James:
"Hurry up Pads! I need to fit in there too!" I mutter angrily, shoving Padfoot through the opening of the Whomping Willow.
The Full Moon edged closer and closer every day, and Moony began to grow more and more exhausted and sensitive to everything. I wish that I could only do more for him.
When the day of the Full Moon rolled around, Moony took the day off because he was simply too exhausted to get any work done, so Pads, Wormy and I collected his notes for him, with Lily taking his Ancient Runes notes. It's so good having the girls in on the secret, because it means that they can also help with things like this.
Anyways, now we are at the Willow, and it's currently...11:42 p.m. We don't have long until Moony transforms, and tonight we will need to be there every step of the way. It'll be a bad one - we can all feel it.
It's a cold dark December night, and the moon is big and bright, just hiding behind the dark clouds, waiting to come out. Me and Pads run along the tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, with Wormy (in his rat form, of course!) on my shoulder.
As we near the end of the tunnel, I hear an awful tearing sound, and an ear-splitting scream pierces the night air. "Moony." I whisper, silently praying for him. It's bad, really bad. And even worse, the moon came out early, which means that none of us are prepared for it.
"Fuck!" Padfoot says, louder, while speeding up. Rapidly, Pads and I sprint to the entrance, the sound from the shack not going away, and when we reach it I drop Wormy to the floor and instantly transform, needing to restrain the massive werewolf standing in front of me.
It's happened. He's transformed.
Earlier today we all agreed not to try anything tonight - we won't leave the shack. On Full Moon's like this it just isn't worth it. Moony has good and bad moons, just like regular days, but there is always one moon every year that is worse than the rest. It usually comes either at the start of winter or the end, and the weather is nearly always awful.
It's on nights like these that Moony's craving for blood, for violence, is so much stronger.
I rush towards him, my large antlers restraining him slightly while Padfoot performs. Together we force Moony against the wall, towards the restraints that we set up for cases like these, cases where we might not be able to control him. We've only used them once before, and I was in the hospital wing for a couple of days after that, but so far, all things considered, we are doing quite well.
Just as Pads and I relax slightly, thinking that we've got him restrained enough to back off ever so slightly I hear a low growl come from Moony's throat and I hear a high-pitched squeal.
Suddenly Wormtail is on the ground, in his human form, nursing a bleeding arm. He cries out in pain, and I immediately jump into action. Then whiff of his blood is almost unbearable for Moony, who breaks his restraining chains with such power and dangerous strength that they fly across the room. He sinks into a low hunch, preparing to spring, not taking his eyes off of Wormtail.
I see Wormy tense up, and shut his eyes, waiting for the attack.
I quickly inhale, or whatever it is that stags do, and jump between them, forcing them apart. Out of anger and rage that I stopped his attack, werewolf Moony turns on me instead. This is good, this is what I wanted. I give Padfoot a look that tells him to get Wormy out of here as soon as possible, and I begin to try my best to keep Moony where he is, and stop him from following the others.
Moony snarls loudly, claws rapidly flying through the air, trying to catch me. His long nails attempt to scrape me, to make a mark on me. This goes on for goodness knows how long, and I manage to achieve my goal, and I didn't actually get injured myself!
It only stops when the sound of Padfoot's paws can be heard from down the tunnel, and I feel relief. Good! Moony is far more settled now, and he's more like himself than he has been all night, and together Padfoot and I should be able to calm him down enough that he won't be a danger to anyone else.
That's when I make the one mistake that changes everything. I turn my head.
Lily:
"Oh my! What happened?" Ali yells, standing up as a blood-soaked Sirius Black enters our common room. It's half past one on a Friday night...oh wait - a Saturday morning! What the hell is he doing here?
My question is answered when a sharp cold glimpse of a bluish-white light catches my eyes, and I look out the window.
A Full Moon.
"Sirius, what happened? Who is hurt? Is Remus ok? Do we need to do anything?" I ask rapidly, and Sirius just stands there. The others all gasp in horror as they realise what night it is, and what must have happened.
Sirius, though clearly in shock and sounding strangled, manages to croak, "Prongs - Moony - Fight - Hospital - Wormy - Come!". With these he slightly gestures a hand telling us to follow him and so we do, myself and Mary running ahead while Marly comforts Sirius. Frank and Ali aren't with us - I'm not sure if I want to know what they are up to - so it's just us.
Judging from Sirius' words, there was a fight, and James and Peter got injured somehow. Oh, this will be awful!
When we arrive at the hospital wing, Mar sends a Patronus to Frank and Ali (she learned how to do that a couple of nights ago, due to the fact that Remus and James can do it and she wanted to one-up them!) telling them to come to the hospital wing.
I burst open the doors (it fells like I've done this too many times over the last month or so) to be met with yet another horrible sight.
Three beds in the hospital wing are filled in quick succession. Well, if Madam Pomfrey didn't know what these idiots get up to every Full Moon before, she certainly does now! James is laying on the first bed, his white t-shirt covered in red blood, looking awful. Little scrapes and scars tattoo his arms, and this brings back an awful case of deja vu.
Remus is laying in the next bed, pale as a ghost. He has light scrapes on his face, and more of his scars are showing than normal, and there are purple bruises beginning to form on his face and arms, where James must have got a good few shots in.
Peter is laying on the last bed and honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he is laying in a bad in the hospital wing I would never have guessed that he was hurt in any way. Madam Pomfrey informs us that he has a cut on his arm, but in comparison to the others, Sirius included, he looks practically healthy.
It's around six a.m now, and the fourth bed in the row, the one that was previously at the very end of the hospital wing but is now placed in between James and Remus, has been occupied by Sirius. Sirius looks very like Remus right now - pale, cut and bruised. But, with him being who he is he flat out refuses to have any medical treatment until the others are all good.
Lets just say, Marly got very frustrated with him, because when all the others were relatively stable, practically asleep, he still refused medical care, and the amount of times that Ali, Frank, Mar and I have had to save him from getting slapped is uncountable.
At around eight a.m, Remus awakens. Peter is snoring loudly at this point, and James is completely unconscious.
"Oh no!" Remus whispers, covering his face in his hands. "Oh - it's bad! It's really bad!" he says again, and I see a few angry tears slip out of his eyes. "Moony, it's not your fault! Last night was a bad one! And we're all ok!" Sirius says, sitting up and opening his eyes.
"But...but...look at Prongs! He's..." Remus protests, and Sirius just shushes him, "Fine! He'll be up in no time - we have Quidditch practice this week, and I'll owe you a galleon if he's not as fit as a fiddle for it!". Remus looks as if he is going to speak again, but the look on Sirius' face silences him.
Remus is up soon enough, having taken some medicine from Madam Pomfrey to help with the pain. With Madam Pomfrey's assurances that James and Peter will be fine (Peter's just sleeping at this point, recovering after a long night) the rest of us all head down to the Great Hall for breakfast. We stop on the way to get changed seeing as the girls and I are all in our pyjamas, along with Frank, and Sirius and Remus are covered in blood and have ripped shirts.
We don't meet anyone on our way there - thank Merlin - and when we start walking to the Great Hall we are all in fresh outfits and are feeling completely exhausted (the shopping bags underneath my eyes shall inform the Great Hall of that!).
To my relief, as it's a Saturday morning there aren't many people awake, and the ones who are awake don't pay any attention to us. We eat our breakfast in silence, mostly because we are all to tired to say a word.
After our short breakfast we head back up to the hospital wing. To my surprise and upmost joy, both Peter and James are awake, and Pete is all bandaged up - no harm done. James is still laying down - Madam Pomfrey isn't letting him sit or stand up - but he'ssmiling, which shows us that he is ok.
Immediately, Sirius, Remus, Marly and I rush to James' bedside, and Remus rambles, "Prongs! I'm so, so, so sorry! This is all my fault! If you don't want us to be friends, I totally understand that. Really, I wouldn't want to be friends with someone like me either! I'm a monster, a horrible creature! I-". Here James cuts him off with an eye roll. "Oh for Merlin's sake, Moons! I don't bloody well blame you, you numpty! Now, shut up and sit down!" he says, and we all laugh, Remus even cracking a smile. "Thanks." Remus mutters, and we can all feel most of his worry and regret leave his body, happiness and relief taking over.
"Bonjour mon ami!" Sirius says, showing off his impressive French skills (did you know that he is fluent? - Bloody hell!). "Bonjour! Umm...Pads - what's the word for idiot in French?" James responds cheekily, and Sirius' grin fades. "Ha ha ha! Actually, the word idiot in French is...idiot! So look who the idiot is now!" he says, and then bursts into peals of laughter.
We all join in, James included, as Ali, Frank and Mar come back from checking on Pete. I do feel quite guilty about that - I suppose that he was injured too - but James is definitely the priority right now.
Sirius and Remus wheel Pete's bed over so that it's nearer to us, and we all talk as a group. These idiots (did you like what I did there!) will be out of here in no time. And anyways, James and I REALLY need to get this Christmas Ball sorted - we only have a couple of weeks left!
Peter:
Of course they all gather around Prongs' bed - big shock. I'm always left out - always. I'm always the least important - I'm never at the centre of anything. This is it. This is the last straw.
A little while ago, a really pretty Slytherin girl named Lora Greengrass started talking to me. It was really out of the blue, and she is really pretty. But, the thing is, I don't...I just don't know if I'm good enough for her. All of her friends are involved with the Death Eater thing, and I think I could do it.
I've seen a couple of them give me strange looks, like they don't trust me. But I really want them to - I don't want Lora to break up with me!
The only reason I haven't joined yet is my friends. I don't want them to ditch me either. But it looks like they already have. I'm on the outside, looking in. And I'm sick of it.
Ok then. I guess it's all settled.
If I can become a Death Eater, I will.