Chapter 1: Uncle Lupin
"Are you sure you have everything, cariad?"
"Yes, Uncle. I've been packed for the last week! Just relax. Everything will be fine.
"Well....Maybe I should send just one more owl."
"Uncle Lupin! You've send 5 in this week alone. Poor Dumbledore will not only be swamped, but he'll be sick of me before I even get to Hogwarts!
Lupin laughed. "Alright, Jihae, you win. You'll be a good girl, then?"
Jihae smiled back. "Nope, I'm going to be the holy terror of Hogwarts; the worst kid the school's ever seen," she replied
Lupin shot her a warning look. "Jihae Li---"
She cut him off before he could finish. "Of course I'm going to be good! I was only teasing you. Oy, with the way you're acting, you'd think it was you going to Hogwarts instead of me. Just calm down, Uncle Lupin."
Lupin sighed and nodded reluctantly. "You know, Jihae, you don't have to call me "Uncle Lupin", he said, smiling sadly.
"If I don't call you that, then what other name have I for you Uncle Moony?" She paused and gave an evil little smile, "Uncle Remus?" She said his name slowly and deliberately.
Lupin returned the "evil" look. "Now that's enough of that. Again, you win, I stay Uncle Lupin. At this rate, I'll be Uncle Lupin till I die. Just not Remus. And how do you know about my nickname Moony?"
Jihae threw her hair over her shoulder and looked at him, her brown eyes twinkling. "You told me yourself, silly. Don't you remember? When I was little, you would tell me stories of the Four Adventurers: Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail. Sometimes I would pretend to fall asleep and listen to you talk to yourself. Besides, I've been around when you transform. You've gotten better lately, by the way. You aren't always so wild, and some nights you'll actually stay in the house. Although, you do have your moments, and you can get pretty mean," she said, touching a long, deep cut on her upper left arm.
He stared at Jihae in shock, then reached over and gently took her arm. He inspected the gash then looked up at her, a doleful expression on his face. "You mean this….I did this?…It was me?…..I hurt you again!….You said…..said you did it on a tree branch…….I..I…Oh, Jihae I'm so sorry!" he stuttered.
Jihae looked at him tenderly and gave him a hug. "It's alright, Uncle Lupin, it's alright. It doesn't hurt, and I'm still alive, aren't I? Besides, I know you don't do it on purpose. You were out of anyone's control, including your own. I shouldn't have tried to drag you back through the door. You were half-way back in, and I thought I could pull you in myself. I had you almost back in when you went berserk and got me. I had to let you go. It was my fault, Uncle Lupin."
Lupin looked into Jihae's bright brown eyes. He could see love in them; Love for him despite what he did to her. He jumped up and hugged her tightly, beginning to cry.
Jihae was startled at first, but she soon hugged him back. When she felt him crying, she gasped. "Oh, Uncle Lupin, please don't be upset! Don't cry!
"Jihae, cariad, I'm not crying because I'm sad," he started, pausing only to dry his eyes, "I'm crying because I'm happy. No one has ever loved me like you have, cariad, and I will miss you so much." He stopped, wiped his face, and studied Jihae for a while. "But, that's enough of that now," he said, cheering up. "What do you say to one last magic lesson before you go? After all, today is your last day here with me."
"Yeah!" she cried, jumping up. "But first," she said with a sly look on her face, "I have to get you back for my arm."
With that, she wrestled him to the floor and began tickling him mercilessly. They wrestled and tickled for quite a while, the magic lesson temporarily forgotten. The wrestling match ended with Jihae pinning Lupin to the floor and refusing to let him up unless he promised to tell her a story that night about Prongs. He promised and she let him up. After they got up, she looked at him, hope shining in her eyes.
"Magic lesson now?" she pleaded.
Lupin laughed a deep, loving chuckle. "Alright, alright, cariad. But not too much, or you'll know too much. Now, what would you like to learn, cariad?"
Jihae pondered a moment. "Will you teach me two things?" she asked carefully.
Lupin nodded.
"I want to learn how to become invisible and how to make stuff appear; like clothes on me. Will you teach me those, Uncle Lupin?"
Lupin thought a moment. "Alright," he said slowly, pausing to think again. "Yes. I'll teach you those. It should be alright. However," he said forcefully," I know you'll take after myself and your father, so I want you to promise me that you won't become invisible unless it's an emergency. Do you hear me?"
Jihae looked him straight in the eye and nodded.
"Good," Lupin said, then smiled. "Now, let's get started."
The two worked most of the afternoon on the two spells. Lupin taught Jihae how to conjure clothes first. This took her the longest to learn. At first, she could do no more than magic her own clothes off and stand there in her underwear, making Lupin have to put her clothes back on her. After a while, she was able to conjure clothes, but they were always the wrong size: immensely huge to ridiculously small. Finally, after two hours of work, she was able to conjure the clothes. She could summon everything from the bow in her hair to the shoes on her feet….with the correct size in everything.
"Way to go, love," Lupin congratulated her. "Despite what you may think, you learned that quite quickly. It took me a week to learn that. Ready for the invisibility spell, cariad?"
"Yup, teach away, Uncle Lupin!" Jihae answered happily.
This spell took even longer than the first. It wasn't that Jihae couldn't do it, it was that she has to learn it in pieces. She had to make each part of her body invisible and then visible again before Lupin would allow her to do herself as a whole. He taught her hands and arms first, followed by feet and legs. Next came her chest and torso, and lastly was her head. After she had proved she could invisible and then revisible all her parts, Lupin let her make her whole self invisible.
It was a stunning spell to watch. It started at her head and worked its way down to her feet. Jihae was literally surrounded by sparkles, a little bit at a time. Lupin made her do the spell and the counter-spell 5 times until it was perfect; quick on the vanishing, and a little bit longer on the reappearing.
"You're a magical genius, my cariad!" Lupin exclaimed. "I'm so proud of you. I can't wait for you to get to Hogwarts and show them what you've got!"
Jihae just smiled. She was torn apart inside. She desperately wanted to go to Hogwarts, but she didn't want to leave Lupin.
Truthfully, Lupin wasn't her uncle. He wasn't of any relation to her at all. He had adopted her when she was a tiny baby. Both her parents were dead. Her mother had died giving birth to her, and her father had died before she was born. She couldn't remember that much about them. In fact, all she really remembers is life with her uncle. He had told her the truth about who she was and where she had came from when she was 7. From then on, she had called him Uncle Lupin. He had homeschooled her up until now. He had decided that it was time she went to a real magic school. Happy as she was, she was going to miss him with all her heart.
As the day wore on, anyone who saw them would swear Lupin and Jihae were joined at the hip. They were inseparable the whole rest of the day, doing everything they'd ever wanted to do with each other.
While they were in the park, Lupin discovered Jihae would make a spectacular Beater. She had a stick and he a ball, and he narrowly missed getting clobbered with the ball every time she hit it. No matter where he stood, she could crack it to him with a force that could knock over a werewolf (Lupin would know).
After a while, when Lupin's hands were black and blue from catching the ball, he decided they should go in. It was getting late anyway.
That night as Lupin said goodnight to Jihae he noticed how down she looked.
"What's the matter, cariad?" he asked, concerned
Jihae looked up at him from her pillow. "It's just that…it's just that, well, I'm gonna miss you, Uncle Lupin. I've been here, with you, all my life. It hurts to leave. It hurts so much." She paused for a moment, watching Lupin's face, and thinking. "And, I'm worried about meeting him. I mean, I know I shouldn't be, but it scares me," she continued. "I've known for so long I was going to have to meet him sooner or later, facing destiny and all that, but---" She faltered in her speech. "I don't know! What do you think, Uncle? You've met him, after all."
Lupin looked down at her, love shining on his face. He stroked her dark red hair. "Jihae, cariad," he began, "you needn't worry about anything. I know that change can be difficult, but you'll be fine. You can write to me as much and as often as you like. You know I'll write back. And there's always the holidays and summer break. You can visit me then. Besides, I know you'll make lots of friends. I know at least one for sure, so you'll be happy at Hogwarts. I was." Lupin paused to let Jihae take in all he said, and to think of his next answer. "As for meeting him," Lupin began slowly, "that is something I cannot help you with. You must formulate your own opinion of him and meet him yourself. I cannot do that for you. You'll do just fine, cariad, I know it. Just relax, don't think about it, and you'll do perfect. OK?" he finished.
Jihae nodded. "Okay," she replied.
"Good," said Lupin, smiling. "Now sleep, cariad. You have to be up early, and you have a busy, important day tomorrow."
" 'Night, Uncle Lupin. I love you," she said.
"And I you, cariad," he replied. Then he kissed her forehead, turned out the light, and left her room.
Jihae lay awake, thinking. Even though she was concerned and thousands of thoughts raced through her head, she could feel sleep creeping up on her.
"Uncle Lupin's right,"
she thought. "I'll be just fine and so will everything else. I just need to relax and be myself. Even meeting him will be alright.""Yeah," she whispered. With that, she smiled, turned on her left side, and fell asleep.