Poppy Pomfrey led the fifth year student towards the thrashing tree standing in the deserted grounds. She rushed him while trying to console him also, her arm trembling around his shoulders, knowing that the sun was sinking rapidly beneath the distant hills. As the sky purpled in the twilight she reached for a long branch and pressed it gently against the tree's trunk. It froze, its vines silhouetted against the fading light. A gap appeared between the roots at the base of the tree, large enough for a grown man to fit through. She felt the boy's shoulders tense before she saw him seize up and quickly, abandoning all gentleness, pushed him into the hole and released the tree from its frozen state. All that was left for her to do was pray that he reached the Shack rather than test the trees defenses.

And I've had to fight
Another blurred affair tonight
Eyelids wrestle once again
Never gonna see my friend
Guided by the blinding white

Alone in the Shrieking Shack, Remus Lupin struggled to his fee, barely conscious after a night of wrestling with his own body. He gathered together the clothes he had removed the previous night and staggered from the dusty room. Gashes on his feet collected splinters of dried wood, his skin screamed with pain as he moved down the stairs of the abandoned 'haunted' house and lifted the trapdoor. Fragily he pulled on his clothes over his beaten, wounded body, wincing slightly as the robes dragged over his cuts. He made his slow, painful way down the passage which would lead him to the school. At its end he grasped another long branch designed to let him leave the tree unharmed. He exited quickly and placed the stick the school nurse had used within the passage for his use next month. The light of the newly risen sun shocked him as he turned to welcome the morning. Rather than the empty, tranquil grounds he was expecting, surrounding a crystaline lake and picturesque castle he saw, barely a metre from him his three best friends. On the left, James Potter, on the right, Peter Pettigrew and in the centre his truly best friend - Sirius Black.

Have you left home in spite
Knowing I'm alone tonight
Waiting for the light of day
Doesn't matter anyway
Something that I need to say

Sirius had run away from home the previous year and was had spent his summer lodging with Remus. He had announced recently that the Potters had offered him a home and he would be moving to stay with them during the break between fifth and sixth year. Remus couldn't argue with his friend's choice at the time. Who wouldn't rather stay with the united, friendly Potter family rather than his own disfunctional family consisting of his drunken father who disappeared for weeks at a time and his distraught mother, harrowed to the bone since Remus' transformations began at the age of five. Now Remus yet again faced the prospect of returning to them alone, without even the company of a single friend. Not that Sirius hadn't caused his fair share of trouble - his mother's cat had disappeared several times during his stay and then found itself enclosed in a small chest in the attic of the small, delapidated house.

And I've gone underground
Never hangin' round
Should have made it back again

During the years since his mutation Remus's parents had found it increasingly difficult to find jobs for themselves. Not many employers understood the need to take days off every month, and those that understood or guessed wanted nothing to do with wizards like that. They had sought refuge in the Muggle world, earning money for small jobs well below their ability. Having studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry they were completely unqualified in the Muggle world and the earning of Muggle money left tham having to buy only Muggle things. They were ill-equipped to face life among wizards and were discriminated against if they tried to. Remus' father had turned to alcohol and his mother had fallen into depression. Remus knew the same life awaited him once he reached adulthood. He was so determined to stay young as long as he could, stay under the protection of people like Albus Dumbledore, people who were unafraid of those different to themselves. The headmaster of the school had explained to Remus on his entry to the institution that he thought of differences only as varying strengths, each person, he said, contained different powers that helped them through life. Remus had listened attentively - it was in his nature - but silently he could not see how his 'strength' helped him in his life. Remus knew at the age of five that he was destined to live his adult life as an outcast.

Why can't the moon stay full forever
Wednesday's bad but Friday ain't much better
. . .Someone's hell
Why can't the moon stay full forever
Right now she's got nothin' on her mind

But his childhood could be different, he told himself. He could have friends - be accepted into the fold. Until they found out.He was certain that as soon as they discovered him he had lost his friends - his life. And yet he had been wrong. They found out and, scared as they had been originally, they accepted him. They accepted that he was different, that he was dangerous. All three of them. Sirius actually revelled in it.After three years of knowing, they now had something to do other than know. Now there was something they could do. They all grinned at him without saying a word. Confused, Remus looked to each of them in turn, quizzically raising his eyebrows. Each of his friends laughed at his comical look, ignoring the wounds and bruises scattering his flesh. Sirius looked at James, Remus followed his glance and saw James transforming. His mouth fell open in shock as he watched his friend's face elongating, becoming more refined. Fine silvery fur began to grow on his face and his untidy raven hair turned golden-red. His arms and legs grew thin and delicate ending in black hooves instead of fingers and toes. From his head protrusions formed and swiftly erupted into many pronged antlers. James stood before him - an elegant, powerful stag. Sirius laughed and Remus rearranged his stunned face into a politely inquistive look.

'We all can.' Sirius explained as James quickly resumed his human countenance. 'James a stag, Peter...' he looked sideways at the small, round boy, 'a rat. And myself,' he added indicating himself, 'a dog.'

'How loveable.' Remus joked calmly. Before dropping his pretences and pulling them all into a hug. His nights as a wolf would no longer be spent alone. With a fresh spring in his damaged step he made for the hospital wing to be checked over by Madame Pomfrey.

Will this neverland
Free me from its clutching hand
It won't release me

They awaited the next full moon with anticipation. Remus, usually occupied with his schoolwork was spending more and more time imagining what it would be like. Would the wolf tolerate their presence or not? He knew it was actively a hunter of other humans but how would it react to animals. Would it know they were humans in disguise? What if it didn't? Maybe they could leave the Shrieking Shack and explore Hogsmeade. That would open up all sorts of possibilities. It was impossible, he knew, to completely tame the werewolf, despite the work of many open-minded witches and wizards. Remus was doomed, and he knew it, to spend one night every month, when the moon was at its fullest, as a savage animal. But what if it was possible to make the creature calmer, comfort it with the presence of other beasts? There was no escape but there just might be an easier way. They would know that very week as the moon waxed more every night, eagerly approaching its fullness.

And I've gone underground
Obsessions I have found
Couldn't make it back again

The four friends now harboured a dangerous secret. They were all excited, all wandering around the castle smiling. Several times James had to warn them not to betray themselves by smiling so much. They had to keep their secret - the law decreed that what they had all done was worthy of a sentence in Azkaban - a werewolf endangering his friends willingly, three underage wizards becoming animagi illegally in a school for the wizards. So their secret remained between themselves. As they sat in their class on the day that would become the night of the full moon they each had an excited grin on their face. James turned in his seat and his grin was caught by a tall, skinny Slytherin, whose eyes narrowed suspiciously. James tapped his nose knowingly at the boy and turned back to the teacher laughing. Severus Snape scowled and resumed his note-taking, watched by Sirius as if he was to become The Marauders' prey. Which he was.

Why can't the moon stay full forever
Wednesday's bad but Friday ain't much better
. . .Someone's hell
Why can't the moon stay full forever
Right now she's got nothin' on her mind

The four marauders sat in the Gryffindor Common room, awaiting the sunset. They each kept sneaking nervous glances at the large clock whose pendulum filled the room with its melodious ticking. Twenty minutes before the sunset Remus's female opposite, the fifth year prefect came over and informed him that the nurse wished to see him. She claimed to have been told something about a critically ill aunt and gave her condolences. The other three Marauders gave him sly grins and retired almost immediately after he had left to their dormitory at the top of the spiral staircase. Once there they all stepped under James' invisibility cloak which he had left out for their use. They hurried, huddled under the cloak after Remus, seeing him just as he headed into the Whomping Willow. They waited for the nurse to leave and shed the cloak, concealing it under a nearby bush. Then, one by one they transformed. The miute black form of Peter the rat streaked under the writhing branches of the tree and froze it. Immediately Sirius and James followed, one a majestic stag and the other an enormous black beast of a dog. They were confronted fiercely by a wolf. A wolf that was unnaturally huge, with a keen intelligence in its eyes and readied fangs.