When Harry goes home for the holidays during his first year he has a mysterious encounter that changes his life in ways he didn't think imaginable. (AU/ Professor Lupin is DADA professor Harry's first year.)

Preface

It was the day after Christmas and eleven-year-old Harry Potter was trudging up the street with the chocolates Dudley absolutely had to have right at that moment. Aunt Petunia never denied Dudley anything out of fear of the wild tantrums the boy would pull. Harry wondered why they wanted him home for Christmas but their motives became clear because Harry was treated like a live-in butler.

Harry was walking past a patch of woods when he heard whimpering coming from a bush. Harry rolled his eyes and began walking towards the bush. No doubt Mrs. Scott's stupid dog was caught in the bush again. As he got closer he could tell it was definitely a canine but it wasn't Mrs. Scott's... This was without a doubt the ugliest dog Harry had ever seen in his life and it was indeed stuck.

Harry reached in and freed the unusually bony and muscular dog which repaid the favour by jumping up sinking its massive teeth into Harry's shoulder. Harry let out a cry of pain so shrill that the dog jumped and released Harry's shoulder. For a minute before Harry blacked out completely, he could have sworn he saw the dog walk on two feet like a human...


It had been a week since that dog bit Harry and his shoulder was still itchy. Upon arriving home (with Dudley's sweets) Harry was rushed off to an evening nurse for a rabies shot... "We aren't going to risk Dudley catching rabies because the freak got bit by a wild dog," Petunia had said before yelling at Harry not to get blood on the car seats.

Since then Harry has been experiencing some mild side effects from the shot. Harry often found himself light-headed, irritable, moody and tired. Harry actually slept the whole train ride back to Hogwarts; which was fine with Hermione because this gave her the opportunity to do some "light" reading for Lupin's class. She tried to get Harry engaged with a book but he muttered something about needing five more minutes and proceeded to fall deeper into sleep and remained that way until they arrived at Hogwarts.


Remus Lupin was ready for the second term to begin. He took a deep breath and took in the smells of the wonderful food; his enhanced senses made experiences like meals times more interesting. But he was most excited to see Harry coming back to class. His late best friends son had turned out to be the perfect combination of Lily and James; Lily's brains and James personality. He watched as Harry filed into the feast tagging after Hermione and he felt a wave of concern wash over him. Harry was a bit flushed and looked just about ready to curl up on the floor for a nap rather than to tuck in for a feast. Harry had most likely caught some type of infection from the muggles.


The next two weeks flew by and before Harry knew it he was settled back into his routine and back to spending time with Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Lupin. Harry loved spending time with Lupin because of how much Lupin knew about his dad and in these past couple weeks they seemed to be bonding really well. Harry's dizzy spells had since passed, along with the constant feverish sensation but he still felt tense and irritable and it has since started to get worse.

Even Lupin noticed the small boy becoming defensive and easily set off by little things and had since tried talking to Harry about whatever was bothering him but had come up with nothing that could explain his unusual mood. With the full moon approaching in six days, Lupin had to bite back frustration as Harry would argue with Malfoy over things that even Ron found insignificant and not worth getting upset about. The only conclusion Lupin could Logically come up with was on-set puberty but there was a part of him that felt that wasn't right... It was something else.