DAMASCUS GATE

CHAPTER FIVE-KELLY'S MISSING!

New Years Eve rolled around.

Everyone was celebrating happily and merrily.

We were all partying in the common room. Some of the Christmas decorations were still up like bits of the mistletoe and garland.

I was standing talking to Sirius when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around.

It was Sam Travis, the Gryffindor Chaser. He was really cute and a lot of girls ogled him and giggled whenever he smiled at them.

He pointed above my head.

I looked up.

There was a strand of mistletoe hanging there.

Sirius held up his hands and backed away.

I glared at him. I wouldn't have minded maybe a kiss with Sirius, but Sam was known to be an arrogant jerk.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Sam grinned.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Remus watching intently.

Sighing and eager to get it over with, I turned and faced him.

He had short, wavy blond hair and blue eyes.

He stepped closer and leaned forward. He kissed me. It was like kissing a wet dog and I didn't even kiss him back. This was really my first kiss as I've never been kissed before. I was nervous, but now disgusted and eager for it to end.

"That's enough," I said, pulling back.

"Come on," Sam pressed as he put his hands on my hips and tried to pull me against him.

"I said, 'That's enough'," I said struggling to pull back.

"HEY," I heard Remus bellow angrily as the next thing I knew, he appeared beside me and angrily stepped in front of me. "She said that was enough."

"And lookit this," Sam smirked. "Her bodyguard."

"Back off," Remus said, his blue eyes narrowing.

"I'm shaking in my boots," Sam mocked.

I saw Lily watching intently as well.

Sam turned around as though walking away but then he clenched his fist and pulled back his arm, swinging it around. He punched Remus in the mouth.

Remus stumbled back into me, accidentally stepping on my feet before knocking me backward onto my back on the floor.

Remus regained his balance and retaliated back. Remus punched Sam right in the face. Sam was thrown backward and landed on top of third year sitting on the chair.

"STOP!" Sirius yelled as he stepped in-between Remus and Sam with his arms out at his sides, separating them.

"Leave you worm," Sirius snapped at Sam. "I'm going to tell Professor McGonagall what you did."

"What did I do? All I did was kiss Kelly," Sam said raising a hand to his now black and blue eye.

"Yeah and you kept at it even after she said stop," Remus snarled.

Sam staggered out of the common room. Sirius helped me to my feet.

"You okay?" he demanded worriedly.

"Yeah fine," I grumbled.

Sirius made sure that I was okay before following Sam out of the common room, no doubt heading off to tell McGonagall what happened.

Remus turned to me. Everyone went back to celebrating. Lily watched us for a bit before returning talking to a second year named Jennifer Tyson.

His lip was cut and bleeding badly.

"You're bleeding," I said gently taking his chin and pressing my thumb against the cut.

Remus pulled back.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Come here," I said and pulled him by the sleeve of his robe to a corner of the common room that was empty.

I reached into my robe and pulled out a small packet that was an alcohol wipe. I opened it and pressed it against the cut.

He cringed.

"Sorry," I apologized.

Once the bleeding had stopped, I pulled out my wand and gently pressed the tip against the cut. It healed immediately.

He exhaled loudly.

"Thanks," he said.

"No problem," I said grinning.

I turned and headed back to the celebration.

REMUS.

I watched Kelly join in the dancing that was going on now. She was dancing with a first year named Max Edwards.

She was laughing and having a good time.

I gingerly touched my lip where it had been cut. It was smooth now.

When I saw Sam kiss Kelly, I felt a wave of jealousy roll over me.

Kelly caught my eye and winked at me before she turned her attention back to Max.

At that moment, Sirius came back in.

"What did McGonagall say?" I asked tearing my eyes away from Kelly and moved them onto Sirius.

"Sam's in deep poo," Sirius said. "McGonagall said that almost classified as an 'assault' because she said stop and he didn't. So, she's sending a letter home to his parents and I'm pretty sure he's suspended."

"Good," I said vehemently.

"That was really awesome of you to stick up for Kelly like that," Sirius said.

I shrugged.

"Just doing the right thing,"

"Yeah right," Sirius grinned goofily.

"Why is it everyone thinks that I'm having feelings toward Kelly?" I demanded irritably.

"Because we know you, Moony and we aren't blind," Sirius said simply. "Are you?"

I hesitated and didn't reply right away.

"Ha. So we're right," Sirius said gleefully. "I knew it!"

"Don't you dare say anything!" I hissed at him. "To Kelly mostly."

Sirius held up his hand in a defensive position.

"Hey your secret is safe with me," he said grinning.

"I mean it," I said firmly. "If you tell her, I swear that when you change, I will personally fix you."

"Relax," Sirius said laughing. "It's fine."

We continued to watch Kelly.

That night was a full moon. Sirius and I headed to the Shrieking Shack to change.

We entered the shack and I dropped to my hands and knees on the dust and cobweb strewn wooden floor.

I felt my back lengthen and narrow. My sides expanded slightly and my chest expanded, straining the material of my robe and uniform; dark gray and white fur sprouted all over my body; my legs bent into haunches; my ears grew and tapered into points; my nose and mouth pulled forward into a snout, while white canines and incisor slid down under violet lips. My bottom jaw slid forward also and held the same knife sharp canines and incisors; a tail grew at the base of my spine and my hands and feet changed into paws. I shook my wolf body and turned to Sirius, who had changed into the black dog already.

KELLY.

Lily had gone to bed early. I was sitting up reading in the girls' dorm.

Suddenly, I sensed someone in the room. I closed my book.

"Lily? Jen? Lisa?" I called.

No reply.

Then, I felt a material roughly pulled over my head and someone tightened the end of the material so I couldn't scream. I felt my body being pulled out of bed and I kept thrashing, but I couldn't scream.

Something heavy was brought down on my head and blackness swallowed me up. My body going limp in my captors' arms.

LILY.

A bright flash of light went off toward the back of the girls' dorm. I woke up abruptly but the light had vanished as soon as it appeared.

"Kelly?" I asked as I turned on my light.

From my light, I could see Kelly's bed. The sheets were rumpled and worse thing…Kelly wasn't in it.

"Kelly?" I called as I scrambled out of bed. I hurried over to her bed. I looked around. There was no sign of her in the dorm at all.

I ran and checked the common room…nothing.

I ran back into the dorm and searched by her bed.

Suddenly, something gold glittered in the light from my lamp on in the middle of the bed. I reached forward and picked it up.

It was Kelly's necklace. A small gold horseshoe necklace she always wore. Panic settled in totally.

She was gone.

Blinded by panic, I remembered Remus and Sirius in the Shrieking Shack. I remembered the way to get there. I took off clutching the horseshoe necklace in my hand.

THE WOLF.

Sirius' ears perked up suddenly. Someone was coming. I stood squarely on all fours and lowered my head, retracting my top lip exposing the white canines and incisors. I growled softly and my hackles stood up on end.

Sirius was also in this position beside me.

The person burst into the shack and collapsed to their knees.

I heard a girl sobbing uncontrollably. The moonlight fell across the person. Lily.

Immediately, my body relaxed and I sensed something was terribly wrong.

Alarmed, I walked over to her and sat on my haunches beside her, gently nudging her with my black, cold nose.

"Lily?" Sirius asked as he quickly changed back into his human self and crouched down in front of Lily.

"Kelly…gone," she choked out.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked. "Please try and calm down. Explain to us what happened."

"I-I don't know what happened exactly, but there was a flash of light! When I checked on Kelly, she was missing from her bed. She wasn't in the common room either and I found this," Lily sobbed as she opened her palm and there was the gold horseshoe necklace Kelly always wore.

"Lily, maybe Kelly went for a late night walk?" Sirius asked reasonably. "And maybe the clasp came undone while she slept."

Lily shook her head.

"No! I know something has happened to her!" she sobbed shaking.

"Listen," Sirius said soothingly. "Go back to the school and common room. Remus and I will sniff around to pick up her scent. If we find her, I'll let her know."

"And if you don't?" Lily asked raising her eyes to Sirius'.

"Then we go straight to Dumbledore," Sirius said firmly.

Lily nodded and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

I licked her face.

"Thanks, Moony," she chuckled softly. "I'm feeling a bit better now."

Sirius changed back into the black dog. We followed Lily back to the school.

Once we hit the school, Lily went back to the common room while Sirius and I trotted side-by-side in the corridors, sniffing every corner and crevice.

We then searched every floor…nothing. I was also getting concerned now.

After nearly 4 hours of searching and coming up with nothing, panic settled in.

We headed back to the common room. Lily opened the portrait for us to come through and enter the common room.

Lily was nervously sitting on the couch, staring into the dwindling fire.

The minute she saw us, she jumped to her feet.

Sirius changed back into his human self.

LILY.

"Anything?" I asked hopefully and tearfully.

Sirius shook his head.

I dropped back onto the couch and buried my face into my hands.

"Something's happened to her," I sobbed.

I felt weight on my feet and Remus thrusted his head in-between my arms. He whined.

His amber eyes stared up at me mournfully.

"We'll tell Dumbledore," Sirius said. "I'll go right now. Moony? Stay with Lily."

With that, he took off back out of the common room.

"You do know that you're in serious danger of possibly getting discovered," I sobbed to the wolf.

The wolf barked as if to say, "I don't care".

Remus rested his head on my thighs. I absentmindedly stroked his head.

I just cried.

Shortly, Remus changed back into his human self but he was nude.

I quickly handed him my robe. He wrapped it around him, tore into the boys' dorm and about 4 minutes later came back out fully dressed in his uniform and robe. He was carrying mine. He handed me my robe. I just tossed it onto the arm of the couch.

He sat down beside me.

"I'm sure Kelly will be just fine," he said but by the sound of his tone, he didn't quite believe it himself.

I sobbed.

Remus put his arm around me and pulled me against him.

It was 6:00 AM now. Sirius returned with Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore.

"What did you see?" Dumbledore asked gently.

"I didn't see anything except a bright flash of light," I said as tears streamed down my cheeks. "When I looked into Kelly's bed, she was gone. I even checked the common room and Remus and Sirius searched the castle but found nothing."

Dumbledore's eyes moved onto Sirius and Remus.

"No scent?" he asked meaningfully.

He knew about Remus, James and Sirius.

"No sir," Sirius said gravely.

Dumbledore sighed.

"Then my only conclusion is that someone portkeyed. They portkeyed into the girls' dorm, grabbed Kelly and then portkeyed back to wherever they came from,"

"I thought you can't Apparate inside Hogwarts?" I heard Remus ask.

His voice began breaking.

"Apparate no," Dumbledore said. "But portkeys are a way of getting around the spells that guard Hogwarts."

Remus kept his arm around me.

"Don't worry," Dumbledore said firmly. "We'll find her. I'm alerting the Ministry right away."

McGonagall put a gentle hand on Sirius' shoulder before she and Dumbledore leave.

Sirius turned to us.

"I say we take matters into our own hands," he said angrily.

"Meaning what?" Remus asked.

"We sneak out and find Kelly ourselves,"