Cowboy Casanova

Saturday August 7th, 1971

When he woke, it was dark. It being early August caused the small room that his parents kept him in to be as hot as a furnace. Of course, he supposed it could possibly be the fever that inevitably followed a moon. Just a few months ago, he used to get locked in a room with a window, but that was soon discarded when he managed to smash one of them. He’d have been able to escape too, if they hadn’t placed heavy silver bars upon it. He tried not to think about the fact that he’d heard his Mam and Dad talking about potentially restraining him as he grew up.

All he could remember, was the intense feeling of hunger which eventually subsided into rage. He thought about how he had been keening and howling for hours while repeatedly circling the small cell. Maybe they’d let him out; just for a couple of hours then he could sleep. It was summer after all and he wanted to go and ride his horse. It wasn’t fair that he had to be couped up in a cell all day when everyone else could be dossing about in the glorious rays of the mid summer sun. Hoisting himself up onto the small camp bed that had been set up for him, he carefully stretched out, wincing slightly as he made a mental note of what hurt so that he could tell his mother when she arrived. He could feel that there were fresh claw marks; a significant one stretching from his ankle all the way up to his waist wrapping snake like around his left leg. He could also feel a deep bite mark on his right arm.

He slowly pulled a hand up to his scalp, running his finger over the the stubble of fuzzy hair shaved extremely close to his head. He despised it. His mother had told him after the 5th time she had done it, that when he transformed, it helped keep his wounds from getting infected with fur. Remus wasn’t sure he believed this, however he could not express this to his mother as she would probably clip him round the ear.

He heard footsteps at the end of the hallway. It was his mother; he could smell her. His senses were always magnified after one of his monthly episodes. He stood, bones creaking and cracking under his weight( which wasn’t much) and wrapped a blanket around him to shield himself. He padded his way across the dank room towards the door for a better listen. She was not alone in her descent, however. There was a man with her. He smelled old and ... different, somehow. It was a thick scent, not so different from silver, but this one didn’t make him nauseous. It reminded his of his father. It was magic.

“Are you certain he is worth your time, sir?” he heard his mother ask the man. “ He hasn’t really been around anyone like you before.”

“Oh Absolutely,” the man replied. He kept his voice neutral. It was warm and rich almost like hot chocolate. “We’re very sure Ma’am. Is this where you keep him during his ...?”

“His episodes.” she supplied, voice nasally and clipped. “It’s for his own safety. Started biting himself ever since his last birthday.”

“Mhmm. Could i enquire, what is it you know about his affliction?”

“Enough.” her reply was cold. “His father is never around anymore, so I've had to rely on books mostly. Being muggle and all.”

“Mmmm.” he replied calm and unperturbed.

His mother dropped her voice to a low hushed whisper, but Remus could still hear, “Now, you must let me see him before you talk to him. He often needs a few mends after his episodes. Not too sure why you want to see him right after a full moon anyway, if you already knew what he is.”-

The strange man did not reply to this. He could hear his mother jiggling her keys in the lock, but before the small click of the handle turning and the door being opened, she called to him,” Remus love, are you up?”

“Yeah.” he croaked, pulling the blanket around him tighter. His mother often took his clothes the evening before, so that he didn’t tear them in his transformation.

The door opened just enough for his mother to slip through but not enough so that the strange man could see him. The door had been plated with the same silver that was used for the bars on his window. If it hadn’t, he thought that he could easily smash it to smithereens, it being made of oak wood wouldn’t make it hard. Light poured into the room as though it was water, causing him to blink wildly. As she entered, he instinctively took a few steps backwards.

She was a small, thin woman with long sandy blond hair and hazelly brown eyes.

“Do you need any bandages this time, dear?”

He dropped the blanket revealing the long gash around his leg and the bite on his arm. They were no longer dibbling blood, but they were still very sore and tender. They healed fast, faster than a normal cut or scrap, but left silvery slashes dotted around his body. They never faded. She knelt before him, slowly dabbed him with an antiseptic soaked cloth and wrapped his wounds in a tight itchy gauze. She then proceeded to hand him his clothes and he quickly dressed.

“You’ve a visitor” she stated.

“Who?”

“A teacher, here to talk to you about school.”

“I didn’t think i was able to go to school?” He remembered is father saying to him after he was bitten that now he would have to be home-schooled for the rest of his school career.

“He seems to think otherwise. He has already spoken to your father an I, and we think that with the proper precautions there should be no harm.” she had a soft, comforting smile that her returned. “Plus you’ll get to go to school and make new friends.”

This was enough to get him to agree to talk with the teacher. He was curious about how they would be able to control him without anyone finding out about his condition.

The man was waiting for him quietly outside of the room. He was tall and dressed in the same strange clothes that he saw his dad wear in the small glimpses' he caught as he rushed out the house to work in the morning, often not returning until late in the night after Remus had gone to bed. He was in deep, velvet maroon robes that had gold embroidery around the cuffs, and the neck that trailed down the front of him. He must have been very old – his beard was silvery white and was so long that he could tuck into the waist tie of his robes. As strange as the man looked, he wasn’t intimidating. The man had a kind glint about his eyes that twinkled as he flashed Remus a smile. He extended a hand for him to shake.

“Mr Lupin. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Remus stared, encapsulated by the man in front of him. He shook the mans hand, feeling a sort of electric shock as he did so.

“Wotcha” he replied not sure it the man would understand his heavy south Welsh accent, though he had understood his mother fine.

“I am professor Dumbledore. I wonder if we could have a turn about the grounds? It’s such a lovely day, Don’t you think?”

Remus gave his mother a wary glance, who returned this with a kind, encouraging smile. This in itself was worth having to talk about school.

They climbed the stone steps from his little cell and came out onto the field his family home was stood upon. A warm wave of light and sun washed over him, soothing the ache in his bones at once. Remus was sure that he had never seen Dumbledore anywhere before, but he seemed to know is way around perfectly fine. Remus breathed in, allowing his senses to be flooded with the warm, soft scent of the emerald green grass around them. The ‘grounds’ as Dumbledore had called them, extended over 500 acres, so Remus barely expected to be walking that much.

“How are you feeling, Mr Lupin?” The old man questioned. Remus just shrugged in response. He felt the same as he always had after. Restless and sore. Dumbledore did not raise his voice not clip him round the ear for being rude, he just stared straight ahead, a slight smile placed on his lips.

“Beth wyt ti eisianu?” he asked in Welsh instinctively not sure is he would be understood by Dumbledore.

Much to his shock , the old man replied, “I expect you have some inkling as to why i am here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown paper bag. He could smell the lemon of the sweets, and sure enough, he was offered one.

“You’re magic. Like Dad”

“Do you know much about your father,Remus?”

He shrugged again. He found it incredible that he knew so little about his father, when they both lived in the same house. “He is magic. Mams normal though”

Dumbledore smiled at his kindly.

“Indeed.”

“Never around though. Ever since i was bitten he’s been taking on more and more work. Mam tries her best, bless her. Can’t be easy to look after someone like me.” They had made it a small way from the house by now and were nearing the stables.

“Do you like it her?”

“Yeah. ‘S not bad to be fair.” He found himself looking towards the stabled where slept his majestic midnight black horse Caspian.

“I hear you love to ride horses in your spare time.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Yeah. Mam likes to call me her own little cowboy cos she thinks I'm that good.”

The conversation died of for a few minutes until Dumbledore said, ‘I run a school, you know. The same one your father attended.”

That threw Remus for an unexpected loop. H swallowed the remainder of the sweet and ran his fingers over his head.

“It’s a very special sort of school. For wizards and witches like me and you. Would you like to learn magic?”

He really wanted to say yes, his mothers words still in his mind from earlier. Reluctantly, he shook his head.

“Can’t. Too thick. I wont pass the test to get in.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

"I canny hardly read a kids book.”

Dumbledore looked at him curiously, as though studying him.

“You haven’t had an easy start to life, Mr Lupin, and I'm very sorry about that. I know your father – only a little – but i'm sure he would want you to attend. I am here to offer you a place amongst your own kind.”

Remus stared at him. What was the difference if he was in one place or another? His mam would not be there to look after him after after the moons, but she didn’t have the rich intoxicating smell of magic. It couldn’t be too bad, but he would miss being able to ride his horses and tend to his other animals.

“what about my episodes? I’m dangerous y’know.”

“Yes, Mr Lupin, I know.” there was a slight sadness to his voice as he placed a gentle hand into Remus’ shoulder. “We’ve come up with a solution. You are to arrive at the hospital wing 1 hour before sunset on the evening of the moon. There, there will be the medi-witch that will escort you to a new addition to the grounds, the Whomping Willow, in which you will enter and be led to a house magically locked for your safety.”

Remus shook him off, but looked up at him happily. They walked back towards his home in a satisfied silence.