The Marauders First Year

by MoonyWormtailPadfootProngs3

Chapters detailing the first year of the Marauders at Hogwarts, with the ever fabulous James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, as they experience their first year of extreme mischief and strong friendships. Rated K because I'm paranoid and some mild language. Disclaimer: I am not the incredible JK Rowling and do not own Harry Potter.

4. Chapter 4- The First Full Moon

The Marauders Book 1 Chapter 4- The First Full Moon

The Marauders' next three weeks at Hogwarts flew by. 2nd day classes had proved to be much more interesting, where they had double Transfiguration in the morning, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon, and Astronomy at night.

James's spell that first night in detention seemed to have seared his confidence in Transfiguration. He had been the first one to turn a match into a needle, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the class trying to put out the fire Sirius had caused. Remus had successfully managed to turn his match into a needle in the last five minutes of class and Peter hadn't done anything at all. An overenthusiastic Sirius had (of course) lit his on fire, which was okay when it was a match, but after he managed to transfigure it into a needle, caused him to have a throbbing burn on his left hand for the rest of the day.

Charms had gone beautifully. 1st year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were learning to levitate objects, which had first been accomplished by Lily Evans, the girl with dark red hair and bright green eyes that James had fallen for on their first day. In a desperate attempt to impress her, James stopped trying to levitate the feather and instead tried to levitate Sirius. This however, did not have the desired result, as James overestimated his own skill and only succeeded in levitating Sirius's right shoe and making it fly around the class. Professor Flitwick fell over with laughter, congratulating James on his profound ability to perform the spell and break the rules at the same time, James grinned cheekily at the rest of the class, but Lily just rolled her eyes and Sirius smacked him with the shoe once he had managed to catch it.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was immediately the most interesting class to everyone except James (who claimed it was flying) and Snape (who claimed it was potions). Their very first lesson was on counter jinxes and disarming opponents, which Sirius and James had a blast practicing on Snape from across the room, making not only his wand but also his entire body fly across the room, and the class then went on to talk about and practice some simple defensive charms.

Astronomy didn't really get interesting until Sirius broke a telescope, and the very last thing Remus wanted to do was stare at the moon when he didn't have to and watch his nightmare slowly draw closer, so the Marauders quickly added this to their 'skip if we need to' class list, along with History of Magic and Potions.

Herbology's puffapods had grown even bigger, which made it even more fun to throw them around at other people when the teacher's back was turned. History of Magic had officially become a Marauders meeting time. Professor Binns didn't even seem to notice that the four boys sitting in the back of their classroom spent all their time passing notes back and forth instead of paying attention to his horrifically boring lectures. So long as James scribbled the occasional something down, Peter gave an occasional nod, Remus asked an occasional question, and Sirius managed to hold in his laughter, no one suspected a thing.

Potions on the other hand, had been downright awful. Remus, Peter, Sirius and James all shared one table, and, in turn, one set of ingredients, which Sirius liked to spend his free time mutilating. Remus was clearly the only one who paid attention in that class, but he was incurably awful at it, which left the rest of table in trouble, as everyone else seemed to be too busy caught up in their own little world to notice that Remus had just melted their third cauldron.

"Why are they still talking?" James demanded, glaring over at Lily Evans and Severus Snape who were (to James's upmost horror) partners in potions. "I mean, hasn't she noticed that he's a slimy git already? She's got to have noticed that by now."

"She's probably just mad at you 'cause you threw a Puffapod at her grease-faced boyfriend the other day." Sirius pointed out with a shrug, crushing seventeen beetles with his blade despite the fact that they were supposed to slice them.

"That idiot is not her boyfriend." James pointed out angrily, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the class complaining loudly about why Lily would bother sitting next to a moron like Severus when she could sit next to a fabulous beast like him, while Sirius shrugged and continued to misuse ingredients, Peter listened intently, accidentally dribbling cake crumbs into their potion, and Remus tried to figure out what on earth a bezoar was and whether they were supposed to add it before or after the leechee nuts (which Sirius had burned to crisp in the first five minutes of class).

Flying classes were going great. James didn't make the team this year ("first of all, first years aren't allowed to have their own brooms, let alone be on the house team. Second of all, you nearly killed yourself last class." "Yeah, but I didn't." "Tryouts are first week on your second year, Potter. I wish you luck then.") but after one night of sobbing relentlessly about it, he realized he was being stupid and proceeded to spend the rest of his flying lessons mastering riding every single broom in the school and trying to teach his friends to ride so they could try out with him. Once not on a hexed broom, Sirius wasn't too bad himself, at the end of their first week, he had even managed to fly a few loops, although all races between him and James resulted in Sirius's utter and total defeat. Peter and Remus on the other hand were, in Madam Hooch's own words, "impossibly uncoordinated" and had begun to make a habit of just watching James soar through the skies shouting with glee while eating chocolate on the grounds with a screaming Sirius.

After just a few days of having them in her class, McGonagall quickly learned just how much trouble the Marauders could be. James Potter, though naturally amazing at the subject and beyond talented in everything he set his mind to, got easily distracted and seemed to be too clever for his own good, always finishing before everyone else and instead of getting a head start on his homework (which he made an effort to never turn in), resorting to trying to transform everyone's quills into tiny broomsticks, something that always went wrong. Sirius Black, though having a knack for even the most complicated of magic, had a bit of tendency to accidentally set stuff on fire, most of the time due to his refusal to listen to instructions carefully. Remus Lupin, though greatly studious and diligent, had a witty, prankish mind to him, and it was only three days into class when McGonagall realized he had turned her water goblet into a toucan, right when she was about to drink out of it. Peter Pettigrew, though sweet and excitable, relied far too much on James and Sirius, both of whom got bored after the first time doing something and typically decided to dangerously experiment with Peter's whiskered snuff-box, wooden needle, and tailed water goblet. They were all incredibly mischievous, almost never did their homework (with the exception of Remus), got detention every other day, and McGonagall couldn't help but love them to death for it all.

On their fourth night, the four of them succeeded in finding a route to Hogsmeade, and had begun to make a habit of meeting every night after detention to check out Honeydukes and Zonkos (the Three Broomsticks, unfortunately, was too risky if they were caught, so they kept to the crowded shops instead and decided to wait on butterbeer for their third year).

Three weeks into their Hogwarts careers and the four Marauders were already more like brothers than friends. James and Sirius in particular had become inseperable, and so, naturally, when James first saw the bright red envelope, he thought it was his own.

It was a Saturday, and it had started out so normal. The Marauders were feasting on a breakfast of bacon, sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, bacon, a huge platter of chocolate donuts, and even more bacon. The four of them had plans to stroll around by the lake and see if they could provoke the giant squid into dragging one of them underneath again. No one except Remus really had any intention on doing the mountains of Charms homework Flitwick had assigned to them. They had just gotten to discussing the topic of James's most recent failed attempt to win over the heart of Lily Evans (a huge bouquet of flowers that grew wings and fluttered around her hair like sweet-smelling mosquitoes for the rest of the day until she finally shredded the last one and threw it into the fire), when a huge, majestic snowy owl soared in and dropped what looked like a simple, innocent, red envelope on James's untidy-haired head.

The owl clamped its jaws on the last piece of bacon and soared off, but James had hardly even noticed that his favorite breakfast food had just been stolen. He stared at the letter in disbelief. It was… a Howler.

James felt like screaming. He had never gotten a howler before. He had always been the perfect, mischievous, rule-breaking son and he knew his parents loved him more than life itself. He glanced around nervously, considering making a run for it, and racked his mind trying to figure out what he had done wrong. Sure, he had gotten in trouble a lot, but not enough for his parents to send him this. His parents had told him many times that they didn't believe in Howlers, and knew that when it came to children the best way to raise them was love and affection and sweets and encouragement and maximum positive reinforcement. Maybe another relative sent it to him, but James knew that was crazy. His father's side had always encouraged the pranking, and he hadn't heard from his mother's side in years. They were Blacks, he was told, like Sirius, and although they approved of her marriage to Fleamont Potter, another pureblood, they did not exactly see eye to eye with his mother on other topics, so she tried to veer as far away from them as possible and considered herself as far more of a Potter than a Black. As far as he knew, his mother's family didn't know he existed, and it couldn't be Blinky, the house-elf, because he knew his parent's would never allow for any Howler to leave their house. Besides, Blinky and James were pretty good friends within the standards of house-elf and master. He had certainly never been rude to the little guy before, and Blinky was very loyal to his parents, he would never go against their orders to send James a Howler.

Staring at the envelope in shock and hearing his friend's conversation glaze over him like he was in a trance, James decided it would be best if he just got it over with and opened it. With trembling fingers, James tore a little hole in the envelope and the thing automatically exploded.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" It screamed. James raised an eyebrow at Sirius, who was torn away from his comment that maybe James would've had more luck if the flowers didn't follow Lily into the shower, and stared at the Howler in horror.

"HOW DARE YOU SHAME OUR FAMILY IN THIS WAY! SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR! BEFRIENDING MUDBLOODS AND HALF-BREEDS NO DOUBT! PARADING AROUND PUTTING ALL OF US TO SHAME! I AM ABSOLUTELY SICKENED TO BE YOUR MOTHER! THE ONLY REASON YOU DIDN'T GET THIS ON THE FIRST MORNING OF SCHOOL IS THAT WE WERE IN IRELAND VISITING YOUR REAL BLACK COUSIN ON HIS QUEST FOR ROGUE PORTKEYS, THE SECOND WE GOT HOME AND RECEIVED BELLATRIX'S OWL I COULD'VE DIED OF HORROR! HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY?! YOU DISGRACEFUL LITTLE-" Remus reached out in terror to cover Peter's ears. "YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE DISAPPOINTED! THINK OF THE EXAMPLE YOU'RE SETTING FOR REGULUS! HE'LL BE OFF TO SCHOOL IN TWO YEARS AND YOUR BEHAVIOR SETS EVERYONE WHO OBSERVES YOU UP FOR FAILURE! YOU'RE LUCKY YOUR NAME HASN'T ALREADY BEEN BURNED OFF THE TAPESTRY, AND I CAN ASSURE YOU, YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE COME VERY CLOSE TO DOING SUCH THING ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS! FIRST ANDROMEDA FALLS FOR A MUDBLOOD AND NOW YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO GET SORTED INTO THE RIGHT HOUSE?! THIS IS UNBEARABLE! YOUR SIN IS UNFORGIVABLE! YOU JUST WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR! YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE NOT OFFICIALLY DECIDED ON YOUR PUNISHMENT BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL WISH YOU'VE NEVER BEEN BORN! YOU DISGUST THE REST OF THIS FAMILY! I HOPE YOUR FIRST YEAR AT HOGWARTS GETS YOU KILLED, YOU UNGRATEFUL, HORRIFIC, REBELLIOUS…"

This went on for a while, until finally, Mrs. Black seemed to run out of insults and the letter tore itself up into a millions tiny pieces that threw themselves at Sirius's face.

An immensely awkward silence pierced through the Great Hall. For a long time, the only sound to be heard was loud snickering from the Slytherin table, where Sirius's many cousins were snorting into their pudding at the Howler.

James, Remus and Peter stared in shock at a frozen Sirius. They all had their fair share of familial issues, sure. James's grandmother had died a few years ago and that left him devastated for several months, Remus's father was major in anti-werewolf decrees before his son had been bitten and had struggled severely with the fact that his son was part of a race he despised so much, Peter's parents had thought for the longest time that he was a squib, but none of them had ever seen anything like that. They had heard Sirius talk apathetically about his parents hating him, but had always assumed it was just talk. Hearing this Howler, and realizing just how much Sirius's parents did hate him, none of them really knew what to say.

James's mouth opened, closed, then opened again, like he was trying to find words that simply wouldn't come, so he just decided to but a cautious hand on Sirius's shoulder. Before any of them could brainstorm a way to comfort Sirius for what he had just heard, the handsome, grey-eyed boy had the most bizarre reaction any of them could imagine. He took the paper shreds, flung them over his shoulder and then just laughed.

Laugh. That was all Sirius should bring him to do. He knew he wasn't understanding the severity of this situation at all. He knew that if his parents hadn't already hated him before he went to Hogwarts, they certainly did now. Above all, he knew that this Christmas would be the worst Christmas he had ever experienced in his life, but he was in so much shock all that all Sirius managed to do was laugh.

That was the weird thing about Sirius, he didn't believe in tears. He believed in frustration, sure, and anger, and wrath, and terrifying, maniacal laughter, but he had been raised believing that tears were a sign of much-hated weakness.

"Who cares about them?" Sirius gasped through bursts of laughter, while his friends just stared on in shock. "Think I'll just sign up to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas anyway. That'll give them enough time to cool off."

Realizing that the biggest comfort Sirius could have right now was everything returning to normal, as he was pulling off an 'I don't care' stunt, James laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Brilliant. We need to figure out how to get to pine trees to throw needles into the Slytherin's pudding anyway. My parents said they wanted me home, but I don't think they'll mind if we've found a higher calling." He winked.

Remus snorted, clearly not thinking that teaching Christmas trees Gryffindor bias was a 'higher calling'. He was starting to look extremely pale, and the headaches hit him more and more now. At least twice a day this past week, one of his friends asked him if he was feeling sick, and offered to take him to the hospital wing (usually as a way to get out of History of Magic or Potions), but Remus had just shrugged it off as 'stayed up late studying'. He did feel sick though. Remus couldn't bring himself to eat breakfast and, as a result, felt like his stomach was eating itself. This would be the first time he transformed into a werewolf at Hogwarts, and although he had had countless nervous meetings with Dumbledore who walked him through every step of the plan and assured him everything would be fine, Remus felt like he was dying of anxiety.

After leaving the lake, disappointed that the giant squid had refused to drag anyone under ("you assume I am some sort of scoundrel"), the Marauders decided that it would probably be in their best interest to go find a hideout and plan their Halloween disturbance.

The four discovered that they had a common love for pranking on the first train ride to Hogwarts, but had been too busy with schoolwork, detention, sneaking off to Hogsmeade, jinxing Severus, and trying to get Lily to go out with James to pull off what Sirius liked to call 'a big one' yet, and all four had reached the mutual decision that the perfect time for 'a big one' would be this Halloween.

Laying lazily under an oak tree, James ruffled up his hair and cleared his throat. "Alright. So, Halloween. What do you guys think of when you hear Halloween?"

"Pumpkins."

"Candy corn!"

"Flying demonic creatures that attack you in your sleep."

James shook his head, laughing. "Remus, good one, I'm thinking we can do something with jack-o-lanterns or something, but you're far too broad. Peter, maybe, we could definitely jinx it or something. And flying demonic creatures that suck out your soul in your sleep?! Are you serious?!"

"Naturally." Sirius answered with a wink.

James groaned and Remus picked up a pile of dead leaves and flung them at Sirius's face, which drained far more energy than it would've if that night wasn't a full moon. "What if we have a bunch of jack-o-lanterns, like pumpkin things, and they fly around the school all day and night-"

"Shooting candy corn at people!"

"Yes!" James shouted, standing up in a 'EUREKA' type fashion. "Shooting hexed candy corn at people, so that when it hits them it turns their hair some random neon color!"

Sirius snickered. "Snivellous with bright pink hair…"

"So these flying jack-o-lanterns zoom around the school, dying people's hair and messing with everything and-"

"And we can set up an ordering station, so that if people want anyone specific that they don't like to end up with random hair, we can sell them a jack-o-lantern-"

"We'll make trillions of galleons doing that!"

"But we can't sell to Slytherins." Sirius pointed out, and everyone murmured in unanimous agreement.

James nodded. This was a brilliant plan. "We should sneak out into the garden tonight to get some pumpkins. Hagrid has billions, he says he wanted to have a few hundred, but they spread across his whole garden and started devouring all the other plants. He'll be happy to get rid of a few of the runty ones if you ask me. We'll take them back to Gryffindor tower tonight and start the carving tomorrow!"

Remus's heart sank horribly. "Tonight?" He stammered.

Everyone looked at him and nodded. James raised a caring eyebrow at Remus's impossibly pale face. "You okay, Remus?"

Remus wanted to shake his head but found himself nodding instead. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just-" He froze. "Think of an excuse. NOW!"His mind screamed at him. "It's just that my mother's ill, I just got the letter today." He pulled one of the pre-prepared notes from inside his robes.

James, Sirius and Peter were frozen for a minute and then pulled him into a hug. There were lots of "why didn't you tell us, mate?"s and "I hope she gets better!"s and "let us know if you need us to sneak you out to go visit her, especially in potions or something…"s, that made Remus feel incredibly guilty about lying to them.

"It's not that serious." He muttered quietly, his pale, scarred face turning the same shade as a tomato. "I just need to visit her tonight is all."

"Course, mate." James said, grabbing Remus's shoulder and shaking it in a way that Remus assumed was supposed to be affectionate, but instead, James's athleticism made him feel like he was in a blender. "We'll get the pumpkins tomorrow night then, if you're back. They need a while to ripen up anyway."

Remus nodded thankfully. He wasn't worried about the three of them going without him (although they had a much less chance of getting detention with him stopping them from doing anything exceptionally stupid), but Remus shuddered to think of what would happen if James, Sirius, and Peter were out on the grounds when he transformed.

The rest of the day passed by as a blur, for everyone: Sirius because the Howler left him in a bit of numb mood, Peter because he had an essay due that Monday that he hadn't even started, Remus because he was dreading that night, and James because he was simply having the time of his life, and trying to drag his friends into having it with him.

They had decided to dedicate the rest of the day to prowling around the castle looking for the kitchens. One could not simply pull off a Halloween prank involving hexed candy-corn without actually having the candy-corn to hex in the first place. Finally, a few minutes before dinner, the Marauders managed to find a secret entrance to the kitchens, behind a picture that Sirius, James, Peter and Remus had to tap every single fruit with their wands to realize that it was a pear.

The four of them strode in, Remus stumbling a bit (he only had a few hours before the transformation) and froze with shock when they saw hundreds of wide eyes looking back at them. Nearly a thousand house-elves filled the kitchen, all staring at the four people who had just walked in like they had never seen a human being before.

"Um, hi." James said finally, after what must've been the world's largest staring contest, with the Marauders being helplessly outnumbered. "I'm James Potter."

"Sirius Black."

"Remus Lupin."

"Peter Pettigrew."

"And we- uh, we were wondering if you had any candy corn?"

Immediately, the kitchen exploded with hundreds of squeaky 'yes sirs' and 'right over here' and 'can I get you a hot chocolate?' James laughed and winked at his friends as several grinning house elves pulled a huge bag of candy corn seemingly out of nowhere.

"Alright!" Sirius shouted, boiling with excitement.

"That thing is bigger than our dorm…" Said Peter, staring at the giant bag in shock.

"Thank you." Remus stammered, smiling weakly at the hundreds of house-elves.

"You're welcome sirs!"

And so, grins on their faces, steaming mugs of hot chocolate in their hands, and an impossibly large bag of candy corn levitated with Sirius's wand behind them, the four boys left the kitchen.

"We seriously had better remember that entrance." James said, severely impressed with the creaminess of his hot chocolate and the sheer quantity of candy corn that they carried behind them. "I'm serious guys. That thing is a gold mine." They turned a corner, James and Sirius a few feet ahead of the waddling Peter and the exhausted Remus.

"You're Sirius? I thought I was Sirius. Or am I James?" Sirius made hand circles around his eyes, pantomiming glasses. "I'm James Potter, self-proclaimed future quidditch captain and self-proclaimed future husband of Lily Evans. I doodle snitches and 'LE' all over my papers and speak in a lower octave when I'm talking to her and mess up my hair around her and say her name when I'm sleeping and-"

"Black, Potter, what are you two doing?"

Sirius whipped around and dropped the act and James stopped laughing immediately. "Hey, Evans." He exclaimed, straightening his glasses, dropping his voice an octave and messing with his hair, making it even more untidy than it already was. Sirius smirked at him if to say 'I told you so.'

Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head in exasperation. "What are you-"

"So, there's a big Halloween party in the Gryffindor common room coming up, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" James asked, biting his lower lip and again ruffling the hair, so it now achieved 'I just got out of a crazy Quidditch match where a Bludger hit me in the back of the head 8000 times' messiness level.

"No."

"But-"

Lily rolled her eyes as James tousled up his hair again. "He looks like a dork doing that." She thought to herself. "Because I'm not going with you. I'd rather go with the giant squid to a dingy, middle-of-nowhere deathday party than with you anywhere. End of story."

"But maybe if-" James started, taking her hand romantically.

"No, Potter!" Lily slapped his hand off of hers and stormed off down the hallway.

"Evans! Hey, Evans! Hey, Evans, wait!"James yelled, starting to run after her, but she had already disappeared. James sighed heavily and looked back at his friends, who were sniggering at his once-again failed attempt to win the love of his life. "I don't get it." He said sadly.

"It's fine, James." Sirius said, placing an arm around James's shoulder and pulling him in so they walked up to the Gryffindor common room with their arms wrapped around each other. "Maybe going with the giant squid to a dingy, middle-of-nowhere deathday party is fun to her, and it was a really hard choice, but eventually she decided to go with the squid because the deathday party was for someone she knew or something." The four of them paused, contemplating the likelihood of Sirius's scenario. "Or maybe she just doesn't like you."

"Why does she always turn me down?" He complained, then, James got an idea. "Maybe if I ask her out tomorrow, she'll say yes! Maybe I'm not being persistent enough!" He shouted, like it was the only and most obvious explanation.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter shared a groan.

Back up in their dormitory, after an eventful night in the common room, (They'd had an exploding snap tournament, and Peter had beaten them all. Sirius, who had stubbornness issues, refused to believe this and challenged Peter to rematch after rematch while James sent an annoyed Lily parchment-swans from across the room and Remus tried to piece together his Charms essay, which now had a whopping total of two words) The Marauders managed to store their stolen candy corn under Peter's bed and then proceeded to try and figure out how to make them turn people's hair neon.

Remus checked his watch. 6:00. It wasn't nearly time, he still had a few hours, but the last thing Remus wanted was something going wrong tonight. "I have to go." He said, weakly lifting himself up from the bed and staggering towards the door.

Peter, James, and Sirius, all of whom had been laying on Remus's bed brainstorming spells with him to hex the candy corn, all raised eyebrows at him.

"My mum, remember?" Remus snapped.

"Ah!"

"Right!"

"Hope she gets better, mate!"

"We should Siriusly make her a get-well card."

Remus nodded bitterly and slid out the door, closing it and cutting off Sirius's yelp as James most likely threw another pillow at him.

He crept out of the Gryffindor common room, slid down several staircases to the infirmary. Remus knocked quietly, his heart overflowing with nervousness.

A woman with fluffy grey hair and warm blue eyes opened the door with a flick of her wand. "Yes, who is it? You're not one of those pestering students coming to visit their friends outside of visiting hours, are you? My patients need rest!" The matron had a kind but strict look to her, as if she was the type of witch to mend someone with upmost gentleness and sweetness, but if someone misbehaved in her hospital wing, there would be no chocolate about it.

Remus stood in the doorframe, his lower lip trembling. "Er- no- I-" He stammered. "I'm Remus Lupin? Professor Dumbledore told me-"

"Ah, yes." A soft, sympathetic smile spread across the matron's face. "I'm Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse." She checked her watch with a raised eyebrow. "You're here a little early, aren't you?"

Remus shrugged, not really wanting to talk at this exact moment. Madam Pomfrey understood and let him sit down on a bed with a huge slab of chocolate and a warm glass of apple cider. Remus looked around the rest of the hospital wing curiously. He had been to St. Mungo's a lot, but had always been given his own individual room there, it was interesting to see the bizarre ailments that befell people in the wizarding world.

A 7th year Slytherin girl from a few beds down caught his eye and smiled kindly. She had long, dark brown hair and glistening grey-blue eyes, she looked like she would've been pretty if her face wasn't completely covered in bursting red boils. "I don't normally look like this, promise. I had a potions accident." She explained. "I'm going to miss a lot of things next year, but can't say that class is one of them. Anti-boil potion gone wrong, and when my cauldron exploded, the whole thing splattered all over my face. Madam Pomfrey says I have to spend the night." She made a face and Remus offered a weak smile, glad to have someone to get his mind off of what was to happen tonight. "No doubt everyone'll know what happened by the time I get back. What about you? What are you in here for?"

Remus looked down immediately and shrugged, murmuring something about headaches and nightmares and grindylows in a quiet voice. The girl raised an eyebrow, but didn't try and ask him about what was going on again. Instead, she just changed the subject.

"You're in Gryffindor aren't you?" Remus nodded. "A first year?" He nodded again. The girl beamed, causing a boil on the right side of her nose to explode. "My cousin is too. Maybe you know him? Sirius Black?" Remus nodded and stifled a laugh. He knew Sirius all too well… "I'm Andromeda, by the way, probably the one cousin he hasn't been attacked by. And you?"

"I haven't been attacked by any of my cousins." Remus pointed out flatly, confused by her question. "I only have one anyway, and he's two."

Andromeda laughed. "No, I mean your name."

"Oh. Remus Lupin."

Andromeda laughed again, despite the fact that nothing Remus said was funny. "Are you serious?"

Remus had to pinch himself to stop himself from saying "no, I'm Remus", clearly he had been spending too much time around Sirius… "Yes?"

"That's funny, because your name literally means wer-"

"Lupin?" Remus looked up to see Madam Pomfrey looked expectantly at him. She was wearing a black cape on top of her normal nurse's clothes and held one out for Remus as well. "You have a bit more than a half an hour. Do you want to leave now?"

"Yes." Remus said quickly, shoving the rest of the chocolate in his mouth and swishing it down with the scalding cider.

At Andromeda's raised eyebrow, Madam Pomfrey shook her head primly and scolded her, "No, Miss. Black, I must insist that you do not talk when you're trying to wait for those to heal."

"I can't not talk, it's in my nature." Andromeda protested. Remus noticed that in an indirect way, she sounded a lot like Sirius. "And it's Tonks. Mrs. Tonks. We're getting married over Christmas."

"Congratulations." Madam Pomfrey said, as if it was her fifth time telling the girl that. Madam Pomfrey slid the cape over Remus, which felt good, because he just now noticed that he was having a serious shivering problem. "Now silencio." Madam Pomfrey waved her wand calmly and Andromeda stopped talking, gave a silent sigh, and turned her back to them.

"See this one in here every other day, poor child." Madam Pomfrey explained, guiding Remus through the halls with a soft hand on his shoulder. "She's engaged to a muggle-born, and comes from a family that's not too keen on that sort of stuff. Her relatives quite frankly have it out for her."

Remus nodded, not trusting himself to speak. The sun hadn't quite set when they walked outside, but the sky was certainly growing pink. Madam Pomfrey led him over to the Whomping Willow, all the while keeping a steady yet gentle hand on his shoulder. Using her wand, Madam Pomfrey directed a long stick to a little knob on the tree's trunk. It's branches shuddered and ceased to move.

She led him through a hole in the roots and a deep passage that followed. "This leads you straight to a house on a hill in Hogsmeade." She explained. "I assume Dumbledore's already given you a tour and an explanation of what'll happen and-"

"Yes." Remus said curtly. They walked into a two story house. The doors and windows had been thoroughly boarded up. It looked like a prison, but Remus would much rather this than running around free all night, not knowing who he could scratch or bite. It was safer in here, where the only possible exit was a small corridor back to Whomping Willow. "This locks, right?" Remus asked, his eyes darting over to the door they had just come out of.

Madam Pomfrey nodded, and then she looked rather uncomfortable. Remus asked her what was wrong. "You are aware, I'm sure, that it is the natural tendency of a werewolf to want to bite and scratch any living being it comes into contact to?" Remus nodded cautiously. "But, in here, there's nothing for you to bite and scratch, so you might find, when you wake up, that-"

"I know." Remus said shortly. He was starting to get anxious and annoyed. Did Madam Pomfrey really think this was his first time transform? Did she think his parents had just allowed him free reign all those years? Did she think it bothered him that he didn't have people to bite and kill? Or what if she wasn't trying to help him? What if she was locking him in here so it would be easier for angry villagers with pitchforks to come and kill him? What if she had James, Sirius, and Peter in the other room, so that they would see… what would they think when they saw him? What if- Stop. Remus told himself. He was overreacting, his mind was inventing plots that weren't really there. He stared into Madam Pomfrey's warm blue eyes and knew that the only reason she was here was that she wanted to help. "I'll be fine. Really." Remus said with a forced smile.

Madam Pomfrey nodded nervously and started to walk backwards towards the corridor. "I'll be here at sunrise to take you back to the hospital wing." She looked as though she wanted to hug him then, thought better of it, gave his shoulder and comforting squeeze instead and left, closing the door and locking it with magic behind her.

Remus sat down in a chair and sighed. The sun had set by now and, turning to look out the window with terror striking his heart, the moon was out.

Remus's eyes fluttered open. He was in pain. He was in pain. He was in so much pain. He tried to look into his mind and remember what had happened last night, but the only thing he seemed capable of thinking was a dull, strained "Ow…"

Sunlight streamed in through the cracks of a boarded-up window and Remus struggled to sit up. Remus tried to think positive. It was Sunday. It would be a whole month before he had to go through this again. He and the rest of the Marauders were going to get pumpkins today for the jack-o-lantern prank, and- it was no use. He fell back onto the ground again in pain.

He felt as though he had just been impaled with a rusty, dull blade on 17 different spots on his body. Remus didn't even want to look at the state of his clothes. He knew he should've taken them off before he transformed but he just couldn't bring himself to spend his last human moments as a naked human.

Remus managed to crack open his eyes; even his eyelids hurt. He looked around, a sinking feeling beginning to form in the pit of his stomach. The once prim little two story house that he had been escorted to had been completely destroyed. The small, square table in the little kitchen had been completely mutilated, all four chairs had their legs torn, and he somehow managed to shred a whole wall of its wallpaper.

He carefully, tenderly felt his face, which hurt the most. Five huge scars (one for each claw he presumed) scratched across his face, the worst one cutting nearly an inch deep and carving through the cartilage in his nose.

Remus heard a creak in the corridor to his left. "Mr. Lupin?"

Although she said it as barely a whisper, Madam Pomfrey's voice rang in Remus's ears painfully and he had to cup them gingerly to get it to stop. Remus felt a hand help him sit up, and clutched his abdomen painfully. "Here. Try this. It should help."

Weakly, Remus felt a bite of chocolate touch his lips and mustered up enough strength to chew and swallow. It hurt to get the chocolate into his body, but once it was inside he felt warmth begin to glide across his fingers and toes. "I- thank you." He said weakly, his eyes groggy and his voice croaky.

"Do you want a stretcher to get back to the hospital wing?"

Remus shook his head and tried to stand up. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. Just as Remus managed to shakily get to his feet, he collapsed again to the ground. Before he could hit the hard wood floor however, Madam Pomfrey summoned a stretcher and Remus blacked out.

He reopened his eyes in the hospital wing. He was lying on a bed, now shielded with a screen as though any external stimuli might make him collapse again. Remus slowly put his hands up to rub his eyes, and realized with a flash of pain that they had been broken and bandaged, and that the scars seemed to cover every visible inch of his body.

Remus groaned, which probably wasn't the best idea, as it send a searing pain across his chest. He would have one heck of a time trying to explain this to James, Sirius, and Peter when he saw them tonight.