House: Slytherin

Year: stand-in for 7th

Category: Standard

Prompt: [Word] Distinguished

Word Count: 1289

oO0Oo

The full moon hung in the sky, and the five year-old Remus Lupin stared at it through his window. "Isn't it pretty, Da?"

Lyall Lupin only scowled in reply. "Don't speak about what you don't understand," he snapped. At his curt reply, his son's face fell, and so his wife moved to Remus's side.

"Don't worry, Remus," she said, ruffling his hair and pulling him away from the window. "Your dad's just been having a hard time at work. Now, it's past your bedtime."

"But I'm not sleepy yet…" Remus protested, rubbing his eyes as his mother tucked him into bed. "Not sleepy at all, mum!"

Hope Lupin pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Good night, darling." Then she and her husband shut the room, Lyall casting a Locking charm on the door. She watched him do so, frowning; when he'd put his wand away, she asked, "Lyall, must you?"

Lyall ran a hand through his hair. "Yes. You know I'm trying to make a name for our family. I'm trying to make us people who matter, people who are distinguished in the Wizarding World. I won't have Remus dealing with pureblood snobs and their ridiculous blood purity like I had to." He scowled. "But Hope, there's a lot of tension at work right now with the werewolf legislation I'm trying to pass, and I just want him to be safe." His expression softened. "I'm sure you understand, love."

"Well, hopefully nothing will happen." Hope twined her fingers with his. "You ready for bed?"

"Almost," Lyall answered. "Let me check the wards one last time."

"Okay, love," she answered, pressing a soft kiss to his lips before pushing an errant strand of hair behind her ear and walking away. "I'll be waiting in the bedroom."

Lyall watched her leave with a smile on his face, then went outside to check on the wards. The night was dark, the full moon hung in the air, and the air was still, as though the world was waiting for something: however, the wards seemed to be in good condition. Lyall checked them quickly, but before he finished the last one, he suddenly had the unsettling feeling that he was being watched.

He spun, but there was nothing, only darkness and the quiet rustle of trees in the wind. Nevertheless, unsettled, he hurried back to the house, but as he lay down beside his wife, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't finished checking the last ward, and that ward had seemed… weak.

And then a blood-curdling shriek pierced the air.

Lyall grabbed his wand and raced towards the screams. It was a the night of the full moon, and those screams had come from Remus's room.

But he was too late.

His son lay crumpled on the floor, his blood seeping out from countless wounds and staining the carpet beneath him. "No—" Lyall gasped, kneeling beside Remus. He gently turned him over, so that he could see his son's face as he died, but then he saw the gaping bite wound in Remus's shoulder.

Greyback hadn't killed his son. Instead, he'd done something far worse.

Remus was a werewolf, now.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Later that night, Lyall stood beside a small, child-sized hospital cot. The Medi-witch had just withdrawn after telling him and his wife the dreadful diagnosis, and although he knew he was acting mad, he didn't care. This— this was too much. "My son— a monster?" he snarled. "No— I can't— I can't—" He ran a hand desperately through his hair. Remus. His son. A werewolf. A filthy mongrel. Greyback had done this to spite him. He just knew it.

Lyall stiffened. He wouldn't cave to those creatures. Not now, not ever.

"A wolf," he said the word with acute distaste. Hope stifled a sob, but Lyall continued, "is not welcome here. He leaves tonight."

Hope stared at him. Then, after a long moment of eerie silence, she said calmly, "No. He doesn't. Our son will not be thrown out because of you, Lyall!"

He crossed the room in two strides. "What did you say?" he growled.

Yet her eyes only flashed as she said defiantly, "Remus will not leave. And if he does, then I go with him."

"Ha!" Lyall scoffed, not even bothering to hide his disdain. "You'd be dead, or worse, changed into one of them, within a month! You're a Muggle! What can you do for him?"

"Can you hear what you're saying?" she shouted, completely ignoring his logic. "He's out son! And I can treat him as my son, she answered. He hasn't changed, Lyall, not underneath. You Wizards think this changes everything, but it doesn't. He's still a sweet kid underneath it all, and more than that, he's our child."

Lyall rubbed his eyes. "We brought him into this world… and we can take him out of it."

"No," his wife said firmly. "It's our duty to care for him. So Remus won't be leaving and that's final." She walked over to him and laid her head on his chest, murmuring, "We should go see Remus now. He's probably woken up and is terrified."

But Lyall, wanting the moment to last longer, protested, "I gave him six sleeping draughts! He shouldn't wake up for a week!"

His wife chuckled. "Yes, but the enhanced metabolism of a lycanthrope means he'll awaken in a few minutes."

Stringing his fingers with her, Lyall smiled down at her as they walked to Remus's room. "Sometimes I forget just how much you've read in the past month over werewolves."

"Well, I needed to be prepared." Hope shrugged. She then pressed a kiss to Remus's forehead. "Would you like a moment with him?" she asked her husband

"Yes please," he answered

She left quietly, and then he knelt by Remus's bedside and took one small heavily-bandaged hand in his own. He ran his eyes over the mass of cuts bruises and scrapes and sighed. Then, rubbing small circles in the hand within his own, he began.

"I'm sorry, son. I should never have considered getting rid of you. I make no claims to being a great man, but any man has an obligation to his family. It does not matter how distinguished a man is at the office if he has no honor in the other aspects of his life. I apologize and ask your forgiveness, and tell you your mother is a wonderful woman…"

Beneath him, the small figure stirred and said in a sleep-laced voice, "Da?"

"I'm here son," Lyall answered immediately.

"I'm so tired."

His son was a werewolf. It tore him up inside, but it was true. Lyall could see the bloody gashes Greyback's claws had ripped in his son's flesh, and the gaping bite on Remus's shoulder… it was impossible to forget what that monster had done. "Try to sleep."

"Da— I— I'm scared. I don't know what to do."

"I—I'm sorry, Remus. There's nothing we can do." Lyall rested a stiff hand on his son's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the boy. "There's nothing at all."

He watched the boy — his son — fall into a restless, uneasy sleep. Then Lyall left the room. He couldn't bear to watch his son any longer. He could not abandon his son, for that was no right — but with Remus a werewolf, he would never get his next promotion. He knew how the Ministry worked.

He'd been given his chance to make the Lupin name a distinguished one once again, but he had taken too many risks, and now it was doomed to fall into obscurity once again.

But Remus was his son, and he would do what he could for the boy was suffering because of him.