Semper

7

It was a struggle but soon the three pranksters were out on Hogwarts grounds, and into the Forbidden Forest. The were just passing the Whomping Willow – a very violent tree that was grown magically just in time for their first year – when Aurora noticed something.

"Wait. Guys, is that Remus's scarf?" She asked as she abruptly stopped, making the boys stop too.

"Let me see, yeah. It does look like the one he's always wearing." Sirius said as he got out of the cloak and holding the scarf in his hand.

"But why was his scarf down here? Did he forget it when we four were playing tag in the free period?" James asked, noticing that it was so dark so he stuffed the heavy cloak in a lightweight bag he had slung over his shoulder.

"No I remember he was wearing it at that time. He wore it at dinner too." Aurora said, she always seem to remember everything Remus was doing.

"Maybe he's down here somewhere?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe. Let's search for him then. He couldn't be that far." James said as they started slowly trekking through the outskirts of the forest, eyes peeled open for any search of their friend.

An hour had gone by – Aurora had a muggle watch on her wrist – and yet there was no mention of neither Remus nor any dangerous animals as Sirius had so graciously mentioned in the common room.

They were getting ready to leave – feeling sleepy and fatigued – when suddenly there was a blood curling howl in the air. Aurora's eyes met Sirius's but there was no fear in his eyes. Only excitement. When she looked at James it was the same.

Why am I the only sane one here? She wondered as she trailed behind the excited boys.

Suddenly they reached the Whomping Willow again, and this time Aurora noticed that the howl was louder. "The animal's around here somewhere." She said as she slowed down to a stop just behind the vicinity of the violent tree.

"We need to cross this tree to get to see the animal, don't we?" James said excitedly, as he took astray log of wood and waved it slowly at the vicinity of the tree, and in a second, the branches whirled out and smacked the log out of his hand, making him yell in shock as the others laughed.

"Pansies. All of you. And idiots." Aurora laughed as she took a stone and rolled it beneath the tree, hoping to avoid the branches. If the stone is lett alone, then maybe the three could crawl their way inside.

To their surprise, the stone hit a large, really fat branch which was on the ground and the tree stopped flapping around almost instantly.

"Rory you're a genius." Sirius said as he slipped behind James and Aurora rushed to follow them as they soon passed the Tree and saw a dilapidated house in front of them.

"That looks like a haunted house." Aurora said, concealing an involuntary shiver as another bone chilling howl sounded, very close to them, proving that whatever was that animal, it was inside the cabin not ten feet infront of them.

"We should go guys. It's not safe." Aurora murmured, tugging James sleeve but he didn't feel it.

"And who just called us pansies?" He whispered back, but moved forward, as if trying to get a glimpse of the occupant inside the house. But before he could, it felt like the floor caves beneath them, making all three go down underground, illiciting terrified screams from all three,as they fell into a tangled mess.

"Now I think we should go." Sirius  panted as he stood up, looking up and seeing a big hole where they were standing. It was still possible to go up, if they could hoist Aurora and she could pull them up.

"But we're so close!" James whined but didn't say much when Sirius helped Aurora climb the gap by placing her feet in his joined hands.

"On three okay? One , two – " Sirius couldn't say three as the children heard a rustle behind them. All of them stood straight, almost paralysed as they turned around slowly. They breathed a sigh of relief when they saw nobody behind them, but they did see the shadow of something inside a room beside them. It looked like some hunched up man, which made Aurora very curious. Throwing caution to the wind, she ignored the protests of the other two as she ventured forward, going straight for the door of the room and peered inside.

It was a werewolf, prowling inside, tearing and scratching at its own skin. It made Aurora flinch as she heard another howl as she screamed abut when James touched her shoulder a bit. She looked behind and saw that Sirius and James were seeing the same thing.

"A werewolf." Sirius breathed as James nodded.

"What's a werewolf doing in Hogwarts grounds?" James said, ignoring that the three needed to be quiet – actually they should be running as far as they could by now, but who cares about safety huh? – and the three stilled as they saw the werewolf look at their side.

All three screamed, pushing themselves back asthe werewolf hungrily ran up at them, but before he could exit the room, he was slammed back by some shield, yet the three didn't care.

They ran as fast as they could, and got out of the Shrieking Shack as fast as their tiny legs could carry them. By some stroke of luck, they weren't caught, because James was too terrified to think of using the cloak, but in ten minutes they were inside their common room, panting and taking in bug gulps of air.

"What is– what is Dumbeldore thinking? Having a werewolf in here?" Sirius panted, hunched up.

"That too on the full night. Thank god for that shield." James said as he sat down on the floor with a big plop!

"That's the thing you guys. The werewolf must be a student or a staff of Hogwarts. Dumbeldore wouldn't let anyone enter otherwise." Aurora said as soon as her breath stabilized.

All three were now sitting beside the fireplace on the ground, huddled up with a blanket on all three. Aurora was in between the boys as they looked at her, as if she'd lost her marbles.

Aurora rolled her eyes, "It wouldn't make sense otherwise . Think about it, the Whomping Willow wasn't planted before our year, and it's quite a violent tree to be planted and grown so fast and urgently for just the sake of fun or terrorizing students. It means that whoever is the werewolf, must be a first year or atleast the new teachers. Professor Dearborn is new. He started this year." She pointed out as the boys were deep in thought.

"But Professor Dearborn is new because no Defence against the dark arts teacher is teaching for more than a year in Hogwarts. Its supposedly a curse." James pointed out as  Sirius and Aurora nodded, eyebrows scrunched up in thought.

"Ans the werewolf was too small to be fully grown." Sirius said as James and Aurora looked at him inquisitively.

"How do you know that?" Aurora asked as Sirius blushed.

"My family has all sorts of books on dark arts and creatures." He mumbled but noth James and Aurora heard and exchanged a look. Any conversations about the Black Family made Sirius uncomfortable so they steered away from it.

"Meaning it must be a first year then." James said as they all nodded.

Aurora's mind was going in superspeed. A werewolf was in the castle, maybe it was someone she knew. Maybe it was someone they all knew. But she remembered the clear chocolate brown eyes of the werewolf, and how – if what she had read in the library was true – non violent it was, for a werewolf. It seemed to be scratching itself, as if hoping not to harm anyone who was unlucky enough to venture inside. It meant that normally the person would have multiple scratches as well....

Aurora gasped. She knew. She knew who the werewolf was.

"Its Remus." She breathed, as James and Sirius looked at her in shock.