Summary: Remus runs away after his little family dies. Here's a tale of how love, denial, repression and little pushes eventually helped him sew his life back together.
Canon... Except for the little fact that Remus and Tonks hadn't died in The Battle of Hogwarts
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IntroductionIn Ireland there were two schools for magic – the Witches' Academy and the Wizards' Institute – located, conveniently enough, about two kilometers from one another. Those establishments had opened during the war as a refuge for muggleborns and others in danger and had remained open.
The location of the schools, even two years after the war, had remained in a paranoid isolation. Children – some with no parents, some with parents, in Azkaban – stayed in schools during the summers. The villagers never went outside the village. The whole area was smothered in shield-charms of all kinds. The place was completely detached of the outside world and that was how its residents wanted it to be.
Right in the middle, between the schools, was a village named I Lar Na Cogadh.
That village was, naturally, the preferred attraction site for the students and faculty of both schools.
Seeing as it was the day before Christmas break, the village was packed. With this in mind it wasn't particularly surprising to find a twelve-year-old girl lying on the ground with a bleeding knee.
"Ow," she murmured as she fanned her stinging knee. A couple of surprisingly strong sixteen-year-old girls had pushed past her on their way to The Drunken Goblin. A smile rose on the girl's face as she considered the name of the popular, underground, comedy club.
The girl looked up at all the people passing by; she didn't see any of her friends. She sighed and was about to look away when she caught sight of Patrick Holden. He was walking with his mates in her direction. She obviously couldn't let him see her like this, sitting against a dirty wall, covered in dirt, nursing a gaping wound. Ignoring the condition of her knee, she jumped and pulled open the door closest to her, sliding inside and closing the door quickly behind her.
It was only then that she remembered her knee.
"Ow!" she squealed, clutching her knee again.
A distinct grumble caught her attention and she looked up. Her eyes widened in fear.
She'd entered The Stolen Sword.
A big, dimmed room with two-dozen tables scattered in dark corners and stairs leading to Merlin-Knows-Where, the Stolen Sword was certainly one of the least popular pubs in Ireland, on account of it being the gathering point of strange, and often dangerous, individuals. On this day, such individuals seemed to be present.
The girl shivered from the look that short, hairy thing with the fangs was giving her and backed up – between humiliation and mutilation, she'd take the former.
She turned to the door and the fanged-thing was suddenly in front of her. She froze as it bared its fangs, the sharp edges blinding with their unnatural whiteness. The eyes weren't visible, hidden behind a bushy patch of hair. It looked as if even his mustache had been so scared of the fangs it had backed away.
"How about we save introductions for another day Al?" said a voice at her ear and she jumped. A strong hand closed on her shoulder.
The thing seemed oddly disappointed, the eye-hair deflating.
"Come along", said the voice, the hand – which was supposedly its – pulling her away.
"Don't be frightened, Audrey"
She was taken aback. The sound of her name with that tone was a sound she could never forget. She finally looked up at the person holding her shoulder.
"Professor Lupin?"
And it was he. That same Sad Smile, those soft amber eyes, that encouraging voice – it was her Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. And he was apparently having a drink in one of the most infamous pubs in Ireland.
"Don't be concerned about Alex", he said, leading her towards a chair at one of the tables. "He was just trying to make friends. He's a very eager individual", he added, sitting down in another chair and smiling that same smile.
Audrey was instantly reassured and couldn't help smiling at her favorite professor. Professor Lupin had always inspired happiness and calm in people; Audrey often jokingly called him Professor Lovely.
"How are you, Professor Lovely?" she said, smiling from ear to ear.
The professor in question smiled in good humor and nodded. "I'm well", he said calmly. "How are you, Audrey?"
"I'm well", she replied, jokingly as she became more relaxed.
"No murder cases?" he asked with a soft smile and Audrey blushed.
She had found her Kneazle dead a fortnight beforehand after he had choked on Allen Eghart's Shrake. That had sent Allen, the resident drama queen, shrieking and demanding that Audrey be expelled on account of murder.
"None since that last one", she replied, noticing how that pair of fair-haired pigeons-like creatures at the next table backed away from her.
"You do realize, Professor, that you're in the most notorious place within fifty kilometers at least", whispered Audrey, leaning forward.
"I understand you are concerned about my reputation", he replied, still smiling.
"Well, that and your family – they would be rather upset if you had to stay in prison during Christmas"
With those words Audrey had brought about the Armageddon. Professor Lupin's smile had abruptly vanished.
"I'm, um. I'm sorry. It" – it wasn't her place to say. Not any of the things she'd said to him – "I'm sorry. I'm sorry".
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Audrey sounded close to tears.
"Don't be sorry", he said to her "you did nothing wrong". And them he smiled and she smiled and all was well.
Remus had never known how he felt about Audrey. In his mind he'd often been confused whether she was more his student or more his daughter.
He imagined that if Dora had lived, and they'd had a girl, she would've been just like Audrey.
Her parents had died during the war; her brother was a werewolf that had helped the death-eaters and was probably in Azkaban. Remus, no matter how much she felt like a daughter to him, could never tell Audrey he was a werewolf as well.
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"My family – like many others – is gone", said Professor Lupin, looking at the table briefly as he spoke.
Audrey felt nauseous at the thought of one of the people she loved most in the world suffering. At that moment she couldn't think of anything she wanted more than getting her professor's family back. She was suddenly somewhere else; floating through a bright house like wind and seeing Professor Lupin with a Happy Smile, surrounded by people...
"Audrey? Are you still here?"
And she was back; with every inch of determination she had to make the place she'd just been in, real.
"I'm here now", she said, her mind swimming with plans and options until finally settling on one fact.
"I promised Angie I'd help her wrap her Christmas presents!" Audrey exclaimed, making the pigeons in the next table scatter - their feathers all over the place – and nearby creatures give her a look of annoyance.
Professor Lupin was still smiling that Sad Smile.
"Then we'd better get you back", he said and they left the pub, walking into the blinding sun. Audrey smiled at the thought of spending yet another vacation with Professor Lupin, seeing as he would stay in school.
That was what Audrey loved best about her little village – no one ever left. Because once you left I Lar Na Cogadh, you could never find your way back.
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AN: I need someone who speaks Irish to tell me if it means "in the middle of war". I roughly tried to translate it).
Tell me if there is stuff you don't understand or find odd and I'll make sure to put it right in the next chapter.