A Mate
Chapter 1: An Unexpected ChangeRemus stared at himself in the mirror with increasing panic.
What the hell had happened?
He looked into eyes that had merged from brown to amber and touched his long shaggy hair, noting again that there was that golden tint added to his previously plain– looking locks. The most obvious change (and the most annoying) was how much he'd suddenly grown. He was now almost as tall as his best friend Sirius. His limbs and torso had stretched, making him appear lithe and slender. Yet, despite how good his new lean body looked, he could hardly move without tripping over himself, being unused to these different proportions.
He tried to turn around, but proved his earlier observation correct and stumbled. He ended up lying sprawled on the floor, until someone opened his bedroom door – most likely at the loud noise he'd caused.
"Remus, what are you... Oh, Merlin!"
Remus winced at his mother's shock and he looked up at her helplessly from the floor.
"Mum, could you please help me up? I can't seem to move very well at the moment," he asked her quietly.
"Wh-What happened honey?" she asked her son, as she hesitantly helped him to his bed. "You look, different..."
"I just woke up like it," Remus said miserably.
Liana Lupin's calm demeanour disappeared, and she slowly put her face into her hands as she sat next to Remus.
"I think I'd better call your father," his mother said, that horrible hint of almost ancient sadness in her voice.
How he despised that tone. It was only used when they talked of his... condition.
"Jon, I think you should come up here," Remus' mum called his father.
Remus crawled to the top of the bed and curled up, wrapping his long arms around himself. He wondered why it had to be now that something weird was happening to him. Everything was just starting to go so well. His friends were nearly finished becoming Animagi, and soon they'd be able to join him in his lonely transformations. Remus felt so grateful he had such good friends. Their loyalty and support when they'd found out what he was had shocked him, as he had been sure that he would be shunned.
The Marauders were now like his brothers, and over the four years he'd been at Hogwarts, he had never been happier. The young werewolf almost hadn't wanted to go back for the Christmas break to his parents, but seeing as it was his sixteenth birthday as well as Christmas, he thought they'd be disappointed if he hadn't gone home. He did miss Sirius, James and Peter but he'd had a really nice Christmas and birthday, being owled his presents and cards from his friends, whom were all home as well.
And now this.
He had just turned sixteen years old, and now it seemed that puberty had finally decided to pounce on him. He wasn't exactly unhappy that he'd finally changed from the eleven-year-old body he'd been stuck in for the past five years, but this strange jump confused and worried him.
"What's the matter Liana?" his dad asked, coming into his bedroom.
"It's happened, Jon." She gestured to Remus and his father sighed when he saw him, not seeming to be very surprised at Remus' sudden change.
"You knew this would happen?" Remus asked his parents anxiously.
Remus had thought his parents respected him enough to not keep things from him any more; to not treat him like a child. They remarked often enough he was sometimes too mature. He'd heard them with his sensitive ears in the nights he spent at home discuss his oddly adult attitude with something close to unease. So why did they believe he wouldn't be able to deal with this situation?
Unless...
"The Registry Office directed us to a help group when we told them you weren't growing like a normal child. They said it was rare for children under the age of sixteen to be bitten, but the ones who were..." His mother trailed off and tears appeared in her eyes.
Remus became increasingly anxious as he watched his father's face contort with sadness and gently wrap a comforting arm around his mother, comforting her as Remus couldn't – through touch. Remus didn't like to be touched; he found it uncomfortable and intrusive. He'd overheard a Ministry official informing his parents when he was younger, that werewolves were sensitive to scent, and so his instincts would be to stay away from humans, as their scent was one that was particularly overwhelming. If a human touched a werewolf often, then their scent would become intertwined with the werewolf's scent, and if marred with that human scent then the werewolf would be allowing a kind of 'claim'. This was something, the official had said quietly, that they didn't find acceptable. His parents therefore avoided contact with him, although Remus sometimes felt it was more to do with fear of the wolf than to entertain any preference of his.
"So, what's happening to me?" Remus asked his parents slowly, trying to keep calm.
"Well, we don't know the details, they wouldn't really explain much the last time we contacted them. Seeing as we are going to the Registry Office tomorrow for you to be registered, we may as well ask what it is that's going on."
"So this is all because I'm a werewolf?" Remus asked them, ignoring his parents' winces at the word. "What did the Registry Office say before?"
"Well, like your father said we don't-"
"Liana, we may as well stop babying him. As we can all see he definitely isn't a child any longer," Remus' father said gruffly. "Remus, what we were told before may not be true now, but they said that children bitten before maturing had a very short life span. Six months after they hit puberty, when they suddenly change from child to adult, the person concerned slowly goes insane and usually dies soon after."
"Oh... oh," Remus said blankly.
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To be continued...