The Marauders: Year Four

Remus's Nap

Remus's Nap

Sirius got off the Knight Bus in Hogsmeade just as the afternoon was starting to come to an end. He ran off from the door the moment it opened, feeling Ernie stare after him for sometime until he'd ducked down a side street to avoid being watched. He waited there until he'd heard the bang of the bus departing once again. Not wanting anyone to see him and question what a random student was doing at the village, he decided it would be best if he went to the Shrieking Shack as Snuffles.

Nobody even looked twice as the shaggy black dog ran through the center of Hogsmeade. He stopped at the fountain and took a few laps of the water there and breathed deep of the smell of butterbeer wafting from the Three Broomsticks and of Honeydukes. If it was possible, Hogsmeade smelled even better as a dog than it did as a human. He rather enjoyed it. He wished he could bring Remus here to smell it, but he knew that would be a positively awful idea. A werewolf would probably smell the blood of the people passing by before they'd smell the butterbeer and chocolate mingling together. It was too bad, he thought, because Remus would've loved it.

The Shrieking Shack looked dismal and miserable from the distance at the end of the lane that led up to it. A fence had been erected, blocking off the Shack's path and some of the people had hung little omens on the fence, things known to keep ghosts and ghouls away. There was a small sign now, too, wood, that told a rather gruesome tale about a howling, shrieking ghost that haunted the house. The sign warned people not to go near the shack, telling them of the certain death that would await them if they did.

Sirius found a gap in the bottom of the fence and dug a little bit to free up a hole big enough for him to slide beneath it. He came up the other side and then ran across the wide span of lane and yard up to the Shack. Remus would be waiting for him there, he thought, because it would soon be dark and the moon would be out and the transformation would come... they'd go running in the woods again, he decided, catch some rabbits or something... and they'd wake up in the leaves...

He pushed the urge to imagine The Dream coming true out of his head.

He didn't want it to come true. Or did he? He didn't know. And he had to know. He had to know before he did anything. It wasn't right not to know.

He reached the door and he barked happily at it, jumping about on the porch, waiting for Remus to open it up and let him in... but Remus didn't come to open it up. Concerned, Sirius transformed back into a person and reached for the knob. "You absolute prat," he called, pulling open the door, "Didn't you hear me barking?" He stepped inside and looked about. The Shrieking Shack was dark and dustier than ever and silent. Nobody was there.

But the light outside was dying...

Where the bloody hell was Remus?

James wandered through the castle instead of going straight back to the dormitory. He'd reaquainted himself with the stairwell and gone through the Trophy Passageway, pausing at the top to look proudly upon the trophy with his name etched onto it from the Ilvermorny match. He used the sleeve of his robe to polish the shield with his name until it gleamed. He grinned upon it merrily, then continued on his way. Soon, the other students would be arriving on the thestral-drawn carriages and the little boats and the feast would begin in the Great Hall. He relished the idea of the feast, all that delicious food and drink would be splendid. He could really use it - James was very famished. After all, he hadn't gotten to eat anything on the train like he usually did, because of everything that had happened.

What happened. That's right. He realized that he'd better write his mum and dad a letter telling them about the dragon bomb and the warning from the Minister for Magic before they found out from somebody else. Perhaps that would prevent him from getting a Howler next morning from Dora... So he sprinted up to the dormitory, figuring he'd write the letter now and send it after the feast, when Bubo had been unloaded from the Hogwarts Express.