2Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling
(Also this is set in Wales because since finding out Hope is Welsh I've just assumed Remus has a Welsh accent and is from Wales as well)
Why is love blind? Hope Lupin had always thought about that question but never really understood it. Not until the day she found out she was pregnant. That's when she finally understood it. Love is blind because a mother loves her child before she has even seen them. As the months flew by that love only became more powerful, an unconditional love which no man could meddle with.
… But could a monster?
March 10th 1960
Agony, pure agony coursed through Hope's body as another contraction ripped through her. Biting down heavily on her lip, she groaned loudly in pain.
"Honey, you're breaking my hand," Lyall said to his wife, looking at his hand which was currently getting the life squeezed out of by his wife.
"Good, I'll break your bloody balls too. You won't need them after this," Hope hissed as another wave of spasms hit her and she tried to push.
Despite this all the occupants in the room, including Lyall, laughed. "Good to know you've still got your sense of humour Mrs. Lupin," the midwife said looking up from between Hope's legs.
The contraction ended and she gasped a few breaths even managing a chuckle, everyone loved her sense of humour. Especially the wizarding society. The day they saw the boggart topper on Lyall and hers wedding cake they instantly took a liking to her. Her thoughts were washed away though as the next contraction came. Sweat slowly trickled down her forehead as she pushed.
"The baby is starting to crown," the midwife told them smiling.
Lyall beamed with happiness, clutching back at his wife's hand and kissing her temple. "Not much longer, love, just a little longer and then we will get to meet our son or daughter."
Our son or daughter. Hope almost cried at the thought, and despite the pain of the contractions she couldn't help but think how worth it all this pain was… She would finally be able to meet the baby she had already loved so much for the past nine months.
A few minutes went by and Hope was pushing as though her life depended on it.
"One last push."
Up till now Hope hadn't screamed, only groaned loudly in pain. This however changed as she gave one last final push.
A baby's cry.
"Congratulations Mr and Mrs Lupin, you have a son."
Tears streamed down Hope's face in fall force as the crying red baby was placed in her arms.
"We have a boy, Hope," Lyall laughed joyfully kissing his wife on the lips.
Hope looked down at her baby boy and fell in love all over again. His red rumpled face was beginning to soften and as he opened his eyes for the first time, she gasped.
Lyall had told her a while ago that wizard pregnancies do have some differences to muggle pregnancies. One of them being that all muggle babies were born with blue eyes and over the course of a year they would settle to their own eye colour. A baby born from a wizard or witch had their unique eye colour from the day they were born, the same eye colour they'd have throughout their whole life… His were jade green, just like his fathers. The eyes which she fell in love with straight away.
"He has your eyes," Hope whispered stroking a finger across the boy's chubby cheeks.
The midwife came up next to them, "what are you naming him?"
Hope lovingly looked at her son, and said the name she and Lyall had already decided on if it was a boy. "Remus, Remus John Lupin."
February 28th 1964
Winter was finally coming to an end, warmth spreading through the house a lot more than a couple of weeks ago as the sun hit its peak level in the sky.
Currently, Hope was in the kitchen peeling potatoes for their supper at the kitchen table. Singing away to the radio which was playing '(I can't get no) Satisfaction' by The Rolling Stones.
Just as she peeled the last potato, the door to the kitchen from outside opened and in came her four year old Remus and Labrador Max covered head to toe in mud.
Raising an eyebrow quizzically, she directed the question to her son. "Do I really want to know?"
Innocently putting his hand behind his back and rocking onto his heels, the boy answered with a huge smile. "For your own safety mummy, I shall 'wivtain' the information of how this happened."
Hope couldn't help but laugh at Remus' witty response, the boy was too smart for his own good and his little lisp made the sentence even funnier. Inclining her head towards the stairs she said "Go on, get on up smarty pants. I'll be up in a second to run you a bath."
Remus saluted with a childish giggle, taking off his shoes to reveal white socks (the only part which wasn't covered in mud) and he made his way upstairs closely followed by Max who left paw prints along the carpet… She would get Lyall to magic that out later.
Shaking her head, she chuckled at the two. No matter what Remus did, she couldn't be mad with him. Maybe it was because he was more or less a golden child. He was polite, kind, caring and he never used his witty humour at the expense of others. Hope couldn't even remember the last time she had to genuinely tell the child off for being naughty; it's so rare that he was.
Making her way up the stairs, she found that Remus and Max were already in the bathroom, patiently waiting with Remus sitting on top of the toilet seat and Max sitting by his side.
Turning on the hot water, she gazed upon her son and smiled happily. "Do you realise how much I love you, Remus?"
Remus smiled back and nodded. "More than anything in the world."
"You got that right," Hope chuckled, winking at her son. "I love you and your father very much, and nothing will ever change that."
"I love you too, mummy," Remus said coming up to cuddle his mother but then backed down when he realised he was still covered in mud.
Hope turned on the cold water and when she believed there was enough, she tested the water to see if it was suitable and then ordered. "Strip and jump in."
Remus did has his mother asked him to, stripping down and holding onto Hope's hand as he side stepped into the bath.
The bath water soon went dark when Remus got in. Hope cleaned her son in silence kneeling next to the bath tub with a smile on her face. The silence broke, however, by Remus' childish giggle.
Raising her brow, Hope asked, "What's so funny?"
Remus said nothing and pointed to her side.
Max was right next to her, shifting restlessly and panting heavily. He was still covered in mud and Hope knew right away what the canine was about to do.
"Don't even think about it, you can have a bath after Remus."
Max huffed and went back to sit next to the toilet seat.
Once the grime had fully been peeled away from Remus' skin, Hope helped her son out of the bath and put a towel around him.
"Brand new," Hope joked kissing her son on the nose.
Later that night…
For the fiftieth time in the past hours Hope once again checked her watch: 19:17, darkness was setting in leaving the grounds completely void of anything. Lyall should have been home by now.
Shaking her head Hope tried not to think about it, instead getting the sausages out of the oven. "Remus supper is almost ready, come and set the table."
Remus came tottering in soon after she had called. Though as soon as he entered the kitchen he looked round confused. "Where's Daddy?"
"I don't know, cub" Hope answered truthfully.
Remus pouted a bit but didn't question further, instead doing as he had been asked and set the table.
Getting everything together, Hope kept Lyall's meal in the warm oven and then proceeded to put hers and Remus' plates on the table: "bangers and mash."
Remus smiled and waited for Hope to pour the beans over his mash. Hope tutted at the boy with a roll of her eyes, she didn't understand why Remus had to have beans on his mash. Then she went over to her own bangers and mash and put gravy over it.
Ten minutes into their dinner, the front door slammed shut causing the mother and son to jump drastically.
"Daddy," Remus got up from the table and hugged his father.
Hope knew something wasn't right. Lyall had that look on his face. The look which indicated that something was very wrong but he was trying his hard not to show it. Her questioning further escalated when she observed how Lyall hugged Remus back as though his life depended on it, not the normal fatherly hug which he usually gives.
Making eye contact, Hope mimed 'eat and then we'll talk.' to which Lyall nodded at.
The family returned to the table and ate in silence. Once finished, Hope sent Remus to go upstairs and play with Max.
"Why were you so late?" Hope questioned with a quizzical brow raise.
Lyall sighed in frustration, running a shaking hand through his blonde locks. "Work, a new case came in and I lost. I've spent the past few hours trying to get my manager to bring Greyback back."
Hope shivered at the name, something about it didn't sound right. "Why was he called in in the first place?"
"Deaths of two muggle children, poor souls… They were only four and seven." Lyall paused for a moment. "We brought him in for questioning… found him with a werewolf pack though because he isn't on the records the rest of the team dismissed him as a homeless muggle," Lyall frowned.
Coming close to her husband, Hope placed a gentle hand on his arm. "But you didn't?"
Lyall's eyes met his wife's and he sadly shook his head. "No one would believe me though, how couldn't they have seen the signs? I suggested that they keep him here to the full moon but they didn't listen, the eejits would have only had to wait a day… The full moon is tomorrow," the man's eyes went downcast.
"Are we safe?"
"What?" Lyall looked up shocked.
Hope's grip tightened on his arm, "are we safe?"
Lyall's eyes went glossy in thought, "We should be… but to be safe we'll all stay here tomo-"
"Nooooo" Lyall was interrupted by Remus' outburst and the four year old running into the room.
Lyall's eyes widened, "Remus."
"We have to go out tomorrow, it's the St. David's day festival," Remus pouted.
Hope and Lyall shared a look of concern. "Cub, we can always go next year," Hope tried to reason.
Remus sniffled and Hope could feel her heart slowly breaking. Remus never asked for a lot, it's awful that they had to deny him this one thing.
"B-but the muggle children in school were saying how good it is going to be this year," Remus' eyes began to glisten.
Lyall sighed, unsure of what to do. Looking to his wife's pained expression he finally came to a decision.
"We can go for a few hours, but then we must go straight home" he reasoned but that was enough for Remus who jumped up and hugged his father.
"Thank you."
And with that the boy was gone.
March 1st 1965
St. David's day was fun for all the family. Remus got to play with his muggle friends who like him were in reception class, Hope was speaking with the other mums and even though Lyall was on edge he still managed to have a laugh with the lads… It was perfect.
It was now two in the afternoon, when Lyall came up to his wife and told them that they should be leaving now so that he can put up the wards successfully for tonight.
"Okay hun," Hope kissed Lyall on the cheek and turned round for Remus. "Remus."
However, Remus was not in sight.
"Shit," Hope heard Lyall breath and they both darted in different directions through the crowd.
"Remus, Remus" Hope called out frantically.
An hour later, the boy was still not found.
"Any luck?" Lyall panted as he ran into Hope.
"None," she sobbed in reply.
"Mummy, Daddy."
The duo looked up when Remus' voice was heard and a little boy came running towards them with a smile plastered on his face.
"Where have you been?" Lyall semi-harshly grabbed the boy's shoulders though it soon turned into a hug, "you had us worried sick."
Looking between his parents with a confused look, Remus replied "I was at the front of the parade with Sam, Dionne, Ellie and Morgan."
Gracefully picking the boy up and placing him on her hip, they started to head towards the car but were stopped in their steps by a "WAIT!"
Despite the situation the parents sighed with a small smile on their face. "Sam" they said simultaneously letting Remus down to be with his friend.
"You weren't planning on leaving without saying goodbye were you?" Sam smiled happily, making his crystal blue eyes glow.
Remus raised his brow, "would I ever do that to you?"
The other boy snorted, "Yes."
To that Remus blushed heavily in embarrassment. "Well I'll see you tomorrow then," they did their not so secret handshake.
"Where do you want to meet?"
"How about you come to our house for breakfast tomorrow?" Hope intervened. Samson Turner was a very small boy in both height and weight. Probably from malnutrition. It was common knowledge that Sam's mother was a drunk and was not very well off on money. Hope bit her lip when she saw the bruise peeping its way out of his jumper. How could a mother do that to her child, the one they are sworn to protect and love.
"Thank you Mrs Lupin," Sam gave a genuine smile and left with one last wave goodbye.
Once again they set on their way to leave… They had to prepare themselves for the full moon.
Later that night…
The wards were up. Everything was set. Then why did Hope still have this bad feeling?
"Lyall, I have a bad feeling?" The welsh woman admitted biting the tip of her thumbnail.
Lyall raised both his brows (he was unable to do the one eyebrow like his wife and son). "You doubt my magic will hold it?"
The question wasn't nasty or harsh, just curious.
"I don't know, I-I just have a feeling something isn't right… Maybe I should check on Remus again" she worried.
"Hope" Lyall whispered taking his wife's hand tightly in his, his face lining with worry. "Remus will be fine; I've done all that I could to protect the house."
Hope nodded… But what if that wasn't enough?
A bark sounded from upstairs making the couple jump, "it's just Max."
Lyall huffed and got up to shut the dog up when a scream was heard.
Hope felt her heart beat stop in absolute horror. "REMUS!"
After that everything went in slow motion. Lyall and Hope racing up the stairs, Lyall stunning the beast away from the room straight out the window… Hope clutching her precious sons motionless and bloodied body – the only indication that he was still alive was the raspy breaths. Rushing to St. Mungo's hospital in order to find some sort of way to save their son.
Hope fell heavily against the wall, tears of pain and anguish falling rapidly down her cheeks and onto the floor. Her husband had been right. Greyback was a werewolf. And because of the ministry's stupidity, her precious, beautiful little boy had to pay for it. Would he still be the same after this? She dreaded the thought of Remus changing because of what this monster has done to him… was Remus a monster?
Remus who was going to turn into a blood thirsty beast once a month.
Remus who was going to hurt others because of what he is.
Remus who was a monster.
Never!
Hope shook her head of all thoughts; Remus could never be a monster. He was the most kind and caring boy she had ever known. All Remus needed was love and guidance.
And for the first time that night Hope had the smallest hint of a smile.
That wasn't hard. Hope loved Remus more than anything else. She could never give up on her boy because he was hers. Werewolf or not… Remus would be loved… Because a mother's love was an ever burning flame which would glow brightly for all to see. No one could put that candle out.
Not even a monster.
1) Happy St David's Day everybody!
2) I stole the line about breaking balls from another fic which I cannot remember the name of. It was just so funny when I read it ages ago it stuck in my mind and I had to put it in mine. (It's a wolfstar fic)
3) The beans and gravy thing on bangers and mash has come from what it is actually like in my house. It is a true argument. I always have beans on my bangers and mash and my mum thinks I am some sort of weirdo for doing that because she always has gravy.
4) A massive thank you to my beta TimeLadySong! They have helped me so much in order to get this story right.
5) Blaidd-ddyn is Welsh for werewolf
6) PLEASE REVIEW!