– sing you a lullaby, where you die at the end ;;
He opens his eyes, and the only thing he can see is nothing.
He’s reaching out blindly, trying to determine where he is. All he can feel is cold bars at his back, at his front, on either side of him - anywhere he turns, there’s more bars keeping him trapped in. It’s cramped, only enough room to reach an arm in front of him to try and beat uselessly against the metal with his fists until they’re aching, As he realizes exactly where he must be, his breathing quickens, heart starting to race, and he pushes even harder. He has to get out of here. A cry of frustration leaves his lips as he curls his hands in anger, grabbing the bars and shaking them in a futile effort.
The room around him is completely in shadows apart from one solitary light flickering above his head, and eventually he realizes there’s another figure in the room. Remus feels his heart stop in his chest as he recognizes who it is, taking a step back.
“Dad?”
His voice is quiet, touched with a sense of broken betrayal - because he’s standing there and not helping - but all Lyall does is acknowledge him with a single look, before looking back down at the paper he’s holding. Without a word, he approaches Remus - approaches the cage - still more interested in the paper he’s reading than in looking at his own son. “Dad,” he tries again, his voice wracked with desperation, stepping forward and wrapping his hands around the bars. If Remus could just reach out and grab a hold of him - maybe... “You have to help me. Please.”
His father will help him. He has to. Remus knows he will
It takes a moment, but his father finally looks up from the paper, and there’s a strange look on his face - like he’s contemplating something. He looks at Remus, and they stand in silence for a moment, before his father is reaching forward through the bars. Perhaps his father is having a change of heart, but all Lyall does is tug at the collar of his shirt, pulling it down to expose a dark series of letters and numbers now permanently stained against his skin. “015682B,” Lyall reads it off, before he’s back absorbed in his paper, and there’s a vague realization that his father was just using that to speak to him, rather than his own name. “You’re a danger to others. We’ll see how the moon goes, and then decide if you can be released back to the public.” With that, his father says nothing else and walks away from him, and Remus sinks back in defeat, sliding into a sitting position.
He’s buried his face in his hands, until he hears a voice call out “Moony?” from in front of him, and he swears he’s never been more grateful to see James in his life, grinning at him from where he’s standing. “Come on, time for a good ol’ fashioned jailbreak,” he adds, throwing a thumb in the direction of Sirius, who’s already working on the lock.
“Got it,” Sirius tells him, swinging the door open and stepping forward to offer Remus a hand, who takes it and climbs to his feet. “We gotta be quick. Lily’s keeping watch, but who knows what’ll happen if we take too long.” Remus just nods and follows after the two of them as they make their way out of the room, before meeting up with Lily. The four of them make a run for it from what seems to be the Ministry, and they manage to get out unscathed. Lily throws her arms around him as soon as they’re outside, kissing his forehead and cheeks, and telling him that he’s never allowed to leave her again. As he’s about to open his mouth in response, the world around them lurches, the sky plummeting from it’s inky blues into black - save for the perfectly full moon in the sky.
“Wait, no,” Remus starts, as he realizes what’s about to occur, but it’s too late. He can feel it in his bones, and he’s trying to take a step back, move away from the others, but he can’t move. He struggles against Lily, because he has to get away from her, but she just holds on even tighter, and if she only knew what was happening, she’d be running.
His head starts to cloud, and then there’s nothing.
When he opens his eyes again, the sun is shining brightly over him where he’s laying on the ground, and he’s vaguely aware of what happened earlier, trying to piece back together what happened before. He doesn’t end up needing to, because as he sits up, he immediately notices James and Sirius with their backs to him.
And then there’s the flame of red hair cast on the ground. He’s moving to his feet, the question already on his tongue, but they beat him to the punch, James turning to look at him with empty eyes.
“You killed her.”
No.
He can’t even react, can’t even breathe or move or think because no. Against his better judgement, he glances down at the ground, and all he can focus on at the claw marks covering her, made by his own hands. Remus takes a step back as he stares at his own hands, because this isn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening. “We should bring him back to the Ministry, James. Let them decide what to do with him,” he hears Sirius say flatly, like he’s not even there, and Remus is already shaking his head. “Clearly they were right. Dangerous to others.” He takes a step forward, trying to put himself between Sirius and James because surely they can’t mean that. They know him.
“He is a monster.”
It hits him like a punch to the stomach - not because of the meaning, but because of who it’s coming from. Remus reaches out and grabs onto Sirius. “You don’t mean that. You know me. You know that I’m not - that I’d never do anything to hurt anyone,” he pleads, both of his hands gripping on Sirius’ shoulders and trying to shake the sense into him. There’s a moment of silence where Sirius is just looking at him, before he recoils away, and Remus notices there’s now claw marks shredding down his shoulders to his chest. Ones that weren’t there until he touched him.
“That’s enough,” James yells at him, pushing him away from Sirius with his face contorted into an angry expression. Sirius is behind him, and Remus feels his arms being pinned back, before his eyes land on the glimmer that’s pulled out of James’ pocket, brandished forward in his hand towards Remus. Silver knife, he slowly registers.
“Just like Greyback,” James throws out in a hiss, before he’s walking closer, the knife pointed towards Remus’ throat. He lunges at him, the knife ready to make impact. And as it does, Remus shoots awake, chest heaving and scream dying in his throat.
