The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

XLVI: 26-27 February, 1994

Blood flew every which way.

Please come back to me. Remember yourself, Remus! Come back to me.

Sirius thought the words - spoke them in their doggy-language - but the wolf wouldn't relent even a smidgeon and again and again and again the dog only barely escaped the wolf's jaws.

This would have been a night for Prongs, Sirius thought, multiple times wishing the stag was there with his great antlers to corner the wolf and keep him against a wall a moment or two while the dog caught his breath or licked a wound. As it was, there was no breaking for hours... and hours... and Sirius was exhausted and he finally slid beneath the steps that led up into the Shack, whimpering in fear...

And the wolf relentlessly attacked at the steps, trying to fit his head between them, but the dog was smaller and crammed into a space too tiny for the wolf to reach him. Blood matted the dog's fur...

It happened so quickly - Sirius pushing back in the dark, the wolf snapping forward - when he felt something soft beneath him as he pressed ever further back... and there was a shrill squeal.

A squeal he recognized.

The squeal of a rat.

Before he could react, the rat launched itself from behind Sirius and onto the step, where the wolf snapped at it eagerly. The rat leaped, sailing over the wolf's head and blazed its way down the tunnel and out of sight, squealing all the way, like a tiny siren.

The wolf stopped it's attacks at the dog long enough for Sirius to get up and hurry 'round to the front of the steps, nosing open the trap door of the Shack. He barked and the wolf turned back toward him, racing back, up the stairs and into the Shrieking Shack. This would help, affording the dog more places to move and withdraw if he needed to catch a breath - giving Sirius a chance. If he'd stayed in the tunnel much longer, certainly the sheer brute strength of the wolf would've defeated him eventually...

He only wished the rat hadn't gotten away.

Perhaps Roger Crookshanks was still lurking 'round the Whomping Willow (it was Roger who had opened the knot for Sirius as he carried Remus before). Perhaps the rat was in the mouth of that blessed ginger cat that very moment.

When at last Remus's form was his own again, he was passed out on the floor, blood on his cheek, a fresh cut over his left cheekbone. There were a deep scratches and bites everywhere and the sleeve of the jacket he wore was torn at the elbow... blood seeped through his pressed white button up, and Sirius transformed and pulled Remus's shabby suit jacket off him, tossing it aside... his wand and something else fell from the pocket, but Sirius was too focused on the bloodied shirt, afraid what might lie beneath it.

There were long stripes of cuts across Remus's chest and abdomen.

"Oh Remus," Sirius gasped, oblivious to his own deep lacerations and bruises, he pulled Remus's torso up into his lap, hugging his Moony and rocking them slowly together, his head bent low over Remus, hair creating a curtain that framed their faces. "I can't believe we made it through that," he whispered, voice shaking, "I can't believe we made it through that..."

The twelve years or the night, Sirius wasn't sure which he was speaking of.

"Moony, Moony, Moony," he was crying, holding on tight. He drew his wand and as he rocked Remus, he carefully dragged the tip of his wand across the torn skin of Remus's chest. The spell he cast sutured the wounds beneath the wand as he moved it, and the skin puckered and came together, sealing and scarring in shiny pink lines.

"It'll be alright Moony - we'll be mended, we'll be mended..." Sirius whispered.

There was a sound then, the trap door in the kitchen.

Sirius sat up, wincing in pain.

"Up here, Madam Pomfrey. He must have somehow gotten into the Shack itself..." Dumbledore's voice carried out from the kitchen.

Sirius stiffened.

He could hear the scuffling of bodies coming through the trap door, the tinking of bottles, and he looked at Remus, then got up, looked around in desperation, knowing he couldn't get far without being heard or seen, and threw himself to the stairs, crawling up them to the turn in the landing and laying on the upper set so that he stared up at the ceiling, out of sight - but only barely so.

"Aha, here he is!" Dumbledore announced.

Remus woke to the feeling of a gentle touch on his face. "S - S - Sirius?" he whimpered as hands gathered him up, and he smelled mild soap, mint, and tea... He opened his eyes, and found himself staring blearily up into Minerva McGonagall's darling face.

"Och, no, it's Minnie, Remus..."

Tears fell across his nose and over his cheeks. "Please," Remus whispered. "He was here... he was --"

"Shh," McGonagall whispered. "I've got you, boy, you're alright now, we're here..."