Not Another 80s Slasher

The Inheritance

June 1, 1978

The bell rang, signaling the end of another monotonous day at Hogwarts Preparatory School. Remus Lupin began clearing his desk, leisurely gathering up his work and books and placing them in his messenger bag. He couldn't shake the feeling of restlessness that gnawed at him.

It had been a week since he received the letter from his late grandfather's attorney, informing him of his unexpected inheritance— He hadn't known that he had a grandfather, let alone one with an attorney and an inheritance to give. This letter had quite simply turned his entire world upside down.

Remus had known he had a father, of course he did. Everyone has a father, that's basic biology. Remus, however, had gone his entire life up until that point, thinking his dad was a deadbeat. Another young man terrified to give up his worry free party years, acknowledge his responsibilities, and settle down to raise a family.

From an early age, Remus had learned to embrace the absence of a paternal figure, finding solace in the fact that he couldn't miss something he never had. Rather than harboring resentment, Remus viewed his father's departure before his birth as a natural part of life acknowledging that some relationships were just not meant to be. He was fine with that fact, but this was before he received that damn letter.

As it was explained in the document, Lyall Lupin had been very gruesomely murdered— stabbed through the heart in the forest of Camp Cornwall during the very summer Remus was conceived. Everything he thought he knew about his upbringing crumbled beneath the weight of this devastating truth and he found himself grappling with a profound sense of loss and betrayal as he navigated this new feeling of grief.

Remus could understand the logic of a boy taking off on his mum and him before paternal damage could be done. He could not, however, comprehend losing a father so brutally before the choice to raise his son was even made. No, someone had savagely made that choice for him.

In the wake of Lyall's death, Remus had been born to his single mother, Hope Howell, who— shortly after his fifth birthday— had decided she had enough of raising their son alone and wanted no further part of adolescent motherhood. The stress of single-handedly raising their boy was far too much for Hope to bear, and so, she left Remus on the front steps of St. Edmund's— a children's home for troubled boys.

It was within these oppressive walls of the institution that he faced abuse and torment that would scar him in ways both physical and emotional. Yet, in the crucible of suffering, Remus discovered a resilience buried deep within himself. Forced to defend himself against the brutality of his peers and the neglect of the staff, Remus quickly learned the power of his body and mind.

Each bruise and gash fueled his determination to survive, to prove that he was more than just another troubled boy cast aside by society. Though the scars of his time at St. Edmund's would never fully heal Remus emerged from the darkness with immeasurable strength.

Remus hadn't discovered his lineage until his eleventh birthday, and even then, it had only been his mother's side. At eleven years old, Remus received notice of the Howell Family Estate subsidizing the bill for his new posh boarding school following her untimely suicide. Something about familial tradition or another. Remus had wondered how important familial tradition was, exactly how many others in this esteemed lineage had been abandoned on the footsteps of a boys' home, and experienced the revolting living conditions that subsequently followed. His guess was not very many.

Nevertheless, Hogwarts Preparatory School had been a godsend. For nine months of the year, Remus could escape those vial living conditions. He could live the life he deserved. He would exchange his thin mattress stained and sagging with its tattered blankets —a scant protection against the biting chill of the night— for lush bedding, down comforters, and thread counts higher than most of the St. Edmunds boys could mathematically measure.