Right, replacing the text of this chapter after some minor edits that became important to the next chapter of the story - which is currently being written. Expect it in the next few days, like before the end of the weekend (23-25 April) and let me tell you this- it's the biggie, the one we've all been waiting for. Right. OK, make that the one I've been waiting to write since I dreamed this thing up about a year ago. It's been a long haul, but great fun. So anyway, on with the fic. Welsh Word of the day - Teuluaidd, meaning "Family." I own nothing but my own characters, I'm making no money, please don't sue.
Sick. Remus Lupin was quite sick- sick to his stomach, sick to his heart, sick with fear. His world was crashing down on him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Ever since he had been released from the Infirmary, James and Sirius had been treating him strangely; over lunch, he had gotten the distinct impression that they were trying to figure out, in their rather clumsy way, whether he was a vampire, and then this evening...well, that certainly erased any doubts he may have had. He had been so very tired, coming back from an especially bad transformation, and he just wanted to get his homework done and go to bed; he certainly had not expected a blood-flavored lollipop! It had taken his mouth a moment to recognize the flavor, but as soon as he realized what he was tasting, he whipped the candy out of his mouth. He shuddered at the thought; the taste of blood in his mouth...his own blood, drawn from the wounds he inflicted on himself. Remus was always glad that he could remember little of his transformations, but what he did recall was enough to give him nightmares almost every night. One thing that he often remembered, though, was the blood, the taste and smell of it. The blood-flavored candy brought back the taste, and the memories came with it, until it was all Remus could do not to cry out in terror of the wolf that felt so near. He had been horribly sick after tasting the candy, and now he lay in his bed, thinking silently.
It would have been bad enough if his friends had given him the candy as a joke; he still would have been ill, but he could have shrugged that off quickly. But knowing from their actions and words and faces that they were testing him, looking to see if he was a vampire gave Remus a palpable sense of fear. If they were looking at the possibility of him being something not-human, then how far could they be from suspecting that he was a werewolf? Their investigations into his behavior and illness must have brought them much farther than he had suspected, and now what could he do? Realistically, he knew he probably only had a month left, perhaps two, before they discovered his secret, and then it was all over. He would have to leave in a hurry- he probably should write his parents, and let them know to expect him home much sooner than they anticipated. And then what? He could continue to study at home; it would be nowhere near as high quality an education as he would have received at Hogwarts, but that was shortly to be impossible. Remus bit back a sob. His friends- that was the most painful thought of all. His friends were going to hate him, hate him for lying, hate him for what he was...monsters, they had all said, werewolves are monsters, Professor. There was no hope they would accept him, and in all honesty, Remus could think of no reason that they should. It was very true that almost all wizards thought of werewolves as monsters, but that was a reputation they had done much to earn over time. The werewolf who bit Remus, so very long ago, the other boy cursed with his fate - didn't he sometimes hate that boy for what he had done to Remus? Didn't Remus sometimes think, very quietly in the back of his mind, that that other werewolf had indeed been a monster, to do such a thing to a little boy? Of course he knew, rationally, that the werewolf had no more control over itself than he did while transformed, but he couldn't help the thoughts, sometimes. If even he, a werewolf, thought of werewolves as monsters, he had no right to expect any human to consider him anything but a monster. Remus did not know what his friends would do when they discovered his secret. Confront him, tell him to leave and be done with him? Announce it to the entire school? Tell the Ministry and have him taken away? Remus didn't know, didn't what to think about it, but couldn't stop himself. He was sure that if he asked Dumbledore, the Headmaster would forbid his friends to tell his secret, but they would still know, still hate him, and he would have to leave- he could never stay at Hogwarts if his friends hated him. When, not if. How many days left? Remus slept very little that night, despite his exhaustion.
Over the next few days, his fears receded somewhat; not because he no longer thought his friends would not find out what he was hiding, but because he finally began to accept it as inevitable that they should. Remus attempted to learn as much as he could and to enjoy his last few days of happiness to the best of his abilities. He couldn't stop his friends from discovering his secret, so it made little sense to worry about it overmuch.
October 31st rolled around, bringing with it Hallowe'en and the Feast, something all of the boys had been looking forward to.
"So, what shall we do this year?" Sirius asked Hallowe'en morning, after waking all of his friends up with whoops of joy for the day. "I mean, we played that great prank on Snape last year, so what'll it be this year? We can't let a tradition die!"
"One time hardly makes a tradition, Sirius." Remus pointed out logically. Sirius dismissed this objection with a wave of the hand.
"Perhaps not, but two does, and this year will make two! So what's it going to be?" The four sat in silence for a moment, pondering this tricky question.
"Enchant their food so that everything's made out of raw pumpkin?" Peter suggested. They considered this, but James shook his head.
"We enchant their food all the time. It needs to be something more unique!" They all thought some more, and James voiced an idea. "What about if we do something sort of like what we did to Snape last year- remember, with the Cheering Charms? Only hit all of Slytherin with it!"
"That would be a lot of Cheering Charms to cast, James." Remus said practically. "Remember how long it took us to enchant Snape enough to change his attitude? It would take all night!"
"Not Cheering Charms." Sirius bust in, his eyes sparkling. "Some kind of personality-altering spell. I've read about some that make you act the opposite of your usual personality. If we did something like that, we might be able to put it in their food and infect them all at once!"
"Ooh, and could we change their food to pumpkin at the same time?" Peter asked hopefully.
"Why not?" Sirius said magnanimously, flinging his arms wide. "I tell you, this will be our greatest prank ever!"
"Until next year, at least!" James added cheerfully.
"Well, I think we know what we need to do, then." Remus said. The others looked at him curiously. "We'll need to do research on spells that might work for us, so that means a trip to the Library. And someone will need to figure out how to enchant all of the Slytherins' food, without affecting anyone else's. Also, we'll need to make ourselves look completely innocent, so perhaps a distraction of some kind that will take suspicion off of us? Lastly, if you're really set on the pumpkin thing, Peter, you need to find a spell to take care of that." He sat back a bit, and the others stared blankly at him.
"Right, we all knew that." James said, but he sounded as if, in fact, he had not given a moment's thought to any of the necessary preparations. "So, Peter takes care of the pumpkin, Sirius can handle creating a distraction-" Here Sirius smirked wickedly, and rubbed his hands together- "I'll figure out how to get their food enchanted. Right, guess that only leaves the research for you, Remus!" Remus rolled his eyes- they all knew that researching the spells was Remus' particular specialty, and he did not fully understand why the others were so anxious to escape the task. It didn't matter, as they all had a great deal to take care of. Fortunately for them, it was a Saturday, and they had no classes to interrupt their mischief-making. Remus spent several hours in the Library, and found the perfect spell; it would drastically change the person's personality for thirty minutes before fading, and, best of all, could be applied to food. James, meanwhile, had snuck into the kitchen, managing somehow to do so without being seen or caught, and reported that they could enchant only the Slytherins' food before the Feast from in the kitchen. Sirius had planned a distraction consisting mainly of things that could be blown up; Remus was firm with him about not using Dungbombs, however- "Think, Sirius, you won't be able to taste anything properly with an awful stench like that hanging around," and he decided to stick with simple firecrackers. Peter had been working diligently as well, and located a time-delayed spell that would change food to pumpkins.
The Feast finally arrived; James snuck into the kitchen beforehand and cast both spells on the Slytherins' food before joining the others for the Feast. Everything went exactly as planned; the fireworks went off spectacularly, and Dumbledore made a good show of appearing completely blind as to who the culprits were. "No, Minerva, I'm quite sure I didn't see who might have lit those, and I'm certain no-one else saw, either."
Precisely on time, the boys began to hear snatches of laughter and song rising from the Slytherin table, where before there had been quiet, dignified talk and secretive whispers. Looking over, they saw the happiest, wildest lot of Slytherins they had ever encountered. They sang and danced, had a food fight among themselves, and strangest of all, openly expressed their fondness for all Gryffindors! To Peter's disappointment, they did not even seem to mind all of their food become pumpkins. In fact, the four boys were rather dismayed by the unexpected outcome of their prank; instead of being humiliated, the Slytherins were having more fun than anyone else. Sirius, quite disgruntled, suggested leaving, but Remus stopped him.
"No, wait- it's about to wear off." And wear off it did- and the Slytherins were left staring at each other, all covered in food and hearing the laughter of all of the rest of the houses. Their faces flushed, and instead of laughter, roars of rage began to rise through the great Hall. Satisfied, Sirius sat back with a smirk on his face. All in all, the prank had worked very well, Remus thought, feeling quite satisfied. Walking back to Gryffindor Tower that night, though, Remus became separated from his friends in the crowd, and suddenly felt himself being pulled aside, into a side corridor. Staring angrily at him, dressed in pumpkin-stained robes, was his brother Romulus. Romulus was in his seventh and final year, and was a Slytherin prefect.
"Very funny, Remus." His brother said coldly. "Ever so funny. Bet you and your friends are very pleased with yourselves, aren't you?" Remus merely shrugged; he was not going to lie to his brother, any lie would just make him angrier, but he had nothing to say in response to Romulus' question. "Life's all just fun and games for you, isn't it, Remus? Who can you pull childish pranks on, how many Gryffindors does it take to make a Slytherin run away, and aren't you just so clever!" Romulus was furious, and Remus could not understand why.
"It was a joke, Romulus. No-one got hurt, and even you Slytherins had fun for a while!"
"This is not a joke, Remus!" Romulus shook him, but not violently. "Don't you understand? You cannot afford to be making people angry with you, you should know that! There are people in Slytherin House with very powerful connections; if they become angry enough with you, they will begin looking for any way they can find to hurt you. They would be able to get access to information about you that you would rather they did not have!" His brother's eyes were angry, and perhaps somewhat worried. Remus could not understand why Romulus was behaving this way; Romulus had hated him for so long- why would he try to warn him of danger.
"I understand that, Romulus, and I suppose you're right. I hadn't been thinking of that. But it won't matter for very long now, because - because my friends are close to figuring it out, and then I'll have to leave anyway, so it really doesn't matter. But why are you helping me?"
Romulus tried to laugh, but it didn't sound like he found anything amusing. "Helping you? No, if they find out my brother is a - well, is what you are, they'll kill me for not telling them!" His face softened a little, almost imperceptibly, and he suddenly sighed. "All right, yes, I'm also trying to help you somewhat, because I don't want to see that happen to you. Like I told you, I never wanted any of this to happen to you; I couldn't help you before- I know, I made it worse, much worse for you. But you see, I was only 11 when it happened, and then I hated seeing what was happening to you. And Uncle Romulus told me how bad it must really be for you, and that you would be better off dead, and I thought he wanted to help you, but-" Romulus stopped talking, obviously fighting not to become emotional. "Anyway, that doesn't matter now. Now I can help you, though, if you'll listen to me. Transfer to Slytherin- I'm sure Dumbledore would let you, if I explained the situation fully. They don't pry into anyone's business there, and you'll be able to finish your education."
"Slytherin? But- but what about my friends?" Remus shook his head slightly, unwilling to think of transferring, abandoning his friends.
"Look, Remus, you're going to lose them no matter what, and you know that. Forget them, and save yourself. If you don't finish your education, you've got no hope of ever getting a job, Remus. You have to look out for yourself." Romulus looked around; all of the other students had moved on long ago. "Let me help you this one time, Remus. Come talk to me when you're ready." He put his hand lightly on Remus' shoulder for a moment, before fading away into the darkness, and Remus was left standing alone, completely and utterly confused.