The Greatest Gift
Chapter Two; All I Can Give
~ What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880)
The following evening, Remus Lupin sneaked up to the seventh year's dormitory to finish wrapping his friends presents. It had taken awhile to get away from Lily as she'd challenged him to a game of chess. She was a great player, very hard to beat. Then she kept demanding a rematch when Remus did defeat her. They'd played seven or eight games before Peter had come into the common room and Remus had accidentally-on-purpose put his king piece in danger, losing the game. A split second before Lily could suggest another game; Remus had dragged Peter over and convinced him to 'do battle' on his behalf, then scarpered up the stairs to the dormitory.
He took Lily's gift out from its hiding place under his bed and examined it again.
It was a snow globe containing two miniature unicorns; a mare and her foal. The tiny golden foal raced in circles, rearing and bucking, kicking up the snow. The silvery mare trotted at its side, ever watchful for any sign of danger.
Finding a sheet of sparkling blue paper and a roll of spellotape, he set to work. For obvious reasons a box is the easiest thing to wrap, making anything round the most difficult. And it doesn't help when the spellotape sticks to everything but the paper!
He wasn't worried that anyone would interrupt him. Lily would challenge anyone who dared to enter the common room to a game of chess and Peter would be stuck down there in the meantime. James was over at the Owlery sending what had to be a ton of Christmas cards to his entire family and all his friends that had gone home for the holiday, so he'd be there for a while.
Sirius, for some bizarre reason, was downstairs in the library. He'd been in there nearly all day. Must be ill, Remus thought with a smile.
Although … with a soft groan Remus rested his head in his hands. His head was pounding, had been for the past half hour. But there wasn't much he could about it. He had been getting steadily worse as the full moon crept slowly nearer, like a predator about to pick off the weakest victim it could take.
The calendar on the wall had a small blue mark beside the twenty-fifth. It didn't seem fair but since when was life fair? You could moan and whine about everything that went wrong for you, but in the end you normally can't do anything other than try to deal with it.
Certainly Remus didn't ask a werewolf to bite him, it just happened. He received the curse of lycanthropy from the wolf and he could do nothing but try to cope with it. There wasn't anything else he could do.
Remus' eyes strayed from the calendar over to his bedside table where a single framed photo stood. The photographic selves of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs stood waving back at him. Laughing and joking, Padfoot transformed into his Animagus form, a huge black dog and promptly launched himself on top of Moony, licking his face. Prongs followed suit, changing into a handsome red-brown stag, bounding out of sight as a fat grey rat scrambled onto Moony's shoulder, whiskers twitching away like mad.
Remus smiled.
They were the best friends in the whole world. They were the reason he'd been able to cope so well with his affliction. Before he'd been accepted to Hogwarts, Remus had had not one single friend. At the age of six, he had wandered off into a forest and gotten lost. Night had fallen; the full moon rose, bringing a werewolf with it. The inevitable happened. His parents had reacted far worse to it than Remus had. They refused to believe it at first, insisting that their son was fine. But even at that age, Remus knew a lot more than people gave him credit for. It was he who would be reassuring his distraught mother and father, the one who took it calmly. At least outwardly. Inside, he felt like he'd been torn apart, yet he didn't let it show. Ever.
He learnt to cope.
The worst experience was the realisation that the chances of him being accepted to Hogwarts were slim-to-none. He refused to give up hope, praying that a cure would be found before he reached his eleventh birthday. His parents never brought up the subject in front of him for fear of upsetting him. But seemingly unknown to them, Remus listened in on their late night discussions about their sons' doubtful future.
'He won't be allowed in!' his father had insisted. 'Surely you can see that?'
'But there must be something!' his mother was close to tears whenever they spoke of this. 'Maybe Professor Dippit will allow Remus-'
'He's a danger to the students there, Diane! Can't you see that? If he were allowed in it would mean putting every student and professor there at risk! We can't let that happen, not to another child.'
That, Remus could understand. He didn't want to put anyone else at risk and his father seemed resigned to fact that his son would not be going to Hogwarts. They did consider getting a private tutor to teach him magic, but they were very expensive and it was unlikely that any would want to teach a werewolf.
Then, just a few weeks before his eleventh birthday, the Daily Prophet announced the untimely death of Professor Dippit (an unfortunate accident involving a Bloating Charm and mint humbug) and that his predecessor as Headmaster of Hogwarts was Albus Dumbledore, a highly respected wizard known for his kind nature and fondness of Muggles. Remus' parents were very surprised when Albus Dumbledore sent them an invitation to see him in order to discuss their 'problem'. They were even more surprised to find that Dumbledore had taken a personal interest in their sons' predicament when Professor Dippit had refused to accept him.
After a meeting with the school matron, Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore had taken the Lupins out into the grounds and shown them where he could arrange for a secret and secure hiding place where Remus could stay during the full moons. A Whomping Willow could be placed over the entrance to the tunnel and Madam Pomfrey could fetch him in the morning to attend to any wounds. Mr and Mrs Lupin were delighted and Remus was officially declared a student of Hogwarts.
His main problem now was keeping his lycanthropy a secret from the other students. Surely they would notice his regular disappearances? And he had to be very careful not to display any of his werewolf traits, for while in human form, Remus' senses were highly developed, like a wolfs. His sense of smell was fairly powerful and it had grown as he'd gotten older. Now seventeen, he could detect what the house-elves were cooking down in the kitchens from up on the fourth floor and track people by scent. His eyesight had sharpened but there was a lack of colour, everything looked slightly dull. Night vision on the other hand was incredible! And his hearing was very sharp as well. Over the years he'd developed the knack to 'blocking out' most of the distance sounds, focusing instead on the immediate vicinity.
He covered up his rather predictable disappearances by telling people that his mother was very ill and that he was permitted to go home and see her on a regular basis. Yet, the students were not completely blind. They could see there was something else going on and figured out the truth. They confronted him about it and Remus panicked since any knowledge of a werewolf among the students at Hogwarts would automatically result in his immediate removal. However, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew didn't seem to mind that he was a werewolf; in fact they thought it was kinda cool. Particularly his heightened senses. Peter would often complain about his empty stomach and Remus would enlighten them all with his knowledge of what they would be getting for dinner that day. He was never wrong.
While they had been very supportive of him, Remus had to confess that he believed them to be crazy to even think of attempting the Animagus Transformation. They didn't have a clue where to start! And it was dangerous! The minimum age to become an Animagus was twenty-four as it was an exceptionally difficult spell. None but the most skilled of wizards could think to try it. On occasion, the Daily Prophet would report that some wizard or another had gotten himself or herself permanently stuck in animal form or (rarer still) in a half-transformed state.
Yet Sirius' only worry was that they wouldn't change into large enough animals to keep a werewolf in check. He didn't seem to care that he might be badly hurt or killed should their theory fail. And a theory was all it was.
Until they proved it fact. It was a complete success. Every full moon they kept him company, stopping him from hurting himself for lack of human prey and soon they started looking forward to each full moon when the four of them could transform, to run together under the starlight, Prongs carrying Wormtail with Padfoot and Moony howling at the moon, defining its control on their wolfin friend.
Yeah, they were crazy all right. All of them.
Remus wouldn't change them for the world. Not for anything.
The dormitory door opened with a loud creak and Sirius came in, a broad smile on his face that widened as he spotted Remus.
'Hey, Moony!'
'Hi, you're awfully perky,' said Remus. 'You been at the coffee again?'
'Nope.' Sirius bounced onto his bed, grinning manically at his friend. 'Oooh, nice.' He nodded at the now wrapped globe, the shiny paper reflecting the light. 'Who's that for?'
'Lily,' Remus tucked it back under the bed. 'Snow globe for her collection.'
'D'you have mine?'
Remus glared mockingly at him. 'What makes you think I'd tell you?'
Sirius shrugged.
'Cos I'll tell you what I've got you for Christmas?'
'Not supposed to do that, Padfoot. You should wait until the twenty-fifth like everyone else.'
He made to leave.
'Hang on!' Sirius bounced back off the bed. 'I'm gonna have to give you your present early!'
'Have to? Why?'
'Because … er …' Looking as though he'd lost something, Sirius rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a stack of parchment notes. 'You might want to sit down for this.'
Utterly confused, Remus sat on his bed but Sirius remained standing. With a flourish he handed Remus the parchment. Curiously he took it, read the heading. His blue-grey eyes widened considerably. His mouth fell open.
Clutching the paper tightly, he quickly read it through. Then he reread it, blinking hard as though he couldn't believe what he'd just read.
Sirius was watching him closely, still grinning.
'Well?' he said anxiously. 'What do you think?'
Remus' head snapped up. Staring at him, his expression difficult to read.
'Padfoot, I-' he swallowed. 'W-where did you find this?'
'Some shop in Hogsmeade,' Sirius waved his hand dismissively. 'I've been in the library checking it against similar theories.' His eyes shone. 'I think it'll work!'
'Think?'
'Well … there is a lot of theory, but no biggy! It's like the Animagus-'
'It's nothing like the Animagus Transformation!' Remus leapt to his feet. 'We had seen proof that it worked! You have absolutely no idea if this … you weren't thinking of trying this, were you?'
'Course I am!' Sirius looked surprised 'Why not?'
'It's dangerous!'
'How can you tell?'
Remus bit his lip.
'Moony, think about it!'
'Have you?' he asked quietly. 'Do you understand what this involves? What you're asking me to do?' He shook his head. 'I won't do it.'
Sirius looked even more confused.
'Huh? Remus, I thought you'd leap at a chance like this. To avoid the transformation.'
'By infecting somebody else?'
'Only temporarily!' he insisted. 'The spell will reverse itself after a while, everything back to normal.'
'But who-'
'Duh! Me, of course!'
'What!'
'Look, look.' Sirius placed an arm round his friends shoulder and pointed at the parchment. 'The spell requires an exchange of similar 'aspects of the soul', so theoretically we can swap your lycanthropy-'
'For your Animagus ability.' Remus whispered.
'Exactly!' That manic grin was back. 'So what do you say?'
Remus gapped at him like a fish out of water. Finally, he found his voice.
'No,' Quiet, but firm. 'I won't do it.'
'But-'
'I said no, Sirius! Drop it.'
And before Sirius could say another word, Remus fled the room.
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To Be Continued …
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Authors Notes
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the first chapter! Words fail me! *watery smile*
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