Remus Lupin kept his eyes shut, pretending to sleep as three teenagers entered the compartment. He allowed himself to steal a glance at the boy, his heart aching as he did so. It was hard to imagine that this wasn't James. He looked so much like him. Except the eyes….those he had gotten from Lily. Two wonderful people that he had ripped away from him.
The boy started speaking to his friends. His voice was so similar to James' that it was rather scary. For a moment Remus allowed himself to imagine that it was his friends sitting there with him, that he wasn't alone anymore. That only caused his heart to ache even more, because they were all gone. Dead, imprisoned, traitors. Then there was poor Remus Lupin, left with no one in the world except memories inside his head and the ghosts of his friends.
Harry Potter. He'd grown up in the almost eleven years that it had been since Remus Lupin had laid eyes on him. He remembers the chubby cheeked baby that would pull on his hair or the laughing toddler that would try to ride around on the toy broom that Sirius had gotten him when he was little. Young Harry wouldn't remember any of this, he was so little when he'd been in his life as his uncle, but the memories remained for Remus.
Remus Lupin would give anything at that moment for Harry Potter to just look up at him and smile. For him to call him Uncle Moony. For him to know who he was. For him to just not feel so alone in the world.
Instead he remained silent, pretending to sleep. A single tear slipped down his cheek. He allowed that one tear the mercy of escaping the madness within him.