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Remus’s Nap


Sirius got off the Knight Bus in Hogsmeade just as the afternoon was starting to come to an end. He ran off from the door the moment it opened, feeling Ernie stare after him for sometime until he’d ducked down a side street to avoid being watched. He waited there until he’d heard the bang of the bus departing once again. Not wanting anyone to see him and question what a random student was doing at the village, he decided it would be best if he went to the Shrieking Shack as Snuffles.

Nobody even looked twice as the shaggy black dog ran through the center of Hogsmeade. He stopped at the fountain and took a few laps of the water there and breathed deep of the smell of butterbeer wafting from the Three Broomsticks and of Honeydukes. If it was possible, Hogsmeade smelled even better as a dog than it did as a human. He rather enjoyed it. He wished he could bring Remus here to smell it, but he knew that would be a positively awful idea. A werewolf would probably smell the blood of the people passing by before they’d smell the butterbeer and chocolate mingling together. It was too bad, he thought, because Remus would’ve loved it.

The Shrieking Shack looked dismal and miserable from the distance at the end of the lane that led up to it. A fence had been erected, blocking off the Shack’s path and some of the people had hung little omens on the fence, things known to keep ghosts and ghouls away. There was a small sign now, too, wood, that told a rather gruesome tale about a howling, shrieking ghost that haunted the house. The sign warned people not to go near the shack, telling them of the certain death that would await them if they did.

Sirius found a gap in the bottom of the fence and dug a little bit to free up a hole big enough for him to slide beneath it. He came up the other side and then ran across the wide span of lane and yard up to the Shack. Remus would be waiting for him there, he thought, because it would soon be dark and the moon would be out and the transformation would come… they’d go running in the woods again, he decided, catch some rabbits or something… and they’d wake up in the leaves…

He pushed the urge to imagine The Dream coming true out of his head.

He didn’t want it to come true. Or did he? He didn’t know. And he had to know. He had to know before he did anything. It wasn’t right not to know.

He reached the door and he barked happily at it, jumping about on the porch, waiting for Remus to open it up and let him in… but Remus didn’t come to open it up. Concerned, Sirius transformed back into a person and reached for the knob. “You absolute prat,” he called, pulling open the door, “Didn’t you hear me barking?” He stepped inside and looked about. The Shrieking Shack was dark and dustier than ever and silent. Nobody was there.

But the light outside was dying…

Where the bloody hell was Remus?




James wandered through the castle instead of going straight back to the dormitory. He’d reaquainted himself with the stairwell and gone through the Trophy Passageway, pausing at the top to look proudly upon the trophy with his name etched onto it from the Ilvermorny match. He used the sleeve of his robe to polish the shield with his name until it gleamed. He grinned upon it merrily, then continued on his way. Soon, the other students would be arriving on the thestral-drawn carriages and the little boats and the feast would begin in the Great Hall. He relished the idea of the feast, all that delicious food and drink would be splendid. He could really use it - James was very famished. After all, he hadn’t gotten to eat anything on the train like he usually did, because of everything that had happened.

What happened. That’s right. He realized that he’d better write his mum and dad a letter telling them about the dragon bomb and the warning from the Minister for Magic before they found out from somebody else. Perhaps that would prevent him from getting a Howler next morning from Dora… So he sprinted up to the dormitory, figuring he’d write the letter now and send it after the feast, when Bubo had been unloaded from the Hogwarts Express.

He reached the Fat Lady and stood before her awkwardly. “I haven’t been given the password yet,” he told her.

“Then you simply cannot go in,” she replied.

“Aw c’mon,” James begged, “You know who I am. How many times have I annoyed you in the middle of the night, wakin’ you up, making you let me in there? Loads. Don’t act like you don’t know I belong in there.”

She stared at him harshly.

“Please, Fat Lady?” James begged. “Pretty… pretty please? Just this once?” He gave her the most charming smile that he could muster and - being James Potter - it was a pretty charming one.

She sighed, “Well. I suppose I’ve already let one of you in, I might as well allow the other.” She rolled her eyes.

“Let one of us in?” James asked, confused.

“Yes, one of your ickle little friends is inside already…” she yawned and opened wide, allowing James passage though.

But James just stood there rather stupidly. It could only be Remus or Sirius - Sirius wasn’t supposed to have come back to Hogwarts at all, he was supposed to take the Knight Bus directly to Hogsmeade, James remembered them talking about the plan… and Remus… well, a glance to the window, at the pinkish-purple color of the sky… Remus should already be in the Shrieking Shack hours ago...

“Are you going in or what? I’m not hanging open all day,” she called.

James leaped forward through the frame. He ran through the common room, thundering up the stairs, and shoved open the dormitory door. Remus was curled up on his bed in a ball, hugging his knees, asleep. His form shivered in the dark of the room. James’s heart went immediately to his throat as he looked at the window… the sun was setting.

“REMUS!” he shouted, running over to the bed and grabbing onto Remus’s shoulder. “REMUS WAKE UP NOW!” He shook him - hard - and Remus whimpered and looked up at James, his eyes so dark that they looked bruised. “Wake the bloody hell up, you’ve fallen asleep! You’re in the dormitory. It’s nearly sunset! WAKE UP!”

“Oh no.. no.. nooo… I just meant to - to take a nap - a short nap… I was so tired...” Remus pushed himself up, but his arms were weak, his bones aching profusely, already getting jelly-like in preparation for the moon. James grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up and Remus tripped the moment his feet hit the floor, his knees too weak to fully support his weight. “No,” he started to cry, “No. James you need to go. Go and get Dumbledore. Tell him… tell him what happened.”

“No what if he gets angry and you end up kicked out? You need to get out to the Shack.” James grabbed onto Remus’s arm and pulled him back up, tugging Remus’s arm ‘round his neck and letting Remus put all his weight onto him. “C’mon, I’ll help you.”

“But if we don’t make it out there in time I’ll --”

“You’ll eat me. Yadda-yadda, whatever. C’mon. We’re gonna make it in time if you shut it and just move quickly. C’mon.” James pulled Remus to the door and down the stairs. Remus limped, leaning against James heavily for support. James could feel the muscles in Remus’s arm twitching, could feel his skin was feverish and clammy. Sweat poured from Remus’s palms and neck and arms and James’s shoulder was soon soaked from it. Every step made Rey groan and grunt with pain, his bones barely able to move as they started to stiffen.

If only Remus was shorter or else if James was taller, it would’ve been a lot easier than it was. They struggled down the stairs of the castle, portraits whispering and looking on from the walls, concern on their faces as they watched James pulling along his friend. Remus’s head lolled a bit, the muscles in his neck starting to give way and he tripped on the last step before they reached the second floor, tumbling them both to the carpet. James got a bit of rug burn on his palm as he tried to catch them from going down. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed onto Remus, pulling him up, “C’mon, Rey… You gotta get up.. C’mon…”

It took all of Remus’s strength - what little there was left of it, and he nearly collapsed again, but James caught him once again, letting him lean into his shoulder. Remus’s lips were dry, chapped raw, and the bruising of his eyes had spread across his nose so that he looked like he wore a mask. James swallowed back his fear as he glanced up at the window to see the sky had gone nearly purple. He looked down at the entrance door and he said, “We’re so close, Rey, c’mon - so close. Just a bit further.”

They started down the grand staircase and were nearly to the bottom when the entrance doors burst open… and a stream of students started in through the door. “Oh bloody hell,” James murmured. He grabbed tighter on Remus’s arm as they came to a stop.

Remus shivered, his eyes closed, “I can’t be here when the moon… as a wolf...I… I can already smell the blood…” He opened his eyes and looked at James, “Please. If I change. You gotta stop me. Stun me, kill me, whatever you need to… but don’t let me… I can’t… I’d never…”

James didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly, Peter was running up the stairs toward them, wild eyed. “James?? Remus??” He’d spotted them as he’d come in the doorway. “What are you doing still in the castle, Rey?” he sounded panicked.

“He fell asleep in the dorm,” James hissed.

Peter said, “But it’s nearly --”

“I know!!!” James said. “Help me. Help me get him outside.”

Peter said, “But all the students are coming in and --”

“We gotta get him to the tunnel to the shack, Peter. I dunno what other options there are. Grab an arm. And quickly.”



Peter’s instinct was to run, of course. He wanted to say I told you this could happen, too, but one look at Remus and he knew that he just couldn’t say such a thing. Even though it was true, he had told them multiple times, way back in first year when they found out about Remus to begin with. Remus was miserable enough without that, though, and Pete felt awful for him. So he grabbed up the other of Remus’s arms, supporting him, too, and together Peter and James were able to hold him up much better and they moved on down the stairs, pushing against the flood of Hogwarts students coming in.

They jostled and shoved and people passing by were getting angry, shouting at them. “Watch where you’re going!”

“Bugger off,” James snapped more than once, and they finally made it to the bottom of the stone stairs leading into the castle, reaching the grass. They broke away from the swarm, ducking past McGonagall, who was looking off down the path toward the gates, yelling for someone to stop doing something they were doing a way off. James and Peter dragged Remus into the shadow of the castle, pulling him along.

The orb of the sun was completely below the horizon. The sky overhead was dark blue, the last rays of light coming up over the black of the trees and lake far off across the grounds. The moon was obscured by cloud. But Remus was trembling head to foot, his eyes unfocused… James held tighter to Remus’s elbow. “Peter, go and get the tunnel open… hurry.”

Peter ran forward quickly, headed for the shack.

“You gotta...r- r run…” Remus was whimpering, “Y-y-you ca-can’t be… here… when I - I --”

“Shh, we’re almost there,” James said.

But the clouds cleared the moon, and Remus’s eyes seemed to cross and he went quite stiff, his mouth gaping open, like a man possessed and as his very last, conscious movement, before he was lost to himself, he shoved James Potter away… and then his spine began to crack as he transformed there on the grounds of Hogwarts.