The five-year-old Remus Lupin was sleeping peacefully in his bed, having a strange dream about being Ares and throwing lightning bolts at Wonder Woman during The Great War when he first heard the signs of his attacker in his bedroom.
Remus' eyes flew open immediately and he pulled his beloved covers (bedsheets with his favorite superhero; The Incredible Hulk's face and fists on it) up to his eyes with his right hand and clutched his beloved teddy bear Davie in the other, unsure if what he heard was him just imagining things or not.
That was the problem with being half-wizard and half-Muggle, most Muggle children could be comforted by the fact that the monsters under their bed were only in the product of an overactive imagination. The children of Witches and Wizards, on the other hand, had every right to be afraid of what was under their bed because there probably was;
The last time Remus had been this scared, he had been haunted by a very strange and specific nightmare. This time he was the earthworm from James And The Giant Peach, being chased by a horrifying cloud in the shape of a Rhino over New York City. Remus took a deep breath and tried to remember what his mother had said about nightmares.
...
"Remus, my sweet little boy, you don't have to be afraid." Hope had said kindly, holding her trembling son tightly in her arms and gazing down at him warmly. She was wearing bunny slippers and a pleasant yellow nightgown.
"Nightmares are just bad dreams, they can't hurt you. We're all afraid of something; there's no shame in it. Nothing can harm you while I'm around, and while the crime rate in New York is certainly high you don't have to worry about any rhinos, they're all in zoos. And whoever heard of a cloud hurting you?"
"Well Mother, when you say it that way, that does seem rawther improbable." Remus responded thoughtfully, blushing a bit and smiling weakly. "You're right, there's no such thing as monsters."
Hope paled and shifted her eyes around.
"Actually, Remus, I'm afraid there is one monster you should be worried about." She murmured with an air of heaviness.
Remus gulped.
"And what monster is that, mother?" He squeaked, eyes growing the size of dinner plates."
"The…." Hope began.
"The what?" Remus said.
"The...the…" She shuddered and shook her head, as if saying it would be too horrible.
"The what?" Remus whispered.
"THE TICKLE MONSTER!" Hope cried out, causing Remus to yelp in fear, squirming out of the mother's reach and crawling desperately across the bed to get away, but it was no use. The tickle monster caught him, and the scream that rose in Remus' throat died as he was overcome with uncontrollable laughter, matching his mother's perfectly. Nothing could spoil this golden moment.
"Well, that's not true."
Except maybe Lyall, Remus' father.
The smiled faded from Hope's and Remus' face as they turned their head to see that Lyall had entered the room. He was wearing a nightcap with striped silver and grey pajamas and a dark navy blue bathrobe with a embroidered Ravenclaw Head Boy patch.
"What?" Hope asked blankly, looking confused and a little annoyed. Remus noticed that her nightgown had opened a bit as she had tickled him, revealing some sort of short black lace outfit that he had never seen her wear around the house before.
"Clouds CAN hurt you in the form of Obscurials." Lyall explained simply.
"W-what's an Obscurus?" Remus asked fearfully.
"Obscurial, Remus, Obscurial." Lyall corrected him, summoning the rocking chair so as to be close to Remus' bed in order to sit down and explain things. Hope rolled her eyes, she knew she should probably stop her husband but she just had to hear what he had to say for himself this time.
"Obscurials are incredibly dangerous young witches and wizards who suppress their magic in order to hide from the outside world or develop them because they're ashamed of their gifts. Obscuruses are what they develop in order to cope with it, and this manifests itself in a very unstable form of magic that is not only a danger to oneself but the others around them. If you don't let your magic flow, then an Obscurus begins to develop."
"I believe (if my memory serves me correctly) the most famous case in recent memory occurred in 1926, when one Credence Barebone was provoked into releasing his Obscurus, killing and severely injuring several people, and destroying much of New York City. If it wasn't for the timely intervention of The MACUSA's Auror department, the entire city would surely have been left to ruin. It's frankly a miracle it was kept quiet from the Muggles. So, Remus, if you ever feel the impulse to suppress your magical talents, don't. It could backfire very poorly on you and the others around you indeed."
Lyall looked pretty impressed with himself, closing his eyes with his chin poking out, a sure sign of someone fishing for compliments. His wife simply stared at him and said; "Lyall, don't take this the wrong way, but why are you here? I love that you want to help out, but I was doing fine on my own until you came in. Did you hear me through the walls and go out of your way to correct me?"
Lyall opened his mouth to answer, but thankfully Remus spared him the embarrassment.
"Father, would it be possible for me to sleep in your bed tonight and figure things out?" Remus asked. As a child he either didn't notice the less-than-appreciative exchange between his parents or was precocious enough to understand it wasn't really his business to meddle in his parent's private life.
"Certainly, Remus, no shame in asking after all." Lyall said cheerfully.
"Uh, sweetie, I don't think tonight's a good time, remember?" Hope asked, raising her eyebrow. As a Ravenclaw, Lyall was a very brilliant man and was usually pretty good at picking up the signals. However, when Hope had left to check up on their son, he had busied himself with the Muggle book MacBeth to the part where he'd left off where King Duncan had been killed. He had gotten so invested in it he had forgot entirely what he and his wife had planned to do. But could he truly be blamed? Muggle literature, particularly how they depicted magic-users, was fascinating.
"Oh, right…" Lyall said, smacking himself on the forehead. "Silly, silly me - Remus, my sunshine, ignore everything I just said, all right? You're perfectly safe, Obscurials make up a very, very small percentage of The Wizarding World as a whole anyway; something like one in a half-billion. So rest easy. Good night, son, sweet dreams. May I take your hand, madam?"
Hope rolled her eyes and smiled good-naturedly. What a silly, silly man she had married. "You certainly may, love. Night, son, love you."
"You too, Mum, you too, Dad." Remus chirped. His parents kissed him on the cheek and forehead and were off to do whatever it was that was so important. Probably pay their taxes or drink wine or something perfectly boring adults had to deal with. And that night, soon after, Remus rested easily, for he had the comfort that according to his father although there were likely monsters in the world, he had both of his parents on his side in case anything happened.
…
Remembering that night gave Remus his confidence back, he had nothing to be scared of after all.
Or so he thought.
All at once, this horrid, powerful man rose up in front of Remus. Everything from his tangled, matted black hair, to his razor-sharp, yellowing teeth that always appeared to be smiling, to the jagged nails placed on Remus' shoulder to the long strand of drool pouring from its tongue said otherwise. Remus would have wet the bed, if only the real-life monster in front of him didn't start talking, counting off his fingers as he did so.
First, we will eat both your arms and then both of your legs and then we will eat your FACE right off of your head.
You will be this ARMLESS, LEGLESS, FACELESS thing, won't you?
Rolling down the street!
Like a turd… In the wind.
"Mr. Monster, sir, if you don't mind me saying, you were scary right up until you started talking about poop. Who are you, anyway?"
The infamous Fenrir Greyback looked insulted at first, but his confidence returned as a horrible smile crept onto his non-faceless head, and his entire body seemed to be growing more twisted and hairy as he pointed one finger to his chest and another to Remus' and hissed eagerly;
WE….ARE VENOM.
Thank you so much for reading! First person to point out the common theme with most of my pop culture references this time around gets my everlasting respect. Please remember ro REVIEW or Venom will eat your brains.