Hogwarts & Beyond ~ Wolfstar & Jily

A Moonlit Forest

This one has a bunch of angst, but it's not that sad. Wait, does that make any sense? Anyway, it's also pretty long. 

~Remus's POV, the Marauders' fifth year in Hogwarts~

James had that look on his face. The "I'm-planning-something-and-you-should-be-scared" look. Nothing ever went well with him grinning like that. 

Right on cue, James threw his quill at the back of Sirius's head to get his attention. 

" So I've been thinking- " he started.

"Oh really, how'd that go for you?" Sirius interrupted, also grinning. James chucked a pot of ink at Sirius, but years of Quidditch, dealing with a snappy pre-moon me, and generally hanging out with James had built his reflexes, and he lazily flicked his wand at the pot, freezing it inches away from spattering all over his robes. 

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted-" 

"Yeah yeah, Sirius is a git, blah blah blah. Get on with it." I snapped, annoyed. It was full moon tonight, so I was on edge and in pain. My friends, already very used to my highly irritable attitude around full moons, just obeyed.  

" Ok so you know how Moony is getting pretty comfortable around Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs?" 

"Yeah...." I answered cautiously, not sure where this was heading.

"So, Padfoot and I can keep Moony in check, cause we're so big, right?"

"Your point is." I could feel my patience running thin, the stress of transforming getting to me like it always did. 

"Maybe tonight we could try something a little . . . different. We could try and leave the Shack-"

"No." I cutting him off and turned back to my homework with shaking hands. Sirius,  catching on, had taken a liking to this idea and was clearly trying to think of a way to approach the subject lightly. 

" I think that's a good idea. It'll give Moony a bit of a . . . change of scenery, shall we say?" He said slowly, " Moony does seem to be getting a bit restless lately, and maybe some fresh air would be good for him." 

I felt the wolf inside of me yearn to run freely across the grounds for the first time ever. I also felt the logical, Remus side of me listing thousands of ways it could go wrong, thinking a mile a minute. 

You could take a wrong turn and get lost in the forest . . .

You could run into some innocent animal . . .

You could get hit by the Whomping Willow in the dark . . .

You could howl and awaken the other students . . . 

And worst of all, the ones that caught my attention and gave me instant guilt. 

Ditch the others and get into Hogsmead . . .

Betray Dumbledoor's trust . . .

You could bite one of your friends . . .

Sirius must have noticed me battling with the wolf, and quickly said, " We'll see what Moony wants yeah?" 

I opened my mouth to protest, but I happened to glance out the window while turning. I stood up quickly and started to haphazardly shove my things into my bag. 

"What are you-" James cut himself off, following my gaze to the window and then nodding and gathering his things. Sirius and Peter followed suit. 

I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm late I'm LATE. My brain screamed at me for letting time slip by so easily, while my body attempted to obey the thought of run run run run FASTER RUN. I raced against the setting sun, skidding into the hospital wing, madly gesturing at Madam Pomfry, and then charging out toward the Willow without waiting for a response. 

I jabbed the knot in the trunk and hurried into the tunnel, ducking to avoid hitting my head. We had all grown over the summer, but I had grown the most, and had then promptly laughed my head off at how short the other Marauders were in comparison. I smiled the memory, momentarily distracting me from the surroundings that the wolf inside of me had come to hate. 

~ Flashback  ~ 

" Hey Moony!" 

I  looked up from my spot by the window in our usual compartment. I was curled up with a book balanced on my knees sitting right under a beam of sunshine that danced across the pages  and warmed my hands. I grinned at Sirius, James, and Peter all standing at the door as they grinned  back. I stood up to say hi when James tackled me with a hug. 

" Blimey, you're a full two inches taller then me!  Which potion did you take?" He demanded. I laughed, as I was taller than James by a good two inches now. 

We all settled down, taking our seats, but as I went to sit, Sirius commented, " You look like you've been stretched by a rope mate. What'd you do?"  I rolled my eyes. 

" I grew you idiot. "  James suddenly seized Sirius'  arm and pulled him up to stand next to me. Then he promptly began to laugh.

 " What?" I asked, thoroughly confused. Then I looked sideways at Sirius. Or, rather, looked down at him. Sirius' head only just cleared my shoulders. Sirius and I made eye contact, and started laughing at the same time. 

Peter was shorter that Sirius, but that was no surprise, seeing as Peter had probably only grown an inch over the course of two years. 

We sat there, bought half the sweets of the trolley, talking, laughing, and gerally enjoying each other's company after a long summer apart, watching the hills and meadows stream past the windows. 

~ End Flashback ~ 

The memory was wiped out of my mind as pain shot down my back. My back was always the most painful, probably because of all the times my dad had branded a silver rod into it. I gritted my teeth at the reminder of my dad. 

My mind went blank again as my skeleton started to melt and reform to accomidate claws, fur, and a mouth full of razor sharp fangs. I screamed, and then it was over. I saw three figures emerge from the shadows. 

~ James's POV ~ 

I slipped the cloak over my head, lifting it up for Peter and Sirius. The feeling of the water-like fabric sliding through my fingers always managed to soothe me. Silently, we aproched the Willow. The cloak sagged slightly as Peter transformed, though not by much, because of the height difference. 

A rat skittered out of thin air and squeaked over and under the lethal branches as it touched the knot. The tree froze, and I shoved the cloak into my pocket as Sirius blurred into a large black dog, and I transformed as well. We hurried into the tunnel, with Sirius diving in just as the branches began to unfreeze. I let out a breath. With all of us safely in the passage, we started the journey to our friend. 

When we made it into the Shack we hid in the shadows, worry and pain and sympathy welling up in my eyes as I watched my fellow Marauder suffer through the painful process of becoming a werewolf. Remus screamed. It killed me to not be able to burst out and assure him that it would be okay, but we always waited to show up until the transformation was complete, because Remus was in so much pain he could accidentally hurt us, and he had made us promise we would never try to help him during his transformation. 

It was one of the the only promises I had a lot of trouble keeping.