Chapter Two – The Outcasts

"Mum this is the fifth box I've gotten off the porch. May I please go and see what else is around the neighborhood?"

Remus had sweat pouring down his forehead and chin. It was a very humid summer day and he was tired of carrying boxes in and out of the house for his mother. They had just moved in their third new home. They were moving about England, only because his parents thought their neighbors would get too suspicious at his sudden disappearances every month. They kept picking remote locations, with cheap rent and scarce amounts of people... only for Remus' protection.

But it wasn't his fault. Once the Ministry tried to track down the Werewolf that bit him, Remus found out (to his horror) that his bite might have been caused due to his father disagreeing with another employee at his job. His father insulted his boss, a certain Mr. Fenrir Greyback, and then quit his job at a Quidditch Merchandizing Plant. Not taking Mr. Lupin's attitude or actions lightly, it is said that Greyback found the location of the Lupin household and apparated there to prey on the residents. It was fortunate enough for Greyback that the Lupin's lived down the road from his relatives in Romania… so the night of the full moon he transformed and focused his energy on one thing: Lupin's only son.

Or at least that was the story.

For a while, Remus couldn't look his dad in the face. If he hadn't been so haughty to disagree with Greyback, then maybe he wouldn't have been bitten in the first place. After a few months, the boy decided he shouldn't hold a grudge against his father after all. No one knew that Greyback was a werewolf for sure as he wasn't registered as one. Unfortunately, the Ministry had no proof against the man, but fined him still for making terrorist-like threats against the Lupin family.

And despite the curse, Remus himself was tired of constant packing. His mother reassured him that this would be their final move, since Remus would be attending Hogwarts in a few years.

"If and only if you've swept the porch. It's a mess." His mother bargained, labeling the box that Remus had set down as 'Guest Room'.

"There's no need for me to clean it if you're just going to call my work lousy, and just do it better yourself." Remus snarled. His mother blinked up at him. She knew he had a drastic personality change ever since his werewolf bite. Remus became more moody and had sudden snaps of anger towards people when he didn't agree to their terms. As wise as she was, she sighed, brushed her hands off on her lucky smock, and stood up to look at her son.

"Why are you being so rebellious? I just asked you one simple question... just to sweep the porch before you go exploring," she reasoned, hands on her hips now.

"I don't want to." Remus snapped back, "It's pointless."

"Remus, you will watch your tones." His mother replied sternly, going to the back of their small kitchen and retrieving a beaten broom for Remus. She handed it to him, and he gazed at it, unmoving. "Take this broom and sweep the porch."

He stared at it. His mother sighed. "Please, Remus? Your father and I have made sacrifices for you just to move out to this nice area - and you won't even sweep the porch for me?"

"Mum..." the boy whined, now seizing the broom. He hated when his mother tried to make him feel guilty.

"Thank you Remus, you're such a good boy." His mother grinned, and kissed her only son on the forehead. Being a young boy, he scowled and tried to move out of his mother's arms. Playfully, he wiped the kiss off of his forehead, but he knew his mother meant well.

"And before you go..." his mother caught him, just about to leave, "I don't want you wandering too far off. Don't let too many people near the wood glimpse you... they may get suspicious if they see you going out there during a transformation and they may follow you. We don't need any incidents in our new neighborhood."

Remus growled. His mood had been uplifted until his mother's last words. "Fine! Matter of fact, I won't go off the porch at all!"

"Don't be like that, Remus. I want you to go and make friends, but just keep them at a distance, alright?" His mother replied gingerly, "Be cautious... that's all I ask."

"Bullocks!" Remus complained, leaving the shabby kitchen to go outside the house. He dragged the broom with him, though he and his mother knew that he had no intention of sweeping. "You won't have to worry about me attacking anyone here, anyway! It's no one outside except Muggles! And they never come near our house anyway when they know we've been here for a month already!"

"Remus John Lupin, you will watch your language and lower your voice!" his mother jeered hotly as his retreating back. "And you will sweep the porch sooner or later, mark my words, young man!"

Remus slammed the door instead of replying. With the neighborhood so new to him, he knew of nowhere to go to rid himself of his mother's constant worrying. Huffily, he sat on the steps of his stoop, glowering around his new neighborhood and at all the children who played merrily in the streets before him. None of them never looked his way, even though they passed right in front of him a half-dozen times, simply just ignoring his presence.

For a while, Remus caught himself staring longingly at a group of boys playing football down the road. The sport sent shivers down his spine; it was almost exactly three years ago that the incident had happened to him. Honestly, Remus knew his parents had tried all they could - but with little money, it was not too much that St. Mungo's hospital could do for him. He glared angrily at the boys passing the ball deliberately back and forth between them, as a smaller child yelled for them to play fairly. For a while, Remus found himself almost in an uncomfortable, sweaty, doze as he sat in the noon sun. Bitterly, he thought about what his mother yelled at him in the kitchen. He absentmindedly swatted a fly away from his face as he grasped the fact that it wasn't his fault bad luck always came his way.

A sudden whack of the gate door closing in his unkempt yard alerted him out of his brooding. He glanced around the shabby path that led from the fence to the stoop of the porch quite eagerly; expecting one of the boys had decided to finally give him a chance. His hopes diminished when his eyes locked on the weirdest child he had ever saw in his entire young life. Disgusted and angered he was awakened from his daydreams; Remus' eyes scanned the road. The group of boys was still playing absentmindedly at the end of the cul-de-sac.

"What?" he snarled at it. The child gasped, and stepped back, frightened. It held its hands over its mouth in horror.

"What, what?" asked the child, gawking at him. The high pitch of the person's voice made Remus' ears twitch. His senses had heightened ever since he retrieved the bite. At first, his maximized hearing hurt his ears terribly and gave him migraines. With his parents not being able to afford Calming Droughts, Remus learned quickly to adapt to his new senses. They were great to have around, though they usually perked up more around the time of a transformation.

"Why are you staring at me?" Remus growled, folding his arms. He blinked at the child. "Why are you in my yard?"

"Can we start over?" the child, who Remus found to be a girl, replied. She wrung her hands nervously, and Remus glowered at her. He chewed his lip and folded his arms, deciding on what he wanted to do with the little girl.

"Sure." He agreed in the end, sighing. "Why not?"

"Hallo," the girl greeted in a soft voice. She seemed frightened to even speak to him now. Fighting an urge to smirk, Remus gazed at the little girl, and realized that she couldn't have been any older than six or seven. She had a very thick waist-length braid with a beaded headband that indicated an Arabic origin, and wide, childish dark jade eyes that were hardly seen because they were behind very thick, jet black spectacles.

"Hi." Remus heard himself speak back, brushing his filthy hands on the sides of his slacks. In the sun, he himself had rather long sandy-blonde hair and almost-amber eyes. His hair, just like his senses, always seemed to maximize around the time of a transformation. It annoyed Remus to have to cut his hair so often. For now, his mother was just letting it grow freely. As he got older, he noticed a few hardly-noticeable freckles splashed along his nose. Sighing again, he squinted down at the girl in the blazing sunlight. "So… what's your name?"

"My name is Alanze Haru-Daniels, and I live across the street… two houses down, just there," the girl, now known to be Alanze, smiled widely, and pointed to her house. Remus gazed at her weakly for a few seconds, wondering how a child so young could talk so fast. Following the smile and the small arm that was pointing, Remus then looked in the general direction of where Alanze's house was. It was a typical home, much like the boy's own. Only two floors, and probably the same amount of rooms. The only difference was probably the color. Alanze's house was pretty and neat-looking silver, with black windows and a little garden of wildflowers right under the front windows. The simple beauty of their house made Remus uncomfortably unconscious about his own. The house the Lupin family had just brought and moved into was dusty, and the bronze paint that was left on the building was peeling off. There were no gardens, but instead was a horrible patch of weeds, that drew in a lot of pesky bugs and neighborhood strays.

"What is your name?" asked Alanze, smiling at the boy for the first time. In her mouth, it looked like a single strand of metal, which the boy had never seen before. He had to stop himself from staring at it.

"My name is Remus Lupin," the boy introduced himself. "What's that in your mouth?"

Alanze looked ecstatic to be asked such a question by a newcomer to her neighborhood. "It is called a ree-tainer." the girl tried to explain, but seemed to end up confusing herself. "I think."

"What's it for?" asked the boy, Remus. Now that he knew the contraption's name, he was eager to know what it was used for. "Why's it in your mouth?"

"I think my Mummy told me it was to help my teeth get better," Alanze said smiling again. The metal reflected the sun, and it made Remus squint. Trying not to seem rude, he absentmindedly glanced away at the girl, still to the group of young boys who were playing football in the cul-de-sac of the dirt road Alanze had called a "street".

"Those boys are mean gee-ites," Alanze told Remus, as she noticed where his gaze had lingered. She paused, folding her own arms and looking angry quite suddenly. "They tease me about my glasses and my ree-tainer."

Remus blinked. He had never met a kid younger than him that talked so much. Her drabble was starting to hurt his ears. "Well, I guess that's really not nice," he reasoned. "What'd you mean by gee-ites?"

"I don't know. It's a word the boys say often. They call each other gee-ites. I just thought I would sound older if I used the word." Alanze blushed furiously. Remus caught himself right before he burst into laughter.

"Gits!" he yelled suddenly, grinning. "Git. Is that the word they say?"

"Yes." Alanze blushed again. "What does it mean?"

"I guess you used it right... I mean, to call someone a git... it's kinda like... calling them stupid." Remus choked back laughter. He couldn't believe that the girl hadn't known what the word meant, but still tried to use it. "Are the boys really gits?"

Alanze laughed uncomfortably. Remus saw a bit of himself in her as her cheeks flamed heat. He could tell she wasn't used to speaking slang words. He remembered he used to feel the same way about swear words.

"Yes, I'd think so," she timidly replied.

Remus was about to reply, still grinning, when his house door opened, and his mother came out. In the sunlight, the woman was tall and slim, and had long sandy blonde hair, much like Remus' own. She had deep, expressive blue eyes and a scowl on her face.

"Remus, I told you I wanted you to sweep the porch!" she ranted, cheeks glowing at her son's open defiance.

Remus wheeled around, racking his brain for an excuse for why he did not do what he was told. He stopped trying to invent a lie when he saw that his mother didn't seem very angry at all. Her whole facial expression had changed when she realized that they had a visitor on their stoop.

"Remus--" the woman started, squatting down next to her son, "Could you introduce me to your new friend?"

Remus shrugged. He hated when his mother tried to treat him as if he was still six years old. "Mum this is Alanze Haru-Daniels. Alanze, meet my Mum, Selena Lupin."

Alanze pushed up her spectacles, and smiled at Remus' mother, her retainer reflecting the sunlight again. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Lupin," she responded quietly, with a flourished curtsy.

Remus' eyebrows flew up into his hairline, and he choked back a snort. Selena's eyebrows rose a bit too, but she also had smiled. "Well, how pleasant. It's nice to meet you too."

There was an awkward silence, and Remus got to his feet. He watched his mother carefully as she observed the two children, and then opened her mouth to speak.

"Would you two like to come in to have some lemonade and fresh cookies?" Selena offered, for once taking off her signature-checkered smock. "We haven't had lunch, and I thought a snack would be perfect until Mr. Lupin brings home dinner a bit later."

"That sounds great!" Alanze cheered, when Remus felt differently.

"I feel a catch," he smirked at his mother.

"I was just thinking, that maybe after a snack... would you both want to help Remus' father and I paint the outside of the house?"

Remus blinked at his mother. He wanted to paint the house was much as he had wanted to sweep the porch. A nagging at the back of his brain made him comprehend the deal. Subconsciously, as a 9-year-old child, he couldn't resist an offering of cookies and lemonade.

"Peanut butter with chocolate chips?" he questioned, almost tasting the delicious treat in his mouth.

Selena laughed. "Yes Remus. I know they're your favorite. Does this mean you're also agreeing to painting the outside of the house?"

"I guess so..." Remus added grudgingly. Slowly, he turned his hazel eyes to Alanze. "Can you come?" he asked excitedly, "Mum's cookies are the greatest! They're really good. Trust me, the painting will be worth it after you eat 'em!"

"I'll need to ask my mother," Alanze said uncertainly, with a phony laugh to Remus' comments. "But I think probably can."

"Well, Remus, run across the road with her. She can ask her mother if she could have permission to spend time at our house, and if her mother agrees, she can come to help," Selena told the kids, smiling wisely, before standing up and going back inside the house. "I'll be in the kitchen when you return."

"Alright. C'mon, Alanze." Remus said, before running out his small front yard, pass the fence, and heading towards the silver house across the road. "Race you there!"

"You cheated, Remus!" Alanze yelled, as she chased her new friend across the street to her house.

Remus grinned, and ran slower to let the littler girl catch up. He wasn't quite content with the choice of company, but as his father always told him, "Beggars can't be choosers". Unfettered for the first time since his family had moved into the poor part of their town, Remus now had a friend. His grin spread further across his face, as Alanze's mother agreed, and they set back off, avoiding cars, to Remus' house on the other side of the road. It was nice having a friend, even though she was a girl, who liked him for just being his boring self, and not because he was a new kid, or one more of the odd people who just happened to live in that part of England.