A.N: This is a rewrite of my story Territory, the original will still be on FF in case some of you don't like the changes I'm making. Other than that I hope you enjoy this new version.

He pretended not to know later. To have forgotten in the rush of everything, but he hadn't. He remembered everything.

His father had came home early from work. A good thing. He had been promising for ages that he would try and get home before Remus' bed time. To do more than give him a tired kiss goodnight. Remus had been aching for it. He'd been planning on introducing his dad to his new toy, the big stuffed owl his mum had gotten him last week. They hadn't met yet, and introductions were important when they were going to be spending the foreseeable future under the same roof.

When the door slammed he had been elated, running from his room with his stuffed owl tickling his arms and jumping in glee at his dad's feet.

Remus didn't remember what his father looked like on any other day. Really, his face had faded along with any good memories before that night. He didn't remember if his father had always looked that tired. Tired enough for a six year old to notice anyway. His skin was gaunt and stretched, his eyes hollow and smudged, looking like his mum had painted some of her charcoal sticks under them so thickly that they seemed a permanent fixture. He held himself painfully, leaning heavily towards the side where his briefcase was touching the floor. It looked like he was holding on for dear life, the worn leather wanting to lean tiredly against its usual wall, stopped only by his dads fingers tight around the handle.

It stopped Remus up short, his jump falling flat and landing with a steady thump. But that could have been the briefcase, finally escaping his dad's hands as they ran across his pale skin.

'I need to talk to your mother,' he said, the dismissal clear. Whenever dad had to talk to mum he was never allowed to listen. It was always about grown up stuff anyway, money or work he had no interest in. Really, the only interesting adult thing he had heard them talk about was when dad got his new job at the ministry.

So Remus nodded and scampered, hoping the talk wouldn't last too long. His dad was home from work early after all. Tired or not, he had made a promise and Remus was going to make sure he kept it. Another thing that was important, at least his mum thought so.

He contented himself for a while fluffing up his owls wings, smoothing them out so he was fit for a formal setting. When that got boring he tried thinking up a name for him. He still hadn't come up with one, none of them seeming right for his tawny friend.

Running through the last of the A's his door opened, both his parents spilling into the room. This wasn't good. The last time they had tag teamed him like this was because he had broke the dial on the oven. Apparently it was 'dangerous' for him to play with things that could erupt into flames or spew poisonous gas. But Remus argued that if they were so 'dangerous' then why have them in the house at all.

Instead of cornering him on his bed like last time only his dad took a seat, his mum seemed to be taking the physical option and started rooting around his wardrobe, throwing things out and making a mess that he was not going to clean up.

'Remus?' His dad stopped, shuffling about and folding his legs under him. Oh no, he was getting comfy, this couldn't be good. 'How would you feel about taking a little trip?'

Everything he had done in the past month flew through his mind. Sure, he'd broke a few plates. Sure, he'd forgotten to close the backdoor on occasion. He'd tracked mud through the house, he'd invited a rat in to play with him. But they had already shouted at him for that, he'd done his penance. He said so now, trying his hardest not to let the tears pricking at the edge of his eyes to fall. He wasn't going to give in, crying would only make his words warble and they needed to hear him. He wasn't that bad, he could be good.

His dad seemed to understand him, or realize what the scene before him looked like, since he immediately shut down Remus' sobbed attempts at pleading and pulled him in for a hug. 'No, no, I don't mean you. I mean all of us. A little trip with all of us. Like a holiday.'

'A holiday?' He hadn't been on one of those for a while. Not since he'd 'accidentally' wandered off in Blackpool and his mum had sworn no more holidays until he stopped his wandering streak. He hated to point out that just last week he had caused a near panic attack when his mum couldn't find him at the shops, and pointedly forgot to mention that just that morning he had toddled off in the middle of his mum's speech about keeping the house clean to play in the garden because they were going on holiday. Holiday. So long as he kept his mouth shut. 'Like at the beach?'

'Beach? Sure,' His dad agreed, his body sagging and the first smile he'd seen on his dad's face that day creep onto his mouth. 'We'll build sand castles and look at rock pools. We'll have fun. That sound okay?'

'Yeah!'

He helped his mum sort through his clothes, ignoring the snappish comments she made for him to choose. He didn't understand why she was being so moody, they were going on holiday. That meant she should be happy. She should be helping Remus decide if taking his new owl would be a good idea or not instead of just throwing it in a bag and telling him to grab his coat. He would have thought his dad would have came to his defence. When his mum got into these moods he was always the first one to pull her aside and tell her to calm down, that there was nothing to be harried about.

If anything his father seemed just as, if not more so, on edge. He didn't even glimpse at what his mum was packing, telling her to either hurry up or just leave everything. But they couldn't leave everything, if they left everything then what were they going to wear. Remus was not going on to the beach in his socks and underwear again, he had a swimsuit for a reason.

All that could be said for that was in vain however, no sooner had he made to grab his swimsuit his dad grabbed him by the arm and dragged him downstairs. He was sure some slight argument came out of his mouth at the rough treatment, but truthfully he was rather scared of his dad at that moment. The grip was too tight, the pace too fast, he was almost stumbling over his own feet as his arms were wrapped around his thick coat and feet lifted for his shoes.

'Hope just leave it!' Rang through the house, dad wrenching the door open and taking the two of them towards the car.

The door slammed shut, his dad making one last run to the house to grab his mum before the three of them were locked inside. Remus tried to tell one of them that they had left the front door open, something they had told him off for more than once, but the raised voices in the front meant his little complaints went unheard.

The car creaked to life, gravel and dirt crunching underneath the tires as mum made her way through the winding roads to the first and only village near them. It was rather lonely in the back, his sweets that he had hidden last they took a ride had been cleaned out that morning by his mum. His owl was in the back, the bag it was packed inside one of two that had made it outside their door. He wished he had thought to leave something else in the car, conversation with his parents was out of the question, the quiet in the front even worse than that time his mum had discovered dad bringing Remus back from Mungo's after a wayward flying lesson had broke his arm.

Talking was out of the question, games even more so. Eventually he had to look outside to amuse himself. The long stretch of trees glowing orange in the twilight, and after counting them made him feel sick he looked to see if he could spot any stars appearing. There was none, but there was the moon. It was big and round, clear in the sky even from this early in the evening. He remembered when his dad had taken the three of them into the woods for camping, all of them making up names for the constellations when his dad couldn't remember them from his school days. He wondered if they would be friends again by night fell, he wouldn't mind playing that game again. Just to pass the time.

The village loomed up ahead, the sky dark in the twenty minutes it took to get from his house to there. the newsagent was the first thing to crop up, the white building yellow in the street light's glow. He usually would have asked to stop and get something sweet. With it being dark the shutters were down, besides they fled past it too quickly for the question to even form in Remus' mind.

They passed the first few houses, the place where the girl who splashed mud on him the other day lived, the house where the friendly couple who always gave him biscuits, they all fled by as fast as the newsagents. They seemed to be going past everything fast-

The seatbelt dug into his chest, his breath coughing out of his lungs as the car screeched to a halt. His dad was cursing in the front, mum screaming incoherently. Their raised voices pitched until nothing was coming out of them but gasps.

The car doors opened, his parents spilling out and checking the car over. Something must have been wrong since his mum immediately swore and ran to the boot. He was pulled out as roughly as the bags, his dad actually carrying him instead of letting him walk like usual. He was starting to get worried, how were they going to get to the beach if the car was broken?

He tried to protest, arguing he could walk dad, he had been able to for years now. His dad didn't listen, roughly shaking him and telling him to stop squirming as they hurried through the street.

'We can probably steal one of those up ahead,' mum said, her walk almost a jog as she eyed the cars in front of them. 'You can make it start, right?'

'Probably, but-' A chorus of screams flitted through the air, the sky briefly turning black as the clouds above obscured the moon. It was weird, Remus could have sworn they looked like a skull. The screams cut off as abruptly as they began, the three Lupins chilled more that they had stopped than when they were going. 'That came from the left.'

'The right,' his mum corrected, the two of them looking close to tears as they looked in their prospective areas. 'Can we do something? Can you disappear, apparate, whatever you call it?'

Dad grunted, looking around again. 'We need to get to a dark alley. Even if this isn't an attack we can't risk any other muggles.'

The nearest alley happened to be between the bakers and the butchers. The houses were too close together to provide shelter for them, and the butchers was almost a full street away. The walk that they had been using before was now a flat out run, his dad's footsteps jostling in a steady rhythm as they rounded the corner.

The butchers was in sight, the alley just big enough for the three of them to crowd into. They were almost there when a rustling stopped them still. The arms around his middle were tighter than they had ever been, one of them inching towards the wand he knew his dad kept in his jacket pocket.

A screech filled the air, the black bags moving in front of him as a raggedy cat jumped out. Remus almost laughed, the cat had scared him silly, and he was waiting for his parents to share in his mirth, but if anything they were even more solid.

'The butchers, get to the butchers,' dad hissed, his arm moving faster than Remus could follow and flicking towards the locked door of the meat shop.

The three of them just reached the open butchers door when something snaked out of the alley they had been making for. It looked like a shadow, escaping from the darkness and pouncing on the cat. The clouds cleared, the shadowed shape growing teeth and eyes that glinted in the moonlight. Teeth that clasped around the cats neck, shaking it once and sending limbs flying as they clamped tighter through the thin skin.

Remus screamed, hitting his dad in his bid to get away. There was a monster. A monster. One that heard him thrashing around in his dads arms and lifted its head to stare straight at him.

His dad shook him again, shouting at him to quiet down but it was too late. With one tip of its massive jaws it howled, others responding until the quiet village was drowned in the sound of howls.

The door was barricaded, his dad dragging them through the back and up to the apartment above. They managed to get to the kitchen before the banging began.

Remus was set inside a cupboard, told to be quiet, don't say a word. He didn't know what was going on, why they weren't coming in with him, why they weren't getting away from the monster trying to eat them.

It was dark, he couldn't see anything. He tried to die down his sobs as hard as he could, but hiccups still spilled out. The thud in his ears was so loud he was sure he wouldn't be able to hear again, but as the one in his head died down the one in real life grew louder until-

There was quiet.

For all of three seconds. After that there was a cacophony of bangs, shouts of familiar words and something that sounded like snuffling outside his cupboard door. It moved from the gap, moving up until Remus was sure it was the same height where his face would be. A shout, and the wood in front of him moved as something large crashed into it. The cupboard splintered, Remus' limbs going into overdrive as his flight instinct kicked in. He rushed past the monster, the thing picking itself out of the cupboard with some difficulty.

He had hoped to take shelter near his dad, he had the wand, the spells that had stopped this monster from eating him. He'd hoped to find him just outside the door, instead he ran into his mum. Or what was left of her. Really he wouldn't have been able to recognize her had he not recognized the jumper she had left the house with.

He didn't want to look. Was sure he was going to throw up, just as the growl behind him sounded less woody than it had before.

The monster was free and had its sight set on Remus.

His dad was out of the question. He didn't know where he was, and really that was the least of his worries right now. An open doorway up ahead was the cover he needed. He dived, screaming and hoping someone could hear him as the monster pounced, cutting his jump short by clamping its teeth around his leg. His screams took on a different tone as pain replaced fear. He scrambled, clawing at the patterned carpet to get away. The teeth held on harder, almost ripping his leg from its kneecap.

He managed to get to the table, grabbing its legs and pulling it hoping to get away. The table upended, the wood caging his arm in and sending the possessions on it flying. He didn't know what, but something had the monster keening away, scattering from the room and leaving Remus as it regrouped.

He thought that would be it. He would be safe, that it would be gone. Yet almost as soon as the teeth were gone he felt the agony in his leg spread to the rest of his body. His leg broke, twisting and regrouping in a pain more surreal he had ever thought possible.

His shoulder breaking was the last thing he remembered before everything went black.

He woke in agony.

His leg was heavily bandaged, the rest of his body in a similar state. Whining, he tried not to cry out as he sat up, coming face to face with twelve other children in a similar condition to himself.

They were in a heavily padded room with no adults or windows to tell them where they were. The oldest among them was thirteen, and when Remus really looked at the other children, he realised he knew them. They were all from the village. He had played with these children.

Over the next few months he learnt a lot of things.

The creatures that attacked the village were called werewolves, much like the ones his dad used to monitor at work. It seemed that, as Remus and the others had been bitten, they were now werewolves themselves, which made some of the older children start crying when they were told. They learnt that the attack was because a ministry member, which was where they were, had angered a rogue werewolf. The man had took his revenge on the village, teaming up with Death Eaters- a word Remus remembered his parents mentioning once or twice- and slaughtered the village the ministry worker lived in.

The ministry had asked them about a lot. The attack, who they were and what they could remember. Remus pretended not to know anything. He couldn't. Not before that night anyway. But he could remember that his dad had came home from work. That he was the only person who knew about magic in the group of children in the room with him. That his dad had worked for the ministry. He may have been six but he wasn't stupid. He knew when to keep his mouth shut, especially when he learnt what happened to the adults who had been bitten.

No one in the room was over the age of sixteen. The eldest there was thirteen, the whole lot of them being told they were there for rehabilitation. The others were killed as soon as they were rounded up.

The rehabilitation programme came into work the night of the attack. It seemed the ministry didn't want to take another chance of a slaughter happening again. They also didn't want to execute an entire race in case of rebuttal from the wizarding community. So they had to instigate this new program. Adults were a lost cause. Children on the other hand, could be moulded to the ministry's standard. So only the under age ones were allowed to live. The rest of the werewolf population had been given the right to be shot or killed on sight. The cells they were staying in were the ones previous adult werewolves had been in the night of the full moon. The cautious ones that didn't want any trouble and who now were facing a silver bullet to the head.

The programme for them was meant to make them more productive members of society, by reducing their status to those of helpers. They were like house elves, only house elves had magic. These kids had nothing.

They were to be given work and house from a pure-blood family who would take care of them. Which meant they had to know their place. They were, as of the slaughter, no more than animals up for adoption.

Five months was all it took before the ministry decided they didn't want to keep the children anymore and allowed the pure-bloods to view and choose from the group they had made. The younger ones, such as the four year old girl who Remus had pushed in the mud once, were the first to go. The pure-bloods said they could work on breaking them in if they had little brains from their previous life.

Quite frankly Remus was appalled at the pure-bloods.

There were no nice ones that he had seen since the McKinnons. They had came in and adopted the thirteen year old with promises of new clothes at their house. The others that had came in had assessed them like pieces of meat, taking what little they had before giving them rags to change into in front of the ministry workers.

Week after week his group dispatched into new homes. The Blacks had taken a small boy of eight, whilst the Goyles had taken the girl, that the nine year old in the group had sworn to marry, eight months ago. The Malfoys, Gamp, Nott and Yaxleys all came and took their new pets until it was his turn.

His family came in the door with bright smiles on their faces. They were a couple in their late thirties who had taken to Remus immediately. The paperwork had been drawn up and sorted in hours, and soon Remus was theirs to take home.

They didn't make him put on rags straight away, and instead fussed about how many scratches he had on his body. One floo ride later and Remus was introduced to the Potter house. It was a small house situated on the outskirts of a village. It reminded Remus of his old home, a wave of homesickness falling over him as it sank in again that his family was gone. He was alone and had nowhere else to go.

They showed him the cellar first, which was where Remus would be changing on the full moons. They led him on a little tour around the house next, showing him, surprisingly, a rather large room that was to be his. He was told that he was to be their guest not their servant not long after that.

Around an hour after Remus got to the Potter house he heard the back door slam, small footsteps thundering up and a messy haired boy rounding the corner to stand in front of him. He looked wild, was the only description Remus could get of this boy. His hair didn't look like it had lay flat a day in his life, it was a wild mane of tangles that stuck up in every direction. The rest of him was all over the place, his limbs flying and feet jumping in excitement as he looked Remus over. Finally after mere seconds of observation on both parts James stuck his hand out, a gleaming grin on his face. 'James Potter, nice to meet you.'

Remus looked at the hand in front of him, remembering the conversation the ministry workers had told him. He wasn't to do anything human anymore. He wasn't human. He was a monster and had to make sure he wasn't doing anything that could hurt or taint the normal people surrounding him.

'Doesn't he speak dad?' James asked, his hand falling down to rest at his side.

'I'm sure he does, he's probably a little nervous.'

'Just give him time,' Mrs Potter urged, going to lead James back down to the living room. 'Merlin knows what the ministry has droned into him. We just have to wait a little.'

'Then I guess he can keep quiet for now.'