RUNNING WITH WOLVES remus lupin

O26. 𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐓. 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

𝐓 𝐖 𝐄 𝐍 𝐓 𝐘 - 𝐒 𝐈 𝐗

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"ALL RIGHT... BUT YOU'LL NEED TO HELP ME, SIRIUS. I ONLY KNOW HOW IT BEGAN..." Remus responded calmly but then broke off as there was a loud creak behind him. Everyone in the room swiftly turned around to gaze at the surrounding area from where the sound came from. Then Remus strode over towards it and looked out into the landing.

"No one there..." Remus muttered, confused.

"This place is haunted!" said Ron.

"It's not," said Remus, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "The Shrieking Shack is never haunted... the screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

He pushed his graying hair, more gray after so many years, out of his eyes. Thought for a moment, and then got back to the story as he said, "That's where all of this starts - with my becoming a werewolf. None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten... and if I hadn't been so foolhardy..."

At that, Elodie wondered what Remus was blaming himself for. Elodie was analyzing him. Remus looked sober and tired. Ron started to interrupt, but Hermione said, "Shh!" She was watching Remus very intently.

"I was a very small boy when I received the bite." Remus started.

Remus started to tell his story, and as it went on. Elodie more and more got the urge to reach out to him.

"My parents tried everything, but in those days, there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery. It makes me safe, you see. As long as I take it in the week preceding the full moon, I keep my mind when I transform... I am able to curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, and wait for the moon to wane again."

"Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully-fledged monster once a month. It seemed impossible that I would be able to come to Hogwarts. Other parents weren't likely to want their children exposed to me." Remus' voice was quiet and gave the impression that he was ashamed of himself.

"But then Dumbledore had become Headmaster, and he was sympathetic. He said that, as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I shouldn't come to school..." Remus sighed, and while his tone indicated his gratitude to Dumbledore, as he trailed off, he sounded as if he was resigned to the fact that it was his fault.

He turned to Harry, looking directly at him. "I told you months ago that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts. The truth is it was planted because I had come to Hogwarts. This house - " Remus looked miserably around the room, and his negative emotions regarding his ailment. " - the tunnel that leads to it - they were built for my use. Once a month, I was smuggled out of the castle, into this place, to transform. The tree was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me while I was dangerous." There was an undertone of self-reproach that Elodie thought only she and Sirius caught onto.

"My transformations in those days were- were terrible." Remus' voice trembled slightly in remembered pain, and Elodie winced in sympathy. "It is very painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite, so I bit and scratched myself instead. The villagers heard the noise and the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumor... even now, when the house has been silent for years, the villagers don't dare approach it..."