SUMMARY; Leonie Bellamy is a half-breed, half Veela, half human. She's beautiful, but still only half-human. Remus Lupin is a werewolf. He's sweet, but still a monster. And so both children's parents shut them away from the world in hope that their boarded up windows will protect their children. If only it were that easy, children are curious rule-breaking beings who on their best day will only paint on the walls. On their worst day, they'll sneak out of the house and meet others like them.

Leonie Bellamy can clearly remember when she first met Remus Lupin, the two of them were eight years old, it was a hot July afternoon and they'd both wanted to swim by the lake near their house, so they snuck out of their homes, his father was at work while his mother was homesick and her mother was passed out on the couch, fingers curled around the stem of an empty wine glass, only to see the other on opposite ends of the lake.

Leonie, who, every night for the past eight years, had been told that Men are monsters and their sons are no different, wanted to run when she saw a boy across the lake. But she was curious. Like the child who, despite being told not to touch the stove, touches it anyway, she waved to the boy, who after a moment, waved back.

Remus, rooted to the ground, all but physically screamed at his legs to turn the other way and run. His father, ever since he could remember, had told him not to get close to other people, that the monster beneath his skin could hurt them; That they would hurt him if they knew what he really was. And yet he waved back because when he saw the cautious smile on the girls face something deep within his mind knew that she meant no harm.

That like him, she was lonely.

The two of them met in the middle of the lake. Her golden hair spread around them and his thin arms created tiny waves between them as he moved them to stay afloat.

"Hi." She was the first to speak. Her voice was quiet and delicate, fragile like the china his mother kept on the shelf in the dining room. As he continued to look at her he noticed the sharp features under her skin. That despite the round curves of her face everything about her felt shape.

"I'm Remus."

"Leonie." It's quite for a moment, neither child knows what to say to the other; Leonie had practiced what she'd say to another child on her dolls, only as she kicked out her legs beneath her, she couldn't remember any of the one-sided conversations she and the porcelain dolls had had.

"Do you live around here?" Remus wondered.

Leonie nodded she turned her body slightly and pointed in the direction she'd come from, "Just over that way." She turned to the boy, "Do you?"

Remus mirrored her previous motions and pointed in the direction of his home, "I live just over the hill. Did you just move here?" He'd remember someone so odd. So pretty.

"No, I've lived here my whole life."

"Oh," Remus' eyebrows came together, "I've never seen you here before."

"My mother," Leonie nodded, "She doesn't like me out of her sight, so when she's not working we'll come here at night."

"And your dad? He doesn't mind you're here alone?" Remus asked.

Leonie frowned, "I don't have a dad."

"Everyone has a dad," Remus told her.

"Well I don't," she snapped. Veela's, they attract men, they don't keep them, her mother had once told her.

It was quiet for a moment. "Do you want to play Marco Polo?" Remus asked in a small voice. He didn't want her mad at him; whenever he'd imagined meeting another child, someone his age he pictured making friends with them-maybe his father was right. Maybe all he could do was hurt people.

"What's that?" She wondered, her lips still pressed together somewhat angrily.

"It's a game. One of us closes our eyes and yells 'Marco' while the other swims away yelling 'Polo'."

"How do you win?"

"The person with their eyes closed has to catch the other person; you've never played this before?" Leonie shook her head. Her mother chasing her around may have happened when she was a small child, before the world had twisted and bittered the older Bellamy woman, but not now. Never now.

"Well, I can be Marco first then," Remus offered hopefully.

"Alright," Leonie nodded. Remus shut his eyes and Leonie swam away from him.

"Marco!"

"Polo!" Leonie shouted back as Remus swam her way. It was a such a simple game of catch, and yet neither child could help but grin as they wasted the afternoon away, chasing and catching the other.

As Leonie swam out of Remus's reach once again she couldn't help but remember what her mother had taught her about men, how they were monsters not to be trifled with, and yet, as Remus laughed at her evading him she couldn't help but wonder just how this sweet boy could be a monster.

Remus, with his eyes closed, jumped at Leonie with a splash, when he pictured his father at the end of the lake, reminding him not to get close to people, because somehow that this tiny speck of a girl could hurt him. Remus couldn't imagine how someone like Leonie could ever hurt a monster like himself and yet he couldn't help but hear his father's words on repeat as he continued to chase after her.

"Are you alright?" Leonie asked.

Remus, with his eyes still closed, stop moving towards her. "What?"

"You're sad," he didn't question how she knew that, "Why?"

"Why do you care?" The words tumbled from his mouth before he could stop them.

"Because you're my friend." Remus opened his eyes and looked at Leonie, whose shoulders were hunched over and whose jaw was clenched out of nervousness. Like he'd turn her away.

"You want me to be your friend?"

She nodded.

"Do you-" she mumbled, Remus was sure if it weren't for his advanced hearing he would have missed her question, "Do you want to be mine?"

"Of course!" He had a friend!

Remus opened his mouth to say something to Leonia only for the words to catch in his throat when he heard his father's voice call out his name. It was the Remus noticed that the sun wasn't above him anymore, but rather sinking below the trees as the blue sky turned pink.

"I have to go home," Remus said instead. Though Leonie frowned she nodded understanding. "I should go home too." Though neither child made any move to leave in fear that if they did they'd never see their new friend again.

"Can you come back in two days?" Remus asked. Leonie stopped frowning and nodded,

"Noon? I'll bring snacks," Leonie offered, to which Remus nodded his head, "I'll bring board games."

"Can't wait!" Leonie had never said anything truer, she couldn't wait, the thought of spending two days locked in her home, being suffocated by silence and dolls who never answered back, made her want to scream.

"I'll see you then!" And as Remus ran home towards his mother and father, thinking of Leonie and how he finally had a friend, he knew that the loneliness he had known for the past four years would be no more, because he finally had a friend!