News: Fairly new idea, a remus story, from beginning to end. Did he love Tonks? Sirius? Lilly? Severus? Anyone at all? More man than animal? Animal instincts? Good scholar? Or bad boy in disguise?

Remus/ An end too soon and a beginning to short

A man, worn and wounded already, lies down on the grass, ignorant of the chaos surrounding him. Maybe not quite ignorant, as a silent privacy ward is erected around his from and the still form of the corpse on his right. He glances over at the body, then finds himself forced too look away, unable to bare the shame he has caused and brought in his life, all personified by the forever mute body of his young wife. The mother of his new born child. A woman he had never once professed to love.

He admired her ability to pretend. Her allowing herself to believe in the pretense and at time out right lies was no weakness in his book. It was an absolute strength that many did not posses. He had considered their marriage a sham from first to last. She had insisted with time it would be whole and healthy, as though the defeat were a broken limb or torn flesh, something to be mended and cared for. Still yet, he had gotten carried away on loneliness and hormones. No she lay stone dead at his side with no chance to see her child, the one spawned of her love and determination, live his life.

"Times like this I do understand why Sirius was so desperate to never let us have another go. I'm sorry Tonk- Nymphadora. Maybe, maybe, when I was more of a whole man, less of a self-sacrificing idiot we could have had love like no others. But now our story is over." His voice was aged beyond his years with a defeated sorrow words could never express, and a silent tear tried to escape his golden eyes.

But the time for tears were over, of his Hogwarts class only a handful remained alive after the brutal curse of years and war. He'd cried for every lost soul to the Death Eaters vicious ranks, cried for a brother, a lover, a friend and a fellow scholar. Missed opportunities and fate's rotten hand. Remus Lupin would cry no more. He was gray and aged but he was strong enough to fight one last battle.

He stood after one last look at yet another life gone to waste around him. He smiled tightly and released the privacy ward. Battles to fight, a tiny sliver of guilt whispered in his broken mind, at the cost of his son's own happiness

-Rewind-

Many poor wizarding family's inhabited the lower reaches of Belfast Irelands poorest districts. It was a place of muggle violence and brute force. Bloody growing ground for the youngest generations of witches and wizards. Living next to muggle's, neighbors with the mundane society keeping ever watchful eyes open was difficult. Any family showing signs of oddness or fey nature was turned against readily, except on the varied occasion they could save some one's child or wife or lord. Keeping ones family safe without the rabid flow of natural magic made them sharp and nervous.

A dangerous combination for magic.

The Lupin family was a mix of magical and muggle, three children, two boy's of six and eight, and a daughter of one. The mother was a witch from a pureblood family that was once well off but now had been left the scraps of family fortune and history not auctioned off to pay gambling debts and dirty politicians. She had once been called Daimhin Fal, the Strong Staff of Ireland's last legacy. Now she worked as a seamstress for muggles and had children she could barely feed and was married to a muggle in the know named St. John Lupin.

Daimhin had many talents as a witch, she had the slightest touch of the sight, she was a moderately powerful enchantress, a fair example of precision with charms and handy enough at Transfiguration that the boddicca college of witches had approached her and encouraged her to continue her education. Instead she lay down her wand and married the poor man with soulful eyes.

St. John Lupin had many aspirations for life, was a graduate of the famed Cambridge university of England with a degree in philosophy. He could debate the rights and wrongs of wizard society, fight for the life of the fly one would smash thoughtlessly, but he could not allow himself to settle into a worthwhile job, not even for his growing family.

Thus they lived in an alley way apartment, the two boys shared a bed room, the baby slept peacefully in her bassinet in the kitchen and Daimhin and St. John shared their room in the upstairs of the apartment. It was not a comfortable setup, the sheer testosterone when the two boys reached maturity would set off a magical misfire for sure, the baby would eventually be a young girl wanting for pretty things and a play space for her own. But for now, the Lupin's cozy setup was adequate.

It was on a foggy march afternoon just after Rollan, the eldest Lupin boy's ninth birthday, a small affair with not much in the way of pomp but a happy enough event for their world weary spirits, that a letter came to change the world. The fate's held their breath, eyes and ears pressed close to the mortal threads waiting on the outcome of this letter. It's response would trigger events more far reaching and astonishing than any other magical being since Merin.

It could spiral them into an eternity of dark rule in the mortal realm, or it could push them to find new means to a favorable end game. It would decide many lives, the ripples spreading far and wide and beyond the small family.

Remus, the second youngest child of the Lupin clan came crashing into the front room of his house, tattered clothing and shoeless feet, with a red face and heavy breath. "Moth-"

His words were cut off as his brother reached the door and took over the tale. As he was wont to do, Remus stepped aside and allowed the older boy the glory of speaking.

"Mother! A man, he was really, really tall, and all darkly dressed, in things like the sister's wear, the roby dress. He came up to me,"

Not you were Remus' bitter thought's, me, it was me he came to.

"and he gave me a letter. He said he would wait on your owl. Something else though, something boring he said after. And then he left, and I have this!" Rollan was gleeful as he held up the heavy parchment envelope he had taken immediately from his brother's hand.

It was manila with a spidery purple scrawl across it, and it was addressed to her, with her maiden name and the tittle Staff O' Ireland, as had been addressed to her family in bygone, richer times.

"He said, he'd make us regret dawdling" Remus quietly added to his brothers fast paced rant. His mother nodded absently but reached for Rollan's prize rather than comment. Pale blew eyes consumed with thought, no one had written her in years, no wizard had contacted her outside her family in much longer. She was a bit apprehensive, but again it might only be another teaching position she'd have to turn down.

Cracking open the wax seal with the simple embellishment of a curling elegant 'P' she began to read the letter. Her eyes became wide, but narrowed quickly with thought. Then shaking her head she smiled and placed the letter on the floor next to her daughter's bassinet. She would worry latter.

"My boy's! How were the sister's today? Did ye learn any new tricks today? Show me!" She said in an exhausted voice. Her own day had been long and filled with stitches and spells and enchanted cloth. As well as baby Aoife's needs.

Rollan, ever one for spotlight began to babble of all the much more advanced, than Remus anyway, things he had learned that day. Remus however was a curious boy, later in life he would find it a boon, ut on this most remarkable day, he would come to regret it.

As his mother and Rollan moved to their cramped kitchen to have some biscuts and tea and talk ore about Rollan, Remus picked up the discarded letter and read the shot and complicated missive to his mother.

His Life was irrevocably changed, and the fate of millions sealed.

StarGuide2012