AN: I know it's been a while since I've worked on this, but real life kinda took over for a while. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story; I really appreciate it.
Chapter 6
It's been three weeks since Remus and Sirius arrived in hell. In that time, they've become somewhat accustomed to the schedule in the camp. They rise at dawn for roll call and inspection of the barracks to be sure no extra food, medicine, or clothing has been smuggled in. Once, during their second week in the camp, a man was caught with stolen food. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and the guard in charge killed him instantly. It took a long time for any of the prisoners to stop hearing the man beg for his life and the life of his son (for whom the food was stolen) or to stop seeing the blank, bored look in the guard's face as he lazily preformed the killing curse.
After roll call and inspection, the prisoners form a single file line and march to the kitchens to collect their morning meal which generally consists of weak tea and a hunk of stale bread. When the meal as been distributed and eaten, the work day begins. A guard stands on a large box in the center of the "dining" area and reads off barrack numbers and work locations for the day. Some days, Remus and Sirius are lucky and end up with something easy like kitchen duty, or the sorting of belongings taken from prisoners upon their arrival. Other days, they're subjected to harder work such as filling in or digging new latrines, or working on a new set of tracks for the railroad.
Work lasts till dusk, when they are finally allowed to stop and eat again. The evening meal, while more filling than the morning one, isn't much. Thin soup, bread, and tea are generally served, although there is an occasional variation. When the meal is finished, they file back to the barracks where another inspection and roll call takes place. Exhausted, the prisoners fall into their cold beds and sleep.
Today, however, is not a typical day. When Sirius awakens, sunlight is streaming through the cracks in the walls, and Remus is sleeping peacefully in his arms. Throughout the room, he can hear the quiet (and a few not so quiet) sounds of sleeping men. While he thinks this odd, he shrugs it off and goes back to sleep.
It's two hours and sixteen minutes later that he's awakened again, this time by Will. "Get up before lunch is gone," he says, and hurries off towards a large pot that's been set in the center of the room.
Sirius starts to ask what's going on, but Remus stops him. "Talk later, food now." Sirius has no reason to argue with that, this could be his last meal for all he knows. They quickly make their way over to the pot and help themselves to watery stew and a small hunk of bread. It's not until they're sitting on their bunk and practically inhaling the meal that Sirius re-voices his question.
"It's the full moon tonight," Will explains, "and when they first established this hell hole, they discovered rather early that it's pointless to make a werewolf work on the day of a full moon. So, once a month everyone gets a day off."
"Do we get tomorrow off as well?" asks Remus hopefully.
"Sadly no," says Will.
"How do they, ah, handle the transformation?" asks Sirius.
"There's a potion they give around four in the afternoon," answers Will, "it knocks us out and is highly addictive, but at least we don't physically hurt ourselves or others. The side effects get better the more times you take it, but you also get more hooked on it. If I were to undergo my transformation tonight without it, I would most likely not live to see the morning."
"What are these side effects?" asks Sirius suspiciously as he places a hand on the small of Remus' back.
"They're not too bad," says Will with a small wistful smile as he watches the couple. "Nausea and general sleepiness on the day after generally occur. I had to have a friend literally hold me up during roll call after my first transformation here. Also, when you take it tonight, the sedatives will react faster than they will with me because I've built up a bit of an immunity to them. You'll probably be out within thirty seconds, while I'll mostly likely be awake for a good five minutes."
"That doesn't sound too bad," says Sirius. "Where do they take you for the transformation?" His hand clenches protectively on Remus' back.
"We stay here in the barracks," replies Will, "much to the discomfort of everyone else." The hand relaxes once more. "Now I suggest we get some rest, it's not often we get to laze the day away in bed." Will winks, and moves to return to his own bed, but Remus stops him.
"Why don't you stay here with us and we can get to know each other a bit. We've been here together for nearly three weeks and we barely know more than each other's names."
"Well, three is warmer than one," replies Will. His bedmate has gone off to sit with some other prisoners, and they don't really get along anyways.
Time slips by quickly as the three men share bits of their lives before their incarceration. Remus and Sirius tell about their respective childhoods, their time at Hogwarts, and their life after finishing school. They talk about James, Lily, little Harry, Peter, and the rest of their friends. They speak of the war and what it's done to them. In turn, Will tells them of his previous life. He's married to the most wonderful woman in the world, and they have two amazing children. He tells about how they were visiting relatives in France when he was captured, and how he hopes they're safe. He was bitten at the age of fifteen, and had to drop out of school, but his mother continued to teach him what little she knew of magic.
Before they know it it's four o'clock, and the barrack door is sliding open. "All werewolves line up here for your sedative," shouts the guard. Remus, Will, and four others rise from their places and move to the door where they are handed small cups of a green liquid. Remus and Will return to the bed before drinking their portion to avoid passing out on the floor. Another man, however, hasn't been informed of the strength of the potion and collapses in the middle of the room. The werewolf behind him in line helps the man back to his bed.
The rest of the distribution goes smoothly, until the guards turn to leave. As they depart, a man who was brought in a few days after Remus and Sirius yells, "Are you just going to leave those monsters here?" The guard smirks as a response and closes the door. A second later, the muffled sound of a locking spell can be heard.
While this has all been going on, Remus has taken his potion and is currently slumped in Sirius' arms. The man continues to yell obscenities at the closed door, and finally Sirius has had enough. He carefully places his armful of drugged werewolf on the bed, and rises to face to man. A swift punch to the jaw quiets the man down fairly quickly.
"Now that I have your attention, listen up. They can't help who they are anymore then you can help being here. So I suggest you pull the stick out of your arse before I decide to help you." With that, he returns to Remus.
The man spits out a quiet "queer", but pursues the matter no further. It's not worth it to have enemies in a place like this. With the exception of an occasional stomach gurgling, silence falls over the room as the prisoners wait anxiously for moon rise.
Sirius holds Remus tight as the first stages of the transformation grip him. Even though he's deeply sedated, Sirius can still see the pain etched on his face. In five minutes it's over, and Sirius is sharing the bed with Moony. He glances around the dark room quickly, checking to make sure no one's watching, then transforms into Padfoot. Padfoot licks Moony's muzzle once, then curls himself around the sedated wolf and goes to sleep.
Hundreds of miles away, in Godric's Hollow, Lily Potter awakes to find that her husband is not in bed. She stares blearily at the clock which reads two thirty six a.m., and slides out of bed. Pulling on her dressing gown and slippers, she heads for the living room where she finds her missing husband.
"James, it's two thirty in the morning, what in the world are you doing?" she asks softly.
"It's the full moon tonight," responds James, "and I couldn't sleep."
Lily notices a book open in front of him and says, "So you came down here to do a bit of late night reading?"
James blushes a bit and hesitates before replying, "Well, we've tried lots of different magical ways to find them, and none have worked, so I thought I'd take a Muggle approach." Lily looks at the book closer and realizes it's his old Muggle studies textbook. It's opened to the chapter on Muggle religions.
"Oh James," she whispers as she sits down with him and takes his hand. They cry and pray together to any God or Goddess that may be listening until the moon sets.