Author note: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! I'll continue onward through the fog.

Random Acts

"Year Ten"

"The only gift is a portion of thyself." Ralph Waldo Emerson

The banner draped above him read, "Welcome to Hogwarts - 589th Annual Visitor's Day". Remus studied the large boar statues flanking the entrance steps and scanned the grounds, lingering on the lake.

"Where Godric Gryffindor first discovered the magical uses of gillyweed," he recited and blinked against dizzying pain in his mangled knee. The stone steps felt cool beneath his palms as he focused on the Ravenclaw quidditch team walking to the pitch in their royal blue robes and polished leather guards. I wonder where my class is? What they're seeing? Bugger this knee!

Last night, London City Holding had caged him with a particularly large werewolf, and
he wasn't surprised to find his leg bent back at a very ugly angle in the morning. LCH flooed him to St. Mungos, where he knew everyone by name, including the janitor and the ER floo network attendant.

"Just pop it back!" he insisted. "I can't miss school today, I mean it!"

Medi-wizard Mavis Goddard called for three days of bed rest and potions, but Remus had begged his father like never before to attend the class trip to Hogwarts. His father acquiesced but only after enduring the most ardent display of groveling Remus had ever doled out.

"Promise you'll call if you need picked up?" John Lupin worriedly asked his small son amid the crowded huddle of parents and kids on Platform 9 ¾. Remus had nodded and put on his brave face until he boarded the Hogwarts Express then immediately hobbled to the bathroom and sank to the floor, clutching at his knee. Pain shot up his spine and down his leg, and he raised the toilet lid when his stomach lurched with the train's movement.

He'd never take Dark Arts classes or get sorted by that notoriously candid hat or live in those high stone towers like he'd seen in Hogwarts: A History, but he would at least visit Hogwarts once, even if it killed him.

Now, the pain had decreased to a dull pulsing as he watched the Ravenclaw seeker bolt across the sky on a practice run. Two boys in Slytherin robes walked by and threw him a pompous glare.

"Oy! Doxie terd!"

Remus nodded in their direction, obviously not missing their derision but not seeming to mind it either. He knew enough about Hogwarts to know about Slytherin house. When the boys passed, Remus took a heavy breath and raised his pants leg to check a neatly tied bandage around his knee then rearranged the pants leg carefully.

"Young man, I believe you are….misplaced?"

Remus started and Dumbledore regretted creeping up on the lad. But he had to get out of the castle. Of course, he appreciated the intent of Visitors' Day, but Hogwarts swarming with hundreds of frenetic ten-year-olds did not make for his favorite event of the school year.

"You are here with your teacher and classmates, are you not?"

"Yes sir, but I'm not feeling well today." He looked over his shoulder and upward at the sprawling castle walls. "Too…too many stairs. My teacher knows I'm waiting outside." When Remus turned back around, he added for his own sake more than the man's, "But at least I'm here at Hogwarts."

"I see."

Remus pulled down his sleeves casually when Dumbledore walked closer, but the headmaster still caught a glimpse of jagged scars running across the boy's skin when he came alongside and opened a bag of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"I assume you're familiar with these?"

The boy raised his eyebrows and smiled before carefully selecting two black ones out of the bag (surely licorice!) and murmuring a very polite 'thank you.'

"My name is – "

"Albus Dumbledore. You're in Hogwarts: A History."

Albus smiled lightly. "May I ask your name?"

"Remus." The boy rose quickly to shake Dumbledore's hand and Albus saw him fight a wince of pain before he sat back down.

"Remus Lupin."

"It's very nice to meet you, Remus Lupin. And it's a shame you're missing the tour of the school. I first saw Hogwarts when I was your age…on Visitors' Day. And now I teach here. But, of course, you already knew that."

Remus gave him a rare smile.

"Now if you don't mind my candor, where are you hurting?"

"What?" Remus looked alarmed.

"Tell me where it hurts."

"I'm not…in…it doesn't. I'm just not feeling well today. Headache…sorta."

"Young man, it will never do to lie to me."

"My knee, my right knee." Remus said immediately.

"And can you tell me what happened?"

"It's….I…." Remus dropped his shoulders and looked defeated. "I'm sorry. I…..I have Lycanthropy. I hurt it last night in……in the London City Holding cages."

"I see…fighting, were we?"

Well…they don't always have a single cage for me. Sometimes….well, sometimes I get beat up. But I fight back….I just…well, I guess I lose." He grinned in dark amusement as he rubbed his knee and popped the second jellybean in his mouth.

"And instead of being in bed, as well you should, you've come to Hogwarts today?"

"I'll never see it otherwise," he said simply without a trace of pity.

"And how bad is your knee?"

"Not too bad. Could be worse."

"But it hinders you from keeping up with your classmates, and you very much wanted to see the school." Dumbledore gave Remus a small smile. "So it must hurt terribly."

"If you said cutting it off would help, I'd let you do it."

"And yet, you say it could be worse."

"Things can always be worse." Albus saw a wisdom in his eyes that no child his age should have - wisdom gained only after years of hardship and suffering.

Dumbledore reached forward and put his hand on the boy's knee with a low murmur, and Remus watched an ephemeral glimmer of light wreath the injury.

"Better?"

He tested the leg, surprised at his lack of pain.

"That should last long enough to see the school without causing any residual damage….and…something that might come in handy…" Dumbledore pawed casually through his robe pockets and with a quiet "Ah!" finally removed a quill sized piece of wood with a handle. But when Remus held the offered object, it extended into a walking cane that fit him perfectly. .

"It morphs to the user. Tap twice for storage. And may you only need it occasionally, young Remus." Then without taking his eyes off the boy, Dumbledore stood and extended his left arm and called to a red-headed young woman in Gryffindor robes who had barely appeared in his peripheral vision.

"Molly Prewett, this is Remus Lupin. Remus is visiting Hogwarts today with his class. Could you help him locate his teacher and schoolmates?"

"Of course, Professor."

Molly put her hand lightly on his shoulder but as they turned to go, Remus realized awe had displaced his manners and used his new cane to determinedly walk back to Dumbledore and proffer his hand.

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore. For everything. I'll never forget meeting you." Dumbledore shook the small werewolf's hand and leaned forward to meet his eyes.

"Mr. Lupin, the feeling is mutual."

Remus glowed at the comment then turned shyly to rejoin Molly, who waited for him with a patient smile.

Just one year later, Remus was 30 miles from home, planting potatoes in the field with his grandfather, when a large brown owl fluttered over and dropped a letter in his hands. Remus wiped dirty palms on his jeans and turned the letter over, saw the red wax stamp marked with an ornate letter "H."

And cried.

tbc