The Young Werewolf
The boy was short, even for a five year old, and was rather scruffy looking. He was with a man and a woman who were more smartly dressed than him. He was a very pale looking child with a scar across his face; his parents claimed he had been attacked by a dog which wasn't entirely untrue but the boy never went into detail about it. He was unbelievably thin and looked as though he hadn't eaten for months.
He was nothing like your average five year old. He was always very quiet and shy and never really had many friends. He would spend most of his time sitting in a quiet corner somewhere reading a book and his parents thought it must be his school that had caused him to be like this so they moved him to a new school and here he was. He stood with his parents in the playground, knowing he would soon be left to be ignored again. His parents kissed him goodbye and left him there with his new teacher.
"Come on, Remus. Let's find you some friends," she said kindly leading him towards a group of children. He sighed, not really wanting to be with a big group of loud, annoying children. The teacher noticed this and looked at him, getting down to his level, she said, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Miss," Remus replied shyly.
"Remus you can tell me if something's bothering you," she said reassuringly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I just don't like lots of people, Miss. I prefer to be alone," he said, looking at her with his big chocolate coloured eyes.
"Your parents said you had to have friends though, Remus. Apparently you were too lonely at your old school," she replied gently.
"I wasn't lonely. I like being by myself," he protested.
"Well how about you play with the other pupils this morning and get to know a few of them, then if you want to sit by yourself and draw or something you can do that this afternoon?" she suggested, hoping Remus would make a few friends.
He sighed, but decided spending an afternoon alone was better than no time at all and agreed. She took him over to the group of other students and said, "This is Remus. He's new here and needs some friends. You'll all look after him, wont you?"
They all nodded, happily taking Remus into their little group. A boy with long, frizzy, black hair said "Come on let's play hide and seek!"
Everyone agreed and Remus thought if he hid well enough he might not have to talk to them so he ran off to find a hiding place. He found a few trees but knew they would be no good. He also found a toy shed but everyone would think to look in there. Then he found a small gap between the school and the bike shed and decided to squeeze into it and see if it went anywhere he could hide, which it did. It went round a corner where he wouldn't be seen.
A few seconds later he heard the black haired boy shout "Ready or not, here I come!" and knew the hunt had begun. After about 40 minutes everyone else had been found and they had given up looking for Remus. He decided to go out of his hiding place and just sit beside the bike shed where they hadn't even bothered looking yet.
He heard the teacher ask "Sirius, where's Remus gone?"
"I don't know!" the black haired boy replied. So that was his name. He would try to remember it but would probably forget it.
"You were meant to look after him!" she replied, sounding quite annoyed.
"Sorry Miss. We were playing hide and seek and he hid too well. It's not my fault," Sirius replied before running off to continue his game.
The teacher sighed and decided she should find Remus and sit with him as he obviously didn't want the company of the students. She was quite surprised to find that he wasn't even hiding anywhere difficult and that he had just been forgotten about.
She saw that while he had been sitting there he had found some chalk and drawn a picture of a werewolf with large teeth and blood dripping from his open mouth. The picture was surprisingly good for a five year old; although of course he was drawing from memory, not making it up.
"Where did you learn to draw that from, Remus?" she asked him, looking at the chalk drawing.
"I drawed it from memory, Miss," he replied.
"It's drew, not drawed Remus. Did you see it on a book cover or a TV show?" she asked.
"No, Miss. I actually saw it. Right before it attacked me!" he said, his mind going back to the night he had become a werewolf. It was the earliest memory he had, yet it was the most vivid in his mind.
"You have a very good imagination Remus," she said, chuckling and taking him inside.