The third night of the school holidays was a full moon, Remus' first full moon without the other Marauders since their first success at becoming fully-fledged animagi. Grace was still able to join him of course, after telling her parents and grandparents that she was going to bed early and sneaking out of the cottage.
She immediately shifted into her mountain lion form once she reached the edges of the forest and broke out into a run.
It didn't take her long to find Remus, who had been roaming around in his werewolf form for a god half hour already, and the two traversed the forest, chasing each other and exploring into the early hours of the morning. Only a few times did the wolf wander a bit too far off or start attacking himself.
By about three o'clock the pair began to get tired and curled up together under a tree to sleep.
---
Grace woke to the sound of clothes rustling. Upon opening her eyes, she was greeted with the sigh of Remus pulling on a jumper that he had left folded up on a rock along with the rest of his clothes the previous night.
She sat up and stretched, her body sore from sleeping on nothing but a grass all night. She must've shifted from her animagus form back to her human form in her sleep.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," Remus said, walking over and holding out a hand.
"It's fine, I needed to get up anyway," Grace assured him, taking his hand as he pulled her up from the ground. "Any idea what time it is?"
Remus looked up at the sky, with orange streaks just beginning to break out from the horizon. "Half past seven, maybe?" Over the years, he'd become awfully good at telling the time just by looking at the colours in the sky. "Mum will be coming out here soon. You've probably got about ten more minutes."
Hope always met him in the forest in the mornings after full moon, just in case he was severely injured and couldn't make it back home by himself. It would be quite a surprise when she comes to find that her son had only sustained a few scratches on his arm and a bruise on his chest.
"So, how much do you remember?"
"Virtually nothing. Some flashes of running and trees here and there, but that's about it. I didn't give you another scar this time, did I?" Remus said with a chuckle, thinking back to that time in the very same forest, all those years ago, when Grace had first met Remus, as a wolf. "Again, I'm sorry about that."
"I know, you've only said it about a million times," Grace answered, leaning against the tree they had slept under, her eyes wandering their surroundings. "And no, I'm fine. A few scratches here and there but I'm almost certain that they're all my doing."
"I still can't believe what you guys did. All of the illegal animagi stuff. You're all idiots," Remus sighed.
"Idiots who care about you and don't like seeing you in pain."
They shared a smile, and an idea popped into Grace's head. This was the perfect time to...
"Speaking of... I...need to tell you something," Grace stuttered. "Something that might, I don't know, ruin our friendship but don't worry I still want be friends with you, It's nothing like that, I just, ah, I don't know-"
"Grace, you're rambling. And hello? Ruin our friendship? I'm a freaking werewolf. You already have a million friendship bonus points for being friends with me in the first place."
Grace paused and took a deep breath as her mind raced. She planned this out a million times, tried to say it even more, but something was different this time. It was more... spontaneous, and perhaps that was just what Grace needed, as someone who had a habit of overthinking everything, perhaps all she needed was to stop thinking for a moment and just:
"I like you. A lot."
There was a beat of silence – Remus just stood there, eyes wide, eyebrows raised – and then Grace did the first thing that came to her mind.
She got up from her spot leaning against the tree and ran as fast as she could down a barely visible path between the trees.
---
So we're finally getting there, eh? I think the running away is a bit too weird, but then again if that was me I'd just nope out of that situation so fast I'd probably apparate.
Also, sorry for the two day delay, but as I mentioned earlier: exams. I've only got two left though - biology and drama - which are both tomorrow, and then I'm done.
- Grace
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The Forest - R.L.
Fanfic(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...
