IV.

The next day, Remus was moved to the public ward, where he was the only resident; therefore, he was usually left alone with his thoughts. Greta had reluctantly gone back to Hogwarts, and Remus' parents visited for an hour or two every day. Remus hung onto those hours, which provided the only reprieve from his thoughts and nightmares.

Two and a half weeks after the attack, two boys, both a little older than him, were also moved into Remus' ward. They introduced themselves as Jeff and Shawn Keen, and said that they had each gotten a rather nasty snake bite. Remus also introduced himself, and said that a dog had attacked him. He took Becca's words to heart and did not elaborate to say what kind of dog.

It turned out that the two boys were from America, and were visiting their aunt, uncle and cousin. Remus found their accent rather odd—he had never heard anyone talk quite like that before—but enjoyed their company all the same. When the Keens came to the hospital, he also found that he liked their younger cousin, Alena, and the adults hit it off well.

The boys were disappointed that they had to stay in the hospital over Halloween, but brightened up when both sets of parents brought candy for them. Greta sent Remus a long letter describing the Halloween feast.

"Your sister goes to Hogwarts?" Jeff asked, wide-eyed. "That's famous, even in America! When do you get to go?"

Remus' heart skipped a beat. I can't tell them… "Probably in five years," he said finally. They seemed to accept that, and Shawn continued—

"Man, sometimes I wish I lived here instead of in the U.S. …your accent—" My accent? "—is so cool, and plus Hogwarts and Dumbledore are here! He's the most powerful wizard in the world!"

Remus nodded, not saying anything. He wanted to tell them, just to see if Becca was right, but he didn't want to run the risk of losing the only friends he had in the world.

During the week or so before the full moon, Remus had a constant headache. When he told his parents this, his father told him—out of earshot of the other occupants of the ward—that it was a side effect of the transformation. Remus had to resign himself to the fact that he would suffer a migraine every month for the rest of his life.

"It isn't fair!" he roared to the world, waking up Jeff and Shawn and asking the former to say blearily,

"What's not fair, Remus?"

"…Nothing."

In the two or three days leading up to his transformation, Remus always seemed to be in a bad mood. Sometimes it seemed as if it wasn't him talking at all.

"Just shut up!" he snapped at Jeff and Shawn as they talked across the ward. "Can you get any louder?" They stared at him—they had not been talking too loudly at all.

"Geez, what's with you?" Shawn asked incredulously. Remus glared and fell back onto his pillow.

"You're so loud; just shut your fat mouth!"

The two boys raised their eyebrows at each other and glanced at Mrs Lupin, who had remained silent. She shook her head. "He's not feeling well," she mouthed. Their eyebrows were in danger of disappearing under their bangs, but they quit their conversation and went to sleep.

November sixth finally came, and Remus felt sicker than before. "Am I supposed to feel like I'm going to barf all the time?" he snapped at a Healer.

"The first transformation's symptoms are always the worst," he told Remus patiently. "The ones after shouldn't be as bad."

Remus waded through the first half of the day all right; however, in the afternoon, he did not respond much to anyone. The only thing he remembered later was the moon on the blue sky outside the ward window.

Finally, someone led him gently out of the room and down two flights of stairs. Remus was too out of it to realize that he was going into the hospital's basement.

"We'll be back for you in the morning," a voice said gently, and closed the door.

He was sitting there grumpily for only a few minutes before he felt a very odd sensation come over him, He grew perfectly still for a moment before it happened.

Remus screamed as he felt a hot prickling sensation over his entire body. He managed to lift his hand up to eye level, only to find that it was covered in brown fur.

The rest of the transformation only got worse. It felt as if his entire body was breaking as his skeleton began to change into that of a wolf's. Remus screamed as if his life depended on it—

Oh Merlin I'm going to die nonononono make it stop please make it stop nononono I don't like this I don't want to be a werewolf please I don't want to die—

"Mum!" he managed to scream out before his throat had completely blocked human speech. He retched as he felt his organs moving around inside of him…his ripped clothing lay long forgotten on the floor…

Finally, after what seemed like a millennium, it was over. Remus had only a split-second of conscious thought before he blacked out, and the wolf howled to the moon.

"Where do you think they took Remus?" Shawn asked Jeff some time after he had left. The eight-year-old shrugged.

"We'll just have to ask him when he comes back."

"Greta!"

This was the first thing she heard on her return to the Gryffindor common room. Then she saw quite a lot of blonde hair as Amelia trapped her in a bone-crushing hug.

"We didn't know where you were or if you were all right or if you had been hurt or expelled and Dumbledore wouldn't tell us anything so we were so worried—"

Greta chucked weakly. She didn't think she'd ever be totally happy again after what had happened to Remus…"My brother was in the hospital, and Dad Flooed Dippet asking for me to come."

"What happened to him?" Amelia asked curiously. Greta's stomach dropped, and Dorcas interpreted her hesitation correctly.

"You don't have to tell us," she said quickly, "but is he okay?"

"As okay as he can be."

The rest of October came and went. Greta checked her calendar on November sixth, and with a start realized that there was a full moon that night. Remus!

After classes were over, Greta immediately walked to her dormitory, saying that she was not hungry. She simply sat and stared out the window for who knows how long, but she was so entranced by the moon outside that she didn't notice her friends as they walked in.

"Greta?" Amelia asked cautiously. She jumped and turned around.

"What?"

"Why are you sitting there just staring out the window?"

She shook her head and crawled into bed, though it was barely eight o'clock. Amelia and Dorcas shared a glance, but said nothing more to their friend.

Alex's heart broke as Becca led Remus out of the ward. He did not seem to recognize her, and had only vaguely acknowledged his own parents. The Healers were allowing them to stay the night at the hospital, for which they were very grateful.

Becca came back into the ward, her face streaked with tears. "It should be starting soon."

That was the first of many long, sleepless nights that the three elder Lupins would endure. Finally, Ian said, "Surely the moon is down by now…can't you go get him?"

Becca shook her head sadly. "He won't be safe until the sun is up, even if the moon is down."

Finally, when the sun began rising over the horizon, Becca stood up and walked out of the ward. Ian and Alex followed her. They walked down into a cellar of sorts with a few locked doors on each wall.

"This is where we keep new werewolves on the full moon," Becca explained. She walked to the farthest door on the right, muttered some charms that unlocked the door, and finally walked inside. The Lupins followed her.

Both Alex and Ian screamed—Remus lay out cold on the floor, a bloody mess. Some shreds of fabric that might have once been his clothes lay scattered all around the ground, and the padded walls were stained with what could only have been blood.

"Will it always be this bad?"

"The first one is always the worst, but he'll still beat himself up pretty badly," Becca said regretfully. She conjured up a stretcher, carefully levitated Remus onto it, and conjured a large sheet on top of him. It was immediately stained red with blood. The three of them began the walk up to the immediate care unit.

There was only one other occupied bed, which was also blood-stained. Another Healer came up to Becca and muttered something to her. Her eyes widened, but she nodded.

"Another werewolf victim," she said sorrowfully, gesturing with her free hand to the bed in the corner. "Apparently he's lucky to be alive as well."

She then carefully set Remus in the bed across from the unconscious man, and five or six Healers bustled over and began healing Remus' wounds.

"If he survives his first, he will probably not kill himself while transformed, but if he is under a lot of stress, the transformation will be worse." Becca explained to Ian and Alex. They nodded. "Now all we can do is wait."

And wait they did. They were again forced out of the ward in order for the Healers to do their job, but they did not say a word in protest. When they were finally allowed back in, Remus looked as he had the day after he had been brought to the hospital.

"He'll live," one of the other Healers assured them, "But we need to run some tests to make sure there's nothing else."

"Can I have parchment and a quill?" Ian asked him. The Healer looked startled at the odd request, but gave him some all the same.

Greta—

Remus will survive. The Healers say that the others will not be as bad as the first, but we're not sure what 'not as bad' means, as he looks worse than he did in October.

Hugs and kisses,
Mum and Dad

Ian folded and sealed the parchment, writing "Do not read in Great Hall" on it, and asked the Healer where he might find an owl. He gave him directions, and Ian ran off. Alex, left alone with her son, began stroking his hair.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey…"

Greta was a nervous wreck. She did not know if her brother had survived the night, and she had not yet heard from anyone.

No news is better than bad news, I suppose.

When she received the letter on November eighth, she observed her father's wishes and ran up to her dormitory after class to read it.

She was relieved to know that Remus had survived, but was frightened about what he must have done to himself if he looked worse than the month before. She sent a letter back, requesting Remus to write to her personally and tell her that he would be all right. A little less than a week later, she received his reply in large block writing that Greta knew nobody could forge—

Greta

im ok but I hert evriwar Mum sed that i hert miself on the ful moon but im not bleding ane mor

I luv yu
Remus

Greta laughed, both in relief that Remus was indeed functional again and at her brother's atrocious spelling. Her friends noticed a change in her attitude after she received the letter, and commented on it; however, Greta would tell them nothing except that her brother had gotten better.

Remus woke up, and found that his entire body hurt immensely. "Mummy…"

"I'm right here," her voice came from his left.

"Where am I?"

"Back in the immediate care ward," his father answered. "You beat yourself up pretty bad the other night."

"It hurt a lot…Mummy, why does it have to hurt?"

"I don't know," she answered, eyes filling with tears. "I doubt that anyone knows, really."

The Lupins fell silent until Remus noticed the other occupied bed. "What happened to him?"

"The same thing as you," Ian answered, shaking his head. "Apparently he was trying to stop a werewolf and instead it bit him."

Remus was quiet again. "Will he be okay?"

"He'll be in the same situation as you," his mother answered sadly. "He'll be a werewolf as well."

Remus' eyes were as wide as Galleons. "Hopefully, sometime soon, someone will find a cure for lycanthropy," Ian said wistfully.

"When do you think that'll happen?"

"I don't know."