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thekillingmoonr-francis · 2 years

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Chapter 1; The Visitour

10 months before the beginning of classes

Remus Lupin was not specifically known for being a coward but he did fear many things. He feared darkness, narrow spaces, loud noises, heights, public speaking, animals (not every one of them but those with teeth pointed enough to remove his carotid from a single bite), but without a doubt his greatest fear was the Basement.

Remus's family moved houses quite often since the incident. In the last year they had been in six different houses far enough away from each other not to be recognized, but they all had something in common and that was the Basement. Remus had noticed that, despite leaving the houses, the Basement never left him. After the bite, Lyall, his father, was forced to create a safe area where Remus could have his transformations without jeopardizing the neighbors or his own family. At the beginning Remus had the transformations in his own room, Lyall would apply magical protections to the door and window every full moon so the wolf couldn't destroy it but the next morning everything was a terrible mess and all of Remus stuff was destroyed, and that having in mind that the wolf was nothing more than practically harmless cub.

He also went through a container, a muggle friend of Hope, his mum, was a container tenant and Hope commissioned one with the excuse that she needed a place to store Lyall's woodworking tools (who had never taken a hammer in his life unless he was looking for a paperweight). The container was a good option, with a couple of silent spells, Remus could transform quietly without raising suspicions but the wolf did not like the container, there it was when he got his worst wounds, one of them across his nose almost reaching the corner of his eye and the other one across his right eyebrow. The container was quickly discarded.

But when they arrived at Lupin's sixth home when he was 8 years old, he met the Basement. The house was a beautiful moss green colour with white frame windows and a garden full of flowers of all colours but the real reason Lyall chose that place was the Basement. The house had a huge basement lined with unsound cement, with a small bathroom and a storeroom whose only entrance was a wooden staircase. The wolf met the Basement within the week of moving and, for the first time, he woke up with not a single scratch. The Basement quickly became a requirement in the Lupin homes but soon ceased to be a friendly place, both, Remus and the wolf, hated that place, the wolf soon snarled against itself but, at least, the damage was minor and managed to pass unnoticed.

Now Remus was 10 years old, nearly 11. Both Hope and Lyall had lost all hope that Remus would attend Hogwarts so they were looking for a school to send him to, they had decided to wait until his eleven years to send him to school, in the midtime, Remus was home-educated so he didn't have many friends, but Remus didn't care, he loved his house classes. His mum taught him reading, mathematics, evolution and everything that muggle schools taught while his father had chosen to give him as much information as possible about the magical world, Remus was specifically drawn to magical creatures, his favourites were Grindylows, highly energetic aquatic demons and, though aggressive from time to time, they were easily domesticable.

But his lycanthropy was not his only difficulty, Remus was also dyslexic and, many times, Remus thought that that screw him over way more than being a werewolf.

Now he was sitting in the living room playing with a wooden train that Hope had made him. Hope was extremely skillful with carpentry (unlike Lyall) and enjoyed making and fixing things. She had only recently given up her job to engage Remus full time, she become so thin that she sometimes did not recognize herself in the mirror. She used to be a beautiful woman, she had huge amber eyes as bright as honey and a silky black hair that framed her face, Remus had inherited her eyes and the thousands moles and freckles that covered her skin, the rest was his father's. Hope was now a thin woman, her amber eyes had darkened and lost in the sunken bowl of her cavity, her hair was now always in a loose tail and her skin was paler than ever. She had several gray hair that made her look older than she was. Remus often thought his mother was sick, Lyall thought of it too but he never said it aloud, he couldn't, not knowing that he had caused it in the first place although he wouldn't say that aloud either.

For the first snowfall of December the Lupin received a visit, but not any visit. The door slapped gently at about seven in the afternoon. Hope was washing the frets almost out of inertia, Lyall had offered to do it with magic but Hope needed a distraction and, to be honest, sometimes appreciated going through times without the magical world around her. Remus was lying by the fireplace hugging his legs with his shirt lying on the floor. The night before it had been a full moon and in an outburst he got his back hurt. The wound was much better than it was when he woke up in the morning, his wounds healed quite quickly but still the contact of the fabric hurted him.

"Have they knocked?", Hope asks from the kitchen, Lyall, who was reading the magic newspaper, shook his head even though she couldn't see him.

He had developed a mania with reading the newspaper expecting to see Greyback's name somewhere followed by "dead" or "captured," but he had never been lucky.

"Lyall?", the woman insists again, Lyall was going to deny it once more but someone knocked on the door again forcing him to stop his reading.

He jumped up from the chair making it crunch. Not receiving a response, Hope cut off the water from the sink and took a cloth to dry his hands before reaching the room. She noticed Lyall's concern and how his gaze was fixed on the door, she was inevitably infected with that sudden feeling of alarm.

"Remus, honey", speaks Hope making a sign for the little boy to get up and approach her, Remus frowned, he knew something was really wrong when her mother spoke to him that way. "Go to your room, right?"

"What's going on?", Remus asks, looking at the door, Hope strategically grabbed him by the shoulders where she knew he didn't have any injuries and pushed him upstairs.

"Nothing, darling, we have some business to take care of with your mum", speaks, this time, Lyall without even looking at him.

He reluctantly obeyed. He was not in the mood to argue, even less after the full moon. He walked slowly up the stairs as he looked over his shoulder to see if he could catch something of what was happening. He climbed the stairs quickly and walked to his room, opened the door and closed it immediately. He waited a few seconds in the hallway and, when he heard the whispers, he slowly crawled back to the stairs. He crouched on the last step and watched closely through the handrails. He could smell his parents scent but he also felt a itching in his nose, that itching was only there with his father which meant that whoever was on the other side of the door was someone magical.

"You think they found us?", murmur Hope with caution, Lyall palpates the pockets of his pants while denying with his head, realizing that whatever he was looking for was not in his pockets, he hurried to the table, Hope ran behind him and watched him rummage through the papers. "Did they come for him?"

"No, no, I don't think so", Lyall quickly denies raising his wand that was under one of the newspapers he was reading. "Bingo!"

He hid his wand under his sleeve and approached the door slowly, Hope followed him very closely. Remus went down two more steps to get a better view. His father leaned against the door and approached his eye to the peephole, as soon as he saw who was on the other side, he slammed off and stepped back several steps. Noting his surprise, Hope also looked at the goatee and released an exclamation of surprise. Remus felt the curiosity stinging him in his stomach. He quickly climbed up to his room and this time he entered, he slipped over his bed and pulled the blind out toward the street. He pressed his forehead against the cold window and tried to spot the mysterious person through the snowflakes. He noticed that there were no cars nearby other than his neighbors. Remus hadn't mentioned this to his parents but had memorized the models, colours, the noise of the tires and every scratch of his neighbors cars, it was a mania that he had developed since he realized that their changes would be habitual, it gave him peace of mind to know his environment better than anyone else.

Suddenly he saw a tall figure coming out of the doorway of his house, he seemed to be leaving. He was an older man, he seemed to bring a huge leather coat that covered him up to his neck and a matching hat but he could see his long white hair that covered his back almost completely, he also had a huge beard of the same length. Remus crouched more in place to make sure he didn't see him but when he arrived to the sidewalk he turned and his eyes immediately traveled to Remus, instead of looking surprised, the man smiled at him and waved his hand in an informal greeting. He quickly closed the blinds and went down completely on his bed feeling his heart racing. Bloody hell, he saw him.

"Remus?", his mum calls from the ground floor, Remus took a heavy air, he was sure he was going to be scolded for spying although he did not know how they could have discovered it, the old man had left.

He slid out of his bed and down the stairs preparing for the reprimand, instead, he saw his mum and dad twisting their nervous fingers. Looking over their shoulders, he saw the man from the sidewalk sitting on the couch as if he was the owner of the house, Remus could see his face more clearly. He had a chubby, very pink face covered by a leafy white beard, very round small lenses were attached to his long nose. Remus's cheeks turned pink. He was praying internally that he would not be scolded for looking at the stranger.

"I want you to meet someone, Remus", his father speaks nervously, the old man smiled sweetly at him but Remus did not want to approach. "He is the director of the school that we were talking about, remember?"

"Albus Dumbledore?", Remus exclaimed suddenly interested.

"That one, yes", Dumbledore nodded smiling.

He hurried to the couch and sat next to Dumbledore staring at him. He did not know how he imagined him through his father's tellings, but clearly it was not like that. It was embarrassing for Remus, but Albus Dumbledore was, for him, what Santa was for the Muggles. His father always told him about him, he told him fascinating stories about his Hogwarts years and how Dumbledore was the greatest wizard of all time, for Remus, Albus was never more than a bedtime story but he always desired to know him. Lyall had told him that at the age of eleven a letter came from an owl to all the magician children to invite them to the school but he had also told him that Hogwarts did not accept werewolves which was a terrible disappointment for Remus. A new flame of hope ignited inside Remus but a strong breeze ran causing his enthusiasm to extinguish.

"I'm not eleven yet...", Remus recalled aloud feeling his dream sail away from him again, Albus laughed as if that was the funniest joke he had ever heard.

"You go straight to the point, don't you?", Albus inquires gracefully, Remus's eyes traveled to his parents who embraced nervously, noticing Remus's gaze both smiled. "But there's not much more time left, innit?"

Remus nodded. The breeze had dissipated and the flame was more alive than ever.

"Remus is right, I came here to invit him to Hogwarts", ends up confirming Dumbledore materializing all the wishes of Remus who got up in a jump and ran towards his father.

"I'm going to Hogwarts!", exclaims happily forgetting completely the wounds on his back, his father, despite the surprise, rested his hand on his head and gave him a genuine smile.

"You shall receive an invitation in due course, as always, classes will start the first of September", Albus begins to explain by getting up from the sofa, suddenly he no longer looked friendly nor happy, Remus knew that Dumbledore was not there just to inform him that he had entered Hogwarts. "I think we may have to discuss a couple things before about your... condition".

He nodded slowly. He agreed. One of his greatest concerns was his transformations. A normal muggle school wouldn't be a big deal, he would go to classes in the morning and go back for the afternoon, but Hogwarts was a boarding school, he would go there almost all year round, he needed a place to transform himself or a solution not to do so.

"We been verifying it with the nurse at school, we are still weighing the options, you just introduce yourself and we will take care of the rest, okay?"

Remus liked that Dumbledore referred to him for those things instead of his parents, after all it was his condition and nobody elses, on the other hand it made him feel a new level of maturity he didn't feel when his parents took care of everything. He would be there for a year alone, he had to start taking responsibility on his own if he wanted everything to go well.

"I also think it would be propitious to keep your condition a secret", says Dumbledore, Lyall seemed to have breathed again for the first time since they knocked on the door. "It is pertinent that as few people as possible know of this for your own good, Remus."

"I agree", Lyall nods attracting Remus against his chest, Remus tried to push him away but Lyall held him tightly.

But Dumbledore's gaze remained on Remus waiting to hear his opinion on the matter. Remus felt embarrassed.

"It's certainly not something I want to go screaming around", he says.

And it was true. His father had taught him to be cautious with his condition, he himself had warned him of the bad fame that the werewolves had. All he knew about lycantropy was thanks to his father, he was quite informed on the subject because of his position in The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of the Ministry of Magic. Because of the information he had collected and the attitude of his parents in this regard he had deduced that it was not something to be precisley proud about.

"Good", Dumbledore nods, back to his friendly expression, Lyall finally let go of Remus who did not hesitate to step aside. "See you at Hogwarts, Remus."

"See you", he says goodbye feeling his fingers tingling with emotion.

The elder gave him a little reverence before walking to the door, Hope hurried to accompany him. He heard how his father's heart began to beat slower after that moment of tension, Remus's heart, on the other hand, was beating faster than ever, had just lived one of the best moments of his life and already felt anxious for September to arrive.

He felt an icy breeze on his chest as the door opened, and for the first time since he went downstairs, he remembered that he was not wearing a shirt.

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