Falling, Fallen || Remus Lupin

Chapter Eight

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It was the next morning and there was a quiet stillness lingering in the Shrieking Shack. The only sounds that could be heard was the joyful chirping of small woodland birds flying outside in the morning air. The sun was peaking through wooden planks that were boarded up across the only window in the room where Remus was sleeping.

Remus's eyes fluttered open as he was now back to his usual self. His muscles throbbed sorely like they always did after a very rough night shifting under a full moon. His tawny hair was ruffled messily as he sat up from his lying position on the floor, squinting his eyes tiredly looking around the room. He was completely bare once again after always changing back into a human. His coffee-colored eyes landed on the usual soft blanket that he used every morning after his transformations to cover himself before anyone else could walk in.

He tried his best to stand up slowly, trying not to hurt himself and walked to the couch from across the room.

Taking the royal blue wool blanket that was hung over the end, he wrapped it around his waste securely. About any minute now, Madame Pomfrey would be walking through the door behind him with a freshly new set of clothes that he could change into before following her through the secret tunnels and back to the Hospital Wing so that he could recover properly.

However, something was much different this morning than any other day he had ever experienced. He could sense something was wrong in the room, finding it hard to discover what it actually was.

All of a sudden, Remus finally detected the major difference in the room he was standing in right now, his werewolf senses smelling a metallic stale scent, like copper pennies, coming from the other end of the room. He turned around facing the distinct smell and glanced tightly at the now dried splatters of blood on the wooden floor in front of him. Remus fidgeted in place, looking around quickly trying to notice if there were any other splatters of blood coming from other sides of the room. He felt the air strangling in his throat, his chest growing tighter by the minute panicking about the identity of the person's blood. Like usual, he couldn't remember anything from the night before, only fuzzy visions that lasted for a couple of seconds that were too clouded to recognize. His breathing started to pick up in pace as he tried forcing himself to remember any details from the night before.

The last thing he remembered was seeing Sirius and Peter in their Animagus forms waiting outside the Whomping Willow tree patiently until it was time for him to transform. He assumed that his two friends joined him later in the evening like they always did, but his world started to spiral once his mind considered the alarming thought that the blood he smelled could be any of theirs. Remus started to scratch the back of his neck nervously not taking his eyes off the bloody spot thinking of Sirius and Peter.

What if he had hurt one of them, or both of them very badly? He couldn't look at it anymore as he played with his fingers restlessly.

Quickly, the door facing him had opened, Madame Pomfrey walking in and staring at the boy concerned. She was holding a folded set of his usual style of clothing, an oversized spruce blue jumper, a pair of light beige trousers and brown brogue shoes. She wondered why he looked like he had just seen a ghost and followed his panicked gaze towards the dried splatters of blood on the floor beside her. All she really knew what to do was to send him a melancholy expression back.

"There, there, Lupin. Get dressed, now. The longer we wait the less time you have to visit her in the Hospital Wing today." She told him sympathetically laying the clothing on a small wooden stool placed just beside the door. As she was going to turn around and give him some privacy, her choice of words finally loomed in his mind.