Sirius turned over restlessly in his bed and looked out his window. He was supposed to be asleep. His bedtime was hours ago and Lucille would not be happy if she found out he was still awake. Sirius couldn't help himself. He couldn't sleep. Looking back out his window, Sirius found his gaze drawn to the moon. He felt proud when he remembered that it was a full moon. Lucille had just taught him that.

Gazing at the bright moon, Sirius felt a strange feeling in his heart. His ignored it, fascinated by how the moon reflected off everything and lit up his village. Sirius didn't know it, but he would spend future full moon nights restlessly gazing at the moon with that strange feeling in his heart. It would be years before Sirius realized that it felt like the moon was calling him outside.

OoO

"Lu?" Remus said a quaver in his voice.

Lupa looked at her brother. It had been a month since Remus had been attacked by the werewolf. As the doctor had promised, Remus' injuries had healed until all that remained of them were scars. Of those scars only the one that ran across his cheek was visible. There was nothing about the scar to suggest that it had been received in a werewolf attack. It looked like a normal scar that a child might receive in a number of ways.

"Yes Remus?" She said.

"I'm scared." Remus whimpered.

Lupa felt her heart break. Tonight was the night of the full moon. In just a few hours the moon would rise and Remus would be forced to undergo a very painful transformation into a werewolf. Any child would be scared of having to endure something like that. It was something no one should have to endure, let alone a four year old child.

Over the last month, Lupa had sent servants out to buy all the books on werewolves they could find. The books were mostly full of prejudice and hatred but they did have a few facts. Those facts had been enough to make Lupa terrified of the upcoming night. She wouldn't let it show though. Remus was already frightened and she needed to be able to reassure him. She couldn't do that if she let her own fear show.

So instead of saying that she was scared as well, Lupa opened her arms.

"Come here, Remus." She said.

Remus came and nestled into her arms, curling up against her chest the way he always did as her arms wrapped around him.

"You don't need to be scared. I promised that I would look out for you tonight, didn't I." Remus nodded against her. "Have I ever broken a promise to you?" This time Remus shook his head. "And I won't." Lupa promised.

She loosened her hold on Remus and pushed him away enough so that she could see his face.

"Look at me, Remus."

Remus looked up and his now amber eyes met her green ones.

"I promise you will be alright tonight. I will be there the entire time and I won't let anything happen to you. Do you believe me?"

Remus nodded, eyes never leaving hers. "I believe you." He said.

Lupa smiled before leaning forward quickly and planting a kiss on the tip of Remus' nose. It had always made him laugh in the past and this time was no exception. Remus giggled and broke away from his sister to avoid future kisses. Lupa wasn't fooled. She knew Remus liked it when she did that and only ran away because it was part of their game.

"Why don't you go pick out a book and we'll read together for a while." She suggested.

Remus' face lit up and he ran to the other side of his room, tripping once on a ball in the middle of the room. If it was any other night, Lupa would have reminded him to pick up his toy and put it away. Because tonight was the first full moon, she decided to ignore it. Remus selected a book from his bookshelf and brought it back to her at a slower pace. Lupa had to smile when Remus held out the book to her.

It was Remus' favorite book, about two children, a brother and a sister, who live in the forest. She had read this book to Remus more times than any other book on his bookshelf. She was surprised that Remus hadn't already memorized it.

"Haven't you memorized this book yet?" She teasingly asked, taking the book.

Remus grinned and shook his head as he climbed up on his bed next to her.

"Alright then. Where did we leave off?"

Remus reached over her arm and opened the book. He flipped the pages until he came to the one held by the book mark. He pointed to a spot on the page and Lupa took a second to marvel at his memory when it came to books. She lifted up her arm and allowed Remus to snuggle closer so he could see the book and began to read.

They got through two more chapters before Emily knocked on the door, informing them that it was time to head to the room where Remus would transform that night. No one knew exactly what happened when a werewolf transformed. They didn't want to take any chance that Remus might destroy something in wolf form so the servants had prepared a room for him to transform in and seen to it that their parents were out of the house for the evening.

Lupa quietly placed the bookmark in the book before closing it and setting it to the side. Remus was scared again. For the last hour Lupa had managed to make him forget his upcoming transformation but the knock on the door had brought both of them back to reality. She got up from the bed first and held out her hand to Remus. Slowly, her brother took it and allowed her to pull him from the bed. They didn't speak as they followed Emily down the hall and came to a stop outside a door neither sibling had known existed. Silently, Emily unlocked the door and let them enter. Lupa and Remus turned to look back at her as she locked the door, Lupa managing a smile while Remus just stood there.

When the door had closed behind them, Lupa turned to her brother.

"Time to get undressed Remus." She said.

Remus nodded and began to unbutton his shirt. He struggled with the top buttons that he couldn't see and Lupa's gentle hands were there, sliding the buttons out of the holes. He dropped his shirt on the floor and went to work on his trousers while Lupa crossed the room to the small table that had been placed there to retrieve the blanket. When she returned to her brother, Remus had dropped his trousers and was shivering in the cold of the room. Lupa draped the blanket around him, tucking it close to keep the warmth in him. Then she picked up his clothes and put them on the table.

Having prepared as much as they could, the siblings sat down on the floor to wait out the last few minutes until moonrise. It wasn't long. Barely two minutes after they sat down, Remus stiffened. Lupa gave him a worried look that went unnoticed as Remus began to tremble violently. Seconds later there was a harsh snapping sound and Remus screamed. Lupa winced and forced herself to remain where she was.

"Lu, help me." Remus begged.

It tore at Lupa to remain where she was sitting instead of going to her brother and helping him. There was nothing she could do. The books had made that very clear. The change would be painful and there was nothing that could be done to alleviate the pain or help the transforming werewolf.

More cracks and Remus screamed louder. Fur was sprouting all over his body and his arms were lengthening. His fingers were turning into claws as Lupa watched.

"Lu." Remus whimpered before screaming louder than he had all in the last few minutes.

His head was transforming now. With a final scream that became a howl halfway through, a full transformed werewolf lay on the ground a few feet from Lupa, panting from the pain.

Lupa stared at the wolf that had taken over her brother. She was surprised and she would admit it. She had been expecting a much bigger wolf than the one that was currently lying in front of her. It took a moment but the explanation eventually occurred to her. The werewolf that had attacked her brother had been an adult. That's why it was bigger than her brother. Remus was only four years old. It would be years before he was a big as the other wolf.

Lupa was pulled from her thoughts by Remus pushing himself to his feet. As she watched, he caught sight of her and instinctively growled, raising his hackles to make himself appear more threatening. Surprisingly, Lupa wasn't nearly as nervous or as frightened as she should be. She knew that all it would take was one swipe of his claws and Remus would be able to render her helpless. But Lupa didn't believe that would happen.

Deciding to take a chance, she held out her hand like she would to a stray dog and waited. Remus seemed surprised by the action and paused in his growling, clearly confused. After a moment, he took a step forward and hesitantly sniffed her hand. Lupa held herself still, knowing that any sudden movement would set Remus off and would result in her injury. Remus sniffed at her hand again before coming to a conclusion.

He nosed her hand out of the way and crouched down in front of her. Lupa slowly lowered her hand and rested it lightly on Remus' head. The wolf whined softly and lifted his head slightly so that her hand slid down his neck. Taking it as a sign that it was ok, Lupa began to pet the wolf. Remus allowed himself to be petted for a few minutes before suddenly springing to his feet and bounding away from the startled girl. He stopped in the middle of the room and appeared to bow down in front of her, letting out an odd sounding bark 'do werewolves bark?ยด Lupa wondered as he did.

Lupa had the bizarre feeling that Remus was asking her to play. So far, apart from the transformation and the few scratches she could see in the wolf's fur, this night hadn't gone anything like she had been expecting. There would be time to think on that later. Right now, it was clear that Remus wasn't going to hurt her and it looked as if he wanted to play. Lupa pushed herself to her feet and made her way to the wolf. Thus began the first night of play between the werewolf and his human sister.

When the sun rose the next morning, Emily cautiously unlocked the door to the room. It had been a surprisingly quiet night, apart from the two transformations and she had spent the time preparing herself for what she would see when she opened the door. Emily thought she had prepared herself for everything, even the worst, but she was wrong. She wasn't prepared for this. Remus was curled against his sister's back, one arm slung over her protectively. Emily had the image of a werewolf Remus curled against Lupa like that while they slept. She smiled. It looked as if the full moon nights would be better than they had anticipated.

AN: Okay, I seriously thought about ending it after 'She wasn't prepared for this' but decided not to. There will be cliff hangers in this story, but not right now. So be happy.

I've decided to take advantage of the fact that I still have a few weeks before I need to revise for finals and work ahead on this story. I am prewriting the chapters for the next few weeks leading up to my finals and the week of. This way all I will have to do is reread them and check for errors, which takes a lot less time than writing them.

Speaking of my finals, I have decided to start posting another story the weekend after them. Summer will be here and I'll have more time for writing. I have come up with ideas for at least one new one and so I'll be updating my profile with the summaries. I want you readers to take a look at the summaries and decide which one you want me to start posting. I will be opening a poll sometime this week so that everyone can choose since most of you don't leave reviews. It will be open until the week of my finals which is the week of May 12. So you have a month to decide and vote.

One last thing, I'm going to assume that the newest guest review for the last chapter was from Bottlebrush. It's similar to the other reviews you've posted but it was only signed guest. Let me know if it was you so I can finish replying to reviews this week.