Green Moons

Disclaimer: We don\'t own Harry Potter, but we wished we owned the Marauders...

Green Moons

The boy shouldered his pack and made for his bedroom window. The moon was full. It would be a perfect time for their secret meeting. He listened for the sounds of his parents’ breathing to make sure they were still asleep, and then climbed out of his window, and out into the night. He hopped the few feet down onto the lawn and paused to make sure he was still undetected. All was clear.
Remus Lupin was a boy of ten, and as any ten-year old boy, was extly cly curious and mischievous. He had sandy-brown hair and was well built for his age; he should be after galloping across the countryside with the local boys in rural England nearly his entire life. And with his two friends, Bobby and Matthew, he was seen constantly. It was no surprise then, that to meet them was the reason for his midnight escape.
Remus lived in a simple farmhouse with his family and the house had been built on the edge of a massive forest. The locals told them to stay fro from the woods but would not explain the dangers; this was why the boys found it so enticing. Whenever they got the chance to escape the watchful eyes of their parents, the three boys would run into the forest and would not return until dinner time. But tonight was special; tonight was the night they were going to attempt magic, something the adults had banned them to do.
Reaching the edge of the forest, Remus couldn’t help but shiver as he peered into the darkness. It was the middle of October and an early chill had all ready settled upon the quite land. Frost escaped his trembling lips as he listened for any signs of his friends. But through the heavy fog that was swirling about him he could barely make out anything, and decided to go on ahead without them; they would come soon enough. But he didn’t move. As he stared into the trees, he could feel more than the cold move through him. There was something eerily different a the the forest tonight.
‘Suck it up, Remus,’ he said to himself, “If Matt and Bobby were here, they’d sock you for whimping out now.” After looking about him to make sure that no one had seen his moment of fear, he crouched and slipped into the undergrowth and out of sight.


The leaves had begun to fall from the trees last week, and all ready a thick layer of them were crunching under his shoes. The grey trees loomed around him, a bed of fog at their roots. Their branches groaned and shook, rattling their remaining leaves and dropping some on his head as he walked. He clutched his cltightighter to him and more than ever wished his friends were with him. The forest never seemed so dark when laughing was echoing throughout it.
Suddenly, he stiffened. Someone was watching him. Remus picked up the pace and started trotting. He could still feel eyes on him and somewhere from behind he heard a foot crunch the fallen leaves. Breaking into a run, he began to breath heavily, the cold air pounding on his lungs. Then, from somewhere on his left... “Locomotor Mortis!”
A dazzling light hit him below the waste and his legs instantly became rigid and immobile. His momentum carried him forward and he fell with a painful thud onto the forest floor. He could hear two sets of footsteps approach him. A hand grabbed him by his cloak and flipped him over violently.
The one who had grabbed him stepped over Remus’ limp body, the dark figure silhouetted against the full moon peeking through the forest canopy. “Lumos,” said the figure. A smiling face was lit with the spell.
“Matt?!” exclaimed Remus angrily. “What the devil do you think you’re doing?” Bobby’s face appeared as well and his two friends just grinned at him.
“We’re just doing magic,” said Matt casually, “That’s what we’re here to do after all.”
“Not with wands you git! The Ministry can get you for that you know!” said Remus, feeling again starting to come back into his legs.
Bobby helped him up. “Oh, come on you ninny,” he said, “You’re not going to tell on us are you?”
Remus just glared and retrieved his pack from the ground. “Come on,” he grumbled. His friends snickered and followed him.

It was only a few more minutes of wandering until they reached their meeting place. It was a small clearing, free from vegetation except for some trees around it. The trees’ groping limbs did not obscure the sky, however, and the moon and stars were clearly visible, spilling a pale light on the trio. Bobby had been hauling a small cauldron and dropped the pot with a clang onto the rocky gr. Re. Remus dropped his own pack full of ingredients and began to search his pockets for a pack of matches. Matthew stepped forward and cleared his throat.
“Allow me, my good man,” he said smugly. Pointing the wand at a spot on the earth, he muttered, “Incendio.” Orange sparks struck the soil and instantly became a tiny hearth of flames. Remus huffed and turned to his own bag. Bobby said, “Cool!” and stared into the magical fire as if it were a pile of shimmering galleons.
“Ah, come on, Remus. You have to admit that’s cool!” Matt exclaimed excitedly. “I cant wait until I get my own wand next year though. I’m tired of always swiping my dad’s.”
“Are we going to keep talking or are we going to do this?” Remus snapped.
The boys fumbled with the ingredients as they prepared the cauldron. Remus retrieved a leather book from his bag and flipped to the middle, finding the potion he was looking for: an Aging Potion. A few weeks ago, they had decided they were going to try firewiskey. The problem, they were just a tad underage. A simple potion seemed the easy solution. After all, how hard could it be?
“Did you get the four goat ea que questioned Bobby.
Remus searched among the supplies he had grabbed from the kitchen and said, “Er... I only have three. Do you think it will matter?”
“We’ll just make it up with something else then,” said Matt. “You do have everything thing else though?’
“Give or take a few.”
“Let’s get stared.”
About an hour later, the three boys were grimacing as they stared into the bubbling concoction which had turned blood-red.
“It’s supposed to be green, isn’t it?” asked Bobby.
The potion bubbled and gave of a horrid stench, causing them to plug their noses. “Aw, man, there’s nothing we can do now,” whined Matt.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Bobby groaned.
“It was your idea, Prat!” Matt yelled at him.
While his friends bickered, Remus was frantically looking through the book, trying to find anything so that he could fix the failure. Suddenly, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured down his back. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his eyes went wide in surprise. Just outside the clearing, a pair of green eyes were staring back at him. His friends had stopped yelling and were looking at him curiously.
“Hey, what’s up with you?”
“Eye... eyes... over there,” Remus whispered, dropping the book and pointing frantically at the trees. When his friends turned, the eyes were gone. They turned back to Remus, looking skeptical.
“Hey, if you’re trying to get us back for scaring you tonight, you’re doing a really bad job of it, Remus,” criticized Matthew.
Remus stared into the trees, desperately looking for the eyes again, but the fire’s glow was illuminating the area, and he could see nothing but trees. He could have sworn-
An ear-piecring howl rang through theest,est, causing the boys to cover their ears in pain. It turned into a roar and then died, but the effect was still making their hearts thump in their throats. Bobby, clumsy and frightened, began to back away from the trees and tripped over backwards. With a cry, he and the cauldron tumbled over. The red liquid spilled into the fire, letting off a cloud of steam and drenching the clearing in blackness.
“W-what was t-that?” croaked Matthew from somewhere next to Remus. “Remus, I swear, if-f t-this is your doing-’”
“I didn’t do anything!”
Bobby moaned and they could hear him getting to his feet. “I knew this was a bad idea...”
“It was your idea!” Matt screeched.
“Shut up!” Remus shouted. The forest had gone silent, but his ears couldn’t recover from the howl. They were ringing and his throat and head felt tight. He couldn’t think and felt sweat running down his body, soaking his clothes. Every inch off his skin was freezing cold and he was glued to the ground, staring into the darkness. Could it be a monster? Could it be the danger that the grown-ups had warned them about? Or could it be-
WHAM!
A body had slammed into him and he was thrown into the dirt and cracked his jaw on the rocks. Remus’ head swam and as he regained his hearing, he wished more and more that he hadn’t. Bobby was screaming hysterically, but it was unearthly sound. A roar was muffling the boy’s cries. Somewhere off to his right, he could sense Matt scrambling across the ground frantically, whimpering and crying. Remus needed to get up, needed to see...
‘The wand!’ he screamed to himself. He didn’t know how he managed to find the thin piece of wood in the darkness, but when he felt his fingers wrap around the smooth wood, he could feel the power. Leaping to his feet, he tried to block the horrific snarls and screams as he said, “Lumos!” The wand lit, and what he saw in the night made him drop it.
An enormous animal, the size of a small bear, was ripping and clawing at Bobby. The beast had the boy’s cloak in it’s massive jaws and was it literally flin the the limp body on the ground. Every time he saw his friend\'s body hit the dirt, he heard a stomach-turning crunch, and Remus was helpless to stop it. Bobby had stopped screaming and stopped moving, and perhaps that is why the beast stopped its attack. It slowly turned its massive head, and its green orbs locked on Lupin.
Fear could not adequately describe the emotion piercing through him. A sea of ice had frozen his limbs, and kept him glued in place as he was stared down. Shreds of his friend’s clothing were hanging from the monster’s open jaws and were caught between the gruesome three-inch fangs. Its body was entirely covered in spiked black fur, and long, protruding claws were sunk into Bobby’s flesh. It was a werewolf. The monster snarled, slime dripping from it’s jaws. It’s ears were pinned back, its fur bristling into a mane. The werewolf’s eyes glowed menacingly. It had just spotted new prey.
He could not remember turning to run, or much of the initial attack itself. It was as if time around them had stopped, and the sound had been sucked from the forest. He did remember the eyes, the green, emotionless eyes that never left him during the entire ordeal. As the saber claws and teeth ripped into him, the monster stared. As its jaws clamped around his ribs and roared, its glare did not falter. As the beast leapt on him and crunched his skeleton beneath its weight, the werewolf never let its gaze waver, and never let him forget.
His eyes were only half open and he could feel his own blood run down his arms as his body was jerked again and again. Blood covered the beast’s face and all Remus could do was stare back, stare at the two green moons shimmering above him.
Suddenly, a blast threw the monster off of him and it gave a loud yelp of pain. It fled, and its black fur was absorbed into the shadows, its enormous padfeetfeet thundering into the night. The werewolf was never caught. Two tall figures appeared at his side and more were sprinting passed him towards the clearing. His parents were looking down at him in horror. They were in their nightgowns, and were badly shaken. His mother knelt in the leaves and pulled his gored body into her lap. Tears ran down her face and she mouthed continuously, “No... no. Not my son. Not my boy!”
His father knelt at her side and stroked Remus’ bloody face. He was crying too. “Remus... no. He was bitten. Oh no. No, no, no...” He could feel his body lifted from the ground, but he did not feel pain, nor could he make sense of what was now happening. Remus Lupin could not comprehend the gruesome disease now coursing through his veins. As he was carried, his eyes looked up and the full moon stared back at him through the blackness. A dark cloud swept in and suddenly hid the orb from view. As darkness took him then and his head flopped to one side, two green moons gazed back at him from between the trees. It would always be there every month, a demon in his body waiting for its moment to erupt. The moons blinked and were gone, and all faded into nothingness.

Authors\' notes: That\'s it! We hope you enjoyed it! Please review, and read our other stories!