The First Encounter

He wasn't at all prepared though, to find himself looking at a man who was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes and even though he was quite young, having light brown hair which was flecked with grey.

It took Harry a moment to regain his composure, then he said in a falsely cheerful voice:

"Fancy meeting you here, Professor Lupin."

To say that Harry was surprised was an understatement, but in comparison with his ex…future…well his professor, he took the meeting in a very smooth way. At least he wasn't the one who was looking as if he was just facing a dragon with his mouth ajar.

It took Remus Lupin a few more moments to realize what he was doing and who he was staring at.

Harry saw a look of determine pass Lupin's face and finally he had found his voice again.

"Good evening H…" he stopped himself rather abruptly "I mean good evening. Who might you been? And who is this Professor Lupin? I am afraid you must have confused me with someone."

Now it was Harry's time at gaping and doing a poor imitation of a fish in the desert. There was just no way that Remus was lying straight into his face. That wasn't the Remus Lupin he knew and he cared for as a second godfather.

He knew that Lupin had never come to visit him when he was a child (for the first time) but Harry had put this down to his fear of his "illness". He had never thought that if they had met by chance and merely days away from his eleventh birthday, that Lupin would have been cowardly enough to tell him an outright lie.

Harry knew that he was going to talk to him soon but at first he needed to contact Dumbledore. In the meanwhile Mrs Figg had entered the sitting room as well.

She cautiously handed him a small sack which held a little amount of floo powder, she shot him a questioning glance and then, noticing Harry staring daggers at Lupin, quickly moved back to sit beside the werewolf on the couch, awaiting the things that might come.

Harry, who was shaking inwardly now but tried his best to ignore it, threw some floo powder in the fire place, stuck his head into the flame and yelled: "Hogwarts, Headmaster's office". In his back he could hear some muttering but he didn't pay any heed to it.

Even though he had done it quite a few times in the past, it was still a weird feeling having his head spin around like that and Harry closed his eyes in order to prevent feeling sick.

When his head had stopped spinning he saw right into the well-known and still untouched looking office of his headmaster.

"Professor Dumbledore?" he called out in a clear voice, hoping that Dumbledore was somewhere close by but no such luck. Instead he saw a swish of gold and suddenly Fawkes was sitting right in front of the fireplace.

"Hey Fawkes." Harry said softly. "I know you don't recognize me but my name is Harry, Harry Potter and I really need to talk to Professor Dumbledore. Could you please tell him to contact me as soon as possible. I am currently at Mrs Figg's."

Harry could have sworn he had seen Fawkes wink at him and withdrew his head from the flames. Now he just had to set things straight with Remus J. Lupin

Harry stood back up, took a deep breath and turned around to face the two adults who were giving him a questioning stare. He knew that this discussion wouldn't be a neat one and therefore addressed Mrs Figg first.

"Mrs Figg. Would you please let me have a private word with Mr Lupin." He asked her coldly. Now he knew that Dumbledore had been contacted, the fury which had awoken on Remus' first words was boiling and he knew that he would have a hard time to control his temper if his future DADA teacher decided to fain ignorance a second longer.

Mrs Figg who had obviously noticed the sudden drop of temperature in the room sent Remus an apologizing look and retreated to the safety of her kitchen.

It was Remus who spoke first and he had obviously decided to ignore the things he had already witnessed.

"Look, boy, I really don't know what…"

"Don't call me boy!" Harry pressed through gritted teeth. Now he was eleven again, his childhood memories and the abuse of the Dursley were very much alive once more and he couldn't stand being called boy by one he had always considered one of his closest friends, even more as a member of his family.

Lupin winced and remained silent. He obviously thought that it would be much safer for him to let the young boy speak first, in order to prevent himself from saying anything that would upset Harry even more.

Harry took another deep breath and spoke in a voice that clearly showed that he suppressed a lot of emotion.

"Let's make this easy, shall we? Your name is Remus Lupin. You're a werewolf and attended Hogwarts with Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew (his voice was full of venom when he spat out the last name) You called yourself the Marauders. You were also part of the first order of the Phoenix. Your friends became unregistered Animagi in order to help you and to keep you from injuring yourself on full moons." He didn't dare to mention any more details about Sirius or Pettigrew, he had to make the man in front of him believe him first.

Remus Lupin had sat back down, not trusting his legs to carry him anymore. He knew of course that this boy in front of him was Harry Potter, son of one of his best friends and he also knew that all the information that Harry had just told him was correct.

But hadn't Dumbledore said that the boy knew nothing of the other, of his own world. Maybe he had guessed?

"Harry, right? I really don't know what you're talking about…I've never seen you…"

That was most definitely the most stupid thing Remus Lupin had ever said in his life.

"HOW DARE YOU LIE ME IN THE FACE LIKE THAT! YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO I AM AND YOU KNOW THAT I AM TELLING THE TRUTH. I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN THE LAST TEN YEARS BUT WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? I LIVED IN A CUPBOARD LUPIN, A CUPBOARD. AND WHEN I MEET ONE OF MY DAD'S BEST FRIENDS YOU DARE TO TELL ME THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ME!

Harry screamed everything at him that had been pestering him. He didn't even notice the tears streaming down his face. How could he do that to him?

"Why do you do this to me Moony?" Harry whispered, talking more to himself than to the man who was still sitting opposite him.

Remus had of course caught the muttering with his excellent werewolf hearing and if the screamed words hadn't fully convinced him, these last few words, which held more pain than he had ever thought words could, did.

He jumped to his feet. "Harry look, just let me explain."

But in this instant the two were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing his throat.

"Excuse me gentlemen. I just received notice that young Mr Potter needs to talk to me urgently." In the flames of Mrs Figg's fireplace sat the head of the only wizard that Voldemort had ever feared.

TBC...