Remus was five when he was bit.
It wasn't a coincidence that he was bitten. His father had been a Ministry official in Fenrir Greyback's trial, during which Greyback was found innocent of killing two children. His father had spoken out against Greyback's release, calling for a guilty verdict and the death penalty, calling his species an abomination. As retribution for the interview he'd given in the Daily Prophet, Greyback went after their only child.
Greyback knew how to kill, and the kid was never supposed to die. With Lyall Lupin's words ringing in his ears, Greyback bit him once and disappeared back into the night. He had turned the Lupin boy into something his father believed was an abomination, and that was his revenge.
Remus's parents burned through their savings. They took him to every Healer imaginable, traveling from Japan to Argentina. Some of them tried to treat him, unsuccessfully. But every Healer always began and ended with the same refrain, that there was no cure for the condition. Resigned to his fate, his parents reluctantly packed up and moved to a house in Ireland, in the middle of nowhere. There, Remus could transform in the basement, where nobody but his parents could hear him undergo the painful transformation.
His mom homeschooled him from then on out, and as early as eight, she began negotiations with Hogwarts. She was determined for Remus to receive a magical education, and she was particularly hopeful that Dumbledore's empathy and progressive views would allow Remus to attend. She worked with him personally as they built the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow on the grounds of the school.
His father was a different story. Unlike his mom, he was never able to believe that their little Remy was the same, sweet boy that he had always been. Remus was quite literally a different species now, and because of it, his father lived in a constant state of paranoia. He was convinced that one day, Remus would turn out to be the same bloodthirsty monster that Greyback and all werewolves were. He even said as much to Remus one night, when he'd had too much firewhiskey, and his wife had gone to bed.
He warned Remus what he was, and Remus never forgot.
Remus went off to Hogwarts, determined not to let a soul find out what he was. He made an effort to stay out as late as possible, so that his roommates always went to bed before him. That way, on full moon nights, they would go to bed without ever wondering where he was. He slept in the library until Madam Pince kicked him out. He slept in classrooms until professors found him there in the morning.
Most of all, he tried to keep everybody at arm's length. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep the façade up for long if he made close friends. They would ask him why he was so tired, where all the scratches came from. They would have endless questions until they found out what he was, and then, they would stop being friends with him. After all, who would want to be friends with a werewolf?
It worked for a bit, but Remus had a kind streak that he couldn't shake.
He helped his roommates with their homework a handful of times, especially when it was the night before the assignment was due, and they seemed to be much more interested in going to bed than actually finishing their work. Remus could easily see that they were just as smart as he was, but they didn't work very hard. They didn't care about the details that they needed to write their essays – the Latin roots of spells, the history of them. They were just good at casting them.
Barely two months into school, after Remus had helped James write an entire essay twenty minutes before Potions class, James and Sirius decided that Remus was officially their friend. They started inviting him to nearly everything they did, but Remus kept his distance. He tried his best to shake them off, but they always came back. Sirius would sling an arm around Remus's shoulder, and James would start talking about some newfound way to get them into trouble.
And then, of course, there was their fourth roommate. James and Sirius picked on him a bit, but it didn't seem to deter him. Peter always came back for more, and eventually, they just got used to having him around. Plus, he was getting at getting them out of trouble. Whenever they got caught, Peter always had a story ready. The professors could never tell when he was lying, and in fact, neither could Remus.
Remus managed to keep his secret for two years, until they learned about werewolves in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class in third year. The questions they started asking multiplied, and they found out by November. Remus would have been happy never to address it, but his friends had always been more the confrontational type. He figured at worst, they would try to get him kicked out of school so that they wouldn't have to live with a werewolf. He figured at best, they would stop being his friend.
"You were gone during the full moon," Sirius said quietly, just sitting on his bed. James and Peter were sitting on the floor beside him. Remus was still standing at the door, having just walked in. He was dumbfounded, shocked that he was being confronted like this. Before he could think of anything brilliant to say, James added lazily, "For the fourth month in a row."
"I told you, it's my mom," Remus said lamely, dropping the books he was holding. He cleared his throat to buy himself some more time. "She's gotten – "
"Cut it out," Sirius said, crossing his arms and standing up.
"You know we're not buying that anymore," Peter added, chiming in with them. "You've been disappearing on us since first year."
Remus's heart was racing, and he felt close to crying. His friends were already all on the same page, like they had rehearsed this conversation. They were just throwing evidence at him, piece by piece. They were even drawing out this accusation process, and it felt to Remus like he was on trial.
"Okay, get it over with," Remus managed to say.
"Get what over with?" James asked, sounding confused. "We just want you to tell us the truth."
"Why?" Remus bit out, shaking his head in confusion. "You seem like you already know." He looked away from where they were sitting, unable to meet any of their gazes, and began scanning the room for his things. Once this conversation was over, he would pack up as quickly as possible and write to his mom. He couldn't bear the thought of living with them, now that they knew. His father was right. He should've just stuck to homeschooling. He wasn't cut out for a normal life, wasn't cut out to be friends with them.
"Why? Because that's what friends do," Sirius said, very matter-of-factly. "You know we don't care, right?"
Remus took some convincing, but he realized that his friends meant what they said. They really didn't care that he was a werewolf, which was an entirely new concept to Remus. His mom had coddled him his entire life, shielding him from the world. His father had hated him for it, whether he admitted it or not. The idea that his friends just accepted it, without ever treating him differently, changed Remus. They taught him that he could be normal, and Remus knew he had friends for life.
And then, a couple days after an introduction to Animagi in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Peter had showed up with a stack of Transfiguration textbooks. He was chattering about talking to McGonagall about her own transformation, and what he had learned about the process. Despite Remus's protests, James and Sirius were immediately hooked on the idea. It took them two years to figure out the transformation, and a couple extra weeks for them to teach it to Peter, but they couldn't leave him out again after that. Not after it was his idea, and not after all the detentions that Peter had gotten them out of.
With them, Remus felt almost human during his transformation. And slowly, he learned to stop hating himself. He knew himself inside and out. He was not dangerous or bloodthirsty, he knew he could hold a regular job, and in all aspects – he was normal. The myths and the stereotypes weren't true for him, and Remus guessed that they weren't true for a majority of werewolves. It really wasn't anything besides a furry little problem, as James liked to call it in public.
"That's it," Sirius spat. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, as though he was trying to wipe off the stench of the stink bomb. "I mean it. It's an all-out war against the Slytherins this year."
"Here, I got it," Peter said sympathetically. "I learned this after a couple nasty cooking spills this summer." Although Peter reeked just as badly of rotten eggs as any of them, he pointed his wand at Sirius first, who was clearly the most irate of the group. "Scournidor."
Remus took a step towards Sirius and gave a tentative sniff. It was hard to tell if the smell was actually gone, because Remus smelled it on himself so badly. He waited for Peter to quickly cast the spell on the rest of them, and the problem seemed to be resolved. He turned reluctantly towards their compartment, sure that one cleaning spell wouldn't get rid of the scent in there.
However, Sirius had a fix for that. He opened the door of the nearest compartment, where a handful of startled second years were sitting. "Move!" he barked. "The Head Boy – "
James elbowed him in the back, hard.
"Shut up," James muttered under his breath, although the second years were already scurrying to get their things out of the compartment. "I told you, this isn't why I applied for the position."
"Mate, I know why you applied for the position. This should be a close second after Evans," Sirius shot back, although he was crossly rubbing his back where James had elbowed him.
"Great," Sirius said, settling into their new compartment, taking up most of the seat.
"Thanks for saving space for the rest of us," Remus said dryly.
"Aw, Moony, you can sit next to me. I won't bite," Sirius said. Making a big show of it, Sirius moved about three inches to the door to make room for Remus. He patted the narrow space between him and the wall, grinning at Remus invitingly. Sirius was apparently in better spirits now that he didn't smell of rotten eggs.
"So, we're getting back at the Slytherins?" Peter asked, pulling out some popcorn from his bag. He seemed to constantly have snacks on him.
"Yes," Sirius said definitively.
"Come on," James said reluctantly, at the same time.
"Look, they're entitled pricks," Sirius said. "They walk around Hogwarts like they own the damn place. Their daddies buy them spots on the Quidditch teams, bigger rooms than the rest of us, and they get into the same shit as us without suffering the same consequences. They're going to get into the real world like this and think that they can get away with anything – jobs at the Ministry, sympathizing with Voldemort, even becoming Death Eaters, if that's what they want. This isn't just about school and pranking them back anymore."
"So you're saying it's our job to teach them a lesson?" Peter asked.
"During school, and after it," Sirius said confidently, lounging back in his seat, one arm behind where Remus was sitting. He looked at them expectantly, waiting for his friends to say something.
"Look, I don't know," Remus began slowly. Before he could keep going, Sirius cut him off.
"They've been doing more and more Dark magic here at Hogwarts," Sirius said forcefully. "Right under Dumbledore's nose. You remember what they did to Macdonald in fifth year? How every time Snivellus gets a hit at James now, he draws blood? We have to start hitting back, hard."
"It's a fair point," James admitted. "But I don't know how involved I can be, now that I'm Head Boy. They just have to prove it was me one time, and I'll lose my position."
"All we need is your brain, Prongs," Sirius said. "We don't need you on the front lines. Plus, I'll consider it a win if we just whoop their asses in Quidditch."
"I also don't know how much I can help," Remus said, taking the same apologetic tone as James. "Plus, I'm not even sure this is a good idea. It's only going to push them farther to the right."
"It's the definition of a victimless crime," Sirius protested.
"Regardless of whether or not I think it's a good idea, I can't be too involved. It's going to be hard enough for me to find a job as it is," Remus explained. "I want to stay out of the execution of these plans, too."
"So I'm doing everything?" Sirius asked, giving Remus and James a dirty look.
"I'll help," Peter said. "And we can always get McKinnon and Macdonald to help, too. McKinnon is the only one who hates the Slytherins even more than we do."
"Actually, that's a great idea," James said, suddenly more enthusiastic about the idea. "Also, I bet McKinnon is already in with the anti-rebels. I know we've all talked about wanting to help stop the Dark Rebellion after we graduate, and I just know if we can prove to McKinnon that we're trustworthy, we have a way in."
"Plus, she's part of Evan's trio," Sirius added. "Talk about a way in."
"You know I'm right," James said defensively. "How else are you planning to join? Show up to Dumbledore's office and ask for an invitation?"
"I want to get back at them by tonight," Sirius said thoughtfully, ignoring James. "I wonder if we can do something to them on the train."
"Or at the feast," Remus added.
"Anybody bring any stink bombs?"
"I have laxatives," Peter said. "We could spike all the food at the end of the table, where the seventh years sit."
After a pause, James said, "I thought we said less pranky, more real life stuff."
"What do you mean by 'real life stuff'?" Remus asked.
"Sabotaging their careers, things like that," Sirius said. "But we can't do that by tonight, and this is hilarious. You think you can get by the house elves?"
"If you keep them busy, I can manage it," Peter said. "So you're in?"
"I'm in."
A quick note before we continue... This story is my character-centric way of telling the story of the anti-rebellion. Rowling's version of it was always too white and cishetero for me, so I take a lot of liberties to create characters that I can actually see working to fight Voldemort. I also try to fill in a lot of the unanswered questions we have from the canon era. Blood purism is obviously a huge part of the story, and I most often parallel to racism in our own world. This is a blanket warning that this fic engages with racism (and antiracism) quite a bit, as well as issues such as addiction, sexuality, violence, ableism, etc. Please let me know if you think my writing is in any way problematic. Social justice education is always continuing, and I'm happy and willing to learn more (especially if you are kind about it). It's impossible for me to hold all of the identities that I give the characters in this story, so I'm not going to do a perfect job with representation. My inbox is always open, and please rate and review!