Marauder crack

In raw flesh

-Holy Circe.

Lily visits him in the infirmary during lunchtime the next day.

- If you make that face when you see me - Remus seems exhausted - I must be as horrible as I feel.

She sits next to him, she wants to touch him but imagines that it must hurt. He is lying on the right side of him. Haggard, pale as parchment. He speaks in a quiet voice. Lily would like to ask what happened but making him speak would seem cruel.

- It's not that bad, Lil. Seriously. They just want to make sure my wounds won't get infected.

There are not. Sometimes they appear. Scars on the face, on the neck, in the hands. But all Lily sees are minor cuts on the fingers and little else.

- What wounds, Remus?

- It doesn't matter.

He doesn't want to talk about it. He prefers that Lily tell him about classes and offer some distraction. And Lily tries, she genuinely tries, but when Remus wants to change position and she tries to help, he puts a hand on her back and the moan is so intense - so animal - that she has to see it. Simply, she has to see what wounds he is referring to. If his best friend is a werewolf, Lily Evans wants to see exactly what it means.

- Remus, please.

He ends up giving up. He lets her lift his pijama top. Lily fills her soul with a mixture of horror and grief that drowns her with the intensity of it. She has to hold back the tears. "My God". Bites were deep enough to have bruised not just one part, if not practically the entire back of it. Everything is intense purple. His flesh seems so swollen that just looking at him is painful.

There are desperate red spots of blood under his skin, and Remus must notice how each of his muscles beats.

- Who did this to you?

- I tried to attack someone. But a dog attacked me before I could harm anyone.

He says it without a trace of compassion for himself.

-A dog ...- murmurs Lily, touching with the tips of her fingers the deeper marks - did it do this to you?

She pulls down her pijamas. He gives her a handkerchief to wipe away his tears.

- It, was a huge dog. - He smiles, despite everything and that makes Lily want to cry harder if she possibly could. - And It saved me from myself.

From his rage. From his bloody instinct. From the moon.