By the Light of the Moon

By the Light of the Moon: Chapter 2

Narcissa attempted to keep her eyes open as her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher droned on and on. It wasn't that Professor Bones was a bad teacher; in fact, many of the students liked him quite a bit. But, this had always been her worst class. Unfortunately, all students had to take it every year. So, Narcissa was stuck with it. However, she knew that it was one of the most important subjects in school, especially for someone like her. She was always surrounded by supporters of the Dark Lord. Like her parents...

She looked over to where Sirius was sitting, goofing off with James Potter. Part of her felt jealous of him. She sometimes wished that she had the courage to leave her parents behind and live on her own forever, following in the footsteps of both him and her sister, Andromeda. However, it wouldn't be the same for her as it had been for them. Neither of them had been close to their parents. Narcissa was; in fact, her family was the only thing in her life. What would she do without them?

Narcissa's eyes wandered to Remus Lupin, who was sitting at the table next to Potter and Sirius. He was one of the few students who were actually paying attention in class. Suddenly she remembered that tonight was the first night of their prefect patrols together. She wasn't sure why, but the thought of patrolling with him made her nervous. It probably wouldn't be any worse than patrolling with Severus Snape, as she had the past few years. She and Severus had usually spent the entire time in complete silence. The only thing they really had in common was their love for Potions. Narcissa had always had the highest marks in the class, after him. But, there was only so much conversation that could be made about brewing potions.

However, doing rounds with the Gryffindor who her father had snubbed several days earlier was not her idea of fun. She sighed, scowling. The Ravenclaw prefects weren't that bad; why couldn't she have been paired up with one of them?

After the class was over, Narcissa walked out of the room, chatting with a few of her friends. Suddenly she felt someone grab her arm softly. She turned around and found herself looking straight at Remus Lupin. He gazed intensely into her eyes, a look that almost scared her. She just stared back at him for several seconds, but then he averted his eyes. "Black, meet me in front of the doors to the Great Hall at nine tonight," he told her. She nodded, for some reason unable to speak, and he turned away and went back to his friends.

One of the Slytherin girls, Emilia Wilkes, came up behind her. "So now you're slumming with Gryffindors?" she asked with a sneer on her face.

Narcissa frowned. "I have to do prefect duty with him." She rolled her eyes.

Emilia smirked. "Sure you do," she said sarcastically. "Well, at least you picked a cute one. Of course, if I had Lucius Malfoy after me, you wouldn't see me with other guys."

"You can have Lucius," Narcissa mumbled so softly that Emilia probably hadn't even heard, then lifted her chin up and walked away. Lucius had written to her twice in the past two weeks, both times to brag about himself. He hadn't once inquired about her in his letters. The interest she had felt in him had waned very quickly. The man had to be the most self-absorbed person in all of Britain. He was planning to visit her at Hogwarts in three weekends. She was not looking forward to it.

At ten minutes to nine, Narcissa reached the Great Hall. Remus Lupin was already waiting in the corridor, leaning against the wall. "You're early," he told her with a lazy grin on his face.

Something about the boyish expression on his face made her heart flutter. She smiled back at him. "So are you."

Their time together went better than she had hoped. Lupin was much more personable during their rounds than Severus had been in the previous two years. He had refrained from mentioning her family or asking her about her rumored relationship with Lucius Malfoy (which was a favorite topic of most people who talked to her), much to her relief. Instead they had spoken about classes, teachers, and other students. Remus Lupin was as bad in Potions as she was in Defense Against the Dark Arts. She almost wanted to tell him that she would help him with their Potions assignments, but she held her tongue. Just because they weren't hexing each other during prefect patrols didn't mean that they were friends. He was a Gryffindor, after all, and a poor one at that. Hell, he probably was only trying to make the best of the time they were forced to spend together. But he probably didn't want to see her any more than that. Of course, he had been very early to meet her tonight... Narcissa shook her head. Don't be stupid, she told herself. And why did she even care?

************

Remus had a smile on his face when he said good night to Narcissa Black. It had been surprising to him; he had been expecting their patrol to be the longest three hours of his life. But she had actually been pleasant, contrary to everything Sirius--and the rest of the students at Hogwarts--had said about her.

Every Monday and Friday night for the rest of the month was spent doing rounds with her. He didn't want to admit it, but he had begun to look forward to those evenings. However, as the month wore on, he knew that the moment he dreaded was approaching. The day of the full moon. Well, it wasn't much different from the one before; he had been at Hogwarts last month too.

"Did you see him? He's so gorgeous!" one Gryffindor girl in their common room was saying to another one Saturday afternoon--which happened to be the day of his transformation--right as Remus arrived with Sirius, James, Lily, and Peter.

"Are you talking about me again?" James asked jokingly. Lily elbowed him playfully.

The girls giggled. "No, Lucius Malfoy. He was here at Hogwarts today! And he's spending the day with Narcissa Black!"

"I'm so jealous! She totally doesn't deserve him," the other girl piped up. "He's one of the most eligible bachelors in the wizarding world. And his family is so rich!"

Remus tried to shrug off the emotions welling up inside of him. It almost seemed like he was envious of Lucius Malfoy, which was insane. Malfoy was one of the biggest prats to ever attend Hogwarts, after all. He ignored the gossiping of the girls, and dropped into an armchair. He was already tired, and it wasn't even twilight yet.

"So, Moody, ready for a fun night in Hogsmeade?" Nodding, Remus tried to smile at Sirius, pretending to be happy. After all, it was always easier to keep his mind when he was with his friends. And as a werewolf, he was able to understand the speech of both humans and animals, although he couldn't be around people.

"I should get going," Remus mumbled, realizing that it was nearly sunset. He wasn't in the mood to be around others, even if being alone in his state would cause him to lose his mind for a few hours. Of course, James, Sirius and Peter weren't going to let that happen. He was grateful for that, but tonight he just wanted to be alone.

He reached the Shrieking Shack with time to spare. His friends wouldn't come until after they were sure he was finished transforming. Remus lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He felt worse today than he usually did on full moon days. As he closed his eyes, he tried--with very little success--to get Narcissa Black out of his head. Lucius Malfoy. Of all the men in the world, why him? He was utterly despicable. Remus sighed. Why did it bother him so much? It was none of his business who she was interested in. They weren't dating; in fact, they weren't even friends. She was just the other prefect that he was paired up with, something that had been forced upon them.

Suddenly Remus began feeling different. His skin began tingling, a sign that the hair was beginning to grow. This was followed by claws and sharper teeth. As this was all happening, his body began growing slightly larger and more muscular. The entire process took about an hour. And the whole thing was extremely painful.
He felt like an outside observer throughout most of the events between the beginning of the transformation and the time his friends arrived. He could hear himself howling and knew that he was acting particularly violent, but it was nothing that he could control. The other three arrived at one point, and it took Prongs and Padfoot about five minutes to calm him down. Wormtail usually waited for them to finish doing that since his animagus form was too small to be of use in that respect. Finally, Remus felt as though he had the ability to control himself.

The other three began talking to him animatedly about sneaking out of the castle to reach him. He had never met anyone more enthusiastic about rule breaking than his friends. The thought made him feel better for some reason. He knew that no matter what, they would always be like that. It actually comforted him, because he knew that they would always be there for him. They were the most important people to him.

After they were certain that the coast was clear in Hogsmeade, they left the house. All of them knew that it was against the rules; yet, none of them cared. Out of all of them, Remus worried about it the most, because of the possibility that he could harm somebody. But his friends always made certain that wouldn't happen. Still, it would have been quite an odd sight to see--a werewolf, a dog, and a stag with a rat riding on his back.

They wandered around Hogsmeade, completely deserted at this time of night. It was these times that Remus always enjoyed the most, when it was just the four of them. It felt like the town was completely theirs and that they could do anything.

Remus gasped inwardly when he heard the sound of voices. Just something as simple as that was enough to put his body and mind into a mode where he wanted nothing more than the taste of blood. In fact, he was no longer Remus Lupin. He was some other being. He began to go in the direction of the people. He caught a flash of white-blonde hair in the moonlight. Lucius Malfoy. Hatred welled up inside of him as the beast awoke again. "Moony!" he heard somebody--an animal--scream. Human Remus couldn't even imagine what caused him to run towards the man furiously, with the desire to tear him apart.

Bam! Remus collided with something large, and felt a throbbing in his side. He realized that he had run into one of Prongs's antler. Remus fell onto the ground, clutching himself in agony. He could hear himself howling, could feel the pain coursing through him, but it still felt unreal. Somehow they got back to the Shrieking Shack. Remus yowled a little longer, eventually falling into a deep sleep.

When he awoke the next day, the sun was shining in and he was back to being himself. Well, somewhat. He walked back through the Whomping Willow and into the castle, pausing to glance into a mirror. His eyes had dark circles underneath them, and his body looked worn out. And his side still ached. None of his friends were in the common room when he arrived, so he went up to his room. "Moony, you're back!" Peter said. He was sitting with James and Sirius. The three of them looked tired also.

"What happened last night?" Remus asked. He remembered something about Lucius Malfoy and James's antler... But the rest was hazy in his mind.

"That damned Lucius Malfoy came along and spoiled our fun," James told him.

"He was walking Narcissa back to Hogwarts, and he just happened to come along right as we were in the area," Sirius added. "I don't even know why I bothered to save him." He paused for a moment with a shudder. Nobody responded to that. Remus knew that all of them were thinking about the same thing--the situation with Severus Snape. It was something that none of them were proud of, for they knew that Remus would have killed him or at least injured him badly if it had not been for James.

"Anyway," Sirius continued. "He had just left the Hogwarts gates, when you saw him. I immediately ran to him and started barking. I was hoping he would be able to take a hint and get lost. Instead the bastard kicked me!" Sirius looked irate for an instant but then chuckled. "So I bit him!"

"He apparated immediately to get away from Padfoot!" Peter added. He and Sirius laughed.

"In the meantime, I was attempting to block you from going towards him. I was trying to trip you, but you ended up running straight into my antler," James told him, a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry about that. Is it okay now?"

Remus nodded. "My stomach is just a bit bruised. And I think I need to get some rest. I'm exhausted!" He tried to sound convincing. After a few moments, the other three left and he collapsed onto his bed. This hadn't been the first time he had nearly had an encounter with a human while he was in his werewolf form. But this had been one of the worst. Never before had he been so bloodthirsty, so vicious. In fact, he hadn't known that it was possible for him to become such a ruthless monster. The thought of that scared him more than anything ever had before.

************

Narcissa woke up with a migraine on Monday morning. Her weekend had been terrible, and she wasn't looking forward to sitting through all of her classes today. It had all started Saturday afternoon when Lucius arrived. Although students were not allowed to leave Hogwarts premises, exceptions were made when Lucius Malfoy requested something. Much to Narcissa's chagrin, Dumbledore had allowed her to leave for the day to be Lucius's date for an afternoon luncheon. She was usually able to tolerate that type of thing, and sometimes even enjoyed it. However, Saturday had been different. Narcissa hadn't known a single person--except for Lucius Malfoy, of course. Because of that, it had been dreadfully boring for her. After that was over, Lucius had taken her out for a "romantic" dinner. They had spent the next few hours talking. Well, Lucius had been talking; Narcissa had mostly smiled and nodded at his comments.

The worst part of the night had come when she finally thought that it was going to end. He had started kissing her, which she had begun to get used to. It wasn't completely disgusting; he seemed to have lots of experience and she was able to let her mind wander and pretend that she was somewhere else completely. But, it reached a new level when she felt his hands on her breasts and Lucius had informed her that she was not expected back at Hogwarts for the night; in fact, he had a hotel room reserved in Hogsmeade. The thought of her first sexual experience being with somebody she didn't love--or even particularly like--made her feel sick to her stomach. She had told him that she was waiting until marriage, which he had fortunately believed. But he hadn't been happy about it.

In fact, the next day she had gotten a Howler from her father, berating her for not treating Lucius Malfoy with the respect that he deserved. Father obviously didn't know the circumstances, but she gathered that Lucius had complained about her behavior. Narcissa was upset that she had disappointed her father, but there was absolutely no way that she would compromise her morals to please the snooty Lucius Malfoy.

At breakfast on Monday, everyone began asking her about her date with Lucius. Luckily none of them knew about the Howler; she had received it in the privacy of her own room. She tried to steer the conversation away from Lucius Malfoy and the possibility that he would propose to her, mostly unsuccessfully. She had finally been forced to make up excuses about having an essay to finish, and escaped to her dorm room. Classes during the day went by uneventfully, despite the rumors about Narcissa and Lucius.

She didn't know why, but she was actually hoping for nine o'clock to come, for that was the time when she would meet Remus Lupin for their patrols. It was silly, but she found him pleasant to be around. Narcissa arrived twenty minutes early, only to find him already there, leaning against the wall, reading a book. He looked a bit tired, more so than usual. "You're early again," she said.

"So are you." Narcissa grinned when he said this. It was the same interaction every night, since the first day. There was no reason for her to show up so early other than being in his company for a few extra minutes. Was that why she did it? It was rather odd of her.

"How was your weekend?" he asked her as they began walking outside to patrol the Hogwarts grounds.

Narcissa just shook her head. She didn't want to lie and say that she had a good weekend. She hadn't; both Lucius and her father had made sure of that.

"You okay?" Lupin asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. She stopped walking as he touched her

She opened her mouth to say yes, but for some reason, other words poured out instead. "No, I'm not. I'm dating somebody I dislike, and if I break up with him, my parents will disown me unless I have an equally rich pureblood as a backup. And my father sent me a Howler for not being encouraging enough to Malfoy." She didn't know what possessed her to tell him any of her troubles, especially since she hadn't mentioned anything to anybody else. He was a Gryffindor, after all. Of course, none of the Slytherins were truly her friends; most of them only liked her because of her family's money and connections. But Remus Lupin wasn't anything like that.

"Sorry," she finally said, embarrassed. "I'm being so selfish and annoying you with all my problems." She was aware that she hadn't even bothered to ask him how he was, instead whining about her own trivial problems. She smiled apologetically but was taken aback when his strong gaze met hers.

"Don't apologize, Narcissa. It's always good to talk to somebody." A warm feeling formed inside of her. It was the first time he had ever called her by her first name. He gently brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face, his fingers lingering on her cheek. Narcissa's heartbeat quickened at his touch and she began to feel light-headed. It was the first time she had ever experienced this strange feeling.

However, the moment was over as quickly as it began when Remus turned his head away from her. "We should get back to doing our rounds." Narcissa could only nod and follow him. For some reason she was speechless. In addition to being disappointed. His touch had been so soft, but when he pulled away, she had immediately felt empty. What was wrong with her?