Title: Wake
Disclaimer: Not mine. All JK's
Summary: The marauders had a tough time becoming animagi without the help of trained professionals. This is just a little exploration of the guilt that Remus felt as a student, watching his friends break the law.
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Something had woken Remus. Something odd. Something subtle. It was as though the temperature was slightly off or the air a little different. But that wasn't right.
He lay staring silently at the red canopy over his bed, illuminated by the moonlight. James had opened the window again. He had a habit of doing that. He liked the open air, and even though Remus had often reiterated that the moonlight made him uncomfortable, James consistently chose to forget.
Maybe it was the moon that had woken him. It wouldn't be the first time.
He rolled onto his side, facing away from the window, and determinedly closed his eyes. To his irritation the moonlight was actually strong enough to permeate his eyelids. He could just make out the suggestions of blood vessels. He groaned and flung himself onto his back, eyes wide open.
He wondered if it was worth leaving the warmth of his blankets to close the window. He was naked beneath the sheets and getting to the window would require the effort of not only rising from his bed, but also finding his pajamas before leaving the safety of the curtains.
He lay there, quietly tortured, the insistent blue light subtly assaulting his senses for at least ten minutes before enough was enough.
Abruptly he tossed the blankets from his body and threw open the trunk at the end of his bed. A quick search provided him with a pair of plaid pajama pants that he pulled on haphazardly.
Decent enough now he emerged from the cocoon of his four-poster and trotted quickly and quietly for the window, throwing James's curtains a dirty look as he went.
He was halfway there when the scent stopped him. It was faint: gentle and sly. It touched something in his memory and he now knew without doubt that it was not the moonlight that had woken him but this.
He stood still and relaxed his muscles, letting enhanced senses and instinct surface. The scent was canine he was certain, but faint and tainted perhaps, tainted with . . . . .
He let his lids fall heavy over his eyes and inhaled, feeling the breeze on his naked chest and the floorboards beneath his toes. The breath stretched into eternity as his world was brought into bright focus. There was movement, movement of the scent. Movement of . . . Sirius.
He opened his eyes and frowned, giving Sirius' bed a long dubious look before marching over to draw the curtains back.
What he saw came close to making him scream.
The thing lying above Sirius' blankets looked so much like a nightmare Remus had once endured that he found himself rooted to the spot, unable to move or breathe. It was man shaped, but furred in places, with human legs bent disgustingly backward, as though someone had sadistically snapped the solid bones. The hair on its head was coarser than human, the nose black and wet, while the ears were swept back and thin, curling over at the tips. The hands were deformed, as though the fingers had been sliced off at the first knuckle and fur had grown over the wounds. The feet peaking from the ends of Sirius' pajama pants were entirely canine.
Nothing moved, all the world frozen as Remus fought that insistent scream bubbling in his throat.
The open window creaked absurdly and the gentle breeze softly brushed the creature in Sirius' bed. The fur ruffled and the creature stirred. Remus held his breath as Sirius' sharp blue eyes fluttered open and came to rest on him.
They gazed at each other a moment before Sirius blinked in confusion.
"Rwars," he started, then yelped comically in surprise. He bolted upright staring dumfounded at his transformed body.
It was as though a veil of horror had been lifted. This was not the monster of Remus' nightmares but Sirius look-at-me Black, the victim of magic gone wrong. Remus felt the breath he'd been holding leave his lungs in relief.
Right then there was a loud clunk and both Remus and Sirius turned in the direction of James's bed.
Remus spared Sirius one last glance before rushing over and flinging James's curtains aside. What he saw made him fight a sick sort of urge to laugh.
The clunk had been the result of an impressive set of antlers colliding spectacularly with the bed frame, now in splinters. The antlers themselves were attached to James and seemed to be weighing him down so his head was effectively pinned to the pillow. James himself was squinting around in confusion, ineffectively reaching for the small table where he kept his glasses.
"Hang on mate, I'll grab those," said Remus reasonably, coming to his senses. He took James's glasses and carefully perched them on his friend's nose.
James made some odd grunting noises that sounded vaguely like "thank-you" then frowned at the sound. Like Sirius he appeared to have lost his ability to speak. He reached up slowly with both hands to feel what had grown from his head. A look of glowing fascination lit his face as his fingers explored the addition.
Remus dimly registered a clicking of claws making slow progress across the dormitory.
James grabbed an antler in each hand and experimentally tried to lift. Three tries later he'd managed to haul himself upright and given Remus a cheeky grin.
"Oh Merlin," Remus sighed in a long-suffering tone.
James made a chuckling sound and climbed awkwardly to his knees, his balance inept and shaky. Having achieved that small feat he looked immensely proud of himself for about two seconds before his eyes widened in shock. Sirius had reached the bed. James's grip on his antlers failed and he dropped pathetically back to his pillow at an awkward side angle.
This was apparently too much for Sirius, who pointed a deformed claw at James, threw back his head and barked manically with glee, revealing a frighteningly vampish set of teeth. Then he barked even more hysterically at the demented sound of his own barking and promptly fell flat on his face as he lost control of his backward knees.
Remus brought a hand to his brow and began to count to ten.
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"So what went wrong?" asked Remus pointedly.
"Not sure," said James, "Maybe it was a bit soon to be drinking that potion. I thought we had it timed right but… ah well."
"Does this mean you have to start the process all over again?" Remus asked, dreading the answer.
"Yeah, of course," said Sirius absently, turning a page of his transfiguration textbook, "Minor setback. Don't worry Moony, we'll come through."
Their flippancy was grating Remus' nerves. "You know you don't have to do this," he said.
"For the hundredth time, yes!" said James with a grin. "But we'll get it right next time. We'll be with you at full moon soon enough."
Without moving his head Sirius lifted his eyes to give James a meaningful look.
Remus wasn't impressed. He knew what that look meant. They'd predicted he'd be freaked out by the night's events. They'd discussed it while he was in the library that day. Possibly they'd even come up with a strategy to calm him down and convince him that this animagus thing was safe and that despite all evidence to the contrary they knew what they were doing.
He sighed. They were going to go through with this. They were doing it for him, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. The express train had left the station and for better of worse Remus was on board.
"Just promise me you'll tell Peter how to get rid of his tail before the end of the day."