Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me.

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Gains And Losses

Chapter Twenty-Three

No One Comes Near

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Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
In the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face
That she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people Where do they all belong?

Harry bit his lip to keep himself from crying out at those words, though he could still feel the tears falling down his cheeks.

"S-so, I'm a-a werewolf now?"

"Yes Harry, I'm so, so sorry."

Harry rolled over, burying his head in the pillows and cried. He felt Remus rub soothing circles on his back.

"Don't worry, Harry, everything's gonna be okay."

"But everyone's gonna be afraid of me!"

"You don't have to tell anyone."

Harry nodded and rolled back onto his back. He looked up at Remus.

"Are you a werewolf?"

"Yeah, I was bitten when I was four. I never told anyone, but your dad and Sirius found out. That's why they became animagi; to stay with me during the full moons."

"Does it hurt?"

"A lot. It's just like you're being ripped from your body and they next day you end up very ill. But the good thing is you get to miss school; that's what I liked about it."

Harry smiled weakly; he still wasn't completely convinced.

"Um...where am I?"

"St. Mungo's Hospital. You'll be staying here for a little while."

"How long?"

"A couple of weeks. Tomorrow they're going to inject a medication that will keep the poison from spreading. It's supposed to make you feel kind of sick, but it'll go away after about a week."

"OH...and how long have I been here?"

"Three days, its Sunday."

There was a long silence. Harry tried to remove the bandages on his leg, but Remus grabbed his hand and gave him a stern look.

"I wanna see! Please!"

Remus hesitated, and then nodded. He motioned for Harry to lift up his leg and slowly began to remove the bandages. It was horrible. The bite was almost ten centimetres long and was still slightly bleeding.

"Holy shit!"

Remus quickly wrapped Harry's leg up once he had noticed the look of horror on Harry's face. When Remus was done Harry sunk under the covers and began to stare at the ceiling.

"Can Romulus come to visit me?"

Yeah, he's already on his way. He's taking one of the school brooms; should be here any minute now."

"What happened with him? Did anybody find out about what happened?"

"Nope. Poppy remembered that it was the full moon and ran in to get Romulus. When she saw Romulus in his wolf form and you unconscious on the floor she body-binded Romulus and had you placed on a stretcher. She took you to Dumbledore, who brought you here and took Romulus to the Shrieking Shack."

"And Dumbledore quieted everything right, the Ministry doesn't have anything against Romie right?"

"Nothing at all."

Harry sighed with relief. Suddenly the door burst open and Romulus ran into the room. He immediately ran over to Harry's bedside and pulled him into a hug, burying his head in his chest. Harry was in pain but decided to hide it.

"Oh my God, Harry, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault," he cried, gasping between words.

"It's okay Romulus, don't cry. I forgive you."

"How can you forgive me!? I just ruined your life!"

"You do what werewolves do, Romie."

"God, I was so stupid! How could I forget that it was the full moon!? I was such an idiot! Harry, you don't know how painful it is to transform, it's nearly unbearable! I swear Harry, after your first full moon you'll never want to speak to me again!"

Harry pulled away from Romulus and held him at arms length. He looked into his eyes.

"Romulus, listen to me! You did nothing wrong! It was a werewolf that bit me, not you. Do you understand?"

Romulus bit his lip and nodded, though he still looked quite guilty.

"Where did my dad go?"

Harry turned his head and realized that Remus was no longer in the room. He shrugged.

"I guess he left to let us talk alone."

Harry laid back in his bed and stared up at ceiling. He stayed like that for a few moments until he realized that Romulus was staring at him. Harry turned to him and gave him a questioning look.

"What?"

"Your eyes aren't green anymore"

He handed Harry his pocket mirror. To Harry's surprise, they were no longer a brilliant shade of green. They were now an odd shade of amber.

"What the-"

"It's part of being a werewolf. When I bit you, a poison entered your body, which made some changes. It changed your blood purity, the way you act, it makes you a little more aggressive, it changes some of your physical features and of course, makes you turn into a wolf every full moon. The eyes are one of the changes. The eyes are one of the ways to identify a werewolf, but it's not always true. Some ordinary people could have amber eyes as well."

"So people might be able to find out?"

"Only those who study werewolves and other werewolves themselves. Also, there are some people who hate werewolves so much that they want us dead. They study all the signs so that they could find us and kill us. There are many of those. What really marks a werewolf is the way they look. Werewolves have a slight feral look in their eyes. It gets more obvious as it gets close to the full moon."

"So people will be able to find out that I'm a werewolf?"

"Only if you know what feral looks like, not many people have seen it before."

Harry looked into the mirror once more and sighed.

"I miss my green eyes."

"They still look nice to me."

Suddenly Remus entered the room. He smiled when he saw that the boys were at excellent terms.

"Dad, his eyes are amber now!"

Remus bustled over and looked into Harry's eyes. It was then the first time that Harry realized that Remus had amber eyes as well.

"Welcome to the werewolf family. Anyway, it's getting late and we have to go. I'll be back tomorrow so that I can stay with you when they inject the medication."

"Don't you have classes to teach?" asked Harry.

"I took that day off, Snape is replacing me."

A look of horror appeared on Romulus' face.

"Oh God! Please, no! Dad, not Snape!"

"Romulus, he's the only one who could teach the class. Nobody else on the staff knows enough about the subject to teach it."

"Then give us a class to do nothing. That's what Harry said they do in muggle schools. They give them free classes when the teacher is out."

"The answer is no!"

Romulus growled and went over to hug Harry. Remus did the same. Once they had left, the nurse he had seen when he had woken up came in and gave him a Dreamless Sleep potion. Harry immediately fell into a comfortable sleep.

"Harry, come on, wake up."

Somebody was shaking him. The person turned him over and began gently tapping him on his cheeks. Harry was very hot and could tell that his cheeks were turning red. He felt someone place a wet cloth on his forehead.

"Wake up! Open your eyes!"

Harry groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. He felt someone place his glasses onto his nose. When everything came into focus he realized that Remus was standing over him.

"It's time for the medication."

Harry groaned and sat up in his bed. The nurse bustled over and pulled up the sleeve on his right arm. Harry didn't like needles.

"This might hurt after a while."

She pulled out his IV and replaced the bag with another bag containing a pulpy brown liquid. She then wiped his wrist with an alcohol patch and placed in the new needle.

It burned a little but it was nowhere near as bad as he expected it to be.

Unfortunately, Harry was wrong. The next day the medication began to kick in. The side effects were almost too much for him. He was sick at least four times a day, he had horrible pain attacks, and he became so weak, he could hardly lift a piece of parchment.

And that wasn't all. He also had night sweats, breathing problems and sometimes he would just simply go unconscious. Romulus and Morticia visited him as much as possible but that still wasn't enough.

He asked Romulus to get him a book on werewolves for him and he found out that after his first transformation he wouldn't need his glasses anymore. Werewolves had better sight and smell than humans and it would correct his eyesight.

Remus and Dumbledore came over to explain what to do at the full moon and had Harry write a letter to the DeSenas explaining his lycanthropy.

Twelve days had passed and Harry was waiting for the DeSenas' reply. Suddenly Remus entered the room holding a piece of paper. The DeSenas' reply!

Harry grabbed the letter from Remus and unfolded it. He began to read the letter. His face beamed as he finished.

"So...?" Remus asked.

Harry handed the paper to Remus a huge smile on his face. Remus looked at the paper, one eyebrow rising. It was written entirely in Italian!

"I don't understand a thing."

A laughed and grabbed the paper from him. He began to read:

"Harry,

Thank you for sending us that letter. Don't worry, we don't care if you're a werewolf; you're still a part of the family to us and you will always be my brother. You can stay in that empty room during your transformations and we'll arrange for Bunny to take care of you when you're recovering. I hope you're okay and will get better soon. See you at Christmas break. We miss you. Hugs and kisses. Xoxox! I love you.

Francesco DeSena"

"They're okay with it!" Remus said.

"I know! I'm so happy!"

There was a silence. Harry noticed that Remus looked like he wanted to say something.

"What is it? Out with it!"

"You get to leave today!"

"Holy crap, really!?"

"Yup, but you'll have to use crutches until your first class."

"Aw, man!"

Father McKenzie, writing the words
Of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks
In the night when there's nobody there
What does he care
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

A/N: Please review!!

Feedback:

tayk: It wasn't a venomous snake. I don't think Remus would bring in a venomous snake. Lol! That would hurt and then kill you. Lol...and there goes Harry...and Romie.

...?: Yeah, I misspelled it. But I fixed it now.

Sirius Black's #1 Fan: Where did I say he was gay? I didn't anywhere. If you're talking about the part where I hug him, you should know that I'm a girl. And even if I wasn't, there is nothing wrong with gay people. My cousin is gay, and one of my friends. I've written up to thirty one right now. It's not supposed to be like the books, it's my sad version. I'd never insult Sirius. I swear I'm obsessed. I'm one of the very few people who day dream about Sirius stories. Lol! I love him!!

HOBOrules: I worked a lot harder on this story than I did on any of my other stories. It isn't doing to well though. I want to take the story off the net most of the time. I want it to do as good as 'The Perfect Family' which isn't one of my greater stories. I'm afraid of horses. Lol!!

CatClawz: I'm not going to have Voldemort go after Harry, but he will show up in one of the sequels...if I get to writing it. I want Harry to be happy. I wish I had a Harry that wouldn't complain about being squished to sleep with at night. Or maybe a Harry with cancer. Aww baldie! Sooo cute! I don't want him to die though.

why do you care?: Where did I insult Sirius? I didn't anywhere.

Mr. Stevens: Yup! Evil Pettigrew!!

bhji: Dun dun dun!

bhjvftgfcy: I did not get that from 'A New Daddy For Harry'. I haven't even read that story! I wrote this story almost two years ago after I had a similar baby food problem with my baby cousin Anthony.

someone who wished not to have their identity revealed: I didn't get it from there. Pafoo is frighteningly what I called my stuffed bunny rabbit and Mooey just came to my head one day. I don't copy people.

Jack Sparrow's Only Love: I wanted Harry to be closer to Sirius and have known him longer so I made a whole new story so that they could be closer. He's only coming back in chapter 36 though. But he will be in a few earlier chapters. 36 is when he sees Harry again.

Grim's Angel 13: Yup! Evil cliffy. I hurt Harry...

foxyie xox: I don't even want to know what that would feel like...

FroBoy: Ask me questions!! I looooooove LONG reviews! Lol!

Mr. Happy Java Man: Yay! I'm Miss Montreal Lady! Romulus won't be killed off or anything because Dumbledore kept it quiet. And the tubes were for the werewolf poison and all of the scratched and gashes that Romulus gave him. You're on coffee aren't you? Up at night when you have work in a few hour? Shakes head

harrylissaluv: So that Romulus and Harry can transform together and have fun during the full moon, soon to be joined by a happy little Padfoot.

Sexy Black: I like it when people call me Angie! I WANT SIRIUS TOO!