Harry Potter - Maurader's Era (Roxy and Rangu)

[The_Neverending_Flame]

James couldn't let out one of his normal proud smiles when Lily had talked back to a teacher. Inside he believed that it was his entire fault, in his mind he tried to give reasons as to how it couldn't be his fault. If only it wasn't a full moon tonight; if only Sirius would have spoken up; if only Remus wasn't a werewolf. Immediately he felt horrible. The reason that he hadn't spoken was the same reason that Sirius didn't, and he shouldn't be thinking things about Remus. Still, if it weren't for their plans later that night, she wouldn't have had to ruin her perfect school record: Perfect Teacher's Pet without a single detention under her belt. Sirius and James would be feeling guilty for a good while, but that wasn't important right now. The more pressing issue was what were they going to tell the girls? Lily'd want an explanation as to why he had been silent when he should have done something, especially since he knew that he should have done something.

The teacher stormed from the room, his face the reddest color that James had ever seen. Still, a smile didn't break his blank and grim features. The door slammed behind him, Snape and many other Syltherians were looking, like all the other students, flabbergasted. However, as the other students began to crowd around Lily, the other side of the room did absolutely nothing but sit with mouths hanging open. James scooted away from the growing crowd. Claire pushed past Sirius and James, not that they hadn't already been trying to become one with the oak wood table, to give Lily a thank you hug. James agreed that she deserved it.

Lily's face had turned into a deep crimson color, redder then he had ever seen her go. She was blushing, he would have loved to watch her beautiful face turn red, if not for the circumstances he would walk over to her as well. It was like he couldn't even move his head to look up to see. No doubt she'd be looking at him in disgust and would soon explode at him once they were alone. For the first time in his relationship with Lily, he didn't want to be alone with her. "Sorry Lily..." He mumbled as students walked past and talked over him in loud tones. Sirius was still as silent as he had ever been; apparently he was too ashamed and saddened that he couldn't protect his potential girlfriend from a verbal, and perhaps physical, punishment. Who knew what that nasty teacher would have planned for detention now that Lily was having her very FIRST detention?

Sirius managed to look up once Claire had returned to her seat. His mouth opened a little, but Claire had turned around to smile at her best friend, Lily. Nothing came out, apparently he had the same problem that James was having; coming up with words to make up for the fact that they were both seemingly stupid. He closed his mouth; both of them knew that they couldn't tell the truth. They had made a pact with the others, Lily and Claire would stay mad at them forever; or so they thought.

Class moved by incredibly slow, thanks to the "excitement" that had occurred at the beginning. Still, it was even more painful and slow for the two Gryffindor boys. Sirius worked hard on his potion; however, he still received the same result: Ruined and crap. He might have done better, after all he had copied the notes and found mistakes within the instructions, but he was too distracted by his own thoughts. James had the same predicament; Lily's potion was utterly perfect. Obviously her spirits had been raised by the complements on her rebuttal and the release of anger on everyone's least favorite teacher. Claire's was moderate. She might have succeeded better, as would have Sirius, if she had talked and communicated with the black haired youth.

Somehow, in the few minutes they had in the class, a problem had arisen. A rift had come between the two couples, and it was a huge chasm. James wasn't always touching Lily, hand in hers, lips touching for moments at a time, or perhaps a arm around her waist; Sirius wasn't even talking or laughing in his dog-like bark to his best girlfriend. Finally the bell rang around them. It was almost like they had been waiting for it to go off, their eyes must have been staring at the clock constantly for the last hour. Sirius and James hurriedly packed their things and practically ran out the door. They stood to the side, too much like gentlemen to just ditch Lily and Claire especially after what they might be thinking about what had happened inside. It would ultimately be their downfall, Claire and Lily would want to know what was up. Either calm or full of emotion, they would want to know.

Neither boy looked at each other; they just stood side by side like statues waiting for the last two. "Dammit." That was all that was said between the two, it was Sirius that had said it. It was the first thing that he had said since he had corrected the teacher. He had to try and help her, even though his guilt was still insurmountable. James had his head hung low and his shoulders were slouched slightly. Sirius had his eyes facing the ceiling and his bag held tightly in his hand. They barely moved as they felt Lily and Claire turning the corner to leave the class.  

[Jonny3464]

Claire continued to sit by her desk once the bell rang throughout the school. She watched Sirius get up and walk out of the classroom. She wanted to call out to him and tell him to wait for her, but she decided to just let him go. She turned around to talk to Lily about what just happened when she noticed that James too was getting up to leave quickly aswell. She made a face at Lily about the guys, and Lily nodded in return. Claire could tell that Lily felt differently about the guys. Claire casually placed her book and supplies back into her sack of a purse and got out her make up pouch. She pulled out her mirror to fix her eye make up. She looked into her small compact and whiped off the running mascara from her cheeks. She then re applied some more on her lashes. She took a deep breath and brushed her hair out of her face.

Lily, however, wasn't going to be so forgiving. In her mind, there was no excuse for why neither of them said anything. Even though she was mostly mad at Sirius, she knew that she couldn't really be mad at him cause that was Claire's job. So, she decided that taking her frustration out on her boyfriend James was just as good. Lily was so overcome with built up rage that she really didn't pay attention to what Claire was doing now. She opened her pouch by her desk and just slid all of her materials off the side of her dest and into her pouch. She pulled the straps over her shoulders. He hesitated on just storming out to follow James and Sirius to decide whether or not to go and knock on their proffessors door to argue with him. She decided against it mostly because even though she was incredably enraged at him, it would solve nothing by arguing with him. Right now her beef was with James and Sirius and nothing would get in her way of taking out all of her frustrations. Lily held onto the staps of her bag and bolted out of the room. She didn't intentionally leave Claire behind, but she did none the less to talk to James and Sirius.

She picked her bag up and slugged it over her shoulder. Now smiling, she was ready to move on with the rest of the day, instead of dwelling on what happened. Claire tossed her hair to the side and turned to Lily, about to ask if she was ready to go, except she wasn't there. She turned her head to she her exit the classroom. Claire made a grimice at the fact that she did not want to go outside, especially alone. Claire then tried to walk out of the classroom a bit faster than usual to try and catch up Lily. Once she reached the isle where all the rows of desks emptied out into, she got hit from the side and got knocked to the ground. She heard all of the persons books fall to the ground as well as hers too.

Lily made her way out the door, egar to try and catch up with the boys, so she was a bit surprised that they actually waited. Lily quickly made her way over to James. She stepped up close to him. "Now, I'm going to let you tell me what happened before I tell you what I saw happen." She was about to give him a chance to speak but then held up her hand quickly to cut him off. "Nevermind, I don't really care what you have to say about it, but here is what I have to say. And you better care." She said with the meanist look she had ever forced. "I honestly can't beleive that you, both of you.." She momentarily glared at Sirius, "would be so spineless to let that excuse of a teacher just walk all over Claire like that. It wasn't even like she was just some random girl either. She is one of your best friends, James, and she would go well out of her way for you. And Sirius.." glancing again at him, "don't even get me started on what you should have done differently." She turned back to James and took a deep breath. She took this next part a bit calmer than her first statements. "Look, I don't know what you kept your mouth shut after he yelled at her, but what I can't even comprehend is why you didn't even stick up after I did. You should have been on the same page as me, regardless of anything else going on." Lily gazed at James for a moment then continued. "I'll talk to you about it more after my detention, but for right now I really don't want to talk to you. More like I can't talk to you because of how angry and hurt I am now." She said softly. She really didn't want to stick around to have him respond, so Lily just walked off on her way to lunch. She wanted to get there before they did so that she didn't have to sit with them.

Claire got to her feet and helped to pick up the person's books that were all over the ground, along with pages and pages of notes. She stood up with the person's books. All three of them were potions textbooks, two of which were really advance versions. "I'm so sorry, I honestly didn't even see you there." She looked up to give the books to whoever she bumped into. Turns out it was Severus Snape. She handed him his books, which he practically snatched out of her hands.

He grabbed his books from her. "Don't act all nice to me. You're probably just leading me out there so that your boyfriend can hex me for the professor's comments." He said with a stern and almost scared tone. "You really did deserve it though, probably worse if the professor was in a fowler mood." He continued.

Claire immediately felt awkward. She didn't quite know what to say in response to that. But she did feel some sort of compassion and sympathy towards him. "Well, there are your books. And if it makes you feel any better, i'll drag Sirius by the ear if I have to, to keep him away from you." She then picked up her own things that fell. She was about to walk out when she heard Severus clear his throught.

"I am sorry for what he said to you.. To be honest, I didn't really know what he was talking about either." He said with a weird little smile. He then ended up turning around and heading back to a cauldron in the courner.

Claire watched him walk away, and felt good about what he said to her. She then managed to walk outside of the classroom. She took a breath before stepping through the door. She walked outside of the classroom, where Sirius was standing, along with James. She really didn't want to say much, not wanting it to become a bigger deal than it needed to be. It was noticable on their faces that Lily had already given them an earfull. She really just wanted an explination for why things happened the way that they did. "So.." She said with a sigh, waiting to hear what they had to say.  

[The_Neverending_Flame]

James and Sirius both had their heads hanging down in a guilty and depressed way as they waited for the girls to come out of the room. If they had any choice in the matter, they would have hightailed it out of there. Really, the only thing they could do was face it, because they had classes with both of them later that day. They really would've fought back; surely Claire and Lily would recognize that. Lily walked out, her expression showing momentary surprise. It didn't take long for it to change into a determinate fury. James opened his mouth a little, as if he was going to speak, but Lily had cut him off. It seemed that she didn't understand. Sirius was glad that she had stopped James from talking; he probably had no idea of how he was going to explain what was going on in class, not without completely ruining their pact as animals. The black haired boy almost leaned his back as far as it would go, that way he could prevent any blow that might she might be planning. It wasn't a physical blow that she gave them, rather more of a dangerous look that could instantly kill. Sirius' eyes widened as he saw her glare at her boyfriend; and then to himself. Lily didn't understand, she couldn't, and she had no idea what was going on with Remus and the rest of them. If she had been watching carefully, she might have had some idea; after all, this wasn't the first time that they had stayed unusually silent through some injustice.

"Poor James." Sirius thought, his best mate had just got into the relationship that he had been waiting for his entire four years at Hogwarts, only to anger his girlfriend. James had really been trying his hardest to rid himself of any immaturity that might take Lily away from him once they truly started dating. For the first time ever, Sirius saw that being quiet in Potions class had been one of the smartest dumb things they had ever done. They both knew that nothing but extra detentions could have come out of the injustice that befallen Claire, but they also knew that they didn't really care about detention. It was nothing new. The only feeling that they would be having now, had they defended her, was a feeling of justice and most likely, Lily and the rest would all laugh about the whole conflict.

"Wait, Lily!" James let out, but she was already gone as he ground up the courage to say something. "Dammit!" He said, hitting his fist against the wall in fury and out of frustration. A second later he realized that it was a very painful action, as he grabbed it and rubbed it frantically. Sirius almost laughed, but it had been caught in his throat. After a moment James calmed himself and stood back in his previous position next to Sirius. "God, what were we supposed to do? We can't just ditch Remus. You know that Peter won't do anything... it was the only thing that we could do." As he said this, Sirius found that it helped. He had almost forgotten why he had done this horrible action, or rather inaction. Sirius also believed that James was somewhat comforted by his own words. It wasn't much longer till Claire walked out. Usually, Sirius would joke around, say "What took you so long? Fall in the pot?" Today, however, he couldn't say a thing. Not wouldn't, couldn't. As she walked out, the realization of what they had done had become apparent on their faces.

"Sorry." Sirius muttered, James nodded and repeated it in a mumble. Neither boy looked at each other nor did they look at Claire; it was too hard for them to be there already.  

[Jonny3464]

...The day passed on unlike the other days at Hogwarts for the group of friends. On a normal day, they would have gone to all their class together, ate their lunches together, and even spent the afternoon together. A normal day would have consisted of constant laughing, smiles, and fun. For each of them however, it was a very different reality.

Once Claire emerged from the potions room, she accepted their apollogy, but simply stated that they didn't need to give one. She walked off down the corridors alone that day. James and Sirius sulked around the hallways aswell, trying to make it to the Great hall. Once they were there, they sat together, but alone. They ate in silence. They were so use to listening to Lily and Claire talking a mile a minute about anything and everything. There was no sign of Claire at the lunch table, but Lily could be found sitting in between two groups of chattering Gryffindors. They were making no effort to speak to Lily, so she to sat and ate in silence. James and Sirius refused to look over at Lily out of shame, knowing that her blood was still boiling.

They rest of the afternoon when on endlessly. James and Sirius sat in the commonroom on the couches, filling the air with senseless small talk to keep their minds off of what they both were thinking about. Normal days would have transpired with Sirius cheating off of Claires homework while trying to flirt with her, and James and Lily "studying" on the couch. Everytime they heard the portrait open, they fell silent to see who came through. Each and every time, it was the same dissapointment. As the sky grew darker, the boys decided to stop waiting around and get ready for the rough night to come.

Lily met up with Claire, who looked a mess, about five minutes before they were due to the dungeons. Lily and Claire went into the bathroom right by the classroom. Claire stood in front of the mirror, trying to fix her appearance while Lily paced around, still venting her frustration. Neither of them wanted to participate in detention. While Claire wished that Sirius could have at least endured this with her, Lily wouldn't have minded if they just dropped dead. They entered the Potions room to find the professor writing on the blackboard. They saw 2 desks up from with parchment and ink. The board read, "'I need to learn when to keep my obnoxious mouth shut because no one wants to hear what I have to say.' As they sat down, the Professor gave a twisted grin. "I have you girls for 3 hours, so start writing!"

 

[The_Neverending_Flame]

"Did you finish getting everything packed?" Sirius nodded to James, his fingers clasped around a dark black bag. "I got all the food for Remus, got to keep him from eating us." They both chuckled, James moving over to the window and looking out at the moon. "He should already be in the Shack." Peter came around the corner and grabbed Sirius' arm from behind him. Sirius froze, eyes wide. His body turned around quickly just to see that it was Peter. "Dammit, Peter! You have got to stop doing that, I'm going to have a heart attack before I'm even twenty." Peter bowed his head in shame. "Sorry, Padfoot." The teenager let out a low sigh, before just walking over to the window with him. "You'd think that I wouldn't be so jumpy since we've been doing this for years."

James shrugged, "I guess you're still thinking about what happened earlier. You know, with Claire." Claire was on Sirius' mind all day, he just felt horrible about not sticking up for her. "Come on, Padfoot. We'll make everything right tomorrow. Maybe it's about time we tell Lil' and Claire about Remus." James clapped him on the back, but Sirius just looked at him, rolling his eyes a little with a sad expression. "You said that last time and the time before that. It's not our secret to give, we both know that. The only way that we can tell them is if they find out." Prongs bowed his head slightly. "Come on, lets get down there, Remus is about to change."

They hurried down to the grounds, hidding in the dark corridors from all the teachers. James ran into the bushes, changing into an stag; Sirius following and changing into a dog, the bag now in his mouth; Peter was the last to follow, changing into a rat and moving to the tree, biting the knot forcing the tree to stop moving. James hurried in, followed by Sirius and Peter.
 

[Jonny3464]

Claire and Lily sat in silence as they continued to write their lines. They had ben writing for about 2 hours now and they still had till probably midnight. Claire could tell that Lily was just steaming at that. No detention should ever go too far past curfew, and as a prefect, Lily was so eager to tell their head of house. Claire overlooked it though. To be honest she really didn't mind writing lines. It was a good was to clear her thoughts, and she had a lot of them. After the day, she was no longer holding anything towards James or Sirius anymore. She still had to act a little angry whenever Lily talked about it for fear of backlash, but other than that she was fine. Lily was still angry and couldn't wait to tell them off tomorrow. If they thought they got it hard this morning.. just wait., Claire could imaging Lily thinking practically every time Lily looked angry, which was a lot tonight.

The room was silent. The only thing that could be heard was the scribbling of their quills as they copied their lines, or the ticking of the clock sitting atop the professors desk. Occasionally, whenever Lily or Claire would take a brake from writing to shake or massage their hands, The professor would either yell at the top of his lungs for them to keep writing, simply say "ten more lines", or simply laugh with amusement. Claire went to dip her quill into her ink bottle but as she was pulling it out, it knocked the bottle over and spilled ink all over her paper. Claire tried to clean it up as best she could but there was no saving her paper. Te professor howled with laughter. "Too bad! Looks like you'll have to start over!" He continued to laugh. Claire obediently got out a new sheet and began to write away. The Hogwarts clock chimed, signaling that it was eleven o'clock.

"Well, I hope you both don't have any plans for the next few hours-" He began to say, however there was a knock on his door. He let out an evil little snarl as he got up from his chair and hobbled over to the door. Both Lily and Claire hoped and prayed that it was either the headmaster or their head of house to help get them out of this literal prison. But instead, it was a hooded man whom they both had never seen before. The Professor looked excited to see him a first, but then tried to contain it as he realized that the girls were still there. "Ah, welcome Mr. Howrsgeon. Now let me escort you to my, em, back room." He lead the way for his guest and showed him in. Once the man was inside, the professor looked at Claire and Lily with a psychotic grimace. "Now if you stupid girls make any sort of noise while my associate and I are conducting my business, I'll see to it that you are in this room every night for the rest of the year. And if a word of this gets out, you won't need to worry about being in here because you'll be too busy in your own beds at home!" He yelled as he then retreated into his back room.

Claire looked at Lily who seemed concerned and frightened at the same time. Claire had absolutely no idea what just happened or who that man was, but whoever he was, he didn't seem like he was a very welcome guest. Why did he have to wait till the middle of the night to meet with their creepy professor? "That was weird" Claire said loud enough so that Lily could hear her. Lily nodded. There was a brief moment where neither girl knew whether they could talk or stand up at all, not knowing how long their meeting would last. Finally Claire got up from her desk and made her way over to the far wall. She stood up on a table to look out a little port-hole window type of thing. "I just want to see if there is anyone else outside or something." Just then her eyes widened. She could have sworn that she saw the back of Sirius' head. She tried to follow him. The bright moon was making it easy to see outside. "Lily come quick!" She whispered. Lily got up on the table with her as they struggled to look out the window. "Didn't that look like Sirius? I also thought that I saw another person with him. Maybe it could be James, but what would they be doing out so late? It almost midnight." Claire whispered, a bit startled and confused.

Lily saw them and That was defiantly Sirius, she did see someone else in the brush but couldn't make out who he was. She then saw the figures jump into a bush and out of sight. Lily was still looking when she heard Clare speak. "We have to follow them." Lily turned around a bit startled. "What are you talking about?" Claire didn't say anything else, Lily felt her hand being tugged across the classroom. Claire opened the door to exit the classroom. "Claire stop!" Lily whispered. "What is going on, why are you acting like this?" She continued as Claire pulled her up the stairs to the ground level. Lily got pulled to a door, about where they saw the boys on the grounds. Lily finally pulled her hand away once they were outside and a safe distance away from the castle so they could talk. "You have to tell me what's going on."

Claire looked a bit shaken up. "Ok, last year, I looked out my window about this time on a night like this and I thought I saw sirius running on the grounds. The next morning he showed up to breakfast bruised with a deep gash on his shoulder that he tried to hide from me. Last year there were just a lot of weird experiences around the night of a full moon like this and I want to find out." Claire tried to hold a strong face, but she was actually pretty scared. She really didn't know what to expect, or whether to be scared for Sirius or for herself. "Ok we'll go.." She heard Lily say. Claire instantly became so excited and hugged Lily.

Together they ran along the edge of the forbidden forest, looking for some hint as to where they might have run off to. They were having no luck with the matter. There were no clues to follow or any type of trails to lead them to Sirius and possibly James. It wasn't until the moon was directly above them that Claire saw a possible lead. She noticed a black dog running up a hill towards a tree at the top. Claire had seen that dog once before and it was before a night of a full moon. "This way!" Claire whispered to Lily as she ran up to follow the dog. The dog had already ran behind the tree as They mad it up the hill. The tree was saying back and forth with the wind. Lily began to walk closer to the tree to examine a hole at the base of the tree. This didn't feel right to Claire, none of it made sense. Suddenly, a muffled howl came from inside the hole. "That must be the dog. It sounds hurt too." Claire said. She continued to stand under the branches of the tree, watching its swaying motion. Lily got even closer to the hole, "its a tunnel!" She exclaimed. It was then that Claire realized that the tree was swaying against the wind. "Lily move! It's a whomping willow!" Right then the tree leaned away from the girls as though it were charging up to slam forward on them. Claire jumped to the side, while Lily jumped inside the hole for safety. "Claire come on!" Claire tried to jump around slamming tree limbs. Claire then got out her wand. Diffindo, Claire cast the severing charm right at a limb that was about to crash on her. It broke off right before it hit her. The tree tried to pick itself up to smash her again, but Claire ran for the tunnel. She jumped in and laid on the dirty ground, safe. Claire tried to catch her breath as Lily helped her up. "Now lets find out where this leads." Lily said, holing on to Claire's hand.

Claire and lily made their way down the dark tunnel. There was no way to go but forward now. There was no chance that they would try and battle that psycho tree again. Continuous howls came from the rear of the tunnel. "That dog must really be in pain." Claire said a bit worried. "Well, no one can fix a wound with a wand like you can. he he." Lily said softly with a very forced laugh at the end. Claire could tell that she was just trying to soften the tension as they made there way further into the darkness. It was completely black now. Lumos Claire said as she held out her wand. They made their way to a small flight of stairs that led to a old beat up doorway. The howls continued at a very loud volume. The girls looked at each other and slowly pushed the door open together. Once inside, Claire dropped her wand as she let out a gasp. "We're in the Shrieking Shack!" Claire immediately covered her mouth, realizing tat she was pretty loud. From behind a wall emerged a fairly tall stag and below him was the black dog that Claire recognized. "He's not hurt... Then what is-" Lily began to say as the animals sprinted at them. The stag grabbed Lily's shirt with his mouth and began to make pull her up the stairs. Lily was so started by this that she allowed herself to be pulled into a room on the third floor of the house. The dog eyed Claire like a puppy and tried to playfully lure her up the stairs. Claire followed him up a few steps, mostly to chase after Lily, until she heard moaning coming from behind her. The dog barked to keep her attention, but Claire turned around and walked back down the steps. She picked up her wand and was about to walk around the first floor in search of the noise, when the dog blocked her way and began to bark loudly. It was then that she heard a bark that seemed 10 times more ferocious that the dog in front of her. From and entryway across the room emerged a very large brown wolf. "A werewolf..." Claire whispered in fear and panic. The dog then bit her wrist and began to drag her up the stairs. She could hear the werewolf close behind her, but she didn't dare look back. They finally made it to the bedroom with Lily and the stag. The dog rammed the dog closed right on the wolf's snout...
 

[The_Neverending_Flame]

Sirius rose his large dark black head, he had seen the two girls following him from behind. His first instinct was to warn them of the danger, but he couldn't let them catch him; nor could he change into a human to tell them about the willow and the monster held deep below. So, he just started to run, his four padded feet pounding against the soft ground. "I thought that they were still in detention!" He thought, looking back for a fraction of a second to see that they were indeed still following. "Crap." The feet began to move faster, he would have to be sure that he was much faster than the branches that would swing down to get him once he got closer.

It was strange, the wind was blowing Claire's perfume in his direction, his nose picking it up instantly. He wanted to stop and sniff at it, take in everything and think about Claire, but he had to get down below. James and the others were waiting for him. His speed increased steadily faster until he was much better than the Whomping Willow, easily turning sharply and jumping inside the hole. "They won't come near here, Claire and Lily are way to smart to come near this dangerous tree." It had rained recently and it was going to start again, the old tunnel moaning and echoing everything.

He softly, touched the old worn wood, his nose sniffing the air as he heard Remus cry out in pain from the transformation. Sirius continued to walk down farther, his eyes looking at the black and white walls that surrounded him. The dark black eyes searching for any movement while he made his way, the ear splitting howl touching his ears, forcing them down to deafen the noise. Long ago, he'd gotten used to the painful crying of his friend. Something he never thought that he'd be able to get used to.

It was James' idea, he had to convinced Remus and Peter of it, but Sirius was hooked. Once they had found out that Remus was actually a werewolf, Peter cowardly hid from him like Remus would have expected. Sirius and James thought it was the next best thing. Sirius didn't think that Remus had understood what it was to them at first. It wasn't out of kindness that they had joined him as animals, it was that he was dangerous and it was a new way to test how long it would take for them to get killed. They were also keeping secrets and doing illegal things, becoming unregistered animargious. Of course that changed after they actually stayed for the horrifying change from human to wolf. His body cracked loudly, his fangs growing from his actual teeth, his back etching over revealing his spine.

He let his feet touch the ground, looking back once more to the entrance. "They wouldn't have followed." A smile crossed his features as he started down again. His dark orbs glanced around the rooms as he passed down. James and the others would love to walk around these, playing games and pretending that they were running from the "evil dog". Sirius chuckled to himself, he loved the chase, biting realistically at the stag. "I'm going to miss this when the year is over..." He bowed his head, eyes looking around the room once more before heading completely down.

"Sirius!" The stag walked forward, smiling at him with his head bucking happily. Sirius smiled wearily back, walking over to the chair and climbing onto it, laying on his side, his feet curled up to his stomach. James walked over to Remus, his naked body changed into a werewolf. The strange monster growled at them all before just laying on the floor. They all took seats on the furniture surrounding us, Peter, the rat, sitting on the sofa's arm. His eyes were closed and every now and then he would open one eye sleepily.

"Did you hear that?" Sirius growled suddenly, scrambling to get up, his ears lifting all the way. James just looked at him, "It's just the shack moving." He shook his head, "No James. It's not just this place... I think that its..." All that a human could hear was a growling noise eminating from the big black dog.  

[Jonny3464]

Claire and lily made their way down the dark tunnel. There was no way to go but forward now. There was no chance that they would try and battle that psycho tree again. Continuous howls came from the rear of the tunnel. "That dog must really be in pain." Claire said a bit worried. "Well, no one can fix a wound with a wand like you can. he he." Lily said softly with a very forced laugh at the end. Claire could tell that she was just trying to soften the tension as they made there way further into the darkness. It was completely black now. Lumos Claire said as she held out her wand. They made their way to a small flight of stairs that led to a old beat up doorway. The howls continued at a very loud volume. The girls looked at each other and slowly pushed the door open together. Once inside, Claire dropped her wand as she let out a gasp. "We're in the Shrieking Shack!" Claire immediately covered her mouth, realizing tat she was pretty loud. From behind a wall emerged a fairly tall stag and below him was the black dog that Claire recognized. "He's not hurt... Then what is-" Lily began to say as the animals sprinted at them. The stag grabbed Lily's shirt with his mouth and began to make pull her up the stairs. Lily was so started by this that she allowed herself to be pulled into a room on the third floor of the house. The stag tossed her into the corner of the room then stood guard at the entrance. Lily was astonished at what just happened. She didn't even know what happened.

The dog eyed Claire like a puppy and tried to playfully lure her up the stairs. Claire followed him up a few steps, mostly to chase after Lily, until she heard moaning coming from behind her. The dog barked to keep her attention, but Claire turned around and walked back down the steps. She picked up her wand and was about to walk around the first floor in search of the noise, when the dog blocked her way and began to bark loudly. It was then that she heard a bark that seemed 10 times more ferocious that the dog in front of her. From and entryway across the room emerged a very large brown wolf. "A werewolf..." Claire whispered in fear and panic. The dog then bit her wrist and began to drag her up the stairs. She could hear the werewolf close behind her, but she didn't dare look back. They finally made it to the bedroom with Lily and the stag. The dog rammed the dog closed right on the wolf's snout.

The wolf continued to scratch at the door. Claire breathlessly fidgeted towards the back corner with Lily. Claire could hardly even breath because she was so terrified. "Th-There was a We-Werewolf down there!" Claire screamed hysterically. Lily looked shocked, "What!? There's no way." Lily examined Claire, who still was shaken by the whole situation. Claire continued shaking. Lily pulled her in closer to her to try and comfort her. The wolf continued to scratch, howl, and charge at the locked door, and every time he practically shook the entire house, Claire shook with fear. Claire sat with Lily for a moment, when she realized that the dog and stag were still there. They... protected them. Claire pushed Lily off of her and got to her feet. She stood up to both animals. "What is going on here! Why is there a werewolf in the Shrieking Shack? And I have a feeling you know where Sirius is, so where is he!? And don't act like you are both clueless, I know that you both can understand me!" Claire boomed. She was gripping her wand just in case. The werewolf seemed to get even grazier once she finished. Lily was in shock at the how ferocious Claire was being, but she had to admit, she was curious as to what the animals would do..
 

[The_Neverending_Flame]

Sirius and James looked at each other, silently they told each other that it was time that Claire and Lily knew. The black dog's eyes seemed to tell James, "I told you so." The stag just frowned... or what looked like a frown, before allowing the dog to walk forward. Sirius lowered his head before walking over to Claire, standing on his hind legs and then changing back into himself. He shook his head, disappointed in himself for letting the girls come that close to danger. Sirius didn't want to see the reaction that the two girls had, instead he just took her hand and sat her on the edge of the large velvet like bed before standing back and letting James do the same.

The stag moved quietly forward and became James Potter right before their eyes. He too took Lily's hand and placed her on the bed. "We have a lot to explain..." He muttered to Sirius, nudging him a little. "Will you do it? Or should I?" The black haired youth nodded, "I'll do it."

"Look, you probably have a lot of questions. So, let me just explain what we're all doing here first." Another sigh. "You obviously saw the werewolf, Claire. That werewolf is Remus." He let them soak that in before continuing. "This has been going on since before the first year here at Hogwarts. And about second year, we found out about it. We spent most of that year working on trying to change into animals so that we could keep him company. You see, there still hasn't been a potion that helps the transformation go... smoothly or that will keep him in his right mind. The only thing that can help him is if we become animals. It's almost like he's tame."

James jumped in, seeing as Sirius was running out of words to say. "Over the years we've always come down here for him, which is also the reason why around this time of the month we are always..." Looks at Sirius for the right word.  

[Jonny3464]

Claire was still standing, but after seeing the black dog change into Sirius right before her eyes, her legs were getting a little weak. That was probably the last thing she expected to happen in a million years. Thoughts and emotions were racing throughout her mind. She couldn't even comprehend Sirius explanation for his actions, she was so baffled by this experience. Her senses immediately centered when he said, "...That werewolf is Remus..." Claire's jaw immediately dropped as she covered it with her hands with a slight squeal. Her eyes began to water out of pity and shear sadness. Whenever she thought of Remus she thought of this handsome, witty, and generally happy person, but in reality he was this teenager living with this horrible beast within. She instantly wanted to go and comfort Remus at this moment. Claire then listened to Sirius' explanation and story. The more she heard the less pity she felt for Remus and the more admiration she felt for Sirius, and James. Claire at first felt so sorry that Remus had to deal with his "illness" alone. She wished she had know so that she could have been there for him more when they were together. But as Sirius spoke more, she realized that He and James truly were with him to help him. It almost mad Claire want to cry even more. She had so many questions to ask the boys but now wasn't even the time. Claire threw herself at Sirius, wanting to just be close to him. She just grabbed his waist and pressed her body against his.

Lily too was shocked at what just happened. She didn't even pay attention to Sirius, she just continued to hold James' hand. She gripped it tight. She looked into James' eyes and then moved in to give him a peck on his lips. "Thanks for saving me." Lily said softly with a smile. She too had a lot of questions but she definitely needed time to let this all soak in. In her mind, it all seemed to come together. There had been many clues that she had never picked up on that definitely pointed to this outcome. It did seem to make sense in her mind but I was still weird to think about. "Poor Remus.." She whispered as she watched Claire. She then turned to look at the door. The werewolf (Remus) had stopped attacking the door. "I love you James." She said back at james, still holding onto his hand.

Claire remained in Sirius' arms. "Thank you Sirius. For everything." Claire then remained in his arms for a few seconds more. She then let herself go and took a step back. She wiped her eyes and got herself centered. Quickly she hit Sirius' arm. "You should have told us! Your also crazy for hanging around a werewolf by yourselves." She said with a slight playful tone.