hey- so i just felt like writing this, because in my head i have basically a whole timeline of remus's life and I just felt like writing something pre hogwarts since in my other fic completely loopy i start from second year. just a one shot, but maybe more one shots of the lupins before remus goes to hogwarts to come if people like this one, so please review!
"Mama, my head's hurting again."
Mary Lupin turned around to see her five year old son standing at the end of her patient's bed rubbing his right eye with a clumsy fist.
"Why don't you sit down on that bed there Remus and I'll be with you in a minute alright?" she said, gesturing towards the empty bed on the other side of her.
"Ok mum," said Remus, as he climbed up onto the bed.
"Aww, is that our son?" asked Mary's patient, a Mrs Evangeline North who had ingested a badly brewed youthfulness potion and was now suffering the consequences.
"Yes, it is," smiled Mary, eager to finish checking the woman over and administer her potions so that she could get back to her son.
"Are you poorly young man?" Evangeline asked the little boy in her best patronising baby voice.
Remus looked towards his mother with questioning eyes, he wasn't meant to talk to strangers.
"Yes he is," said Mary, giving her son a small smile.
"Don't they let you Healers take time off to look after their children in this place? I'd complain if I were you, you ought to be at home with him."
"We do, but I've already had too much time off this year, and besides if he's here with me at least he's in the right place if he gets much worse. Right, it seems like you won't have any lasting damage, but you really should check that any potions you take are from a reputable brewer not just some quack trying to make an eay galleon."
"I'm sure if you just talked to your boss he'd understand, you your son obviously needs your care."
Mary bit her lip. Yes, she thought, Remus does need my care, he needs me much more than you do you vain old woman, so just let me get on with my job!
"I have already talked to my boss, and he has refused, now I you just stay here while I go and get you these potions, alright?"
"You ought to get something for your son as well," said Evangeline, "and maybe some lunch as well, he's ever so thin, are you hungry dear?"
Remus shook his head, wondering whether that counted as talking to strangers.
"I know perfectly well how to look after my son Mrs North, now if you'll excuse me..."
"Well excuse me for giving you some advice dear, I can see you are a young mother darling, and having had four children myself I have considerably more experience in these matters. Obviously I understand that some mothers these days have to work, but whenever any of my children were ill..."
"I f you have a complaint about the treatment you have received from me Mrs North then you are more than welcome to take it up with one of my superiors, but if you merely want to criticise my parenting skills then I will not stand here and have you judge me when you know nothing about me and nothing about my son. If you are so insistent then you can wait to take your potions until I have seen to everyone else who is in greater need than you," said Mary, trying to keep her voice calm and professional.
"I don't appreciate your tone Healer..."
"Lupin, Mary Lupin, if you want to make a complaint then you can just add to the pile. Come on Remus, let's get you another potion to make you feel better and you can have a nap alright?"
Remus nodded and climbed down from the bed before being scooped up into his mother's arms and carried away towards to place where all the potions were kept.
"Alright these two for Mrs Know-It-All, and these three for you okay Remus? Now how about I read you a quick story before I have to go back to that silly old woman okay?"
"Why is she a silly old woman?"
"Because she's talking about stuff she doesn't know about. She who knows not, and knows not she knows not, she is a fool, shun her."
"She nose knot nose knot nose knot, she's a fool shunner," Remus repeated, smiling at the thought of someone having their nose in a knot.
"Alright you lie down there Remus, let me just take your temperature."
Mary pulled her wand out of the front pocket of her apron and held it against her son's forehead, muttering a quick spell. 103 degrees, Mary sighed there was not much she could do for him other than give him a potion that would bring his temperature down slightly and try to get him to rest up before the moon rose.
"Alright, down in one Remus, I know it tastes yucky but it'll make you feel better okay?"
Remus nodded and opened his mouth obediently for his mother to put the spoonful of potion in.
"Right and this one as well, and then the other one's for later okay?"
Remus nodded again and took the other potion. The third one Mary put in her bag, it was a new potion, something that was supposed to prevent werewolves from transforming, so far it wasn't working but Mary had agreed with John not to give up, ever until they had found a cure.
"Now, what story would you like?" asked Mary, covering her son with a blanket and picking up her husband's old copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard
"The Fountain of Fair Fortune please," smiled Remus.
Mary smiled sadly at her son's choice of story, it had been his favourite for a while now, and Mary could understand why, she wanted Remus's wish to come true as much as he did.
"I trust you know why I have called you here Mary," said Healer Abbott.
"I assume it's about a complaint you received last week from someone named Evangeline North."
"Yes and no, Mrs North's complaint is merely the latest in a long line of complaints I have had about you Healer Lupin, now I know you have had a tough year and I have tried to be accommodating to your situation but you must understand that I have to put out patients first."
"So you're firing me? Tell it to me straight Geoffrey, if you've got something to say just say it."
"You are a very capable Healer Mary, and I don't want to lose you."
"But?"
"But this arrangement, bringing your son into work with you, clearly isn't working. I can't have werewolves running amock on my ward."
"Remus is not running amock! And you make it sound as if I bring him here on the full moon when you say it like that."
"I have tried to be sympathetic Mary, but this is totally against Hospital Policy, I agreed to make an exception because I know how good you are at your job but I always said that if there were complaints I would have to let you go unless you can find some other arrangement."
"Some other arrangement? You try finding childcare for a werewolf! No witch or wizards will take him because they're all like you, too damn prejudiced to see that he's just a harmless child for twenty nine days a months. Even John's family can't stand the sight of him any more. And I can hardly send him to a muggle school can I, how is a muggle school nurse meant to take care of him if he's feeling sick when they don't even know his condition exists?!"
"Like I said, I completely understand your situation but..."
"No, no you don't. You're just like that Evangeline North woman, pretending to know what it's like to bring up a sick child when the whole world is against you."
"Look, I'll give you one last chance Mary, I'll give you two months to find someone to look after Remus, I know you need the money, but after..."
"I don't want your pity! How dare you think that you can treat me and my son like dirt and the ground and then turn around and give us your pity! You hired me because you knew I'd be good at this job, I have proved you right on that count again and again, now don't you try and pretend that all this time you have been doing me a favour by letting me work here!"
"Two months Mary, I am sorry to have to do this to you, I will be even sorrier of I have to lose your expertise because of it, but I have to do it, my hands are tied."
"Orders from above eh? You just don't want to take responsibility for your actions more like."
"Evangeline North is the wife of Rufus Winston North, one of the most prominent trustees of St Mungo's."
"Oh I see, so I pissed off someone important did I? I should have known this would be something like this it's all about who knows who in this world isn't it, never who knows what. Because that woman was just like you, she didn't know a blinding thing and yet she still couldn't keep herself from shooting her mouth off about it. I don't care whether she was the wife of the bloody Minister for Magic if someone's a gobshite they're a gobshite, it doesn't matter who they're married to."
"I don't like this Mary, but I'm giving you a chance aren't I? Look I'm doing this for your own good, maybe if your son is somewhere else then it will be easier for you to separate your professional life from your troubles at home."
"For my own good? How will it do me any good to have my son sent off to some stranger who couldn't care less about him? You think I would be able to concentrate when I would be worrying about him every minute of every day?"
"Please Mary, please just co-operate with me on this one. Why don't you go home and spend the rest of the day with your son?"
"Fine! I think I will, God knows if I had the choice I wouldn't let him grow up in this sodding place anyway."
Mary stormed out of her boss's office and headed across the ward to the Healer's office trying to calm the burning fire of rage that infuriating man had lit inside her. She opened the door to see Remus sitting on the armchair with a toy broomstick in one hand and a toy truck in the other, racing the two of them along the arm of the chair.
"Alright there Remus? Did you finish your spellings?"
"Yes mum, they're on the big table," said Remus, pointing with his broomstick towards the desk.
Mary picked up the little blue exercise book and her red pen and marked her son's spellings.
"Eight out of ten Remus, that's fantastic!" smiled Mary, giving the book back to her son so that he could see.
Remus looked down at the page and saw eight red ticks, two red crosses, and a big smiley face at the bottom, he grinned back at it. He was proud of himself, the only words he had gotten wrong were 'dark' and 'park' and that was because he had forgotten the 'r's when he as sounding them out.
"We're going to go home now Remus, so pick up your truck and your books alright?"
"Already? But it's only, Remus looked at the clock on the wall for a minute, using his fingers to work out what time it was, "quarter past three."
"Yeah well we're going to go home and cook a nice dinner for when your daddy get's in yeah. We'll go to the shop on the way back, you can choose what we have if you like."
"Hmm... I think I'd like... sausage and mash," said Remus after careful consideration.
"Sausage and mash it is then," smiled Mary, painfully aware that every second she spent checking her son's spellings, or cooking him his favourite dinner, was a second closer to the end of the two month ultimatum she had been given. After then who knew what might happen.