Bitten

A four-year-old, light-haired boy was playing happily in his backyard with the new toy broomstick his father had given him for his birthday. His toes skimmed the dewy grass as he made his way around the backyard. Remus John Lupin was the boy's name. He was a wizard; a half-blooded wizard. His family lived on a farm in the muggle country, so playing with his wizarding toys was okay. His family was quite well off.

"Remus, dear, why don't you go with Daddy and visit Ailbe?"

Ailbe was Remus's sole cousin on his fathers side, and Remus's favourite relative.

"Yay!" Remus cheered. He grabbed his broomstick and ran into the house where his father was waiting.

Ailbe was playing with her toy snitch when Remus arrived. He had his toy broomstick with him in his left hand.

"Remmie!"

Ailbe was only three, but she was quite smart. She was a great fan of Quidditch too.

"Oh! You have a broomstick! I have a snitch! Let's play!"

Remus agreed happily, and chased her into the backyard. The toy snitch flew as fast as the broomstick, and it was quite large. They played happily for hours until it began to get dark.

"Remus, Ailbe, time to come inside," Ailbe's dad called.

"Give me one more turn," Ailbe demanded.

"No, Uncle Devlin says we have to go inside now," Remus frowned, trying to pull the broomstick away from Ailbe's grasp. Ailbe pulled it off him, then ran into the forest just beside their house.

"Ailbe! I want my broom!" Remus cried; chasing her into the forest.

It was dark and quiet.

"Ailbe ..." Remus mumbled, he was more afraid of the forest than he had ever been of anything else in his life.

"Catch me, catch me," Ailbe chanted from somewhere in the forest.

"No! Give me my broom!" Remus demanded. He soon realised he had no choice but to find his cousin. He searched behind every tree and rock he could find, but he had no luck. Just as he was about to give up, he saw the handle of his broomstick protruding out from under a bush.

"Ailbe!" Remus shouted as he pulled the broomstick. It came out easily, but it was coated in a sticky, red liquid.

"Ailbe?" Remus asked uncertainly. He walked around the bush when he saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Ailbe's half devoured body was lying under a gigantic, grey-furred wolf.

"No!" Remus sobbed. He turned and began to run. The werewolf quickly took another bite out of Ailbe's carcass, then bolted after Remus, who was running faster than he had ever run in his life. He made it on to a rough mud trail, but as he attempted to jump over a rotting log, he slipped, landing face first in the mud. He turned on to his back as tears began to pour down his face as the wolf scratched his chest, causing blood to pour out, then it bit into his neck.

"ARGH!" Remus screamed.

"Lay off," called a voice, but before Remus could place a face on the voice, everything turned white.

"...yeah, he was bitten all right ... by the time I got here, though, the bite had healed. These scratches, however, will always be there ... scars ..."

"Ailbe ..."

Remus opened his eyes. He was in a room with white walls and white tiled floors. There was a large window to his left, then he realised he was on a hospital bed. Strange people in white cloaks were walking around his bed, inspecting him. None of them seemed to notice he was awake. A rather stout witch pulled back Remus's robe covering his chest, and inspected four, long scratch-scars.

"Ouch," Remus winced as she ran her finger along one of the lines.

"He's awake, let Mr and Mrs Lupin in through the curtains, will you, dear?" the witch stated.

Remus's parents were suddenly hugging him so hard he thought he was going to choke.

"Mum, where's Ailbe?"

Remus's Mum burst into tears, then Remus remembered; he had seen her, half eaten, lying in the grass ...

"She's ... gone, dear," she managed to splutter through the constant waterfall of tears.

"Gone? Mum ... I saw her ... the big dog was eating her ..."

Remus startled as his mother burst into tears again. He didn't think adults ever cried, especially his parents. He could see his father crying too.

"You saw her ..." his mother whispered. "Oh you poor dear!"

Remus understood that his cousin was dead, but he still didn't understand why all of these people were still looking at him, some with fear in their eyes. Remus suddenly noticed that everything was a lot louder than it had ever been. He was unexpectedly hearing everything around him; he could hear whispers from the hall as though they were speaking right in his ear.

"STOP IT!" Remus cried, flinging his hands up to cover his ears.

"He's panicking," one of the wizards urged. Two witches pulled his arms down from his ears and pushed threw him to the bed as he struggled. He began to cry again, only this time it was out of frustration.

"Excuse me, Mr and Mrs Lupin, could you please come out into the hall with me for a moment?"

All of a sudden, all of the witches and wizards were leaving. Remus saw them shut the door, but he could still hear the conversation going on outside.

"Your son, Remus, is a werewolf, as I am sure you are aware of now. Now, you will need to lock him up somewhere on the full moon's ... he won't be able to attend any magic school -"

"What? He will be able to! I know he will!"

"I'm sorry, Mrs Lupin, but there is no way -"

"He will. Now, continue."

The Healer decided not to argue with her.

"Well, we think the reason he was panicking before was because he was most likely just beginning to hear things as only a werewolf can, and smell things. With proper teaching, he should be able to get all of his werewolf senses under control. Now, he may suffer headaches, grumpiness, agitation and depression on the week leading up to the full moon ..."

Remus did not listen to the rest of what the Healer was saying. It was unimportant, all he needed to know was that he was not going to be able to attend any magic school or play with normal kids or do anything like that. He would grow up alone and once a month, would turn into a gigantic wolf that would only care about killing people.