Homg, Full Moon Time., marauders, yay.

[Remus Lupin]

It was dark. But it wasn’t dark enough yet for the moon to be out, though the time was getting close. There was a sort of pink light in the sky, and a blurry outline of the full moon was just visible.

Madame Pomfrey had met Remus in the Hospital Wing, as they usually did, and, like usual, she hadn’t noticed the three pairs of feet following behind, careful not to make a sound. They had slipped silently under the tree, leaving Madame Pomfrey behind, where she had wished Remus luck. Three boys had appeared into thin air, and they were now trudging through an earth tunnel towards the Shrieking Shack.

It was said that the Shrieking Shack screamed. Remus knew better. He screamed. Not the Shrieking Shack. The Shrieking Shack stayed perfectly silent. But Remus encouraged the rumours, which saved him from most accusing thoughts.

He pocketed his hands, feeling a bit ill, and ran a hand tiredly through his hair.

He didn’t like transforming. The Marauders didn’t like watching him transform. He hated loosing his mind, having no control whatsoever. He hated waking up with blank memories, seeing one Marauder bent over him, but the rest elsewhere. He always had that momentary jolt in his heart. Had one of them been hurt? Where were they? What was happening? But every time everything had turned out just fine, and Remus had come to terms with the fact that it probably always would. But he still had the momentary jolt, the small pang of worry.

Yet always they were fine.

Madame Pomfrey had gotten slightly suspicious when Remus had started coming back with less cuts and bruises. But she too came to terms with the fact. She thought the werewolf was getting less brutal. How wrong she was.

He felt shaky, ill, tired. His knees were wobbly with each step. He felt like he was going to be sick. He probably was going to be sick. He leant against the wall for a moment, looking at the light ahead that was the stairs. That was another worry. What if he didn’t make it to the door in time? What if he got through the Willow?
What if the Marauders couldn’t catch him? What if they lost him? He shuddered slightly, stood up straight, and carried on, a bitter taste in his mouth. The sort of taste you got in your mouth just before you were going to be sick all over the floor.

Which, by the way, he just was. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, not bothering to clean himself up any further then that.

Remus was finally in the Shack, sure the Marauders were behind him. He glanced out the window at the moon, which was becoming clearer with each second, slowly coming into view.

“Well,” he said with a wry smile, sitting on the end of the bed and kicking off his shoes. He rather liked those shoes. “Here we go again, I suppose.” He tried his best to grin. And, may I say, he failed miserably.

ooc; i am such a looser

[Sirius Black]

Sirius looked forward to this time of the month. It was insensitive of him, but he did. While it was a mark of the strength of his friendship with Remus that he and the others had become Animagi just to ease the werewolf's transformations, it wasn't exactly as if every full moon was a hardship. When they were frolicking around the forest on four legs, and the wolf wasn't after blood, it was almost easy to almost forget that one of their number was technically a monster. Not completely easy, and not completely forget – but the knowledge of the danger gave it that extra thrill.

Yes, Sirius was a stupid, stupid boy. But his heart was in the right place.

He pushed the door open, and wrinkled his nose conspicuously at the smell of vomit. "Ugh. Hey. You alright, Moony?" Obviously he wasn't, but the answers to his questions being blindingly apparent had rarely stopped Sirius from asking them in the past.

[Remus Lupin]

"No," Remus said honestly, running a hand through his hair again and glancing once more out the window, where the moon was still getting clearer every second. He too wrinkled his nose, glancing anywhere but at the vomit with distaste. "No, I'm not."

Which was pretty blunt. It was the only time of month when Remus would actually admit that he wasn't alright. Unless, of course, he was being sarcatic or sadistic or whatnot. But he was completely and utteryly truthful this time. One of the few times he ever would be about how he was feeling.

[Peter Pettigrew]

Ooc;; Sophie is making me post, even whilst I'm applying to be on the apprentice (Zomg, I could so beat their arses) and so I blame her for this post. Mm'kay.

Bic;; 'i like cupcakes' peter said he liked cupcakes so he was telling the truth. he liked remus because he gave him cupcakes. 'where are we' he said and looked confused.

Ooc;; Okay. Proper post time.

Bic;;
It was full moon time.
The time when he was included as a marauder.
The time when they needed him.
The time when he wasn't just extra baggage, whining, fair game.
A time that Peter looked forward.

No longer was he a fat boy that did nothing. He was an animagus. How many students could boast about that?
Well. Peter couldn't boast about it either, but that was beside the point.
He was an animagus. He had more adventures than anyone could imagine of.

"Don't worry about it moony, you won't remember any of it in a minute or two."
Oh, how Peter sucked at being sympathetic.

"So, uhm, do you like, get attracted to female werewolves, moony?" He asked shyly, rubbing his toe against the floorboad. "'Cause if you did, you could like, have werewolf puppies."

[James Potter]

His step held an odd spring to it as he followed the others into the shrieking shack for their once a month appointment. Was it excitement or was he just twitching with nerves? Well really it was just the excitement, call him a thoughtless but James actually enjoyed times like these with his friends. Yes, it was pain and agony for one member which could lead to regret if someone got hurt (which was pretty rare, apart from the scratches but they could be cast as something sexy). If however, you looked past this large point you’d see another time for them to have a rather large bonding session. Once the transformation was done, it all became some fun and games. Prancing around the room, almost teasing the werewolf and watching as Peter would scurry into the corner in fear.

Collapsing down onto his regular chair he stretched his arms, glad to have the night away from the common room and a somewhat excuse not to finish off his Transfiguration homework. Then again, in some context he was doing his own practical lesson of it. If only McGonagall knew just what he did every full moon then maybe she would cut him a little more slack in lessons, hmm?

“That dinner was pretty filling tonight, huh?” James asked around, trying to clear the uneasy air between them all and maybe relax Remus a little – even if he had thrown half of his up on the way up here.

[Remus Lupin]

Despite the strange tingling in his spine, Remus stared at Peter in disbelief. He wasn't sure if he was serious or attempting to cheer him up. He was pretty sure the former comment was serious- Peter had never been good at sympathy. But the latter... Remus didn't know how to make head or tail of it. He hesitated, glancing at James, a confused expression on his face. "Erm," he said slowly, glancing at the window. "Erm. I don't think so. I've never really. Met. Someone else." He shifted on the bed, looking out the window once more, and hastily fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, managing to get that off.

The moon was now completely out, shining brighter than ever, a pearly white against the black sky. He inhaled sharply, looking away from his friends. The tingling in his spine expanded to the rest of his limbs, and he went oddly still, gripping pointlessly at the mind he was loosing more and more of every second. He knew it was pointless. And the wolf knew it was pointless. He let go.

The wolf completely took over, and his limbs began to shake. His head and body were lengthening, his shoulders hunching, hair spreading across his body. His hands were shaping themselves into claws, and the werewolf snarled, jaws snapping, growling. This was his territory. He would protect it.

[Sirius Black]

"Female werewolves? Pete, you – oh shit –"

Sirius had never actually seen Remus's transformation except in glances; the fact that the werewolf tended to remove his clothes first probably had a fair bit to do with that, but that aside, it sounded bloody dreadful enough – there were horrible noises that he could only imagine were flesh and bone reshaping themselves – he sure as hell didn't want to see any of it, even in black and white. So he looked away and closed his eyes in the way people do when they want to close their ears as well, and concentrated for a moment, and then where there had been a boy there was a large black dog.

He had less self-control and foresight when he had four legs (however much people might argue that he never really had very much to begin with), and so he looked round, but by now the change was over.

Sirius took a step towards the werewolf, slightly deferential. They kept the werewolf in line, him and James, but from his doggy perspective, the wolf was the leader of the pack.

[Remus Lupin]

The werewolf eyed the dog in front of him wearily, throwing its head the way a horse might. It growled, low in its throat. Not a threatening growl, simply a growl which said firmly that he was the lead wolf, and that he was in charge. It was his territory, he had let the animals on it, they should respect him.

It eyed the dog once more, then turned sharply and padded to the other end of the room, sniffing at the walls, searching for a way out. Its long, loud sniffs echoed through the suddenly silent Shack, and it suddenly turned, jerking its head enquiringly towards the door.

[Peter Pettigrew]

'Yes, but would you be? I mean. If you bit some girl, and then you could have werewolf babies. And they could be like, our god-children. And we could name them Flopsy, Mopsy and Topsy, the werewolf puppies. And you could put bows in their hair, and take them to shows and get ribbons and...'

Peter was getting a little carried away, mainly because Sophie is standing behind Hatty at the moment with a gun pointed at her head, forcing her to post.

'And how would you woo a female werewolf? I mean, what do you find sexy when you're transformed, Remus?'
At this point, Peter was completely unaware that his friend was now a werewolf and was still in boy form.

'Would you like, have a candlelit dinner? And eat noodles? And growl at each other? And chew each other's leg fondly?'

Turning around, he saw that his friend was in...furry form.
'Crap.'
Suddenly, there was a rat in his place.
Oh, thank the lord even Peter could master turning into a rat in a time of panic.

[James Potter]

Did he ever shut up and think about what he was saying for once? Peter was being a complete fool – and even though the questions he was asking did actually turn out to be quite humorous this wasn’t the time or place to publicly broadcast them. Especially since talking about something so ... intimate was distributing his attention span away from the real thing they were here for. And that was to protect Remus from anything he could do, any real harm he could cause and better yet – just some simple entertainment.

As soon as the shadows of Remus’s body reshaping into something inhuman were cast above James head, the clothes on his own back were transformed into a light layer of fur, his large mass of unruly hair disappeared. His head now supported a pair of fine ears and large antlers.

Eyes cast nervous glances around the room, a light shock of fear overcoming him for a second as he lost sight of his good friend. Trotting cautiously closer to the creature of the night, James followed Sirius’s lead on trying to keep him in line. Though with months of experience on his shoulders, he was sure to do just fine in this ‘game’.

[Remus Lupin]

The werewolf eyed the new arrival, then gave a small grunt and took a step towards it. It cocked its head again, growling slightly and taking a step towards the door before looking back at the stag.

The stag usually opened the door, the werewolf remembered. It would press its handsome, strong antlers against the handle and push it open. The antlers were best not messed with. There had been numerous times when it had come on the wrong side of them, and it hadn't been pleasent. It knew to give the other animals a reasonably amount of respect, though he deserved the most respect. It had taken a while for it to come to trust the three animals, but eventually it had. The animals let it out, so long as it kept within close watch of them. It had tried to escape a few times, but they hadn't been very successful.

It glanced briefly at the rat, then looked fixedly at the door again, growled low in its throat again and turned to the stag, sitting down. Though it was still ready to attack.

It always was. And sometimes it did, and the fights got a bit more than bloody, and the Marauders would have to make up excuses for their injuries, but they always got away with it. How couldn't they?

[James Potter]

Pupils followed Remus as he sat down, his inner mind smirking at the actions he was making. It wasn’t normally so simple sometimes the animal would be so full of energy that it wouldn’t or couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds. Obviously today Remus had more control, it was either that or that the leader of their pack had a few surprises up his sleeve. But whatever was thrown at them, it was sure that Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would be able to deal with it. So what if at the end of the night they came back into the castle with a few more cuts and bruises then expected, it was all worth it in the end. It meant that the boy came back with less cuts, with less self inflicted harm.

It was true, ever since they had been helping him out Remus had been spending less time in the hospital wing. I guess it’s goes for that saying ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’ the problem being the cuts, and then if you halved it between four people, really it was just a lot easier for everyone. Or more, just Remus.

Sending Padfoot a quick wink James moved forward leaning his head forward, hooking the antlers carefully onto the door and pulling it open with ease. Lifting his head caused the door to swing open, and with a proud nod he left the room, being one of the first to leave the shack room and gallop down the stairs, turning his head to capture any glimpse of the eager werewolf.

Just were would this night take them? Every full moon brought the group a new adventure whether it was them exploring a new section of the Forbidden Forest or if they would just hang around the lake, trying to keep their friend away from anything that could be seen as prey? He never knew until something happened, these things couldn’t really be predicted.

[Remus Lupin]

The werewolf barked impatiently, golden-coloured eyes fixed steadily on the handle of the door. When it finally flung open the werewolf jumped up happily and barked again, more impatient this time. It watched the stag race past, then followed eagerly, snapping happily at the creature's feet, stopping and looking up at it as they came to the enterance of the Willow.

[James Potter]

James also rounded to a halt, turning and guarding the exit of the Shack, waiting for the others to catch up and accompany them both outside into the darkness.

ooc uhoh hannah didnt know what ter saaaay.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius followed close after the wolf, nose briefly near inappropriate places because there are some things a dog can't not do, however humiliated the boy inside it might be. He looked briefly back and barked for Peter, and then trotted on out into the forest ahead of the others.