Is It Over Now?

Chapter Seven

A/N: in case anyone forgot or hasn't read ATYD, Remus has dyslexia in that fic. I wasn't going to include it, but the opportunity came to me, so I said why not.

December came, Remus wished that it hadn't.

The Daily Prophet had reported a werewolf attacks after the last moon, finally giving a name to the attacks that had been stuffed between the pages for almost a year now as they became more frequent. It was harder to hide things once people started to make the connections themselves, Remus supposed, so the Daily Prophet went ahead and said it so they wouldn't look as if they were hiding the truth. Remus found himself wishing that they had lied just a little longer.

Silver flooded the castle, lining the hands, wrists, and necks of nearly everyone within it. The wolf rattled against the Gryffindor's chest, howling in pain with every subtle brush of the delicate metal against the teen's ruined skin. It begged to be released, to run, to do anything but be in a place that so clearly wanted it gone. Instead Remus just sat down next to Marlene in Care of Magical Creatures and smiled at the girl as if nothing was wrong, as if the jewelry on her skin wasn't making him sick.

But things had changed.

None of the Marauders let Remus walk the castle alone, at least one of them at the boy's side regardless of whatever stood between the two. And if it was a class where one of the other three couldn't be there, then Remus was passed off to Lily, or even Regulus when the situation allowed. Remus found himself too tired to care about the confining treatment, the beast within him cowed and taking pieces of him with it that Remus hadn't realized that he would miss.

With the silver came the whispers among the halls. The cruel things that children say when they don't realize that it matters, but it did and left Remus going between violent states of wanting to tear at his skin or everyone else's. It left him with a sense of shame that he hadn't felt for his condition in long enough that he almost forgot the sting of it.

"Why do they let them roam free? They should be locked away for everyone else's safety."

"At least more restrictions. They're monsters after all."

"Tag them."

Remus and the strange Slytherin group walked silently together amongst the voices of the rest of the school, not joining in the murmured conversations as they walked to the library, the other three Marauders at the pitch. Nails dug into the palms of Remus's hands and it took him a long time to realize that he was the one doing so, his face carefully blank as he listened to the whispers in the halls and dug them in deeper, pain swelling in a way that consumed his mind and quoted all else.

A gentle hand brushes against the Gryffindor's almost as if by accident as the scent of blood begins to fill the air. Regulus grabbed the older boy's hand, lacing their fingers together beneath the robes where it couldn't be seen and began to drag the lion away, towards the entrance of the school, the others following suit without question.

The Forbidden Forest welcomes them as if it was home, the woods as beautiful in the light of day as they are beneath a full moon night. Remus walked them with familiarity that had the others raising their brows in a silent question that none of them actually thought to speak. Remus was a Marauder after all, no matter how much time he spent with the younger students that wasn't going to change.

Even if sometimes he wished that it would, because then maybe he wouldn't have to see how they looked at him as if he was turning into a stranger. He would truly be one.

Still, he wouldn't give up the past few years for anything. They were his brothers and families grow apart, they were still family though. He always wanted them to be.