DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter, its publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No money is being made for this. No copyright infringement is intended.
TITLE: Bitten
AUTHOR: Relala
BETA: lady of scarlet
FANDOM STATUS: Canon
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just a little story I wrote up during school on Thursday. Not my greatest piece ever but I truly adore Mini!Remus to bits. You may find that he is a tad OOC and quite simplistic in nature but I couldn't help it. He's only a child and thus he isn't as mature as Canon Remus would be. Also, I might write a Sequel called "Full Moon" so if you liked this you may wish to stay tuned. It should be up by end or middle of June.
"He doesn't understand the fuss. Why is his mother crying? Why is his father so pale? Why can't he play with the other children now? After all, it was just a bite."
- "10 Things You Never Knew About The HP Characters" by ooosk
REMEMBERING
It is odd that when he remembers it, he can't truly remember it at all. Everything is broken up into pieces and it's all just phantasmagoria. Images without sound clips: Open mouths, shaped into the perfect Os of wailing sorrow and people trying to speak to him as their eyes flash white and terrified. When their soft pink lips part, the world becomes a place of utter silence. It's almost as if someone has accidentally clicked the 'Mute' button for life.
The only experience Remus has of real silence before this moment was the time when he clogged his ears with water as a toddler, nearly drowning in the bottomless river outside his house. It hadn't been as terrifying, however, because when Papa had saved him he had kissed and cuddled him gently, so very relieved to still have his only son. Now Papa is looking at him in panicked horror.
Remus somehow knows that the panic is not for him, but rather it is because of him.
TENSION
Even when deaf, little Remus knows that something is terribly wrong. A palpable tension has entered into the room, creating a wall so solid the little boy might have been able to knock on it had he wished. He half expects that if he does knock, sound will be restored. Yet he does not try out his theory.
As it is he knows that the wall is becoming larger and larger and that people are pushing at its foundation. There are many nervous Hot-Potato glances past from person to person. As if people are silently saying "I don't want the information! You take it!" and "NO, you take it back!" If they had been saying it out loud the boy might have found it all very humorous, because adults were not allowed to play such childish games.
The tension is rising like a river; being built up like a toddler's stacking blocks. At some point they are bound to fall, and Remus wonders curiously what they will reveal.
WEREWOLF
He may be the source of all this anxiety, but Remus J. Lupin is still just a five-year-old child in a crumbling world of grown-ups. He likes to ride his toy broomstick, read Muggle comic book adventures about Spiderman, chase the pretty coloured butterflies which dance across the lush green lawn in the twilight hours, and he struggles with his parents each night to stay up past his bedtime.
When it's all said and done, Remus is only an innocent boy caged in a world which he cannot affect. A world which he does not want to affect.
As he gazes at the grief-stricken faces of his relatives, he merely wishes to be invisible once more, a faded background object. He wishes for the silent weeping to stop and for his world to go back to normal. But when the silence is broken, the words which have sound shatter any illusions of a normal world. This abnormality is irreversible.
"My son is a werewolf, John! Don't. Tell. Me. To. Calm. Down. Our life is ruined!"
The rest of his Mama's words become purely white noise, a thundering humming within his seashell-sized ears. There are more words, a great many more words, but Remus does not pay them any mind. Strangely, it is only the one word which matters to him.
Werewolf.
It triggers a memory.
CONFUSION
Darkness bleeds into the sky like thick brown Maple Syrup being dribbled slowly over fluffy pancakes. Only this syrup is black and spreads faster. (Which really says something.) Remus forces his chubby legs to move more quickly, despite the burning sensation behind his kneecaps, and casts his eyes wildly around his surroundings.
Forest. Nothing but green and brown forest. Just how far had he wandered away from home? He remembered crossing the restless current of the river for the very first time ever and then wandering into the sunlit beauty of the forest, which he had never before been close enough to touch.
He'd told himself he wouldn't go far. Funny how he'd never been able to listen to orders.
The first time he had tried to cross the river he had almost died. Now he'd crossed the river and he was completely lost in the forest...but, at least, still alive. Alive was a step up from being dead. Alive and desperate. In a last ditch effort, he filled his lungs with air and shouted with all his might.
"Papa! Mama!"
Surely someone would be looking for him by now? He'd been gone for hours! The sound of rustling leaves and heavy footfalls nearby filled his heart with joy. He had been right. The rescue team was already on the move. He dashed towards the noise.
BITTEN
It's a wolf, he knows.
He's read about them in the Muggle books like Wolves by Carolyn B. Otto. He likes to look at the pictures of their coffee-coloured fur coats, and enjoys reading about them in Native American folklore. But he's never seen a wolf like this.
This wolf is a monster straight out from one of his nightmares. He's humongous, towering over Remus's childish body. He moves like shifting shadows and flashes his teeth with the last of the sunlight. The eyes, though, were completely human as he charged forwards.
Directly forwards.
Remus didn't even feel the weight knock him to the ground, nor the razor sharp teeth as they tore into his stomach. There was, however, a lot of blood. Crimson red and glittering all over the cool brown dirt of the forest floor like copper pennies...
UNDERSTANDING
Remus J. Lupin is very alive and he does not understand why everyone is still so upset over what happened to him. They are acting as if someone has died, mourning in a mass group of tears and screams. He wants to tell them that he is alive! He is completely fine! His lungs are still working, his knees still functional even with the dull ache of walking too long, his eyes still have 20/20 vision. Even his ears have regained their gift of hearing sounds.
Mama and Papa say that he is a big boy, but he supposes that he is still too much of a little boy to understand what any of this means. How can something so simple be so catastrophic to them? He is fine.
It was only a bite.
THE END
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First draft: 6-12-09
Revisions: 10-16-09