A WEREWOLF'S MAKING
Harry opened his eyes slowly, daylight was just creeping through the little window and he could hear birds chirping faintly outside. He pushed himself up so he was sat up against the wall properly and looked around.
Remus was to his left and was sleeping quietly, Sirius was to his right and he could hear him snoring softly. Looking further to his right he saw Lily curled up next to James…who was awake.
Harry blinked quickly, James was definitely awake but he wasn't looking at Harry he was staring angrily at the door. Harry shifted to get James attention. James' gaze snapped in Harry's direction and his expression softened immediately.
"Sleep well?" he mumbled. Harry shrugged and James smiled slightly before screwing his eyes up in pain.
"You ok?" Harry asked quickly getting up and rushing to his father's side.
"I'm fine," gasped James
"Just hurts every now and again, nothing anyone can do about it." Harry frowned slightly before snapping his attention to Remus who was starting to wake up.
Within half an hour all 5 were awake and chatting intermittently about things of no particular importance like school and Quidditch.
Harry heard the door click open,
but it didn't open too far and 5 bowls of porridge were thrust and
the door quickly shut again.
Remus sat up and pulled a bowl
towards him and sniffed.
"Fine," he said and the rest took a bowl each and ate the contents quickly.
After all the bowls were licked clean a long silence ensued, James' injuries were more apparent now in the daylight and bruises were now fully formed on his face and a lot of his chest.
Whip marks were visible if he leant forward slightly and occasionally oozed blood if James stretched too far. Harry was finding it very difficult to keep his feelings bottled up and so, it seemed, were Lily, Sirius and Remus.
Each wore an grim expression and bit their lip or chewed the inside of their cheek when James leant forward.
The sun was high in the sky when the door clicked open again and the sound broke the captors out of their daydreams and the gazed intently at the door to see who was paying them a visit. The unasked question was answered even before they saw anyone, a high pitched voice yelled out,
"Pettigrew, I want you here!" A great deal of shuffling was heard and finally the door swung open.
Lord Voldemort stood majestically in the doorway, his cat like eyes glinting fiercely. It was difficult to tell if he was angry or happy.
His gaze stopped on James and he grinned nastily at him, James glared straight back defiance clearly apparent.
"Well Mr Potter…," his eyes flickered to Harry and back to James.
"…senior. Have you learnt anything from yesterday?" James shrugged and struggled to hide a wince. Voldemort smiled at his pain.
"From what I've been told you were quite the hero," James' eyes narrowed and he shifted slightly.
"Answered no questions, no juicy bits of information…"
"Take more than that to…" James started but Voldemort held up his hand and cut across him, his tone turning slightly more vicious,
"Couldn't even grace us with a scream, or whimper…not even," Voldemort paused "..any tears. How disappointing."
James scowled at him angrily. He was mocking him and he knew it. James could just see Pettigrew cowering behind Voldemort, and his blood boiled.
"Maybe another way?" muttered Voldemort his eyes glittering dangerously.
James tensed up as Voldemort's eyes skimmed across his son, wife and best friends. Finally Voldemort's eyes stopped on Remus who was sat away from the far wall and looking slightly pale.
James thought back quickly how many days did he say? Was it four? James raked his memory as Voldemort's face twisted into an evil looking smirk.
Remus was now looking quite defiant. I'm sure it was 4 days…but that was, James counted quickly 3 days ago.
James cast a weary eye upon Remus who it seemed could not break eye contact with Voldemort. Does Voldemort know? James didn't have chance to answer his own question as the following things snapped him out of his daze.
"Wormtail!" whispered Voldemort sinisterly. Wormtail slid out from behind Voldemort and bowed low in front of him.Voldemort simply pointed a thin bony finger a Remus' now stiff form, at the same time pulling out his wand and pointing it towards Sirius, James, Harry and Lily as if daring them to make a move.
Wormtail glanced quickly behind him and Remus who glared angrily in response. Wormtail stood up slowly and walked over to Remus briskly. Wormtail hesitated slightly, he knew that Voldemort wanted him to bring Remus to him but…Wormtail shuffled slightly. Remus was much stronger than he was and it wasn't as if he was injured like James.
Voldemort cleared his throat impatiently.
"Come on Wormtail…" jeered Sirius catching on.
"You and Moony are old pals he's not going to resist…much"
Wormtail scowled at Sirius and Remus cast him a fleeting smile before continuing to watch Pettigrew dither around behind him, it was getting quite boring and annoying.
Voldemort seemed to have finally cottoned on to the problem that faced his weak little Death Eater and poked his head round the door and a larger Death Eater walked in, his wand pointed at Harry, James, Lily and Sirius.
"Pettigrew get him," hissed Voldemort dangerously.
Wormtail couldn't seem to decide whether he was more afraid of Remus' punch or Voldemort's wrath. Eventually he decided seeing as Voldemort had a wand.
Grudgingly he bent down slightly and roughly pulled Remus to his feet, Remus struggled viciously and after breaking free lunged at Peter. Peter tried desperately to shield himself but without any success and received a hard punch to his right cheek.
"Now now Mr Lupin, there is no need for violence," said Voldemort quietly and Remus stood panting and very flushed.
Pettigrew had managed to compose himself but his cheek was coming up quite red already.
"Wormtail I said grab him," shouted Voldemort at the now startled Wormtail, and he looked at Remus almost pleadingly.
Voldemort pointed his wand at Remus as Wormtail tried again to get hold of him again,
"Vigor Nullus" he hissed. The only sound that left Remus' lips was a small groan as his knees weakened and he slumped to the floor.
Harry shifted slightly to see if he was conscious. Remus lifted his head as if it was a large bowling ball and stared at Wormtail who now easily lifted him and placed him in front of Voldemort.
"What did you do?" growled James. Voldemort shrugged.
"Hardly anything…just a small spell that wipes the person of any strength and energy…temporarily of course."
James' fist clenched as Sirius made to stand up but after a quick assessment of the Death Eater's wand thought better of it and sat back heavily.
"See," said Voldemort happily pointing towards Remus' feet.
"He can't even support his own weight,"
Harry glanced down and saw that Remus' feet were hanging quite limp and he was being fully supported by Wormtail who was struggling slightly now, and bit his lip hard. The small group stayed silent knowing that Voldemort simply wanted a reaction.
"Now Mr Lupin you still have the ability to talk,"
Lupin nodded slowly his eyes looking quite empty now.
"Good."
Lupin's eyes narrowed not quite knowing what to expect but disliking the cheerful tone that Voldemort's voice held.
The large Death Eater walked towards him and took over from Peter who it seemed had been on the point of collapse. Remus couldn't even frown he didn't think he weighed a lot, but then again it was completely dead weight.
He breathed out slowly, feeling the eyes of his friends on him and not wanting them to see him like this at all.
"Mr Lupin…" Remus was brought out of his wonderings, and his gaze became focussed once again.
"…former student of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, only son of George and Miranda Lupin…"
Remus could not be bothered listening as Voldemort reeled off various facts of his life, he got them all spot on and had no doubt got the information from Peter.
He must have made it look plainly obvious that he'd stopped listening because his attention was brought back to reality brutally when Voldemort lunged forward seized his chin and pulled it so he was staring Voldemort in the eyes.Remus stopped himself from gulping knowing it would please the monster in front of him.
"Mr Lupin please pay attention," he whispered dangerously and released him.
Remus moved his eyes as far to the right as he could having no energy to move his head and saw his friends desperately fighting with themselves to do nothing.
Movement by the doorway caught his attention and he moved his gaze back he felt his breath catch in his throat.
A man he knew too well had just appeared at Voldemort's side.
His thin but obviously strong build was disguised by heavy black robes, that were patched and dirty in many places. His skin was near grey, his hair very dark, and his eyes…it was eyes that got Remus every time…pure black he was sure.Everything about this man was evil…this man rivalled Lord Voldemort in some ways.
"Oh shit," mumbled Remus, which caused a surprised rection out of Sirius and James. They stared at him stunned, Moony wasn't one to swear.
Remus could do absolutely nothing, his first instinct would have been to run to protect his friends but he could barely raise an eyebrow.
His own eyes must have given away what he was feeling.
"Remus Lupin I see you recognise me still," said
a hoarse voice.
Remus just breathed deeply again, the small
group of people to his right had no idea who this was he'd never
told them.
"Once I told Mr Greyback who I had imprisoned he insisted on visiting," said Voldemort sounding positively delighted.
Remus heard a intake of breath to his right, they knew who he was now.He tried to move his feet to support himself but the end result was a pathetic scrabble on the concrete floor before he gave up and looked dejectedly at Voldemort and Greyback.
"Your good friend Peter told me of…now how did he put it," Voldemort muttered sarcastically tapping his chin lightly before looking at Remus.
"Care to help?" he asked pleasantly. Remus sighed before muttering quietly
"My furry little problem?"
Voldemort strained his face slightly,
"Sorry getting slightly hard of hearing what was that?"
Remus scowled at him.
"He said his furry little problem you sadistic git!" shouted Sirius recklessly not able to stand his best friend suffer like this.
Voldemort cast an angry look at him but had more important things to attend to at present.
"Thank you Mr Black…Fenrir wasn't there something you wanted to add?"
Voldemort turned expectantly towards the haggard looking man. Fenrir stared at Remus a while his eyes glinting nastily.
Remus held his gaze for a while before he felt himself being pulled back, the Death Eater had placed him against the wall and trying his feet gingerly he found he could finally support himself, not much else but it was a start.
His eyes found Greyback's again.
"Remus you remember me I know you do but your friends it seems know of me but do not know why you know me so,"
Remus swallowed slightly knowing exactly where this was going, not really wanting to relive his earliest experiences of becoming a werewolf.
"Care to explain to them?" Remus said nothing for a long time and knew that his friends were now very intrigued. Finally he found his voice,
"Not really," he whispered. Fenrir's eyes flashed angrily, not many defied him.
"Fine," he said pulling out his wand and pointing it at Harry.
"I'll make it easy, tell them every detail or something very unpleasant will happen to young Mr Potter here."
If Remus could have slumped he would have, he had absolutely no choice.
"That's what I thought," grinned Fenrir.
"I'll even make it simple with a questioning process."
Within minutes a chair had been conjured and Remus sat in it, which he secretly appreciated but that was besides the point right now. He wanted to get this over and done with.
Fenrir was walking around him now.
"As most people know I enjoy selecting children as my targets and you were no different were you Remus?"
Remus shook his head whilst staring at the ground.
"Come come I want details my memory is hazy but I'm sure you remember…"
"Vividly…" continued Remus quite strongly.
Fenrir looked extremely happy and continued his pace around Remus.
"I don't know why exactly but my dad had pissed you off for some reason," started Remus.
"He tried to have my entire clan locked up." snarled Fenrir coming right up in Remus' face but retreating quickly.
Remus glanced at him, before staring at the floor again.
"…Whatever… but it was me you took it out on. You met me in the streets and convinced me to meet you later on with a promise of sweets and toys. My parents weren't around too much and had never warned me of strangers, and you seemed nice enough…I don't know…" he looked at Fenrir,
"You must've had a wash or something," this earned Remus a hard slap and not having the use of arms or anything else took him a while to recover, but when he did he was smiling slightly.
"No need Remus," warned Fenrir.
"I sneaked out of bed at about 7 I think…you'd said to meet you at the edge of a forest close to my house at half past," Remus paused and his eyes clouded over as if he was completely reliving it now.
"It was the end of summer and the sun wasn't due to set till around eight…You didn't turn up till quarter to and it was very cold considering the time of year…when you did you gave me a tiny piece of chocolate…and grabbed me tying me up so that I couldn't move…I remember you staring at the sky as it darkened and the moon peeped out from behind the clouds…you smiled at me I was terrified…then you changed very quickly in fact…I didn't know what you were," he stopped and swallowed before continuing.
"You came straight at me and bit into my left arm…I don't remember the pain…I remember crying and the blood…you left as soon as you'd done it…your bite had cut through the ropes and I laid on the floor for a while crying…holding my arm…I got home some how and my mother and father were there worried sick…I told them what happened…I'll never forget the look on my father's face…shock, revulsion, guilt…all mixed into one…after that they locked me up in a cage in the cellar every full moon…I was nine before they explained everything to me,"
Remus glared at Fenrir furiously he could feel some strength coming back and he clenched his fists tightly. Fenrir walked around to face him…smiling.
"Great wasn't it?" Remus felt his blood boil.
" I was four years old you foul, sadistic, repulsive bastard!" roared Remus.
This was, evidently, what Fenrir had been waiting for…for Remus to explode. He glared at the man in front of him who eyes were now leaking tears slowly.He pulled Remus up roughly and slammed him against the wall.
"I did you a favour Remus…you should thank me…and all I get is insults?" he shook Remus roughly as he was saying these things to him.
"You've got a day and you'll be whole again… do what you like with your friends… make them just like you,"
Remus mustered all his strength and bravery and spat at the twisted being in front of him.
"Fine be pathetic all of your life…never reach your full potential," with this he threw Remus to one side.
Remus crashed against the wall his head colliding painfully against the floor, as darkness crept in he saw his friends rush around him and then nothing.
