Chapter 25
Remus felt that he had been spoilt during his time in Hogwarts. For seven years he had been use to a comfortable and safe location for his monthly changes from human to werewolf. But when he graduated that luxury vanished. He often wondered if maybe he would be able to go back to the shack now but felt more questions would be raised as to why a grown man turned up at Hogwarts once a month on a full moon. Enough people had learnt his secret through tracking his movements at that time of the month.
So instead he returned to the location that had served him well for years before that, the Caledonian Forest in Scotland. It had seemed a perfect location to his parents as there were stories of wild animals walking these woods. He had come across many of the rarest of Britain's wildlife including, wildcats, brown bears, Eurasian Lynx and even grey wolves. In his younger days he had tried to convince himself that coming here was an adventure just for him, not any more.
The location of Hogwarts had not been the only thing that had spoilt him. It was the company he had grown accustom to on the full moon. He knew that it was risky when his friends had arrived and he had hated himself for what they had illegally done to themselves. He worried about the problems that could happen if they got a small part of the spell wrong, or the fact that they were not regulated and how much trouble that could bring if they were ever discovered. But their presence had soothed him. For so long he had felt lost during those hours of transformation, yet with them there he managed to keep hold of a small part of himself.
Since they had graduated though he had been slipping further and further back into the grasps of the animal within. He couldn't blame anybody for that it had long become part of his nature. It was a part that he feared and with the pulling of the moon on his soul he panicked about the price somebody would have to pay if they came into contact with him. The thought of taking somebody's life sickened him all the way through, yet it was a happier thought than leaving somebody like him.
Sitting on a log under the leaves of the giant trees he couldn't help but wonder how different his life could have been if he hadn't been cursed with a bite. He would be working in a job that challenged him he knew that. Part of him wondered if he would have had the skills to teach. He imagined starting off as a tutor for a wizarding family at this time that was afraid to send their children off to Hogwarts. Then in the future when it came time searching for a position amongst one of the schools in Europe hoping all the while to get a post in Hogwarts. He knew what he would like to teach, Defense Against the Dark Arts, he had a respect for those that had taught him that as he felt there was nothing more important than learning to protect yourself.
But that was just a dream. He would never work a normal job Greyback had seen to that when he was only a small boy. Revenge for something his father had once said. He was feeling more alone tonight than he had in a long time. He hated to dwell on feelings like that after the downward spiral his life had taken when he had lost his Ginny. But he did feel alone on the full moon. It was the fact that his friends were no longer a part of this night. They were busy facing the challenges of their lives but he missed them in these moments before the change.
As the moon's affect pulled harder he began to get the sensation of loss of control. He knew that in moments his mind would no longer be his own as the will of the wolf took over. As pain started to pull on him a flash of fur to his right caught his attention. A dark shaggy creature lay on the mud floor staring at him. Then from the other side antlers penetrated his field of vision. As the pain pulsated through his body a smile played with his lips. A small rodent squeaked from around his feet and then all thought left his mind as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs had their first adventure together in months.