The Marauders: Year Four

Catching Remus Up

Catching Remus Up

Lily sat in the tunnel beneath the trapdoor. She thought about unlatching it and sneaking a peek into the Shrieking Shack a couple of times - after all, she'd never seen a werewolf before - but it seemed like every time she thought about it, there would come a scraping movement on the door above her head and dust would fall from the cracks and she realized that the werewolf was directly over her and she'd shiver and hug her knees, fearful of being so close to such a dangerous creature...

She wondered where Sirius and James had gone off to, and if they'd found a way to go to the Lestrange Manor, if Peter and Ali and Frank would be alright, if she'd ever see any of them again...

It seemed like forever in the dark beneath the Shack. It was easily the longest night of her life. But finally, as she was nodding between sleep and wake, she heard a different sort of scratching on the door overhead... and a cracking... and she shivered, remembering what Sirius had said - that she'd be able to hear Remus's bones - and her stomach churned a bit. She shuffled up to her knees and reached for the latch, gingerly undoing it and slowly inching it up so that only an itty bitty crack of light came along the very edge... Pale sunlight ran in dust-filled shafts from the cracks in the window coverings... and Remus Lupin laid on his side on the hardwood floor, his eyes closed.

Poor Remus was paler than usual, which was fairly alarming because he always had a rather colourless complexion as a result of his Furry Little Problem. A new, narrow cut ran across his nose, crossing slightly with the scar that was already there, and one from his upper lip across his mid-cheek as well. He looked peaceful, despite the cuts on his face. Lily pushed the trap door open further and crawled through, sitting on the edge of it and tugging her knees up to her chest to be able to close the door.

She blushed when she looked over at Remus again - like Sirius had been, Remus was only wearing his undershorts. Clearly they'd been up to something. She blushed even harder at that thought, and hurriedly looked away from him. Her eyes landed on some blankets on the floor by the hearth and she got up and collected one. It smelled like dog. She wrinkled her nose up, and shook it out... loads of black fur came out of the folds of the blanket.

Funny, in all her imaginings of Remus as a wolf, she'd never once pictured him with black fur.

She carried the blanket over to where Remus lay and put the blanket over him, gentle, trying not to wake him, but wanting to give him his modesty, too. She was careful not to look at anything as she covered him up... but even as much as she kept her eyes averted, she couldn't help but see some of the scars that marred his chest and arms, hot pink against his pale skin.

Lily sat down beside him.

Though she'd known about Remus's condition ages ago, it had never really occurred to her how terrible the experience must be for him. She looked about the shack, feeling the cold nipping at her skin and giving her goose pimples, even through her nightgown and jacket, and imagined spending long nights out here. She tried to imagine going through a transformation that made bones crack the way Remus's had - loud enough to hear through a heavy wood door! - and all the horrible things that must've happened to cause the scars that striped him. It made her throat ache to think that gentle, sweet Remus Lupin had been through all that.

Lily reached down and ran a hand over his forehead - he was burning with fever - and pushed the curls back.

"Padfoot? That you?" he murmured, a sleepy smile coming over his face as he stretched, having not yet opened his eyes, "Getting frisky so early, are you? Bloody hell, didn't you get a fair enough share of snogging last night when we were ---" He opened his eyes and saw her and Lily blushed again. "You're not Sirius," he said in dismay.