Chapter 1
Emily, a witch living with muggles, has no clue her dad is Remus Lupin. She's not even allowed to go to a magic school. Her mom, Leila, was hiding something until she suddenly died for an unknown reason. When Emily secretly follows her new friend Jon to Hogwarts, what will she find?
In a solitary room in Saint Mungos, the only wizard hospital in England, many people were cured, born, and dying. People were cured of spells gone wrong, or taking a nasty potion accidentally. People died of incurable situations. And of course, like any other hospital in the world, babies were born and breathing their first breaths of life.
But in a single room, where a baby girl had been born but half an hour ago, a decision that would change the courses of many lives was being made. In room 435 in the Hellen Upotherius Ward, sat a husband and his wife who would never see each other again. All this was because of the birth of their child, and because of the horrible timing and position that they were in.
Remus Lupin stood next to Leila, eyes dry but threatening to cry like a waterfall any second. Leila was simply lying on the off-white hospital bed, stroking her baby daughter. As in this world seems to happen often, more was going on there then met the eye.
Lupin gently reached out a hand. The baby's soft, tiny fingers grabbed up at his index finger and held it, making a huge grin on her face.
Lupin sadly smiled back at the little girl with the curly brown locks who was lying in front of him. He would never have the chance to watch her grow up. Never to hear her first words, never to watch her first few stumbling steps.
He lifted his daughter off her mothers lap and held her close to him. He stroked her back, absently, wishing more then anything that he could have had the chance to be the father that he should be.
Emily giggled, showing a toothless grin to her dad. She flailed in his arms and waved around, making guttural noises that only she could understand the meaning of. She flipped onto her stomach, squirming all the while, finally turning back to once again grin at her father.
Lupin cringed guiltily and thrust the baby towards Leila.
Leila took Emily out of Lupin's hands and, in the way that mothers always seem to know how to do, convinced her to settle down. "Honey, you didn't have a choice. We'll be fine without you. Me and Emily." Leila reassured him. "You have to go."
"Yes, but Leila…," he argued, not wanting to abandon his only family left.
"Shh." she shushed her disheartened husband. "You'll disturb the baby. If there was any other way, I'm sure you'd make a great father. But under the circumstances…"
"I know," he lowered his head sadly. "There's no other way. I just wish I could stay with the two of you."
"Remus, look at me," demanded Leila.
Remus Lupin, werewolf and former teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, faced his wife and daughter. The bags under his eyes were growing more apparent. The wrinkles on his face did not represent age, but a great burden. Leila felt her stomach sinking as she looked upon his graying hair and deep, depressed, gray eyes.
"If it had been different…," she started, trailing off yet again. She gave Lupin a desperate look. Then shook her head and took a deep breath. Shaking her head she said, "No. No, this is not going to work. Leave."
Lupin felt as is she had slapped him. "That was too blunt to be kind, dear," he told her, knowing that she wouldn't care.
"That was the point," she replied calmly, looking not at him, but moving Emily's dark, velvety hair out of her eyes. "Go. Go and don't' come back. I can manage."
With one last look at his wife and child, Remus left the room of Saint Mungos, not to see his child again for the next 13 years, and never to see his wife again. Never to see Leila, until he died and floated up to Heaven.
It was 13 years later and Emily lived alonein a house with her mother. The house had been bought and resold so many times that nobody knew exactly when it had been built. It was obviously a very old house because the whole structure seemed to be creaking and falling apart even more day by day. The only thing holding it erect were the four walls leaning in on each other, for the concrete and wood by itself would not have been sturdy enough. The house was missing stairs, windows, and spaces of floor, but Leila and Emily had never gotten around to trying fixing the place up. To them it was a house, and nothing more. The tumble-down old ruin wouldn't be there much longer, and until it actually collapsed, they really didn't care. It was a sad way to live, but they didn't have much of a choice.
Emily attended a muggle day school, which she detested.
"Why can't I go to a magic school and learn magic with other kids! Why can't I be taught by real teachers instead of you, mom?
"Emily, we can't afford it. Even if we could, it wouldn't be safe."
"But why mom? I wanna go to Hogwarts or someplace….!"
Emily found herself being cut off as her mother shushed her gently.
She grimaced as she was pulled into her mothers hug. Someday she would find what all this secrecy was about. 'And maybe I'll find out something about my father while I'm at it.' Emily didn't know who her father was. The only other magic person she knew was her mother, and the only muggles were the people at school who thought of her as weird. Emily had no friends, nor had she ever told anyone she was a witch. It was a very sheltered life, and Emily hated it!
