Shaking, eleven year old Remus looked up at the early morning sky. The sky was beautiful, with hues of soft yellow, pink and orange. But Remus did not take in the beauty. Instead, he rolled on to his side, wincing and moaning with pain. He looked down at his side, which was adorned with ugly red gashes he didn't remember getting. He sighed again, and let his head drop, resting his angry, stinging cheek against the cool ground. He noticed, with a jolt, that he was neither tied up nor petrified. His small heart raced furiously, and he checked the tips of his fingernails for blood, or any other signs that he had hurt anyone. To his utmost horror, his nails were stained crimson, with still-wet blood. He couldn't tell if the blood was from a human or an animal, but was inclined to believe the worst.
Remus cursed his father, not sure weather to scream or cry. His father had promised to tie him up this time. He had looked Remus in the eye and sworn he would do so. But his father was too soft and loved Remus too much, yet not enough to do the right thing. Remus hugged himself, curling up into a ball, hoping that if he willed it hard enough this would all be a horrible dream. But it wasn't. After staying completely canonic for well over five minutes, the blood was still on his nails, and he was still alone in the middle of the forest.
Remus had no idea what to do. His family lived in a remote area of London, and the only people he could have possibly hurt was them. Usually after his transformations, they were there when he woke up. But today he was alone in the forest, the only noise he could hear being the eerie call of a lone bird and his own heartbeat. Remus ran his hand through his shaggy hair, a nervous habit. The ends of his hair were stuck together, covered in sticky, cold blood. Remus's stomach lurched, and he heaved violently, but did not throw up. He lay down, weak, scared and alone.
Remus heard twigs crackling behind him, but could not muster up the strength to see what it was.
"Remus." Said the person behind him. That sole word was spoken with so much emotion, four long years of bottled up feelings flooding through. Pain, sorrow, love, resentment, guilt and disgust all packed into those two syllables. Remus's mother Hope knelt down beside Remus, but did not touch him. "Mum!" Yelled Remus, his voice shaking, "I'm so glad you're alive, I was so worried." Remus threw his arms around Hope, but quickly recoiled when she flinched away from his touch. This was the first time Hope had expressed fear of him. For him, maybe, but never of him. It was clear to Remus now that he had said the wrong thing. No boy should ever have to tell his mother he was glad he hadn't killed her, and no mother should ever have to hear the above. Remus would have been just as disgusted by the the sight of the thin boy covered in blood if he was looking at himself from a bird's eye view.
Remus's parents had always been kind to him. That taken care of him, fed him and loved him despite the fact that he was a werewolf. But at the same time they hated him. They hated the monster he became every full moon. They hated the scars that adorned his body, and they hated that they had allowed all that to happen to him. Because every parent sees it as their job to protect their child, and there was no way they could look at Remus without noticing they had failed their job as parents. Originally, Hope and Lyall had been able to separate Remus from the wolf he became during the full moon, but that was getting harder and harder. They could no longer look at their young boy without seeing a killer. They had never said anything to Remus, never expressed their feelings, but Remus could see it in their eyes, and he hated it. He hated it that his parents were hurting, and he hated it that they were feeling the same things as him.
So Remus looked at his mother, who was scared of him, but trying not to show it, and realized that he could never be close to her again. He would only end up hurting her. He moved away from her, standing up painfully and limping towards his house, leaving her behind, gaping. "Wait, Remus!" She called after him, somehow knowing she had hurt him. "Are you okay?" She demanded. Remus was far from okay, but there was nothing magic could do for his cursed wounds. So Remus just nodded, not meeting her eyes,