Companion submission with "Chimes."
When he was real young, before the accident, as they loved to call it, he had friends.
After the accident, he and his family, which consisted of only his mother, father, and himself, moved far, far away, in a nearly abandoned town, where no one could hear him scream, and no one could get hurt.
He tried, so, so hard to keep in contact with his old friends, but he was getting older, and so were they, and they weren't magical anyway, so it wasn't like it was ever going to last. The few things they had had in common held no interest for him after the accident, as he was far more preoccupied with learning healing spells and various things about his curse as he could. In the end, they all just gave up, after only three months.
He had been only six years old.
By the time he was eleven, he had long since given up on the childish dream of going to that amazing school in Scotland- Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It wasn't like he was allowed a wand anyway. There was no place he could go for the full moon, so why should he bother to try and hope, only to be let down so painfully in the end?
Even if he were allowed to go, there would be no point in it. He would have no friends while he was there, as it was far too dangerous, and in the end, whatever profession he would choose to study would be useless- the knowledge of it, that is. Completely and utterly pointless, because who the hell, in their right mind, would accept someone like him to work?
The prejudice was too much.
When he finally was eleven, and the dawn of August seventh bloomed over the side of the mountains, he had been lying on the floor of his living room, bandaged and still somewhat bloody from the high full the night before. His eyes traced patterns, meaningless designs, over the ceiling, committing the figures and imprints to his eidetic memory, over and over again. The knock upon the door startled him out of his daydreams and his amber eyes flickered momentarily to the wooden barrier.
After a few seconds, he began to stand, wincing at the pain that laced through his frail, tiny body, traveling through his blood cells to his bones, to his organs and seeming to place white-hot knives to nearly every nerve. He took a deep breath, gaining his balance by gripping the side of his chair, before he hobbled over to the door and, panting slightly, opened it.
On the other side, stood a tall, cloaked woman. She wore glasses, and her robe was dark green velvet. Her hair, which was a dark gray, was tied perfectly in a bun atop her head. When he opened the door and peered out, she looked at him, and raised an eyebrow, asking for his parents. He hollered for them, not looking away from the woman for a moment. Both his parents came rushing down the stairs, looking panicked and upset.
But afterwards, they were so happy, because the woman had given him a letter, two pieces of paper that changed his life forever.
Later- much, much later, really- he was twelve, and for the first time in his life, he understood what friends were, and how friendships worked. Friendship is not judging; it's being kind, while also being cruel; it's being able to say things you can't say to anyone else; it's having fun and being crazy and letting out one side of you that you could never let out anywhere else. James and Sirius and Peter- later, Lily, Marline, Alice, Emmeline, Frank, Mary, Dorcas, and a few others- all knew that already, and they were more than happy to show him.
Of course, it was too good to be true- too good to last forever, but it was fun and wonderful and fantastic and amazing and horrific and hurtful and just about every other emotion all at once, but most of the time, they were positive. There was so much laughter and so many tears, both happy and sad. So many good times. But it was a rough lesson he knew he had to learn- sometimes the worst betrayals come from the ones who you thought would never leave you, and sometimes the answer isn't black and white. In fact, it almost never is. But at the age of twelve, he didn't know that.
All he knew was that he was going to have the time of his life with the three boys called Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail.