Chapter 2
“Remus?” he mutters. “What’s a Remus?”
“Oh shit. We killed Remus.”
“We did not kill Remus! We just… temporarily misplaced him!” pack/deer replies, hands waving wildly.
Moony huffs, annoyed at being ignored.
“Who’s a Remus?!” they demand, before pausing. “Why’s a Remus?”
“We wanna know where’s a Remus?” pack/dog answers with a smirk.
“Tell me who Remus is, and maybe I could answer you.”
“Remus is you, kinda? The body you’re in belongs to him? Man, this is confusing.”
Remus is Moony? Mooney’s nose scrunches in confusion.
“I’m a Remus?”
“Not quite buddy,” pack deer replies, starting to look worried.
“But… he’s in me?”
“Maybe? We don’t know.”
“I’ll look for him!” Moony decides, flopping back on the bed and closing his eyes, face scrunched up in concentration.
He doesn’t want this ‘Remus’ to be lost forever, especially if this is his body. He slips into his mind easily, trees surround him and he’s suddenly in a weirdly familiar forest.
“Remus?” he tries, no answer. “REMUS?!”
There’s a noise in the distance this time and Moony runs for it, almost running straight into a boy.
“Wha- you-you’re me?” the boy mutters, shoulders going stiff.
“No. I’m me. Are you Remus?”
“Um, yes?”
“The deer and the dog are looking for you.”
Remus perks up at that.
“Where?”
“Out.”
“Out?”
“Out.”
“And how does one get… out?” Remus asks.
“You… go there.”
There’s a sigh.
“Could you take me there?”
“Ok!”
Moony steps forward and with a shove, Remus is gone.
&&&
Remus gasps, bolting upright in… a bed? Wasn’t he just in a forest?
“…Remus?”
Remus turns to James, Sirius and Peter all watching him nervously.
“What the fuck was in that potion?!”
&&&
Moony is lonely.
He’s been left in this forest for what feels like forever and he can’t get out. He’s tried again and again to reach out, back to the surface with pack/deer and pack/dog, but nothing has worked. He spends hours, days searching the empty forest for any sign of life other then trees and plants, but doesn’t even find an ant. Eventually, he gives up, flopping down on the grass and not getting up again, tears streaming down his face.
Why hasn't his pack come for him? He had got Remus for them. Did they not want him any more?
He lays there for what feels like days, before finally something changes. He feels his bones shift, pain shooting through him, but anything is better then the nothing he had had before. Then he’s on a wooden floor, a dog, a deer and a rat looking down at him.
They came!
He lets out a whine as reaches out for them, for pack.
Pack/dog easily pushes into his arms and Moony grabs on, pulling him close. He stiffens for a second before relaxing against him, he gently strokes his head, not wanting to ever let go. He watches silently as pack/deer turns into a boy once again.
“Moony?” Moony curls tighter around pack/dog with a whine. “Okay, you want to move to the bed? It’ll be way better then the floor.”
Moony huffs, unmoving.
“The floor it is!” pack/deer concedes, changing back as he flops down next to him, staying calm as Moony pulls him into his hold as well.
He feels one last tiny member smelling of pack/rat squeezing into his arms as he drifts off to sleep.
&&&
“Remus?”
Moony groans. He hurts.
“Remus? You awake?”
“Not a Remus,” he huffs, holding the deer-now-boy and boy-still-dog closer.
“Okay Moony, could you please let us go and put some clothes on?”
Moony grumbles, but lets them go, he doesn’t want to give them a reason to leave him alone again. A few minutes of struggling later he’s in clothes and sitting on the bed looking between his pack happily.
“Okay Moony, can you go get Remus now?”
Moony’s eyes widen, before narrowing.
“No.”
“No?”
“I won’t, you left me there, I won’t go back.”
They trade worried looks.
“Go back where bud?”
“The empty forest, I was stuck there alone, nothing but trees and plants,” he sniffles as tears well in his eyes. “I don’t want to go back.”
“Oh buddy… we don’t want you stuck there, but… we don’t want Remus stuck there either.”
Moony startles at that thought. He doesn’t want someone else stuck there.
“… can I have a little time not alone first?” he whispers, not sure what he’ll do if they deny.
“Of course!” pack/deer immediately replies. “But you have to get Remus out before Madame Pomphrey comes, okay? Then we’ll talk to Remus about figuring out a way to let you out some times.”
Moony perks up at that.
“Really?! You mean it?”
“Don’t worry Moony!” pack/dog answers. “We’ll figure it out!”
Over the next hour Moony learns a lot. They’re at a school where Remus can’t be missing from for long. Pack/deer, pack/dog and pack/rat are actually called James, Sirius and Peter. And Remus is a werewolf, something he used to have no control over before they gave him the potion that made Moony.
“Does that make us parents!?” James gasps.
“It does!” Sirius answers. “Our son!”
Moony happily leans into the affection as Sirius throws himself at him.
“I had nothing to do with the potion,” Peter offers.
“Then you’re uncle Peter!”
They’re cut off by James straightening, looking towards the door for a second before turning back to them.
“Madame Pomphreys coming.”
They turn to Moony expression sad and guilty.
“You’ll try to let me out sometimes?” Moony asks, willing the tears back.
“Of course Moony,” James replies.
Moony nods, takes one last look at his pack and sinks back to his forest, pushing Remus out maybe a tad bit more forcefully then needed, before settling in to wait.
And wait and wait and wait.