The Marauders: Moony

Remus And The Owls

What Remus didn't know was that the mysterious girl was also looking for him. He didn't know how relieved she felt to not be the only werewolf at Hogwarts. He didn't know how her eyes darted around the corridors looking for bite marks, scratches, anything that would give his identity away.

She had covered hers so well with foundation and concealer, just like she had practiced over the Summer. She had it down to a fine art, which made it impossible for Remus to spot any clues of her being a werewolf.

When Remus was finally discharged from the hospital wing two days later, his body still ached with a dull reminder of the full moon and what he had failed to achieve. He felt almost guilty about not being able to discover the identity of the girl, and it was eating away at him from the inside.

"Let's play a prank tonight Moon', kind of like a celebration of you being out of the hospital wing." Sirius Black said, snuggling into Remus's shoulder.

Remus patted him on the head and sighed in defeat.

"What did you have in mind?" Remus asked, rolling his eyes at how easily he had given in.

Sirius looked up at him with that familiar smirk.

"Let's target the Slytherin's shall we?" Sirius asked.

Remus hated to target a specific group but he knew why Sirius had chosen the Slytherins and he couldn't object.

"Fine, let's get James and Pete." Remus said, standing up from his chair in the library.

The two boys made their way up to the Gryffindor common room, where they found James and Peter playing wizard's chess in the corner of the room.

Sirius gave the boys the familiar nod, to which they swiftly walked out of the common room, knowing what the signal meant.

"So Padfoot, what's the plan?" Asked James, leaning back and folding his arms. Everyone knew that James was the plan master, he was just playing with Sirius.

"The Slytherins'" Sirius replied, shuffling his boots on the floor.

James smirked and his eyes lit up from behind his misty glasses.

"I have a plan." He said, turning and walking away, leaving the three other boys to run along to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" Peter whispered.

"I have no clue, Pete." Remus said as he pulled the sleeves of his jumper down over his frosty hands. 

The boys walked silently up to the owlery. The sky was starting to darken so Remus pulled out his wand, casting light from the end of it to guide the way.

"So?" He asked, once they reached the top of the stairs.

"We confound every single Slytherin owl!" Exclaimed James with that golden glint in his eye which he got every time he came up with a wild prank.

Peter started to laugh until he realized that James was serious, something he should have known by now is that James's pranks were nothing if not extravagant.

"And how do we do that?"

"Dedication my friends." James said with a swish of his wand in the direction of a Slytherin owl.

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The next morning, the four boys could hardly hold back their laughter as the flock of owls appeared. The Slytherin owls were a mess, flying into the candlesticks, delivering mail to the wrong people or dropping the mail altogether.

"It worked!" Exclaimed Peter excitedly.

"Shhh!" Exclaimed Sirius, who although enjoyed a good prank, did not want to give the game away that it had been the four boys who had done it.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were well known for their pranks, so most people already suspected them, but as they liked to remind McGonagall whenever they were accused of something, they were 'innocent until proven guilty.'

Remus felt his spirits brighten a little, and the day seemed to go rather quickly.

That evening, Remus went to the library, as he did almost every night.

He strolled down the aisles of books and was just about to get one off the shelf when a hand brushed his.

"I'm so so sorry, I didn't realize you wanted that book."

He looked down at the girl.

"It's okay, here." He said, handing her the book.

She smiled up at him over her freckles.

"Thank you." She said, reaching out for the book. She looked down and gasped.

"What happened to your hands?" She asked, her eyes widening.

Remus dropped the book and pulled his sleeves down over his hands like he always did out of habit to hide the destruction.

His hands were particularly bad after the last full moon, clawing at the door. His nails were short and ragged and rimmed with bruises.

"Nothing... I.. Umm..." He stammered.

She reached out and grasped his hand, peeling back his knitted sleeve to inspect it. She pulled his hand up close to her face and bit down on her bottom lip in thought.

"I want to be a healer one day you know... May I?" She asked.

He hadn't cared about his hands before. After all the massive splinters and deep gashes he turned up to the hospital wing in, his messy hands were the least of his and Madam Pomfrey's worries.

"Yes of course. Thank you." He said, blushing a little as she took his wrist and guided him to the back of the library.

"Sit down." She said gently. It was a command but didn't sound like one.

Remus watched as she wandered off and came back with a book almost the same size as her. She put it down on the table with a loud thud and a small cloud of dust erupted from the spine, showing that it had not been moved in years.

She dusted the cover off with her sleeve before flicking through it. Remus watched as she tucked a stray piece of her dark brown hair behind her ear and her eyes lit up when she got to the part she was looking for.

"I'm sorry if this hurts." She said, pulling her wand out of the waistband of her skirt.

She held his hand gently in hers and began to mutter some spells, checking the book every so often. 

Peaceful blue wisps of light danced out of the end of her wand and onto his skin, lighting it up for a brief moment before they spread out, their healing powers beginning to lighten his bruises and clean up his cuts.

Remus didn't even notice when she was done for he had been enjoying it too much.

"Sorted." She smiled at him.

He looked down at his hands, the hands which looked so unfamiliar. Hands without cuts or bruises, hands which were clean and pure for once.

He looked down at her blue tie. Ravenclaw.

"Thank you." He smiled in return.

"It's okay. You've actually helped me by giving me someone to practice on." She muttered.

"So uh... What's your name?" He asked her.

"Freya... Yours?"

"Remus... Remus Lupin."