A small boy’s face appeared in the doorway in response to the knock.

“Hello,” the old man said, and looked at him kindly. “You’re Remus, I’d guess?” And, looking at the book the boy was holding tightly to his chest, he added, “Dickens? You don’t meet many wizards who enjoy Muggle literature, especially not at such a young age.”

“Who are you?” the boy asked without answering the question, staring at the stranger with round eyes and a curiosity only children could bear without embarrassment.

“I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. I am here to talk to you and your father.”

“Remus?” a voice sounded from within the house, and hurried footsteps neared the door. “I told you not to open the door when I’m not around!”

The boy disappeared from the door, and a man with brown hair and rectangular spectacles appeared instead.

“Oh, Professor Dumbledore,” he said, his tone indistinguishable.

“You did receive my letter announcing this visit, Mr Lupin?” Dumbledore asked.

“I�“ Yes. Do come in.”

As the man called Dumbledore stepped inside, Remus examined him closer. He had a very long beard and equally long hair, and wore dark blue robes with stars on them and a hat. Remus had seen his father wearing his workrobes, but nothing his father ever wore was that colourful.

“Remus,” his father said as he closed the door, “please, go to your room to read while Professor Dumbledore and I talk, right? You can come down for tea. Are you going to stay for tea?” he suddenly addressed Dumbledore, and this time there was a worried look on his face.

“That depends on you, Mr Lupin. However, I do think that Remus should take part in our conversation. After all, this is�“”

“No, I don’t think so,” Remus’ father interrupted Dumbledore. But Remus had already disappeared up the stairs anyway, and Dumbledore must have thought it unwise to press that matter further, especially in the light of what he was going to ask of Mr Lupin, so the two men disappeared into the sitting room.

Remus had been standing on the top of the stairs, glancing around a corner so that his father wouldn’t see him. As soon as he saw them walk out of the hall, he crept downstairs again, avoiding the stairs that creaked, careful not to make a noise.

“I assume you received my letter.” Remus heard his father’s voice as he himself sat down on the lowest step, still clutching his book tightly as though it was the hand of a dear friend.

“Oh yes, I did,” the visitor answered.

“Then I don’t see what else we have to discuss.”

“But it is precisely because of that letter that I am here,” the stranger’s voice sounded again. Remus found that he liked that voice; it was warm and kind and it told Remus that he could trust this man. Headmaster of Hogwarts, he had said. What was Hogwarts? The silence between the two men in the sitting room stretched over a few moments.

“I take it, from the letter you wrote to me and from your insisting that Remus doesn’t join our conversation that you haven’t told him that he received a letter from Hogwarts?” Albus Dumbledore finally broke the silence.

There was another moment’s silence before Remus’ father answered. “If he doesn’t know, he won’t be disappointed that he won’t be able to attend. I�“ I didn’t want him to become very excited, and then have to tell him that he can’t go.”

“But why wouldn’t he be able to go?” Dumbledore asked.

At this point, Remus imagined the stern look his father gave him every time Remus asked an unnecessary question.

“Your letter only said that he wouldn’t attend. It is unusual, but not unheard of for students to be homeschooled by their parents or attend different schools, but as generations of your family have been educated at Hogwarts, Mr Lupin, I wondered why your son should be the first not to. This is why I decided to investigate this matter personally. I am not here to persuade you, I am merely curious why you would not trust Hogwarts to educate your son as well as it educated you,” Dumbledore answered the silence.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know.” His father’s voice sounded strained.

“But I don’t!” To Remus’ astonishment, the visitor’s voice sounded almost happy. Remus however knew perfectly well what this was about. They were talking about him attending a school, where he would meet other people of his age, and learn - but his father would never let him. His father had never allowed him to play with others, he had never gone to a school. Books were the only friends he had, and his father had told him that he would start to teach Remus himself later this year. Remus had been excited at the prospect - to learn actual magic! but now the thought of this school made this seem even dull. A whole new place, new people�“ all those things he would never see...

“You are telling me that you, the all-knowing Headmaster Dumbledore, don’t know that Remus is a�“ a�“” There was the slightest trace of jeering in his father’s voice now, but it was overshadowed by the exhaustion and disillusion.

“Oh, I do know that Remus is a werewolf,” Dumbledore replied earnestly, “but I don’t see how this should render him unable to attend Hogwarts. I do not claim that it is going to be as easy for him as it is for all the other students, but I am quite certain that he will be able to go there.”

And Remus sat and listened for what seemed like an hour as they talked about this school, and secret passageways, and the full moon, and secure hideouts, and injuries, and cover-up stories, and he barely understood a word of what they were actually talking about. Normally, he would have gone back to his book a long time ago, but this was different. The long silences from his father’s side showed Remus that he was thinking, considering. Would he be able to attend this school after all? But he musn’t hope too much. Still, though, even if he didn’t understand a lot of what he was saying, Remus was too curious about the new stranger, Dumbledore, to stop listening.

“I am delighted, Mr Lupin. In that case, we should probably fetch Remus and tell him all about it. He will have to understand both that he is attending a school, and the seriousness with which he will have to follow our plan.” Remus finally heard Dumbledores voice again. And this time it said something he could understand, although it took him some time to process it. And just in time he realised that this meant that his father would come to fetch him from his room, as a second later, he heard the scraping of a chair being pushed back. He jumped up and was about to hurry upstairs when his father spoke again. “Wait �“ we didn’t discuss what the other parents would say about all this.”

“Oh,” Dumbledore said, “I don’t see why the other parents need to know. If all goes well, and I’m sure it will, there is nothing they need to worry about, so I don’t see why we should put them in unnecessary distress.”

“All right then.”

And just as Remus began to panic, because he would never make it back to his room in time without making a lot of noise, the visitor’s voice sounded again. “I’ll fetch him, Mr Lupin. I’ll be glad to introduce myself to Remus properly as soon as possible.”

Remus pressed himself against the wall, holding the book against his chest and hoping against hope that he wouldn’t see him there, and that he could pretend to have been in the bathroom when Albus Dumbledore didn’t find him in his room. However, as the Headmaster walked out of the sitting room, he looked directly at Remus, and there was a smile on his face. He winked at the boy, and together they walked upstairs and downstairs again, so that his father wouldn’t know. And then, Remus knew that he would have a great time at any school that had this man as a headmaster.

“Remus? Are you listening?”

His father’s voice caused Remus to snap out of his reverie. Platform nine and three-quarters was just too overwhelming for the young boy; never in his life had he seen so many people in one place, let alone children of his own age. The whole platform was buzzing with the sound of parents saying goodbye to their children, friends greeting each other cheerfully, comparing new broomsticks and discussing their holidays. Remus could not help but notice that everybody seemed to know someone already; he could hardly spot any child standing around alone, like he was. There was a bit of a commotion nearby, and suddenly he saw a red-haired girl dart into one of the doors of the steam-engine that was waiting to take them to Hogwarts. She had been small, certainly not older than Remus himself; would she be in his year at Hogwarts, one of his classmates throughout the seven years he would spend at that place he had already completely pictured in his head (and so wonderful it was)?

As a ‘meow’ came close to his ankles, Remus couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the sounds weren’t coming from the students and parents on the platform, but from animals �“ cats, toads and owls mainly �“ that were apparently the many students’ pets. His father had, however, not allowed Remus to get one himself. He really wanted a toad after he had heard two witches in Diagon Alley talk about how toads were the latest fashion at Hogwarts, but his father would hear nothing of it, and had just dragged him on. Maybe next year, Remus had told himself, maybe when I’ve proven that I can do well at school he’ll let me have a toad, or even an owl. In fact, there had been a lot of things Remus would have liked to have but his father, keeping strictly to the items on Remus’ school list, wouldn’t buy him. Not for lack of money, but because, as he told Remus again and again, he would not need them anyway. Remus guessed that his father was still skeptical about him attending school, and did not want to buy all those things for his son in case something went wrong and Remus wouldn’t return there for his second year. That theory had caused a great determinedness in Remus to prove himself, to show his father that he had been right in letting him go to Hogwarts. A determinedness so great, in fact, that for the moment it overshadowed all the nervousness at beginning a completely new chapter in his life, leaving his father and the safety of home behind and living with complete strangers. What would it be like, though, to have boys of his own age to talk to?

“Remus!” his father’s voice sounded again, this time a bit more sternly.

“I’m sorry, Dad, what did you say?” Remus asked, finally turning back to his father and looking at him apologetically.

“I asked whether you remember everything we discussed, and if you could possibly go through the plan one last time,” he answered patiently.

They had gone through this again and again, so often that Remus now knew every detail of the ‘plan’ by heart.

“On the afternoon before every full moon, I’ll go to the nurse... Madam Pomfrey? And she’s going to take me past a tree�“ a Whomping Willow,” Remus recited, “and then through a tunnel, to a room where I am to stay during my transformations, and then the next morning she is going to fetch me and take me to the castle again.”

“Good,” his father said, fidgeting with the collar of Remus’ shirt nervously. “And when someone asks you where you’re going, what will you tell them?”

“I’ll say I’m visiting a sick relative, or that I’m ill and need to stay in the Infirmary,” Remus said hastily, eager to finally get on the train. The clock he could see from where they were standing, a little away from the crowd, was telling him that he still had over ten minutes until the train left, but he couldn’t wait to start that new, exciting part of his life.

“Right,” Remus’ father finally said, apparently at ease for the moment. Then, after he had looked at the scarlet steam-engine for a second, he suddenly gripped Remus by the shoulders and looked straight at his face, suddenly sounding very strict, and even more serious than before. “There is a full moon in four days. If anything at all goes wrong, you’ll take the train back home the next day, is that clear?”

Remus gulped and nodded, though he couldn’t suppress a shudder. What if something did go wrong, even if it wasn’t his fault? He had no control once he had transformed, how could he make sure he would stay inside that room? He had, however, no means of making sure that it would all work out, so he had no choice but to accept his father’s terms.

“Dad?” Remus asked, suddenly insecure. “Will I really have to stay there all alone?”

His father crouched down next to Remus and pulled him into a hug. “I’m sorry son, but yes you will. You’re not a little boy anymore, and your werewolf form is growing stronger too. I can hardly handle you anymore during the full moon, and who knows what it will be like even in a year. No, Remus, I’m sorry�“ look, I really am, but you have to do this on your own now. I know you can do this, you’ve been so brave all these years.” He let go of Remus and looked at his wristwatch. “Almost time to go already... I got you something for the train ride; if my memory isn’t making a complete fool of me, it is a rather long journey.”

For a moment, Remus was startled at his father’s reaction. He rarely showed such emotion and affection to Remus; maybe this wasn’t a huge change for Remus alone after all. As his father started rummaging in his bag however, all of Remus’ fears and worries were suddenly replaced by curiosity, and his eyes grew round with glee as his father, a very knowing smile on his face, handed him a book. Remus took it in both hands, a feeling of great joy rushing through him as he looked on the cover of Peter Pan. As he looked back up at his father however, he felt a sudden pang in his heart, and rushed forward to hug him again.

“I’ll miss you Dad.” Remus pressed his face against his father’s chest, eyes tightly shut.

“I’ll miss you too, Remus, a lot...”

They stood in silence for a while, Remus’ father patting the back of Remus’ head, and Remus holding him tight.

“Write when you’re there, will you?” He finally said, gently pushing Remus away. “It’s really getting time now; you wouldn’t want the train to leave without you,” he added with a half smile.

They said one last goodbye, and then Remus was hopping on the train, walking through the corridors, clutching his new book to his chest. He was desperately trying to find an empty compartment, but everywhere he looked there were people �“ and they all were so tall, they had to be at least three years older than him! Weren’t there any other eleven-year-olds? He half wished to find the red-haired girl he had seen earlier, but before he could think about that any longer, he found a completely deserted compartment, where he would at least be able to read in peace. He sat down next to the window and tried to catch a last glimpse at his father. The platform was still very crowded, although now there were much fewer children, adolescents, pets and luggage trolleys than waving parents calling goodbyes to their children. He skimmed every bit of the platform he could see from his compartment window, but his father was nowhere in sight. Where is that clock? Remus thought, if I can find the clock, I can find him from there... And then, just as he finally spotted both the clock and his father, the train jolted into drive. He waved frantically to get his father’s attention, because he was sure that he hadn’t seen him yet; and just before the train turned a corner Remus was sure he had seen his father give him a wink and a short wave.