The Marauders//COMPLETED

18

"Jumping out of the train! Sneaking back into the castle!" McGonagall shrieked. Her face was extremely pale and her lips were pressed so tight together they almost disappeared. "Oh yes," she said when she saw their looks, "Rufus-the train conductor- saw you three jump out the window. Nearly gave him a heart attack. He sent a Patronus to warn us what had happened, but by the time I got here..."

She gestured to Peter, who was sitting on an armchair shaking uncontrollably. "Do you see what you've done? He was going to kill Peter! Would've too, if I hadn't come in time!"

Sirius and James stood against the back wall of her office, silent. Half a semester with McGonagall as their Transfiguration teacher as well as their House Head had taught them to take the blows silently until she cooled down.

"Do you two have no brains?" She asked, exasperated. "At the start of the year, when you two tricked poor Snape into touching the Quagmire I thought that it was just a practical joke. But now I see. Both of you just don't think before you do something!"

She glared at them until they responded.

"Yes, ma'am." was the safest answer at this point.

"We didn't know what we would find down there. We were just looking for Remus," Sirius said. "But it was very stupid." he added when McGonagall's glare fell on him.

Her face softened a little. "Of course you wanted to know what was going on with your friend. I guess that we are partly to blame for all of this. Trying to keep a secret from you two is evidently not one of our smartest moves." a hint of a smile.

"Oh, I meant you three." she corrected. The boys looked confused for a moment and glanced at Peter, who was still shaking and staring at the wall with empty, haunted eyes. "No, not poor Pettigrew. He had better go make some new friends if he wants to survive the year, actually."

Peter jerked alive again at the mention of his name, and half nodded along with McGonagall at the last part. Sirius and James laughed, amused. Little did they know that this was no laughing matter. Simple as this moment may seem, it will play a significant part in the rest of their years at Hogwarts...and their young deaths.

"But no, Peter is not the one that I mean," McGonagall sighed and sat down. "It appears that Rufus wasn't the only one who saw your idiotic leap from the train. Lily Evans was in the next compartment over and decided to pull a similar feat."

"Lily?" James croaked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. I am sure that it is Miss Evans that is currently lying in the Hospital Wing and having the bones in her legs set." McGonagall said severely. James visibly paled.

"The train was going much faster when she jumped out, and she had the misfortune of breaking both her legs when she landed. Argus Filch found her when he was taking a walk around Hogsmeade because he had gotten into a bit of trouble with the Headmaster at the gate." McGonagall looked over her spectacles at them. "The Headmaster was in his office at the time. I should know, we were discussing the midterms."

"But ma'am," Sirius said again. He must be feeling brave today after the run-in with the creature. "Where is that house? Shouldn't it be locked down, and the beast killed or at least sent somewhere else?"

McGonagall sighed and rubbed her hand against her face. "I suppose there's no hiding it from you three now. That house we were in is called the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, and is believed to be haunted. Those were rumors we ourselves encouraged in the students so that there wouldn't be any unfortunate run-ins like the one today."

"But the beast? Isn't it still dangerous? Why is it even there?" Sirius asked, wide eyed. But James thought he knew the answer.

"That was a werewolf," James said quietly. "We studied them in Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."

McGonagall looked grim. "I am glad you pay attention in at least one of your classes, if it's not mine."

"But why is there a werewolf there?" Sirius looked between McGonagall and James, who shared a look.

"The werewolf is one of the students here," McGonagall said quietly. "He of course, means no harm. He wasn't seeing you clearly. He cares a great deal about the three of you."

"Why would he...?" Sirius let the sentence trail off as realization dawned on him. "Because it's Remus."

A\N Hey everyone! I know this chapter is a bit of a longish one compared to my usual lengths (I think) I hope you all liked it!

I also wanted to let you guys know about a few possible changes to the book; I am running out of chapter name ideas and was thinking about just switching to numbers instead. So this would be Chapter 18 and so on.

Let me know what you think of this book by commenting, voting and following if you haven't already!

Also, 300 reads!!! Thank you all so, so much!!!❤