Well, here it is, the amazing chapter 4 of my story which now has a title. This chapter is pretty much fluff, so feel free to skip it unless you have some obsession with Remus Lupin, in which case go ahead and read it. Otherwise, you can just read the ending, which is kind of an important turning point in the story (well, according to my plan for the story anyway). So read and review ppl, read and review! Cuz god knows I need the grammar and spelling help...
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Chapter Four : : Remus
After Sirius' rant in the Gryffindor common room, Steorra and Lily toned down a little. While Lily was back to her old self ("Just the way he liked," said a dejected James), Steorra only gave up on the stiletto heels. If anything, her dress was even more provocative. The teachers had grown alarmed, afraid that the trend will continue and the pursuit of fashion will have a higher priority among the student body than the pursuit of education. Of course, the didn't realize that this was already true.
On the day of the Yule Ball, everyone seemed more restless than usual. This was saying a lot for Remus' History of Magic class as everyone was usually asleep by the time Professor Binns floated through the chalkboard. Today, however, Remus could hear the girls behind him excitedly whispering about their dress robes, the people to the left of him imagining the food, and the wanna-be psychics in front of him giggling about how Venus shone upon them, guaranteeing them romance that night. Sirius, on the other hand, who was usually the one to lead these conversations, was sprawled across the table, taking up most of it, his eyes barely open and looking extremely bored.
"Why aren't you all pumped up for the Yule Ball like everyone else?" Remus asked.
"What's there to be excited about?" Sirius mumbled, lifting his head up a little, "It's all fakeness and a contest of who's more popular than whom when they're all really attention-deprived and very pathetic morons like me."
"Well, I'd gladly swap dates with you," Remus quickly added upon seeing the color rise up in Sirius' cheeks, "Not that there's anything wrong with Star." Sirius seemed as if he would be a lot happier if he were attending the Yule Ball with star instead of Marie, which Remus couldn't quite figure out why. Sirius lived for girls like Marie, one hundred percent fake, but now he was turning to Star? One of their best friends who ate too much and yet as the result of some medical miracle, never gained weight? The loud-mouthed girl who was the crucible of their wild and crazy lives? Remus loved her, and so did everyone else in their weird "clique". She really was a star in their lives, like a guardian of sorts, ever-present to watch over them. As Remus left his train of through, he noticed that Sirius was once again sprawled across the table, his arms in a spread-eagle position, soundly asleep.
The class finally ended after a long ninety minutes of nothingness and everyone literally stormed the exit. This was the last class and they had three hours before the Yule Ball began.
Remus dragged Sirius, who started wandering in the direction of the Gryffindor common room to the Great Hall.
"I wanna sleep," Sirius groaned and tried to go back.
"No. You're going to sit down and have a nice and very long chat with Star, specifically mentioning what an ass you've been and other degrading comments about yourself and beg her to go to Yule Ball with you," Remus said firmly and continued dragging Sirius towards the Gryffindor table.
"Hey, let go of me," Sirius struggled, but to no avail, "Or I'm gonna make you look like Mrs. Cutthrell." According to Sirius, Mrs.. Cutthrell was an old family friend who was evil beyond anything and lived to torture Sirius and making snide comments to him. In fact, she'd been so horrible, Sirius had wanted her dead. And whaddya know, she turned up dead on day, her body mutilated by some unknown force not magic or muggle. Her skin had been peeled back, layer by layer, then her flesh and her organs had been diced to tiny pieces. It was a horrible sight for a ten-year-old boy to see, as it had been Sirius who found the old lady, dead and hanging by a noose made of thin wire in front of his window.
"So you're not gonna do it?" Remus asked as he straightened out his shirt.
"No. She said that she didn't want my pity, and I'm not gonna give it to her," Sirius said, a bit loudly, and turned to leave.
"Is it pity that you feel for her, though? Or is it something else?" Remus asked.
Sirius gave him a funny look, one of ambivalence and was about to leave when Marie glided over.
"Hi, Siri, how are you today?" She asked, her voice sickeningly sweet.
"Go away," Sirius snapped, brushing her off.
"But Siri..." Marie whined.
"Ugh, I said, go away!" Sirius shouted and left, leaving Marie looking quizzical....the look didn't last for long, however, as her empty brain soon forgot the incident.
Remus went to Gryffindor tower. "Stardust," he said and the portrait of the fat lady swung open. Remus climbed in. He went up the spiraling tower stairs to his four-poster. The boy's dormitories were actually individual rooms. Each had a curtain hanging over the door. The rooms were built along the tower, spiraling up with the tower. Remus' was the thrid one up.
There were nearly two hours before the Yule Ball and Remus fell upon his bed and slept. It was a fitful sleep, and he dreamt. He dreamt of horrible events. He dreamt of killing, of bloodshed, of terror. That was all he ever dreamt of anyway. at first, he'd thought it was because he was a werewolf, and that he was evil. Evil people did not deserve to have peace and quiet, even when they slept. They only had evil thoughts, resulting in evil dreams. Evil was his comfort and guide. But Sirius and James weaned him away from that disposition. He accepted that his dreams were just a part of his life. They were only dreams, and meant nothing more then confused thoughts.
The dream seemed so vivid, so real though. His vision seemed to be stained red with the taint of blood. There was goodness too. Good had caused the bloodshed. Remus awoke from the dream rather groggily. How had he been able to sense these things? How was he able to sense these things? What did he know was good or evil?
It was ten to seven and a flushed James rushed into Remus' room. He was out of breath as if he'd just run a long way. "You can't...Yule Ball...moon...full..." he gasped for air.
Remus furrowed his brow, and quickly strode to the calendar pinned to his bedpost with the phases of the moon clearly marked. It was a full moon. How could he have forgotten that?
"Well, listen. I want you to go to the Yule Ball tonight. I'll be fine by myself," Remus said.
"No, we're not going to abandon you for our own pleasure," James said, "And besides, you wouldn't be the only one being yelled at by an angry date tomorrow. We'll all get mouthfuls. So if we're gonna get in trouble, there's nothing wrong with getting in trouble together."
This was James' attitude towards life in general: act now, think later, and if you get caught in a lie, deny, deny, deny. This wasn't that bad of a philosophy for kids, but as they grew older, and matured somewhat, it just seemed wrong.
James wouldn't listen to any further protests from Remus and hurried to send him to Madam Pomfrey's so he could go down to the Whomping Willow. The Animagi would follow later.
While girls dreaded their periods every month, Remus dreaded the full moon. He had thought of countless ideas to somehow destroy the moon in his youth-- muggle spaceships, broomsticks, engorgement charms that would make him big enough to reach the moon...He still thought of them sometimes. They brought back the happiness, the joy, the idyllic life he had as a child, before the reality set in, a reality in which he didn't want to live.
They had arrived tat the Whomping Willow. Madam Pomfrey froze the tree and ushered Remus in, giving him her usual firm look, "Go on in now," she said.
Remus could already feel the tingling in his limbs which would soon grow into a gnawing pain. He rushed in, not daring to look back for fear that he'd attack the school nurse. The gnawing pain grew more persistent and spread throughout his entire body. He felt hair sprouting, each strand brought pain beyond pain. His nose became elongated and turned into a snout. His limbs grew longer and stronger. An insane hate for humans filled his mind, for shunning him, for spurning him, for disparaging him, and Remus knew it wasn't right. There were no humans around to hurt and the hate intensified as Remus began to pound on the boarded-up windows, but to no avail. They were held strongly in place with magic. He smashed the furniture and stomped the floor, even ripping out his fur and clawing at his body, anything to vent his feelings. There was an odd scuffle behind him and teh three animals arrived; an enormous black hound, a powerful-looking stag, and a tiny gray rat. Remus felt the hate abating a little. These animals, they were his friends, he knew and loved them. He hound leapt onto Remus and playfully licked his face. Remus felt his hate abate more. He was no werewolf, no evil-doer, he was...himself...Remus Lupin.
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Remus transformed back to a human in the early hours of morning, after the moon had set. He and the rest, hidden under James' invisibility cloak, quietly snuck back into the castle. No one seemed tired at all, not after running around the Forbidden Forest and doing things no one else in the school probably could even imagine of doing. That rush of adrenaline and euphoria was what Remus looked forward to every month. As they excitedly whispered their ideas fro next month's escapade, there was a long, piercing scream from the direction of Gryffindor tower.
They quickly rounded the corner. What met Remus' eyes turned his stomach. The Christmas eve partying at Gryffindor seemed to just have ended. Steorra was on her knees in front of the portrait hole, something red splattered all over her. Blood. above her, hung by a thin, wiry noose attached to a torch bracket, was a figure distorted beyond recognition.
"Mrs. Cutthrell," Sirius gasped and rushed forward. Blood from the mutilated body trickled in tiny streams down the broken and peeled-back flesh. The scalp had been stripped from the skull, and the face was sliced up. Steorra was under it, the blood dripping down her face, matted on her hair, and gathering in a small pool on the ground.
"Marie...Marie...she's dead..." Steorra mumbled to herself, not noticing the small crowd of people gathering around her, "I killed her."
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Ooohh...didn't that leave you hanging on a ledge? No? Oh well....*mumbles*
reviews anyone? *looks around hopefully*
Oh, and I drew some purty Sirius fan art...OK, like two. Take a look if you like- ; You gotta scroll the the bottom...it's the middle one in the second to last row...I think.