A/n: Not much to say... Glad everyone loved the action in that last chapter, and there will be more action soon. Read on!

Chapter 7

"So... a Fendwing Feather then?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno."

James shook his head and snapped the book in front of him shut. "I can't think at all."

"Me neither." Sirius wasn't in the mood to capitalize on the comment his friend had just made. Had he been feeling himself, he would have had some clever retort.

Sirius had come back to the Common Room quickly after his fruitless search for Peter and he and James had pulled out their homework in an effort to keep their minds off of Peter's whereabouts. They'd only had their things out for a few moments however, and since neither were concentrating in the slightest, the attempt at homework was turning out to be as equally fruitless as Sirius' search.

James sighed and Sirius turned in his seat to look out the window. He was feeling rather discouraged that Remus nor Peter had returned yet. Out on the grounds, the half moon illuminated Hagrid's cabin and the smoke softly billowing from its chimney. For only a half moon, it was shedding light across the area quite nicely, so that many other things could be seen as distinct recognizable figures. One such outlined figure was the Whomping Willow and it was waving in the air as if it had been disturbed.

Sirius furrowed his brow. The Willow generally only moved unless someone was too close to it... Right away however, he guessed it was Remus heading to the secret passage, though he'd been sure that Remus would have been at the Shack by now. He waited for the Willow's branches to stop, as they always did when the knot at its base was prodded, causing the tree to freeze temporarily.

The branches did not freeze, but leaned back as if winding up for a blow to the ground. In that exact instant, there was a brilliant flash of blue light which briefly lit the area nearby. Sirius gasped as he spotted a human form laying quite still very much in range of the Willow now moving to slam the ground and the body in its path.

"Remus!" Sirius shouted and jumped out of his chair and knocking it over in the process. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. The body was Remus.

"What is it? What's wrong?" James too jumped out of his chair as Sirius threw himself towards the portrait hole.

"Get a Professor and get to the Willow!" Sirius blasted out of the Common Room and ignored that Fat Lady's protests at being flung open so forcefully. He hoped James knew him well enough to recognize the panic in his voice and not hesitate a single second and do exactly what Sirius had told him to do.

He ran hard through the school's halls, barely thinking about anything except going faster for fear of being to late and prepared himself to dodge any teachers and their spells if he came across them. His body was already burning with the sudden effort of running as fast as he was able, but he only pushed harder.

Sirius had no idea what he had just seen happen, where Peter was, if he was ok, what that burst of blue light had meant, if that or any of this had to do with that strange storm he'd witnessed and worst but most importantly of all, if Remus would be alive by the time Sirius reached him.

Peter was aching horribly all over. He'd never felt this way in his life. He felt very stiff as if he had run for miles and miles the day before and was now feeling the effects of that run now. He was so dizzy that he felt he had spent the last five or ten minutes just spinning on the spot. He was completely disoriented and constantly banged into the earthy walls on either side of him. He knew he was in the passage and that he was moving more or less forward, and that was it.

He stumbled blindly down the pitch black tunnel, falling down much too often, gasping for air, gaining numerous bumps, bruises and scrapes, and even blacking out completely from time to time. Each time he blacked out, he would fall hard, start shaking horribly, then feel nothing until he woke again. When he fell hard enough against his head, stars and fuzz would momentarily cloud his vison.

He had no idea what time of day it was, or even it was day, though he remembered what had happened to him. The memory seemed distant, washed and fuzzy though, like it had happened many, many years ago. He only remembered parts of it, like that thing had tried to kill him, that it wanted to find - and probably kill - James, and that he, Peter, had told the thing to go to the castle. Peter felt desperately ashamed and cowardly and only prayed James was alive when he finally reached the castle.

Peter thought about that time that he should be nearing the end of the tunnel, though he also guessed he could have a fair ways to go as his constant falling, tripping, retching and blacking out would have slowed him down considerably. His knees were terribly wobbly like he was walking on an overly cushy mattress, and his body was trembling like a leaf in the wind all over. He was so sweaty he felt drenched and nearly every time he fell hard he could feel fresh warm blood trickle from some new wound.

He leaned to the side and threw up for the dozenth time, his throat burning and raw. He wanted so badly to be in the castle, in a hospital bed, where Madame Pomfrey would heal whatever was wrong with him, that he found that was almost the only thing keeping his feet moving. That and the fact that he had to warn James.

Finally his knees bashed painfully onto the part of the tunnel where it curved up to the surface. Nausea washed over him and he layed down a minute before it passed. When he looked up a few moments later, he could see the half moon shining extra brightly high in the starry night sky. Peter almost sighed. Soon he would be safe.

For an instant, the moon was obscured by a moving object, but was just as quickly uncovered. Peter forced himself to stand and raise most of his body out of the entrance - in his case, exit - of the tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow. Blearily Peter looked up and realized the movement came from the Willow's branches as they thrashed down towards the ground. Through a spinning head, he could see two figures not too far away.

One of the Willow's branches came down hard, flinging one of the figures a fair distance. Peter wasn't sure he understood. Who could that be? And why was the other person just standing there?

Peter stood fully up, but suddenly felt over come with nausea. His body began shaking violently like it always did before he blacked out and he swayed dangerously. Bone-chilling laughter filled his ears and for an instant, neon blue light filled his eyes.

He fell over onto the base of the Willow, passed out.

"Remus!" Sirius yelled and barrelled across the grounds to reach his friend's unmoving body. A cloud shifted over the half moon, and even in less moonlight, it was apparent Remus was covered with numerous injuries.

Sirius wasted no time in wrapping his arm around Remus and hauling him in a hurry away from the danger of the Willow. As Sirius was desperately pulling Remus away, however, the branches of the Willow did not move, as if someone had just pressed the know or was holding it down. There was no other explanation for the unnatural stillness of the tree when Sirius was slow close, nor how the Willow had not smashed Remus while Sirius vaulted through the school. He really wanted to see who was holding down the knot, but at the present moment he was more concerned with the limp form laying beside him.

"Remus! Don't be dead!" Sirius cried out as he looked despairingly at Remus' battered face.

"Sirius!"

Sirius jerked his face up and was felt relieved to see James and Professor McGonagall rushing at top speed across the grounds towards him. The moment they reached him, James looked as though he'd just seen a ghost.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked frantically and quickly knelt down beside Remus.

In one breath, Sirius tried to explain. "James and I were in the Common Room and something outside caught my eye and it was the Willow and it was moving and there was a light and he was laying there and it was going to hit him and - "

McGonagal whipped out her wand and conjured a stretcher. "Help me quickly." she said briskly and the two boys helped her put Remus on the stretcher. The moon came out from behind its cloud and James looked paler than ever.

"He's not..." James said and looked as though he were going to be sick. Sirius knew exactly how he felt.

McGonagall either didn't hear James or simply dodged the question, as she jumped up and said, "Hurry! To the hospital wing!"

Had Sirius been in a mood to make things lighter, he would have snapped back, "As if we would take him anywhere else." However, since he was not, he simply gulped and began to follow as McGonagall took off with Remus floating on a stretcher and James right behind her. But then he remembered the still stopped Willow and he stopped as his eyes went straight to the tree's base.

He glanced back at the castle as McGonagall and James dashed up the steps. He wanted to be with James and Remus, but he needed to se why the Willow had stopped. He turned back to look at the Willow, and with only the light of the moonlight, it seemed like a body was at the tree's base... or was it an eye trick?

Sirius reached for his wand and realized he'd left it in the Common Room when he'd left to come save Remus. He cast a worried look at the castle and then at the Willow. It still looked like a body.

He made up his mind to be faster than fast because Remus needed him but he had to make sure whoever that was laying there on the knot didn't also need him. He sprinted towards the unmoving mass sprawled awkwardly right at the entrance to the secret passageway that ran under the Willow leading to the Shrieking Shack. Mere inches away, he was very sure it was a body, and that body twitched and suddenly gasped.

It was Peter.

"Pete!" Sirius grabbed Peter and quickly rolled him over onto his back. Worry and panic filled him. Was Peter dead - or nearly dead - too? How could Remus and Peter both be this badly injured? In the instant Sirius rolled Peter over, he was very smally relieved to see no visible injuries like Remus had had.

Peter's eyes fluttered open and he seemed to have trouble focussing. He gasped again. "S-stop sp-pinning - " he moaned and looked quite terrified.

"Pete, I'm not - "

"Sirius!" Peter coughed. "Where - where - "

The Willow gave a great shudder and began creaking back and forth. It was done being frozen, as Peter was no longer laying across the knot. Sirius punched the know as hard as he could and the tree began completely immobile once again. "I'm getting you away from the Willow! Hold on!"

Sirius heaved Peter up and let all of Peter's weight rest on him. He half-ran, half-dragged Peter to safety and was going to keep running with him when Peter gave a shout. Sirius quickly let Peter lay back on the ground.

"Where's James?" Peter sounded hoarse and frightened.

"He's with Remus inside. Pete, what - "

Peter suddenly started crying. "I'm sorry! I'm s-s-so s-sorry - "

"Wha - Pete - ?"

Peter leaned to the side and threw up. Sirius quickly stood up and held Peter again so he could go to the hospital wing quickly.

"My... fault..." Peter gasped loudly and began shaking. He abruptly went limp and Sirius nearly feel over because of the added unexpected weight of Peter not using his own feet in any way.

Suddenly Sirius felt extremely vulnerable, like some creature was going to jump out of the shadow's and 'Avada Kedrava' him. He had no wand and maybe what-ever-it-was where-ever-it-was knew that. His heart was beating out of his chest and he felt thoroughly paranoid. He hauled Peter onto his back with great effort like an overly heavy sack of potatoes and began to run as best as he could managed under Peter's weight.

His imagination was shooting into overdrive as the moon drifted behind another cloud. Two of his best friends were seriously injured. He unnecessarily reminded himself he had no wand. He was only going to feel safe when he was in the hospital wing. He was struggling under Peter's weight and was now narrowing his thoughts to just reaching the school now, before anything got him.

"You should eat less, Pete." Sirius said aloud, trying to make himself feel better, but it only made him feel worse. If the thing that had gotten to Remus and Peter was now waiting for him, and couldn't see him because the moon was temporarily blotted out, he had just given himself away. Adrenaline rushed though him and his tired legs suddenly found a burst of energy fuelled by his fear of the unknown.

He had to seriously force himself to just concentrate on getting to the hospital wing.

And fast.

A/n: Well? Whaddya think? Let me know and review me. Reviews me make happy, happy authors update faster. ;) Lol. Just no swearing please, and flames are pretty pointless so don't bother with them.