CW: suicide
Remus came to inside of a cramped, steel-barred cage within a large cave, its wide mouth gaping open to reveal a snowy woodland beyond. Werewolves slipped in and out of the cave at all hours of the day, muttering to themselves and stealing furtive glances at Remus, but none of them ever approached him except for the old lady who brought him stale meat and bread a couple of times a day. She wouldn't speak to him when he asked her questions; Remus got the sense that she'd been forbidden to. The lady did manage to sneak a ragged blanket into his cage on one particularly cold night when the chill and damp of the cave had been harsh enough to numb Remus's skin, but she'd torn it off of him the next morning once the sun had returned.
Remus watched two days pass through the alternating spells of light and dark coming through the mouth of the cave, but he didn't need to see the sun set or rise to know that the full moon was coming soon; that he could feel in his bones, in the way his scent and the scent of the other wolves grew sharper and more wolfish as time went on. He didn't know how he would survive a transformation inside of his little cage—maybe he would be able to break out of it. He wondered how long Fenrir's pack had been staying here—hopefully any humans living nearby had already left. Oh, Merlin, please.
On Remus's third afternoon as a captive, he was paid a visit by three figures wielding burning torches; as they entered the cave, the wolves inside all rose to their feet and bowed to the burly man at their head, whom Remus assumed must be their leader. He had graying hair and sharp eyes, and when he grinned, Remus saw that his teeth had been filed down into sharp points. Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf who had bitten him. Remus felt even more numb at the sight of him than he had when he'd nearly frozen to death the night before.
"Remus Lupin," Fenrir said, leaning down to meet Remus at eye level. Remus could hardly stand to look at him, but he found it impossible to tear his gaze away. "I remember you—or your father, at least. A funny choice of name, eh? Named after a man raised by wolves, and yet you're a wolf raised by men."
"You thought my parents would throw me out," Remus said. His voice was quiet, but it was filled with an acidic sort of strength.
"Most parents do," Fenrir replied simply.
"You wanted me to be one of yours." Remus dragged himself closer to the bars of the cage. "But I'm not, and I never will be. You're a monster."
Fenrir threw back his head in a laugh. "So are you, pup, to most of the wizarding world. It all depends on your perspective."
"I am nothing like you." Remus's voice was getting louder, quivering under the weight of his anger. "I don't attack children and rip them from their families. I don't attack anyone."
"Allow me, Fenrir," said one of the men behind him. Fenrir reluctantly pulled away from Remus and allowed the other two visitors to examine him; it wasn't until he had returned to the shadows that Remus could spare any attention for either of them. One, the man who had spoken, was Lord Voldemort, cloaked and sinister—the other was Severus Snape, his face contorted with loathing. He was a full-fledged Death Eater, just as the Marauders had always suspected.
"I offered to let you join my ranks once," Voldemort said, the fire of his torch licking at the bars of Remus's cage. "Had I known then what sort of creature you really are, I wouldn't have bothered."
"Severus didn't tell you?" Remus asked, his gaze fixed on Snape.
Voldemort's serpentine eyes flicked briefly to his Death Eater companion before returning to Remus. "Severus has been remarkably tight-lipped about you and your friends ever since he learned that I asked you to join me. School rivalries are difficult to overcome, I suppose." Remus saw Snape flinch a little at his master's reduction of his hatred to a school rivalry. "But it is no matter. You are going to be of far more use to me here."
Remus's heart began to race. "Whatever you do to me," he said, "I won't tell you anything about the Order." Unless Voldemort had Veritaserum—he was sure Snape knew how to brew it—or used the Imperius Curse…Remus wondered how long he would be able to resist. No one could forever.
Voldemort's eyes glimmered. "I don't intend to do anything to you, werewolf. You're only here as bait." He glanced behind him to Fenrir's wolves. "I've heard a rumor that your friends from the Order are on their way here right now, intending to rescue you. Unfortunately for them, doing so will require their walking into a werewolf den on the night of the full moon. I can't see that ending well for them." Remus drew a shallow breath, flinching back. Voldemort leaned forward in response, wrapping his slender fingers around the bars of the cage. "We'll be sure to let you out of here in time to join in. It's time for you to realize just how much of a monster you truly are."
"No," Remus breathed. Images flashed at dizzying speed through his mind—horrible images of his wolfish self tearing apart his friends, their screams ringing in his ears…Sirius pleading for him to stop, Remus lunging for his throat….
"No!" Remus slammed himself against the bars of his cage, desperately trying to summon magic to bend them or weaken them, anything to let him out. He had to escape before the moon rose, but the sun was already beginning to sink beneath the bare trees outside, and Remus could feel the wolf in him growing stronger, ready to surface and take over.
Remus grabbed at his throat, choking himself until he gagged; he'd rather be dead than kill while he was a wolf. Why hadn't the werewolves just killed him when they captured him? Why hadn't he taken his life with the Augenda Potion all those years ago, back when he'd almost killed Snape underneath the Shrieking Shack? He was going to become a murderer tonight, and it was all his fault.
Fenrir laughed at Remus's futile attempts. "It's a little harder than that, pup. Your body wants to keep you alive—your wolf wants to keep you alive. He's starving…for the first time in his life, he's going to get to do what he was born to do. You should be thanking us."
Fenrir, Snape and Voldemort drew back from the cage, leaving Remus screaming and pleading for death as they stepped out into the fading afternoon light, waiting for the Order to arrive.
