I woke up to a silent house. James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were all asleep in various places about the room. This must be Remus Lupin’s house because he was the one sleeping in the bedroom whilst the other three were on the couch, armchair and the floor. I didn’t see a clock anywhere in the room, but something did catch my eye. The entire wall was lined in bookshelves, so much so that it appeared to be just a strange wallpapering of different colored blocks. I wanted to get up to investigate his collection but knew it would wake up James. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around some more, there really wasn’t much to see, there was no television, but a record player and radio were in the one corner.
CRACK!
The noise came from outside the house and it woke everyone up, scaring not only me. Sirius pulled himself off the floor and stood as if he were ready to fight, but instead of his hands in fists, one was clenched around a thin piece of wood- a wand? Next there was a knock on the door. James made eye contact with me and put a finger over his lips and pointed beneath the couch. Scared beyond all imagination I slid off of the couch and edged my way beneath it. I watched the three pairs of feet make their way towards the door.
“Would you boys please let me in? It’s Lily!”
I heard someone swear not so quietly and then the door was pulled open. Greetings were passed between them all cordially and I heaved a sigh of relief and started to crawl back out from beneath the couch. When I appeared, I clearly scared the newcomer. She shrieked and pointed, “James! Who is that and what did you guys do to her?”
I remembered my bruised legs and most likely sloppy appearance but tried to smile anyways.
"Why do you assume we did this to her?"
The girl looked at James with a look that clearly said "Seriously?" She was definitely a friend of James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus. I stuck out my hand, “Holly Clark and these guys here have done nothing but take care of me.”
“Lily Evans,” the girl said cautiously, she was looking me up and down and then looked towards the men, “Sirius! Put that away!”
“Too late, Evans, she knows.” He took a deep breath, “It’s been a very eventful night.”
She looked confused, but she was still very pretty, gorgeous even. She was short with long, bright, red hair and brilliant green eyes. She made her way over to the couch and sat down, then after looking at each of us she spoke, “explain.”
Peter twiddled his thumbs, James ran his hand through his hair, and Sirius spoke up. He began to tell about last night, saying things like Remus was harder to keep track of than usual, that usually there aren’t any animals in these woods cause they know he’s there but a big old dog showed up and threw them all off their typical game plan, how I showed up and how they couldn’t hold Remus back and he attacked me, how Peter took me back here and they’ve been treating me, and how they found out I was a muggle and how very complicated it all was now.
Lily gasped and looked at me, she grabbed my hand and said, “you’re gonna be okay, I’m so very sorry for all this, but don’t worry, we’re all going to look after you.”
I nodded, I seemed to be doing a lot of nodding. It was just so hard to talk to people you didn’t know when you’re suddenly thrown together for a very irrational reason. “Is he still asleep?”
Sirius laughed, a great infectious barking laugh that I would have loved to join in with except I did not know the joke. Lily smiled, probably seeing my confusion, and resolved it saying “Holly, Remus sleeps like a log on normal days, so naturally after the full moon we don’t bother to even try to wake him cause he’s so worn out.”
I wondered if I’d be like that. “How long has he slept for before?”
James answered me this time, “Oh no more than seventeen hours straight, I think that’s his record. Usually he eats before going to sleep though, so I’m sure he’ll be up soon enough even though he did have a bit of a snack last night.”
“A what? You mean not only did he bite me but he got my dog too? He ate Mammoth?”
“Easy there, Holly, you make it sound like he swallowed him whole. And mind you he’s not really in control of what he does, you see-“
“Not in control? Obviously he’s not in control! He killed my dog and then attacked me! Why the hell is he even near people?” I knew I was shouting and being completely rude, but this news really scared me. I was going to be an out of control bloodthirsty beast every full moon. I really was going to be dangerous and this scared me so, so much. I’ve always just kinda coasted through everything, not causing too many ripples but now, now I was something that needed to be controlled, something horrifying. These people didn’t seem to understand just how devastated I felt. I really just wanted to be alone but in this tiny cabin there was nowhere to go.
“Now see here, Remus is a great person, and you better not just go hating him for what happened. If that’s the case you’re going to have to hate the werewolf that bit him and the one that bit that one and so on. There’s nothing you can do about it so stop your yelling! And Remus is our best mate, so don’t you dare talk bad about him- any part of him- when we’re around, okay?” Anger was practically seeping out of Sirius at this point, he looked furious. When I looked at the rest of them, they all seemed mad too. Clearly, I had struck a chord but I was still angry.
I mumbled a quick sorry and turned onto my stomach and faced the back of the couch. It was rude, but they’d have to deal with it, I mean I was going to be their hostage for who knows how long. Lily was the first to speak.
“I understand she’s upset, but really, to say those things about Remus?”
“Thanks for sticking up for me, really, but she’s completely right.” Apparently Remus had been awake for my conniption.
“Moony, don’t start getting down on yourself. It’s not your fault and frankly we all hate it when you get in these moods.”
I couldn’t tell exactly who was speaking, but they went back and forth between them trying to console Remus. Saying how it wasn’t his fault and to not get worked up about it. Remus couldn’t seem to get a word in edge wise and when he finally did he sounded angry.
“Look, I hear this from you guys all the time but this situation is completely different. I don’t care if I wasn’t in control but what I did was terrible. She looks like she’s passed out asleep right now and I do want to get back to sleep too, so if you could all just go home for now I’d really appreciate it. Come back in a day or so, I really think I need to talk to her myself.”
They all said goodbye and I heard the door open and shut and then four successive loud CRACKS! I expected to actually get some more sleep when I felt a depression in the couch cushion near my waist. I tried to keep pretending I was asleep, he really was the last person I wanted to talk to at the moment. “You may have tricked them into thinking you’re asleep but your heart is beating much too fast, unless you’re having a night mare of course, but you don’t seem to be sweating. But anyway, enough of me rambling, roll over ‘cause I know you’re awake, we need to talk.”
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