The boy woke up feeling every bone in his body had been pulled mercilessly apart; as though every muscle he had, had been stretched beyond its limit. He lay stiff with his eyes closed on a harsh glacial floor and groaned in pain as he remembered the events of the night before. Almost every inch of his body boasted several bruises, scratches and bite marks that he had punished himself with during the remorseless night. His head felt quite detached from his body. His mind was groggy and he felt a dull pounding pain behind his eyes. With all the effort he possessed, he willed his eyes to open.
The sight that met him was one he abominated. Every sense of his being detested the dull beam of light that poured itself from the bare bulb hanging above him from the high, grimy ceiling. Although it barely illuminated the diminutive room, his eyes were extremely sensitive to the light and he blinked painfully several times before adjusting to the light. His eyes wandered down the grubby walls and saw spattered blood on the walls both from just hours ago and also dried blood that he could have honestly dated back just over a decade. The room was just three meters across and almost a meter wide. He vaguely remembered battering himself against the walls and the bolted iron door in attempt to escape in his hours of being inhuman. An old, frayed and ripped chair-cushion lay at the end of the small room, covering just under a square meter of the exposed concrete ground. His joints ached agonizingly as he miraculously managed to slowly maneuver onto his front on his hands and knees. He tried in vain to stand up and fell to the ground with a thud and his body seared with excruciating pain. He pushed up with all his might back onto his hands and knees and crawled laboriously toward the dilapidated cushion and collapsed in a heap upon it.
He lay for some minutes face down before, against his screaming body's wishes, he shifted so he lay on his back. He put a hand to his hazel coloured hair (that when closely looked at, you could see the odd premature silver strand). The sixteen year old pushed his fringe from his forehead with effort to soothingly clutch the source of pain in his head. He closed his eyes and more memories of the night before carefully restored itself in his head. Last night's full moon had brought about his painful transformation into a werewolf.
He had been bitten when he was only five and had spent the harrowing changes in this room each month for years. That was until he had entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he was eleven. He remembered the glorious day he had received the wonderful letter addressed to him, Remus Lupin, from the Headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore. He had been miserable thinking of the subject of school for years as his mother and father had told him time and again he would never be accepted into a school with his lycanthropy. They had been right too, as he had been rejected in turn from each school he had applied to. He had been told by the previous head of Hogwarts, Armando Dippet that he had no chance of acceptance. But Professor Dumbledore had come to rule and he had been considerably understanding to Remus. He had said as long as necessary precautions were taken, then he could think of no reason for him to miss out on a proper magical education. He had felt enormous gratitude toward the aging wizard. He was approaching his sixth year at the school now and since being there, he only had to spend the Summer holidays at home in this cupboard in the cellar.
At the wondrous school, he had spent his first four years transforming in a building in the near wizarding village of Hogsmeade, called the Shrieking Shack. It was not an attractive building itself, but was fifty times more comforting than this room and held more freedom for his wolf form to run. He had to be smuggled from the castle every month by the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey, lead into the opening of a thrashing tree named the Whomping Willow and through a long tunnel leading into the building to transform. Only the teachers at Hogwarts had known about his transformations, until his three newly made friends had found out. He had been terrified they would leave him and react as everyone else did to his lycanthropy: as though it were a very infectious disease. But his friends were loyal. More than loyal, and for the first time in his life, he had made long-term friends and he was happier than he'd ever been.
His friends had even done something for him that would help him beyond his wildest dreams. They had figured out how to become animagi. These were people who were able to become a particular animal at their will. They had managed to do this last year and met Remus in the Shrieking Shack every month and ran with him. He and his friends were soon roaming the school grounds, as two of them became large animals and were able to keep his wolf form in check. They had gained an unparalleled knowledge of Hogwarts and Remus was no longer biting himself any more. His friends ran with him everywhere, keeping him well occupied and happy.
It was with a sad smile that he remembered this and he was painfully brought back to the tiny room with a shudder. He realized he was shaking with a nippy-cold that swept over him. It was here he remembered before his transformation he had stripped off his clothes so as not to ruin them in his change and this left him lying there nude. He shuffled and placed his hand under the cushion to retrieve his robe and slowly pulled the cloak around him, wincing as the pain in his joints smarted in the struggle.
He placed an objecting hand into his robes and pulled out his wand. He looked at the 13 inch ash wand containing a single unicorn hair and muttered a healing charm as he pointed to each of his cuts and bite-wounds in turn. He was no expert at this, but Madam Pomfrey had taught him enough to relieve most of his pains. The majority of his bruises remained, but were not half as painful as before, as the spells soothed his mauled skin. Once he was satisfied he had done all he could for his wounds, he lay back down on the cushion and curled up, very grateful to the caring nurse, and wondered what time it was. He supposed it would be several hours yet before his mother would come and release him from his temporary cell.
He lay there tired for some time thinking, with much melancholy, of his fantastic friends. He thought miserably how he wished he was spending this time with them. He imagined how Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew would be sitting in his house panicking about not having his friends to help him with his summer homework as it seemed he was quite unable to complete anything without the great assistance of his mates. There was only two days until the first Hogwarts term would begin, but Remus was confident in thinking that he would be the only one of them to have thought to do his homework at the beginning of the holiday. He'd always been the responsible and sensible member of the group. But he also knew that while his other two friends would have no problem with their homework (being the two smartest students in the school), Peter would be struggling with his. They had all been nicknamed according to the animal form they took. He, himself was appropriately dubbed "Moony", as he obviously transformed in the full moon. Peter - his least favourite friend he thought briefly before scolding himself - was called "Wormtail" because his animagus form was of a rat. Sometimes Remus would think it a very fitting name, then be annoyed with himself for his disloyalty to his friend. But it was true that Peter was the weakest and most cowardly member of their group that they'd named "The Marauders". He was small, quite fat, mousy-haired and always held an anxious air about him. He just worshipped the ground his friends walked upon, which was quite nice sometimes, but mostly highly annoying and he was also very dimwitted.
His thoughts flitted to his friend James "Prongs" Potter, who took on the form of a stag. James, he liked a lot more. He had a great sense of humour and his loyalty and bravery was unshakably solid. He had the most unruly black hair Remus had ever seen.
He was admittedly quite arrogant but made up for it in his humour. He had a thin face and possessed hazel eyes, magnified slightly behind thick black-rimmed glasses. Remus held a jealous feeling especially for him in the group, because he had a best friend inside the group of best friends. If he didn't know for definite the two were both as straight as they come, he'd have been sure they were a couple with how close they sometimes were. Remus thought, almost bitterly about James, as he thought how the last remaining Marauder (not yet mentioned) had moved out of his hateful home to live with James. He thought how they would be with each other right this second having an excellent time. He thought how he wished he could be there. It was not really James' fault and he knew it. James had invited Remus and Peter to come over for the Summer but neither had been able to come. Remus' mother had said, despite his tantrum, that he would not inflict his company on the respectable Potter family during the full moon. Yes, Remus held this thought very bitterly. He longed to be spending this time with his fellow Marauders, and even more so than the others, spending that time with Sirius Black.
Sirius was called "Padfoot" by his friends. His animagus form was that of a beautiful and large grim-like dog. Sirius was undeniably gorgeous and so obviously the nicest looking person in the whole school. Girls were fawning over him everywhere he turned. Remus had even often seen some guys giving him longing looks. He never seemed to notice, though or care. He was tallest of the four, had smooth skin that was almost always tanned, he was lean, muscly and perfectly toned. His face was of beauty and into his bright blue eyes, his gorgeous jet-black hair fell casually, but with elegance. He was similarly arrogant as James, but charmingly so and boys couldn't help but wishing they looked like him, as he was just perfect. He had a personality to match his outer beauty, which, in Remus' opinion, was very rare.
Remus felt with a sharp pain in his chest that the distress caused by his friends' absence was many times more painful than the physical hurt he had received from tonight's transformation. He longed to be back in their company. He had been treasuring every letter they (especially Sirius) had sent him by owl post. He had replied heartily, but it was now, thinking of how they normally were on his transformations, that he missed them most. He desperately tried not to think how good a time they'd be having together, but only when exhaustion stole his consciousness, was he able to do so. Even then he dreamed of a certain handsome lad...
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"Bye umm...", Sirius looked desperately to James. "Hollie", his friend said through a false cough. "Yeh, bye..Hollie". Sirius had been sitting happily chatting away to James in a small and cosy muggle café. He had been about to talk about how annoyed he was that school was starting late and how Remus would have to transform all by himself for the third time this holiday when he'd only supposed to have done so twice. Which was still too much in Sirius' opinion. But he hadn't gotten the chance to even say the school's name out loud before a very pretty muggle girl had come over and began flirting shamelessly with him. James had given him a grin of much approval and Sirius knew, had his mind not been distant, he'd have taken to this situation warmly. But he just couldn't keep his mind from wandering from the girl to obviously more important matters. Sure, she was definitely the prettiest muggle he had seen all summer, but she just plainly annoyed him. She may have been nice enough and was definitely the type Sirius normally went for, but he just wanted to get away to talk to James and have a good rant. He was definitely not in the mood for this. The girl was very curvy with radiant beauty. She had hair as jet black and sleek as Sirius's own hair and it fell down to the small of her slender back. She was wearing silver studded black skintight jeans, a black denim halter neck top and a short black denim jacket. She was quite tall and had deep chocolatey-brown eyes. Sirius noticed James smirking incredulously at him as he clearly showed no signs of interest in the girl. The girl looked very put out when, after half an hour of her running her hand up his thigh and flirting outrageously with him, he had said that he and James needed to go.
He knew it was cold of him not to even pick up on her name and he wondered why she had not given up on him already. But even after forgetting her name (or more truthfully, not having heard a word of what she'd said, least of all her identity) she still insisted on scribbling down her phone number on his hand. She said she'd make it worth his while to call her with a suggestive look that had James' jaw nearly hitting the ground.
"You, mate, are the world's biggest prick! What the hell were you doing? She was hot! Hot for you too and you acted as though she were a sister or something!", James said excitedly as they stepped out of the girl's view.
"Yeah. My mind wasn't on it is all", Sirius said truthfully.
"How could it not be? I saw what she was doing under the table! She wasn't exactly discreet! Sirius, she was your type, man!"
"Yeah well, I might call her. Just have other things on my mind just now". Sirius looked to his best mate. He still had a look of disbelief on his face, but he had obviously heard the note of sadness in his voice because concern was also etched there.
"It's about Remus isn't it?" James stated flatly. "I know. I wish we could be there with him right now too".
Sirius sighed and looked up at the shining full moon. "They must have just found a new potions teacher then, 'cos Dumbledore would want things back to normal as soon as possible wouldn't he? I mean, this is the first time that school hasn't started back on September the first. It must have been tough to get a new professor to have took so long".
Sirius looked for James' reaction. He was in thought. Eventually he said "Yeah, well, I don't think too many wizards would be keen to take up the job so soon after Professor Melbourne had mysteriously disappeared. With all the disappearances happening just now, I guess they were scared it might have something to do with the job. People don't want to go near anything these days if it's connected to strange missing persons cases and our dear old Potion's teacher's disappearance was definitely dodgy."
"I know, I know. It's just you know what Moony does on his own as a werewolf. He tears himself apart. I don't like him being locked up like that", Sirius said, his voice oozing lakes of pity for his friend.
"No. None of us do. Hey want to go to my - er - our tree house to camp out tonight?"
"Yeah. I'm not quite used to your house being mine's either". Sirius looked up at James with a thankful grin but it was wiped from his face in an instant.
"Suppose we'd better do our homework then?" James said while ducking a whack from Sirius.
"How dare you suggest such filth to me?" Sirius said with mock-indignation. Sirius and James laughed all the way down the street as they began to make impressions of Sirius's mother.
They walked down through the small woods and Sirius didn't need to look where he was going to get here. He made his way there instinctively as he'd been coming here with James since he first met him. He'd always been welcome at the Potters' home and he loved it here. His own home could never be compared with this family house. It was just so blatantly different that nothing from the actual houses to the family's dwelling in them were even similar. The Potters were warm and a close-nit family in every way. His own family were cold and the people in that house did all they could to avoid each others company.
He'd been really happy to move in with James. He climbed up the ladder and into the comfortable little tree house. Sirius set about his homework with James and he finished first. It was getting light outside. Moony might be awake by now. He'll be in pain, Sirius thought miserably as he looked out of the tree house window.
.--.
James looked up as he wrote his last sentence of homework. Sirius was standing staring out of the window and had been for the last ten minutes or so. James did not like the look of concern that was spread over his friends gorgeous face, that normally bore a charming grin. This look was almost alien to his friend's features and it made James want for anything to make it leave. It made him feel somewhat apprehensive and he tried his best to reassure Sirius things were OK.
"Remus will be fine. He went through this for years before we became animagi. Anyway, we'll see him on the 30th", he said. Sirius looked considerably consoled by this and James saw a grin flit across his face a moment before saying with a long, but less heavy-hearted sigh,
"It's our luck the full moon would happen just two days before we can actually see Moony." James put on a devilish voice and rudely gestured towards the heavens as he cried "Curse you for not holding back for two days! You will surely be burnt deep in the core of hell where every moment of your life will be lived in blinding pain! Curse you, I say!" and he smiled as he heard Siri laughing, almost fully recovered.
James felt a change of subject was in order and brought Sirius's attention back to their second last year of the school. James had been relieved that none of his friends had decided to leave after their fifth year of the school and thankfully neither had the object of his affections.
"I can't wait to see Lily again. I hate to admit it, but I've missed her", said James with a heavy sigh. He looked to Sirius and found it an enormous comfort that his face no longer looked concerned. It was more thoughtful now.
"Maybe she'll actually like you this year", Sirius said with a mischievous grin that James thought fitted his face much better than concern did.
"Ack, she only pretends not to. Scared to admit her true feelings", James said with a broad grin. He pulled a snitch from his pocket and began releasing it and then catching it with lightning reflexes just as it was about to dash away from him.
"And this year's gonna be better than fifth year. No major exams to study for which surely means less bloody homework" Sirius said with a handsome scowl.
"I don't think there will be too much of a difference on the homework front", James contradicted with a frown. Sirius looked at him momentarily puzzled. James shook his head at his friend's ignorance before elaborating. "N.E.W.T.S Sirius! Next year! God, how you do well in subjects I just don't know", James said with laughter now.
"I'm not lookin' forward to bloody 7th year", Sirius said with a more pronounced scowl. James' voice was thick with amusement when he said, "Surely the great Sirius Black isn't worried about his N.E.W.T tests?" He then had to dodge a pillow directed at him by Sirius.
"Don't be stupid. They'll be easy", his friend said with enormous amounts of confidence. "Next year will be rubbish because my little brother, Regulus, is coming to Hogwarts. As if I don't already have enough bloody family at the school without that little loser joining in. I wish they'd all gone to Durmstrang or something", Sirius said spitefully. James understood Sirius's strong feelings on this. He knew at first hand that Sirius was one of the very few of the Black family that wasn't a viscious asshole. Regulus was his parents' little angel and Sirius hated him with a passion for it. His own parents disowned him and had driven Sirius to leave home and come to live with James. James had been more than happy to accept his best mate and save him from that accursed family. He looked to Sirius before happily saying:
"Well, you'll only have to stick him for a year. Then you get to leave him behind at Hogwarts while you begin your years of Auror training". An auror was a dark wizard catcher and only the best of wizards were accepted. And these days, there were plenty dark wizards around. James knew Sirius would be easily accepted as he was what was required - he was the best. He saw Sirius grinning at the thought.
"Yup. And you'll be trying out for some professional Quidditch teams. Star seeker for England's national quidditch team, James Potter. I can see it now", Sirius said through laughter then dodging a pillow this time sent by James .
"Well, I think I'll do Auror training too. Just in case, y'know. In case I don't get in a team", James said with a smile.
"You know fine bloody well you'll get taken in", Sirius said while adding James' pillow to his comfortable collection he was lying on.
"I know. Hey! Gimme my pillow back", James cried as Sirius rested on his mountain of amenities. James dived on top of him and attempted to steal his pillow back for his less prosperous pile. As he and Sirius wrestled over the pillow, James thought gleefully how his friend seemed to have temporarily forgotten to worry about Remus.
Peter looked mournfully at the stacks of books and rolls of parchment cluttering up his desk. He glanced around his unorganised and messy room. More books lay in untidy heaps on the floor and clothes lay strewn all over his bed . He somberly forced his attention back to his Transfiguration homework. Professor McGonagall had expected at least one roll of parchment for this essay but currently he was stuck on his third inch of writing. He stared blankly at the parchment, racking his brains for something else to write about animagi. He knew his friends would scold him for not knowing this as only least year they had all managed, illegally, to become animagi themselves. Peter remembered all the help he had to get from the other Marauders and he bitterly wished they were helping him with this homework. Sirius and James were the smartest in the school and barely had to even study. They just seemed to have a knack for everything. And Remus probably followed closely in intelligence, but at least he showed he was merely human - or perhaps not human Peter corrected - because he at least studied hard to do so well. He knew he was the dumbest of his friends. He knew, had they not been courageous, they would probably have been put in the house of Ravenclaw at school, which accepted only the smartest of students. He was rather surprised when he found he held light traces of resentment towards his friends. Well, he thought, did they have to be better at everything? Through his jealousy, he tried to return his attention once again to his homework, but at that moment his mother walked into the room. She was a plump woman with a ruddy face and Peter had most definitely inherited her metabolism. She looked around the room with a sense of abhorrence and said to Peter:
"Dinner is ready. As soon as you are finished eating you can come straight back here and tidy this bloody room! Don't tell me you've not finished your homework? You've had all bloody Summer! Well, get moving!", she ranted. Peter let her leave the room before giving her a one fingered salute and gave a groan of annoyance. Of course, she was right about the homework. He wished he'd started it before. He gave one last contemptuous look at his room before leaving to fill his rumbling stomach.
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