No Longer Boys
“How long do you think it’ll be before James loses his mind?”
“I give him another week.”
“That much time? I give him two days.”
“I give him up until the moment Lily gives birth.”
Peter threw his galleon into the pile on the table and looked challengingly at Sirius and Remus, as if daring one of them to up the ante. They had all thought they were well past their gambling stage; they hadn’t done it in ages. They supposed the reason for the lull was that they had had nothing interesting to gamble on. Now, with Lily’s due date rapidly approaching, there was James’s sanity to take a chance on. He was being driven up several walls at the same time, so much so that he had pounded loudly on Sirius’s and Remus’s front door the previous week, in the middle of the night, to ask them what pizza was.
With highly irritated looks on their faces, they had shoved James in the direction of a store that was open twenty four hours, where he could find exactly what he was looking for. That was the last time James would wake them up. He was lucky he hadn’t been hexed.
They were now sitting in the Potters’ living room, having agreed to help James and Lily move some more of the baby’s things into the nursery. They weren’t doing much work now, as Lily had suddenly burst into tears, claiming that she was going to be an absolutely horrid mother. James was now in the kitchen, trying to calm her down and assure her that she was going to be a brilliant mother. They really should have begun moving some of the baby’s things into the room while James was consoling his wife, but Lily was very precise about where she wanted everything and they did not want to set her into another rage of tears.
“What if James doesn’t lose his mind at all?” Sirius asked, looking longingly at the pile of gold on the coffee table.
“We all get our gold back?” Remus suggested hopefully. He knew that he could not afford to lose his money, yet he could not back out on such a fun bet.
“I suggest we all buy me some firewhiskey.”
Remus and Peter exchanged exasperated glances. Trust Sirius to suggest something like that. “Do you recall what happened the last time you ingested firewhiskey?” Peter asked with narrowed eyes.
Sirius looked up reminiscently, which a goofy grin on his face. “Did it involve me singing on a bar counter?”
“He does remember. That’s amazing.”
“Will you buggers stop betting on me and chatting about Sirius’s drunken escapades and carry some of that stuff?” The panic in James’s voice was enough to get them to move.
The nursery was one flight up, right beside James and Lily’s bedroom. The walls hadn’t been painted yet, as Lily wanted to wait until they knew if the baby was a boy or a girl before they did that. The cradle hadn’t been built yet either, though there were boxes upon boxes that contained toys and clothing for the little Potter, who was just weeks away from arriving. Sirius set down a box that he was certain held some weird Muggle toy that moved in circles and played music.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” he asked the two as he observed the room through thoughtful eyes.
“What?” Peter asked as he perched his box on the windowsill. It seemed to be about one of the few places there weren’t boxes.
“James is going to be a dad. Lily’s going to be giving birth.” It was a rather shocking idea to digest, but they’d had months to do that. They supposed that now it was so close, there really was no other way around it. James and Lily were going to be parents. They were bringing a baby into this madness. Just last week there had been an attack on a little Wizarding home outside of Surrey where three children had been killed.
James and Lily were right in the midst of all the attacks. No matter how hard they worked to keep themselves safe, they couldn’t always be certain about it.
“They’ll be fine,” Peter said. He wasn’t so sure about that however; he had heard whispers among the Death Eaters, whispers that involved the Potters. Yet when he asked about it, the others were more than keen on keeping him in the dark. Peter was sure they would tell him eventually. They were still going through the transition of trusting him. Within time, Peter was sure he would earn their trust and they would welcome him into their plans.
“It’s quiet downstairs,” Remus commented, moving towards the open doorway to get a better listen. “You think James calmed Lily down?”
“JAMES CHARLES POTTER!”
Sirius stifled a laugh. “That would be no.”
It was oddly cold for July, but this no longer surprised Remus. It was due to the Dementors, who still had a particular penchant for reproducing, creating a horrible amount of fog. Luckily the streets were still seeable. Remus couldn’t exactly risk pulling his wand out on Muggle streets. No matter how close he lived to Diagon Alley, there were too many Muggles about. Hogsmeade was a different story, he could light up his wand and no one would bat an eyelash. Remus had gotten out of work later than he usually did. He had had to close up the shop again, as Peter had left early, claiming he was going to visit his mother.
Remus had said nothing about it. Peter was slowly getting back to his old self. He wasn’t about to jinx that by asking too many questions. Trust Peter to regress because of that. It was nice having the old Peter back, Remus wanted to do nothing that would ruin that. So he closed up the shop without a single question. He took care of the money, secured the locks and placed the proper security wards around the place. Anyone who wished to break in would have a hard time managing that.
Now all Remus wanted to do was get home. He was cold and tired. The full moon was in a week and he was already feeling the effects of it. According to Sirius, he nearly had to resort to throwing a glass of cold water on Remus’s face to get him to wake up that morning. Remus doubted Sirius was really considering doing that but, knowing Sirius, it wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. He knew it was because he was getting older that he transformations were getting worst. He wondered what it would be like when he was an old man. How could a person with brittle bones and poor health endure a monthly werewolf transformation?
It would kill him.
That is, if the Death Eaters didn’t kill him first. They were becoming relentless, as if they had a new source of energy that no one had ever seen before. Remus couldn’t understand what had brought this on, but then, he understood very little about the Death Eaters, aside from the fact that they were sadistic monsters. It would be a long awaited pleasure to finally take them down, to finally prove that their cause was a disgusting, inhuman one. Remus only wondered how long it would be before that happened. It had been years already.
Could they really fight like this for another year, or even longer? This war had been looming under the surface ever since he had started school, probably even before then. It had only come to the forefront within the past few years, but they couldn’t go on like this. There were families being torn apart, lives put on hold and lives thrown together hastily and sloppily. People were so uncertain of the future that they tried to do what they would otherwise take time to do, such as getting married and starting families. He hated putting James and Lily in that category, but he didn’t see any other category to put them into. They loved each other and they would love their child, but Remus knew they would have taken more time in these decisions if a war wasn’t at their doorstep.
Remus shivered as a particularly chilly gust of wind whipped about him, running up and down his spine. That was strange. He suddenly had a horrible sense of foreboding. His body instantly tensed up. He didn’t know why, but he felt like someone was watching him. He covertly moved his right hand towards the pocket where his wand resided. He completely forgot about everything Muggle on this street. He wasn’t going to be caught off guard by Merlin knew what. It could be a Dementor, a Death Eater or even a stupid stray cat but he wasn’t going to be taken by surprise.
Yet it was too late.
He was struck from behind and fell face first onto the pavement, sticking his arms out just in time to protect his face, yet not protecting his arms, which burned with a sickening pain. Within seconds, he was surrounded. All of their faces were covered, preventing Remus from identifying any of them. Of course, why should he have expected anything else? Fair play was obviously not in their vocabulary. There were at least six of them and they were all bigger than he could ever hope to be. The one whose wand was held out was clearly the one who had sent the spell at him. It had had no other effect other than to knock him off his feet.
“Nice night, isn’t it, Lupin?” one of them snarled. His voice was deep and scratchy. Remus tried placing it somewhere in his memory, but couldn’t.
“Clever, six on one?” Remus snapped, knowing he should keep his mouth shut, but failing on that front. He wasn’t going to roll over without getting any of his own shots in. “Go for the smallest one, shows how brave you are.”
The one closest to Remus took this opportunity to kick him in the side and Remus bit back a cry of pain as he felt a few of his ribs crack. “Did we give you permission to speak?”
So he needed their permission? That was rich. He didn’t need their permission to do anything and they were in his way of getting home. Who were these people? He felt his eyes watering with pain as his entire torso sang with pain.
“Remus Lupin,” one of them said casually, as if he and Remus went way back. Remus felt his stomach drop out of his body. They knew his name; they knew his bloody name. If they knew his name, what else did they know about him? Did they know he lived just feet away? Merlin, Sirius was home. What if they had gotten to him already? He could be dead or badly hurt. “You’re one of them. You’re one of those pretentious, greater than us wizards part of the resistance. You know what we like to do to people like you?”
Remus found out exactly what they liked to do to people like him. Six against one, with the full moon so close by, he didn’t have a chance against them. At one point he reached for his wand in the vain hope he would be able to fend them off that way, but another kick to the ribs sent his wand flying out of the circle of men. He tried to call for help, but a hit that resulted in three of his teeth ending up on the ground stopped that.
It wasn’t long before there was a loud snarl of fury from outside of the group and a wave of spells sent their way that forced them to scatter and Disapparated. Then a furious voice sounded from somewhere above. “That’s right, run you cowardly bastards!”
Remus faintly heard footsteps hurrying towards him and he instinctively recoiled. Every bit of him was aching in pain. He could feel blood dripping steadily out of his mouth, his nose and various other parts of his body. His breath hitched as he felt a hand touch the side of his face. The hand gently turned his face upward and, through his blurry vision, Remus could just make out the outline of Sirius before he slipped out of consciousness.
“Oh Merlin, Moony, what have they done to you?” Sirius was fuming. He had heard voices coming from outside and had, at first, thought nothing of it, until they began to rise and he heard shouts. It took him mere seconds to recognise the shouts as Remus’s and he had hurried outside. Merlin, he would get those monsters. Six against one was not a fair fight. Of course, why should Sirius have expected one? There was no such thing as a fair fight these days, especially between Dark wizards and wizards like Remus “ members of the Order of the Phoenix. But Remus was the smallest of the entire Order; he was weak from the upcoming full moon. He wouldn’t be able to defend himself as he normally would.
“You’ll be okay,” Sirius went on, unsure of why he was still talking. Remus couldn’t hear him. He must have been trying to reassure himself that his friend would be okay. “I’ll get you to Mungo’s, someone can help you there.” Sirius carefully gripped Remus’s scratched and bloody wrist and concentrated on an image of the hospital. James was there right now. James worked in the Creatures Induced Injury ward, but he would make sure someone saw to Remus immediately. Merlin, Sirius had to contact Remus’s parents. Harry and Anna had to know about this. They worried about their son and this would only confirm their worries.
The lobby of St. Mungo’s was blindingly bright compared to the darkness of the night outside. Sirius wasted no time pulling out his two-way mirror. He knew James carried his with him at work. “James Potter!” The second James’s befuddled face filled the glass, Sirius plowed on, “Prongs! Get into the lobby right now.”
“Sirius, what’s going on?” What was Sirius doing in St. Mungo’s, of all places? He didn’t look injured, just terribly scared. Had something happened to Lily, or one of their friends? James was instantly alert.
“Moony was attacked coming home, he doesn’t look good. Can you come or get someone to come and help him?”
“I’ll be there in a minute.” James’s face disappeared from the glass and Sirius stuffed the mirror back into his pocket.
James was true to his word. In less than a minute he was hurrying into the lobby with another Healer in tow. “This is Healer Jenkins,” he told Sirius. Turning to Healer Jenkins, he said, “Take care of him, and get him into the first ward you can.”
Jenkins nodded and magicked Remus onto an invisible stretcher. Sirius watched as the two disappeared through the doors. “I’ll contact Moody,” James told Sirius in an undertone. “He’ll want to know about this. Why don’t you go get something to eat? They’ll be working on him for a while from the looks of it.”
Sirius didn’t think he could hold anything in his stomach right now. He felt too sick. “No… no, I’ve got to get his parents. They need to know.”
James nodded understandingly. “Ask for me when you get back. I’ll let you know if you can see him. Tell me what happened when you get back.”
Sirius wasted no time Apparating out of the hospital and into the front yard of an all too familiar home. The lights were still home in the Lupins’ house, which made sense as it wasn’t late at all. Yet it appeared as if Mr. and Mrs. Lupin were having a quiet evening at home. Sirius hated to be the one to shatter their calmness, especially with the news that their only son had just been attacked on his way home from work. Sirius ran up to the front door and knocked quickly and loudly on it.
“Who is it?” came Harry’s stern and alert voice from inside.
“It’s Sirius, Mr. Lupin!” Sirius wasn’t sure if Mr. Lupin would relent that easily, but some of the panic he was experiencing clearly transferred into his voice as he heard the locks click on the door.
Harry’s concerned face appeared almost instantly. “What’s happened? Is everything alright?” Harry looked past Sirius, possibly in hopes of seeing his son was with him, but Remus was nowhere to be found.
“Harry, who’s at the door?” Anna Lupin had just come into view and when she saw Sirius; her look soon mirrored the one on her husband’s face.
“Mr. Lupin, you’ve got to come with me.”
“Come where? Sirius, what’s going on?”
“Remus was attacked; he’s in St. Mungo’s. James has got a Healer looking after him, but you’ve got to come.”
Sirius hated hearing the sharp intake of breath from Mrs. Lupin; see the colour drop out of her face.
“Attacked?” Harry repeated, his voice a hoarse whisper. “By who?”
“I don’t know. It was a group of at least six, they ganged up on him. He didn’t have a chance.” He didn’t want to rush the man, who was obviously in shock, but they had to get back to the hospital. Harry quickly snapped back to reality and turned to his wife. “I’ll be back soon; I’ll let you know anything I can the first chance I get.”
“Come on, Lupin, think. What did they look like?”
“I told you, I don’t know. They were all masked.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes!”
“But-”
“Alastor.”
Alastor Moody looked around and saw Harry Lupin and Sirius Black standing in the doorway to Remus’s ward. Harry looked furious to see the Auror was grilling his son so soon after the attack. Alastor had barely given him time to collect himself before diving into the questioning. Remus wasn’t ready for that. Just from hearing Remus’s voice, it was painfully obvious he was hurt and didn’t want to be bothered.
Moody looked unabashed by the apparent anger. “It’s protocol, Harry,” he replied calmly. He had to find out anything he could about these menaces. He was going to get them. Honestly, going after someone like that. Moody had seen many things as an Auror and he hated that the most.
Harry stepped into the room. “I don’t care if it’s protocol, Alastor. My son is in pain and I will not have you interrogating him until he’s ready. He doesn’t know who they were. How could you possibly know what masked people look like?” The steady fury beneath Harry’s voice was accepted by Moody, who stood up and crossed to the door.
He wheeled around just as he was about to leave and stared past the others in the room to the one lying in bed. “The second you feel better, Lupin, you’re answering my questions.”
Remus stifled a yawn and nodded wearily. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to tell Moody anything more than he just had, but he was too bloody tired to argue with the man. He looked little better than he had when Sirius had brought him in, save that the blood had been cleaned off and he was in a pair of hospital robes. Sirius imagined the ones he had originally been wearing had been sent somewhere to be cleaned so he could have them back.
There was a quiet knock at the door and Sirius and Mr. Lupin wheeled around to see James was standing in the doorway, peering into the room. “He’s awake?”
“Hi, Prongs,” Remus said sleepily.
A small smile crossed James’s face and he stepped further into the room. “You’re looking lovely as ever, Moony.”
“Shut up.”
“Does anyone want to hear the damage?” James was holding a clipboard in his hands. He grinned as Harry’s affirmative reply sounded over Remus’s negative. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he read off the parchment. “Four broken ribs, all mended, of course. We’ve re-grown your teeth for you, Remus; you can thank us for that when you look at yourself in the mirror. Broken nose, fixed in a heartbeat. They went at it with the Cruciatus Curse, but not enough to do any permanent damage. Your left wrist was sprained, but that’s been fixed and there’re some other injuries, but I think you’ve heard enough, haven’t you?”
Remus sounded faintly sick when he replied that he had.
James tucked the clipboard under his arm. “I need to finish up my rounds. I’ll stop in on my way home to see how he’s doing.”
Mr. Lupin thanked James as the man disappeared down the corridor. There were empty chairs placed beside Remus’s bed and Harry did not hesitate to take one of them. Sirius stood awkwardly in the doorway for a moment before muttering something about getting coffee and offering to get one for Mr. Lupin.
“How are you feeling?” Harry asked his son.
“Like someone dropped a Hippogriff on me,” Remus brought a bandaged hand to his forehead and gritted his teeth as a fresh wave of pain overcame him. He had a feeling this would keep happening until he finally fell asleep. Healer Jenkins had offered to give him a potion for the pain, but Remus had declined. He hated having to rely on that stuff to feel better. “I should’ve been better prepared for this.”
“They came at you, you weren’t expecting it.” Harry was not about to allow his son to blame himself for this. Those maniacs had attacked him, cornered him and had outnumbered him. Remus was a strong wizard, but no one could be expected to fend off six people at once.
“I was expecting something. I felt people watching me.”
“That doesn’t mean this was your fault. There were six of them and one of you. How could you expect yourself to fend them all off on your own?”
“My wand,” Remus suddenly said, his eyes widening. He had completely forgotten about it. “Where’s my wand?” The last he remembered of it, it had been knocked out of his hand.
“I’ve got it, Moony.” Sirius had returned with two cups of coffee in hand. He passed one to Mr. Lupin as he took the second seat. He pulled Remus’s wand out of his pocket and set it on the nightstand.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” Arses had fought him when he didn’t even have his wand to defend himself. Nice way to get what they wanted.
Remus started to open his mouth again, to thank Sirius for getting him out of there, but Sirius stopped him, simply telling Remus, with a snarky grin, that he owed him for the rest of his life. It didn’t take long for the sleepiness to overcome Remus and soon the room was filled with his quiet snores. Sirius leaned back in his seat and took a sip of his coffee.
“You can go home, if you want, Sirius,” Harry said. Sirius had already done more than enough that night. The least he could do for himself was get some sleep.
Sirius shook his head. “No, I’ll stay here with him, if you want to go tell his mum that he’ll be alright.”
Harry nodded. When he was sure Remus wouldn’t be waking up for the night, he would go tell Anna that their son would be okay. Looking at the boy sitting beside him, Harry then said, “I can’t tell you how lucky Remus is that you decided to sit in his compartment on your way to Hogwarts.”
Sirius glanced at Mr. Lupin curiously. He had not been expecting the man to say that. Sirius could remember that first train ride as clear as anything. He had entered the sleeping boy’s compartment, thinking that it would be the longest train ride ever, and not long after he had been joined by James and Peter. No sooner had Remus woken up and they’d all gotten to talking. He had had no idea back then that these three would become his best friends, practically his brothers.
“You’ve been such a good friend to him. You don’t know how many friends Remus thought he had when he was a child who abandoned him the moment they saw something funny about him. But you, James and Peter, you found out his secret and became even better friends.” Harry glanced back at his son, watched the steady rising and falling of his chest as he slept. The Healers said he would be okay soon. It didn’t change the fact that he was here in the first place. “Every time he’s in a hospital, I can’t help but remember when he was bitten. People always look smaller in hospital beds.”
Sirius glanced at his friend and saw that Harry was right. He didn’t know why this was so, but it was. Maybe it was because people were usually hurt or sick when they were in this position and that definitely made a person feel smaller. It must have been a horrible time, when Remus was only a little boy and Fenrir Greyback had sought to destroy his life. It was hard to believe how long ago it had been that this happened, and then when Greyback had come for seconds. It was a miracle Remus had made it to the age of twenty.
“You’re all grown up, aren’t you?”
This statement startled Sirius. He had expected something more along the lines of how much Mr. Lupin would like to mutilate Greyback.
“I still think of you all as the boys I met when I taught Charms for those few weeks in your first year. But you’ve grown up. You’re fighting in a war. James is married and about to become a father. Remus has moved out and is working in a shop Peter started. You’ve all grown up. I suppose I wish you didn’t have to do so as fast as you did. But I can’t stop thinking of you all as boys, but you’re not. You’re no longer boys. Somewhere along the line, you all became men.”