The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

LXXVI: 24 June, 1994

It took him a moment to get oriented with where he was, but once he had, he started toward the Shrieking Shack, hoping that perhaps the wolf would somehow instinctively know where to go, like they'd done all those years ago. Sirius listened closely as he walked for anything that sounded like a beast in the woods, but other than a couple thestrals, they didn't pass any animals.

Sirius was terrified by now. He'd gone all the way to the Shack and past it into the forrest on the far side, north of Hogsmeade, and back toward Hogwarts in a sweeping arc. He must have passed the Wolf, the Wolf must've turned about somewhere. They were circling each other. But that didn't make sense. If the Wolf was anywhere nearby, he would smell Sirius and Sirius would be prey to be hunted. It would not be him, Sirius, doing the hunting if that were so.

After all they'd been through tonight, after all the trouble and the near-misses and close calls... Sirius didn't know how much more he could take on.

It was still dark when Sirius found him, and Remus was still in his wolf form.

He was laying on his side in the murky edge of the lake on the opposite short of where he, Sirius, Hermione and Harry had been when the dementors had attacked. The water shivered and small waves lapped the back of the dog's body, his head and muzzle only barely above the surface of the water.

"Please," he whispered as he dropped the hippogriff's lead and ran across the shore, not caring that he was out in the open, not caring that he was in plain view of the castle and exactly where a load of dementors had just tried at taking away his soul hours before. It didn't matter if Achlys herself had been hovering over that beach.

He didn't even care that he was a human running toward a full grown werewolf under the light of the full moon.

The only thing on his mind was Remus.

Daylight made the back of Remus Lupin's eyelids glow red and he winced as a shooting pain went up his arm. He groaned and tried to sit up.

"No, no, Mr. Lupin, stay laying down, my dear." It was Madam Pomfrey and he was in his own bed in his private quarters over the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. He blinked in the sunlight at the silhouette of the woman looming over him. She held a bottle of Skelegro. "I know it's nasty, but open up. You've got a lot of regrowing to do."

Remus gagged down the stuff and scraped his tongue on the inside of his teeth, trying to rid his mouth of the taste. Skelegro was the sort of taste that lingers and makes one's mouth chalky and thick.

"What's broken?" he asked.

"Your shoulder. It wasn't a magical injury, you'll be better tomorrow. You've a few new scars, though, I'm sorry to tell you."

"Are they bad?"

"They'll fade."

He could feel the one on the bridge of his nose had been reopened and possibly deepened and there was one running vertically on his cheek now, too. 

Great, just what he needed. More scars.

He closed his eyes.

What would Sirius think of the new scars?

Probably be in love with him, the idiot.

His eyes snapped opened, everything from the night before suddenly rushing into his head, though he could only recall flashes - bits and pieces - from after he'd started to transform in the tunnel.

Ron Weasley's terrified expression. Hermione Granger, pulling him up out of the tunnel. Sirius shouting, dragging him... There were flashes of teeth, snapping jaws, the taste of blood, fireworks, and a long night in the trees... There was something else, something... something he was forgetting, something he couldn't quite remember.