Rewrite the past

Chapter 15

"I think that two visitors should be enough for today. I know, he is your friend and you were worried, but he is still very weak," explained Poppy Pomfrey in a rather stern yet maternal and understanding way.

The four friends standing in her little office looked at each other for a second until Florence said: "I think that Severus and Mia should go then, they are, after all, his best friends. We can still come tomorrow, can't we, Meggie?"

One could easily see that Meggie wanted to object but still she thought about it for a second before answering: "Oh, yeah, sure thing."

As soon as the two girls had left, the medi-witch brought the two first-years to their friend's bed.

"Hey there," greeted the young scarred boy with a hoarse voice.

"Don't you dare playing that card, young man!" answered Hermione, faking the tone of an enraged mother scolding her son before bursting into laughter at seeing his rather shocked expression while Severus really tried to keep it all together.

"But in all honesty, don't you dare scare us like that ever again," said Severus as soon as they all were able to stop laughing.

The young boy laying in the hospital bed nodded to that, looking to the ground. Severus thought that he did that because he felt sorry, but Hermione knew better.

It was not long until Madam Pomfrey ushered them out of the room telling them that he needed his rest and so they went to their common room to catch up with the others on their essays which needed to be finished by Monday.

Remus was released from the infirmary the following Tuesday and to say he was glad he was out of the medi-witch's presence would have been an understatement.

After some catching up with the others, he decided to go to bed at around 8:30 pm, still feeling quite tired from the whole ordeal. Hermione, however, used that opportunity to finally catch him alone and followed him up the stairs a few minutes after he had bid his goodbyes to them.

Meggie, Florence and Severus were still busy with writing their essays on different uses of various plants for herbology the next day. Hermione, who had started and finished hers on Sunday already, just sat in an armchair, reading a book she had brought with her until she felt the time had come to finally confront Remus.

~~~~~~~~~

The moon. Such a peculiar thing. At times so big that one could think it was near enough to be touched with an outstretched hand, yet sometimes it was as if there was nothing there at all. So beautiful and enlightening and yet so harmful and dangerous.

A look at his reflection in the window brought back the memories of that fateful evening roughly 6 and a half years ago.

"Remus, dinner is ready!" shouted the voice he knew to be his father's from quite a distance. The young boy turned around and started to walk back through the small forest adjacent to their quaint cottage, the last remains of the winter's snow crunching beneath his feet.
As soon as he stepped foot in their garden, an uneasy feeling welled up in him. He started walking over towards the small table inside where he and his parents were about to eat dinner that day.
Right before walking up the stairs to the terrace leading into the house, something made the snow crunch louder behind him. Fast, he turned around and in the light of the full moon that started to shine down on him, he saw a horrendous creature merely 5 metres away from him. He cried out in shock right before said creature jumped towards him, just as he tried to shy away by taking a step back. Yet, the beast managed to catch him and they both went down. He really tried to get out of its grasp, but it was too strong.
The beast waited for Lyall Lupin to run out to look for his son and it looked him straight in the eye before going down on the little boy. He didn't bite into the child's neck, that would have killed him right away but that was not what the werewolf wanted. He wanted revenge. Revenge on Lyall Lupin for making him an outcast, a wanted creature, and what better way to get that than to bite and infect the person he loved the most? Seeing his son writhe in agony when another full moon rises, and he transforms into a creature men like Lyall want to kill is a way sweeter revenge.
"No! Not my son, you mongrel!" heard Remus as a sharp pain went through him, starting from his stomach, then spreading throughout his entire body. It was a numbing pain and shortly thereafter he went limp, succumbing to it.

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling in his bedroom. He could barely make out the magical stars his father had put there for him. He wanted to move to see out the window what time it was as his mother had not woken him up yet but then there was a sudden onslaught of sharp pain soaring through his body, making him cry out in misery.
"Remus, you're awake!" Said a voice he knew too well from somewhere next to him. "Don't move, mommy is getting you some painkillers."
"What happened, pa? Why are you crying? Why does everything hurt so bad?"
"You'll understand in time, lay back down. It is the only thing you can do to make it hurt less, Remus."
Lyall Lupin could barely look at his son. Partly, because he had cried the whole night, cried out in anger at Fenrir Greyback, who managed to escape, cried out in misery because he was the one responsible for this. But mostly because he could not bear to look at the wounds on his son's tiny body, the ugly red wounds he had tried to close using the essence of dittany and ground silver, hoping to seal the wounds of the werewolf's bite and save his son's life by that.
It wasn't enough for that beast to bite his son, making him a werewolf. No, Fenrir Greyback had to claw at his son's chest and upper arm, making him loose so much blood. He had grinned at him, as though he wanted to say: 'Mission accomplished.' before running back into the forest and out into the night.

There was the small end of a silvery scar looking out from under his short-sleeved shirt. It was the reason he was always reminded of his fifth birthday, it was the most visible reason why he never went to a pool party, why he never went to a birthday party. This scar out of the many on his young body were the reason why he stopped being a normal kid, the reason why he had become an outcast, the weird kid, the lonely kid.

He lifted the seam of his shirt just enough to be able to see the scars the werewolf's bite had left just when there was a knock at the already slightly opened door.