The Marauders' Era (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

Part 11

It was a full moon.

The full moon.

All Lily's mind could register was the full moon.

In fifth year, Remus was excused from the rounds they did as Prefects. When she asked him, he had only shrugged it off and carefully changed the topic. And she left it at that, too.

But she knew why.

The lunar cycle.

•

The wolf howled. To him, the moon and his pack was all that mattered. Leaping ahead of the others, he howled again to his mistress, the moon shining down at him.

Suddenly he caught a faint scent of something he really, really craved.

Human blood.

The wolf smiled; an ugly, hungry smile, revealing a row of yellowing teeth dripping with saliva. It had been so long since he had had some--in fact, nearly never--that he had almost forgotten the sweet taste of blood.

Ignoring the calls of his pack, he set off towards the direction of the scent. He would deal with them later; for some reason, they had never been fond of the idea of humans and him together.

Tonight, the hunt would begin.

•

Lily was frozen.

Still staring into the moon, she was suddenly paralyzed with fear. Remus was so sweet and she knew he would never hurt a soul, but she also remembered--rather vividly--the diagrams of werewolves during the full moon. It would not be Remus--instead, she would be facing a fully grown, aggressive and bloodthirsty wolf.

Mentally thanking her fourth year self for spending so much time in the library, she took a turn and breathed in deeply.

Then she ran.

But she was no match for the wolf.

•

The stag had just been fooling around with the dog when a few loud squeaks brought him to his senses.

(Not that he had much in his Animagus form. In fact, he had never had much sense at all, even in human form.)

But when he looked up, the wolf was gone.

•

All the wolf could see was red. Red would look good on his fur, he thought. Though blood would taste so much better.

With a push he jumped into the air and nearly caught the human girl in his claws. She turned abruptly, trying to escape from him.

"Stupefy!" She yelled, and a jet of red light hit him in the chest. Stars swirled in front of his eyes and he lost sight of her in temporary dizziness. A moment later, however, he regained focus and found his long, furry legs taking him faster than they ever had.

He growled angrily. She aggravated him; and now he was going to rip her to pieces, drink her blood until she was completely lifeless, and--

Wham.

The wolf blinked as he was pushed roughly to the side by a pair of antlers, and for the second time that night he was utterly surprised.

The stag stood in his path, its antlers raised and pointed directly at the wolf.

The wolf snarled and tried to shove the stag aside. It was a clear warning: Bugger off!

The stag shook its head and kept its place firmly, blocking the path to the human girl, as though telling him off instead.

The wolf growled dangerously, keeping his eyes on the back of the girl as she ran towards the courtyard. Any minute now and he would lose a great, great catch...

The wolf braced himself for the impact, and rammed forward into the stag.

•

Lily peeked over her shoulder to see if the wolf had followed her. To her relief--and surprise--it did not, and was instead wrestling with--was that a stag?

Yes, it definitely was.

While Lily did not think that animals in the Forbidden Forest usually defended humans from werewolves, she was thankful that they had, as a black dog now joined the fight. Turning around again, she made a beeline for the courtyard.

•

The wolf was exhausted. Tired with the other two members of his pack he howled and threw them off, heading straight for the human girl. Though the dog attempted to tackle him over and the stag tried to steer him aside, he took long, determined strides with the wind whooshing around him.

She had now turned around to watch again--stupid decision, he thought; this was why humans were easy prey. He could see the horror in her eyes as he stepped closer; almost, almost tasting the blood on his tongue as he pounced and his jaw prepared to close. His fangs glistened in the moonlight, ready to sink themselves into that delicious, mouth-watering flesh.

But then he caught a whiff of something flowery...

A familiar scent, sweet but not quite, entered his nostrils. Not really flowery, he realised, but almost like lemongrass; smelling clear and with a hint of spice.

Where had he encountered this before?

Images of a girl with red hair and a shiny badge pinned to her chest appeared in his mind, chasing a tall, bespectacled boy with an angry expression on her face. His jaws remained open for a moment too long before snapping them down again--

WHAM.

The world shook as he fell, and a second later a large, furry creature had knocked him onto the ground again. The dog and the stag had caught up with him, and there was no escaping now.

•

Lily watched the scene unfold in front of her, still feeling uselessly paralyzed, as though in a far, far away world. Why didn't you run? Asked a small voice from somewhere she did not register.

Until she realized that someone had really spoken out aloud.

Snapping her head up, she started.

And there he was; Potter. Standing there in all his arrogant, smug glory, towering over her, ready to make another comment about any part of her relatively feminine--

But wait. He wasn't sporting that cocky grin this time. In fact, he looked so somber and so serious that her breath caught in her throat, almost not recognizing this new James Potter.

"Why didn't you run?" He said softly. "I thought you were supposed to be clever."

A bark from the dog, now dragging the wolf further and further away, made him turn away briskly.

"Run, Evans! Go!"

With wide eyes she nodded and took large, stumbling strides backwards as she watched the boy she had always despised so much morph smoothly into a stag, sparing a glance her way before chasing after the black dog and the wolf.

Lily ran.

And ran.