Movers & Shakers

The tension was building up and nobody quite knew how to end it. Lily was sporting her thinking look but didn’t actually do anything. Meanwhile Sirius was eyeing Kathrin’s wounds and Peter was playing with his fingers nervously. Kat however, had her eyes fixed on James, barely blinking.
Kathrin began to get worried. She took a step forward, but when she was about to put her hand on his shoulder but he turned around and captured her in a hug.

James hugged her tightly. Kathrin didn’t complain that her wounds were starting to hurt, she just hugged him back. James was barely able to hide his face in Kat’s shoulder. She could feel the warm tears fall where his face hid. Kat could feel how scared he was.

James’ wrapped his arms around Kat like he hadn’t seen her for years. It was a long time before anyone said anything. Finally James spoke, with trouble. “Were you bit?”

“No”

“Oh thank Merlin!” James took a step back and put his hands on Kat’s shoulders. When he saw her wince, James noticed Kat’s wound. He removed his hand immediately. “Why were you even there?”

“It’s my fault.” Lily admitted. “I saw you go in the woods… you promised me you’d stay out of trouble.”

“So you think that makes it okay to go in the forbidden forest? Lily you’re smarter than that!”

“I wasn’t really thinking. All I could think was you getting hurt over something stupid and reckless. Kathrin was only there because she was trying to talk me out of it. When I was too stubborn to agree, she caved and said that she didn’t want me wondering around alone. I’m so sorry...”

James took a few steps over to Lily. It wasn’t until then that she could see how terrified he was. She looked at him. He was completely different. James was more venerable than she thought.

“Lily, promise me you won’t do anything that stupid again.”

She went to say something but stopped. Her eyes wondered off to his left shoulder. Lily looked, and from what she saw, she knew what type of wound that was.

“You’re bit.”

Kat fell to the ground looking at James. She couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. James went to speak but Lily cut him off. Kathrin couldn’t hear what anyone was saying anymore. It was all just fuzzy noise going into her ears.

“Lily you don’t understand, I’m fine!”

“I don’t think you understand how werewolf bites work James!”

“We know how they work.” Sirius finally piped up. He looked down and noticed Kathrin; with one hand he helped her up. “We just… found a lope hole.”

“Should we tell them?” Peter asked still playing with his fingers.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice.” Sirius replied. “Kathrin, Lily, we have a secret.”

“Well that’s a bit obvious!”

“Lily let him finish.” James instructed.

“You know there’s a werewolf at Hogwarts now-“

“Remus?” Kathrin asked almost in a whisper. Her eyes stayed fixed on the ground.

“Although it’d be better if he told you... yes. We’ve known since second year. He was so scared to tell us… Anyways this year we did something to make his transformations more enjoyable. Though tonight he somehow got out of the shrieking shack before we could be there to stop him-“

“Back to the lope hole”

“Lily I was just getting back to that! Like I said we found a lope hole. James Peter and I have been working on this since the middle of second year. We knew werewolf bites only affected humans so…”

“You became animals?” Kathrin didn’t quite understand. They were still human. Kat’s mind was all over the place, but Lily knew exactly what that meant.

“You’re animagi! James was the stag who saved Kat!”

“And I’m a dog; Peter’s a rat.”

Kathrin thought for a second. She suddenly felt very clear about the situation. Kat picked up the closest object and started hitting the closest boy. Luckily Sirius was only assaulted with a pillow.

“You. Dumb. Git. You. Could. Go. To. Az. Ka. Ban. For. That.” She shouted in between smacks.
Sirius grabbed Kat’s wrist and held it, as well as the pillow, high in the air. “Hold on Kitty Kat! We’ve got everything under control. Besides, Remus is more important!”

“Okay listen! I know we have a lot to talk about but it’s late. So let’s all get some sleep and come back tomorrow. Also, just because I know you’re going to ask, yes Sirius he’s back in the shack.”

“I don’t think we should. People will question Kat’s cuts.” Lily protested.

“Why don’t you love birds and Peter head back, and I’ll stay with the princess then?” Sirius suggested.

Nobody had any objections. James looked like he was going to, but didn’t. They all thought Sirius was the best choice because he often spends nights out anyways. Fortunately Peter had imagined some cupboards when they entered; cupboards which contained blankets. Kathrin and Sirius both picked a blanket and a couch and tried to fall asleep.

An hour later Sirius woke up to see a sleepy looking Kat. He was about to question her about waking him up, but was startled when she grabbed his blanket and started crawling in beside him.

“Kat what are you- hey I’m in my underwear!”

“Shut up. I’m not sleeping by myself.” She mumbled, than dozed off. Kat was asleep before Sirius could say no.



Kathrin woke up in the morning feeling pretty bad. She stretched and scared herself when she heard Sirius moan from getting smacked in the nose. In fact it scared her so much she managed to jump onto the floor.

“Why are you here?” Kathrin asked rubbing her eyes. “Are you naked?”

“First off, you crawled and just started sleeping. Secondly I told you I was in my underwear when you tried to be bed pals.”

“Oh…” Kat scratched her head shamefully. “Ew don’t get up!”

“Honestly? Ew? Thanks. Way to make a man feel good about himself.” Sirius joked.

“I mean… can you put some clothes on?”

“That’s what I was going to do. Instead maybe I should make fun of you for only wearing your white dress shirt and a skirt to bed. Who wears a skirt to bed? And weren’t you hot in that shirt?”

“Yeah... I was, but I was really tired.” Kathrin admitted while blushing a furious red. Kat went to put on the rest of her uniform. “If you’re an animagus, can you change any time?”

“You want to see?” Sirius asked grabbing his wand.

“Maybe…” Kathrin replied. She was sitting down trying to get her socks on. Right away a black dog jumped on her. He had Sirius’ grey eyes, but that was it. Kat started scratching the dog behind his ear and ran her fingers through his fur; his fur was fluffy but messy. “You’re so much cuter as a dog! We should call you… Snuffles!”

Sirius changed back to his usual from smirking. “Snuffles? That’s best you could come up with? The guys usually call me Padfoot.”

“Oh so Snuffles isn’t good enough for you?” Kathrin joked. She giggled until she looked at the door and saw Remus walk in. “Hi Remus”

“What did I do?” Remus asked. His eyes were sunken, and his face pale. When neither of them said anything, Remus grew impatient. “I already talked to James! He said we’d talk about it later… but I want to know now.”

“Moony it was all an accident. Lily saw James go into the forest and Kat-“

“Sirius what did I do?”

Remus looked at Kat. He could see claw marks on her leg. He knew it was him. Remus knew he not only hurt one of his best friend’s sisters, but someone he considered a friend as well.

“I got your leg and what else?”

Kathrin looked at him and confessed. “My shoulder as well, I cut my arm though. That was my fault. Remus this-“

“Don’t say it wasn’t my fault! It is! I’m dangerous! I’m a monster-“

“Don’t call yourself a monster just because some girls walked into a stupid forest and were being stupid!” Kathrin yelled. “Remus Lupin if you ever call yourself a monster again, I will throw a quaffle at your face! Am I clear?”

“Kathrin I-“

“Am I clear?”

“Yes! Yes you are. Even so I’m still sorry. This is still my fault.”

“Remus” said Kathrin “You’re blaming yourself for something nobody blames you for. We all know if you had control you wouldn’t have done it.”

“Also if you notice Kathrin doesn’t think of you any less than she did before.” Sirius commented.

“It’s just… it’s just scary-“

“Then we can all deal with it together!” Kathrin replied grabbing Remus and hugging him. At first he was quite surprised, but then thought ‘it is Kathrin’ and hugged her back.