Hello! Thanks for coming over to check out this fic, if you just finished reading "Torn Up Inside", and if you're new, then welcome! Always love my readers! :) Just a warning, right now this fic is rated T (mainly for language) because I don't really have anything explicit or too dark as of yet, but that could very well change – it depends on how I take the story…so it might change to an M rating halfway through! Just so ya guys know…:)
Hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it! And if you do enjoy it…PLEASE REVIEW! They encourage me to update faster, because I know that there ARE people out there reading this, as hard as it may be to believe in my lower points…;p
"Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle."
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch, In Every Mile
"Sweetie! It's time to come inside now! It's getting late!"
Remus Lupin looked up from playing tug-of-war with his little puppy in the garden. He peered through the brown-blond fringe on his forehead at the plump woman standing in the front doorway.
"But Mummy!" he whined. "I'm playing!"
"I know you've been playing," she replied with a concealed smile. "But the sun's almost set – it's time to come inside for the night."
The four-year-old huffed a little but gave in, walking as slow as he possibly could inside the warm house. The little Beagle pup followed faithfully beside him, running forward every couple of seconds and then going back to the little boy as though trying to show him that he could go faster.
After Remus had gotten close enough, his mother frowned a bit and touched his cheek with her gentle fingers.
"Goodness, you're freezing!" she exclaimed. "Go wash up and come to the table – I'll heat up some of the stew from supper." She sighed as the dog followed after her little boy into the house.
"It wasn't that cold, Mummy," Remus argued as he went into the kitchen. "Me an' Pig were having fun playin' in the garden." The pup barked at the sound of his name.
"Yes, I saw the fun you were having," she admonished lightly. "And it's very cold out there – it's already October, and I expect the snow will come soon."
"Yay!" the little boy cheered as he stretched on the step stool in front of the sink to reach the faucet. "I like snow," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm gonna build a huge snowman this year, and it's gonna be even bigger than me!"
She smiled softly at her son as he rubbed soap into his dirty hands. "I bet you will," she agreed. "Are you going to need a hat to put on his head?"
Remus nodded agreeably. "Yeah! Last time I used mine, and Ms. Figg's cat chewed it up and I couldn't have one for a really long time!"
As Remus continued to chatter away happily, Mrs. Lupin reheated some stew over the stove and pulled out a bowl to serve it in. He chatted about everything and nothing, with the puppy named Pig scampering about their feet. Just as he sat down at the table and she put the bowl in front of him, the back door opened and Mr. Lupin came in.
"Daddy!" Remus cheered, waving his spoon in the air and smiling widely at the large man.
"Hey, how's my little boy?" Mr. Lupin said with a smile that erased the fatigue from his face. He swooped down and picked up his son, swinging him up to sit upon his shoulders as he trotted around the kitchen.
Remus laughed loudly and tugged at his dad's hair. "Go faster, Daddy! Go faster!"
"Alright…but it's gonna get crazy in here…!"
"John!" Mrs. Lupin's stern reprimand brought both the boys' attention to her. "He's freezing and needs to eat his stew. You can't go gallivanting around the kitchen, either – it's much too small for that rough housing."
"Alrighty, then," John said with a grin and deftly swung Remus off his shoulders and into the chair he'd vacated previously. "Then I think I would like some stew as well – it smells delicious." As Mrs. Lupin went to fill another bowl, Mr. Lupin leaned over to Remus and whispered, "We'll go gallivanting together when she's not watching, okay champ?"
Remus giggled and nodded enthusiastically.
Remus woke up some time in the night to a low growling sound at his door. He blinked blearily and sat up, rubbing his eyes to see that Pig was standing in front of his closed door, making low growling noises.
"Pig?" Remus yawned and got out of bed, padding softly across the wood floor to the door. "Here you go, boy," he said, opening the door. Pig practically shot out, but when Remus started to close the door, the dog pressed against it with his nose. Remus decided that Pig must want him to follow him, so he obeyed, following the dog down the hallway and to the back door. Pig began scratching at it to be let out.
"It's cold out there, though," Remus whispered so as not to wake his parents. The pup whined and scratched the door again, so Remus sighed a little and pulled on his coat from the rack. After pulling on his shoes without bothering to do up the laces – he would only be out for a minute, after all – he undid the latch and opened the door to let the puppy out.
But Pig didn't stay in the yard – he shot straight to a spot in the fence where the wood was loose, and crawled through the small hole it provided, going into the dark forest just beyond their property.
"No! Pig!" Remus called in a loud whisper. When the untrained puppy didn't come back, he worriedly ran after him, opening the gate to get through and running into the forest.
Once he got into the forest, however, the light provided by the full moon diminished so significantly that Remus could hardly see in front of him at all. There were a few cracks in the dense canopy of trees though, so he was able to get by.
"Pig!" he called. "Come here, Pig!"
He ran for what felt like forever to the little boy, but was probably closer to only twenty minutes or so. All the while, he called for his puppy, and got farther and farther away from his house.
After a while, he sat down on a tree stump in a slightly lighter clearing of trees, and began to cry. His tiny shoulders trembled as he shed tears for his lost dog, and that made it harder to hear the twig that snapped behind him. The hands covering his face made it impossible to see that a large man with unkempt blond-brown hair was coming closer to him. If he'd seen the man, he would have seen the somewhat feral grin the man displayed when he saw the boy, as though he had just found his prey. As though his prey had just stepped into his den.
But he heard nothing, saw nothing, and it was that night that the man known as Fenrir Greyback took another victim.
Deep. Crazy. Shit. Hope it's crazy enough for you to…REVIEW! Yes? I bet you want to. :)
P.S. I love writing young Remus. He's just so freakishly adorable. ;D