In the Beginning
**Chapter 1: Unexpected Invitations
Lily Evans was having a very bad day. Now there are many adults who would have told her that eleven-year-olds just didn't have big problems. At this point Lily would have given them a big innocent smile, swept her long red hair off her shoulders, before cheerfully proceeding to tell them just how very wrong they were, using intelligent and indisputable. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong that day, had, with remarkable attention to detail. It had all started that morning when Lily had awoken at what she thought was her normal wake-up time, however her alarm-clock told her that she still had an hour to sleep. Puzzled Lily checked to make sure her alarm was set, her parents had an early morning meeting so Lily and her sister Petunia had to get themselves up and to school. The alarm was set, so Lily slept. An hour later the alarm went off, and Lily got up.
At first nothing seemed strange. She got up, went downstairs and ate a quick bowl of cereal, without glancing at the clock. Then she went upstairs to wash her face and wet down her hair in order to do it. But, after awhile, she began to realize that the light shining through the window was entirely to bright, and she couldn't hear Petunia moving around anywhere in the house. Now, her sister had been known to sleep late on any given day, but this was way late even for her. Lily raced down the hallway to her sister's room. She knocked on the door and got no response, so she knocked again, still nothing, and again, nothing. Lily then proceeded to enter Petunia's room any way. Petunia wasn't in her room, but there was a note on her pillow. Lily went to pick up the note, thinking that perhaps her sister had left for school early. Lily picked up the note, and this was what it read;
Dear Lily, Good morning, I hope you had a nice rest. I know that you don't usually sleep in, but I thought I should give you the opportunity, just this once. I do so hope that you're not late to school. Kisses, Petunia
Lily read the note twice, then three times, she couldn't quite grasp what was going on. In the letter Petunia sounded sweet, Petunia was never sweet to her. Then, on her third reading Lily understood exactly what the letter wasn't saying. Lily whipped her head around and stared at Petunia's clock the time was 9:48. School started at 9 am sharp! Lily raced back to her own room and threw on her clothes, while getting dressed she caught a glimpse of her clock, it still read 8:48. Lily's eyes widened. 'Which clock is right??' Lily thought desperately. She quickly finished throwing on her clothes and raced downstairs to look at the kitchen clock. It stated the time as 9:52. Petunia had set her clock back an hour. By the time she made the five-minute walk to the school she would be almost an entire hour late. Lily nearly screamed in frustration. The irate redhead quickly grabbed her pack and raced out the door. This was not going to be a good day.
Lily speed walked to the school, it was only a few blocks away, but it was still just another burden to add to this already terrible day. Lily had been having perpetual bad days all summer. She was forced to go to summer school because *Petunia* had failed one of her classes. Since her parents worked during the day and fourteen-year-old Petunia was going to be at school all day, the only thing they could do with Lily was send her to summer school as well. So, Lily, the straight A student was forced into a class that she was supposed to take in school next year with a group of people a year older than her, all of whom were either stupid or goof-offs, or trouble-makers. Not a single kid in the class liked Lily, and most of them hated her, or resented her academic abilities. To make matters worse, the teacher absolutely disliked her, and took great pleasure in torturing Lily. The eleven-year-old could only imagine what Mrs. Spani would do to her for being late. With that thought in mind Lily increased her pace to a swift jog, the less time she took getting there the better.
At 9:56 exactly Lily arrived at the school, out of breath, and thoroughly enraged. The young girl hurried to her classroom, knowing that there was no one in the off to give her a late pass, not that she had an excuse anyway. Lily paused out side of the door, she really didn't want to go in there, but she also didn't really have much choice in the matter. Lily took a deep breath and opened the door. Immediately the entire class was focused on her. Mrs. Spani glared at Lily; she obviously wasn't pleased to see the intelligent redhead.
"Oh, so I see Miss Evans has finally decided to grace us with her presence," the teacher mocked. The class burst out laughing. "Do you by some miracle have an excuse for coming in an hour late." Lily slowly shook her head, knowing the teacher would only mock her more if she told her the story. "Oh, I see. Well, it would appear that the amazing Miss Evans was too intimidated by the test we had this morning to show up. Too bad that the test can't be made up." All of the color drained from Lily's face, in the excitement of the morning she had completely forgotten about the test they were taking that day, the test that made up about 10 % of their grade. Petunia would manage to pick the most inconvenient day to pull a nasty trick on her.
"I'm so sorry I was late Mrs. Spani, it will never happen again. May I please take the test," Lily pleaded, knowing that further humiliation was the only chance she had of retaking the test.
"I see no reason to hold up the rest of the class because you aren't capable of getting to school on time. Take your seat, I don't want to hear anything else on the matter," Mrs. Spani snapped.
"Perhaps, I could take the test during break or lunch?" Lily asked timidly, feeling her chances of retaking the test slipping through her fingers.
"I thought I told you to sit down and be quiet Miss Evans. I will not have you disrupting my class. You will stay in during break and lunch, but not to do the test, you will begin writing two hundred sentences of 'I will not come late to school and then disrupt the class.' Whatever you do not finish during those times you will be required to finish for homework. Now take your seat." Mrs. Spani lectured. Lily quickly scurried to her seat amongst the class's laughter.
****
It was lunch, and Lily's day had gotten worse, believe it or not. In class they had begun work on a partner project, but no one would be her partner. No one would give her the correct guidelines either, she knew that the project couldn't possibly be as large as what everyone was telling her. So, not only did she have to do twice as much work as everyone else, but she also had to do the work without the help of a partner. She had stayed in all break, writing sentences, but thanks to the interruptions of Mrs. Spani she had only managed to write about twenty. Now it was lunch, and Lily discovered that in her haste to make it to school she had completely forgotten her lunch at home. There she was, forced to write sentences while being constantly interrupted, with an empty stomach and no food. She felt like crying, or screaming, or beating someone up. This just wasn't fair. By the time lunch had ended Lily had only managed to write sixty sentences, that meant that when she got home she would have to complete the other one hundred and forty on top of her other work. On top of all that, the kids in her class were being especially cruel to her. So, when the final bell rang to end class, she was so relieved that she almost got herself into more trouble by leaving before she was dismissed.
Lily stomped angrily on her way home; she was just so upset that she couldn't handle a normal walk. Her arms were weighed down by the large pile of books she was carrying for her project, half of which she was sure she wouldn't need, but Mrs. Spani had insisted, and she had not been allowed to refuse. 'When I get home I'm going to *kill* Petunia!' Lily growled mentally, 'Today could have just been a normal horrible day, but nooooo she had to go and make it an especially horrible day.' When Lily finally reached her house, she burst through the front door, dropped her whole pile of books on the chair, and stalked into the kitchen, the most likely place to find Petunia after school. However, the kitchen was empty, Lily frowned, and then remembered that Petunia wasn't going to be home until after her parents, 'No wonder she picked today, she knew I wouldn't be able to do anything to her since she wouldn't be here.' Lily grabbed her forgotten lunch and proceeded to eat it, in a terrible temper. She glared at the pot that was sitting on the windowsill in front of her. Now, the pot was just about the only thing she wasn't angry at, but it got the full force of her rage just the same. Suddenly, while Lily was eating her sandwich and glaring murderously at the pot, the pot flew off the windowsill and shattered on the walkway below it. Lily's green eyes widened, and she raced over to look out the window, and sure enough, there was the pot, broken into little pieces. "How on earth did that happen," Lily asked herself. Naturally no one answered. Lily looked around perplexed, trying to see if this wasn't just another trick Petunia was playing on her, but it really wasn't Petunia's style. Lily sat back down in her chair with a thump.
"Well, naturally, what else weird could go wrong today," Lily complained to herself. Just after she muttered these words an owl, an *owl*, fluttered in through the window, and dropped an envelope, an *envelope*, on the table right in front of her. After it had delivered the letter, 'The owl just delivered a letter!', the owl fluttered back out the window and flew away. Lily shook her head, and rubbed out her eyes, but the envelope was still sitting right there, on the table, right in front of her. "Did a lovely screech owl just deliver me a letter?" Lily asked herself desperately, for once wishing that Petunia *was* home so that she could know if she had lost it or not. "Well, if the owl went through all that trouble to deliver the letter, I might as well see who it's too, maybe it got the wrong house, or something," Lily mumbled, grabbing the envelope and peering at the address, which was written in *green* ink. It read;
To: Miss L. Evans Bedroom at the Top of the Stairs 6 Finder Lane Little Whining Surrey
Lily dropped the envelope as if it were on fire. "How could that owl possible know where I sleep?!" she muttered to herself. "This must be some sort of joke, it's too odd to be real." However, no matter how odd this all was, Lily couldn't help but pick the envelope back up. She turned it over, and studied the peculiar seal that was on the back; she had never seen it before. Finally, after several minutes of looking at the seal, she carefully opened the envelope, leaving the seal intact, and pulled out the heavy parchment that made up the letter. She cautiously unfolded the letter, which was also written in the same shocking shade of green, and read the first page. It read:
Dear Miss Evans, We are pleased to inform you that you have been excepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary equipment. Term begins on September 1. Since you are muggle born, a nearby wizarding family will soon stop by to help you make the preparations needed. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress
Lily stared for a long time at the letter, but no matter how long she stared at it, the words didn't change. Lily couldn't believe this. Was this all a big joke, or was she really, was she really, a . a *witch*?
****
Remus was waiting in a hallway. His parents were in a nearby classroom with Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He didn't quite understand exactly what was going on, he hadn't even known that his parents were in contact with Dumbledore until the day before, and now, here they were. He had been so surprised the day before when the owl had landed on the table in front of *him* and had held out a letter to *him*. He hadn't gotten a letter since.well, since he had been bitten. What had shocked him the most though, was that his parents hadn't seemed surprised by the letter. They had urged him to open it, and to read it aloud. The letter was from Headmaster Dumbledore, it had invited him and his parents to meet with Dumbledore the next day, it said he would provide them with a port-key, it hoped that they would be able to make it. The contents of the letter did surprise Remus's parents. "Mum, why is Professor Dumbledore going to meet with us?" Remus asked. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin exchanged a glance; Mr. Lupin nodded encouragingly at his wife.
"Well Remus, your father and I wrote to Prof. Dumbledore about your education," Annie Lupin began. Remus stared wide-eyed at her, he had just assumed that his problem had ruined any chance of him getting an education.
"We knew that Dumbledore is a great person, and more open-minded then most wizards his age," Eddie Lupin continued. "We wrote him hoping that he would be able to let us know of some school or tutor or something that you could attend." Remus read the words that his father hadn't said. They knew there was no chance of him going to Hogwarts. His parents had know that going to Hogwarts had always been his dream, a dream that had been shattered in one night of foolishness. Once Remus had discovered his condition, he knew there no way his dream would ever come true, no parent would want, would *let*, their child go to school with a.with a, werewolf. It was easy to see that his parents had only been looking for a tutor, or a school for *freaks* like him.
So here Remus was, with his head hung low and his light brown bangs falling over his eyes, just in case someone walked by, he wouldn't want anyone to be forced to make eye contact with 'the beast'. He was uncomfortable just sitting in the hall, in a tall plush chair. He wondered why they had even given him a chair since they knew what he was, most people just had him rest on the floor, or not come in at all. Maybe Headmaster Dumbledore really was as great as they all said, or maybe he had just had the house- elves set up the chair and didn't tell them who would be sitting in it. It had been such a long time since his parents had disappeared into the room with Dumbledore. 'What are they doing in there that could possibly take this long. I haven't heard any screams from my parents. So, either the room has a sound-proofing spell, or he's not one of those people who tell my parents that 'the best thing to do with the poor little beast would be to put it out of it's misery',' Remus thought to himself. He could remember clearly that first person that his parents had went to for help. He had only been eight and they had just discovered the change a week before. He couldn't remember the name of the wizard, or what it was that he did exactly, but he could remember quite clearly how the part of the conversation that he had over heard had gone.
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Remus had been told that he was to stay outside and 'play', Remus knew that his parents would not leave him unsupervised unless they wanted to talk 'grown-up' about his, his problem. His parents had been doing that a lot recently, leaving him alone so they could talk. A few eavesdropping sessions let him know that the change of behavior was due to his new curse. Remus should have been happy, it used to be that he was *always* within sight of at least one adult (due to his mischief-making abilities), now he had tons of time to himself. 'Yeah, tons of time, especially on the full- moon,' Remus thought bitterly, his gray-blue eyes glazed with tears, though he'd never admit it. Remus wanted to hear what they were talking about to this man, the first person they had seen since he had changed in the full moon. The young boy had sneaked into the building with relative ease, this person was *not* used to having curious children around. The only thing about his curse that came even remotely close to being something that might ever be considered sort of good, was the fact that it improved his human senses of sight, smell, and hearing. He followed his ears to the room where he could hear his parents' voices. Remus carefully approached the door to the room the adults were in. Whoever had shut the door hadn't managed to close it all the way, he could look through the crack and just barely see the curve of his mother's back. He could also hear everything that was going on in the room, down to the sound his father's robes made as he shifted. As he arrived his mother had just finished saying something that he hadn't quite caught. There was a long period of silence before the man they were talking to began to speak.
"You want me to help your werewolf? You are aware that werewolves are dark creatures?" the man asked in a calm disinterested voice.
"Of course, but you must understand, this is our child. We know that there is no known cure for lycanthropy, but we were hoping that you might have something that would make the transformation painless, or calm the wolf down, or make him safe," Eddie Lupin replied.
"The only thing that makes a werewolf safe is elimination. The best thing you could do for the poor beast is to put it out of it's misery," the man responded icily. When Remus heard those words, he feel back heavily, his blood made a roaring sound in his ears, 'he wants to kill me. They want to kill me, because I'm a monster.'
"How dare you!!" Annie yelled. "He is not a *beast* he is my son!! How dare you talk about killing him! What makes you think that any mother would kill her own child!"
"Your 'child' is a monster, a menace to society, it is danger to everyone," the man sneered.
"My Remus is not a monster!! He would never hurt anyone!! Do you understand me!! If anyone is a monster, it's you!! Talking of killing my child!!" Annie screamed. Remus's mother's words and outrage did little to comfort the boy, was this how he was going to live the rest of his life, with people wanting to kill him? Remus was so absorbed in his thoughts that nearly he missed the sounds that accompanied the next minute or so. His mother lunged out of her seat and drew her wand, at least twenty different hexes running through her mind. Eddie, leaped out of his chair and grabbed his wife, the man also leaped out of his chair reaching for his own wand.
"Annie! Put your wand away, hexing him won't do anything!" Eddie commanded his wife, who was struggling to escape his arms.
"It may not do anything, but it will certainly make me feel better to curse the bloody git!!" Annie growled.
"Annie!"
"Fine, fine, I'll put my wand away," she finally relented. The man dropped his wand back on to his desk; Eddie released his wife. Once free, Annie put her wand back into the pocket of her robe, before attempting to lunge over the desk to tackle the man. Eddie barely managed to grab onto the back of his wife's robes in time to stop her. The man glared murderously at them both.
"Get that female out of here now," he snarled.
"You are in no position to be rude," Eddie snapped, struggling to hold onto his furious wife. "I may have a bit more control right now than my wife, but that doesn't mean that I'm not as angry as she is." Eddie dragged his flailing wife to the door and pushed it open. Then he saw his son, sitting on the floor, sobbing silently, it was obvious that he had heard at least part of what had happened. Annie stopped struggling immediately and dropped down on her knees to grab her child. Remus gladly climbed into his mother's embrace, she began to sob with him. Eddie turned back towards the man in the room. "I hope you are happy, you may have just crushed a wonderful little boy with your foolish notions of dark creatures. I don't care what you say! My son is still human, and I love him. You are obviously to hard- hearted to know what love is."
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Mostly Remus could remember his mother's anger. Before he had been bitten he couldn't think up any times when his sweet kind mother had ever been actually angry. When she had found out that a relative of their neighbor had bitten him she had been fully prepared to storm over to the neighbor's house and hex anything that moved. His father had to hold her back then too. By now his mother was slightly desensitized though, she still got unbelievably furious, but the people were no longer in danger of bodily harm. He hoped that the room wasn't under a soundproofing spell, he didn't like it when the people made his mother cry. It always hurt her so much to be told horrible things about Remus. Remus knew better though, there were reasons people said stuff like that, his mother didn't know what he was like when he transformed, otherwise she would know too. All those people they were right when they said he was a monster, he didn't want to be one, and he tried hard not to be one, but there was no denying that in his transformed state, he was a monster. Sometimes, just sometimes, Remus really hated himself, or at least his inner wolf.
Just then the door to the classroom burst open and Remus's mother came out. She was sobbing. Remus vaulted off his chairs and hugged his mother tightly around the waist. His mother was very short; Remus was the same height as she was. He held her close. "It's alright mum," Remus soothed; he couldn't bear to see his mother cry. "Everything will be alright."
"Oh Remus, you are so sweet, always so caring," Annie sniffed. "But you're right, everything is alright." Annie beamed at her son. Remus stepped back from her, surprised, he was just about to ask a question, but his mother cut him off. "I was sent to bring you in to talk to Dumbledore, but don't worry, this is all wonderful news."
**Chapter 1: Unexpected Invitations
Lily Evans was having a very bad day. Now there are many adults who would have told her that eleven-year-olds just didn't have big problems. At this point Lily would have given them a big innocent smile, swept her long red hair off her shoulders, before cheerfully proceeding to tell them just how very wrong they were, using intelligent and indisputable. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong that day, had, with remarkable attention to detail. It had all started that morning when Lily had awoken at what she thought was her normal wake-up time, however her alarm-clock told her that she still had an hour to sleep. Puzzled Lily checked to make sure her alarm was set, her parents had an early morning meeting so Lily and her sister Petunia had to get themselves up and to school. The alarm was set, so Lily slept. An hour later the alarm went off, and Lily got up.
At first nothing seemed strange. She got up, went downstairs and ate a quick bowl of cereal, without glancing at the clock. Then she went upstairs to wash her face and wet down her hair in order to do it. But, after awhile, she began to realize that the light shining through the window was entirely to bright, and she couldn't hear Petunia moving around anywhere in the house. Now, her sister had been known to sleep late on any given day, but this was way late even for her. Lily raced down the hallway to her sister's room. She knocked on the door and got no response, so she knocked again, still nothing, and again, nothing. Lily then proceeded to enter Petunia's room any way. Petunia wasn't in her room, but there was a note on her pillow. Lily went to pick up the note, thinking that perhaps her sister had left for school early. Lily picked up the note, and this was what it read;
Dear Lily, Good morning, I hope you had a nice rest. I know that you don't usually sleep in, but I thought I should give you the opportunity, just this once. I do so hope that you're not late to school. Kisses, Petunia
Lily read the note twice, then three times, she couldn't quite grasp what was going on. In the letter Petunia sounded sweet, Petunia was never sweet to her. Then, on her third reading Lily understood exactly what the letter wasn't saying. Lily whipped her head around and stared at Petunia's clock the time was 9:48. School started at 9 am sharp! Lily raced back to her own room and threw on her clothes, while getting dressed she caught a glimpse of her clock, it still read 8:48. Lily's eyes widened. 'Which clock is right??' Lily thought desperately. She quickly finished throwing on her clothes and raced downstairs to look at the kitchen clock. It stated the time as 9:52. Petunia had set her clock back an hour. By the time she made the five-minute walk to the school she would be almost an entire hour late. Lily nearly screamed in frustration. The irate redhead quickly grabbed her pack and raced out the door. This was not going to be a good day.
Lily speed walked to the school, it was only a few blocks away, but it was still just another burden to add to this already terrible day. Lily had been having perpetual bad days all summer. She was forced to go to summer school because *Petunia* had failed one of her classes. Since her parents worked during the day and fourteen-year-old Petunia was going to be at school all day, the only thing they could do with Lily was send her to summer school as well. So, Lily, the straight A student was forced into a class that she was supposed to take in school next year with a group of people a year older than her, all of whom were either stupid or goof-offs, or trouble-makers. Not a single kid in the class liked Lily, and most of them hated her, or resented her academic abilities. To make matters worse, the teacher absolutely disliked her, and took great pleasure in torturing Lily. The eleven-year-old could only imagine what Mrs. Spani would do to her for being late. With that thought in mind Lily increased her pace to a swift jog, the less time she took getting there the better.
At 9:56 exactly Lily arrived at the school, out of breath, and thoroughly enraged. The young girl hurried to her classroom, knowing that there was no one in the off to give her a late pass, not that she had an excuse anyway. Lily paused out side of the door, she really didn't want to go in there, but she also didn't really have much choice in the matter. Lily took a deep breath and opened the door. Immediately the entire class was focused on her. Mrs. Spani glared at Lily; she obviously wasn't pleased to see the intelligent redhead.
"Oh, so I see Miss Evans has finally decided to grace us with her presence," the teacher mocked. The class burst out laughing. "Do you by some miracle have an excuse for coming in an hour late." Lily slowly shook her head, knowing the teacher would only mock her more if she told her the story. "Oh, I see. Well, it would appear that the amazing Miss Evans was too intimidated by the test we had this morning to show up. Too bad that the test can't be made up." All of the color drained from Lily's face, in the excitement of the morning she had completely forgotten about the test they were taking that day, the test that made up about 10 % of their grade. Petunia would manage to pick the most inconvenient day to pull a nasty trick on her.
"I'm so sorry I was late Mrs. Spani, it will never happen again. May I please take the test," Lily pleaded, knowing that further humiliation was the only chance she had of retaking the test.
"I see no reason to hold up the rest of the class because you aren't capable of getting to school on time. Take your seat, I don't want to hear anything else on the matter," Mrs. Spani snapped.
"Perhaps, I could take the test during break or lunch?" Lily asked timidly, feeling her chances of retaking the test slipping through her fingers.
"I thought I told you to sit down and be quiet Miss Evans. I will not have you disrupting my class. You will stay in during break and lunch, but not to do the test, you will begin writing two hundred sentences of 'I will not come late to school and then disrupt the class.' Whatever you do not finish during those times you will be required to finish for homework. Now take your seat." Mrs. Spani lectured. Lily quickly scurried to her seat amongst the class's laughter.
****
It was lunch, and Lily's day had gotten worse, believe it or not. In class they had begun work on a partner project, but no one would be her partner. No one would give her the correct guidelines either, she knew that the project couldn't possibly be as large as what everyone was telling her. So, not only did she have to do twice as much work as everyone else, but she also had to do the work without the help of a partner. She had stayed in all break, writing sentences, but thanks to the interruptions of Mrs. Spani she had only managed to write about twenty. Now it was lunch, and Lily discovered that in her haste to make it to school she had completely forgotten her lunch at home. There she was, forced to write sentences while being constantly interrupted, with an empty stomach and no food. She felt like crying, or screaming, or beating someone up. This just wasn't fair. By the time lunch had ended Lily had only managed to write sixty sentences, that meant that when she got home she would have to complete the other one hundred and forty on top of her other work. On top of all that, the kids in her class were being especially cruel to her. So, when the final bell rang to end class, she was so relieved that she almost got herself into more trouble by leaving before she was dismissed.
Lily stomped angrily on her way home; she was just so upset that she couldn't handle a normal walk. Her arms were weighed down by the large pile of books she was carrying for her project, half of which she was sure she wouldn't need, but Mrs. Spani had insisted, and she had not been allowed to refuse. 'When I get home I'm going to *kill* Petunia!' Lily growled mentally, 'Today could have just been a normal horrible day, but nooooo she had to go and make it an especially horrible day.' When Lily finally reached her house, she burst through the front door, dropped her whole pile of books on the chair, and stalked into the kitchen, the most likely place to find Petunia after school. However, the kitchen was empty, Lily frowned, and then remembered that Petunia wasn't going to be home until after her parents, 'No wonder she picked today, she knew I wouldn't be able to do anything to her since she wouldn't be here.' Lily grabbed her forgotten lunch and proceeded to eat it, in a terrible temper. She glared at the pot that was sitting on the windowsill in front of her. Now, the pot was just about the only thing she wasn't angry at, but it got the full force of her rage just the same. Suddenly, while Lily was eating her sandwich and glaring murderously at the pot, the pot flew off the windowsill and shattered on the walkway below it. Lily's green eyes widened, and she raced over to look out the window, and sure enough, there was the pot, broken into little pieces. "How on earth did that happen," Lily asked herself. Naturally no one answered. Lily looked around perplexed, trying to see if this wasn't just another trick Petunia was playing on her, but it really wasn't Petunia's style. Lily sat back down in her chair with a thump.
"Well, naturally, what else weird could go wrong today," Lily complained to herself. Just after she muttered these words an owl, an *owl*, fluttered in through the window, and dropped an envelope, an *envelope*, on the table right in front of her. After it had delivered the letter, 'The owl just delivered a letter!', the owl fluttered back out the window and flew away. Lily shook her head, and rubbed out her eyes, but the envelope was still sitting right there, on the table, right in front of her. "Did a lovely screech owl just deliver me a letter?" Lily asked herself desperately, for once wishing that Petunia *was* home so that she could know if she had lost it or not. "Well, if the owl went through all that trouble to deliver the letter, I might as well see who it's too, maybe it got the wrong house, or something," Lily mumbled, grabbing the envelope and peering at the address, which was written in *green* ink. It read;
To: Miss L. Evans Bedroom at the Top of the Stairs 6 Finder Lane Little Whining Surrey
Lily dropped the envelope as if it were on fire. "How could that owl possible know where I sleep?!" she muttered to herself. "This must be some sort of joke, it's too odd to be real." However, no matter how odd this all was, Lily couldn't help but pick the envelope back up. She turned it over, and studied the peculiar seal that was on the back; she had never seen it before. Finally, after several minutes of looking at the seal, she carefully opened the envelope, leaving the seal intact, and pulled out the heavy parchment that made up the letter. She cautiously unfolded the letter, which was also written in the same shocking shade of green, and read the first page. It read:
Dear Miss Evans, We are pleased to inform you that you have been excepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary equipment. Term begins on September 1. Since you are muggle born, a nearby wizarding family will soon stop by to help you make the preparations needed. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress
Lily stared for a long time at the letter, but no matter how long she stared at it, the words didn't change. Lily couldn't believe this. Was this all a big joke, or was she really, was she really, a . a *witch*?
****
Remus was waiting in a hallway. His parents were in a nearby classroom with Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He didn't quite understand exactly what was going on, he hadn't even known that his parents were in contact with Dumbledore until the day before, and now, here they were. He had been so surprised the day before when the owl had landed on the table in front of *him* and had held out a letter to *him*. He hadn't gotten a letter since.well, since he had been bitten. What had shocked him the most though, was that his parents hadn't seemed surprised by the letter. They had urged him to open it, and to read it aloud. The letter was from Headmaster Dumbledore, it had invited him and his parents to meet with Dumbledore the next day, it said he would provide them with a port-key, it hoped that they would be able to make it. The contents of the letter did surprise Remus's parents. "Mum, why is Professor Dumbledore going to meet with us?" Remus asked. Mr. and Mrs. Lupin exchanged a glance; Mr. Lupin nodded encouragingly at his wife.
"Well Remus, your father and I wrote to Prof. Dumbledore about your education," Annie Lupin began. Remus stared wide-eyed at her, he had just assumed that his problem had ruined any chance of him getting an education.
"We knew that Dumbledore is a great person, and more open-minded then most wizards his age," Eddie Lupin continued. "We wrote him hoping that he would be able to let us know of some school or tutor or something that you could attend." Remus read the words that his father hadn't said. They knew there was no chance of him going to Hogwarts. His parents had know that going to Hogwarts had always been his dream, a dream that had been shattered in one night of foolishness. Once Remus had discovered his condition, he knew there no way his dream would ever come true, no parent would want, would *let*, their child go to school with a.with a, werewolf. It was easy to see that his parents had only been looking for a tutor, or a school for *freaks* like him.
So here Remus was, with his head hung low and his light brown bangs falling over his eyes, just in case someone walked by, he wouldn't want anyone to be forced to make eye contact with 'the beast'. He was uncomfortable just sitting in the hall, in a tall plush chair. He wondered why they had even given him a chair since they knew what he was, most people just had him rest on the floor, or not come in at all. Maybe Headmaster Dumbledore really was as great as they all said, or maybe he had just had the house- elves set up the chair and didn't tell them who would be sitting in it. It had been such a long time since his parents had disappeared into the room with Dumbledore. 'What are they doing in there that could possibly take this long. I haven't heard any screams from my parents. So, either the room has a sound-proofing spell, or he's not one of those people who tell my parents that 'the best thing to do with the poor little beast would be to put it out of it's misery',' Remus thought to himself. He could remember clearly that first person that his parents had went to for help. He had only been eight and they had just discovered the change a week before. He couldn't remember the name of the wizard, or what it was that he did exactly, but he could remember quite clearly how the part of the conversation that he had over heard had gone.
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Remus had been told that he was to stay outside and 'play', Remus knew that his parents would not leave him unsupervised unless they wanted to talk 'grown-up' about his, his problem. His parents had been doing that a lot recently, leaving him alone so they could talk. A few eavesdropping sessions let him know that the change of behavior was due to his new curse. Remus should have been happy, it used to be that he was *always* within sight of at least one adult (due to his mischief-making abilities), now he had tons of time to himself. 'Yeah, tons of time, especially on the full- moon,' Remus thought bitterly, his gray-blue eyes glazed with tears, though he'd never admit it. Remus wanted to hear what they were talking about to this man, the first person they had seen since he had changed in the full moon. The young boy had sneaked into the building with relative ease, this person was *not* used to having curious children around. The only thing about his curse that came even remotely close to being something that might ever be considered sort of good, was the fact that it improved his human senses of sight, smell, and hearing. He followed his ears to the room where he could hear his parents' voices. Remus carefully approached the door to the room the adults were in. Whoever had shut the door hadn't managed to close it all the way, he could look through the crack and just barely see the curve of his mother's back. He could also hear everything that was going on in the room, down to the sound his father's robes made as he shifted. As he arrived his mother had just finished saying something that he hadn't quite caught. There was a long period of silence before the man they were talking to began to speak.
"You want me to help your werewolf? You are aware that werewolves are dark creatures?" the man asked in a calm disinterested voice.
"Of course, but you must understand, this is our child. We know that there is no known cure for lycanthropy, but we were hoping that you might have something that would make the transformation painless, or calm the wolf down, or make him safe," Eddie Lupin replied.
"The only thing that makes a werewolf safe is elimination. The best thing you could do for the poor beast is to put it out of it's misery," the man responded icily. When Remus heard those words, he feel back heavily, his blood made a roaring sound in his ears, 'he wants to kill me. They want to kill me, because I'm a monster.'
"How dare you!!" Annie yelled. "He is not a *beast* he is my son!! How dare you talk about killing him! What makes you think that any mother would kill her own child!"
"Your 'child' is a monster, a menace to society, it is danger to everyone," the man sneered.
"My Remus is not a monster!! He would never hurt anyone!! Do you understand me!! If anyone is a monster, it's you!! Talking of killing my child!!" Annie screamed. Remus's mother's words and outrage did little to comfort the boy, was this how he was going to live the rest of his life, with people wanting to kill him? Remus was so absorbed in his thoughts that nearly he missed the sounds that accompanied the next minute or so. His mother lunged out of her seat and drew her wand, at least twenty different hexes running through her mind. Eddie, leaped out of his chair and grabbed his wife, the man also leaped out of his chair reaching for his own wand.
"Annie! Put your wand away, hexing him won't do anything!" Eddie commanded his wife, who was struggling to escape his arms.
"It may not do anything, but it will certainly make me feel better to curse the bloody git!!" Annie growled.
"Annie!"
"Fine, fine, I'll put my wand away," she finally relented. The man dropped his wand back on to his desk; Eddie released his wife. Once free, Annie put her wand back into the pocket of her robe, before attempting to lunge over the desk to tackle the man. Eddie barely managed to grab onto the back of his wife's robes in time to stop her. The man glared murderously at them both.
"Get that female out of here now," he snarled.
"You are in no position to be rude," Eddie snapped, struggling to hold onto his furious wife. "I may have a bit more control right now than my wife, but that doesn't mean that I'm not as angry as she is." Eddie dragged his flailing wife to the door and pushed it open. Then he saw his son, sitting on the floor, sobbing silently, it was obvious that he had heard at least part of what had happened. Annie stopped struggling immediately and dropped down on her knees to grab her child. Remus gladly climbed into his mother's embrace, she began to sob with him. Eddie turned back towards the man in the room. "I hope you are happy, you may have just crushed a wonderful little boy with your foolish notions of dark creatures. I don't care what you say! My son is still human, and I love him. You are obviously to hard- hearted to know what love is."
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Mostly Remus could remember his mother's anger. Before he had been bitten he couldn't think up any times when his sweet kind mother had ever been actually angry. When she had found out that a relative of their neighbor had bitten him she had been fully prepared to storm over to the neighbor's house and hex anything that moved. His father had to hold her back then too. By now his mother was slightly desensitized though, she still got unbelievably furious, but the people were no longer in danger of bodily harm. He hoped that the room wasn't under a soundproofing spell, he didn't like it when the people made his mother cry. It always hurt her so much to be told horrible things about Remus. Remus knew better though, there were reasons people said stuff like that, his mother didn't know what he was like when he transformed, otherwise she would know too. All those people they were right when they said he was a monster, he didn't want to be one, and he tried hard not to be one, but there was no denying that in his transformed state, he was a monster. Sometimes, just sometimes, Remus really hated himself, or at least his inner wolf.
Just then the door to the classroom burst open and Remus's mother came out. She was sobbing. Remus vaulted off his chairs and hugged his mother tightly around the waist. His mother was very short; Remus was the same height as she was. He held her close. "It's alright mum," Remus soothed; he couldn't bear to see his mother cry. "Everything will be alright."
"Oh Remus, you are so sweet, always so caring," Annie sniffed. "But you're right, everything is alright." Annie beamed at her son. Remus stepped back from her, surprised, he was just about to ask a question, but his mother cut him off. "I was sent to bring you in to talk to Dumbledore, but don't worry, this is all wonderful news."