Rays of late morning sunshine struggled to pierce the layer of dust and grime of the Shrieking Shack's windows. The thin bright rays that did illuminated the flecks of paint that littered the windowsill, like confetti, from the scratches on the frame. They cast shadows in the deep gauges in the floorboards. They shimmered over the fresh bloody scars on the bare back of the naked boy who was lying in the centre of the carnage.

Remus Lupin's eyes fluttered as the sunlight forced its way behind his tired eyelids. The floor beneath his body was unfamiliar. It took him a few moments to remember the previous night before his transformation. He remembered Madam Pomfrey taking him to the Shrieking Shack.

Through bleary eyes he looked around himself. He saw the scratches at the window, the gauges in the floor, the dents in the walls. He sighed with weary relief that Professor Dumbledore's reinforcement enchantments held out.

In the corner of the room Remus spotted the bag that the Matron had brought down for him. He pulled out the blanket and wrapped it around himself. Then he tried soothing the wounds he could reach with some of the ointments. It helped a little, enough for him to be able to put fresh trousers on over the wounds on his legs.

After that bout of exertion, Remus succumbed to sleep once more. He would need at least a day and a half to recover. It used to be a week, back when he was first bitten. But he was steadily getting stronger, more able to cope with the stress of his transformations.

'Remus?' Madam Pomfrey's voice pulled Remus back out of his nap.

He groaned as he rolled onto his back. He fixed his bright blue eyes on her concerned brown ones. Gaining full consciousness was like pulling himself out of a well; he just needed something to focus on.

'Sssh now,' the Matron soothed, 'try and sit up for me, that's it. Let's fix up these scratches,'

Painfully, Remus managed to hold himself in a sitting position while she murmured a number of incantations. The pain began to ease and settled into a dull ache.

'Is that better?' Madam Pomfrey asked.

Remus nodded.

'Let's get some food and water in you then,' she reached into a separate bag that she had brought down and, with a flourish, produced a bowl of soup and some slices of bread.

'Do you think you can eat this?'

Remus nodded once again and shakily reached for the bowl. His stomach craved sustenance, considering it didn't get any last night while in wolf-form.

In less than a minute the soup and the bread were gone.

'Wow, you must be very hungry,' the Matron commented replacing the plate in Remus' hands with some pyjamas. 'Put these on and we'll get you back up to school, okay?'

As Madam Pomfrey supported Remus back through the secret passageway out to the Whomping Willow, she explained the story that she and Professor Dumbledore had come up with to explain his stay in the Hospital Wing.

'As you told your friends previously, it's a stomach bug. If they see me escorting you back to the Hospital Wing it's because you thought you were feeling somewhat better and I decided to take you for a walk around the grounds.'

'But what if they see us coming up from the Whomping Willow?' Remus asked, doubting that anything could stop people from getting suspicious.

'I've cast a temporary invisibility charm around the passageway. If anyone is close enough to see us emerge then they wouldn't be able to see us anyway.'

When Remus arrived back at the Hospital Wing he was shocked to see James, Sirius and Peter waiting outside the locked door.

'Remus, there you are!' James waved, 'We've been waiting here for ages,'

'I don't suppose any of you three boys read the sign on the door?' Madam Pomfrey scolded, taking a set of keys from a pocket in her cloak.

'Oh, that sign!' Sirius feigned ignorance, looking up and spotting the "No visitors" sign.

'I read it,' Peter mumbled quietly.

'No visitors,' Madam Pomfrey insisted, helping Remus to a bed where his spare clothes had been lain out as though he had spent the night there.

'Aw come on Matron,' James urged with what he seemed to think was a charming smile. 'We just want to see how our friend is feeling,'

Madam Pomfrey gave Remus a stern look. He nodded at the unspoken question.

'Very well. Five minutes!'

'Yes!' Sirius punched the air and Remus' three friends gathered around his bed. James took the chair beside the bed, while Sirius settled himself at the foot of Remus' bed. Peter perched on the arm of James' chair.

'So how're you feeling?' James asked Remus.

Remus shrugged, 'Not too bad, thanks.'

'Any idea what caused it?' Sirius queried.

Remus remembered the cover story, 'A stomach bug, they think.'

'Is it contagious?' Peter gasped, leaning slightly away from Remus.

James laughed and almost pushed Peter off the arm of the chair, 'Of course it's not contagious Pete!'

'Do you know when you'll be let out?'

'Uh,' Remus cast a look at Madam Pomfrey. She was busy in her office. 'A few days, maybe the day after tomorrow? Matron hasn't really said yet.'

'Too bad mate,' Sirius sighed, 'Think of all that homework you're going to be excused from.'

Sirius meant it as a joke, but the following day he wasn't laughing when Professor McGonagall sent him up to the Hospital Wing to deliver Remus' homework for the day.

'All I did was ask if she had a hairball when she coughed, I mean, she can transform into a cat and all. It really wasn't worth threatening me with detention at all.'

Remus laughed for a solid five minutes at that. Sirius joined in with his bark-like laugh until Madam Pomfrey told him to get out as he was being far too noisy and disturbing her patients. Remus glanced around at the empty Hospital Wing and exchanged a shrug with Sirius before he was shooed around the corner out of sight.

By Tuesday Remus was back on his feet and back to lessons.

'Good to see you out of those pyjamas mate,' Sirius grinned, 'Now can you help me with this Switching Spell essay? I've got three inches written already but have no idea what else to write about.'

'But your writing is huge,' James complained, 'You've written about four sentences!'

'I've got five inches,' Peter added, reading Sirius' essay over his shoulder.

'Well it's nice to be needed,' Remus joked as he settled down on the sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room. The thing is, he was being totally serious. Remus had never felt happier than when he was surrounded by his new friends after his first transformation away from home.

A small part of Remus wondered how long that feeling would last. He ignored it as best as he could.

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