Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Harry Potter they are all patented products of J.K Rowling. However the storyline is all mine.

Chapter One:

That Faithful Night

If there is anything in this chapter that you don't like feel free to say so, I do appreciate constructive criticism and I will do everything I can to improve on the story.

Ever since their last night at Hogwarts the four boys who had by now progressed to young men had swore an oath to be friends from this life into the next. No matter what trouble and strife one got into the others would defend them with their last breath…until now.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Reamus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew all sat round a dilapidated table that could only be held up by magic. The legs where badly eaten away by termites and God knows what else resided in the dingy pub. The floor looked like it hadn't been washed in centuries and the dim lighting only made the hovel look even seedier.

"Who chose to meet here?" Asked a disgusted James.

"You did" Retorted Sirius.

"Yes James, why exactly did you choose THIS place" Reamus uttered while trying to work out what exactly was in the filthy pint glass in front of him. He was sure he had requested lager instead he had received sewer water.

"Well, after what happened at the bachelor party we're not allowed back at The Green Dragon…by the way Lily doesn't know anything about that so keep it quiet" James replied, he had been married all of three months and he was still recovering from his last night of freedom. But when the Marauders got together everybody knew about it!

Life was good for the quartet James had a beautiful new wife and was happily living up to the newlywed stereotype: pining every time she left the room and getting turned on by her slightest movement. Sirius was perfectly content getting up at noon and living off his inheritance. Being unemployed (though his friends deemed him as – The Unemployable – by his fantastic ability to purposefully screw up job interviews) his idea of a days work was getting fully clothed. And practising his favourite hobby: juggling girlfriends!

Reamus was quite the opposite, very much the career man he had made a good name for himself at The Ministry and was expecting a promotion any day now. Peter also seemed to have a constant smile on his face; he never spoke about his work much except for saying that 'things are changing for the better' whenever anybody quizzed him about it.

"So what are we doing tonight then?" Peter questioned cheerily.

"Howling at the moon mate, or so the stereotype says" Reamus replied glumly. He took a brave swig from the glass and desperately regretted it.

"Ow yeah it's a full moon tonight, sorry Reamus I forgot" James added sincerely.

Reamus waved it off, he was terrified to open his mouth encase he vomited over his friends.

"Do you want some company tonight?" Asked Sirius.

Reamus couldn't help but smile. The guys lived in opposite directions on the edge of London so they were used to hearing that sentence come from many muggle prostitutes.

"Did your last girlfriend teach you that line?" Joked Reamus.

"Sod you then" Sirius laughed gently slapping his comrade on the back.

"Nah I'll be fine, besides I don't think your girls would be too impressed if you come home tomorrow with scratch marks all over yourselves" Reamus added with a dirty smile.

"Ow Moony you big flirt" James said putting on a very camp voice and doing the token gay hand gesture.

All the guys roared with laughter and continued the barrage of friendly insults and personal jokes.

As Reamus clumsily walked home from the pub he couldn't wipe the smile from his face, it had been awhile since everyone had just hung around together at the pub.

They had all been so close at Hogwarts and he had really missed them all. As he thought back over the joyful hours he had spend at the repulsive pub he began to wish he hadn't turned down Sirius's offer. Granted he wouldn't remember a moment of the night ahead but just the thought of somebody keeping watch over him and having a friendly face to see when he woke up the next day did bring back the happy memories of childhood.

He finally reached home; he lived in a two bedroom house a few miles from town it was small but out of the way. He didn't have to worry about apologizing to his neighbours about his 'noisy dog' every month because there weren't any.

Reamus wasn't so much a recluse he just had a hard time trusting people and he was painfully shy around women. He found that being a workaholic and a werewolf wasn't exactly the best qualities to have when getting to know people, their first impression of you is always that you are going to start gnawing or humping their leg.

As he tried for the third time to get his key in the front door he wondered why he had drunk so much of that awful brew. He was feeling very light headed and his feet didn't want to go where the rest of his body did.

Finally he succeeded in falling head first into the hallway. He groaned slightly as he raised himself to look at his watch. As soon as he saw the time he leapt to his feet he only had half an hour till sunset.

Reamus frantically rushed around the house, he grabbed a large metal dogs bowl and filled it with water and some dead rabbits from the larder. He found that if he didn't have some food to hand when he changed he spent the whole night tearing his fur out and chewing his limbs to the bone.

He walked up stairs to the second bedroom; he turned and closed the door it was covered from top to bottom with locks and iron-clad bolts. The walls were padded with soft foam, however over the years the soft foam had been shredded to pieces and two of the walls were completely bare. Attached to one of the reinforced walls were chains, manacles and many other forms of restraints (as you can imagine this got several second looks from the odd people who did pop round to visit Reamus, thinking it was a sordid sex room). There was only one small window with thick steel bars across next to it was a medicine cabinet.

He placed the bowl and rabbit carcasses near his assorted shackles and went over to the medicine cabinet. Half a dozen small phials of blue liquid lined the cabinet he removed one and close it again.

Reamus blessed the day Wolfsbane was discovered, it made his progression from man to beast easier to bear and kept him very docile during the long nights. He quickly undressed, neatly folded his clothes and placed them in the opposite corner to his constraints. He picked up the heavy chains and began fastening them to himself, he locked manacles around his ankles and wrists and a hefty steel harness around his chest.

From where he stood he could see the sun begin to set. It was time.

"Bottoms up" Reamus uttered before emptying the contents of the bottle into his mouth. However tonight something was wrong, usually the mixture had a very sharp acidic flavour like over ripe lemons and left a woody aftertaste. Tonight the concoction was very sweet and tasted nothing like usual.

Reamus dropped the bottle and watched it smash; the sun was rapidly fading from the sky so he had no time to discover what this mystery potion was.

Reamus could feel it starting; his bones began to stretch and crack inside him. The pain ripped through his body like a razor blade, muscles tore trying to keep up with the sudden transformation. He doubled over with agony and fell to his knees; Reamus could see his fingers and toes extend and shred the nails as sharp jagged claws emerged. His face stretched and hair mated to every inch of his sweaty form.

His tormented screams became long shallow howls as reality slid away from him, his mind turned to savage feral cravings as everything went dark…

A light breeze swept through the large oak tree shielding Reamus's naked flesh from the unnatural heat. It was nearing the end of summer yet the sun refused to give way to the desired autumn winds.

He rolled over semiconscious and lay there for several moments until the odd sensation of grass tickling his ear struck him. He bolted upright and waited for his eyes to focus on his surroundings.

Reamus was in the middle of a large wood surrounded by enormous trees and wild flowers. His mind raced to keep up with his pounding heart. What happened last night? How did I get out? Where am I? Questions raced around his aching head none of which he could answer. He decided the best course of action was to go home and see if he could piece together what had happened.

As Reamus awkwardly tried to raise himself he noticed something strange by his feet, he leaned in to identify the mysterious object.

All of Reamus's worse fears encased him; a lock of long blonde hair lay at his feet.

"No" Reamus whisper panic stricken. His stomach lurched as he gagged violently at his discovery, with a sudden burst of energy Reamus was on his feet. He backed away from the few strands of hair but the sunlight danced majestically upon it entrancing him.

He stood there transfixed for what seemed like hours, his mind screaming at him:

"What have I done?"

Deep in the forest of trees a twig snapped under the pressure of a passing creature breaking Reamus's trance. He no longer had control over his senses and in one quick movement he grabbed the hair and ran as fast as was humanly possible.

He darted through the trees with surprising grace clinging tightly to the item that filled him with so much dread. His heart beat harder and harder with each frantic pace, his legs burned and each breath felt like an ice cold knife between his ribs.

Reamus continued to run until his body screamed for mercy. Thankfully he had reached the edge of the forest; he slowed down to a quick jog as he followed the ash grey road hopefully back home.

Reamus stopped in front of a sign that read: Welcome to Muckton.

Muchton, he recognised the name it was the nearest town to Little Cawthorpe where he lived. It was a fair few miles but he felt some slight warmth at the thought of home. Because he had stopped the full impact of his trek was catching up to him, Reamus struggled to breath and his body throbbed with each heart beat. He wandered over to the edge of the road; he thought that it must be very early because he hadn't seen anybody since waking up. However it wouldn't be like that for long and seeing a naked man scampering through Muckton would draw some attention. Reamus decided that he would cut through the trees and race down the alleys so as to avoid as many people as possible. And so he was off again.

Reamus threw himself down on the bare floor boards of his home. On his way back to Little Cawthorpe he had managed to steal a pair of shorts and a t-shirt two sizes too big for him.

He lay in a ball, his nose pressed hard against his knees willing his pulse to return to its normal rate. Soon the light hum subsided to a steady beat and Reamus though shaky managed to sit upright. He looked down at his hand, he had been gripping so tightly to the hair his finger nails where dug deep into the flesh making him bleed slightly. For the first time he noticed how soft the strands where, they felt like spun silk on his palm. As despair hit him all over again tears filled his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, he wept silently rocking back and forth.

"Pull yourself together" His mind screamed gruffly at him. He had to stay in one piece if he was ever going to find out what happened after he turned. Reamus slowly drew himself to his feet, and for the first time he realised that when he had returned home he hadn't had to open the front door. He looked at the remnants of the door; it had been broken clean off the hinges. Huge scratch marks streaked the length of it and the door handle was pierced right the way through by long serrated teeth.

As Reamus roamed from room to room havoc and destruction was all he saw. The sofa had been completely shredded; curtains, bed sheets and any other fabric lay in tatters all around the house. Furniture was smashed and rested at precarious angles.

"What am I going to do?" He asked himself out loud just to remind himself this wasn't a horrific nightmare.

"Call the Ministry, NO call James or Sirius, NO wait go get a paper see if anything has been reported it might just be a fluke, you might have just fallen asleep in the most unlucky of places, act completely normal you probably didn't do anything wrong" This was getting to much his head buzzed with thoughts as too what his next actions should be. Trying to rationalise the situation was driving him crazy.

The soothing hot water washed over his body, every droplet cleansing him internally along with his exterior. Mud, grass and blood washed down the drain as Reamus traced his fresh wounds. A long scratch along his left arm, a deep cut in each thigh, every inch of his back coated in scrapes varying in length and a painful gash spanned his face from forehead to chin. And that didn't include all the glass and sharp stones that where imbedded in his feet and palms.

Reamus got out of the shower when the water ran from boiling to sub-zero, he quickly dried himself with a threadbare towel and got dressed. Thankfully some of his clothes had lasted the night, he wore a pair of black trousers a pale blue shirt and threw his black robe over the top.

The lock of hair remained in his robe pocket and every few minutes Reamus out of morbid curiosity took it out, examined it and quickly put it back in his pocket before his psyche could concoct disturbing thoughts. For the first time since awakening Reamus looked at the clock in his kitchen.

"Merlin's beard, I'm late" He yelled, it was 10:30 he was already an hour and a half late for work. However yet again he put his hand in his pocket and handled the mane, it was evident that work was going to have to wait.

Reamus hadn't withdrawn the hair instead he just stood there motionless holding it tightly; he slipped once again into a trace state however he was rudely awoken by a familiar voice.

"Reamus, Reamus"

Reamus stood there staring at the person. "I know this man" Reamus said to himself silently, however his mind was somewhere else and putting a name to the face was proving difficult.

"Reamus, we gotta talk" The unidentifiable man spoke softly; his voice was forlorn ridden with anguish.

"Caden?" Reamus finally uttered. Suddenly a wave of relief washed over Reamus, Caden worked at the Ministry. However that relief turned to shock as he remembered that Caden was an Auror.

"Reamus mate, we…we gotta take you in" Caden said barely making eye contact with Reamus.

"What's happened?" Reamus asked not really wanting to know the answer.

"A girl…a little witch she…she was killed last night…by a werewolf" Caden finally managed to get the words out each one more difficult then the last.

A/N: Ok I have a few points about this chapter:

1)The length, I'm sorry I just got on a roll I have started writing the second chapter and it's looking to be slightly shorter then this one. Should I post it in its entirety or cut it up into 2 chapters?

2) The places, I don't live in London so I just picked Muckton and Little Cawthorpe because they are just outside of London and right next to each other. If I have written them to be something there not then I am truly sorry.

3) Guest appearance, in chapter two or three I am offering somebody HERE to be a character in BOTM. The role is of Reamus's lawyer/barrister, so whoever leaves the nicest review will get to defend…or persecute Reamus.

Isn't it amazing the lengths I will go to for reviews?