Disclaimer: I don't own...Remus, or James. Boohoo. Mwah, but I /do/ own this fanfic, hah!
Thanks: To Eve, and Deleria for reading this, but -not- reviewing. -Coughwinknudges-
Chapter Three James...Who?
Not long after they had moved into the new house, Remus was let outside for the rest of the day, and took to wandering around...
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The day they were getting ready to move into their new house, Remus found something very frightening inside their car when they were packing up the suitcases and such.
His Father must have forgotten to clean out the car on the previous night, and so the young lycan found out his Father's secret. It wasn't something that Remus would cry over. No, he could take things with such a calm air about him, that often got his Father irritated.
Remus climbed across the back seats and lay down to look more closely at the car's carpeted floor, so he could make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Maybe....maybe it was just some ketchup or something, after his Father had gone out to dinner last night. Or maybe some red wine. Father liked to drink that a lot.
"Remus! What're you doing there? I need you to go up and get the rest of the stuff," Thomas snapped at him after opening up the side door of the car, and spotting Remus laying down across the seats, examining something on the ground.
Remus quickly sat up, startled slightly to hear his Father from behind him.
"Sorry," he murmured, before hopping out of the car, and hurrying back into the Leaky Cauldron to their room, and to get the rest of their luggage, which wasn't much.
He took the last suitcase, and snatched the room's key from the small table, before walking downstairs, and into the bar. After dropping off the keys to the bartender at the front counter, he walked back outside and into the London streets outside of the Leaky Cauldron, where his Father was standing by their black small car.
"Took you long enough," he snapped at his son, grabbing the last suitcase from Remus, and shoving it into the back of the car, before getting into the front seat and waiting for Remus.
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The neighborhood his Father had picked out, wasn't anything out of the ordinary. There were kids of practically all ages up to eleven (for it was Spring time, and all the other kids would be at Hogwarts still) playing out in their front yards, or even out on the street.
Remus watched the kids in their front lawns, laughing and playing with eachother, with a slight smile on his face. Maybe in the few months that he'd be here, he would have a friend to play with.
Of course, there was the occasionally popping noise as someone apparated, or dissapparated infront of a house, because this wasn't really a muggle neighborhood.
His Father wanted to live away from the Muggles, where people would soon be trying to figure out the death of his wife.
Some kids watched as they pulled into the driveway of their new house, which was painted a crimson red, almost too dark to really be called red. The driveway was newly paved, and the front lawn was like everyone else's, fresh green, with some flowers out in the garden infront of the house.
"Your room will be at the bottom floor. The room you're to transform into is in the adjourning room, got it?" Thomas said abruptly, after he had parked the car, and got out onto the driveway.
Remus nodded silently, before carrying his suitcase into the two-story house. The door was painted golden-yellow, and there were rather fancy-looking glass windows on both sides of the door.
Other than those two windows, there were about three looking out onto the front lawn, and up on the second story, there were two.
Remus waited for his Father to open the door with the key, and then walked inside, looking up and down the hallway that veered off to the left and right. Both ways made sharp turns to either the right, for the left side of the hallway, or the left for the right side of the hallway.
The lycan took the right side down the hallway, after he saw his Father go back to the car to get the second suitcase. The walls were brick, he could tell by the hard feel of them under his smooth palms. The paint that covered the bricks though, was a creamy white, almost yellow, and had to have been painted over more than three times so the bricks didn't show.
The hallway didn't last too long, and soon he had stepped into a large round carpeted room. He guessed it was the living room, because it certainly looked comfortable enough to be one. His Father was going to have a job getting the furniture in here.
The walls in this room were the same creamy white colour as the hallway walls, and the light purple carpet clashed wonderfully with the wall colour.
Remus walked across the room, and saw a door off to his right when he was halfway across the living room. He shrugged and made his way over to the door, before opening it, and being met with a staircase. It went downstairs, though, so he guessed that down there was his bedroom. Closing the door behind him, Remus walked down the wooden staircase. It was dark down here, and the stairs creaked when he stepped on them. There was no way he'd be able to sneak upstairs with these kind of stairs.
When he got to the bottom of the staircase, he could only see a long hallway infront of him, with the walls uncomfortably close. That didn't stop him from making his way towards his room, which he guessed was at the end of the hallway.
Sure enough, after what seemed like forever, he had to stop, because there was a dead end, and at the end, there was a wooden door. To the left of that door, there was a second one, which he guessed was his bedroom. The room infront of him was probably his transforming room.
Remus turned to the left, and stepped aside just a bit, so he could open up the door without getting pinned to the wall. The sight infront of him made Remus gasp.
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Now he was outside, lost in his own thoughts about the house, and his room, and practically everything else that was crammed in his head.
There was a large forest behind their house, and all the other houses that were lined up on the same side as theirs. Today was a Sunday, and his Father had gone out, leaving him to wander around wherever he wanted for the day, all alone. Kids were playing, just like how he saw them when they first came here.
Some of the children who were playing at the houses to the right of his, stopped, seeing Remus exit the house, and waved a hello to him.
He smiled back, and waved hesitantly. Taking a few steps down the front doorsteps, he looked around him quietly. Everyone here was a wizard or witch, or would be soon. They were all born from wizarding families, or half wizarding families at least.
"Hello!" a voice greeted him cheerfully from behind him. Remus nearly jumped, but let out a sigh, and turned around to see who it was. "Er, hi," Remus answered, seeing that the person who greeted him was walking across their lawn, and stopped about three feet away from Remus.
He noticed that the boy's hair was very messy and was a jet-black colour. The boy also had glasses, that were crooked against his face, from either playing, or running. He had a cheerful smile on his face. The clothes he was wearing were pretty simple, just worn out jeans, and a black short-sleeved shirt.
"James Potter," he said, extending a hand to Remus, who smiled slightly and shook the boy's hand. "Remus Lupin," he answered with his own name.
James blinked, and rose a brow after he heard Remus' name. "Odd name. Lupin means wolf, or something like that, right? What's Remus mean?" asked James curiously.
"My Mother named me that. She said I was named after a Roman person who was raised by a wolf...can't really remember the rest of it, though," Remus answered, shrugging. "It's muggle stuff, by the way," he added quickly, seeing James' confused look.
"Oh..I see. Well, want to play? I got a hold of my Dad's wand after he left for work today, so we can cast some magic. I know a few spells," James suggested, smirking mischeviously and taking his Father's wooden wand out of his pocket and showing it to Remus. "Awesome isn't it?"
Remus smiled slightly, and nodded, even though he wanted to say that James would probably get into big trouble. If he did say that...well, he'd not really like to know. James was his only friend, and he'd like to keep it that way, even if it meant not telling him a few things.
"Right then, who should we prank? There's a few boys over there that really got on my nerves..." James trailed off and gestured over to the house across from them, where a few boys were playing. They didn't really seem the nice sort. "Or we could do something to the kids next door to you. They don't seem very friendly either," he added, nodding over to the brother and sister who were tormenting a poor cat out front.
Remus winced, and turned back around to face James. "I don't really mind. You choose," he answered, though he really wanted to see what would happen to his next door neighboors.
James grinned mischeviously, and walked over to the brother and sister, standing right behind them, with Remus right behind James. The two kids looked about their age, maybe a bit younger, but they looked mean enough to intimidate even Remus.
James reached out a hand, and tapped the boy on the shoulder with his father's wand.
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Remus sat on the living room couch, massaging a bruised cheek with one hand, and holding a pack of ice over his left eye.
This was a great way to make new friends, wasn't it? He thought to himself sarcastically.
It was about an hour after James had suggested they go pick on the siblings that lived next door to him.
The boy was much stronger than he looked when he turned around to face James and Remus.
'Whaddya want?' he had asked, as the girl looked up also, and glared at James.
'Why were you hurting that cat?' James asked, gesturing over towards the cat that had run off while the two kids were distracted.
'Why is that any of your business?' he asked, stepped up to James and glaring viciously at him.
James was too proud though, to step away. 'Because he's /my/ cat,' James replied.
'Your cat?' the boy repeated, smirking. 'Then your bloody cat needs to stay out of our yard,' he said.
James clenched his fists. 'He wasn't /doing/ anything to you!' he said angrily.
Remus bit his lip and looked between James and the kid. He knew this was going to end up in some sort of fight.
Well, after James' comment, things started to get really bad...Remus had tried to intervene, but had only gotten a black eye and bruised cheek for that. Father wouldn't really care, though. He doubted his father would even notice when he got home. Remus let out a sigh and stood up from the couch, before walking into the adjourning room, which led to the kitchen. He grabbed an apple from the fruit that had been laid out earlier, on the counter, and headed towards his room.
The only place where he could be alone when his Father was home, actually.
Midnight-blue paint adorned every wall in the room.
A light yellow circle had been painted in the corner of the room, on the right corner. It was shapped like a moon, with the blue around the moon growing lighter.
White stars dotted the sky, and twinkled magically on and off.
In the distance, he could almost hear a wolf howling.
He turned, and choked on his scream. Three feet away from his face, was a giant looking wolf, with gleaming yellow eyes, and black-matted fur. It growled, opened it's maw, showing yellow, long, teeth, before leaping and tackling Remus to the ground.
The room around him had changed...and was now a perfect duplicate of the forest in back of their old house.
The wolf bared it's teeth, and-
Remus let out a strangled cry, and sat up in bed, looking around his room anxiously. "Ju-just a dream," he murmured to himself, shaking his head and getting out of bed.
It was quite dark outside, considering it was about eleven at night. Though the boy had been outside in the dark many-a-time before, this time seemed...different. He rubbed his ice-cold palms together, and glanced up at the sky. There was something wrong. Something was wrong with Dad. What could he do, though? He was only eleven. "Mum, if you can hear me up there, can you let me have a good time at Hogwarts? Please?" His voice came out as a whisper, as he watched the sky with calm golden eyes. The brightest star shone clearly against the midnight-blue sky. "Sirius..."
He let a faint smile slip, and, though he didn't know why, he started to feel considerably better. He was too young to be worrying about life. All he had to do was move on with it, until real troubles came along. Then again, wasn't being a werewolf a real trouble? His mother had always said he'd been too smart sometimes, too mature, maybe.
"Wish you were here, Mum." Remus bit his lip and looked around him. He was being so jealous wasn't he? Being a werewolf meant you couldn't really have true friends...yet that was probably the only thing he wanted. Friends, a nicer family, and...he wanted his father to die.
A choked sob escaped from his throat. He didn't want Dad to leave...he'd been a good father until Remus had turned into a werewolf. It wasn't anyone's fault but his.
"So much for feeling better..." He sniffed and wiped away his tears quickly, before turning around and walking back inside their house quietly.
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Yeah...sorry this chapter is sorta short, compared to my last one. I was being rushed to write the end of it, so I did, finally, finish it. Next chapter you'll be able to see more of James (I think), and Remus'll be going to Hogwarts. Woohoo! Plus, there will be an appearance of dear 'ol Sirius, and -shifty eyes- Peter Pettigrew. Please R/R! And...sorry for any minor spelling errors, as I said, this chapter was done rather hurriedly.