The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

Magnificent Teeth

James and Lily tumbled through the floo in the Lion's Den, and James hopefully looked around the dining room there, scanning for Sirius and Remus as he tossed a couple sickles into a jar for the use of the network. They ran down the street in Godric's Hollow, past what Lily now thought of as "their spot" by the fountain, and on down the street, past Bathilda Bagshot's, on to the old Dumbledore house. Every step of the way, James was hoping to see Sirius and Remus running toward them, having just realized how late they were... but of course, there came no moment of relief like that, only further building anxiety as it became clearer and clearer that there had been something terrible that had happened during the moon...

At the edge of the woods James stopped short. "Fuck," he choked, heart in his throat. "Fuck." 

Lily's face was pale. "Now what?" she asked anxiously. "Have you got your broom?"

"No." He thought a moment, "I'll have to transform. You can ride on my back."

"Alright." Lily watched as James walked anxiously in a couple circles, and then transformed into his stag form. He staggered a couple of moments, getting used to his new legs, and once he seemed steady, she raced over. The stag knelt down, lowing his antlers, and Lily climbed onto his back. The stag made a series of funny little honks as she wrapped her arms about the beasts's neck. "I do hope that you're remaining a gentleman, Mr. Potter," she said, raising an eyebrow as she straddled him.

The stag honked.

Lily stroked the stag's strong neck and rubbed a little behind his antlers in the soft fur and a shiver went down his spine. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms about him and took a deep breath as her cheek touched his fur. "Okay," she said, "I'm ready."

The stag moved - slowly a first to be sure she had her grip, but once he was sure that she was safely on him, James started running, darting, leaping over logs and low brush, trying to be careful not to let branches hit Lily, using his antlers to deflect anything that might. He moved as quickly as he could through the trees, smelling for the wolf and the dog.

He was about three-quarters of the way to the camping area when he smelled something that made him stop. He froze and peered through the trees, his ears raised, eyes searching the brush.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

James couldn't answer of course but he snuffled, hoping she would understand to be quiet. Luckily, she did. James lowered his head and moved slowly forward, taking each step gingerly, trying to avoid things that would crack beneath the weight of his steps.

There was a smell on the air of a wolf... but not Remus's wolf.

"SIRIUS?" Remus didn't know what to do. He'd struggled and though it was very painful to do he'd managed at crawling, dragging his side, slowly, desperately trying to find Sirius Black. He'd ascertained that the majority of the blood on him was not his own. He had a gash on his shoulder, and one across his thigh, but they were oozing slowly, not pumping the way a wound would need to in order to produce the amount of blood he had on his hands and drenching his clothes. Somewhere, Sirius was injured, and badly.

"SIRIUS!" Remus paused, hearing something moving through the trees. "Sirius?" His voice was a bit quieter than it had been on previous shouts, and he looked in the direction of the sound. He could smell it, and it turned his stomach.

Through the trees stepped a man - a narrow man with a mischievous grin playing on his face, with long black hair that hung in dreadlocks about his face, like thick ropes of matted hair. His eyes flashed with amusement as he chuckled, his narrow-ankles encased in harshly laced boots and black and white striped trousers that seemed more like a fashion choice of one of the punk rock bands that Sirius would have listened to than for a man taking a walk in the woods. His billowing black button-up shirt was an easy three to four sizes larger than he really needed to wear for his stature.