The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Bandages

Bandages

James and Peter were up and dressed and out to the tunnel of the Whomping Willow first thing in the morning, long before most of the castle was up for breakfast, even. The ankles of their robes were soaked from the morning dew, carrying armfuls of bandages and pain relieving potions they'd knicked from Madam Pomfrey's store in an empty pillowcase as they charged through the dark to the trap door in the floor of the Shrieking Shack. They pushed open the door, afraid of what they'd find - and rightfully so - for Sirius was on the floor, kneeling beside Remus, who lay on his back on the floor, still passed out from the transformation... He'd torn Remus's slacks away to get to the injured area - his leg was a terrible mess of blood, rings of clear bite marks where his jaw had clamped down lined his skin. The sleeves of Sirius's oxford were stained with blood already...

"Here, we're here," Peter breathed as he ran over and dumped the pillowcase he'd carried all the way from the castle to the Shack out beside Sirius. "What do we do?" Bobbins of gauze rolled about Sirius on the floor.

"Dunno," Sirius said, shakily.

James sat at Remus's head, pulling it onto his lap carefully as Sirius grabbed a roll of gauze and tried to bandage up the cuts but they were bleeding through. "Try a mending charm," James suggested. "Muggles sew cuts together all the time. That's what they did for me on the cut Snape gave me last Christmas," he added. "It was suturo, I think... like suture."

Sirius took his wand out of his pocket. "Suturo," Sirius tried and he guided his wand along the cuts... watching as a silvery thread emitted from his wand tip, stitching along the separated bits of skin, pulling them together. "It's working," he said, and he hastened to sew the dozens of cuts all along Remus's legs and arms, where the wolf had bitten and clawed the himself all through the night. Sirius stared down at him as he worked, Peter following up with the gauze as James held Remus's head in his lap.

Together, the three boys repaired their mate.

It wasn't until after Remus was mended that Sirius said, "I... I need one of you to... to help me with this." He unbuttoned his Oxford slowly, his hands shaking with nervousness, and he shrugged the shirt off to reveal a mark on his arm, between his elbow and his bicep... a halfmoon shape like the ones on Remus's thighs and calves. "I can't mend it myself..."

"You've been bit?" breathed Peter, terrified.

Sirius's throat ached. "Just... just sew it, please."

James moved over and he drew out his wand, "Suturo," he said, staring at the bite with wide, frightened eyes.

Peter's voice shook, "But doesn't that mean you're - you're a werewolf now, too?"

"Dunno," Sirius's voice shook, too. "I - I didn't change when it happened. I was in dog form when it happened, though. I'd jumped at him to stop him biting himself and -- well, I don't think he meant to bite me.. He was trying to bite himself again and I blocked it and... well, you see."

James finished guiding his wand along it, and Peter leaned in with the gauze. "Do werewolf bites affect animals?" James asked.

"Dunno," Sirius answered.

Peter shivered and looked down at Remus for a second before turning his eyes back to Sirius's stitched up arm as he tied the gauze off, finishing the wrapping of the wound.

"Thanks guys," Sirius murmured, shrugging his oxford back on over his shoulders, but leaving it unbuttoned. He looked about at them, "Please. Don't tell Rey."