WHO: Remus and Cassidy. WHAT: A nightmare and a twilight visit.. WHERE: His dormitory... WHEN: A week or so into term, around three in the morning. WHY: Because she has night terrors, and she doesn't know where else to go.
It was like the boggart, only multiplied by a thousand.
She had faced one before, in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She hadn't liked it. In fact, she'd pleaded with her teacher to be allowed to skip that particular bit of training. Of course he had refused, irritable that any student dare show fear in his presence. This was Defense Against the Dark Arts, there was no room for cowards!
And so it had been with tentative steps--uncharacteristic for Cassidy Andrews--and shaking hands that she stepped forward to face the creature which would recreate the deepest nightmares she would ever face. The deep nightmares that she was locked in.. right now.
"Remus?"
Darkness infiltrated everywhere, hiding away the windows and the sun outside, black smoke billowing across her vision. Where moments before there had been a classroom, she saw only pitch black sky: above were no stars and a full moon, the entire world morphing and turning upside down.
She stood lonely at the center of what used to be a classroom, illuminated by a single beam of white light. And then, as the darkness ate away the floor, she fell, her stomach dropping as a lone scream escaped her mouth. At the last second, her fingers caught the edge of the floor which was still in one piece. Her dark eyes were directed up, up from where she stood seconds before, to see her favorite Marauder standing with lonely eyes. But like everything else in the room, he was morphing, amber eyes turning to slitted yellow, lanky form morphing into lean muscles that reeked of something canine. His shirt ripped into two across his back, and there was nothing of him there in those eyes. Nothing of her best friend.
As he regained his senses, his eyes narrowed at her, focusing as the predator gained sight of the prey. He--no, it--leaned down, breathing shallowly, drips of saliva betraying his intent as he reached for her. Horrorstruck, scared, afraid to let go and afraid to hold on, she screamed his name--
And woke.
She sat upright in bed, immediately silencing her scream with a pillow to her face--she couldn't halt the actual sound, but the bundle of feathers did much to muffle it. She had obviously been clutching the pillow in her sleep, imagining it to be the floor. Her breathing was just as shallow as the werewolf's had been, and she shivered as she remembered the feeling of absolute terror.
She was drenched in sweat though the cool air blew through an open window: immediately she pulled herself from her bed, glancing around to make sure she hadn't woken anyone with her shrieks. Her dark hair hung in its neat braid away from her face, a single strand glued to her forehead; as she stood at the window, the night air soon dried the perspiration, but it could hardly erase the memory of those eyes and that feeling.
"Remus," she whispered. And in that second, made up her mind.
Turning on her heel, she looked straight into the full-length mirror and knew she would not be sleeping in her own bed that night. Quietly, she left the dormitory, creeping down the stairs and standing in front of the entrance to the boys' rooms. She stood for a few minutes, nervously biting at her thumbnail before, in an instant of courage, she slowly made her way up the stairs and edged into the seventh year boys' rooms.
"Remus?" She called softly, unsure where he slept. But a second later, he shifted in his sleep, and she caught a glimpse of his honey amber eyes as she barely stirred him. Unsure what else to do, she stood there looking nervous, hair in a messy braid, clad in a white nightgown that.. well, unfortunately wasn't the sturdiest of materials. Probably should have changed clothes before venturing in here.