The Marauders: Year Four

Last Words

Last Words

Remus woke up in the woods, laying on his back in the brush. He sat up, and felt the stretch of raw flesh on the side of his neck. He winced and gingerly moved to inspect the rest of himself. He had a good deal of scrapes and scratches and a couple large bruises all along his side, places he wasn't sure how he could've reached to have done it to himself. Something must've been fighting with him... He closed his eyes, trying to speed up the memories... but they didn't come. He looked around himself, at the trees and fallen leaves that he was surrounded by, and he ddn't recognize a thing. Of course, a forest is a forest and pretty much all looks the same. He had to figure out where he was.

He pushed himself up from the ground and walked gingerly a little way from where he'd woken up, listening for something, anything, that might indicate where he was. He pulled his wand out and lay it across his palm. "Point me," he commanded, and the wand spun about in his hand until it pointed true north - directly in front of him. He hesitated. Having that information was great and all, except he had no idea if Hogwarts was to his north, south, east, or west from where he was, so it was sort of useless.

Finally, he just picked a direction and started walking. What else was he supposed to do? But he carefully stayed going in one direction - West - so that if he had to he could turn around and go back to where he'd started. At least in theory.

As he walked, he tried to reason out how he could possibly have gotten out there, to the middle of the woods. He'd been in the Shrieking Shack. He remembered sitting on the couch after Lily had left and drawing for a few minutes... he'd been working on a picture of a flying motorbike with Sirius riding upon it. It was intended to be a part of Sirius's birthday present, since he liked Remus's drawings and the idea of flying motorbikes so much... but he couldn't remember anything after the transformation - he just knew he'd been alone in the Shrieking Shack.

How had he ended up outside?

He walked and walked and started getting thirsty and feeling more lost than before. He did an aquamenti charm and sipped the water flowing from his wand tip like he was drinking from a fountain. He decided to turn back East and try that direction... but as he walked and walked, he couldn't figure out when he'd reached where he'd started and begun going more east than he'd been before and he started feeling a bit sick to his stomach because he couldn't think of a single spell that could help him get to Hogwarts.

For the sheer desperation of it, he tried, "Accio Dumbledore." But of course nothing happened.

Finally, Remus sat down on a log hopelessly, remembering the thing that his mum used to say when he was little. If you're lost, stay in one place so that anyone who is trying to find you can find you. So he sat and he waited.

It seemed like hours later when there indeed did come a sound from among the trees...

Remus...

He looked around, but he couldn't see anybody in the trees. The voice had been high and low at exactly the same time... a chilling sort of voice. Not the sort of voice one wants to hear when they're alone and lost in the woods at all.

Remus...

He drew his wand, clutching it in his hand tightly.

"Who's there?" he called out into the trees, "Who is it? Show yourself."

But there was no response, no answer, no movement. Why did the voice know his name? Who was it? Could it be the Slytherins playing a joke? He wished so very fiercely that Sirius was there. If only he hadn't told him to go to that stupid Halloween feast, he wouldn't be in this stupid situation, he wouldn't be lost, he wouldn't be alone, he wouldn't be facing some mysterious, horrible voice in the midst of the woods.