Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and events from J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter books. I am writing this for my own enjoyment and hopefully for the enjoyment of readers. Anything you recognize belongs to JKR. The rest belongs to me.
Chapter 75: Bowtruckle Chuckles
The post game celebration was a huge success. The Marauders had continued the tradition of sneaking into Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts kitchens to gather sustenance for their fellow Gryffindors. One of the younger students brought out the Wizarding Wireless Network and the Gryffindor common room was filled with music and laughter.
There was suspicion that the punch was spiked with firewhisky, especially when Professor McGonagall walked in just as Sirius was reenacting James' dramatic fall by jumping off the back of the couch. Sirius, not seeing McGonagall's stern face at portrait hole, finished his rendition of James' save by landing on top of a pretty sixth year Gryffindor girl.
After another handful of detentions and some mild hangovers, life went back to normal. The teachers continued to ply the students with assignments in preparation for their exams later on that year.
Remus was feeling the familiar symptoms with the approach of the next full moon. He dreaded his Potions class during that time, for the unusual ingredients he had to chop and the putrid smell of the simmering brew would always nauseate him.
Their current assignment was the Draught of Peace, a particularly difficult recipe that required each student's utmost attention to detail. Though Remus was trying hard to concentrate on his potion, he was getting distracted by the sulfur-like smell emanating from James' cauldron which was next to his. Remus felt a churning in his stomach and tried to breathe through his mouth to avoid the horrid odor, however the greenish-yellow smoke coming out of the cauldron continued to distract him.
Trying to keep his attention on his own cauldron, he counted the minutes until he was supposed to add the moonstone. Watching the mixture, he saw it bubble occasionally, the liquid becoming more congealed. This was the last straw for Remus, as he felt the back of his mouth water.
"You okay, mate?" asked Sirius.
Remus shook his head and, unable to make it further than the door, emptied his lunch into the dustbin by the exit. As soon as his stomach finished rebelling, Remus continued to hover over the receptacle, his face pale with a slight layer of sweat above his brow. A gentle hand patted his back and a moist cloth was thrust in front of him and he looked up to see Lily standing next to him. Though embarrassed to have been sick in front of the entire class, he gratefully accepted the cloth and wiped his face.
Professor Pilon, seeing Remus' potion starting to let off a dark gray cloud, vanished the contents of the cauldron and instructed James to walk Remus to the hospital wing, seeing as his potion was beyond hope as well.
James gathered his things and couldn't help but notice Snape staring thoughtfully at Remus. Most of the class had given Remus curious but slightly disgusted looks as he had gotten ill, but Snape's gaze was more intense. James felt a pang of unease, wondering just how far Snape's thoughts had led him. James thought back to the previous full moons and he wasn't sure if he was imagining things, but he thought perhaps Snape had more than a passing curiosity about Remus' whereabouts then, too.
That evening in the dormitory, after Remus had returned from Madam Pomfrey, James voiced his suspicions about Snape to the other Marauders. Peter gulped, wondering if Snape suspected their being Animagi. Remus had a resigned look on his face, feeling even weaker that evening due the next night's full moon.
Sirius and James were livid. They weren't about to let Snape get the better of them, and they wanted to stop him before he could figure out the truth and announce it to the school. They knew that Dumbledore had always supported Remus, but they doubted he would be able to do much if countless parents threatened to pull their children out of Hogwarts in fear of having them around a werewolf. No, they knew they had to stop Snape before his suspicions were confirmed.
James knew that Snape hated him, but he suspected that the Slytherin was slightly afraid of him as well. James remembered back to second year when he had seen Snape on the stairwell reading a Dark Arts text. When James had gotten angry and hexed Snivellus, the look in the slimy Slytherin's face had been angry yet he had also been intimidated and ran away. As James' eyes met Sirius', they silently agreed that it was time they kick up their intimidation tactics. If Snape got the idea that sticking his nose into areas it didn't belong could be detrimental to his well-being, then perhaps he would back off.
The next morning, Remus made his way back to the hospital wing in preparation for the full moon later that day. The transformation was to occur toward the end of the afternoon, before classes let out. That meant that the Animagi would have to meet up with Remus after he had become a werewolf, after classes had finished.
Until then, the three boys were silently anticipating the upcoming evening. In Herbology, they finished studying the Scandinavian Glumsnatcher. One of the plants had blossomed, and James could swear it looked as if the petals had teddy bear fuzz on them. The bear reminded him of Lily, and for the next few classes he opted to study her rather than the assigned material. During Transfiguration, she could feel his eyes burning into her and turned slightly only to find him grinning at her. James winked and Lily turned back to her notes with a slight frown, her face a little pinker than normal.
Divination was the first class of the afternoon, and Professor Vablatsky had assigned them to keep a journal of their dreams. She described how dreams are not only a way of your soul trying to tell you something, they are thought to sometimes bring the dreamer to a plane of existence in which they can communicate with the dead.
Half of the class period became dedicated to Peter's dream involving a gigantic cat swatting at him as if he were a toy or some kind of rodent. While James had a pretty good idea why Peter might be nervous around cats (as a rodent), Alice theorized that Peter had been unkind to a feline when he was younger and perhaps the deceased kitty was trying to communicate with him.
After Divination they met up with Sirius, who was currently learning about Muggle methods of cooking. His latest assignment was to bake a batch of cookies. Professor Dumbledore had placed a special spell on the Muggle Studies classroom so that the Muggle devices such as ovens and mixers would work properly. James was prepared to take the mickey out of Sirius for having to figure out how to cook, but Sirius was quite proud of his culinary abilities, especially after seeing McKinnon burn her project.
In a rare display of dessert sharing, Sirius offered James and Peter each part of the finished product of his assignment. After a nervous exchange of glances between Peter and James, they each hesitantly took a cookie and nibbled on the outer edge. After realizing he wasn't going to drop dead of food poisoning, James took a bigger bite and was pleasantly surprised that Sirius could indeed bake - cookies, at least.
The walked outside into the cool November air and could tell that winter wasn't far around the corner. On the way to the assigned Care of Magical Creatures meeting place, they saw Snape walking by himself. The Slytherin boy sensed the gazes of the Marauders and boldly looked back at them, sending each boy one of his trademark sneers.
Sirius took the opportunity to start the intimidation tactics. He walked over and fell into step beside Snape. "Oy, Snivellus," he said, saying his name like he had tasted something bad.
Snape snorted in disgust and turned his head the other way, only to realize James had come upon his other side. Peter
was trailing slightly behind. Snape maintained his impassive façade and spat, "What? Lupin isn't here to back
you up?"
James felt another pang of unease at Snape's suggestive comment about Lupin's whereabouts, and said, "Not that it's any of your business where Remus is, but he's not feeling well."
Snape sneered again and muttered, "Not feeling well…can't imagine why he'd be ill."
Sirius pretended to stumble and knocked himself into Snape, who fell onto James. James shoved Snape away from him toward Sirius. Snape went to grab his wand but as soon as he drew it out Sirius snatched it away and casually stepped out of reach. Sirius spun the wand around on his hand and smirked, saying, "You really should be careful about your wand, Snivellus. You wouldn't want it to get into the wrong hands now, would you?"
Snape tried to jump for the wand, but Sirius was taller and was able to hold it out of reach. When Snape made another attempt, James sent a tripping hex causing the Slytherin to fall to the ground.
Sirius, James, and Peter laughed as Snape struggled on the ground to get up. James took Snape's wand from Sirius and turned to Snape, saying, "I suggest you keep your abnormally large nose out of other people's business. Wouldn't want anything…unfortunate…to happen to our favorite grease-ball." James tossed Snape's wand upward where it became stuck in the branches of a beech tree they were passing.
As the three Marauders walked toward their class, Peter asked, "Do you think he'll back off?"
James shrugged and said, "Dunno, but I think we'd better keep on him so he knows we mean business."
"I agree. The little grease-ball actually had to gall to insinuate that he knows about Moony," said Sirius. "We can't let him get away with that."
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The rest of the afternoon dragged by as the boys waited impatiently to get out of classes. The one bright spot for the boys occurred when Snape fell out of the beech tree and tore his robes when he went to fetch his wand. Professor Kettleburn assigned him a detention for climbing trees when he should have been coming to class on time.
After the last class of the afternoon, the boys hastily ate their dinner and made a casual exit out of the Great Hall before rushing up to grab James' invisibility cloak and the map. By the time they made it outside, there were no other students outside due to the frosty November evening. Even though it was getting dark quickly, to be safe the boys transformed just inside the shaded border of the Forbidden Forest before making their way into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.
The Animagi raced to the Shrieking Shack, not wanting to leave Moony by himself any longer than necessary. Once they reached the entrance to the shack, they discovered a new dilemma. During the previous two full moons they had already been at the shack before Remus had transformed. They had arrived and transformed once inside the shack. Now, Remus had already transformed by this point and they had to find a way to open the trap door to the inside of the shack.
Peter was too small as a rat to be able to turn the handle, and even though he was much improved at performing the transformation he knew better than to open it as his human self and try to quickly transform back. James and Sirius did not have thumbs as Animagi so they would not be unable to grab the door handle and turn it. Sirius attempted to grab it with his teeth but was unable to get a proper grasp of the handle to turn it. He and James exchanged a look and James transformed into his human form.
James looked at the other two and said, "I'll open it, but be prepared to distract Moony so I'll have time to change back." The rat and the dog nodded and James reached up to grab the handle, standing in a way so he'd be behind the door where Moony wouldn't have ready access to him once the trap door was opened. James took a deep breath and opened the door.
Moony had sensed the presence of a human from inside the shack and before James had opened the door he immediately began sniffing around the entrance. As soon as the door was thrown open, he seized the opportunity and leapt through the exit into the tunnel. He hit the bottom of the tunnel and immediately turned toward James, whose eyes widened at the sight of his best mate practically salivating over the prospect of biting him.
Before Moony could strike James, a large set of jaws locked around his hock and started dragging him backward. Moony turned and snapped at the Grim-like dog, unhappy at being distracted from his prey. Wormtail squeaked nervously while James took the opportunity to transform back into Prongs before Moony got another chance at him.
Just as Moony pulled himself away from Padfoot, he turned toward James but was met with a large set of antlers by his face. Moony stopped short and let out a frustrated howl, before turning tail and running for the exit by the Whomping Willow. Prongs, Padfoot, and Wormtail exchanged a panicked look before taking off after the werewolf.
The Animagi emerged from the Whomping Willow to see Moony sniffing around the grounds, gradually making his way closer to the castle. Padfoot and Prongs hightailed it to the werewolf and used whatever means they could, be it teeth or antlers, to usher him away from the castle. The closest place that seemed the safest was the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Padfoot ran ahead into the expanse of trees and let out a howl, attracting the werewolf into the forest. Moony's ears perked at the sound and he raced to find the source, with Prongs and Wormtail trying to keep up behind him. He was soon met with the sight of Padfoot sitting by at a tree, scratching at his ear with one of his hind feet. Once Padfoot saw that his mates had arrived he immediately stood up and started running around, wagging his tail and barking playfully.
Prongs, seeing that Moony was no longer trying to track down human prey for the moment, decided to look at his surroundings. He had not been this far into the forest since the end of first year, when Professor Riddle had met him and Lily in the clearing. After the disastrous result of that trip into the forest, James had had no desire to explore the thick expanse of trees. Tonight, as he looked around, the trees did not have the same foreboding nature to them as they had when he had stood in that clearing.
He looked at Padfoot to see if he could decipher the dog's thoughts, and found him to be pacing back and forth and looking deeper into the forest, indicating the desire to further explore. Prongs hesitated, looking at Wormtail who had decided to stick close by in case any owls or other nighttime predators were out hunting for food. He then looked at Moony, who was beginning to sniff in the direction of the school again. Prongs realized it would be near impossible to herd a strong werewolf into the base of the Whomping Willow, so he opted to take Padfoot's suggestion and usher Moony deeper into the forest.
As they got Moony to go farther into the forest, the werewolf's attention became drawn less to the castle and more toward his surroundings and his companions. Padfoot thoroughly enjoyed himself, chasing after anything that moved and barking at it. Prongs was amused by his mate's antics and soon found himself relaxing more in his surroundings and enjoying himself.
The four friends spent the entire night wandering about the forest, far enough inside to keep Moony's attention from the people in the castle, but close enough to keep their bearings. In the early hours of the morning before the moon waned, Padfoot decided to answer the call of nature and walked over to a tree to lift his leg on it. As soon as he did this a pair of twig-like creatures dove off of said tree and tried to gouge his eyes out. The dog spun around and shook his head, pawing at his face to try to fling the creatures off. Once he had backed a respectable distance from the tree in question, the creatures let go and returned to their home.
Prongs, once he saw that Padfoot still had both of his eyes, realized the hilarity of the situation. It was only that previous day in Care of Magical Creatures where they had started studying Bowtruckles, the tree dwellers. Apparently Padfoot had offended them by trying to relieve himself on their home. Prongs would not soon forget the mental image of the large dog getting the snot beat out of him by a few twigs no longer than 8 inches each. He glanced at Moony, and was surprised to see the werewolf wagging his tail. Prongs wondered if it was possible for a werewolf to look amused.
The dawn approached and Moony started to slow down, a sign that he would soon transform back to his human form. The Animagi decided it was safe enough to approach the edge of the forest. Once they could see the Hogwarts grounds, they glanced around to make certain nobody was out for an early morning walk. Seeing nobody, Wormtail ran ahead to depress the knot on the Whomping Willow. Once the tree was calmed, Prongs and Padfoot guided the weak werewolf inside the opening at the base.
The moon waned, and Remus regained his human form in the tunnel below the Whomping Willow. He wearily gazed up at his mates, who had also transformed back, wondering why he was inside the tunnel rather than the Shrieking Shack. "W-What am I doing in here?" he yawned.
"You don't remember?" asked Peter.
A jolt of panic rushed into Remus as he tried to recall the previous night's events. If he was out of the shack, then had he bit somebody? He shook his head to clear it and asked, "What happened? Did I hurt somebody?"
"Nah," replied Sirius with a dismissive wave.
"We spent the night in the Forbidden Forest," James answered.
"We what?!" exclaimed Remus. With an accusatory look, he asked, "Did you take me out of the Shack?"
"It was more of an accident," explained James. "We came out to meet you and when we opened the trap door you leapt out and ran for the exit." James left out the bit where Remus had tried to attack him.
"We caught up with you," continued Sirius. "Prongs and I were able to lead you into the forest. We figured it'd be easier than trying to get you back in here."
"We spent the entire night out there, wandering around and playing," added Peter.
Remus closed his eyes and tried to remember, seeing flashes of images here and there. He suddenly looked at Sirius and, seeing the scratches on his face, asked, "Did you get attacked by a tree?"
Sirius, with a sheepish look, muttered, "Yeah."
James laughed and said, "It wasn't a tree, Padfoot, and you know it." He looked at Remus and said, "They were Bowtruckles. We started to learn about them in class yesterday."
Remus smiled at the faint memory of the attack and said, "I'll have to borrow Lily's notes about them when I get back."
Sirius looked affronted and said, "What? Our notes aren't good enough for you?"
Remus gave Sirius a dubious look and said, "You take notes?"
After a moment of thought Sirius replied, "Good point."
Remus chuckled and asked, "So nothing bad happened after I got loose?"
"Nothing," insisted James. "I'll admit I had my doubts about spending the night in the forest, but we actually had a great time."
"Prongs and I were able to get you away from the castle and once were into the forest you seemed less interested
in hunting people," added Sirius. "I'd love to go back and explore further…maybe next full
moon."
Remus looked uneasy and said, "I don't think it's a good idea to risk my getting out again."
Sirius shrugged and said, "Don't worry about it, Moony. We won't let you do anything bad. Mischievous, maybe…but not bad."
Remus, sensing the time, replied, "We'll talk about it later. Pomfrey'll be here any time now to meet me."
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A/N: While the last several chapters showed how James has become more flirtatious with Lily, I'm hoping this one foreshadows what we'll see of James and Sirius in Snape's Worst Memory later on. Also thought it'd be best to have the first full moon outing happen by accident. I thought it rather silly to have them suddenly up and decide that it would be safe to leave the confines of the Shack.
As always, thanks to my reviewers: alto2srock, Alicia78, God'sgirl, Werepuppy, PottersPrincess, **Lilyflower**, Remus'sweetie, likediamondrain, Anu, AshleyM, Volume UP, Mani12191, Adria, Incendia, astronomylover, James love, Jo Bob, Golden Phoenix, lilian m. potter, Calypso, delpheena, Elsa, elizabella, tigerfairy (x2), Anonymous, granger1191, and hpfreak.
Next chapter: It's only partially written, but will have the beginning of winter on the Hogwarts grounds. James will, of course, continue his efforts of getting Lily to date him.