Chapter 3
Padfoot’s head snapped up as Moony turned, rapidly sniffing the air. Drawing in a deep breath of his own, the scent hit him in the same instant as Moony sprinted away, leaping nimbly over a log that Padfoot had to scramble over.
Padfoot panted roughly, his tongue lolling out as he rushed after him. Being half his size, he began to fall behind, no matter how fast he tried to run. Wormtail was already far behind them. He barked loudly to ask Moony to slow down, but he was too focused on the scent of blood.
Ahead of him, the last bit of Moony’s brown tail disappeared into the trees, so now he relied on scent alone. The wolf ran silently.
The trees opened up suddenly, revealing a small open clearing. The wolf stood growling, head low and eyes focused on a stag on the ground in front of him. Padfoot skidded to a halt, his claws catching painfully on a stone.
He barked at Moony, his back to the all too familiar stag behind him. Hackles raised, he stepped towards Moony, internally begging him to follow him.
The wolf’s head raised, his growling trailing off. He blinked, surprised at his packmate, who was getting in the way of a hunt.
Padfoot stood firm. I won’t let you hurt James, he thought firmly, letting out another firm bark.
Behind him, a wide-eyed Prongs subconsciously shifted forward, before startling and letting out a soft whimper.
The wolf’s eyes narrowed and his head lowered once again. Padfoot stepped in front of him, his barks turning to a desperate whine.
With a snarl, the wolf lunged cleanly over his head- but before he could make contact, a stick hit the side of his head. Startled, he turned midair and stumbled over Prongs, who yelped in pain.
Shaking his head, the wolf turned his attention back to the injured stag beneath him, only to get hit with another stick, directly on the snout this time. Snarling, the wolf turned his attention to the trees, trying to figure out where the sticks were coming from. Padfoot did the same. Glancing up, he saw a brief flash of pale skin before a small black cat appeared instead, jumping down next to the stag with a hiss.
The wolf snorted, turning back to glance around the trees before focusing again on Prongs.
Padfoot braced himself to ram into Moony’s side, but the cat beat him to it. Yowling, threw himself onto Moony’s face, digging in his claws. Prongs jerked his head back, and Padfoot had to skitter backwards so he didn’t get impaled.
Growling loudly, Moony threw his head from side to side until the cat jumped away, turning midair to dash away. Moony followed instantly, snapping at the cat’s tail, but just too far to grab him.
Padfoot briefly wondered who the cat was- He didn’t know of any cat animagi besides McGonagall, but she was a gray tabby she-cat, and this was a black tom.
Deciding that it didn’t matter, and that the cat had Moony distracted, Padfoot turned to Prongs and whined softly. Shifting back into human form, he knelt next to him. “Merlin, James,” he breathed, fighting nausea at the sight of his snapped leg.
He’d seen him limping away, but he hadn’t known it was this bad.
“Don’t turn back into your human form,” Sirius advised, reaching towards his leg. Prongs snorted and tossed his head. “Yeah, yeah, you know that. Duh,” he muttered, reaching for his wand. “I can uh- I can try to fix this.”
Prongs blinked at him slowly, resting his head on the ground again. Sirius was more touched than he’d ever admit by the simple display of trust. Sirius reached for his leg again, but hesitated, leaving his hands awkwardly hovering above Prongs’ leg. “Uh- I have to shift it back into place. So. That’ll hurt.”
Prongs flicked one ear dismissively.
“Okay… here we go.” Sirius pressed against Prongs’ leg, moving it back into place as gently as he could, determinedly ignoring his cries. “It’ll help, I swear,” he promised, trying to hide the tremor in his voice.
As Sirius put Prongs’ leg back in place, it felt like fire racing up his leg. With a startlingly loud cry of pain, everything went black.
Blinking awake slowly, Prongs saw the faint light of dawn creeping through the trees. Padfoot lay curled at his side with Wormtail, while Moony- Well, Moony was about to turn human again. Struggling to his feet, Prongs realized that his leg was much better- able to support his weight, but still in quite a bit of pain. He limped over to Moony, who was turning in circles in agitation.
The wolf stopped, looking up at him. He didn’t seem aggressive at all, now that the wound was closed. If anything, he seemed a bit concerned for his companion. Maybe he could consider non-canines packmates, after all.
Prongs’ thoughts were cut off as Moony dropped to his belly with a loud whine. Padfoot jumped up, hearing the noise, and Wormtail followed as quickly as he could. Prongs lowered himself to the ground as well, nudging Moony with his muzzle as Wormtail scrambled onto his back, climbing to his antlers.
Moony let out a half-whine, half growl, before letting out a pained howl. Padfoot’s ears pricked forward in concern, and he walked closer before settling down and licking Moony’s cheek. Moony rested his head on Padfoot’s paws as the wolf settled and slowly shifted back to Remus, screams and snaps ringing out as his bones fractured and healed in seconds. When he had, he stayed where he was, panting in pain.
Padfoot shifted back to Sirius, now sitting with Remus’ head in his lap. He leaned back against Prongs’ flank as he ran his fingers through Remus’ hair. “You staying a stag, James?” he asked, not expecting a response. “Smart. When you’re human again, we’ll need to have a talk about you running off like that.”
Prongs turned his head to snuffle Sirius’ hair. “Hey! Don’t mess with my hair!” Sirius squeaked quietly, unwilling to disturb Remus until he was ready to interact with them again.
Now glancing around, Prongs realized the cat wasn’t there. Not that he expected him to be, but he hoped that he was alright. Glancing up, though, he saw a glint of green eyes, slanted as if the dark head they were attached to was tilted, looking at him with narrowed eyes. Turning suddenly, the cat disappeared, and Prongs got one last glimpse of his tail disappearing against the trees.
Remus yawned, the pain ebbing away to be replaced by exhaustion after their long night. He reached a hand up towards Prongs, scratching his muzzle gently. “What was all that about, huh?”
Prongs pulled his head back, a nervous press in his chest. He really didn’t want to talk about it. They’d probably understand him staying in his stag form until his leg was better- being a Quidditch player, he couldn’t risk his arm not healing properly, and he knew they’d cover for him. But after that he had no excuse- he had no excuse to not talk about it, or to feel the way he felt. They were amazing people; they’d want to help, right? But what if they didn’t? What if they were just tired of helping, like he was?
He threw his head up with an agitated snort. Wormtail squealed, grabbing onto one of his antlers so he didn’t go flying. Sirius furrowed his eyebrows and reached out to Prongs- no, not to Prongs. He reached out for Wormtail to jump to his hand and skitter down to the ground, turning back to his human form.
“You alright, James?” Peter asked nervously. Sighing, Prongs folded his legs under him to lay next to them until Remus was ready to walk.
Sirius frowned at Prongs, brushing a hand over his neck. “Well, we’re pretty far out here. How do we get back, Wormy?”
Peter typically kept track of where they were, since everyone else focused on following Moony while he rode atop Prongs’ antlers or Sirius’ back.. “Right, um, that way!” He pointed off towards the direction the cat had left.
Maybe the cat was an animagus from Hogwarts, James wondered. After all, he’d seemed too smart to be a normal animal, and definitely braver than a pet. Definitely a Gryffindor- who else would be so bold as to lure away a werewolf?
As James wondered who the cat could be, Remus sat up, sighing. “Old man,” Sirius teased, standing and reaching to help Remus up as well.
Remus scoffed, but took his hand, too tired to respond. Peter stood too, a small smile on his face. “Aren’t you older than him, Pads?”
“Only by like, six months!” Sirius shot back, wide-eyed in mock offense. “I don’t groan every time I sit down or stand up!” he added, glancing at James, who had just stood up with a sigh, before tossing his head in offense at Sirius’ statement.
Remus raised an eyebrow. “You also don’t break all of your bones once a month,” he replied, deadpan.
Peter grimaced. “Uh oh, the werewolf jokes,” he muttered to Prongs, who snorted in amusement.
Sirius hummed in agreement. “True, I suppose. But neither does James!”
Remus tilted his head. “No, but he’s recovering from a broken leg now.”
The couple kept up their playful banter as they all walked back towards school grounds. Peter kept whispering silly commentary into Prongs’ ear, and unbeknownst to any of them, the cat had slowed to leap through the trees beside them.
Only once they reached the edge of the Forbidden forest did they realize the problem. Now in the bright light of morning, hiding a massive stag would be quite difficult.
“Maybe Dumbledore could help,” suggested Peter. “He already knows about all this anyway.”
“I don’t really want to get him involved… What about the invisibility cloak?” Sirius pondered.
Remus tssked. “Well, that wouldn’t cover him entirely, but if we just walk around whatever’s uncovered maybe no one will notice?”
Sirius bit his cheek thoughtfully. “Worth a shot. Accio invisibility cloak!”
As soon as the silvery fabric came flying into his arms, Sirius turned to Prongs with a smirk. “Should we leave his head or that fine arse uncovered?”
Remus sighed and James snorted. “We should probably cover his head,” Peter replied, ignoring Sirius’ playful flirting. “The antlers will be harder to hide, since they’d be above our heads.” Remus nodded, and the three situated the cloak over him as well as they could. He was invisible from the front, but most of his hindquarters still showed, so Peter walked behind and Remus and Sirius walked on his sides.
Luckily, they made it through the castle with little incident. They ran into Professor McGonagall, who was a bit suspicious, but decided to let them off anyway when they said James was sick and they were asking the house elves to deliver him breakfast.
Reaching their dorm, they pulled the cloak off. Peter and Sirius started getting dressed, while Remus laid down for a nap, deciding to skip his first class. Prongs laid on the floor to do the same, though he’d probably stay for a while longer- Remus was much more disciplined than he was.
“So, I remember… James was hurt?” Remus questioned, his memories fuzzy as always around the turning.
There was an awkward pause as Sirius waited for James to respond. “Oh, er, yeah, stag form. He fell off the roof.”
Remus sat up, a poorly hidden wince accompanying the sudden movement. “He WHAT?”
“Yeah, broke his leg, but it’s all good, Moons. Don’t worry, he’s fine,” Sirius replied, throwing his tie on haphazardly.
Remus moved over to look at James’ leg. “It doesn’t look broken,” he remarked.
Sirius glanced over at him, moving to help Peter with his tie as he proudly answered, “That’s because I healed him!” Peter made an impressed sound- though whether it was about the healing or how quickly Sirius tied his tie was unclear.
“And you didn’t pass out?” Remus questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.
Sirius squawked in offence. “NO! Well- maybe just a bit- but apparently it still worked, right?”
“Sure, Pads,” Remus said patronizingly, as Sirius walked over to press a kiss to his forehead.
“Go to sleep, Moons, you’re clearly too tired to realize my magic worked,” Sirius told him, his sarcastic words contrasting his gentle tone. Remus laughed a bit, but laid down, and Peter and Prongs exchanged a vaguely disgusted look.
“PDA,” Peter announced, wrinkling his nose. “I’m going to class.” Prongs snorted a goodbye, laying his head down.
If Sirius passed out, he wondered, Who fixed my leg?
…
Merlin, these idiots would be dead without me, Regulus thought, watching them slowly wake.
James seemed able to walk. Good. Not that he cared, but it was nice to know he could perform the more advanced healing skills.
James’ soft hazel eyes met his own cold green gaze. Silently, he turned and dashed off towards Hogwarts.
He’d keep an eye on him, he decided. Because whatever was happening with him could be used to his advantage, obviously, not that he was worried about him. His own friends didn’t seem concerned, so why should anyone else be?