"C’mon, Remus!”
“You can do it!”
Caroline Lupin’s silvery laugh rang through the night air. Her brown ringlets bounced around her pretty face as she watched her son. The five-year-old boy ran as fast as he could across the yard, legs pumping and arms flailing.
Remus bounded back to his mother and threw himself in her arms. She sighed and bent her head down over his, kissing his forehead. He handed up to her a tennis ball.
“Silly,” she murmured, chuckling. “You’re supposed to throw it back. Throw it, honey.”
He stared up at her with wide brown eyes that mirrored her own. He was a quiet boy who rarely spoke, doing so only when it was urgent. Caroline couldn’t remember hearing him yell since he was a toddler.
John Lupin roared openly with laughter. “Not cut out for sports, this one!”
“You never know,” Caroline replied softly, ruffling her son’s hair.
“I don’t get the sport myself,” John said. “I can see doing it on broomsticks. You can get to the ball faster that way. Catch it faster. You miss more this way.”
“He’ll never get exercise that way.”
“Doesn’t need it,” John said, laughing again. His laughter caused her to smile. “He’s as skinny as a stick.”
Remus looked to his father with wide eyes. John was almost never home, especially in these days. He was away at work most of the time, working full time in Saint Mungo’s as a healer.
Where John worked, Caroline was always at home. She raised their son and performed household tasks. She was fond of teaching Remus about the muggle side of his family.
“Remus,” Caroline said, lifting the ball in her hand. “I’m going to throw the ball. You go down and catch it. When you get it, honey, throw it back to me. Okay?”
Remus nodded solemnly. She smiled warmly at him, eyes crinkling up at the corners. He ran off across the yard. His skin seemed like ivory in the silver light from the full moon; his hair, a lighter shade of brown like his father’s, lit up with the moonbeams and formed a halo around his head.
He slowed to a stop in front of the forest. Caroline pulled her arm back and tossed the tennis ball to him. It hit the ground a few feet a way and bounced away into the bushes. He chased after it eagerly.
The tennis ball was huge in his small hand. His face screwed up with effort as he threw it back to his mother. It landed only feet away from him. He ran after it, picked it up, and threw it again. It rolled to a stop at her feet.
She clapped her hands. “That’s it, honey! There you go!”
John’s laughter rang through the chilled air. Now that the sun had sunk below the horizon, and dusk was at its finish, the warm summer’s air had cooled. The sky had darkened to purple and faded to black across the sky’s great dome. Stars twinkled into being.
Remus stayed back near the forest. His voice was almost a whisper when he asked, “Again?”
Caroline nodded. She picked up the tennis ball. “One more time,” she said. “Once more. Then it’s inside and to bed with you.”
He nodded eagerly and waited. She tossed the ball again, but this time it rolled away into the forest.
Remus turned to get it.
“Remus! Wait!” John called. Remus stopped and turned his head, waiting.
“What is it?” Caroline asked, her eyebrows coming together in puzzlement. “Is there something wrong?”
“Maybe... maybe I should go get it,” John replied slowly. “I don’t know what might be out there. We live on the edge of a magical forest, hon. There could be anything in there. And he’s our only...”
“He’ll be fine, dear. It’s just inside. He’ll be in and out, quick as a flash.”
“Okay,” John relented, appearing vaguely uneasy.
“Go ahead!” Caroline yelled. Remus darted into the forest. No sooner had he started off did a long howl sound in the forest, echoing through the trees. Remus was swallowed by the dark forest only seconds later.
“Remus!” shouted John, surging forward. “Remus! Get out of there! Now!”
A scream, high and shrill, sounded from the forest. Caroline’s heart nearly stopped. She hadn’t heard that wail for nearly three years, but she could recognize it in any time and any place. “Remus!”
Remus exploded out of the forest. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Pure terror stood livid on his face. “Mommy!” he screamed. “Daddy!”
John had already cleared half the backyard. “Caroline, get back in the house! Get back in the house!” he yelled without turning around.
Caroline didn’t move. She watched, horror squeezing her heart, as a wolf bounded out of the forest after her son. This wolf, somehow, was different than others she’d seen. It seemed twisted, deformed, and the pulsing aura around it was wrong. Its green eyes glinted into the moonlight and she saw, much to her horror, something like human intelligence battling raging animal instinct.
“Remus!”
The wolf leapt. It hit Remus in the back and the two tumbled across the yard. Remus’s voice rose trilled in the otherwise silent night air. John had his wand out and pointed it at the two.
“Remus!”
Remus’s voice radiated terror as the wolf snapped at his face. He struggled, his weak body nothing against its monstrous bulk. It tore at his clothes with its claws.
“I can’t get a clear shot!” John howled in anguish.
Blood started to flow. It gushed out of the wounds on Remus’s chest, glinting“surreal“on his body and the grass. The wolf’s jaw closed on his shoulder.
An animal-like sound exploded out of Remus. His back arched against the ground and his thin body convulsed. He shuddered, eyes rolling up into his head.
John murmured a spell under his breath. Silver light exploded out of his wand, striking the wolf in the side. The wolf gave an unearthly scream. It rolled away across the backyard, frothing at the mouth.
As the wolf got to its feet, another spell caught its head. It convulsed spasmodically, once, and collapsed onto the ground. It did not move again.
John looked down at Remus with mounting terror. He had seen the wolf bite his son, and knew what the result would be.
Remus’s eyes glowed, reflecting the moonlight. His head pressed against the grass as an unearthly howl rose from his lips. He bucked, body convulsing, shuddering.
John sprinted across the yard. He took Caroline by the arm, snapping her out of her stupor. She shrieked and lunged forward against him. “Remus! Remus!”
“Caroline, no!” John yelled. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her backward toward the house. “There’s nothing we can do!”
“No! Remus! Remus!” Caroline screamed. She struggled with amazing strength to get to her son.
John refused to let go. “Caroline, stop! It’ll only hurt you if you get too near!”
“It is my son!” she shrieked. Horror and disbelief twisted her face. She clawed at John’s arms.
“It isn’t your son anymore! It’s not human anymore! I can’t lose you too!”
“Remus!”
John threw her bodily into the house and slammed it behind him. He leaned against the door, shaking. He pressed his face into his hands. “Oh, Godric, what’s going to happen to him?”
Caroline collapsed on the floor, shaking with sobs. “Why?” she demanded raggedly. “Why didn’t you get him, too? Why didn’t you save him too!?”
“I can’t save him!” John roared, turning on her. “There is no way to save him! Godric, Caroline, he’s been bitten by a werewolf! He’s my son, too, and I wish more than anything I could have saved him! I can’t do anything!” He sagged. “I would give anything to save him.”
She threw herself on him, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, and shook him violently. “You’re a healer! There must be something you can do!”
“I can’t! There is no cure for a werewolf’s bite! There’s nothing I can do!”
Another howl sounded outside the house. The couple flew to the window. Remus’s body contorted. A groan of agony escaped him. His jaw elongated, teeth sharpening. Fur rippled down his skin. His clothes tore as his body changed shape. He clawed at them with hands that had become paws.
Agony filled his body, and he felt as if he were being bathed in molten lava. He shook and shuddered, screaming with a shifting throat. His bones became malleable like dough and bent into completely new forms.
The transformation completed itself with the last and strongest wave of pain. It overwhelmed his mind, causing his consciousness to spin away into oblivion. He no longer had a sense of self, no longer held an intellect. Raging animal instinct filled his body, mind, and soul.
The werewolf fell still as the transformation released it. It shivered, hugging the ground. Insatiable hunger burned in its stomach. It ached for human flesh.
It heaved itself to its feet, blinking at its new world. The place in which it stood reeked of human fear. It tottered unsteadily across the yard, tossing its head to and fro. This was a world of wonders in which it had been born!
It threw its head back and howled into the night. The sound quavered in the air. The werewolf turned at an answering howl. It bounded away into the forest and was swallowed by darkness.
Caroline clung to John, sobbing. He held on to her loosely. Disbelief numbed his body. He wouldn’t“couldn’t“believe what had happen. It couldn’t be real, couldn’t have happened to his son...
The two were but silhouettes in the moonlight. They held each other in fear and misery, imagining the fate of their only child. Both knew, in some deep corner of their souls, that he would be their same son again in the morning. But for now they could think of him only as a monster.
John imagined the shunned life in store for his son. He imagined how Remus would always be in need of work. He imagined receiving a rejection letter from Hogwarts.
But also he remembered. He remembered the infant he held in his arms, with pride swelling in his chest as he beheld his first child. He remembered teaching Remus to walk. He remembered the first time his son had held his wand in his ridiculously small hand.
And Caroline imagined. She imagined the long months ahead. She imagined watching her son writhe in pain and agony. She imagined his fear at what he had become. She imagined the life of misery he would live.
But also she remembered. She remembered holding him after a long and difficult birth. She remembered teaching him to talk, and hearing his first word. She remembered the many bedtime stories she had read to him before kissing him goodnight.
They didn’t know what would become of their son, nor what life had in store for him. They didn’t know that he would return just as the sun rose, but a silhouette of his old self. They didn’t know of the horrible months ahead in which they would watch him through many painful transformations. They didn’t know of the complete silence he would sink into for the next three months.
But they also didn’t know of the kindly old headmaster who would accept him into Hogwarts. They didn’t know of the four friends who would accept him for who he was. They didn’t know of his graduation at the top of his class.
They didn’t know of the pain that awaited him. They didn’t know of the deaths of Lily and James Potter. They didn’t know of the betrayal that would leave him alone in his life for twelve years.
But they also didn’t know of the heroics he would perform. They didn’t know of the class who would admire him as the best teacher they had ever known. They didn’t know of the Potter’s son, who would look up to him as a mentor and friend.
If they had known...
What would they have done?