Making the Marauders

"Monster."

"Threat to us all."

"A student!"

"Imprison him."

"Kill it!"

"That..... thing was supposed to be our friend."

"Remus Lupin is a werewolf."

The darkness that shrouded Remus's monthly transformations was no friend to him. It hid him, but he could not hide the dreams darkness brought. Every night when he was not in his werewolf state, nightmares came. The dream that people would find out his secret was frequent, and that was enough to terrify the fourth year Gryffindor to his grave. But when he dreamt of his three best friends finding out, who screamed filthy names and curses at the monster that they thought was their friend, something inside of Remus would break.

"Come on Remus lighten up! Only three weeks until we're out for the summer!" James Potter shouted at his second best friend. "How many more times will we be able to eat a feast like this for dinner?"

Pointing at a potato that had been had been barely nibbled on, Sirius asked the silent boy, "Mind if I take that?" 

Remus glanced at his half eaten meal with a sad look. "Take whatever you want. I'm not hungry." One of the worst nightmares had come to him the night prior. James and Sirius had led the entire school with torches and pitchforks after him in werewolf form. He was now terrified to look his friends in the eyes. Scared that they would see remnants of the wild animal trying to claw it's way to the surface.

James noticed his friend was off and asked in a whisper, "I was gonna' wait 'til tomorrow but I could perform a few spells I've been practicing on Snivellus after dinner. If that would make you brighten up."

"Or we can help impress a certain lady with some cool tricks," winked Sirius, dodging James's elbow to the stomach.

Shaking his head Remus stood up. "I'm tired. I think I'll go up to bed," he whispered. He fled the Great Hall with three pairs of eyes following him.

The loneliness was a comfort to Remus. He was so used to being alone: his parents kept their distance from him so breaks were spent with books in his room, and once a month when he tore to the Shrieking Shack with no company but the occasional song bird. Everything could be lost in the emptiness, or all the thoughts of the world could crowd into Remus's brain.

Within seconds of his head hitting his pillow, he was out like a light. Nightmares broke down the peaceful barrier of sleep all too quickly. He was in a cage, the moon shining down, causing the transformation to begin. As the transformation into the werewolf occurred, a crowd gathered.

"Daddy look at that thing," a young girl shrieked pointing at the cage. "It looks old and smelly!" Her father turned and looked the wolf in the eyes. It was James Potter twenty years older.

Older James sneered and said, "Finally someone placed him where he belongs. In a cage with animals like him." He ran a hand through his black hair. "Good thing I had the smarts to put him behind bars I mean." With a wink, the older James left Remus to be looked at by terrified spectators.

Screaming, Remus woke. His face was wet with tears, his legs were tangled in the bed sheets, and he took no notice at the people standing around his bed.

"Werewolf," whispered little Peter Pettigrew meekly. "You, Remus Lupin, are a werewolf."

Remus wanted to jump out the window when he heard the chubby boy's statement. They knew. They probably were there to kill him. He squeezed his eyes shut in terror, opening them when he felt a hug.

"You're not running from me?" Remus whimpered to James, who had been the one to hug him. James shook his head and Sirius laughed heartily.

"Think we'd give up a member of our crew just because he happens to turn into a werewolf every so often?" asked Sirius with a laugh.

"But how did you-"

"Figure out your little secret?" interrupted James. "Well this year I was getting a little fed up about not knowing where you would go every month, so we followed you under my cloak. Getting to the Shrieking Shack to watch you transform was a little tricky but we succeeded."

"You're not running."

"Why would we? We're your best friends. The only thing we run from is your morning breath." James said.

Sirus and James shared a look and announced their plan. "We want to become Animagi and join you so you're not lonely up in the Shack. But only with your consent." The pair looked at Remus with large hopeful eyes, Peter on the other hand wouldn't even look his way.

"You'd be willing to illegally become Animagi, so you can hang out with your werewolf friend in an abandoned Shack." Remus thought for a few moments then sighed. "I'm not talking you out of this am I?"

"Nope," chirped James and Sirius.

"I'm all for it then. It will take a little while for me to find the process, but I'm sure I can sneak something out of the library to help us."

Peter finally worked up the courage to speak, sitting at the end of Remus's bed. "We sound like the Marauders, you know from before the dark ages who would do anything to help each other out." When his comment was met with blank stares he added, "The guys who had the weird hats in our history book."

Remus shifted up in his bed and said, "We're the new Marauders, except no weird hats please."

"Only weird nicknames," said Sirius, grabbing a bottle of butterbeer from his trunk. He popped it open and everyone took a sip.

When the bottle came to James he held up the bottle in a toast. "To the Marauders! The new, not to  mention illegal, animagi and their werewolf friend.... Moony."

A/N this is my entry for @eternal_potterhead's contest, so I hope y'all like it!!

I wrote this at like midnight while eating German Haribo gummy bears so apologies for any mistakes!!

if anyone wants to make a cover for this that be amazing just PM me:)

Ginger out XOXO