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Challenging a Werewolf


They sat on the floor in the Shrieking Shack playing tic-tac-toe in the dust on the floor and laughing, snacking on crackers and jerky from Remus’s overnight bag. Sirius made Remus laugh for hours on end doing impressions of the teachers - McGonagall’s high chinned Scottish accent and Slughorn’s jovial belly-roll laughter and Veigler’s over excitement for bloody everything. Sirius even did a very good impression of Dumbledore, pretending to rub his fingers over a long beard and rocking on the balls of his feet as he spouted off strings of nonsense in a wise tone. Remus clapped at that one as Sirius sat back down, laughing, “Hope he never finds out I’ve done that,” he said.

As though on cue it seemed, the locks on the front door of the shack began to click and turn and Remus’s eyes widened, “Blimey - Dumbledore. Hide.”

Sirius looked about, but the shack was pretty void of furnishings and so he quickly dove for the trapdoor, dropping into the tunnel and closing it behind him. He realized quite fast why this could very well be a mistake. Just because Dumbledore was coming in through the front door didn’t necessarily mean he would plan to leave that way. He pressed himself to the wall and tried to think of a reason he could be there that wouldn’t sound positively mad or get him into trouble. He thought briefly of running back to the castle - if he started now he might make it before Dumbledore, surely that old man couldn’t run fast enough to catch up to Sirius - but then he wouldn’t be there for Rey… and that wasn’t an option.

“Well hello there, Mr. Lupin,” Dumbledore’s voice echoed through the shack and Sirius could hear it even in the tunnel.

“Hello Professor,” Remus answered.

“I must confess, I’m surprised to find you out here,” Dumbledore said, “I didn’t expect you’d have been able to manage with your crutches in the tunnel alone.”

“It was rough, but I left early,” Remus said honestly, omitting only the fact that Sirius had half carried him the whole way.

Dumbledore nodded, “Very good. When I couldn’t find you about the castle, I thought I’d check on you to see… and here you are!”

“Here I am!” Remus answered, sounding a bit squeakier than usual. He didn’t lie very well and he lied even worse to Dumbledore and Sirius worried that Dumbledore would grow suspicious with the way Remus sounded.

Dumbledore held up a bag. “I stopped by in Hogsmeade and thought I’d bring you a bit of a warm meal,” he said, “As an apology for not being in time to help you get out here.” He put the bag down on the table, “I thought you might like to eat before the evening’s activities.”

“Thank you sir,” Remus said, thinking how odd the phrase the evening’s activities was, considering what the evening’s activities actually entailed.

“You’re most welcome.” Dumbledore stood there for a moment and - Remus had to bite his lips - he rubbed his hands over his beard and rocked himself on the balls of his feet as he looked around the shack. “One day perhaps we’ll look back on this little shack and it won’t be such a dismal place after all,” he said.

Remus looked around. He had a feeling this place would always be the most dismal place on earth, aside from maybe Sirius’s house, the way he described it. “Perhaps,” Remus answered, thinking that Sirius’s detail of nonsensical wisdom had been pretty dead on in his impression of Dumbledore, too.

Dumbledore nodded around the place some more, ignoring the perplexed expression on Remus’s face. “Indeed… it’s not what’s there when we arrive but what we put into a place that really makes it what it ought to be…” he smiled at Remus, then took a deep breath, “Well, it’s nearly moonrise, which means we’ve both a myriad things to do. Do you wish for me to return in the morning to help you back to the castle or do you think you can manage?”

“I can manage, thank you sir,” Remus replied quickly. Too quickly.

But once again Dumbledore didn’t seem to notice the oddity of the way the reply came out and he simply ran his hands over his beard once again, fixing Remus with those twinkling blue eyes and a small smile, and announced, “Well, I shall go out the way I came, I fancy a stop at the Hog’s Head for a bit of mead - I think I saw Hagrid and Professor Veigler there when I stopped by for your dinner… I shall see you tomorrow about the castle, Mr. Lupin.”

“Yes sir,” Remus replied. “Thank you sir.”

“Goodnight,” Dumbledore said.

“Night, sir.”

Remus watched as Dumbledore bowed himself out the front door and the locks clicked back to close. He limped carefully over to the window and peeked through the crack in the boards that covered them and watched Dumbledore in the fading afternoon sun, walking down the path from the Shrieking Shack toward the gate.

“Alright, Sirius,” he called out, “Dumbledore’s gone.”

The trap door opened and Sirius climbed back into the dusty shack. “I was scared to death he was going to go back through the tunnel,” he said.

“I know, I was, too,” Remus replied. “I thought you might’ve tried to outrun him and had gone…” there was a tone of worry in his voice. He didn’t want Sirius to go, but he’d have understood if he had.

Sirius shook his head, “I’m not leaving you alone out here. Those days are over, my friend.” He breathed deeply, “Oiiii… what’d he bring you?”

“Dunno, it’s on the table there,” Remus pointed and he lowered himself back to the floor where they’d been sitting before as Sirius grabbed the bag and brought it back over. He sat down and pulled open the bag. Inside was a plate of battered fish and chips - two large pieces and a pile of chips that could have fed half the Hogwarts student body it was so large. “Goodness,” Remus commented, “He thinks I have quite the appetite, doesn’t he?”

“Maybe he reckons being a wolf famishes you.”

“Well it does, but I’m not a wolf yet!” Remus said, “You eat, too. I doubt I could ever finish this by myself.” The boys eagerly tore into the fish and chips. “You know, he did exactly what you did when you were doing your impressions? It was all I could do not to laugh! He rubbed his beard exactly as you pretended to!”

Sirius grinned, “I’m the master of impressions.”

He took up the antics again, this time doing spot-on renditions of James and Peter and Frank Longbottom and Andy Woodhouse and Lily Evans and all their other friends. Remus laughed and thought how wonderful it was to have Sirius out here to keep him company. Thinking fleetingly of what Dumbledore had said about the place being less dismal because of what was put into itl, Sirius Black’s mere presence was helping to brighten it up. For too long the shack had been empty and forgotten, empty of love or joy, and the light of Sirius’s gushing personality seemed to fill a hole that hadn’t been in the place for a very long time. It really didn’t seem as dismal with Sirius’s shine about it.

When they’d finished eating, the sun was nearly done for and the change would come at any time, so Sirius rolled up the bag of the left over chips. He turned into Snuffles with the cracking of his bones and let out a couple excited barks as Remus laughed and ran his palm over the dog’s nose. “You just be careful, alright? Please?” Remus asked, looking into the loving brown eyes of Snuffles. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Snuffles flapped his tongue across Remus’s cheek and Remus laughed, squinting his eyes against the slobber that sprayed across his skin, “You’re positively disgusting you know that?” he said accusingly, and Snuffles happily wagged his tail about before knocking Remus over with his big padded feet. “Stop that,” Remus laughed.

It was the last words that Remus said that night for the moonlight trickled in the cracks of the windows at that moment and Remus felt it like a burn on his back and the fur of the wolf began to shiver it’s way from his body. He looked at Sirius, whose wagging tail had stilled as he stood a couple feet off from Remus, watching. Remus wanted to tell him to go some place safe - not to just stand there like an idiot, but his jaw was already changing and his arms elongating and his back twisting and as he stared into Sirius’s eyes - he started to lose himself in the change as the wolfish mind started to take over.

Stay with me, he heard the words in his mind sort of - they weren’t so much words as much as they were a feeling, an emotion, that seemed to echo from Sirius and into Remus. He wasn’t sure how to explain it, he just knew that Sirius had “said” it to him. Remus fought really had to hold onto that thought. Sirius had said for him to stay. He had to stay. After all, Sirius was staying. He fought against the wolf inside himself. Every vertebrae in his spine seemed to crack, every bone ached and stretched and bent and twisted and Remus thought that perhaps it was simply easier to let the wolfish mind deal with the pain and if maybe that was why he always let go - because the boy could hardly stand it.

Sirius shifted his weight nervously. Stay with me, Rey, stay with me… C’mon you can do it… Stay with me, don’t go wolf…

Finally, feeling as though his entire body had been torn and inverted, Remus’s pain climaxed in an almighty howl that erupted from his throat, uncontrollable and shivering with emotion that rocked the entire shack, rattling the windowpanes and the locks on the door. Sirius backed up in surprise from the sound as the howl went on and on and on, draining Remus of pain that filled him up from snout to toes.

Well. That was quite impressive. Sirius yipped, ducking playfully at Remus.

Remus’s eyes were gold and staring at Sirius as he stood there, larger and burlier than Sirius had recalled him being when he’d sat about studying the Wolves Zoobook with James. He felt nervous suddenly and his dog instincts told him to lay down and tuck his tail between his legs as his eyes locked with Remus’s.

Alpha, Remus growled lowly.

Sirius lifted and dropped his feet nervously, but he forced his tail to remain untucked, forced his ears to stop from flattening. He took a deep breath swelling up his chest and raising his chin up and staring down his snout at Remus.

Alpha, Remus growled again, this time, his lips raised slightly to show his teeth.

Sirius could feel the weight of the situation pressing on him. They’d gone from laughter to such a menacing moment within such a short period of time that it seemed still almost comical, what was happening, and Sirius was tempted to think that Remus was putting on a show, though he knew better. He would have liked if Remus was still Remus and not a moon-mad werewolf. It would make what he needed to do so much easier.

Sirius lifted his lips too, baring his own, much shorter, teeth. And he growled.

James’s shock at the suggestion that Sirius would fight the werewolf for the position of Alpha echoed through his mind. ”Are you mental?” he heard James’s words in his head and again it seemed almost comical - that he - a common, ordinary dog standing before a wolf (and not just any wolf but a werewolf) - was challenging Remus for the title of alpha of their two-canine pack.

Remus’s lips pulled back all of the way revealing teeth over an inch long. Sirius’s own teeth seemed short in comparison, though they were actually quite large for a dog his size. He bared his teeth as well, mimicking Remus’s stance. Both their hackles raised, their manes puffed up to make each of them look a lot larger and more frightening. And they began to circle, prowling slowly about each other, tails low but not tucked, ears curved flat but forward, like bull horns. Sirius’s heart thundered in his chest.

Remus snapped. His teeth clamping just shy of Sirius who somehow - incredibly, managed not to flinch. The wolf stared at the dog in surprise at this display of bravery, cocking his head slightly. Sirius took the opportunity to snap back, careful to mimic what the wolf had done, snapping so that he only just missed Remus on purpose. Remus didn’t flinch either. They continued prowling about in circles around one another. They continued on in this fashion for several minutes, taking turns snapping, trying to get the other to back down. It seemed, Sirius noticed with interest, that the wolf didn’t want to fight, either.

Perhaps, he thought, the wolf was fighting Remus on the inside. Or perhaps his leg still ached and he was weaker than he seemed.

But he’d no sooner had that thought than the wolf’s nose twitched and he looked around, an interested look on his face. He looked about… and his eyes fell on the bag of chips directly behind Sirius’s leg, still on the floor where the boys had left them. Sirius followed the wolf’s gaze, the bag greasy and seeping the oil through the paper. He turned back to Remus. The yellow eyes had locked on him.

And just like that, they had a catalyst.

Sirius backed against the wall, careful to keep the bag of chips behind him. He didn’t really give a bloody damn if Remus got the bag and tore it to shreds, it was really Remus’s food anyway - Dumbledore had given it to him not to Sirius - but, as a dog, it felt vitally important - especially given their current dance for the title of Alpha - that Remus ask Sirius’s permission for the food. And so Sirius guarded it.

Remus snapped - a bit more forcefully than before. Sirius snapped back, trying to match the intensity… and then Remus came forward, an attempt to take the bag and Sirius, without thinking but merely acting on pure instinct that flowed through his canine muscles, raised his padded foot and swept at Remus hard - knocking the wolf’s head away from the bag with his claws fully extended.

The wolf let out a yelp of surprise at the dog’s motion, but rebounded quickly by leaping at the dog with his full force, knocking Sirius over to the floor and leaning over him, teeth bared once more and growling ferociously. Sirius struggled to roll right side up - being sideways or on his back could be taken as a surrender and as much as Sirius really wanted to surrender, he knew he couldn’t do if he really wanted to be of any help to Remus in the future out here.

There was no amount of Zoobooks that could possibly have prepared him for this, he realized. It was purely Snuffles instincts that were guiding him. Snuffles, he thought, was truly a bad ass because he was fairly certain that most dogs would never dream of doing what he was doing. And Sirius struggled to his feet and moved quickly, running at the wolf just before he got the bag of fries. The full weight of Sirius knocked Remus to his side and Sirius mustered every ounce of himself to bare his teeth and bring his heavy padded foot down against Remus’s throat, forcing out a growl from deep in his lungs that seemed to take every bit of breath from him.

The wolf blinked up in surprise and tried to move but the weight of Sirius was on his throat, right on his windpipe. He bared his teeth and growled back, though with less ferocity seeing as he was struggling to get air and he swept his paws and claws, trying to get at Sirius’s neck in return, growling and hissing and gurgling as he fought against the dog.

Sirius snapped with all his might and this time he caught the skin of the wolf, biting the side of his face below his ear until the wolf let out a small yap and stopped struggling.

He stood still, mouth clamped to the wolf’s skin. The wolf panted, laying still.

Alpha, Sirius thought.

The wolf wriggled.

Alpha< Sirius thought a lot more forcefully.

The wolf tried again to struggle for a moment but Sirius brought his paw down harder and his teeth just a bit tighter. He could taste blood.

ALPHA, he bellowed in his head.

There was a pause… a hesitation… and then… Sirius felt it, the moment the fight went out of the wolf.

Okay. But I’m Beta.

Satisfied, Sirius let up and let go and stepped back so that he remained between the wolf and the chip bag and Remus sat up slowly, a dazed sort of look on his wolfish features as he shook it off and hung his head, ears flat and back. The expression in the yellow eyes clearly said that this was not the last of the fights like these they would have, and Sirius was sure that he hadn’t completely won yet, and maybe he never would, but for now - for right now - it was okay.

The wolf looked up as the dog used his muzzle to push the bag of chips to him, depositing directly between his paws. After all, it was the alpha’s food to give.