AN: Thanks for the reviews! Always appreciated.
25/04/14: There's been some editing of this chapter just to make things a bit smoother.
Previously: Remus, after getting a job as a teacher at Harry's primary school discovers Harry's misery and abuse at the hands of the Dursley's. With the help of a bottle of vodka, he decides to go to the Dursley's house to find out the true extent of the Dursley's mistreatment of Harry and how best to remove him. He goes in disillusioned but once he sees Vernon threatening Harry with a beating, he hits him and reveals himself. He then grabs a very frightened Harry and disapparates them out of there.
What was Mr Lupin doing?
Harry struggled desperately against the arms that were holding him but they just seemed to get tighter and tighter, crushing his body into Mr Lupin's. He'd seen a car getting compacted once in a big iron box and he felt a lot like that. Like all the air inside was being forced from his body. He wanted to beg Mr Lupin to stop it but he couldn't speak; couldn't move.
Then it was over.
As quickly as it started, the crushing feeling vanished, leaving Harry gasping in Mr Lupin's gentler grip in a very different place to where they were before.
That was not Harry's priority though.
"Get off me!" He cried, struggling out of his teacher's hold and backing quickly across the dusty room.
The teacher raised his hands, palms forwards, in a soothing gesture but before Harry could react he was seized with a sudden and intense nausea.
There was nothing he could do to stop himself from doubling over and emptying the meagre contents of his stomach across the floor.
What was happening?
"It's okay Harry. It's normal to throw up the first time you travel like that."
"Wh-what are you talking about? Where are we?"
Harry didn't think he'd ever been this scared before. He'd liked Mr Lupin but something really strange was going on and he just wanted to go home. It was the one and only time he'd ever wanted to be back with the Dursley's.
His eyes darted up to the teacher who still stood a good distance away.
"The Shrieking Shack… look Harry, please. None of this will make sense unless you calm down and let me explain."
Harry didn't want Mr Lupin to explain though. He wanted to be away from him.
"Please let me go."
He just wanted to leave. He didn't think kidnappers listened to the people they'd taken though.
Mr Lupin seemed to be listening though. His head was cocked slightly to one side and his brows were furrowed, like he was considering something.
"Okay, Harry."
Oh. Harry was taken aback. That had been a lot easier than he thought.
"But we have to have a conversation first. Then you can decide whether you want to leave. If you decide you do, I promise I will take you straight back to your Aunt and Uncle's."
Harry was fairly sure his mind was already made up but it seemed safest to agree.
"Okay."
Mr Lupin looked visibly relieved and gave Harry a small smile as he gestured towards a torn sofa. He used to give Harry that smile when he said hello in the morning, or when he'd done a good bit of work or when he'd come over for a talk. He thought Mr Lupin was his friend.
"Harry, there are many things we need to talk about and many things I need to explain, but for now I'll focus on two of them. At the Dursley's you saw me appear from nowhere and you've noticed that we disappeared and reappeared somewhere else?"
"Yes." Harry muttered, glancing around. He remembered all too well. He could still taste the vomit in his mouth.
They were in what looked like a living room but not one like the Dursley's. Theirs was clean and neat and ordered but this place was… chaotic. There were chairs broken on the floor, and wallpaper marked with deep, violent gouges. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, like no one had been there for years. Why had he been taken here?
"To put it simply Harry, that was magic."
Magic?
"There's no such thing as magic." Harry recited. If he knew one thing for certain it was that. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Dursley were always reminding him of that every time he had a strange dream or something weird happened. Magic was something in books for little kids and Harry wasn't little anymore.
Mr Lupin smiled that smile again.
"Oh, but there is Harry." A sparkle appeared in Mr Lupin's eye as he saw Harry's incredulous face. "Watch."
The teacher stood up, pulling a long, thin wooden stick out of his coat pocket. "This is a wand. It channels your magic so you can control it properly. You can do almost anything once you've learned how to use it."
Harry barely heard a word of what the wand-waving Mr Lupin was saying, instead letting his eyes rove around the room for an escape. The man was clearly man and Harry was becoming increasingly certain he was going to meet his end in the creaking house.
That was until Mr Lupin pointed the stick (for Harry refused to call it a wand) at a broken chair and said clearly, "Reparo." And to Harry's utter astonishment the chair's various parts shot back together again.
"Th-that's… How?" Harry stammered, looking at Mr Lupin with a new fear.
"No one really knows, Harry." He responded, putting the stick back in his pocket. "Some people are born with magic and some people aren't. It does often run in families though; my father was a wizard too. Just like yours."
A wizard. Harry truly could not believe it. Magic couldn't be real but…
How else could what he'd just seen be explained? That chair had been broken.
And his dad could do it? The only thinigs he knew about his dad was that he was drunk and unemployed and apparently now a wizard!?
"My dad could do magic?"
Harry couldn't help but feel slightly proud. Not that he was entirely convinced magic even existed but if it did and his dad could do it… well, it couldn't be that bad.
"Your mum as well. And, I think I might be right in saying, you too."
That was too far. Too far and clearly wrong- he couldn't remember ever waving a stick around or fixing chairs like that.
"I don't think I can, Sir." Harry replied with certainty.
"Think Harry. Have you ever been very angry or scared and something strange has happened?"
Harry thought about it again. He remembered when Aunt Petunia had cut off all his hair except his fringe but it had all grown back. Or when Dudley and Piers had been chasing him in the playground and he'd ended up on the roof.
His Aunt and Uncle had shouted at him then, calling him a freak and not letting him have dinner. They couldn't explain to Harry how it had happened though. How he had grown back his hair, or how he had ended up on the roof.
In fact, Mr Lupin was the only one who'd tried to explain it to him.
Magic. It… it made sense.
Mr Lupin could clearly read the look on Harry's face.
"You see, Harry, you can do magic. And that's how I took you tonight. It's important you understand what magic is so I can explain to you the second thing we need to talk about; your parents."
Harry grasped on to the morsel of information Mr Lupin had dropped earlier.
"You said you knew them."
He'd never met anyone who spoke about his parents before.
Mr Lupin picked up the newly repaired chair and sat down in front of Harry, running a tired hand across his lined face.
"Yes, I did. We went to school together. Your mother and father were two of my best friends. They meant the world to me, both of them, and without them… well, I don't know where I'd be. Here, I have a picture for you." He reached into his pocket again and after rummaging for a while produced a slightly crumpled photograph, which he handed to Harry. "The pictures move Harry, it's nothing to worry about."
Harry didn't find himself particularly interested by the magic of the photograph though. Rather it was the look on his parents' faces as they looked at the baby in their arms (him, he realised with something near delight) that captivated him. He'd never seen his parents before. His dad looked a lot like him he thought as he traced a finger across their faces and his mum had the kindest smile he'd ever seen. And neither of them could look away from the sleeping baby they were holding.
He didn't realise he was crying until a tear hit the photograph, rippling and distorting the ink.
"They loved you so, so much, Harry." Mr Lupin imparted to the child. "We all did. The whole world was falling apart- we were at war you see. There was a truly evil wizard that we fought; me, your parents and a group of other people. He hurt a lot of people and caused a lot of sadness and sometimes… well, sometimes it was hard to get out of bed in the morning and face that. But then there was you, a cheerful little boy who made it all worth it."
Harry listened to Mr Lupin's words but never took his eyes away from the photograph.
"That was why I took you tonight. I knew from what you told me at school that your family treated you badly but I had no idea of the extent… I owe Lily and James everything and I could not live with myself if I knowingly left you with those people."
Harry looked up at his teacher then, surprised that the man's eyes were shining with tears as he watched Harry. And he realised then that Mr Lupin wasn't scary anymore. He was just Mr Lupin, the kind teacher he could talk to about anything and who would always listen. He realised he was glad he was with him then and not the Dursleys. He'd learned more about himself and his parents in the last five minutes than he had in his entire lifetime.
Mr Lupin sat forward then, his hand fluttering towards Harry then away again, as if reaching to lay a hand on his shoulder then thinking better of it. Folding his hands in his lap he took a deep breath.
"I've said my bit now Harry and I promised you a choice. You can go back to the Dursleys now if you want, I won't be angry and… and I'd understand." Mr Lupin paused then, his thumb picking compulsively at a thread on his trousers. "Or you can stay with me. We won't be living in luxury by any means but I promise I will look after you as best I can. We can talk about your parents as much as you like and I can teach you about magic and, well, anything you want really! And Harry, I will never, ever hurt you, or-or starve you or-"
"Okay."
"What? Really?" Replied Mr Lupin, clearly shocked.
The choice had become clear to Harry as Mr Lupin had spoke. He wanted to live with someone who could tell him about his parents and about this whole new world he was aching to discover. He wanted someone who was kind and funny and wouldn't shout at him or take away his food or threaten to hit him. He didn't want to go back to the Dursley's at all. He wanted to live with Mr Lupin.
"I'll stay with you."
AN: What did you think? I wanted Harry to be initially scared of Remus and magic but also curious and eager for information about his parents. I hope I got the right balance.
