The Little Marauder

(10) The Little Werewolf

Thursday February 16, 1978

Tonight was another one of the nights where the boys dispersed and would come back in the morning. Andy still wasn't able to figure out where they were really going once a month.

She was getting tired of them lying to her and acting as though she wouldn't understand. All she wanted was to be more involved. Was it that they didn't trust her? Was it because she was too young?

"Alright, we'll be back in the morning, Andy," Peter said.

"Goodnight, Wormy, see you tomorrow," Andy said sadly.

Peter ignored the sadness in her tone and left with the others without the invisibility cloak. After only ten seconds Andy had an extremely dangerous idea. She jumped out of bed, grabbed the invisibility cloak and ran to the door out of the dorm. Andy took a deep breath and turned the knob.

There was no one in the corridor except at the end of which she could see Peter walking down the stairs. She threw the cloak over herself and ran after him down the stairs into the common room, which was completely empty.

Peter was with James and Sirius but Remus had left a few minutes before them so he must be ahead of them. They walked out the common room and down more stairs. They walked for about another ten minutes before they got outside. It was pretty cold and Andy didn't have a jacket. She tried to ignore the cold and just focused on following the boys.

Ahead of Sirius, James, and Peter were two figures walking in the same direction Andy was. She couldn't tell who they were but it didn't seem to bother the boys and they kept walking. The two figures stopped in front of a tree that's branches were swinging all around. The three boys hid behind a bush while the shorter of the figures pulled out a wand and did something to stop the tree from attacking them.

They walked towards the tree and disappeared. The other three followed but Andy noticed that Peter was gone and instead there was a rat running toward the tree, whose branches were swinging again.

The rat turned into Peter and touched a knot on the tree making it freeze again. Sirius and James ran after Peter, Andy ran as fast as she could behind them and followed them into a hole in the tree.

It was almost ditch black and Andy could barely see. It was a cold and narrow passage and she wondered where it led.

"Pete, the cloak," James whispered.

"Uh, I thought Sirius had it," Peter responded, looking terrified.

"What?!" Sirius yelled, still in a whisper.

"I'm sorry," Peter said, sighing.

"Then how the fuck do are we gonna hide from Poppy?" Sirius said angrily.

"We can just wait down stairs and wait for her to leave," Peter suggested.

"Fine, then Moony will have to go through the transformation without me," Sirius said in frustration.

"Well I'm sorry, alright there's nothing we can do now!"

"Whatever," Sirius said, annoyed.

Who's "Poppy"? What transformation does Remus have? Why and how did Pete turn into a bloody rat?

Andy was very confused, but she was finally going to figure it out tonight.

"Alright now we'll wait here," James said and they all stopped at the bottom of a set of stairs. Andy could hear two voices coming from up the stairs. She could tell one of them easily, Moony.

She saw an older woman walk down the stairs, that must be Poppy. She looked like a healer because she had a healer's cloth on her head.

The boys stayed really quiet and she didn't seem to notice their presence. That's when Andy heard a blood curdling scream come from upstairs that made Andy shiver. It must belong to Remus. Sirius let out a whimper and his eyes filled with tears.

After "Poppy" was gone the boys sprinted upstairs, Andy running after them.

"Alohomora," James said, pointing his wand at the door, opening it. All three boys turned into different animals. James was a stag, Peter was still a rat, and Sirius was a dog.

Andy slipped in the room before Sirius kicked it closed with his front paws. She gasped loudly when she saw a huge werewolf standing in the middle of the room. It couldn't be Remus, right? She asked herself.

All four animals must have heard her because they turned to look in her direction. The wolf started to walk towards her slowly and sniffing. She held her breath and stayed as still as possible. Tears filled her eyes, she was petrified. If it was Remus, he wouldn't hurt her! She tried to convince herself.

The wolf's nose was right in front of her face. He ripped the cloak off her. Padfoot barked and jumped in front of Andy. Prongs ran over and tried to hold Moony back with his antlers but it was no use.

The werewolf got away and pushed Padfoot out of the way and ran right at Andy. She screamed and tried to crawl away but the wolf caught her leg with his teeth, digging into her skin.

Andy tried to kick him away with her other foot but it was no use. She was bleeding all over the hardwood floor. She screamed out for someone to help.

The dog and stag pushed him off and the stag kept him pinned to the floor while Padfoot turned back into a human and ran to Andy.

"Andy! No, no, please be okay," he begged. His grey eyes were full of tears and was sobbing loudly as he held her. He picked her and the cloak up and ran out of the dark, cold, horrible room. Andy started to see black dots and felt really sleepy.

"P-pads, I-I don't f-fell good," she mumbled sleepily.

"I know, I know sweetheart but I need you to be strong alright, darling?" Sirius begged while running out of the tree and back outside into the cold. Andy tried to nod but it was hard to move.

Andy started to drift into unconsciousness but Sirius shook her awake making her groan. "I know it's hard sweetheart but stay with me, I can't lose you," Sirius cried.

After ten minutes of Sirius talking to Andy to stay awake they got back to the dorm. Once Sirius laid Andy on her bed she couldn't help it any more and fell asleep.

***

"Fuck! FUCK! What did I do?!" Andy woke up late in the afternoon the next day to Remus's yelling.

"It'll be fine, Moony," Sirius tried to calm him down.

Andy sat up and rubbed her eyes. They all looked over at her but Remus just turned around and walked out of the dormitory slamming the door behind him.

"W-what happened?" Andy asked.

"Andy, why did you follow us?" James walked over to her and sat on the bed.

"I was just curious, I'm sorry I upset you," Andy sniffled.

"Andy, it was only for your protection and now you got really hurt."

"I don't feel too bad anymore though! So everything is okay!" Andy said hopefully.

"No Andy you're not!" Sirius said, finally joining the conversation.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"You got bit by a werewolf, making you one too," Sirius said bluntly. Andy's eyes filled with tears and James pulled her into a tight hug.