Chapter 4

Remus woke up with a dull pain in his head, he lifted his head a bit, blinking in the dim light of the hospital wing.

"Oh, you're awake," Madame Pomfrey said gently, walking over to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok I guess…" he said , his voice hoarse. Probably from howling so much… "How bad was it?" it came out not like intended but the nurse seemed to understand.

"Pretty bad I'm afraid dear…" she began and Remus's heart sank, "You fractured one of your ribs, I mended it while you were asleep, and I'm afraid you got a pretty nasty scratch on your face…"

"Show me," he prompted nervously, a bit scared to see the damage he had done to himself.

Madame Pomfrey passed him a mirror and he bit back a wail of shock when he saw the mark. It was a large gash on his cheek, everyone will notice and then everyone will know that I'm a werewolf!

"Can't you heal it?" he asked miserably and Madame Pomfrey shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry, but I put a bit of dittany and that was the best I could do…"

"I can't go back like this…" Remus mumbled.

" You can stay in the hospital wing for a few days, but either way that'll end up a scar…" Remus was now really miserable.

"I know what might cheer you up," Madame Pomfrey said and Remus looked questionally at her. She pulled out a piece of parchment from her pocket and handed it to Remus. "Your Mum wrote you a letter, you can write back to her when you're feeling better."

Remus unfolded the piece of parchment, staring at the beautiful calligraphy.

It read, Dear Remus, we hope your first days at Hogwarts have been going great. I bet you've already learned some magic and I bet you already have lots of friends! It's unfortunate that the full Moon was so early in the school year and I hope that you're already feeling better. Me and your father miss you so much and the house is so quiet and empty without you. We're waiting till Thanksgiving break, we can't wait to see you. Whenever you're feeling down about yourself, just remember, being a werewolf isn't what defines you, you are such a nice kid and you're going to do great things. Love, your parents, Hope and Lyall.

Remus was in a slightly better mood after reading the letter and he noticed that his parents had sent him two chocolate frogs which made Remus smile.

"Do you want me to put those away for you?" Madame Pomfrey said and Remus nodded, "Now get some rest, when you wake up dinner will be ready."

Remus woke up to the smell of soup and bread, he opened his eyes and saw that he had some food for him next to his bed, but he wasn't at all hungry, in fact, he felt very nauseous.

"Are you hungry?" Madame Pomfrey said, placing the food in front of Remus which made him even more nauseous.

"Not really…" he said, swallowing back the bile rising in his throat.

"You have to eat something…" Madame Pomfrey said kindly, "At least a couple of bites…"

Remus wanted so badly to argue, "I feel like I'm going to throw up…"

"Maybe because you haven't eaten in a while…"

Remus just obeyed reluctantly, forcing down a spoon full of the reddish colored soup, which for a split second reminded him of blood, which made him even more nauseous.

"That's a good boy," Madame Pomfrey said and Remus just grumbled in protest.

Multiple days passed and Remus was starting to feel much better, and finally, on Friday, Remus was allowed to leave.

"He was careful on your leg," Madame Pomfrey recalled and Remus nodded. He had sprained his ankle and it was pretty swollen at the moment.

He left the room, remembering he had to go to class today. He muttered a curse word, eyeing his schedule.

"Great! I'm going to be late…" he grumbled, why did the full moon have to be on one of the first days of school!?

He eyed his schedule again, trying to figure out where to go, it was all so confusing, and him being the only one in the halls made it even worse.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps. Oh no! A teachers come to scold me… But then he realized it wasn't a teacher, it was a student.

He heard the student muttering curse words under his breath but he stopped when he saw Remus.

"Oh! Sorry about that, I just came back from detention, that's all. Like can you believe it! Detention in the first week of school!"

Remus just laughed a bit, suddenly noticing it was James, one of the boys who he shared a dorm with.

"Oh! Your Remus! Haven't seen you for a couple of days, where were you?"

"Oh! Um… My. Erm, my Mom, well she's really sick, and I had to go visit her…"

"Well she couldn't have picked a better time to get sick," James joked, and Remus tried to put on an amused expression.

"Anyways, Sirius thought you died or something which really freaked Peter out, so now there's basically a rumor in the school about how you died or something…" James said and Remus breathed a sigh of relief, at least they hadn't assumed where I went.

"I think you'll like Sirius, he's pretty cool, I'll introduce you two later… Oh wait, we're supposed to be in class! Come on! Give me your schedule!"

Remus quickly handed James the schedule and he eyed it quickly, fixing his glasses because they were sitting at a weird angle.

"Oh! We have the first few classes together! Come on!" James exclaimed and began jogging in the halls, Remus ran a bit to catch up…

Once in class, James began telling Remus who was who. He learned that the nice girl he had sat next to for a few days was Lily, and James had called her pretty which made Remus snicker.

"Then that's Severus…" James said unhappily, gesturing to a boy with longish black hair, and he was sitting next to Lily.

"Then there's Kingsley, Frank, and Bertram…" James whispered while the teacher was deep in talk about some defensive spells. "Then there are Lily's friends, Sasha, Teresa, and Alice. They're also pretty fine looking…"

By the end of the day, Remus had been told about almost all of the first years. After dinner, Remus and James headed up to their dorm room, and they were both greeted by Sirius.

"I thought you were dead!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yes, so I guess I was correct this time," James boasted, and Sirius grumbled, placing a couple of sickles in Jame's palm.

"Then where were you?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, Mum got sick…" Remus replied quickly and Sirius seemed pretty satisfied with the answer.

"What happened to your face?" Peter squeaked from his bed and Remus's heart sank.

"Oh, um, tripped earlier," he lied.

"Jeez Remus, you gotta look where you're putting your feet," Sirius said and Remus just nodded agreement.

"Yeah, I was just being a bit careless." Remus admitted and all of the boys headed to their beds, and Peter said goodnight to everyone.

I might actually have real friends soon, Remus thought, and suddenly all the dark thoughts from before had blown away…