Wolf and Wings - Remus and Narcissa

Chapter 2

The moon would be full that night, and just before it rose, James Potter arrived at the Shrieking Shack. He'd been kissing Lily goodbye outside the willow tree passage and rejoined the rest of the lads with barely enough time to transfigure himself before Remus's harrowing, involuntary transformation began.

"Hurry," Sirius said as James came through the passageway. "He's extra tormented tonight. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation from the Hodags. I don't know. Something's different, though I can't think what's changed for him."

James frowned. "Look at him pacing." They were spying through a cracked bedroom door at Remus, barefoot, his clothes already removed and folded neatly on an ottoman. He was wrapped in a blanket he would throw off once the transformation was truly underway and he was clothed in his dense wolf pelt. All the emotions Remus kept controlled in his human form were amplified at his transformation. They didn't just rise to the surface. They took over completely.

"He keeps knocking things over, tossing them about," Peter said, his fingers fidgeting with each other. "It's like he's looking for something he's lost."

"No more time to sort it out," Sirius said. "His eyes are almost green already. He's about to turn. Keep close, lads. He's going to run us hard tonight."

Sirius was right. As soon as Moony had fully emerged, he rushed past the animagi, clawed open the door of the shack, and bounded into the forest. His frantic searching continued, sniffing the air, clawing through the undergrowth, tearing at the mossy ground with his teeth.

The animagi -- stag, dog, and rat -- were close behind at first, but the chase wore on for hours. Moony's strength and speed, his stamina were positively supernatural. They had tamed him somewhat in the past two years, and he had learned to curb his abilities, to wait and stroll for their sakes. Even as a werewolf, a shred of Remus always endured, somewhere deep, and it held Moony back, keeping him near his friends. But none of that meant his fearsome powers had gone away.

There was no waiting tonight. Moony tore away, evading the other, working his abilities to their fullest. Late in the night, he still hadn't found what he had been searching for. Frustrated and sick of their interfering, Moony vaulted over Prongs even as he reared up, his antler like a cage to block the way. Padfoot sprung after him but Moony had jumped up and into the trees, where Prongs and Padfoot couldn't follow. Wormtail did his best, scurrying behind, following him up a tree trunk until Moony made the leap from one treetop to another, too far for a rat.

The animagi scrambled beneath the trees, following the sounds of creaking winter branches as Moony raced away, over their heads. He gave a howl, elated, as if to announce he'd outrun them. What he chased was something none of them could sense, something he alone knew, and wanted.

Sirius leapt back into human form. "What is he tracking? There's no trail to follow."

"I don't know," James said, human and stooped over, breathing hard. "It's got to be something supernatural, out of our range."

"It's got to be something good," Sirius said. "Good to Moony, at any rate. Better than anything. I've never seen him like this."

Peter was climbing out of a tree. "The moon is nearly set. He can't have more than half an hour left."

"He's going to come out of it in the wild," Sirius said, pulling at his hair. "He's going to wake up naked and freezing and lost in the woods by himself somewhere."

James shook his head. "Won't he know by now to get back to the shack before he changes? We've been leading him back there for years, month after month. He'll know by now, won't he? It should be second nature to him."