A.N. 3:32 A.M. and done with this. Just so done xP *dies slowly*

Position: Chaser 1 (written by Captain)

Team: Tutshill Tornados

Words: 1314

Prompts: Wolfsbane and 1, 5, 14

Title: A Wolf's Bane

"I'm afraid that your son has all of the symptoms." the healer said. "As well, the fact that he was spotted even near Fenrir Greyback finalizes the diagnosis."

The parents of the little boy stared up at the healer, quite afraid of what she would say. They knew what the entire situation had pointed to, but they weren't ready to receive the news that would diminish their hopes of their son ever recovering fully.

"Your son is a lycanthrope." the healer finished.

Remus Lupin breathed in, waiting patiently for the secretary to speak. She was constantly tapping her quill while reading over his resume. The secretary was nodding approvingly at many points.

Until she reached those last few words.

Those dreaded last few words.

"What is this Mr. Lupin?" she asked. "Are you stating you are, in fact, a werewolf?"

Remus breathed out, his eyes closing.

He would not get the job.

"What?"

"A werewolf." clarified the healer.

"He can't be." the mother laughed.

The healer stared at the woman as her face searched the other for any sign of humor. Clearly, there wasn't any. The mother swiftly broke down into tears. Her husband rubbed her shoulder consolingly, his face set in a frown. Right now he was his family's rock, and they were all leaning on him for support. The father stared at his son in a hidden anguish. Why did it have to be his son? Sure, he had turned away Fenrir's offer of joining his ranks, but why did it have to be his son? Why couldn't it have been him? After all, the father was the one to anger Fenrir.

"I suppose a cup of tea would help?" the healer suggested.

"Have you no sympathy?!" the father asked, angrily. "Our son is now a werewolf! He will be considered a burden to society! He won't go to H-"

"I ask that you do not say that in front of him." the healer interrupted. "Please come back for a word."

"We do not accept werewolves as they pose a risk to the many other employees we are responsible for."

"I'm sorry Mr. Lupin, we can not accept you."

"Perhaps try another department."

"It is not exactly seen as, well, appropriate to have a werewolf working among our employees."

The father got up angrily, though ruffled his son's hair affectionately on the way out. The mother stroked the boy's hand before leaving. The healer's assistant stayed with the boy, and gave him a source of comfort to hang on to. Meanwhile, the healer brought the mother and father out into the hall, away from the hearing range of the boy.

She then whirled around on the parents as soon as the door closed.

"Listen," she began, "there is no changing what he is now. Research is happening, and people are trying to find new ways of overcoming it, but there is no cure I can give him. The best you can do is to make it less painful for him."

"How would we be able to do that?" the father asked, crossing his arms.

"You can calm down, and take it all in stride." the healer said. "It will only make him more upset if you are all that way. You need to show your support as well, more so than you have been doing. The both of you have been focusing on each other's feelings rather than your boy's."

"I can't look at him, it is all my fault." the father said, looking down.

The father was now completely ashamed. His son would be in this fixed state. His son would not be able to fulfill all of his dreams that he had shared with his mother and himself. His son would be looked down upon by the whole of society, and would unlikely be given the opportunities that other children would receive.

"It is your fault," the healer said, nodding. "But what's done is done. You need to get rid of that shame, and that guilt. It's something any werewolf hates. That is something that makes its way into the very core of their emotions. It is their bane."

"Is there no other way of helping him?" the mother asked, desperately. "Of making the transition hurt less?"

"None that I have heard of." the healer answered. "However, there is a new potion rumoured to make a werewolf keep their mind during the full moon. It is not yet approved, but there is hope that it will be. It won't cure the werewolf, and it has an apparent unpleasant taste, but it is progress."

"How long does it usually take for approval?"

"The potion has just been made, and they have just started tests." the healer told them. "It may take years till these tests are full completed. The longest one has taken twenty-seven years, and knowing the ministry, they would want to be completely sure on this."

"Twenty-seven years!" the mother exclaimed.

"To be fair, the polyjuice potion took five years." the healer said. "They had to study after effects, and see if animal hairs could be used. That is a more complicated potion than the one I often hear of, so I would count on it taking twenty."

"My son will have to go through around twenty years of pain!" the mother nearly yelled.

"There are those who have suffered from lycanthropy their whole lives." the healer said, raising her voice. "I had to deal with a man in his sixties who is a lycanthrope, and he deals with this pain every month at his age. To him, the simple thought of this new potion is a complete relief. It's something that helps him go through everyday. Just the thought of one simple potion."

Silence rang through the hallways like the aftermath of a cannon blasting. No one spoke, not even those who had just passed by. It seemed to permeate the air around them.

"Now," the healer said. "You get back in there, and you help your boy look on the positive side of everything. Never let him be ashamed of himself. Never let him feel guilt. Doing all that is one way of getting rid of the pain. Always, always, remind him about how there are people out there constantly trying to help people like us."

Still there was silence. At least, until the woman spoke up.

"You - you're a werewolf?"

Remus went back to his old healer, the one who had diagnosed him. She smiled upon seeing him, remembering the man when he was just a boy. It was later, after the greetings, did the two sit down for a chat.

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Get hired?"

"I found where I was most at home, and then I convinced them on what I could bring to the table."

"I don't know where I am most at home."

"Think, Remus." she had said. "Think about where you felt most welcomed."

"Hogwarts." was the immediate response.

"Hogwarts it is, then."

When Remus was about to leave, the old healer remembered something. She halted him with her words, before guiding him to a cabinet in the back of the hospital room.

"I am," the healer nodded. "That doesn't change what I do in my life besides that one day of the month. That potion? The wolf's bane they call it. It gives me hope of a brighter future. Perhaps one day that cure will come, and I won't be around to see it. I hope, though, that people like your son, Remus, will be around to see it."

Then she opened the door into the hospital room, walking straight to the little boy lying on the bed.

The old healer handed Remus a box, and he opened in it. Inside, he found a list for some sort of potion, and an already made potion.

"Wolfsbane."

A.N. Hope you enjoyed! Now bed for me :)