That Night

Velma was in her backyard after dinner one night. She knew she was a witch and eagerly counted the days she could go to Hogwarts...see all those cute wizard boys...

Remus was walking on the sidewalk as the sun slowly sunk from the sky. He kicked at a few rocks that 'blocked' his path and hummed softly. Next year this time he would be at Hogwarts, but for now he was stuck in this muggle neighborhood with a muggle mother and a wizard father. He had known he was a werewolf for about four years now, but like all boys, he thought nothing of it, or of the quickly growing twilight around him.

Velma leaned back on the bench she was sitting on. "Hmm...nice night" she said to herself. The sun was setting very beautifully, and above the stars and moon were coming in, more noticeable by every few minutes. A full moon, that is. Velma didn't really care about full moons, in fact, she didn't care at all about what position the moon was in.but she would later tonight...

As Remus cut between the yards, he came to the alley behind his house and the house next door, Velma's. He scrambled over Velma's fence and fell softly in the grass. He straightened up, wondering if he had startled her. "Hey, Vel!" he said with a smile. But the smile flickered slightly as he began to feel a pain at the back of his neck and in his stomach, he quickly ignored it.

Velma heard a small crash, and looked behind her, seeing Remus getting up from the ground. "Way to go, Remmy" she said sarcastically. Then she saw a pain cross his ill face. "You feeling alright?" she asked.

Remus rubbed the back of his neck hard and walked awkwardly to the bench and threw himself onto it. "I think so..." he was young and irresponsible, he didn't follow the moon cycle. The tops of his hands began to itch and he scratched at them violently. "Ow..." he moaned and the moan slowly turned into a low growl.

Velma started to laugh. It was something she found very funny. Well, now at least. "Did you just...growl?!" she said while she laughed.

Remus laughed to, it sounded hoarse and painful. "Yeah...I think so!" He stood up and jumped at her, laughing and faking a growl. Then a pain shot up his entire body and he fell hard onto the ground. He looked up into the darkening sky with bright, frightened eyes. "It's the full moon!" He let out a strangled yell and tried to jump Velma's fence, but another spasm of pain shot through him and he simply ran into the fence, crumpling onto the ground whining like an injured dog.

Velma ran over to him, a look of fear and laughter in her eyes "What is going on with you? Yeah, it's the full moon, but whatever, what's it ever done to you?". She held out her hand to pull him up.

Remus shrunk away from her hand and crawled backwards, smacking hard into the fence again. "Go....inside...." he hissed, his face contorted but his eyes wide and worried. "GO!" He jumped up, his whole body hunched over. Slowly a snout began to form and his shirt ripped up the back, claws sprouted and fur covered the boy's arms and face. "Get away..." he growled, inhumanly.

"What are you talking about??" Velma asked, but as he began to transform, Velma's face became very pale and her eyes widened. "O my god..." she said. "O MY GOD!!!!" she screamed and she started to run, while looking over her shoulder at Remus transforming. "You!" she said over and over again. "I can't believe it! What d'you think you're playing at?!?!" she said as she stopped for a second to watch him, then continued running.

Remus, though it wasn't quite Remus anymore, sprung after her with long, fast strides. He stretched his long neck up toward the silver orb and howled, the sound reverberating off of the houses on the dark road. Some lights switched on and many people could be heard screaming as he howled wildly. 'Stop!' said a small, human voice in his animal head. He paused, his head tilting to the side slightly. 'Don't chase her! Don't hurt her! It's Velma!' the voice shrieked. The wolf howled louder and raced after the retreating girl.

"All this time and you never told me!!" she screamed at him while running. "And coming in my backyard on this night!!!" she stopped for a second to catch her breath, and then ran off again. "I can't believe you!!! All this time and you've been A WEREWOLF!!!"

Remus growled out of frustration and raced after her. With one leap he was on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He growled in her face, bearing long, pointed, sparkling white teeth. His entire body was transformed....yet his eyes were still a dark, deep brown, shining with guilt. He whined loudly, as if in great pain and rolled off of her, cowering on the ground.

"Ouch!" Velma said as she fell to the ground. "Oh...no...I don't like this...I REALLY don't like this...." the last thing she wanted was to be killed be those long white teeth.... Finally, when he rolled off, as he whimpered in pain, she got up and said "Serves you right!" and ran over behind one of the bushes, peeking through them. She took off one of her shoes, to throw it at him if he got too close. She couldn't really run in heels anyway.

Remus stood, staring around, a growl deep in the back of his throat, wondering where Velma had gone. One part of him wanted to tear her to pieces while the other part wanted to save her from the animal that was attacking her. His head was aching with confusion, he leaned back and howled loudly again. When he saw her, with the shoe in her hand, he gave a kind of snicker and made a move to jump at her. He laughed again before turning and bounding over the fence, running into various yards and howling into dark windows.

"Get away from me, werewolf!!!" she yelled at him, throwing the shoe at him, but missing by several feet. She ran inside her house quickly, and locked the door. "Mom! Dad!" she shouted. But they were nowhere insight, instead she saw a letter than said 'Dear Velma, went to go visit a friend in Wales for an emergency. Be back tomorrow morning or afternoon. Love mom and dad'. "Oh great" she said sarcastically. "I'm home alone with a werewolf in my backyard!" She ran up to her room, and looked out the window, still seeing Remus running around. She opened the window and shouted "GET OUT WEREWOLF!", but she overbalanced and fell out the window onto the grass.

Remus hadn't heard her other words, being to preoccupy with a few stray cats that had ventured out of trashcans to see what the raucous was about. But her last words...her loudest ones, stung the bit of him that was still human. He stopped, turning around slowly and seeing her form crumpled on the ground. He made a strangled noise that he meant to be her name but instead came out like "Ghgrena!". He rushed at her, Remus overpowering the animal that lived inside of him, and bent down next to her, guilty and frightened with every fiber of his being.

Velma's eyes were closed, she felt so confused and oh how her shoulder ached. but now there was someone one it..perhaps it was that cute guy down the street...the last person she expected it to be was Remus. Velma screamed and jumped up, running toward her back door. She twisted the handle, but then remembered she had locked it. She ran over to the side of her house that didn't face Remus's, and slumped down. She began to cry, everything had gone so wrong...she wiped her eyes, and as she did, her eyes smudged because she was wearing eye makeup that she had stolen from her mother's room a couple days ago.

He jumped back, confused and frightened at her scream. He looked down at his hands, surprised to see fur and claws there. He touched his face slowly and cursed through his long, sharp teeth. He walked slowly toward her, trying desperately to try to hide that hair that covered his entire body. He whined in protest of her running away from him and reached out a hand, laying it on her arm, looking at her shoulder with grief and worry. Remus had never overpowered the animal like this before. It was as if he could actually control himself, as if it was truly Remus, just inside a horrid form.

Velma's head were in her knees, as tears rolled down her face. Remus had never told her...and then he had come in her backyard...and now she had fallen out the window and her shoulder felt broken. It was all his fault, at least, that's what she wanted to believe. But somewhere in that big body of fur, she thought there might still be the human Remus in there...Velma felt someone put a hand on her arm, and looked up. Her eyes, which now just looked like black and blue smudges, saw Remus. There was so much she wanted to say...but yet, she blurted out "...Whadda you want?? Haven't you caused enough damage for one night?" As soon as she said it, she realized she didn't mean it to sound as mean as it did.

Remus looked at her wide-eyed and slowly pulled his hand away. He whimpered softly and shrunk away from her. He wanted to explain to her everything that was swirling within his tormented head, but he couldn't speak, not in this form. He felt terrible, worse than terrible, a word that was too horrible to a ten your old mind to know. He turned slowly away from her. He wanted to help her, he wanted to show her that he was still Remus, this was just a secret part of him that had to be kept at bay. With a backward glance he shrunk away into a shadowy alley between two tall houses.

Velma began to swear out of frustration. "Oh, come on, werewolf...I mean Remus... I didn't mean it like that...just come back...but don't you dare bite me!...what an idiot I must look like, talking with a werewolf..." but then she swore again. "I didn't mean that either! Its just...you, coming here..turning into a wolf...and then..ugh!" she slammed her fist down, unfortunately using her arm with the broken shoulder. "Ow..." she murmured. She realized it was probably pointless trying to talk to him, because he couldn't respond. "When do you turn back, anyway?" she asked. "No..wait..let me rephrase that. Do you turn back in about the early morning? You could just...erm..shake or nod.."

He peeked around a garden wall and nodded deeply, he would transform right when the sun started to rise. He walked slowly toward her, feeling annoyed that she was so angry at him. How did she think he felt? Becoming an animal once a month? Not being able to control himself. He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes boring into her. Yep, this was definitely Remus. He lowered her hand thinking, 'I don't care if you believe me or not, but I won't eat you. Now come on, Velma you dork, I'm the only one here who can help you.' He laughed inwardly, wishing he could have actually said it.

"Yeah...so I guess you only have to wait a couple of hours...must really stink" she said, and as he crossed his arms, Velma added. "its probably wearing off soon, you're already acting like your old stubborn self...and I meant it that time" she said grinning. "But what are you laughing about?" she asked, seeing a sort of grin on Remus's face. "I know I probably look like a dork now, but at least I'm not covered in fur and have a tail! Right..well tell me when you think you're going to change back, and I'll go off somewhere...I really don't want to watch as you go from a wolf to a boy. All your clothes are ripped and all the way over there, so you probably wouldn't be wearing anything"

Remus's eyes widened slightly and he looked down at himself, his clothes were in tatters. If he wasn't covered in all that fur, Velma would have seen that he was blushing deeply. He looked over at the horizon which was just beginning to turn a dull brownish grey; it would be about an hour before he transformed back. He wrapped a hand around her good arm and pulled her upwards, supporting her. They must look so odd, he thought, making sure there was no one else on the street. 'I'm not stubborn,' he thought stubbornly as he looked at her. He walked her over to the front door and used his claw to pick the lock.

Velma was a bit surprised when Remus picked her up by her arm and walked over. "I sure hope none of the cute guys are watching this..." They walked to the door, and as Remus picked the lock, an expression of happiness was on her face. "Wow...Thanks!" she said as she went inside. "Guess I don't have to climb up the window after all...I'll be right back." Velma went upstairs, and closed her window securely, then went in the bathroom, and put some stuff on her shoulder, but as she looked in the mirror, she screamed. She washed her face quickly, then went back outside. "Remus!" she shouted. "I've been out there looking like some sort of beat up raccoon!!"

As she went upstairs, Remus looked around her living room with his hand's clasped gentlemanly behind his back. He saw the note from her parents and was very glad that they weren't here to see the 'boy next door' in such a state. When she came down, yelling about her makeup, he snickered again, falling back into a chair. He shrugged deeply. 'I figured you'd be more worried about being eaten by a werewolf,' he thought, he showed his claws and laughed again, some girl's just need to sort out their priorities.

"Don't you laugh, I'm serious!" Velma said as she fell back into a chair too. "I wish you'd hurry up and change back, this is weird..." she looked at him, and it did look very odd for a werewolf to be sitting politely in one of her living room chairs. "Put those away, will you?!" she added as he showed his claws. "You don't know how strange you look like that..."

Remus looked at his claws sheepishly and tucked them away in crossed arms. He glanced around, realizing that the sun was continuing to rise and that he would be changing back any minute. He couldn't get back to his house in time, and he didn't want to change back here, just in case his cloths really were torn to tatters. He gestured with a clawed thumb toward the ceiling, letting her now he was running up to the bathroom. He jumped two stairs at a time and the sound of claws hitting wood floors slowly died away and changed to the padding of bare feet. He looked in the bathroom mirror, he was perfectly normal again. His pants were almost fully attached except for some tears at his calves, and his shirt was only ripped up the back. He bounded down the stairs again. "I'm baaaack!" he called over to Velma.

Velma waited as Remus ran up the stairs, hearing different noises as he ran up the stairs. "Oh, wow, return of the night's superstar!" Velma said to him sarcastically when he came down, trying not to laugh at how he looked after his transformation back to a wizard. "Well then...that was an interesting night..." she said to no one in particular. "So..how long have you been one of those werewolves anyway?" Velma asked.

Remus stuck his tongue out slightly at her comment before settling back into the armchair, bringing his legs up under him. He rubbed his eyes, feeling fatigue wash over him for the first time that night. "I'm ten right?" He said with a small laugh, his brain swimming dazedly. "About four years. I got bit when I was six at a Quidditch match in London." He grimaced, remembering the wolf-man bounding out of the bushes at himself and his sister, older by three years.

Velma started to slightly laugh, shaking her head. "Don't be a stupid git, of course you're ten! And I thought you knew how to count...you're supposed to be the smart one..." she leaned back in her chair, and accidentally yawned when Remus told how long he was a werewolf. "D-d-Didn't mean that!" she said, stifling another yawn. "What were they doing letting some wolf-man in the Quidditch Stadium? Must have been pretty scary.." she said, imagining a crazy wolfman running up to Remus and biting him. The thought caused her to laugh a little again, even though it was sad he was bitten.

"Well he wasn't a wolf-man when the game started!" Remus said, looking at her wide-eyed. Really, sometimes the girl just didn't use her head. He laughed slightly as he thought this and wondered if he should tell it to Velma, it would get her riled up, probably. He looked at her, yawning. No neither of them needed any more excitement for the evening. He wondered what her parents would do if they found them here sleeping in the living room, as he slowly drifted in and out of sleep.

"Oh yeah...right..." Velma said vaguely, and went off to kitchen. She felt extremely hungry, and put some toast in the toaster. Since she was a bit tired, she accidentally burnt the toast a little. Velma walked back to the living room. "Ay, wolfie, wake up" she said to Remus, laughing a little more. "Want some?" she asked, holding up the toast. "Even though I accidentally..um...burnt it?" Velma slumped back down in her chair. "Whew, I'm tired...wonder where my parents are...oh well, doesn't matter...at least I get free run of the house...not like I ever don't really" she said as she spilled a few crumbs from the toast on the chair.

"Mmmm! Yeah!" He said wearily, taking a piece of toast hungrily. He ripped of a chunk with his side teeth and began to chew, a smile on his pale face. A lot of things were running through his head, though he was trying to force them back so he could eat and sleep in peace. Yet one pushed through his lips before he could stop it. "So...are we still friends?" He stared at the floor, not willing to look up at her. She had found out something horrific and frightening about him and it had almost cost her her life. Could she ever trust him again?

"Hmm...let's see..." she said, finishing up her toast. "You wrecked my fence...I ruined my shoes...I fell out a window...I broke my shoulder...I ended up looking like a raccoon for the rest of the night...you turned into a werewolf...and now you're sleeping in my chair. Of course we're not!" and she left the room, and walked into the kitchen, trying to stop laughing. She peeked back out and saw Remus's horrified face. She grinned. "I was only joking. Course we are" and Velma sat back down in the chair.

It took him a few moments to realize she was joking and for the first time in his life he found himself on the verge of tears. When she came back in laughing, his mouth fell open and he made an odd squeaking sound. "You're mean!" He wailed with a smile, hurling the rest of his toast at her. He crossed his arms over his chest, feeling embarrassed. "So...now you know my deep dark secret...whatcha got? I figure it'll be a fair trade...spill!" He leaned forward expectantly.

"You almost cried!" she laughed. "Spill? What are you...some kind of Barbie doll? Anyway..." she thought of something to say. "Alright...when I first moved here, I thought you were kinda cute.." Velma was shocked by herself admitting this. "I can't believe I just said that! Right, well, don't get your head all inflated, because I don't think that anymore."

"I didn't almost cry!" He said defiantly, leaning back in the chair and staring at his mud covered bare feet. At her words about Barbie's he leaned his head back with a deep sigh, "How do you know about Barbie's? Girlyer than you put on?" He said, sticking his tongue out at the ceiling. He laughed in spite of the look she gave him. "You had a crush on me? Awe! How adorable!" He said mockingly. Though it did raise his self confidence a few notches. He'd been in a depressed stupor for the past few years when he didn't look forward to the full moon.

"Shut up!" Velma yelled at him. She was going to say more, but she heard a car outside of the house, and moments later her parents walked in the front door surrounded by a cloud of smoke, and Velma started coughing, because her father had a cigar. "Hey..dad" she said in between coughs."how was *cough* the emergency? *cough*" "Busy. Got lots of work to do" he said and ran up the stairs. "Oh, mom, I broke my shoulder" Velma said to her mom expressionless. "You did?" her mom said. "We'll have to call a doctor...but not now, later, I'm busy. Oh, hello Remus" and her mom ran up the stairs too. "Yeah..ok, thanks...for nuthin..." Velma muttered at her parents as they ran up the stairs. She leaned back in her chair again, took a bit of toast and ripped it with her teeth hardly and began to chew.

When the adults ran in, Remus made hast to hide the tears in his clothing but it seemed that he could have been sitting there without any cloths at all and they wouldn't have noticed. He stared wide-eyed at the stairs where they had disappeared for a while before his eyes traveled to Velma, full of sympathy. Seemed they all had their hardships. "Yeah..." was all he could say as he looked down at the floor, feeling bad about making fun of her. "So!" He said with a fake smile, wanting to change the subject, "Wanna watch a movie or something? There's no point in going to sleep."

"Yeah, sure.." Velma said, turning her head away from the stairs to Remus, then turning again and deliberately spitting the crumbs of her toast on a nearby picture of her parent's wedding day. "So yes.." she said, appearing as if she was happier by spitting on her parents. "I dunno what you wanna watch, I don't really care" She walked over to the TV and started rummaging around in the drawers, looking for a movie. She thought about the night, and then she asked "So are they still letting you go to Hogwarts?"

Remus felt his face get hot and he sat more rigid in the chair. "Why wouldn't they?" he said testily. What did she think? That he was some kind of freak? That just because he was a werewolf they wouldn't let him get an education? Then guilt washed over him, of coarse she didn't think that. "Sorry..." He mumbled, feeling bad for snapping at her. "Yeah, they're letting me go. Dumbledore's just making some..." He smiled almost wickedly, "..adjustments." He laughed slightly and went to join Velma in her search for a movie.

"Adjustments...yeah, I sure hope they are. I don't want to wake up and then fall out another window..." Velma laughed and continued looking. "I wonder what they are anyway. do you know?" she asked as she searched, then a video caught her eye. "Look Remus, its you!" she said and began laughing some more, tossing him a werewolf horror movie with the werewolf on the cover.

He caught he movie awkwardly and then tried to copy the actor's movements on the front. Crouching down and howling at a full moon held up by very visible wire. He scrunched up his face and almost howled but caught himself just in time to hear shuffling upstairs. He had forgotten her parents had come home. He laughed, "Dumbledore said something about a tree. I don't know what that's all about." He tried to imagine a tree saving him once a month and thought horribly about wolfsbane. He cringed then let the thought escape. "D'ya wanna watch this one?" He said, brandishing the horror flick.

"A tree?!" Velma laughed. "That's gonna be hilarious...I mean, not really, but you know, its a tree, what's it gonna do...throw leaves at you and whack you with its branches???" she frowned as she heard her parents shuffling around upstairs. "As if they're really busy up there.." she muttered. "I mean, sure, let's watch this one then.." Velma stuffed the rest of the videos inside, then turned on the TV and put the video inside. She fast-forwarded through all the previews. "As if anyone really wanted to watch these." but was caught by a preview for a movie that involved a girl singing a song called 'All That Jazz' with a bunch of guys around her singing as well, and stopped fast forwarding to watch it, but seeing Remus's look, she quickly started fast forwarding again until the movie began.

Remus looked at her wide-eyed as she stopped the movie to watch the preview and he eyed the girl on the screen warily. The singing wasn't great but he couldn't argue with the outfit she had on. He jumped up onto her coffee table, knocking mags to the floor and began swinging his arms around. "Whoo! I'm a tree, don't come any closer!" He bared his teeth and fell backwards with a *thump* into the couch, laughing. Suddenly a howl issued from the movie screen and he jumped involuntarily, giving a small yelp. "Sorry," he muttered with a wry smile, his cheeks pinking.

"Oh, but what's this?" Velma asked. "You liked the preview? I thought you didn't like those sort of movies..or perhaps..." she continued, looking at him "you just liked her outfit!" she threw a pillow at him. "Though the outfit was pretty cool.." She watched him pretend to be a tree. "Ooh, yeah, I'd be terrified of that" and then began laughing when he jumped. "you shouldn't be scared of that, you do it every month!" She shook her head and muttered something that sounded like "Guys..."

He stuck his tongue out at her back, then raised his voice a few octaves, "'Guys'" he mocked with a laugh. He threw the pillow back at her, "Do you wanna be like that girl on the preview?" He jumped up again and fluffed his slightly matted hair, then began singing horribly and off tune, "'I feel pretty, oh so pretty!'" He knew he was acting childishly, but he was enjoying it immensely. The wolf howled again and a chill ran down his back, "Just because I am it, doesn't mean I don't fear it," he stuck his tongue out at the wolf on the screen and fell back into the couch.

"Shut up!" she yelled at him again, and made a big act of covering her ears up as he sang. "You're horribly off key..." When Remus stopped, she uncovered her ears. She thought about the girl on the preview. "Um..no" she lied, but realizing it was probably useless, she said "Alright, fine, it'd be sort of cool singing and wearing something like that and being surrounded by guys like that" she grinned wickedly. "At least they don't sing off key". Velma leaned back and watched more of the movie, and found herself talking to it. "Oh come on!" she yelled at the stupid girl in the movie. "There's a transformed werewolf in your house and you're going to eat a sandwich?!"

He looked at her for a moment, then let out a snorting laugh, "What should she eat, toast?" He pointed to himself, "Velma, there's a werewolf in your house and your watching a bloody movie with him!" He let his head fall back in laughter that caught in his chest, coming out in gasps. He stopped laughing slightly, looking at her seriously, "I think you'd be good at that, singing I mean." He looked down, cheeks pinking slightly, then smiled at her.

"Yeah, but you're not transformed, are you?" she told him. "And next time you do transform, I'll be inside, and you'll be out with that mad tree!" She smiled at his remark that she'd be good at singing. "Thanks then" she said, and then because Velma just loved showing off, she jumped up on the table and began singing quite loudly, performing the song from the preview. "No, I'm no one's wife but, oh, I love my life! And All...That...Jazz! That Jazz!" she waved to her one-person crowd as if it was a vast one, but then her father came down. "If you don't want to be the cause of my stocks falling, you can shut up and get off my table!" her father yelled at her between puffs of his cigar. "Oh, dear, they don't know any better" came her mother's voice. "They ought to!" said her father. "Yes, dear, your right" her mother agreed. Her father marched back upstairs, the cigar smoke smell still lingering. "Yeah, ok, whatever" Velma muttered, falling back onto the couch.

Remus had been throwing pillows and magazines at her periodically while she was dancing, and missing her deliberately. He laughed raucously at the way she wiggled, and clapped loudly, blowing a smooch, as she waved to her vast crowd. When her father came down, Remus jokingly hid under another load of cushy pillows. He choked on the cigar smoke threateningly as it agitated his already howl-worn throat. When the man retreated back up the stairs, Remus glared at his back, stuck his tongue out and looked at Velma with a sympathetic gaze. "Don't listen to him, he's just...." Remus looked back at the empty staircase. "Just stupid." He smiled at her and shoved her arm, "I thought you were quite good. We just need to get you one of those outfits and..." He made a noise in the back of his throat that was somewhat like a growl, which caused him to go into another fit of coughs and to laugh softly.

"I never listen to him, I thought you'd had gotten that by now?" Velma asked, looking at her arm, as it was the one she had broken he had shoved. "Anyway, we're gonna be needing some of this now.." she said, walking toward the kitchen, then coming back with a bottle of room spray. She held it up and then said, quoting the girl on the preview. "'Here's a few more parting shots!'" Velma announced, then spraying the spray wildly at the stairs. "I guess that should do it then" she said, as the room now smelled like strawberries. She sat back down. "Yeah, just need one of those outfits, and then I can have my own 'show'. That'd be pretty cool...and then when the people are waiting, they could play 'throw darts at a picture of Velma's parents...'"

"Ooh! I wanna play! I wanna play!" Remus began to bounce on the sofa, his arm waving wildly in the air. He lifted an imaginary dart, took aim at the stairs, and fired. "Touch down!" He said with two arms raised. He laughed loudly and flung himself across the sofa, looking toward the TV where a woman was now flailing at the on coming werewolf. "'Oh no! Don't eat me! Nooooo!'" He said in a high-pitched voice, laughing again.

Velma began to laugh as he bounced on the sofa and cheered as he got a 'touchdown'. But as he laughed at the movie, she frowned. "It's not that funny!" she snapped at him. "But I guess you wouldn't understand that, would you?" she turned away, but then turned back. "Oh, I didn't mean that really. But I don't see how you can joke about something like that!"

As Velma turned away from him, Remus felt his heart stop beating. He went to reach up to her, to tell her that he was sorry and that he didn't mean to make fun of that. He knew she must have been terrified when he transformed. He had never really thought about the people on the other side of the claws, only the ones on the side where he was, inside the animal's head. His mind was racing and when she turned around and finished her thought, he thought he could have yelled in relief. Nodding mournfully, "Yeah, I know..." He said, then turned back to the TV. His face was growing red in the effort to not laugh. "But just LOOK at her!?" He said, pointing to the withering woman on the screen.

"It's still not funny," she said again. "What do you expect her to do, jump for joy?" Velma got up and started skipping around the table. "Whoopee! I'm gonna be eaten by a werewolf! Yee-haw! This is my lucky day!" she sat back down. "Yeah, that's exactly what every one does when they're about to get eaten." She stared at the screen some more. "Oh, no, no!" she began to yell at the TV as the werewolf got closer to the woman, opening its mouth. She threw a pillow at the TV, even though it was pretty much pointless. As the werewolf opened its mouth wider, revealing long white teeth just like Remus had had when he was a wolf, Velma picked up a nearby magazine and opened it up, occasionally peeking over it, but then darting her eyes back on the print of the magazine.

At first Remus gave an embarrassed giggle, and then he tried to pull the magazine away from her face with an exasperated groan. Yet then the gleam from the fake fangs that were protruding from the hairy man's mouth. He shuddered slightly as his eyes grew wider as the man growled. "I..." He stared at the screaming woman and the advancing werewolf and immediately felt like a beast. He wasn't worthy to sit on her couch, she was normal, he was...cursed. He shouldn't go to that school next year, someone else might find out what he was. He stood, his eyes blurred. "I should go...I think...Yeah. I should go." He walked a few paces towards the door, tripped on the rug and fell flat on his face with a deadened 'thunk'.

Velma had kept pulling the magazine back, but she didn't know why. Instead of one of her own magazines, she had missed and picked up her father's boring ones accidentally. She watched Remus's eyes grow wider as he stared at the movie. What did he expect, a happy ending? Seeing him get up, she threw the magazine roughly at the table, half because the magazine was quite pointless and she wanted to damage it as much as she could, half out of Remus's stupidity. "You don't have to go. Its just a stupid, unfunny movie" she said, glancing back at the movie. Velma walked over to him. "I mean, maybe you should go if you think your parents are going to be all worried cause you've been out all night, but you don't have to go because of that movie" She cocked her head and made a sort of 'You See, Don't Be So Stupid' face.

Remus found himself glaring at her. He wasn't being stupid at all, he told himself as he crawled up from the floor. She had every right to hate him, he was an animal. He caught sight of himself in the mirror, pale, peaky, with deep rings under his eyes and matted hair. He turned away in disgust. "My parent's know what time of month it is. I usually try to get as far away from home as I can, then meet them there for breakfast in the morning," He said in a harsh voice, trying not to look at her and deciding instead to glare at her knees. He felt the great need to throw something and restrained himself to instead growl out his next words, "I hate this. I hate all of this." He turned to go again, half hoping she would stop him. "Why me?" He mumbled, taking a sidelong glance again at the mirror.

Velma bit her lip, she was very unsure of what to do when there was a person in front of her hating themselves. "Oh, erm, right then" she said, she didn't want him going home hating himself, and so she tried to comfort him the best she could. "Look, erm,...I know you turn into a wolf every full moon night, but..well..last night you sort of didn't. I mean, you were wolflike, but after I fell out the window, it was like it was really you, even though it wasn't you in how you looked. And if you've anything to be proud of last night, it's that you overpowered your animal side. And I bet that's something no other werewolf did, for instance, that one over there" she turned her head to the movie, but her jaw dropped. "He ate her?" she whispered. Velma ran over, grabbed the remote, and turned off the TV. She returned with a sheepish grin, trying to act as if that movie had never happened.

Remus whipped around as she rushed to the TV and saw the last bits of the scene. The animal had won. The beast had killed the woman in her own home. He felt a growl begin at the back of his throat and barked out in rage. He didn't even care who was upstairs to hear him. Yet Velma's words were scratching at the inside of his head. "Yeah." He said, turning around. He rubbed his eyes hard, trying to clear his thoughts. "Yeah, I guess your right," He didn't sound all that convinced, but the fact that the idea was there was a starting point.

"Remus!" Velma whispered at him harshly as he barked. "Now you've done it..." for a second later was her father's cry of rage. "VELMA!!!" he screamed. "WHEN I WANT TO HEAR LOUD BARKING NOISES, I'LL BUY A DOG! SHUT UP AND GET OUT!" her father walked down the stairs again, Velma started coughing violently again, and her father opened the back door. "Out you get then! And don't come back in until you know how to speak like a normal person!" he pushed her outside, and she scowled. Her father turned to Remus. "And who are you?!" he barked at him, though her father might have vaguely remembered if Remus didn't look so ill. "I don't remember inviting you into my house! Get out there with her, then!" and her father pushed Remus out too. He closed the door, leaving the two outside. "Whoa...um, sorry about that.." Velma muttered.

Remus cursed loudly at the door and kicked it with a bare foot. He withered in pain and whimpered, folding his toes into the cool grass. "I don't care," Remus said quietly, running a hand through his tangled hair. The sun was almost completely up now and the sky was a brilliant shade of orange. He turned away from the sunrise, not wanting to admit that it was truly beautiful. "So!" He said almost cheerfully, his voice having a sharp edge to it, "I want to get some intact clothes. D'you wanna come over to my house?" His stomach rumbled loudly and he blushed a bit, "We can get some breakfast." Remus was always hungry, yet after nights like he had just gone through, his hunger seemed to triple.

"No, really, I'm so sorry about that. I mean, he threw me out of the house last month, though I can't remember why, but I really didn't expect him to do it to you" she made a face at the door, and then turned around. The was a bit of a reflection of the sun on the door, and so she had turned around to actually see it. What a cheerful sun to follow up a full moon she thought a bit sarcastically. "Yeah, sure then. Let's go" she said in response to Remus, noticing the similarity in his voice to before when her parents had come home. She knew that he was obviously trying to change the subject, and really, she couldn't blame him. But still, it didn't prevent her from singing a rude song about her parents under her breath "...when his eyes got dull and fishy when she looked for glints and gleams, the airhead wasted time, didn't make a switch, should have dumped him in the nearest ditch, rubbed him out of the roll call, and drummed him outta her dreams.."

Against his own will, he laughed slightly as she sang, looking at her wide eyed while he padded bare footed down the side walk toward his front door. "Your an odd one," he said, giving her a small shove. She had lightened his mood temporarily. This time of month, Remus found himself very melancholy, and not easily cheered. He took the key out from the inside of his torn pants pocket and unlocked the door. "I need keys when I don't have claws," He said laughing. "Mom?! Dad?! Riley?!" He really hadn't expected his older sister to be here, but one could always hope. A call came from the kitchen, "In here, Remy!" A tall girl with curling auburn hair and bright honey eyes came bounding out of the kitchen. She embraced the boy and swung him around a few times. "Riley!"

"I'm not odd!" she said. "My parents are the oddballs! Nah...more like idiots..." Velma shrugged her shoulders and kept walking to Remus's house, and laughed a bit when he made the joke about his claws. She stepped inside the house, and walked along with Remus, until he reached his sister, at which she just sort of stayed back and looked around the house from where she was standing. Yep...no idiots here, well, except for Remus sometimes, she joked to herself, not really meaning it.

"And Remus wouldn't be Remus without Velma by his side." Riley said, giving Velma a one armed hug and kissing her on top of the head. She was right, Velma and Remus had been the best of friends ever since Remus moved in here. He laughed, looking toward Velma, his faced flushed with excitement. When his sister graduated from Hogwarts two years ago, she had gone to study as an Auror in France. She wasn't home much, at all. Riley didn't bother asking where Remus had been, yet she did look at Velma oddly, her cloths were still dirty from falling out of the window. "Are you...are you two ok?" She looked at Remus sternly, he was told never to reveal his secret.

"Aagh.." Velma said as Riley took her into the one-armed hug, and making a face at Remus while Riley's back was turned as if to say 'Now this is odd.' For one thing, Velma was not used to something like this, and for another, her shoulder hurt worse. As soon as Riley let go, Velma stepped back a little and put on what she thought was a winning face, or at least, what she used on her parents sometimes to get some sympathy, which sometimes ended up making her mother think that whatever her father was doing to Velma he needed to stop, and said "Yeah..we're great! Nothin like a, um, a, erm...hmm.." she trailed off, trying to think of what she was going to say.

Remus went over to where Velma was standing and took in her shoulder. He felt the initial reaction wash over him, to glare at the person who hurt his friend and to growl a bit. But that wouldn't work with Riley. She'd probably hex him. "Do you want some...Advil or something?" He asked softly, while Riley stood, looking confused, with both hands on her hips. He led the way into the kitchen and got a tall glass of Iced Tea and a couple of pills for Velma. He didn't look up as he said, "I transformed in Velma's back yard last night." He heard Riley's astonished gurgling, but turned his back on it and turned, instead, toward Velma.

"Yeah, sure" she said and followed him to the kitchen. She took the Iced Tea and the pills, put the pill in her mouth, swallowed it with the Iced Tea, but it ended up being a bit hard as Remus said his last words. "Oh, so we can tell her. Thanks for making me look like an idiot!" she whispered at him. Velma turned to Riley and started talking very fast. "Well, yeah, and then I fell out the window and then we went into my house but got kicked out, but nothing to worry about there, we're all fine..sort of. And its not like he killed anyone..not that I'm saying he would, but um.." she trailed off. I'm going to start shutting up now, she told herself, and took another sip of the Iced Tea.

Riley's eyes had become, if it was possible, wider than her face. She rounded on Remus and looked as if she was going to bite his little wolfy head off. Then she deflated a bit. "Well now you know the family's dirty little secret." She said sadly as she turned to Velma. "Are you alright? You said you...you fell out of a window!?" Remus found himself snickering a bit at Riley's indignant, forced calm. "Is your... is your arm alright?" Riley's face looked guilty as she realized she must have hurt the girl's arm in the hug. She pulled out an ebony wand, "I can fix that for you, if you like."

"Yeah, guess I know now, don't I?" Velma said. "Its not really that bad though...oh, I lied. Of course it's bad. But at least I know to stay inside on full moon nights now." Her eyes widened as she saw Riley's wand. "Um...ok then..." Velma, being muggle born, had never seen a real wand, or real magic. She had only seen those cheesy magic things on the TV.

Remus looked at the shocked expression on Velma's face and smiled sweetly, taking up her good arm and leading her to a seat at the kitchen table. "Riley's really good with a wand," Remus said reassuringly as Riley thought of a spell to mend bones, "She's gonna be an Auror, ya know." Riley gave him a halfhearted shove and told Velma to keep still and to relax. She muttered a many syllabled, Latin word and a shimmery golden beam shot from her wand, encasing Velma's shoulder in a warm glow.

"Hmm, really?" Velma said. "What's an Auror?" but the question was soon pushed to the back of her mind as her shoulder was mended. "Whoa!" she exclaimed. "That was wicked! It's really fixed! Cool!" she started to bend it, and saw that it really was fixed and well. "Brilliant! Thanks!"

Riley blushed, "No big!" though she was only slightly embarrassed. "An Auror is a Dark Wizard fighter, basically. Like the Wizard police." She gave a small laugh. "But I'm not one yet, I still have two years at Hogwarts, but I've been volunteering at the Ministry on my summer's off." This comment caused a slightly dark expression to cross her face, she had had a grudge against the Ministry ever since Remus became a werewolf, since their magical creature policies were something to be debated about. Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes, she was too protective.

Velma had started looking around vaguely as Riley spoke and saw Remus roll his eyes. "Yeah, sisters...can't live with them can you? Though I s'pose you can't live without them either" she muttered to him. "Oh! Yes" she exclaimed, remembering Riley was there. "That sounded fascinating and so fun!"

Riley eyed her a bit, thinking that she may not be well. Maybe her brother shouldn't hang around with those whose minds wandered so easily. "Well...have some breakfast you guys." She gestured toward some scrambled eggs and sausages sitting on the stove, and left the room. Remus laughed, "Sweet, I'm starving," He began devouring a plate of sausage, "Cem un, ders er bunf ere." He said, food spilling from his mouth. He laughed again and swallowed painfully. "Come on, there's a bunch here."

Velma ran over and began eating too. The toast now seemed like ages ago, which, she reminded herself, it had been. "Remus, you eat like some kind of wolf!" she said to him as the food spilled from his mouth, before she stuffed a piece of bacon in her mouth. "Wait, I forgot" she said while reaching over for some sausage, which she ate, and then said after she swallowed "You are one!" she knew it was stupid, but she thought it was somehow hysterically funny all the same.

Remus barred his now normal, boyish teeth, and growled at the back of his throat. He fell back laughing, collapsing into a chair at the kitchen table. As he continued eating, two owls zoomed out of the fireplace at the back of the house. Remus looked up expectantly, owls were usually from his grandparents, sending word of their travels. Yet these owls had a kind of noble, groomed appearance about them, and the envelopes they held were thick and parchment. One envelope fell on Remus's head, the other on Velma's. "'Remus J. Lupin, Winsleck Drive, Kitchen Table, London'"

Velma laughed, but stopped as the owls came out of the fireplace, watching them with great interest. She was quite surprised that one of them had left a letter on her head that she accidentally dropped some food out of her mouth, and so she quickly got a napkin and put the food in there, hoping Remus hadn't seen that. "Well that's oddly specific" she said after he read the address on his letter aloud. Velma took her letter, glanced at it a few seconds, then ripped it open with anticipation. "Whoa, its those letters!"

Remus had been thinking the same thing, that it was strange how specific it was. As she began to open her letter, he couldn't quite figure out what she was talking about. "'Those letters'?" He slowly began to open his own, and it wasn't until he heard Riley call from upstairs, 'Mom! I got my booklist!' that it all finally clicked together. "Hogwarts!" He shouted, tearing into the parchment. A letter fell into his lap, congratulating him. His face was flushed with excitement and anticipation.

"Yes, those letters. Took you a while there, didn't it?" Velma said, now stuffing the first letter back inside and taking out the booklist. "These people have some pretty funny names!" she read through the list of books, then began reading through the other things. "Hey..." she began. "does your letter mention anything about a...tree?" she began to laugh again.

Remus began to laugh when she mentioned the tree, and he too looked at the rest of the papers in the envelope. It was only then that he realized that his envelope was a bit thicker than hers, at first he laughed it off. "Hey look! My letter's thicker! They like me better!" He stuck his tongue out and flicked open the extra piece of parchment. Suddenly his face fell and he turned a greenish tinge came to his face. "Bloody hell..." he murmured. He looked up at Velma, reading from the paper. "'Remus J. Lupin, this letter is to inform you of the reasons for the newly planted Whomping Willow.'"

Velma stuck her tongue back at him, and looked at her own booklist. She had been saying "Imagine living with a name like Newt Scamander or Arsenius Jigger, I think I'd stay away from the public, wouldn't you?" when she saw him frowning at the paper. She walked over behind him and read the letter. "See, look! They like you so much that they decided to plant a tree for you! And they gave it a name too!"

As Remus continued reading, his irritability increased. He began to read some quotes aloud for a larger affect, or to see if he was really reading them correctly. "...for your monthly transformations....a secret passage to the Shrieking Shack of Hogsmeade, England...strictly forbidden..." His eyes grew wide. "What the hell is all this? 'Informing other students is strictly forbidden and you may face expulsion if this rule is breached', well, you know already so I guess they're out of luck there." He gave a nervous laugh.

"Yes really, as if the first thing you're going to shout to everyone is 'Hey! I'm a werewolf! Better not follow me into my secret passage!'" Velma read the letter behind his back again. "Yeah...too late. Gonna tell the whole world now" she joked. "'Course not, though" she quickly added, in case he started to get rowdy.

Remus was beyond rowdiness. Fatigue had fallen upon his entire being, even his mind seemed to have slowed so that his hand wouldn't do as it was told, causing him to drop the stack of parchment. "Oh..." He sighed sleepily. "Sorry..." He bent to pick them up and slumped in the chair, unable to force himself to move any further. "G-d, I'm tired." He moaned like a sick puppy.

"Aww" Velma said sarcastically. "Well maybe I should go so Remmy-Poo can get his sleep. Don't let the bedbugs bite. But if they do, I'm sure London's Big Bad Wolf will eat them all...or maybe not..."

Remus was going to open his mouth to argue, but he was extremely tired, and instead decided to scowl at her playfully, then slowly feeling his eyes close.

"Well then...I guess I'll see you around." Velma said. She walked over to the door, opened it, and looked at Remus briefly. If she had known this time yesterday that he was a werewolf and what had happened...oh well. Velma turned back and walked out the door.

He had heard her exit, his body now feeling too heavy for him to move. The full moon always did that to him. But never, until this night, had he done this before. Overpowering the wolf that came inside him every month...he fell into a deep sleep, some moments of the previous night drifting into his dreams.

"... it was like it was really you, even though it wasn't you in how you looked. And if you've anything to be proud of last night, it's that you overpowered your animal side..."

The End