UNDER THE FULL MOON

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Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I'd Harry Potter in the evening, I'd Harry Potter in the morning, I'd Harry Potter all over this town… is that how the hammer song goes? Eh, who cares, I don't own Harry Potter.

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CHAPTER Six – A FAMOUS RAT

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A leaf, still wet with dew, landed soggily on Remus's face. He sat up, spluttering and wiping at his cheeks.

A moment later, he realized that he was not where he should be.

He sat between two thick trees in a pile of squelchy dead leaves. He stood, and stretched, stiff from a night on the ground. He spun in a slow circle in search of a familiar landmark. Nothing looked particularly spectacular; there were trees spanning out in all directions, as well as a few old stumps, bushes, rabbit pellets, and more wet leaves. The early sunlight filtered through the boughs above him and illuminated the dew-coated spider webs.

Why on earth was he here?

He strained to remember the last night's events. But the elusive images were like a half-forgotten dream. He remembered a vague feeling of frustration, he saw Lily, and the thought of James in his Prongs form stirred up an indistinct fear.

He gnawed at his knuckle, wishing that he could remember more from his lycanthropic hours. Biting… yes, there was something. He could remember tearing at something with his teeth.

Dread drenched him, and he felt suddenly cold. He must have broken away from James and Sirius and made a run for the Forbidden Forest.

Frustration…fear of James…biting…yes, it had to be.

He started walking in no particular direction, but his limbs felt unresponsive as the horrors could have occurred in the night unveiled themselves in his imagination.

Perhaps it was a joke. James and Sirius had played a joke on him and left him alone in the forest. What he got back to Hogwarts, they would laugh at him for worrying.

Hopefully.

"Lost?" someone asked.

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James stood between Sirius and Lily's beds, a hand resting on each, willing them both to heal. There was a lump in his throat, as if he was on the verge of tears, but he had felt on the verge of tears since some time last night. He hadn't cried yet.

He had stayed in the infirmary for the whole night, dozing in short, dream-filled naps. It was mid-morning now, and neither Lily nor Sirius had awoken.

As if she had been reading his thoughts, Lily slowly opened her eyes.

"Lily," James said, after she had sighed slightly and looked around. Her eyes swiveled up to him. "I'm sorry," he said awkwardly.

Slowly, Lily's eyelids drooped back down. "I don't want to talk to you, James," she said flatly. "I hate you. Where's Madam Pomfrey?"

"She's on the other side of the room. Do you want me to get her?" asked James quietly.

"Yes," Lily said. "Now, please, James, go away."

Perhaps Lily had no idea how crushing her words felt to James. Though, he realized, she probably did. He walked to Madam Pomfrey and said in a subdued voice," Lily wants you."

Madam Pomfrey hastened to the new werewolf's side.

James took a seat next to Sirius's bed. Hopefully, Sirius didn't hate him. But James would not blame him if he did.

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"And then I came in, and told them that Sirius was still in the tunnel!"

Peter was more popular than he had been in his life. The news that something had happened was all around the school. A girl who had been in the infirmary with a broken nose (she was Ravenclaw's Keeper, and had been caught by a Bludger) had seen Lily brought in, and she had told her friends. A boy had noticed Sirius, and Professor Slughorn had not helped the matter by pretending nothing had happened.

As the only authority on the matter, Peter suddenly had a lot of friends. He had told the story a dozen times, without embellishing it at all, and people loved hearing it. He completely ignored the fact that Remus didn't want his lycanthropy known, or that his status as an Animagi shouldn't be known. After all, Peter reasoned, people would probably find out after this incident anyway.

Professor Binns rambled on in the background, but the students were far more interested in Peter.

"What exactly happened to Sirius?" a girl asked.

"Well…" Peter said, suddenly hesitant. The memory of Sirius's injuries still made him feel slightly nauseated. But everyone was leaning in, so he began. "Well, his face was all bitten up. Honestly, I couldn't see the one half of it for all the blood--" (A few people recoiled slightly at this) "His body was all bitten and scratched too, and his fur was matted with blood…" Now that he had gotten started, Peter felt a delicious satisfaction in telling the story, "And I think his leg was broken. He looked all crumpled up against the wall—"

A boy who had been leaning in from a few desks away, his chair tilted on two legs, fell to the floor with a crash. Professor Binns looked up.

"What was that?" he asked vaguely. "Henders, are you all right?"

The boy—Ted Henders—fixed his chair and sat down sheepishly. "Yes, sir," he said.

"Good," Binns said shortly, and resumed his lecture.

Peter resumed his own tale.

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He was swimming, he was floating, he was spinning through a reddish haze. He could see Mooney, teeth bared, and he could feel the endless throbbing bite of pain in his face, his chest, his left leg, everywhere…

But the darkness was falling away in layers, replaced by crisp, clean sheets and the smell of something medicinal. Now the red haze was formed only by his eyelids, and Sirius opened his eyes.

The light shot through his head like an arrow and he squeezed his eyes shut. A tiny moan escaped him.

"Sirius? Sirius, are you awake?" a concerned voice asked. A voice. James's voice.

Sirius mumbled something unintelligible.

"How are you feeling? I'm sorry, Sirius, I'm sorry."

Sirius squinted his eyes open once more, and James's head came into focus somewhere above him. He tried to reassure his friend by smiling, but the movement made pain explode in his cheek and he blacked out again.

The next thing he heard was James called for Madam Pomfrey. Something pricked his arm, and the pain began to recede.

He opened his eyes for a third time, and the light wasn't nearly as agonizing. "Hullo, James," he slurred.

"Sirius, I'm sorry," James repeated pathetically. There were deep circles under his eyes, and his hair was messier than usual.

"Don't worry," Sirius said. "What happened?"

James looked at something to Sirius's right. He considered turning his head to see what it was, but that seemed like a project for another occasion.

"James?" he prodded. "What happened?"

"Well," James said thickly. "Lily was bitten."

"I'm sorry," Sirius said vaguely. The effects of whatever Madam Pomfrey had done were ebbing away, and the pain was returning. "She must really hate you now."

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