Chapter Four.
A Much-Needed Holiday & Heads Held High.
Years passed for the Lupin family and their lives grew increasingly solitary. They had disengaged from friends and family to protect the secret of their son's lycanthropy. Remus yearned to play with other children but they had to firmly resist his pleas in order to not risk the secret being revealed and the word spreading of his affliction.
When the time for their son to enter kindergarten, Hope became very dedicated to teaching Remus school from home. However, it made her heart heavy some mornings when she would watch Remus nibble on a crumpet in their front window gazing longingly at school children dashing to the bus stops outside in the morning or playing by the street.
Lyall took it upon himself to teach Remus about the Wizarding world and bestow some of his magical knowledge to his boy.
Despite Hope's concerns about their boy literally falling off the broom, Lyall convinced her to allow him to take Remus on concealed broomstick rides when he wasn't ill. This included having him along as a little helper for his field studies for work sometimes to study dark creatures.
Please, love… he must have some sort of magical education as we both know he will likely not be allowed into Hogwarts.
Remus was absolutely thrilled for not only the chance to leave the four walls of their home but immediately loved the exhilarating experience of whizzing high through the air with his father on learning adventures.
Lyall had even created his own version of a strap and buckle harness system attached to his broom stick to lessen Hope's worries about Remus falling off in flight and it worked quite well. When in flight, he also found himself often wrapping one arm around Remus saddled in front of him, too.
They settled into a pattern as best they could which centered around the waxing and waning of the cursed full moon each month. Lyall had continued to seek out healers in the wizard community far and wide outside of the domain of St. Mungos hospital hoping desperately for a cure but alas, nothing worked.
They also found their lives took on the exhausting pattern of moving from village to village whenever too many questions got asked about their son's monthly illness or why he was not allowed play with other children. The parents lived in varying levels of constant fear that the secret would get out and so they had to simply move again and again.
One Sunday roast dinner, they were sitting together at the table and Remus held up a piece of cheesy cauliflower that dripped a creamy white sauce. He asked curiously while staring at it,
"Daddy, is there such thing as a Patronus that is a cauliflower?"
Hope snorted her milk she was drinking at the time in laughter. Then she sheepishly grabbed a napkin covering the lower half of her face to mop it up. Lyall had once demonstrated his Patronus charm to her which took the form of a fox.
Confused, Lyall replied while still half laughing himself,
"Now, THAT I have never heard of, son. I've only ever seen and heard two types; the thin, wispy sort called the non-corporeal Patronus and then the corporeal type that takes the smokey form of a specific creature for each person. It's highly unlikely one would take the form of a vegetable. What ever would give you such a preposterous idea?"
Remus explained, "Well, maybe there IS a dementor that's scared of vegetables, and a cauliflower is like a ghost form of broccoli."
Then the boy scrunched up his face in concentration and seemed to be focusing extra hard on the piece of cheesy cauliflower now cupped in his hand. For a few seconds, a random burst of magic made it levitate in the air and then it fell onto the tablecloth.
Lyall chuckled and pulled out his wand. He whispered quietly, "It's 'Wingardium Leviosa' for the levitation charm." The cauliflower floated up in front of Remus' mouth and he snapped it with his mouth in a quick dragonish CHOMP.
The humor of the situation had disappeared for Hope, however, and she told them firmly, "Hey you two, none of that at the table, please."
Lyall and Remus both tensed their shoulders at her reprimand and gave their apologies.
"Sorry, Mummy."
"I beg your pardon, dear, it was… hard to resist."
Hope sighed and said, "It's quite all right. I suppose I'm just a bit knackered from the day."
Lyall noticed there were some dark shadows underneath her eyes and her eyelids were heavy. She had been busy juggling unpacking moving boxes while preparing the evening meal.
He reached over, gently rubbed her tense back and expressing gratitude he said,
"It was a delicious dinner, my love. You did a fine job. Thank you."
Remus inverted, a hollow piece of Yorkshire pudding that was pointed on one end and balanced it on top of his head like a wizard hat. He gave his mother a silly grin and said with an exaggerated refined tone,
"Yes, thank you, Mummy."
She couldn't help but snicker at him and then declared, "All right, that's quite enough, my cheeky boy. I do believe you are done at the table now if it's come down to this level of absurdity. You're excused, pumpkin."
Remus slid off his chair and skipped out of the room. Lyall cleared his throat and checked over his shoulder to see if their boy was within earshot. He then said,
"There's something I wanted to tell you about…. when little ears were not listening. I, I didn't want to stir up an unnecessary brouhaha of excitement before it's the proper timing."
Hope cocked her head to the side in curiosity and said, "Okaaaaay...go on."
"I've decided to book us a holiday in Scotland for a couple of weeks this summer. It's a beach cottage rental in a secluded, rural setting. I know you probably don't want to think of traveling again with all the moving we've done. But I checked the lunar tables to time it right. It'll be immediately following a full moon, so we can catch a good stretch of time for Remus to not be ill as the moon will be waning. I think I might be able to overlap some of the days with my Ministry work doing a few field studies in the nearby forest and bogs. I, I do want Remus to have some happy memories and not always feel so caged indoors. What do you think, love?"
Hope's face glowed with excitement and she said, "Oh dear, that sounds absolutely lovely. Yes. Let's do it."
Lyall sighed and said, "Oh good. I'm so glad to hear you are in favor of the idea. I'd very much like to go on a small detour to Hogsmeade along the way. It's really not too far off our line of travel. I figure we can park and apparate the to the wizarding village where we find it best. It would be good for Remus to experience some of the delights of the magical candy at Honeydukes, peak at the outrageous pranks at the joke shop Zonkos, and we can't pass up purchasing bottles of butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks. My heart yearns for him to have some more… joyful memories rather than so much suffering."
Hope gave a big yawn while trying to say, "Yes, indeed. He will be so delighted."
"You go onto bed, my love. I'll tidy up and bring Remus to bed. I promised him a game of gobstones tonight," he told her beginning to stack the plates.
Hope nodded sleepily and then twitching her nose slightly she said, "Please mind that you open the windows, Lyall. I don't fancy coming to the kitchen in the morning and starting my day off with that putrid odor."
"Yes, of course," he assured her with a bit of a guilty smile remembering the last game in which they accidentally let the stench of the disgusting fluid spit at the loser fill the front end of their home.
It had always been an enjoyable game to him and he once almost played on the National Welsh Gobstones team. But he declined the invitation as he realized his true passions were elsewhere.
Hope got up, gave Lyall a quick kiss and left the room to go check on Remus before she settled down for the night.
They didn't tell Remus about the holiday until several days before the full moon so that he had something pleasant to look forward to afterwards. The first day of travel, Remus was weak and sleepy so they took the boring motorways north where there wasn't much to see in transit.
After their first long day of driving they thankfully got a good night of rest at a quaint Muggle bed and breakfast cottage with a thatched roof. Then they were off again with Remus cozily tucked in the car with blankets and an arm resting on his teddy bear.
Their tummies were happily full of a traditional British 'fry up' breakfast that consisted of fried eggs, sausages, back bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, accompanied with baked beans, hot tea and buttered toast.
Remus was much more alert on the second day of travel as the moon was waning and he kept his eyes glued outside the car window not wanting to miss anything in the new scenery speeding by rapidly.
Lyall started a ABC road trip game with Remus as he grew restless naming magical creatures back and forth in alphabetical order...
"A...Ashwinder."
"B...Bowtruckle."
"C...Centaur."
"D...Doxy."
"F...f-f-f, Flobberworm!"
"E...Erumpet."
"G...uuuhm, Grindylow!"
"H...how about Hippogriff."
"Mmmm...I don't know one for letter 'i' Daddy."
"Ah ha! Yes, that's a tricky one, Remus. We could say, 'Imps'! Pesky little buggers, thank Merlin they haven't got any wings like Pixies."
It was a wonderful way for Lyall to both test & teach his boy's knowledge so far of magical creatures as they cruised along toward their destination.
Then he switched to a guessing game that was a spin-off of "Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral". But his wizard version was using the three Ministry of Magic classifications of categories of creatures: beast, being or spirit. Lyall would describe a creature and Remus would shout out whether it was beast, being or spirit.
"How about, the Hogwarts Gryffindor house ghost, 'Nearly Headless Nick'... beast, being or spirit?"
"Spirit! Easy peasy. You gave it away when you said ghost, Daddy," Remus replied drawing a simple ghost shape with his small finger in the condensation of the glass car window with its head dropping off sideways.
As they drove higher into the Scottish Highlands, it was breath taking to see the landscape change into sweeping vibrant green and golden hills with rugged stony mountains.
They made a quick stop along the waters edge of Loch Ness hoping to catch a glimpse of the world's largest kelpie, "Nessie" in the massive lake. Lyall explained the Ministry's Office of Misinformation had worked tirelessly over many years to convince Muggles it was a hoax.
Remus had collected a beast chocolate frog card with a kelpie and was hopeful to catch his first glimpse the gigantic famous real one in the lake. It was foggy and a bit windy making whitecaps on the lake's surface so visibility was rather poor.
Just as they were heading to load up in the car again, Remus pointed and exclaimed,
"Mummy, Daddy, look... there it is!"
Suddenly, almost as if the famous Kelpie sensed their departure, it put on a little show for them way out towards the deep waters at the center of the lake.
It's enormous horse-like head had erupted out of the water and its serpentine body started rising in humps above the surface. Then as quick as a flash it flung itself up into the air in a corkscrew like shaped spin and landed back down again with a huge splash.
Remus let out a holler of glee and clapped.
Lyall laughed in amusement. Then despite feeling somewhat guilty for encouraging it, he held up both hands next to his mouth to project his voice and shouted,
"Bravo, Nessie!"
Hope just stood speechless with a gentle breeze rippling the corners of her bright colored pink, yellow and orange floral dress. Her hand was lightly over her open mouth looking over the large, freshwater, loch feeling utterly gobsmacked.
The three of them waited quietly with bated breath for another spectacular movement of the shape shifting water demon but they did not see it emerge again. There was just concentric circular waves slowly spreading out wider on the lake where it had landed. Perhaps it had decided to dive down deep.
"Did I really see that? Because it feels like it was just a dream or my imagination," Hope said taking the arm of her husband.
With a impish smirk on his face, Lyall said, "Ah! That's precisely what the Ministry would like you to think, my dear." He touched the tip of her nose once *boop* and she grinned. Then he proclaimed,
"Well, we're not terribly far from where I'd like to apparate to Hogsmeade so we should crack on. Back to the car, Remus!"
Remus grabbed his mother's hand, gave an excited jump and said, "Hooray!" Hope smiled down at him, kissed the top of his head and they walked back to the car together.
They continued on with their drive to the spot that Lyall had calculated on the map he figured would be best to park and apparate to Hogsmeade.
Once parked they made adjustments to their Muggle clothing pulling on wizarding robes they had carefully packed in the trunk. Prior to the holiday, Lyall had diligently taken the family to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions at the north side of Diagon Alley to be properly fitted.
Remus was delighted to put on his first robe and spun in circles watching it flare out while his father double checked he had switched currency from pounds to shinny gold galleons.
When they were ready to apparate together to Hogsmeade, Lyall tapped on the car and cast a concealment charm over the entire frame to keep it hidden while they were gone.
"Sweetheart, hold still a bit, let me put this scarf on you. I know you're excited but you've got to stop the wiggles for a moment. We've gotten much higher up and it's going to be chilly there even though it's summer," Hope said wrapping the hand knit green & orange striped scarf around Remus's neck.
Hope then lifted Remus up into her arms, looked at him lovingly and asked, "Are you ready to poof & squeeze?"
'Poof & squeeze' was Remus's adopted phrase to reference the apparition experience.
"Yes yes let's POOF & SQUEEZE awaaaay!" he responded with great enthusiasm.
Lyall smiled quietly at both them and looked into Hope's eyes questioning her readiness silently. She nodded back to him and tightened her grip around Remus.
Lyall linked himself with her elbow preparing for the Side-Along Disapparition. Then with a loud CRACK sound they disappeared in a black wisp of smoke to the only non-Muggle settlement in Britain at last.
When they arrived at Hogsmeade village moments later, they simply stood catching their breaths and looking around. Remus's eyes immediately grew wide with wonder taking it all in.
The weather was overcast, foggy and an icy breeze made them glad to be snug in their robes. Visibility was not as clear as other times but it was still enchanting to behold. Lyall pulled out three pointed wizard caps for them to wear that he had tucked inside his robe for safekeeping during the apparition.
The stone buildings of the village were cozily sandwiched together with dramatically pointed high peaked roofs and lighted curved glass windows that drew in their wandering eyes. It was not a designated Saturday when third year and above Hogwarts students visited so there was mainly adults and a few other families with young children scattered here and there.
Remus felt his nose flooded with an overwhelming mixture of smells. Lyall and Hope noticed since he was bitten his sense of smell had become sharper.
At times he could identify smells that neither parent could smell at all. For example, if the window was open in their house, suddenly he would look up from his school work, sniff the air and inform them that a neighbor five doors down was baking a pineapple upside down cake.
As they began to slowly meander around the curved windows of the shops on High Street, Remus joyfully took in the scent of smoky burning coal from the distant train, intermittent waves of potent sugary sweetness wafting up from open shop door at Honeydukes, and whiffs of sweaty robes from witches and wizards buzzing about that also emanated various scents of pungent potion ingredients.
They headed for the sweet shop first and Remus was simply giddy and overwhelmed to see the incredible volume of shelves upon shelves of sugary delights. It was hard to decide which to buy with so many choices. They finally picked out some cauldron cakes, fizzing whizzbees, chocolate wands, sugared butterfly wings and pink coconut ice.
When Lyall pulled out his galleons to pay at the counter, the shop owner's wife, Mrs. Flume, suddenly looked at him as if she had just seen a Dementor.
"Are you alright?" he asked concerned and then glanced around wondering if he had missed something.
"Lyall… Lyall Lupin is it?" she asked staring intently at him and still looking startled. Then she looked around the shop and her eyes rested on Hope and little Remus. Her nose wrinkled like she had stepped in a dung heap.
"Yes. That's right. I am Lyall Lupin. It's been, well, many moons ago since I was last here. I do believe I was a Hogwarts student at the time."
She stepped back cautiously from the counter. Her face then took on a look of worry as her gaze crept around the shop and then locked on Remus who was touching a glass case talking to his mother excitedly about the contents inside.
She knew.
"Moons, indeed, Mr.Lupin. I... I'm going to have to ask you to have them wait outside."
Lyall began to frown and asked her in a confused tone, "Whatever for?"
"It's for everyone's safety. We, we just can't take any risks of contamination in here. Please have them remove themselves," she awkwardly tried to explain.
Lyall felt anger boiling up inside his chest.
"Contamination ? Oh get off your high hippogriff, we are perfectly safe, Mrs. Flume," he replied furiously.
By this time Hope had cued into the heated interaction and began glaring like a angry bear at her. Remus looked up from the candy behind the glass and watched them with an expression of puzzlement.
Mrs. Flume's lips curled as if she was inhaling the stench of a rotten poisonous toadstool. Then she put her hands on her hips with annoyance. She let out an irritated sigh and haughtily declared,
"You know why I have good reason to be concerned about… about, well, this type of condition shall we say being exposed to the items in my shop and I can't risk anything getting spoiled here. Do you want to buy these items or not?"
Lyall dug deep to muster all the self-control he had left to prevent himself from telling the bloody woman off, storming out of the shop in rage and taking his gold coins to spend elsewhere.
However, he paused and thought about how he did not want to disappoint Remus by not getting anything. He sighed and made eye contact with his wife.
She looked indignant but her expression softened as she recognized the dilemma. Remus sensed the tension among them and looked down at his feet sadly. He started fiddling with the edge of his new robe.
Hope finally broke the silence and pulling her boy's hand along she said proudly, "Come along now, Remus. It's time to go. Daddy will meet us outside with our sweets. Hold your chin high, love. That's it."
With their heads held high, Hope and Remus made their way toward the front door and left the shop.
Lyall clenched his hands into white knuckled fists while he watched Mrs.Flume trail behind them. She waved her wand at the glass surface of the candy case and the door handle whispering the cleaning charm, Scourgify.
Hope waited patiently outside Honeydukes clutching her robe in the chilly breeze while Remus was happily entertaining himself swinging around a lamppost with one arm. When Lyall exited the shop, he wore an expression of complete exasperation.
He shook his head and said, "Well, that's the first time I've left that shop with zero desire to go back...I hope she chokes on a vomit flavored Bertie Bott's jelly bean."
Hope snickered and poked him in the ribs, "Oh Lyall, you shouldn't wish harm on the woman, she's just afraid of what she doesn't understand."
He rolled his eyes, bent down and handed Remus a chocolate wand. Remus giggled in delight and said, "Brilliant. Thank you, Daddy!"
They decided it was definitely time for some additional laughter and headed to Zonkos joke shop. Thankfully, they were not asked to leave there and it did not disappoint in providing some comic relief.
Remus laughed nearly the whole time as his father showed him the numerous peevish pranks and outrageous tricks the shop had to offer.
Hope was most entertaining watching the two of them and noted it was hard to tell who was enjoying themselves more - father or son (?). Remus was extremely grateful when his father bought some of his favourite ludicrous store products. He especially loved the Nose-Biting Teacups.
After the visit to Zonkos gift shop they were feeling peckish. So they headed to The Three Broomsticks to see about some shepherds pie or fish and chips and of course, they didn't want to miss having pints of the infamous butter beer.
Hope began to hear a new sound that she had not heard when they first arrived. Whispering. She looked around at other wizards and witches passing them on the street to identify the source of where it was coming from. Whenever they saw her looking at them, their hands would quickly drop down from where they were making soft mummers in another's ears.
Lyall noticed it too. He sighed heavily and squeezed his wife's hand. He grumbled, "It sure seems that gossipy woman in the business of making sweets has ironically turned our experience here sour, too."
Hope frowned and said determinedly, "Well, I refuse to let her sour my day."
Remus was beginning to pick up on the others staring worriedly at him and obviously keeping a wide clearance from him in passing. He tugged on the side of his mother's robes and asked, "Mummy, are they afraid of me?"
Hope gestured for them to stop. She bent down to Remus level and looked him square in the eyes. Then she gently put both hands on his rosy chilled cheeks and said,
"Remus John Lupin, they have nothing to be afraid of and likewise you have nothing to be ashamed of. You are my beautiful, smart, brave boy. Don't ever forget that, alright?"
Remus blushed and nodded shyly at her loving words. The three of them held their heads high as they approached the Three Broomsticks, and Lyall said near the front door,
"Hope, on second thought, let's just avoid any more of this narrow mindedness, you & Remus wait outside I'll just order the food as take away and buy some bottles of butter beer instead."
She nodded in agreement and he went in without them. Her and Remus nibbled on some sugared butterfly wings while they waited.
Hope could see that Remus was growing weary from all the new excitement of the day and it only been a mere two days since the last full moon. He nestled his head up to the flowing folds of the side of her robe like snuggling a blanket.
When Lyall returned they decided to just apparate back next to their parked car. Then they enjoyed their food in the peace and quiet of their car while watching a glorious sun set over the highlands. Remus guzzled the bottle of butter beer down at an alarming rate and told them it was the best drink he ever had.
After they were done eating, Hope buckled up her boy and he looked up at her sleepily with a pale face. She knew it would not take long for him to fall asleep when they drove the last stretch to their beach cottage. With heavy eyelids he said,
"Today is my favourite day in my whole life, Mummy. I love you. I love you, too, Daddy."
A huge smile beamed on Hope's face, she gave him a quick kiss on his head and replied,
"I'm so glad to hear it, my sweet boy. I love you, too."