Prologue
It was near midnight on a warm, peaceful evening in the middle of August when a blood-curdling cry tore through the air of the small and normally quiet village of Mayonnaise. Hearing the shout, most of the villagers ran towards the forest in search of whoever was making the horrible sound. What they found was the most horrifying sight any of them had ever seen.
On the edge of the dark forest surrounding the town, a huge wolf was tearing into a small boy, no more than nine years old. The townspeople stood, paralyzed by fear until a small feminine voice called out, "Remus! Oh my God! Somebody help him!" The girl attempted to run to her friend, but was restrained.
"Michelle! Stay away from him!" Her father shouted while he pulled out a gun and shot the animal. It jumped off the boy, but rather than falling down dead, the wolf attempted to attack the man who had hit it. Without pausing to think, the man shot the beast again, this time in the head, and it stumbled and fell, whining piteously.
"Is it dead?" One of the men asked.
"Yeah, it's dead." The girl's father said, examining the small beast.
"What about Remus?! Is he alright?" Michelle asked, still franticly fighting to reach her best friend.
"No, he isn't." Her father bluntly stated. "He's alive, but barely. Julia, take Michelle and find the Lupins. He needs to get to the hospital immediately if he's going to get treated for that bite." His wife nodded, and silently pulled her daughter away from her friend's unconscious body.
The next morning, Remus woke up in considerable pain. At first, the young boy had no idea where he was, or why his arm was feeling as if it was slowing being ripped from his body. Then, he noticed the bandages that seemed to cover most of his thin body, and the night's events flooded back to him.
Flashback
Remus Lupin sat on his bed staring out of his open window at the night sky. Even at nine years old, Remus loved to look at the stars, and especially the moon. He loved the way it shined, almost like silver whenever it was full, as it was tonight. The boy wanted nothing more than to be able to spend the entire night outside, looking up at the beautiful glowing orb that seemed to almost float in the inky black sky. Remus had just reached up to close the window when he heard a strange noise coming from the forest. It sounded like howling. Curious as to what sort of animal could make that kind of noise, he decided to investigate. Knowing that his parents would not approve of his little adventure, Remus chose to go to his friend, Michelle Cooke's house and get her to come with him. She certainly wouldn't pass up a chance to explore the dark forest that even her older brother, Andrew, was afraid to enter.
He heard the strange sound again, just as he was slipping out of his window into the flowerbed below. Remus decided to take the back way to his friend's house, so that he wouldn't be seen, meaning that he would be even closer to the forbidding forest than he already was. Just as Remus was nearing his friend's large farmhouse, he heard the strange noise yet again, only this time it was much closer. Pausing to listen, the young boy could hear the snapping of twigs and the sound of heavy panting, and knew that he was being followed.
Remus turned slowly to see what was stalking him, and was suddenly seized by panic. It was a huge wolf; much larger than the young nine-year-old boy that the wolf had decided would be its prey. Suddenly, Remus turned and ran as fast as his short legs could carry him to his friend's house. But he was much too slow, and wolf was able to catch up to him with one gigantic leap. Snarling, the wolf tackled the boy, and ripped into his small body with its razor sharp teeth and claws. Remus screamed in agony, and attempted to get the wolf away from him, but couldn't muster the strength.
Suddenly he heard shouts, and the sound of people running towards him. Remus heard a gunshot, and the wolf leapt off him, instead trying to get to its attacker. Just as Remus lost consciousness, he heard a second shot, followed by the sound of the wolf groaning as it hit the ground. The large, full moon was the last thing he saw before he himself fell into darkness.
End Flashback
Finally waking up completely, Remus took in his surroundings. He was lying on a bed with white sheets, and there was a small metal nightstand to his right. The room he was in was small, rather dingy room, with a single narrow window that was set high in the wall facing the door. Most of the light was coming from strange crystal balls that seemed to be clustered in the center of the ceiling. The walls were of some sort of paneled wood, though Remus couldn't tell what kind it was, and there was a portrait of an extremely vicious-looking man on the wall. While Remus couldn't read the caption beneath the portrait, he knew it was a wizarding one, because the old man was moving, constantly scowling as if nothing could make him happy.
Looking around once more, Remus noticed that while there were six other beds in the room, all the others were empty. He was not, however, alone. To his left was his best friend, Michelle, curled up in a rather uncomfortable looking chair, her long red curls obscuring her small, heart shaped face. "Shelly," he called, using the nickname he knew she hated in an attempt to wake her up. "Shelly, wake up," he called again, louder this time, and he reached over and gave her a poke in the head for good measure.
"Stop that," Michelle grumbled, finally waking up. But the smile on her face and the light in her icy blue eyes gave away the fact that the young girl was incredibly happy that her best friend was finally awake.
"Where are we? And where are my parents?" Remus asked, suddenly wanting to see his mom and dad, so he could apologize for sneaking out the night before.
"St. Mungo's," Michelle said, while trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "Dad brought you here right after he killed that thing that attacked you. Mum and I found your parents and told them what happened to you. I think they're outside, talking to one of the healers. At least they were before I fell asleep. They didn't want to bother you, I don't think."
Yawning widely, Michelle stretched like a cat, and Remus noticed for the first time that she was still wearing her nightclothes with little balloons printed all over them. "How long have I been here, and why on earth are you wearing those things? I thought you hated them." Remus said with a small smile.
"You've been asleep for several hours, but I'm not sure how long. And I don't hate them at all! They're comfortable." Michelle stated matter-of-factly, as if that explained why a mature young lady of nine would want to wear something with balloons on it.
"They've got feet!" Remus said, laughing.
Just as Michelle was about to retort, the door at the end of the room opened, and a burly black man in a healer's uniform entered, followed by an assistant and Remus' parents, both of whom looked incredibly pale – as if something truly disastrous had happened. His mother, Catherine's normally bouncy blonde hairs hung limply about her face, her eyes were red, and the bright smile she usually wore was gone from her face. Her husband, Patrick, simply had the look of a man who'd just lost everything that had ever mattered to him. Neither of them seemed able to speak to their son, although they did give him loving hugs, drawing up seats next to his bed with their wands, across from Michelle.
"Hello, Remus. You are one lucky little boy, you know that?" The healer said in a deep, booming voice. At this, Remus' mother burst into tears all over again, and her husband, Patrick pulled her into his arms, trying to comfort the distraught woman.
"What are you talking about? Mum, dad? What's wrong? I was just bitten by a wolf, wasn't I?" Remus was confused. The wolf attack had hurt, sure, but he felt fine now, it wasn't as if he was dying, was it?
"Remus, I'm Healer Finn." The Healer looked at him sympathetically, almost sadly. "As I've just been explaining to your parents, you were, unfortunately, not bitten by a normal wolf. The animal that attacked you last night was a werewolf. Do you know what that means?"
Remus shook his head mutely. He had heard of werewolves, but he wasn't exactly sure what they were. As the Healer explained to Remus what it meant to be a werewolf, he heard his mother's sobs increase in volume, and the boy wanted to yell at the Healer for making his mother cry like that. But Remus understood that he needed to listen to what the man was saying, and by the time Finn had stopped his explanation, Remus was in tears as well. He felt someone take his hand, and looked over at Michelle, smiling slightly in thanks.
He was a monster. Or at least, he would become one once a month. He was scared, terrified as he had never been before. Would the transformations hurt? What if he tried to attack someone? What was going to happen to him? Remus wondered. But before he could voice these concerns, the Healer called his assistant over to him, a young woman with short, brown hair and dull grey eyes. "Carla, would you mind taking the young lady outside? She shouldn't be in here while we change his bandages." The assistant, Carla, nodded, and tried to get Michelle to follow her out of the room.
But Michelle refused to go. "I'm not leaving him." She stated stubbornly, not letting go of Remus' hand.
"Miss, I'm afraid we can't let you stay." Carla said kindly. "You can come back in a little while, once we're finished examining him." Carla tried to be reassuring, hoping that would get the stubborn little girl to leave for a while, but it didn't work.
"No", Michelle said, "I don't mean to be rude, or anything, but if you try and make me move, I'm afraid I'll have to bite you. Tell them I mean it Remus. You don't want me to leave, do you?" The look she gave her friend made it quite clear what she expected the answer to be, and that she didn't plan on leaving no matter what he said.
"No, I don't," Remus said, smiling. "And she is serious, you know. Shelly used to bite people all the time when they didn't do what she wanted them to. She's made almost all of the boys in the village cry a number of times. Except me, that is." He said with a smile that turned into a grimace of pain when the Healer began to remove his bandages.
But Carla didn't seem to believe that Michelle would actually bite her. While the Healer cleaned Remus' wounds, she made the mistake of roughly grabbing Michelle's arm in her exasperation, trying to physically pull the girl into the corridor. Naturally, Michelle bit the woman's hand, not quite hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to make Carla cry out in surprise and pain. Releasing Michelle, Carla angrily turned to her shrieking, "You…you… little brat! You bit me!"
Michelle looked quite pleased with herself as she responded, "Yes, I did. But I warned you not to try and make me leave, didn't I? Is it my fault that you didn't believe me?" When Carla noticed that no one was going to berate Michelle for biting an adult, she turned and stormed out. Michelle glanced at the Healer, and said, "I'm sorry, but she really didn't leave me any choice." She didn't sound very sorry, however.
"Oh, I'm sure she'll get over it soon enough. I'm sure the Lupins are glad that Remus has a devoted friend like you." Healer Finn said with a sad smile, as he finished his work. "Well, Remus should be fine in a few days. Mr. Lupin, if you'll come with me, I'll tell you what sort of precautions you'll need to take for Remus when the full moon approaches." Mr. Lupin nodded, and after giving his son another comforting hug, he followed the taller man out of the room.
Catherine Lupin finally seemed to get her voice back, as she looked at her son sadly. "Oh Remus, I'm so sorry this has happened. Your father and I will do everything we can to help you, love, and we'll never let anything hurt you again." Her voice broke as she said this, and Catherine looked like she was on the verge of tears yet again.
Not wanting to see his mum cry anymore, Remus said, "Mum, it wasn't your fault, I shouldn't have snuck out. It'll be alright, as long as I still have you and dad and Michelle, I'll be able to deal with anything." Unfortunately this only made his mother cry even harder, and Remus pulled his mother into a warm hug.
Michelle, who had been watching the scene silently, was unable to hold in her own tears any more, and ran over to join them in the hug, saying, "Don't worry, Remus, I'll always be your friend, no matter what!"