REMUS
As Remus left the house, backpack in hand, it was deep night outside.
The village was quiet. An old wrought-iron lantern on a bracket, hidden in the leaves of a maple tree, smiled mysteriously over the porch of their small house.
That night, Remus looked even paler than usual. His last transformation into a wolf had been particularly painful and exhausting. His face was drawn, as if he had suffered from severe poisoning, and there were shadows under his eyes, but he was still upbeat. As he ran down the porch, he stopped, breathed in the summer night, stretched, and automatically looked at the moon. It was still as round and yellow as a sticker that someone had pressed against the velvet sky with their thumb but could no longer harm. The night of the thirty-first of July faded into the morning of the first of August, and Remus was safe for an endless twenty-plus days. These were his favorite moments, with so much time ahead of him.
He stepped onto the pavement, but then footsteps sounded behind him, and the door of the house creaked open.
'Did you get the money?' asked Lyall Lupin as he followed his son outside. They looked very much like their father, but Lupin Sr. had gray hair, and he limped on his right foot, frowning when he had to step on it, trying to walk faster and more agilely than he actually could. Despite the late hour, he was wearing a faded and worn hunting suit and a pair of high boots. His long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. It looked like he was going to the village that night for another hunt.
'Yes, I got it,' Remus turned and walked backwards, showing his father a small pouch. 'Give my regards to the village boggarts'
'Maybe you'll change your mind and not take such a risk,' Liam asked in a mockingly light voice, 'you're still weak. It's only been a few hours since you turned. Don't you want to at least wait until morning?'
Smiling patiently, Remus stopped and turned to his father, adjusting the strap of his backpack that was digging into his shoulder. He had heard all of these arguments at least three times today. At least since his ears had become human again.
'How many times, Dad? I'm not an infant. Besides, all my friends are already here,' he pointed impatiently with his thumb behind him.
' ... Remus, dear, why don't you go for a walk? The weather outside is so nice. You don't go out at all,' says his grandmother, Amadea Lupin, 'It's not good.'
Remus takes a long look out the window and sees the cropped top of Toby Simmons' head, a naughty boy with protruding ears and bony legs. He and the other boys play tag not far from his house. And last week, they started howling as Remus left the grocery store.
'I don't feel like it, Grandma,' he said, opening a book.
They looked at each other. Lyall looked worried, Remus was calm.
Lyall was the first to give up.
'Okay!' he suddenly cheered and patted his son on the shoulder, 'You're a big boy, I won't forbid you, but if you need anything, I'll come to you right away, okay? If you get worse, Remus, you have to...'
'Of course, dad, I'll let you know right away,' Remus assured him, thinking that even if he was dying, he wouldn't force his father to transfigure with a bad leg.
'In that case, have a safe journey,' and with that, Laius hugged his son tightly, praying to the heavens that nothing would happen to him on the way. He realized that he simply could not, and had no right to, forbid Remus such a tiny bit of fun while his peers were constantly traveling to concerts like this, making friends, meeting girls, and living their lives to the fullest. But at the same time, Lyall felt that it was easier for him to run a marathon without a cane than to leave his child in the middle of nowhere when he had just regained consciousness. And he meant that literally.
