A/N - This is a repost. When I first posted Fairness and Luck the wrong fic appeared which wasn't ready for posting, and as someone pointed out, nothing to do with the summary. So those of you who read it, you got a sneak peek! And to others, it features a 7-year-old Teddy with Ginny and Harry, and I hope I'll finish it soon.
Fairness and Luck
It was hardly fair, John Lupin thought. It was hardly fair that his little boy, his beautiful son, had been bitten by a werewolf at all, let alone becoming the youngest child to have survived the bite, let alone the fact he had now come down with a rotten cold.
John-who-preferred-to-be-called-Jack-thank-you-very-much couldn't really bring himself to acknowledge any advantages to the terrible Curse, but he did suppose, at times, he ought to be thankful that his son had been extraordinarily lucky and survived the bite. For all its ills, the lycanthropy infection afforded a certain resistance to magical curses, that werewolves were somewhat more difficult to kill than the average wizard and rarely became ill. Which is why Jack felt it even more against the fairness of the world that Remus had become ill during the new moon, when it was least likely to happen, grossly bad luck. Just to complete the final and stinging blow of unfairnesses lycanthropy heralded against his son was the fact that he couldn't take Pepper Up Potion as it contained wolfsbane, to which he was, thanks to the Curse, deathly allergic.
Still Remus himself didn't appear particularly traumatised by unfairness, nor his head cold, when Jack let himself into the back door of his house and was promptly pounced upon by his son, whom most notably did not have tendrils of steam curling about his ears.
"Dad!"
Jack picked him up easily. The boy was tall for his age, but thin and light; another charming aspect of lycanthropy was the inability to ever eat enough it seemed, and thus making it rather difficult to gain weight.
"Hello son, how are we doing this evening?" he asked, glancing over Remus' shoulder to catch his wife's eye. Julia smiled and kissed him as Remus chattered.
"Mum says I'm not very well and that I've to stay warm and quiet until I get better. She wouldn't let me play outside today!" he exclaimed as though this was the biggest misjustice the world had ever bestowed upon him.
"Well she's quite right, can't go catching a chill on top of a cold, that's what my grandma used to say. Didn't you have fun playing inside?" Jack said, putting Remus down and heading into the living room where there was a merry fire burning.
"Yeah, we played lots of games and read lots of books and made up stories and did drawings!" Remus gasped, injustice of enforced indoor play forgotten as quickly as it had been mentioned. He took a deep breath and coughed in the specific way children do, but managed to cover his mouth with a hankie well enough.
Julia picked him up and deftly tucked him into an armchair, one hand patting his back until he'd finished. "Well I had a nice day too, we even had an afternoon nap. Remus why don't you pick your favourite drawings to show Dad while we make some tea?"
Remus nodded and happily began sorting through a pile of parchment, coughing every now and then.
"Evening dear, how was work?" Julia asked, giving him a proper kiss once they were back in the kitchen.
"Work was work, how is Remus, he seems cheerful enough..."
"Putting on a brave face I think. He's had a temperature most of the day, fallen asleep a few times and woken himself up sneezing or coughing – it's all a bit new to him at the moment, he's not had many colds."
"It doesn't stop me wishing he could take Pepper Up though."
"I know, he'll be alright, just a few days in bed and he'll be fine."
Jack nodded, kissed her again and took 2 of the 3 cups of tea to the living room, giving Remus the special decaffeinated one. After his initial excitement at Dad being home Remus was quieter than usual, Jack supposed it hurt to talk much if his throat was sore, so he spent much of the evening with Remus tucked up companionably beside him showing him pictures he'd drawn or the books he'd been reading. When Remus had become feverish later on, Jack held him on his lap while his temperature was taken with a thermometer under his tongue after dinner.
Despite Remus' cheerful disposition and tolerance of his cold, Jack and Julia were still awoken in the middle of the night by a sleepy Remus standing shyly at their bedside.
"I don't feel very well, Bub..." he whispered as though it was a secret and hugged his stuffed teddy closer to him.
"Oh honey...come here." She pulled Remus onto the edge of their bed and hugged him tightly. "What's the matter?"
"Dod't feel very well..." he shivered, and wrapped himself around his teddy more tightly.
"Does your head hurt?" Julia asked summoning a blanket from a chair beside the bed and tucked it around Remus who nodded miserably. She put the back of her hand against his forehead. "You have a fever, its making you feel cold and shivery."
Remus sniffled, he wasn't overly concerned with explanations, he just wanted the bad feeling to go away.
"And your nose is all stuffed and runny?" Another nod and a sniff. "Is your throat sore?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, look at me, and open wide...say ahh!" Julia tipped his chin up and shone light from her wand into Remus' mouth. "Oh dear, all red. I think we best get you back into bed."
Remus just nodded miserably and let himself be picked up and carried back to his own room, leaving Jack alone to feel somewhat helpless.
"He's asleep," Julia said when she returned a few minutes later. "Temperature's up a bit since earlier and his glands are up. I think it's the sore throat, he has a few white spots on his tonsils."
"Do we need to call a Healer, or take him to one?"
"I don't think so. It's just a cold, and they'd prescribe Pepper Up if they could, and as they can't it would be the same potions I'm using anyway. He'll be fine as long as it doesn't get to his chest."
"I feel a bit...useless."
"Well you can play Dad the super Healer tomorrow night if you want, or the next time he wakes up."
Jack nodded, held his wife close and slipped into a dream in which he saved the world with his stethoscope powers.
Two days later found Jack departing for work whilst Julia went through the new morning ritual with Remus. He'd borne his confinement well, but was beginning to bridle at it now, evidently thoroughly bored with the game.
"Open wide Remus, let me see...your throat still looks sore," she muttered, fingers feeling his neck and throat. "Let's check your temperature..." Remus fussed a bit at this but accepted the thermometer willingly enough. "Still over 38, another day in bed sweetie,"
Remus groaned, sniffled into a hankie and looked imploringly at his father. "You're on the mend. Another day or two and you'll be right as rain." He sat down beside Remus on the bed and ruffled his hair. "If I bring home a surprise would that cheer you up?"
Remus brightened at this, "What kind of surprise?"
"A surprising one."
"Dad!"
"You'll see, now mind your mother, she knows best."
Julia laughed and said "I'll remind you of that the next time you're ill," as they passed in the doorway.
After taking the various potions his mother had devised for him (all wolfsbane free, naturally) and drawing for a while Remus slept for most of the morning, waking to his mother wielding the thermometer in his direction with one hand and a bowl of soup in the other hand.
Having finished lunch, Mum declared he could come downstairs for a bit and be ill on the sofa as his temperature had apparently gone down enough to allow this. For a while he thought it was an improvement over bed, but his throat still hurt and his nose still ran and still sneezed and coughed and sniffled as much as he had done upstairs. He was distracted for a while by making up stories to tell Mum later when he was interrupted by a knock on the door.
He got up warily, expecting at any moment for his mother to shout at him to lie back down, but she didn't appear so he answered the door, feeling only slightly dizzy.
A man with long white hair and a long white beard which have once upon a time been ginger stood in the porch. Remus was an avid enough collector of chocolate frog cards to know that this man was, unquestionably, Albus Dumbledore.
"Hello Remus. May I come in?" He asked, but made no move to enter.
"Erb..." Remus said, still stunned. He was eight, he knew enough about dangerous wizards in the world to know that he should really, a, get his mum or b, ensure that this man was, in fact, Dumbledore. Considering he'd never met the man before, in so far as he could remember at least, finding a fact that only the 2 of them would know did not seem likely (although he seemed to know who he, Remus, was). Besides that, this was Albus Dumbledore and one did not leave Albus Dumbledore standing on the back step.
"Wise child, you are no doubt wondering if I am, indeed, who I am say I am..." Dumbledore bent down at the knees so he was roughly the same height as Remus. "I know your middle name is John, after your father, who prefers to be known as Jack and your mother was an excellent head girl, and that you, dear boy, happen to be the youngest werewolf in England."
Remus stepped aside. "I'b the youndgest persod to have survived the bite..." he said blankly, somewhat stunned, as Dumbledore entered the house.
"Indeed, and you also remain the youngest person living with lycanthropy, and I hope it remains so, but alas, I do not actually believe it will. Before you, the youngest child on record was 8 years old at time of the bite, the same age you are now, and the werewolf closest to you in age is currently 14 years old. The most recent bite victim is 26 years old and was bitten 2 months ago. But that's enough about that, I'm not here to talk about werewolves in general, but one specific werewolf, you."
"Oh..." Remus wasn't sure of what to say to that so he began to say, "why do you wadt to talk about be?" but stopped, remembering his manners and asked instead, "Cad I get you adythidg? Bub's upstairs – she stayed at hobe to look after..." Remus paused again, sneezed several times into his elbow. "I'll just get her."
"Nonsense dear boy, sit back down, you're not well. You mother will be here momentarily." Remus moved as if to go to the foot of the stairs but suddenly found his feet lifted from the ground and was levitated back across the room and was gently deposited onto the sofa he'd previously been occupying. Dumbledore helped himself to the squashy armchair opposite it. Given a moment to gather himself Remus was suddenly aware, and somewhat embarrassed, of his pyjamas and dressing gown and the fact his nose was running. Sure enough Mum appeared seconds later, chattering away either to herself or Remus about where she'd left something or other.
"Bub..."
"Yes Remus? Are you feeling any better?"
"Bub, there's..." he got no further; Julia Lupin finally looked up and noticed her son wasn't alone.
"Professor! I mean...Headmaster...erm..."
Dumbledore stood and greeted her warmly, "Don't worry, Julia, my dear. I'm beginning my fifth year as Headmaster now, and sometimes I still forget." He sat back down, Julia copying him and almost sitting on Remus' feet at the end of the sofa.
Recovering quicker than Remus had at the shock of finding her former Professor in her living room, amiably chatting with her poorly little boy, she said "Well, it's a pleasant surprise I must say. Can I get you anything? Tea, coffee?"
"Tea, please."
Julia twirled her wand in the general direction of the kitchen and several tea cups and saucers floated over, followed shortly by the milk jug and sugar pot and a plate filled with several scones, jam and cream. She cleared the detritus of tissues, glasses of juice, cups of tea, the thermometer and discarded distractions from the coffee table, cleaning it with another deft wave of her wand so the tea set could set itself down nimbly.
Dumbledore chuckled delightedly, "I expected nothing less than effortless hospitality from a household formed by Julia McKinnon and Jack Lupin. Your presence as Head Girl has certainly been missed."
"I apologise for the mess," she smiled fondly at Remus, "We've not been well, you see." Remus sneezed into the crook of his elbow as if to punctuate her point. Fluidly she stroked the hair from his face, surreptitiously checking his temperature, with one hand and rubbed his back with the other.
"Not at all, dear child." Dumbledore said, "I've said it before but I'll say it again now, motherhood suits you."
Julia blushed but didn't move far from Remus as she chatted pleasantly with Dumbledore about their common interests. After a few minutes she put down her cup and said, "It's lovely to see you again Headmaster and of course you are welcome any time, but why have you come today?"
Dumbledore smiled, "As I told your son, I wish to discuss one werewolf in particular that I know and how it we might make it possible for him to attend Hogwarts in a few years time."
"Hogwarts? But I thought...I mean, when Remus was bitten...he's...really? Hogwarts?" It was a good job she'd put down her teacup for she'd surely have dropped it now.
"Yes, Hogwarts. There are not many children who have been attacked by werewolves, at least that we know of until now. The majority of children who have been bitten were, in fact, probably bitten by the same werewolf who bit Remus."
"Greyback."
"Unfortunately, yes. However this does mean that the majority of bitten children have either been taken, as part of his 'pack', not survived their first Change, or, registered. Remus is unique in that he was brought back to his family and your decision to hide his lycanthropy and not register subsequently means he is not under the Ministry's watch."
Julia nodded, pain evident in her face and soft grey eyes as she recalled the painful and traumatic time around Remus' attack.
"But the full moons...what about...we can secure the garden here, Jack and I can control him if necessary but at Hogwarts..."
"Hush, dear child, and listen to a cunning old man, and his, if I do say so myself, even more cunning plan."
Albus carefully positioned the tea table and two squashy armchairs so that they faced the window and had a rather charming view of the Hogwarts grounds and one new addition in particular of the abortoreal kind. From this vantage point he could see Professor Sprout, Professor Kettleburn and Hagrid all fluttering excitedly around the Whomping Willow, in so much as a rather plump witch, a wizard with rather less limbs than was considered normal and a half giant could flutter.
A polite knock at the door heralded the entrance of his guest. "Ah, Minerva, excellent."
"Good evening Albus," replied Minerva McGonagall.
"I'll just send for the...ah, the house elves have anticipated my request once again." He noted as tea, and a biscuit tin, materialised on the small table before the window.
Minerva took a seat and helped herself to tea with an ease that spoke of companionship between the two. Albus did the same, and settled back in his own armchair and surveyed the scene beyond the window.
Minerva followed his gaze, "And how was your meeting with young Lupin this afternoon?" she asked levelly.
"I wonder if you mean Remus, or his father or mother?"
"Julia wasn't a Lupin when I last met her, but I was speaking about Remus."
"He was rather unwell with a nasty cold, actually."
"The boy's not sickly is he?" Minerva asked, in genuine concern and some surprise.
"Despite appearances, no, not at all, strong constitution I gather. Strong mind too. Seems quite the candidate for our own dear house, not, of course, that I have a favourite as Headmaster. It was just a cold he had caught, although he doesn't fall ill often the transformation itself can be exhausting."
"Will he have to miss a lot of classes?"
"I shouldn't think so. Perhaps a morning's worth once a month, to give him chance to sleep it off. I think his condition is quite manageable for Madame Pomfrey."
"Provided she doesn't smother the boy to death."
"She does get attached to her regular patients – I'm sure Remus can cope. He's a very polite boy."
"Forgive me, Albus, I should never like to think of a child being denied his rightful place at Hogwarts because of something beyond his control, and beyond even his parents control I'd dare day, but why have you gone to such efforts for Remus?"
Dumbledore inclined his head and surveyed the witch. "I had a feeling."
"A feeling." Minerva quirked an eyebrow.
Dumbledore didn't immediately reply, but looked thoughtfully at the Willow.
"Albus?"
"He's important. I think. He has a role to play, it is important he come to Hogwarts."
Minerva chose not to press the Headmaster further, that was all she was going to get out him and she suspected all he himself knew. 3 years, 3 years until she would call Remus Lupin to the Sorting Hat and begin to unwrap the mystery that only Dumbledore currently seemed privy to.
~END~
Thank you for reading and please review and make requests.
K