Third chapter's a charm! :) This one is a bit longer, so I hope it's interesting enough to keep you reading.
The dank floor smelled of blood and straw. Remus woke up slowly, as she always did. Her eyes did not wish to see as she pried their lids apart. The fuzzy picture around her slowly became clearer and clearer, until she could see the ceiling. She was lying on her back, with her limbs contorted into strange positions. She sat up, and groaned as every bone cracked and popped. Her shoulder wasn't moving. Remus could tell just by the feel of it that it was out of place.
That happened quite often with her transformations. Every bone in her body was moved around during it, and sometimes, they did not always end up back in their correct spaces. With her free hand, she grabbed her arm and shoved it back up into the socket as her father had shown her before. Many of her wounds were reopening as she began to move about. She touched her face and sighed in relief when there were no wounds there.
As she began to rise, the memories came flooding back and she fell back to the floor.
Hunger. Hunger. Must…must eat…must fight.
Remus tried to shake the thoughts out of her head, but they would not go.
Burns. Skin burns, hurts. Have to get out of it.
She could hear the screaming and the howling that it became, and she hated it with a passion, but she had to get out of this room. She hated the cellar. She hated the blood stained stones and the old blanket her father always rewashed and placed in a secret compartment just for her.
She pulled the thick wool over herself and limped out to the basement. Her father was there, reading the news, trying not to appear to be worried.
Remus was not dumb. She knew the truth. Every time, he could hear her screaming, begging to be let out before the wolf took over completely. He could hear her body breaking and her teeth tearing away at her own flesh. And every time, he would cry, but he would still make her breakfast and tend to her wounds.
She wished she could just be a normal girl for once, but that was never going to happen. She chomped down on the rather large breakfast as he cleaned her up. The thing about werewolf wounds was that they could never truly heal. They would always leave scars. Some were worse than others, but they were always there.
One step at a time, she made her way up the stairs and got dressed.
Her father waved her off as the train sped away from the 9 ¾ platform. There was no turning back. With a stiff everything, Remus relied on her cane to get her back to an empty seat. In one compartment, she spotted three boys. One was James, and the other was a boy with long, greasy black hair and a rather large nose. The other boy had curly black hair and a lopsided smile.
The large smile grew as he spoke, "So which house would you go to, if you had a choice?"
"Gryffindor! Where the brave dwell!" James sang. The black hair boy made a noise. "What, you got a problem with that?"
"No, not if you'd rather be brawny than brainy." He said in such a monotone voice, Remus almost started laughing. James caught sight of her, and his smile grew even more. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and waved her in,
"Hey Remus! And you, Snivellus, you're no fun, you can leave." James glared at the boy with black hair whose name was probably not Snivellus.
Remus walked past Snivellus, or whatever his name was, she smiled but he only glowered. She sat across from the two boys and tried to make sure that her smile didn't waver. She was just so tired. Her neck was stiff, and she really needed to crack it, but that could potentially show her scars.
"Remus, this is Sirius." James introduced her to the smiling lad. Sirius smiled at Remus and said hello. Some girls walked past, and his eyes followed them, flipping his hair. Remus was expecting the girls to roll their eyes, or at least just keep walking, but instead, they giggled like idiots and sheepishly smiled.
"So, what house are you hoping to get?" James asked as he bit into a chocolate frog. Remus' stomach lurched, and she realized that she was starving…again.
"Um…I don't know, I guess Gryffindor." She wasn't quite sure actually. Gryffindor would be nice, but she wasn't exactly "brave". Maybe Hufflepuff would be more for her, but she wasn't all that loyal, or friendly. Maybe they would make a special house just for her. Lupin: House of the one lone female werewolf that doesn't really fit in anywhere else.
She'd have to work on a title for it.
"What about you, Sirius? Slytherin?"
At that, Sirius made a gagging noise and stuck his finger in his mouth. "Merlin's pants, I hope not! Just because my whole family was doesn't mean I have to be."
"True." James muttered, and they fell into an awkward silence. Maybe she could call her house Lupin: home of the misfits. At least that was a bit shorter.
Her neck was hurting. She had to crack it. Now. Just really quickly. Remus cracked her neck to the side and sighed in relief as the pain subsided. She should have checked her robes. She didn't notice that it had slipped down a bit and revealed a portion of her collar bone.
Sirius was starring at Remus. She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. Finally the darker haired boy spoke up.
"Rem, what's that from?" Sirius asked. Remus looked down to where he was pointing and almost jumped out of her skin. The scar was showing, and now James was starring too. Remus pulled her robe up, and tried to curl up into a tiny call of nothing.
"Um..I..uh..Cat." she said quickly. "My dad has this cat that is really mean. It, uh, it scratched me good."
James and Sirius looked at each other like they were buying it, and then they busted out in a fit of laughter. Remus just smiled and gave a few small chuckles.
"Could you brainless twits keep it down in there?" Snivellus asked. Everyone stopped giggling. Remus suddenly noticed that her feet were the most interesting thing in the world. Seriously, where had they been her whole life? Well, right there, but they were never this interesting.
"What did you call me, Snivelly?" James asked.
Look at that, there is a speck on my left shoe.
"Must I speak any slower?"
When did that speck get there?
"Could. You. Brainless. Twits. Keep. It. Down. In. Here?"
I really hope it washes off. These are new shoes.
"Twits? I'll show you, you slimy snake!"
"Slimy snake? Is that the best you got, Potter?"
"What about Snivellus, Snivellus, the boy with the nose so large everyone was sure that's where he kept his wand?"
Oh, there the speck goes. That's nice. I'm glad my shoes aren't-
Snivellus had suddenly pulled out a long, dark wand, and Remus' eyes finally rose from the floor. James' mouth had dropped open, and now Sirius wasn't laughing, but standing next to James with a look on his face that was completely and utterly, well, serious.
"You aren't supposed to have that!" Sirius said. James touched his arm lightly.
"Don't worry, Snivelly won't do anything rash or stupid, oh, wait, he is wanting to be a part of the Slytherins."
At that, Snivellus began saying some words that were unknown to Remus, but they sounded bad. The end of his wand began to flicker with light, and her body regained some of its strength. She stood and pushed James, along with Sirius, down to the ground, and took the hex.
Her body collapsed back on the chair and her back arched off the leather. It hurt so much, and there was a pop, a crack. She strained to open her eyes and saw James and Sirius standing above her.
"Get back!" she screamed. "Get back!"
They listened, but they didn't get out of the compartment. She was going to kill everyone on this train. But then, she felt the first boil. She wasn't changing. The other boils popped up all over her body. They popped like bubble wrap, each movement sending another two or three exploding. A soft hand touched her shoulder, and she smiled, which popped even more, but it didn't hurt all that much. Sirius smiled back, aghast.
"You just…you…wow." Was all he could say.
"What are you doing, standing there, Severus?" James yelled, slipping out of the nickname in his panic. Remus couldn't believe all the worry she was hearing.
"I..I'm so so-"
"Go get some help!"
"I didn't mean-"
"GO get a prefect, now!" James bellowed. He stood straight, barking the order at Severus with such force that Remus almost wanted to get up and go find her own help. James turned to her, and his expression softened.
"You didn't have to do that." He said.
Remus shrugged, ignoring the slight pain she felt. "Thought he could be casting a much worse hex."
"Worse than boils?" Sirius asked with a shudder. Remus nodded her swollen head.
"Could be puking slugs." Oh, how she wished she could say, "Could be ripping out of your own skin at every full-moon."
"Ew!" James and Sirius said at the same time. They stood by her until a prefect came and sorted the boil problem out, and they still stayed. They stayed together the whole ride to Hogwarts. They, together, looked out the window in awe.
It was strange to feel this way, but Remus knew that they were going to be friends. Hell, they already were.