a newborn pup. "I see you, monster, as you truly are. I have been watching you for days now and have been planning, as have my brothers in arms. We hunt the evil of this world." Remus felt something like hands over his mouth and he tried to scream again.
He felt as though he would suffocate when the pressure on his mouth and in his throat again descended. Cruel laughter echoed. "Hush, monster. Now you know you cannot shout so. It would end our little conversation, wouldn't it? And you wouldn't want that. That's right. Because I'm here to help you. I see you, thirsting for blood even when it isn't the moon, aching for flesh even when the sky is empty. I see your agony on the 28th day. I have seen it, and I have come to help you. I will take your burning hunger from you and your pain. I will take the moon from you. I only ask that you give yourself over to me freely, in exchange."
Again the invisible hands and pressure lifted. Remus coughed and spat, eyes still streaming.
"Who are you?"
"I am someone who knows."
"I didn't bloody ask that, you perv!"
"I have answered. And what say you to my offer, monster?"
Remus spat in the direction of the stranger. "If I could give you my pain and my hunger, I bloody well would, but we both know it isn't possible. There is no cure. I don't know what you're on about. So bloody hell, man, let me go!" The last words rose toward a shout but were dead in his throat, soundless, before they finished coming out.
"Oh, but there is a cure. And it's terribly easy."
"What is it?" Remus roared, straining so that his throat felt it would burst, but no sound came out.
The stranger laughed. "You will give me your life. I would prefer you did it willingly, but if it comes to it, I will take it by force."
Remus swallowed thickly, his bloodshot eyes widening. Some cure. He clenched his fists where they were secured behind him. He had to get out of here, get away from this maniac…
"Why? Why, you…" he mouthed, vocal cords straining ineffectually, spitting a string of soundless swears at the stranger. The man seemed able to read lips, though, because he smiled coldly at the display of inaudible insults.
"I do this because I pity you. You are a mockery of a man, an abomination of a wizard. There is but one way to make this crime against nature right, and it is with your demise."
Remus bowed his head. He had one chance to get this right…
"Please, can I talk?" he mouthed, his forehead wrinkling in sorrow.
"You may." A wave of the stranger's hand, and voice returned to Remus' throat.
"W-what of the people I love? They shall miss me frightfully!" He declared, a quiet sob breaking his voice.
The stranger tsked. "You, rabid, fleabitten monster? Surely you have no friends, no family!"
Remus flinched.
"Oh, do you mean those brainwashed loonie lovers back at your tent? Psh! If they know, then they must be dealt with too."
Remus stared blankly at the man. Threats to himself were banal; he was a werewolf; he was always unwelcome. His friends, though, were something else…
"No. They don't know…" Remus lied through his teeth. Merlin, if this psychopath laid a finger on James, Lily, Sirius…
"Very well. I believe we ought to get on with this, then. You will eat these berries–they were grown using silvered soil–and perish from them searing through your insides."
Remus recoiled automatically, retching.
"You shall eat them willingly, or I will make you. The choice is yours."
Remus coughed and hung his head for a moment, thinking. He couldn't do this… he couldn't.. It couldn't be happening…
"You're right. I…I need to do this, myself, like a man ought to."
"Very good, monster. Perhaps you have a vestige of courage left."
The man produced a clump of silver berries, large and plump still on a stalk.
Remus swallowed hard as the man started plucking some off and moved toward Remus.
"Wait!"
"What, monster?" The man scowled.
"I–I should make myself presentable, proper and ready, for death, shouldn't I? I'd need to have a final sacrament and last rites."
The stranger sighed heavily, mumbling his annoyed agreement. He turned away for a few moments and began mumbling to himself as if he was figuring up the spell to summon the necessary supplies. Weak with relief, Remus wiggled towards him, taking pains to be as quiet as possible, and grabbed his wand from the man's robe pocket in his teeth.
The man near-instantly felt it, but he was faster–a wordless curse and the man fell bleeding to the forest floor. He writhed about and tried to cast, but his wand hand was clumsy, sending curses hurling every which-way in the forest. Remus had severed his bonds with another silent spell and was running as fast as he could to get away. He wasn't even sure which direction. He hadn't dared run back towards camp and his friends, though, for fear the dreadful man might have had compatriots.
He ran until dawn began breaking and light filtered down through the trees. He had stumbled over rocks and branches, cut his feet and lost a boot somewhere on his way. He finally crashed to a halt on a mossy riverbank, drawing his knees up to his chest under his robe. He crouched there and sat, tears finally sliding down his face.
He'd very nearly died. His friends had almost died as well. How many crazed strangers were there in the woods or in the world? Would they be better off, James, Lily…even Sirius, without him? Where would he go? Should he have just eaten the berries as the stranger had asked him to?
He gazed out into the cerulean waters of the river. It danced over stones and sang past the banks to the tune of birds in the cerulean skies overhead… He stared until his eyes burned from the brightness, and his ears hurt from the beauty of the sweet songs of nature. He covered his face with his robe's collar and lay down, curled up on his side on the mossy bank, and wept til he fell asleep.
5:30 AM
Sirius woke up briefly, feeling warm air rush towards him and hearing the tent flaps flutter shut. The cerulean glow of Remus' Night-Light charm faded into the distance. He rolled over, imagining encircling his friend in a giant hug, dribbling drool onto his pillow as he kissed it in the dream that followed. Remus… to be curled up with him right now seemed the best idea in the world. Then he wouldn't be so bloody cold, nor would he feel so lonely in his isolated little island of a sleeping bag in a tent where half the people were cuddled up so nicely together…
Sirius was surprised to see that Remus was not there when daylight rolled around and he first stirred. Indeed, Remus's sleeping bag was empty, and his boots and robe were gone. Sirius wentout to search for his friend in nothing but his pyjamas. He could have sworn it was 5:30 AM when he last saw a sign of Remus. Wherever had he gone?
He wandered out towards the fire pit, the Overlook, in case Remus had adventured too far out on the ledge in the night and fallen off the cliff in the dark. But he was nowhere to be found. Sirius next checked the latrine area. There, he found something alarming. A wizard in dark robes with a strange insignia lay in a pool of blood. Beside him were strange silver-colored strawberries. Sirius shouted, and in moments James and Lily arrived. Lily Apparated away to get help, leaving James and Sirius at the scene to search for their friend. Looking at the foot prints in the dust, they determined there had been a bit of a struggle, and judging by the length of the stride and the size of the footprints, that another man had been there and run away from the scene.
"I wonder what happened to this bloke," pondered James.
"I don't know," Sirius responded.
"Well, we shall know soon enough, "James said, running his fingers over his stubbled chin, "when Lily returns with help. "
"Be that as it may, I shouldn't be waiting that long. Remus is missing! Stay to wait for the Healers if you want, but I am going to find him!"
James floundered a moment before speaking. "Sirius, that isn't it at all. I'm as worried as you are, but my pre-auror training says unless you're sure someone's dead—"
"Sod your training! Remus needs us. Now. I'm going. Stay if that's what your auror training tells you."
Sirius strode away, following the track a foot prints until they were visible no longer, then he began to struggle. He tried casting various spells to see if they would reveal where Remus was, but nothing he did seemed to help. In fact, he soon grew lost too, perhaps just as lost as his friend.
Remus
He heard someone – – Sirius? – – calling his name in the distance. He curled in yet tighter on himself, not daring to believe it to be anything but a dream. And yet it grew louder.
"Remus! Remus, If you can hear me, say something. Please. Just say something. Cast a spell. Anything! Remus – – "
Remus's eyes fluttered open, tears leaking out unbidden. He drew ragged breaths, struggling to make even the most basic decision about how to respond to the voice that echoed through the forest around him.
He stared up past verdant leaves towards the cerulean sky and prayed for an answer, eyes searching as if he could find it written in the clouds. But there was no answer, and none came to him. The shouts grew louder, and then more distant, until they faded entirely.
It was only then that he thought better of his reticence and managed to find his voice that was once again sealed by invisible pressure in his throat. Rugged and hoarse from hours of quiet sobbing, he called out, "Sirius? Sirius!" His voice rose in volume until he was shouting, and some tense minutes later, he heard a response.
"Remus? Remus! Sirius, we found Remus! Quickly this way, toward the river! "
It was James. Running footsteps crashed through the underbrush and warm hands pulled him up right from his cold mossy bed. He found himself enveloped in a fierce embrace, stormy gray eyes staring down into his.
"I thought we lost you," "the Animagus whispered in his ear.
Remus let out a shuddering breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Maybe.. maybe you should have; maybe you'd be better off without me." He expelled the words frantically like they were too sour to hold on his tongue. He looked away, head turned and refusing to meet his best friend's gaze.
"The hell are you talking about? Remus! Look at me dear. You're— you're more than important to me – – to us." He hiccuped on the words just a bit ass if his voice got hung up on them.
"That – that fucker was going to kill me, and all of you as well." The words settled uneasily and hung heavy in the air.
"I don't care about that. Let the aurors deal with him. I care about you – maybe more than you know. "
"W-what do you mean? "
It was Sirius's turn to look away for a moment, sniffing quietly.
Remus wanted to shake him.
"I don't think you understand! I couldn't live with myself if you were hurt or killed on account of me."
Sirius laughed at that. "Sometimes you're impossible, do you know that, Remus?" Tears streamed freely down Sirius' face now.
"No! I need you to listen," Remus pleaded.
"Okay then. I-I'm here. I'm with you. Say it, whatever you need to say," Sirius said haltingly, at a loss for words for once.
"I–I kept thinking what my life would be like without you. And that's just it. I—I can't imagine it. But I can't let you be hurt by what I am. What if there are more like that man? Will they also come for me? For you?"
"So? Let them. I would fight thousands if it kept you safe. I will fight for you."
"What do you mean? It isn't worth your life! I–I'm not worth your life."
"Nonsense. I think about you all the time. I don't mean to be a cad about this, especially now, but I don't think you understand what you mean to me. "
" What are you saying, Padfoot? That you…"
"What? That I love you?" Heavy silence followed. It seemed like forever before he spoke again. "Yeah, actually, I do. Don't know when that started, maybe a long time ago, but I do. Love you. "
"You…Love me?"
"Yeah. Dunno what I'd do without you, Moony."
He pulled the werewolf in tighter to his chest. Before either of them knew what was happening, they were kissing, as well, all tongues and teeth and heavy breathing. Clothes were lost in the ensuing shuffle, and James, who'd been silently watching them from a distance, made himself scarce very quickly.
5:30 AM
It was a few months later, and the aurors had found that the man had acted by himself; his threats of others were only lies. Remus had nightmares now, but he didn't have to weather them alone. When he woke early in the morning, often to the chiming of the clocks at 5:30, he had someone to crawl up around, whose body reassured him that he was still alive, whose hug reminded him that he was so badly wanted. That he was loved. And that he didn't have to live out a life of isolation. He finally had someone to lean on.