Title: Howl
Author:
oomnydevvotchkaFandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Remus/Sirius
Rating: T
Word Count: 719
Summary: Fills the animal play square on my kink_bingo card. A full moon night in the Mauraders' sixth year.
A/N: Re-posting some of my old fics. Can also be found on AO3
here.
Sirius isn’t very good at being patient on full moon nights.
He knows why he has to be patient - there would be hell to pay if anyone realized what they were doing - but every second he’s away from Remus hurts.
Remus has had to spend so many years suffering the transformations on his own, huddled in a corner by himself while his body rips itself apart, trying not to howl in pain. Now that Sirius has a way he can help, a way he can make it better? He can’t stand not being there.
The minutes tick by slowly, but finally - finally - it’s midnight, and the soft snores coming from across the room indicate that Prewett is asleep. As Sirius slips out of bed, he can hear the faint rustling that indicates James and Peter doing the same.
They don’t speak in the common room, when James motions them to huddle closer so he can throw his Invisibility Cloak over them. They don’t talk when they swing open the Fat Lady’s portrait, carefully, so as not to wake her up. They don’t talk in the hallway, when Sirius pulls out the map from his pocket, and checks to make sure that anyone who could possibly catch them is far, far away (while the Invisibility Cloak is still going strong, for how old it is, it’s a lot harder to fit under it when they’re sixteen then it was then they were twelve).
It’s only when they get outside that anyone says anything, with Peter letting out a quiet “Yes!”
James rolls his eyes and smacks Peter on the head, muttering “Tosser” under his breath, then, with a little shudder, begins to change.
Sometimes Sirius likes to watch his friends transform, trying to pinpoint the exact second that they change from human to animal, but tonight, he’s too impatient for that. Instead, he reaches inside himself, conjuring up the image of the black dog that is his Animagus form, and allows the change to overtake his body.
The first time Sirius had changed, he hadn’t been expecting that his mind would be different, too. He’d expected to just be Sirius Black, teenage boy, disappointment to his parents, and Marauder, only, y’know, more…canine-looking.
He’s not though. When he’s in his Animagus form, he thinks of himself as Padfoot, not Sirius, although he usually chooses to focus more on the world around him than on himself.
When he’s finished transforming, he lifts his head and scents the air. To his right, he can pick up the familiar scents of his companions, now a stag and a rat, but he’s more concerned with the scent of the wolf, frightened and pained in the distance.
It seems as though Wormtail’s just as anxious to get to the wolf as Padfoot is, for he darts beneath the branches of the Whomping Willow and presses the knot, so that Padfoot and Prongs can follow him, down the path to the Shrieking Shack.
Moony looks up when they walk into the room, and Padfoot’s heart drops: there are deep scratches all over Moony’s body, and it looks like he’s managed to break an ankle from all the thrashing around.
Prongs and Wormtail stay back a bit, knowing that there’s only one person (animal?) who can comfort Moony when he’s like this.
Padfoot approaches the wolf, legs held stiff and head down in submission. Moony’s tense from the pain, but he doesn’t appear to be particularly uncomfortable with Padfoot’s approach, so Padfoot gets a little bit bolder, comes right up to Moony’s side.
The wolf looks up, then, and Padfoot moves to touch their muzzles together. It’s a sign of friendship, family, maybe even something more, and all the tension melts out of Moony.
As Padfoot begins licking at the wounds on Moony’s chest, Prongs comes up and lies awkwardly next to the wolf, followed quickly by Wormtail, who goes so far as to curl up beside Moony’s nose.
Normally, on full moons, the four animals run through the woods together (Well, Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs do. Wormtail, who’s too small to really keep up with them, usually hitches a ride on Prongs’ back,) play-fighting, racing each other, hunting.
Tonight, though, they’ll just lie calmly together, keeping Moony company until the sun rises and he’s Remus again.