In the Lap of the Gods

Remus Lupin had ben 5 years old when his life turned upside down for the first time. And then 11 when it happened yet again. In a world so strange where monsters were running along the world naked, no clothes nor disguise – or well no seeming disguise- and stirring up troubles you would’ve thought that day at 11 would not come as a surprise for him. Especially not considering the fact that he had been living a life already unbelievable to the mortal mind. And yet…

Remus was a rather curious boy to look at even at first sight. This isn’t because his weirdly sensitive and charming looks, nor the fact he towered over everyone from his age, whilst admitting those would be enough of a reason to stare already for anyone, but the most out of place from his looks were his scars that covered his whole body. Scars that always seemed to just increase month for month. No one knew what kind of thing a little kid would be up to that caused so many scars on him, but if you thought twice what kind of thing could anyone be up to?

The answer was very easy and probably if not for the Mist or the simple mortal mind that refused to even consider anything supernatural happening,you would’ve figured it out very fast by doing nothing but looking up at the night sky on the days when the little Lupin kid disappeared each month on the clock. For on those days, when the moon rose it would be full and shine beautifully up there and most people would look up and find it astonishingly wonderful,but in Remus’s case he never remembered looking up at that night sky and seeing the full circle of the moon, well not since his fifth birthday either way, but he knew very well when that day would be and he would dread it each month.

Because Remus Lupin was a werewolf. That was the bare truth and he had been bitten on the very day if his fifth birthday,which coming as no surprise to anyone was not how a young child wanted to spend his birthday or as a matter of fact anyday of their lives. Remus’s parents were Lyall and Hope Lupin, two very nice people – if a bit anger issued man that Lyall- but good ones nonetheless. They owned a book and record shop on the middle of the town which was a very popular one since it opened and when they started serving coffee and teas as well it quickly became a centre for social life in Cardiff. Everyone loved the Lupin’s they loved the heartwarming smiles Hope gave to everyone, they way she would always offer a shoulder to cry on to anyone stirring into her little shop, how she knew every record and book they stored and would show and offer them around to everyone with such enthusiasm your instinct was to beam at her for caring so much about finding just the perfect one for you. They loved Remus who was a quite kid, always lurking in the corner of the shop with a book in hand and David Bowie playing quietly, but everyone knew he was quite the chatter box and had a very big and dirty mouth once he got comfortable but that made him nonetheless nicer. A very bright kid everyone knew and a very sick one as they believed.

And then there was Lyall. Lyall who always swore he saw out of world things such as winged old ladies going around and stealing from people whilst others looked out and saw a group of pigeons frightening a poor old lady, then looking with pity at Lyall, believing he’s schizophrenic or something of the sort. In fact, Lyall was even hospitalised for the matter but it quickly turned out he had no such problems so people just started to assume he was using and had pity on the poor child and woman everyone loved in town. But what they didn’t know that if anyone’s minds were tripping it was those’s who believed there’s something out of sorts with Lyall, for he was the one who possessed the true sight, meaning he saw through the Mistthat shielded most mortal minds from seeing anything not generally used to for a natural human. But one day, one day he regrets so very much he had the desire to prove them all wrong and went out on that dreadful night, the night of the full moon, the night of his just 5 year old son’s birthday to trap a werewolf and show everyone that “See I was never the crazy one, it was you”. Lyall was strong and committed and he managed to trap a werewolf called Fenrir Greyback, a name the Lupin family would come to loathe from then on, but he did not counted with the possibility of Remus waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds. He did not even consider Remus would come down with a pan at the ready to use as a weapon and run eith closed eyes and terrified body language to help his father. As he saw his son do that foolish,foolish yet nonetheless brave thing he did know it would not end well. The best he could do is press the switch button to let Greyback go, a test to see if killing or freedom was more important and thank the gods it was the latter. It was the latter. But not without sinking his poisonous teeth into Remus first. Not without leaving said little boy with scars around his little body and that awful bite that would not only leave a physical but a mental mark on his life from then on. Lyall can recall holding his bleeding and crying son who wasn’t even thinking of his own pain then and there but kept apologising for not finishing Fenrir off beforehand because now he was sure he’d come back and attack his father and mother and Remus, 5 year old not a day older took it as his own responsibility to protect them.

Since that awful night Remus got older and with the age of his increasing, his scars did as well. But the greatest one happened when he was 11. Summer break just beginning and the full moon taking it’s despicable place on the sky.

Before the sun would set Remus would go to the forest, like he did each time at that time of the month. No one goes out to an abandoned forest in the middle of the night,do they? Yet…

Yet a group of kids just did. A boy with a very big nose and almost yellow skin and a greasy mop of black hair falling into his bat like face and a red haired girl with freckles all over her friendly face and green eyes shining in the moonlight like an emerald would. Had Remus been in his right mind, right mind as in humane mind he would’ve probably start wondering why two people so different were soending time together at all, but since he was not what he did was strike an attack. He would’ve probably killed them had not a long white haired man with just as long white beard not came and shot him in the hip. He can recall turning instantly and slashing a very nasty scar right across his face, almost taking his eyes out in the process and he remembers passing out as the bullet was filled with wolfsbane. The next thing he recalls is waking up in an unknown place and a friendly curly haired woman’s face smiling upon him then turning and declaring he was awake.

He remembers being ushered to the white haired man’s office whose name he learned was Dumbledore and remembers how everything he believed then and there turned upside down.

“Mister Lupin, do you know what happened last night?” asked Dumbledore and Remus thought here it comes, my sentence. Ofcourse he did not say that just nodded, not het trusting himself to answer to this man,nor the man himself if he came to think of it. On the contrary in the following years Remus would never learn to trust that man. And the more he knew him, the more he decided he didn’t even want to.

“Then I reckon you are in full possession of knowledge about your condition “ a nod once again. Then

“I didn’t mean to hurt those people. I swear if I had been myself I would have not even lay a finger on them. I’m not aggressive, I’m not – I’m not dangerous, only itis.” Only the wolf is.

“Ah don’t worry dear boy I am very certain about that. Now tell me, do you know about anything else that’s unusual like your own condition?” Remus’s first thought was of his father, followed by all the things he claimed he saw and the things if Remus concentrated enough, saw as well. Hesitatingly he nodded. “Sorta”

“Sorta but not entirely then? I’m certain you know werwolves exist, but do you know why? Do you know how many other creatures do? Do you know why?” Now if Remus only inherited the ways of his father his response would’ve been like “No you fucking idiot, I clearly do not and you know I don’t and what if you’d quit this idiotic talk where you expect an eleven year old who almost killed 2 people last night but did not because YOU shot ME and just fucking tell me what this whole thing is?” but because he was also Hope Lupin’s son he said

“No, I do not but I’m more than eager to learn.”  Dumbledore nodded knowingly, like he heard Remus’s inner monologue and for a second Remus did consider that possibility with a bit of fear. But well, Dumbledore has no proof he said that so it doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s not like he shot him.

“Do you know anything about the gods Mr Lupin?” Gods? Fucking great, two kids wander into your forest once and now they wanna recruit you into a christian cult and you’ll be forced to pretend the holy ghost just possessed you and you’re clean as a spring because it was the holy ghost. Nuh-huh no thank you Remus thought . He’s seen enough of those people,heard enough of them and him and his parents had shook off a lot of those recruiters before. He is not gonna do that.

“Listen. I don’t know how you expect me to believe Jesus will come back to earth and save us or what the hell whilst I’m pretty sure your Bible never mentioned anything about werewolves yet here I am. So if that’s all,then thank you but I’d rather go home.”

“Gods Mr Lupin. As in plural. No one expects you to believe that story,  afterall do you think if it was really real, people would’ve had to start the crusades? You can’t buy or force or fight people to believing, you can try but belief is the won like that, and you would not try that hard to win the belief if the very thing was real. I’m asking about a religion, about deities from way older times, deities people believed in without them being killed and tortured to. Deities in plural who people still tell stories about but not entirely believe to be true.”

“Like Thor? Are you recruiting me to join the Avengers?”

“I’m sorry to say I do not know who to Avengers are and I am not recruiting you to join you anything, you’re here because you’re already apart of this,just without the right knowledge.” Well at least not christains. Was Remus’s first thought. Then but it would’ve been fun to join the Avengers. Then

“Are you talking about the Olympian Gods? Zeus and all?” For that Dumbledore gave a proud nod and smile.

“Indeed Mr Lupin. How much do you know about the gods?” Remus now that he came to think about it, knew quite a lot. They had a whole section for greek mythology themed books and he enjoyed reading them a great deal. He loved them, but he never considered them to be anything else than people from ancient ages trying to explain scientific concepts without enough knowledge in their possession. But now if he considers them. He’s a werewolf , werewolves exist. The monsters his dad saw are all ones you can find on the pages of mythology books. Would make a lot of sense,would it not?

“Quite a lot I guess?”

“Then I’m sure you know about demigods?” To that Remus nodded. Ofcourse he did. Most people do, at the very least there’s Heracles. You can’t really grow up without at least knowing his name and parentage. A very big cinema success that guy is. And for that very reason he did not reply with Heracles.

“Like Theseus you mean?” There,much better.

“Exactly like him yes. So now we’ve established you know about greek monsters, greek gods and greek heroes. Our bigger question is. How much you believe?” If you asked this from Remus 24 hours agi, he would’ve laughed and said None, but now. Now he considered everything he couldn’t explain before. Why and what his dad saw, why he was what he was,and with a sudden he realized that everything  he believed it all,because what better explained would there be? Science can’t explain why he suffers from lycanthropy ( no matter how much he always waited for Nick Fury to tell him he had been part of a very unfortunate scientific experiment and now he’s a superhero pretty much like the Hulk) and there was definitely no natural explanation to it. Funny how minds work is it not? Before offered an alternative that would seem impossible they rather ignore answers then consider them, but when that alternative is offered, you just accept and realize it was never impossible and makes the most sense than anything else ever did.

“I think it’s either me believing that or me just being totally insane, so..”

“Then you will be able to understand you,yourself are a demigod,right?”

Okay

What?