Chapter 18 – Family Affair
"You're WHAT?!" Olivia screeched
"Ms. Lupin, please keep it down…you need your rest." Madame Pomfrey scolded as she made her way over to check up on the only two patients she had in the hospital.
"What did you call me?"
"Ms. Lupin…is that not your name?"
"No my name…to all of you is Olivia Stanton, to muggles…I'm Lee Mulberry." Olivia stated firmly.
"And by birth you are Evelyn Ivy Lupin." Remus added to Olivia's list of names.
"No…I believe that you're mistaken Professor…My birth certificate clearly states that my name is Lee Anne Mulberry. I'm a muggle and I grew up in America. My best friends name is Louise Marie Mayberry, and… none of this is real."
"Eve you need to calm down…Please I need to talk to you and explain everything." Remus begged Olivia.
"Don't call me that my name here is Olivia…not Eve!"
Olivia was tired and didn't really want to be in the hospital wing anymore with this nut of a teacher. As soon as Madame Pomfrey left Olivia jumped out of bed and ran out of the Hospital wing to the Gryffindor common room.
"Well that didn't go well at all." Remus remarked to the still air of the hospital wing.
* * *
Olivia hoped that she could quietly enter the common room and sneak up to her dorm room, but she realized that wasn't going to happen when she saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron sitting in the common room.
"Olivia!" Harry yelled in excitement when he saw her.
"Morning Harry." Olivia grudgingly replied.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't feel to well I really need to get back to bed."
"If you don't feel well then how come Madame Pomfrey let you out of the Hospital wing?" Hermione questioned
"She didn't…I snuck out…I needed to."
"Why'd you need to sneak out?" Ron asked very interested.
"I needed to get away from Professor Lupin…I think he's lost it." Olivia bluntly responded
"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked concerned
"He was just going on about crazy things and it was driving me nuts…I'll explain later but right now I need sleep."
With that Olivia left the trio to their thoughts and went to her room for some much needed sleep.
* * *
Olivia woke a few hours later to her black owl, Midnight, lightly nibbling at her ear. "Blasted owl…I was having a good dream as well." Olivia thought to herself as she rolled over to get out of bed.
"So Midnight what was so important that you had to wake me?" Olivia asked the birds. Midnight hooted while showing off the letter tied to her leg along with the three other owls in the room. Olivia noticed that Hedwig was there among the owls and looked slightly annoyed at having to wait to deliver her message. "I wonder why Harry sent Hedwig…he's only right above me?"
Olivia went over to the two school owls and took the letters off them first, figuring that other people would need to use them. She looked at the letters and realized that they were in the same green loopy handwriting. She took them to her desk and sat down to read them.
Dear Ms. Stanton,
I have heard news of your events from last night and I am sorry to hear of your misfortune, however keep in mind that it could always be worse. I do hope you the best of recovery and I'll be sure to visit you later when you are awake.
Best Wishes,
Albus DumbledoreOlivia smiled at the Professors kindness and went onto the other letter in the same handwriting.
Ms. Stanton,
I have just gotten word from Madame Pomfrey that you left the hospital wing without her knowing. I must say that's quite an accomplishment. However I must warn you not to do it ever again for fear of never being treated by her again if nothing else. Since I can no longer visit you in the hospital wing I would appreciate it if you would pay me a visit when you are feeling better, there are a few things that I need to discuss with you.
Your entertained headmaster,
Albus Dumbledore
Olivia chuckled a little as she pictured the scene Madame Pomfrey must have made when she found that Olivia was no longer there. But her mood darkened as she thought of what Professor Dumbledore wanted to talk to her about; she hoped that she wasn't going to get into trouble. She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as she reached for the letter that Hedwig had delivered to her.
Olivia,
I know what I told you was a shock but you need to hear me out. There's a reason for everything and you need to know the reasons. I would've told you all of this sooner but…well that will come later. Please meet me in my office at six this evening.
Professor Remus Lupin
Olivia looked at the letter with a bit of disgust upon her face but pushed it away as she took the letter from Midnight and began to read it.
Lee,
Why'd you leave so suddenly last week? I was going to throw a party for you before you left but you just disappeared. I couldn't remember what I had done all day for about ten minutes but then I was able to remember everything. I tried calling you but you never answer your cell phone anymore. Anyway I'm glad you at least decided to visit me for a little bit on your birthday, but I never got to give you your present. I was going to send you the present but then I realized that I don't have and address. You're probably wondering why I'm writing this letter then, well there's a black owl here, she's as black as a midnight sky. Anyway I have this funny feeling that this owl knows where you are, so I'm gonna send you this letter like they send letters in Harry Potter…by owl. I hope you don't freak out when you get this. Anyway write me back as soon as you get this so I'll know if it works or not. Hopefully I'll talk to you soon.
Your Best Friend,
Louise
Olivia smiled at having received a letter from Louise but she was also a little worried. This was the second time that Louise was thinking in a way that she wasn't supposed to. The ministry of Magic had preformed the memory remodification spell for muggles not to think this way. "Oh well I'll just ask Dumbledore when I see him later." Olivia thought.
* * *
Remus Lupin walked tiredly into his private quarters only to be met with an anxious and exited looking black shaggy dog.
" 'lo Sirius." Remus greeted as he sank down into one of his red comfy armchairs.
"Are you ok?" Sirius asked
"I'm fine…tired, but fine."
"How's she?"
"Physically…she's fine, but mentally…I couldn't tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"When she woke up she started to ask questions and I answered them. Then she asked how I knew so much about her and her condition so I bluntly told her 'I'm your father'."
"How'd she take it?"
"Not to well…she started to deny the existence of everything but the muggle world."
"Do take it too hard Rem…anyone would have acted in denial after hearing news like that." Sirius reassured his friend
"It still hurts though Sirius…I mean I didn't want to tell her like that but I wasn't exactly up to par yet and she asked so I answered."
"I'm sure she'll be fine after she gets over the initial shock of everything."
"And to think I have to do this twice, because my girls had to come separate and not together." Remus bitterly remarked.
"Rem…" Sirius began.
"I know Sirius…I know I just wish it could have been different that's all."
"Anyway you need to tell me how you knew she wasn't going to change last night?"
"I knew it from experience really. When you change for the first few times you do it quickly. Your body feels that the sooner it changes the sooner the pain will end. As more time passes your body learns that the pain doesn't really go away after you change, so it tries to delay the change as much as possible. Since it was Eve's first time I knew that if she wasn't a wolf already then she wasn't going to become one. I guess that's one thing I can be happy about, at least I know one of them isn't cursed fully with what I have."
"Well I'm glad I decided to talk to you before I just brought her to you." Sirius stated
"So am I Sirius."
"So…what are you going to do about telling her…everything?"
"I sent her an owl asking her to meet me here at six tonight…I need to tell her as soon as possible…even if she does hate me for it."
"I'm sure she won't hate you Rem…angry maybe but I think she'll get over that in time."
"Sirius?"
"Yea
Rem?"
"I wanted to ask you to be here tonight when I tell her so that I can back it up with something." Remus stated.
"Sure I'll be here for you Rem…do you want me to ask Megan to come as well?"
"Yea that might be helpful incase she has questions I can't answer."
* * *
Olivia had realized that she was starving and had woken up in time for lunch so she headed down to the great hall. She gave a sigh of relief when she didn't see Professor Lupin there, she was afraid that he might try to talk her into talking to him tonight if he was. She had decided that she would eat some lunch and then head to Professor Dumbledore's office to talk to him.
She quickly ate avoiding as much conversation as possible on the way and soon found herself bounding up the steps to Dumbledore's office.
"Excuse me Professor Dumbledore…" Olivia warned as she entered the professor's office.
"Ah…Ms. Stanton I'm glad to see that you are feeling well. So tell me what brings you to my office?"
"Well…you owled me asking me to come so that you could talk to me."
"Oh right… have a seat I have a few things I wanted to discuss with you."
"Yes sir."
"As you have discovered you are a half wolf, meaning that one of your parents is a full werewolf. Now with being a half wolf you will experience all of the effects of the change before and after but you will never change. Therefore I will require you to take the wolfsbane potion Madame Pomfrey gave you last night every full moon so that you may not feel the pain of the effects. Is that alright with you?"
"Will it knock me out like it did last night every time?"
"No, what you were given last night was not 'watered down' enough for you so it knocked you out."
"Ok…I'll take it then."
"Also it is common for half wolfs to be able to change into wolf form whenever they feel like it, like an animagi, but they feel no pain with the change. Have you tampered with animagi transfiguration yet?"
"I've read about it but no I have not attempted it yet. Why?"
"Changing may also help get rid of the pain, but we'll deal with that later."
"Ok"
"Next your escape from the hospital wing…"
Olivia gulped visibly afraid of what the headmaster might say or how he might punish her for escaping.
"Y-Yes?"
"I first of all need to congratulate you on your escape…not even the famous marauders could escape her that easily on their first try. However Madame Pomfrey does not feel the same. I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to apologize for worrying her after you left."
"Yes sir…I'll do that as soon as I'm done here."
"Good…now what I really wanted to talk to you about was why you left the hospital wing."
"I-I was talking to Professor Lupin who was also in there and he started to talk about things and it got annoying. So I left." Olivia simply replied
"What exactly was he saying to you?"
"He…he said that he was my father and that my name was really Evelyn Ivy Lupin. I thought, and still do think, that he lost it. Wouldn't my parents have said anything to me buy no if I were adopted?" Olivia questioned.
"Ah…but maybe you need to hear the whole story before you react to it's shocking parts. The whole story may give you more answers then you think to questions you may not have even asked yourself yet."
"So you think I should meet with Professor Lupin tonight and hear him out?"
"Yes I believe you should…after you hear the whole story then you can react to him however you feel, but not before hand."
"Yes Professor…"
"Good…well then if that's all…"
"Actually headmaster I wanted to show you something and ask you about it."
"Go right ahead Ms. Stanton."
"Well this is a letter from my friend Louise back I American and I wanted to know that if the memory remodification was done on America too then how come she thinks that this world is real?" Olivia questioned as she showed the headmaster the section of her letter that expressed her point.
"That I am not sure of Ms. Stanton but I will look into it for you, if you wish?" Dumbledore offered as worry lines creased his aging face.
"Yes sir I would like that very much…Thank you."
"Thank you for alerting me of this…well you'd better get going…I don't wish to tie up your free time more then I already have."
Olivia smiled at the headmaster and made her way out of his office and back to the common room to face the trio that she had avoided earlier that day.
* * *
Remus Lupin nervously paced back and forth in front of his living room fireplace as he waited to see if Olivia showed up. Sirius Black, Megan Fireoza and Albus Dumbledore all sat on his couch awaiting the impending confession, ready to back it with facts.
"Rem you really need to calm down." Sirius relayed concerned for his friends well being.
"Sirius I'm scared out of my mind at what she might think or say about me so I really can't calm down…It's already 6:10…I don't think she's coming." Remus replied
The others in the room were about to protest when a soft knock on the door did it for them. Remus paled considerably with that one knock and it took a while for him to calm down before he approached the door. Meanwhile Olivia stood outside the door hoping to god that she had found the right alcove of teacher rooms. She had knocked on the only other door that connect to what looked like a common room but no one had answered so she assumed that this was the right door. "It sure is taking him an awful long time to answer the door." Olivia thought as she nervously waited. Just as she was about to leave the area the door was pulled open to reveal a very pale looking Remus Lupin.
"I'm glad you've decided to come." Remus greeted relaxing a little to see the anxiety in his daughter's eyes.
"I wasn't going to…but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt." Olivia truthfully responded.
"Why don't you come in?"
Remus led Olivia into his living room where she was shocked to see three other people sitting.
"They're here to help with the reveling of everything." Remus explained seeing the confused look upon her face.
Olivia took a seat in one of the red chairs and Remus sat across from her. They stared at each other at first for a few minutes before anything was said. It was almost as if they were searching for things to point out that would end this whole situation by declaring that they weren't related.
"I guess I should start at the beginning." Remus said more to the air then anyone in particular.
"Yea I guess that would be the best spot." Olivia responded.
"Very well then…after graduating from Hogwarts with the rest of my year I went on to train to become an auror to help in the fight against Voldemort. Two years after graduating I married my girlfriend of four years Marie Sullivan. About six months later as I was about to become an auror the ministry found out that I was a werewolf and I was dismissed from my training."
"I remember that year it was hard for you guys." Sirius commented being sucked into the world of memories.
"Three months later, October 24th, Marie and I had twin girls. We named them Evelyn Ivy Lupin and Elizabeth Rose Lupin. They had Marie's nose, my smile, and a mix of our hair and eyes. Even though I was out of a job I was the happiest I'd ever been in my life, but it soon came to an end. It was the full moon six months after the girls had been born that I began to lose it all. I came back from my romp in the empty wood the following morning to find Marie a sobbing mess in the kitchen…she kept stuttering something about the girls. I ran to their room only to find them missing, I knew it wasn't a death eater attack other wise the house would have been destroyed and Marie would have been dead."
Remus paused here to regain control of his emotions. Reliving this story in any way shape or form made him sad but he had to stay calm, he could break down later.
"For six months I had no clue what had happened to my girls all I could get out of Marie was that they were gone. That August James and Lily had, had Harry but even that depressed me. October was a really hard month for us, because they would have been one. That Halloween I had to leave to transform, I didn't want to leave, Marie was a mess, but I had to. I now wish that I had left someone with her. I came back the following morning to a letter, only a letter, Marie had killed herself while I was out. In the letter she explained everything. She had known when she was pregnant that she was going to have to give them up, although she never explained why, she just knew that she had to, and it had to be done before they were a year old. She had waited as long as she dared and then while I was out she traveled to America and left each one in the care of a muggle family. A spell was cast over them so that they would show no magical ability and they would look completely different. She gave them to families that were to live on the opposite ends of the country. Then as we all know a year later James and Lily were killed while Sirius was thrown in Azkaban, in under two years I had lost everyone."
Remus finished with a hiccup from holding back his tears that were begging to slide down his rugged face but he refused.
"That's all I know of the story."
"I'll take over Rem." Professor Fireoza announced.
"Thank you Meg."
"Marie had told me all about her feeling when she was pregnant and I did research finding that it was a 99% possibility that her twins were the Order of Phoenix twins. I agreed to go to America and watch over them as best I could. It was hard for me to find you at first because she put that spell on you so you didn't react to any kind of magic and nor did you give any off. But after a while I found you, Lee. I had to redo the spell Marie had done when you were five because you were powerful enough to get around it. I kept an eye on you while I still looked for Elizabeth. I followed you everywhere and in many forms. When I was your history teach was my final assignment I had passed the job onto Katherine Figg."
"So Elizabeth has been with me the whole time?" Olivia asked
"Well we're not sure." Megan responded
"Well it is said that the older twin will be the leader and will be the first to show signs of magic while the second one is more reserved and will take longer to show who she really is."
"So you don't know where or who she is?"
"Sort of"
"Would I know who she is?"
"I doubt it you two were not to meet until you were needed."
"Oh…"
Olivia sat in thought taking I everything she had just learned while Remus was studying her trying to see if she would accept him as her father or not.
"Is that everything?" Olivia asked a little timidly "I mean everything to the story?"
"Well there is on thing Rem forgot to state in his story." Sirius replied
"What'd I forget?" Remus asked alarmed that he had missed something huge.
"James was named the primary godfather of the twins and Lily was named their godmother. But in case anything had happened, and just to make me happy, Remus and Marie named me second godfather to the girls like they were named second godparents to Harry." Sirius declared.
"Oh that." Remus sighed in relief.
"Ok…Professor Dumbledore do you have anything to add?" Olivia asked.
"Only that you should never judge a book by it's cover, but you need to read it all the way through…process all of the information." Dumbledore advised.
"Ok then."
As Remus watched Eve calmly sit there not saying anything her realized that this type of reaction was worse then her being mad at him. He wanted her to say something to him…anything. But she just sat there looking unfazed by it all. This caused the tears to push harder against Remus' eyelids trying to break free. "Please not now…anytime but now" Remus begged his subconscious. " I don't need to break down I front of her if she's going to act indifferent to the whole situation"
Olivia had heard Remus' pleading in her own head and realized that she had been tapped into his mind the whole time. She surveyed the man and saw that this really was tearing him apart and that she really did resemble him. True it would take time for her to adjust to this whole thing but she couldn't live knowing that she had caused her father to be a nervous wreck.
Remus hadn't realized that his eyes had been closed until he felt himself being engulfed in unfamiliar arms.
"I can't promise that everything will be great and dandy now but I can promise to try to and to help make it easier on you the next time you have to do this." Olivia telepathically said to Remus as she gave him a reassuring hug.
"Thank you…it's more then I could have hoped for already." Remus replied with a content smile tugging at his lips
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YEA it's done!!!! Well the truth is reveled! I think this is my longest chapter to date (it's 8 word pages long!) Anyway only a little more drama and then were on to more mystery and adventure!!!!!!! ENJOY!!!!!!
I do enjoy reading your reviews and comments so be sure to leave me some.
Oh by the way J.London it's ok you didn't make it sound THAT corny!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Autumn