Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Never A Monster (Remus Lupin)

The marauders; a group of four boys that 'ruled' the school were known by everyone. There was Sirius Black, heartbreaker extraordinaire, James Potter, the love sick puppy and Peter Pettigrew, their ever faithful side kick. Then finally there was Remus Lupin, the brains of the entire operation.

Said brains of the operation was currently leading the rest of his friends into the book store. They trailed after him slowly, dragging their feet alongside them after having clearly lost their traditional game of rock, paper, scissors to decide where they would be going.

I narrowed my eyes at them; what were they doing out here so late?

"Probably the same thing we're doing," A voice muttered by my ear.

I glanced over my shoulder at Florence who rolled her eyes and ducked out from behind the wall. Following after her, I made my way out from behind the wall as well and joined her on the side of the road.

"Relax," she said nudging me with her shoulder, "If it's just the marauders then we can get away with sneaking out of Hogwarts during the night time."

"Even though one of those said marauders is a prefect?" I asked as she started walking down the road, leading the way.

"Well if Lupin was such a good prefect then he wouldn't be out so late after curfew - let alone on the night of the full moon."

"What does the full moon have to do with anything," I muttered under my breath as the shrieking shack slowly came into view. There was no way -

"Nothing, if you don't believe in the rumours of a werewolf visiting the shack every month that is."

"And I don't believe them," I said as we drew closer to the fence surrounding the building. "Dumbledore wouldn't let a werewolf come so close to the school."

"You're right, he probably wouldn't." She admitted, "And that's why I'm daring you to go into the shack."

"No," I said, shaking my head roughly and taking a few steps back from the fence, "There is no way that I'm going in there."

"Why? Don't you trust Dumbledore?"

"Of course I do." I was firm, narrowing my eyes at her obvious amusement.

"Come on," she cajoled, "Just go in there. You lost the bet remember? So I mean technically you've got no choice but to go in."

"Merlin, I hate you," I muttered staring back at the shack. I could already feel the fear pumping through my veins, making my heart thunder in my chest as though it wanted to burst through my ribs.

"A dare is a dare," She said quietly and I took a breath to steel myself. "Remember to bring back some proof that you actually went inside."

Taking one step after another I gradually shrunk the distance between the shack and myself. When I was standing before the door, I let out a deep breath, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. There was no werewolf. Dumbledore wouldn't let there be one. Risking a glance at the sky I saw the makings of a full moon almost at completion and hurried to open the creaking door.

The shack was extremely dusty, with barely any light for me to be able to see anything. The windows were boarded up but it seemed as though some of the boards had been ripped off, letting some light into the dingy room. Scanning the foyer, my eyes landed on a chair with one of its legs missing. Merlin, this didn't look good, I thought making my way towards the stairs. Gasping silently I traced the scratch marks that littered the walls. It would have taken some very big claws to have made these scratched. What could have made them?