Chapter 5
Remus crawled through the grimy hole. Well ok, not crawling exactly, more of walking crouched. His hands started to get muddy and sweaty and he had to repeatedly wipe his hands on his pants. It was a long walk and he thought it would never end. Remus hit his head a fair few times on the low ceiling and he cursed in pain while rubbing his head. Finally, just when he thought he would die in the tunnel from dehydration, he saw an opening above him he started to go up hill. He hurried to the opening.
Remus crawled through the opening and stood up straight, wiping his hands on his pants and looking around. He was standing in what seemed the living room. There was a coffee table, two armchairs and a couch. He saw stairs leading up. Remus went to one of the boarded up windows and looked through. Through it he saw what must be the little wizarding town of Hogsmeade. Next, he went upstairs and saw a couple doors leading off to somewhere. In the first one was a bedroom with a four-post bed and a small table. The next room was a second bedroom, and then a restroom. He looked out the windows again and saw that the sun had set at that the moon was rising slowly.
Remus' heart quickened like every time he saw a full moon. He went downstairs and started to pace around the living room.
The moon didn't touch him and yet he would still always turn into a werewolf. He had already tried running from the moon, hiding from the moon, and just sleeping before the moon came out. It never worked. Every month he still went through the same torture and pain of transforming.
Remus saw a sliver of moon out of the window and he sat down on the floor. Quite suddenly his screams pierced the nights. Women and men woke up in their sleep or looked up from reading the Daily Prophet. Children sat up, listening to the horrifying sound and called for their mommies. Mother's would hold their children close to their breasts as if in fear that a creature was walking up their pathway.
Suddenly Remus felt his nose lengthening, his hands and feet forming into paws, his nails becoming sharper and longer. His body began to get hairy all over, his robes ripped as his body became bigger. And still his screams rattled the air, except now they were turning into growls and howls.
And then it stopped. The people of Hogsmeade all sat there breathing hard as there was silence once again, and the same question was all going through their minds. What was that?
Remus growled, his teeth now sharper and more deadly needed something to gnaw on, something to bite, to tear, and to rip. His wolf eyes were sharper in the dark and he spotted the armchair closest to him. He lunged at it as if it were a deadly enemy. He gnawed on its legs, tore its cushion, and then howled into the night. The people were scared once more.
James lay awake in his bed, staring through the hanging of his bed at wear Remus' bed lay. He sat up a little farther and peered through the maroon hangings at Remus' bed just to make sure Remus wasn't laying still. But no. It was bare with the hangings lying there limply.
"Go to sleep James," a voice mumbled through a pillow to the right of him.
"I can't, Sirius. I'm worried about Remus. Was he really that sick or something?" James said, pulling his hanging so he got a clear view of Sirius, whose head was almost fully covered with either a blanket or a pillow. He moved so at least one eye showed.
"He probably just wanted to stay there just to be safe. He's a worrywart. I mean he does his homework," Sirius mumbled again. They didn't even bother to be quiet. Both Peter and their other roommate, Ronny, were sound sleepers. Almost nothing could wake them.
James laughed. He couldn't help it. Remus was a worrywart and he actually does do his homework. James and Sirius just copied and, well, Peter tried to do his homework but failed so he just ended up copying to.
"If you guys don't shut up, I swear I'll force you too," came another mumbled voice. It was coming from the opposite end of the room.
"Sorry Ronny, we'll be quieter," James said, realizing now how loud they must have been talking.
"You better," Ronny's muffled voice came again. Presently his snores filled the room again.
"Why don't you go check on him if you're so worried?" Sirius whispered to James.
"Because," James started to say, then it slowly dawned on him. "I can. I can use my Invisibility Cloak."
"Yeah, you can. Now go pay a visit to Remy and then sleep!" Sirius said, pulling the covering.
"You mean you, Sirius Black, are going to miss a chance to sneak out past lights out?" James said, smirking. The hangings were pulled back.
"Of course not," Sirius said. They scrambled out of bed and then quietly slipped on their robes and slippers. James opened his trunk and pulled out the Invisibility Cloak. It was slivery and silky in his hands. James wrapped it around the both of them and then creaked out. They went out the door and down the stairs and through the common room where only embers burned in the fireplace.
"Ow! Watch it! You stepped on my toe!" Sirius complained, a little too loudly.
"Sorry, but keep it down, I don't want this taken away before I've barely used it," James said, shushing Sirius up.
"Sorry," Sirius said in a whisper barely audible.
The duo crept out of the common room where the Fat Lady was too asleep to notice. Down the halls they tiptoed, meeting no teachers but a cat.
"Mrs. Noris," Sirius whispered to James, looking at the cat as they walked by.
"Shh!"
They finally reached the infirmity where Madame Pomfrey was silently giving a remedy to a patient in pain there. There were only two. James and Sirius crept around her and looked at the first patient. It wasn't him. They went past the second curtain and looked at the second patient. He wasn't Remus either.
James looked quizzically at the sleeping boy there. He had warts all over his skin, but James didn't notice.
Where's Remus? James mouthed to Sirius.
Sirius shrugged and they slowly made their way out of the infirmity and down the halls to their common room.
"You didn't see any other patients did you?" James asked Sirius when the pulled off the cloak in the common room.
"Nope, only those two," Sirius replied to the question. "Those guys must have it hard if they had to stay the night."
"Well Remus must have had it rough too, maybe he had to go to St. Mungos," James said, getting a little worried.
"Nah, maybe he was just in the bathroom or something. He's fine, James," Sirius said, starting to walk up the stairs. He yawned. "We should get some sleep now." James followed Sirius up the stairs where he put his cloak back in his trunk and then lay awake thinking.
Remus gnawed on the wooden foot of the coffee table. Soon it was almost nothing but a twig. Remus crawled around the house and then started loping. Too much energy, he had too much energy. He skidded to stop as he saw himself looking at himself. It was a mirror, but of course his wolf instinct didn't know this.
Remus growled, baring his teeth. He scratched at the mirror and then jumped back, as it did nothing but make a horrible, high pitched sound. He kept backing up until he hit the couch. He turned around and scratched that. Fluff was flying everywhere as his claws flew. Remus stopped and then howled again. Loud and terrible, it was. It was worst yet. He was in pain again.