The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Dragon Fighting

Dragon Fighting

It was a week before Remus was transported from St. Mungo's back to Hogwarts. In the time he was gone, it was hard not to notice that one fifth of the Gryffindor Third Years were missing and a great many questions were raised about where Remus had gone, just as Sirius had feared. Most of the students in Hogwarts were quite aware that Sirius, James, and Peter were the best source for answers to the questions they had and the boys found themselves bombarded.

Remus gave them a funny look from his side of the lunch table in the Great Hall, his leg propped up across two spaces at the bench, wrapped in a great white plaster cast. "Why are all the Ravenclaws looking over here at me?" Remus asked, glancing about the room. "And the Hufflepuffs, too, for that matter...?"

Sirius was inspecting the chicken drumstick he was about to bite into thoughtfully. "Well, I reckon it's because they think you were injured battling a dragon in the Forbidden Forest."

Remus looked at Sirius in surprise, "Come again?" he asked.

Sirius had taken a gigantic bite of the drumstick and was chewing loudly, so James supplied the explanation, "Yeah, seems it somehow got out that it was a dragon bite what's got your leg a mess." He winked.

Remus snorted, "A dragon? You told them I was fighting dragons?"

"We told them you won, too!" Peter squeaked.

"Actually, Sirius sang the news to them," James said.

Sirius swallowed his chicken with a great big gulp, a grin spreading over his face, and he quickly broke into song, "Remus was draa-gon fiiigh-tiiiing... his kicks were fast as lightning... in fact, it was a little bit frightening! The dragon fought with expert timing!"

Remus couldn't help but laugh, grinning almost as widely as Sirius was. It felt good to laugh again, even if the effort of it did ache in his ribs. It had been a long week at St. Mungo's Hospital, and he was very glad to finally be home at Hogwarts. He'd missed Sirius, James, and Peter something sore - life at St. Mungo's had been terribly boring without his mates to keep him company. Tizzy was sweet, but the little house elf wasn't the same as his friends, though she was really good at card games and wizarding chess. She had happily spent hours sitting on Remus's bed and playing games while the healers did what they could to fix him. Listening to Sirius's horrible singing was like a breath of fresh air.

"He was chopping them up, he was chopping them down..." Sirius was still singing.

"Those nitwits believed all that?" Remus snorted.

James nodded, jumping up so he was kneeling on the bench. "We told'em you showed those dragons a thing or two -- a one-two...three-four..." he mimed a fist fight, and Remus laughed as he watched James whirl about on the bench playfully.

"I reckon they're all staring in wonder at the legend," Peter said.

"You three are positively insane," Remus announced.

"Us three? It was Lily's idea," said Sirius. It was true. Sirius had pitched the fear he had about what they would all say when students besides Frank Longbottom asked what was going on with Remus. He'd pointed out that it would need to be a magical malady, otherwise Pomfrey would've been able to do something for it there at Hogwarts, so they'd brainstormed and Lily had gotten a book from the library on magical maladies and their healing processes and compared nonfatal werewolf bites to a load of other injuries. All together they'd all agreed upon spreading about a rumor thTRemus Lupin had been attacked by a baby dragon in the Forbidden Forest.