Hi. Did you miss me?
Sorry this update took so long, over a year I know, but I kind of phased out of Harry Potter for awhile and didn't feel any inspiration to write this story. I've had some now and finished this chapter and I do want to keep writing but I'm not sure how long this stint will last either.
Thanks for sticking with me though and I hope you enjoy!
Rose knew just how serious their situation was becoming. Remus hadn't gotten his last dose of Wolfsbane before the full moon. And he was standing five feet away from three helpless children.
Immediately, as Remus became paralyzed by the moon, Rose and Sirius put themselves between him and the kids.
Sirius tried to grab onto Lupin, somehow force him to stop his transformation. He was trying to use words to keep Remus human, to try and remind him of his humanity.
She knew it wouldn't work. They both knew it wouldn't. But in a situation where the lives of three children were at stake, Rose would take that over doing nothing.
So she grabbed onto her friend and tried to hold him still. But as it was, Harry and Hermione were watching and Ron couldn't move. They needed to get back to the castle, to get away from Remus. Sirius and Rose would be fine if the kids weren't within Remus's reach.
"Run! Take Ron and Go!"
It was becoming incredibly difficult to keep hold of Remus. As he transformed, he gained his strength and he lost his rational mind. Rose hated seeing him in so much pain, in so much anguish. But she had to protect Harry.
Though, that plan was put on hold for a moment. With a great roar, Lupin gained his strength and he could not handle the forces pulling him down. He threw his arms out to the side, sending Sirius to the left, into the side of the hill and Rose right, over the edge of the small cliff they were standing next to.
She sailed through the air, landing on the small shelf beneath the cliff. Rose had the air knocked out of her chest as she landed on her back. She coughed and gasped, rolling onto her stomach.
Rose took only a moment to collect herself and breathe. She needed to return to the kids. But she couldn't do it as a human. It was clear she needed to become an animal, to protect herself from getting infected by Remus's bites.
The metamorphmagus knew she only had enough focus in her for a familiar form. Her red panda.
It wouldn't be able to take Lupin down. But maybe she would be enough of an annoyance, a distraction, to keep his attention off of the kids. She had to try something.
So with all the focus Rose could muster, she forced her body to assume the composition of a small red panda. It wasn't menacing in the slightest.
No matter her small stature, Rose made for the cliff again. At least she was a little more agile than a real panda. She scaled the edge of the cliff she'd fallen over and made it back on the same level as Remus, who was stalking toward the three children. They were huddled behind a conscious Snape.
To any outside spectator, it would have looked like an extremely strange sight. A small red panda going up against a massive wolf. No matter the incredulous situation, Rose was determined to protect her nephew.
She went at the werewolf before it could charge at the defenceless wizards. Rose leapt at Remus and grabbed onto one of his legs with her teeth, biting down as hard as she could. She needed to inflict pain for the creature to switch targets.
Thankfully, Remus did. He felt the pain and refocused himself on the small animal drawing blood.
What ensued was a game of cat and mouse while Sirius tried to recover and join the fight. Rose's main goal was to become a disturbance so the kids and Snape could get away. She dodged and weaved around Remus's feet, legs, and tail, trying her best to stay one step ahead.
She was frustrating the werewolf. Each time he snapped at her, kicked his leg, he would miss. It was working.
But even she couldn't stay ahead of the animal forever. Rose became distracted by a barking Sirius; she looked up at him, at the dog running to help her fend off the werewolf.
That's when Remus took his chance. He finally got his mouth around Rose's body and snatched her off of the ground. She squealed and kicked and scratched, but Remus began to bite down, began to crush her and shake her around in his mouth. Like he was playing with some chew toy.
She could feel Remus begin to crush her. Rose couldn't breathe, she felt her body compress and a sickening crunch, followed by a burst of pain in her chest, alerted her to some kind of broken bone.
Rose was terrified, for just a moment, that Remus was going to kill her.
Thankfully, before the werewolf could fully close his jaw, Sirius was there. Snarling and snapping, he began to fight, a different approach to Rose's game.
When the werewolf realized he couldn't keep the panda in his mouth and also fend off Sirius, he sharply turned his head and tossed Rose backward.
She squealed as she sailed through the air and landed on a section of grass a few feet away from the scrapping dogs. Their fighting was crueller, they bit and scratched and growled.
Rose had to take a few moments to gain awareness again, to push past the throbbing pain in her chest and her entire body. She was bleeding, Remus had broken something.
There wasn't time for Rose to let her injury consume her, though. Because the children were still by the stupid tree. They were stuck in place, unable to run, their fear had hold of them.
Sirius was still trying to fight the werewolf. But he couldn't beat Remus in a fight. And inevitably, the wolf would focus back on its true prey: humans.
So Rose got up, no matter how hurt she was, and squealed as loud as she could for Sirius to hear.
"Bring him here, away from the kids."
Sirius got the message.
When he was pushed away, he jumped forward and grabbed onto Remus's arm with his teeth. The werewolf spun around and tried to slash at Sirius but the dog retreated, following the red panda around the bend.
It wasn't a great plan, Rose had to admit that. Because at the end of the little path was a dead end. Another grassy area with rocks and trees. There wasn't anywhere else to go; they had to fight the werewolf again.
They tried to form a tag team again, attack the werewolf in different areas to keep it confused and distracted by too many things at once. But neither Sirius nor Rose could keep their previous stamina up. Both of them hurt, both of them were injured, and they didn't have the strength of a feral werewolf.
Rose was the first to be put out of commission. She was smaller, which meant she was more agile than Sirius. But it also meant that when Remus hurt her, he hurt her a lot. On one particularly slow pass, when Rose tried to bite and scratch at the werewolf's legs, he got her. Rose wasn't fast enough to escape the claws from the paw Remus raised, she didn't even see it with where her eyes were focusing. She only felt it.
Felt him tear open her back. An involuntary, shrill shriek of pain left the body of that red panda and Rose was honestly sure she'd never felt anything more painful. Burning, searing, agonizing pain. If Rose hadn't already been slowed, that did it for certain. She honestly couldn't even think, not with three separate open wounds in her back from his claws, the blood dyeing her fur a deeper, more crude colour of red. The force of his claws sent Rose onto her side in the grass and before she could even try and utilize the short burst of adrenaline that was numbing the pain to stand, Remus was on her again.
He grabbed Rose by the scruff, teeth digging into fur and flesh alike, shook her around, and tossed her into one of the rocks nearest the cliff's edge. That was it. She was done.
Her body could really only take so much abuse. And with multiple open wounds, broken bones, and blunt force to her head, Rose was completely out of the fight. Not unconscious—yet—but she was done fighting. It was a funny thing, being in so much pain her body could hardly register half of it. Just the base survival instinct to flee, to take the werewolf away from Harry and at least keep him alive.
Rose wasn't lucid enough to hear Sirius fighting Remus off or notice Harry getting the werewolf's attention nor did she have enough awareness to understand that Remus was gone and she was technically safe where she was. She lost all focus to be able to stay in her red panda form and the pain of detransitioning back to her normal self was what sent Rose into complete system shutdown. The open wounds grew in size, her body rearranged itself, and Rose didn't even scream. Just a low, pained whimper as she crawled forward and subsequently tumbled down the side of the cliff, completely unconscious by the time she reached the water's edge.
Even in that state of delirium, Rose was only thinking about Harry. Hoping, praying he was safe. That was all she wanted, the only goal in her life. It shouldn't have been up to save her. Ever.
But it was. It was up to Harry to save both his aunt and his godfather. Both were injured gravely protecting him from their friend. Harry was left to save them from the dementors with the spell said friend taught him. He was too weak, it wasn't working. Harry was out too, but not before he swore he saw his own father saving them, stag patronus and all.
The person who truly came to their rescue that evening, when all three Gryffindors were left unconscious and vulnerable, was Severus Snape. An unfortunate rescue, however, because he was just about the only person who was ready to have Sirius killed and hand him straight over to the dementors.
What a pain it was for him. To happen upon the scene from the nightmare that had haunted him for thirteen years. A pale, unmoving red-headed Evans twin, a replica of James next to her, and the man who was accused of causing the deaths right there. If Snape took an extra moment to check Rose's pulse to make sure she was alive, if he took more care when moving her than he cared to use with Sirius or Harry, no one else would know. The other two students were already in the hospital wing and the staff at the school had been alerted.
Sirius was immediately handed over to the proper authorities who'd been woken from their beds, stashed in one of the cells of the castle, and Rose and Harry were added to the list of injured in the hospital wing.
Harry wasn't physically injured. Scratched up and mentally and emotionally damaged by the dementors, yes. Madam Pomfrey had a look at him, assured he was alright with a few spells, and told his worried friends that he would wake soon, when his body was ready.
Rose, on the other hand, was a bit more complicated. Poppy assumed that since Rose was a teacher, she'd never have to see her injured. But having her lying on a bed pale, bloody, and battered told her a different story. She was still the same reckless, headstrong girl she'd been throughout Hogwarts.
There was a lot to take stock of. But the most pressing injury was the one on her back. In the mess of blood and ripped flesh, there were four clear claw marks that would be left on Rose's body forever. Werewolf wounds could heal but they would always remain as vibrant as the day they were acquired; scars didn't fade.
"Is... she going to be okay?" Hermione's voice cut through the tense silence in the medical wing. Harry was unconscious and she and Ron were watching the medi-witch work from across the aisle. She couldn't find it in herself to stay quiet any longer when she saw the bloody wounds on the older witch's back, especially once Madam Pomfrey cleared the wounds of their blood and she could see the extent of them clearly.
Startled out of her focused stupor, Madam Pomfrey glanced back at the students across from her and knew they shouldn't have been witnessing one of their professors injured like that. "Professor Evans is going to be just fine. I'm making sure of it. Just keep Mr. Potter company for now." And with that, the witch used her wand to move one of the dividers in the way so the two young, lucid students didn't have to witness the true extent of Rose's injuries and Pomfrey could focus properly.
Rose was going to be fine because she was in the care of a skilled healer. She was injured badly, yes. But with a little magical intervention and time, Rose would heal just fine.
Madam Pomfrey worked well under pressure, it was why she'd been hired as a healer in the first place. Her wand was of great use to her, alerting her of the afflictions affecting Rose and retrieving everything necessary for her treatment. Potions, ointments, and bandages. Dittany and a spell for the claw marks in Rose's back, ointment to promote healing and bandages to protect the sensitive, healing flesh from the linens. The same went for the teeth marks in the back of Rose's neck; she wouldn't turn into a werewolf, since she wasn't human, but the teeth marks would be there forever.
Madam Pomfrey moved to the front of Rose's body and took care of the injuries there too. The scratches that only needed a few spells or none at all, the broken ribs that would slowly piece themselves back together with a different spell, and more cuts and teeth marks that would heal but not fade. A broken arm wrapped in a sling to make sure it could take the few days it would need to heal and then Poppy was organizing what potions Rose would need to take when she woke up. Whenever that would be.
She only had enough time to tell the two students who were awake that Rose would be just fine before she was being called away from the hospital wing. Pomfrey fought the call, stating that Rose needed to be watched over, but had to leave nonetheless.
In the meantime, Harry woke from his unconsciousness and was told by his friends about the dire situation. That Sirius was set to die and the only person who could claim his innocence, Rose, was injured and unconscious. Harry was thankful she was alright, standing by her bedside with a hand in hers, and felt utterly helpless.
"She's already lost so many people. I can't let her lose another friend. Not like this."
Dumbledore did always manage to swoop in at just the right time. The right time to send two teenagers off to save the day completely on their own. A dangerous, potentially deadly endeavour involving a time-turner. But when family was involved, Harry would agree to anything and what was he if not a courageous Gryffindor?
He made that promise to Rose before he left with Hermione. "We're gonna save him. We're going to be a family when it's over."
Then they were spinning the time turner three times and heading into the past to secure a favourable future.