Moony
Remus had always hated the full moons, not just the transformation either, Merlin knows that was bad enough. But it left him completely drained for day afterwards, and he was always upset at having to leave Ophelia behind even if it was only for one night.
What if that one night when he was a werewolf, was the night that the deatheaters came looking for his family? What if they kidnapped Harry and Ophelia?
There would be literally nothing he could do about it, as that one night a month he lost his mind entirely, and he spent the whole night rampaging around the old bomb shelter, that Lyall physically had to bolt him into so he couldn’t hurt anyone.
The bomb shelter wasn’t as small as the boxroom he had used until they had moved to a new house a few years back, but it was still a bit claustrophobic. To be honest, a part of Remus still missed those school days, running around the Forbidden Forest with James, Sirius and Peter in their animal forms. Full moons had been so much easier back then, he had had company, and he hadn’t hurt himself when the wolf took over like he did now.
He felt particularly bad about leaving tonight, as Ophelia was feeling poorly and had been in bed all day.
As it was February, the sun set fairly early in the evening so Remus was having to say goodnight to Ophelia and Harry at only half past five.
Remus was sitting on Ophelia’s bed checking her forehead, she had mainly just been tired with a slightly high temperature all day, but it seemed to be getting slightly worse. Remus didn’t want to leave her, but he knew that he had to.
‘Now then princess,’ said Remus brushing Ophelia’s hair off of her sweaty forehead.
‘I want you to be a good girl tonight, and take your medicine when Granny or Grandpa asks you to, ok?’
‘Can’t Daddy give me my medicine?’ asked Ophelia in a weak little tired voice.
‘I’m afraid not sweetheart,’ sighed Remus running his fingers through his mousy hair which was slowly going grey.
‘Is Daddy being Moony?’ pouted Ophelia.
‘Yes Daddy’s being Moony tonight,’ said Remus.
‘Can’t Daddy be Moony another night?’ asked Ophelia.
‘No I’m sorry little one,’ chuckled Remus.
‘But this Moony is going to look after you all night long,’ said Remus tucking the cuddly wolf into bed with Ophelia.
Remus kissed Ophelia on top of her hot forehead and tucked her in properly.
‘I love you Daddy,’ said Ophelia, as Remus grudgingly left the room.
‘I love you too darling,’ said Remus turning around in the doorway, before half running down to the bomb shelter so that the children wouldn’t have to see him transform.
‘Don’t worry son we’ll take good care of them tonight,’ said Lyall patting him on the back.
‘If there’s any problems, we can handle it.’
‘Don’t forget to check on Ophelia,’ said Remus nervously, going into the bomb shelter.
‘I’ll stay up with her al night if she wants me to,’ said Lyall.
‘Thanks Dad,’ said Remus, ‘see you on the other side then?’
‘See you on the other side,’ said Lyall closing the bomb shelter. He bolted it shut and added a few spells as reinforcement so not only Remus couldn’t get out, but nobody could get in either.
The moon began to rise, and Lyall sighed as he headed back into the house. He hated bolting his only son once a month, but there was nothing he could do about it.
‘Lyall!’ called Hope from one of the upstairs windows.
‘I’ll be in in a sec Hope love,’ called Lyall.
‘I need you up here,’ said Hope nervously, ‘now.’
Lyall ran into the house and raced up the stairs with surprising speed for someone in his fifties. He didn’t know what the problem was but if Hope was the nervous it was usually something magical. It could be anything from Harry having turned Ophelia’s hair bright green, to Hope having found a ghoul or something in the attic.
Hope was standing outside Ophelia’s bedroom, looking absolutely terrified. Her face was paper white, and her whole body was trembling. It gave Lyall a flash back to twenty-one years ago, when Hope had been standing outside another child’s bedroom looking equally terrified. Outside Remus’ bedroom.
‘What’s wrong Cariad?’ asked Lyall gently, trying to keep calm for Hope’s sake.
‘She’s getting worse,’ gulped Hope, ‘she’s burning up, and she says that she’s freezing. I’ve tried to get her to sleep, but she’s restless.’
‘She might just have a fever Cariad,’ said Lyall.
‘A few minutes ago, she started talking about sudden shooting pains in her whole body, they won’t go away!’
Lyall checked off all the symptoms in his head, fever but feeling cold, exhausted but can’t sleep, and unbearable pain throughout the whole body. All the same symptoms that Remus had had twenty-one years ago, during his first full moon!
Lyall ran into Ophelia’s room frantically with his wand drawn, barring Hope from the room. But instead of finding a small werewolf scampering around Ophelia’s bed, he found a four-year-old girl tossing in her bed, shivering and groaning in unbearable pain.
He looked out the window and saw that the moon had raised full in the sky outside. He didn’t understand it, she had all the symptoms, and she should have transformed by now. But she was a perfectly normal little girl, not even a sign of changing into a wolf. Then why did she have the symptoms?
‘She’s fine Cariad,’ called Lyall, ‘you can come in Hope.’
Hope poked her head around the door, just to make sure there was no wolf in her granddaughters bedroom.
‘How do you feel little one?’ asked Lyall checking her forehead and flinching at how high her temperature was.
‘Tired,’ she mumbled, ‘and everything hurts.’
‘It’s ok sweetheart,’ said Hope, ‘Granny and Grandpa are here. We’re not going anywhere.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Ophelia grimacing in pain as she got another jolt of pain in her legs.
‘What can we do Lyall?’ asked Hope. She couldn’t just let her granddaughter go through all this pain without doing anything.
‘Get the chocolate that should help,’ said Lyall, ‘and a damp cloth for her forehead.’
‘Alright Lyall,’ muttered Hope leaving the room. A damp cloth and chocolate didn’t sound like they would help very much, but at the moment she was willing to try anything.
Hope came back a few minutes later, and put the damp cloth to Ophelia’s forehead.
‘Is that better Ophelia sweetheart?’ asked Hope anxiously.
‘A bit,’ muttered Ophelia.
‘Alright love,’ said Lyall breaking off a large slab of chocolate.
‘I need you to eat this for me.’
‘Chocolate?’ asked Ophelia.
‘It’s very special chocolate,’ Lyall explained, ‘it’s the chocolate your Daddy eats.’
‘Daddy’s Moony chocolate?’ asked Ophelia inclining her head.
‘Yes sweetheart,’ nodded Lyall.
‘But that’s Daddy’s chocolate, I can’t have any.’
‘I don’t think he’ll mind this once,’ chuckled Lyall.
Ophelia took a bite from the chocolate with the pain killer mixed into it, and did feel remarkably better almost immediately. Her body still hurt, and she was still shivering, but the pain wasn’t unbearable anymore.
‘Now darling I know you feel you’re cold,’ said Lyall, ‘but I need you to get out from under the blankets, because you’re actually very hot. Can you do that for me darling?’
‘Yes Grandpa,’ said Ophelia, getting out of bed and shivering like mad.
‘Hope why don’t you check on Harry, and then get some sleep.’
‘Are you sure Lyall love?’ asked Hope. She didn’t want to go to bed if her granddaughter was ill or was going to get hurt.
‘She’s fine Hope,’ said Lyall as Ophelia nestled into his arms.
Ophelia was somehow shaking and shivering, but sweating and boiling at the same time. But she snuggled up in her Grandpa’s arms, and did feel a bit better.
‘Alright,’ said Hope, ‘goodnight.’
Lyall stayed up all night with Ophelia, reading her countless stories, or telling her stories about his youth, or about all the things Remus had gotten up to at school.
Finally the sun began to rise, and Ophelia’s temperature started to go down, and a very tired little girl fell asleep in Lyall’s arms. He tucked her into bed carefully, and then ran into the garden to unlock Remus.
‘Hi Dad,’ said Remus relieved at being let out of the bomb shelter.
‘Bad night?’ asked Lyall.
‘Not too bad,’ shrugged Remus, ‘I’m a bit tired but that’s normal.’
Lyall could tell that Remus was lying, and tried to cover up the fact that he was worried.
‘How’s Ophelia?’ asked Remus as they headed up to the house together.
‘She’s doing much better,’ said Lyall. It wasn’t a lie, Ophelia had just fallen asleep after all.
‘Remus,’ sighed Lyall, ‘I need to tell you something.’
Remus looked terrified, had something happened to Harry or Ophelia?
Had they had a letter about Stefan from the school?
‘Now don’t look so mortified Remi,’ said Lyall.
‘You probably don’t remember this as you were so young, but when you were four years and seven months old, you had your first moon.’
‘I’m not very likely to forget that,’ shuddered Remus.
‘Turning into a werewolf, the pain, the shock, you never forget the first time!’
‘Well,’ said Lyall, ‘Ophelia’s four years and seven months, she’ll be five in July.’
‘I know that,’ shrugged Remus.
‘She just had her first moon,’ said Lyall biting his lip.
‘My daughter’s a werewolf!’ screamed Remus pulling his hair out in agitation.
‘Yes and no,’ said Lyall, ‘she has all the symptoms,’ said Lyall.
‘Feeling cold even though she’s boiling hot, exhausted yet restless, and of course the shooting unbearable pain.’
Remus nodded nervously. He didn’t need reminded of the symptoms; he went through them every time he transformed.
‘But she didn’t actually transform,’ said Lyall.
‘It could easily have just been a bad case of a twenty-four-hour flu,’ said Lyall, ‘but her fever broke, and she fell asleep as the sun rose.’
‘And she started to feel poorly at sunrise yesterday,’ sighed Remus.
‘We’ll have to wait and see if it’s a regular thing,’ said Lyall, ‘if this happens every month. But I think she might only be half a werewolf.
‘Because Marls was a human,’ said Remus nodding in comprehension.
‘Yes,’ said Lyall.
‘How is she now?’ asked Remus.
‘Shattered,’ chuckled Lyall.
‘She’s not the only one,’ said Remus smiling softly.
He was exhausted, but also relieved that he hadn’t passed all his lycanthropy onto his innocent little girl.
Remus walked up to Ophelia’s bedroom, and found her sleeping softly on her bed.
He went and kissed her softly on the forehead, which woke her up instantly.
‘Daddy!’ she beamed.
‘Hi princess,’ said Remus, ‘how are you feeling?’
‘I’m tired,’ she yawned, ‘and everything hurts.’
‘Same here,’ said Remus.
‘Tell you what, why don’t you come get some sleep in Daddy’s room? We can feel poorly together.’
‘Ok Daddy,’ said Ophelia.
Remus picked Ophelia up, and carried her through to his bedroom and she snuggled up close to him under the warm duvet. They were both so exhausted that they fell asleep within seconds, but Remus was happy to know that his little girl was safe in his arms.