Chapter Three

One week later, Remus and Snape already had two feet of parchment crammed with Remus' neat cursive.

"Holy hell, Moony," Sirius had said, staring incredulously at the rolls of paper. "How in the name of Merlin did you do that? Peter and I haven't even started yet...shit..."

"Have you been stealing my Invisibility Cloak and meeting him every night?" James had teased.

"Wow, Moony, you're good. Really good," was what Peter had said, examining the scroll admiringly.

Lily was probably the only person who wasn't shocked at Remus and Severus' exceptional progress.

"Great job! You and Severus really are good partners for this," she had smiled. "Always the best in the class, eh?"

Remus felt proud of his and Severus' progress. They had gotten together to work at the library for a good hour or two each night. On weekends, they set up meetings and often could be seen still hunched over books well past the stroke of midnight. It was satisfactory, knowing that they were advancing smoothly.

Snape was, as he'd predicted, a good partner. He often did more than his share, always deriving different ways to try things out. He had a diverse way of thinking, one that made Remus wonder what exactly was behind that veil of long hair. He was still as cold as ever, but he didn't insult Remus or his friends anymore. They usually worked in silence.

One day, however, Remus brought along a radio with him.

"What is that?" Snape couldn't help asking as he stared at the strange device. As usual, his tone was sneering and prudent.

"It's a radio," Remus explained. "It plays songs the way Muggles listen to it. Professor Hilgard gave it to me. You know, that Muggle Studies teacher? I thought we could do with a bit of music."

"What does it run on?" Severus asked, skeptical.

"Batteries," Remus opened the battery latch on the bottom of the radio to let Severus see.

At first, Snape wrinkled his nose as Mozart's Konzert in G began. But soon, Remus noticed Severus tapping his foot and even occasionally humming the tunes beneath his breath. Most kids at their age liked the latest rock bands, but Remus and Severus were both satisfied with the sawing violins and the fluttering flutes. As long as Remus turned the music down to a certain degree, Madam Pince allowed them to listen in peace. And so every time they worked together, the radio was there, too.

:::

"I'm going to leave early tonight," was the first thing Remus said to Severus one night as they settled down to work.

"Why not?" Snape said, not looking up from his book.

Remus stared at him.

"I-I thought you knew," he said, now getting confused.

Severus looked up, realized his blunder, and grew slightly pink.

"Oh, right. That," he muttered.

"Yeah. That," said Remus. He turned on the radio and for the rest of the time, they worked accordingly to Bach.

Remus left at around ten that evening. It was partially cloudy, and he crossed the grounds to the Whomping Willow without making the transformation. He carefully pressed the tree knot and slipped inside, shuddering from the chilliness of the Shrieking Shack. He waited silently in the dark room, staring through the window...

When the clouds fully revealed the full bright moon, Remus felt the pain start.

Hundreds. No, thousands, millions - millions of daggers pierced his flesh, jabbing and spiking him, drawing blood. His muscles enlarged, ripping themselves free of his human form painfully. Remus' amber eyes blazed as suddenly, everything in the dark became clearer and he could see. His head began to grow larger, his nose narrowed into a narrow snout, his tailbone grew. He arched his neck, throwing his head back in agony as his spine lengthened.

"No, no!" he screamed, painfully aware that his voice was growing lower with each cry.

He felt his human body being pushed away easily by this beast. His spirit. His mind. Slowly, everything dimmed out...thoughts were nonexistent, and memories were but a hidden mote of dust in the darkest corner of his mind. This was what Remus hated the most, and with every second, animal instinct took over sense and sensibility. He was quite literally losing his mind.

Meanwhile, his head was still growing bigger, and now his teeth were expanding painfully. It lasted for only a few minutes, but they seemed like minutes of eternity every time. The transformation always gave him a horrible headache, and when it finished, an enraged wolf stood in Remus' place.

An enraged wolf, and a beautiful one, too. Remus was lean and handsome, his sleek body coated by a sheen of sheer silver fur. His eyes glowed furious gold, but this caged anger and hurt had to be released.

He gnarled, bit and scratched his torso, gashed at his muscular legs...anything to be rid of this pain! Remus' blood stained the ground. His paws left crimson prints.

He howled and he ground his teeth, he chased his tail in circles, he grabbed a rotting book in his jaws and shook it until all the pages were shredded into moldy scraps.

Then, seeing the leg of a nearby shabby armchair, the werewolf lunged, snarling and growling madly, and broke off the wood with a snap! He bared his fangs, ready to utterly destroy this 'victim'. Unaware that the wood splinters had dug into his soft paws and were prickled upon his muzzle, the bloody wolf lunged again-

And collided with something black and furry.

The wolf leapt back, growling heatedly, his eyes centered on a huge ebony dog with crystal blue eyes. Beside the dog stood a majestic stag and by it, a tiny dull grey mouse. Remus' weary mind spun...

"He's a friend! No, no he's not, he's stopping me from getting my prey...no...he's good...he helps me..."

After a few confused moments, Remus' instinctual desire for blood and flesh overcame his partial human sense and he leapt at the black dog, ready to sink his teeth into the warm blood, let it flow deliciously over his pristine teeth...

A sharp kick in the hindquarters sent Remus flying across the room. Prongs had kicked him. He got up, whimpering and even more enraged than ever. Remus attacked again, this time trying to get past the door. But he was stopped, over and over again.

The dog was barking madly, almost laughing, as he ran around Remus, making the wolf angry. He was hurting and furious and tired and he desperately wanted to taste blood, but none of that could be possible with these three burdensome barriers! In frustration, Remus gnashed his teeth, shooting golden daggers at this enemy. He wanted to get out of this rotting, horrible shack. He wanted to feel the wet grass beneath his paws, to howl at the moon, to be free!

But no, not tonight, he wouldn't run free tonight. The wolf recognized this in the way the black dog's eyes hardened and the way he growled menacingly. He could not pass these terrible animals, not with his bruised legs and his bleeding torso. In misery, Remus the wolf gave up his attempts at getting out and curled into a silvery ball, tucking his snout under his paws. He was tired...oh so tired...

Within minutes, Remus had fallen asleep. Looking at him from afar, he looked innocent and harmless. The gust in the room swayed his silver hair, and every few seconds he'd thump his thin tail on the ground. Ever so quietly, Sirius padded over to Remus. He saw the furious scratches, the deep bites. Gently, the shaggy canine began to lick the wolf's wounds clean.

And for the rest of the night, Sirius, James and Peter watched over their Remus.

:::

When he awoke the next morning, the first thing that hit Remus Lupin was a terrible pounding headache. He groaned, and tried to sit up, but a sharp pain near his stomach made him decide to just roll over instead.

Looking around, he realized that he was in his secure bed under warm blankets. His abdomen was bandaged with clean white cloth. There were dark bruises down his left arm, and many small bloody pricks on his hands.

'God, what have I done?' he thought to himself, slumping against the bedpost and closing his eyes. 'One of these days, I shall go raving mad and kill myself.'

For the rest of the day, Remus stayed in bed. He dozed off sometimes, and worried about what he was missing in class, but for the most part studied his books. At lunchtime, when James came up to bring him some sandwiches, Remus downed the whole lot, but promptly threw up thirty minutes later. His stomach was still too weak.

He began to gradually feel better toward nightfall. The tiredness, the headache...they all faded with time. He felt fresh, new, and very relieved that the whole ordeal wouldn't be for another whole month. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was only 8:30. If he was lucky, Snape would be in the library. Remus took an ice-cold shower, washed the blood off his body, and dressed into a new set of robes.

On the way out of the bathroom, he cast a quick glance at the mirror and almost turned away in disgust. There he was, looking pathetic and sick as ever. Remus walked out of the dorm and down the stairs, trying to forget the way his sunken eyes had those dark circles under them...

"Remus!" he was suddenly engulfed by Sirius Black, who had pulled him into a breath squeezing hug.

"Good evening, Sirius," Remus smiled genuinely at his friend, glad to see him. "I was heading to the library," he answered Sirius' question before it was even asked.

"Look, I know Snape's dead sexy, but you can miss out on one night, right? Come on, Moony, you've been so busy. I'm surprised you haven't drowned under all those books."

"But there's still so much to-"

"Moony, you're twice as far as anybody else. Give it a rest. How does a trip to Hogsmeade sound? It's Friday night. We need a boys night out."

"Very tempting, Siri," Remus admitted. "You're right. I have to take my mind off the project."

"All right, then," Sirius flashed Remus one of his heart wrenching grins. "Go get the cloak and the map - it's under James' pillow. I'm going to find him. Probably out at the Quidditch field, with Peter licking his shoes. Meet you at the shack in fifteen."

And with a whirl of his cloak, Sirius sauntered across the common and out the portrait hole. At least half a dozen girls watched the handsome boy hungrily.

"Always the magnet," Remus smiled bemusedly as he turned to head back upstairs.

:::

Exactly a quarter hour later, Remus found himself again in the Shrieking Shack. It was dark in the shabby room, so he muttered "Lumos" and took a look around.

There were stains of blood on the ground, dents on the walls, pieces of broken metal, scraps of paper, and a horribly banged up chair in the corner. Everything in the room was tattered or chewed upon.

"I must've gone insane last night," Remus muttered to himself.

"Yeah, you pretty much lost it. More aggressive than usual," Remus turned around to see James leaning against the doorway, his hair damp from Quidditch. Behind him were Peter and Sirius.

"Got the map and cloak, Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, right here," Remus answered.

"Let's go, then."

Quiet as the breeze that chilled their bones, the four boys crept upstairs, where most of the rooms were barren, paint peeling and rusting. They sneaked down the main hall and out the door, being careful to close the gate silently as soon as they left the Shrieking Shack's grounds.

"Where to first?" Sirius asked as they stepped onto the pavement and headed toward where the village shops' lights gleamed merrily.

"I'm running low on chocolate," Remus admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Alright, to Honeydukes it is!" Sirius ran ahead, his deep laughter trailing behind him.

Once in the candy shop, Remus immediately made a beeline for the chocolates, while Peter, James and Sirius tried the new sample Firecracker Snaps. A few minutes later, Remus had himself a bag of almost twenty large chocolate frogs, chocolate Galleon coins, which twirled brilliantly in his palm, chocolate gum, mint chocolate icicles that melted in your mouth and a few chocolate-flavored sugar quills.

"Remus, you're going to die from some serious chocolate overdose," was the first thing Sirius said as they walked out of the shop.

"I eat it sparingly," Remus argued. "I'm not like you - I don't immediately cram everything in my mouth and swallow the lot of it."

"Hey, it's faster," Sirius grinned. "Let's go to Zonko's."

Remus groaned. "That's a horrible shop, you know."

"It's the reason for which I live!" James cried out mockingly. "How would Snape ever suffer if we didn't have Zonko's?"

"You guys should give Severus a chance," Remus said quietly.

"Oh, so it's a first name basis now?" Sirius snarled jokingly, though Remus noted the slightly harsher tone he used and decided to drop the subject.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks after. I haven't had Butterbeer in ages," he said.

"Yeah," Peter echoed.

At Zonko's, the four boys found themselves at the "Color and Odor Hairspray" section, where the cans sprayed crazy colors along with gross smells into the unfortunate victim's hair.

"Look at this one," Peter laughed. "It's skunk-flavored, and dyes hair black with white streaks."

"Lovely," Remus murmured, examining the 'Rotten Egg' aerosol (which turned hair a hideous shade of vomit green).

"You know, Sirius," James teased. "You really need some of this stuff. You pamper your hair twenty four seven...why not try a nice 'Gasoline' spray?"

"What color is it?" Sirius played along.

"Oily black."

"Hmm...nah. Don't want to copy our precious Severus."

Peter and James cracked up at this. Remus found himself a little irritated, but he forced a laugh also.

Thirty minutes later, after Sirius had traded some money for pranks, the four boys found themselves in the Three Broomsticks, each in front of a steaming glass of golden bubbly butterbeer.

"Mmmm...this is the good stuff," Sirius said, wiping his butterbeer mustache off with the back of his hand.

"I wonder how they make it," Peter said, peering curiously into his drink.

"Who cares?" Sirius snorted. "As long as it tastes like this, I'm not going to think any deeper."

"Then what do you think about, Sirius?" James interrupted.

Sirius pretended to contemplate this.

"Ways of setting Snape on fire, how I'll get enough money to buy a motorcycle, why James is pretending to be straight when he's obviously in love with me..."

James smacked the back of Sirius' head with his money pouch.

"You just knocked off his eight remaining brain cells," Remus grinned.

For the rest of the evening, they chatted over butterbeer, sometimes calling for another glass, often exploding into fits of roaring laughter. Finally, at two in the morning, they managed to stumble back into their dormitories (with the help of the cloak and map), even though Sirius had to chuck one of Remus' frogs down another hallway to distract Filch from walking right into them.

Remus was asleep before his head even hit the pillow that night.

:::