Marauders' Sixth Year (Wolfstar, Marauders)

Remus' Scars

The next morning, Sirius was the first one to be woken by the first rays of sunshine making their way into the circular dormitory through one of the five big windows.

He gave a dog-like growl as he opened his eyes, closing them again and burying his face into the first thing he found, which turned out to be the arm of no other than Remus John Lupin.
Sirius didn't mind, he was still all sleepy and grumpy as he wrapped his hands around Remus' arm, pulling himself closer and hiding his face in the other boys' limp.

But the comfortable position didn't even last two seconds, the silence being broken by Remus who suddenly shot up in bed, giving a painful, animal-like yelp.
Sirius shot up as well, looking at him with wide eyes as he noticed Remus' painfully distorted facial expression as he held onto his arm -which Sirius had just clung to seconds ago- with his other hand.

He instantly felt his heart drop, making his chest feel heavy. „Remus? What's wrong?"

The other boy gave a heavy sigh, shaking his head, his messy hair losing it's shape even more. „Nothing, Nothing...", he mumbled as he turned his head slightly.

„Don't lie to me!" Sirius demanded, his expression worried as he eyed Remus' arm -which was hidden by his long sleeves- carefully, still hoping to find out what had caused the taller boy to yelp in pain.

Remus sighed, raising his arms slowly and taking off his sweater, not facing the dark-haired boy as he sat on his bed, shirtless.

„Oh my god..." Sirius exhaled, his voice shaky as he looked at the other boy. He had seen him shirtless many times before, it just happens when you share a dormitory for years.
He did know that Remus had scars -many of them-, he had seen them before but there were about double as many as there had been before their two months of summer holidays.

There were many new small ones on his chest and belly, but also large ones, a new one which seemed to be the biggest of all. The scar stretched all the way from his left shoulder to the bottom of his rips on the right side of his chest, making its way over his back and down to his left hip. It looked like a rope going around his body once, still very dark and not nearly as healed as some of
the others.

The one which seemed to have caused him to yelp as he had woken up was still an open wound, it had to be from the full moon just three days ago.
His arms were covered with fresh, open and bloody wounds from the last full moon, the newer ones which were mostly on his torso had to be already one month old, from the other full moon which had taken place during the summer.

Sirius raised his hand slowly, placing it on the beginning of the big scar and tracing it slowly, gently. He could feel the other boys warm skin, strong heartbeat and steady breathing as he did so, his movements gentle and careful.

„Remus..." He mumbled in a sad voice, looking up at him with concern in his dark eyes.
„Why... Why didn't you tell us? What happened to you? Why aren't you in the hospital wing?"

The scarred boy gave a heavy sigh, looking at anything but the eyes of his concerned friend. „Well... I... I didn't want to bother y-"

Sirius interrupted him, his eyes wide.
„Bother us?Are you crazy?! Remus... We're your friends, you should tell us if you're in pain, tell us what happened! You don't bother us..."
His voice broke slightly at the end. „You could never bother me..." He said, looking at Remus who was facing him by now.

„Yes... Thank you... I'm sorry..." He sighed, looking into Sirius' eyes as he began to talk.

„Well... The first full moon this summer... I wanted to get out.. So I walked into the wood and tranformed there... I don't really remember much but I know that I got into a fight with another werewolf that night..."
He gave a slight, sad and disbelieving laugh. „Another werewolf... In the woods close to my small town. It's weird..."
He shook his head.„Anyway... That's how I got the big ones and the ones on my torso,mostly..."