A Love Without Time (Remus Lupin)

Four.

"It's okay to be nervous, Ellie," said Sirius.
   
"I'm okay," I tell him. I had met Sirius, James, and Peter downstairs in the Common Room at the time they told me to meet them. This would be the first time I attempted to turn into an Animagus. I got close again over the past few weeks. I saw the shape of the form of the animal that I am going to turn into, and I've taken all the steps in order to transform, but the shape was clear enough that I could tell what Animal it was. I just hope that it works.
   
"Come on, he should be transformed by now," said James and then he opened up a sliver piece of large cloth he had with him we all huddled together while James wrapped us in the cloth.

Since there were four of us, it didn't cover all of us perfectly, but it covered us enough that we made it out of the castle. Where we all placed our wands to our hearts and said, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus."
   
The three boys began to transform. Peter transformed first into a small brown rat and ran to the Whomping Willow tree, hitting the small knot with his paw and it stopped flailing about. Suddenly I was in excruciating pain. It knocked me onto my hands and knees. I felt like I was going to throw up.
   
I watched my hands start to turn into paws with white fur. Sirius was already in his dog form, and he was a very pretty, big, black dog. James was already a stag as well, and he was huge. Then, the pain stopped, and I tried to talk but what came out was a tiny squeak. James went to the opening and walked through it, Sirius beckoned his head towards the opening, telling me to follow him.
   
We walked down a dark tunnel together. I watched as James led the way. Peter was nowhere to be seen. He was so small and dark that he was hard to see. When we reached the Shrieking Shack, I could hear Remus rummaging around. It sounded very similar to what my dad used to do. It sounded like he was scratching on the hardwood floors or something.
   
Sirius propped himself up to open the door with his front paws and we entered to see a transformed Remus staring at us. He stopped growling, and he looked at us, and he must've known who we were, because he was very quiet. Sirius trotted up to Remus and nudged him with his big head. Remus nudges him back with his arm.
   
Peter climbs onto Sirius's back as Remus looks at me, and he stares at me like he doesn't know who I am. I don't even know what animal I am. I haven't seen my form yet. He steps towards me, Sirius traveling behind him, keeping an eye on his friend. 
   
I must be a smaller animal, at least smaller than Sirius and James, because Remus crouched down to look at me. He stared into my eyes, and swear I saw him crack a tiny smile before he darted past me. Sirius following him with Peter on his back, James took off too. I followed them after James left the room.
   
We ran around together in the Forbidden Forest for hours. I kept up with the boys despite them being bigger than them. So I was a smaller animal but I was a fast animal. After about two hours of running around we stopped at the Black Lake to get a drink of water. It was then that I saw my form in the reflections of the lake. I was a snow white bunny rabbit. My eyes were similar to how they are when I'm human. Round and dark brown.
   
We ran around keeping Remus from going complete savage. Sirius started a game where he let Remus chase him around. It was funny to watch. When the sun started to come up, Remus turned back into himself first. He was shirtless, on his hands and knees, panting to catch his breath. I hopped over to him, and I rubbed my head onto his leg. He looked at me, smiled, and he patted my head.
   
We walked back to the Shrieking Shack, where we turned back into ourselves. Remus looked surprised to see me, and his words solidified it. "I thought you didn't finish becoming an Animagus."
   
"I started again last month, after you and I talked in the Common Room."
   
"You didn't have to do that for me, Eloise."
   
"I wanted to," I admit, shrugging. "I've always wanted to do it. Talking to you that night was the push that I needed to try again."
   
"Well, you're welcome. You're a pretty cute bunny, and very tiny next to James and Sirius."

I chuckle at his joke, and he laughs too for a moment. It was as if we didn't have three teenage boys staring at us. Sirius was smiling proudly, of course. James and Peter were smiling too, but not as proudly as Sirius was.
   
I looked back at Remus and I saw he was bleeding again like last time as he slid a shirt on. "Come on, you need to clean up before you get some sleep."
   
James covered us with cloak again when we got to the school grounds and we walked back to the Common Room as quietly as we could. Remus was right next to me, standing as close as we could in order to fit under the cloak. When we reached the Common Room Remus fell onto the couch like last time. He didn't look as tired as he was last time. Which made me infer that tonight must not have been as rough of a time for him.
   
The three boys didn't even say Goodnight, they went straight to bed and left me alone with Remus. I contoured up a First Aid kit again and told Remus to take his shirt off again so I could help clean him off.
   
"You're not as bad as you were last time." I tell him, examining his wounds like I did last time.
   
"Yeah, tonight wasn't that bad," he admits. "You don't have to do this, you know? I can clean myself off."
   
"It's no problem," I tell him. "I always watched my mum do this for my dad. I always hoped that one day I could help someone like that one day."
   
"You're so kind," he says, a slight smile on his lips, "I can't believe I've known you for five years and I didn't know that about you."
   
"Well, my mum was a Hufflepuff, so kindness is kind of in my blood."
   
He chuckles at that, "And your dad, was he a Gryffindor?"
   
"He was," I say, nodding. "He didn't get bit until he was finished with school, but my mum never saw him as anything other than the man that she loved."
   
"I wish more people were like you and your mum."
   
"I do, too," I admit to him.
   
"I would love to be friends with someone like you."
   
I chuckle at that, "We are friends, Remus. I just spent the last 30 days with a Mandrake leaf in my mouth to be able to hang out with you, and I did a bunch of other crazy things, too."
   
"I know," he says, chuckling at it too. "I mean I'd like to get to know you better. I feel like all we talk about is me and my condition. I'd like to talk about you for a change."

"That sounds great," I say as I finished up cleaning him off. "But right now I think that I should get to bed so I can take some rest before I have to be up for school."
   
"Right, of course," he says sitting up now, he sits closer to me. "It was really cool, what you did tonight."
   
"Like I keep telling you, Remus, I wanted to do it. Not just for you, but because I wanted to."
   
He surprised me next by hugging me, he held me tight, like he was desperate to do it. I hug him back after a moment. I felt one of his big hands run up my back. "Thank you anyways. Even if you didn't do it for me, thank you."
   
"You're welcome, Remus," I tell him before he lets me go.
   
He stays downstairs longer than me, and I didn't know how long he was down there when I came back downstairs after a two hour power nap. The five of us decided to skip breakfast because we needed as much sleep as we could. Remus actually smiled when he saw me, it made me smile back.
   
"You ready for class, Ellie?" Asked Sirius. I nodded.
   
"As ready as I can be after only two hours sleep. Good thing we have Binns first class. Maybe he'll put us to sleep and we'll get another hour."
   
James let out a yawn, "Yeah. That's what I'm hoping for, too."
   
"Come on," said Sirius, "let's get going." As we walked to History of Magic, Sirius mentioned something that I never thought of. "So now that Ellie is part of the Marauders, she needs a nickname.
   
"Well she's a bunny, right?" Said James. "Do Female bunnies have a nickname already?"
   
"No thanks," I say, quickly. "I'm not a Marauder. I'll run with you in the moonlight but at the end of the day, you know I'm not really one of you guys. I'm just your friend."
   
"Are you sure, Ellie?" Asked Sirius.
   
"Yeah, it's fine," I tell them. To be honest, I didn't really want to be part of their group. I didn't want to get into trouble and pull pranks. It's bad enough I snuck out of the castle last night. As we walked into our History of Magic lesson, I saw Dorcas was saving me a seat. So I went up to her, said hello, and pulled out my school things, ready for Professor Binns to put me back in to sleep.

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Here's part 4!

And before anyone starts with that "It takes a long time before you turn into an Animagus"  BS, it takes 30 days, and she had gotten close before. So don't fight me on it.

-Emily Winchester.