It was dark when I woke up, I was confused at first, what the hell was going on? Who was whispering? I pushed back the curtains to see Remus, James, Sirius and Peter talking in hushed tones, slipping out of the bed I glanced out the window to see there was still a bit of time before the moon would rise.
'Are you leaving?' I asked softly.
Four heads whipped towards me and I gave a silly little wave.
'We're about to yeah, Frank won't mind if you stay here.' Sirius said.
'No, I should get back to my own dorm. Are you alright James? You look angry.'
'Snape tried to attack us earlier and he said some not so complimentary things about you and Lily.' James' voice was taut with anger.
'Don't worry mate, he'll get what's coming to him.' Sirius soothed.
'You should get going, the moon will be rising soon.' I told them. 'Be careful okay?'
They nodded, and Sirius hugged me tightly before whispering in my ear.
'My clothes look good on you.'
A laugh escaped my lips and I swatted at his shoulder before watching them leave, when they were gone I grabbed my folded clothes from Sirius's trunk and slipped into my shoes smiling like a dope when I caught sight of a picture of us on his bedside table. We were pulling silly faces and I don't think I'd ever seen a couple as stupidly happy as we were in that perfectly captured moment.
My shoes echoed against the stone floor as I made my way down the stairs and into the barren common room, the only person around was a fellow sixth year who had fallen asleep on the couch. I called out to him and he looked around in confusion before dragging himself off the couch and up to his dorm room. Following his example, I entered my own dorm room to find everyone asleep, dropping my clothes on the floor I went to sit at the window. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight for worrying about my friends.
^.^
It was an hour later when I noticed it, the moonlight illuminated a shadow running towards the Whomping Willow. As they got closer I saw them raise their wand, a stick rose from the ground and as it touched a large knot on the tree it suddenly stilled allowing whoever it was to move closer to the base and find the tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack...where Remus was currently residing in his wolf form. Without thinking I jumped to my feet and ran as fast as I could, it seemed to take forever to reach the willow tree, but it was probably no more than a few minutes. I did exactly as I saw the mysterious figure do earlier and waited for the tree to still before slipping into the tunnel.
As I got closer I heard growls and a male screaming, emerging into the shack I ran towards the source of the screams and found Severus Snape standing directly in front of a werewolf, there was no trace of Remus in the wolf's eyes as it lunged for Severus, I saw James morph out of his stag form and into himself as he pushed Snape out of the way. A small rat, Peter, scuttled around the feet of the werewolf confusing him so that Sirius could lunge at the wolf that was our friend this morning and latch onto his hind leg making him crash to the ground. I helped James drag Severus into the tunnel completely disregarding the fact that he was naked. I could hear Remus thrashing about as Sirius continued to hold him off.
We emerged from the tunnel and Severus burst free from our hold, falling to the ground in front of us sputtering and empty reaching as the fear caught up with him. Out of instinct I went to comfort him and in his shock he allowed me to.
'Severus, how did you know about the willow?' James asked gently.
It was so uncharacteristic of him that Severus answered without his usual snide.
'Black. I told him some home truths about his family today and to repay me he set me up to come down here, said it was time for me to satiate my curiosity about where you four go every month.'
He seemed to finally regain his sense as he spoke, and he shrugged me off, he did it surprisingly gently, there was rustling from behind us as Sirius emerged with Peter perched on his head, both still in their Animagus forms. I glanced at James only to turn away immediately with red cheeks.
'For goodness sake James, cover up!' I pleaded.
I traded an awkward look with Severus as Peter and Sirius changed back too and changed into the clothes Sirius had been carrying in his mouth. As soon as the three boys were decent Severus launched himself at Sirius and the two began pummelling each other, James and Peter tried to intervene, but it seemed that Severus was stronger than he looked, and Sirius was running on pure hatred for the Slytherin boy.
When they were finally separated they were each sporting injuries and it was the voice of Dumbledore that had knocked some sense into them. We all stood stock still as we waited for the Headmaster to tell us we were expelled, instead he motioned for us all to follow him to his office, I couldn't even look at Sirius on the walk to the office and when he tried to hold my hand I pulled away from him.
Dumbledore stared at us all from behind his half-moon spectacles, blue eyes roaming each of our faces searching for malicious intent and innocence alike. None of us dared to move, waiting for him to break the silence.
'Mr Snape, would you mind explaining to me why you went down the Whomping Willow tunnel tonight.'
Severus glared at Sirius for a moment, deciding whether to drop him into the abyss of Dumbledore's wrath, with a quick inhale he made his choice and the devious smirk on his face told us all exactly what it was.
'It was Black sir, he told me how to get into the passage and that there would be something interesting waiting for me at the end of the tunnel.' his tone was practically victorious.
'I see, Mr Black, is this true?' the wise old man looked at Sirius with disappointment.
'Yes sir.' Sirius looked down shamefaced.
'Miss Evans, what part did you have in all this?'
My attention was dragged away from my boyfriend as the headmaster spoke to me.
'I saw Severus going down the tunnel, I didn't know it was him at the time though, and I ran out to stop him from getting hurt.' I admitted.
'Very well, Mr Potter, Mr Pettigrew I think you had better go assist Mr Lupin, the night is not yet over, Miss Evans, please return to your dorm. As for you two,' he turned back to Sirius and Severus. 'I think we had better have a chat.'
I gave Sirius one last confused glance before returning to my room where I sat for hours with my muddled thoughts until I saw my friends emerge from the Whomping Willow as the sun began to rise. Once again, I raced from my room, this time running towards the hospital wing.
^.^
Remus was propped up in a bed with bandages around his leg from where Sirius had bitten him, Peter clutched an ice pack against his head and James was sitting at the end of Remus' bed with no shirt on as Poppy bandaged his ribs.
'Are you alright?' I asked them.
'I'm going to throttle your boyfriend.' Remus seethed.
I opened my mouth but closed it again, I didn't know what to say. Sirius had almost killed someone, just because we didn't like Severus didn't mean he deserved to die. I found myself regretting hitting him earlier in the year as I recalled the look of fear on his face last night, how he had trembled under my hands as I comforted him.
'Speak of the devil.' Peter muttered.
Turning around I was faced with Sirius and I found myself backing up to stand next to James who was glaring at his best friend. Hurt flashed across Sirius' face as I backed away from him and he caught the glares his friends were giving him. Poppy finished taping the bandages on James' ribs and left us to have some privacy.
'What the hell were you thinking?' Remus growled.
'I wasn't thinking okay? I was angry at him and I didn't think.'
Sirius ran his hands through his hair with a dark look on his face, I wasn't intending to speak up, but I couldn't stay quiet.
'Do you even care about Remus?' I spat, he turned to look at me with confusion marring his face. 'Did it ever occur to you how he would feel if he hurt someone? Killed someone? Even Severus Snape. Did you ever for one moment think of the fact that he would tear himself apart? Or were you too wrapped up in your own issues? You're supposed to be one of his closest friends and you put him in the most difficult position imaginable! You put all of us in that position!'
I watched his face contort in anger before he spoke.
'Nobody asked you to come running to the rescue Violet! You could have stayed in bed comfortable and cosy!'
'And let someone innocent walk into the werewolf's den? Let Remus hurt someone because he can't control himself when he's the wolf, so he can beat himself up over it for the rest of his life? That's not what friends do Sirius!' my chest was heaving with temper as my blood boiled in my veins, I had never been so angry with Sirius in all the time that I had known him.
'Severus Snape is far from innocent!' he roared.
'That doesn't make a difference! He doesn't deserve what you did, nobody deserves that! What kind of person send someone into that situation knowing they could die?!'
By now we were standing so close our noses were almost touching, screaming at each other, I was surprised Poppy and Madame Helix hadn't come running.
'It was a mistake!'
'A mistake? A mistake is spilling ink on someone's homework or taking someone else's cloak, this was much worse than a mistake! This was -'
'What was it Violet? Say it!' he mocked.
'Attempted murder, you almost killed someone Sirius.' my voice was so low I don't even know how anyone heard me, but they did, and I saw the horror flash through Sirius' eyes before it was masked by anger once again.
'You know where the door is.' he said coldly.
I glanced around to see the other three boys looking at the two of us with a mixture of shock, discomfort and anger.
'Get better soon guys.' I told them with tears in my eyes before leaving the hospital wing. I had no idea what just happened or what it meant for Sirius and me, all I knew was that I needed to get some sleep.