Remus Lupin, eleven years old, sat staring out of the window, at the edge of the window of his empty compartment, watching the rain pour outside as the Hogwarts Express zoomed by the countryside. He started to think about school, and whether or not he would make any friends.

Remus absent-mindedly drew a wolf in the fog on the window. When he realized what he was doing, he quickly scribbled it out. He wished he could just scribble out the wolf in real life. The wolf. The monster. Me, thought Remus.

Just then, three noisy boys slid the door to the compartment open, walked in, put their luggage on the rack, and sat down.

"You didn't just find this compartment, did you?" asked Remus, "I mean, the train left about two hours ago."

"Nah, the guys we were sitting with kicked us out when Petey here set off a couple of dung bombs," said a boy with dark, messy hair and glasses. "And not the kind you buy in the joke shop, if you know what I mean!" I could hardly suppress a grin as he elbowed the short, chubby boy in the arm, and the boy tried not to wince. "Anyway," said the boy, "my name's James; this is Sirius," James gestured to a boy with long black hair on his left, "And this is Peter," James said, looking at the chubby boy to his right who was still rubbing his arm.

3 years and 2 days later

"Remus! Remus, wake up!" Remus blinked his eyes open and jumped. Sirius' nose was about an inch from his.

"Merlin, Sirius! What the bl- whatdo you think you're doing?"

"You slept in! Breakfast will be over in ten minutes. I thought you might like some. James and Peter are waiting downstairs."

When they got downstairs, most of the breakfast was already gone. That was alright, though, because Remus was hardly hungry. He was never very hungry right after a transformation, and his last transformation was yesterday.

"So," said James as Remus and Sirius reached the Gryffindor table, "did you have a rough night with your furry little problem?"

"Do I really need to answer that question?" replied Remus. He usually would have laughed, but last nights transformation left him a bit irritable. At least the transformation was on a Friday, so he was able to sleep in.

After eating three strips of slightly undercooked bacon and a goblet of pumpkin juice, Remus went outside with the others to get some fresh air. It was a sunny day, rare for September at Hogwarts. He spotted the Womping Willow and very nearly shuddered.

As he stepped out onto the grounds, he passed into Nancy Wilkins, a fellow fourth year Gryffindor whom almost every boy was after. That is, every boy except Remus. Remus never wanted to get into a relationship, never wanted to grow attached, to fall in love with anyone. He just couldn't risk it. He felt this way about James, Sirius, and Peter at first; never sure whether or not they should become close. But that all changed when they found out he was a werewolf in their second year. It's very hard for your friends to find out you're a werewolf and promise they wouldn't tell a soul and not have them become your closest friends.

"H-hi, Remus," said Nancy as the four of them walked by.

"Uh, hi," Remus replied.

When the four were a little farther out on the grounds, Sirius said, "Remus, Nancy Wilkins said 'hi' to you; that's huge!"

"He's right," said James, "She usually doesn't talk to anyone but her pack and the boys that she's interested in! Why didn't you take that opportunity?"

"I dunno, I guess I'm just…not that interested." But that wasn't the truth at all. In fact, Remus thought she was very pretty. Last year he got partnered with her for a Potions project and found out that, even though she was very popular, she was also kind and had a great sense of humor.

Merlin, that had to be the best project I've ever-no! I can't like her. A monster like me doesn't deserve someone like her.

"Remus! REMUS!" he emerged from his thoughts to find James snapping his fingers in Remus' face. "Remus, you zoned out! Got something-no, someone on your mind?" Remus realized he was staring at Nancy.

"No-um, I…er-let's go inside; it's getting chilly again."

As they were heading inside, Sirius was staring at Nancy and bumped into Severus Snape, a greasy fourth year Slytherin who James and Sirius took immense pleasure in teasing.

Sirius immediately pulled out his wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Snape's wand, which was at the ready, flew from his grip and landed some fifteen feet away. Snape remained frozen, then suddenly charged for his wand. But he had only taken a couple of steps before Sirius put the Body Bind charm on him.

"I'll meet you guys upstairs," said Remus, not wanting to get involved. He went up to the common room, sat in one of arm chairs, and pulled out book.

In about twenty minutes, Nancy Wilkins and her pack came herding through the portrait hole. One of Nancy's friends nudged her and pointed over to Remus.

"Hi, Remus," said Nancy. "Er-how's your cat?"

"What? I don't own a-ah," Remus suddenly remembered the story of his savage cat that he was sticking to ever since people had overheard James talking about the 'furry little problem.' "Oh, yeah, uh not really making any progress with it."

"That's too bad. So anyways, none of my friends can make it to Hogsmeade,-" this was very hard to believe, "-so I was wondering maybe if I could come with you, James, Sirius, and…um, the other one…"

"Peter," Remus said. "And yeah, I don't see why no-"

"Oh, great! I'll meet you outside the gates after breakfast!"

What have I gotten myself into? thought Remus.

Sure enough, the next morning, as soon as the four friends got out of the gates, they saw Nancy waving them over, standing there alone (a very rare sight).

The whole way to the village, James and Sirius were fighting each other to get closer to Nancy. Remus had expected Nancy to try to corner him alone and take him Madam Puddifoot's or somewhere like that. But she didn't. In fact, she seemed enthused when Sirius suggested stopping by the joke shop. Unfortunately, they were only able to spend a few minutes there, because Peter knocked down a whole barrel of sugar quills; and the manager kicked all five out.

Next we all stopped at The Three Broomsticks and got Butterbeers, even though Sirius tried to get a Firewhiskey.

"Five Butterbeers, please," said Nancy.

"No, I don't think I'll be having any of that children's stuff," said Sirius. "Better make that four Butterbeers and a Firewhiskey." Sirius winked at Nancy.

"Right," said the bartender, "five Butterbeers it is then." They each took a bottle and walked over to a table on the other side of the building. Peter was about to sit in the seat right next to Nancy, but James pulled the seat out causing Peter to fall on the floor. James sat in the seat and Peter sat next to James, rubbing his behind as he did so.

After draining the last drops from their bottles, they decided to head back to the castle because the wind was starting to pick up, making the air icy.

At the portrait hole, Nancy gave them all a wave and joined her group of friends that were entering the common room. Remus pulled out a book and pretended to read. But there were other things on his mind.

Maybe I could ask her out just once and-No Remus, no, no, no!

Oh, the complications of being a monster.