Remus Lupin held very still, concentrating on not moving any part of his body. Slowly, he began to take stock of his condition. His head was pounding, though he thought he couldn’t have hit it during his transformation”it didn’t hurt enough. The rest of him was not so lucky. He could feel what had to be some very nasty scratches on his arms and legs; his right sleeve was a bit wet with something sticky, probably blood. His left hip was sore, as though he might have crashed into something, and he thought there might be additional scratches on the back of his neck, though how they got there was a mystery.
Groaning, he cracked his eyes open, focusing on a sliver of sunlight on the floor. Several feathers littered his line of vision, and Remus reflected that they most likely represented the remains of his pillow. He had tried many times over the years to convince his mother not to bother; it wasn’t as if he ever got any sleep on the nights he transformed. But although Anna Lupin had at last been forced to stop buying new mattresses and sleeping bags, she still insisted on laying out some semblance of bedding when she locked her son in the basement once a month. The extra expense pained Remus, but he had finally realised that the futile gesture was his mother’s way of coping with his lycanthropy. Being a Muggle, Anna Lupin had always struggled with the helplessness she felt in regards to her son’s affliction. He comforted himself with the knowledge that for several years now his parents only had to go through the experience at holidays.
Slowly, he worked his way into a sitting position, surveying the damage. The tiny window had been boarded up, and only admitted thin shafts of light, but Remus’s eyes were well enough accustomed to the dark that he could get a fair sense of his surroundings. The Lupins had made their basement as werewolf-friendly as possible, emptying it of anything with which Remus might hurt himself, and even tacking sheets of foam around the small space, for the times when he unwittingly threw himself against the walls. More wasted effort, Remus thought, noting the shredded yellow foam that was strewn among the feathers.
For several minutes he simply sat on the floor of his dim basement, wondering if he had the strength to make it up the stairs in order to knock on the door. Finally accepting that he did not, he crawled to the foot of the stairway and laid his hand on the newel post. At once the worn wood began to glow until the outline of a face pushed oaken features into life. Clearing his throat, Remus tried to inject a note of cheer into his hoarse voice.
‘Hey, Mum. I’m up.’
‘’Bout time, dozy-head,’ the newel post observed tartly, before vanishing with a ripple. Remus sighed. It had taken a series of highly complicated charms for he and his father to manage this communication system, and they seemed to have imbued the enchanted post with a perpetually snarky attitude. It had been Remus who had come up with the idea, after seeing his friends James and Sirius use their two-way mirrors, but the difficulty had been in enchanting something that was unlikely to be broken by a raging werewolf. The magically reinforced newel post had finally proved to be the most useful, as it was sturdy and had a twin upstairs. Remus was especially proud of his idea to make it respond to his human touch, although the required research to accomplish such a feat had cost him many hours in the Hogwarts library. Of course, he spent much of his time there anyway, and the result gave everyone some additional peace of mind. It also came in very handy in times such as these, when a transformation had been extra draining.
Within moments, the newel post morphed into life again, looking bored. ‘She says, she’ll “be right down, dear,”’ it informed him grudgingly. Sure enough, it had barely melted away into inanimate wood before Remus heard the series of clicks that meant the door was being unlocked. His mother must have slept in the sitting room again, to be responding so quickly.
Light fell abruptly into the darkened basement as Anna Lupin appeared at the top of the stairs. A sweet-featured woman who shared Remus’s light brown hair and eyes, her face was prematurely lined with worry, worry that bled nakedly into her voice as she hurried down the steps.
‘Remus? Was it a bad one, darling?’
She carried a self-assembled first-aid kit with her, as always, though it was her husband, John, who would magically heal most of Remus’s wounds.
Remus smiled up at her as he manoevered himself to lean against the nearest wall. ‘Not that bad, Mum,’ he reassured her, ‘I’m just a little extra tired, is all.’
‘Mmm,’ said his mum, disbelieving. Kneeling across from him, she mutely handed him a corked vial of dark blue liquid and began checking him for injuries. Remus drank the pain-killing potion gratefully.
‘I hope I’ve stored it right, that one’s always tricky and your father has never been especially good at potions,’ Mrs. Lupin prattled anxiously. ‘I wish he hadn’t had to go to those meetings yesterday, but there’s been some disturbing legislation floating around, and he thought he ought to stay the night in London”catch the aftermath this morning. Anyway, he ought to be back soon”oh,’ she broke off in a sigh. She had pulled back his sleeve to reveal the angry gash beneath. Remus felt a pang of guilt as her face took on the closed expression he knew so well.
‘It’s not that deep,’ he said quickly. ‘Really, I think it’s more blood than anything.’
‘That will leave another scar,’ was his mother’s only comment, as she began to clean her son’s wound.
* * *
Remus was picking at his breakfast in the Lupins’ kitchen when his mother suddenly uttered a sharp exclamation.
‘Oh! Remus, I’m so sorry, I forgot! Fabius arrived early this morning”that’s James’s owl, isn’t it? You have a letter.’
‘Great,’ Remus smiled. Even though they had been on summer holidays for barely three weeks, he already missed his friends terribly. Sirius had sent him a quick note early on to warn Remus that he suspected Kreacher of screening his correspondence, and Peter had twice sent him very long (and rather boring) letters, but he had yet to hear from James. Taking the letter from his mother, he tore open the envelope and skimmed the first lines eagerly. But he was soon frowning, as all his excitement evaporated.
‘Remus? Is everything all right?’ His mother had been watching his reaction carefully.
‘It’s Sirius,’ he muttered, absently, still focusing on the letter, ‘Apparently he showed up at James’s place late last night…’
‘He’s had another fight with his family?’ Anna Lupin followed the lives of Remus’s friends with great interest, not a little because she was so relieved her son had been able to find some.
‘Yeah…’ Remus quickly finished and set the letter on the table. His stomach was starting to clench in knots of worry. ‘He ran away; he’s going to live with James until he can get his own place.’ Remus rubbed his face as his mother let out a soft ‘Ohhh’ of sympathy.
‘That poor boy,’ she murmured. ‘Well, Lord knows he’ll be better off with the Potters, but that has to be hard. I wonder what finally made him leave? James didn’t say?’
Remus shook his head. ‘I’ll probably find out later, Sirius might not have told him yet. I wonder if I should write to Peter?’
‘Oh, I’m sure James will, if he wrote to you. I’ll check in with Margaret later, see what she knows about it.’
Remus was about to point out that if James didn’t know what had made Sirius leave, it was unlikely that his mother would, but at that moment the squeak of the front door and the sound of heavy footsteps heralded the return of his father.
John Lupin was a tall, lean man of rather ordinary appearance. Though his hair was several shades darker than his wife’s or son’s, and his eyes were blue behind their wire-rimmed spectacles, people often thought Remus looked like his father. His mother said they shared the same kind smile.
But just now Mr. Lupin’s eyes were sober and weary, and he set down his briefcase with an expressive thunk.
‘Morning, Lupins,’ he smiled, his face noticeably strained.
‘Oh, thank goodness, John, you’re back. Remus has rather nasty cut on his arm, and I thought we ought to wait until you got home”’
‘Hey, Dad,’ Remus spoke over his mother. ‘How was the conference?’
Mr. Lupin set his briefcase down and rubbed his eyes as he drew up a chair. ‘First things first,’ he said firmly, motioning Remus to show him his arm. ‘Bad night, son?’
‘Not too bad,’ Remus lied, rolling back his sleeve.
Mr. Lupin’s mouth tightened at the sight, but he drew out his wand and performed the healing charm without a word. ‘Better?’ he asked softly.
‘Much, thanks,’ Remus confirmed. ‘You should have been a Healer, Dad.’
His dad smiled humourlessly. ‘Well, at least I would make a better Healer than a legislator.’
Since Mr. Lupin actually worked as part of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee, in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, this was a fairly moot point, but neither Remus nor his mother pointed that out. John Lupin’s dedication to attending every community-open meeting to discuss potential Wizarding legislation was largely due to his anxiety over the lack of rights he saw in his son’s future.
‘What is it dear?’ Anna Lupin’s question begged forthrightness.
‘It’s this bloody regulation they want passed!’ Mr. Lupin spat, in an uncharacteristic show of temper. He ran a distracted hand through his grey-streaked hair. ‘I don’t know who dreamed it up”Abraxas Malfoy, I heard. But Orion Black came in and spoke for it”he’ll be pouring money into it as well. And I know at least two committee members are well in his pocket, so at the very least they’ll be debating the blasted thing for the next six months…’
Mr. Lupin trailed off, rubbing the heels of his hands against his forehead.
‘What regulation are they trying to pass, John?’
‘Orion Black was there, Dad?’
Mr. Lupin glanced up at Remus’s tone, but chose to answer his wife’s question first. ‘It’s…nothing,’ he said heavily. ‘More restrictions”they want to meddle with the Werewolf Register, and they’re cheating by trying to slip it in under the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part Humans…I think that’s how they got so many supporters there, by mislabelling it. It will never go through, of course.’ He mustered a smile and laid a hand on Remus’s arm. ‘Nothing to worry about; it was just a stressful meeting. Cuthbert Mockridge was there, from the Goblin Liaison Office; he has contacts in the Beast and Being Divisions he can put on the case. And of course the Werewolf Support Services are raising hell, although they don’t have as much clout as some of the other units. But I’m not worried. This one’ll blow over.’
Remus smiled briefly, to show he wasn’t worried either, but: ‘Mr. Black spoke for it?’
‘Oh!’ breathed his mum, following his train of thought.
Mr. Lupin sighed. ‘Yes. I’m sorry, Remus, I know you’re friends with his son, but that family has a long history of pureblood supremacy and Orion Black is no better than any of them. Saving Sirius, of course,’ he added hastily. John Lupin had always been a bit more wary of accepting a Black as his son’s friend, though Remus and his mum had eventually talked him around.
‘Sirius left home last night,’ Remus said neutrally.
There was a tense moment as Remus saw his parents exchange a look, and he braced himself.
‘That may not have been it, Remus,’ his dad reasoned.
‘It’s not your fault, sweetheart,’ whispered his mum.
‘I know,’ Remus said. ‘I know.’
But he didn’t finish the rest of his breakfast, and when he returned to his room to send a letter in reply to James, he sat for a very long time staring at the blank sheet of parchment. Eventually he laid down his quill and crawled into bed instead.