i: The Beast

He feels bad for rejecting her yet again. He can see what it's doing to her - it's been weeks since he's seen the vaguest hint of a smile on her face, and she's even losing her Metamorphosing abilities. He didn't know that was possible. But he can't let himself admit that he loves her. Remus Lupin can't afford to love.

When he was younger, his mother would tell him that when he transformed, it wasn't really him. Just a beast that would take over his body every full moon. The next day it would go away again, and everything would be fine. Now he knows better. The beast is always a part of him. It might not always be visible, but it controls and dictates his life all the time.

He's constantly shunted from place to place; he can't stay in a job, or even rent a house, for more than a year. All it takes is for someone to discover his secret, and then he's moved onto the next place to be a burden on somebody else.

He's not angry about it – it's just something he has to live with, and he's not ashamed of what he is. But the thing he finds difficult is guarding his emotions. He can't get too close to anyone, because everyone he has ever loved has ended up hurt. He is not willing to add Nymphadora Tonks to that list.

A/N: This is for the Drabble Collection Challenge on HPFC. I was given the title, the chapter titles and the theme of restlessness to play with, so these will probably all be quite angsty. Yay ;) I'll be using whichever characters the prompts inspire, so this could contain anything and everything!

Disclaimer: I'm not J K Rowling.