Running With Wolves

Chapter 5: The Full Moon

Chapter 5: The Full Moon

The first week of the school year had been taxing, with the mountain of homework they had been set by their teachers. It didn't help that it also happened to be the week leading up to the full moon.

"Have you set a date for quidditch tryouts yet?" Sirius asked as the four of them walked down the corridor.

"This coming Friday. McGonogall and I agreed that would be the most convenient time, and if Remus here wants to come and watch he should be well recovered from tonight.

"Wouldn't miss it," said Remus, glancing briefly at Sirius He flushed. Sirius frowned at him.

"Are you alright, Moony?"

"Just tired," he muttered, silently cursing himself

"Watch it, werewolf." Snape muttered as he went by.

"Hey, why don't you watch it, Snivellus," Sirius snapped, wheeling around, his wand already in his hand. , and he grabbed Sirius by the elbow, trying to hold him back.

"Padfoot, don't bother. He's—,"

"If you tell me he's not worth it, Moony, I'll hex you," Sirius replied, voice strained as he pulled against Remus' grip on his arm. Snape watched with a mixture of apprehension and loathing, his wand in his hand now too. He slowly took several steps backward. Other people in the corridor looked curiously at the scene as they passed. "He might not be worth it, but you are." Sirius jerked away, aiming a hex at Snape. Remus' stomach plummeted to his feet.

"No!" James cried, leaping after Sirius in an attempt to tackle him to the ground. Snape dodged Sirius' spell and fired his own back. Snape's curse missed Sirius by several feet and hit Remus in the face instead, leaving a thin gash across Remus' cheek. He whipped his fingers to his face and drew it away scarlet. James changed his course, launching himself at Snape instead.

Snape threw up a shield charm, and James bounced off it. He stumbled back into Remus, blood leaking from his nose. Sirius fired another series of cursed at Snape, they bounced off his shield and hit the ceiling. A chandelier fell from the ceiling, forcing Snape to hurdle out of the way; his shield charm broke. Snape scrambled to his feet, hair disheveled, robes askew and wand still held before him. His next curse hit James in the chest, flinging him backwards into the ground. Sirius retaliated. Snape's legs snapped together and he toppled to the ground in the rubble of the chandelier.

"Padfoot, stop!" Remus yelled, torn between holding Sirius back and trying to help James, who still lay on the floor, moaning softly. Sirius turned to look at Remus and James, and Snape hit him from behind. .

"What in heaven's name is going on here?" The shrill voice of Professor McGonagall echoed down the corridor. Remus looked up to see her glaring down through her glasses at them, her lips pursed and her arms crossed. "The four of you, in my office immediately. And you, twenty points from Slytherin, Mr. Snape, I suggest you visit your head of house. I will be informing him of your misbehavior." She turned around and marched back the way she had come, without looking to see if the four Gryffindors were following. Remus righted Sirius; the pair of them pulled James to his feet and the four of them made their way ambling slowly after McGonagall all the way to her office.

They arrayed themselves in from of her desk. She sat in the chair behind it.

James' nose dripped blood onto the floor. Remus longed to wipe away the blood oozing into his collar. A purple bruise had begun to blossom by Sirius' eyebrow. The four of them waited awkwardly while McGonagall shuffled the papers irritably around her desk.

"I have never..." she began, looking up at them at last. "Seen such a heinous display of dueling in the corridors from four of my own students." They all glanced at each other, none of them daring to look up at McGonagall. "We are a week into the new semester and you think it fit to be brawling with each other in the corridor."

"Technically it was Snape who--,"

"I don't care who started it, Mr. Black. Think of what kind of example are you setting for younger students."

"Professor—,"

"I don't want to hear another word out of you, Mr. Black. Twenty points from each of you, and all four of you will be serving detention tonight.
"The full moon, Professor." Remus said quietly.

Professor McGonagall sighed. "Very well. Mr. Lupin, you will serve your detention another night. As for the rest of you, I will see you in my office at eight o'clock this evening. You should get yourselves to the hospital wing. I do not want to see more dueling from any of you."

"Yes ma'am," said Peter and Remus at the same time. Sirius and James each nodded agreement and .

"You just had to, didn't you, Pads? You couldn't just let it go?" Remus marching down the corridor, setting a brisk pace.

Sirius jogged to keep up. "He insulted you, I couldn't just—."

"I've been insulted before. I've had a lot more thrown at me than insults and I don't need you to defend me. Now you've landed yourself in detention on the full moon."

"I'm sorry, Rem, I didn't think—."

"No, you're right, you didn't think. You did not think at all, you made a rash decision and now we're paying for it."

"He started it..."

"I don't care who started it, you shouldn't have continued it." Remus' blood boiled; his hands balled into fists, his fingers digging into his palm.

He hurried ahead of his friends and disappeared into the hospital wing.

................

Madam Pomfrey led him down to the grounds, the Whomping Willow swayed gently in the chilly September air. The sunset threw reds and oranges and pinks of different shades across the sky. Madam Pomfrey immobilized the tree and ushered Remus inside, a gentle hand on his back. He had spent the entire summer transforming alone in his bedroom in his parents cottage. this, facing it alone at Hogwarts, was different. He had been expecting to spend this night in the company of his friends and now doing it alone...

"You'll be alright, now?" Madam Pomfrey asked. She always did. Remus nodded. "And I'll come and get you in the morning." Again, Remus nodded. It had been the same every full moon for five years.

When she left, Remus turned to the tattered bed in the corner. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, turning around that he had made over the years of his transformations. He slipped his legs out of his trousers and sat in nothing but his underwear on the bed, shivering in the draft. He drew the blanket on bed around his shoulders and waited,

This was the worst part, the waiting. He didn't know when the moon would set, when he would transform, but as the minutes ticked by he began to feel the terror setting into his bones. It had never been so bad when James, Peter and Sirius—especially Sirius—had been there

But he had expected his friends to be here tonight and they had gone and landed themselves in detention, and now he was completely and utterly alone. A slight tingling erupted in his fingers. It was starting.

The tingling got sharper, more painful. It spread form his fingers to his palms, up his arms and throughout his body. It turned into nothing short of agony. Agony he knew well. Agony that was sharpened by the absence of the people who loved him, and the people who had disappointed him. They had disappointed him. The pain was unbearable. He began to transform.