Chapter Twelve
Remus's Grudge
Second Year

Remus Lupin sat inside his room at his aunt and uncle's house. He was confined to a bed because of an accident he had with his cousin. She just had to have a muggle bike and was testing it out. Remus had been lying under an oak tree on his back, looking blankly at the murky gray sky above. Bertha came peddling wildly across the grass and didn't spot Remus, he didn't notice her either. He only noticed her when the wheels came crashing over his leg, snapping the bone in two. He started howling in pain and grabbing his leg screaming wildly. His uncle came running from his nearby clothes shop and saw Remus screaming and Bertha laughing hysterically. He started yelling at Bertha and spanked her in the bottom. Remus would have laughed, but was in too much pain. Uncle Albert then picked Remus up and carried him to the house. That happened yesterday and Remus was lying in bed.

"Idiot cousin of mine," he swore. Remus had been in a very bad mood ever since he had returned from school. With his parents being dead nothing went his way. He was now forced to live with his aunt, uncle and cousin (two of which were his least favourite people on the planet). Worst part was that his aunt was expecting a baby any day. Remus tried to roll over but his leg surged with pain and returned to lying on his back. After he had gotten back from school he was always miserable. He had come close to crying a few times when his thoughts strayed too close to his parents. He missed his friends (James, Sirius and Peter); he hated living where he was. His room was small and cramp, there was barely enough room for him to walk and he ended up always banging into something.

"Boy!" came his aunt's voice echoing up the stairs, "Get down here and help with dinner!" Did I say he was confined to bed? Sorry, only when he wasn't doing his aunt's bidding, which was nearly all the time. He groaned and lifted himself gently off his bed. He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and grabbed his crutches. He hobbled down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. There he found his extremely plump aunt sitting at the table. He looked at the counter and saw a large chicken on the counter and a pack of rice beside it. He trampled over and ripped the bow of rice open and poured it into the pot that was on the stove.

"Hurry up boy I'm hungry!" his aunt shrieked.

"I have a name you know!" Remus snapped, "its spelled R-e-m-u-s, Remus, or maybe you didn't know that?" and flung the empty box of rice on the counter, where a few remaining stragglers at the bottom rolled onto the floor.

"Pick that up wolf!" his aunt screamed.

"I'm immobile in the leg thanks to your daughter. Make her pick it up!" Remus snapped. Ever since he had started living with them he had noticed how short his temper had become. Guess when you're living with people you can't stand you learn to defend yourself.

"I will not have that tone boy!"

"Well you're going to have to live with it! Make your own dinner! Its not like I'm eating anyway!" Remus tore from the room and hopped back up the stairs. He entered his room and slammed the door closed. He threw himself on his bed listening to his aunt scream, "don't slam the door you insolent, ungrateful jerk!" Out of pure anger Remus grabbed the sneakoscope Sirius had sent him across the room and it smashed into twenty separate bits. He buried his face in his hands and started breathing heavily. Oh how he hated her! Worst of all was that he was all alone with her; he had only said to make Bertha clean up his mess out of spite for her stupidness. Bertha and Uncle Albert had gone to the village fair and Remus begged to go but his uncle wouldn't allow it with the condition Remus was in. Also the next day they would be having his parents' funeral. He did not want to go, he just could not bring himself to look upon his dear parents. Remus lay back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling for what seemed like ten minutes but was really an hour. He heard a soft knock on his door and said softly, "come in." The door opened and his uncle walked in.

"Remus?" his uncle whispered.

"Hmm?" Remus grunted.

"Your aunt just told me that you were being rude to her again. Its not another repeat of last Thursday where you broke her sewing kit?"

"No."

"What's wrong?"

"She's a jerk, that's what's wrong!"

"That's my wife and your aunt that you're talking about!"

"I don't care! She called me a jerk so she's half as much as a jerk than I am!"

"Remus what's wrong?" His uncle had now crossed the room and sat down at the foot of Remus' bed. "You haven't been yourself lately."

"I haven't been myself for years, you're just noticing now?"

"Be serious!"

"Its hard to be! Fine! You want it straight? I'll give it to you then! I hate living here! Not because of you, it's because of your nasty wife and formidable daughter! They hate me and I can't say much more for them! I don't want to be here anymore! I want to go home, to my home!" His uncle sighed and they sat in pure silence for five minutes. Remus was still fuming and his breaths were coming in very loudly.

"Remus," his uncle said sternly, "you can't go home. You have no home. Your parents are dead you can't bring them back. Learn to live with it! Also, I would really like if you were not so cross with my family! I understand what you're going through, but it's not the end of the world! Please Remus, don't be like this anymore, try and understand."

"You don't understand what I'm going through," Remus muttered, "no one does."

"Fine Remus!" his uncle jumped up off Remus' bed, causing the mattress to spring up and then down. "Be like that. Lead a miserable life! I want the nephew I used to have back! What happened to the happy little boy who always screamed joyfully when he saw me? What happened to that boy? Where has he gone?"

"He's gone and he's never coming back."

"Okay Remus, maybe you're just tired. I finished making dinner; if you're hungry you can come down. If not, stay up here."

His uncle crossed back to the door and closed it to let only a crack of the light peer in. Remus lay there and then decided to go eat dinner, since his stomach was gurgling uncontrollably. He lifted himself off his bed and leaned gently on his crutches and hobbled downstairs. He got downstairs and saw his three relatives eating and talking quietly. When they saw him they all grew quiet. Remus hopped over and looked at his plate. Where there was supposed to be his meal was nothing but crumbs. He looked at his aunt and she was shaking with giggles. Remus glared at her and turned away and marched out the door. He walked across the grass and sat down under the oak tree. He laid his crutches next to him and looked blankly at the maple tree across from him.

"Hullo," said a voice behind him. He turned around to find a familiar person standing behind him. It was a tall boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes. It was his former friend Matthew.

"Um... hi?" Remus stuttered. The last time he had spoken to Matthew was when Matthew decided to ditch Remus.

"What are you doing here Remus?" Matthew asked, taking a seat next to Remus, "you don't live here."

"I have to live at my aunt's house. My parents died while I was away at school."

"They did?" Matthew gasped, "Wow I'm sorry Remus. If I'd known I would have told you."

"It doesn't matter. It's not like anything in my life has gone my way. I should have known this was coming."

"You know... I'm sorry about how I acted towards you a few years back. I was wrong, I had no right to say any of what I actually said."

"Yeah you didn't."

"Well it was pretty scary you know. I've never seen a human being turn into a wolf right in front of my eyes! That was so creepy!"

"Creepy indeed. You try doing it sometime, and then the word you'll be using is 'painful'" Remus now saw the Matthew was looking at Remus's crutches. Remus decided to answer the question Matthew was about to ask.

"My cousin did it."

"She's still giving you a hard time?"

"Worse then ever... especially since... never mind!"

"Since what?" Remus had been about to say that she had been crueler to him since he attempted to bite her in werewolf form but he quickly cut him off. "I have to go inside!" Remus said quickly, snatching his crutches and mounting him on them, "my uncle told me to rest my leg, not use it! See you around sometime!" Remus hopped off towards the house. When he got inside he saw his aunt and uncle sitting on the couch in the living room, Remus heard his name and leaned against the wall and strained to listen.

"Albert," said his aunt, "the boy is mad!"

"Judith," said his uncle, "he's just having a hard time. He's had a lot to deal with and he's so young."

"My daughter has a lot to deal with!"

"Like what? Getting a pimple? Her life is nothing compared to her cousin's. I wish none of this had ever happened to him. He was always such a cheerful boy, completely careless and was never afraid of anything. Since the werewolf bit him he changed. He's got a short temper and never seems to smile."

"Honey," said his aunt, now in a soft soothing voice, "you can't change the past. What happened to him did and no matter how much you want to change it you can't. Let's just face it; Remus is doomed to be a werewolf forever. Although I did hear about St. Mungo's working on an operation to reverse it. It seems that when you become a werewolf you get an extra chromosome and they can extract it. Its life threatening though and it could kill him. Maybe we can run it by him?"

"Sure, lets tell him tomorrow. He probably wants to be by himself now." Remus waited until he heard his aunt and uncle's footsteps die away as they walked up the steps. He then snuck into the kitchen, grabbed an apple and hobbled up the steps into his room. He thrust himself on his bed and placed his crutches next to his nightstand. He lay down on his back and stared up at the white ceiling. So there was a way for him to change back into a regular kid and not have to spend the rest of his days as a werewolf? He then thought about the 'life threatening' part. What could go wrong that could cause him his life? He didn't want to know. He then heard a faint tapping coming from outside. He grabbed his crutches and walked over to the window to see his owl, Luther, banging on the window with two letters clutched in his beak. He opened the window and his owl flew in and dropped the letters on the bed. He grabbed the first one and saw it was his Hogwarts letter so he tossed it aside and went for the next one. It was from Sirius but both he and James signed it. It read:

Dear Remus,

How's summer going? Is your cousin still torturing you? Want us to hex her for you? We got our Hogwarts letter today, so want to meet us in Diagon Alley next Thursday? If you can owl us back, James is here so if you're wondering why I keep saying "us" and "we" that's why.

See you,
James and Sirius.

Remus folded the letter back up and stuck it back in the envelope and threw it in his trunk along with his Hogwarts letter. He shut the trunk and lay back on his bed. He slowly shut his eyes and drifted off into dreams.

The next morning Remus was abruptly awoken by the sounds of

"Remus wake up!" That voice sounded very familiar. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Sirius and James standing besides his bed. James was closest to him so he assumed it was him who had woken him up. Remus sat up and looked at his friends

"What are you doing here?" Remus asked.

"Well thought we'd visit," Sirius said offhandedly, "also we thought you might like some friends with you at your parent's funeral tonight."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"Come on," James said, "your uncle told us to come down and have breakfast, you're lucky your aunt and cousin aren't home!"

"All right just give me a minute to change?" Sirius and James nodded and left the room and shut the door behind them. Remus took out a black jumper and black pants. He changed into them and threw on his navy blue robes his parents had given him for his birthday. He put on a pair of shoes, grabbed his crutches and headed downstairs. When he reached the landing he saw James and Sirius were sitting and waiting for him with his uncle.

"Morning Remus," his uncle said.

"Morning," Remus said and then broke into a yawn. He took the seat next to his uncle and saw some scrambled eggs and bacon had been put on his plate.

"So," Remus's uncle began, "Sirius, James, you're both in Gryffindor?"

"Yes sir," James answered politely.

"I'm ashamed that my daughter ended up being in Slytherin," Uncle Albert said, "shame really, I thought we had raised her right." Remus then made a loud cough that soundly oddly like "yeah right." James and Sirius sniggered and Uncle Albert seemed to not have noticed. Uncle Albert looked at Remus but shrugged and went back to his plate.

"What happened to your leg?" James asked, eyeing the crutches next to Remus.

"My cousin ran my leg over with a bike!" Remus answered. "A muggle toy," Remus added quickly seeing James and Sirius's blank faces. Sirius and James exchanged glances and ventured off that subject. Basically all they talked about was school and Quidditch. After breakfast Remus, Sirius and James went outside into the fresh air.