Before they knew it, scruffy grey-brown fully transformed werewolf stood in front of them, looking at the group with curiosity.
"Remus?" Grace asked, forgetting that she was in lion form and it only came out as a strange noise caught somewhere between a growl and a purr.
She looked at the wolf. He had certainly grown since the last time Grace had seen Remus' wolf form, just over eight years ago. That wild look in his eyes was gone too. The presence of their animagi forms must have been helping.
For a full minute, the five creatures were frozen, looking at one another in curiosity, sheer awe and perhaps a tiny hint of fear. This was uncharted territory for them all.
Grace was the first to step forward, passing Sirius as she walked out into the shack until she was standing directly up at Remus, having to crane her head to meet the eyes of his tall wolf form.
She sat down and raised one of her paws to boop him on the nose, before running to the other side of the room. Remus' eyes followed her, amused.
James came out of the passageway next. He too walked up to Remus and walked a full circle around the wolf, having never seen him properly like this before.
Sirius then came bounding out, stopping in front of Remus to bark twice before running over to Grace and trying to chase his tail. Peter slowly came scurrying out, looking up at Remus with hi beady rat-eyes before heading over to where the others had congregated on the other side of the room.
The five of them spent the rest of the night playing, play-fighting and chasing each other around the Shack before heading back through the passageway and exploring the Hogwarts grounds in their animal forms. Only once or twice did the others have to stop Remus from attacking himself or running off when he got distracted by something he smelt – humans when they got a bit too close to the castle – but apart from those times the night ran smoothly.
At some point, they must have fallen asleep because Grace woke up in the shack the next morning, still in her lion form, slightly dazed. There was light streaming through the gaps between the wooden slats that boarded up each window.
She opened her eyes and looked around. A stag was fast asleep up on the ragged couch to her left, a scrawny little rat underneath it, a big black dog curled up in front of the couch and on the other side of her – a completely naked, now human, Remus Lupin, lying face down on the floorboards, fast asleep.
She quickly turned her head away, the small movement startling Sirius who was right beside her, one of his front legs digging in to her side. He let out a small whine before opening his eyes and changing to a human, the noise waking up the other two as well.
Once they were all awake and back in their human forms, Sirius went and got a blanket to cover Remus.
"Did you get a good look, Grace?" Sirius asked as he walked back over.
"Oh, shut up," Grace snapped. "We need to get moving, anyway. Madam Pomfrey will be here soon and we can't let her catch us."
They walked back along the passageway, picking up the cloak from where they left it and snuck out of the tree towards the castle.
"So are you two ever going to get together or what?" Sirius asked.
"W-what?" Grace replied quickly, panicked.
"You and Remus. Because as soon as think you're about to, nothing happens!" Sirius exclaimed. "Unless you've secretly been dating this whole time?"
"No! Why would you even think that?"
"Because you two are extremely close," James added. "And have never dated anyone else."
"That's only because I'm too awkward with that kind of stuff. And that's a lie! Remus went on that one date last year, remember?"
"I would hardly call that a date," Peter said. "That was the most painful thing to watch in my life. Neither of them barely said a word and then she spilt her drink all over her lap, went to the bathroom and never came back!"
"Did ever occur to you that they may have been so uncomfortable because we were sitting at the table next, shamelessly eavesdropping?" Grace asked.
"So do you like him or what?" Sirius asked, bring it back to their original conversation.
"...No. He's my best friend."
"Do you like him though?"
"Okay, this is unfair. I have to tell you whether I like Remus or not but you won't even tell us who you're taking to the ball."
"Yeah. What's up with that?" James asked.
"It's a surprise. You'll find out on the night," Sirius defended. "So do you like him or not?"
"It's a surprise," Grace said, sticking out her tongue. By then they had reached the castle and they all made their way up to the Gryffindor common room to try and get a little bit more sleep before school started.
---
WOOOP FORTIETH CHAPTER
I am so sorry to everyone who started this book thinking 'oh this is going to be a crappy remus romance or whatever' and then forty chapters later, Gramus/Remace or whatever you prefer stiLL HAVEN'T KISSED.
It's coming though I promise. I have a plan (for once).
Question: Out of curiosity, do y'all prefer Gramus or Remace as their ship name? Or another name?
- Grace
YOU ARE READING
The Forest - R.L.
Fanfiction(Remus Lupin - Marauder's Era ) She was wandering through the forest when she saw it. A wolfish being, about as tall as herself, with scruffy grey-brown fur and a snarl forming on its lips. But she wasn't afraid. --- Grace Thorne is an eleven year o...
