Lyall Lupin and Hope Lupin (nèe Howell) had fallen in love seven years previous, and married a year later in a whimsical yet intimate ceremony at the local village church. They met in the woods surrounding Hope's countryside village. Lyall had heard a woman scream for help and rushed to her aid. He arrived on the scene to find a large scary-looking man edging closer to Hope. With a flick of his wand, he turned what he knew to be a boggart, into a field mushroom. They had fallen in love rather quickly after that incident. And to commemorate their meeting, the wedding cake featured a boggart shaped topper.
They became a perfect family of three: Lyall, Hope and Jack, the Cocker Spaniel. They loved their countryside home and big city jobs. Lyall gave up his expeditionary work and joined the Ministry of Magic Dept for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Whilst Hope worked in Cardiff as an insurance office administrator. However, in March 1960 Remus was born so Hope got a job in the local village shop in order to be closer to home. When Remus turned three, he attended the local nursery which was just around the corner from the village shop. He had just started his first year at primary school and was twenty two days off turning six.
Every Sunday the Lupin family would walk to that same church where Lyall and Hope married. They would stay for the sermon then walk home, followed by a chippy tea and an early night ready for Monday morning. Remus hated the local village church. Well not the church itself, more so the vicar that resided within. He preached weird things about love and sinning. Things his father would tut about when walking back to the house after listening to another sermon.
At his young age, Remus couldn't quite understand why his own opinion differed to his vicars. It was this that Remus thought about over the sounds of his fathers screams and his mothers cries. Why in any sense is it a sin to love?
…
He came too at the same time the pain hit, like a seismic wave, and Remus' left shoulder was ground zero. As if in slow motion Remus' eyes moved from his own shoulder and into the eyes of a great beast. The eyes reflecting his own were not of the same colour or shape; they were sickly yellow with huge black pupils. He still had not yet come to the realisation of what was happening around him and to him. He parted his lips to speak. Before the words could leave his mouth, the second seismic wave hit, but it was unlike the first.
Remus had fallen to the floor next to his bed. He tried to get up, a great effort, but it was only enough to move himself from a lying to a seated position. His ears ringing from the pain, he began to notice the flashing light around him. His hearing was coming back in waves, he could just make out his fathers voice shouting a string of curses and jinxes. A pair of arms wrapped themselves around him, a familiar perfume scent came with the embrace. And the world went still again.
…
"They're going to intubate him if he doesnt wake up soon, it's been nearly twelve hours"
"Give it a rest Hope, please, stop worrying, the healers know what they're doing"
"How can you stand there and be so nonchalant? Your five year old son is lying in a hospital bed after having most of his arm reattached to his shoulder!"
"Hope, stop, please"
"No, I will not stop Lyall. I want to know what the hell happened!"
"It's… its, all my fault Hope"
"What does that even mean, what have you done?"
"I knew he was a werewolf, I knew it, I told them all and no one believed me, I even got kicked out of the questioning room!"
"Lyall, calm down, please, what do you mean you knew he was a werewolf, who?"
"He was brought in for questioning after the two muggle children were murdered, he posed as a muggle tramp, they were supposed to Obliviate him when he was released!"
"You think the attacker was the man at your work?"
"I know it is!"
"But why would it be him? Why target us?"
You see, Lyall Lupin hadn't just been kicked out of the questioning room, the day he saw the werewolf who bit his son's shoulder, because he refused to believe the man wasn't a werewolf. He had been kicked out for saying that werewolves were "soulless, evil, deserving nothing but death". Meaning that the attacker was seeking revenge on Lyall that night. His son being bitten and turned, was all his fault.
…
March 17th 1965:
Remus had little recollection of the next few weeks, except a conversation between his parents whilst he was in St Mungos. His shoulder was almost fully healed at this point, leaving only silver scars imitating the shape of a large inhuman overbite. Lyall had forcibly discharged Remus from St Mungo's as soon as he'd gained consciousness, Remus found this to be rather odd; his father was determined to keep everybody in the dark about the attack. So he had spent his days on his parents sofa floating in and out of sleep from the anti pain elixir he was taking. The pain seemed to be getting worse as he physically got better.
"How're you doing my love?" Hope had asked her child.
"I'm in so much pain mum, I feel worse, not better!" Remus complained. His mother embraced him and the all familiar perfume scent flashed him back to the night of the attack. The attack of what, Remus did not know.
"Listen sweetheart, we both want to speak to you about something…" Lyall had entered the room and sat himself to the left of the pair.
"It's quite serious buddy, so you have to listen very carefully"
"What's wrong?" cried Remus. And so the Lupin family discussed what was going to happen to Remus as the full moon fully emerged later that day.
Lyall explained in a child friendly manner, that an evil man had broken into the house through remus' bedroom window. The evil man wanted to hurt Remus because that would hurt Lyall the most. That the evil man preys on children and either takes them far away or kills them, in remus' case he had wanted to take him. Hope had begun to weep at this point. Lyall carried on with his explanation. When the evil man takes the children away, he does something to them, turns them into something. And he had done the same thing to remus.
"But I haven't turned into anything dad?" Remus exclaimed
"Son, we think you have been infected with a lycanthropic disease. We think you have been turned into a werewolf" Remus' father said shakily, his eyes welling up. Remus' young face screwed up as if he was in deep contemplation. "Cool!" he shouted suddenly.
Remus' reaction would have made his parents laugh if it were any other day but because it was this day, the sadness in his mothers eyes doubled and a grim expression was plastered upon Lyall's face. Hope tried to speak, tried to correct remus. But she couldn't. How do you explain to your five year old son that in six hours time, he would be writhing in pure agony from something you can't protect him from or help him with? You can't. And so you don't. So you cruelly allow your son to believe he has turned into anything but a bloodthirsty, dark creature that doesn't have a 30% fatality rate amongst wizardkind.
At 17:30 Hope Lupin gave her son one last hug before she locked the doors to the outhouse for the first time; Remus had bravely turned his back on his parents as if ready to face anything. But It was the look of excitement in her child's eyes that she remembered until the day she died. She didn't know what she was going to open the doors to find at six the next morning.
…
Remus sat in the darkness of the outbuilding with his back pressed against the concrete wall watching the cracks of the boarded up window for any sign of the light of the moon. He was feeling nervous now, but it was okay, his mum and dad would have said if there was anything to worry about.
…
At 18:09 pm the full moon surfaced. 'How can such beauty be so dangerous?', Remus' mother questioned as she watched the moon bear down on her. She cried herself to sleep that night; while remus' father lay next her, forcing himself to listen to the agonising howls of pain which gradually sounded more animalistic, coming from the outhouse. 'I deserve it' he had chanted to himself, 'I did this'.