imagine remus lupin waking up from what is just another full moon at hogwarts with his friends. except it doesn’t feel like any other full moon.
the first thing he notices is that there are more scratches and scars that there never was. even the night he was alone at home.
the second thing he notices is that his friends aren’t all around his bed. one of them is missing, and the other two are too quiet.
the third thing he notices is the painful, pitying looks on their face, and the hands on the rare inches of his skin that aren’t scarred.
the fourth thing he notices is how james is opening his mouth but isn’t speaking, like he was looking for his words. and james potter never thinks before to talk, he says the first thing which comes to his mind and this is more worrying than anything else.
the fifth thing he notices is the wounds on his friend’s arm, and they look just like claw’s marks and he panics because what have i done and he has all these thoughts about the million of possible scenarios of what might have happen and he thinks that maybe he hurted sirius too and that’s why he isn’t there.
the sixth thing he notices is that james is speaking, but in his panic he hadn’t heard a word of it.
the seventh thing he notices are the words james is slowly repeating or him, and he understands that severus had done something and sirius had told him something, and he hears that no one is hurt and that it wasn’t his fault.
the eighth thing he notices is the way peter looks at him, full of compassion, as he asks james to just say it.
the ninth thing he notices is the long sufferering sigh james has before to finally say the words.
the tenth thing he notices is the cold wet trail on his cheeks, even if he haven’t processed the news already.
the eleventh thing he notices is his own screams, as he yells at james that he won’t do that, you’re lying, where is he, there must be a misunderstanding, james tell me the truth, please, please
the twelth thing he notices is that his screams don’t make sense anymore and that he’s sobbing uncontrollably and the weight of the world is on his shoulders again and it fucking hurts.
the thirteenth thing he notices is that peter and james’s arms are around him and he feels awful and he’s back at the st mungo’s hospital bed where he learned that he was now a monster and that he thought his dad would abandon him, and he just cries all he can because there is nothing else to do.
the one thing he doesn’t notice is the boy who’s on the other side of the wooden door and who wants nothing else but to go in but he knows james would fucking kill him if he dared, so he just waits outside even if there’s nothing to wait for.