Ravenclaw
Charms
Standard
[Object] Springs
Word Count: 1739
AN Alternate Universe; alternate first meeting of (most) of the Marauders; Pottermore is ignored due to shifted heritage of character
Jean Lupin never intended to be an explorer of the world, for all that the author often made a point of commenting on the foibles of other magical communities. Indeed, if he'd had his way, Jean and his petite famille would have never left their village outside of Château de Montségur. Of course, Jean never expected two of his home region's maxims to apply to him either.
"A desperate man will climb many mountains to achieve his goal" and "A guilty man will do anything to relieve his guilt" were never meant to describe him.
And yet, he was the one who wrote the article that ruined his son's life, one spring day.
He was the one who didn't take the threat of Fenrir Greyback seriously simply because most of the werewolf's victims were British.
He was the one who didn't warn little Remus of the dangers of going out under the light of the full moon, no matter how beautiful the new growth appeared.
And so, Jean Lupin's vision for his life changed.
Surely, surely someone somewhere had found a cure for the curse that plagued his child. Countries that lacked lycan communities became immensely important to the man whose foolishness had destroyed everything. Could these lands hold a little-known place of healing? No distance was too far. No cost could be too high if it brought an end to the nightmare of his boy tearing himself apart month after month after month.
Jean Lupin was both desperate and guilty, and his family paid the price.
Remus Lupin was nine-years-old, thank you very much. Plenty old enough to be left to his own devices for a time. He knew that he was a French citizen but had no memory of the countryside his parents once called home. While Remus could speak French, they traveled so much that he was equally fluent in Italian, German, English, Hungarian, and Romanian.
Okay, so maybe he was only partially fluent in that last one, but he was sure Papa would take them back to Romania someday, and he only needed two or three more weeks under the influence of the Romanian translator charm for it to stick. Remus was sure of it!
Currently, they were in Budapest visiting some of the most powerful healing springs to be found which translated to Remus soaking in too-sweet smelling waters of the 'kid-friendly' pool and snickering at the tourists willing to pay outrageous prices for a small bottle of water. while his parents figured out which hotel they'd stay in next.
Papa was sure that Budapest would be the place where a cure would be found for his son's condition. Remus… was less sure. Papa had been equally sure that the rare Lunar Star-Blooming Lily would fix everything. And the all-processed vegetarian diet. Then there was that dancing healer in the wilderness.
Getting back on track, now they were in Budapest so that Remus' skin could get extra-wrinkly in an attempt at stopping the wolf from coming out.
Sometimes, all Remus wanted was to go to the little town his parents described so fondly and move on with his life. Sure, sometimes half his month was tied up healing from various injuries made on the full moon, but he was almost sure the wolf would calm down at least a little bit if it had some familiar territory to cling to.
Papa didn't like that idea though. It was too much like giving up, and so they traveled. Sometimes, they'd stay in an area for a few weeks. Mostly this was when the latest treatment was supposed to take a little while or when Remus was too hurt to move, but they rarely stayed in the same area two moons in a row.
Learning each area's unique laws for lycanthropes was a headache, but Maman always said Remus was a smart and brave young man. He handled it the best he could.
What Remus was not accustomed to, however, was getting a large pail of water dumped on his head by seemingly no one.
This was especially annoying since this particular spring made no claims as to the necessity of drinking their foul water, and Remus wanted to enjoy that to the fullest.
"Wh-who did that?" he called as calmly as he could in every language he knew.
Halfway through his second iteration and just as he was starting to attract the stares of one of the other kids in the pool, a shimmery substance suddenly seemed to shift for lack of a better word, bringing a boy with messy hair into abrupt focus.
"Wow! You sure can speak a lot of languages. Hey, Siri," the boy called out to another brunet who had been watching from the sidelines with a smirk. Once the boy swam over, he continued, "This kid speaks a gazillion languages. We totally need to recruit him."
"Are you the reason I am all wet now?" Remus cut in from the bizarre discussion taking place in front of him. At least now he knew that the ones in front of him spoke English. At their sheepish nods, he asked, "For what reason would you splash me?" he asked in the formal English he'd always been made to use whilst visiting self-important healers, magicians, and frauds the world over.
The young boys tilted their heads in confusion.
"You talk weird, like my uncle Narcissus at really big parties with the Minister. That's okay though. To answer your question, I poured a bucket on you for lots of reasons. First, Siri dared me, and if you knew my cousin, you'd know that that's reason by itself. Second, the lady who brought us here said it's important that any hurts be in the water. Don't you want the mark on your face and shoulders to disappear?" Before Remus could come up with a response to that, the other boy, Siri, continued. "Lastly, springs are a great prank item. Jamie and I are master pranksters and aim to always make an impression wherever we go. Some might say it's our calling, and a place as boooring as this is just asking to be pranked. What d'you say, wanna join our campaign as pranksters supreme?" Both boys looked at Remus pleadingly. It was quite strange.
Remus' fingers went to rub at the scar on his face. He'd never been invited to play with other boys before. Moving around so much kept away those that the scars didn't. But did he really want to play pranks on this establishment?
His mind went back to the little desk where they sold little bottles of water to enthusiastic tourists looking to feel better.
"Splashing the springs is a little unimaginative, is it not?" he asked, a glimmer of an idea coming to Remus' mind. "If you wish to use the spring's water as your weapon of choice for pranking, I would think it would be better to do something with a bit more je ne sais quoi."
All three boys grinned in excitement. This would be a blast!
Three nine-year-olds can get up to a surprising amount of trouble after a few hours under limited supervision. By the time Nadia and Jean had come to retrieve their normally well-behaved child from the spring, rumors had already begun to spread that a horrible algae was infecting the ancient springs.
As they walked in, the couple could see an employee hastily putting bottles of garishly-hued water into boxes, out of sight. They found their son bone-dry with what appeared to be dye staining his fingers and hair. He was getting lectured alongside two others by an older woman.
"You are this boy's parents?" The woman greeted them after noticing their interest in the proceedings. Fully expecting her son to be an innocent victim, blamed purely due to his physical differences, Nadia prepared to go to war. Before she could begin, however, the woman continued.
"I'm Euphemia Potter. My apologies. It appears that my son, James, and nephew, Sirius, managed to convince young Remus here to join them in their wild antics. They come about it honestly, I'm afraid." Euphemia glared at her husband who just looked sheepish.
Meanwhile, Nadia's eyes strayed to her child. All manner of colors streaked his hair and hands, but more importantly than all of that, he was grinning. Pure happiness practically split Remus' face in half as he laughed with his new friends. Nadia couldn't be more pleased.
"Nadia Lupin, at your service." she introduced herself. "This is my husband, Jean."
"Euphemia and Fleamont Potter," reiterated the other woman. "It's his influence and supplies that caused today's insanity. We'll cover any expenses that come from this, of course." Euphemia slapped her husband in the arm, but a twinkle in her eyes indicated that she wasn't quite as angry as she seemed.
Nadia knew the feeling. She ought to be upset, at least a little. Jean had paid good money to get Remus in for a treatment he'd apparently skipped out on to play pranks. Her husband certainly seemed concerned, after all. But, seeing her boy smile so broadly and actually act like the kid he was… wasn't that why she had agreed to follow her husband on these wild goose chases for a cure anyway?
Remus seemed happy, well and truly happy for the first time in longer than she cared to remember. Nadia couldn't help but think that, for all that the spring didn't cure her son of his lycanthropy, it may have healed something far more important or begun the process at any rate.
Two days later when Remus awoke from the full moon with far fewer scrapes than he'd had in years, she was sure of it. Somehow, she doubted her the dyed spring water was responsible for the improvement.
Three 'cures' later, Nadia managed to convince Jean that it was time for a change. Remus deserved stability. And so, a few weeks before his tenth birthday, Jean and Nadia settled down. It wasn't the sleepy village in the mountains of France, but their little cottage on the edge of Godric's Hollow quickly became home.
And if the Lupins' new friendship with the Potters just happened to help smooth the way for Remus to get an education (everything kept carefully quiet from the boys in question, of course, as no one officially knew of Remus' affliction), well, that was just their little secret.