ROTRUFIN

CHAPTER THREE-Oh BABY!

"Shredded?" Lily asked in a small voice.

"Looks like some kind of animal attack," Professor McGonagall said. "We just found her now. Her friends said that she had snuck out of Ravenclaw tower late last night to meet someone. When she didn't turn up for breakfast and classes, they got worried and went to Professor Anicks. We found her outside near the Forbidden Forest."

James, Lily, Sirius, Emma and I all exchanged looks.

"Classes are suspended for the rest of the day," McGonagall said.

As we were gathering our things, Lily leaned close to me.

"Do you remember what you did last night after leaving the common room?" she whispered as the rest of the class idled out into the corridor.

We followed behind.

I frowned.

"Come to think of it, no," I said. "I mean I remember hearing Emma's scream and going to her, but after that it's a blank after she fell asleep."

Fear crept into my face now.

"You don't think it was me…do you?"

"I doubt it," Lily said firmly.

"Naw, you've never harmed anyone before. No sense thinking you would now," James said shaking his head.

Sirius frowned.

"I remember after Emma fell asleep, you got down off the bed and left the girls' dorm,"

Now I began panicking.

"Sirius, you really have a hard time cheering people up huh?" Lily scolded. "Remus has never hurt anyone and doubt he would start now. James is right. He probably had to use the bathroom."

Feeling 'slightly' better, we headed back to the common room.

There would be another full moon at the end of the week. Sirius, James and I were going to use the Shrieking Shack this time in Hogsmeade.

There were tunnels under Hogwarts that led into Hogsmeade underground.

That night, we ate dinner. I was still worried that it might've been me that attacked that poor Ravenclaw girl. It turned out that she was a first year. That made my stomach churn even more.

I just pushed the food around on my plate.

Emma leaned over.

"Are you okay, Moony?" she asked kindly and softly.

Moony was my nickname; Prongs was James and Padfoot was Sirius. Wormtail had been Peter's but he was still missing.

"I'm still worried that it was me who attacked that poor girl," I confessed.

"Relax," Emma said softly putting a hand on my wrist. "I doubt it. It might've been a Jungit that did it."

Jungit's were the size of tigers. They were a cross between a tiger and a bear. They had black fur, long claws and red eyes. Their ears were that of a tigers but their face was more bearish.

"They don't live around Hogwarts. The nearest place that they come from is Oxfordshire. I doubt one would travel that far," I muttered.

"If it was a rogue one it would," Emma said reasonably. "It might have rabies and that would explain the odd behavior. I know you. You would never intentionally hurt someone."

She gave me a smile.

I had to smile back. That made complete sense. I began feeling a bit more cheerful.

I began eating my dinner.

EMMA.

Remus looked much better now. After dinner, we headed back to the common room for a bit before turning in for bed.

I fell asleep and dreamed again:

Someone was standing behind a gray wolf that I recognized as Remus.

"They don't trust you after all," a voice was saying. "Come and join me with the others and prove to them that you are to be taken seriously."

Then, the gray wolf charged at Lily. I saw the gleaming canines and incisors sink into Lily's throat. I saw the blood flowing. I screamed.

I woke up screaming again.

"Emma!" Lily's voice cried.

The light was turned on and Lily's face appeared over mine.

I sat bolt upright in bed.

"Another nightmare?" Lily asked concerned.

I nodded and felt my stomach heave. I leaned over the side of the bed and vomited.

"Julie, stay with her," Lily said. "I'm going to get Professor McGonagall."

Julie Davis, a 6th year sat down beside me and put her arms around my shoulders. She had chin length blond hair and blue eyes. Lily left.

Shortly, Lily returned with Professor McGonagall. My stomach heaved again and I vomited over the edge of the bed again.

"Oh dear," McGonagall said kindly. "Come on. Let's get you to Madam Elkin."

McGonagall carefully avoided the pool of sick by the bed and helped me to my feet. Lily took me under my left arm. They began leading me out of the girls' dorm. I had white socks on, a pair of gray sweat pants and a red tank top. My hair was fluffed around my shoulders, but there was sweat still clinging to my neck, chest and back.

We hit the common room and that's when we bumped into Sirius.

"Mr. Black, what are you doing out of bed?" Professor McGonagall scolded.

"Couldn't sleep," he replied. "What's wrong with Emma?"

Immediately concern filled his face as he looked from me, to Lily, to Professor McGonagall.

"She's sick," Lily said before McGonagall could respond.

"I'll help you," Sirius said immediately as he took a step forward, but McGonagall shook her head.

"We've got this, Mr. Black. Please return to your dorm. You can see Miss Gibson in the morning. She'll be fine,"

Sirius hesitated as Lily and McGonagall helped me out of the common room.

REMUS.

I was peacefully sleeping when someone violently shook me awake.

"Flake off," I groaned sleepily.

"Remus, it's me," Sirius' voice said in the darkness. "Lily and McGonagall are taking Emma to Madam Elkin."

My eyes snapped open and I saw nothing but darkness. Sirius switched on the lamp. I cringed from the sudden brightness and sat bolt upright in bed.

"Why?" I demanded quickly.

"She's sick," Sirius said.

I quickly threw off my quilt and sheet and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I was in navy jogging pants and a white tee-shirt.

I stood up.

"Come on," I said urgently.

We left James snoring in his bed as we hurried out of the boys' dorm.

We jogged down the corridor and stopped outside the hospital wing.

"We could get into trouble for this," Sirius said.

"Since when did you worry about getting into trouble?" I asked amused.

"Well, you've already got detention. We're breaking the rules again,"

Ignoring him, I pushed open the hospital wing door and we entered.

Emma was lying on her back on a cot. She had a cold compress across her forehead but she was asleep.

Madam Elkin was checking her over. Lily was sitting on the opposite cot beside Emma's with a nervous look on her face.

Sirius and I stepped closer.

"Is she going to be okay?" I demanded.

"Mr. Lupin," McGonagall said sighing. "I already told Mr. Black to go back to the dorm. We were able to handle this."

"I want to know if she's going to be okay," I said firmly standing at the foot of Emma's cot.

Sirius sat down beside Lily and put his arm around her.

"What happened anyway?" Sirius asked.

"She had another nightmare," Lily said her lower lip trembling. "She woke up screaming and that's when she vomited over the edge of the bed."

"It must've been pretty bad for it to turn her stomach," I said sympathetically.

"I'm not going to report you two this time," McGonagall said sternly. "But I don't want you going and breaking anymore rules…understand?"

Sirius and I nodded.

"How is she Margaret?" McGonagall asked, her tone softening.

"They'll be fine," Madam Elkin said softly.

For a moment, we weren't sure what Madam Elkin was saying.

"They? She, Madam Elkin," Lily said confused.

"They," Madam Elkin corrected Lily gently. "She's pregnant."

Sirius fell forward off the cot and landed face down on the floor.

Lily's eyes widened. I froze, completely shocked.

"How…?" Lily began in a stunned voice.

"Well, Miss Evans, you see…" McGonagall went to explain but Lily shook her head.

"No, Professor," she blushed. "Now 'how' literally, I mean Emma's never been with anyone since we've known her."

"She's actually 4 months," Madam Elkin said.

"So something could've happened over the summer," I said slowly.

"Exactly," Madam Elkin said nodding.

"Well, I shall tell Professor Dumbledore. She'll be allowed to take it easy for the remainder of the 5 months," McGonagall said softly. "I want you three to go back to your dorms. You can all talk to her in the morning."

She gently shooed us out.

I couldn't sleep the rest of the night.

Immediately when the sun came up, Sirius and I got dressed in our robes and uniforms. James woke up.

We quickly filled him on everything. We met Lily and hurried to the hospital wing.

Emma was awake. She was eating breakfast.

She smiled.

"Hi morning,"

"Hey," Lily said. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Emma said. "Madam Elkin gave me a potion to help with my nausea."

"Emma, did she tell you?" James said eagerly. "You're going to have a baby!"

Emma let her fork drop and it clattered onto the plate. Her face drained of all color.

"How do you know?" she asked quietly.

"Madam Elkin told us," Sirius said.

I studied her and then realization dawned on me.

"You knew all along…didn't you?" I asked shrewdly.

Lily, James and Sirius looked from me to Emma.

"Yeah," Emma said in the same quiet tone. "I was scared to tell you."

"Why for Pete's Sake?" Lily asked scandalized.

"Because I was afraid that you'd judge me," she said. "It happened over the summer."

"I can't believe you didn't trust us," I said angrily.

Emma's honey brown eyes filled with tears again.

"I'm sorry," she apologized as tears slid down her cheeks.

I looked into her face and sighed. I felt the anger ebbing away.

I exhaled loudly and sat on the edge of her cot.

"What happened?" James asked gently.

Emma turned her eyes onto him, tears still filling them and streaking down her cheeks.

She took a deep breath and launched into the story.

"You see, this past summer, I dated this Muggle guy. We became real close and I felt like he was the 'one' you know? One night he and I spent the night together. We slept together and a few days later I found out that I was pregnant. We were terrified to tell our parents because we knew they would kill us. But he decided to tell his parents. They naturally were furious with him and called me a slut. He got very angry and blew up at his parents. We stormed from the house and he drove me home," Emma said taking a deep breath.

Her expression became painful now and the tears slid down quicker.

"It began raining heavily so he switched on the windshield wipers". Her tone became even more unsteady. "Something darted out in front of the car and he slammed on the brake. The car fishtailed and we dove nose first into a ditch. The car flipped over a few times and we landed upside down. I managed to unbuckle myself from the seat so I turned to help him. I unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled him from the car. He was badly injured. When the ambulance came, they checked him over and took us to the hospital. My parents came but they didn't know about the baby yet. I was scared that the hospital would tell them. Much to my relief, they didn't. I guess they figured they knew already I don't know…anyway, he didn't make it. He died from internal injuries."

We were silent. Lily got up and sat down next to Emma on the other side. She wrapped her arms around her and gave her a squeeze.

"So I got the letter to come here and was relieved. I could have the baby here and they wouldn't know about it until I went home. I would be able to think of a way to tell them…so when Remus got into trouble, I couldn't tell the truth because I was afraid that I would get expelled and then my parents would surely find out."

"So that's why you couldn't tell," I said slowly.

"Yeah," Emma said moving her eyes back to me. "I'm so, so sorry."

"It's fine," James said affectionately. "Don't worry about it okay? Forget it. Right now we've got you and the baby to worry about."

Suddenly, Emma's eyes widened in fright.

"Oh my God! If McGonagall tells Dumbledore, he'll send an owl to my parents!"

"We'll talk to him," James offered. "Right now. Come on Sirius."

With that he and Sirius left the hospital wing.

"I'll go back to the common room for a moment…I forgot something. We'll meet you guys down in the Great Hall okay?" Lily said giving me a tight hug. I hugged her back before she got up and left the hospital wing too.

Emma shakily put a hand on mine.

I quickly put my hand on top of hers and squeezed it tightly in between my hands.

"I thought you would hate me," she whispered.

I looked at her shocked.

"Why on earth would you think that?"

Emma sighed.

"Because I know how my parents are going to react when they find out…people always call me a 'slut' or something because I slept with someone at my age,"

I shook my head.

"My feelings toward you haven't changed nor will they,"

Emma gave me a big grin.

She threw her arms around my neck and rested her chin on my shoulder. I rested mine on hers. She hugged me and I carefully hugged her back.

"Thanks, Moony," she whispered.

I shut my eyes and gently pressed my face into her hair.

"Let's head to breakfast shall we?" I said clearing my throat.

Just then Madam Pomfrey came into the room.

"She's fit to go…just expect the morning sickness,"

I helped Emma up from the cot and we left the hospital wing.