The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

LXV: 23 June, 1994

"It was a lovely autumn evening - at least that's how my mother always told the story when she told me how I came to be a werewolf. She liked to put a good spin on things that were sad. She'd had plenty of sadness in her life and the fact that I was turned was just another tragedy in a long and horrible string of them that she'd had. My father was the best thing that ever happened to her - he had his fall backs but overall my father was a good man, despite what some people might say..." Remus glanced at Sirius at this. 

Sirius snorted. 

"He was. He saved her from a boggart. As a muggle, she didn't know what was attacking her... She was beautiful. I'm sure you've seen her, the muggles knew her as --"

"REMUS, ferfuckssakes this has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING."

Remus cleared his throat, "Yes, sorry." His hand dropped away from his pocket, where he'd been about to reach for his wallet. Returning to the story, he said, "I was turned by Fenrir Greyback... a horrible person. The one person who utterly deserves the disdain that werewolves get. He's unfortunately precisely the reason that werewolves have such a terrible name, him and others like him. He turned me as revenge and changed everything about my life. I was only a child. I barely remember it. It caused... a lot of trouble for my father, who worked at the Ministry... wrote the Restriction Act. How is that for irony?"

"And don't even get me started on the Latin roots of his name..." Sirius murmured. "As if this story needed more irony."

"Do you want to tell the story?"

"I'd do it a good deal faster than you are...." Sirius answered.

Remus put his hands on his hips, a sassy expression on his face that made Sirius laugh.

Sirius pointed at Remus. "Werewolf." He pointed at Scabbers. "Animagus. Peter Pettigrew." He pointed at Harry. "Dead Daddy." Pointed at himself, "Innocent." Pointed back at Peter. "Better be saying his prayers."

Harry looked at Situs with shock and offense.

"Sirius, really?" Remus asked, exasperated.

Sirius really did look abashed. "Sorry," he murmured, looking over at Harry. "I'm an arsehole, you might as well learn that now. Save us all time."

Remus shook his head, then turned back to Harry. "Now that you've heard the crass version... Let me continue. You see, I was raised in seclusion because of what I am, hidden away to protect my father's name at the Ministry and because my parents didn't know what else to do with me. It was... a rather impossible situation."

"Impossible. Right. That's why a bunch of school kids figured it out and took care of you better than your own bleeding --"

Remus interrupted. "It was never dreamed of that I might get to come to Hogwarts one day, never believed that I could be anything except... a werewolf... a secret kept and locked way. We had a bomb shelter in our backyard, left over from the time of the blitzes during the second muggle world war, and that was where my parents kept me."

"All of the time?" Hermione gasped, eyes wide.

"For the full week surrounding the full moon.," Remus answered, nodding. 

"They kept you locked up?" Harry asked, his voice shook slightly.

"Yes, Harry. The bomb shelter was little bigger than a pantry, really."

"So it was just... a glorified cupboard."

Ron's eyes flashed as he looked at Harry with concern, his eyebrows coming together. "Harry --"

Harry shook his head, then looked at Remus. "Go on, Professor," he said hurriedly.

"They admittedly kept me there longer on both sides of the full luminance than they needed to. A werewolf need only be worried for the transformation at a luminance of 97% or greater, but they kept me there form 80% to the beginning of the waning..." Remus shook his head, "they knew no better, no studies had been done then... I -- They didn't know."