Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Twenty Eight ll A Moonlight Adventure
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"REMUUUSS WAIT!" James yelled, trying to chase after his fairhaired friend, who was running down the corridor.
Remus hastily turned around to wave quickly, which proved to be rather difficult as he was lugging a fat overnight bag with him. James could see that one of Remus' sweaters was sticking out of the bag.
James stopped running, panting. He watched in despair as his friend disappeared around the corner.
Remus had mysteriously left again, taking along what seemed like a month's supply of clothes with him. He told James and the others something briefly about a sick relative. Remus seemed ill himself; what, with the pale face and that pinched, unhealthy look.
"Dammit," James muttered under his breath. He could hardly take it anymore. First week back from Christmas break and already Remus had ran off. How many sick relatives could you get, anyway? And how many times did you have to get pulled out of school to go visit them?
Once every month.
He needed to know where Remus was going. James was already going nuts as it was.
"Sirius!" he called loudly, banging into his dormitory. Sirius looked up from his package of marshmallows.
"Hey Jamsette. What's up?"
"Remus has taken his departure," James said sarcastically, "And I'm not resting 'til I know exactly where he's going."
Sirius swallowed his marshmallow heavily and nodded, "I know this sounds dodgy, but I reckon he's hiding something."
"Come on then, let's go," James said promptly, throwing open his trunk and taking out his Invisibility Cloak.
Sirius swallowed again, looking aghast, "What, now?"
"No, tomorrow," James said, rolling his eyes, "Of course now! Come on!"
"E curt go whiffort Peatay," came Sirius' muffled reponse; he had crammed yet another enormous marshmallow in his mouth.
"Huh?"
Sirius swallowed several times, "We can't go without Peter."
"Who says?" James said, getting impatient, "Pete probably won't wanna go, anyway."
"Can't we wait until after dinner, at least?" Sirius whined.
"Look, if it'll make you feel any better, you can bring along your marshmallows," James said hurriedly, "Come on!"
"Wait!" Sirius yelled, trying to catch up with James as he raced down the stairs to the common-room, "Where do we know where to go?"
James stopped short.
"Oh yeah."
Sirius groaned, "Sheesh, Jamie-boy."
"Hi SIRIUS and JAMES!" someone was yelling, putting heavy emphasis on their names.
It was Paige. She was sitting down in the common-room with Lily, Anna and Di, who had returned back to Hogwarts a day after everyone else had.
"Hi," James greeted distractedly, racking his brains. Where could Remus possibly be?
"So what are you guys up to?" Anna asked, her homework spread out in front of her.
"Nothing too much," Sirius said mysteriously. Paige and Anna exchanged worried glances, while Lily continued on writing, the scratching of her quill getting louder and louder. Di, like usual, looked peaky and pale. Her once-glossy black curls now looked lifeless.
"Hey Di, how are you feeling? You look a little off to me," Sirius said warmly. Di smiled at him distantly.
"Just got a cold over the Christmas break, that's all," Di said dodgily, glancing up at the ceiling.
"SIRIUS!" James suddenly yelled, causing Lily to jump and curse angrily when she spilt ink all over the table.
"What -- what?!" Sirius spluttered, hiccoughing as he almost choked on a marshmallow.
"Stop eating those bloody things--" ("They're not bloody!" Sirius muttered angrily.) "--and listen to me! I have a shrewd idea of where -- you know -- might be," James said shiftily.
The girls' heads snapped up in attention at once.
"Whose 'you know'?"
"Never mind," James said hastily. For some reason, he didn't want the girls to find out what they were up to.
"Your shrewd ideas aren't too promising, usually," Sirius said meekly, pegging a marshmallow at Paige when she asked for one.
James rolled his eyes, "See you guys later," he waved at the girls and dragged Sirius out of the common-room.
"They're up to something," Paige said suspiciously.
"Obviously," Anna said dismissively, "But it's probably just another prank."
"I suppose so..."
They both turned to look at Lily, who seemed oblivious to what they were talking about. Di's eyes had fluttered closed, and small signs of a frown were on her brow.
"I just thought of something," Anna said suddenly to Paige.
"What?"
"Where's Remus?"
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"So where is this 'shrewd idea' of yours?"
James and Sirius were walking down a stone corridor, past many gargoyles and stone sculptures.
"The Hospital Wing," James responded simply.
"The Hospital Wing?!" Sirius repeated, almost choking on yet another marshmallow.
"You should seriously stop eating those," James said careslessly, "Yes, the Hospital Wing."
"Sounds pretty far-fetched to me," Sirius stated his opinion, continuing to stride on with James.
"Yeah, well, hey, it could do no harm to check. I'm part Wiccan, so my shrewd ideas must be of some use."
"Well, I suppose," Sirius said uncertainly, following his dear friend spiritlessly.
James wasn't quite sure if Remus would be there, but -- well, he always looked so sick and ill these days.
"Hey," Sirius said suddenly, scavenging deeper into his bag of marshmallows, "You know -- what if Remus was telling the truth?"
"If he is, then I'm in love with Snape," James said pointedly.
Sirius looked like he was going to throw up, "Okay, no need to go that far."
James grinned.
When they had finally reached the Hospital Wing, Sirius was all ready to yell out for Madam Leyla. But James suddenly shushed him and dragged him out from the room again.
"What -- what are you doing?" Sirius scuffed angrily, regaining his balance.
"Didn't you see Remus?" James hissed, "He's actually in there! My Wiccan instincts must be growing!"
"I'm hungry," Sirius whined, glancing at his watch.
"You just had an entire bag of marshmallows, for Christ's sake," James muttered, throwing the cloak over him and his best friend, "Now be quiet. We're going to walk quietly into the Wing, and watch what Remus does."
"Okie doke. But I want dinner."
James sighed, "We'll go for a run down to the kitchens after we see what Remus does."
"Fine, fine. But dinner starts... right now," Sirius looked rather upset.
"Oh for Merlin's--"
The two of them stopped their bickering and crept into the Hospital Wing. They spotted Remus lying, looking quite ill, on one of the plain white beds. His eyes were closed and his overnight bag lay next to him on the ground.
"Remus, Remus, Remus," Sirius muttered under his breath, looking disappointed, "How could you lie to your dear friends?"
James elbowed him to be quiet.
So the two stayed under the Invisibility Cloak for quite some time. They sat in a corner dejectedly, waiting for something to happen. But Remus seemed to be asleep.
"I'm so hungry," Sirius grunted for the billionth time, "And Remus is doing nothing. Can we go now?"
"No," James said, his eyes still on the sandy-haired boy. He himself was hungry, but he wasn't going to let Sirius know that.
Sirius had dozed off. James wondered how. He knew they must've been sitting there rigidly, under a cloak, for at least a couple of hours. And he was starting to feel a bit cramped. Just a bit.
The image of the dark Hospital Wing dimly lit by torches began to become blurry... The torches turned into a campfire and he saw Indians dancing and singing in a different language around it...
"It's time to go Remus, dear."
James awoke with a start, and through his cloak, saw Madam Leyla talking to Remus in urgent whispers.
James silently nudged Sirius, who snorted and woke himself up. Blinking confusedly, he glanced at James who then pointed at Remus, who was getting up from his bed.
"Let us leave quietly now," Madam Leyla said, still in a low voice. Remus nodded his head, and picked up his bag. The two began to leave the cold, stone room.
"Come on, Sirius," James whispered, finding it hard to get up. He threw the cloak off him and waited for Sirius to yawn widely before getting to his feet.
"This is what we've been waiting for," James said in a low voice, covering them with the cloak again as they departed from the Hospital Wing and saw the two figures of the nurse and Remus near the end of the corridor.
"Really now?" Sirius mumbled, sarcasm feigning in his voice. James felt bad about dragging him to do something he didn't want to, but he'd make it up to him later.
"They're leaving the castle," Sirius suddenly said, his voice sounded hoarse.
They both stopped in the middle of their tracks, and looked warily as Madam Leyla opened one of the long, wooden doors, thus attracting a sudden cold chill.
Sirius looked nervous, "Are you sure this is such a great idea?"
"Foolproof," James said uncertainly, "Come on, it's just Leyla and Remus. It can't be anything too dangerous."
But he didn't sound sure at all and it didn't convince Sirius either.
However, they stumbled out into the cold, trying to keep the cloak on them and also trying to keep sight of Remus. Distantly, James saw two dark figures walking nearer to the Forbidden Forest.
"Okay, this is getting scary," Sirius wailed, looking up at the huge moon in the dark sky. It was a full moon.
"Shh," James said, trying to calm himself as well as Sirius. He had to admit, he was quite shaken up. What was Remus doing in the Forbidden Forest?
"Come on," James said, repressing a shiver, "We'll never find out the truth if we don't continue."
"We've got enough data," Sirius whispered, hugging himself, "Remus leaves once a month to go to the forest. Don't you think that's enough?"
James sighed and began walking. The Invisibility Cloak began to slide off Sirius, who hastily yet reluctantly followed his friend.
"The Whomping Willow," James gasped. He and Sirius were a good few metres back from where Madam Leyla and Remus were. But not too far away; in fact, they heard snatches of their conversation.
"...be careful ... you'll be ... morning, right?"
In the dark, the curious James Potter and reluctant Sirius Black saw Remus nod.
The Whomping Willow stopped thrashing wildly, quite suddenly. Taking a curious step closer, James saw Remus duck into the tree. Wait, into the tree?!
"What in the--?" Sirius muttered.
"Quiet, Leyla's coming back," James whispered urgently. They both backed up against some nearby trees, hiding in the shadows. Sirius sucked in his breath and James was trembling, but Madam Leyla just swept past disdainfully, neither looking right nor left.
They both watched her as she made her way back to the castle. James shivered again and wanted nothing more than to be going back with her; back to safety, warmth and comfort.
The Cloak blew off them as an unexpected whirl of wind came. Sirius bent down to pick it up but James stopped him.
"We won't be needing it anymore," he tried to say, before the Whomping Willow began to buck around wildly. The branches struck down and the roots were threatening to tear out of the ground.
"Al lright, let's go then," Sirius said bravely. He began walking up to the wild tree.
"Sirius--"
"Holy crap!"
Sirius ducked as a branch went thrashing for his face; he lost his balance and collapsed onto the bucking roots of the tree.
"Are you okay?" James tried to look for Sirius in the dark.
"Absolutely spiffing," Sirius muttered, getting up. James cursed when a branch brushed against him violently, knocking off his glasses.
Sirius fell down again, heavily. And quite suddenly, the Whomping Willow stopped attacking them.
"This is really weird," James said nervously, taken aback at the sudden stillness and quiet.
"Well, there's a door, are we going in?"
James glanced at the tree and realised Sirius was right. There was a small door.
"I can't see anything," he groaned. He fumbled around in his pockets and found his wand, "I hope Remus knows what we're going through just to find out his stupid little secret.... Sick mother my arse..."
Before he could lose his nerve, James grabbed onto the grubby handle and pulled. The door gave way instantly and he almost crashed into the darkness inside. Sirius followed.
Just a few seconds later, the door slammed shut and there was a low rumble. The Whomping Willow must've started again.
"Where are we?" Sirius said fearfully.
James looked around, "I think this is a tunnel... I can feel the walls leading forward -- oh, this is stupid. Lumos!"
The tip of his wand ignited, and he and Sirius began to steadily walk down the tunnel. It seemed to take forever. Finally, the tunnel ended.
"James--" Sirius said suddenly, "This place -- familiar?"
James looked around. It was a dark, musty room. The paint was peeling off and there was not a single piece of furniture except for an old, grey sofa that was ripped and seemed moth-eaten.
Then it hit him.
"No way," he gasped, "The Shrieking Shack?!"
"Yeah, and I'd like to know what Remus is doing in here," Sirius said with a shudder. There was no doubt about it, he was scared.
"Remus," James repeated, and then he remembered, "Remus!" he called loudly. A sudden feeling came over him; he felt like he had just screamed in a library.
James walked up the aisle, which was dimly lighted by his ignited wand. Sirius followed cautiously.
"Remus!" James called again.
A small voice could be heard.
"James?"
"Remus!" this time, Sirius called. The two raced to where the sound had came from, and they found themselves in an even darker room. A bedroom.
"James? Sirius? What are you doing here?!"
Curled up in a tight, pale ball in the corner was Remus. He had a blanket wrapped around him, and even in the dark, James could see he was in pain.
"Remus! What's happening? Are you alright?" James cried frantically.
"Leave, now!" Remus was yelling now, "Go! You don't know what you've put yourselves in!"
"What--?" Sirius said, confused. Then he began backing away as Remus gave a cry of pain. In the dark, he saw hair sprouting on his face.
"Oh my God," was all James could manage.
"RUN, NOW!" were the last words Remus yelled, before he gave another cry.
"Dear life," Sirius said blankly, before James grabbed his arm and they both tore out of the room.
They could hear the monster Remus had turned into, still howling and crying out. James almost crashed into the main room they had came in, and thundered down the tunnel. He slipped a couple of times, but held onto Sirius to steady himself. Finally, he ran straight into the door, wretched it open and tore out.
The Whomping Willow struck at the two as they fought their way out of the twigs and branches.
Finally, they were out of the mess, and James and Sirius collapsed onto the grass, panting and bleeding.
"I can't believe it," James said in a small gasp, between pants.
"What -- what did he turn into?" Sirius said fearfully, trying to catch his breath.
"Remus -- he's a werewolf."
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---->A/N: Aww! Poor Remus! --MSQ.