It was 1919, a full year after the muggle war dubbed "the war to end all wars." While the muggles were struggling with the aftermath of air raids and the horror of surviving through modern warfare, children from wizarding families, like Remus Lupin, grew up without the trauma of war.
Remus was a wiry youth with tan wavy hair that stopped just below his ears. Unlike his wizarding peers, Remus spent his free time helping out at his family's cornerstore in Hogsmeade Village instead of attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Like any other child from a wizarding family, he was raised with the expectation that he would attend Hogwarts, but there was good evidence to suspect that Remus was a squib, a non-magical child born from two wizarding parents. Unlike his brother Romulus, he had never displayed the talent for magic, not even a wisp of light, nor had he received his admissions letter. Nevertheless, for years, he had hoped that his Hogwarts letter would arrive one of these days though he was much older than the average recipient.
Each year, when no letter arrived, that hope dwindled until at 15, Remus had deserted his boyhood ambitions and applied for a post as an Apprentice Hogwarts Caretaker to Argus Filch, who after just seven years grew tired of doling out punishments to Hogwarts students out of bed after curfew and enduring the frequent mischief of a Potter, a Black, and Peeves the poltergeist. By the end of the academic year, Filch would be leaving for Beauxbatons Academy in France, and the Apprentice Caretaker would be promoted to Hogwarts Caretaker. Headmaster Dumbledore offered the squib the position and, after learning of his lycanthropy, to Remus's surprise, offered to make accommodations for his monthly transformations.
On his day off from the cornerstore, Remus headed straight down Diagon Alley to Gringotts Bank to withdraw gold from the Lupin family's vault to purchase needed items before the school year began.
Gringotts was a towering, lopsided marble building constructed to look like each of its three floors were competing in a tug of war with the ground floor tilting right and the second floor tilting left. Inside hung grand chandeliers and below them were marble floors in pristine condition that stretched from the large doorways to the end of the corridor and beyond. Rows of dark wooden counters started where the corridor ended, each manned by an aging goblin.
The goblins that ran the Gringotts Bank were of miniature size with large pointy ears and pale skin. Their kind were prideful and wily, not as honorable as the Centaurs but nowhere near the volatile tempers of the merfolk. For whatever reason, these stout, shrewd creatures were seen as trustworthy guards for most, if not all, of the gold in the Wizarding World.
From his place in line, Remus could see the brows of the goblin wrinkled in deep concentration, and he was suddenly aware of their similarities to house elves, the only enslaved magical beings in the realm. What alliance did the goblins have with wizards that house elves did not? And how could one be so inferior to the other?
When Remus approached the dark mahogany counters, a goblin fixed his beady, dark eyes on Remus and said coldly. "Well, well, a werewolf."
Remus felt his heart drop. Was it so obvious?
"And how can I help the werewolf?" the goblin asked, folding his hands together as he gazed down at the young squib.
"I'd like to make a withdrawal," Remus said. The brunette wondered briefly if anyone behind him had heard. With the goblin's stare looming above his head, Remus reached into his pocket for his key and placed it on the counter, waiting as the goblin held it by the candle for inspection.
"Seems to be about right," said the goblin. Then, the goblin stopped and turned back to Remus. "Is this yours?"
"No, it's my parents'," Remus said, a little more unsure now, wondering if he would have to return another day with his mother or father. "I'm running an errand."
The goblin paused and seemed to consider Remus's words before he continued. "Alright, I'll take you there myself, but if what you say is untrue, you'll soon find yourself in Azkaban."
The goblin stepped down from his high chair and unlocked the door to the teller desk.
His height was astonishingly short to Remus, who was much taller than goblins when he last visited. Now a gangly youth, Remus was several heads taller than the shorter creature who ushered him to the train and unlocked his vault.
The Lupin family had a modest fortune, and they sought to give their children the same middle class opportunities that they had. What they could not foresee was the cost of moving every few years for Remus's condition, nor the money lost caring for a child unwelcome in the Wizarding World.
The gold in the vault was the remainder of his family's nest egg.
He grabbed a handful and pocketed it.
"Ready?" the goblin asked. "The counter cannot be empty for too long."
Remus nodded and climbed into the cart.
It was raining when Remus left Gringotts with his pocket filled with gold coins. The cobblestone pavements of Diagon Alley were damp, and the streets were deserted except for a few wizards rushing into stores and taverns with their cloaks pulled over their heads or their hands shielding their eyes from the rain.
Remus found himself mimicking their actions as he ran head first into the light shower.
He scanned the street, looking for Madam Malkin's clothing shop. There it was on the right with the timeworn, purple display window and the silver scissors hanging above the entrance. Right next to it was the forest green display window of Flourish and Blotts.
Remus ducked into the store and heard a bell chime as he entered.
Madam Malkin liked purple, Remus observed. If it was not obvious from the display window, it was obvious by the general decor of the store. Purple draperies were hung on the left wall, and all the walls and ceiling were painted a rich purple.
"One moment," Madam Malkin called from the back.
He inched over to new robes on the rack, admiring the luxurious cloth, and searched for the sale tag. The robe was much too expensive for the young Remus, and he had suspected that they were all too expensive for him, so he turned to leave.
Just then, a woman in her 30s walked out from the back and smiled brightly at Remus. "Hogwarts, dear?"
Remus turned in her direction and was close to replying with a "no" until he remembered that he was, indeed, going to Hogwarts, just not as a student. "Yes, I'm expected to start working there this year."
"As what?" asked Madam Malkin, looking perplexed. "If you don't mind me asking. You're just a bit young."
"I'm 15," said Remus. "Not too young to be working."
"To you, it's not young," Madam Malkin said with mirth, looking expectantly at Remus and waiting for him to answer her question. "To me, it's young."
"I'll be working as an Apprentice Caretaker," said Remus, barely masking his pride.
"Apprentice? Apprentice to Argus Filch?"
Remus nodded.
"But Filch's still young," Madam Malkin said, astonished. "He should only be in his 30s. Is he retiring so soon?"
"I've been told that he's leaving for a post at Beauxbatons Academy."
"So that's it," said Madam Malkin with laugh. "Couldn't imagine anyone would retire after less than a decade at Hogwarts."
Remus smiled.
"Well, I suppose Headmaster Dumbledore knows what he's doing," she muttered to herself.
"Well, good luck," Madam Malkin ended cheerfully. "Nice to see someone so young starting his career early. There's someone getting fitted now, just so busy around this time, but I can get to you in once I'm done with them."
"No, it's alright," Remus said politely. "I was just looking."
He left the shop and retreated into a second hand store where the clothes in the shop were not brand new. Remus felt he had no use for nice clothes at his new position. He figured he would need several pairs of sturdy pants that were resistant against tears and durable enough for several years of regularly washings. Oversize in case he grew over the next few years.
He chose muted, dark colors over the off white shirts and favored coffee colored and green articles of clothing over all else. At the end of his purchase, he had a wardrobe fit for a Hogwarts Keeper.
On his way back, he walked past the green display window of Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley's local bookstore, and stopped to admire the tower of books stacked from the floor to the ceiling. For a moment, he hesitated, deciding whether to enter the shop or return home immediately.
He would only go in for a few minutes, 10 max, Remus reasoned.
Remus turned the brass knob of the door and pushed until he was inside the crowded bookstore. The wooden floors creaked as he entered into the dimly lit shop with towers of books on every corner. He weaved through the long line of witches and wizards that had formed at the cash register, passed the long shelf in the middle of the room, and made his way up the dark mahogany stairs leading to the second floor. It was quieter on the second floor, less people to dodge.
He ambled around the second floor, around the iron light fixture hanging in the middle, pulling interesting books from their shelves and briefly flipping through each one before returning them. At the far end, there were volumes of encyclopedias on magical creatures in alphabetical order. Remus pulled a volume from its place on the shelf and opened the lengthy book to a random page, skimming the contents before he flipped to the next. He returned it and pulled another.
There were loads of information on dragons, trolls, giants-. Remus paused, thinking back to the enormous build of Hagrid the Gatekeeper. Was he, perhaps, a giant? Hagrid, as Remus remembered, was an abnormally tall wizard with a full head of hair and a full beard. Although Remus had only met Hagrid briefly, he felt that the Gatekeeper was a trustworthy fellow.
Romulus's opinion was that Hagrid was a kind and honest wizard, albeit a bit careless. During his first year, Romulus had mentioned that Hagrid had a heavy dependency on alcohol and once caught the larger wizard incapacitated at the edge of the Dark Forest after a night of heavy drinking. Whether it was true or not, Remus would discern for himself at the start of the school year.
Remus paused.
If there were information about every common and uncommon creature in the magical world, surely a section on werewolves, on his kind, existed too. Remus searched for "W" and found one of the later volumes - "U-X." He pulled that book and turned several pages until the chilling image of a werewolf caught his eyes. The werewolf was identical to a true wolf but twice the size of an average dog, a formidable predator that feasted on human feast and preyed on wizards as its choice meat.
The werewolf in the picture growled and snapped at the photographer. Remus shut the book and returned it to its place on the shelf.
Dumbledore had mentioned special accommodations for Remus at Hogwarts, but the headmaster went into very little details about those accommodations. Remus only hoped that Headmaster Dumbledore took necessary precautions for the youth's monthly changes.
Remus would find out at the end of the summer.
1949 words (Trying to get 2000 words per chapter. A chapter is usually 2500-5000)