The Ghosts of the Past (The Marauders' Story)

A NEAR MISS

Indeed, James' mood had been greatly improved by what Remus told him. All of them were eagerly looking forward to the full moon of March, which was also on James' birthday eve. In celebration of this, they had decided this would be their first Hogsmeade visit as Animagus.

One of the secret passages they had found directly led to Hogsmeade. It began from the ground floor of Hogwarts.

At midnight, James, Sirius and Peter went down to the Willow and Shrieking Shack and they found Moony. With Prongs and Padfoot on either side of Moony, and Wormtail leading the way, they came out of the Whomping Willow and crossed the grounds.

Moony seemed restless that day; it was as if Remus and the wolf were fighting inside his head, and both were winning for short intervals of time.

Still, with no second thoughts, the Marauders found the entrance of the passage and sneaked down it.

They came out in Hogsmeade, which was deserted. As they went around the little town, it was becoming increasingly difficult to control Moony. More than once he let out a fierce howl and tried to give them the slip.

Suddenly James saw with a sickening horror that the owner of Zonko's was standing outside his shop with a cup.

Moony saw him too and he went mad. He darted towards the man.

Padfoot growled in desperation and ran back to block Moony's way. Prongs tried to hold him back from the side. There was fight among the three big animals; Moony was trying painfully hard to break free.

And he almost did. The man was less than 20 feet away from them, but he couldn't see them as they were hidden behind a clump of trees.

Padfoot saw no other option. He sank his teeth into Moony's back. The werewolf howled and lashed out, his claws scratching Prongs' face. Though he started bleeding badly, Prongs couldn't relax his efforts.

After a nightmarish ten minutes, the owner of Zonko's disappeared into the house.

It took a lot of effort to bring Moony back to the castle and into the Shrieking Shack.

Outside the Willow, when they transformed back to human, Sirius and Peter saw in dismay that James' face was bleeding dreadfully.

"You need to go to Madam Pomfrey, mate," said Sirius.

"Can't," said James, wincing. "She'll ask questions."

"We'll tell her that a fight of ours got out of hand. Come on, James." Sirius took his arm and pulled him along.

Thankfully Madam Pomfrey accepted their excuse with only a word of admonition.

--------------------

The next morning, when they went to visit Remus, they saw him looking miserable.

"I hurt you, didn't I?" he asked as soon as he saw his friends.

"Only a bit. Don't you worry, Remus," and James.

From the look on his face, they could see that Remus did worry.

"I'm so sorry, James," he said, looking close to tears. "Did I give you these scars?" Remus pointed at James' face.

"It's ok, really, Moony. Madam Pomfrey fixed them in a jiffy."

"I should never have allowed all this Animagus nonsense. We stop this right now."

"Of course we don't!" said James. "It's only one full moon in seven that you lost control. It won't happen again."

"We can't guarantee that. I don't think..."

"Shut up, Remus. We will go on as we were. We enjoy these adventures. These are the best parts of our lives," said Sirius. "Besides, I bit you too. Your back hurts?"

"Not much..."

"I'm sorry, Remus," said Sirius, suddenly looking guilty.

"You didn't have any choice!" said Remus. He turned to James. "James—"

"You apologise once more, and I pour this water over you," said James, lifting a glass.

Remus grinned. "I wasn't about to. I was going to say—happy birthday, James!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRONGS!" yelled Sirius, thumping him on the back.

As they all sang 'Happy Birthday' for James at the top of their voices, totally out of tune, the memory of the dark events of last night was washed away.

If there was onething the Marauders sucked at, it was at being down for more than fifteenminutes.