Harry Potter or any other characters associated with the book are the sole property of J. K. Rowling. Any original character created solely for this story belongs to me, Little C.
Reviews, comments and even flames are welcome. A big thank you to my beta reader Dorothy. Chapters 1 to 5 have been through a slight revision to eliminate typos and such.
The Things We Never Did or Said, Chapter Five
Lindsey woke with a start, startling Lily awake as well. Warm blood dripped from her nose but she ignored it. Grabbing her robe that was lying nearby, Lindsey slid out of bed and padded barefoot across the room to the window.
"Where are you going?" Lily asked in a hushed voice, still a little jumpy from the scare. "It's the middle of the night."
"I had a vision," Lindsey said and opened the window. "James is in danger."
"James and the others are safely tucked away in their beds," Lily said. "We even saw them walk up to their dormitory."
"But did we see them stay there?" Lindsey asked as she hopped up on the windowsill. "You yourself said you had seen them sneak away in the dead of night and not return until early morning."
"But that was years ago," Lily objected, "James is Head Boy now and Remus is a Prefect, they would never do anything like that now! Besides, it's the weekend before N.E.W.T.s."
"Lily," Lindsey said gravely, "this is Potter and his friends we are talking about."
"You're right," Lily said, "but you'll be seen."
"What's one more owl in the dark," Lindsey said and transformed into her Animagus form. As she spread her wings to take flight she felt a tug at her tail feathers and turned and looked at Lily.
"Be careful," her friend said. Lindsey nodded as best as she could and took off.
The chilly night air helped to clear away the rest of the sleep from her mind. The vision had her somewhat confused, since she had been asleep at the time. For some reason, in her vision James had been a stag and was chased by either a wolf or Remus and since that made no sense she must have been dreaming when the vision hit her and they got mixed up in each other.
She flew low over the ground looking for movement, and detected footprints that lead towards the Forbidden Forest, so she headed that direction. If the boys were indeed in the forest, then they probably were in danger. She just hoped she wasn't too late.
It was hard to see anything in the murky darkness beneath the treetops, even with an owl's superior night vision. The full moon wasn't that helpful either, though it managed to shine through in certain places. She never felt comfortable flying around trees; she preferred wide open spaces and the free breeze that allowed her to glide. And in a forest such as this, wide open spaces were rare.
She liked her Animagus form. It was agile, had keen senses, and she loved being able to fly. She could have done a lot worse than an owl. Her only complaint was that her arms tired easily since she wasn't able to fly often. Flying had given her some serious upper body strength, but the fact that she was female and in a place like this, it was difficult to maintain.
Tired, she landed in a moonlit glade and transformed back into human form. With that the superior night vision was lost so she was left with doing the best she could with her normal vision and the moonlight.
Suddenly she heard the call of what sounded like a wolf, only wilder and more eerie. She grew cold as she recognised it as the howl of a werewolf and it seemed near. She heard the rustling of leaves. Something was approaching. Suddenly a stag came bursting into the glade, stopping abruptly when it noticed her.
She didn't know what was more surprising to her, the fact that it didn't bolt as soon as it saw her or the fact that the look of surprise on the stag's face was all too human. The memory of the vision came back to mind.
"James?" she asked befuddled. "Is that you?"
The stag took off and she followed. As an owl she would have no problem keeping up with the stag but as human she had to lumber on the best she could. It wasn't like she was dressed for this either, both her nightgown and robe kept getting caught in the thick undergrowth.
Tired and with aching feet, she tripped over a root and fell, hitting her jaw on another root and she tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.
With pain-induced tears stinging her eyes, she got to her feet and looked around. There was no sign of the stag.
Leaning against the trunk of the tree, she felt like crying. She was lost in the Forbidden Forest dressed only in her nightclothes which were more or less in shreds. Her jaw hurt from the fall, her feet hurt from running over twigs and pine needles. She was tired from running and doubted that she would have enough strength to fly back to the castle if she transformed. To top it all off there was a werewolf somewhere out there.
"I'm so dead," she whimpered and sank down on the ground. Warm tears dripped down her face as she started to cry.
Much later she would berate herself for not climbing the tree when she had the chance, but when she heard the rustling of leaves and low growling, all thoughts but one left her mind. With a surge of adrenaline coursing through her veins, she got up and ran.
She heard the snarling of a large animal running after her and she knew that there was no way she would be able to outrun a werewolf. Sooner or later it would pounce on her and then it would all be over.
Tripping once again, she fell into a puddle of water. She was exhausted, and only had the strength to turn around see the werewolf standing some six feet away.
"Mum! Dad! Help!" she screamed, knowing it was futile. "Lily! Help! SIRIUS!"
The werewolf readied itself to lunge at her and tear her to shreds, when it suddenly howled in pain and began to frantically shake its tail. To her surprise, Lindsey saw a grey, somewhat fat rat biting the werewolf's tail. Suddenly the stag returned, lowering his head to charge toward the beast. Knocking the werewolf off its feet, the stag used his antlers to toss it into the foliage. Dazed from the assault and angry at the attack, the werewolf got to its feet. Wild feral eyes pinned the stag and long sharp fangs glittered in the moon light as the werewolf growled menacingly. The stag took off into the forest and the werewolf followed.
Flabbergasted was an understatement for what Lindsey felt at the moment. What that rat and stag had done was not typical animal behaviour.
And suddenly Sirius was at her side.
"Can you walk?" he asked and she shook her head. Sirius scooped her up and carried her. She didn't know where he was taking her and nor did she care, much like she didn't care how the heck he could have turned up so suddenly.
Lindsey had no idea where they were except that it was a very old house. Sirius gently put her down on some blankets spread out over a rickety four-poster bed with a dusty and shredded canopy. Tired, but curious, she looked around the room. The windows were boarded shut but some moonlight managed to filter in and illuminate the dusty room. Furniture lay upturned, some damaged beyond repair. There were signs of claw marks on the walls, floors and furniture. On a low bureau near the door she saw some herbs and fresh bandages.
"Where are we?" she asked as Sirius shrugged off his robe and draped it over her shoulders.
"The Shrieking Shack," he answered.
"What!" she exclaimed and tried to get to her feet. "This place is haunted, we have to get out."
"Relax," Sirius said, forcing her gently to sit down. "This place isn't haunted, not by ghosts anyway."
"What?"
"The rumour that this place is violently haunted is untrue," she heard James from the hallway. He appeared in the doorway seconds later.
"Did you manage to shake him?" Sirius asked solemnly.
"I did," James said with a sigh, "Peter is downstairs keeping guard in case he followed or decided to head back early."
"What are you talking about?" Lindsey asked getting to her feet despite the pain. "Where is Remus? What are you doing sneaking around in a haunted house? Where did that werewolf come from? Who is it?"
"Should we answer them in that particular order or should we just pick one at random?" Sirius asked, coaxing her to sit on the bed again.
"Just tell me what the heck in going on," she growled, surprised at the nerve of Sirius, still cracking jokes at a time like this.
"Actually," James said coming over to the bed, "I'm Head Boy so you will answer my question before we answer any of yours."
"I'm not going to answer any of your questions unless you answer mine," Lindsey objected.
"You answer one of mine and I'll answer one of yours," James said. "Is that okay?"
"Fine," Lindsey said.
"What were you doing out in the Forbidden Forest?" James asked.
"Looking for you," she said, "I had a vision you were being hunted by some vicious animal."
"What do you mean by vision?" he asked.
"I answered one of your questions," she said, "now you have to answer one of mine."
"She is right," Sirius said and James gave a nod for her to ask.
"Why are you sneaking around a haunted house?" she asked.
"Because it isn't haunted," James answered. "What do you mean by visions?"
"I'm surprised Sirius hasn't told you," she said sardonically. "I thought he told you everything."
"Not everything," James said, "and just answer the question."
"I have visions of the future," she said with a sigh, "five to ten minutes before it actually happens. Where is Remus?"
"Around," James said, being evasive. "What exactly did you see?"
"You being chased by a wolf," she said, "well, actually I saw a stag that I perceived to be you being chased by a wolf that I perceived to be Remus. I must have been dreaming about a zoo when the vision hit me."
Lindsey noticed the tense expression on their faces as well as the glance they exchanged; the look of someone getting caught in the act. And suddenly it dawned on her and she got up from the bed.
"They call you Prongs! You were that stag out in the forest! You ARE an Animagus!" She levelled James with a piercing stare. "Why didn't I see it before? How could I have been so blind?"
"Well, now that the cat is out of the bag I guess there is no reason denying it," James said with a shaky laugh. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
"I'm bloody tempted," Lindsey said, "but I'm not going to."
"Really!" Sirius said looking relieved. "I mean, you have all the reasons in the world to tell on us!"
"If I tell on you," she said, "I might as well admit that I too am an Animagus."
"You are?" James and Sirius said in unison.
"Don't act so surprised," she said. "You must have noticed how certain books disappeared from the library? I did."
"We did," Sirius said, looking a little shocked.
"We just never thought it would be you," James said.
"Well, had I known the pains I would suffer for it I might not have done it after all," Lindsey grumbled, "next time Lily says something is a bad idea I'll listen."
"In other word you have just as much to lose as we do," James said.
"If you want to get technical about it," Lindsey said, "but that doesn't explain why there is a werewolf out there - one that you obviously know about - or where Remus is."
James was just about to say something when the door burst open and Peter came into the room. He looked terrified.
"He's back," he whimpered with a small voice. In the next instant he transformed into a rat and scuttled away.
"Our hero," Sirius said and rolled his eyes, though it was clear that he, too, was as scared as Peter, only he was able to control his fear.
"We need to get out of here," James said urgently.
"How? If he is downstairs we can't get to the tunnel," Sirius said.
"Who is downstairs?" Lindsey asked.
"The werewolf," James said, "this is his place."
"So all the howling and fighting that people assumed to be violent ghosts is really a werewolf?" Lindsey asked and James nodded. "Somehow that isn't the least bit comforting."
"Can you transform?" James asked her.
"Yes, but I doubt I'll be able to fly," she answered.
"You transform into a bird?" Sirius asked his voice keen with interest.
"An owl," she said.
"We don't have time to discuss that now," James said, "if we can get to one of the other rooms we might be able to sneak out of a window or something."
Sirius helped her down from the bed despite the fact that she could get to her feet without help, while James sneaked over to the door to see if the corridor outside was empty. James motioned for them to get over to him and together they tiptoed out into the corridor. As they were halfway to one of the other rooms they heard a growling sound from behind.
"Run!" James shouted and they made a dash for the room they had set their sights on.
James and Sirius closed the door, bracing their weight against it as if that would hold off a werewolf. Lindsey looked around the room and her heart sank to her feet.
"There is no window in this room," she said.
"What?" James exclaimed, horror struck.
Something heavy was thrown at the door and both James and Sirius moved away. They backed into a corner, placing themselves between Lindsey and the shuddering doorframe.
The door burst into the room in an explosion of splintered wood and dust. The werewolf levelled them with its predatory eyes and stalked towards them.
Sirius transformed into his Animagus form and for some reason Lindsey wasn't the least bit surprised that he turned into a huge bear-like dog.
The werewolf paused as if confused that a huge dog suddenly appeared to challenge him. Lindsey wondered if the werewolf was even aware that it was one of the humans transformed. She had read about werewolves in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but had never seen one before and the fact that this creature standing before them right now had ever been human was impossible to fathom. She had always imagined them to look like really big wolves like she had seen at The London Zoo, but this creature were nothing like a wolf.
James pressed back against her and she felt something jab her in the ribs. Looking down she saw it was James' wand. Without really thinking she grabbed it. Pointing it towards the werewolf she shouted,
"Stupefy!"
Red sparks shot from the wand and hit the werewolf mid-leap and it fell unconscious to the floor with a thud.
Sirius transformed into himself and looked at Lindsey who was still holding James' wand in her outstretched hand.
"Give me that," James muttered and yanked the wand from her, "before you poke someone's eye out."
Lindsey hadn't expected gratitude for saving their lives, after all she was just a girl and James and Sirius were the brightest and most talented wizards ever to attend Hogwarts.
The more she thought about it, it was really laughable how easy it had been to save their lives. Lindsey tried to keep herself from laughing, but as Peter came slinking into the room, she just couldn't help herself and doubled over with laughter. She laughed so hard she fell over and ended up sitting on the floor with tears trickling down her face.
When she managed to get her laughter under control she noticed that James, Sirius and Peter were looking at her with the strangest expression on their faces.
"What?" she asked with a smile.
"You just laughed," James said looking as though he had just witnessed a miracle.
"Well, it was funny," she said.
"It is funny that you saved our lives?" James asked. He seemed to be the only one that had regained his wits, Sirius and Peter was still staring at her.
"Sure," she said, "seeing as we could have just Apparated out of here, since we are well away from school grounds."
"Oh, be quiet," James said huffily and pointed his wand at her. "Before I put a Silencing Charm on you."
"We should get downstairs," Sirius said looking down at the werewolf. "It is still a few hours before dawn and I don't want him to wake before he has returned to normal."
The others nodded and they all left the room. Sirius tried to scoop her up in his arms to carry her downstairs but she batted him away from her, insisting she could walk on her own.
They regrouped downstairs in what looked as though it might have once been a living room.
"Can somebody tell me who that werewolf is and where is Remus?" she asked them yet again.
"I think we should tell her," Sirius said to James, "she is going to find out in a few hours anyway, might be a good idea to get the explanations out of the way as fast as possible."
"You're right," James said. "The werewolf is Remus."
"What?" Lindsey asked thinking she gone temporarily deaf or something because she just thought she heard James telling her that Remus was a werewolf.
"Remus is a werewolf," he said.
"For how long?" she asked still not sure how to process this information.
"Since he was young," Sirius said.
"How is he able to attend Hogwarts? Does Dumbledore know about this?"
"It was Dumbledore that worked out the plan for him to attend," James said.
"And you have known this for how long?"
"Ages," James said, "that's why we learned how to transform into animals, so we could always be together."
"You learned the difficult and dangerous art of Animagi just so you could run around at night with a werewolf?" Lindsey asked. As she spoke, she walked up to James and was now standing in front of him.
"Yeah," he said.
"Are you insane?" Lindsey yelled at him and grabbed hold of the front of his robe and shook him as she continued yelling at him. "Do you know how dangerous that is? You're Head Boy for crying out loud!"
She released him with a shove and he took a step back regaining his balance.
"You got some serious upper body strength there, Bloodsworth," he said amazed.
"You have no idea," she muttered.
"If you'll give us a minute we can explain," Sirius said.
"You better," Lindsey told him, "because right now I'm of the mind to go up there and wake the werewolf."
"Let's all sit down," James said, "because this will take some time."
They all sat down on the dusty floor.
To Be Continued…