The Thestral and the Hummingbird - A Marauder's Fanfiction

The Beast

Music for the Full Moon: 𝒩𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝓃 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒶𝒾𝓃

James could taste sour bile on his tongue. Falling onto his knees, he grabbed the cool grass and clenched his fists. "You know I hate apparating, Pad." He gasped, desperately suppressing his diaphragm's urge to barf up a lung. He had always suffered from travel sickness, and it made him extremely susceptible to reincarnating his dinner after any form of wizarding transport - especially apparition.

Sirius however, was distracted. Completely unfazed by the spell, he immediately began walking towards the shack. The building had been abandoned for years and as a result, was left in questionable condition. With beams of rotting wood and barred windows shielded only with shattered glass, nobody ever came by the building - the perfect place for a werewolf to transform.

The sky was still overcast due to the night's rainfall, the full moon temporarily hidden. A bitter wind blew through Sirius' thin clothing eliciting a shiver. Apart from his leather jacket, he was in summer attire. The door was already wide open, and voices could be heard upstairs. Taking large strides, Sirius felt the frail frame of the house lean and creak in the wind. When he finally made it to the top of the first landing, his line of sight met three bodies in the room at the end of the hall.

"Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?" Lily's soothing voice was distinct. Peter was sat cautiously, keeping a conservative distance, he looked worried nonetheless, and was the first to see Sirius enter. Remus was shivering in the corner of the room and had picked up a generous sheen of sweat.

"Sirius, we thought something had happened," Peter exclaimed, standing suddenly. He was gripping onto a handful of rope, something Remus had most-likely requested in case things turned sour. The noirette frowned. 

"Put that down, Wormtail. We're not tying him up." Sirius barked, before walking up to the shuddering boy sat metres away - Lily was using a damp towel to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"Where's James?" She asked quietly, not turning to look at him. Thinking back to how he'd left James outside hurling his guts out, Sirius cringed and thought of a way to avoid a physical assault.

"Outside... he's checking to make sure the grounds are empty." Lily nodded, not believing a word he said, but too concerned about the well-being of their now quietly whimpering friend to follow up. Sirius noticed Lupin's discomfort and his attention shifted.

"Are you cold, Moony?" He asked, and Remus nodded silently. When not in wolf form, Lupin still displayed signs of his lycanthropy through the scars that stretched from his jaw to just under his toffee eyes. They were faded, having been there for so many years, but still disrupted the faint fields of freckles he bore. The boy was also the tallest of the group, baring a build that was much more on the lanky side.

Sirius slipped off his jacket and lay it gently over his friend's shoulders. "How did things go at the house, what did Regulus want?" Remus inquired, his voice extremely shaky. Sirius found himself combing his fingers through Remus' sandy locks, causing the brunette to tiredly lean into Sirius' hand.

"I'll tell you in a bit, I think you can help me with it." He muttered softly, and Remus nodded in response, his breathing visibly calmer. Occasionally, it was too cloudy for Remus to turn. Without enough exposure to the moonlight, he'd be safe. Sirius was really hoping tonight was one of those times. There was a rummaging up the stairs and James appeared in the doorway. Lily turned her head and acknowledged him, but continued to tend to Remus with the dishcloth. 

"How is he?" James inquired, moving over to them. Remus stirred slightly, and his brows furrowed.

"Better," Lily replied, she looked out the window, "it looks like the clouds are beginning to clear up, we should get ready." she stood up, her auburn hair flowing in the gusts of wind that practically blew through the building. 

Peter was the first to shift, taking the form of a rather large rat. He scuttled into the middle of the room and sat patiently, the ropes he'd previously been holding now large enough to swallow him whole. Lily and James were the next to shift into their animagus forms. When the four would disappear for a night once a month, Remus coming bad either scratched up or fatally wounded, Lily had gotten concerned. Getting no answers from any of them, she followed the group one night during the fifth year and as a result, nearly got mauled. Too afraid to let anything like that happen again, James taught her the spell - delighted when her animagus was the female counterpart to his stag, a doe.

James and Lily trotted out of the shack, followed by Peter, their steps echoing on the hollow floorboards. Sirius moved from a crouching position to sitting down, he upheld his weight using both arms which he positioned behind him, trying to appear as relaxed as possible. "On the way over to Reg I noticed a new cafe opened, they're claiming to see the best sticky toffee pudding in London." Remus glanced up, temporarily distracted.

"That's a bold statement." Remus smiled gently, scrunching his nose.

"You'll have to bestow your judgement upon it." Sirius teased, and Remus laughed, but their joy was short-lived.

 There was a snapping of bone and Remus suddenly gasped in pain, hurling his body forward onto the floor. Sirius swallowed worriedly, but there wasn't anything he could do. Instead, the boy stood up and began stripping off the layers of his clothes until he was stood only in a pair of black boxers, he then cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders before shifting into his animagus, a bear-sized dog with sleek black fur.

Remus let out a strangled scream as his knees snapped around and the bones of his feet stretched. Sirius whined and turned his head away as Remus writhed on the floor, desperate to leave when Remus began begging for help, but the only thing worse than watching him turn was imagining him in pain and alone.

There was a moment of silence which was shortly followed by a low growling. Sirius turned back around knowing he wouldn't be met with Remus Lupin, but instead a wolf slightly larger than him but much thinner, baring his teeth and lowering his ears.