A wrote a story inspired by Cujo, Stephen King's story for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I used the prompts "broken mirror," "We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we?. — Benedict Cumberbatch," and "With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. — Eleanor Roosevelt." Favorite, comment, follow, and enjoy!
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When Remus Lupin was a little child, he was peaceful as could be. Never cried, never complained, and definitely never pitched a fit. His parents didn't even know what to do with him. After all, no parenting book talked about that. But, when he was four years old everything changed.
He was in his bed, sleeping. Remus remembers how he got there very clearly, his bedtime ritual of pajamas, teeth, potty was engraved in his mind. What his mother and father told him before his eyelids fluttered closed he could repeat until the day he died. He remembers it all, and he wished he didn't. Because that means he remembers waking up with searing pain coming from his arm as his front window was open, the moon shinning in in all of it's full glory. There was a man on top of him, if you could even call it that. To the four year old it seemed like a figure of his nightmares, and to the grown man looking back he knew it was one thing. It was a werewolf, and not just any werewolf. He was the most elusive of them all, the alpha as many would call him.
Remus recalls the man's laughter as he licked young blood of his lips, closing his eyes and relishing in the taste of it for a moment. All while Remus just starred on in terror, the moment engraving in his mind. But, out of all of the trauma that occurred that night, there was one thing that would stick with Remus for the rest of his life, follow him to his grave. And that was the only sentence the werewolf spoke to him before leaving the child lying in his own blood. "You're mine now, always mine. You might think that you can still be you're own person, or that you can move on. But you can't, you will always come crawling back to me. I am your turner, and your alpha, so there is no use in trying."
—
It seemed like forever until his parents rushed in to find their son bleeding out on his bed, but in reality it was only minutes after the creature left. And once they came into his view he began to loose conscious, eyes drifting shut. But they weren't the last thing he saw before the world went black. That honor went to an object in the corner of his ransacked room, a family heirloom mirror that lay shattered on the ground. And even if he didn't know it yet, that sight would become what he would refer the rest of his life back to. He was a disappointment, failure of his family, that was destined to live a life of bad fortune.
—
When Remus Lupin was a kid, he was peaceful as he could be. Never cried, never complained, and definitely never pitched a fit. That was until a full moon rolled around. Then his parents dropped his off in the center of a nearby forest, and prayed he didn't kill anyone. They didn't even know what to do with him. After all, no parenting book talked about his condition. But, when his eleventh birthday rolled around everything changed.
He was on an armchair, a new book about arithmetic on his lap. At first he didn't think anything of the knock at the door, assuming it was one of the uneventful hundreds his family got each day. But by the time he got a look at the visitor, his perception of the day got a lot different.
He had a long, white beard that stretched down to the top of his waist, dark blue robes with gold stars, and crystal blue eyes. The kind that seem to know all just by giving you a simple look. And when his gaze finally reached the young boy, Remus knew something was wrong. He didn't know what yet, but he had a feeling. A feeling that would prove to be correct.
"Remus Lupin." The man said as he approached the chair the young boy was sitting on. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry."
Of course Remus already knew this, his Dad worked at the Ministry after all. But he had never seen the famous Wizard in person, and he really never expected to. His whole life he had displayed signs of magic, and before being bitten his parents dreamed of him going to the famed school. But, after the fateful incident at age four, those dreams were shattered. There had never been reports of a werewolf going to Hogwarts, and no one thought Remus would ever be an exception. So when Albus showed up the whole Lupin family was expecting him to be the barer of bad news. He wasn't going, and they were sure of that. "What do you what?" The child answered the old man hostility, not wanting to hear what he had to say.
There was a pause, a long pause. But then the man started speaking again. "I was just coming to tell you how much I am looking forward to seeing you at my school in September."
The room went quiet, Remus looked up from the top of his book and his parents mouths' dropped open in shock. "You must be mistaken sir, I can't go to Hogwarts." Remus said politely.
"This is the Lupin household, correct?" Remus nodded. "You are Remus Lupin, correct?" Remus nodded again. "And you have showed signs of magic, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"There is no buts, Remus John Lupin has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Then you must not know," Remus' Father began as he stepped out of the entrance of the sitting room, "my son has been affected by lycanthropy, he's a werewolf."
"I am perfectly aware of Mr Lupin's condition, and that's why I wanted to deliver his acceptance personally. Because I have done some thinking and have an idea of how your son can attend my school."
"I don't care if I can attend, I don't want to go to the stupid school!" Remus suddenly shouted from his seat, interrupting the adults' conversation. And before they could say anything Remus jumped up and stormed off to his room.
—
Remus could hear his parents from outside his closed bedroom door. "I am so sorry Albus, he never does this. I don't know what has gotten into him." They told the Headmaster, and Remus just scoffed at their words. They didn't understand.
They didn't understand how alienated he felt everyday, and how devastated he is every month when he turns into an uncontrollable monster. They don't understand how everyday he has to live with the knowledge that he can't go be amongst people his age, or go to the school he had his heart set on since the day he was born. And now they are saying he could go to the stupid school, a school Remus had been convinced isn't for him. But he really doesn't feel like it anymore, after all he was now convinced that it wasn't meant for him. But no one would understand.
"Mr Lupin?" A voice said from his now cracked bedroom door, making him jump up from his seat on his childhood bed. The same one he bled out in years before.
"Professor Dumbledore." Remus acknowledged.
"I would like it if you reconsidered your dismissal of my school. I really think you would like it there." The old man said as he stepped out of the doorway, closing the wooden door behind him.
"I have already made my decision." Remus muttered under his breath. "I don't want to go."
"Are you sure about that?"
"What is there for me Professor! Who there will even bother to know my name! The only reason my peers would be to make fun of me, or run from me in terror! After all, I am a monster!" Remus screamed at the man, and he didn't even flinch. He just waited a moment before bothering to respond.
"We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we? Even all of them. Every one in that school has faced pain and sorrow, and they all are running from it in some sense."
"Even you?"
"Even me, but take it from someone that was running from a lot when they stepped through the door of the school for the first time. With a new day comes new strength and new thoughts, and Hogwarts is the best place to grow as a person for a young wizard. I am positive that by the time you graduate you will be a different man, a better man." Albus paused before saying the statements they both were expecting. "So, I will ask you once more. Will you be going me in a few months?"
"Yes."