Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter One Hundred-Thirty-Eight - If You Give A Wolf A Mouse

The main thing Remus heard on Monday morning was how terrible he looked. The Marauders commented that he looked worse than normal, Lily said he should go to the hospital wing right away, Alice agreed with her, Cassie gave him a worried look, and even Aegis caught up to them on the way to Potions saying he was worried about Remus. Remus shrugged them all off.

It didn't help that it was a very, very warm day. Potions class was extremely hot and everyone kept fanning themselves and stripping off unneeded layers of their uniform. Even Slughorn looked a bit miserable.

"Let's skip History to go roll around in the lake," James panted as they left the stifling hot classroom.

"Exams are over, we might as well," Sirius said. "Remy? Pete?"

"Er. Yeah. All right," Pete agreed.

"I'm going to History," Remus said, even though the thought of laying down in the cold lake was oh so very tempting. Just laying down at all was very tempting. Every inch of him ached, and it hurt to walk, hurt to move, hurt to exist. But he did go to History, as did the other Marauders, and Remus fell asleep so he might as well have gone to the lake.

After History they did go outside. James, Sirius, and Peter all ran ahead until they noticed Remus wasn't running; they waited for him and walked the rest of the way. It was even hotter outside with the sun beating down, and Sirius unbuttoned the rest of his shirt. It hung open, showing off the vest he wore underneath which was sticking to his skin from sweat. Remus tugged at his own shirt, but didn't unbutton it.

They went down to the lake, took their socks and shoes off, rolled up their trousers, and waded in. The cold water felt so good. James immediately just lay down, floating in the shallow water. When Remus pointed out they had Defense in half an hour, James replied there were drying spells for this very reason. At that, Sirius and Peter flopped into the water too and, after a second, Remus followed suit.

Despite the attempts at drying themselves off, they were all still quite wet when they arrived at Defense. Charlemagne removed points for their untidy appearance but no one cared; Gryffindor was in dead last anyway.

Lunchtime was spent eating cold foods and sticking ice cubes down the backs of their shirts. Then came Herbology which was worse than Potions. The greenhouses were absolutely sweltering, and Sprout dismissed the lesson early. Magical Creatures wasn't too bad at least. It was outside but they were near some trees and were able to gather in the shade while Kettleburn talked. After that lesson, the others were free while Remus still had Ancient Runes. The sun wouldn't let until very late that night, so he could go to his lesson... but the ache had gotten worse. So as they headed back into the castle—intending to take cold showers—Remus apologized for being so unwell and went to the hospital wing. There were cooling spells set up in there and he flopped down onto a bed without even a word to Pomfrey, quickly falling asleep.

*

Once in the house in Hogsmeade, Remus considered trying to find the mouse. If he could it he could sneak back through the secret passage, set it free (although most likely it would end up dying somewhere in the forest anyway), then pretend he had eaten it. Except it was hot there, too, and after Pomfrey left he simply stripped down and lay on the living room floor until the curse consumed him.

For most of his life he wondered what life was like as the wolf. The only things he had to go on were flashes of pure, unbridled rage, and how his body was afterwards. He knew the wolf peed and pooped... very, very rarely, but it did happen. Back at his home with his parents, the wolf would go in one little corner and it didn't seem like he walked through his own stuff during the night. Which was good. He didn't want to wake up with wolf shit all over him. Here in Hogsmeade, the wolf decided the very end of the corridor was the perfect place to go. Once or twice Remus had found shredded blankets covering it, as if the wolf were trying to hide it.