Remus was pacing his office, waiting for the students to clear out of the hall for the night. Tonight was a full moon. Remus had taken his potion and did not want to be in the castle for his transformation. The lone wolf's sad howls of loss were not something he wished to share with the population of Hogwarts.
Remus was thinking of Harry and how with-drawn he had become over the summer and into the new school year. He never smiled, laughed, nor showed any of the old Harry that Remus was sure was buried underneath all that sorrow. Dark circles remanded under those once sparkling green eyes.
Remus saw Harry in the library almost everyday; pouring over advanced level defense books.
The werewolf could understand how Harry felt on some levels. They had both lost their best friend; the one who was always there for them. Harry's sadness ran deeper, he had lost the only father figure that he had ever had, or remembered.
Being the Quidditch caption had brightened his eyes, especially after each practice and game. But the small light dimmed after a day or too. Harry still was the best seeker Hogwarts had ever seen, pouring himself into it, trying to forget.
Remus also knew that Dumbledore had given Harry permission to keep up with the D.A. and given him Fluffy's old rooms to use. Remus had heard that McGonagall had played a part in helping to furnish the rooms with transfigured pebbles. And the library had supplied books for the army's use. Dumbledore only gave Harry a warning to be careful of accepting new members.
Remus saw Harry in the library almost everyday; pouring over advanced level defense books. It made teaching the members of the D.A. hard because they had covered a lot of the material. Remus usually had a few lessons planned incase this came up.
Finally his sharp hearing could not detect any stray footsteps in the halls. Remus walked from his office and out on to the grounds in the direction of the Womping Willow. The werewolf could feel the pull of the wolf readying it's self to emerge at the dawn of the moon. He walked faster.
He prodded the knot and crept into the seminally endless tunnel. His sensitive hearing picked up movement sounds in the shack.
Maybe the place really is haunted after all. He thought to himself.
He listened closer as he moved along. They were not the sounds you would associate with humans, or ghosts; more like animals.
'I guess I could stand some company,' Remus thought as he approached the door to the shack. The last full moons had been hard, slipping back into his title of the last Marauder. Something Remus wished was not true on so many stars, mostly on the star of Sirius.
Shaken from his thoughts at the door, he opened it, ready for anything.
Well, almost anything . . .
Standing majestically next to each other was a stag, panther, and a wolf. All at attention as if waiting for him Remus noted. He quickly locked the door in which he had just closed before turning back to the animals.
He focused on the stag. It looked like the spitting image of James, minor details changed however. "Harry?" Remus whispered, unsure of himself.
The beautiful stag cocked its head in confusion.
Before Remus could study it, or the others more closely, the full moon raised high into the sky; releasing the monster that dwelled deep inside of the man, only calmed by the potion.
Remus's body lengthened, fur sprouting all over, a tail extending from the end of the spine, teeth growing sharper and longer, ears moving to top the head, becoming pointed, a nose growing longer and turning black, hands melting into paws, eyes changing from a hazel to bright gold.
A fully-grown werewolf had emerged in less than a minute. Remus, in his clear and focused mind, looked apon the three who stood before him once more.
The panther tried to take a timid step back but the stag quickly lashed out a sharp, well placed kick to it's thigh.
The wolf took a step forward, glance over its shoulder at its companions, then another, and another till it was nose to nose with the other great wolf, two pairs of golden eyes locked together.
It gave a sad whimper, looking over the rigid stance Remus had placed himself in incase the animals had felt a need to attack.
The wolf gently licked the werewolf's cheek, and proceeded to nuzzle her head against his neck, letting out comforting whimpers all the while.
Remus was frozen with shock. Many minutes later he began to relax, the wolf's attention like that of a mother trying to sooth her frightened cub. The wolf sat down shoulder to shoulder with the werewolf as the stag made his way over to them.
The stag bowed his head to the werewolf, exposing his neck and taking a very big risk in doing so. Then stood proudly back up, looking over his shoulder at the panther, giving it a pointed look.
The panther warily moved towards Remus. The werewolf wanted to try to convey to the red cat that it was perfectly all right if he wanted to go hide in one of the upstairs bedrooms for the night. Being high on the food chain did not mean you were not afraid to face a werewolf.
The panther looked deep into Remus's eyes and seemed to convince himself that he was in no danger; he then lowered his head in a formal bow, before quickly backing up to his former position across the room.
Remus would have laughed at the panther's actions if the situation had not been so odd and he was in human form.
Then they all stood around and looked at each other awkwardly, none knowing exactly what to do.
Remus finally laid down, figuring that the others would do as they wish or find some mysterious way out of the shack that the Marauders never found. 'They could not have come through the tunnel, could they have?' Remus thought. 'How would they push the knot?'
But the animals had other plans. The wolf lay down next to Remus, head to head. The great stag gracefully folded his legs under himself and rested his back against the werewolf's. The panther curled up at his huge paws.
Remus let out a contented sigh and, for the first time since June, on a full moon, fell asleep.
Remus woke up from the small streams of sunlight that had found cracks to sneak throughin the boarded up windows.
The events of last night came back to him. He quickly sat up and looked around him. The stag, wolf and panther were still sleeping in the same positions from last night. Only now there was a hole in the group where the werewolf had laid. Assuring him that last night was not a dream.
The wolf slowly opened its eyes and blinked slowly in the bit of light, then noticed that it was missing something that was to be lying next to its self. It turned its head and saw Remus sitting up and smiling down at it.
Slowly it got up and stretched, yawing wide, showing off its big, sharp teeth. Remus chuckled. It walked over to him and sat next to him. Remus reached out and scratched the wolf's ears. "You have no idea, my friend, how much it meant for you and your friends to be with me last night." He whispered.
The wolf gave him another kiss on the cheek and nuzzled up closer to him. After a while it stalked up on the stag. Much like a wolf hunting its prey; it prodded the stag with a big paw.
It slowly opened its eyes, saw the wolf and closed them again.
Remus snorted. "You'll have to be a bit more forceful girl."
She turned around and gave him a look like: 'I know what I am doing.'
She turned back to the stag and started to bark; those annoying, yappy, splitting headache giving barks.
The stag opened it's eyes and got up, anything to shut the wolf up. Stretching, he came over to Remus and gave him a good morning nudge in the chest. Remus reached up and petted the stag's head, "Good morning to you too."
The wolf was forcefully awaking the panther, only getting a response when growing and putting her razor sharp teeth an inch from its neck.
The panther had his paw out and was trying to swipe at the wolf while keeping his eye's closed. It reminded Remus of James trying to stay asleep and hit the snooze button on the alarm at the same time. He was pretty good at it too, but the panther had the added difficulty of a moving snooze button.
The red cat too came over and greeted Remus. "I hope you all know how much this means to me." He told the animals surrounding him.
They all gave a slight nod. "Well," Remus said briskly. "I must be getting back to the castle." He went over to the door and opened it. "Are you coming out or do you have other means in which to find your way out?"
The wolf was first out of the door, followedby the stag, and panther. The Stag had to walk in a crouch to keep his antlers from scraping the rock ceiling.
Once they had emerged from the tunnel in to the early morning sunlight, Remus turned to them once more. "Well, maybe see you next month?" He said hopefully.
They gave signs of affirmation and then turned and leapt into the forest, quickly becoming lost in the bramble of the dark woods.
Remus turned also and slowly made his way up to the castle.
Unseen blue eyes twinkled down upon the grounds.
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