The Cursed Creature

Chapter 3

A Fatal Mistake

In the months leading up to Remus 5th birthday his father spent more of his time working than usual. With the increasing dark activity around the country Lyall was requested to help out in order to ease the pressure on the Ministry.

Lyall was all too glad to offer his assistance and joined the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He then went out to contain the Boggarts and Poltergeists, which were part of the Dark Creature recruitment.

This job however led Lyall to the encounter with the man who would bring misery to his entire family. One day Lyall came across a scene where two of his fellow ministry workers interrogated a dishevelled looking man about a case of two children who got killed in a werewolf attack.

Lyall did only observe at first, since werewolves weren’t part of his subdepartment, though he couldn’t hold back as he saw how the filthy man obviously played the role of the unwitting innocent Muggle, who was only travelling along the wrong path at the wrong time. Especially when he saw that his colleagues were about to let that man go.

He told his colleagues as much, advised them to keep him in holding until the next full-moon and in addition to that he made a statement that he would forever regret.

In front of Fenrir Greyback, whom he already suspected to be both a werewolf and a murderer, Lyall said that werewolves were “soulless, evil creatures, which deserved nothing but death”. While his colleagues put him off and told him to stick to his own field of expertise, Fenrir stayed deathly silent until he was led out of the Ministry.

On the outside, he had already members of his pack waiting for him and when the ministry worker that escorted him out of the building tried to obliviate Fenrir they attacked, overwhelmed the man and fled.

It hardly needs to be mentioned that Lyalls opinion on werewolves was not a popular one with either Fenrir or his pack and the werewolf sought revenge. He managed to track down the Lupin family home and during a full moon night shortly before Remus 5th birthday he waited under Remus's window for his transformation to start and the wolf to take over.

Little Remus had no chance to react when he was roughly awoken through the bursting window. Lyall ran to his son's room when he heard the noise and came just in time to see a werewolf biting into his screaming son.

Panicking, he threw every powerful curse he could think of at the creature to get it away from him and didn’t stop until the werewolf fled back out of the window. Thankfully he managed to save his son’s life. The damage however was done. His little Remus was fated to suffer the same cursed existence as that monster did.

Lyall was devastated. His young boy would never be able to live his dreams. He would never be accepted in the magical community. He would never be able to go to Hogwarts. And it was all Lyalls fault.

Lyall thought back to the incident in the ministry a few months back and wanted to curse himself for his thoughtless act. Why did he have to insult the werewolf directly instead of just talking with his colleagues in private? Now Remus had to suffer the consequences of his actions and Lyall did not know how to deal with the situation.

After tending to Remus's wounds he took Remus with him so he wouldn’t be alone for the rest of the night. Hope, whom he had told to stay back when the break-in took place, was understandably upset and watched over Remus’s sleep until the morning.

Over the next few days Lyall talked a lot with his parents, his wife and his parents-in-law to come up with a plan for Remus's safety and the safety of everyone around him. They agreed to keep Remus at home for the time being to observe how the bite would affect him throughout the month and make further decisions after the first transformation.

For the transformation itself, Lyall and his father looked up powerful confinement- and silencing wards to keep Remus from hurting anyone in his mindless state.

Yet, as there weren’t any books or guides available on how to take care of a werewolf in the family they wouldn’t know if the wards worked in this case before they tried. This led to an increasingly nervous and tense atmosphere leading up to the next full moon.

Additionally, they had Remus's birthday to celebrate. Even though no one felt like celebrating, they all agreed that it would be important to keep at least a little sense of normalcy. Since Remus couldn’t invite his friends over they decided to visit Hope's parents during the day and his parents for dinner.

Remus wasn’t as happy as before the fateful night but he was at least distracted for the day and Lyall could even see a smile or two when his boy opened his presents and got a slice of chocolate cake from his grandmother.

Remus turned 5 years old and the worst thing about the bite for him until then was the shock of the night and that he couldn’t see his friends at the moment. Lyall feared that would change all too soon with the first transformation.