They Were Invincible (Harry Potter Oneshot)

REMUS

There was a tapping at the window and Remus was ignoring it. Tap, tap, tap.

"G'way," he murmured, rolling over and burying his face in his pillow. Tap, tap, tap. He swore it was getting louder. As if the pounding in his head and the exhaustion in every part of his body wasn't enough, he had to get woken up as some ungodly hour by an annoying, incessant tapping noise. Tap, tap, tap.

"FUCK OFF!" Remus shouted, instantly regretting it when his head gave a particularly painful throb. He heard footsteps on the stairs and the door opened.

"Remus?" Lyall asked and the boy rolled over slightly to look at his father through one, half-closed eye. "Are you alright?"

"Tapping," Remus moaned. "Driving me nuts. M'trying to sleep."

Lyall looked over at the window and a small gasp escaped his lips. "Remus."

"Mmf?"

"I think it's your NEWT results."

Remus sat up far too quickly and leaned over, throwing up over the side of the bed as his head pounded. The room spun and white dots appeared in front of his eyes. He heard his father mutter a cleaning spell and Remus slowly lay down in his bed, taking deep breaths. When he felt less horrible, he slowly sat up, pushing back so he was leaning against the headboard. A black owl was sitting on his bedside table, it's foot outstretched for Remus to take the heavy looking envelope. Lyall sat at the end of Remus's bed, smiling at the letter. Remus fumbled with the rope for a second, before pulling his results off and placing the envelope in his lap. He smiled at the bird.

"Thanks."

Remus turned the envelope over, running his long fingers across the Hogwarts wax seal. He remembered the first time he'd seen it, when Albus Dumbledore had come to his house and delivered the life-changing news that he could go to Hogwarts and be normal and have a life and friends.

But still. There was the empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. It didn't matter what his results said, nobody would hire a werewolf and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Remus?" Lyall sighed. "Please, don't do this."

Remus looked up, frowning. "Do what?"

"Silently belittle yourself."

"I'm not-"

"It doesn't matter what's in here, I'll never get a job. Nobody will hire a werewolf," Lyall said, sadly. "How close was I?"

"It's true," Remus sighed.

"One thing at a time, Rem," Lyall said. "Let's just do this first, okay?"

Remus looked up at his father and nodded, pulling back the wax seal and opening the envelope.

NASTILY EXHAUSTING WIZARDING TESTS RESULTS

Pass Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

REMUS JOHN LUPIN HAS ACHIEVED:

Ancient Runes: O

Arithmancy: O

Astronomy: O

Charms: O

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Herbology: O

History of Magic: O

Transfiguration: E

"Shit," Remus breathed, reading it over again. He brushed his fingers over the letters, making sure they were real, that this was his real mark, that he'd done this himself.

"Good?" Lyall asked, looking at his son worriedly. Remus looked up at him and let himself smile, just a little bit.

"Good," Remus confirmed. "Very good, actually. Better than that."

Lyall took the sheet from Remus and read down the marks. Again. And again. And then his face broke into a wide smile. He turned his head away and his shoulders began to shake and Remus realised he was crying.

"Dad?"

Lyall turned back to his son, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Everything that happened to you...everything I did to you...and you kept going and you never stopped even when you might have doubted and you've always been so strong and..." He took a deep breath and brushed his tears away. "I'm proud of you, Remus. I'm so, so proud."

Remus leant over and wrapped his arms around his father.

"I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Remus. Always."

Remus felt something stir in the pit of his stomach. Maybe nobody would hire a werewolf, but he was so much more than that. And he had his dad and James and Sirius and Peter and Lily and he could be smart and get amazing marks and it didn't matter whatever else he was because he'd done it! He'd gone to Hogwarts and school and he'd done well and it was brilliant.

He was invincible.