This was going to be a very promising year. Circe and Sirius had begun dating, Adriana and Remus were soon to be approaching their first year as a couple, and James and Lily were soon to be going on their first date after a six year courtship. Everything seemed to be going well for the Marauders. But nothing that good lasts for long.
The night that everything began to unravel was the night of a full moon. Sirius, James, Peter and Remus had been itching to gallivant about the school grounds in their animal forms for months, as none of them had been able to do so for the whole summer. In their high opinions, two months had been far too long to wait for an adventure. So, just as they had done every full moon for the last two years, they arranged to meet, already transformed, in the Shrieking Shack.
From there they moved on to the Dark Forest, adrenaline pumping through Sirius' veins as he, Moony, Prongs, and Wormtail made their way to the Dark Forest. They had explored as much of it as they could in their years as Animagus and had narrowly escaped being seriously injured on more than one occasion. Overall it was always a grand adventure.
But there was something in the air that night that made Sirius nervous. As Padfoot he was able to pick up on things that he normally wouldn't notice in his human form. Remus seemed to pick up on it too as suddenly, as they scampered along the path, he stopped and sniffed, the hair on his back standing up with a new tension. And that was when the world stopped turning.
Not for the first time since they had started this tradition - but certainly the most significant – Remus got away from them. He took of at a run, going off the path, and after several shocking seconds that proved to be their downfall, the remaining three Marauders took off after him. Remus had traveled faster than they did; knowing where he was headed and given the advantage of a head start, but Sirius was not going to lose sight of him.
And that's when they heard it, a loud piercing scream that made all their blood run cold. If it weren't for the sick sense of recognition of a voice he had heard before Sirius would have thought that Remus was attacking one of the creatures of the forest. If only they had been so lucky. The scream sounded again just as Sirius knocked Remus away from his prey, taking out his midsection and dragging him to the ground.
James, tall and imposing, positioned himself so that he stood in between Remus and the crumpled from of Adriana Finn. Sirius knew that she was badly injured, he could smell the blood both on her and Remus, but he wished with all his heart that she had not been bitten. He didn't have time to consider why she was in the Dark Forest at this time of night; all he knew was that he had to keep Remus occupied. The two scraped and scrambled over the ground, snarling at each other, Remus desperate with a vicious blood lust, and Sirius struck dumb for the first time with the stupidity of their actions. Adriana could be killed.
The shock from the direction of his thoughts paralyzed him for a second, but a second was all it took for Remus' long claws to slash out and tear him. His dog form whined as searing pain clouded his senses, five long gashes ripping right across his chest, fortunately they were not deep but they oozed blood. Prongs moved forward from his post, hitting Remus with his antlers as they cornered him.
A loud squeal came from Wormtail, drawing Sirius' attention away from Remus. He looked in the direction that Wormtail was scampering and realized that Adriana was gone. He prayed that she had managed to get back to the school.
They managed to calm Remus down after an hour or so, and then lead him back to the Shrieking Shack with only a few difficulties. By the time the moon went down and the sun rose, Sirius had stopped bleeding, but his side still ached with a burning ache that almost made him pass out. When they had reached the school grounds they had seen Adriana, crumpled up on the school grounds, looking like death. Peter was sent to rush her into the Hospital Wing, and then go to class so that no one would notice anything suspicious. Not that suspicion really mattered at this point.
Sirius racked his brain over and over, trying to ignore the pain in his side, and tried to figure out what the hell Adriana had been doing in the Dark Forest. He couldn't figure it out as he sat on a stool, unconsciously clutching his side. James and he were waiting for Remus to wake up, charged with the horrible duty of informing Remus what had happened that night.
When Remus came too with a groan, moving slightly in the dim light of the Shrieking Shack Sirius noticed that his good friend fared no better than he or James. Remus was covered in bruises from their fight the night before. When Remus' eyes focused on his two friends, Sirius swallowed hard at the dreadful recognition in Moony's expression. Remus knew something horrible had happened, and now they had to tell him.
Suddenly Remus leaned over and vomited all over the floor, and Sirius pitied his friend, knowing desperately that it shouldn't be Remus, the best of them all, to have to go through this. Not wanting to embarrass Remus, James cleaned up the mess by pointing his wand and muttering solemnly "Scourgify". After giving Remus another moment to clear his head, James asked soberly, "Alright there Moony?"
Remus shook his head in response and then stood, stumbling a bit as he made the effort. "What happened last night?" he said in a hoarse voice.
Sirius looked to James, knowing that they had to tell Remus, but needing to gather courage from his best friend to do so.
"Are you guys ok? I didn't bite anybody? What happened?" Remus' voice was tinged with desperation.
Sirius responded first, unwilling to let Remus go on in the dark any longer, but not wanting to cause Remus to panic. Panic would solve nothing. "You scratched me a bit, but it's nothing" Sirius said, unconsciously touching a hand to his chest where the pain throbbed. Remus looked like he might just vomit again.
James, looking devastated and grim, took a deep breath, and spoke his next words in a rush. "But there is something else."
"What is it?" Remus said, his voice trembling. "Was it … did I hurt Wormtail?"
"No" Sirius said, staring at the floor, not wanting to look Remus in the eye. They couldn't drag out the truth any longer, they had to tell him, but Sirius – for all his supposed bravery – couldn't bring himself to do it.
James dragged in another deep breath. "It was Finn …"
Remus' eyes widened in shock and a stunned moment of silence followed. "That's impossible," Remus breathed, staring stonily at them.
Sirius finally looked at him, meeting his eye for the first time since last night. "She was out in the dark forest-"
"What the hell was she doing there?" Remus interrupted vehemently.
James shrugged in answer; they had been trying to figure that out themselves for several hours and neither boy could come up with anything. Sirius just continued wanting to tell Remus what happened. "Well, you got away from us for a second and when we caught up with you, you had her cornered."
Remus sunk to his knees on the floor, almost as if he was going to pass out.
"You didn't bite her, we're sure of that." James reassured him, walking over and sitting on the floor with him.
Remus looked from face to face, knowing that there was more. Expecting the truth.
"But there was …" Sirius's voice broke for a second and he cleared his throat.This should never have happened. If only they had been more responsible."There was a lot of blood on her robes. We think you must have scratched her or something."
Remus shut his eyes tight and breathed deep. Sirius suspected that he was holding back tears.
"She was alright Moony. Peter took her back to the school and then went to go to classes. We thought it would look to suspicious if we all missed class …" James trailed off. Sirius knew that James was glossing things over to help Remus, and while at the moment this seemed like the proper thing to do, he knew it would just hurt more in the long run. But still he kept his mouth shut.
"I want to see her," Remus said quietly.
James and Sirius both exchanged a look and than Sirius reached into his robes, pulling out the Marauders map. Sirius muttered the key words and stared at the map for a moment before handing it to Remus. He frowned.
Remus stood once more, staring at the map intently, after a moment in which Sirius assumed he had found Adriana's name he looked up, giving a dark look to his friends and than left.
They stood in a charged silence which was only broken when James spoke one word with the explosive force of frustration. "Fuck."
After talking for an hour, Sirius and James parted ways. Sirius trekked up to the dormitory so that he could change and rest, hoping desperately that the wound would stop burning. James had left for the kitchens, hungry and confused.
It was when Sirius was changing his shirt that he heard a knock on his door. He stared for a second, wondering who it could possibly be – James, Remus, and Peter all lived in the room and never knocked – when the door was slowly opened, he was a little afraid. But there, standing in the doorway, staring at him with a sheepish expression on her face was Circe. His heart beat faster, hoping that she didn't know any of what had happened the night before.
He watched her as she walked into the room, closing the door behind her. "Sirius?" She said after stopping when she stood right in front of him. She leaned forward and gave him a hug and he winced as she touched his wound with her arm.
At his wince she looked up at him, confused and hurt. "What is it?" She asked, and he feared that she thought he was mad with her so he leaned over and gave her a kiss rather than answer. She smiled at him but it did not reach her eyes, she knew that something was wrong.
"What are you doing in here Bloom?" He said in his most serious voice, hoping to distract her.
Circe smiled up at him suggestively and stepped closer to him, "I've been waiting for you downstairs … but since you hadn't shown up yet I thought I would come and see if you were in here. You haven't been to class." But behind the teasing tone he sensed something more. It was in her eyes, a disquiet that unnerved him. She knew something.
Trying desperately to act normal and ignore the pain, he raised an eyebrow as she leant up and kissed him, tugging on his bottom lip as she moved away. He growled at her and she wrapped her arms around his waist, going in to kiss him again. But even though she held him loosely her grip was too tight and it hurt his side. He grimaced and pulled away, clutching where Remus' claws had torn him the night before. He thought he might collapse from the pain of it.
"What is it? Are you ok?" Circe asked, afraid that he was going to reject her.
"It's nothing," he said, but the pain was evident in his voice. He couldn't let her see what had happened.
"Like hell," she muttered, moving so that she was in front of him and reaching to lift his shirt. He pulled away and she scowled at him. "If it's nothing than why won't you let me see? What? Did you fall off your broom or something? It's nothing to be ashamed of."
Sirius had no idea what to say next. He couldn't let her see what had happened to him because than she would ask questions and he didn't want to have to lie to her. But if it came down to it, he would have to because it wasn't his secret to tell. "Let's go downstairs and-" he tried to change the subject but she cut him off when she reached up and pulled his shirt up.
When Circe saw the five long scratches that reached from right over his heart down to his belly button she went white as a ghost. She stood still, clutching his shirt so that the gash was visible and she just stared at it, eyes wide.
He jerked away so that she lost her grip and went to go sit on his bed. He did not look at her but stared at the floor in front of him.
After a silence that stretched a mile she finally spoke. "Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?" Her words were barely above a whisper.
"No," He said with a wry laugh. All that would accomplish was getting the Marauders in a lot of trouble.
Another silence took over and Sirius fidgeted uneasily under her gaze. He finally looked up at her, gaining eye contact. She had not moved. "What happened?"
He didn't answer, couldn't answer. All he did was shake his head. He didn't want to have to lie to her …
"Was it a prank? I mean … did you guys try and do something and have it not work? Is that why none of you were in your beds last night?" He started; surprised that she knew he wasn't in here last night. She walked over and knelt in front of him.
"How did you know we weren't-?"
"I had another nightmare and came in to see you but the room was empty." She stated and his gut twisted painfully. She had needed him but he hadn't been there. And now he was going to have to lie to her.
"Oh," was all he could manage to say.
"You were attacked." It wasn't a question, she tried to catch his eye again but he refused to look at her. "Adriana was attacked too. In the Dark Forest last night. Were you with her?" He wondered how she knew about that, but realized now was not the time to question.
"I was attacked" he whispered lamely, only answering the first question and wishing he could be anywhere but right there at that moment.
"By what?" Sirius kept his mouth shut, knowing that she was going to be mad at him for not telling her, but Remus and he had been friends for years and he couldn't betray his trust. "Were you in the Dark Forest? Was it the same thing that attacked you too?" She persisted, her tone tinged with worry and a bit of frustration.
He finally looked her in the eye and without speaking told her that he was. Finally, "Look, I told Prongs I would meet him downstairs so I-"
"I don't believe this!" Circe stood up and walked towards the window. "You're really not going to tell me what happened?"
He wanted to go to here then and tell her everything. About how he was an Animagus and how he had been so scared last night that he or Adriana would die. And how every full moon they would go out. He wanted to tell her about how sorry he was that one of his best friends would never have a normal life.
But he couldn't tell her any of that.
"I'm sorry," he said, feeling his heart twist so painfully it almost brought tears to his eyes. He didn't want her to be mad at him and he hoped that she believed his apology and understood why he couldn't trust her in this matter.
Circe turned and looked at him, tears running down her cheek and breaking his heart. "If you're sorry than why can't you tell me?"
"I wish I could." He said and she shut her eyes, closing him out. He hesitated for a second but then walked towards her. When he reached her he wrapped his arms around her and brought her close to him, holding her against his side that wasn't hurt. He kissed her hair and whispered, "It's not my secret to tell." He felt that he at least had to explain that to her.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him; he wiped the tears from her cheek. "Ri wouldn't tell me what happened either …"
All he could do was nod a little, hoping for Remus' sake that she never would.
A/N: Sorry, sorry sorry! I can't believe it has been so long since I last updated and I am really sorry that it has taken this long. Between work, school, friends, and grad stuff I have been run off my feet busy. I promise that this story will be done before the summer and am really sorry that it has taken this long (I just hate it when authors have long pauses between chapter uploads, and now I've become one of those people. UGH.) Sorry once again, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It is kind of repetive if you follow "Broken", but there will be some new stuff soon! I promise!