"Remus! You're going and that's final!"
Two weeks later, he was the first child on the platform. The nuisance gone from their lives, Mr and Mrs Lupin were quick to leave him with his father's suitcase, a battered old brown one with the brass letters spelling out 'J. Lupin' to all who could see. It was no wonder that the families that later arrived ensured to stay well away from the miserable orphan they saw there. What a pathetic sight he had been, a sandy haired scrawny boy with his travelling cloak and holey boots. Snivelling at the far end of the platform and taking no notice of the others.
The scarlet train hooted its way down to him, screeching to a stop just beyond him, so that he had to drag his suitcase a few yards down to the nearest set of doors. Feeling angry, as he was left to heave it up the steps, Remus found himself an empty carriage and pleaded to his own guardians that he would be left to his own business. Exhausted, he laid his head in his arms and fell into gentle dreaming - running around the garden with his baby sister, the few friends he had made in the village school.
He woke with a start and yelped as something pinched his arm tightly.
"Oh 'e's alive, no matter."
Turning his head to look at his assailant, a short black haired boy, he found that the carriage had been filled and that it was now dark outside.
"You should get changed." another blonde boy said to him. They had all changed and were rising to leave. He rummaged through his suitcase and found the tattered robes within before the train stopped. The three boys were out of the door and away before they fit over his head and he rushed to follow. Late already. What a great start. Dumbledore needed have bothered with him. He wouldn't amount to much at this rate.
But it was all right. He was uncomfortable in the crowd of people but swarmed with them towards the giant and his boat. A giant...did this Dumbledore man enjoy collecting the cast-offs of the wizarding world? Did he think of himself as a charitable man?
The dining hall was more crowded, more noisy. He was chauffeured in with the other first years, eventually called out to the attention of all.
"Remus Lupin."
Of course they would laugh at him, he thought bitterly, after all, he was the small poor kid. But it was silent, just as with any other child. They must have realised what he was. They were afraid. He stole forward and shoved the hat over his head thinking fiercely, "I will prove that I'm better than that. Just give me a chance and I'll show them what I can be."
"Will you?"
"Yes! I'm a monster, you know that, you can see everything. But then you can see how hard I can try. What I could be."
"You're right, Remus."
"Let me in and I'll show you."
It laughed at him and he felt his fingers redden. How could it laugh when it had seen everything he had been thorough?
"Do not walk with fear, Remus. You will make good friends here."
"I don't need them."
"Oh you do. More than most. But you will be looked after. Don't let me down."
"I won't."
"Then you shall be...GRYFFINDOR!"
The hall roared with the same warm joy that crept through his body. The hairs raised along his arms and he whispered a quiet thanks to that ragged hat, that felt the heart under his own ragged robes. With that, he fought through the noise, the bright flickering candlelights and sat in the midst of the Gryffindor table.