Bless the Beasts and the Children - 15. Chapter 15

The night of the full moon had arrived, much as Remus might wish otherwise. He could barely sleep the night before, so stressed out with the knowledge of what was going to happen. Sirius tried his best, but not even he could take Remus’ mind off his upcoming transformation.

He headed to the headmaster’s office well in advance of the time he needed to be there. Generally, Sirius would walk with him there, but tonight he was acting rather odd… almost furtive. They managed to get in a quick kiss, but then Sirius took off, to Remus’ disappointment, leaving him to wonder if maybe having a werewolf for a boyfriend was too much for even Sirius to handle. He swallowed his resentment when he spotted Dumbledore, and put as good a face on it as he could.

“Everything will be fine, Remus,” Dumbledore assured him with a gentle pat on his arm. But Remus wasn’t quite as confident.

As they walked across the grounds, toward the Whomping Willow, he noticed Dumbledore stop once or twice and glance around him. For a moment, Remus was horrified. Had someone discovered his secret, was he about to be denounced before the whole school for the monster he was?

He glanced at the headmaster, and something of his fear must have shown in his eyes, for Dumbledore quickly reassured him. “It’s nothing, nothing at all,” and gave Remus a warm smile. “Just an old man hearing things.” But what he thought he’d heard, he never divulged.

As usual, the vicinity of the Whomping Willow was desolate of all traffic when they arrived.

“Good night, Remus,” Dumbledore said, once he’d poked the knot which would admit Remus to the safety of the tree, and the passageway to the Shrieking Shack. He seemed to hesitate for a moment. Remus grew anxious again as he watched the older man scan their surroundings.

The wind had picked up a bit, sighing through the branches of the willow. From somewhere up above, a bird chirped as it flew by. Otherwise, all was still.

Wait, was that a rustle? Remus started, glanced about in dismay. He heard nothing more, though. And as he watched, a small smile crept over Dumbledore’s face. Remus decided either the headmaster had gone barmy, or nothing was wrong. He hoped for the latter, but braced himself for the former, as he entered the tree.

Sighing, he began to meander down the passage. No hurry. He was alone, and would be all night, just him and the wolf. At least the students of Hogwarts would be safe from the beast.

His mind wandered, as it invariably did, to Sirius. He loved Sirius with all his heart. He’d never known anyone even remotely like the sexy brunet, who’d stolen his heart from the moment they’d met. He wasn’t blind to Sirius’s faults, but then again, Remus was hardly perfect himself. He was glad he’d told Sirius and the others about himself, even though he was afraid they’d never speak to him again. But he’d been wrong, and their friendship had survived.

But would his and Sirius’ relationship, if Sirius found out about what Remus was up to with Snape, innocent though that was? Remus knew, in his heart of hearts, that Sirius would not see it that way, and Sirius had the ability to break into terrible rages, and he could also be vindictive at times. Remus blamed this on his family, but that didn’t mean he liked to see it. Remus was a pacifist through and through, and abhorred violence.

Odd, considering he was a once-a-month werewolf.

Wait, what was that?

Remus turned and looked back the way he’d come, apprehensive once again. Was that whispering he heard? Who could possibly have gotten in here? No one else knew the secret of the knot.

“Ouch, be careful,” Remus heard, and the voice was too familiar not to recognize at once.

Remus pulled his wand and softly uttered, “Lumos,” even as he walked softly toward the sound. There he was met with a totally unexpected sight.

Sirius was lying flat on the ground, Peter lying across him, struggling to get up. James was shaking with silent laughter, holding a cloak in his hand. Remus’ eyes grew wide as he recognized James’ Invisibility Cloak. Matters were becoming clearer now. The three boys had obviously followed Remus and Dumbledore to the Willow. But why?

Oh dear, what time was it?

“You should not be here,” Remus hissed. “What in the name of Merlin is going on here?” He couldn’t decide if he were happier to see them or angry that they’d chosen this night and this place for their antics.

Sirius glanced up, chagrin written all over his handsome face, mingled with something else. Cheekiness, for some reason Remus couldn’t fathom. What was there in this situation to be happy about?

“James, get him off,” he instructed, and James finally helped first Peter, then Sirius to his feet. Sirius shot Peter a dour look. The unfortunate boy tried to hide behind James.

“Sorry, Siri, I got tangled in the cloak.”

“I noticed,” Sirius growled. “And don’t call me that.”

Remus was growing more agitated by the second. “You lot need to get out of here, right now. Don’t argue with me, just go. I don’t know why you thought this was a good idea, but I’m here to tell you it’s not, and you know why. Please!”

He couldn’t bear the thought of transforming and harming his friends. That would be an unbearable burden, one he couldn’t live with. He almost wrenched out a sob.

“It’s all right, Remus,” Sirius tried to reassure him. The three drew nearer, James folding the cloak and pushing it out of sight. “We came for you, to be with you, in your…er… time of need.”

Wasn’t that a delicate way of saying what he meant? But Remus didn’t have time for delicacy. It wouldn’t be long now, and the wolf within would take over, and Remus would have no control over what he did.

“You have to go, you have to go!” he repeated. Sirius had reached him, and now he laid one slender finger across Remus’ lips, silencing him.

“Shh, it’s all right, you’ll see,” he repeated.

But how could anything be right when they were about to be killed?

“We are going to stay here with you, and it’ll be good,” Sirius assured him, and before Remus could voice another objection, he turned to Peter and said, “Go ahead.”

Go ahead? And what? Remus wondered, in his distress clinging to Sirius’s arm as if it were a life preserver. Normally, he would not touch him if they weren’t alone, but these were not normal times.

Peter seemed to be muttering to himself, focused inward, and Remus found himself staring in curiosity, despite the direness of their straits.

“You can do it, just relax, Peter,” James encouraged him, which only confused Remus all the more. He glanced at Sirius, who seemed a little less confident now, judging by the look passing across his face as he watched Peter do whatever he was doing. But then he turned his big sexy smile on Remus, and Remus forgot to be afraid, almost missing what transpired.

Suddenly, Peter was gone. Just vanished. At least, he thought so, until he saw James kneel and scoop something up. When he stood once more, Remus could see he held a rat in his hands. What?

Then Remus’ eyes grew big. Surely… surely not…

“Is that Peter?” He scarcely dared to breathe. What in the world was going on here?

“It is,” James said, pride evident in his voice.

“Took him forever but he did it,” Sirius said.

“Did what?” Remus wanted to know.

“Transfiguration,” James replied. “We’ve been working on our spells ever since we found out. About you, I mean.”

“You what?” Remus was dumbfounded. “You shouldn’t know how to transform into animals. Are you saying you can all do it? But how? Why?”

“James, go ahead,” Sirius said, before he turned to Remus and explained. “To be with you, of course. On full moon nights. We can’t do this any other way, and we didn’t want you to be alone anymore.”

Remus’ eyes prickled with tears. Could this be? His best friends had taken it on themselves to study things even more advanced wizards didn’t know, mastered the art of transformation, just for him?

And now he saw James was a large, magnificent stag. He took Remus’ breath away.

“And what are you?” Remus was almost afraid to ask.

“I’m a dog!” Sirius laughed. “You can call me Padfoot.” He pulled Remus close and kissed him. “Gotta change quickly, sorry. Love you.” The next moment, Sirius had disappeared and a large black dog stood in his place.

Just in time, too, as Remus felt the familiar pull of his monthly transformation. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, as the change washed over him, and he succumbed to his curse once again.