Half-Breed [ON HOLD]

prologue

1968;
THE ONE WHERE THEY MEET

Leonie Bellamy can clearly remember when she first met Remus Lupin, the two of them were both eight years old, it was a hot July afternoon and they'd both wanted to swim by the lake near their house, so they snuck out of their homes, his father was at work while his mother was home sick and her mother was passed out on the couch, fingers curled around the stem of an empty wine glass, only to see the other on opposite ends of the lake.

Leonie, who, every night for the past eight years, had been told that Men are monsters and their sons are no different, wanted to run when she saw a boy across the lake Her mother's voice screeched it in the back of her mind. But she was curious. Like the child who, despite being told not to touch the stove, touches it anyway, she waved to the boy, who after a moment, waved back.

Remus, rooted to the ground, all but physically screamed at his legs to turn the other way and run. His father, ever since he could remember, had told him not to get close to other people, that the monster beneath his skin could hurt them; If someone finds out what you are they will hurt you Remus. And yet he waved back because when he saw the cautious smile on the girls face something deep within his mind knew that she meant no harm.

That like him, she was lonely.

The two of them met in the middle of the lake. Her golden hair spread around them and his thin arms created tiny waves between them as he moved them to stay afloat.

"Hi." She was the first to speak. Her voice was quiet and delicate, fragile like the china his mother kept on the shelf in the dining room. As he continued to look at her he noticed the sharp features under her skin. That despite the round curves of her face everything about her felt shape.

"I'm Remus."

"Leonie." It's quite for a moment, neither child knows what to say to the other; Leonie had practiced what she'd say to another child on her dolls, only as she kicked out her legs beneath her, she couldn't remember any of the one-sided conversations she and the porcelain dolls had had. Thankfully the boy carried on the conversation after a moment of silence.

"Do you live around here?" Remus wondered.

Leonie nodded she turned her body slightly and pointed in the direction she'd come from, "Just over that way." She turned back to the boy, "Do you?"

Remus mirrored her previous motions and pointed in the direction of his home, "I live just over the hill. Did you just move here?" He'd remember someone so odd. So pretty.

"No, I've lived here my whole life."

"Oh," Remus' eyebrows came together, "I've never seen you here before."

"My mother," Leonie nodded, "She doesn't like me out of her sight, so when she's not working we'll come here at night."

"And your dad? He doesn't mind you're here alone?" Remus asked.

Leonie frowned, "I don't have a dad."

"Everyone has a dad," Remus told her.

"Well I don't," she snapped. Veela's, they attract men, they don't keep them, her mother had once told her in response to her wondering just why she didn't have a father.