The moment you've been waiting for: it wouldn't be a Remus Lupin story without some epic werewolf sh*t.
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Ch. 9 - Just a Scratch
She could recall several not-so-bright ideas she'd had throughout her life, but going out looking for a bloody werewolf had to be towards the top of the list.
Godric's Hollow was bordered by a thick forest, and luckily Remus' house backed right up to it. Emmeline moved clumsily through the trees, and no matter how much they walked, she never felt like she was getting a handle on her footing. Though the tree cover made their path pitch black, she decided not to light the tip of her wand for fear that Remus would find her before she found him. Her vision never quite adjusted to the dark, so she relied on Sirius' canine eyes to lead her through the thicket. In the form of a black dog he moved nimbly by her side, sniffing the ground constantly in pursuit of Remus' scent, undeterred by the cold or the terrain. Occasionally, Emmeline had to swashbuckle her way through a spiderweb, or they were spooked by a retreating deer. Other than Sirius' sniffing and the crunch of the frost underneath their feet, their search was disconcertingly quiet.
Several hours passed with no lead, and Emmeline - frigid, exhausted, and still hungry - was beginning to wonder if they'd gone in the wrong direction. After all, the forest was expansive, and Remus could've been anywhere. He might've been sleeping soundly like a tired puppy in a pew at St. Jerome's for all she knew, though she suspected that this was highly unlikely. Sirius had years of experience with Remus' transformations, so she trusted his judgement and followed his lead. He knew what he was looking for, and he knew where he might find it. It unnerved her that, visually, she didn't quite know what she was looking for, since she'd never seen Remus during a transformation. The only things she had to go on were her recollection of frightful, hyperbolic drawings in school textbooks, and her own mother's anecdotes. The silent hours presented too much time for her to use her all-too-vivid imagination to fill in the gaps.
Another hour or so went by, and by then she was certain they wouldn't find him. Certain, that is, until Sirius' brought his muzzle up from the undergrowth and began to whimper, pawing the ground.
Her adrenaline surged, waking her right up. "Find him, I'll keep up," she bade him, tightening her grip around her wand. Sirius bounded off to the left with Emmeline racing behind. She struggled to stay with him, but pushed her screaming muscles harder to keep the black dog in sight, praying that she wouldn't run face first into a branch. The icy air stung her throat and nostrils, and seemed to reduce her lung function, or so she told herself. She hadn't had much to run from in the last year. Well, okay, like really run from.
They eventually came to a small clearing where Sirius slowed to a halt. He lifted his head into the air, ears perked, listening. Thankful for the rest, Emmeline let the satchel drop from her shoulders and leaned against a tree to gulp for air.
Something on the bark felt sticky. Thinking she'd stuck her hand in tree sap, she pulled away, rubbing her fingers together. No, this was less viscous than tree sap and smelled of iron. She took a few steps forward to hold her hand up in a sliver of moonlight, which revealed that the liquid shone dark red. It was blood.
"Sirius," she called out, but he was occupied, sniffing a furry mass farther into the clearing. Moving in for a closer look, Emmeline realized it was a large buck. It lay dead and bloodied with its neck broken. If James was not on his honeymoon right now, she would've wondered...
Her blood ran cold.
Sirius suddenly became very alert, and Emmeline soon found out why: there was a figure moving swiftly on the outskirts of the clearing. The figure stopped suddenly, a deep growl rumbling from it's shadowy frame.
Sirius bared his teeth and leapt in front of Emmeline, who was ready with her wand. Her mind raced as she began running down a list of magical creatures in her head, narrowing it down by what was native to the area, had a taste for game, and might've been that large and that fast. The list dwindled smaller and smaller, until Emmeline concluded that the figure probably belonged to the person she'd been searching for all night.
But the figure in the trees fell silent. It was so hard to see that Emmeline wondered if it was still there at all…
All of the sudden, a large form barreled toward her from the left. Emmeline had no time to react as it swatted her to the ground and knocked her wand several feet away. She looked up and was met by the werewolf's gnashing teeth.
Sirius managed to thrust him off of her, shifting Remus' focus and giving Emmeline time to feel around for her wand. She crawled around on all fours, frantically patting the moss and decaying leaves around her. Hearing a canine yelp from behind, she spun around to find that Sirius had been hurled against a tree trunk. Remus turned his attention back to her, snarling.
She shot up and started sprinting as fast as she could, knowing full well that at any moment Remus would catch up to her. There was a time when Emmeline had been mentally prepared for this situation, understanding that this was the risk she took for the love of a werewolf. Her mental fortitude in this department had decayed since then, and she found herself panicked, imagining Remus' face when he transformed back to find her torn to shreds on the forest floor. She regretted now that she was never going to be able to tell him how she still loved him. She'd never really stopped.
She was thrown to the ground from behind, a sudden pain shooting up her left side. She cried out as Remus loomed over her, his snout dripping with the buck's blood. Without her wand to defend her, there was only one last thing she could try.
"REMUS WAIT!" she shrieked, holding her forearm up in defense.
The werewolf hesitated, his eyes twitching at the sound of his human name. Emmeline lay motionless, terrified to move or breathe lest Remus snap out of his momentary stupor.
A series of howls coming from the trees behind them further distracted Remus. Sirius had transfigured back into his human form, and was making a commotion and as he ran towards them with the satchel over his shoulder and Emmeline's wand in his hand. He drew Remus off of her and held his attention just long enough to fling her the wand. His years of quidditch had paid off - it landed right next to her, and she snatched it up.
"Petrificus Totalus!" A small burst of white light shot out from her wand and froze Remus' body in place before he had reached Sirius.
Sirius caught up to Emmeline and dropped to his knees at her side, panting. There was blood trickling down the right half of his face from a large cut above his eyebrow. "Emmeline don't move," he ordered sternly, reaching into the satchel and pulling out one of Remus' shirts. He began to rip it up it into strips.
That's when she noticed the torn fabric on the side of the coat. She leaned forward and peeled it open, revealing four gashes where Remus' claws had cut into her torso with the precision of a scalpel. The shock and adrenaline must have temporarily dulled the pain. She was certainly beginning to notice it now, and slumped onto her back with a groan.
"Wait, Sirius, give him the potion first."
"The potion won't help him now, that's not how it works. I have to stop this bleeding." He lifted her blouse just below her chest and began quickly but deliberately wrapping strips of the shirt around her. One at a time, he tied them taught, and she moaned in discomfort. "Sorry," he said ruefully. "I'm rubbish at the bandaging charm and I don't want to take any chances."
"Nice throw, by the way."
"Nice job on the body-bind before he tore my head off."
"...Sirius, look…"
He gazed up in the direction she was pointing towards. Over the trees to the East, the sky was beginning to hint at the dawn. The moon had faded.
There was a soft rustling noise a few feet away as Remus began shrinking back into his human form. When he appeared to have lost the claws and fangs, Emmeline raised her wand once more. "Reparifors," she muttered, unfreezing him, but feeling sorry that this made him collapse forward on his face. Remus stirred, his naked body shocked by the fall and the bitter cold. He pushed his sore skeleton up off the brush, then shifted around and squinted at the two people on the ground behind him. Unsure of where he had ended up and with whom, he covered himself with his hands.
"Last one," Sirius promised, tightening the final bandage around Emmeline.
"Merlin Morgana and Mungo," she grunted as he tied it off.
Remus recognized the first voice instantly. "Sirius?"
When Sirius turned to look at him, he had a clear sightline to Emmeline - and she was laying on the ground with half of her ribcage drenched in blood.
His eyes widened in terror. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no," he clamored as he bolted to her side. His worst nightmare had just come true.
Emmeline reached for him. "It's okay, I'm okay-"
"What have I done to you?!" Remus cried. He began to shake, unsure if it was because of the temperature or the panic or both.
"Here," Sirius directed, handing him the satchel. "That first. You're no help if you're hypothermic."
Remus snatched out a pair of trousers, a coat, and the now unnecessary bottle of Wolfsbane. If it wasn't so sodding expensive he would've lobbed it against a tree. As he finished pulling the pants on, he felt acid rising quickly in his throat - the raw deer flesh no longer agreed with his human stomach. He stumbled a few feet away, hunched over, and threw up.
"Damn it," he sputtered.
"Alright there?"
"Don't worry about me, just see to her," Remus beseeched through a gag, then wretched again. Once he had finished, he wiped his mouth with his forearm and threw on the coat before returning to Emmeline. "I'm so sorry." He reached out to touch her face, but stopped himself when he saw the blood all over his trembling hands. "I'm so, so sorry."
"It's just a scratch, honest."
"It's a rather big scratch. I think we need to take her to St. Mungos," Sirius suggested. "Do you think you're able to apparate?"
"I can manage," she claimed, trying to sit up but recoiling.
Ignoring his own aches and pains, Remus lifted her into his arms and stood up. A side-along apparition would be safer. "Sirius?" he appealed, unable to trust himself right now.
"Make sure you're concentrating on keeping yourselves all together," Sirius instructed as he placed a hand on both their shoulders. "A splinching would be the cherry on top of tonight's misadventures."
They disapparated.
