Under the Sapphire Moon
By Rayven Darkheart

Chapter Four

Night turned into day and day started to wane. Sirius and James had tried to get Remus to leave Ebony's side all day. Professor Dumbledore had excused him from his classes for the day so he could stay with her.

Sirius walked in and tried one last time, hoping against hope that Remus would come to his senses. He patted Remus's right shoulder, watching Ebony lie in the bed. "How is she, mate?"

"She wakes up now and then. She wants to be put back to sleep almost immediately. I don't understand this. She should be over the affects by now. She's so weak." He stroked the onyx hair away from her pale face and chuckled despite himself. "She's probably as weak as I am today."

Sirius cleared his throat gently. "Listen, about that, you need to go to the Shrieking Shack now. You'll do her no good here. You know what could happen." His eyes never met Remus's. "You could… attack her. You know you have no idea what you're doing."

Remus gave him a sharp look before kissing the back of Ebony's hand. "You're right, unfortunately. We're going to go just like always. I just need a few more minutes with her." Sirius nodded and walked out quietly. Remus then turned his attention to the girl lying in the bed. "Okay Ebony, I need to leave. I'll be here first thing in the morning, I promise.

As Remus stood and walked away from her bed, Ebony opened her eyes and stared after him. 'For someone that is uncomfortable with me because of my problem, he's certainly hesitant to leave me.' She looked outside at the slowly darkening sky as she heard feminine footsteps fall behind her. "Madam Pomfrey, I'm fine. I need to leave in a few minutes however."

"It's Lily. I figured you'd want someone to help you get out." Ebony turned around to the girl standing at the end of her bed. Lily caught the skeptical look in her eyes. "I won't stick around for the transformation if you don't want me to. I just think there's going to need to be an explanation about why there's a huge wolf running around at Hogwarts."

Still incredulous, Ebony looked back out at the blackening sky and winced as she felt the first pains of her transformation. "Fine, we need to leave though, now." She got out of the bed and walked briskly toward the exit of the hospital ward, followed closely by Lily.

Remus pulled hard at one of the chains that held his wrist. "Are you guys sure this is going to hold? I'm not so sure myself…"

James slapped him on the back. "They'll be fine. We just need to make sure you're secure so we can look for that other werewolf. We want to leave Peter with you and I don't think a rat cat do much to you, right?" Remus nodded in return, sinking back against the chair he was chained to. "Besides, Padfoot thought you could use some kink in your life."

The other boys all laughed at the look on Remus's face. Sirius noticed the pained look on his friend's face and poked James. "Prongs, it's about time. If we're going to go find this wolfie person, now would be the time." James looked to Remus and watched him nod. Turning into the famed stag, he looked at his friends and trotted out of the shrieking shack, with a grim looking dog behind him. They both stopped short when they heard not one, but two twin screams of agony.

Ebony led Lily farther into the Forbidden Forest. "Are you really sure we should be out here?" Lily's green eyes seemed three times their usual size. "Dumbledore always makes a big stink about not being out here and this year it seemed worse."

Ebony stopped and looked at her roommate. "Why, pray tell, would you think that is?" Ebony's cerulean eyes closed as she tried to control a shudder of pain. The blue orbs only opened again when Lily made a sound of understanding. "That's right. Dumbledore told me to come out here until my transformation was complete. He doesn't want another student stumbling upon me just in case they know what I am."

Lily's eyes widened again in recognition of her situation. "Ebony, are you sure that charm of yours works?" The girl chuckled softly before shuddering in pain again. "I suppose if anyone were to know, you'd be the one, wouldn't you?" The dark girl beside her nodded in agreement. "Do you want me to leave you for the transformation?"

The girl shuddered again and groaned in pain. "No time, just stand back… Try not to be scared." Ebony's words were suddenly lost in a growl.

Lily watched in horror as Ebony's straight white teeth grew into fangs. Her normally feminine face suddenly lengthened into a wolf's muzzle and was slowly covered in black hair. With a scream of pain, Ebony's legs and arms morphed into the legs of a wolf, also covered in the same onyx hair. Lily couldn't stand to watch the rest. Closing her eyes, she could only listen to her friend's painful groans and screams.

The sounds came to an abrupt stop. Lily's eyes snapped open as she felt a soft, warm muzzle brush against her cheek followed by a gentle whimper. She blinked several times, trying to believe what was in front of her. Her once statuesque roommate had been replaced with an onyx she wolf.

The wolf approached Lily carefully, as if to keep from frightening her. Lily gazed into the wolf's eyes and saw the same emotion filled cerulean eyes that had once belonged to Ebony. "Is it really you, or did the big bad wolf eat you?"

Flicking her ears back, the wolf pounced on the red headed girl, causing her to shriek. Instead of the deadly teeth that she was expecting, Lily was met with an affectionate nuzzle before the creature hopped off of her. "I guess it really is you. I suppose I should get back to the Gryffindor room, right?"

As if in answer, the she wolf grabbed Lily's robes gently with her teeth and started leading her toward the tree line. "All right Ebony, I get the picture. I'll see you in the morning." Lily moved away from Ebony and walked toward the clearing.

As soon as she left her eyesight, Ebony sat and stared out at the Forbidden Forest, wondering what she could do to occupy her time. She heard the howl of another wolf. 'Too bad you're always a wolf, friend. You could never understand what it's like to be human for most of the month.'

Just as she was about to head off into the trees to find the wolf that had howled she heard a snarl and a girl scream. Turning her head sharply, she followed the sound with her ears and suddenly realized just where the sound came from. 'Lily!'

Sirius ran as quickly as he could, knocking over the stag in front of him. 'Come on Prongs, I'm bored. Can't we find something better to do than look for a damn wolf?'

Untangling his legs, he head butted the dog with one of his horns gently. 'This is important. Remus could be blamed for what this one is doing if something should happen, you know that.'

Sirius grabbed James's horn with his teeth and was just about to answer when they heard a girl scream. He let go as if he had been shocked with electricity. 'You don't think…'

Both of them took off as quickly as their legs could carry them. They cleared the last of the trees just in time to see Lily knocked to the ground. Just as she was about to get up again, she was knocked back over by a wolf, but not just any wolf. 'Remus, no!'