Response to the This I Promise You Competition by JadedEpiphany
Prompt: A character makes a promise which will always be honored.
Character: Remus Lupin
Word count: 301
"I promise you, Dad, I'll never hurt people like Greyback did to me. I'll always be your son, never a monster. I'll never make another werewolf." That promise, made after the haze of hurt and anger at hearing that the attack on him had been intentional had faded into iron resolve, was one which would define and decide Remus's path for the rest of his life.
Remus suffered in silence through the years at Hogwarts before James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew deduced his lycanthropy and confronted him on it. He pushed away their friendship, fearing he would hurt them.
He tried to convince Nymphadora Tonks not to love him, trying to keep her safe. He thought he had broken his promise when she told him she was pregnant, thought he had brought into the world another person to be cursed as he, but it was not so.
Remus allowed himself to be locked up, to tear himself up, took the indignity of submitting to his childhood nemesis for a disgusting potion with grace. Every month, every year, for all of his life.
Many people betrayed Remus. James, who promised to always be there for him. Sirius, who promised to never breathe a word of his affliction. Peter, who promised to fight beside him. Albus Dumbledore, who promised that being a werewolf would never be a problem for him, since he would have graduated from Hogwarts.
Remus was broken apart by the betrayals, but he never once questioned his resolve to keep his own promise. When he saw the Killing Curse flying toward him, terrifyingly beautiful in its emerald splendor, when his wife and love was lying dead on the ground beside him, Remus remembered his promise, and was found solace in the knowledge that he had never broken it.
