Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

A/N: I may not normally respond, but I honestly appreciate all the reviews I've received. Jeramiah will play an important role in future chapters of this fic. At this point, I'm still laying the groundwork, and establishing the cast of characters who will feature in this story, but there is plenty more Jeramiah to come. Also, I will take care not to let Jeramiah become "Stu-ish." I don't want to read about OC's who are bad fanfiction stereotypes, and the same goes for writing about them. Anyway, on with the story!

"I had the strangest dream last night," Jeramiah told Remus the next morning, as they sat at the table with bowls of porridge and cups of pumpkin juice. "The stars fell down from the sky, and when I came closer to look at them, I saw that they had all grown fangs and they were growling at me. I tried to run, but then more of them --- stars with fangs, I mean, kept showing up in from of me. I kept running, though, and then I crashed right into the moon. Then, right in front of my eyes, the moon grew this big mouth and swallowed me. Then, I was trapped inside the moon, and I hurt all over, and all I could see was white." Jeramiah shuddered. "I've never dreamed anything like that before. When I woke up, I was shaking."

Remus sighed. "The full moon is a week away now. I always start having strange dreams around this time, when the transformation is getting close." He himself had been revisited by the rabid grindylow from the previous night. The grindylow had brought out some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and had threatened to beat him to death with a giant, manure flavored bean, if he didn't either eat it, or surrender his entire supply of chocolate.

Remus had little time to focus on his own extremely odd dream, however, as Jeramiah's gray eyes had widened with fear at the mention of the impending transformation. The child's voice trembled as he asked the inevitable question, "W-what is it like then? To turn into a werewolf, I mean. Does it hurt?"

Remus hesitated. He had no wish to frighten Jeramiah any further, but it would be irresponsible to lie to him. Deciding the truth was best, Remus gulped, then began to speak. "Yes, Jeramiah, it hurts. It hurts quite a bit."

Jeramiah had paled slightly. "Will you stay with me? When I - when we turn into werewolves, I mean."

Remus sighed again. He had anticipated this question, and dreaded answering it. "No," Remus replied bluntly, avoiding the child's eyes. "That would be very dangerous. You see, when we transform into werewolves, our human minds go to sleep, and the mind of a monster takes over, a monster our sleeping human minds are unable to stop from doing dreadful things." Ignoring Jeramiah's gasp, Remus continued, determined now to finish what he had begun to say. Jeramiah was bound to discover all of this eventually, it was best that he should be prepared. "If we were together, myself a full grown wolf, and you a wolf child transforming for the first time, I could injure you very badly. I would never do that as Remus Lupin, but when I'm under the full moon, I'm not Remus Lupin. I'm a monster, and that's all I am. If I could reach you, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from hurting you. I'm going to make sure we're separated so you can be safe."

Jeramiah's face was now whiter than the full moon itself on the clearest of nights. When he finally found his voice, it trembled more than ever. "Where will I be then? I'll be a monster too, right? I - I don't want to hurt anyone."

"I'll see to it that neither us can hurt anyone." Remus replied, relieved that he could finally provide some of small measure of reassuring news. About half an hour before moonrise, I'll conjure a cage around you, then another, separate cage around myself. The cages will be charmed to be resistant to werewolf assaults." At the look of incomprehension on Jeramiah's face, Remus elaborated. "You see, once we're transformed, we'll most likely try to break out of the cage. This charm will guarantee that we can't break out. I'll make sure neither one of us hurts anyone." These last words were spoken gently. "After the sun comes up, I'll reach through the bars to where I'll have left my wand right outside, vanish my cage, then yours. After this, we'll both lie around all day, drinking tea and recovering from the full moon."

Jeramiah wrinkled his nose, "I don't like tea very much."

Remus smiled, relieved to have moved on to a slightly lighter topic of conversation. "In that case, I shall drink tea, and you shall drink hot cocoa."

In spite of the trepidation still evident in his eyes, Jeramiah managed a faint smile. "I like hot cocoa much better than tea."

Remus gave Jeramiah's shoulder an encouraging pat. "There we go, then! This ... errr ... furry little problem isn't all bad, is it?"

Jeramiah's features had now gone to frightened to amused, and mildly bewildered. "Furry little problem?" Jeramiah repeated incredulously.

Remus chuckled. "A good friend of mine used to call it that. I always liked the term."

Jeramiah smiled. "I like it too. I think I'm going to call it that from now on." His expression abruptly became serious again. "But there's something else I don't like. I don't like that my mind is going to go to sleep, and a monster is going to be in my head. That scares me. Is there anything to put the monster to sleep, and keep my mind awake?"

Remus sighed yet again. He seemed to be doing that quite a bit during this conversation. "There is something," Remus began slowly, weighing his words carefully. "A potion. It's called Wolfsbane potion. I was able to take it during the year I taught at Hogwarts, and it made a big difference. I wasn't a monster during those full moons. I was just -- me, in the body of a wolf. Unfortunately," Remus continued, noticing a light of hope dawning within Jeramiah's eyes, and regretting that he would be extinguishing that hope in a matter of seconds. "That potion costs money. As I said a few days ago, I don't have money. I can't get that potion now. I'm sorry, Jeramiah."

Remus winced slightly at the sight of Jeramiah's face, which had fallen visibly in a mixture of disappointment and dread. He could think of no further words of comfort, so he changed the subject.

"If -- If you've finished breakfast, I'll clean up." Remus's tone was quiet, defeated. "We should begin lessons soon."

It was late afternoon when the knock on the door sounded. Remus and Jeramiah had finished lessons for the day and were sprawled on the floor playing gobstones. At the sound at the door, Remus looked up, deposited his gobstones on the rug, and cautiously rose to answer the door.

"You really don't pay much attention to Ministry pamphlets, do you?" Nymphadora Tonks declared, as Remus closed the door behind her. Her hair tonight was far less conservative than it had been on her last visit, framing her face in sparkly neon green and electric blue spikes.She appeared to be holding something behind her back. "You're supposed to ask me a security question, you know, to make sure I'm really Nymphadora Tonks and not a Death Eater."

Remus rolled his eyes. "A Death Eater wouldn't be caught dead near such a dodgy building."

"Fair enough," Tonks replied with a smirk. "Anyway, I brought a little something for you and Jeramiah." She pulled a large bottle out from behind her back with a flourish, dropping it in the process. Remus rescued the falling bottle just in time, then examined its contents with a growing sense of disbelief.

"Nymphadora!" Remus exclaimed when he had found his voice, "This isn't ... it can't be what I think it is... is it?"

"It's exactly what you think it is," Tonks informed Remus with a triumphant smile. "And don't call me Nymphadora. Anyway, I took a little detour after work today, and stoppedat the Apothecary. Lucky for me, they had enough Wolfsbane potion in stock for both of you."

At the word "Wolfsbane," Jeramiah's expression went from timid and wary to extremely alert and interested. "Wolfsbane?" he repeated.

Remus shook his head sadly as he placed the bottle of Wolfsbane on the beat up table nearby. "Yes, Jeramiah, Nymphadora Tonks here has brought us Wolfsbane. That was very generous of her. Unfortunately," Remus turned to Tonks and spoke pointedly, "She spent far too much money on us, and we can't possibly accept--"

"No, you can accept, and you will," Tonks interrupted." I have more than enough money to cover the Wolfsbane, and I want to help both of you."

"But --- ummm," Remus spluttered, flustered by Tonks' unflinching gaze, and Jeramiah's pleading one, simultaneously trained upon him. "I don't know how long it will take for me to scrape together enough money to pay you back."

"Did I say I expected you to pay me back?" Tonks fired back defiantly. "As I said before, I can afford this. If you must know, I'm doing this for myself as much as you. I don't want to be lying awake on the night of the full moon, worrying about you and Jeramiah. I happen to have a very long day ahead of me the next day, and as you well know, in my line of work, operating on no sleep is dangerous. If you, stubborn git that you are, won't do this for yourself, do it for me. Do it for Jeramiah, as well. You know better than I do what he will be facing in a week if he isn't given Wolfsbane."

Remus sighed, and lowered his head. There was nothing he could follow her tirade with that wouldn't sound exceedingly unreasonable, and slightly cruel. He knew, in that moment that Tonks had won the argument.

"I'll pay you back as soon as I can," Remus muttered, making a big show of looking for goblets in order to avoid both Tonks and Jeramiah's eyes.

"There's no need." Remus heard Tonks' reply at the same time he heard her footsteps pounding behind him. In the next moment, she had determinedly placed herself in front of him, in his immediate line of vision. "However, I know how proud you are, so I'll allow that, and simply assure you that there's no rush."

Remus could think of no snappy reply to that, so he settled for a quiet, "Thank you."

Holding a goblet in each hand, Remus made his way back to Jeramiah, who wore an expression of relief. "This is probably a good time for the first dose." Remus picked up the bottle and began filling the goblets. "You may want to brace yourself for the taste, Jeramiah. I assure you, this tastes nothing like hot cocoa..."

A/N: To the few of you who are actually reading this, I promise that Harry will be making an appearance in the next chapter. I also promise that I will eventually explain why Remus is able to charm the cages to render them immune to werewolf assault when he was unable to do the same for the furniture in the shrieking shack during his Hogwarts days.

I hope you've all enjoyed this installment of "The Werewolf Child."