Disclaimer: I own as much of this story as the next person writing to Fanfiction NOTHING

authors note: just one thing of concern really the chauvinistic comments are meant for the sole purpose of showing you Peter's state of mind and hopefully making you hate him just a little bit more. NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF I HAVE DECIDED TO HOLD A POLL AND LET THE READERS DECIDE WHETHER SIRIUS MARRIES IN ONE OF THE SEQUELS OR IF HE REMAINS A SERIAL DATER THE CHOICE IS YOURS WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR REVIEW.

Chapter Eleven

Monsters at Midnight

By Empathicallychosen

"Love is when you're kept up all night thinking of him, and then when you fall asleep, you find him in your dreams." --Anonymous

(o)(o)(o)

Almost a month had passed since the Halloween masquerade and Lily and James were madly in love with each other. Although they still made certain to make time for their friends, like any other teenage couple they liked to spend as much time as they possibly could with one another. There wasn't a day where they weren't thinking about each other or talking about each other.

At first this bothered Peter, James was practically throwing out everything that had ever been the Marauder way of life. On the other hand, landing a good-looking girl was the future plan of every teenage boy and Peter couldn't really blame James for flaunting the fact he had bagged one of the most popular and beautiful girls in the whole school. The more Peter thought about it the more he came around to the idea. James was already popular, but by hooking up with Lily his popularity doubled, thus by extension so did Peter's.

Harry of course wanted his father to be with his mother, but he didn't like them dating. He liked hanging out with Hagrid. He was funny and he let them play with animals like manticores and chimaeras. But Harry missed Lily and James and they never let him go out on the dates with them, so he would barely ever get to see them. He got to talk to them even less because they were usually in class and playing with them was out of the question because they had to work on their N.E.W.T.s.

Peter, of course, thought that James was spending far too much time with Harry already and he was disgusted. Everything the Marauders did had to be kid friendly. It was insane, like living in nursery school 24 hours a day. James hoped that eventually Peter would warm up to the kids, but as time wore on and James, Remus and Sirius started doing more and more activities with the children, Peter only got increasingly jealous.

One day James declared that he was canceling his plans to go into the Forbidden Forest because he, Remus and Sirius had to teach Harry all about Quidditch. Then Peter called Harry, Ron and Hermione some particularly bad names and James got really mad.

"Listen Wormtail, I have to go see Professor Slughorn about my Wolfsbane essay, I'll catch up with you later after you grow up," snapped James fiercely.

Ron, Harry and Hermione got up to follow James, but Peter called out to Harry saying that he had left Hedwig behind. What he really wanted to do was threaten the boy.

"You listen here you snot-nosed little brat, you may have James wrapped around your puny little finger, but I've invested way too much time and energy into this friendship to let some pint-sized sideshow attraction swoop in and take it away from me. Got it," he whispered menacingly.

After that, Peter was always making up reasons for James to cancel plans with Harry and hang out with him. This was part of the reason why Harry was acting up so much as of late. The other part of it was that the closer it got to the full moon the slower and more lethargic Remus became. The only thing Harry, Ron and Hermione understood about Remus's lycanthropy was that there was a bad Wolf inside him and it made him do bad things sometimes. How this knowledge came to the trio, no one knew because no one had ever mentioned it. However it was that the children found out about Remus's secret, he was sure to drill into all of them that the "bad Wolf" was in fact a secret and Remus didn't want anyone to know about it.

Harry didn't really understand what was happening to Remus, but all of his pain, stress and anxiety, along with every other thing that Remus could feel was transferred onto the small boy and poor Harry didn't know how to express what was going on inside of him and inside of Remus. On top of everything else this was very frustrating for Harry. So he kicked and he screamed and he punched and he got punished. The Marauders and Lily were frantic. They couldn't understand why sweet little Harry was being such a little monster. To make matters worse the connection between Harry, Ron and Hermione meant Ron and Hermione had Remus's curse heaped upon them as well. Which made for three terrible little monsters and on the evening of the full moon everything came to a head.

Sirius was teaching Ron how to play chess because it was the only thing that seemed to calm the boy down. Hermione was in a timeout because she had completely destroyed all of Victoria's makeup. Harry was a complete mess. First he was mad, then he started crying but the next minute he was fine. When Remus got up to leave for the Shrieking Shack, Harry went berserk. He started to scream, he pulled Olivia's hair and then started bawling. When he had gotten out of timeout, everything seemed calm until Remus actually left the room.

"Harry? What's the matter? Where are you going?"

Harry's face was bright red with rage. He was walking at a sprint and his fists were all balled up. He stopped in front of the table where Sirius and Ron were playing chess and very casually swished his hand across the chessboard causing the little pawns to fall to the floor like rain.

"Harry! What in the name of Merlin's beard did you do that for," snapped Sirius reproachfully.

Before Harry had a chance to answer, Ron was on top of Harry tackling his best friend to the floor.

"Get off, your hurting me," Harry shouted angrily.

"I hate you!" Bellowed Ron in reply.

"He said get off."

Hermione had just gotten out of timeout while the boys were rolling around on the floor wrestling with each other. Despite already having been in trouble that day, it took Hermione all of 30 seconds before she was rolling around with them scratching and biting at every opportunity.

"That's enough! Stop that all of you," said Lily sternly when James and Sirius had finally managed to pull the three friends apart.

Hermione had split her lip, Ron was bleeding from several shallow bite marks and Harry was sporting what was soon to be a big black eye.

"I don't know what's gotten into the three of you, but it's going to stop right now! Your best friends and I think it's best if the three of you head up to your dorms until you can remember that," said Lily losing some of her sparkle as she reprimanded them.

Harry was stunned. He couldn't believe it! They were in trouble! Lily was never the one who punished Harry. In great distress, Ron and Hermione slowly started to head up to their separate towers. Harry turned to follow Ron up the stairs, but James held his hand out to stop him.

"You're not going to bed until you've picked up every last one of the chess pieces you dropped," he said severely.

"No," said Harry stubbornly.

"I'm not kidding Harry. I told you to pick up those pieces and we are not leaving this room until you do. Is that understood," said James forcefully.

"I hate you," sobbed Harry softly.

"Yeah well, that's too bad isn't it," James replied sitting in an armchair staring at Harry with his arms folded.

For a few more minutes, Harry stood rebelliously staring at James and then slowly he got down on his hands and knees and picked up all of the fallen pawns. All in all James was very relieved as he, Peter and Sirius made their way to the Shrieking Shack. It really was the first time James was so frustrated and so exhausted that wrestling with a werewolf was almost therapeutic for him. As Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail trotted through Hogsmeade James, or rather Prongs, forgot for one night all about Harry and his destiny.

/20 minutes earlier/

Harry and Ron had apologized to each other almost instantly. The apology was followed by a long discussion about the bad wolf. They were amazed to find out that what they had been trying to explain to the grownups they already knew. Only one question remained between them. Why couldn't they find the words to explain it all to the marauders and to Lily? Before both boys went to bed 15 minutes later, they were in tears.

The last thing Harry and Ron remembered before heading off to bed was feeling very achy, like they were coming down with the flu, although they didn't know how to express it. When Ron woke up a few hours later to a jumble of noises he couldn't make out, he felt incredibly sore and his throat felt like it was on fire. As he squinted through the darkness over at Harry, Ron was absolutely horrified. Harry was screaming at the top of his lungs and he was covered in shallow cuts, screaming out in agony. Immediately Ron got out of bed and rushed over to his friend, but Ron had no clue what to do.

"JAMES! JAMES," Ron shouted urgently.

No answer. Shocked, Ron looked over at the older boys beds. There was nobody in the room with them. Ron looked back over at his best friend. Harry had started to shake. This was not good, not good at all.

"LILY! LILY! LI -- LY," Ron screamed in desperation.

Harry didn't seem to be getting any better. To Ron's great relief he heard footsteps coming rapidly toward the dormitory. Still, somehow it seemed like forever before the dormitory door actually opened. Lily, Olivia, Victoria and Hermione burst into the room about the time a mark that mysteriously resembled teeth marks appeared on Harry's forearm.

"What on earth is --" Olivia began.

When Victoria lit the candles in the dormitory with her wand and they could see what Ron had been shouting about, Lily looked like she was going to faint. She raced over to Harry, who was shivering in the bed. It was hard to tell who was more pasty.

"What happened to Harry? Where are James and the others," Victoria asked Ron frantically.

"I don't know . . . I woke up and Harry was sick . . .and the Marauders were gone," Ron sobbed. There were huge crocodile tears streaming steadily down his face.

"Is Harry going to die," breathed Hermione from the corner.

"No of course not. Livi go get Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall. Don't say anything about James. Tori help me get Harry downstairs," Lily commanded without taking her eyes off Harry.

"But Lils --"

"I really think we should --"

"I said go," Lily demanded firmly.

Reluctantly, Victoria and Olivia agreed. Lily brought Harry down to the sofa in the common room. When they had Harry situated comfortably, Victoria took a very distraught Ron and Hermione up to the girls' dormitory. Lily stayed downstairs in the common room with Harry. She knelt beside him with a damp washcloth trying to reduce his fever.

Lily's stomach was in knots. She had told Hermione that Harry wasn't going to die, but the truth was she didn't know. Lily didn't know anything. She didn't know all that much about Harry. James had never told her anything about him and she didn't know what kind of strange illness would cause all of these unexplained injuries.

Harry groaned and doubled over clutching his stomach.

"Shh," said Lily delicately, "It's all right, come on, just try and relax. Madam Pomfrey will be here any minute."

At the sound of her voice, Harry seemed to relax. Gently, Lily removed Harry's hands from his midsection and unbuttoned his shirt. Harry shivered a little, but Lily took no notice. She was too busy gawking at the little boy's mutilated body. Everywhere she looked there were all kinds of cuts and gashes. There were even a few marks on the boy's arms that suspiciously looked like fresh animal teeth marks. Lily was absolutely bewildered. They had been with Harry all day and they certainly had not allowed Harry near any vicious beasts. Even as Lily sat there staring at Harry, he yelped in pain and an enormous bruise appeared on Harry's torso, as though something had rammed into him. Lily didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was terrified her.

"James where are you," she asked the empty common room breathlessly.

James was in very high spirits when he arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady the next morning. He wanted to change his shirt before meeting Sirius and Peter in the great hall for breakfast. Lily jumped out at him from out of nowhere. She was clearly very upset. Even though James had memorized every inch of her, it took him a few seconds to recognize his girlfriend. Lily looked completely frazzled. Her clothes were disheveled, her hair had not been done up and was flying every which way making it look as messy as his. As if that wasn't enough to make James worry, there were dark circles under Lily's perfect green eyes.

"What happened to you," he asked concernedly.

"Shut up James," Lily replied irritably.

Automatically he took a step back.

"Where were you," she demanded. "I was up all night with your cousin trying to keep him calm while bruises and bite marks kept showing up on him."

"What? Is he okay," asked James apprehensively.

"He's fine. He's with your parents. They said they found a way to send him home, whatever that means. You, on the other hand, won't be when I get through with you," said Lily coldly.

"Look Lily, I'm sorry about inconveniencing you with Harry and everything but I wouldn't have taken off if it wasn't important."

Lily put her hands on her hips, "Where were you?"

"I was with Remus," said James evasively.

"Don't be ridiculous. He had to go out of town," said Lily impatiently.

"I know. I went with him," James lied. "Look Lily I'm sorry, but can we talk about this later? I'd like to say goodbye to Harry. It's going to be awhile before I'm going to be able to see him again."

Without waiting for an answer, James took off down the corridor making his way to Dumbledore's office. Sirius was anxiously waiting for him next to the stone gargoyle. He looked immensely relieved to see that James had arrived.

Speaking quickly, Sirius explained that his parents had stopped him on the way to the Great Hall. He told James that Aidan and Accalia intended to send Harry, Ron and Hermione home by something called a time portkey. Apparently this worked the same way a regular portkey did, but it sent people through eras instead of just from place to place. Sirius said that he was afraid James wouldn't have made it because the portkey was set to go off any minute. When James burst into Dumbledore's office, he was very relieved to see that Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't left yet.

"James," said Harry ecstatically throwing himself around James's waist. "I knew you'd come! I was so scared you were mad at me. I'm sorry I was a bad boy."

"Don't worry about it, sometimes things like that just happen, it doesn't make you a bad boy," James replied.

"All right Harry. Time to go," said Accalia strangely emotionless.

"Wait! Don't I get to say goodbye," said James astounded by his mother's behavior.

"Sorry son, if you'd been a few minutes earlier, but the time portkey is set to go off in 45 seconds," said Aidan. Like his wife, he seemed inexplicably off kilter.

This was one of the few times in James's life when he felt that the world was indeed unfair. After all, luck had brought Harry to James and then through a stroke of bad luck James had missed his only opportunity to say goodbye to Harry. He wouldn't see Harry for three years and even then Harry would be a baby. James realized in that moment that he might never get to see the type of man Harry turned out to be.

The portkey took off and Harry and the others turned into a pair of shimmering lights. The lights circled around the room once and then went wild bouncing off the walls and ceiling as though trying to find its way out.

"Is it supposed to do that," Sirius asked turning to James.

James shrugged. Much to everyone's surprise the light stopped and all of a sudden Harry, Ron and Hermione returned standing right on the spots they had been when they left. Amazed Aidan remarked that there was nothing wrong with the portkey even while he was examining it.

Dumbledore's response was that the three friends were just too powerful for that particular piece of magic. At once Hermione burst into loud uncontrollable sobs.

"Don't worry dear," said Accalia sympathetically. "We'll get you home soon, I promise."

"Sirius, James, why don't you take the kids back to the dorm. From what Lily tells me, they've had a rough night and they could probably use some rest," said Aidan very authoritatively.

James and Sirius wasted no time doing as they had been instructed.

"Hey, don't worry Ladybug, you will be home soon. You heard our mum," said James consolingly.

"That's right and until then I get to spend time with my best girl," said Sirius picking Hermione up and carrying her the rest of the way back to the tower.

James looked at Hermione getting tears and mucus all over Sirius's best school robes and he couldn't help but feel a surge of guilt. He didn't want Harry to leave. He wasn't ready to say goodbye to the boy yet, or to any of them for that matter.

"Still here I see," said Remus sitting up in his hospital bed as Sirius, Harry, Ron and James entered the wing.

"You knew they were leaving," asked James curiously.

"Mum and Dad brought the kids by and told me," said Remus very offhand about the whole thing.

"Great," said James darkly. "So everyone got to say goodbye but me?"

Sirius shoved James lightly in the arm before explaining to Remus everything that had gone on in Dumbledore's office with the time portkey. To say Remus was surprised was an understatement. He nearly fell out of his bed. James continued by explaining that Hermione was so distressed about not being able to see her mother that she refused to leave the tower all day. All she wanted to do was sit in her bed and cry.

"Remus," Harry interrupted impatiently. "Remus, I made you a present."

Harry carefully climbed over Remus to sit next him on the bed. The lycanthrope turned his attention to the little boy at once. Harry was proudly holding up a hand-drawn picture of a wolf, a dog, and what Remus could only assume was Harry's impression of a stag. It wasn't as though Harry had any particular talent in art, but the gesture was so sweet Remus couldn't help but smile.

"It's very nice Harry, thank you," said Remus graciously.

"Does it make you feel better," Harry asked innocently, looking up into Remus's eyes with an eager expression on his face.

"Yes," Remus replied. And to his amazement, he realized as he said it that it was the truth.

Harry glowed.

Remus examined the picture again, "Harry, where is Wormtail?

Harry took the picture from Remus and pointed to a white blob in the sky of his picture. Upon closer inspection the blob was a snowy white bird. Remus looked over at Harry puzzled. Then he realized that the bird was Hedwig. Curiously, Remus turned his attention back to the drawing. Clasped inside Hedwig's talons was unmistakably a pudgy rat. Remus started to laugh.

"It was my idea," said Ron, smirking mischievously.

"Very clever, cub," Remus conceded.

With great interest, Sirius and James huddled together to examine the picture. When James looked up from the drawing Ron and Harry were grinning at each other, apparently very pleased with themselves. James put his hands on his hips and tried to look stern, but he just couldn't stop laughing. Sirius slapped James jovially on the back, his booming laughter filling the whole ward.

"Lighten up Prongs. It's brilliant. There's no denying their Marauders now," he said ruffling Ron's hair.

Madam Pomfrey came over a few minutes later to change Remus's bandages. James didn't want Harry and Ron to see their precious Mr. Moony so banged up. So, despite many protests from the boys, Sirius and James began to herd the boys out of the hospital wing.

"Of course, why didn't I think of this before," said the nurse excitedly from behind the curtain that separated Remus from the rest of the ward.

Slowly, Madam Pomfrey opened the curtain and gestured for Harry to come join them. She asked Harry to remove his shirt, which he did with some assistance from James, and what they saw took everyone (but Madam Pomfrey of course), by surprise. Looking from Remus to Harry their marks were identical, right down to the bruise on Remus's chest where Prongs had rammed into the werewolf to keep him from running off into the residential area of Hogsmeade.

As Remus stared at Harry his eyes began to water. Harry didn't seem fazed by Remus's guilt. Harry simply asked James to help him button up his shirt and reminded Remus in a way that seemed extraordinarily grown-up that it wasn't his fault. Remus didn't want to be a werewolf, he didn't want to be in the hospital wing and he didn't want anything to happen to Harry. He just couldn't help it. Gratefully, Remus leaned over and gave Harry a little hug.

"Come on Harry, it's time to go. Remus needs to rest now," said James pulling the two apart.

"No!" Harry shouted. "I have to stay here and take care of Moony."

It took several minutes of debating until James finally surrendered. Ron would go with James and Sirius and try to comfort Hermione and Harry would stay in the hospital wing with Remus and the nurse. The only reason James consented was because Madam Pomfrey had reminded him that if Harry stayed in the hospital wing she would have more time to heal him. When they turned to leave, Harry was sitting on the edge of Remus's bed like a guard dog.

"Ron, you forgot to give Moony your picture," Harry reminded his companion when Sirius, James and Ron had reached the door.

"S'not as good as yours," Ron said staring at the floor and shuffling his feet.

It took a little prodding, but Remus finally convinced Ron to show him the picture. It was a drawing of a redheaded stick figure chasing a black beast. On the top, written in James's handwriting, were the words get well Moony. Remus stared at the picture for a few minutes and then Sirius came to the rescue by saying that it was a picture of Ron chasing the bad wolf away from Remus. Remus stared at the two drawings sprawled out on his bed. He couldn't understand the power these two drawings had over Remus that made him feel so alive. More alive than he'd ever felt after the full moon.

After helping Madam Pomfrey hang up the pictures he and Ron had made for the werewolf, Harry laid down on the bed snuggling close to Remus's chest and fell asleep. Madam Pomfrey smiled fondly at Harry before walking back to her office and Remus found it wasn't long before the previous night's events caught up with him and he too drifted off to sleep.

March 10th, 1980 was a particularly chilly day, but the people in flat number eight on Juniper Lane took no notice. A fire was roaring in the fireplace and the room was filled with joyful laughter. The small sitting room was filled with multicolored streamers and balloons that giggled when you touched them. Today was Remus Lupin's 22nd birthday. Remus was having a small party to celebrate. Remus had not intended to do much of anything that day except perhaps to catch up on his reading, but his brothers and sister-in-law had other ideas.

Admittedly, having company was a far better plan than celebrating his birthday alone. He enjoyed himself through most of the party. They had just gotten to the presents. Sirius had given him a set of rare leather bound books, James had bought him a top-of-the-line broomstick and Lily had gotten Remus a set of very fine robes.

"This one is from Harry, Ron and Hermione," said Lily gently herding the three small children towards Remus.

Ron did not seem happy to leave his fascinating giggling balloon, but quickly changed his mind when Remus opened his arms and allowed the little boy to sit on his lap while he opened the gift. Lily had obviously wrapped the package, but the young mother had obviously allowed the children to place at least a dozen bows all around it. Inside the parcel were three paint-covered handprints with names written underneath. Harry's handprint was done with red paint, Hermione's with pink, and Ron's with blue.

"Thank you, these are some of the finest hand prints I've ever gotten," Remus informed the toddlers.

"Mooey," squeaked Hermione trying to climb up his leg.

"Mooey" reached down and picked the girl up and placed her on his lap as well. With a mischievous smile Hermione handed Remus a crumpled leaf.

"Mooey," said Ron impatiently. From his pocket, he pulled out a muddy, moss-coated rock, which he eagerly presented to the werewolf.

"Thank you very much, Ron," said Remus feigning a happy smile. "I was just telling Padfoot we needed more muddy rocks in the flat."

Ron beamed contentedly and climbed off of Remus's lap and headed back to his prized balloon with Hermione at his heels. As Ron and Hermione went back to poking, prodding, and biting the unpoppable balloons, Harry became terribly fussy. Immediately, Lily rushed over to comfort her son, but nothing seemed to be working. Resolutely Harry stretched his arms out towards his uncle desperate for attention, clearly jealous of his uncle's interaction with Ron and Hermione. Unfortunately, Remus was busy reminiscing with his brothers and Harry's vigorous pleas for attention went unnoticed. Suddenly a loud screech rent the air, "MOOEY!"

All heads turned to see Harry still struggling with his mother. Stunned, Remus walked over and stood before Harry, who apparated into the lycanthrope's arms without hesitation. While Sirius, Lily and James stood around them watching in dazed silence, Remus stared dumbfounded at his nephew who was now resting his head complacently on the crook of his uncle's neck.

"What did you say," asked Remus gently tickling the boy to keep him awake.

"Mooey," said Harry simply lifting his head slightly to look at Remus.

"That's what I thought," said Remus.

He couldn't believe it. Harry's third word was his name. He had known that saying things like 'Uncle Moony is coming to see his favorite nephew' would rub off on Harry eventually, but never in his wildest dreams did Remus think that today would be the day Harry would finally get it right. Furthermore, he never could have imagined it would feel this good. This was certainly the most sensational birthday gift Remus could have gotten, though he didn't dare say it aloud and offend Ron and his rock.

"I've got the smartest nephew in the whole wide world," said Remus happily tossing Harry in the air.

Harry giggled. Apparently catching on that his new word was a success he repeated it every time he landed safely back in Remus's arms.

"Careful now he just ate," Lily cautioned.

Once the buoyancy had come to a halt and Remus and Harry had a chance to rest in a cushy armchair, Sirius snatched Harry out of Remus's arms and said, "All right, you said mummy, you said Daddy, you've even said Moony now you need the most important word. Say it with me, Padfoot."

In response Harry gurgled incoherently and planted a sloppy kiss on his godfather's cheek.

"Better luck next time, Padfoot old pal," said James patting the disgruntled Animagus on the back.

Well that's that. Everything will all come together in your questions about empaths will finally be answered in the next chapter entitled Guinevere Gryffinder

Now to decide Sirius's fate you must review

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