REX CLUTCHED THE TEDDY BEAR TO HIS CHEST AS HE SAT IN THE HOSPITAL WING. Madame Pomfrey was busy fussing about, taking care of the other patients and preparing various potions that were running low, whispering so softly to herself that she was barely heard. It made sense, she was still fairly new to the whole operation, it had been her third year when Rex first came to the school, so getting her bearings was still a work in progress.

    She cast a glance over to the small boy, giving him a sympathetic smile. "Are you alright, dear?"

    He shook his head, burying his face in the brown fur, lying back down and drawing the sheets over himself, turning away from her. Though it had occurred the day before, he had woken up just two hours before, and was still more than a little shaken up.

    He shivered to himself, his skin crawling as memories began to flood back, mocking him. The ghostly feeling of his bones contorting and contracting, his vision blurring, his head aching as feelers sprouted. His throat aching as he tried and failed to scream as the library began to expand, growing taller, the sound of shouts and screams echoing in his ears.

    He felt bile rise in his throat and desperately fought against his urge to throw up on the side of his hospital bed.

    "Do you want anything to drink?" Madame Pomfrey tried, noticing the way the boy was turning slightly green.

    He nodded slightly, eyes darting from her to his bed. He avoided looking at her as she fetched him pumpkin juice, despite all he had been expecting. He took the small bottle from her, unable to keep from seeming wary.

    "You've just gone through a difficult experience, dear, I don't blame you for being shaken up, especially a Muggle boy like yourself," she said, patting his cheek fondly.

    He couldn't help but lean into the touch, remembering his aunts who were waiting for him back home with the rest of his family, all of them crammed into their small flat. It was better that he was away from home most of the year, but after what he had just gone through, he wished they were with him.

    "Don't cry, dear, it's alright," Madame Pomfrey whispered, and he shook his head, now unable to fight back the growing lump in his throat and stinging tears that began to trail down his red cheeks.

    "Your friends are coming to visit you soon," she said, running her hand once more through his hair before pulling away, needing to tend to her duties; she was a kind woman, fairly young still, but there was only so much comfort one was able to give.

    He let out a shaky breath and nodded, moving so he was lying on his side again, teddy bear clutched tight to his chest and blanket drawn close, the pumpkin juice forgotten on the sheets as he cried softly to himself, not wanting to be a bother, but much too upset to hold it in.

    Nathaniel and Penelope visited him during their free time. By then, he had thrown up three times and was ordered by Madame Pomfrey to stay one more night as he still seemed to be showing certain side effects, strangely enough.

    "You'll be fine," Penelope said shortly, but she still hugged him close, running her hand through his hair.

    Nathaniel hugged him as well, telling him that all he had to do was say the word and those boys were all as good as dead, especially the one who had hexed him. While Rex would have loved to just say yes, he didn't want to be an accomplice to whatever plan Nathaniel concocted; while a generally peaceful boy, there was nothing he wouldn't do for the people he cared for.

    "What was it like?" Nathaniel asked, the three of them sitting on the cot which was barely able to hold their weight.

    "Awful," Rex groaned, falling back against his pillow, staring up at the high ceiling, "It felt like my bones were moving out of my body and my skin was melting off and inside of me. My head hurt so bad and my throat was just gone."

    "Well, it's a good thing Madame Pomfrey was able to help," Penelope said, tapping his leg, "You had us worried there."

    "She nearly stepped on you," Nathaniel chimed in, earning a flick on his ear.

    Rex laughed at that, arms wrapped around himself, now sitting up. His friends being there had helped him a great deal, though he still felt sick. But he didn't feel so alone, the pain of his family not being there fading somewhat.

    "We need to go," Penelope said, all but sighing as she reluctantly shimmied off the bed, coming to stand by the side.

    "We'll bring you some sweets from dinner," Nathaniel promised, stepping down as well, gathering up their robes, the two putting them on, glancing towards the large clock.

    "Okay," Rex mumbled, already getting himself comfortable, ready to go back to sleep, exhausted, "See you."

    "Get some rest," Penelope said, the two walking out of the wing, closing the door behind them, leaving Rex to himself.

    The boy drifted off to sleep not long after, the teddy bear clutched to his chest and the blankets drawn up to his shoulders. He had stopped crying, but he still shivered, unable to shake the ghostly feeling from his body.

º º º

    He awoke to the sound of the door opening.

    Shifting, he didn't sit up immediately, instead just continuing to lie there, eyes still closed, hoping that, if they hadn't come to visit him, he could still get more sleep. However, the light footsteps had stilled somewhere near his bed, and no words had yet been said, so this visitor was most likely for him; who it was, however, he did not know.

    Sighing softly, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing at his eyes and running a hand through his hair. Blinking away the sleep, Rex found himself looking at a lanky boy with ruffled light brown hair and light scars on his face.

    "Hi?" Rex greeted, giving the boy a slight smile, unsure as to why he was there. He took notice of his Gryffindor robes and became even more confused; he didn't know many Gryffindors.

    "Hello," the boy greeted, smiling as well, "How are you doing?"

    "Alright," he replied, trying to remember the boy's name and how he knew him—the school was small, he should remember his name—keeping up the polite small talk, "Does everyone know now?"

    The boy shook his head, looking incredibly guilty. "No, it's just...I want to apologize. For what had happened."

    Rex raised an eyebrow, confused; why was he trying to apologize?

    "It was an accident, you see," the boy continued, moving to sit on the foot of the bed, "James and Sirius had been trying to get me to try a new hex and it was meant to hit James, but he had jumped out of the way at the last second, and you were there and there was no way to stop it. I'm truly terribly sorry about what had happened, I just wanted to set that straight with you."

    Rex could only gape in disbelief. "You were the one who did it?" His disbelief quickly turned to anger and in a fit of rage, he grabbed his pillow and began hitting the boy with it, wishing he was stronger, shouting obscenities and curses at him.

    "I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Remus cried, desperately trying to block the hits from the pillow and tune out the cruel words that were understandable, but still quite hurtful. It was a shock at the sudden shift in mood the boy, and Remus had to wonder if this was something that happened often.

    "Accident or no, you owe me, Lupin," Rex snarled, reaching up towards the clothes he was wearing to tug at his collar and expose a large mark just hidden beneath where his shirts would cover, barely over his collarbone, "You made this."

    Remus stared at the scar. It was brown and was shaped almost like a birthmark, blotchy and without real indication, yet he could see that it was unnatural, yet etched into his skin. It would never fade away and, at the moment, it looked painful.

    "How—?" he began, but Rex didn't let him finish.

    "It doesn't happen often, but it's been known to happen during such sudden changes, especially when the intent of this particular hex is misdirected," he explained with a harsh sort of mumbled, re-buttoning his shirt and shrugging his one shoulder, "It hurts like hell and I'm gonna have to show it to my grandmother."

    Remus could see and hear how much that particular fact hurt the boy, and he had to wonder just how close he was to his family. He knew he was a Muggle-born, it couldn't have been easy to explain his situation to so many people; or rather, explain away certain aspects of his situation.

    "You owe me," Rex said darkly, and how was Remus to disagree when he was the one who caused it.

    "What do you want?" he asked instead, because what else was there to ask but what the boy was demanding.

    "I'll figure something out," he replied, and it was just ominous enough to have Remus' skin crawl and his body shiver involuntarily. "You can go now."

    Unable to do anything else, the boy just stood and walked out, casting one last look towards the boy on the bed. He winced, turning away quickly, but the image was burned into the back of his eyes. The small boy was glaring at him, his eyes dark and his jaw set, with a kind of rage so pure that it was transparent, so all encompassing that he was able to see past it and find the hurt he was trying to mask, the pain and frustration that he didn't want to show.

    Remus was immensely guilty.

    Rex watched the door close, sighing in frustration as he stared at his hands which were beginning to shake. He didn't feel guilty about forcing Remus to owe him, because he did; the boy couldn't get away scot free while Rex was forced to remember the feeling and have a constant reminder on his skin for the rest of his life.

    It was humiliating, it was degrading, it was terrifying. He could still feel his fear and the shock, could hear the shouts and the pointing and the faces. The feel of his skin moving and his throat and mouth closing, unable to scream as he fell closer and closer to the ground, see the feet nearly killing him, the laughter of one boy which quickly turned to gasps. It was awful. He wanted Remus to feel that.

    Then it clicked. As if by a power higher than himself, a thought was placed in his mind, fulfilling everything he needed the other boy to fill, an all encompassing need that the boy would have no choice but to do.

    This mess started with a dare, Rex would finish it with one.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 2. 13. 18 )

It's been a hot second since I updated this story, I'm sorry, but it's here now and I'm very excited to actually get back into it, because this is supposed to be really lighthearted and fluffy without much research (who am I kidding, I do way too much regardless) so I'll try to pump out chapters. They won't be super long, but they'll be a substantial size.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!