Disclaimer: Not mine! Never has been. The end.
A/N: Got this idea right before I was about to go to sleep the other night. : ) Multi-chapter words and phrases in the life of Remus Lupin. Not in chronological order, so I guess you could kind of think of them as one-shots. They're in order of number of words. And please don't get on my back about chapter two. It's a contraction. (Ex: They're) Anyway, I bet you're bored out of your skulls by now. So now I give you:
Words
Important Words and Phrases in the Life of Remus Lupin
Werewolf
The doctors didn't even bother to shield the truth from him. Despite the fact that he was very young, he remembers it. Every line the doctor's said and every doctor and nurse down to the details of the nurse's penciled eyebrows.
He had been seven years old, which was older then many people assumed. But it was still young, and he never really recited the story to anyone. Because of this, almost everyone assumed that he'd been in the woods.
No.
He'd been outside his house.
His house had been a quaint cottage on the outskirts of the city, one with a weathered wooden fence, a small front yard, a stone path leading to the house, and only one floor. As a young boy, he had often playing with his trains out there, eagerly waiting for his father to appear at the gate as dusk set in. He would come over and bewitch them to blow their whistles and run circles around Remus has he ruffled his light brown hair.
It was a surprise when the crack that accompanied his father didn't carry his father at all.
Looking back, Fenrir Greyback looked a lot less wolfish than he did now. And looking back, it was very interesting that the first transformation he had experienced had not been his own.
Greyback had slightly more pointed teeth, true, but besides that he looked perfectly normal. He had good posture, long hands, and black hair. He spoke articulately and his eyes held no trace of yellow- they were merely pools of blue that glittered greedily with the setting sun.
Obviously, Remus had looked up eagerly to see his father. He was surprised when he saw the stranger.
"Hello," he had said kindly to Remus, who was still idly pushing his trains as he stared at him. "I'm a friend of Daddy's." Remus slowed his train to a stop and watched as the man drummed his fingers on the gate. The way he was drumming them was different than Remus had ever seen. Every time he forced one finger down after another they curved closer and closer together. "I knew him when he was younger," he continued, filling in the silence between them.
His eyes were yellowing slowly and his grin widened.
The sun was gone by now, and a huge orange-colored moon was coming up over the horizon. His shoulders were starting to hunch and he opened the gate.
"Mummy," he called, looking behind him at the house. "Mummy!" he started called more urgently.
"I'm not sure your dear mummy can hear you," he said maliciously.
It was so sudden.
The second the moon spread itself over the horizon, he jumped. He jumped forward, fingers curling in ever more, fur spreading rapidly across his face which lengthened in an instant.
He was on Remus even faster.
His paws pinned his shoulders to the ground, keeping him immobile. The pupils of his eyes grew smaller and he slashed Remus' face clean across, the blood staining his hair a grotesque red. The spots on his shoulders where Greyback had previously clung to seeped blood onto his small robes. Remus tried to struggle as the monster threw him onto his back and slashed him again, ignoring the strangled cries as he threw Remus around like a rag doll.
There was a flash of light and Greyback was thrown off of him. Remus turned, struggling to breathe and face streaming with blood when he saw his father, wand drawn and advancing on the wolf. He fired a serious of spells without uttering a word, hatred etched across his face.
Blood fell from the werewolf's snout as it ran again. It knocked his father clean off his feet and advanced on Remus again. He felt the teeth pierce his shoulder.
The last thing he saw was his father chasing after the wolf, who had cleared their fence.
When he awoke, he was surrounded by white walls. His father and mother were above him, father leaning on a crutch and his mother sobbing into her hands. He knew.
"Mum," he said. "Dad." It was more of an address than anything. He was not questioning who they were or if he was alive. Just ready to talk. "I'm a werewolf, aren't I?"
His mother grabbed her father's shoulder and cried.
His father stared at him for a long moment. Remus let him think, staring back and rustling the sheets on his hospital bed.
"Yeah, Remus." He ruffled his hair the way he always did. Someone had cleaned it. It acted like it always did. Falling back into place.
"I don't feel different," he said quietly.
"You're still a normal person, Remus." He paused. "Remember that." He paused again. "Always."
Remus trusted him then.
The next full moon he didn't.
Normal people were not smuggled into the forest or into St. Mungo's once a month. Normal people didn't go insane or turn into a wolf. Normal people did not lose all their money on ways to keep him away from people during transformation.
It was a miracle he'd even made it into school. And even though he'd received a proper education, he had been shunted from job to job for all his life.
That one word had determined his destiny.
Werewolf.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
A/N: How was it? Please review!
Special Thanks: To Paul, for staying with me despite rumors. And Sunni, for being awesome and listening. : )