AN: Just wanted to say Hi, this is my first attempt at a longer fanfiction so sorry if I make any mistakes. Enjoy.

This isn't the final product I'm still awaiting a reply from my best friend merylx who is being a lazy beta reader. Final will be up whenever she can be bothered to e-mail me back. Don't hold your breath.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters including Remus Lupin which is a shame but that's life.

Chapter 1

Remus woke, unsure if it was due to the half broken alarm clock or the fact he had just fallen off his bed. As he groaned he tasted blood in his mouth and then tried to get up before crumpling on the floor. Oh, joy. He crawled over to his wand which was inconveniently halfway across the room and the anches and pains started to make themseslves known. He tried to asses his injuries as he made very slow progress across the floor of his flat. 1. Ankle-Probably broken, 2. Left shoulder- Dislocated and 3. A searing pain across his face. It had been another bad night, the drawing winter months with the lengthened evenings always took their toll on the lycanthrope and last night was no different. He had spent the early evening Halloween celebrations with the Potters and their young son Harry before excusing himself early and returning to the safety of his apartment. Last night it had been relatively tidy, this morning it looked like it had been ravaged by a monster, which in Remus' mind was the truth.

He grabbed his wand and tried to repair his ankle and shoulder before standing up shakily and limping to the bathroom. He looked into the mirror and gasped 'shoot!' Three red streaks of blood etched themselves across his nose and cheeks . He spat out the blood in his mouth and cleared away the mess on his face with his wand. How was he going to explain away this? Not to Lily, James or the others but to passers by that would now gawk at him. He was pulled out of his reverie by the sight of an owl carrying the prophet and so he reluctantly tore his eyes away from the scars and limped painfully to the window.

Remus took the folded newspaper from its claws and deposited a sickle into the pouch attached to the ankle. It turned and flew off with as much dignity and composure as an owl could. Remus smirked at the pompous bird and sat down on his bed as per his routine and unfolded the paper. Nothing could have prepared him for the headline.

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED DESTROYED AFTER POTTERS DEATHS

He read the headline over and over trying to make the words change, to convince him that the newspaper had printed the title wrong or that he had misread it. He read ahead begging the newspaper to explain that it was a different family called the Potters that had died.

He-who-must-not-be-named was killed last night in the wizarding village, Godric's Hollow. The incident occurred late last night after he attacked the Potters a well-known wizarding family in the area. Witnesses say they saw a cloaked figure entering the Potter's house and moments later the green flash of the Killing curse being performed. The shocked witnesses then went on to say that they heard and saw a large explosion that destroyed part of the house where they assume he-who-must-not-be-named was located as he didn't appear again.

There is much dispute over how You-Know-Who managed to locate the family that knew that they were being searched for. The general consensus is that their Secret Keeper, Sirius Black, betrayed their whereabouts to he-who-must-not-be-named only moments before he descended on the peaceful household. This has been emphasized by the recent news of the murders committed by Black that you can read more about on page 3.

We interviewed one of the local villagers who knew the Potters, Bathilda Bagshot. 'Lily and James were nice people, always there to help you out when you needed it. It's such a terrible tragedy to see such a young family torn apart like this. All my best wishes are with their young son Harry.'

Harry Potter, their son is said to be the cause of he-who-must-not-be-named's downfall, it appears that after murdering the young boy's parents, he moved onto Harry himself but the spell for reasons unknown to many, didn't affect the Potter's Son. One witness says 'I saw Hagrid, Rubeus Hagrid take Harry from the rubble, I saw the young lad's face, crying he was, but I saw his face and the bright red lighting scar on his forehead.' Sources say this soon to be famous boy is now in safe hands.

Remus' eyes watered as they stared at the page in utter disbelief. Lily and James, gone. He read it over and over trying again to make the words change, to make time reverse and bring back two of his closest friends. His eyes ran over the paper again noticing a detail that the previous read-throughs had skipped. He frantically flipped to page 3 to find a large picture of Sirius staring up at him.

BLACK KILLS 12 AFTER BETRAYAL OF FRIENDSHIP

Sirius Black, believed to have betrayed his best friends James and Lily Potter has today been accused of a second offense after he was seen in the early hours of this morning in a muggle street after killing no less than 12 people which included muggles and another one of his close friends Peter Pettigrew. There were many eyewitnesses that saw the attack and it is extremely unlikely that Black will get away with it.

Cornelius Fudge, Junior Minister for the Department of Magical Catastrophes was one of the first to arrive at the scene. He had this to say on the topic, 'I will never forget what I have seen today, I arrived to find a huge crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. There were bodies everywhere, Muggles were screaming and Black just stood there laughing, in front of him, the remains of his close friend Peter Pettigrew, some clothes and a finger.'

Black is in custody at the Ministry and is to face trial next week. Pettigrew's family have been told.

Remus sat in shock for at least a quarter of an hour, trying to take it all in. James, Lily and Peter were dead and Sirius had betrayed them all.

His stupor was interrupted by a sharp tap on his window, he turned sharply to see a very familiar black screech owl staring at him through his window. In a daze he stood up and opened the window taking the slightly bulging envelope from its beak. He stroked it out of habit and shut the window carrying the envelope to his bed.

He knew exactly who it was from and this made him all the more hesitant to open it, what if Black was trying to kill them all off, the packet could contain anything. Remus deliberated for what seemed like hours before he figured that if it did kill him, he wouldn't care. He had nothing left to live for. Tentatively he opened the neatly sealed envelope and emptied the contents into his open palm, it contained two things. One, a note and the other was a small glass phial with a silvery liquid in it that Remus recognized. He put the phial down and unfolded the note before wincing at the handwriting.

Oi, Moony.

Thought you might like to see what happened after you left.

Hope you're alright mate.

Padfoot

Remus had no other choice, he knew what Black had sent him and he knew he had to see it, look for clues. He walked out of his room and down to the basement that he used more as a living area than an actual basement. He unlocked his trunk and reached to the bottom taking out the case that contained his pensive, a graduation gift from Dumbledore. He let the silvery disk float at just the right height for a moment before pouring in the memory. Taking a deep breath he bent down letting his nose touch the liquid before he was flung into the scene and found himself sitting next to Black.

He stood up instantly not wanting to sit next to the traitor. He walked over to a vacant seat in the corner of the room so he could watch the events in their entirety. He could see himself walking down the garden path and out of sight. He focused again on the room paying particular attention to its occupants. Black sat at the end of the long sofa backing against the wall, he was chatting animatedly with James whilst the latter played with Harry on the floor. Lily was sitting next to Peter on the second sofa watching Harry like a hawk, she seemed to be taking in his every movement about to jump in if James even released his tight hold on Harry. Peter was being quiet as usual surveying the scene as if he himself was looking through a pensive.

The scene seemed so perfect it was impossible to think that the talkative curly haired young man who had just stood up to play with Harry was about to betray them all in just a few short hours. Remus watched his face trying to pinpoint any remorse or guilt that could indicate that he was about to do such a terrible thing but no, there were just smiles. He stared at the youthful wrinkle free face and felt the sudden urge to punch it, make it stop grinning, make it show some of the emotion that Black should have been feeling.

'I should be leaving now.' The squeaky voice from behind him made Remus jump, he turned to see Peter standing up from his chair and looking at Lily and James. 'What's the rush?' James replied looking up at the shorter wizard. Remus could feel the tears returning as he heard the voices of his dead friends. 'Some…um….urgent…things…urgent matters I need to deal with' Peter stammered picking up his coat and facing Sirius then the Potters. 'See…see you la-later.' He left quickly shutting the door behind him and Remus watched as the small wizard hurried down the path. 'I wonder what that was about.' Sirius' calm voice called out, Remus felt the urge to punch him again. 'No idea' James replied with a smirk.

The scene seemed almost too perfect to Remus, he wanted to pause it, to live in this moment forever and to never have to go back to the now very harsh and very lonely reality. Unfortunately that wasn't possible. As Remus just stood there thinking, the Potters and Black carried on with the past festivities and the sight of the latter picking up his coat to leave finally alerted Remus to pay attention. 'I think I should better check up on Wormtail, see if he's ok' the now murder's voice announced 'Thank you for the tea Lily, it was lovely as always. See you around Prongs' he turned to walk out of the door then span around on one foot as if he was just remembering something. 'Better send this to Moony, wouldn't want him to miss out on what happened whilst he was away.' Black raised his wand to his temple and the memory ended.

Remus fell to his knees and just cried, he couldn't believe what had happened. Sirius, their friend, Padfoot, had betrayed them all to you-know-who. He shook with tears, his knees going numb on the cold basement floor.

The seconds became minutes, the minutes became hours and the hours became days. Days in which Remus Lupin mourned. He cried and drank himself and the house dry but couldn't face leaving. The funeral came and went, it had apparently been quite a fancy affair with Dumbledore himself delivering a speech about the tragic loss of Lily and James. Remus had stayed at home, not prepared to leave the room let alone go to the funeral of his closest friends.

He ventured out to visit the grave over a month after their deaths. He stood at the grave and stared, he couldn't cry, he couldn't react, he just stared at the white headstone with the neat engraving:

Lily Potter James Potter

30th January 1960 – 31st October 1981 27th March 1960 – 31st October 1981

'The Last Enemy to be destroyed is Death'

The journey away from their grave seemed much shorter than the journey there. On the way he promised himself that he would visit the grave every year. He hadn't been there to help them, he hadn't even said a proper goodbye, it was the least he could do. He also knew that he had to stay strong, little Harry Potter was out there somewhere and one day he may be able to get to know him, to regain that connection with the friends that were now long gone. If he collapsed, if he gave in, he might never see the jet black hair or those bright green eyes again. The he felt himself tearing up at the thought so he tried to shake his mind of the Potters, failing like he had every single moment since their deaths.

So, please Review :)

Tell me what I've done wrong and tell me what I've done right.

Next chapter should be up in at least a week.