Sanctuary

Chapter 26

Friday, 31st December 1971

When the day of the full moon arrived, Sirius tried his best to be as unobtrusive as possible. Remus was pretty quiet all day, but he seemed to want to be near him, so he stayed close. They spent most of the day reading in front of the fire, and at quarter to two, he saw Remus check his watch out of the corner of his eye before announcing he wasn't feeling well and was going to go to the hospital wing.

Remus declined his offer to go with him, and Sirius waited until he'd grabbed his pre-packed bag—that he'd pretended not to notice him packing—and left through the portrait hole before he dashed up to the dorm to get James' cloak. This was his one chance to find out where Remus went for the full moon. With James and Peter away, there was no one there to question him.

He waited a few minutes before hurrying to the east wing and locating the statue of a dancing child. He patted her on the head, and the statue moved to the side, revealing a slide hidden behind it. Wasting no time, Sirius climbed on and slid down to the ground floor. He got to his feet and hurried to the Entrance Hall. If they didn't leave that way he was screwed, but the only alternative was that Remus was kept somewhere inside the castle, and that seemed far too dangerous to be likely.

He was right. Five minutes later, Madam Pomfrey came down the stairs apparently alone, but as Sirius stared from underneath the cloak, he caught a slight shimmer in the air behind her. A disillusionment charm? He followed Madam Pomfrey and an invisible Remus out of the castle at a distance, being careful to stay downwind of them. He knew werewolf senses were heightened around the full moon, and the last thing he wanted was for Remus to smell him.

She crossed the grounds, heading for the Whomping Willow. The very tree Dumbledore had warned them to stay away from. Sirius snuck around the outskirts of the grounds to get a good vantage point and watched as Pomfrey levitated a stick and prodded at something near the base of the tree, causing it to freeze. Suddenly, Remus appeared next to her. They spoke for a moment before Remus walked closer to the tree and disappeared. What the hell?

Sirius waited ten minutes for Pomfrey to leave and Remus to get a good distance ahead before he walked over to the tree, getting as close as he could without being in danger from the flailing branches. He squinted at the base of the tree. There was an odd-looking knot. Was that it? He cast wingardium leviosa on a stick and poked at the knot with it. The tree froze. Yes! He ran forward, and it wasn't until he was right next to the trunk that he could see the opening Remus had disappeared down. He took a deep breath and descended, hoping there would be more between him and Remus that night than just that passage.

Sirius travelled down the low-ceilinged passageway for ten minutes before reaching a dead end. Above his head was a trapdoor which it was probably best not to open. He checked his watch: quarter to three. Fifteen minutes until moonrise. He sat down and leant back against the earthen wall of the passage to wait.

As Sirius watched the time tick by, his breathing sped up. The closer it got to three o'clock the more anxious he became. Would that trapdoor hold up against the wolf? Would he be able to smell Sirius on the other side?

When it came, it came out of nowhere. One second there was silence, nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing. The next, an ear-piercing, soul-searing, blood-freezing scream of pure agony. Sirius had thought the sound Remus made at the Quidditch match was bad, but it was nothing compared to this. He couldn't believe a person could make such a sound. That Remus was making such a sound.

He stood and stared up at the trapdoor, helpless. There was nothing he could do. If he opened it, he'd be turned or killed. The noise seemed to go on for hours as Sirius stood there in the underground passage with his hands curled into fists and his muscles taut for a fight, but it could only have been minutes in reality. When the screaming turned to pained howls, he checked his watch. Ten. It took ten minutes of blood-curdling pain for Remus to complete his transformation. How did he endure it month after month?