Seven-year-old Remus Lupin was crying. This was to be his twelfth transformation, and he didn't want it. It hurt, and it terrified him, and it was lonely all night in the cellar. At first, his Mum had stayed with him, sleeping on a small camp bed next to his cage, but it made her cry to see him like that, and so, as the months went by, she spent less and less time with him. It wasn't, Remus had overheard his father telling her, as though he knew she was there.

But he did. And he missed her, and so his monthly ordeal became even harder to bear.

This month, his father was away on business until late at night, and Remus was doing everything he could to keep his mother from chaining him in the cage in the cellar. His fear and anguish overflowed in tears and near-hysterical begging for her to, Please, don't make the chains so tight, and so she relented, just a little. Blinded by tears, neither noticed that the rusty padlock on the cage hadn't snapped all the way shut.

And that was the night Remus escaped.

The chains on his arms and legs came off during the transformation. The one around his neck remained, but was much looser than when his father secured him. Remus pawed at it, forcing it over one ear. It pinched! He yanked back, twisting his head when it mashed one eye shut, and off it came. He stood blinking, not sure if what he was experiencing was true.

Remus' werewolf form took on the stage of physical maturity that his human body was currently going through. That made him a barely half-grown pup even though he already weighed almost five stone. His mind, while not human, was not entirely that of a beast, either. He retained flashes of memory from his human times, mostly images, smells, and sensations. As a wolf, he couldn't 'think' in the standard sense, but he was not totally without reason or understanding. His impulses and control, however, were closer to those of a wolf pup than a human.

Remus pawed at the gate of the cage, becoming increasingly agitated until he was chewing and shaking the bars. The old lock jostled and fell, allowing the cage door to swing open. Surprised, Remus stood for a moment, panting, head on one side, studying the new situation. Then it was up the stairs and nosing at the thumb latch on the cellar door. That took only a moment, and then he was at the kitchen door. The door with the faulty latch that his father had been saying for weeks that he was going to fix. But he hadn't, not yet, and when Remus threw himself against the wood, the latch gave way and Remus barreled out into the back garden. He lifted his snout to the moon, sniffed the summer breeze, and gave a small, warbling howl. A startled cat tipped over a bin in its hurry to get away down the lane, and Remus was off in a flash, the whole night ahead of him.

Hours later, Remus was tired, thirsty, and hungry. A birdbath in a back yard provided a drink until he accidentally tipped it over, and he bolted down an alley in case the noise woke up the people in the house. He had come to the outskirts of a town during his wanderings. The buildings were shabby and deteriorating, though the front steps were scrubbed and decorated with pots of flowers.

Remus encountered the boy huddled against the crumbling wall of an abandoned factory at the end of a long street of boarded-up buildings. He was small and skinny with lanky black hair and was about Remus' age. And he'd been crying. While Remus had been chasing cats and small rodents with more than playful intent that night, he had no aggressive urgings toward the human child at all. If anything, he wanted to be friends; he smelled food in the boy's knapsack.

Remus dislodged a stone, and the sound caught the boy's attention. He looked up, swiping a sleeve across his face to erase the evidence of his distress. The sight of a rather large canine in the moonlight caused the boy to slowly rise to his feet, back against the wall, piece of broken masonry in his hand.

"Get back!" His voice was credibly steady.

Remus' ducked his head, flattened his ears to the side and lowered his tail. To top off his ingratiating demeanor, he smiled.

A person familiar with dogs would have recognized the baring of teeth, in conjunction with the other body language, to be a sign of submission. The boy, unfortunately, seemed to have no experience with dogs, and saw only white teeth reflecting the moonlight. He threw the rock with surprising strength for one so small, and it landed right on the top of Remus' snout, right where the fur met the sensitive, moist, black nose.

Remus yelped. Blood welled from the gash and Remus whined and pawed at his sore nose, cringing on the ground in front of the surprised boy.

"What a baby," the boy sounded disgusted. Then he looked closer. "Why, you are just a baby, aren't you?" He moved a bit to the side and studied Remus, who was still cowering on the ground. "A rather big baby." He moved closer to Remus who gazed back at him, his hurt and contrition in his eyes. He'd only wanted to be friends.

"Let me see." The boy now sounded confident, his initial fear apparently dispelled by Remus' submissive demeanor. "Come on," he reached for Remus' head, stroking his neck. "Let me have a look."

Remus raised his head, liking the sound of the strange boy's voice.

"Oh." Blood trickled down the side of Remus' snout. "Well, I do have rather good aim." The boy cradled Remus' muzzle in his hands. "Hold still now. This is something me Mam says when I skin my knee. I've never tried it, but it may work. I can do stuff, you know." He closed his eyes in concentration for a moment, then repeated the words of a simple healing charm. The skin knitted itself together, and Remus raised his head in surprise. His mind formed an association between the magic of this boy, and the magic of his mother, and he licked the boy's hand.

The boy squinted in the moonlight. "That looks better. Has the bleeding stopped?"

Remus wrapped his long tongue around his nose, cleaning the blood away. No more appeared.

"That's all right then." The boy sounded relieved. "But you shouldn't be wandering around like this. Who let you out on your own in the middle of the night, anyway?"

Remus moved closer to the boy and stared at his knapsack.

The boy laughed. "Hungry, eh?" He sat back against the wall and pulled the bag into his lap. Rummaging around, he came up with half a loaf of bread and some cheese. He broke off a piece of bread and fed it to Remus. "I'm running away." The statement was matter of fact.

Remus licked his lips and tried not to drool all over his new best friend's knee. The boy bit off a corner of cheese, dropped it into his palm and offered it to Remus. It was a very acceptable farmhouse cheddar.

"My father yells a lot." The boy broke off more bread and shared it with Remus. "It's 'cause he drinks. It's not his fault, Mam says. She says it's the mill's fault for hurting him. Now he can't get a job, and that makes him mad." The boy bit the last of the cheese in half and shared it, wiping his hand on his trousers before putting the wrappings back in his bag.

"Me Mam's a witch." The boy reached up and scratched behind Remus' ears. Remus, not used to being touched in werewolf form, leaned into the touch, closing his eyes in bliss. Nothing had ever felt so good.

"Da's not. He gets mad at Mam sometimes, saying if she's such a great witch, why doesn't she magic up the food or the rent money. She says it doesn't work that way, but he just drinks more." Remus lay down and put his head in the boy's lap so he could go on stroking his ears more easily. "Mam says I'll be a powerful wizard some day." Remus lifted his head. The word wizard tugged at his mind. "But to do that, to be really good, I have to go to school. Hogwarts, that's the school for wizards in Britain. The headmaster is a famous wizard, very powerful." The boy stroked up and down Remus' back, ruffling the soft fur. "And if I run away, I can't go to school." The boy's voice was a whisper. Remus raised his head and licked the boy's hand where it lay along his thigh.

"Have you run away, too?" The boy rested his hand on Remus' head and rubbed the spot between his eyes with his thumb. Remus squinted. "I don't like it at home." He fell silent for awhile, fondling Remus' ears. Remus didn't understand the words, but he could sense the boy's feelings well enough. He sat up and moved close to his side, reaching up to lick his face. The boy wrapped his arm around Remus and buried his face in his warm fur. "I wish I could take you home with me." He sat back and wiped his knuckles across his cheek. "Me parents'd have a fit, though. Don't know how we'd feed you, either." His laugh was forced. "You must eat an awful lot."

The boy fell silent and stared at the broken pavement between his knees. Remus crowded close to his side, liking his touch and soaking up his warmth. The boy rested his cheek on top of Remus' head, and they remained that way as the full moon started to drift down the western sky.

"Severus!"

"Severuuuuus!" The frantic voice of a woman roused the two from where they'd fallen asleep pressed tightly together, and the boy uncoiled to stand up. Remus shook himself, and looked to where a woman was running toward them.

"That's me Mam." Severus sounded relieved.

"Severus! Come here! Get away from that thing!"

"It's all right, Mam. He's just a pup." Severus rested his hand on Remus' head.

"NO!" The woman was shrieking, her hand reaching inside her robe and removing a wand. "Run, Severus! Get away!"

Severus froze. The woman raised her wand, and suddenly Severus moved. He lunged forward, grabbing his mother's wand arm.

"No, Mam! He's my friend. He won't hurt me."

The curse went wide as she dropped her wand, blasting a hole in the wall behind Remus. "He's a werewolf!"

Severus' eyes went wide, and Remus, covered in dust and bits of brick where he cowered against the wall, smelled the fear that suddenly roiled off the boy. He whimpered and looked around for safety, not sure which way to run and not willing to abandon his new friend just yet. But Severus stooped to pick up a rock and, hesitating only briefly, he flung it at Remus. Having experienced the accuracy of Severus' aim once, Remus was quick to dodge, but the rock hit him in the ribs with a solid thump.

Remus let out a sharp cry of pain and saw Severus falter in the act of picking up another stone. His mother was reaching for her wand, however, and Remus fled in panic and confusion.

He ran down alleys and streaked through yards, heedless of the noise he made. A big dog chased him for a bit, but he careened on, blind panic fueling his tired legs. When he finally panted to a stop, he had no idea where he was. Somewhere on the moor, but he didn't know in which direction lay home. He could hear a stream, and stumbled down for a drink of the clear, cold water, then, too tired to go any further, he curled up in a patch of bracken and fell asleep.

Remus didn't nap for long. The first notes of a skylark tuning up its song woke him. The moon was almost touching the western horizon, and the eastern sky was starting to lighten just a fraction. He didn't understand the panic that gripped him once more, but he knew he needed to go home.

Racing to the top of the nearest hill, Remus lifted his nose, closed his eyes and sniffed the damp air. He turned slowly, sampling the tiniest drafts until... There! Old Mr. Cooper's farm, just down the road from his parent's house. He knew it, knew it from among all the other farms for the combined scents of cow, chicken, pig, pony, and the herb garden Mrs. Cooper kept behind the kitchen. Add to that the smell of honey from the hives in the orchard, and Remus knew where home was.

He raced on, his legs wobbly with fatigue, his mind focused on the leading scent. He was so tired.

"Reeeemuuuus!"

"REMUS!"

Mum! Dad! Remus' mind was fuzzy, thoughts and images coming in flashes, but he knew those voices, knew there was safety there. He tried to run faster, but he was faltering badly now, his legs twitching and jerking. He fell, rolling down a hill, bouncing and catapulting through brambles and nettles and finally coming to a painful halt against a large rock. He cried out, his voice an odd mix of human and animal, a wail of pain and fear and loneliness. Agony racked his body as the transformation took him, and then everything went mercifully black.

Remus squeezed himself into the corner of the compartment and tried to take it all in. He was going to Hogwarts! The Headmaster himself had assured his parents that he would be safe during his transformations, that he would be cared for and protected.

Hogwarts! Remus could hardly believe it.

He couldn't help smiling at the boys around him. Laughing and confident, James and Sirius had swept him along the platform and onto the train. Peter had joined them as they found an almost empty compartment to sit in. There was only one person in it, a small, red-haired girl who was hunched in the corner, staring out of the window. Remus wondered if she'd been crying, but the other boys ignored her, seemingly more interested in impressing each other than in noticing the girl. Laughing and oblivious, they included Remus in their fun. No one had ever done that before, and Remus was thrilled at the prospect of friends at his new school so he, too, ignored the girl.

Then a boy came in and sat across from the girl. He was small and skinny, with long, lank black hair, and they spoke in lowered voices that Remus couldn't hear. James could, apparently, because he butted into their conversation about school houses. Remus winced a bit at his rudeness, but stayed quiet, biting his lip as he stared at the boy who gave back as good as he was getting.

Finally fed up, the girl rose and urged her companion to find another compartment with her. On their way out, James tried to trip the boy, but he caught himself on the doorframe. For a moment his eyes locked with Remus', and Remus unconsciously reached up to finger the slight scar that spanned the bridge of his nose. The boy's eyes narrowed, his expression sharp, then someone called, See ya, Snivellus! and the boy was gone, slamming the compartment door behind him.

Remus slumped in his seat, his heart pounding, his mind whirling with vaguely formed images and memories. Then Sirius laughed his infectious laugh, and Remus forgot about the skinny, dark-haired boy. Surely, there were exciting times ahead.

~~ the beginning ~~