Disclaimer: I don't own the words, just the way some of them are strung together.

Year 1: Part 1

Wednesday, July 21st 1971

Remus Lupin sat on the sofa in the living room, staring gloomily out at the garden, his eyes surveying the shed that Uncle Ezra had built four years previously over the spot where his life had changed for ever and where his brother had met his end.

It had seemed the logical place to put it at the time. A sort of memorial. A constant reminder of what had been lost.

Remus remembered the day his uncle had created it for him. It had been the day after his father had left, the day the Ministry officials came.

"Mrs Lupin…"

"Dr Lupin."

"Your son is a werewolf. Your husband has made it perfectly clear that he won't be responsible for the boy. You are but a muggle. You cannot, do not, have the ability to look after him and keep him under control."

"I believe I can help," Uncle Ezra had intervened. "Ezra Seward."

He held out his hand and the official shook it reluctantly.

"I'm a writer for the Wizard Tourist magazine. Ever heard of it? Quite renown. Anyway, the point is, I'm a wizard, even if Dr Lupin here is not. And, as Remus' godfather, I'm more than willing to look out for the boy."

"But if you work for a travel magazine, won't you be out of the country quite a lot."

Ezra shrugged. "I'll have to change jobs. So what? We all make sacrifices. I wasn't particularly well-paid anyway."

So the Ministry had reluctantly approved Ezra as Remus' guardian and keeper. Then they had watched as the man built the shed and placed strengthening spells, silencing charms and security alarms onto it. They had searched for faults, but found none in Ezra's wand-work. And so it was that, every full moon, Remus was able to transform at home.

It was four years to the day that Romulus had died and Remus, now eleven, the same age as Remus had been, couldn't help but grieve over the way his life had been so thoroughly altered.

Ever since Remus could remember, he and Romulus had dreamed of going to Hogwarts to become wizards. They had wanted to become aurors, healers, seers, curse-breakers, dragon-slayers. When Romulus had received his letter any doubt that the two of them would never become wizards was instantly washed away. Then, that very same day, all their dreams had been cruelly ripped apart.

Remus' father had said he would never get to go to Hogwarts but, until this morning, the boy had always hoped. Yet the letter hadn't come. There was no owl on the kitchen table. No yellow envelope with emerald green ink marking his name as the recipient. No hope.

The upstairs floorboards creaked as Uncle Ez moved around in his room upstairs. He had moved in the day before Remus' second transformation and had made Romulus' old bedroom his own. He had been true to his word and given up his job as a travel writer. Instead he had become Witch Weekly's Agony Aunt, a job which, he had said, he found strangely satisfying.

Remus sighed. Since his father had left he had attended the local muggle junior school. Now that it was the holidays he was bored. Not because there was no one around to play with (he usually kept to himself these days and was bullied at school), but because there was a distinct lack of work for him to busy himself with. He allowed his eyes to roam over the bookshelves in the living room. Books of magic. They were not worth reading, not any more. Shakespeare? He'd read them all. He reached towards them anyway. After all, he had nothing else to do.

The doorbell rang. He paused, curious, but too shy to pluck up the courage and answer it. Then he realised that his mother had already left for the local surgery and that, if his uncle had started work upstairs, nothing but a growling stomach would bring him down.

Biting his lip nervously (a habit which he had picked up from his mother), he made his way out of the living room and into the hallway. Through the frosted glass window in the front door he could make out a figure with hair wound tightly in a bun.

He opened the door and came face-to-face with a rather severe woman with black hair and square glasses.

"Mr Remus Lupin?" she inquired, her eyes narrowing as she looked him up and down.

"Yes," he said nervously. What did his mother do with visitors like this? Invite her in for a cup of tea? That seemed too personal; he didn't know this woman. But she seemed to know him.

"Um…" he tried.

"I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy-headmistress at Hogwarts School."

He felt his eyes widen. Had she said Hogwarts? Were they here to apologise to him for not letting him go? Surely they wouldn't bother. But he could think of no other reason for her coming here.

"Would… would you like a cup of tea?" he ventured, suddenly terribly unsure of himself. His mother always made tea when she was nervous.

"Traditionally one asks a visitor in before they ask them whether they would like refreshments," Professor McGonagall said, not unkindly. Remus felt himself blush and he stepped away from the door, leading the way into the kitchen.

He put the kettle onto boil then, realising he hadn't put any water into it, forced himself to slow down and focus. He filled the kettle, put it on to boil again and then reached into the kitchen cupboard for a mug. He paused and pulled out another mug for himself to have a hot chocolate. Then, guessing that Uncle Ez might want a cup of coffee, pulled out a third mug.

"We have PG tips or peppermint," he said, turning to face the visitor once again. She paused her examination of the small, but neat, kitchen.

"Peppermint will do nicely, thank you."

"Is your mother at home?" she asked when he handed her a rather flowery mug. He had tried to choose one that she might like but now that he handed it to her he realised that, maybe, she wasn't the 'flowery' type.

"No… but my Uncle Ezra's here. Do you want to speak to him?"

"Please."
Remus let loose a sigh of relief. This women wanted to speak to an adult, not to him. He took his uncle's coffee upstairs and knocked on the bedroom door before entering.

Ezra, fully engrossed in a letter from some witch in Canterbury who had fallen in love with a centaur, didn't notice him until Remus had set the mug on the coaster. Even then he simply grunted his thanks before taking a gulp of the hot liquid.

"Uncle Ez…" Remus mumbled nervously. "There's a woman downstairs who wants to speak to you."

"Don't I wish," Ezra replied, still not taking his eyes off of the letter.

"She says her name is Professor McGonagall."
Ezra nearly dropped his coffee.

"McGonagall! Here?" He threw the letter on the desk and jumped to his feet, placing his coffee back on the table. "Well, what are you waiting for? Take me to her!"

Remus obliged. He didn't really want to see the scary-looking woman again but, since he had left his hot chocolate in the kitchen, he would have to go back there anyway.

"Well, well, well. Minerva McGonagall," Ezra grinned at the woman and, to Remus' surprise, she smiled back.

"Ezra Seward," she acknowledged.

"Minerva was a few years above me at school," Remus' godfather explained. "Not that that stopped me from asking her out," he added with a wink.

"You received a rather firm 'no' if I remember correctly," the professor replied, unfazed.

Ezra chuckled under his breath. "Have you come here to tell me you've changed your mind?"

Remus stood next to the kettle, on the furthest side of the room from the door, uncertain whether he should stay and listen or whether it would be more polite to excuse himself and hide in his room.

"Actually, I'm here to talk about your godson, Mr Lupin here."

She caught Remus' brown eyes with her green ones.

"I have a letter for you," she said, drawing a yellow envelope from her robes until he could clearly see, written on it in emerald ink, Mr R. J. Lupin, Honey Cottage, Devon. She held it out to him and, trembling he took it.

Turning it over he felt his breath catch because there, indented into a blob of purple wax was the Hogwarts coat of arms.

For a moment he simply stood there, staring at it, trying to remember how to breathe. It couldn't be, he thought. Unless they didn't know what he was. But then, why would the deputy-headmistress bother to deliver it to him in person.

I must be dreaming, he thought.

Uncle Ezra nudged him gently.

"Well, Remus? You going to make us stand here all day?"

Remus shook his head, unable to trust his voice, and gently slid his finger under the wax seal, trying not to damage it.

At long last it was open and, still shaking, Remus lifted the letter from the envelope and read.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Lupin,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Remus read the letter ten times before it sank in. He had been accepted! He was going to Hogwarts.

But, a voice in the back of his mind held back his excitement. It's too good to be true, he thought. They don't know about my… condition, and I'll have to tell them and when I do they won't want me anymore.

Suddenly Remus was terrified. He so wanted to go but if he went he would have to tell someone and if he told someone he wouldn't be allowed to go. It was a no-win situation and the more he thought about it, the more upset he became.

He felt Uncle Ezra squeeze his shoulders.

"Are you and the headmaster aware of a certain… illness Remus suffers from?" he asked. Remus flinched but otherwise remained silent, keeping his eyes on the paper in front of him.

"We are prepared to take measures to accommodate his lycanthropy and keep him and the other students safe." Remus wondered whether he'd heard her correctly. "The headmaster sees no reason why the boy can't come."

When Ezra spoke it sounded as though he were choking back tears.

"Smart man, that Professor Dumbledore." He squeezed Remus tighter. "What do you say, Remus? Do you want to go? Or do you want to wait to discuss this with your mother when she comes home?"

The boy opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. He looked up, straight into the eyes of the severe Professor only, suddenly, she didn't seem so severe anymore. In his eyes she was the kindest witch he had ever met.

"I thought I wouldn't be able to go," he whispered and, to his embarrassment, he felt a tear roll down his face. As he wiped it hurriedly away he felt a bubbling sensation in his stomach and he realised he was grinning. He laughed, for the first time in many years, and the house rang with his peals of joy.