Fate of Fangs, Claws, and Hearts | Marauders Fanfic / Part 1 (paused)

2 - When everything changed

*Bursts into the room, dramatically dropping a heap of guilt and full-moon regrets*

...

Remus' POV:

As I regained the ability to think clearly and felt the curse hesitantly leaving my body, a sense of humanity returned, albeit with incredible pain. Fear spread within me. The pain and the metallic taste in my mouth signaled nothing good. Gasping, I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in my side stopped me. Someone pressed me back into the snow and covered me with a cloak. Blinking hard, I recognized the blurred face of Padfoot above me, looking stern yet shocked. »Slowly,« he instructed.
The pressure against my shoulder lessened, but I did not calm down. My breathing quickened as I rolled onto my side. I spat blood into the snow, suppressed a gag reflex, and wiped my mouth. Reaching for my side, a piercing pain shot through my body. My hand came away bloody, and a large claw mark and bite were visible on my side.

Did I attack myself?
It made no sense; I had never hurt myself this badly, even when chained in the Shrieking Shack.
This realization filled me with terror.

My breathing grew faster, my heart raced, and I began to shiver. I felt nauseous, ice-cold, yet numb with fear. I stared at my hand, oblivious to the cold snow, on the verge of a panic attack.
The hours when I had been a monster were over, but why did I feel as if I were still one? Why was there blood everywhere, and why couldn't I calm down? Damn it!
»Moony! Calm down, breathe in and out, do you hear?« someone shook my shoulders, »Look at me, Moony, look at me!«
Padfoot's grey eyes met my gaze, and reluctantly, I calmed down, managing to stave off the impending panic attack. With my friend, I breathed in and out until my breathing was almost normal.
»Good, it's not what you think,« he reassured me, knowing my thoughts. Had I injured an innocent person? Had I killed someone, become the monster I feared?
»What is it, then?« I asked, upset, my voice shrill. I tried to stay calm, swallowing the lump in my throat. I blinked too often, clenched my jaw tightly to stop my teeth from chattering.
Prongs knelt on my other side, his glasses askew, no longer wearing his cloak.
»Hey, calm down, alright?« his brown eyes looked at me sternly. He held my other shoulder. Slowly, I calmed down and managed to nod slightly.
»She got you pretty bad...« he muttered, »let me cast a few healing spells.«

What...?

»She...?« I asked, confused, lifting my left arm as the Gryffindor provisionally closed my wound.
»Yeah, her. That was quite a fight.« Prongs looked at me.
Now I was even more confused. At least his words made me think, momentarily forgetting my own panic.
The two quickly noticed my confusion and Padfoot explained, »A werewolf appeared, and you attacked each other. She was with a pack of wolves, but instead of attacking us, she pushed the wolves back, then you fought.«
»A second werewolf, with a pack...?« I asked incredulously.
»What are you doing?!« Sirius sounded upset, trying to push me back into the snow, but I brushed off his hands and shakily stood. I put on Padfoot's cloak. Prongs also stood, holding his side. Immediately, I felt guilty, wished this night was all just a bad dream. Of course, it was not.
»I'm fine, really, it's not bad,« my friend reassured me quickly, but I could not even nod.
My gaze went blankly past him, then I saw her. A girl lay there, and I immediately felt sick. Her intense, fiery red hair caught my eye. Waves of pain and adrenaline flooded my body. Many thoughts swirled through my head, but I could not remember what had happened.

Sirius' POV:

Remus was already imagining the worst about what he had done as the monster he often called himself. But actually, he had done nothing, and that was the crucial point.
I could read Moony's expressions like an open book. They changed from disbelief to shock, then to concern and fear. With attempted firm steps, he moved, although in excruciating pain. Pain caused by the girl.
Under other circumstances, I would find it amusing: Moony was attacked by a girl, but the seriousness of the situation was too clear. I exchanged a glance with Prongs and muttered, »She needs to go to the Hospital Wing...«
»We will have to explain to Dumbledore why we were in the forest with Remus at full moon,« my best friend, who could read my thoughts, replied; of course, the headmaster did not know we had been following Moony into the woods for the last two full moons, and that we were unregistered Animagi.
Now we would have to explain because Remus could not possibly explain to Dumbledore that he had decided not to go to the Shrieking Shack. That would have too many consequences for him.