Night Terrors
Beth woke up screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Noooo!!!” she screamed.
“Beth,” said Remus running into the room followed by Guinevere the cat.
“Beth calm down sweetheart,” said Remus gently sitting down on the bed.
“Don’t worry little one no one’s going to hurt you.”
“Remus?” she mumbled nervously.
“Right here princess,” he beamed.
“Come here little one,” he chuckled shaking his head, “had another nightmare?”
Beth had had nightmares almost every night since she got back from school. Pomfrey had been giving her dreamless sleep in the Hospital Wing but since she had gotten back, she had nightmares. Guinevere still guarded the door whilst she slept and had now got into the habit of waking up Remus if Beth had a nightmare.
“Hmm,” she muttered as he stroked her hair.
“What happened this time?”
“Quirrell,” she muttered, “he killed Susan and Ernie, then Voldemort came back to life and came to find and kill me here.”
“Sweetheart,” he said softly having dealt with these nightmares every night for a fortnight, “Quirrell is dead, you know that.”
“Voldemort?” she whispered.
“Is firstly nothing more than spirit, less than a ghost, and secondly, he doesn’t know where we live, and thirdly, he’ll have to get through me first.”
“Ok,” she muttered as Remus tucked her back into bed.
Remus lit a candle on the bedside table.
“Remi,” whispered Lyall from the doorway.
“You look after her ok Gwen?” asked Remus as he left.
“Meow!” nodded Guinevere firmly before returning to pacing in front of the door.
“Remi, she ok?” whispered Lyall.
“Yeah she’s fine,” sighed Remus.
“Nightmares again?” asked Lyall raising his eyebrows.
“Can you blame her?” whispered Remus.
“Look Remi,” said Lyall shaking his head, “go get some sleep, I’ve got work in a few hours and you’ve got your transformation tonight.”
“Oh Merlin,” muttered Remus, “you’re right.”
A few hours later Beth woke up and found that Guinevere was snuggled in next to her on top of her quilt.
“Morning Gwen,” mumbled Beth tickling Guinevere between the ears.
Guinevere looked up at Beth and purred loudly.
“Gwen,” she said quietly, “if Voldemort comes looking for me, would you protect me.”
“Meow!” said Guinevere nodding her head proudly.
“Thanks Gwen,” she beamed kissing her on top of the head.
Beth headed down to the sitting room where there was a large cauldron bubbling by the fire. This contained Remus’ last batch of Wolfsbane potion for the month, he had had to take it every day this week in the lead up to the full moon, today was the last day.
This was the first time that they had tried to make the potion, so they hoped that it worked. Lyall had been helping Remus with the potion even Beth had been heling prepare the ingredients under careful supervision, if even one thing went wrong with the potion it could be disastrous for Remus.
“Morning Cariad,” beamed Lyall giving her a hug as he came down for breakfast.
“Morning Grandpa,” said Beth sitting down at the kitchen table and swinging her legs back and forth.
“So tonight’s the night huh?” he muttered.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
Remus had at least now managed to find a full-time job; he went around to the Macmillan’s five days a week to tutor Ernie’s little brother Tim. Today was a Saturday though so he didn’t have to go to work.
Remus sat down at the kitchen table and poured himself a cup of tea.
“You look tired Uncle Remus,” said Beth as he drunk his tea.
“I’ve looked worse,” he sighed.
Remus had huge shadows under his eyes and his skin was paper white, which made the scars on his face stick out even more.
“Here Remi,” said Lyall bringing over a huge plate piled high with sausages and scrambled eggs and toast.
He brought over two over plates which were not quite so full for him and Beth.
Remus worked his way methodically through his large plate of breakfast, he had to get his energy for tonight.
“Uncle Remus,” said Beth.
“Yes sweetheart?”
“Can I go round to Susan’s today?”
“Make sure you’re back in time for dinner Cariad,” said Lyall.
“And you’ll have to ask the Bones’ for permission first ok?”
“Ok,” she beamed.
Lyall headed off for work at the Ministry and Beth started to wash the dishes.
“I’ll get those Beth,” said Remus coming over to do the washing up.
“Don’t worry it’s ok,” said Beth as she washed the breakfast things, “you go get some sleep.”
“Alright sweetheart, I’ll see you tonight.”
Beth went upstairs to get dressed, and pulled on a light blue floaty skirt and a white short sleeved blouse.
“I’ll see you tonight Gwen, look after Uncle Remus for me ok?”
“Meow,” nodded Guinevere settling into the quilt on top of the bed to get some sleep.
Beth skipped downstairs to the siting room and put some flu powder in the fire and put her head in like Remus had shown her.
“Bones Lodge,” said Beth clearly.
Her head was in the Bones family sitting room and Susan was sat on the sofa reading.
“Susan!” Beth called.
“Beth!” exclaimed Susan rushing over to the fire.
“Can I come round for the day?”
“I think so,” beamed Susan, “I’ll just go ask Mum.”
Susan got up from by the fire and came back a minute later.
“Mum said she’d be thrilled to have you,” said Susan kneeling down again.
Beth came through the fire properly and found herself in the Bones house.
“Hi Beth!” said Susan giving her a hug.
“Hi Sus,” said Beth returning the hug
“Hello dear,” said Mrs Bones coming into the sitting room.
Mrs Bones was tall and had light blonde hair, Susan had dark red hair like her father’s.
“How is Remus and Lyall today?”
“Grandpa’s fine, Uncle Remus is a bit tired.”
“Oh yes of course,” muttered Mrs Bones remembering the time of the month.
Mrs bones had been a bit shocked when she had found out that Susan’s best friend’s guardian was a werewolf, but when she had actually met Remus he had seemed like a perfectly lovely person.
“What you two going to be getting up to today then?”
Beth and Susan ended up going to go play in the grounds. The Bones where a very old family and had a huge house with vast grounds, not as extensive or ostentatious as the Malfoys or the Lestranges though.
One of Beth and Susan’s favourite things to do was to re-enact scenes from their history lessons, pretending they were the characters.
Today Susan had been Helga Hufflepuff and Beth had been Rowena Ravenclaw. They had both braided crowns of wildflowers for their hair and gone on adventures together.
Towards the end of the day they were both sat on the edge of the river dipping their feet in to cool them.
“Sus,” muttered Beth pulling at a lock of her hair.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think Voldemort’s going to come after me?”
“I thought you killed him?” said Susan as she traced circles in the water of the river with her finger.
“No that was Quirrell,” she sighed, “Voldemort’s still out there.”
“I don’t know,” muttered Susan, “why do you ask?”
“I’ve just got a feeling that he’s not going to stop until one or the other of us in dead,”
“Well whatever happens, Ernie and I are going to be right behind you all the way.”
“Thanks Sus.”
“I should be getting home,” muttered Beth looking at her watch, it was already half past five, the sun would be setting in just a few hours.
Beth and Susan pulled their shoes and socks back on and headed back into the house.
“Hello Beth,” said Mr Bones who had just got back from the Ministry.
“Hello little Susie!” said Mr Bones giving his daughter a hug.
“You two had a good day?”
“Yes, we played in the flowers,” nodded Susan.
“I can see that!” chuckled Mr Bones, “from the fact that you’re both wearing them.”
“I need to get home,” said Beth, “Grandpa and Uncle Remus will be worrying about me.”
“It was lovely to see you dear,” said Mrs Bones giving her a hug.
“Bye Sus,” said Beth giving her one more hug as she headed over to the fire.
Beth flued back to the house where Remus and Lyall were both waiting for her in the sitting room.
“Hi Cariad!” said Lyall as she dusted herself off from the fireplace.
“Hi Grandpa!” she beamed giving him a hug.
“How was Susan?”
“Great as always, how was work?”
“Oh, you know the usual boring stuff, a couple of goblins came in with a petition about wanting to use wands that kind of thing.”
“How you feeling Remus?”
“Looking forward to tonight being over,” he sighed, this was the first time they were trying the Wolfsbane potion.
They had a quick dinner and then Lyall sent Beth upstairs.
“Go on Cariad, off you go, we’ll see you tomorrow ok?”
Beth gave them both a hug and rushed upstairs to take a bath and then go to bed.
She snuggled into bed and Guinevere patrolled the bedroom door as usual.
She woke up and something felt wrong, where was Gwen?
Maybe she was out chasing mice.
She looked around and saw that it was darker than usual there was no lights on.
She got out of bed and pulled on her dressing gown and grabbed her wand just in case.
She checked if Remus or Lyall where in their rooms but they were both empty. She creeped downstairs and looked around frantically for Remus or Lyall.
“Uncle Remus!” she called as she walked down the stairs.
“Grandpa!”
There was no answer and there didn’t seem to be anyone there.
Then Beth noticed that the trap door in the sitting room was slightly ajar
She knelt down and opened the trap door into the sitting room where she had to hold back a gasp of horror.
Lying at the bottom of the basement their eyes wide in shock lay Remus and Lyall. Lyall held his wand limply in his hand and Remus’ face was splattered in blood. They were both dead.
Beth felt a strong arm grip onto her shoulder.
“I told you freaks didn’t deserve to be loved,” spat Uncle Vernon as he span her around.
“Leave me alone,” she stammered, “you’re not allowed anywhere near me.”
“Uncle Remus is going to protect me.”
“Well last time I checked, Miss Potter,” said Voldemort with a full body coming from around the corner to talk to her, “Mr. Lupin is dead which means he cant protect you.”
“What’s going on,” she muttered.
“Well, the Lupin’s are dead,” smirked Voldemort.
“And you are coming back where you belong Freak,” said Vernon chuckling manically as she threw her into her cupboard and locked the door.
“No!!” she screamed, “let me out!!”
She woke up with a jerk and her body was shaking all over.
“Remus!” she called hoping it had all been a bad nightmare, “Remus! Grandpa!!!”
But there was no answer, this seemed too familiar to the dream.
She grabbed her wand and pulled on her dressing gown and ran down the stairs frantically. When she got downstairs, she found Lyall sat at the sofa filling in some paperwork for the Ministry and had a wolf lying at his feet.
“Grandpa!” she stammered holding her wand out defensively.
“You alright Cariad?” asked Lyall looking up at her, “another nightmare?”
Then Lyall looked at her properly and saw that she was ghostly white and was holding her wand out as if ready to attack.
“Beth are you alright sweetheart?” asked Lyall getting up from where he had been sat on the sofa.
He kneeled down and put his hands on her shoulders gently.
“What happened Beth?”
“Voldemort,” she stammered, “he killed you and Remus, and Uncle Vernon was there, I had to go live with him.”
“He told me that you had both died because Freaks didn’t deserve to be loved.”
Lyall gripped onto Beth’s shoulders a little tighter at the reminder of the Dursleys.
“He threw me in my cupboard, it was so dark, I screamed to be let out, but it didn’t work.”
“You’re ok now Cariad,” said Lyall giving her a hug.
Beth started to cry into him.
As she sobbed into Lyall she felt something nuzzling up against her.
She looked down and saw that a wolf with chocolate brown eyes was looking up at her and nuzzling against her.
“Remus?” she said looking into his eyes.
The wolf nodded at her.
Lyall watched nervously in case anything went wrong, his wand ready to defend Beth if he had to.
Beth curled up on the rug on the sitting room floor. Remus lay down next to her and Beth stroked him gently.
Eventually Beth lay down on the rug and snuggled into the wolf using him as a soft pillow.
When Beth woke up the next day she was lying on the bed in Remus’ room and snuggling into Remus like she had the wolf that night.
“Uncle Remus,” she whispered.
“Hmm?” muttered Remus who had been dozing on and off himself.
“Did the potion work?”
“Did I try and attack you last night?”
“No, you were very gentle and kind like you always are.”
“Dad said you had another nightmare last night?”
“Hmm,” she nodded, “Voldemort killed you both and then I had to go back to Dursleys.”
“Little one,” sighed Remus, “even if Grandpa or I did die, you’re not going to go back to the Dursleys.”
“Really?” she muttered looking up at him.
“Well both the Macmillan’s and the Bones’ have made it very clear that if anything should happen to either me or your Grandpa, that they would take good care of you.”
“You promise?”
“I promise,” he said smiling slightly and giving her a hug.