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.
Take Me Far Away by Karaley Dargen
Story Notes:
This was originally written as a "drabble" for MWPP class, Summer Term 2009. So some credit definitely goes to our professor, Terri (mudbloodproud) and the class, who sparked some very interesting ideas in that week's discussion
Chapter Endnotes: If you liked this story, you will probably also enjoy my other oneshot (once to be chaptered), "The Marauder's Map “ A Beginning".
Thanks for reading, and even more thanks for reviewing!