11 August 2012
In my misery and lack of anything else to do I threw myself into the Remus mystery with renewed determination.
I'd discovered that he became ill every few weeks (could it be a monthly cycle?)and he always disappeared after a day or two of looking grey and nauseous. When I asked Peter (I guessed he was the least likely to badger me about Potter) where he was he told me something about an auntie. Another thing about him is that he was the worst liar of the group. His unconvincing reply told me I was on the right track.
It was the night before the third task and also nearly the end of the year. I had a measly week to discover Remus's dangerous secret before the holidays. I had to work fast.
The Marauders had somehow managed to let off several hundred dungbombs inside our dormitory and it was so thick with toxic odours that you couldn't even stand within ten metres of it without suffocating and even then it was exceedingly unpleasant to breathe.
Jody and Trish went to McGonagall to see if she could do anything about it so, alone (god knows what Lissa was up to), I decided to take a walk. Well. Not really. I just wanted to get away from the overcrowded common room.
I sat at the edge of the forest. It's dark, brooding atmosphere rather fitted my mood of late.
I practiced producing a patronus. Often I could produce what looked like a cloud of billowing blue-silver smoke, once I even cast a corporeal one (a deer) but in my current, sulky mood I could only produce a few pathetic wisps of pale light.
It was really quite quiet tonight. Only the whispering of dry leaves, the croaking of a raven, the occasional howl and the ominous humming of merlin-knows-what.
I heard another howl. I'd heard there was a werewolf living in the forest. Well it wasn't surprising really. There were loads of dark creatures but they all stayed further in. Didn't want to face the wrath of Dumbledore I suppose. So I should be safe.
We'd been learning about werewolves recently in DADA. It was definately taught from a 'they're monsters; avoid them at all costs' point of view but I don't see what's wrong with them when they're not all animal-y. I'm pretty sure that all the high and mighty ministry witches and wizards could find a way to keep them under control at the full moon.
And really there are loads of much more monstrous diseases you could get that you just get shipped off to St Mungos for.
I thought about the symptoms for lycanthropy. Ill and grey looking around the full moon generally. What were the others? Wait...
I thought of Remus bathed in the light of the moon that night with The Marauders. And he was looking unwell recently wasn't he? It couldn't be...
There was no way in hell that Remus could be a-
Another howl. From right behind me.
I spun to see the salivating, scarred maw of a-
'Werewolf'
I took no persuading to set off at a sprint in the opposite direction of the werewolf.
Away from the creature that could very possibly be Remus Lupin.
Luckily I was always a fast runner. I often won races at sports day at my old muggle school but I was still no match for a werewolf.
His claws had just grazed my heals when a hole upended up under me and I tumbled down an insanely steep slope to...
Okay I didn't recognise this room.
I was glad I'd refrained from screaming my head off on the way down because the werewolf/maybe Remus hadn't followed me. Wether that was because he'd lost me or because he wasn't mad (ha, a loony not mad?), I didn't know but I was mercifully alone in a small square room.
I was crumpled in a pile of leaves and I knew my hair was probably full of them too but apart from that the room was empty.
I tried to stand but the action made me painfully aware of a sharp pain in my ankle and wrist.
I tried to move towards the door in front of me but the pain only intensified and my peripheral vision started to darken.
I shut my eyes tightly as if it would make the pain go away.
Once the pain had passed (almost) I opened my eyes and- shit. Where did the room go?
As I was trying to comprehend this the wolf pounced, snarling at me his razor claws slashed across my chest and would probably have speared me right through had a stag, yes stag, not leaped towards me and pushed me out of the way simultaneously.
What the...
I must have hit my head on a stone or something as I fell because I felt something warm on the back of my head and I started to black out to the sight of a concerned looking stag watching over me and a frenzied werewolf wrestling a giant black dog that looked an awful lot like the grim and a rodent scuttling up its leg.
I think the pain was making me hallucinate.
12. FaNfIcNeSs • Opuss № I