Note: I did not create the Harry Potter universe, nor did I create the characters. I did create both of Remus's parents names and personalities, but I try to stay as faithful to their description as written by J. K. Rowling. Everything belongs to her. Yay. Also, for those who don't know French, the title of this story is "Le Loup-Garou," which means "The Werewolf" when translated into English.
Le Loup-Garou: Chapter 1: In the Beginning...Miss Renet de Floret had a family all planned out. She would get married, have a large family, and they would all be very happy. So it came to no surprise when Mr. John Lupin came into the picture. And for a while, her dreams appeared to be a reality. Their wedding went by without a hitch, and their honeymoon was nothing short of magical, which, to a wizarding household, was no easy feat. And when their son came along, the world seemed to be at her fingertips.
"Come here, mon petit chere. Let me read you a story."
Her little boy was everything to her from the moment he came into the world. So when it came to naming him, she was not very picky. Whatever the name was, it would be his, and therefore it would be wonderful. So it was up to Jean to name him. So Jean thought hard. His wife had always taken a liking to muggle history, and muggle legends, so he thought he'd treat her with a name from them. Remus it would be. Remus John Lupin, a name that had history. And she loved it.
From the very start, she knew her son would grow up to be great. At the age of three, he could successfully read. Even before that, he had his favorite fable, "La Cigale et La Fourmi," memorized. That summer, though, tragedy struck the Lupin family. Mme Renet was told that it would no longer be wise for her to have children. The large family that she so desperately had dreamed about seemed to mock her in every corner of the street, mothers with hoards of children scrambling around in that loving chaos that could only be categorized as family. And it was torturous for her. Of course, M Lupin would not have any of it. So together, the little family packed their belongings and moved away from France, to England.
Securing a little cottage on the edge of a small town, their life seemed to calm down again. Little Remus played with the children of the town, and at night, his maman would take him out to look at the stars and the moon. He had his first astrology lessons out underneath the vast expanse of blue-black sky. And all of this, because he was raised to speak both French and English, was not hard for the little boy. He loved the night, and he loved the moon. His parents agreed that they had given him the best name he could have had, one of legends, just like his stars.
"La lune est très jolie, n'est-ce pas? Remus?"
A nod. "I like to watch it."
A laugh, light and pretty, like wind chimes in the night breeze. "You really are my little Remus. Mon petit loup. Always watching the moon. You're lucky to live in such a pretty place, mon fils. Back in France, we could never see the sky. But for now, it is time for bed. Say goodnight to the moon, Remus. Don't worry, it'll be back tomorrow."
"Bonne nuit, Madame Lune," came the reluctant adieu, as time after time, the child was pulled back inside to the comforts of his bed. And for a while, life went on like that. For a year, the peace continued, and the Lupins existed in happiness, with their dreamy little son. But one night, everything that they knew was no more.
Renet was still a young mother. She had her moments where she could tell that she loved her family dearly, but if they did that one thing that they had done too many times, then she'd become angry. And this is a very difficult concept for a four year old to grasp, no matter how perceptive they are.
"Maman, I want to see the stars tonight. Can you take me out?" It was just a simple child's question. Yet it was the thing that set Renet off.
"No, Remus," she had snapped. Then almost immediately, she regretted it, as she looked down into her son's big brown questioning eyes. They were the color of the outdoors, the woods that she loved herself, and her son was becoming crazy about. She loved those eyes. And to see such sadness in them, she could not bear to know that she had caused that.
"...Remus..." she had started again, and then realized that there was no bargaining with a four year old. "Yes, love. We can go out tonight."
And thus they had went, the child wandering ahead, while the mother stood back with John, quietly chatting about the little important nothings that come with being the owners of a home, and being young and in love. The smiles and little touches every so often, they were what reminded Renet how happy she really was. So they involved themselves in a quiet moonlit stroll, not really worrying about anything, until a scream shot through the air. A child's scream: Remus's.
What began as a beautiful night ended in monstrosity. Of course they found their son. They had all but ran to where he was, their parental sixth sense working on high gear. And when Renet came upon the wolf, she knew spells in order to make it leave and never come back to her home. She was prepared for that, and instantly banished it to far away. She had been prepared to treat Remus of whatever scratches he had gotten, and to reassure him that she was there, so everything would be fine. Renet Lupin was not, however, prepared for the sight before her.
Her young son lay convulsing slightly on the ground, a bright pool of blood filtering from his chest onto his shirt. She stepped back in surprise, as John came rushing forward, coming to cradle the boy in his arms.
"My god, Renet, don't just stand there. What happened?" he asked, yelling.
She could only shake her head in disbelief. "We have to get him to help," she said, her instincts doing the work for her. And they were what got her through going to the English wizarding hospital, admitting their son, and then waiting while the doctors looked him over.
That morning, Renet and John were called into their son's room. Remus was asleep, and had been given a potion to stay so for at least a few hours longer.
"I want you to take a look at this," the doctor said, pulling the sheets down over the boy's chest to reveal an angry red wound on his chest. To the ordinary person, it just looked like some really bad accident had happened, which involved something in the shape of an extremely large animal's mouth. And to John, being a muggle, though aware of much of the wizarding world via his connection through Renet, it just appeared to be a wolf bite. But to Renet, it was so much more.
"That is no regular wound. I'm sorry to say this, but your son has been attacked by a Dark Creature, and there was nothing to do to prevent the inevitable. Mr. And Mrs. Lupin, I'm afraid that that creature you encountered last night was a werewolf, and I am certain that, within the next full moon, your son will be one too. I'm deeply sorry. Now..." The doctor's voice continued on for a while, but the Lupins had no idea what he was saying. They only knew one thing.
Their beautiful and kind little son, their own flesh and blood, smart, generous, and wonderful, had just been exposed to something that he could never escape from. Something that would haunt the boy until the day he died.
And no matter how many times the doctor apologized for having to tell them the news, it didn't make up for the fact that little Remus was subjected into a world much more angry and prejudiced, more raw and animalistic than they could ever hope to imagine.
Tears sprang to Renet's eyes. She was not a weepy woman. It was not an idle thing that made this woman cry. It was not the fact that she could have no more children that made her cry. It was not the fact that she had almost lost her son either. She cried because she didn't know the answer to a question, a question that no mother should ever have to ask herself. How was she supposed to tell her son that he was a werewolf? Or more importantly, would a day come that she would fear him, fear what had been forced upon him?
It was all because of the love of stars on a night neither parent had stopped to think was a full moon. Never again would the Lupin family be able to glance over the full moon with as much indifference as they had today. Never again.
Mr. Lupin carried the still sleeping, bandaged boy into their house, and into Remus's room. It was full of the things that Remus loved: books, and comfortable places to read those books. He especially loved big armchairs, not stylish ones, nor the ones that came matching some other piece of furniture. He loved the chairs that felt like home, the chairs that he could just curl up in and dream all day. No matter what went wrong during the day, the chairs seemed to float you up again, with that cozy warm feeling that made all worry just disappear.
Mr. Lupin was glad of his son's taste in furniture, because he really needed the cozy infantile feeling that comes with having no worries. After laying his son down on the bed, he planted himself in one such chair, and waited for Renet to come back upstairs. He had questions for her – questions that needed to be answered.
John Lupin had grown up in a simple, muggle household. Everything, from the grades in school, to the chosen profession, everything in his life was what everyone expected from him – normal. So when he had married Renet, it was almost as if he had committed not only to his love of her, but also to an entirely new world in general. He believed what his wife said, and he had witnessed magic up close and personal, but accepting that his one and only son was some kind of wolf-man because of what looked like a dog bite was just a little hard for the man to take.
Exhausted, and tired of waiting for Renet (who, unbeknownst to him, was downstairs feeling exhausted and confused as well), John Lupin fell asleep like that, in the comfortable room next to his son, his life, and his tragedy.
Little Remus awoke to find himself feeling rather tired and sickly, but otherwise, not horrible. He could remember flashes of what had happened the night before, but the memory of a four year old is still shaky at best. Turning his head, he was able to see his mother and father, both curled up in armchairs near his bed. Normally, he would jump up out of bed to ask them what was wrong and why they were in his room, but he didn't feel like getting up, which was saying something for a boy his age. He immediately knew that something was wrong, and that something was different with him.
Renet Lupin awoke to the feeling that someone was watching her, which she fond to be her son as soon as she opened her eyes. She smiled wanly and him, yawning slightly, before sitting forward. "How do you feel?" she asked him.
"Okay," Remus replied. His mother nodded, but didn't say anything afterward. He knew that she was trying to explain to him what had happened. He was pretty perceptive for a kid, after all.
"Remus, honey, I...remember – do you remember last night?" A slight nod made her continue. "Well, last night, you see you, you were bitten by a wolf, but...- "
"That was not a normal wolf, was it, Mum?"
"No, Remus, it wasn't..."
7 YEARS LATERSummer was drawing quickly to an end, and a certain young werewolf was beginning to believe that he would spend the rest of his life bored and unfulfilled. Sitting in the bay window in the drawing room, he buried himself in what the muggle world referred to as a classic novel, which his father had given him for his last birthday. Granted that Remus had already read and finished it once, to him Bram Stoker's "Dracula" was a book to read over. His parents could recognize when he was in reading mode, and when he was not, yet today, they didn't notice how distracted he was.
He had heard it from the only other wizarding family in town. They didn't make it known, nor did the outright announce it to Remus, but the magic in their households were not very hard to sense, and Remus had always been good at sensing things like this. That, and the talk of the letters from Hogwarts, the wizarding school of England. Letters that would be arriving to all the wizards of age. That is to say, all wizards of 11 years: Remus's age. Which was why the boy was so distracted.
He knew that he was not ordinary. He knew that special rules would apply to someone like him, a creature like him. Yet he still found himself with that feeling of longing that filled his chest and made his senses come undone. The truth was that, more than anything, Remus Lupin desired to attend Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And it almost hurt him to know that he very well might not be receiving the letter in the post. But that did not mean that he couldn't with for it.
When the post arrived, Remus could not believe his eyes. There was the letter, just for him, addressed to Mr. Remus Lupin of the cottage on the edge of the woods. And enclosed would be his letter from Hogwarts, inviting him to join the other witches and wizards of his age. Trembling hands ripped open the envelope, as Remus sank into a chair in the drawing room. Which is where Renet Lupin found her son.
"What are you doing in here, Rem? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Remus just looked up at her with those big golden eyes of his. His previously rich brown eyes had turned a few shades lighter to remain golden after his first transformation. As much as Renet loved her son, sometimes his golden eyes made it that much more obvious that she had lost part of her son to that wolf that she was never going to get back; no matter how many of his transformations she'd had to clean up after, it was still hard to believe. Snapping herself out of it, Renet looked down to the folded piece of parchment that Remus held out to her.
"What –"she began, but as soon as she recognized the seal on the letter, she stopped herself. Here was the letter she had always hoped would come to her child, but with Remus's circumstances, she'd never thought to receive. She didn't know whether to believe it a cruel joke, or a blessing.
She looked back down at Remus and at the look on his face. She knew from that expression that he didn't know whether to believe it or not either. Yes, she had taught him well. But now she had a problem on her hands. What to do about letting the headmaster know that Remus was...special?
"Remus, honey, you know that I have to talk to the school about this... That I have to tell them about, well, if they don't already know."
"I know, Mum," came his quiet reply.
"I just don't want you to be disappointed..." she said, and got a grunt of acknowledgement in return. "Hey, that doesn't mean that it's over yet, so don't be like that. I will try and do everything that I can to get you into that school, you have my word, okay?"
Remus nodded, and then stood. Walking across the drawing room, he unconsciously avoided looking at the letter, but as he reached the threshold, he turned back to give her a "Thanks, Mm," and a flash of that wonderful smile of his. He really did know what she was willing to give up for him, and he loved his mother for her devotion to him.
Long after Remus had gone to bed, Renet presented the letter to John. He read it, and then sat there in thought, staring down at the words etched across the parchment for several minutes. "Do they know...?" he asked finally, the words making Renet startled after the silence.
"Doubtfully," she answered to him. It was the truth. Registration laws for werewolves announced that a werewolf wasn't to be registered until "it" was an adult, or 18. Renet thought that this was for nothing more than the rush the ministry must get from crushing the dreams of innocent people who happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
"The question is, should we tell the headmaster?" she asked.
"I think that it's pretty obvious that we should tell the headmaster. You know the consequences of being caught after an attack, and really, it's a school, it's not as if his transformations would go unnoticed forever."
"But what's the point then? If he's discovered...or even if we're turned down, do you know what that would do to Remus? It's madness, John..."
"I don't think that the question is if we should ask the headmaster to accept him after the truth. I think the question is whether you'll let Remus go or not."
"John, this is crazy –"she started, but was cut off.
"Is it? He won't be a quiet and happy child forever, Renet, not if he's forced to live like this...forced to live in fear. Fear of, what, of taking chances and making errors? These aren't his fears; they're yours, Renet. You've got to let him make his own mistakes; it's how we learn. And do you know where else we learn Renet? At school."
Renet sighed. She supposed that he was right. She couldn't decide everything for her son, no matter how she tried. Remus would be going through and experiencing moments that she would never have to. Who better to decide things for Remus than Remus himself? Even if he was only 11, he was wise for his age, a kind of trace of that in his golden eyes when he gazed at the moon. No, he would never be that normal boy that she dreamed of, but she loved even more for that.
"Oh...I suppose that you're right. We'll give this, what's-his-name, Albus Dumbledore, a shot. Though his name is absolutely dreadful, if you ask me..."
John just smiled at Renet for a few moments. "I love you," he said, standing up to go to bed. "Even if you are a strange one." This resulted with a pillow flying into his face. It would have knocked him down, if he hadn't been against the wall.
"Goodnight to you too, love," he said, with a laugh, before disappearing into their bedroom. Renet followed soon after, her spirits and hopes considerably lightened.
To Be Continued...Author's Note: Hey, y'all. It's me, Shinime. This is my first Harry Potter fanfiction to go online, so I doubt that it is all that great in the beginning. Reviews make a puppy happy, and don't hold back in the reviews. Let me know what you think, anything from compliments, to complaints. Just keep in mind that I am using my creative license with this, so it might not exactly fit the character from the book. ; I try, but no one's perfect.