Author's note: Hey, Teddy Lupin here. Already There does not own me, Harry and his family, my fiancée, various settings and concepts, etc. Ms. J.K. Rowling and the Wanner Bros owns all of us. I don't thinks they own Healer Ray, but I doubt they'd want him. Actually, he's so ugly and despicable I doubt Already There wants him either. Enjoy the chapter!
The next full moon was the twelfth. Victoire and I entered the lycanthropy clinic to find our cheery, bubbly and outgoing friend Chelsea Parkinson lying on a table.
"Hey Chase-Face," Victoire says with a little wave. Chase glares at her.
"Fuck you."
"Seems like someone's in a cheery mood today," I say, walking over and ruffling her silky brown hair. "What's up?"
"I can't be a bridesmaid for your wedding."
Oh no. Not this again. I sit next to her head and look down at her face and her dark brown eyes. A large group of gruesome scars shine through her milky pale skin, only partially healed.
"I got in a stupid fight with Russell last month and he clawed up my face. How do you expect me to look good next to you two! I'll be, like, the ugliest bridesmaid ever!"
"Chase, everyone's beautiful in their own way, your scars make you stronger, inner beauty is what matters, you're so pretty I didn't even notice the scratch marks, blah blah blah, did I miss anything?" I ramble on. She lightly punches me on the arm.
"Hmph. I'm going to get some coco to wash the taste of Wolfsbane out of my mouth, since SOMEONE won't let me have coffee, Victoire."
"You know too much caffeine can react weird with the Wolfsbane, Chase. Stop complaining and drink your potion," Victoire retorts, pulling her off the table and towards the a table with hot coco and decaf green tea.
"You guys remember before I was like this? I was pretty. Popular. Boys liked me."
"You were a jerk that hanged out with Annalise Lytton. I think this whole lycantropy thing was good for you." I remind her.
"Annie wasn't that bad! We were, like, best friends for about fifteen years. Friends since we were old enough to know what a friend is!"
" 'I don't have anything against muggleborns, per say, but I do think we should make sure they know enough about us before just letting them mix in with the rest of us at Hogwarts. I don't think we should just let anyone in'."
"Okay, maybe that was bad-"
" 'I'm not against muggles at all, but I think maybe purebloods and muggles having kids together is wrong, because the kids could get really confused. They'd be all like Am I a muggle? A wizard? They'd like totally have an identity crisis!'."
"She wasn't that sensitive-"
" 'I'm not prejudice! Some of my friends are muggleborn!' "
"Okay, one, she never said that. Two, none of her friends were muggleborn unless you count her fourth year potions partner."
The three of us laugh. Chase takes a sip of her hot coco as a few more people file in.
"The two of you never knew Annalise. I mean, you knew the horrible things she said and how she felt about people like me. But I loved her, okay? She was my best friend. And maybe if your older brother had been killed by Greyback, you'd feel the same way about werewolves. I'm not defending her. I'm just saying you never had sleepovers at her house or asked her to help you teach your sister to ride a broom."
"Yeah, I get it," Victoire says. "Teddy and I have to help everyone else, 'kay?"
"Yeah, leave me here alone. Great friends you two are."
Victoire and I turn to some of the others. The first one to wave us over is Chase's partner-of-sexual-tension, Russell Baker. He's one of the clinic's success stories. Got bitten as a little kid during the war and kidnapped by Greyback's people. After the war he jumped between foster homes, never finding a family who could handle his condition properly. Barely finished school. Right after graduation though he impressed a broom maker and got a job for him. He's not even thirty and yet he now oversees their international division and is one of our large sum donors in addition to one of our friendliest patients.
"Vic! Ted! I need emotional support!" He yells. We walk over to him and sit at his side.
"What is it, Russell?" Victoire asks him wearily.
"Okay, I need to know how to get into your friend Chelsea's pants."
"Finally," Vic says.
"Okay, I'll tell you how to seduce one of my best friends after you tell me something," I say.
"What?"
"Do you know a woman named Marta Keel here? She'd be, I don't know, about forty something maybe? Approaching fifty?"
"Marta Keel? Yeah. She keeps to herself. Sits over there in the corner. I've never spoken to her."
"Thanks, dude!" I say, leaping over the table.
"Wait, Ted, stop! I NEED TO SLEEP WITH CHELSEA!"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Chelsea yells back at him, racing to his table. Never a dull moment.
While I leave Victoire to moderate Chelsea and Russell's, um, "feelings", I go to the corner where a tired looking middle aged woman sits sipping her tea.
"Are you Marta Keel?" I ask her.
"Yes," She answers. I pull over a chair and sit next to her.
"I've seen you around, but I don't think we've ever spoken. I'm Ted Lupin. People call me Teddy. I volunteer here to provide emotional support."
"Did you say Lupin?" She asks. "As in Remus Lupin? Taught Defense Against the Dark Arts for a year?"
"Yeah. He was my father. Did you know him?"
"Yes. I didn't realize he had a son. He taught me in my sixth year. He always believed in me. I don't think too many of my other teachers did. I met him again a few years later, during the war. He and one of Dumbledore's people got me and my son to safety. He was a good man."
"I know," I say awkwardly. "How old's your son now?"
"He's gone," She says.
"I'm sorry."
For a moment no one speaks. "The other person who helped me was an Auror. She and your father seemed close. I think her name was Tink or something."
"Tonks?" I ask.
"Yeah, Tonks. Is she your mother?"
"Yeah. She died at Hogwarts with my dad."
"I'm sorry." For another few seconds neither of us speak. "I would have kept up with what happened to more people, but I left the country about a year before the war ended. Made a life there. Only had to come back about two years ago."
"That sounds exciting. Where did you go?"
"Spent some years in France. Then the Netherlands and Germany. Made my way to America after a few more years. Eventually saw Machu Pichu and decided it was time to go home. Upper middle class wizards who don't have house elves will pay people to clean their houses no matter how easily they could do it themselves with magic, it turns out. Plus, some countries have outlawed house elf labor. I'd work as long as I could without people getting suspicions about me. It helped me to forget about things."
"I love France. Especially in the summer. My fiancée has an aunt down there that we visit sometimes. It's a beautiful country."
"Teddy!" One of the volunteers yells. "Cleanup on aisle four!"
"So sorry," I tell Marta. "We'll have to talk about France sometimes."
Apparently little Mikey threw up his potion again. The older volunteer makes me clean up the horrible vomit as she convinces Mikey to drink his Wolfsbane. I wave my wand over the mess and it disappears.
"The moon rises in a few minuets!" Victoire yells. "Everyone taken their last dosage?"
Victoire and I do a quick sweep through the bedrooms to make sure everything is in order. Some werewolves take their free potion and go home, but a lot of them just stay here. I hear being near other people who suffer from the same problem numbs some of the mental anguish of the transformation. Each room contains a few beds and blankets. We don't have anyone new this cycle, so everyone here knows the drill. The patients go to their assigned rooms to transform.
After a few minutes and a few screams later, all the werewolves transform and fall into a deep sleep. The volunteers gather around the table for some more hot coco.
"I think we have everything under control here," Victoire tells me. "Why not you go see why Ray wants you to talk to him?"
"Think I will," I say, getting up from the table an apperating to Healer Ray's house.
I arrive at Healer Ray's house for the second time. His southern England house is still painted in a light cream and he still appears to spend more time on his magical herb garden than on his health and hygiene. I wander up the stone covered walkway and pound on the old fashioned oak door.
"Is that you, Grey?" Healer Ray asks as he sticks his head out the door. I nod and he lets me in. The inside of his house looks unchanged. If I came in here without knowing the house's inhabiter, I would guess I stood in the home of one of my grandmother's friends.
"Did you talk to Marta Keel?"
"Yeah. She seemed nice. We were just about to talk about France when some kid threw up."
"Hmph. Never liked kids. The screaming, shitting and worst of all vomiting. Marta's was alright though. Why not you sit down while I tell you about them."
I walk over to one of the antique chairs and lightly sit on the edge of it, afraid that its fragile frame might give out beneath my buttocks. Healer Ray hands me a cup of tea. I'm afraid to drink it not only because of what happened last two times I drank someone else's brew, but also because Healer Ray made it and I'm not sure if I'd trust him not to roofie my drink. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me three times, I deserve whatever someone tries to slip me. I start to set it on the end table when Healer Ray rushes over and places his hand on the table.
"DON'T put that down!" Healer Ray conjures a small coaster and places it on the table before nodding.
"I thought the dollie was there to protect the table?"
"No, that's to protect against dust. Your drink could stain the delicate lace."
"You're worse than my grandma. You know what I do? I set my tea wherever I want and clean up the mess later with a spell. Like a normal person."
"You mean like an uncivilized bachelor."
"Aren't you supposed to tell me about Marta Keel?"
"Right." He says, shaking his head and sitting across from me. "Marta's story begins when she was in her sixth year. She was an outgoing Hufflepuff. Very popular with the boys her age, if you know what I mean. Got 'Acceptable' or lower in most of her OWLs the year before. Teachers probably thought she wasn't that bright, not in the traditional sense. She knew what a girl like her needed to know though. Mostly. Made a few mistakes midway through that year and got pregnant. She didn't return to finish her NEWTs.
"For the first year, things were okay for her son Caleb and her. Caleb's father, Eddie Sinclair, was a year older and finished school. He got a decent low level ministry job and she found work as a cashier in an Apothecary in Diagon Alley. Then Volde- Voldemort came back.
"She never doubted that he had returned. She had no reason to. All she knew was that if she kept her head down, Caleb and her would be fine. That worked. For the first year.
"Then Voldemort came out in the open. Caleb's father was a muggleborn who pissed off a young Death Eater back when he was in school. The young man told one of Greyback's men about the scuffle and the next thing you know Caleb was bitten and Eddie was murdered in the attack.
"Treating a werewolf ain't cheap, as you'd know. She was back at work the day after, earning money for Caleb's treatment. That's when fate intervieaned. I walked right into that apothecary to get some herbs when I noticed a book about living with lycanthropy lying on the counter- it was an even slower day than normal. I told her off handedly that those books where full of sentimental crap and she kind of burst out crying. It was horrible. She explained what had happened to Caleb and I told her to find someone who was a werewolf instead of relining on flimsy literature. I had been recently laid off-"
"Striped of your Healer licensee and fired?" I interpret, knowing all about his various medical malpractices over the years and having the sinking feeling this story was about to end with another one.
"If they really needed me, a few transgressions wouldn't have mattered. Anyway, she mentioned that she once had a Defense Teacher who was a werewolf and I volunteered to find him. That's how I met your father. He was well hidden, but I was able to extract him from that werewolf commune single handedly and Greyback was none the wiser."
"And I'm the minister of magic. Who helped you?" I ask.
"Okay, so I had a bit of help. I treated Tonks the summer before. My last patient before being asked to leave St. Mungos, so I remembered her very clearly. She had been hit by some pretty nasty spells and then fell down a bunch of stairs. Severe injuries, very bad stuff. I remembered that Remus brought her in and visited her, so I tracked her down and she felt sorry for Marta. She used Dumbledore's emergency extraction plan and it almost compromised his undercover mission. The three of us took Marta and Caleb to Tonk's flat for the procedure."
"The procedure?" I ask. "What did you do? Try to cure lycanthropy in your basement?"
"Not cure. Transfer. In my Healer apprenticeship days I ran across an old spell that supposedly transfer the curse from one individual to another."
"I've never heard of that spell."
"That's because we now know it's hippogriff shit. But no one wanted to research Lycanthropy at the time, and Marta was willing to try anything. She convinced me it was worth a shot. Of course, Remus and Tonks objected to the whole thing, but this patient was more consenting then most of mine, so I went right ahead."
"Right," I say "Consenting."
"I knew you'd say that," Healer Ray says. "The procedure is hard to explain without showing exactly how it is done, so I got a pensive to show you exactly what happened that day."
"Where the hell did you get a pensive?" I ask as he walks to a far off table to get a heavy basin. Those things are really expensive.
"It was mostly legal," He answers. "Now stick your head so you can see what I inadvertently did to Marta, and to what I will never forgive myself for."
"Did the transfer work?" I ask. Healer Ray shakes his head and for the first time appears to be a little sad.
"No. The procedure gave her lycanthropy but left Caleb with it too. She had nothing left in life. Remus warned her not to get involved with Greyback, but she got desperate and joined his group. After a few months she wanted out. They kidnapped Caleb and sent her body parts the next day. She believed him to be dead. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. She left the county shortly thereafter. There was nothing I could do."
The anvil hit me right on the head. "You were in love with her, weren't you?" I blurt out. Healer Ray recoils in horror.
"Of course not!" He stammers. "Me? In love with Marta Keel? That's mad! Get in the pensive and turn off that soap opera in your head!"
"The way you talk about her. Idealized, tragic. Your insistence that we help her now. It all makes so much sense! You still really care for her, don't you?"
"Of course, I care for all my patients, even you little twerp. Doesn't mean I want to do them. What kind of healer do you think I am?"
"You want to redeem yourself her, don't you? Find out what happened to little Caleb and maybe smooth things over between the two of you?"
"I did ruin her life. Does everything have to be a tragic love story to you? Can't I just look for closure? For atonement?"
"Hey, never said you can't do both!"
"Get in the pensive," Healer Ray grunts through clenched teeth, pointing madly at the basin. I reluctantly grasp the edges of the pensive and stick my head into the swirling mess.
A much younger Healer Ray, close to the age I first knew him at, sits on a chair next to a couch were a young Marta Keel lays, pale with a deep incision down her arm. He places his hand on her head and slowly strokes her thin hair while staring into her blank face.
Fortunately, this does not seem to be the only thing going on in the tiny flat I have landed in. A pair of familiar voices swell from the kitchen as Healer Ray casts a quick charm to comfort his charge. I follow Healer Ray to the door and slip into the room before he can close the door separating the slumbering Marta from the rising noise. The room's inhabitants barely notice.
"I'm not spending Christmas with my mum and dad this year, that's for sure," a young woman complains to her companion. With a start I realize that man she is speaking to is Remus Lupin, my very own father. He stands far away from the woman clenching a mug and not responding. Glancing back at the woman I realize she's my mother, Nymphadora Tonks. Right now she looks very different from when we last met. I think before she had platinum streaks in her hair and some kind of funny eye color- maybe cyan or violet. At the present time though she seemed to have opted for the "I don't give a crap about how I look" style. Dishwasher brown hair hung lankly around her pasty face, waving and curling at awkward places down her back. Jeeze, even I take the second to even out the rough patches when I'm sick or hung over.
"Why not?" asks Remus quietly, staring into his mug.
"Because I'm fucking pissed at my mum right now and you aren't making things any easier for me. Do you know what she said to me the last time I saw her?"
"Something bad?"
"Told me to move on. Get over it. You probably agree with her."
"I do," Remus whispers quietly. "But I know it's not easy. I still have feelings for you."
Tonks rolls her eyes and takes a few steps towards him. "Funny way of showing it."
"You know why we can't be together-"
"Why not? I love you, Remus. And unless you were straight up lying to me last year you feel the same way."
"I know, but-"
"Don't you remember last year at all? On that cold winter's night in Grimauld Place's siting room, when we made love -"
With a jolt, I pull my head out of the pensive and turn to face Healer Ray.
"What the hell?" I scream.
"I don't remember the memory being that quick."
"That was the most disturbing thing I've ever heard!"
"I guess I can imagine it would be hard to hear that. It's not exactly a clean conversation, is it?"
"I don't know! I pulled my head out pretty damn quickly," I tell him, taking deep breaths between sentences while trying to remember a who I know is a good oblivatior. Maybe Hermione. She made her parents forget about her. Maybe she could make me forget about my parents...Ugh, why do I get in these situations again?
"What part? When I started talking about the full body blood transfusion?"
"Way before that. I got out of there as soon as Tonks started talking about 'last year at Grimauld Place' or whatever."
Healer Ray gives me a long, blank stare before responding. "Er, what did you do when you got into the memory?"
"I got bored of you petting Marta like a pussy cat and went to the kitchen, where all the exciting screaming was happening, before you got around to shutting the door."
Healer Ray slowly shakes his head and closes his eyes. "Really? How short is your attention span? If you were to give it about five more seconds I would have started explaining the procedure and you could observe Marta Keel. Get back in the damned pensive and listen to ME this time."
"No way. You didn't tell me you were sending me to the House-of-Unresolved-Sexual-Tension!"
"Well, obviously some people in that flat resolved their issues, otherwise you wouldn't be annoying me right now!" With that Healer Ray grabs my head and forces it back into the basin.
This time I stay put as Healer Ray closes the door on my parents. I follow him into the spare bedroom where a little boy lies curled up on a bed over the comforter. He carefully levitates the boy to the living room and places him on a cot he conjures up. Marta drowsily sits up and glances at them.
"Are we ready to do it?" Marta asks him.
"Yes," Healer Ray answers. Marta lies back down on the couch.
"You said this spell totally switches out our blood," She says. I cringe.
"Yes. Well, you'll keep some of your own blood of course, as you have more than your son, but he will no longer have any of his own. If the theory that blood itself is cursed is true, then it may transfer the infection to you."
"Good," She says, closing her eyes. Healer Ray places his hand on Caleb's shoulder and draws his wand. He begins to mutter a long incantation.
Suddenly, I hear a horrible squeezing sound, like a giant wringing out a car sized sponge. A horrible red light engulfs the room. I turn away and close my eyes as the horrible metallic smell fills the room. I quickly press my palms over my nose and hold my breath, keeping the horrible scent away from me.
After a moment the light dissipates and I quickly turn around to see Remus and Tonks enter the room. Tonks sways slightly and grabs onto Remus's shoulder.
"I'm going to be sick," She gasps, turning around and rushing to the bathroom. Healer Ray stands between Marta and Caleb, now wide awake.
"What just happened, mommy?" Caleb asks. Marta runs up to him and pulls him into a hug.
"We're just trying to make you all better, okay Caleb?" Marta says. She glances up at Healer Ray.
"When will we know?" Marta asks.
"Next full moon. Two days from now," Healer Ray answers. I pull my head out of the pensive and turn to the older Healer Ray, now standing next to me.
"That was only slightly less disturbing," I say, feeling as though I might throw up as well.
"Well, now that you saw that she was consenting, we can continue."
"Now I know why Remus said you could get arrested for that," I gasp, trying to hold the vomit back.
"No, the Ministry would hardly care about an old spell. They would care about the Blood Bonding potion I used on them though. It's main ingredient is a heavily controlled substance because of it's psychedelic and psychotic properties when used on it's own. Once made a family man think he was being attacked by apes and subsequently killed his wife and kids."
"Why did I just see all that?" I ask.
"Because I want to find Caleb," He says. "I owe him that much."
"You think that since I'm an Auror, I can help."
"Precisely."
"What do you want me to do? Open up a twenty five year old missing person's case where the subject has been declared dead?"
"Yes."
I laugh. "Dude, I'm a low level Auror. I'm not a team leader. I don't even know if my boss could open up a case like that, much less me!"
"I need you to do this. Just explain it to someone. Pull a few favors and our slate is clean. Get this into a case and I'll owe you."
"I'll tell Thompson what you told me," I say eventually, getting up from the chair and leaving the room. "There's more to this than you're telling me, isn't there? And it's not just that you loved this woman, is it?"
"Not that you need to know."
I apperate back to the lycanthropy clinic and tell Victorie all about Marta and Caleb Keel. She suggests I ask Marta before I go about opening the case. I agree.
The next morning, I found Marta sipping her tea back at the same table. She picks up her coat and is about to leave when I spot her.
"Marta!" I say. She turns around.
"Look, I know this is kind of weird, but how much did Greyback send you of your son?"
I have never seen someone look so shocked in my life. "Bones. Bloody bones with flesh still on them. Why the hell do you want to know?"
"Look, Healer Harley Ray and I know each other. He told me about your son and practically begged me to find him. If you never magically identified them, then there is a very good chance he may still be alive."
Her face softens. "Really?" She asks. "Remus warned me in the beginning…I thought…"
"Healer Ray thinks I can find him but I would like to ask your permission before re-opening this case."
She thinks for a moment. "Fine. But don't bother me unless you have a really strong lead. I don't want false hope."
"Alright," I tell her. I reach into my russack and summon a document. "Can you just release Caleb's medical files? We like to look at those."
"Sure," She says, signing the document. "You can have mine too, if that helps. Don't know why it would, but I got nothing to hide with those," She tells me, writing 'Marta L. Keel okay too' in the margin. Not sure if that is the official way to extend who a warrant applies to, but whatever.
"I buried the bones at my parents' house. I'm living there now. Here's the address," She scribbles a house number onto a piece of paper. "You can go dig them up at noon or something. Just do it while I'm at work, okay?" I nod.
"Thanks, Marta," I tell her. "You won't regret this."
Author's Note: Hope you liked the chapter! This one was a lot of talking, I know, but now we know all about Ms. Marta Keel and the little boy the fic is named for. Look out for Chapter Three, including beautiful, sexy, shirtless, men.
