The year passed by quickly and steadily. Bridget, Peter, Remus, James, and Sirius soon became inseparable through their pranks and antics. Bridget’s friends caught on quickly to Bridget’s friendship with the four boys and were quietly resentful of them. Lily held an exceptional hatred for James in particular, but no one really knew why. The five girls were drifting apart and it seemed like there was nothing they could do about it. Spring lost its bounce; the days seemed dead. Even James and Sirius accepted the stormy mood that enveloped the castle.
About two weeks into April, they were all shocked to see Connor’s smiling face on the front page of the Daily Prophet.
Under the title “Twenty Found Murdered in South Africa”.
The date was April eighteenth and it was Bridget’s birthday. Needless to say, there were no celebrations that day.
Exams came and went, and so did the time. But on this rare, sunny day somewhere in Scotland, the Marauders (as they had been dubbed by Professor McGonagall) were in the library of all places. Rarer still, was the fact that they were actually in there for something other than pranks and homework. And the rarest factor of all was that they were in the library and Remus was nowhere in sight. But as Sirius defended it, it wasn’t as if they were causing mischief by forging a teacher’s signature to get into the Restricted Section.
“Pass me that book over there will you, Bridget?” James asked.
“Peter-” she began.
“You get it. I’m busy over here!” he protested.
“Fine!” She reached over and passed the book to James.
“Now, that wasn’t too hard for the little princess, no?” Peter asked.
Bridget stuck her tongue out at him. “Humph.”
Peter resumed his job of meticulously copying down information onto several different charts. He frowned and scratched out another date onto the calendar.
“Sirius, when’s the next full moon?” he asked casually.
“Why?”
“Because Remus is a werewolf.” He said this with such finality that Sirius didn’t need to see the calendar to figure out that Peter wasn’t joking.
Fear and concern was etched on every face.
“Full moon is tomorrow night. I’ll follow him,” Bridget said. “James will be too obvious even if he wears the cloak. Remus always seems to know whenever we’re under it. Sirius, no offense, but you know you’re rather loud. And well, Peter, you’d fall asleep. I’ll go. I need to see this for myself.”
“Okay.”
Bridget crept silently down the deserted corridor. She thanked God that her escapades with her fellow Marauders almost always landed her in the hospital wing. It was the only familiar place to her other than the Gryffindor common room. If Remus had been anywhere else in the castle, she would’ve been lost. She heard footsteps and hid behind a suit of armor. Dusk was settling in, and the moon was due to rise at any second, she noted.
Madame Pomfrey led Remus down corridor after corridor. Bridget hoped that she would come back as soon as Remus was done; there was no way she would be able to find her way back by herself.
They were outside now. Wait, why were they heading towards the Whomping Willow? Madame Pomfrey shot a spell at a knot on the violent tree and it suddenly froze. While she and Remus descended into a small tunnel that had appeared, Bridget seized the opportunity and sprinted the ten yards to secure a good hiding spot in roots of the tree. She settled herself down in the crack in between two large roots and pulled some shrubbery closer to her. She had barely enough time to duck behind the bushes before Madame Pomfrey exited the tunnel. The matron scurried back into the castle as quickly as she could. As soon as her retreating back was out of sight, Bridget stretched out her legs and waited for something to happen.
Then she heard it, the bloodcurdling cry of someone who feels constant, agonizing, crippling pain. The sound ripped through her head like a gunshot.
More crying. The cry was softer now, more muted. She bristled; the sobbing cry now sounded more like a snarl. Her breath came and went in short, shallow breaths. Nothing seemed to be working right. Her brain screamed at her to run, but her legs refused to move. She quaked with fear as the snarls became more and more ferocious and hostile. Silence. She quickly pulled her legs up to her chest, and rocked herself back and forth, back and forth. She squeezed her eyes closed and blocked out the sounds of Remus’ snarls and howls. Bridget rocked and rocked, until she finally found comfort in the illusive shores of the land of sweet dreams.
“And you said that I was going to fall asleep.” A voice startled her awake. Why was the world so fuzzy? She tried to sit up, but her throbbing temples wouldn’t allow it. Pain took the form of a sledgehammer on her head. Where was she? And why couldn’t she see? She felt around with her hand until she made contact with her glasses. She shoved them onto her nose and squinted up at the three boys standing above her. Peter was grinning like a fool, glad to have caught her off guard. Sirius for once looked very serious as he stood there, arms folded. James handed her a mug of coffee and sat down on the ground next to her.
“Thanks,” she managed to croak out. She took a deep sip of the rich, black liquid. It was like whiskey for a drunkard. She grabbed the mug with two hands and chugged it down.
“You know if you keep drinking that stuff every morning you’re going to be shorter than Peter, right?” James smiled, took the coffee cup away, and replaced it with a bowl of oatmeal.
“Where are we? H- how did you get me out from under the Willow?” Bridget asked. They were sitting on the floor of a classroom that Bridget didn’t recognize. The room was covered in deep red wall paper and had small, round tables scattered around the room. The carpet was black and so was everything else. All of the tables, chairs, shelves and the desk were black.
“We’re in the Divination classroom in the highest tower,” Sirius said and made a sweeping gesture with his hand. “This is Professor Redlines’ classroom. You know the wacko with the beret? I guess he actually teaches here.”
Peter brought over some pillows and James plopped his book bag down and opened it to reveal… breakfast. Bridget was starving; she grabbed a muffin and took a big bite.
“Believe me; getting you up here, up all those stairs, wasn’t easy.” Sirius took a bite out of an apple from James’ bag.
“We already visited Remus in the hospital wing.” Peter informed her.
“Oh.”
“Sorry,” Peter mumbled. “Did you want us to wait for you to wake up?”
“Oh, no; it’s okay. Is he okay?” she asked tentatively.
“He looks horrible,” James admitted quietly. “He wanted to transfer schools when we told him, but we set him straight.”
“We’ve got to do something to help him!” Sirius said passionately. He got up and started pacing the room.
“We’re going to be there for him. Every full moon, every day after. Hell, I’ll sit out all night next to the Willow if I have too.”
“We’ll find out every nook and cranny there is to Hogwarts, we’ll search the Forbidden Forest! We’ve got to make his time at Hogwarts the best!” James added excitedly.
“Maybe we can figure out a way to be with him, during the full moon?” Bridget suggested. “It must be possible. He sounded so lonely down there. Maybe that’s the real pain.”
“Now that we know, we can stop wasting time.” Sirius stopped pacing and lowered his head dejectedly. “No eleven-year-old should have to deal with being a werewolf.”