Harley Potter - The Black Cat.
Remus Lupin simply could not win.
As he trudged sadly through the streets of Brighton while he ignored the passersby in the streets - it was funny, but for the son of a pureblood family and was subsequently taught to look down on muggles, muggle-borns, and magical creatures as inferior, Remus truly did not really care one bit for the prejudices since muggles weren't as bad as his supremacist father made out.
Alright, so sometimes they could be annoying at times, and it was impossible for them to know him, but Remus had met many nice muggles. His only problem was he couldn't find or hold down a full-time job thanks to the werewolf curse he'd carried with him for years.
In fact, in a way, Remus saw them as kindred spirits. At least they had no idea what he was, but that didn't mean life was peachy. It was so bad, thanks to those evil laws passed by people like Dolores Umbridge (oh, how he hated that woman who had somehow managed to become Fudge's chief hatchet woman, and was able to pass those evil and cruel laws onto the werewolf and vampire populace, which made life virtually intolerable for them) he was forced to live and work in the muggle world.
It was not by choice. If Remus had his way he would not have come out here. The risks were simply too great; muggles had no way of knowing werewolves existed, and if he attacked anyone or bit anybody, and they became werewolves, it would be a disaster for the Statute of Secrecy.
The good news was he had the shack his mother had prepared for him, complete with the bunker-like basement which would be locked down as soon as he transformed into his wolf form, so there was that at least.
Remus was relieved he had a way of preventing muggles from sharing his curse, and he thanked his mother for her foresight. She must have known he wouldn't have found any work, regardless of his qualifications from Hogwarts and prepared the shack for him to live in although he hated his life. At the same time, he wished he could hold down a job since his continual absences during the full-moon period made it hard.
He was still a werewolf, and at times he was completely immobilised as his body transformed into his werewolf form, his human reasoning completely lost.
To make matters worse, each time the transformation was due to come and when it finally ended, he was not himself, and it caused a lot of stress for him so he was incapable of holding down a job. Just like now. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do now he had lost yet another job.
Remus was so locked in his thoughts he ignored a passing child who was walking by completely by herself. But he came to his senses when her scent entered his nostrils, and he stopped in disbelief.
He knew that scent.
It had been….five years, but he remembered it so perfectly when James gently placed the source of the scent into his arms shortly after her birth.
Harley?
But it couldn't be.
He swung around and looked back at the girl, following her every movement as she walked down the street while his mind noted just how small she was.
Lily hadn't been a particularly tall girl at the age of eleven, but she had probably been taller than Harley was now.
His mind also was now whirring into overdrive now he was no longer thinking about himself. He was so confused. How was Harley here, in Brighton? What was she doing here? Had her relatives lost her? Why hadn't Dumbledore alerted anyone from the Order?
Either the old wizard had no idea Harley was here in Brighton or…. he didn't want to think of the possibility the old wizard had deliberately kept the whole matter quiet since it opened his mind to ideas he didn't want to even think about. Remus knew that Dumbledore had personally placed Harley in the care of her aunt, although Remus had concerns since he had only ever heard Lily say her sister was not a nice person, he had thought Dumbledore knew what he was doing.
Remus had hoped to meet Harley, but Dumbledore wouldn't have it.
The old headmaster had told Remus the girl was happy and fine, and that it wasn't a good idea for a strange man to show up whom the child didn't know.
Remus had taken umbrage with the way Dumbledore had said that. It also didn't help Dumbledore had said it was a bad idea for a werewolf to go near her in a muggle neighbourhood, and while he had resented the old wizards' remarks, he had taken them on board. He had listened and he promised himself he would meet the girl when she started attending Hogwarts. It sounded good in theory, but Remus couldn't help but feel guilty about it, even though he knew it wasn't a good idea to expose a child to a werewolf.
More than once over the last few years since Voldemort's fall from power, Remus had suffered from nightmares about what could happen if little Harley Potter became a werewolf herself, and shared in his curse. The nightmare which would inevitably follow should the Girl Who Lived (Remus honestly had no idea how the child had gotten that title; it wasn't the nicest title she could have received. He felt it bypassed the fact Lily and James had died) become a werewolf was not worth thinking about.
But still…
He had tried to send her letters and cards whenever he could afford them as a compromise to himself, to assuage his guilty conscience. She never replied, and he had the impression she didn't want to speak to him or anyone, which only served to keep him away.
He was just surprised to find her here, in Brighton. What was she doing here, was she and her relatives on holiday or something? As he watched her closely, his breath literally taken away in shock, his mind almost spiralling down into denial, he noticed the girl was trailing after a man. Remus's eyes widened in shock when he saw the girl sneak a hand into the man's pocket and come away with his wallet before she walked away before she disappeared from his view.
Harley was pickpocket?
No.
No, it couldn't be.
Why would she do that?
Realising that it was no good asking bloody stupid and pointless questions since the girl was getting away, Remus knew he had to get after Harley before she escaped.
Remus started heading back the way he did, sniffing the girl's scent, although he had trouble even with his nose. Honestly, why did muggles have to use cars that threw out that smelling waste? Remus growled underneath his breath, eliciting a few worried looks at the bestial sound he had just made, but he didn't care. The muggles weren't on his list of priorities. Harley was. It took the werewolf a few minutes before he picked up a faint trace of the girl's scent, but it was riddled with the air pollution around him. Remus headed in the general direction of the scent. It didn't get him too far. He found his way down another street. Remus closed his eyes in frustration. Honestly, what was it about the Potter family that made them so frustrating? Okay, granted, this one didn't even know he was there, but it was still frustrating. It was bad enough the scent of the girl was so faint it was virtually impossible for him just to get a trace of her here. But there were dozens of muggles here, some of them smelt awful - hadn't they ever heard of personal hygiene; even Mundungus Fletcher had better hygiene than they did, and some others smelt fake due to the artificial chemicals of their perfumes that made the werewolf sick to his stomach since they stung his nose. Remus had to search through every single shop. There were dozens of muggles in the way, and quite a few of the shops were crowded.
He didn't find anything.
There was no sign of Harley there, but he knew it was her. Remus searched Brighton for days while he alternated between apparating back and forth between the seaside city with his shack, and though he was sure he had caught whiffs of her scent, the sheer amount of air pollution and the difference in scents from the muggles made it impossible, but then again Remus was unsurprised. He knew his sense of smell was stronger while he was in werewolf form, but in his human form it comparatively feeble and weak. It was only when he was close to the Full Moon where he transformed or when he was recovering from the transformation Remus' nose in human form was stronger than before but it became weaker and weaker as time passed.
As he tried to search Brighton for Harley, Remus barely had time to eat or drink. His mind was always constantly on the alert for any sign of the girl. But he could never find her, although he did find areas where her scent was strong, though it had faded a bit. While he couldn't find her in person like he had when she had walked past without knowing who he was, though that was hardly her fault he admitted to himself, it told him something important.
Harley really was living in Brighton. But why? What was happening? Were her relatives here, but if that was so why did he see her picking pockets? It made no sense. But the more Remus searched Brighton and the surrounding towns on the off chance she might have gone to one of those instead of staying in Brighton, the more questions he had and the more the question of what her relatives were doing at this point grew louder and louder in his mind.
Finally, after getting nowhere for three extra days with Harley, Remus decided to visit Privet Drive. He knew precisely where Harley had left, and just having the knowledge of where his deceased best friend's orphaned daughter was residing was bad enough, but over the years Remus had found so many excuses not to go based on what Dumbledore had said and his own fears about what Harley could go through if he bit her or even spent a minute in her company, it had become simpler for him to ignore it.
Now he had no choice. The most logical choice to visit Number 4 was to visit during the daytime, and he did want to speak with the Dursleys to find out what was going on, Remus quickly realised he wanted to do some checking before he got that far at least. He wanted to find out why Harley was here, and why she was picking pockets in Brighton of all place. He wanted to know if the Dursleys had left or not, though that made no sense since it didn't explain why Harley had become a pickpocket. He needed to speak to Petunia, though he was not looking forward to that in the least. Petunia was not a pleasant woman to be around, though from what Dumbledore had said, she was a good stepmother mother to Harley. It was that and several other reasons why he'd kept away from the girl growing up.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, although he knew both Lily and James would feel nothing but contempt for him and his selfishness. Now he was becoming more convinced he had made a terrible mistake. He wanted to confront the Dursleys, find out what was happening. But he couldn't - he had so many questions on his mind, and he wasn't even sure that the Dursleys would answer them. At the same time, he could ask the neighbours more about the matter and get the facts from another point of view before he confronted the Dursleys. In any case, it was always a good idea to get different sides of a matter before making the final decision yourself.
But there was only one way to do that.
He would need to give the search here up for a couple of days, and go to the street in question. He would do some digging; first off, he needed to check if the Dursleys were there or if they had left, and if they had moved down here for some reason then he would come back and simply try to find them, though he was really interested in finding out why Harley had turned to pickpocketing and why she wasn't in school.
At the same time, he could learn more about the family if they were still there. He had only met Petunia a couple of times, and they were fleeting but he hadn't liked the woman.
She was arrogant for no reason. She also didn't seem to like magic, and she disliked her own sister. The less said about Vernon, the better. At the same time, he could also check the wards and find out what Dumbledore used because the old wizard had boasted about them often enough.
He just needed to plan it right. It took Remus a few hours to work out a decent plan to deal with the problem, and by the end of it, he was ready. But he had a little task to do. He had gone to Little Whinging in the twilight hours of the day and with a simple charm to stop the muggles paying attention to him, he had looked in through the windows and found himself looking at the Dursleys. Remus had left and gone back to his shack to rethink some of the plans.
By now he was very worried.
Why was Harley in Brighton, alone, while the Dursleys were here?
What was happening?
He decided to search the house and get some answers before he spoke to anybody.
The first thing he did was to spend a few hours of the early morning on a street corner overlooking Number 4 in Privet Drive. Now he knew the Dursleys still lived here, Remus was convinced something very, very wrong was happening. But at the same time, he was looking up and down the street.
Remus' experiences with muggles were more extensive than most wizards and witches, so he knew about the alien concept of 'suburbia,' but while many witches and wizards were nosy and liked thumbing their noses at other people, the wizarding world had spells and wards designed to increase their privacy.
But while many pureblood witches and wizards looked down their noses at their contemporaries, at least their homes had personality. Honestly, Remus had seen the Shrieking Shack have more personality than this place. Indeed Remus had encountered dozens of muggle neighbourhoods where the different muggles didn't care about their houses' influence and preferred showing off their individuality.
Why didn't the muggles display ornaments in their front gardens?
Where were the different front gardens, why did they need neatly trimmed lawns that looked as though machines had trimmed the grass and stood each blade of grass upright?
All of the houses looked identical and if it wasn't for the different numbers on the doors and the different model cars standing for their owners to ferry them to work, Remus would never have been able to tell the difference from one house to the next. In fact, he was finding it hard to do so even now.
When he arrived on the street Remus had been carefully studying the fourth house in the street underneath a notice-me-not charm.
And what he found worried him.
There was evidence of magical wards on the property, some pretty powerful ones, but they had collapsed though there was evidence they had been hanging by threads for a long time.
Remus frowned as he studied the different wards, or what was left of them.
There were mail-redirect wards on the property which would send mail off to a different location. Remus could understand the logic behind the use of that ward after he gave it some thought; while some mail would be friendly to little Harley, there were many people out there who would love to see her dead.
It wouldn't do to have the girl protected at all times if she could be Portkeyed away, but there were ways of screening that type of thing out and Remus knew that, but the heavy-handed nature of the wards shocked him. Why was Dumbledore going all out like this?
That explains why Harley never replied to my cards and letters, he cursed himself for not coming here, and damn the consequences, and he cursed Dumbledore for his desire to keep Harley isolated.
But the rest of the scan…
Remus couldn't believe it when he found other spells lacing the wards, spells that shouldn't even be there. There were spells which, logically, made sense; there was a spell that he recognised from the many hours he had clocked up over the seven years he had spent at Hogwarts for keeping someone in and making sure they didn't run off. There was also one which would prevent muggles from coming in and trying to take Harley.
But why was there traces of a spell similar to a notice-me-not like the one Remus was using to go unnoticed by everyone on the street? Remus had been puzzled when he had studied it; the spell, much like the wards which had collapsed for some reason, but there were enough traces there to tell the werewolf they had been there, but he did not know why it was even there for.
As he had continued to scan the wards, Remus discovered the Blood Wards. Somehow he was not surprised Dumbledore had used them to protect Harley. When faced with Voldemort's surviving followers, you'd be hard-pressed to find a way to protect anyone.
Blood wards were extremely strong, and although the Ministry banned them, and other forms of Blood magic because of their prejudices, they could not touch the families who used them, though they wouldn't tell anybody about what kind of defences they had since it was suicide But if the Ministry caught wind then someone might raise noise. In a different world, the Ministry might try to bring the families up on charges even if those wards had protected the family.
But they couldn't. The Ministry knew they would lose, especially if they interfered with extremely old families since the others, affiliated or not, would not stand for the interference of any kind.
If they tried, then the families would band together and give the Ministry more trouble than they expected and despite what many people might think about Blood magic, in some ways it was incredibly useful.
And besides, many of the different families never told the Ministry about the Blood wards because of that very reason
Especially now. Fudge might be an idiot and had an overinflated opinion of himself although his policies and his actions said only too loudly and succinctly how much of a fool he was, even he was not stupid enough to do something so stupid.
It made sense Dumbledore would use Blood magic for Harley's protections; with Voldemort's followers out there, it would be impossible for them to get to the girl with the wards on high.
But Remus was uneasy as he continued to scan the wards around Number 4 Privet Drive because it did not take the werewolf long to discover the Blood Wards collapse had been inevitable. There wasn't much of them left, but from what he could discover they'd been in a terrible state for a long time. But there were signs they had received a boost of magical power. Remus had been puzzled about where the wards had gotten the extra magic, and then it occurred to him someone had hooked Harley to the wards. The idea of someone doing that to a child was horrific, but what made it even worse was the implication the wards had been on the verge of collapsing for a long time, but Dumbledore had not bothered to look for a root cause or a proper solution.
Remus had gone away even more worried, and for a whole morning, he had thought about what he could do. In the end, he decided to just follow through with the plan, although it would receive a change. A slight tweak there. He was going to break into the house and discover answers for himself. He knew this was the right house, so he hoped there would be answers inside. Remus wasn't worried about the wards; they had fallen apart, but it struck him during his vigil as he waited for the Dursleys to leave so then it would make his job of getting into the house that much easier there might be a magical defence his wand was simply incapable of finding.
With that in mind, he had gone into town and got himself a bottle of water to drink before he transformed it into a Portkey which he would activate and take him back to the shack in case of trouble. With his insurance ready, Remus simply waited for the Dursleys to leave while he was protected by his notice-me-not charm.
An eternity seemed to pass before the Dursleys left the house. The first thing Remus noticed when they finally walked out of the doors was the sheer girth of Vernon Dursley. He had definitely been piling on the pounds, and his moustache set into that reddish-purple face had grown even more ridiculous.
Remus knew his own moustache would make him sound hypocritical, but his own moustache was smaller and it wasn't as pretentious as Vernon's who seemed to have it only because he was trying to be someone important. In truth, Vernon was a weak, pompous man. He was unpleasant at the best of times and was more than happy to provide a charming front.
The next person whom he saw was a boy. Remus wracked his brains to try to remember the boy's name, but he couldn't find it; either Petunia had neglected to tell Lily what it was or if he had simply forgotten it; Remus had no idea which and frankly he didn't care at this point. The boy, although young, was simply fat. And loud. He was yelling at his mother, clearly in the throes of a temper tantrum for sweets or something like that. The yells made Remus close his eyes, wincing while he yearned for the gifted miracle of silence. It was clear Petunia hadn't taught her son the meaning of restraint, but that wasn't his problem. He was here to get answers.
Remus turned his attentions on the boy's mother and he saw that although Petunia hadn't grown that old, she was still the same woman.
The Dursleys were having a conversation. It was whispered and hard to make out for normal ears, but a combination of his werewolf hearing and an eavesdropping spell, and he could hear it.
"I'm almost late, Petunia!" Vernon was saying, whispering harshly to his wife. "Honestly, it shouldn't take so long as to get my breakfast. I slave for this family," Remus rolled his eyes at the man's pomposity, "and this is how the little-."
Remus stiffened as Vernon's voice was getting more and angrier as he came close to ranting and raving, the werewolf feeling there was something about that last remark, but Petunia waved a hand harshly and snapped in the same low tone.
"Don't blame me, Vernon!" Petunia hissed, and from where he was standing Remus could almost see sparks shooting out of Petunia's eyes. "We will just have to get used to it," Petunia went on while she dragged her angry son and followed after her equally angry but more controlled husband while Vernon unlocked the doors of the car. "there's nothing we can do. Don't worry, we'll be alright."
Vernon grunted while his wife clambered into the car and he waddled over to the door and slid inside. Remus could just make out what he was saying before he closed the door; "Yes, oh, when I get my hands on that-!"
Whatever Vernon was about to say was drowned out when he closed the door of his car. Remus watched as the Dursleys had driven away before he started walking towards their home, waving his wand and casting spells over himself as he did so, his mind on what he had just heard although he was trying hard to not think about it since he was starting to get a horrible feeling about what Vernon had been talking about.
He was hoping he was wrong, but he was starting to feel he was right…
The moment he stepped into the house, he was instantly hit with Harley's scent which stopped him from noticing the finer details of the house itself though at this point he didn't care. It was faded a little bit, but it was quite strong in the hall. Remus frowned and followed the scent, stopping when he came across the cupboard under the stairs.
Remus' mouth went dry.
No.
NO!
It couldn't be, surely they didn't…
But then he remembered the horror stories told by muggle-borns about their muggle relatives who feared and hated magic, and he knew it was possible.
He just didn't want to believe it and he could feel his grief and guilt surge through him.
He needed to take a deep breath and he opened the door, and he was overpowered with the strong smell of Harley's scent intermingled with blood, urine, vomit, and although long since faded, excrement.
A deep growl started to sound in Remus' throat as he took in the dark space that was barely enough room for a House-elf, never mind a five to six-year-old girl. As he stared into the dark space, taking in the dirty cot with a grimy old blanket that was caked with all kinds of body substances Remus did not want to identify, he felt the urge to tear the house to pieces.
This was worse when he had learnt Sirius had betrayed Lily and James, back then you didn't know whom to trust.
But now he was resisting the urge to murder the Dursleys and kill himself, but he knew he couldn't go that far.
Someone had to find Harley and make sure she was alright, though whether or not she would go with him, Remus didn't want to think about it. He knew he would deserve it if she hated him since he had never cared for her safety in the past.
What the hell had Dumbledore been thinking leaving her here?
Remus rubbed his face, overwhelmed with the thoughts passing through his mind. It was becoming increasingly obvious to him the old wizard hadn't bothered to properly come and check on Harley's progress. But it was becoming clear to the werewolf Harley had run away, and as he looked into the space under the stairs, he couldn't blame her.
He took another breath and smell the mix of urine, excrement and blood. How long had this been going on?
Remus clenched his fists and he took a few deep breaths while he felt sick to his stomach, bitter self-loathing poisoning his thoughts. Why did I listen to Dumbledore? He's a schoolteacher, a politician - he's no better than Fudge in some ways. How could I have left Harley here?
He needed answers, and he knew who was going to give them. He closed the door of the cupboard and he left the house while waving his wand around while placing a small spell on the inside of the house to let him know when the Dursleys would be back. He wanted to confront them all, but first, he needed to get away from here now before he lost control.
The Dursleys were all at home by around seven pm. Remus was relieved, he had spent the whole day in Brighton trying to find Harley, only to find nothing. As a result, the werewolf's mood was not at its best.
He went straight to Number 4 and kept a hold on the Portkey while he walked to the front door. As he approached and put up a few wards to keep out any muggles from noticing him, he could hear the sounds of the television inside thanks to his sensitive hearing, but he ignored it. He pressed the doorbell and he felt a petty satisfaction in keeping his finger pressed against the bell and let it ring and ring. At the same time, he slipped his wand out of his pocket.
Remus smirked while he heard the sound of loud, angry yelling inside and the sounds of someone charging down the hall, throwing the door open Remus got Vernon Dursley in his face.
"WE'RE NOT INTERESTED!" Dursley yelled in his face.
Remus resisted the urge to wince and he shoved the point of his wand into the fat man's face so then he could see who was in front of him, and he hoped his knowledge of the man's fear and hatred of magic was correct.
"Hello, Vernon," Remus said mildly as though he were meeting an old friend, and wasn't, in fact, pushing his wand into the face of a man who had paled in fear and horror at the wand. "Remember me? We met at the wedding your parents in law forced you to attend."
Vernon's face grew red at the memory. "We don't want your kind here-!"
"You've got me, and there's nothing you can do about it!" All mild geniality had left Remus at that point as he channelled his inner wolf. Vernon seemed to realise he was dealing with someone extremely dangerous because he paled, but Remus caught a strong and particularly disgusting whiff of pee off of the man. "Disgusting. You really are a first-grade coward, aren't you, Vernon? Get inside the house."
Vernon tried to get brave again. "We don't want your kind here-!"
"I'm sorry, but I just said GET INSIDE THE HOUSE!" Remus' voice was more of a growl than a shout, and it drowned out Vernon Dursley very quickly. "We need to talk, and I am going to get answers even if I have to maim your family to get them!"
Remus prodded Vernon into the house with his wand and he slammed the door closed. The fat man backed away, eyes darting left and right in terror. But as he passed the cupboard, Remus felt another flash of rage.
This filthy coward was more than willing to beat an innocent child up, and yet when faced with a fully qualified wizard he was looking left and right like the piece of refuse he was.
Footsteps at the end of the passage sounded and Petunia appeared.
"Vernon, what's going-?" Petunia's eyes widened in horror when they took in the scene in front of them.
"Hello, Petunia," Remus's voice was colder than an icicle which had been sharpened by a whetstone in the arctic. "We met at your sisters' wedding."
The mention of her sister made the woman look even more frightened. "I…I don't know what you're talking about-!" she stuttered, looking at him in terror.
"Oh I think you do," Remus replied, his voice a harsh growl. "Don't play games with me, muggle. Denying you have a sister at all when she died to protect her child is the most stupidest and disgusting thing you could do. Now, go into your living room. We need to talk. And Merlin help you if you don't tell me what I want to know, " he added, hoping invoking the name of the most powerful wizard in magical history would make the two muggles in front of him understand the seriousness of the visit, because if it didn't then they were even more foolish than he'd imagined.
Remus moved the two muggles at wand point into the living room where Dudley was watching television. The boy hadn't even noticed anything out of the ordinary, he was just sitting there. But he looked up and spotted Remus and looked at his parents.
Remus eyed the boy critically, his mind flashing back to the image he'd gotten of Harley from a distance. The comparison between the two was immense.
Harley seemed small for her age and he'd gotten a good look at her physique even from a distance. She was so skinny she was like a splinter, and even Lily hadn't been that skinny when he had known her during their first year at Hogwarts. This kid in comparison was massive. Remus was smart enough to tell this family had probably given their son more food than Harley, and it was probably yet another reason for Harley to run away from here.
"Dudley, get to your room!" Petunia ordered, unknowingly giving Remus the name of her child though the werewolf couldn't care less.
"I want to watch the show!" Dudley whined.
"No! GET UPSTAIRS!" Vernon shouted, eyes flashing fearfully at the werewolf as if they expected him to attack their son.
Vernon needn't have worried.
He didn't care about Dudley Dursley, but if he could get nothing out of the parents then he would go for the cousin.
Dudley got up, sulking. He stomped out of the room and slammed the door shut. Remus shook his head at the melodrama in this pathetic family, and he ignored Dudley's stomps as he walked up the stairs to his room.
In the meantime, Remus was looking around. He hadn't had a good look around earlier; when he had found the cupboard and the state it was in, Remus had not bothered to look around. He grimaced as he took in the flowery wallpapers that gave the place an effeminate appearance, made worse by the ghastly lace curtains. He ignored the photographs of Dudley Dursley as he grew from a small pink beachball of a baby into a fat toddler to the boy he was now.
"What do you want?" Petunia asked, trying to sound confident but her eyes kept darting towards the wand in Remus' hand.
Remus turned around so then both Dursleys were having his complete attention.
"I know Harley Potter ran away from here," Remus replied, not saying a word about how he had come across this knowledge; the last thing he wanted was for these filthy muggles to get it into their brains to travel down to the coast and look for the girl if they knew the basics of where to look, that is if they cared as much; Vernon may have blustered and made threats, but whether the fat bastard had the bravery to visit Brighton to look for Harley or not, Remus had no idea, but he had no intention of putting it to the test.
He had made many mistakes with Harley personally, and he had no intention of making it worse even if it was unlikely the Dursleys would know where to look. "I want you to tell me what you did," he added though he had a good idea.
The werewolf noticed them both pale and glance at each other before they turned their attention back to him.
"We don't know anyone by that name," Vernon tried to reply confidently, but his terrified eyes gave him away.
Remus narrowed his eyes, completely surprised by just how stupid these people were. He had just warned them with hints of what he would do if they didn't tell him what he wanted them to say, surely they weren't this stupid?
"Don't insult my intelligence, muggle," Remus said, spitting out the slang term for a non-magical person like it was basilisk poison. "I know she was in this house; I can smell her scent."
He turned to Petunia. "Did Lily never tell you about me, about how I am a werewolf?" he inwardly smirked when he saw the Dursleys step back in terror. He had never liked his curse and what it did with his relationship with other magical people, but at this point, he was going to use it to his advantage.
"It isn't full moon tonight, but I don't need my wolf-form to tear the pair of you to bits, especially if I am angry. And I am already angry, don't make it worse for yourself. Now, I won't ask again. What did you do to her?"
Petunia and Vernon exchanged terrified looks with each other, and for a moment Remus was prepared to let them sweat a little but when he realised they weren't going to respond he lost his patience.
"TELL ME!" He yelled, and he levelled his wand at the television and blasted it to pieces. The Dursleys jumped in fright, looking at the spot where the TV used to be, now it was nothing but splinters.
"We swore when we took her in after her no-good parents got blown up there wouldn't be any of the nonsense!" Vernon blustered when Remus speared them with a look.
Remus clenched his free fist as rage burned through his veins while he let out the wolf a little so then his eyes began to flash amber, and a deep growl sounded in his throat. "What do you mean by nonsense? Do you mean magic?" Remus growled before the answer popped into his eyes, and when he saw their expressions, he knew he was right and his self-loathing for not bothering to come to see Harley, his rage towards Dumbledore burnt within him.
"We never wanted the freak!" Vernon went on.
"What?" Remus' eyes were flashing while a myriad of painful curses from his extensive spell repertoire ran through his mind.
"The girl was dangerous. A freak. Weird things kept happening around her. She was a danger to us," the fat muggle went on stupidly while Petunia showed that she at least had some degree of intelligence and was trying to shut her husband up. But it wasn't working. "We're normal people. We don't want or need you around. She was nothing but a burden-."
"CRUCIO!" Remus yelled and Vernon Dursley collapsed to the ground, screaming and writhing in agony.
"VERNON!" Petunia yelled, but Remus lifted the curse and walked off for a moment to put some distance between himself and them, trying to stop the self-hatred he was feeling. He had learnt the unspeakable curses a long time ago, but he had never used them like this. In his mind, it was better to know the dark arts so you could defend yourself rather than being ignorant and helpless.
"Don't ever insult Harley Potter again, you filthy, disgusting muggle animal!" Remus growled at the muggle on the floor, inwardly wondering about his word use. He had never bought into the pureblood supremacy garbage, but something about this family made him think muggles were disgusting.
"You say you swore there wouldn't be 'nonsense,' as you called it, what did you do mean?" he went on.
"We were going to stop her from going to that…that school!"
Remus chuckled darkly although he was unnerved by the Dursleys plan. "Really, and how would you do that, by beating her up? I can smell her blood from where I'm standing! Why go that far? What's the matter Vernon, you don't feel like a man so you need to go as far as beating a child before you do?"
"I was trying to stamp the freak stuff out of her-!" Vernon argued, but Remus grabbed him by the throat and picked him up without much trouble and slammed him into the wall, ignoring Petunia's cries.
"You stupid muggle. You cannot beat magic out of someone. It doesn't work. Magic is not something you can just pummel out of someone. It's a part of a witch or wizard's soul, and there's nothing you can do about that. Oh," Remus remembered something Vernon had said, "what makes you think Harley wouldn't go to Hogwarts? Her name has been on the roster for students to attend since she was born. And if you think the wizarding world is going to let you, a muggle, dictate the life of the last Potter, the only person to survive the killing curse after Lord Voldemort tried to murder her, then you are not going to like the results. You think I'm bad?" he asked rhetorically. "If you tried to keep Harley here, the Ministry of Magic would get involved. You would be put on trial, under our laws, and I can tell you, the magical world truly doesn't care about muggle laws. We're above you in every way, and we would never tolerate you holding Harley here, especially considering her hero status in the magical world."
Remus chuckled when he saw the two muggles looking at each other in surprise, though he doubted it would make any difference in the long term.
He had to get out of here.
Now.
He was disgusted with himself for losing control like that, but what he wanted to do was just leave. Remus felt he had gotten the answers he wanted, but he wanted to know a lot more.
"When did she run away? How did she run away?"
When they didn't answer he lifted his wand.
Remus walked out of the Dursley house an hour later, his mind churning. Harley had escaped from the Dursleys when she had been staying at Arabella Figg's place - what the squid was doing here, Remus had no idea but he had no desire to find out since the woman had not done a good job with looking after Harley.
He closed his eyes and he dug his hands into the pocket where his portkey was kept. He would need to think a little bit about this, and what he planned to do.
Remus had no intention of giving up on Harley, although he had no desire for her to come back here. Thinking of how he'd acted inside the Dursley's homemade Remus disgusted with himself because they brought out a side he had never felt before. But beating up a child simply so then they could rip out her magic…
It was disgusting, but what made it worse was that Dumbledore must have known what the Dursleys were doing, but he did nothing…Remus Lupin was really needing to rethink his opinions of the Headmaster, but he would have time to think of that. He had to go and think, he would go back to his shack and spend time thinking about what he knew now before he went after Harley.
But he wouldn't know in a few months he would come close to finding her, only to discover she was long gone.