Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. I am not associated with JK Rowling, Scholastic Inc, Bloombury, or Warner Bros. Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended, as this is only for fun.

Author's Note: This was written as a canon fic for an RPG that I'm in, but I've decided it can kick off this story, too. Please review if you read! Pretty typical of the subject, but I like it anyway.

August 14, 1964

"Like a breath of the Gods themselves, Remus," Alexander Lupin told his son, taking in a deep breath of the twilight air.

Remus imitated his father, almost choking on the fresh, Welsh air. He coughed before recovering enough to ask, "Is it?"

Alexander smiled. "I'm sure it is, love." Taking Remus by the waist, he lifted him to stand on the veranda railing. Father and son surveyed the landscape with keen eyes. It really was beautiful, Remus decided. They had rented the cabin in the hills north of Cardiff for a week's holiday, far away from the rest of the world. Their nearest neighbor was on the other end of the woods, the man who owned the land and his wife. They were very nice, the woman had given Remus chocolate chip biscuits when they'd first arrived. "Glad we came, Shorty?"

"Yeah," Remus answered, his eyes on the horizon. The sun was setting into the trees, nearly all the way down by now. Crickets were chirping and a light, cool breeze blew past them. The father and son stood in companionable silence and in quiet awe of the beauty of the world before them.

"I wanted to show this to you, Remus," Alexander whispered in Remus's ear as they both watched the landscape. "Show you that there is beauty in everything, if you choose to look. Do you understand that, son?"

"Yes," Remus whispered. He thought he truly did.

A pair of footsteps could be heard behind them, and a voice said quietly, "What are my dears doing?" Another arm wrapped around Remus's middle, securing him further.

"Hi mama," Remus replied. "We were watching."

"Oh really. Watching, mm?" She shared an amused smile with Alex. "What were you watching?"

"The Welsh countryside in all its breathtaking, spectacular glory. Isn't that right, Remy?" his father replied for them.

"Um... yeah," the little boy answered quickly.

"Are you ready for the walk?" Alex asked, lifting Remus off the railing and putting him back on the ground.

Remus looked up excitedly. "A walk? Where?"

"Night hike, in the woods," his mother said. "Your father said we'd both enjoy it."

"And you both will," Alex promised grandly. "Come on. I'll grab the torch and we'll be off."

Ten minutes later, a full moon shone bright in the sky and the Lupins set off down a worn path in the woods. Remus ran a bit ahead of his parents, waited for them to catch up, and then ran a bit ahead again. This pattern ensued for awhile, despite his parents' warnings to not get too far ahead.

He came to a fork in the path. 'Right or left?' he considered with a cock of the head. After a moment of childlike deliberation, he chose right. He walked around carefully, looking up through the trees. The moon was still low in the sky, and a few stars blinked from the velvet blanket of the night sky. The stillness was almost disturbing. He looked around at eye level. There was a normal amount of lush vegetation, all green, but bathed blue in the night. Out from between two trees stared a pair of amber eyes.

Remus was strangely unalarmed. "Hello?" he called softly. The nose under the eyes sniffed the air, and paws moved forward with a rustle of the brush.

"Remus? Where are you?" he heard his mother yell in the distance. He didn't answer.

"Dog?" Remus said questioningly. There was a low whine in response. "It's all right," he continued, holding his hand out.

"Remus!"

Step. Hesitation. A low growl.

"Remus!"

All was deathly silent for a moment. The next thing that happened occurred so quickly, Remus was hardly aware of it.

There was a surprised shriek as the animal lunged at Remus. He backed up in a hurry, but this only allowed the animal to take advantage of the momentum to get him on the ground.

"REMUS!"

Another moment of terror before Remus felt the wolf – he could see now that it was a wolf – snap its jaws onto his upper arm. Pain shot through his body like a flow of knives and broken glass in his blood stream. The pain was blinding, the only thing on his mind were the jaws latched onto his arm, and pulling, pushing, devouring...

Suddenly, relief! Shouting and bright white light, the wolf ran away as fast as it had come. "Remus?"

One eye opened. "Mama?"

"Yes, I'm right here, cher." Her hand rested reassuringly on his head, smoothing the hair back off his forehead. Still, she looked up worriedly. "Alex?"

Remus's father's brows were knitted in concentration. He examined the wound best he could – there was more or less no sleeve left to his small t-shirt, and there was blood. So much blood. A shiver ran down his spine as he heard a wolf's howl pierce the eerie silence. When he spoke, his voice was steely and grave. "Nicole, I want you to go back to the house and lock the doors. I have to take Remus to St. Mungo's... I'll come back for you as soon as I can get him admitted."

"Da?" Remus was barely coherent at that moment, let alone barely conscious, caught between the waking world and the one of rest.

"Shh, son. All will be well," Alexander said, an air about him of authority to make things better that fathers have. "Rest."

Remus finally allowed himself to relax when he felt his father pick him up off the ground and his mother drop a kiss on his forehead.

~*~

"He's lucky to be alive, poor dear."

"That beast nearly tore his arm clean off."

"It's so sad, we've never had one here this young."

Remus did not remember much after arriving at St. Mungo's and being hurriedly admitted to the Dai Llewellyn ward. It was a mix of healers and Dreamless Sleep draughts. He heard snatches of conversations in unrecognizable. Sometimes he was quite lucid and upset that they were talking about him as if he weren't there or not even a person, maybe a fake plant or something, other times he was very disoriented, and wondered who had died. He finally heard a voice he recognized.

"Don't be ridiculous. My wife is going to walk into that ward with me to see our son."

"Da?" Remus tried to sit up, his head whirling. He was stopped by a strong hand on his good shoulder – the one that didn't feel like it had been packed in gauze.

"Lay down, Remus," his father said from that side. "There's a good lad."

Remus was flat on his back again. A pair of soft hands took one of his small ones in both of hers. Remus looked up to see his mother looking back down at him, tears of maybe either fear, grief, and some strength in her eyes. "Remus, mon cher enfant..."

"Mama," he responded in a small, frightened voice. Without anymore words, she carefully swept him up in an embrace, cradling him closely as she could. They loosened their hold on each other after what seemed like quite some time, but still close. Remus was silently content for the moment, surrounded by his parents. He at least felt decently safe.

"Remus, we need to talk," Alexander said very seriously.

Remus knew that tone in his father's voice. It was usually reserved for when he'd done something... well, that warranted a talking to. Which wasn't incredibly often, but still Remus knew it when he heard it. "Yes, da," he said. He rather hoped his parents would consider his arm nearly being ripped off punishment enough and call it a night, but he knew he deserved at least a talking to. "I know I shouldn't have wandered off."

His father sighed heavily, seemingly aged greatly in the day or so that Remus had been unconscious. "No, that you shouldn't have done, but that's not what I'm talking about."

"Oh..."

"Remus, that was not any regular wolf that attacked you. From what I saw – and the Healers agree – you were bit by a werewolf."

Nicole's arm tightened around Remus (gently, of course) and Remus let this thought sink in. He had read a little bit about werewolves in "The Little Big Book of Magical Monsters and Beings", and had seen one in a film that his mother had let him watch once. When his mother had asked him what he had thought about it, he had considered it a moment, and said, "Not a very pleasant bloke, is he?" Nicole simply laughed.

Now, faced with the question of being one of those unpleasant blokes himself – were they so unpleasant? "Really?"

"I'm afraid so," Alexander said, his hand moving to the crown of his son's head.

Remus sat silently. "Remy?" Nicole asked.

"Let him sit for a moment, Nicole. It's a lot for a mind to take in," Alexander paused, "especially a young one."

It was his mind that was having trouble; wrapping itself around this concept. The urge to cry, or maybe vomit was there, but not strong enough to act on. "I'm not going to die?" he asked, the deeper question in his mind perhaps something like, "Are you sure I'm not going to die?"

"Non," Nicole told him, her soft voice comforting him. "The healers have said you are safe from that."

"We're going to do everything we can to help you, Remus," Alex said firmly. Remus also knew that tone of his father's. It spoke of a promise to care and love his own, and protect them at all costs, like an Alpha wolf cares for his pack. Unfathomable but at the same time known; boundless but secure. "I don't know what can be done, but I swear to you that we will do everything that we can."

The young boy took heart in this promise. "'m tired," was all he could think to say.

"We will stay with you," Nicole said, giving her son a reassuring smile.

A healer came as if on cue with another dose of Dreamless Sleep draught. Remus drank it, wrinkling his nose in distaste – it tasted horrible, but it did work. As his eyelids dropped closed for the night, Remus heard his father whisper in his ear,

"Remember what I told you, son... There is beauty in everything for those who would see it."