CHAPTER 9
The next morning, I went back to my dorm so I could change. I snuck out before the others woke up. Once I was dressed, I went down to breakfast. I sat with Chris and Claire and told them about what had happened since the beginning of the ball.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Remus sit next to me. I turned to look at him and was greeted by a kiss. I smiled when we parted.
"Morning beautiful." he said.
"I told you my plan would work." Claire told Chris.
"Do I wanna know what she's going on about?" Remus asked.
"Um…her plan for me to get you was for me to dress up in her clothes and let her do my makeup and be friends with the other Marauders and then supposedly you were going to ask me to the ball. So it wasn't really her plan that worked. It was a mixture of hers and Sirius's, because she's the reason I started hanging out with yall and Sirius is the reason we went to the ball together." I replied.
"Speaking of Sirius, he's miffed that you didn't stick around to tell any of us good morning." Remus said.
"Aww, poor little Padfoot. I guess we better go over there before he starts missing me to much." I said. Remus didn't laugh like I expected him to. "Moony what's wrong?" I asked.
"I…I just don't feel well, that's all." he replied. I looked into his eyes and could tell by them that he was telling the truth. Then I realized what that night was.
"Remus, you need to lay down or something." I said gently.
"I'll be fine." he protested.
"No you wont be. You look different than you normally do this time of month. I think you really need to go lay down." I said. He refused to.
"Why won't you go lay down?" I asked.
"Because I don't want to." he replied.
"Fine." I said. I got up and left. I knew that he'd either follow or else go sit with the other three. I didn't bother looking back to see if he was following me. I waited til I was on the grounds before turning into a wolf. I trotted down to the Whomping Willow and into the Shrieking Shack. I went up the stairs and into the room with the nests and mattress. I curled up on the nest closest to the door and identified the scent as James. I heard footsteps but didn't bother looking up. I licked my foreleg to make it look like I was cleaning it instead of just trying to avoid seeing the person who had come in.
"Lizzie." I still didn't look up. I continued ignoring the voice until the person put a hand under my chin and forced me to look up at them. I jerked my head away and stood up.
"Lizzie, you can't be mad at me." Remus said. I wasn't mad at him, but I wasn't going to say anything different until he caved in and laid down somewhere. "Come on Lizzie. At least tell me why you're so upset. All I did was refuse to go lay down."
Silence.
"Lizzie, please." he pleaded. I finally turned to look at him. "Fine, if it will get you to talk to me, I'll go to the dorm and lay down. Happy?" he asked. I nodded and trotted down the stairs and out of the tunnel. He was trailing behind me.
"Could you at least turn into a human?" he asked. I turned around and put my front paws on his shoulders and licked his face all over. He laughed and tried pushing me away from him. He was gentle when he was pushing me away, like he didn't even really mean it. I lost my balance and fell without him even touching me. I whined but jumped at him and knocked him over in the snow. I stood over him and lowered my head. I licked his face again before turning and running up to the castle. Once I reached the castle, I turned into a human and bolted up the stairs up to the Gryffindor common room and then up to Remus's dorm. I knew he wouldn't be running, that he'd be walking the whole way up, so I sat down.
A couple of minutes later, I had an idea. I knew he most likely wouldn't check the bathroom if he bothered looking for me so I sat in the bathroom floor and pushed the door almost shut.
"Lizzie?" I heard him saying a few more minutes later. I sat in silence. Once he realized I wasn't hiding in his bed or anything, he went quiet. I waited about three minutes before sticking my head out the door. His back was turned so I snuck up behind him and wrapped my arms around him from the back.
"And where were you hiding from me?" he asked.
"Bathroom." I replied. He turned around and kissed me. I noticed his clothes were soaked since I had shoved him into the snow.
"I think you need dry clothes and a hot shower." I said.
"I'll skip on the shower." he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it's time that I'd have to spend away from you." he replied. In the end, he went and took a shower. When he came back, he seemed even worse up.
"You're laying with me. No exceptions." he said. I curled up on the bed beside him and he pulled me up against him. I waited until he was sleeping before I got up. I noticed how messy the dorm was, and though I had never been to keen on cleaning, I started cleaning it up.
By the time I was done, all the clothes were clean (by magic) and absolutely everything was put away. I turned around and saw Remus watching me. He had a pained expression on his face.
"Remus?" I asked, instantly worried. He never seemed to feel pain except for minutes before the transformation, and it was still about three hours away. I went to the side of the bed that he was laying on.
"Its nothing, Lizzie. I'll be fine." he replied.
"No, there's something wrong or else you wouldn't look like that." I said.
"Lizzie, its nothing." he said.
"You're lying." I said. I had an idea. "You stay here until I get back. And you better stay in that bed." I snapped before leaving. I hurried down to the dungeons, knowing James and Sirius would most likely be down there pranking Slytherins. I was correct.
"Something wrong, Fang?" Sirius asked, seeing my face.
"Well you know how Moony always seems fine until a few minutes before the moon comes out?" I asked. They nodded. "Well now he's acting like he does a few minutes before he turns, but he claims he's fine."
"Oh God. He's done this once before. We've got to get him to the Shrieking Shack soon. He's not transforming yet, but he is feeling the pre-transformation pain. Its like his bones are slowly breaking and getting ready to reform as werewolf bones, but they wont reform until the moon comes out." James said. We all ran back to the dorm and found Remus even worse off than when I had left him.
"Come on, Moony. You're going to the Shrieking Shack." Sirius said. He and James supported Remus the whole way down to the Whomping Willow.
"We can't get under. There's no way. Its to slow when we have to do this." James noted. I noticed a knot on the tree and turned into a wolf. I bolted under the branches and hit the knot. The tree suddenly froze. I turned to look at the others. They made it into the tunnel before the tree started swinging again, but I wasn't so lucky. One of the branches knocked into me before I had even realized it was moving and I went flying several yards. I yelped when I landed.
I stood up made my way to the tree again. My left shoulder was killing me. I saw an opening in the swinging branches and ran quickly, barely making it into the tunnel. I took my time getting into the Shrieking Shack, keeping as much weight as possible off of my front left leg. I heard Remus shout in pain and hurried.
"What took so long, Lizzie?" James asked. I didn't say anything, I just laid down, careful not to move my left shoulder. Sirius came over to me.
"Lizzie, are you alright?" he asked. I shook my head. I knew if I turned into a human, I'd be shouting in pain from my shoulder. "What's wrong?"
I pointedly looked down at my shoulder before nodding towards the tunnel. Sirius touched my shoulder lightly, causing me to yelp and scoot away from him.
"I think the Whomping Willow did some damage to her." he said. I turned into a human, although I knew it was a bad idea.
"Damn tree." I snarled.
"What happened? I thought you were right behind us." Remus asked through his pain.
"I was…until the Whomping Willow unfroze. A branch hit my shoulder and I went flying several yards and somehow landed on that shoulder. That's why it took me so long getting up here, I was trying to keep my weight off it and if I'd turned back into this form when it first happened, you'd probably have heard me screaming and cussing from all the way in here." I replied.
Remus seemed to slowly get better. I on the other hand was still in pain. When the moon came out, Remus started shouting in pain.