JANUARY
The new year marked the return of the rest of the students and the resumption of classes, although by now, teachers had picked up from their normal pace to try to get as much teaching done as possible before the O.W.L.S. came in the spring.
It also marked the return of the full moon. Remus made his typical absence on the first day, and the Marauders were all sitting at breakfast, sorely missing him.
With Peter gone, Remus was now an even more vital member of the group, allowing James and Ellie to keep their much needed distance as they still tried not to be awkward to one another. He was also important to keep Sirius from getting too clingy to Rose as she could often talk to him easily as an escape.
Rose was contemplating this, and deliberating upon the importance of his absence, when her owl, Dog, came and landed on the table in front of her.
Although Dog usually didn't go to the great hall with deliveries from her cousin (which might prove to hold an illegal substance) letters from her normal family members would come in with breakfast as usual.
As eager as she was to open the correspondence from her family, she was stopped by an unsettling hoot from Dog.
Next to her, Sirius had been visited unusually by his family owl, a sleek black bird with only one eye.
"Oh Merlin."
"What is it?" Ellie asked, curious.
"It's- look, at the bottom. The green envelope," he prompted, moving the others aside gently with a fork, careful not to touch it.
"No." James replied, shocked.
"Yes. A howler," Rose replied, paling. It was from his mother by the looks of it, the handwriting curly and feminine.
"What for? We haven't been caught doing anything wrong, have we?" Ellie asked.
"No, not beyond the detention he had last week for turning all of Oliver's ink white," James replied, solemnly.
"Dog, pick it up please. We need to open this somewhere-not here. If he touches it, odds are it will go off. James and Ellie, clear out the common room with the dungbombs you brought at Hogsmeade. I'll carry Dog up to the chamber."
"Good idea," James replied, as the pair of them stood and rushed out.
"What do you think it's about?" Rose asked, while Dog hopped onto her arm, and Sirius' family owl flew off.
"No idea," Sirius replied darkly.
"Brilliant," Rose sighed, leading the way as they left the Great Hall behind, trying not to be conspicuous.
"I know," Sirius grumbled. "But knowing her, it will be full of cursing, and enough comments about mudbloods to make even the Slytherins feel bad."
Leaving the hall, they had the misfortune of running directly into none other than Vanessa, flanked by Kyla and Clarissa.
"Leaving breakfast early, Bennett?" She asked, smirking.
"Waking up late, Vanessa?" Rose countered.
"What can I say? A girl needs her beauty rest. If she really is pretty, that is," Vanessa crowed, making the girls behind her laugh. Sirius froze a few steps back, Rose stopping him before he could make a move. Her body language was clear; leave this to me.
"Where are you going with that bird?" Kyla asked, suddenly curious.
"He's just come in tired and a little bit hurt is all," Rose supplied. Dog, to his credit, upon heating the words 'hurt' and 'tired' had done his best to look damaged, as it usually meant some extra treats or pampering for him, hooting pitifully and slumping over, Rose stifling a laugh.
"So? What are you going to do, give him to the kitchens to cook?" Vanessa asked, her lackeys giggling again.
"Nice try, but I'm not quite that heartless. I'm going to go find some Pepperup potion. Can I get you some? It might help with those bags under your eyes," Rose offered.
"Ha-ha, Bennett. We all know that you, um, need that stuff more, because of all of the-um studying that you do!" Clarissa replied, trying her best to make a comeback. She'd failed miserably, and even she knew it, especially after Vanessa hit her with her bag.
"Thank you, Clarissa. I'll try to keep that in mind. Have a good breakfast," Rose replied curtly, Vanessa clearly furious that her lackey had ruined the moment, letting Rose not only escape unscathed, but also win the day.
They hurried up the staircase back to Gryffindor tower to open the Howler.
XXXXXXXX
"What do you think that was all about?" Sirius questioned, watching the witches over her shoulder as the pair of them hurried up the grand staircase.
"I dunno. But it wasn't good. The fact that she's willing to confront us is concerning. But we have more pressing things to attend to. Come on!" They picked up their pace until they were sprinting through the castle, the impending doom that their owl held fresh in their minds.
They sprinted around a corner a little bit too quickly, and very nearly ran straight into Dumbledore, but they kept running.
"Sorry, Sir! No time to explain," Rose exclaimed as they kept up the sprint.
If they would've turned around, they'd've seen Dumbledore chuckling at them.
As it was, however, they kept up until they reached the common room, where James was standing guard outside.
"Hurry," he instructed, as they approached. "We can only keep people out for so long." Ellie waited inside at the far end of the common room to keep people in their dorms. She wore a bubble-headed charm that allowed her to stand where several dungbombs had just been set off.
The pair holding the bird opened the passage as quickly as they could and hurried inside, flanked by James. Ellie would stand watch so that they could eventually exit inconspicuously, but until then, they were clear.
"That was almost too easy," James grinned, panting from the run down the hall.
"Hardly," Rose gasped, clutching her side.
The envelope in Dog's beak began to twitch, and the small bird let out a muffled hoot in alarm. As steam flooded from the envelope's opening he gingerly dropped it onto the desk where it continued smoking.
Sirius reached for it, ignoring various protests.
"Wait. Sirius, you don't have to hear this. Why don't you just-"
"Come on, mate, don't-"
He grabbed the letter, and with a pop, the envelope flew violently out of his hand, levitating over their heads, where it transfigured itself into a wide mouth with dark lips.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK, HOW DARE YOU. CONSORTING WITH THE MUGGLE LOVING POTTERS WAS ONE THING BUT THIS IS A NEW LOW. THE BENNETTS?! TRAITOROUS SCUM FROM AMERICA, BLOODY YANKS FOR MERLIN'S SAKE! THEY WERE THE ONES TO HAVE YOUR UNCLES ARRESTED, YOU PIECE OF FILTH, LOWLIFE POND SCUM, UNGRATEFUL SWINE. LOOK AT YOUR BROTHER, HONORING THE FAMILY NAME WHILE YOU DRAG IT THROUGH THE MUDBLOOD REFUSE WITH BLOOD TRAITORS AND MUGGLE LOVERS. YOUR OWN COUSIN WAS NEARLY KILLED BY THAT ROSE BENNETT ONLY A FEW YEARS AGO, HOW COULD YOU DEFILE THE FAMILY PRIDE BY MIXING WITH SUCH REPULSIVE PUTREFACTION?! YOU HAD BEST NOT COME HOME AGAIN, BOY, BECAUSE IF YOU DO THERE WILL BE SOME LOVELY HEXES WITH YOUR NAME ON THEM. YOU ARE GOING TO TURN OUT TO BE ONE MUGGLE-LOVING VAT OF DRAGON PISS SOMEDAY. WHAT DISGRACE FOR A SON OF MINE TO BE PUBLICLY INVOLVED WITH THAT SORT. YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THAT I NEVER SO MUCH AS SEE THAT GIRL OF YOURS. IF I EVER FIND YOUR SCHEMING BITCH, YOU'D BETTER BRING A BAG TO PICK UP THE PIECES OF WHAT WILL BE LEFT OF HER. I'VE GOT A CRUCIATUS CURSE WITH HER NAME ON IT AND I WILL USE IT, BOY. BELIEVE ME, SHE WILL-"
But what exactly would happen to Rose was lost to the ages, as Sirius lit the Howler on fire before both of Rose and James, who were staring at it, too stunned to do anything but jump.
"Don't mind her. Couple of screws loose, if you ask me," Sirius apologized shakily, not really sounding convinced himself.
James let out a low breath.
"That was one of the worst so far," he commented, still rather shaken.
Sirius walked over to Rose who was staring absently at the little pile of ash left on the floor from the outburst.
"Darling? Are you all right? I'm terribly sorry that you had to hear that."
Rose looked up into his eyes curiously, looking somewhere between sad and... Alive, somehow. She seemed to have taken something in the letter as a challenge, as she had the familiar glint in her eye that said as much.
"I'm fine. But Sirius..."
The sad part of her seemed to take over as her eyes teared up. She leaned forward into his chest and looked up at him. "I'm just so worried about you."
For a moment, he paused, but started to laugh almost immediately.
"You've just been threatened to be tortured to death, and you're worried about me? It sounds like you need to sort out your priorities," he suggested, making her laugh a bit.
"But, Sirius, that was your mother. Aren't you...?"
"Horrified? Mortally embarrassed? Ready and willing to commit matricide? Yes, yes, and yes. But this has all happened before," he explained. "You should've seen the one from my sorting. She always does this. It's not like I wanted to go back to the dingy old hellhole that was my house. I've been dealing with this for years, especially with James and Remus' help. Trust me, she'll stay far away from both of us. I'll keep you safe. Hell, you can keep yourself safe. You have my permission to curse off the ears of all the rest of my family members, if you want to. Just not Regulus. He's a special case. Deal?" She slipped a half smile.
"Deal. Can I do the noses too? I've always found Bellatrix's to be rather ugly," she commented lightly.
"Of course. Any time you want to," Sirius replied, leaning in for a kiss.
"I'd hate to be anything like the Howler you just heard but that is absolutely unnecessary as well as repulsive, and classes start in ten minutes, in case you're interested."
The pair broke apart, and joined James in heading back to the school, where classes were in fact just beginning to start. Although both Rose and James quickly forgot about the letter, it lingered on Sirius's mind for quite some time, introducing a new worry. One that grew quickly as the summer holidays approached.
Rose had decided as they left the ash heap behind that she would finally write to her parents about Sirius. After all, nothing that they would have to say could be that bad, could it?
Meanwhile, with the O.W.L.S. nearing, classes were becoming quite challenging, even for Rose, though not nearly as much of a challenge as the night's events would prove to be.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Remus had already tried to reason with them before the transformation, but he'd had no luck in convincing them to abandon him.
"Look, we've already done the hard part. Now there's just to hang out with you," James reminded Remus, as the marauders had sat in an empty common room.
"That might turn out to be easy compared to what you're about to do," Remus argued pointedly. "What I have... a lot of great wizards have said that they'd rather die than have lycanthropy. Why risk it? What happens if something goes wrong? What if you lose your transformation?"
"What 'great wizards' have said that exactly?" Ellie asked, slightly amused.
"None of them," Rose replied, looking up from her book long enough to squash Remus' argument.
"You've only been animagi for-what, ten hours? This is a bad idea."
"It'll have been much longer than that by the time we're actually with you, though," Sirius replied. "And most of what I do is a bad idea. I take pride in that."
"Still," Lupin persisted. "What if you lose your form? I could just kill you. I won't even know who you are."
"Remus, we have control of your shifting, unlike-" James flinched as though he'd accidentally burned his tongue. Remus couldn't control his transformations. It was as good as bragging. "Sorry," he apologized quickly.
"I do not accept your apology. Please go away and remain out of my sight until after the full moon," Lupin replied with a finality, flopping down onto a couch.
"I doubt he'd be able to stay away for that long," Sirius joked, lifting Lupin's feet up to sit on the couch underneath them. "Animal magnetism." James laughed, but Ellie sighed and rolled her eyes, finally gaining Rose's attention for long enough that she closed her book and put it aside.
"Remus, we are going to be perfectly safe. If one of us loses it, someone else will protect them with enough time to escape. We know it'd only be worse for you if something happened. So stop worrying," Rose ordered.
"You heard the woman. We're here for you, mate. Through thick and thin. And if that involves a little bit of risk, then so be it. You're worth that and more to us," James said fiercely, his eyes glinting in the firelight.
Remus's stern glare broke a little bit.
"Animal magnetism," Sirius whispered, forcing all of them to dissolve into laughter.
"This one," Lupin announced, sitting up and flopping back down on Sirius' shoulder. "Is why I'm so concerned about something going wrong." They only laughed harder.
"I think you mean everything going wrong," Ellie supplied.
Once they got over their laughter, a detailed plan was made; one which tailored to Remus' normal routine while being especially careful to avoid Madam Pomfrey.
They were ready.
XXXXXXX
It had all led up to this. Years of careful planning and agonizing processes.
So it had to be worth it.
But all of them would be lying if they said that they weren't rather terrified. No matter what they had assured Remus of earlier, though they knew the risks and had plans for escape, they still could not deny that what they were doing was either incredibly brave-or incredibly stupid.
In the tunnel under the shrieking shack, the sun was barely setting as Rose took a deep breath and moved aside the floorboard behind a stack of old crates, pulling herself through the dingy hole, trying not to cut her hands. She was a dog before a half second had passed, and stuck her head back down the trap door, letting out one bark in greeting. Her long tail swished idly behind her, and she found it a great trial not to turn around and snap at it.
No, not now, she reminded. Remus. Remus now. The plan. Now is the plan.
Rose faced the door on the far side of the hallway and guarded the hole in the ground and her human friends as they climbed up and transformed, Ellie last, only after she closed the trapdoor.
As a dog, Rose was fully abstracted. Not only her body had changed, but her mind as well. She had a shorter attention span, and had to continually focus on what she was doing, or she would find herself off sniffing an intriguing smell in the corner or chasing a rat. Sirius was probably the wort distraction of all, as every time she saw him, she would have to quell the urge to bark a hello, or begin jumping around excitedly, or -well, it seemed that animal magnetism existed between animals too.
Ellie and James, however, somehow remained stoically separate.
Though the two species spoke differently, somehow all could read each other's form of body language enough to proceed carefully through the Shrieking Shack. Somewhat newly constructed, it wasn't particularly scary beyond the perfectly white walls in every room and the idea that it was supposed to be the most haunted building in Britain.
Oh, and the massive claw marks and broken furniture, and is that- blood? Smells like it, Rose thought.
An odd assortment of furniture was used; what looked like leftovers gathered from antique shops or donated supplies were the only decorations used. An old clock hung in one of the rooms, paint peeling, with hands that could only be correct twice a day, though Rose found it a challenge to read its faded numbers and other strange dials that adorned it.
They proceeded as Remus had instructed them to, to a particular room that he said he liked to change in. He said it was because it had a rather comfortable carpet that was nice for sitting on while he waited for the moon to rise.
They approached, and though the door was mostly closed, Sirius nosed it open slowly, not quite sure what they would find.
Remus was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. In the near darkness, all of the animal-children could see quite well, and they all immediately noticed how pale and gaunt their friend looked. Their above-average hearing betrayed how fluttery his heartbeat was, and they could quite literally smell his fear.
Rose paused before entering, lowering her head and cocking it slightly to the side.
Remus sat up and turned around slowly, his expression melancholy; glad to see them, but concerned of the risk.
"Hullo," he whispered, noticing their hesitation.
Rose slowly trotted forward and sniffed his shirt in greeting, and he rubbed behind her ears. Her tail thumped on the ground and she looked intently into his eyes.
Hullo, Remus, she wanted to say.
She wasn't alone for long at all, though, as Sirius let out a jolly bark and bounded over, licking Remus' face, much to his protest. They were followed by James and Ellie, who lowered their heads in greeting, James bowing his long legs until he had sat down next to Remus on the thick green carpet, his short antlers making it a challenge not to poke his friend's eyes out.
"Now I know I told you not to change back until I do, but we have a few minutes left, and I think I can still ask you questions. Can you nod your heads if you understand me?" Remus asked.
Four nods.
"Excellent. Did you get here all right?"
Four nods.
"Are you all sure that you still want to do this?"
Four nods, a strange grumble from James, and an eye roll from Rose. Remus all but laughed.
"How bad was Sirius when I wasn't around today?"
Rose rolled over onto her side and covered her eyes with one leg, while James sprang to his feet and dramatically mimed dying, as Ellie honked with laughter.
Sirius stood and looked aghast, but his tail wagged, enough to distract him into chasing it, which he did for several minutes, all while Lupin laughed hysterically.
Midway through, though, he stopped and clutched at his heart, where apparently he'd felt a sudden change. Rose heard it too, the flutter had intensified, and all though he hadn't really done any exercise, Lupin's heart began to race as though he'd been sprinting. His breathing came in short shuddering gasps.
Next to her, Sirius had come to full attention, ears perked and stance prepared, and was fixedly staring at his friend, a low whine starting in his throat. James and Ellie both stood, shocked, and Ellie took a step back subconsciously.
Remus began shaking, and Sirius darted forward, in an attempt to help, but he was shooed away.
"Stand back. This-hurts," Remus grunted, shaking even worse.
He clenched his fists and his jaw tightly, and the transformation began, faster than Rose would've believed possible. His nose stretched into a snout and his body lengthened. Clothing was split at the seams and hair sprouted. Rose likened it to a horror film, one which disgusted yet intrigued her, where she was compelled to look away but instead kept focused, so as to not miss a single detail. The drastic morphing continued. This was not like their smooth transfigurations into animals. It was clearly very painful and not at all as familiar or seamless. Even with that being so, before so much as two minutes had passed, a full werewolf stood in front of them, all of the signs they'd learned in class displayed obviously.
To say that Rose was shocked was an understatement. She'd known exactly what she'd been walking into, but this... This wasn't like anything natural. This wasn't a dog or a wolf or some other wild creature. This was wrong. It was insane and broken and wrong. She wasn't quite sure how, but she knew that he was infected. That was what this was. The infection taken over. Something primal and canine in her gut told her that, though he could've been a strange looking wolf, he wasn't. He was sick. She knew it in the way that a human might know that someone nearing them was a zombie. Bitten and bloodthirsty and unfit for human life in the worst way.
And, speaking of approaching, the werewolf had ceased tearing up the mattress for long enough to turn around and look at the whimpering noises that Rose had accidentially been making. Instinctively, she raised her lip to show her teeth and crouched below Sirius' neck, a reflex that she only later realized was to protect his throat. Her hackles rose and she tensed, waiting for an attack, though Sirius stayed slightly calm, letting out a low note in warning to her. She positioned her feet to better prepare to leap at the threat.
And then (though it had completely slipped her mind for a moment) the thought that this was Remus resurfaced.
Remus, who cleans up all of James and Sirius' laundry! Remus, who loans you books when you get bored. Remus, who just a moment ago was joking with you and your friends!
The werewolf watched curiously as she relaxed and sat down primly, lowering her head down onto her arms eventually.
It cocked its head to the side.
She tentatively barked in greeting.
Sirius, instead barked in reply, probably distracted or not paying attention, which made James nervously honk with laughter.
The wolf stared at them curiously, sniffed the air for a moment, then bowed low as though in greeting, a pantomime familiar among all dogs as an invitation to play.
Sirius and James were on their feet in a moment, igniting a game of chase that they all joined in to play. They ran through the house and created quite a din with all of their different, strange animal noises, running into things and even breaking through a few walls. Remus was quite fond of howling, though it was now a sound of excitement, definitively distinguishable from the melancholy noises that Rose and Sirius had heard all those months ago on Halloween. They wrestles and tousled and barked at each other, Remus not quite understanding why or how, but still glad to join in nonetheless. He'd told them earlier that in the absence of anything to do (or to attack, as he'd actually said) he would usually scratch himself up, or would otherwise break or tear apart furniture, but with the others there to distract him, he didn't have the same trouble.
Their play lasted for a few more hours, until they were all exhausted. Although Remus usually didn't sleep much as the wolf, he'd apparently been sufficiently tired out, or in any case his mind had been put to rest, his typical angst disbanded. He wasn't himself, not by far, but this night was the beginning of something new, where he wasn't the worst of the beast either. He'd been able to calm his murderous urges with the help of his friends, and although he wouldn't remember any of it in the morning, they'd begun to change him for the better.
For that night though, they all ended up back in the room where they had started, collapsed in exhaustion in a massive dog pile on the drab, green carpet. They were comfortable and cozy, and content in the idea that they all had each other to look out for them.
Even if one of them happened to be a werewolf.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SO that chapter happened (as I am overly fond of saying). As i kind of explained in a response to a review recently, i have some terrible writer's block as far as this story goes, mostly because the people who i based a bunch of the characters on aren't really very close to me any more. So, with that being said, i'm still going to continue writing this, but it might be a little slower or different, i'm not sure yet. As per usual, thank you for reading and reviewing, as well as for the well wishes! Feel free to give me opinions or ideas, if you have any! Don't let the muggles get you down!