Author's Note: Flashback Chapter :) As you will see, the flashback chapters will not just be of Remus and Tonks. I have this headcanon that Lyall & Hope always feared the ministry would take their son away from them because of lycanthropy. Since the ministry's werewolf registry has always been a little messy. Some of this chapter will be sad. It hurt my heart to write this. Also, I love writing little Remus haha
"Remus, how many times have I told you not to touch the turntable?" Hope scolded calmly, wiping her hands on a towel to clean up the mess in the lounge. Remus seemed to always get into trouble the two or three days before the full moon. It was like clockwork. She knew he most likely did not understand.
Remus sat down on the couch not looking at Hope but at his hands, knowing that he was in trouble. Six-year-old Remus already knew there seemed to be a pattern of how his days would pan out. Especially around the full moon. His mother had talked to him about this when he started asking questions. It hurt her heart for him to have to grow up so fast.
"It is okay, love" Hope reassured him, picking up the bigger pieces of the broken record to throw away. "I know you wanted to listen to Watermelon Man, but you needed to wait for Mum. "
Grabbing a broom from the closet, she swept up the rest of the smaller pieces. She put a record on the turntable. "Do you want to help Mommy in the kitchen? I am making chocolate chip cookies." Little Remus nodded his head eagerly. She knew that anything to distract Remus from the impending days ahead was a plus. One of his favorite things to do was to help his Mum in the kitchen. "Go wash your hands. Don't let me see you cheating by not using soap."
While he had been bitten almost two years ago, he was still a little boy. One who did not like to wash his hands and loved to get dirty. Hope wanted him to keep that innocence about him for as long as possible. She knew that he would have a hard life ahead of him, however. Sighing at that thought, she walked into the kitchen, seeing Remus standing on a stool at the sink.
"Done" Remus exclaimed, the little boy putting up his hands to show his mother. Hope gave him a knowing look, and he turned his hands over so you could see his palms. "All clean."
"Alright, what do we need to make these delicious cookies?" Hope asks, smiling and pulling out all the dry ingredients that she would need to make the cookies. She preferred to make them the homemade way or as some referred to it as the Muggle way. Making the dough from scratch, handmade. She loved these times with her son.
"Um, chocolate chips?" Remus asks, putting his finger to his chin as if he was thinking relatively hard on her question.
"Yes, how about…" Hope chuckles knowing that would be Remus' first thought. Busying herself getting all the items out of the fridge, she notices her husband frantically scurrying down the stairs from his study.
"Take Remus upstairs" Lyall exclaims, not wanting to let his son see the concerned features laced on his face, whispering to his wife "I just saw someone from the ministry show up at the apparition spot."
Hope picks up her son from the stool he was standing on, "let's make the cookies later. Let's go upstairs to your room"
"Mum, I wanna make the cookies now. My tummy is hungry" Remus explains in protest as his mother takes him up the stairs. Remus had always been a perceptive boy, so when his father came running down the stairs that led to the little boy having to go upstairs, he knew something was wrong. His parents always included him in everything they did from helping his Mum in the kitchen to being with his Dad in his study. His father always gave him parchment and quill to practice his written out words when he was in his dad's study 'helping'.
Once upstairs in her son's room "how about you play with your cars." Hope suggests. "Mummy will be downstairs."
"Can't I come with you?" The bitten child innocently asks not wanting to be alone since the incident. He was not fully understanding what was going on. He was scared of being alone. The first month or so after the incident, he had slept on a cot in his parents' room. His parents had eventually gotten him to sleep in his room after they had magically hung lights on his wall. They were firefly lights that made him smile as he fell asleep.
"Not now, baby" Hope answers painfully wanting to be honest with him but not knowing what was going on. Ever since that night, he had had nightmares. That was one of the reasons he did not like to be alone. The nightmares seemed to coordinate with the full moon, recently. Hope and Lyall chalked it up to him still being scared to transform.
Once his mother leaves, he quietly climbs down the wooden steps, his little hand on the railing. Halfway done he hears a strange voice coming from the sitting room "Mr. Lyall Lupin?"
"That would be me" He hears his father's answers. If Remus could have seen his father, he would have seen his confident stance and his eyes not leaving the Ministry stranger.
"My name is Bartomus Reginald. I am here on behalf of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." the unfamiliar voice introduces. Remus knew his father worked there, he pondered his mind wondering why someone from his father's work was visiting. Maybe they were here for the cookies he and his mother were making.
"No" he hears Hope interrupt an almost pleading in her voice "you are not taking our son away from us."
"I am not here for that." Bartomus Reginald answers in a monotone voice "I am here to give Mr. Lyall Lupin a cease and desist letter for his research pertaining to the Noisi virus."
Remus ran down the stairs crying, latching onto his mother's side and hiding his face from the mysterious man, "Mommy, no I don't want to go"
"Remus, no one is taking you away" his father explains, eying the man from the Ministry. "you are safe."
Hope exited the sitting room with the crying Remus in her arms trying not to think of the possibility that one day they may take away her son.
"Mr. Lupin, again this is a cease and desist letter" the Ministry official hands him the note and proceeds to explain the consequences. . "If you do not forgo your research, there will be consequences. Including the seizing of your assets."
Lyall knew that the only way to help Remus was to continue his research, summing up all the courage he had "Why is the Ministry giving me a cease and desist letter? What is it about this virus that the government doesn't want others to know about?"
"If you have questions, you can write to the division address stated in the letter." the man in front of him comments. Adjusting his tie, he states "With the state of things, I would keep your son protected at all costs."
Looking up from the letter, Lyall clutches his wand from the inside of his robe, "Is that a threat, Mr. Reginald?"
"No, just an observation. I would also keep an eye on your wife. You know what they say about those Muggles"
Lyall sees fire as he motions for the man to leave, "Get out of my house. Do not come back. Do not threaten my family ever again."