.--. ..- .--. .--. -.-- (puppy).
When Remus was bitten, it had been close to his fifth birthday; his first transformation, he watched his mother and father sit in a room where they had barricaded the door. His father had waved his wand over the room several times as he laid there. “Mummy, it hurts”, he cried but couldn’t move. He never forgot their faces that night as his body rearranged itself for the first time.
Hope sat there as she watched her baby boy’s body contort and contract as the transformation came over him. Lyall held her tightly as they sat frozen. What felt like hours was merely several minutes, his body completely unrecognisable. Hope’s non-magical eyes perceived her son to be a strange little wolf puppy. He went to move around. She watched as he placed a paw on the floor, unsure how to move in this body. She knew Lyall had his own convictions on werewolves, but she would never let them taint how she saw her son. “Remus?” She whispered. The puppy looked over and tilted its head. She didn’t want to treat her son like a dog, but she had no other frame of reference. When she was a teenager, she had a dog named Sneaky. “Hello darling”, her voice pitched the cutesy way she would talk to sneaky. The wolf padded over to her, a little wobbly. She leant down and let him sniff her hand, and he licked it.
This was an invitation for an ear scratch. She played with her Remus puppy all night, Lyall watched frozen, but he was marvelling at Hope. At her constant resilience in the face of how bloody jarring the wizarding world could be and how well she always took it on. Lyall eventually moved from where he was sitting and sat opposite Hope, who had found something to throw; the little wolf howled happily as he chased the balled up pair of socks. He padded over and dropped them in front of Lyall.
Lyall had considered it all, consider taking Remus to the ministry, considered telling the muggle hospital. He considered chasing down Greyback himself. These thoughts were drenched in guilt; he knew what he said was bigoted nonsense when he watched Remus transform. He felt ashamed and guilt for how selfish he had been. The agony he felt after Remus’s attack was not really about Remus at all. Lyall considered unspeakable things, but now he sat playing with his son, adapting to his condition. He threw the balled-up socks.
The most painful part was the transformation; it terrified Hope and Lyall as they watched the puppy bite at itself as the bones meshed back and his body returned to its human form. “Mummy,” Remus said in a hoarse little voice. Hope held her son and waited. “Daddy, we played ball.” “Yeah, Yeah, we did” Lyall didn’t realise how much he would remember. There was so much to learn and then to teach Remus; Lyall couldn’t help but feel heavy with concern as he realised the obstacles that lay ahead for his son. But they sat there; Remus had a tired smile on his face. “I’m sleepy.” “Go to sleep, baby; you did so well.”
Every moon followed the same routine, they started to buy dog toys because Remus liked to play, and they let him roam the house. One moon, he spent all of it just sniffing around. When the wolf was hungry, they left raw steak out on the floor and watched the puppy try and chew it.
When he turned eight, Hope wanted to try something different. “Ly, I followed your rules. We moved out to a village, and we haven’t let poor Remus make any friends. I want to try walking him.” Lyall couldn’t say no to Hope, so they charmed a leash and placed it on Remus. They explained the plan to Remus, who now understood as much as he could about his condition. Every moon, his parents would stop what they were doing and play with him. He wouldn’t tell them, but he loved playing tug. Being told he was allowed out in the woods nearby excited him immensely. He patiently waited as his father charmed the harness around his shirtless chest.
“We think doing some laps will help you feel better tomorrow”, Lyall explained.
“Can you bring a ball?”
Hope smiled and showed Remus that she had already packed one in her crossbody bag. They sat on the couch and waited as the moon drew nearer. Remus tended to sit still. He dreaded the transformation. It made him way too aware of his bones.
The young wolf looked at his parents. “Ready for a walk?” Hope asked, and the wolf’s tail stood up and swayed. They slowly went off into the night. Lyall’s wand lit their path.
Once in the thick of the woods, Remus moved around erratically as he sniffed everything he could. Every so often, a soft bark would disturb the silence. They just watched on as Remus marked his territory and let small barks and yips as he bounded around the forest floor.
Worried about taking his eyes off him, they remained silent for most of the night. They had heard a pack howl, and Remus’s ears perked up, and he howled in response and continued on his quest to follow the moth as it flitted around his head.
Hope had started to learn Remus’s wolf noises as he made them when he nudged her with his snout and guarded her as she sat down. She read every book the local library had on wolves and then travelled to libraries towns. She filled notebooks with the information she thought she should know about her son; she learnt pack dynamics and wolf behaviours and what his body language meant. Like how his tail went between his back legs, she realised he was scared of the dark rooms. They had nightlights set up for every moon after.
His puppy energy never left him, and as he bounded around, his limbs were sometimes his downfall as he would trip and stumble. He whined, having fallen quite hard on a sharp rock, the first of many moon-related scars. He sat near his parents as the moon left them and the sun arose. They realised between 5-6 am he would make the change back. The mark from the rock was almost healed, but a white scar was left in its place. They flinched as his body snapped back into the shape of their little boy. Lyall already had the blanket ready to scoop him up. “How are you feeling, kiddo?”
“Good, just tired”
They made their way back to their house on the edge of the small town; Hope ran a bath for Remus and let him sit in the warm water she infused with lavender and mugwort. She fed him porridge and dressed him, and tucked him in. She loved her little boy more than anything in the world.
Remus grew up happy and loved but lonely. He read a lot, and he finished all the work he was set. Sometimes Hope let him watch the after school specials when she would make dinner. Lyall would come home, and he would tell them all about his day. Remus would tell them both about the books he had read that day or how their trips into town went.
Two months before Remus’s birthday, the wolf wanted to run, Lyall charmed the lead to extend further, and he set wards up around a selection of the woods, which kept the rambunctious wolf safe.
A day after this moon, there was a knock at the door. Lyall was confused to see the Headmaster of Hogwarts standing on the cobblestone path.
“Good afternoon Lyall, sorry to show up unannounced.”
“No, not at all, Albus. Please come in.” He introduced Hope and Remus, who sat on the couch with a book on his lap. That night he was told Remus was going to wizarding school, the same one his father had gone to.
Ecstatic at the notion that her little boy will be able to go to school and make friends Hope shed a few happy tears as she made tea.
“I am more than glad to make the accommodations to have him attend Hogwarts; I wanted to explain the logistics in person”.
The moon before Remus was to leave for school, and they were back in the living room. “Now, you need to get used to being inside again,” Lyall said as he sat down on the couch.
“Dumbledore has made it so that you’ll be in the town next to the school for the moon in a rundown house.”
“Why?”
“The secret will be that the house is haunted; it’ll keep the locals and other students out, along with the wards”, Lyall explained as he kicked off his shoes.
“Sweetheart, remember we’ve discussed that people with lycanthropy aren’t well accepted in any world, mine or your fathers”, Hope explained softly.
She looked into Remus’s eyes as they saddened, “So I have to pretend, right? that I am sick.”
“Yeah, we will come up with something before you leave.”
The first bones that succumb to full moons manipulation are his spine and neck; they elongate, and the rest of his bones follow suit. His organs are mixed and moved, and his muscles rewrap themselves around his body. Remus was agitated from the minute his paws hit the floor. He paced, barking at his parents.
“I think he’s yelling at us”, Lyall acknowledged his tone.
“I feel like he’s just yelling. I feel so sad for him, Ly.”
“I know, dear, I do too, but we have to focus on the positives. Covering it up will keep him safe.”
Hope exhaled as they watched the wolf pace the room, his howls a mix of sobs and frustration. Angrily they watched him bound for the wall, but the ward had him bounce off. Lyall held Hope back as they watched Remus bite and nip at himself and his surroundings.
“Sweetheart?”
The wolf looked over at the voice. “You are okay.”
The wolf stopped, his fur matting with blood.