Remus spent little time outside their dorm until the next full moon. He didn't even come along to watch the Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin.
Slytherin won, and with the last match of the year between the two rival houses Gryffindor and Slytherin, both going for the cup, it definitely was going to be interesting.
Eleanor tried to accompany her brother whenever he wanted to. She listened to him practice on Andrew's guitar a lot, and he was getting pretty good at it.
"Can I try?" James asked him.
It was the night before the full moon and the boys had brought the guitar with them to the infirmary to cheer Remus up a bit. He'd been feeling sick all day already, complaining about terrible pain in his joints.
Remus nodded. "Yeah, go on," he said with a smile.
James grinned and took it from him. "Just be careful eh?" Remus said, scared the boy would ruin it.
"Bloody hell who d'you think I am Lupin," James said. "I know how to handle a guitar."
Eleanor had to bite her tongue as James intently looked at the strings and tried to figure out where to put his fingers. Sirius had a bemused look on his face as he put an arm around Eleanor. James scrunched up his face in uncertainty and his eyes shot up to get some kind of confirmation from Remus.
Then he strummed down once. Peter put his hands to his ears. "Merlin's balls Potter, I'd like to see another day if you will!" he joked.
"Ah shut up you twat," James snarled and handed the guitar back to Remus.
"Pete's right though, you're downright rubbish," said the boy with the dark circles under his eyes.
"Well I ain't had a single fucking lesson have I!" James defended himself.
Eleanor sniggered softly to herself. She loved watching them be like this. It just gave her a sense of normal, even if things really weren't normal at all.
The boys had been trying to confront Snape ever since she'd told them about it. They just hadn't figured out how yet. It would be foolish to just go up to him and start a fight because he found out about Remus' furry little problem.
James was who came up with the idea to stay in denial. If they just pretended like they didn't have the foggiest about what he was saying, he'd probaby let it go sooner or later.
Eleanor was okay with that idea, she didn't come up with snything betted herself anyway. The only thing that scared her was the fact that Snape could easily try and convince other students that 'something was definitely wrong with that Remus Lupin', as he'd put it so many times before already.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when James suddenly spoke to her.
"You're a real good one, laughing at others when you can't even play anything yourself," he said. Eleanor shrugged and stuck out her tongue at him.
"Ella can sing," Remus said absentmindedly while playing a soft tune.
She snorted. "Yeah right, and you're the king of Scotland," she said, leaning back in her seat.
She tried to act normal, she secretly liked it when he said things about her like that. Singing had always been one of her hobbies, mostly doing it while doing homework by herself or when she was in the shower.
Sirius and Peter looked rather confused, whilst a huge grin spread on James' face. He crossed his arms over his chest and put one foot against the hospital bed.
"Well do please my ears with your divine voice m'lady," he said with a wink.
Eleanor rolled her eyes but couldn't hold back a slight blush creeping to her cheeks.
The sound of heels clacking on the stone floor made them all sit upright. "Right you lot, Remus needs his rest now," Madam Pomfrey told them.
The four of them got to their feet. James leaned over and put his hand on the guitar. Remus raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well there's no uss for it being here eh? I'll take care of it Moony," he said with his charming grin.
She could so Remus was doubting it. "I'm sure you have better things to do Potter. Your OWLs aren't that far away anymore," she said, giving him a knowing look.
He withdrew his hand and sighed. "Thanks for the concern Poppy, but I'll be fine," he smiled.
Madam Pomfrey gave a lighthearted chuckle and smiled as she watched them walk out of the Hospital Wing. Eleanor sighed happily and grabbed Sirius' hand, he smiled at her and winked.
"Can you really sing?" Peter suddenly asked with a frown.
Eleanor just laughed and ignored him, not entirely sure what to say.
James turned around and walked backwards, hands in his pockets. "Wanna go for a fly Pads? I can get Twix to pick the locks for us," he suggested.
She sighed. "I told James, you should set him free! He has nothing to do up there in that smelly cot of yours. He can even make some friends with the other Bowtruckles!" Eleanor said.
"You must be joking?" he said with raised eyebrows. "He's dead useful-"
"Oi Prongs watch out!"
Too late. He'd already bumped into Snape. Only James Potter would walk down an entire corridor backwards.
James turned around abruptly, but he was caught by surprise. "How you doin' Evans?" he grinned, completely ignoring Snape's glare.
Lily just crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "You lost Potter? I believe the nutter asylum is just outside Hogsmeade," Snape snarled.
"Oh sorry! Didn't see ya there!" James exclaimed, looking taken aback. He took out his glasses from his pockets and put them on his nose.
"Ah there we go, s'hard to see a termite when you've got eyesight like mine."
Peter and Sirius laughed out loud at that. James grinned and leaned against the wall, looking very pleased with himself. Eleanor wasn't really sure what to think. She didn't want things to run out of hand.
James had always been a pretty funny and witty guy, but he sometimes had the tendency to take things too far. Espcecially with Snivellus.
Snape's eyes turned even darker than they already were. "Leave him alone Potter! Don't you have anything better to do?" Lily spat at him.
"Don't worry Lilypad, just a bit of fun eh Snivelly?" James said with a little smirk. He patted Snape on his shoulder.
Sirius pulled a disgusted face. "Ew Prongs you'll catch something!" he said, taking a step back.
Snape put his wand on his hand as his eyes shot over to look at Sirius. The other boys instinctively did the same thing.
"Careful, Black. I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't already caught some of Lupin's madness," he said coldly.
She felt a surge of rage run through her body when Snape's black eyes looked at her.
James stook a step forward. "Leave him out of it Snape," he said dangerously.
A cold shiver ran down her spine when Snape's lip curled up into a menacing grin. "Oh I wasn't talking about him. For all you know it runs in the family-"
Sirius leaped forward, grabbing Snape by his collar and pushing him against the wall.
"Sirius stop it!" Lily shrieked, putting her hands against her mouth in shock.
Eleanor's heavy breathing was soothed a bit when she felt Peter put a protective arm around her.
Sirius put his wand under Snape's chin, forcing the greasy-haired boy to look up at him. Lily was trying to push through to them, but James wouldn't let her, holding her back with all of his might.
"You take that back right now," Sirius almost growled.
Snape grinned shortly and then spat straight in the other boy's face.
"Sev stop!"
Sirius' eyes turned livid just before he headbutted Snape. A sickening crack echoed through the hallway. Eleanor felt a bit nauseous when she saw Snape clutching at his broken and bleeding nose.
She expected Sirius to step away now, but instead he put his wand under Snape's chin again and leaned forward. He whispered something by his ear, and by the look on his face, it wasn't nice at all.
"That's enough Sirius," James spoke sternly.
Sirius lowered his wand and stepped away from Snape. The slightly shorter boy watched him intently
Lily's face was red with tears. "You're horrible!" she yelled as she pushed Sirius away so she could reach Snape.
His mouth hung open in disbelief. "Me?! Did you even hear what he just said!?" he screamed, obviously pissed off still. Lily seemed to be a bit scared, seeing him so angry.
"Sirius leave her alone," James said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him away.
"You should know better Evans, he's a bloody racist! He hates people like you!" he still yelled. James had pulled him all the way back now.
The red-headed girl gulped and shook her head. She gently grabbed Snape's arm. "C'mon Sev, let's go see Pomfrey," she said softly. Snape nodded and walked with her, although his eyes lingered on Sirius for just one last moment.
When they were gone, James slapped Peter on his back. "Good mate Pete," he said.
"I wouldn't know why she still hangs out with that creep for the life of me," Sirius muttered, looking into the distance where the figures of Snape and Lily had just vanished.
James pattes him on his back as well. "I dunno mate. She'll figure out someday," he said.
The three of them then went the other way, not really going anywhere. They were rather quiet. James walked up front, his hands in his pockets as usual. Sirius had grabbed Eleanor's hand and she was rubbing circles on the back of his hand to calm him.
"Sirius?"
"Yes love."
"What did you say to him?" she asked, looking up at him sideways.
He shrugged. "Just that I'd end him if he'd ever said something like that about you again," he mumbled, the rage still evident in the way he spoke.
Eleanor gulped but didn't say anything. She looked ahead of her again, watching Peter catch up with his best friend and also stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Lily sat far away from them with the girls from her dorm during dinner that evening. Amelia had asked the others why, but they just shrugged and lied that they didn't know what was wrong.
Madam Pomfrey seemed to have fixed Snape's nose. You could barely see it anymore apart from his nose still being red. Eleanor noticed he tried to cover it up as much as possible by rest his head in his hands in a few strange positions.
After dinner, the five of them (yes, Amelia was there again) went up to the boys' dorm to stay there until they had to go the Shrieking Shack. Amelia wanted to stay with; Eleanor had the idea she just wanted to be a part of it even though she wasn't really.
They were sitting together, not really doing much. James had figured out how Remus had gotten the Muggle channel on the radio, so he knicked it from the common room and put it in their dorm.
"Maybe I should bring my record player next year, at least we can listen to some decent music then," she chuckled when another jazz song came on. James nodded in agreement.
"What's wrong with this music?" Peter asked. He was completely oblivious to all the amazing artists out in the Muggle world; he admitted they barely listened to any music at home.
"Cause this is jazz Pete," James said lazily. "It's shit."
Peter frowned. "But I thought you said all music was worth listening to," he mumbled.
His remark was answered with a pillow in his face. "Not jazz, Wormtail," James groaned. Eleanor laughed.
Sirius, who was sitting next to her on the bed, was trying to shuffle the pack of cards from exploding snaps with his wand. He wasn't really having much luck so far.
"Why're you so quiet eh?" James said before throwing a pillow at him as well.
"Fuck off Prongs," Sirius uttered and threw the pillow back at him with much more force.
It smacked James right on the head. "Orright m'sorry," he said with one eyebrow raised. "Don't bave to be a wuss about it."
The evening continued to be like that until they finally had to leave. Amelia said she went up to bed and left the others to their devices in the common room.
The four of them snuck out the way they always did: Peter transformed, they went under the cloak, through the hall, through the passageway behind Gregory the Smarmy, across the grounds, and into the passage under the Whomping Willow, where they then transformed as well.
Eleanor went up first this time. When she entered the dimly lit room she saw her brother laying in the corner. He was viciously scratching at his own arm.
She slowly walked over to him in her wolf form and howled softly to announce her presence.
The werewolf's head shot up and two large yellow eyes stared back at her. He stopped scratching himself and got up. Remus leaned forward andstarted sniffing at all of them, figuring out of they were a danger to him or not.
When that was done, the four Animagi settled somewhere in the room. Eleanor watched Sirius as he walked over to the top of the stairs and lay down in front of them.
She didn't think much of it and just jumped on the sofa. They had agreed she could be the first one to take nap, then Peter, then James, then Sirius.
Eleanor fell asleep almost immediately and was woken up about two hours later by Peter tugging at her tail. She yawned and jumped off the sofa. Stretching her back, Eleanor saw her brother was sittinf anxiously in the corner, clawing at the floorboards.
She walked over to him and nudged him in his side with her nose. Her ears lay flat when he looked up at her, showing a deep cut just above where his eyebrow would be.
Remus huffed out through his nose and whimpered. Eleanor hung her head and the whimpers turned into howls. She was sure the people in the nearby village could hear him.
Eleanor turned away from Remus. She joined Sirius and James, who were sitting together in the middle of the room. She lay down next to Sirius and nuzzled her face against his.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
They were all pretty tired, and Eleanor had to admit she was dozing off when all of a sudden she heard moving next to her. Her large white head shot up.
James and Sirius had both gotten up, but what had her on edge her the most was the fact that her brother was sitting up in the corner as well, staring straight ahead of him with his ears perked.
"Did you hear that?"
"No, what was it?"
"Sounded like footsteps."
Eleanor got up now as well. Sirius walked forward and pushed the door open slightly with his head.
"Stupefy!" a voice yelled. There was a red flash and Sirius was blown across the room.
Instinctively, Eleanor jumped over to Sirius to see if he was alright. She could hesr his heartbeat; he was just unconscious.
A loud growl coming from Remus made her realize what was going on again. There was an intruder, and in the light of the person's wand, Eleanor could clearly see who it was.
Snape.
"I knew it," he said coldly, his beady eyes glimmering slightly in the soft light.
Then everything happened really fast. In the blink of an eye, Remus had leaped forward to attack Snape. The boy stumbled back against the door, causing one of the scratched paintings (if you could even call it that) to drop to the floor.
James got between them, getting back on his hind legs before coming down again on top of Remus. The werewolf growles and lashed out at him. The two were caught in a fight now, something Eleanor really didn't want to see.
Snape had already run out of the room, but she checked the stairs quickly anyways. He was gone.
Both rage and terrible fear were running through veins as she carefully peeked around the corner of the door.
The fight between stag and werewolf was still going, and the stag seemed to be losing. There were nasty claw marks covering James' side and neck. He desperately tried to protect himself with his antlers, of which Remus had already broken off a piece.
She jumped when she suddenly felt somethinf by her paws. Eleanor looked down, only to find Peter looking up at her.
"I'm going to Pomfrey."
"No you can't"
"James will die if we don't get her."
And with that he disappeared out of sight. Her head jerked up again when agonizing yelps started to come from James.
Remus had bitten him in his leg and he was now limping on his three remaining ones.
Without even thinking twice, Eleanor jumped forward and used all her of her strength to push her brother back into the corner.
Caught off guard, the werewolf lost his balance and so he tumbled backwards against the wall, hitting his head against the bookcase.
Whining and whimpering, Remus crawled up in his corner again. Eleanor would've felt bad if she'd just been herself, but now she was happy James was safe.
She immediately went to check up on him. Her heart started to beat fast again when she noticed he had changed back into his normal self again. But, oddly, Remus remained calm.
James lay on side. His glasses were cracked and his shirt was ripped and stained with blood. Eleanor could smell he was still bleeding. With one glance at his leg, she knew it was completely shattered.
Eleanor took the corner of a blanket in her mouth and dragged it over his body. His eyes fluttered open. Tears started to run down his cheeks.
"Ella?" his voice was hoarse.
She lay down in front of him, pushing her head softly into the crook of his neck. Eleanor felt a hand resting on her head.
"M'sorry El," he barely whispered.
Then he drifted off to sleep. Eleanor felt like that was a dangerous thing to do, but she didn't want to keep him awake either.
Maybe he would be fine.
Maybe Pomfrey would be here soon.