The Marauders: Year One (female)

1. Bitten

Remus pulled her covers up to her chin and shivered. It was late at night, and the house was dark and silent.

Remus didn't know why she had awoken; only she knew something wasn't quite right. Moonlight dappled the shadowed ceiling, streaming in through the ajar window. It swung slightly, in the breeze off the moor. Remus stared at it, certain that it hadn't been open when she'd gone to sleep earlier.

Fighting the impulse to call for her parents, Remus reluctantly tossed her covers aside, and sat on the edge of her bed. She gauged the dark distance between the safety of her bed and the window, deciding whether or not it was worth the risk.

She couldn't call for her mother or her father again; over the past couple weeks, Remus had disturbed them at all hours of the night due to her increasing night terrors, and her fear of 'the man under the bed'.

Each night, Lyall Lupin had rushed to his daughter's bedroom, closely followed by his wife, Hope, to ensure their child was safe. When Remus explained the situation, her parents, with tired eyes and increasingly frequent sighs bent down to check what was underneath the bed. After casting a light underneath, they would tell her that there was nothing there, and that it was just her overactive imagination playing tricks on her.

Remus gathered up her courage. Not tonight. Tonight, she'd be brave, and she wouldn't call for her mother and father. She swallowed nervously as the darkness toyed with her mind, and made her see shadows where there shouldn't be, skittering under the bed like rats.

Remus took a deep breath and leapt off of her bed, well away from the edge. She spun around, her heart racing, expecting some sort of terrible monster to be grinning behind her in the dark.

But her room was still empty, and she was still alone. Remus crept to the swinging window, unable to shake the feeling of unease that overcame her, and gave her that sensation of dropping in her stomach.

She cast another furtive look about the room, and scampered over to the window, telling herself she was just being stupid as usual.

She hopped onto the chair by her window so that she could reach the it, despite being tall for a child of nearly five. Her clumsy fingers closed around the handle, and she pulled it shut, letting out a sigh of relief once it was done.

Encouraged, she slid off the chair, and began to walk back to her own bed. She didn't notice the jagged marks carved onto the windowsill, or the smears of blood and saliva that came after them.

She still wasn't quite brave enough to venture too close to the gap under her bed, though. Eyeing the shadowy space with trepidation, she jumped onto the bed, feeling an immense sense of relief once she was safely returned, and that the window was closed.

She sat in the middle of her bed for a moment or two, her feet hanging off the edge. She slowed her rapid breathing, and focused on telling herself that everything was all right, and to back to sleep and to forget about it--

Remus froze as the bed shook, and seemed to rise and fall and breathe as if it were alive.

If she called her parents right now, they'd come running, and check under the bed as they always did. And then they'd shake their heads, and sigh, and explain to Remus that there was nothing there and nothing to fear--

Remus could only let out a faint moan of terror as her stomach dropped sickeningly, and an icy, rough hand grasped her ankle tightly.

She stared at it a minute, her heart in her throat, as a dark, shadowy shape emerged from the void under her bed.

Once it was out, it released her ankle, and straightened to its full, terrifying height.

Petrified, Remus could make out the outline of a bulky man, who seemed to be shuddering with every heartbeat, and writhing in his own skin.