A Marauder's Cub
Chapter 2
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*Remus Lupin*
Remus walked down Privet Drive's immaculate drive and inwardly groaned. All the houses and gardens looked identical; clean, pristine and far too neat. He came to a stop at number 4 and trembled. He really did not want to meet Petunia again, or her husband, but he need to speak civilly to her if he wanted Harry out unscathed. He replaced his nervous, twitchy expression with a more confident, self-assured one. He made sure to still look polite as he loudly knocked at the door and waited with baited breath. The door opened a crack.
'Hello? What do you want? I'm not buying anything!' came the shrill voice of one Petunia Dursley.
'Petunia, it's good to see you. May I come in, I have some important things to discuss with you?' Remus asked crisply.
'I hope it's about that stupid Freak we've been dumped with by that crackpot old fool!' Petunia shrieked. Remus raised an eyebrow but did not comment on her name for Albus.
'Yes, it appears you have been wrongfully appointed Harry's guardian's. I am Remus Lupin and may I step in so we can sort this mess out?' Petunia glared at Remus. She was not stupid, she knew he was one of their kind, but she wanted to get rid of the Freak. She was just glad Vernon had taken Dudley out shopping for new toys.
'Of course, come in, but make sure you're quick about it!' She snapped and moved to let the stranger in. Remus nodded curtly and stepped into the narrow hallway.
The hall was long and narrow with white walls and a chocolate brown carpet. On the walls were many pictures of what Remus thought was a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats, Remus assumed this was Dudley Dursley.
'Is this Dudley?' Remus asked, more out of politeness than anything, but as Petunia's eyes lit up at the mention of her darling son, he was glad he had. The tension eased as she began to gabble about him.;
'Oh yes, why he's such a good boy. Eats all of his food, doesn't waste anything. He's awfully clever too; he knows the value of things, if Vernon buys him a quick cheep toy, my Dudder's will know, not to mention he can already walk and speaks some words like "shan't".' She gushed. Remus quietly sighed as they went into the lounge. Remus looked at his surroundings.
The living room was very large with plain white walls, the same as the hall, and there was wooden flooring with a beige rug in the centre of the room. There was a real wooden fire place with a picture of the Dursley family on the mantelpiece along with some more pictures of Dudley. In front of the fire place were two very thin-looking, cream armchairs. At a right angle to the large bay window at the front of the house was a huge flat screen TV on a glass table with 4 remotes on. About 2 meters away was a large sofa of the same thin, creamy material as the armchairs, with a glass coffee table next to it. On the coffee table were 3 woven baskets. One had a neat stack of Vernon's newspapers, one had various stationary equipment and the third had Petunia's gardening magazines. There were 3 coffee costas with their names and a nice picture of them on it. Everything looked so bare and spotless. Remus searched for a compliment and came up blank. Luckily Petunia didn't want a compliment from this kind of person and hurried on before Remus could say anything.
'Right, to business. I assume you have their Will?' Petunia started. Remus took some papers out his pockets, damn, he really could not see how Muggles wore these...jeans, they were just so uncomfortable and inappropriate, not to mention awkward.
'Yes. It seem I should have guardianship of Harry, not you.' Remus stated. Petunia glared at him suspiciously before flicking through James and Lily's Will.
'Why is it I was first given Harry when it clearly states here not to give him to me?' Petunia asked in an icy tone, blinking furiously. Remus saw pain etched in Petunia's face before composing her expressions, although Remus still thought he saw hurt in her eyes.
'Dumbledore wanted Harry to be humble' Remus said simply. Petunia's eyes narrowed with mistrust before opening wide in understanding.
'That manipulating bastard!' She said furiously, trying not to shout. 'He dumped Harry with us, knowing he would be unhappy here?' She spat. Remus nodded.
'That's not all, he wanted Harry to blindly trust him, and then die "when the time was right", because some stupid prophesy made by a con-Seer said so' Remus said grimly. Petunia looked at Remus in outrage before saying
'Fine, anything else?' Remus nodded again.
'Lily left you 200 Galleons, which in Muggle money is £1000 to spend on whatever you want.' Remus stopped and looked at the floor uncomfortably as tears welled in Petunia's eyes. 'That's about it, soooo... if I could take Harry to his new home now to give him time to settle in?' Remus asked, still looking at the floor. He heard a sniff from Petunia and looked up, she had replaced her haughty expression and although the rims of her eyes were red, there were no longer tears in her eyes. She thought for about a minute before getting up and going to the stairs just outside the living room. Remus was very confused when she opened the door under the stairs and leaned in until he saw Petunia bring Harry out. He gripped the edge of his chair hard. So Harry had been here less than 2 days and was already being mistreated. Remus easily kept his mask of indifference on, but he was almost grunting with the effort of keeping the fury that Petunia would easily spot out his eyes. She walked back, holding Harry as if he had some kind of contagious disease. She held Harry out to Remus.
'Here, he doesn't say anything at all, he might be dumb or something, he only sits still staring and we weren't given any of his possessions.' She told him with no emotion. Remus looked at Petunia, slightly worried.
'Everything of Harry's was in Godric's Hollow, but that home was destroyed' Remus said sadly, but why would Harry say nothing - he spoke fine with him, James, Lily, Peter and Sirius, and as for Harry's serious expression, Remus was at a loss for why that was there. Petunia sniffed again as Remus took baby Harry in his arms. He was too light. Petunia showed them out of her house and as she was closing the door she whispered to Remus.
'Don't EVER let that fool take Harry, I may hate Freaks like you and him, but that manipulative arsehole would send him straight back here. That would eventually kill Harry if you're telling the truth, and, believe it or not, I still love Lilly and have many regrets with her. That's why I hate him' She pointed at Harry. Remus nodded. 'Don't bring him back here either.' Petunia added. 'He's not welcome'.
Remus nodded one last time before walking down the street, checking for Muggles and apparating away.
*Harry Potter*
Harry was quite confused; his aunt told him he was a useless Freak that no one wanted before shutting him in a dark place. Not that Harry cared, he just wanted his mummy. But she wasn't coming back. She said that she and daddy loved him, but they had gone. Maybe because he was useless... The next thing he knew was his that glaring at him as she picked him up. Harry wanted to run an away and beat his tiny fists against her. He want open his mouth and scream, for his mummy, for his daddy, for someone. Scream so someone would cuddle him and tell him everything was okay, so scream so someone remembered he was hungry.
But he couldn't. That would make this thin, bony, mean person in front of him hate him even more than she already did, and she was the person left to take care of him, even if she didn't want to. Harry put on his brave face and sat very still so she could pick him up. It was times like this that Harry wanted the comfort of a thumb in his mouth, but his aunt had yelled at him for it. He hadn't sucked his thumb since.
As his aunt took him out of the cupboard Harry struggled to adjust to the bright as he had been in complete darkness for 2 days. His aunt took Harry to a white room with a strangely familiar man in. He had sandy hair that wasn't very neat and his clothes were quite shabby, but modern with faded blue jeans and a plain red t-shirt. However the man's face was quite shocking; a large scar ran down one side of his and smaller one around his face. Harry noticed that curiously they all ran in the same direction and wondered what happened. The man's eyes were sea blue with a very tired look in them with strange amber flecks. The man radiated warmth and kindness, but the man knew his callous aunt so Harry wasn't going to trust him yet.
The strange man took Harry gently in his arms. This felt nice; safe and familiar, much better than his aunt's cold, stiff grip. The man said some words to his aunt in a velvety, lilting cultured voice ( Velvety - soft voice with deep tones, cultured - having musical tones and clear pronunciation, lilting - with constantly changing tone) before nodding and turning to leave. With Harry. What was going on? Why wasn't he staying with his aunt? Where was he being taken? Harry didn't want to ask the questions spinning around his head in case the man wasn't very nice, although Harry couldn't help but be relieved to know he was leaving that house. Even if he didn't know where he was going. But this didn't mean he trusted this sandy-haired man yet. Harry decided he would just sit silently and see how this all played out. And with a loud "crack", they were gone.
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Sorry it's taken so long to write Chapter 2, but, here it is everyone! Ta-Da!
Thanks for your reviews everyone, Lupinesence, moriahhh and showstopper92, thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
Sabrina-Rie -In personal opinion, I believe Moony would be a little more self-controlling. Sabrina I agree Remus is self-controlling, I was using the fact that he is normally calm to help show everyone just how angry his is at Dumbledore; he's not just a little pissed off at him, he is insane-go-and-break-someone-or-something-I'm-very-dangerous- angry. For the rest of the story Remus will be much calmer. Promise :)