@wolfstarmicrofic May 8, word count 562
Remus didn’t know where he was when he woke up. He was naked and without his wand. He looked around his surroundings. He was in the forest. Hopefully, the forbidden forest, or else he was in real trouble. He looked up and tried to guess where the morning sun was rising from. It looked like it was rising from the right, so, using his initiative, he kept the sun to his right and walked forward, north, towards the castle, he hoped.
Werewolf paws were far more suitable than human feet when travelling through the forest. Remus’s feet were torn to shreds by what lay on the forest floor. He’d jumped about on one foot a few times, pulling thick thorns from the bottoms of his feet.
He’d been walking for what felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes, when he heard the sound of something big crashing through the undergrowth.
Padfoot leapt at him out of the gloomy trees before he could even contemplate trying to hide. He had a soft lump tied to his back. Remus could have cried. Sirius had brought him his clothes.
Padfoot waited patiently for Remus to undo the knots holding the bundle to his back before transforming into his human form.
“Thank Godric, I know your scent, Moony. You took off like a bat out of hell. I’ve been searching for you for ages. We summoned your things once the sun came up. That’s when I caught your scent. I thought it was your clothes at first, but the scent was coming from further away.” Sirius babbled while Remus pulled his warm clothes on and, to his utter joy, his shoes. “James has your wand. We thought it would be safer in case it fell out as I ran through the forest.
“Thank you,” Remus told him, hobbling over to him and leaning against him. Sirius didn’t even need to be asked, he knew Remus needed help walking back to the castle. All his energy was gone.
“I’ll run you a nice hot bath, and then we can get you all cleaned up and into bed.”
“Sirius?” Remus asked uncertainly.
“What about Poppy?” Sirius froze beside him. “On my back, Remus, we need to run.” Sirius suddenly transformed beside him, and Remus got on his back, lying as flat as possible to distribute his weight. Then Sirius took off.
They made it just in time. Madam Pomfrey had been hot on their tails, coming out of the castle just as they made it to the whomping willow. It was a miracle she didn’t spot them. Sirius hid under the broken bed, and she was none the wiser that Remus had been out of the shack all night.
“Oh, you’ve chewed your feet again,” she noted as she took stock of him once they were back in the Hospital wing.
“Yeah, I guess he was itchy, the dust was quite thick this month,” Remus lied seamlessly.
“I’ll make sure it’s gone for next time,” the matron promised him, and let him go into Sirius’s care. He was really looking forward to that hot bath now. Sirius led him away and surprised him with a chocolate frog. Today was looking up, Remus thought as he bit its head off and moaned as the thick, rich chocolate melted on his tongue.
