"Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was. She had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person could not see it in themselves."-Lupin
"The Beauty Within"

Rating: PG

Pairings: Lily/Remus

Disclaimer: this is what comes out of making us wait so long for POA to come out on video and DVD. It's evil! But we think about it so much that some good fanfiction comes out of it. We thank you for that. I do not own Remus Lupin, as much as I pray to God, as many shooting stars I wish on, I still do not own him. Read on.

Chapter one:

It was the day of the full moon. Remus Lupin felt lousy. He was lousy with lousiness, (A/N: sorry, I just finished the eleventh Series of Unfortunate Events book, if u understand, review me!), as usual. He was pretty used to the shakes, the hot sweats, and the headaches. He was feeling lousy for a different reason. Tonight, before he set off for the Whomping Willow, his friends would do their annual grilling. They'd ask him where he was going. Well, he was running out of family members to make sick or even kill off. He had decided to tell them the truth this time.

After classes, which he paid no attention to, he went up to Gryffindor Tower to rest before his strenuous evening. There he found Lily Evans. He'd almost forgotten that he had one supporter. Lily had figured out his secret the previous year.

"I checked the lunar chart, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Remus panted, wiping sweat off his neck.

"You don't look good."

"I know, don't worry. I'm just a little nervous."

"Why?"

"I'm gonna' tell the guys the truth tonight."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea, they need to know. And they'll figure it out eventually, like you did."

"True."

"Have you seen them? I'd like to tell them before I go."

"No, I haven't seen them since dinner."

"Huh." He sighed, and looked at his watch. "Aw crud, it's time to go. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully in one piece."

"Right," she nodded, and gave him a pained look. "Bye." She waved to him as he left and she had to admit, she had a little crush on him. She just hoped he'd be okay.

Remus hurried to the Whomping Willow. He could feel the unpleasantness in his gut he usually got before transformations. He grabbed the branch that lay on the ground and prodded the knot at the base of the tree with it. He hurried into the passage. Finally he reached the shack at the end of the tunnel. He felt his limbs shaking and his body changing. The last things he saw before he turned complete wolf, were the other three marauders removing the invisibility cloak.

Remus woke the next morning bleary-eyed, with a splitting headache and what felt like a few broken ribs. He was also covered in scratches, but, of course, that was normal. As he tried to get his bearings, he heard voices, and remembered his friends, hoping they hadn't stayed there all night.

"Whoa, what did he do to himself??" Remus recognized the voice of Sirius.

"See, we were right! He is a werewolf. Weird, he seemed so normal." That was James. "Why did we even come back this morning?"

"To check on him, right? We're his friends!" that was Peter; Remus felt an upsurge of gratefulness toward him.

"Yeah, about that," James began. "I was thinking about it last night and, I don't know about you but I don't want to be friends with a werewolf!"

Remus felt anger and he opened his eyes as Sirius said, "He's the same old Remus, isn't he?"

"Hi guys." He said. They all jumped seeing him awake as though afraid he would attack them. "Relax, it's just me."

"Look, we know, okay?" James almost shouted at me.

"Yeah, but it doesn't change anything, right?"

"Well, we were thinking about it and we came to the conclusion that we'd prefer it if you kept to yourself and we kept to ourselves. For our own safety." James said, as though he'd rehearsed it.

"But, guys, you can't do this!"

"Watch us." Said James, once again. He seemed to be doing all the talking while Sirius and Peter hung back shyly. Remus had never seen Sirius shy before! And silently, the three marauders walked toward the door of the shack.

Remus rose from the floor to stop them but realized his ankle was broken when he got a shooting pain down his right leg. He fell to the floor, panting. After a while, he could feel his vision going black. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a mass of red hair coming toward him.

A/N: well, what do you think? No, no, don't tell me. I know what you're thinking. "Why doesn't she get to work on The Summer at James?" well, I am working on it. Slowly but surely. I promise. It's coming soon. As well as a new work entitled: "Cursing the Moon". This must be a field day for Remus fans! Just come to my profile and read all the Remus you can stand! I love Remus. If I haven't mentioned it in the past two seconds. My friends are getting annoyed now. Oh well! Part two coming soon to a web page near you! ï