Remus Lupin was sitting in the living room of Number Twelve Grimauld Place on a couch that had seen better days. There were feathers falling out of a large hole on one of the cushions, and there was nasty looking stain on the cushion beside it that he couldn't even begin to identify...and would probably be happier not knowing. But it was comfortable anyway, and he was exhausted from all the questioning that the Ministry had insisted all the members of the Order answer. They had been stupid questions that if they had been listening to a word Dumbledore had been saying the previous year they would have known the answers to, but being the nice guy he was Remus had answered all the questions he was asked.
He sighed deeply and put the glass of fire whiskey down on the table in front of him, he then layed back down on the couch, speading out this time, he was about to take a well earned nap.
The fire crackled merrily as he slowly drifted into a fitful sleep...
"Tonights the night Remus. In about..." James looked at his watch. "Forty minutes, we need to be in the Shreiking Shack getting ready. Are you feeling alright?" He finished looking over at Remus from his spot in the common room, in his favorite chair across from the fire.
"So far so good, I figure I've got about two hours before it happens. Wheres Sirius and Peter?" Remus asked nervously...what if they had chickened out?
"Relax, there in the Dungeons getting the last few ingredients, I leant them the cloak, they should be back any minute now..." James said reassuringly.
Remus sighed and nodded. He didn't know why he was so worried, it wasn't him who was about to risk his life, he tranformed every month, there was nothing new about that, but James, Peter, and Sirius were about to try something that was extremely dangerous. If their plans went the way the expected, then the other three were going to attempt to change into an animal, in other words they were going to break the law and become illegal animigus'. But that wasn't what was bothering him, it was the fact that even though he took a potion to make him more tame in his wolf form, he didn't know how his wolf form would react to three other animals in the Shrieking Shack with him, what if he hurt them?
Just then Remus heard the portrait hole open and a shuffling of feet, he saw nobody indicating that the other two had arrived. He felt the cushion of the couch he was sitting in sag greatly and then a swish of a cloak and Peter and Sirius appeared out of thin air. Both with looks of pride on their faces.
"Did you get them?" James asked eagerly, searching the boys with his eyes looking for the ingredients.
Sirius threw him a mischievious grin.
"Of course, we got them. What do you take us for?" He asked pretending to be affended.
"Right, I should have known..." James said laughing.
"Ok, well I guess we've got everything. Are the potions ready for the last ingredients?" Peter asked looking at James for the answer as usual.
"I think so, I've double and triple checked them, I hid them at the entrance...well as close as the tree would allow me..." James stated getting up out of chair and walking over to the window over looking the grounds. He got that far away look in his eyes, that he was getting more and more often lately. Remus knew exactly why.
"There she is..." James was saying, probably unaware that everyone else could hear him. Lucky for him the common room was empty aside from the boys.
"Oh please...your not on about her again are you?" Sirius said loudly.
James jerked out of whatever kind of daze he was in, looking embarrassed.
"Come on guys...look at her..." He said quietly.
Remus laughed.
"No thanks mate, I've seen her. We all know she's incredible...blah, blah, blah." He said smiling.
Sirius cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention.
"Uh, guys? Don't we have something to do thats a little more important than James' little crush?" He said motioning to the little box of certain herbs and their own hair that they had pulled for the potion days ago.
"Right...sorry...er, we should probably get down there now, it's cloudy...it might rain soon." James said removing himself from the window.
They all got up from their seats and walked out of the Gryffindor common room, all of course under the invisability cloak.
The grounds were already damp as the four of them stepped out of the oak front doors of the school.It had taken them twice as long as it should have to get from the common room to outside, because Peeves had caused a scene in the Main Hall and all the professors in the school had come to sort everything out.
There was a slight drizzle that was steadily getting heavier as they made their way to the Whomping Willow. They sky was now a depressing grayish color, that didn't give Remus any incouragement at all.
When they arrived at the tree, Peter, Sirius and James all looked at Remus expectantly. Then he realzed that they wanted him to press the knot on the tree to refrain it from killing them all.
Having done it plenty of time Remus stepped forward and bolted for the knot barely giving the tree time to realize what was happening.Once it did however it started to thrash around wildly. He was ready though, he jumped to aviod a large branch from taking his feet off, then dunked at almost the same time to keep it from decapatating him. A few near misses and scratches later he reached the knot and pressed it down. The tree went still and silient in an instant, and he motioned for his friends to come over.
Hesitant at first they made their way over to him, James was applauding, and Sirius was staring at him like a proud father, and Peter was just plain staring at him.
"Very impressive! I didn't think you had it in you." James said still applauding.
"Yeah, if the Wizarding World is ever attacked by a pack of wild human eating trees, we'll know who to call!" Sirius said patting Remus on the shoulder.
"Ha ha ha...very funny. So James, where did you put the potion?" Remus asked looking over at James who had just stopped clapping, and was reaching behind a rock on the other side of the tree.
"Right here." He said coming back over with the small cualdron full of a foul smelling purple liquid.
"Urgh...we have to drink that?" Peter asked holding his nose and backing away from James.
"Yup..." James answering holding his hand over his own nose.
Remus winced as the smell traveled over to his nostrals. God that stank...
Sirius was trying his hardest to ignore the smell. But Remus could tell it was burning the hairs in his nose.
"Ok well, we should get in here." Sirius said dropping the Invisability Cloak behind a rock, where it was well hidden. " Does everyone have their wands? " He asked taking out his own.
James took his out of his back pocket.
"Got it...just in case you know..." He said, looking over at Remus.
"Yeah...look if you guys don't want to go through with this, I'll understand..." Remus stated lamely.
James smirked.
"Come on Remus..." He said leading Remus, Sirius, and Peter into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.
They walked for what seemed like hours in almost complete darkness, tripping every once in a while due to the many roots that stuck out of the ground. Remus was the only one who didn't trip once, because he was used to this tunnel, every twist and turn, he had it memorized, he walked it every month.
Finally they reached the dead end, and Remus reached up to the door in the ceiling and hosted himself up and out of the opening, reaching out a hand to help the others up.
Once they were all up he led them through the Shrieking Shack, and into the living room that he used when he tranformed, because it was fairly large and provided plenty of space.
"Ok...we need to start preparing the potion..." James said putting the cauldron in the middle of the room.
Remus nodded and wiped the sweat off of his brow, the simptums were starting, he was starting to get very hot, even though it was December and a cold wind was flowing through the cracks in the old houses walls. And the hair on his arm was getting darker and a little thicker, he was probably pale, he could almost feel the color draining slowly out of his face..
"Er...guys...you've got about thirty minutes...it's already starting..." He said motioning to the hair on his arm.
"Bloody hell..." Sirius mumbled staring at Remus, not with a look of fear, but with one of great intrest...and a hint of excitement.
"We need to hurry then...er...ok...here..." James said taking out three empty vials, in which he poured to the top with the purple potion, and handed two of them to Sirius and Peter, keeping the third for himself.
"Ok, we need to add the hairs..." James continued taking his own hairs out of the box of ingredients and dropping them in his vial. The other two did the same. Then they all grabbed the right ammount of rosemary, and basil, from the box and added that to the potion making it turn an even deeper purple, so that it looked almost black.
"Ok, on the count of three..we drink it...one...two...three!" He said downing the foul potion in one swallow...