Chapter Text
Entry 1:
They are all knobheads. I am naked in the snow. ‘You’, my dear diary, are currently trying to bite off my arm which I am very inclined to keep. The first thing I’m going to do when I turn twenty five is to grab a dagger and plunge it into my heart.
-end of entry-
Strange things were happening in the woods.
A day before Remus had gone out to get some deer meat, wand at the ready because he would need to fix whatever destruction he was bound to cause with an accidental magical outburst. Outburst’s’, more like.
Then his eyes landed on a big, black furred creature feasting on something he didn’t want to know about. Blood scabs were all over its snout. Okay, that wasn’t so strange, he managed to convince himself. The creature looked suspiciously like a dog, but it could just as easily have been a wolf.
(He hadn’t seen a single wolf in the woods for ten years.)
But fall was the season when you wanted to catch a fat doe prancing about. And for his account wolves liked to feast on deers. So why not.
There were also times when he was positively certain that he had heard human footsteps. Perhaps something went terribly wrong in the outside world, so all kinds of beasts were seeking refuge here. He didn’t like it.
The problem was this: he couldn’t remember anything. Why he was here, how he managed to end up in this isolated cottage all those years ago. Every bit of fragrant memory was distant and jumbled, and he didn’t bother trying to piece all of those shards up together because of the headache that came every time he tried to think about it.
On this peculiar day Remus had been brewing tea with his tremendous supply of tea leaves that he was certain was going to outlast him in the end. He absentmindedly looked at the fumes sprouting out of the end of the teapot and picked at the loose threads on his sweaters.
Now Remus Lupin scratched at his wristband. He stared.
He had sworn never to have anything to do with the outside world ever again-that he knew for certain. He liked- loved the thick blanket around him and had no intention of disturbing the stillness within thank you very much. It was a place of miles and miles of wood stretching out; now tinted orange and yellow with autumn; and a cottage lying deep inside that had been his home for about ten years. He was content. Perfectly.
So this was quite an appalling sight.
A small scrawny kid with superbly messy black hair, round glasses and a very prominent ‘z’ shaped scar on his forehead was standing on his doorstep. In the middle of-well, literally nowhere.
“ Oh come on! ” The boy whined, “Teddy’s just four! I’m asking you to keep us just for a while. I promise Teddy won’t wet the bed, you don’t have to feed us, and I’ll help you do the housework or whatever there is- I’ll do anything!”
Half of Remus’ body was hidden from view by the door. His eyes twitched. He looked down at the little, peculiar looking being holding hands with the teenager. Its face looked oddly familiar, and its hair colour kept changing from blue to green to pink and to fiery red. It looked starved.
“No.”
The teenager looked at him with those impossibly green eyes at that. It wasn’t the eye of a..a normal teenage being. His right wrist started to tremble again. Everything was personally quite terrifying. Almost took the wits out of him.
“If Vol, I mean, if those vampires chase us down,” he said, every word stamped on as if he were explaining it to a young child who couldn’t exactly understand what he was saying, which was not at all true, “ we’re as dead as balls.”
Which was also very dumb, as balls 'could not' be dead-actually they tended to be very very alive-at least if they were attached to a male person.
Females were an exception, he guessed, as the organ was non existant.
“...why don’t you just teleport. Or apparate. Whatever you folks like to call it.”
The boy’s face turned into an expression of almost comical bafflement.
“I’m underaged!!!!”
It was obvious that he was hiding something, and Remus knew very well from experience/instinct that most people who had the reason to hide something were always the ones who could not be trusted and thus should not be helped, period.
“I can give you garlic." He said hopefully. "Works a rather fine job against vampires.”
The boy’s eyes twitched, his mouth fell open and he stared up. Remus looked at the ceiling to check. Nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Take it or leave it. If you won’t take, good day and I hope we’ll never see each other again.”
He then tried to close the door and wave his wrists in a desperate motion of ‘shoo’ at the same time, which wasn't that successful, as he was, unfortunatly, quite left handed. Just as he let go of the door completely, the teenager stuck out and wedged his shoe into the gap. There was a loud “OUCH!” and a worried whimper from the tyke. Remus had no choice but to hold open the door again. He scowled.
“ What .”
As they faced each other, the teenager grasped the door by his hand and pried it open, eyes wild. Remus tried to close it back. The boy forced it open again.
“I-I’m Harry Potter, you know!”
The desperation. It was almost too-adorable.
“And I’m Remus Lupin, nice to meet you.” Remus grunted, struggling to get the door closed. Obviously him being terribly underweighted wasn't helping against the raw teenage strength. “Can you move away now, please?”
“I know we’re a burden,” The boy lodged himself between the doorframe. His glasses invaded Remus' personal space. “And yeah, Voldemort’s after me, and I know you don’t want us, but actually you have every right to b-”
“Moldevort? That the name of the vampire chasing you?”
That shut Potter up.
“..You don’t..You mean you don’t-?”
“I’m terribly sorry.” Remus said slowly (on purpose), “Moldevort sounds a lot like a pest name, and I have bottles of rat poison in my shed if you need them. But it seems like I don’t have what you want me to give, whatever ‘Moldevort’ is. So off you go with your little toddler.”
“Don’t you recognize him?”
“Recognize what.”
“The child! Teddy Lupin!”
Alright, this was interesting. Lupin was not a common last name in England as far as Remus knew. Pure Greek heredity, maybe.
“Did I…misplace a child? Because I swear I never had any sex with a w-”
“HE’S your nephew!”
“Oh.”
He swallowed. He quickly stole another glance at the young tyke, which was difficult as Potter's face was still squished up between the door. This was turning out ever so wonderfully.
“I’m sorry, I really am, but your brother Romulus died last night trying to protect me and Teddy from a group of death eaters. He gave me your address just before…everything. We’ve run all the way here, and it took us days. He willed you to take custody of Teddy.”
Romulus? He was never close with Romulus, ever since 'that' happened, barely spoke to him. He tried picturing him. A lump of white creamy porridge with other creamy lumps that might be defined as his nose and mouth. His head ached. How peculiar his brother had known where he lived though, he thought vaguely. The whole notion was absolute madness. And what had Potter said, beforehand? Doom eaters? Dead eaters? It didn't sound pleasant.
“And?” He croaked back.
“He’s your nephew!”
“I think he doesn’t count as one, as I don’t even know my brother’s surname. If he has- had one.”
“That doesn’t make-! Look, Your brother was one of the best people I’ve ever known, and he gave his life to save his son and many others. Teddy’s starving and malnourished, and for hell’s sake you try to give us garlic ?? Teddy doesn’t even like garlic!” The boy screeched. “Don’t you think it’s awfully convenient of you to pretend like none of this is happening?”
That made Remus irritated, and he found himself getting swallowed by the strange void that had opened itself somewhere inside of him. Remus took a deep, deep breath and opened his mouth, Shakespeare mode.
“A stupid act of a courageous adult is what makes a child fatherless, your Teddy Lupin is a victim of extreme misfortune, he is not at all my responsibility, I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you are, I’m sorry that you’ve been through a lot and I really hope you’ll catch your serial killer vampire soon.”-he briefly catched his breath-“Meanwhile I’ve got tea to tend to. Goodbye.”
“Nonononononono-”
Remus finally managed to screw the boy's head loose from his door, closed it with a loud bang and frantically locked it. He leaned on the cold wood. Then he slid down. Down, down, down.