One hour earlier a boy sat alone in the encroaching darkness, his back to the open window. The sun was already set. It would only be a few minutes before the moon would rise.

No. Don't think about it, he told himself, it'll only make it worse. Think of something else. He stared at the torn, graying wallpaper, trying to make himself forget that he knew where the tears had come from. He tried not to imagine what had happened to make him rip the wallpaper off the walls.

No. Not him. He didn't rip the wallpaper, it had. Sirius had told him to say it. "It isn't you, Remus," he had said, "So stop calling it that."

It wasn't him. It wasn't him. His mantra was doing little to soothe his fear which increased with the darkness.

No. No. it was going to happen any minute now. He could feel the moon rising without even having to see it. He could sense its slow but definite appearance in the sky. A slow shiver ran down his spine.

Any minute now, any minute.

Stop anticipating it, he told himself, it'll only make it worse.

But he couldn't stop. He dreaded it too much to forget it in an instant. He was afraid of it more than anything else in the world. He hadn't honestly had time in his life to develop a fear of something else. After experiencing this, there was nothing he could reasonably be afraid of.

But he had enough fear in this one moment to last him a lifetime.

And it would happen the same time next month and for the next few days.

The shivers increased.

Any second now, any second.

He heard the wind howl in the distance.

The fear was worse than usual today. He was always petrified, but tonight, if possible, it was worse than ever. Something was going to happen tonight, he could feel it. He couldn't stand to be alone.

"Hurry!" he shouted into the empty room as the darkness surrounded him. "Hurry up, please!" he shouted though he knew who he was shouting too could not hear him. "I can't take it," he screamed, "I can't! Come on! Come quick, I--!"

But the words were strangled in his throat.

It was beginning.

He grew rigid suddenly, and his heart seemed to stop beating for a few seconds. Everything was silent for just those few seconds. He was motionless. He couldn't feel a thing. He didn't notice anything. His mind was blank. It was almost like he dead. But he would regain life in just a moment. His heart would beat again, but it would be changing slowly. He would feel again, but it would be nothing but pain. He would think again, but it wouldn't be rational. Just a moment and it would be over.

And the moment was gone.

He screamed as his heart beat again, pumping faster and faster, so fast it should have killed him. It shifted too, changing shape, forming the heart of something else, something dangerous.

Pain. Everywhere and everything was in pain. Every movement hurt and he wanted nothing more but to be still, but his body shivered and convulsed and was a flurry of motion that he could not control.

Something cracked. Unadulterated pain surged through his body as every bone, every organ, moved and broke, becoming something different.

He felt as if he was on fire. He was growing delirious. He wanted to die; he wanted someone to kill him now so the pain would go away. He didn't care what happened, he wanted it to stop.

His body was not his own; even if he had wanted to move he couldn't. It was as if someone had hijacked his body and would never give it back.

Something shifted inside of him as his body had to rearrange itself to fit this new form. His mind, delirious from pain, was becoming clouded. His last thought, a plea for a merciful death, was lost as the hijacker seized his mind. He would not remember anything until the next morning. When he regained consciousness tomorrow, he would be thankful that he could not remember.

The wolf, shaking itself and slowly moving its sore limbs, stood up carefully. It looked savagely outside the open window, wanting nothing more but to get out. It sniffed the air carefully, hungry.

Something had to be around here. Something had to be here to eat.

It tore down the hallway, its hunger growing stronger with each step. It needed something. It needed to have something in its mouth soon. If it didn't find something…

Something furry darted across its eyes. Quickly, it turned on it and bit in hard.

Food… Food! It thought joyously, tearing the thing in his mouth. It paused for a moment, pain darting sharply.

It had done it again, it had bitten itself!

Enraged, it attacked the wall blindly, biting and scratching and tearing with its teeth, filling its hunger and subduing its anger.

Moonlight filtered in through the gash in the wall.

Empowered by the moon, it continued to attack at nothing, tearing and crumbling the wall, ripping off shreds of wood and plaster. It tried to swallow the pieces but wheezed the dust on the floor. It tasted horrible. The moon glinted again and his hunger grew.

It did not matter. It was something.

The wall was down and almost all of the pieces swallowed. He was hungry still, and craving something real.

Something living.

There was a space behind the wall, another room. It wandered through, hoping something was there.

It stopped.

Its head was swimming suddenly and everything seemed to be spinning. The wolf howled in annoyance as he felt himself slipping into darkness.

In a forest in a pile of scattered leaves, a black dog lay motionless. Its large eyelids drooped open sleepily and its pupils widened they adjusted to the inky darkness. Suddenly, the dog jolted upwards, almost springing to its feet. It humanly looked frantically at his surroundings, its ears back, its haunches tensely up. Something was happening that it did not like.

This was not where it last remembered being.

Something cracked behind him.

He turned around quickly, but nothing was there.

Then suddenly the dog was gone, and there was a boy in his place.

"James!" the boy shouted, "Prongs, where are you?"

In the distance, something seemed to stand up in the darkness. The boy squinted and the shape formed more clearly. A long neck and a head. Antlers.

The boy sighed with relief. "Prongs! Over here!"

The shape in the distance changed into something human. It moved out of sight but the boy could hear its footsteps running toward him. He strained his eyes to see in front of him, but it was too dark. He could barely make out the trees surrounding him.

"Sirius?" a voice called out in the darkness, "Where are you?"

"I'm over here. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. I can't see anything though. Ow!"

"What happened?"

"Whoops. I think I just stepped on Peter. I don't think he knew it was me. He bit me."

"Grab him!"

"I tried, but he ran away and I can't see anything!"

"Never mind then. Come here."

"I can't see you."

"Use your wand then. I'll use mine too." The boy called Sirius muttered something to himself and a small beam of light appeared on the end of a long wooden stick. Even with the small light, he could barely see anything.

"It's not working very well," the voice shouted out to him. Obviously the other boy was having the same trouble.

"It doesn't matter. Keep talking. I'm going to try and find you."

"Alright. I'll try to find you too. With luck we'll find each other."

The boy took a step closer to his friend's voice.

"James?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Where do you think we are?"

"I have no idea. I think something happened when we—Ow!"

Sirius fell backwards suddenly, and there was a sound very nearby of someone falling in the same way.

"James?" Sirius reached forward and his fingers brushed up against a piece of cloth that felt very much like it belonged to a sweater. Hands closed around his fingers suddenly but Sirius did not jump back.

"Oh, there you are Sirius," said the voice who owned the hands. He stood up and pulled Sirius up to his feet. "Sorry about bumping into you like that."

"No problem Prongs."

"Where's Peter?"

"I don't know but I really hope he still isn't a rat. Do you know how hard it's going to be to find a rat in a forest in this darkness?"

"Speaking of which, where the bloody hell are we?"

"Beats me, Prongs, I already asked you the same question."

"Well we're obviously not in the shack anymore, but I don't know why we would—"

"Did you feel faint and dizzy when you walked into that room too?" asked Sirius suddenly.

"What? Oh. Yeah, I did."

"Well I guess something about that room made us pass out. It probably was hidden or something and had some sort of guard on it."

"Why would that room have a guard on it?"

"I dunno. Why else would we pass out?"

"I don't know but I highly doubt Dumbledore would stick Remus in a place with a guarded room."

"Well it obviously was a hidden room, because I have never seen it before. He probably didn't imagine Remus could find his way in it."

"Okay, whatever. I still don't really believe you, but I'll go along with it."

Sirius rolled his eyes in the darkness, though his friend could not see him. "Well considering we passed out, it must have been because of some sort of enchantment on that room, and then someone might have moved us into the forest."

"Who would have moved us Padfoot? We're…at least I, am a little to big too move. And who else would be there besides us that could move us?"

"Merlin, I don't know! I was just trying to make some sense of something!"

"Nice try Padfoot," the boy said chuckling, "But it didn't work."

"Well whatever. We still have no clue where we are, how we got here, or why both of us passed out in that room."

"And we need to find Peter."

"James, do you know how hard it will be to find him?"

"We have to try," James said, "We can't just leave him out here."

"You know Moony's probably here too. Did you ever think of that?"

"The moon isn't out at all here," James said suddenly, "There's no moon at all!"

Sirius looked up at the sky, silent for a few seconds in shock.

"Do you think we've been out for a few days?" he asked quietly.

"It would have to be more like four, since full moons last for a while."

"Do you think it's possible?"

"What?"

"That we've been out that long?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem likely. But then nothing else makes any sense."

"James! Sirius!" called a voice shakily from a long way away, "Where are you?"

"We're over here Peter!" James called, "Follow my voice!"

"What? What's going on? Why is it so dark?"

"Because it's night, you idiot," Sirius shouted, "Why do you think?"

Several seconds later the boy called Peter stumbled out of the darkness into the meager light of James's and Sirius's wands. Peter pulled out his own wand and a beam of light shined out of it, combining with the others. It was easier to see now.

"Right. So now we have to find Moony," James said decisively.

"How will we do that? We can barely see."

"H-he's here?" Peter stuttered nervously, "How do you know?"

"I don't know if he's here," James said irritably, "But he might be and we still don't know where he is."

"If we've been out for a few days then maybe he's back at the castle."

"If we've been out for a few days he wouldn't have left us there."

"Unless he was loose when we couldn't find him," Sirius said darkly, "And they caught him."

"No!" James shouted, his eyes wide, "No! That couldn't have happened! He's still out there! We have to find him!"

"You're forgetting," Sirius said calmly, draping his hand around his friend, "That we might not even be near the castle anymore. We might not be anywhere near Remus. He might still be in the shack, or in the Forest somewhere."

"He'd still be out loose," James said quietly, "And if we aren't there we can't help him and…and…who knows what is happening…"