Stacie Redmond and the Room of Requirement

Chapter 2 - The Full Moon Shelter

When we arrive, James and Remus burst out of the house and give me a huge bear hug.  "Can't!  Breathe!" I force out, their grip nearly suffocating me.

"Right, er, sorry," Remus says as he pulls away, dragging James with him.  I smile broadly and laugh.  They are the same as when I left them after school.

"Wait, don't I get a greeting anymore?" Richard asks jokingly.  James runs over as fast as possible to make up for it.

As Richard finally starts herding us toward the front door, I turn to Remus. "Where will we be staying during the full moon, anyway?" I ask.

"They have rooms for our transformations inside," he tells me. "There are strengthening charms so that we don't break down the doors or walls, and there are mattresses on all the walls, and when we're human we can play in there like a bouncy house!"

I chuckle at his eagerness. As we draw nearer to the house, James' mum walks out the door to greet us. "Hi! You must be Stacie," she observes. "The boys talk about you all the time!"

I smile at this, knowing that they would do that sort of thing.

The foyer of the house is huge, stretching up to the third floor. Seperate halls lead off to different rooms, with huge archways at the top of each doorway. Spiral staircases flank each side of the large room. I stare up in awe at the magnificence before me.

We are ushered upstairs, and Mrs. Potter shows me to my room. A four-poster bed sits in the center of my room, with a chest of drawers is straight across from it. I have my own bathroom and a large bay window is on the opposite wall from the door.

"Do you like it?" Mrs. Potter asks nervously.

"It's beautiful!" I tell her, gaping at my bedroom. She smiles in relief, and backs out of my doorway to allow my things to enter the room, levitated by Richard.

"Oh, and if you need anything, dear, feel free to ask. You can call me Julie, by the way," she says warmly.

"Right, then, I'll just unpack, then," I say unsurely.

***

I look out my window a few days later and see a large barn owl swooping towards my window. I hurriedly open the window just in time, and it drops a letter from Hogwarts next to me and perches on the windowsill. I open the letter to find my booklist enclosed. James, Peter, and Remus all come bounding into my room just as I am placing the list back into the envelope.

"You just got yours, too, I expect?" James asks me, panting for breath.

"Yeah, when d'you reckon we're going?" I ask him.

"Mum says--"

I never got to hear what his mum said according to him because he was cut off by Julie. "James! Remus! Peter! Sirius! Stacie! Everyone, get down here, we're using Floo powder!"

"What's flu powder?" I ask, confused, as we walk down the steps to the den.

"Floo powder, there's a difference," James corrects, "and we use it for traveling usually to Diagon Alley."

We are soon assembled around the fireplace. Julie passes around a bag with what looks like dirt, pausing when she gets to me. "You've never used Floo powder before, though, have you?"

"No, ma'am, I haven't," I say shyly.

"No matter, no matter," Julie says distractedly. "Just watch the boys, you'll figure it out, it's not hard."

James goes first. He steps into the fireplace and throws down the powder, which, upon contact with the ashes, creates green flames. Instantly, I have a panic attack. "James! Get out of there! You'll get--"

"It's okay," Julie tells me soothingly. "That's supposed to happen, it doesn't hurt a bit."

I grow quiet, and listen to him say, "Diagon Alley!" before disappearing.

One by one, each of my friends repeat the process until I am the only one left. "Well, your turn, then," Julie says.

I nervously toss the powder into the fireplace, then step inside.  The flames have a tickling sensation, and are pleasantly warm.  I calmly say, "Diagon Alley," and get whisked away past other fireplaces until I'm spat out in a room above Flourish and Blotts.  I get up, dusting myself off as I'm covered in ashes.  I walk downstairs and purchase my books.

I meet up with everyone outside of Fortescue's ice cream parlor, and order a large sundae.  It seems to taste particularly delicious.  "Remus, how long until the full moon?" I ask anxiously under my breath as a group of witches walk by selling amulets that supposedly keep away werewolves.

"I think it's in a couple of days, actually," Remus tells me, thoughtful.

I am relieved, knowing that I'll be fine for a couple more days before having to face the horrible effects of the full moon.

We go to the Apothecary next, to get our Potions ingredients and a new cauldron each.  We each find ourselves staring longingly at the gold ones, but Remus is pulled back to his senses first and drags us away from them.

We stop fleetingly at Eyelops to look at owls, but soon move on to Madame Malkins to get new robes for the year.  Afterwards, we stop by Ollivanders to say hello.

We make one final stop at the Leaky Cauldron to order a butterbeer each and then head back to Potter Mansion.  Soon, the talk turns to Quidditch.  The boys discuss who they think had a chance of winning the Cup (the Tornadoes or the Wasps) before finally debating trying out for the Gryffindor team.  "Stace, you gonna try for a position?  Seeker, maybe?" James asks me.

"Wha--Yeah, sure, why not," I say.  "You?"

"Well, I'm definitely trying out for Chaser," he tells me.

"Yeah..." I say distractedly.

***

The evening of the full moon, Julie showed me to my room.  "Here's where you'll be staying," she tells me.  "I'll need your wand and your fragile items, though, so you don't break them during the transformation."

I hand them over reluctantly, not wishing to part with my wand.  "If you need anything, I'll be back as soon as I know you're back again.  I do wish they would hurry up with that Wolfsbane potion breakthrough, though..." Julie mutters.

As she closes the door, I distinctly hear her say, "Colloportus, before leaving for Remus.  A few minutes after this exchange, however, the pain begins.  I feel my legs growing longer, my hair growing into thick fur, my hands and feet shrinking into paws.  My nails become sharp claws as my back becomes hunched and my nose and mouth become a snout.  The pain grows so intense that I don't give a cry of human pain, but a blood-chilling howl of pain.

I scratch at my body, to open a place for the pain to escape from, but all that happens is the pain intensifies and I become covered in my own blood.  Soon, the pain is so intense, so consuming that I can't even think except to know the transformation is nearly complete and to hope that the pain will end soon.