Raised by Wolfstar

Chapter 25

When Remus woke up the next morning he sat up slowly trying to make sense of his surroundings. The last he remembered he was in a small dark room that smelled of mold and rotting food, not laying in the woods next to a large black dog. For a moment he thought that he was dreaming, that his mind took him to a happier place, maybe he was being tourtured, or maybe still asleep. Then he sat up, felt a sharp pain in his side, another on his arm, one on his face, and one just above his knee. He was definitely awake, this was definitely real, it was forget confirmed when Sirius popped back into himself and began scolding him for something he want quite sure of.

"Mm, mornin' babe." Remus said slowly rolling over to wrap his arms around Sirius.

"Remus John Lupin! You had me worried sick!" Sirius all but yelled. "We need to get back to the castle! We need to talk to Dumbledore and Minnie about what happened, where you were, what they wanted. We need answers if we're going to stop whatever is happening!"

"Okay, okay. Let's go." As Remus stood he felt all of the damage this change caused, he stumbled and would have fallen if it wasn't for Sirius catching him. "Thank you, Pads. Let's get back and let me bathe before talking to anyone, yeah?"

"Of course, love. Would you mind seeing Harry?" Sirius replied instantly calming down at the sight of his husband in pain. "I'm pretty sure he's close to trying to leave to go look for you himself." Sirius said only half joking, rubbing the back of his neck while the other arm was wrapped around Remus' waist to support him.

"Oh of course. I need to see Prongslet." Remus replied thinking that seeing his godson would make him feel a bit better. "I overheard things, we need to make sure he stays with someone at all times, absolutely no Forbidden Forest. I mean it, not even with someone."

Back at the castle Harry had convinced Draco to help him sneak out of the grounds and go looking for Remus and Sirius. Something was telling Harry that Remus was close and hurt and that Sirius was with him. After breakfast the Gryffindor first years had a free period meant for studying, it was a nice day so just about everyone was outside in court yard and on the grounds with their books out or playing games. So Harry and Draco went out to the grounds by the Whomping Willow, making an excuse to their friends that they preferred to study where it was a bit quieter, and slipped into the shrubs and smaller trees surrounding it, they decided that it would be too obvious to walk down to the gates. Even though it was there middle of the day every snap of a branch or rustle of the leaves made Draco jump, he really did not want to get caught, he knew that people where waiting for any chance to catch and hurt both of them. Once they were safely out of sight of the school and about to cross the gate towards Hogsmeade Harry heard a deep voice that he didn't recognize, and froze grabbing onto Draco's sleeve.

"Oh they have to be close I can smell them. But we can't get on school grounds." The voice said sniffing the air just a few yards from where the boys stood. Draco stood frozen in fear, his eyes wide, Harry thought for a moment he was going to scream.

"So we wait, or come back. I'm starving." Another voice came in sounding tired, like they had been there for a while.

That's when Harry heard Sirius' voice and actually relaxed a bit. At the sound of his godfathers' foot steps the men that the voices belonged to ran off.

"Sh, Pads, do you smell that?" Remus said just above a whisper.

"What? Did someone follow us?" Sirius said looking around. "Oh wait. I do smell that. It smells like two little boys who are about to have a lot of explaining to do." As he spoke his voice was rising.

Harry and Draco took off running back to the castle. Draco was terrified of getting caught, he didn't want his mother and father to think that he was ungrateful for their sacrifice or that he was wasting it by pulling stupid stunts, no matter the intentions. Harry just really did not want to be caught out after he was told not to, especially since his efforts would have been in vain. The men caught up with the boys and told them to stop running, they'd been caught so they might as well just start explaining the situation while they all walked up to the castle together.