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Chapter Fourteen

"I can't take this," Remus said, as he paced the common room floor once again. Professor Dumbledore had led them back to Gryffindor Tower, before sealing them in. The Fat Lady had been told not to open from the inside, thus keeping any of the Gryffindors from going in search of their friends. Remus and James were especially unhappy with this development.

As Remus continued his pacing, an idea suddenly seemed to occur to him, and he bolted up the stairs to their dormitory without saying a word to anyone. "That was odd," Sirius said, looking at the space his friend had been standing in a moment before. Then he, James and Peter went up the stairs after Remus, to see what he was up to. They were even more confused to find him frantically searching his trunk for something.

"Um, Remus?" James asked hesitantly, as though he doubted his friend's sanity. "What are you doing?"

Instead of answering, Remus let out a loud sigh of relief when he finally found what he'd been looking for. His broom. Remus walked over to the large window in their room and opened it before turning to his friends and saying, "I'm going to find them." As the others watched in shock, Remus mounted his broom and lifted off, flying right out of their dormitory window, towards the Forbidden Forest. James, Sirius, and Peter stood and stared at each other in surprise for a second before each of them jumped into action, grabbing their brooms and following their friend.

They landed a few seconds after Remus, near the spot where they'd been earlier that day, waiting for class to begin. Sirius turned to Remus, who was in the process of shrinking his broom, so that it would be easier to carry. "Remus, how exactly do you expect to find Lily and Michelle in the forest? Not that I don't think this is an absolutely wonderful idea," he added as Remus glared at him.

"Simple," Remus said as he lit his wand, and made his way into the forest, forcing the others to follow him. "I'm hoping that I'll be able to pick up their scents. After all, even in human form, my sense of smell is nearly as strong as a regular canine's is."

"And if you can't pick up their scents?" Peter asked worriedly, as he lit his own wand.

Remus sighed. "Then at least we'll have tried to find them, instead of staying shut up, safe and sound, in the common room." James and Sirius nodded their agreement with this sentiment as they walked along the dark path. After a while, Remus stopped, and took in a deep breath. Then he moved to a spot a little to the right of the path and knelt down, sniffing the ground. The others looked at him in confusion, wondering what he was doing, as he continued to smell seemingly random spots in the surrounding area.

Then, Remus turned to them and smiled. "I've got their scents," he said, before walking off the path, apparently following his nose quite literally. James, Sirius, and Peter looked at each other in surprise before following their friend once again.

What seemed like hours later, the other three boys found themselves following Remus at a run through the forest. At first, Remus had been walking slowly after finding Michelle and Lily's scents, because he could barely smell them, and didn't want to lose them. However, as they moved nearer to the center of the forest, the scents grew stronger, and Remus began to run, certain that they were getting closer to finding Lily and Michelle.

Soon, Remus could faintly hear voices, along with a disturbing crashing sound, and he was sure that they'd found their friends, even if they couldn't see them yet. He was also certain that they were in danger, but rather than go charging off to rescue them and risk being heard by whatever it was that was attacking them, he told the others to slow down and move as quietly as they could. He also told them to have their wands ready. They looked confused, because they couldn't hear what he could, but followed his directions nonetheless. After a few more extremely tense minutes, the voices and crashing sounds were much louder, and now they could all hear the low angry growls of the girls' attacker. They could also hear Lily and Michelle's screams, and it was all they could do not to go running after them.

Lily and Michelle had been sitting precariously in their tree for a few seconds, hoping that the Acromantula would give up on them, and go find something else to eat. They watched anxiously as the creature attempted to climb the tree in order to reach them, but fortunately, the tree's lowest branches broke, not being able to support so much weight. The Acromantula growled menacingly up at them, as if telling them that it was not intending to give up.

As the beast once again tried to climb up the tree, this time making it a little farther before losing its balance and falling back to the ground, Michelle whispered to Lily, "Let's get a little higher – that thing almost made it up here that time." Lily nodded, and they began to climb higher. However, before they could go more than a few feet, they felt the tree shake violently, and heard a loud crashing noise bellow them. They looked down and screamed in fear. The Acromantula was ramming into the tree, attempting to bring it to the ground. (A/N: In this story, Acromantulas can indeed ram into large trees without getting hurt.)

"Oh God, I wish I had my wand," Lily said, as she clung to the tree with as much strength as she could muster.

"Me too," Michelle agreed, before screaming again as the Acromantula once again rammed into the tree. Michelle had long forgotten the pain in her ankle, as they desperately held on. Suddenly, the sound of the Acromantula hitting the tree was followed by a horrible cracking sound. The tree was beginning to break.

As the tree began to shake more violently than ever, Lily began to lose her grip on her branch. As the Acromantula ran into the tree at full speed once again, Lily slipped out of the tree, hitting the ground below her with a dull thud. The beast, spotting one of its prey on the ground, growled in triumph before cornering Lily as she tried to get back into the tree. "Lily!" Michelle screamed.

Remus and the others were finally able to see what was going on, and to be honest, they were scared shitless. They watched, horrified, as the huge Acromantula rammed its gleaming body into the tree, not feeling any pain in its determination to catch its prey. They slowly approached the beast from behind, wanting to get close enough to stun it without drawing its attention. Lily and Michelle hadn't noticed them, as their focus was on their attacker.

When they saw Lily fall out of the tree, the Marauders ran forward, attempting to get to the monster before it cut get its pincers into Lily. "Stupefy!" James shouted as he ran. The spell, rather than stun the Acromantula, bounced off its shell, not even phasing it. The beast wasn't even distracted from its attack. The other Marauders began to shout spells as well, but theirs were just as effective as James had been.

"Remus!" Michelle yelled from her position above Lily, who was cowering away from the monster. "Try attacking it all at the same time! Maybe four stunners will be strong enough to bring it down."

The guys nodded, aiming their wands, and they shouted the stunning spell as one. Four streaks of red light flew from their wands, each hitting its rather large target on the Acromantula's immense shell. Michelle had been right; four spells together had done what one alone could not. The enormous beast fell to the ground with a resounding thud, without managing to get at Lily.

They all sighed in relief, and James ran up to Lily, who looked as though she was about to faint. "Are you all right?!" he asked, putting his arm around her, and pulling her into a tight embrace as she began to shake.

Remus looked up at Michelle, as she began to climb down. She jumped as she reached the last few branches, landing beside Remus with a cry of pain as she suddenly remembered that she'd broken her ankle. Remus grabbed her when she nearly fell, steadying her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm all right, except that I think I've broken my ankle," Michelle answered before glancing over at Lily, who was still being comforted by James. Sirius and Peter were standing off to the side, looking concerned for their friends, but not wanting to intrude.

"Lets get out of here before that thing wakes back up, shall we?" Sirius suggested, staring shakily at the unconscious Acromantula.

The others nodded silently, and they all made their way back out of the forest. Sirius led the way this time, his wand out and ready should they encounter anymore beasts before getting out. Remus followed just behind him, carrying Michelle so that she wouldn't injure her foot any worse. James, Lily, and Peter brought up the rear, with James guiding Lily.