A/N I came back again! Work's been spooling up a bit with the winter prep lately and, well, there's snow on the ground now. So Tippee for snow removal duty at 6 am. Anyway, there is some frenxh in this chapter, translated in brackets. Before anyone goes and harps, I do speak french, and I absolutely did not use google translate. Aside from that, Thanls to my beta Char for being awesome. Enjoy, but remember i don't own anything so please don't sue me.
PS, this chapter bounces around a bunch. if if feels disjointed, it's supposed to.
31 December 1973
The fresh air always felt good after hours in the cabin air. The forest was laden with moisture as the sky threatened to rain, but they set out regardless. The summer heat had been pushed out by a cold front. As much as he loved the outdoors, he was looking forward to checking the mail for letters from 'James Potter'.His mother always said that a hike was the best thing to do after being stuck sitting for so long, and she wasn't wrong. After the mechanical silence of the airplane, it was nice to stop and smell the roses.
It wasn't until they were retracing their steps through the tall oaks and cherries to the car that they ran into anyone. A couple of scruffy men, just starting on the trail. . Romulus could feel the water lying heavy in the air.
"It's going to rain soon" His mother warned. The larger of the three sneered and pushed past them on the trail. Romulus shrugged. They turned away and continued for the lot.
The thing about a wooded hiking trail in the boonies just before the rain, is that there's no one around to hear a woman scream when a rock connected with her teenage son's head and caused him to crumple. There's no one to hear the CRACK of a heavy branch on bone. There's no one to notice the empty car for several days.
On a night that was brighter than most, Romulus's 'room' was filled with shrieks and screams of pain that turned from human to animal then ceased in a matter of minutes. He was awakened by animal screams again some time later. It didn't take long to figure out.
Romulus was vaguely aware of the bump and rumble of a jostling car, and then he knew an empty room with a bucket. He tried to sit up; the room swam around him.
There was nothing but bile.
He was hungry, thirsty, tired, cold, disoriented, and frightened. It was implied that his mother was around, and within a few days, Romulus has discerned that the operation had not been random.
"Yeah, we found 'im."
"'E's just down the hall."
"Followed the Lupin brat all d'way from Germany."
"Who's the woman?"
"Mother we think. ID doesn't match the names though."
"So she left Lupin after all? I'm a little surprised she took the brat with her."
"Will he be joining us for the full?"
"Too risky. Kid needs to learn his place first. Can't have the pup runnin' off."
How long would it take for them to realize he wasn't like them, that they'd grabbed the wrong son? Would they turn him themselves? Kill him? He still hadn't seen his mom, but he knew she was still alive, could hear her in the next room spitting curses at their captors with every second breath…
Somewhere along the line he'd given up that childish notion that someone would rescue them. He'd once read somewhere that the first three days were critical in missing persons cases. It had been closer to three months.
"You've been lying to us"
"No I haven't."
"Yes you have laddie. You've done an admirable job of pretending, but don't think we haven't noticed your deceit." The wide one made a show of cracking his knuckles.
"What deceit? What have I been pretending to do?" He backed away from them, trying not to make it too obvious.
"You've been pretending to be Lyall Lupin's son." The gangly one keptsilent. Usually he was rather chatty.
"What?"
"I said-"
"I'm not deaf." Romulus huffed a sigh. How dense were these loons? "I haven't been pretending to be anything."
"You said your name was Lupin."
"That's because it IS." He crossed his arms and planted his feet as an attempt to keep his nerves under control.
"Lupin's son was bitten many moons ago, boy, and you i'nt no wolf." Rom didn't want to know why they looked… hungry, almost.
"I'm Lyall Lupin's son…"
"I don't really think you're the one who gets to ask the questions here-" Romulus retorted "-seeing as you're the one inveading my personal space!"
"If we really want to get technical here, I'm not exactly taking up any space, so I don't see-"
"What do you want?" Romulus asked. The shock had faded slightly and was being replaced with annoyance.
"What I want, Romulus Gaius Lupin,-"
'Wait, how does he know my name?'
"I didn't know, I suspected. Now I know." The voice in his head sounded familiar, but that could simply be a figment of his imagination. "-is to know why in the bloody hell I'm in your head, and what you're doing in the middle of-" Romulus felt his head turn. "wherever this is."
"Well, I'm not going to tell you." Romulus said, pleased that he at least had some control of the situation.
He was brought outside to a solar shower in the courtyard for his weekly bathing (something that should not be attempted early on an October morning) - his escorts became drawn into conversation with another of their group or cult or whatever they wanted to call it, and Romulus just slipped around the corner of the building.
Branches and brambles pulled at his hair and tugged at his clothes and he could hear others behind him crashing through the brush as they raced after him.
"Get back here you little brat!" The gravelly voice rang effortlessly through the trees, as though the caller had taken mere steps as opposed to the drawn out chase after a thirteen year old boy. The boy though, was beginning to feel the chase. His heart was racing, his breathing was ragged, his muscles screamed for a chance to rest, his lungs for air, but he knew that if he did that, he'd be caught. He stumbled, gasping for air that he didn't seem able to breathe as he hurtledheadfirst through the thorns and thistle and down the ravine.
The world was spinning but the grizzled face above him was clear enough. "Come along now Lupin, can't have you running off like that. What would your dear mum do without you?" The sounds of the wind grew louder and the footsteps faded out before everything faded to black altogether.
The days blurred together; the sun rose and set, the moon waxed and waned, and the painful cries resonated through the compound. They didn't want him around until they'd broken his spirit.
They succeeded sometime after the fourth full moon.
He didn't have a window in the cell that had been his room. At least now he knew why, although a case of mistaken identity wasn't a great reason to be held prisoner like this. There was however a window across the hall and even if the brightness of the ground outside hadn't hinted at the phase of the moon, then the sounds of snarling and howling from elsewhere on the campus would. He didn't think they were in the same building, otherwise he'd likely be dead by now. It was the fourth time he'd heard the tortured screams turn into howls and he couldn't fathom what it actually felt like.
"No, no" a woman was screaming. "Back! Off! NO!"
He clapped his hands over his ears to block out his mother's screams for help, wanting nothing more than to help her and to save her from the monsters that were tormenting her. Then the tone of the screams shifted. He collapsed in on himself when they stopped entirely.
The larger man, name still unknown, frowned deeply and stuffed the sandwich into his mouth. Then he took the plate from his accomplice and hurled it through the bars, narrowly missing his thirteen year old target. "You'd better start cooperating, little Lupin…"
He was walking along a dark country road, and just as it had the year before, a little voice, seperate from Remus's popped into his head, and he was powerless to stop himself from jumping out into the road.
The cell was just as filthy as it had been when he'd somehow managed accidental magic and slipped out the day before, though the bucket had been emptied. That in itself was a huge relief. He flinched when he heard the door at the end of the hallway creak open and began to back against the wall as the scratchy voices he had come to despise drew nearer.
"Want to tell us how you got out now?" the larger of the two asked.
His foot collided with the bucket that allowed them to keep him in a barren cell for days on end and he retched as it's contents sloshed onto his feet. The men coming just laughed.
"Let's go boyo." the larger of the three with an eerie grin. "Come see Papa."
"You aren't my father!"
Remus stared up, watching the shadows dance across the ceiling as his brother squirmed and twisted on the bed. With a sigh, Remus threw back his blanket and rolled up onto his knees from the floor. The Lupins didn't have a guest room, so Remus had offered his bed to his brother while he camped out on the floor; thanks to magic it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. Ben had taken the couch, otherwise that's where Remus would have been. Or Maybe not. He didn't know if the wolf would let him let his sibling out of sight.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to sleep until Romulus's drugs kicked in, Remus quietly picked himself up off his makeshift bed and crept out the door, with the intention of holing up in his father's workroom with a book.
His attention was drawn to the sitting room, where the adults were holding a hushed discussion. It must have been a habit for sensitive topics, because Remus knew that his parents knew he could hear a pin drop in a thunderstorm. That, or it didn;t occur to them that he could still be awake.
"So they found him on the side of some road?" Hope asked, incredulous.
Ben nodded, "The driver stopped." Hope let out a breath and Lyall raised his eyes to the ceiling, where his sons would be sleeping just above them. By this time, Remus- ever curious- had crept down the stairs and was hovering just out of sight in the doorway. "Thank God."
"And Aster?" his father asked somewhat hesitantly with a glance at his wife.
The silence was answer enough, but Remus still heard breaths catch. If he hadn't been holding his own, he was sure it would have as well.
As much as he'd disliked Aster for her actions towards her son regarding him, his brother had still lost his mother. Ben Mynarski had still lost his wife. Remus knew he shouldn't be downstairs, and that he shouldn't be eavesdropping, but he made a decision, and drew into the kitchen, busying himself with the kettle before climbing up on the counter to reach a nook above the cupboards where he hid his good hot chocolate stash. Then he opened the cupboard for the regular stuff for his parents.
They weren't grieving the loss of a loved one, Remus rationalized. Well, maybe Dad once upon a time, but it's not the same.
If the adults were surprised or disapproving to see Remus emerge from the kitchen balancing four mugs in his hands, they didn't show it. He offered the mugs in his right hand to his parents and on from his left to their guest. Then he curled up with his mug beside his mother.
Lyall shot his son a contemplating glance, as though unsure if he should speak, but Remus deserved to know just as much as he did. "Has he said anything about what happened?"
"No," replied Romulus's stepfather, his face showing just how tired he was. "He's barely said anything since I got back to him. All I know is what's in the official report, and that's mostly from things he said when he was asleep or hopped up on morphine that he wasn't really there.."
Remus tried not to look too curious, but he never had been good at that. Ben caught his eye and a flicker of grief passed over his features. He absently traced the patterns in the cushions for a few moments before looking back at Remus, then his father. "They found the car in an empty lot back in the beginning of August. By that time I was already comatose. I didn't wake up until november and no one told me anything for ages; probably because they didn't know themselves."
He took a deep breath. Spitting out what he knew as fast as he could seemed to be the method, but speed didn't make the tale suddenly not stressful. "They think Romulus was held for around four months. And according to the doctors, he didn't seem to be too bad off other than malnourishment and a few broken ribs that were healed." Ben's fingers were now frantically following the bumps and ridges and scratches on the furniture. "He talks in his sleep though, or he mumbles. Kept asking for his mother and for them to stop hurting her. Sometimes he just yells."
Remus curled a little tighter into his own mother, not caring that he was thirteen and not four.
"After the crash they put him in a medically induced coma to keep his brain from swelling too much and once they figured out who he was and tracked me down, I was about to be discharged and hopped in the jump seat." Mynarski slumped on his seat and his gaze lingered on the boy who was the spitting image of his stepson before letting his eyes wander to the hallway where the stair led up to his ward. Then he turned back to the Lupins.
Hope and Lyall were fighting to keep themselves together for the sake of their son and their guest, but each hand that held the other's was white with strain.
"I'm sorry for just showing up like this," Ben managed, looking back to his lap as grief and pain and anger and guilt washed over him, "But I didn't think Romulus would handle going home well. I was there for about fifteen minutes and I just had to get out." He took another deep breath. "I guess flying back across the ocean may be a bit ridiculous, but he's barely said a word to anyone."
The four lapsed into silence as they sipped their drinks, before taking Remus's yawn and the ringing of the twelve chimes form the grandfather clock in the corner as cues to go to bed. Lyall took his son's mug and inclined his head towards the stairs. Somewhat reluctantly, Remus stood and headed back to his makeshift bed.
Romulus had finally stilled, and Remus relaxed, there was no thrashing or muttering coming from his brother. Remus picked his way around his books and the bag that had been brought up to slip under his covers. He was almost asleep when he heard the faint interruptions to his brother's breathing. What should've been an even rise and fall of the chest was rapid and choked.
Vous croyez que c'est lui? Le gars qui manque? (You think it's him? The missing kid?)
Peut-etre. (Could be.)
T'en a pas demandé son nom? (You didn't ask his name?"
Il est encore endormi Mathieu. (He's still asleep Mathieu)
Alors pourquoi est-ce que j'suis ici? ( Why am I here then?)
On l'enlève de son coma. Il devrait être conscient dans quelques minutes. (We're pulling him out of the coma. He should be conscious in a few minutes.)
There was a man and a woman talking, though neither sounded familiar. Before he was able to register the stark white walls, the blinking lights, and the beeping machines, he was choking and spluttering, trying to breathe around the tube that had been shoved down his throat. In moments there were hands on him, holding him down to the bed, he wanted to flee. He was next, they finally realized they'd made a mistake. They were going to rip him apart like they had his mother. Like they had so many others before his arrival.
And then the tube was out and there was a face in his surrounded by white ceiling tiles, and a bright light shining in his eyes. After a moment, the image blurred and . The sound of machines filled his ears, the beep beep beep gradually slowed as he realized he wasn't about to die. He smelled antiseptic and he felt clean, he was warm and underneath clean blankets. And there was someone talking to him. He ignored it and snuggled into the blankets.
...ton nom?" (your name?)
Romulus blinked. He'd been visited by several doctors already and he wanted to go back to sleep. He wanted to go to sleep and wake up in his bed at home, or in Ravenclaw tower.
"Es tu Romulus?" (Are you romulus?) the man asked, holding up a photo. He stared at the photo. It had been taken the previous summer when he and his stepfather had gone camping with a friend and their son. He was standing victorious on the gunwales of the canoe, his stepfather just popping back above the water. He'd sent it to MacArthur after Nigel had written him about going to a trailer and had called it camping. Included with the photograph that he was looking at had been one of the campsite, and another of the lake. He wondered briefly how they'd gotten it,
Romulus nodded.
Remus suppressed a groan of frustration and rolled himself tighter into his bug-in-a-rug heap of blankets in a desperate attempt to ignore the haggard breathing from his bed. Romulus's medication may have kicked in to put his body to sleep, and while he was no longer shifting around and thrashing, Remus could sense that his dreams were still distressing. So, for the sake of his sanity, Remus did something very uncharacteristically Remus. He rolled out of his cocoon, and slipped in beside his brother. Ever so gently, cautious of Romulus's injuries, he inched close enough that their shoulders just touched. Considering the size of the bed, there really wasn't much shifting to do, but the second that Remus took his brother's clammy hand in his over the quilt, the muscles relaxed and the breathing evened out. Hugs from his parents were one thing, but Remus was very rarely the one to initiate physical contact, Even the scraps at school- which were provoked, mind- were more Moony's doing than his own. He hadn't been a fan of physical contact since he'd understood what had happened all those years ago. It didn't feel right any longer; the wolf keened whenever it happened.
And yet, somehow, Remus felt his own pulse and breathing slow before he too drifted off to sleep.
Benjamin Mynarski was not generally one to second guess himself, a pilot doubting his actions is an incident waiting to happen. But as he was beginning to wonder about bringing his son to Wales. It was a bit selfish really, and probably a bit insecure of him as well; he knew Romulus wasn't his. Not really, anyway. But he had been the boy's father figure for the better part of seven years. But he also knew that Lyall deserved to know his eldest son.
Ben was conflicted because he wanted what was best for Romulus, but he was afraid that- especially without Aster- Lyall might contest his guardianship. Was he drag his healing stepson across the ocean and show up unannounced at the home of his son's actual father?
He couldn't help poking his head into the room the boys were sharing as he made his way back downstairs from the toilet. A soft smile played over his face when he saw the pair of them sleeping soundly, side by side. Romulus hadn't looked so at ease since they'd been reunited. He'd made the right decision. He'd just have to be an adult and deal with the consequences, whatever they may be.
A/N So... Thoughts? I hope it was worth the wait, and I hope to get better about my writing consistency. There are a lot of flashbacks and popping back and forth but I hope it made sense. Comments, questions, concerns? Let me know.
Recommendation this week? I remembered, but I'm sorry if I've already said it. The Bureaucratic Error by Iniga on FFN. Can you guess who my all time favourite H character is? duh.
One Eyed Wolf, OUT 27 OCT 2020
