Abuse of a Different Kind
- He blinked several times, as though if he did that enough then his mind might be rid of the horrible scene before him. -
Mrs. Lupin sat down at the kitchen table in her house, looking at a rather large package that had just been delivered by a tawny owl with emerald green eyes. She had seen this owl before, and the last time she saw it should have been the last time. It was her daughter’s owl. The last time she had seen it was when Rachael sent her a letter saying how Remus punched James. How could she make up such lies? Remus would NEVER punch someone. Oh how wrong she was.
But as she eyed the package, determined not to open it, she found herself vaguely curious as to what might be inside. Still, she wasn’t going to open it. She wasn’t going to give her daughter the satisfaction of opening the package. After all, it could possibly be a rat she transfigured in Transfiguration class, if Professor McGonagall had taught them that already. But that wasn’t in the second year curriculum, if she remembered correctly. She cautiously prodded the package as though she was afraid that it might jump up and attack her.
This was possibly the worst thing could happen on this day, December 27th, her birthday - a package from her daughter that was likely to attack her. Still… she had always been one to give in to her curiosity, which was pulsing at the moment. But no, why should she open it? Oh I have to see anyway. She tore the paper off and what she saw did not explode in her face.
Inside was a chocolate birthday cake with pink roses bordering around it and the words Happy Birthday Mum written neatly across it in blue icing. Mrs. Lupin cautiously picked the cake up and discovered under it a note.
Dear Mum,
This is just a little present for your birthday since I thought what I did might ruin it… looks like it didn’t. Well, maybe this will. I hope it won’t but you probably do.
Happy birthday,
Rachael.
Mrs. Lupin read the letter several times before putting it down. She didn’t understand. Why would her daughter bother to take the time to send her something for her birthday? Was it because of what Greg said? She didn’t even want to consider the possibility that her husband was right. After all these years of saying how wrong he was, he couldn’t be right. He just couldn’t. From the letter, her daughter seemed to assume that she would blow up at her.
Well she wasn’t going to at first; she was actually going to consider trying to talk to her, but not after what it said in that letter. How could her daughter be so assuming? Well for her being so assuming, she wasn’t going to let it ruin her birthday. She was going to let it ruin her daughter’s day. She smiled smugly to herself, Greg was wrong.
“I still can’t believe you actually sent something to her,” said Sirius disgustedly as her tackled his Charms assignment.
It was the afternoon of Rachael and Remus’s mother’s birthday. Remus was sitting on the couch, drawing a picture, although he was supposed to be doing some homework. He didn’t care though, since he knew he’d get it done eventually. Sirius was sitting at the table in front of the fire, working on his essay for Professor Flitwick and Rachael was on the foot of the stairs, not working or reading, just sitting, looking at the letter her mother had sent to her. She was silently debating about whether to open it or not.
Sirius and Remus were shocked to discover she had even sent her mother anything. She didn’t deserve a present. Her mother only deserved a Howler, not a birthday cake from her disowned child.
“You should’ve gotten the house elves to poison it,” Remus said bitterly, colouring in his drawing with some red ink. Sirius laughed at the thought of a sweet little house elf pouring poison into cake batter. Rachael smiled also. The thought was very tempting, but she knew she shouldn’t be considering homicide.
“Yeah, seriously,” Sirius agreed, setting his quill down and reading his completed essay. “So, are you ever going to open the letter?”
Rachael nodded; although she thought herself drinking poison would be a better option then this. She wasn’t sure whether the present (which had been both a present and a peace offering) was going to make her mother turn around. Still, she was curious about what her mother had to say. So slowly she opened the letter, unfolded it and began to read.
“Assuming?” she muttered angrily to herself. “I’m assuming? What the heck does she expect me to be?”
Sirius and Remus looked at each other. Apparently Mrs. Lupin didn’t like her present.
“Rachael, what?” Remus began, but his sister was fuming beyond belief.
“I’m not assuming!” she yelled at the letter, forgetting about Remus and Sirius for the moment. “And if I was, she can’t blame me! I HATE that woman!” She ripped the letter in half, dropped it on the floor and dashed up the stairs.
Remus joined Sirius, who had just walked over to the stairs. They glanced at each other, flinching when they heard a door slam.
“Should we go talk to her?” Remus said, moving towards the stairs. Sirius was about to follow Remus, knowing that they had to say something. But as Remus stepped on the first step, the stairs disappeared and were replaced by a giant slide. Caught completely by surprise, the two fell backwards, Remus landing on Sirius, who groaned in pain.
“Remus,” Sirius said in a muffled voice as Remus shoulder was against his mouth.
“Yeah?” Remus asked, trying not to laugh.
“Get off me!”
Remus gave a short laugh and stood up, holding out a hand to help his friend up. He rubbed his back and walked over to the slide, which was slowly turning back into stairs. “What was that about?” he wondered, looking over at Sirius.
Sirius shrugged and joined Remus at the steps, looking at them cautiously as though they might turn into a slide again. “Who knows?” he said. “Wanna try again?”
Remus gave Sirius a look as if to say ‘yeah right’. He wasn’t very keen on falling off the stairs again. But now they knew they couldn’t go up to the girls’ dormitory for some odd reason. They were just going to have to wait until she decided to come back downstairs. Remus resumed his drawing and Sirius sat at his usual seat in front of the fire. Remus picked up his drawing and began colouring it in again. He had been drawing a picture of a green dragon spitting roaring red fire; right now he was colouring in the outer flame of the fire. Remus loved drawing so when his dad asked him to illustrate some drawings of the topics he was discussing with his third year class Remus was only too quick to answer.
Sirius had tried his hand at drawing, but only found that he was able to draw faces and not too elaborate pictures of people. He didn’t care though. Sirius had always said he was more of a writer than a drawer. Remus had to agree with this, the things Sirius came out with proved he had a mind for writing. He remembered, only too well, the story Sirius had concocted about dive-bombing the Slytherins with the Giant Squid.
“You know I could make such a great book about your mother Remus,” Sirius said, looking up from the Chocolate Frog he was opening. He looked up dreamily as he mused over a title. “What do you think of this title? The Chronicles of Psychosis: The Story of Mrs. Anna Lupin.”
Remus laughed. “Its good for a start,” he critiqued. “But when you’re proof reading it you might want to make it sound a bit eviler.”
“How so, my friend?”
“I dunno… maybe The Chronicles of an Axe Murderer?”
Sirius laughed loudly. Then trying to sound as serious as possible said,
“Remus Lupin, you are a HORRIBLE child.” Remus folded his arms across his chest and nodded heartily. “And you’re proud of it?” Remus nodded again. “That’s my boy!”
“I have a question,” said Remus, looking as though he was restraining himself from laughing. Sirius inclined his head. “Why are we so pathetic?”
Sirius laughed and slapped his friend on the back.
“It’s in our blood, mate!”
The boys decided to end their little insanity ramble for the day and continued with what they were doing. Remus was putting the finishing touches to his dragon drawing. Sirius, true to his word, began writing The Chronicles of an Axe Murderer. It must have been coming out really well because every few minutes he would burst out into fits of laughter. Remus placed his drawing on the arm of the couch and walked over to see what his friend was writing.
But once Remus tried to sneak a glance at his parchment, Sirius quickly moved to the side, blocking it out of view. Not deterred in the least by this, Remus simply moved to the other side. But his attempt was fruitless and the only reward he received was Sirius moving swiftly to that side, yet again blocking his writing out of sight. Groaning in annoyance, Remus stooped down and tried prying Sirius’s arm off the table so he could see what he was writing.
But Sirius was too strong for Remus.
“Jeez, Remus,” said Sirius exasperatedly. “Let me have some breathing space!”
“Hey, it’s my mother you’re writing about,” Remus countered. “I have a right to know what you’re writing.” Sirius shook his head vigorously, a smile playing on his lips as he tried his best to live up to his name. “I’ll help you… I have lots of dirt on her!”
“I have lots of dirt too, you know,” came a voice from the stairs. They looked up to see Rachael standing there, still clutching the letter she had been reading. Her face was red, but they knew she hadn’t been crying, just very angry. “You can start with this.” She walked over and dropped the crumpled piece of paper on the table in front of Sirius. Sirius looked up at her suspiciously, but she merely inclined her head. Shrugging he smoothed out the letter (which had been messily taped back together) and read it out loud.
To whom it may concern,
If the only reason you sent me a present is to assume that I won’t like it, then you were seriously wasting your time. I knew you were daft but I never thought you to be so assuming that I would do such a thing. Also, I have no idea what runs through your pathetic little mind but it must have possessed you to go to the Whomping Willow… Why didn’t my son finish the job you started?
“You know,” said Rachael, in a would-be cheerful voice. “‘To whom it may concern’ is a pretty nice change from ‘sorry excuse for a daughter,’ isn’t it?”
Remus and Sirius didn’t know how to respond to that statement. She seemed to have made herself immune to the insults within the twenty minutes she was upstairs.
“What were you doing up there?” Sirius asked suddenly.
Rachael gave a short laughed and studied her fingernails as she spoke. “Oh you know, read the letter again, and wrote my own little letter. I was going to go owl it but I heard you two talking,” she replied in an offhand voice.
“What’d it say?” Remus asked hesitantly.
“Nothing really… just that if I’m assuming then it’s only because she’s a nasty (she used a word here that neither of the boys had ever heard her use before) who disowns her own children and then she won’t even say anything after they’ve nearly murdered themselves because of it. You know, the usual.”
“Listen,” said Remus cautiously. If his sister sent that letter, the one she received back was guaranteed to be unpleasant… Or maybe his mother wouldn’t send just a letter. She could stoop as low as to send a Howler. He didn’t want her getting a Howler. He knew his mother would’ve no hesitation in saying she was disowned. “I know you’re angry but-”
“Oh, Remus, I am way past angry,” she snarled, suddenly losing her light and bouncy voice. She was now speaking in a furious growl that sent chills up their spines. “Right now I feel like whipping out my wand and using the Cruciatus Curse on her so many times that she’ll be nothing more than a friggin’ vegetable!”
“You shouldn’t be talking like that…”
“Why shouldn’t I? She’s the one who disowned me! I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t know what happened!” She calmed down a little and stopped yelling. “Remus, I wanted to be her daughter again but… Sirius was right. Why should I waste my time trying to make her see reason? She’s not worth it. As far as I’m concerned, my mother doesn’t even exist anymore.”
She took out the letter she had written, looked at it, and left the common room. She walked speedily down the corridor towards the Owlery, unconsciously rubbing one of the many cuts on her face. Honestly, her mother calling her daft? If anyone was daft it was Mrs. Anna Lupin. What mother could actually turn her back on her only daughter for something she had no control over? No mother would do that, except for Rachael’s.
She didn’t even know why she was bothering to send the letter; it would only result in a letter war. There would be no winner. The letters would just keep coming until one of them got sick of it. Right now Rachael was sick of everything. She had risked her life to earn her mother’s love back. She had written so many letters… nothing helped. Her mother just wouldn’t open her eyes to the facts. It was almost as if she were blind.
Rachael remembered vaguely about the first two weeks she had been in the orphanage. She had sent nearly thirty letters to her mother, who responded to each letter and each one of her letters was nastier than the next. She particularly remembered one that she had gotten and it was the letter that made her stop. It was so horrible, the things her mother had written. She never thought a woman could call herself a mother and then write something like that. She tried to permanently block it from her mind, but every now and then it would creep up on her, like it was right now.
She didn’t like to think about it, but she couldn’t help it. Those foul words and horrible wishes still echoed clearly in her mind and felt as though they were reverberating off the walls. The letter had been so horrible that she locked herself in the dormitory at the orphanage (also locking Becky out) for three days, refusing to eat or drink anything. Finally Mrs. Marshall had to remove the door from the room to get her out and gave her a good long lecture about locking doors, though she didn’t even bother to ask why Rachael had done it.
That was the thing with adults. They could yell at you for doing something, but they would never even bother to ask why you had done what you did. Then on the occasions why they did ask, they would pretend as though it wasn’t a valid reason. What good were adults then for helping with problems? Rachael prayed with a passion that she didn’t end up like that when she was a mother. But she didn’t have to worry… with all the mental abuse she suffered as a child she needn’t worry about those things.
She reached the Owlery and looked around for Emerald. She saw her owl resting peacefully in the rafters. She hated disturbing her owl when she was resting, but this letter was far too important.
“Emerald!” she yelled up into the rafters. Emerald opened one eye and hooted sleepily. “I need you to mail this quickly.” Emerald, rather reluctantly, flew down to Rachael and waited patiently for her to tie the letter to her leg.
Rachael sat in the empty common room, staring lazily into the crackling fire. Dinner was going on the in the Great Hall right now, but she wasn’t too hungry so she declined the offer of going down with Sirius and Remus. She had mailed the letter to her mother and she had no doubt that it had already reached her. So all she could do was to wait for a letter in response.
But what she got wasn’t the type of response she had been expecting. Her mother didn’t send her a punishment in letterform… she sent it in person. As Rachael was gazing into the fire she noticed something fall out of it. Taken completely by surprise, she hopped up onto the couch to avoid it. Getting over the initial shock, Rachael was able to peer over at what had come out of the fire. What she saw made her stomach nearly drop out of her body.
“M-Mum?” she stuttered. Why had her mother Flooed to Hogwarts?
“Yes Mum!” she snapped, standing up, a look of fury in her eyes. “I have a question for you!” Rachael was too afraid to reply, but she didn’t have to. She received a sharp strike across her face and a loud yell. “Why,” was followed by another slap, “did,” was followed by a kick, “you,” punch, “send that,” another slap, “to,” kick, “me?” She received another sharp punch in the face. But as this went on Rachael didn’t flinch once, she was too shocked to do so.
She never expected her mother to resort to PHYSICAL abuse… just mental abuse. Now that it was happening, she was too shocked to feel the pain that was coursing through her like venom. She looked up at her mother, frightened to say anything, thinking that if she did she might get hit again.
“How dare you say such things to me?” she yelled, taking the opportunity to strike her daughter again.
“I-I,” Rachael stammered. If she answered with the truth she was likely to be killed. Why did she have to be the only one in Gryffindor Tower…?
“You what?”
“I told you the truth!” Rachael yelled, finally feeling the pain from her beating. But she didn’t care about the pain; she just wanted her mother to hear this. “Everything I told you was the truth! It’s not my fault you can’t handle the truth! I didn’t do anything! I’m not the daft person here! You are!”
That was a mistake on Rachael’s part.
What followed after her outburst is far too gruesome to describe. She received the most unreal beating of her life; her mother was relentlessly beating her. Rachael didn’t protest to it. She knew it would be useless, that her mother wouldn’t listen to her. Besides… she couldn’t even get the words out without vomiting. She just waited for someone to come up to the tower or for her mother to get tired. But it didn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.
Three minutes later her prayers, though, were answered when the portrait hole swung open and she heard a very terrified Remus yell,
“MUM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Remus ran over, closely followed by Sirius, and yanked his mother backwards, tying her arms around her back. Sirius walked over to Rachael and attempted to help her up, only to have her moan for him to go away.
“Oh, Merlin…” Remus whispered when he saw his sister. “Sirius, get my dad.” Sirius nodded and began to leave. “Then hurry and get Madam Pomfrey.” Sirius didn’t need telling twice; he rushed out of the common room as fast as his legs could carry him. Remus had to sit and wait now with his mother, whom he was afraid to let go of. If he did… she could lash out at him as well as his sister. So he took this moment to tie her up magically, having learned the spell from a run-in with Snape.
He kept a firm grip on his mother’s arm, just in case she was able to break free of her bonds. He looked down at his sister, who was obviously struggling to remain conscious. He wanted to go over and comfort her, but he was afraid to let go of his mother. What had possessed her to do that? What could Rachael have possibly said to make her blow up like this? The mental abuse was enough! But this… this was the limit… something was going to have to be done.
“Sirius, what?” The portrait door swung open and Sirius clambered in, followed by two very bewildered staff members: Professor Lupin and Madam Pomfrey. Professor Lupin looked up to see Remus and “
“Anna?” he shouted, shocked to see his wife in bonds and being closely guarded by their son. “What are you - Merlin! What have you done?”
“Oh dear,” murmured Madam Pomfrey, and she immediately got to work. She whipped her wand out and tried very vigilantly to move Rachael around and see where her various wounds were.
“No,” Rachael whimpered. “Stop, it hurts….”
Madam Pomfrey frowned sympathetically, but continued on her work. “It’s alright, dear,” she whispered comfortingly. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore.”
Professor Lupin just stood there, utterly shocked. He blinked several times, as though if he did that enough then his mind might be rid of the horrible scene before him. It wasn’t true… it couldn’t be… this wasn’t happening. She hardly recovered from Christmas! How could his wife do this? Why? That was all that was going through his mind… he refused to believe this. His wife couldn’t have done this! How had his family turned out this way?
“Dad,” Remus whispered. “Aren’t you going to say something?”
“What’s there to say?” Professor Lupin chocked, fighting to keep back his tears that were threatening to burst. “My wife is mad. My daughter’s mentally and physically abused. My son’s a werewolf… There’s no hope for this family.” He walked over to his wife, glared her in the eye before whispering in a menacing voice, “Go to hell woman before the Dementors get you,” and he shoved her in the emerald green fire and yelled the address of his old home.
Sirius and Remus looked at each other. They didn’t know what to say. They merely watched as Professor Lupin sunk down into his seat and buried his face in his hands.
“Dad?” said Remus slowly. But his father didn’t respond, he just began crying all his despair. Every bad thought that had been held within him was flooding out through tears. Remus winced as he watched this and sat down and squeezed his dad’s shoulder. “Dad… Dad, it’s okay.”
“No it’s not, Remus,” he whispered through his tears. “It’s not okay. Your sister’s hurt, you’re a werewolf; your mother is a madman… What happened to our family?”
Remus wanted to know that as well, but he couldn’t think about it with everything that had unfolded in the past few minutes. He looked down as Madam Pomfrey did her best to mend Rachael, but it was useless. There were simply too many wounds for her to heal in one night.
“Does it feel any better?” Madam Pomfrey asked her patient soothingly. Rachael didn’t say anything, she merely whimpered, still afraid to open her mouth. “I just can’t believe this… With all respect, Professor, your wife is out of her mind. Honestly, beating up an innocent girl. What reason could she have to do that?”
“It was the letter,” Rachael groaned, her voice full of pain. Her eyes darted to Remus and Sirius when she said that and they immediately knew what she meant. “I sent it…”
“I told you not to,” said Remus.
“I know…”
“I know. You didn’t know this would happen… I can’t blame you.”
Madam Pomfrey stood up and looked at the weeping professor. “I’ve done everything I can for now…” she said. “I don’t think she needs to go to the Hospital Wing. I’ll bring her up to the dormitory and check on her in the morning. It’ll be peaceful enough in there.”
Professor Lupin nodded and muttered the incantation, handed his wand to Madam Pomfrey and watched as she brought his daughter up to the dormitory. “I’ve got to go inform Dumbledore about this,” Professor Lupin said. “Good night, boys.”