Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Beginning
POV Remus
Once, there was a wizard and a muggle woman who met in a bar and instantly fell in love like the romcom cliche they are. They got a child, a boy and they named him Remus John Lupin. They loved and cherished him with their entire being and raised him in both worlds - the wizarding and the muggle world.
Lyall, as the loving father he was, always told his son stories of all his adventures and showed him funny tricks that people would call magic. Remus loved watching his Dad work or watching his tricks. His father was able to make stuff float and transform things into complete different things.
Hope, the boy‘s beautiful and loving mother, loved to sing him muggle songs before bed or when cooking that she was currently obsessed with. Most of the songs where from the Beatles or the Who.
On the rainy night of 27th February 1964, after Remus was put to bed through his mother‘s singing of „I want to hold your hand“ by the Beatles, a dark creature entered his bedroom and attacked the little boy with his teeth and claws leaving a bitemark on his shoulder. The little boy‘s scream woke his parents who ran to his bedroom finding their boy laying on the floor with blood coming from his shoulder and an open window where the attacker must have fled out. Lyall helped with his magic as much as he could but he was not a trained healer, so they brought Remus to the nearest wizard hospital through Lyall‘s fireplace and a hand full of floo powder.
The healer there confirmed Lyall‘s horrible presumption: his son was bitten by a werewolf which makes his boy also become a werewolf on every full moon. Lyall knew about werewolves and their danger through his work in the ministry of magical creatures and tried being strong on Remus‘s first transformation night on 28th March but he could not bear with his son‘s screaming and than clawing at the metal door that held him inside the basement. So, before his wife and son woke up from this horrifying night, he vanished leaving them on their own.
Hope was a strong woman capable of raising her son on her own. She did everything she could to make sure Remus is being strong especially on the though nights of the full moons. She had a full-time job and sent Remus to a muggle day-care group so that he could find friends but Remus wasn‘t good at making friends and he loved to spend his days with his mother anyways.
They did not have a lot beside their small house and themselves but somehow they made it through the days together. Hope still loved to sing to her boy and read to him from her favorite novels and she told him stories of her muggle youth and the few encounters she had with the wizarding world. She tried her best to be a great mom to her boy that she loved so much. And whenever Remus asked about his father she explained him that he did not leave them, that he died and therefore couldn’t be here with them now.
On Remus‘s 6th birthday on the 10th March 1966, Hope invited him to the movie Theater and they spent a lovely evening together even though it was raining excessively. On their way home in Hope‘s old car, they listened to „We can work it out“ by the Beatles and they both sang along when they got hit by a car directly into the driver‘s side which hurled the car around.
Remus was unconscious and when he woke up he found himself in a hospital bed. A nurse explained to him what happened and also that his mother is now in a better place in heaven. Remus was very sad and cried for days in the hospital bed and the nurses always tried to cheer him up but it never worked for long.
As there was no known family left for Remus to go, he was sent to a muggle orphanage for boys after the doctor found that he was healed enough to go. He was picked up by an elderly lady who introduced herself as the Madam to the young boy and she brought him to his new home, an orphanage out of London city. It was a special sort of muggle orphanage as the madam knows about the wizarding world and Remus‘s condition as she was a Halfblood herself but never magical enough to learn magic in Hogwarts.
Remus spent his entire childhood in the orphanage rather lonely as he was still not good at making friends and the other boys made fun of him and bullied him. Madam still sent all of her boys to a muggle school giving them an opportunity to get educated but most of the boys did not fancy the school. Remus tried his best in school as it would give him a chance for a better life. He liked reading to escape the reality he was living in and it did remind him of his mother as she liked to read to him
The full moons were spend in a dark cold metal little sort of cage down in the basement were Remus was left alone to transform and in the morning Madam came to get him out of there and send him back to school. If the wolf scarred him than the Madam did attend to his wounds but still sent him to his normal duties of the day.
When Remus turned 11 years old, he spend his birthday with a nice novel he remembered his mother reading to him when he was younger. He sat outside in the garden as it stopped raining for once with the book in his lap and pressed up against a tree. He heard something landing beside him and making a flapping sort of sound. He looked up on his right side and saw an owl perching on a branch of the tree he was sitting under. The owl had a sort of parchment in its beak and Remus felt like it looked at him. The owl hooted at him and it looked like it stretched the piece of parchment out to him. So, Remus reached for the parchment and the owl released the parchment out of its tight embrace in its beak.
At the front of the parchment there was his name written in a beautiful kursive way and the address of the orphanage and funnily also „under tree outside in the garden“ which seemed strange to Remus. He turned the parchment to open it up when suddenly a hand snatched it from him. An older very tall and big boy was holding the parchment which clearly was a letter to Remus in his hands and grinned viciously flanked by his a bit smaller but still big and muscular friend. Remus wanted to snatch it back but the taller boy was throwing it to another boy a bit upsides who caught the letter and lit it up with his lighter.
All three of the boys laughed as Remus was feeling defeated and crushed. This letter could have been from his family or someone who cares about him and these boys took it away from him. Remus did not want to take this bullshit from the older bullies anymore and tried to punch the boy with the lighter but he caught his fist before Remus could land a hit and threw him to the ground where it was still muddy from the past days full of rain. The boys left Remus there in the cold mud heading inside while still laughing victoriously.
His days in the orphanage became even harder after this incident. The boys kept on bullying, pushing him and mocking him about everything. Even at school he had no pause from their bullying as all the boys went to the same school which made Remus an easy target there as well. They kept on bullying him and even stealing his food that the orphanage cafeteria gave them for their school dinner break. Remus tried many times to defend himself trying to throw punches at one of the bullies or trying to push past them but it did not help a thing and eventually he just tried to avoid them as best as he could.
Than, on a warm August afternoon in 1971, Madam called him to her office. After entering, Remus saw that there was a white-haired man with a long beard sitting across from Madam. Apparently, this man wanted to speak to him about some special boarding school for special kids like he is. Remus does indeed remember the stories his parents had told him about witches and wizards and other creatures such as himself, so he was not all that surprised when the older man explained to him that he could do magic and is a wizard himself like his father was.
It turned out that the letter he got a few months ago that he couldn’t read as it burned down in flames because of those other boys was an invitation to this exact boarding school for witches and wizards. „Hogwarts“ the white-haired man said to him. „And I am the headmaster of the school. I am sure you will like it there. There are all kinds of kids like you and you will surely learn a lot.“
Remus was sure that if he would agree to the offer the man, Dumbledore, gave him than he would be gone from this orphanage most of the year and only come back in the summer which should be bearable. So, Remus accepted the humble invitation from the older man and Dumbledore explained him that he will receive everything he needs in the next few days with an owl.
With that and an agreement with the Madam everything was settled and as promised a few days later an owl came with all the books, quills and other stuff he would need for his new school.
On the first day of the warm September month in 1971, the Madam took Remus to the train station in the city centre of London after he packed up all his belongings. Remus had just one medium sized brown suitcase which looked like a briefcase but just a bit bigger and made out of hardened leather. He followed the Madam who lead them through the crowd to the platform 9 where they said their goodbyes and she left Remus there.
And here we are. At the preset where the story begins.
Now, Remus is feeling better than he ever remembered to be as he is finally away from that filled boys home. With a smile on his face he searches his way to where the train should start off. According to the train ticket the owl left him he should go the the platform 9 3/4 which he cannot find anywhere. Ten minutes before 11 am Remus still didn’t find where the train will start off and he starts to get anxious but than he sees a couple with a red-haired girl go up a wall and vanishing. Remus supposes that that looks weird enough to be wizard-ish and followed them, running up against the wall he had seen them disappear.
Well enough he ends up at a platform that looks slightly different that all the others he had seen and a red sign said „platform 9 3/4“. Remus is glad that he has made it just in time to the train and drags his suitcase after him as he hurries through the crowd of crying children and parents saying their goodbyes to each other and embracing each other sending their kids off. Remus sees an entry at the near end of the train that does not look like it is that crowded and makes his way there.
Out of nowhere he gets run over from behind and falls to the ground feeling a weight on his left shoulder where his scar starts to hurt. He pushes the weight down from his body and gets up on his knees to look at the person who unkindly ran him over. He looks down at the ground finding a blond slightly plumper boy with blue eyes filled with fear. But the boy does not focus on him in fear, he is focussing on something or someone behind him. Remus turns his head around to see two boys standing over them and looking at the blond boy at the ground next to him.
Remus has a feeling that these boys are not the friendly-kinds and it reminds him of his own struggles with boys like that back in the orphanage. He feels like just going away and avoiding them but something inside him tells him that it would be wrong and that he does not want to start his new chapter in his life with being a coward.
That is way Remus gets up to his feet, standing as tall and intimidating as he can and stares up to the tiny bit taller two boys in their elegant dark robes. „Get out the way, boy“ one of the two snarled at him. Remus stands his ground and answers „Leave him alone.“ The two of them look at him now more upset and slightly psychotic. The other one looks him up and down and says „You filthy mudblood, get out of the way before it gets ugly.“ . Remus steps up the the two of them and answers in a low and intimidating voice „ No.“ The boy who spoke first looks like that made him angry and the other boy hardens his expression and fills it with disgust and anger as far as Remus could analyse his expression.
The boy who spoke first is going up to him and he makes a movement of wanting to push Remus out of the way and back on the ground but Remus had enough experience with such moves and was fast enough to grab the boy‘s arm with one hand and with the other he threw a punch at his cheek. His knuckles hurt but he pushes the pain down as he always does with his scars and pains from the nights of the full moons.
The boy who had received his punch falls back on his ass gripping his cheek. The other boy looks at Remus quite surprised but now his face lights up in anger and he angrily snarls into his face „Do you know who his father is? He will crush you - „ „Avery.“ the boy on the ground stops the other one. „ We will deal with this Mudblood when we are in Hogwarts. They are watching us.“ Then the boy gets up and turns to Remus „ You will regret having done this.“ The boy turns grabbing the other boy‘s, Avery, arm and going on his way.
Remus exhales being relived that the situation did not turn out even worse and turns around to the blond boy who had run him over before. Remus reaches out his right hand and asks the anxious looking boy „ `re ya okay?“ The boy takes his hand hesitantly and looks at him confused. „Oh. Sorry i sometimes forget that not everyone can understand my accent. I asked if you are okay.“ Remus explained embarrassed while helping the boy stand up. The boy looks him over from head to toe and answers „ I am ok-okay. Thank yo-you.“ Remus smiles at him reassuringly, glad that the boy is fine making the boy smile hesitantly back at him.
*Ppiepppppp* the alarming sound startles them both and Remus remembers that he should enter the train as fast as possible as the startling sound normally signals that the train will leave in a few seconds.
The boy seems to have come to the same conclusion as he reaches down to the ground to grab a dark brown wooden trunk and looks anxiously into the direction of the train entry a few meters away from them. Remus reaches down and grabs his own suitcase and looks at Peter signalling him that they should run to the entry.