Author's Note: Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Hogwarts: Assignment 8, Anatomy & Physiology, Task #2 Write about using defensive magic
Warnings: Slight horror elements (namely blood)
The Realm of Possibility
She had nearly seen the relief on Remus' face when Mum had informed him that the Boggart that had set up shop in the laundry room throughout Dora's childhood was back.
Dora saw this for what it was: a peace offering. A sliver of an olive branch, even. A few weeks ago, she'd told Mum that Remus was good—genuinely good—at this kind of defensive magic; so good that people commissioned him to clear their houses every now and then, and that she should ask him for help. But Mum was still wary of Remus in more ways than Dora probably even understood—Dad had tried to reassure her that Mum was simply like this with new people; she'd come around eventually. But with Dad no longer around to diffuse the air with his sense of humour or accelerate that "eventually," their Sunday visits could be quite tense.
Still, she felt like he'd been downstairs for a really long time now…
Mum hadn't noticed; Dora's baby bump had gone through what she could only call a growth spurt that week, which meant that Mum was busy fretting and pushing snacks on her. Dora took her chance to slip away when Mum turned back to the kettle.
"I'll just go check on Remus," she said. "Don't worry—won't be long."
She navigated her way back to the door that led downstairs.
"Remus," she called when she was about halfway down and could see him clearly. He turned to look at her, white as a sheet. Then he looked away and back towards the laundry room, in the door of which stood…
Well, it was a child. It couldn't be more than five years old. But stranger yet, it was a child that seemed to have jumped straight out of the childhood photos of her that loitered the house—same double French braids that Mum used to pull her hair into for school, the rusty auburn she'd picked for herself when her parents had explained that at Muggle preschool you couldn't change your looks all the time… there were some differences; the splash of freckles across the child's face, the leanness of its face, and then there was something with its eyes that… that wasn't quite right.
"Dada?" the child asked again. Then she held her cheek as if she was hurting, and when she opened her mouth as if to speak again, Dora saw a mouthful of white teeth—sharp and canine…
"Owe," the child complained. Then she held her hands against her ears and whimpered. "Owe, owe, owe. Dada, it hurts. Dada, help…"
Then she grabbed her hands and Dora saw claws, honest to goodness claws, sprouting from the child's fingertips. Suddenly, her hands were covered in blood—so much blood that it dripped on the floor and…
The little girl burst into tears and Dora's mind went blank.
Or at least it would have, if she hadn't seen Remus' knees go weak for a second. His flinch reminded her that she was not alone in this room; she was, as a matter of fact, with the man who had taught her how to get rid of Boggarts in the first place, because yes this manifestation before her was a Boggart. It was going after Remus at the moment, and their lives happened to be interconnected enough for those attacks to hit her as well.
But this wasn't her reality. It wasn't her nightmare either, it was Remus'. And she had a chance to shake him out…
"Riddikulus," she said, extending her wand.
The spell hit the child square in the chest and all of a sudden the little girl's nose turned into a pig's snout. The child oinked happily, laughed to herself, and then sprouted whiskers as her nose turned into a soft pink triangle.
"Miaow!" the little girl said. "Miaow, miaow! ROAR!"
Tiger stripes snaked their way across the little girl's cheeks and all of a sudden her voice deepened, so that she surprised herself with her roar.
Dora couldn't help but laugh.
Remus turned back to look at her and he cracked a smile. She pointed back to the little girl just as she sprouted elephant ears and a trunk. When she trumpeted so hard that she startled herself backwards, Remus joined in Dora's laughter. It may be the relief of the moment, but to Dora the two sounds seemed to harmonize perfectly.
The little girl looked at them, returned to a fully human appearance, and laughed for a second before disappearing. The puddle of blood that had dripped onto the ground vanished too.
With the moment passed, anxiety clogged up Dora's throat again. She ran down the stairs, luckily without tripping, and joined Remus' side. He wasn't even holding his wand; he'd dropped it and it had rolled away at some point…
"Are you okay?" she asked.
He was a little breathless as he answered, though his hands did find hers and squeeze.
"I… I can usually do it alone, banish them, I just, I hadn't since… since…"
"Since I got pregnant," Dora finished.
Remus closed his eyes and exhaled, swallowing hard.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I keep… I keep failing you."
Dora reached out to put her arms around his neck. She tugged him down so that she could hold him against her properly, soothe him, brush his hair…
"You're okay," Dora said. "You're okay, Remus… it was just a Boggart, it was preying on you but it's not real, you're okay…"
"I'm sorry," Remus said again. His voice sounded stretched, as if it might snap and break soon.
"Don't be sorry, breathe," she said. She gave him some time. He didn't let go of her when he spoke next, though he did tilt his head up so that his face wasn't buried in her shoulder and so that she could hear him.
"Sometimes when I teach people how to banish Boggarts they get murderous clowns or giant ants… things that aren't in the realm of possibility," Remus said. "But this was, this… I'm sorry, Dora. I'm sorry for so much, but I'm so afraid."
She saw that. And she couldn't pretend that she wasn't afraid too, after seeing what he'd seen. For a second, just a second, she had lived in his fear and it had nearly swallowed her whole.
Still, because they were close together and because he was Remus, even when he was afraid, one of his hands had made its way to rest on the swell of her stomach.
She kissed the top of his head and kept her nose buried in his hair.
"Worst comes to worst, if this really is in the realm of possibility like you say…" Dora said. "Well, we'll do what we did just now. We'll turn it around, find the good in it, and make as much bad go away as we can."
Remus exhaled.
"I love you," he said.
"I love you too," she said. Then she stepped away, holding him at arm's length. "But next time you go after a Boggart bring someone with you, or I swear to Merlin I will send you into next week."
And for the second time that hour, she made him laugh.
Stacked with: Hogwarts; Fall Bingo; Shipping Wars; Shadows of Consequences; Solemn Husbandry of Execution
Individual Challenge(s): Misunderstood; Black Ribbon; Black Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Baby Mine; Brush; Creature People; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Protection); True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux
Representation(s): Lupin family
Bonus Challenge(s): Where Angels Fear; Second Verse (Middle Name); Chorus (Creature Feature);
Tertiary Bonus Challenge(s): Terse
Word Count: 1199
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Nymphadora Tonks/Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)
List (Prompt): Fall Micro 2 (Blood)
Fall Bingo
Space Address (Prompt): 1D (Blood)