Equation of you [ George Weasley ]

Prologue

★☆★☆★

What if I told you none of it was accidental? - Taylor Swift

☆★☆★☆

Remus Lupin was a man who rarely overstated things. Not in the way that James Potter used to say he would die if Lily Evans glared at him again, or in the way that Sirius once screamed that the end of the world was nearing when his favourite leather jacket got lost. Not in the way that Peter Pettigrew had said that he would explode if he had another Chocolate frog. And yet, he felt it was completely accurate to call himself the loneliest man in all of Britain.

It had been one year, four months and 28 days since October 31st, 1981. That date marked the day that all of his friends either died or got sent to Azkaban. It marked the day that Remus became a shell of the person he used to be.

Since that day, his mother, Hope Lupin-Howell, had died. She had never told him about the specifics of her disease, merely the fact that she was not doing well. Remus missed his mother dearly, and he knew his father did too. Remus visited his father every now and then. Mostly on the days that he sort of had to, such as Christmas or fathers-day. The two surely could not be considered close.

Remus often kicked himself for not having taken in Harry Potter. He knew that he had not been in the right mental state to raise a child, let alone such a unique child as Harry Potter would surely be. But he couldn't help but wonder if he would have been less lonely with little Harry running around his small London apartment.

Every now and then, Remus would take a little... excursion. Dumbledore hadn't allowed this, but even Remus could acknowledge that some rules were not meant to be listened to. He would take public transport to visit 4 Privet Drive to check in on Harry. He wouldn't dare to come too close to the house, so he would wait on a bench further on until Harry came out of the house. Sometimes it took hours before Petunia would take Harry and her own son outside to feed the ducks in the park nearby. Seeing that always reminded Remus that it was a good thing that Harry was not placed under his care. Surely Harry would benefit from being with his family, and most importantly, far away from a werewolf.

Sadly, Dumbledore had found out about his excursions. After a short lecture Remus had to promise Dumbledore that he would go see Harry a maximum of once a year. Supposebly that would be better for him moving on. Remus had wondered why Dumbledore had not fully banned his "visits", but concluded that Dumbledore could probably tell how lonely Remus was.

A knock on his apartment-door disrupted Remus' thoughts. He walked towards the door, a confused frown on his face. Remus never got visitors at eight o'clock at night, or ever for that matter. He looked through the small hole of glass in the door, a habit he had picked up during the war. He then opened the door, and he was met with his two unexpected visitors.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Remus said, more as a question than a statement.

Dumbledore walked inside the small apartment, not waiting to be invited in. In his arms sat a small child, a girl, probably not older than four. "No need to call me professor, Remus, Albus will do just fine." He put the girl down on the ground and walked over to Remus' bookshelf. He grabbed the first book he saw, which turned out to be The Iliad and the Odyssey, and gave it to the child. "Go read, child." He commanded. The girl looked somewhat confused, but sat down in a corner, the book open in her hands.

She was still less confused than Remus, who had no clue what the small child and his old professor, who he had not seen for quite some time, could possibly need from him.

"Do you have some tea, Remus? My apologies for asking, but my throat has been hurting." Dumbledore asked as he took place on Remus' sofa.

"Uhm, sure," Remus hesitated, "will green tea do?"