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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter 4: Changing Once More
Remus walked sullenly over the muddy grounds with Madam Pomfrey by his side. In about twenty minutes, he would become the monstrous creature he had learned to fear at an early age. He shivered in the damp night.
"Now dear," Madam Pomfrey said reassuringly, "you've done this enough to know everything I'm about to tell you, but I feel like I should say it every time. Stay in the Shack and I will come get you in the morning. Please be careful." She smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder.
Remus was always grateful for Madam Pomfrey. She treated him like a sick student…not a werewolf. She grabbed a stick from the ground surrounding the Whomping Willow and pressed the knot that made the tree go still.
"I'll see you in the morning, young man," Madam Pomfrey said quietly. She watched as Remus slid into the opening of the tree and then turned and walked back to the castle.
Remus walked down the long tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack, feeling more apprehensive with every step he took. He knew he was being stupid, knew that he went through this every month, but nothing could stop the fear that squirmed in the pit of his stomach.
When he reached the end of the passage, Remus lay on the dusty four-poster bed that Dumbledore had put in the room for his use. Sometimes, he would sit on the bed and close his eyes, hoping he would fall asleep before the changes came.
He never did.
Remus thought back to the old transformations, before his friends could change into animals at will. He could not remember anything about them except pain. He would rip at his own flesh and tear the room apart. The next day, he would be covered in wounds and bruises inflicted on himself.
Now, with the presence of his friends, he was able to remain conscious during the transformations. The wolf didn't gain control anymore. He also injured himself much less, though he did get hurt, on occasion, when wrestling with Padfoot.
Remus smiled to himself. These days were certainly much better than the past.
Suddenly, Remus felt an odd itching sensation all around his body. He closed his eyes, knowing that the pain was seconds away.
Shaggy fur began to spread all over his body as the itching became so intense that Remus let out a moan of frustration. He couldn't keep himself from screaming as his bones shifted to the quadruped structure of the wolf. Think of James and Peter, Remus tried to tell himself. Don't think of the pain.
Think of Sirius.
As fangs sprouted and his ears became more wolf-like, distractions could no longer keep his mind off of what was happening. His face began melding into the long snout shape of the beast. Remus gasped.
He had almost forgotten the intensity of it all, the agony of turning into the wolf.
Almost.
As the last few changes were made to his body, Remus fought to remember what his name was. The transformation stopped almost as soon as it had begun. The wolf was breathing in loud rasping breaths. Then he began to smell friends coming his way. The stag appeared, followed by the big black dog, and the rat in the rear.
My name is Remus Lupin, he thought.
Padfoot let out a joyful bark at being reunited with Moony once again. The wolf was pleased to see his friend. Remus was too.
Moony and Padfoot ran ahead of the others, running down the tunnel that would lead them onto the grounds. When they reached the opening, they leapt up and sprinted towards the Forbidden Forest.
Padfoot jumped onto Moony and swiped playfully at him. Moony responded and soon the two were locked in a canine wrestling match. They waited until Prongs and Wormtail joined them, and then continued walking deeper into the forest than they ever had before.
Remus never felt frightened when he was in the body of the wolf. It always seemed to project a confidence onto him that he didn't have when he was in human form. It didn't frighten him to go into the heart of the Forbidden Forest.
Prongs was leading the way down a dreary forest path. Padfoot and Moony trotted side-by-side as Wormtail hovered near them. They walked for a long time, how long Remus did not know, but he guessed it must have been almost an hour.
As they went deeper and deeper into the forest, the trees became denser, the forest closing in around them. They had never been this deep. Remus wondered if perhaps they should turn back. There didn't seem to be anything worth seeing, here.
Almost as soon as he thought it, they came to a trampled path that looked as though something large had traveled along it. Prongs stopped and looked back at them as if to ask if they should continue. Padfoot bounded forward; always eager for adventure.
They followed the path for a few minutes, until they came to a wide space with a hollow located near the edge. But that wasn't what made Remus's wolf eyes go wide.
Spiders. Thousands and thousands of spiders of all sizes. Some were as little as paperclips, other the size of a Quaffle and others even bigger. The four of them had stopped, staring disbelievingly at the creatures.
Prongs had just turned around and gave a shake of his head as if to tell them to turn back when they heard a voice. "Who is it?"
The old croaking voice reminded Remus of a frog. It came from the hollow. Remus had a feeling he didn't want to know what it was. There was the sound of something large moving within the hollow. Remus wanted to run, but his wolf paws seemed glued to the ground. He felt the wolf's anger rising and his fur bristling as the threat loomed closer.
He sniffed the air, but all he could smell was spider. And then, whatever it was, reached the entrance to the hollow. Remus could not make out what it was, but he saw eyes.
Several pairs of glittering eyes.
"You are not Hagrid," the creature said and finally stepped out of its lair. Remus would have gasped, had he been in human form.
It was a spider. No, not a spider…an Acromantula. It had to be. Spiders did not get that big. It was ten times bigger than the largest spider they had seen so far. Even the wolf lost some of its confidence as the creature came forward.
"I sense you are not true animals," the spider said. "We are in need of a good meal. My family has grown quite large…"
Prongs looked back at all them with a panicked expression that he somehow managed to convey through the stag's features and began to back away. Remus did the same, but was horrified to find that there was a wall of spiders behind him. The spiders began closing in.
Padfoot, who was never one to surrender, or even wait for a plan to form, charged through the hoard of spiders. He broke through and the other three followed, running as fast as their animal form could.
It didn't take long for Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs to realize that Wormtail could not keep up with their pace. Padfoot ran back to where the rat was scurrying madly trying to catch up with the other three. The spiders were closing in on Wormtail. Moony watched, knowing the creatures could make short work of a rat. Padfoot had to rescue him.
Padfoot was all out sprinting now and finally reached the patch of woods where Wormtail was trapped. He ran through another crowd of spiders and scooped up Wormtail in his jaws, making sure to keep the smaller animal from being punctured by his razor-sharp teeth.
After Padfoot caught up with them, Prongs and Moony ran at top speed, knowing the spiders were following and not daring to look back. They finally reached the outskirts of the forest, where the trees were not quite as thick, and they stopped to take a breather. Padfoot spit Wormtail out of his mouth.
Peter's rat form didn't looked please to be covered in the drool of a huge, black, mutt, but Remus knew that if Sirius had not gone back for him, he would probably be dead. It had been a close call.
Too close.
Remus looked at the sky. The moon was going down. Soon he would be back to normal. His friends looked exhausted and they all walked lazily back to the entrance to the Shrieking Shack, none of them having the energy to romp and play as they usually did when heading back to the tree.
When they came to the entrance at the Whomping Willow, Wormtail hit the knot so Remus could return to the Shrieking Shack. Then his three friends each gave him a look, as if saying goodbye, and headed back to the castle.
Remus watched them for a minute and was just about to head back into the tunnel when he heard huge paws scampering towards him. He looked up. Padfoot was bounding towards him, tongue lolling out, and grinning.
Remus felt his tail began to wag involuntarily and ran towards his friend. Prongs and Wormtail had already gone back to Hogwarts. Remus was happy they had, but he couldn't identify why.
They brawled for a couple minutes, playfully, and then broke apart, both panting. Moony stared into the dark eyes of Padfoot, mesmerized by their depth. They were the same eyes Sirius possessed in his human form.
Padfoot stepped closer and Remus felt something rough touch his furry cheek.
It wasn't until Padfoot had made it safely back to the castle, and Moony back into the Shrieking Shack, that Remus realized Padfoot had licked him.
AN: Please review!