CW: Implied sexual abuse
What was Mary doing on the school grounds in the middle of the night with Mulciber? Why had they run away from Lily and me together?
Lily undid the binding charm on Mary and Mulciber's jaws to allow them to speak, and when they were able to speak, Mary remained silent and Mulciber practically growled at us.
"What do you want?" he said.
"Why are you two out of bed?" Lily asked, looking at Mary, who remained silent.
"Why are you two out of bed?" Mulciber asked.
"Mary?" I said, looking down at her. Her eyes were glassy, and she still wasn't speaking. "Mary, can you hear me? Mary!?"
"Go away," said Mary. It was still her voice, but she sounded robotic. Lily and I looked at each other, then back to Mulciber.
"What have you done to her?" Lily demanded. Mulciber didn't respond. I clapped my hands in front of Mary's face, and she didn't even flinch. It was the Imperius curse. It had to be Imperius.
I reached down to Mulciber's pocket and took out his wand, then pointed it at Mary and said, "Finite Incantatem!"
Suddenly, Mary's expression turned back to normal, and her eyes were moving, looking from me, to Lily, to Mulciber.
Lily undid the binding spell on her, and the three of us walked ten metres away from Mulciber, who was still lying on the floor, his full body bound together.
"Mary... what happened? Are you OK?" Lily asked.
"I... I don't know," said Mary, trembling. "I don't remember... he hit me with some curse and after that... I don't know, it felt like I was in a dream, like, half sleeping, I can't remember anything..."
"When did he hit you with the spell?" I asked.
"I don't know!" Mary cried. "I think I was... I think when I was at Hogsmeade. I was looking at some clothes with Amy, and then I went to the toilet, and the closest bathrooms were those sketchy-ass bathrooms that you have to go round the sketchy alleyway to go to, and I didn't want to walk further, so I just went there, and when I came out, he was there, and I remember trying to walk past him, but then he stopped me and called me a 'mudblood' and then he was... he was... he started to try and..." her voice broke. But after a few seconds, she continued, "But um, I tried to get away from him, I hit him, I cried out, I tried to hex him, but then he took my wand and got his own and did the curse, and after that, I don't remember anything."
My heart rate felt like it was at a trillion beats per second. I didn't know what to say, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to say it because my mouth was so dry.
"So... so that was during the daytime?" said Lily. "And it's night now... oh my god, Mary, we have to report this."
"Yeah, I know, I... I just don't really remember what happened..." said Mary, looking straight at Lily. Her voice was shaking.
"It's dark magic," said Lily. "And... and um, anything else he may have done, while you were under the curse... do you understand it's not your fault?"
Mary was silent for half a minute and looked as if she didn't want to accept what could have happened to her while she was under the Imperius curse. "Yeah, I know."
"Well, we should take Mulciber to Dumbledore," I said. "He should be expelled."
"Mary, do you want to come, or would you rather go to bed?" Lily asked, her tone extremely gentle.
"I... I'll go to bed," said Mary. "Sorry, I know it would be the right thing to do to go with you guys, but I'm just so, so exhausted..."
"That's completely fine," I said. "We'll sort it out, you go and try to get some sleep."
"Thank you..." said Mary, and then she slowly walked back to the castle. Lily and I exchanged a look, both of us lost for words.
We walked back to where Mulciber was, and I gripped his arm, then dragged him to the castle, Lily binding his mouth again with her wand, walking beside us in silence.
We went into the castle, then found our way to Professor Dumbledore's office. I had no idea what we were supposed to say to him, or if he'd even be in his office at this time of night.
I didn't even want to look at Mulciber. I'd known he was creepy and assumed he wanted to be a Death Eater, but I had no idea he would do something like that at school.
And Mary... even if she didn't remember, she still must be upset as hell. I wanted desperately to make sure she was OK, but I had to concentrate on the task at hand, and that was to hopefully get Mulciber expelled.
"I don't think he's in here," said Lily, after knocking on the door to Dumbledore's office for the eleventh time. "Where do the teachers even sleep?"
"I don't know," I said.
"Well... what do we do now?" Lily asked.
"I don't know," I said again, feeling useless.
"You son of a bitch!" Lily cried suddenly, looking down at Mulciber. "Why would you do this, you monster?!"
Mulciber didn't respond, because his jaw was bound, meaning he couldn't even speak if he wanted to.
"Let's just... let's just take him to his common room," I said. "And we'll deal with it in the morning when we can talk to the teachers."
"No, we should leave him somewhere still bound up like this," said Lily angrily. "So he can't just hide from us. Come on, I know a place."
I'd never seen Lily angry before, so now, as she marched through the halls of the castle, dragging Mulciber as if he was a ragdoll, I was somewhat scared. She led us down to the second floor, then into the girl's bathroom.
"Myrtle!" Lily cried. I remembered I'd been in this bathroom before, with Sirius, and he'd told me about some ghost girl called Moaning Myrtle who inhabited this bathroom.
As if on cue, a ghost girl floated out of one of the cubicles towards Lily, pouting.
"It's the middle of the night," said Myrtle, looking at Lily, and then at me. "Am I going mad or are you a boy in a girls' bathroom."
"Myrtle, this is Mulciber," said Lily, pointing down at Mulciber. "He's going to stay here until the morning, can you make sure he doesn't leave?"
"Oh, alright," said Myrtle. "But just so you know, boys usually aren't allowed in the girls' bathroom."
"Sorry," I said, then Lily and I left. As we walked into the common room to call it a night, I said, "I think we should check in on Mary in the morning. I don't know how she's coping..."
"She should be OK," said Lily, though her tone sounded doubtful. "It'll be OK..."
"I'll see you in the morning," I said as we entered the common room.
"Yeah... see you," said Lily, and she walked up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
I walked up to the boys' dormitory and collapsed into bed without changing into my pyjamas. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn't even want to think about what Mulciber might have done to Mary while she was under the imperius curse for several hours.
I turned over in my bed and buried my face into my pillow, letting out a long breath. I didn't know what to do. I shut my eyes and tried to sleep, but I couldn't get the swirling thoughts of what had happened that night out of my head.
I must have fallen asleep eventually, because the next morning when I woke up, Sirius was tapping me on the shoulder.
"Hey," he whispered as I opened my eyes. "Are you alright? Breakfast is over, but I brought you some toast because I figured you might want to get something to eat before class."
"Were Lily and Mary at breakfast?" I asked groggily, taking the toast.
"Er, I don't know... I assume so, why?" said Sirius.
"Something happened last night..." I said, then looked at my watch. "It's class time. I'll ask Lily in Divination."
"What happened?" Sirius asked as I ran into the bathroom and quickly got changed into my robes.
"Mulciber did something to Mary," I said, walking out of the bathroom and grabbing my books.
"What did he do?" Sirius asked.
"Well, he had her under the Imperius curse for hours, she doesn't really remember," I said as we walked out into the castle halls. "So, he probably forced her to... do some things."
"Oh..." said Sirius.
"And Lily and I were going to take him to Dumbledore this morning, but I'm so stupid and I slept in, and now I don't know what's happening at all, I don't know if Lily took Mulciber to Dumbledore, or if Mary's OK..."
"Hey, it's not on you to fix it," said Sirius.
"I... I know, but I want to be able to help," I said. "Mary's my friend, and if Mulciber hurt her, then I think he should be expelled."
"Yeah... well hopefully Lily sorted it out this morning," said Sirius. "As you said, you can ask her during class."
I nodded as we walked up into the Divination classroom. I then walked over to Lily and sat next to her.
"Remus, where were you this morning?" she asked.
"I'm so sorry, I slept through the alarm and Sirius only woke me up just now," I said. "So, how did you go?"
"Mary and Mulciber are at Dumbledore's office," said Lily. "They're both being questioned about the incident."
"OK, but couldn't Mulciber just lie?" I asked.
"He could," said Lily. "If it's really serious the ministry might get involved, and perhaps they'll use Veritaserum."
"Did you see Mary this morning?" I asked.
"Yeah, she just apologised for 'seeming weak' last night," said Lily. "I think she's OK mentally because, well, she doesn't remember anything."
"I feel so awful for her," I said.
"Me too," said Lily, sighing. "But I don't think there's anything else we can do. We're just going to have to see how it all unfolds."
And that's what we did. Over the next few weeks, I noticed that Mary was a lot quieter than usual. Mulciber had been suspended from the school, however, he was back in mid-December, and when he was back Mary went from quieter than usual to almost completely silent.
It was painful to watch her like this, not as her usual cheery self, but I wasn't sure what I could do to help. Especially when a problem of my own made its way into my life.
On the December full moon, after Madam Pomfrey had led me down to the Shrieking Shack, and left, Sirius suddenly appeared out of nowhere, causing me to jump.
"Sorry," Sirius laughed. "I was under the cloak."
"Oh, god," I said, laughing back. "What are you doing here?"
"I just... I've been meaning to tell you something for quite a while," said Sirius.
"Yeah?" I said, feeling my stomach tense.
"I'm in love with you," said Sirius, and then he pressed his lips against mine before I could respond or even process what he'd just said.
I felt the inside of my stomach fluttering around as he kissed me, which only stopped when I felt a pang in my chest, meaning I was beginning to transform.
"I'm in love with you too!" I said, pulling away from him so I could clutch onto my chest. I felt embarrassed, doing that. Ruining a romantic moment by transforming into a werewolf.
Sirius still smiled, though. "I suppose I should go. I'll see you in the morning?"
"Yeah," I said, and he walked out. "Sirius?"
"Yeah?" said Sirius, turning back.
"I really do love you," I said, feeling as if I was in a romance movie.
"I love you too," said Sirius.
When I transformed back the next morning, I felt better than I ever had after a full moon. My injuries weren't very bad, and the memory of last night with Sirius was still fresh in my mind, so I could barely contain my smile.
Madam Pomfrey took me to the Hospital Wing, and I got to sleep there for around an hour before I heard someone drawing the curtain of the four-poster I was in, then tapping my head.
My first thought was that it was Sirius, and I felt myself uncontrollably smiling again until I opened my eyes to come face to face with Snape.
He closed the curtains of the four-poster, drew his wand, and cast a silencing charm before he looked down at me and spoke through gritted teeth.
"I knew it," he said, "I fucking knew this whole time what you are. You monster!"
"What...?" I said, my heart rate suddenly speeding up.
"Don't play dumb, you freak," Snape snarled. He was practically sitting on top of me so I couldn't move. "You're a werewolf and you can't say you're not anymore."
"What... did... did Lily tell you...?" I said, an awful lump rising in my throat.
"Lily?" said Snape. "She knows? Well, no, she didn't tell me anything. No one told me. Black just told me to go to the Whomping Willow to see what's down there, and I suppose it was your big plan for you, the monster, to be down there to kill me!"
What? Sirius had told Snape to go to the Whomping Willow during a full moon? Why would he do that? Snape had to be lying.
"You tried to kill me!" Snape screamed, hitting me across the face.
"I didn't try to kill you!" I cried, gripping his wrists to stop his hands from coming down onto me again.
"Don't lie, Lupin," said Snape. "I saw you. You and Black must have thought it was a fun little joke, hey? Trying to get me killed like that."
I didn't understand. I didn't remember anything from the full moon, and I didn't remember trying to kill Snape. And I knew there was no way Sirius would have told Snape to go to the Whomping Willow on the night of a full moon.