The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the cold. He body seemed to convulse into shivers, every bone clattering against the next, his teeth snapping together almost painfully. It was over, he told himself, he would open his eyes and everything would be over. His friends would be standing there smiling at him, ready to remind him of their night of fun that he never could remember.

But when he opened his eyes, he saw darkness.

It didn't make sense, his brain thought groggily, it should be morning by now.

Suddenly his brain seemed to flood and nausea filled his body. He bolted upright, but the movement made him feel worse. He shivered again, but not from the cold. He was going to be ill…

He retched suddenly, hating the feeling of it but hoping it would make his nausea go away. His throat burned and he felt like there was something sharp lodged in his tongue.

He was growing faint again.

He sighed and laid back down on the cool grass, the cold suddenly inviting to him. His eyelids grew heavy though his brain was begging to be alert.

Something was wrong. It was night, but he was fine. His friends were nowhere to be found.

But he couldn't think of that, he had to sleep. He was too ill to think. He was too weak to move.

Another wave of nausea passed over him and he groaned. He turned over and threw up again.

What happened last night, he asked himself as he turned over to sleep, what did I do?

"Did you hear that?" Sirius said suddenly, his eyes wide, suddenly alert.

"No," James mumbled, "What should I have heard?"

"There's something over there," Sirius said, pointing into the darkness.

"How do you know?"

"I can hear it."

"Do you think it's Moony?"

Sirius shrugged. "Let's go see it. Do you think I can tell from here?"

James nodded. "Do you think we should be animals now, just in case?"

"Dunno. I guess it couldn't hurt."

In an instant, the boys were animals again, James and Sirius leaping through the brush and Peter scurrying as fast as he could behind.

Sirius paused in his running for a moment, his ears pricked up. He could hear it better now, whatever it was. He motioned for the others to follow him and slid forward into the darkness. He was sure it was right here. Its scent was drifting in the air; it was something familiar, something he knew very well but he couldn't quite place it… It wouldn't be too long until he could…

See it. He saw it, lying on the grass, moaning quietly to itself, eyes closed. He knew was it was at once.

"It's Moony!" Sirius called, human again. "Something's wrong. C'mon, quick!"

James ran forward in the darkness, stumbling in his anxiousness. His new two legs were a lot less graceful than four.

But when he got there, his face paled.

Something was definitely wrong with their friend.

He lay there moaning, crumpled into a small ball, his face white. He was shivering violently, and James was almost entirely sure there was a pool of vomit not too far from him. In short, he looked like hell, worse than he normally did after his long nights.

"Shit," Sirius mumbled, "What the hell happened to him?"

"C'mon," James said gravely, bending over his ill friend, "We got to get him warm, he's freezing."

Sirius nodded. "How are we going to do that? Build a fire?" He pulled out his wand and gathered a pile of leaves.

"Yeah, you do that," came James's muffled voice.

"What are you—" Sirius began, turning around.

"Keeping Moony warm," James said, holding up the sweater that he had been wearing. "I figured he needs it more than I do."

"Right," Sirius said nodding, removing his sweater as well, "He does."

The air was frigid, worse than it had been earlier when they were walking through the forest, and both boys felt the air's icy hands grabbing at them, making their breathing shallow and making it painful to move. They did not mention the cold to each other as the worked to keep their injured friend warm.

"James! Sirius!" Peter stumbled towards his friends, panting. "What's going—" He stopped and his eyes grew wide as he spied the ill figure lying on the ground. "Merlin," he stuttered, "What happened to him?"

"We don't know," Sirius said, handing his sweater to James, "We're just trying to get him warm."

James bent by his friend and surrounded him with the two sweaters before going to help Sirius with the fire.

Peter nodded dumbly but did not move. "D-do you think he needs another sweater?"

"Couldn't hurt," James remarked.

Peter nodded slowly, contemplating whether he should give Remus his sweater too. It was cold, and he didn't want to give it up but he had to. Sirius and James had already done it, and if he didn't do it they might get angry at him. He slowly removed his sweater, yelping as the cold touched him. He shivered.

"Wimp," Sirius muttered darkly, trying to ignore the frost that seemed to cover his entire body. He began to stir the leaves burning under the fire.

"What now?" James asked, sitting on the other side of the fire, watching Remus.

"Wait for him to wake up I guess," Sirius said, sitting beside James, "There's nothing more we can really do."

Peter waddled over to the fire and sat near his friends. He shivered and leaned closer to the fire for warmth.

"Do you think it's safe to stay here?" James asked worriedly, "I mean, we're not really entirely sure where we are."

"If we're in the forest it might not be all that safe, but I don't think it would be good to move him."

"Merlin, I hope he's alright. I've never seen him like this before."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Sirius said, though he was not entirely sure, "Moony's stronger than he looks."

James nodded slowly and proceeded to nervously mess up his hair.

Sirius watched him and was about to open his mouth to say something comforting when Remus's body emitted a low moan.

The boys rushed towards him frantically.

"Moony? Are you alright?" James asked anxiously.

Remus stirred and opened his eyes slowly. A small smile crept across his face as he realized that his friends were standing around him. "I'm alright, I think. Just a little nauseous," he croaked, sitting up, "And my throat feels like powder." He coughed violently.

"You sure?" Sirius asked worriedly, "You look like hell."

"Worse than usual I'm assuming," Remus said jokingly.

"You seem alright," James said cautiously, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Nope, not a thing. I wish I did though, something strange is going on."

"What makes you think so Moony?" Sirius asked.

"It's night and I'm not supposed to be like this now." Remus said shortly.

"Me and James think something weird is going on too," Sirius said quickly, "We've been trying to figure out where we are."

"We were passed out," James explained, "We know that much."

"And the last place we remember being," Sirius interrupted, "Was this room in the shack that we've never seen before."

"Then we woke up, and we were here."

"The moon was gone, so if we are still in Hogwarts we had to have been out for a few days."

"But of course, there's the possibility that we aren't in Hogwarts anymore at all…"

"Then that's what we have to do," Remus said decisively, "We have to see if we are still at Hogwarts."

Sirius nodded. "We can see the castle if we walk out of the forest."

"Then what are we waiting for," James announced with determination, "Let's get out of this forest."

Remus stood up carefully, his body still sore. Sirius extended a hand to help him up.

"Put my sweater on," Sirius told him, "It's really cold and you don't feel well."

"But then you'll be cold, Padfoot," Remus said, though he really needed the sweater, considering he had barely any clothes on his from when he had changed.

"It's okay," Sirius said smiling, "I'll be fine." With those words the boy was gone and a large dog was in his place. It barked happily before bounding through the darkness in the woods.

"Take your sweater James," Remus said, laughing at Sirius leaping in this distance. "I don't need two sweaters."

"You sure Moony?" James asked, "You don't look too good."

"Take it. I'm not that sick and you look like you need it."

James took it gratefully, sliding the sweater over his head. "Now lets hurry up and catch up to Sirius before he leaves us all behind."

Remus tossed the remaining sweater to Peter, who looked more than overjoyed to have it back.

Smiling, the three boys rushed to follow Sirius, who ran ahead of them, barking cheerfully. They almost forgot what they were running too, almost forgot the mystery that lay over them at the end of the forest. They walked through the forest all night, but they did not grow tired. They walked through the forest longer than they had ever walked in the woods before, but they did not notice. They were enjoying themselves and could not notice anything else but the games they played and the joy of each other's company.

But the end of the woods grew near, and the mystery approached them. Sirius, still a dog, rushed ahead of them, too engrossed in a game of tag to notice he had left the woods. James rushed behind him, laughing, his face red from running. Remus and Peter were close behind. Sirius barked, taunting them to catch him, but James did not move. He stared upwards, open-mouthed.

"What's up, Prongs?" Sirius asked, rushing to meet him on two legs.

"I have a feeling we're not in Hogwarts anymore…"