Remus was distracted. There had been a lot going on.
The fresh air was like a slap in the face after their previously enclosed rooms. The eight of them took great, long breaths as they looked around, and still didn't immediately spot the problem as they saw the unicorn.
Her beautiful snow-white pelt had not yet dulled in the full moon light, the silvery blood trickling down to pool about her tangled legs and silky mane. The startled expression of fear was still trapped in place, confusion and horror as their kind had no predators, except a foul wizard who would drink cursed blood.
Ron started towards the book, vengeance in his heart to get this done with already if he had to fight every last obstacle again a thousand more times. If that misshapen Quirrelmort ponce showed up, all the better. Fred and George had once mercilessly laughed about him the following summer whenever Mum wasn't around while asking for details if he'd ever gotten a glimpse of those two heads fused together. He'd be able to answer now when he got them back.
Charlie and Bill would probably get a kick out of the story too. Percy had even been so proud of him, there for five minutes, that he'd had hand in stopping all this that first time, and Ginny-
A crack rent the air, the gasp of pain unheard as they all whipped around to the shadowed trees trying to find the culprit.
Sirius and Tonks realized it at the same time as they spotted no movement beyond their clearing. The first time since all this began the stillness in the air had felt natural, the trees of the Forbidden Forest where it was rare to happen upon another soul. They turned back when they heard the moan and Remus fell to his knees, gasping one word. "Run."
Malfoy tried to do exactly that. It was almost a shot for shot Deja vu to Harry as his silvery blonde hair whirled about and he screamed bloody murder while trying to take off without looking back.
He didn't make it a leaf out of the clearing before he slammed into the invisible barrier once more.
Padfoot was instantly beside him, making soft whining noises and nosing his ear in a silent promise it would be alright as Remus's hands curled into tight fists of pain, his clothes hiding the worst of the tremors, but not for long.
Tonks didn't slip on a single slippery drop of blood beneath her boots as she appeared beside the kids, Harry and Hermione under each hand with an unfamiliar business like demeaner in her suddenly sharp tone. "Up the tree!" She was guiding them by force whether they agreed or not.
Ron and Neville were right beside them, trying to help hoist the girls up as high as they could go from lift off. Harry snagged the lowest branch last, eyes on his godfather with an old, now familiar pit of dread. You wanted out of the house Sirius, he thought to himself as his shaking knees couldn't go higher. Looks like you got your wish.
He froze though as the horrible snapping and cracking of Lupin's bones continued to grow louder, but still hadn't quite muffled Malfoy's pitiful attempts to remain in place on the ground now trying to use his wand to dig himself free and only creating a literal pit of death.
"Maloy!" Harry snapped. He got no response.
"Harry, I'll-" but Tonks couldn't speak as fast as a Seeker could move. She was still trying to size up the tree to see if she could magically fortify it somehow when he leapt down and sprinted to the blond gits side as Remus's vision was growing sharper by the second. The shadows remained the same but his eyes turned them to light.
No matter how Harry pulled and shouted, he couldn't get Malfoy to move past his hysteria, eyes only focused on something none of them could see. Harry slammed his fist into the side of his head, and all that managed to do was send Draco to the ground onto Harry's feet as one last snap broke the air, and there was horrible silence.
Harry knew he wouldn't get his wand up fast enough, and yet he still threw up a shield charm at the blur of movement coming towards him.
It was Sirius.
He had Malfoy over one shoulder and was hauling Harry by the back of his neck with the other, shoving the two boys up a tree as a howl shattered the night.
"Promise me you won't come down Harry, not for anything."
Harry was already swinging himself into the lowest bows before he had time to process the words when a silvery mass of fur bowled into the great black dog. It was faster than a snitch, Harry hadn't even the time to see his Godfather's face before those teeth were sinking into fur instead. Harry couldn't stop a scream of fright even as he kept shoving at Malfoy's rear to go up higher.
His high-pitched shrieks were more appealing than the dog fighting back. Moony flashed back towards the tree in a blur of hot, hungry breath. He was longer, leaner, far more powerful than a regular wolf, his legs launched him damn near up to the spot where Harry had just managed another branch, but the animal could not hold purchase. His claws dug in uselessly, his back legs peddled pathetically. He tumbled right back to the ground with a snarl of outrage, his amber eyes lit up at them alone. He tried again, three more times while Padfoot got back to his shaky legs, shook himself and gave a harsh bark of reprimand.
The werewolf gave no notice of this of course, so Padfoot felt he had no choice but to launch forward and sink his teeth into his friend's flank, pulling him back. Malfoy now had a death grip on Harry's arm, screaming gibberish and swear words in a mess. Despite all reason, Harry found his feet twitching for more than anything to be down there and help him.
Somebody was reading in the other tree, but it was faint. Background noise like another Quidditch match as Harry kept eyes on the great black dog. He seemed to be holding his own well enough, prancing around, tail swishing, almost playing with the beast. This was not his newly freed godfather who had come out of Azkaban a hollow shell with one goal to drive him on in life fighting a powerful werewolf. This was Padfoot, doing what he'd done for years in this forest keeping Moony entertained. A heavy subject he'd tentatively tried to ask Sirius about over the summer he only got vague answers for, because Prongs wasn't around to reminisce about the adventure.
Now he was seeing it live, and it was bloody terrifying. Every time Lupin lunged, Harry held his breath, with every swipe of that paw that carved another blast of splinters from trees, his blood ran colder.
Sirius couldn't do this forever though and Harry tried to force himself to pay attention, guess how much time could possibly be left from this maddening experience, but the ruddy book was still bloody talking about his disgrace in the school. All those points he'd lost, how childish his greatest misery had once been as he watched in icy terror for when those teeth got to close to Sirius's throat. He needed an edge, he needed help.
The problem was nothing could hurt a werewolf. They were unfairly classified as horrible beasts because when they were like this, they were unstoppable.
And more, Harry didn't want to hurt Remus Lupin. A teacher, a friend, someone he could trust, and that felt in rare company now a days. Someone he knew he could depend on to get him through any lesson at minimum. Sirius, nor his dad he was sure, would want him throwing any sort of Unforgivable Curse at him to try and help, when it was all he could think to do. It might not even be worth it, spells supposedly had no effect on that great silver fur, that was suddenly splashed in red.
A howl came to late, Padfoot was limping now and Harry's heart was in his chest. Silver, Malfoy's hair plastered to his scalp, the magical horn flicking in the full moon light.
He knew he caught the sight of the werewolf with his rustling movements in the tree very easily, he'd make a far more appealing meal than an old dog, because he couldn't fight back as hungry eyes watched him. His target was less than a yard away, snapping, snarling, Merlin help him they sounded like they were cheering as their fighting increased in fervor. His hands dripped blood from scraping against the rough tree he was now scaling down and the piercing whine of pain kept him going.
Harry landed in the dirt with a grunt, wand ready in hand as he made a slashing motion, severing the horn to fall before he'd even risen from his crouch.
Moony sunk his teeth into Padfoot's exposed back, those grey eyes looking at him in horror. The blood coating him promised this hadn't been the first blow.
His godfather yowled, held in the mouth of that brute like a toy as Moony began shaking his head in triumph, but Sirius wouldn't go down without a fight. Gnashing his teeth and twisting, screaming his own pain even as his own jowls sunk into any available flesh, snatching only strips of skin in comparison, but a yelp of pain promised it was enough as they sprang apart again. Harry aimed and threw just as Padfoot barreled into Moony's throat.
The horn missed, tearing a wide whole into Moony's hind, Padfoot's teeth went true, sinking down and twisting the two into a bloody mess.
The momentum sent both sailing right towards him, only for a silver blast of light to smash the pair into a tree, sending them sprawling apart.
Moony was looking right at him as he stood back up, shaking himself off.
Harry stumbled back into the tree, watching his tail swish, the first few tentative steps towards him. He was weak, and heavily injured, but unlike Padfoot's whimpering shock, he seemed rearing to keep going. "Shit," Harry muttered, before scaling up the tree.
He missed the impact as a branch thwacked against his face, the hot breath now a whole inch from his boot, the snapsnap, of those teeth tearing apart the heel as his hands pulled like a fiend to drag himself as far up the tree as he could until the bark trembled beneath his hands not from his pace, but the impact of the werewolf once again falling to the base and now scratching and howling his frustration to get right back up where they'd started. Harry paused on his precarious perch and laughed a drunken noise.
"You're welcome," he panted, smiling down of all things. "You'll thank me for this later when you didn't kill each other!"
Moony snarled up at him, and then pissed on the tree. Harry leaned dangerously over to keep him in sight as long as he could, his heart still in his throat as he watched him limp off into circles around the circumference of their enclosure, leaving a trail of blood. Harry checked Sirius, who seemed to have either passed out, or decided to remain where he was in his prone, semi safe position of being no threat at the base of the tree.
A pinecone smacked into the side of his head.
Harry swung around, wand held steady in his blood-soaked fingers, only to see Ron aiming up to throw another. Harry ducked easily, but Ron must have been working on his Keeper training as it still pegged him on his scar when Harry didn't release his other hand from the tree to properly bat it away.
The four of them were clustered in the highest branches, Tonks and Ron swaying dangerously on the limbs farthest from the trunk as they carefully watched. Neville had Hermione pressed right into the bark of the tree, hugging her and it so her shaking couldn't send the whole thing down.
Moony sniffed the air curiously and came over to inspect it when it landed at the bottom while Ron's blue eyes silently glowered at him. It was a very expressive anger that meant he was going to kill his best mate for giving him a heart attack the second he had the chance.
Hermione was reading at the speed of light, she now was up to the part where the shadowy cloaked figure was descending on them back then. Harry breathed no regrets as he hawkishly went back to watching the two below. Moony had meandered his way back over to Padfoot, but before Harry could even tense again, the werewolf gave him a lick. A soft whimper, he almost sounded like he was apologizing despite the blood still heavily draining from his throat.
Padfoot gave him a soft whine back and nuzzled his face into the silver fur, still shaking. There was a softness to it that astounded him, their old familiarity for each other in these animals.
Another pinecone, this time Ron had aimed at his feet just to get his attention. Harry dragged his eyes back and saw Ron mouthing one word that did keep his focus. Fluffy.
Harry nodded in understanding as Firenze came to his rescue in the book. Quite possibly they were going to be launched from one terrible situation to another, and they'd have to be on guard, now with Remus and Sirius in no telling what condition with this next jump.
Going over everything as quickly as he could in his mind, Harry made a plan. He pointed at Ron and himself, and mouthed 'shield.' Then he pointed at Neville, who was whiter than Nearly Headless Nick but had his own wand drawn as he watched the forest as well for anything, and Tonks, who's grim face still had her wand trained on Moony as if prepared to blast him again. Harry mouthed, 'hatch,' and proceeded to point to the two below.
Ron nodded in determination and glanced uneasily at Hermione and Malfoy. Harry nodded in solemn agreement as Hermione's tripping, stumbling, fear laced voice got her to the three talking in the common room and Malfoy who was still weeping and had a suspicious wet spot in his trousers. He didn't trust Malfoy to get out of this tree without Hagrid appearing to shake him out of it, and Hermione had a tendency to freeze if her fear got the best of her.
They would have to somehow hope to appear in a perfect position where he and Ron could keep their shield charm up to protect them from a three-headed dog while Neville and Tonks got Sirius and Remus into the Deville's Snare below, somehow without all of them dying.
Worst of all as Hermione's shuddering, tear-stained face gasped at the last sentence in Harry's old speech about stopping Voldemort winding down, and finding his cloak in bed, Harry knew the one thing that would make or break everybody's life in the next place. It wasn't Dumebldore being around.
His plans never worked out.
I was determined not to put off this chapter because I'm so close to finishing the first book, finally!, especially because this is the chapter where I lost interest in it last time and I won't let myself be deterred every time I know I want an action scene and you guys have all been so kind with your commentary!
I'm so jazzed about how this one turned out I'm already working on the next chapter!