Chapter Fourteen
Forgotten Birthday

Remus would have liked to stay longer but his uncle had to bring him back to the house because it was a full moon. His uncle dropped him off at the house and then went back to the hospital. Remus went up to his room and bolted the door shut so he could not knock it down. He sat on his bed and waited for the clouds to shift so his transformation could take place and it could be over with. There was a large gust of winds and the clouds moved slightly to the left and the full mooned glowed inside his room. Remus felt a jolt of pain in his stomach and fell forward grabbing his stomach. The room grew suddenly hot and he was trembling uncontrollably. He felt his bones expand beyond his control and when his broken leg started to grow it was pain beyond anything! It felt like someone was dropping a boulder on it or ripping it apart even further. Not knowing why Remus started to cry out, "make it stop!" He knew no one would answer but it made him feel better, kind of.

Finally the pain subsided and Remus was now a werewolf that was prowling aimlessly around the room. He started sniffing some of his own items and against his own will biting them and attempted to snap them in half. Remus's human mind was able to prevent him from destroying his possessions. Being locked up inside a room did not suit a werewolf so he curled up in a little ball in the corner and began whimpering.

He awoke the next morning to find himself lying in his bed with the sheets thrown over him. He felt extremely sick and weak. He wanted to go back to sleep but since was already awake, he didn't see any point. Slowly Remus lifted himself up and went downstairs. His uncle was sitting down at the kitchen table in deep thought. Remus managed to sit down unnoticed and listened as his uncle muttered things like, "how are we going to manage this?"

"Manage what?" Remus asked as he poured himself some cereal. His uncle jumped and looked at his nephew.

"Nothing Remus," he said quickly, "I was just thinking."

"I'm the problem aren't I? You're thinking how you're going to manage a daughter when you have a blood thirsty werewolf in your home."

"Remus don't be silly, I would never think that."

"If you aren't thinking that say it then." Remus watched his Uncle Albert fidgeted in his seat and started to whistle a tune. His uncle always stalled when he had to say something he didn't want to say and this was one of those times. Remus gave him a look that said, "I'm waiting."

"You're right Remus," his uncle said at last. "I was thinking that and I'm sorry. It's just that I don't know how I'll manage. Its not your fault I just can't help thinking it."

"I know you're sorry, but you shouldn't be thinking that. Do you think I would actually harm my new cousin? That's precisely the reason why we have locks on my door! I don't understand why people don't believe me, I would expect you to." Remus stood up pushed his chair in and went outside into the cloudy weather. He walked up and down the streets looking for something to do. As he was walking he absently turned into a bookstore and the owner (who was as cruel as his aunt) saw him. He told Remus to get out and that they did not serve misfits like him. Remus turned and went back outside. As he was walking the streets he bumped into two kids his age. They looked up and saw who it was and ran as quickly as they could away. All of the sudden Remus remembered what it felt like to be a victim of horror and that no one liked him in the village. The skies above started to pour rain onto the streets and Remus being so far from his house was left out in the streets because no one wanted to house him until the storm passed.

Remus tried his best to get home quickly (since his cast was not supposed to get wet) and also he did not want to get sick. He walked through the forming puddles and started wringing out his damp clothes. As he was rounding the corner onto Barkwood he heard a faint voice calling his name. He looked a little ahead of him and saw his uncle jogging up to him.

"Remus," his uncle said when he reached him. "Why did you leave?"

"Oh-I...um... needed some air, I guess," Remus stuttered. The real reason he had left because he felt insulted by his uncle for thinking such things.

"Come on Remus, I'm going back to the hospital to get your aunt to bring her home. I think you should come." He put his hand on Remus's shoulder to bring him back to the house but Remus step backwards.

"I thought I was too much of a danger to your new daughter? Can't take me anywhere where she is, remember?"

"Remus don't act stupid! I was just thinking hypothetically, now you're coming with me!" He grabbed Remus's shoulder and directed him through the rain to the car and they drove off to the hospital.

Remus sat in the back of the car staring blankly at the sky. Rain was splattering on the window and leaving watermarks on the glass, he watched as the drops rolled over to corners of the window. His uncle tried to make conversation every few minutes but he saw that Remus was in no mood to talk (which he never was anymore). When they arrived at the hospital he went with his uncle to hospital room 67. His aunt was sitting on her bed all dressed and ready to go. Remus also saw Bertha cradling a pink bundle, his baby cousin. Bertha was looking at her sister adoringly making cooing sounds every so often. When she looked up and saw Remus the large smile on her hideous face contorted into a mean frown.

"Judith," Uncle Albert said slowly. "Maybe we could let Remus hold the baby?" Remus's aunt who had been smiling just as her Bertha looked at her husband in amazement. She stood up and looked her husband fiercely in the eye.

"ARE YOU INSANE?" she bellowed spraying spit all over Albert's face. "LET THE MONSTER HOLD MY BABY! MY BABY! I'D RATHER DIE BEFORE HE TOUCHES HER! I HAVE NO DOUBT IN MY MIND HE'D DO SOMETHING HORRIBLE! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?"

"I was just saying. You did-"

"I don't care," Remus interrupted. "Its not like I want to anyway." Remus turned and walked slowly out of the room listening to his aunt say over and over, "have that boy hold my child! Never in my wildest dreams would I..." Its not like I would want to anyway, Remus thought savagely. Oh yes sure you wouldn't, said a nagging voice in the back of his head, she's your cousin isn't she? Remus sighed and went out to the car to wait for his formidable relatives. He sat in the back of the car with his hands folded in his lap. He half listened to the rain dropping on the car and waited for any signs of his aunt and uncle's voice so they could get out of there. He looked at his watch and looked at the date. It was August 30th his cousin had been born one day ago so that made her birthday August 29th. He didn't want to think about his birthday, it made his stomach hurt and his heartache knowing he wouldn't get so much as a happy birthday while everyone else was occupied with his new cousin.

Remus knew he shouldn't think such things. Its not his cousin Anna's fault, it wasn't her fault she was born. He hoped they treated her well; he couldn't bear to think what they would treat her like when they actually took the time to notice she looked remarkably like Remus instead of them. They pulled up in front of their house and went inside. When they first stepped inside his aunt shrieked

"Welcome home!" to the baby. She then turned her glances to Remus, who was standing a few feet in front of them. "You boy! Take a picture of Anna in her new home! Don't even bother saying 'what about me?'"

"Like I'd really want to be in the same picture as you," Remus snarled. He grabbed the camera off the mantelpiece on the fireplace and thrust the shutter to his face. He looked through the camera as his stupid relatives (his uncle was now not Remus's favourite anymore). He pushed the shutter and the camera flashed and out popped a picture of his aunt, uncle Bertha and Anna. Bertha walked over and snatched the picture from Remus, she looked at it and muttered about putting it in the potion to make the people move. Aunt Judith, Uncle Albert, and Bertha took Anna into the kitchen leaving Remus by himself.

He wanted nothing more than to go back to school and escape the dread of living at this house. He did not want the next day to dawn and know that for the first time in his life his birthday would be forgotten. He sunk down on an armchair in the corner and stared out the window. He was completely bored. He had no homework since he had completed it in early July. James, Sirius and Peter were abroad and he did not feel like writing a letter to either of them. There was not a soul in the village who wanted to speak with him, not that he wanted to speak to them very much after the way they treated him. He thought about the full moons and immediately he began to shudder at the thought. There was a semi positive side, whenever his aunt and uncle told him to they might make him undergo an operation to make him free of his werewolf self. He then thought about the Animagi lessons Sirius, James and Peter had instituted for themselves and to be perfectly honest with himself he wanted them to master it as soon as possible. He hated having to be alone while everyone else was walking about the castle without a care in the world (except for the staff).

Remus dozed off for a little while and when he woke up he discovered that it was nearly seven o' clock in the evening. He lifted himself off the chair and walked up the stairs. He heard his aunt and uncle in their room talking in baby talk to Anna. Remus peered inside and looked. Anna was lying in a white basinet that was decked out in lace coverings. They were rocking it back and forth together and saying mushy things like, "she's so cute when she's sleeping." Aunt Judith turned to the door and saw Remus looking in.

"GO AWAY BOY!" she shrieked and in result woke Anna up and she started crying. His aunt tried to shush her and so did his uncle but they both failed terribly and made her cry even more. Bertha then came shoving past Remus to try and calm her down. Remus tried to get out of the way before his aunt yelled towards him.

"YOU CAUSED HER TO WAKE UP! YOU MAKE HER GO BACK TO SLEEP!" Anna started wailing even more now. Remus shrugged and hopped into the room. His uncle instructed him to sit on the bed so he did not fall if he was standing. Remus sat down and Uncle Albert placed little Anna in Remus's arms. The baby's tiny green eyes looked up at Remus and she immediately stopped crying. Remus's relatives stared at him dumbfounded; they could not believe that he made her stop crying in a flash. Aunt Judith was evidently starting to get a little nervous with Remus holding her flesh and blood so she immediately snatched Anna up and tried rocking her. However Anna started wailing again when she left Remus. Remus grinned (for the first time in a while) when he saw how his aunt could not stop her own child from crying.

"Remus take her!" Aunt Judith shrieked.

"Well I don't think I can," Remus said meanly. "I was just going to get changed so I could go to bed and besides I'm not allowed to. I might do something horrible, I'm a monster after all. You said so yourself!"

"Please Remus! I can't take the crying anymore! Just take her! Or better yet, we'll put the cradle in your room so we don't have to hear her! Its not a bad thing if she keeps you awake." Remus shrugged and watched as his aunt and uncle lifted the cradle and carried it into his room across the hall. Bertha then brought the screaming Anna into Remus's room and laid her down to sleep. They left the room and Remus went to the bathroom to change into his white tee shirt and a pair of old pants. When he got back to his room he peered into the cradle to see if Anna was asleep. He saw her green eyes staring back up at him and yet again she tried to smile at him but she could not. Remus drew up a chair from behind him and then dug under his bed for his trunk. He pulled it out and undid the latches. He pulled out his potions book and began to read.

Anna began make all sorts of noises that babies made when they wanted to talk, but of course they did not. He placed his bookmark in the page he was reading and closed the book. He looked into the cradle and started talking to his cousin, since she was the only one who would listen to what he had to say.

"You're lucky," he muttered. "They all love you. They don't care for me. Because of what I am." Remus looked at his arm, the one where the wolf had bitten him. He saw the faint outline of the scar. "A werewolf. I know you can't understand a thing I'm saying to you but you won't know what its like to be hated, everyone who sees you will just love you. It's not like that for me... no one wants to be around me, they're scared for themselves. You're lucky you have parents, even those as horrible as yours. I don't have any, that's why I have to live here. My parents... they... died. The part I hate most about it is that... I never got to say... I never got to say goodbye." Remus yawned widely and then looked back at Anna. "I'm going to bed and you should too. Good night." Anna made some cooing noises and Remus brushed her hair around her head and went to his bed and fell into sleep.

Remus woke the next morning to find bright sunlight pouring into his room. He did not know why but he felt happier today than he had been all summer. As he was pondering this his eyes traveled to the calendar on his wall. He saw that the date was August 31st. It was his birthday today (on the calendar he drew a picture of balloons and a giant banner that said "Happy Birthday Remus," on it). He did not hear Anna so he assumed that someone must have snuck in while he was sleeping and brought her downstairs. Remus dressed in the navy blue robes his parents had given him last year and an old jumper and some stained pants. He went downstairs to see his aunt feeding Anna, Bertha sitting at the table and swirling her bowl of cereal around with her spoon and his uncle reading the paper. Remus managed to sit down unnoticed and poured himself some cereal.

"Good morning," Remus said unusually happily. Bertha looked up from playing with her food and turned to Remus.

"What are you so happy about?" she snarled.

"Well it's my birthday today and since I only turn twelve once, what's not to be happy about?"

"You're so strange."

"Thank you my dear puggy faced cousin, same goes to you."

"Please don't start arguing," Uncle Albert muttered from behind the paper.

"We weren't!" Remus said defensively. "I was just expressing my true feelings."

"Well do that some place that is not the breakfast table!" Wow he was only up for two minutes and already he got yelled at. It must be a new record, Remus thought lethargically. Remus finished eating about ten minutes later and there was no sign that anyone even acknowledged his birthday. He drummed his finger on the table waiting for someone to realise what day it was.

"So does anyone know what day it is?" Remus said, looking around at the other occupants and of the table. No one said anything. "Okay... I'll help you guess. It's the last day of August and someone was born on that day." Suddenly Aunt Judith looked up. Remus thought for a minute she knew what he was referring to.

"Oh yes I almost forgot!" she shrieked. "Its my friend Martha's birthday! I must really go and send her an owl. Albert will you take Anna until I get back?"

"Sure dear," he answered putting the paper on the table and holding his arms out to take Anna. Remus looked at her dumbfounded. He stood up and grabbed his crutches.

"Well if anyone wants to talk to me," he said. "Which I highly doubt, I'll be outside. Bye!" Remus turned and went out the front door. His good mood had just been crushed by what his aunt said. Honestly, even if she hated him she did not have the decency to wish him a happy birthday. Remus fell under the oak tree in the front of the house and looked up at the sky above. He was practically blinded with anger. He barely saw the flock of birds flying in V formation above him, he did not notice that a bee decided to rest on his nose, and when a group of kids walked past him and started barking he did not yell at them like he normally would. He did not care about those things anymore, he did not care about anything. As far as he was concerned the only other living thing inside that despicable house was Anna. She was the only one who would listen, even though she did not understand. She was the only one to whom he could confide his feelings to (other than James, Sirius and Peter) she was the only person in that house to which he did not show extreme animosity towards. Remus used to love his Uncle Albert, but not anymore. He had called Remus stupid (which he had never done before) and expressed no more uncle type love towards him and even referred to Remus as a bloodthirsty monster.

Remus did not want to go back inside when it grew dark. He did not want to have to face the only relatives that would take him in. He did not want to go back in there, go to sleep, and dream about the worst birthday he ever had.