Part of the Night

At the age of five, something horrible happened to Remus Lupin.

He was bitten by one of the most feared werewolves of our time, changing him forever into someone that those around him would never accept. Every month at the full moon he turned into a creature his parents had to lock inside a cage in a soundproofed room so he wouldn't hurt anyone else. Not even his parents could look at him in the same way again. They had lost their son to a monster.

Remus knew from an early age that he would never be able to attend school of any kind. With such brutal transformations every month, there was no way anyone would let him in to a school setting with all the other children. Remus had resigned himself to a difficult future with no schooling, no job, a life on the run, a life in fear and poverty, when Albus Dumbledore became Headmaster of Hogwarts.
So much changed when he got his letter. The Headmaster had penned another letter sent to him inside the school letter, where it explained what they could do for him during transformations. The Whomping Willow had already been planted, and would reach full growth shortly, and the tunnel was completed. The house they planned on building would commence shortly after Remus got the letter.
When his parents heard this, they burst into tears, and held onto their darling son, someone who could now have a chance thanks to Hogwarts.

His parents got him all his supplies one afternoon together, the first time they'd had such an outing in ages. Remus was overwhelmed by all the amazing stuff around him. When he got his wand, he very nearly sobbed himself. He knew that before he had gotten the letter to Hogwarts, before Dumbledore, there had been no chance that he would have gotten a wand of his own.
When he swished it through the air as Mr. Ollivander had said, a flash of brilliant white light sprang from the tip, and blinded them all. Blinking hard, Mr. Ollivander assured Mr. and Mrs. Lupin that that was completely normal behaviour for a new wand as he rang up the purchase.

Remus had never been happier. The transformation was behind him as of that month, and he was surrounded by all of the wonderful trappings of Magic. He read late into the night, and, when his mother peeked in later, she smiled softly as she was her son flopped out on his bed, asleep on three open books, his wand clenched tightly in his hand.
What a blessing Dumbledore was. No one would be able to understand why this meant enough to them to make them come near to tears every time they spoke of it.

"Good bye, sweetheart! I'll write often, kay? I hope you have a good time!" his mother told him, giving him a final hug before shooing him off to the train. His Mum and Dad stood back, arms around each other, as they waved good bye to their son.
Remus waved for ages, thinking his arm might fall off, before the station zipped out of sight. Sighing happily, he sank back onto the benchseat, fingering his new robes. Not wanting any reminders of his old life, his life before Dumbledore, he hadn't worn his Muggle clothes to the station. He had them packed of course, not wanting to get his robes ruined on transformation nights, but those were at the bottom, underneath all of his magical things.
He was going to Hogwarts.....how things had changed....
Someone slid back the door to the compartment, and in trooped a few boys his age.
"Hi!" he greeted shyly, noting the appearances of each. One was dark and already quite handsome, one had spectacles, and unruly black hair, and another was small, fair, and looked impressionable. The last seemed to be following the other two around, evidenced by the two boys' annoyed looks exchanged back and forth when the smallest followed them closer than was necessary, copying their moves.
"Hi!" The tallest said, sticking out a hand. Remus shook it hesitantly. He wasn't quite used to seeing people approach him without a look of disgust or fear on their faces. "I'm Sirius Black."
"Hello," the one with glasses and unruly hair said, sitting across from Remus and giving a small wave. "I'm James Potter."
When the smallest sat down on the other end of the bench seat that Remus was on and didn't say anything, James smiled exasperatedly, and said:
"And that's Peter Pettigrew. He doesn't talk a whole lot, but he's friends with us already."
"As are you two," Remus pointed out, as Sirius Black sat down near James. James shrugged.
"Yeah. We can be four friends on our way to Hogwarts though, and that's better than sitting alone..."
Remus nodded vehemently. For some reason he had stubbornly believed that he would end up sitting on his own, just to keep his hopes down that other people might want to be his friend. He hoped he never let anything slip....

Gingerly, Remus lowered himself into the rocking boat behind Sirius. He wasn't too sure about this. It just didn't seem safe...But the other two were all for it, whooping, and hopping straight into a boat the moment they realized everyone was going to Hogwarts in this fashion. Peter had followed timidly, but determined to get on the same one as the two he tagged behind. The woman escorting them, Professor McGonagall, a witch with auburn hair who looked to be in her twenties, had called out there was to be four to a boat, and had then stepped gracefully into one of the boats herself.
Peter sat at the front of the boat, clutching onto the lantern, looking over the black waters fearfully, while Sirius began to joke about all the dark things that were in the water. He insisted there was a giant squid in the water, though, unlike the other things Remus had never heard of that he was pretty sure didn't exist.
When they finally got out of the boats, Peter had to be unglued from the lantern, so tightly did he clutch at the pole.
"The ride's over now, Peter, we can go into the school now, onto solid, unmoving ground," Remus coaxed. Peter finally let go of the pole, and slowly manouevered out of the small boat. James' eyebrows raised, but he turned and followed the many other first years without commenting.
As they walked up to the Great Hall, Remus again pondered which House he'd be in. Sirius had insisted that he'd end up in Slytherin since his whole family had been there, and James said he'd probably be in Gryffindor. Peter refused to talk about it. Sirius joked that Peter would end up with the wimpy Hufflepuffs, but James had quickly jumped to the Hufflepuff's defense, as many of his family members had been in Hufflepuff too.
After a moment of thoughtfulness, James said that Remus would probably be in Ravenclaw, the smart House. Remus had blushed at that. He wasn't that smart....then Sirius had gone off again, talking about Inter-House Unity--if each of them was in a different House, and they stayed friends, they'd be the biggest example made by the teachers...Remus had rolled his eyes and gone back to looking out the window at that point, and stopped listening.
But now that they were going to be Sorted into their Houses, Remus was seriously wondering what he would be in. When the Hat had finished his song, he thought he liked a few Houses better than others, but none of them sounded particularly him not that that really mattered. He doubted there was a House for Werewolves...
When Sirius was Sorted into Gryffindor, Remus laughed out loud at the happily astonished face Sirius made before leaping off the stool for Gryffindor table. After several more students, it was then Remus' turn.

"A werewolf, eh?" the Hat had said in his ear. Remus jumped and paled, hands clenching the sides of the stool he sat on. "Yes...a good, strong mind...and you will be needed to round up the latest Potter, I'm certain...GRYFFINDOR!"
When Pettigrew was Sorted, Sirius was too busy playing with his silverware to notice until Peter dropped down across from him.
"What?! You are in Gryffindor? " Sirius asked in disbelief.
James' Sorting was the only one any of them knew for certain. Sirius mimed the Hat's yell, loudly whispering SLYTHERIN, RAVENCLAW, TOADSTOOL, FLABBERGASTED, until Remus elbowed him, giggling madly. The Hat shouted GRYFFINDOR, and James hurried over to them.
"Hey you all! I didn't imagine we'd all end up in the same House!" James said, running a hand through his hair as he sat down.
"Look! There's Snivellus!" Sirius said, and Remus looked around in interest. Who had the misfortune to have that nickname? Severus Snape, a small, thin, sallow-skinned eleven-year-old was sitting on the stool, and was shortly proclaimed to be a SLYTHERIN.
James rolled his eyes, and paid attention to his plate, moaning about how hungry he was. Remus eyed him dubiously. Nobody ate that many sweets on the train and was hungry enough for dinner in that short a time.
Unfortunately he was wrong--he had never seen so much food disappear into someone, much less two someones at once. Sirius and James gobbled their food down at lightning pace, while Peter picked out food critically. Remus dished out what looked good before eating like the only human there---which sent him into an hysterical laughing fit that he couldn't explain to the others when they asked.

That night, Remus sighed happily, hands under his head, as he looked up at the canopy above him. He twisted his head and saw through the window, at the swiftly waning moon, and smiled wider. He heard the snores around him of the new first-year Gryffindors, and reached a hand out to grab his new scarf. Looking at it in the dim light, it didn't look very much like the Gryffindor colours, but he'd seen it earlier with the lights on. Red and Gold in thick bands contrasted all the way down, ending in a long fringe.
Remus rolled onto his side, his scarf held tightly to him. Never had he dreamt.....and now he was here, at last. At Hogwarts, in Gryffindor House, with three friends already.

He had so much to write Mum!

Remus fell asleep smiling. He'd never felt this great in his whole life.