Behind Their Façades

Disclaimer: What are you, stupid? I DON'T FLIPPING OWN HARRY POTTER, IDIOT! ;)

Author's Note: Thank you loads to all my lovely reviewers! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Hugs for everyone! I know I said I would wait to get enough reviews to pick a clear cut winner, but I just figured out that my story was, like, ten pages back, so it's hard to get to…Therefore, I'm updating so it's easier to find. Besides, I want more non-flame reviews…;) Read (and review) away, my darlings! Remy Lulu's chapter now. (I love him.)

Chapter 2: Remus Lupin

Werewolves. When I was younger, my parents always cautioned me, "Remus, when you go out to play, be careful of the forests where the werewolves live."

I would always respond confidently. "Oh, mama (or papa), the werewolf wouldn't bite a kid!" I never really listened to them when they told me that werewolves didn't know if you were a kid or not, and if they did, they didn't especially care. They had no idea what they were doing. I always thought it was ludicrous. How could a werewolf not know what he was doing while he did it?

I know better now.

Many of my hours are spent wondering, daydreaming about how my life would be had I not been bitten. The idea of it is amazing. No need to continue taking that vile potion, and I wouldn't have to spend hours after a full fledged transformation petrified over whether I'd killed or bitten anyone. I would have a proper job—right now it could vanish as soon as it began. When filling out job apps, one is going to have to tell one's potential employee right away about small things like that: "Oh, and by the way, just so you know, I'm a werewolf." Yeah. They're really going to hire me after I tell them that. This is the first good job I've had in years, and I'm determined that the students should like me. Maybe this will be my lucky break!

But, of course, if I've learned anything, it is not to put to much hope into things. Most of the kids seem fine with me. In fact, all of them do except those in the Slytherin house. I certainly hope they don't know anything, or I'll be run out of the school. This is the kind of thing I hate! The constant living in fear! Somehow, though, I just think that the Slytherins don't care about my lessons, or anything that I say, and I have the distinct impression that they judge me merely on the condition of my robes. As bothersome as this can be, it certainly is better than how everyone would react if they knew the truth.

On top of this, I now have to turn my back on love. If I ever met a woman that I thought I could love, I would have to keep my distance. I can't trust myself. I'm not safe, and besides, once they found out, there's an overwhelming chance that they would run and never look back. So I guess I'll die a lonely old bachelor in my musty old apartment, all alone. Great. I'm really looking forward to that one. But if I didn't… and I didn't warn her…oh, I can't bear thinking about what might happen.

I had a friend who was a werewolf, too. Perhaps you heard of him…someone told me they'd made a—what was it called again?—oh, right. A movie—about him, called American Werewolf in London. I really would rather not end up like he did, though, i.e. killing innocent people and ending up dead. If I ever did kill someone, I wouldn't want to live anymore.

Those nights when I lose my sense of self completely, I become a monster, utterly incapable of rational thought. I could murder my own mother and not even realize it until the next morning! Even now, I don't know if I've bitten anyone; don't know if anyone is now going to be forced to live a life of hiding, of dread, like I've had to for more than a decade. The only thing I do know is that I've never seen a person that I'd bitten.

Well, good, you might say. That must mean you haven't done it. But you never know. When you're a werewolf, you don't just stay in one place. You wander around, looking for fresh victims, and when you find them, you pounce, regardless of who they are. I once woke up on a morning after, as I call them, and found myself in Wales when I'd begun in London. That's when the seriousness of my problem really hit me. I couldn't bear waking up one morning and finding… finding that I'd done anything to regret. I shouldn't be thinking about this right now. I should be writing tomorrow's lesson plan. I am not going to kill anyone. I am not going to kill anyone. I AM NOT GOING TO KILL ANYONE! Everything is going to be fine…

A.N. Good? R&R, and don't forget to vote for chapter 3…and this time I promise you guys call the shots! (Still no flames, please.) Thanks again!