Chapter Text
“Alright, sweetheart, I think we're just about ready to go.” Hope Lupin steps away from her seven year old son and appraises her handy work.
Her boy's face is bright red, whether from embarrassment or simply all the extra attention he was receiving, Hope wasn't sure, but the results were well worth it. Remus’ usually tousled hair is combed back, his lightly freckled face clean and presentable. He looks so cute in his brown wizarding robes! Like a little sorcerer in the making.
Hope sighs happily. Remus looks just like his father. She wishes Lyall could have been here to see it, but her husband is out of town at the moment. Hunting stuff for the ministry again.
Bah! It would do that man a whole lot of good if he could learn to say no to people once in a while. He hasn't been home in months and it is starting to take a toll on both Remus and Hope. Hope has always relied on her husband to breach the gap between her upbringing in the muggle world and his in the wizarding one. Little Remus is a child of both realms and he's recently begun asking questions that she doesn't know the answers to.
Questions like, 'Mummy, why have the owls stopped coming?’
‘How much longer until dad comes home?’
‘Are owls scared of wolves?’
And her least favorite, ‘Was it something I did?’
Lyall would have known just what to say to ease their son's worry, but Lyall isn't here. Hope has sent dozens of letters to her husband asking for his insight and advise on how to best address Remus' growing insecurities, but there have been no replies. Not a single one. At first their family owl, Rudy, would return after delivering a letter to Lyall empty handed. After the third time this occurred he stopped coming home altogether. Hoping that Lyall had need of the owl elsewhere Hope rented a ministry owl to deliver her mail. It hadn't even been two letters in and the bird up and disappeared on her.
The whole affair was very worrisome, and Hope was going to get to the bottom of it even if she had to brave a trip to the magical side of Britain without her own personal wizard. Hence why Remus is all dressed up and ready for a day spent in Diagon Alley.
Well… that is the excuse she is going to give her husband if- when he finds out Hope secreted their werewolf child into the belly of the wizarding community. She’s had right cause to visit Diagon Alley for a good while now, but hasn't been able to make the trip as Lyall has absolutely forbidden it without himself in attendance. Hope knows his reasons for doing so, and they’re really good reasons too, but…
But they're running low on things for Remus' monthly transformation and the only place Hope knows she can get them is Diagon Alley. Lyall most likely won't make it home to reinforce the shield wards, or be able to procure certain healing potions that help Remus recover quickly. There's not a whole lot Hope can do for her baby boy during the full moon, but she'll eat Lyall's pointy hat if her baby can't have potions to ease his pain and help him sleep.
“Alright love,” Hope smiles as Remus' face turns an even darker shade of red at the endearment. “Take a handful of of powder- that’s right- now into the fireplace with you.”
“I know what floo powder is mum. I've been to the alley before.” Remus protests halfheartedly. The boy is eyeing his fistful of course powder warily, his brows scrunched together in contemplation.
“Yes, I remember sweetheart.” Hope says softly. “I also recall you being three years old, and I’m pretty sure your da held you the whole time. This is, technically, your first floo experience.”
“Sure, mum.” Remus concedes easily. He steps gingerly into their tall fireplace and turns to face her. “Now what do I do?”
“Say loudly and clearly, ‘Diagon Alley’. Then chuck the powder down at your feet. I'll be right behind you, love.” Hope brandishes her own handful of powder for her son to see.
Remus' nods his sandy colored head then does exactly as she said. Mere moments later Hope and Remus are walking out the door of the Leaky Cauldron and into the alley.
The streets are bustling with witches and wizards of every shape and size carrying on about every kind of business imaginable. Remus’ eyes are big as he takes in the crowd and he squeezes Hope's hand almost painfully tight.
“Is it exactly how you remembered, Remus?” Hope asks, unable to keep from teasing her son.
“No, mum. It's… brighter, less dark.” Remus says seriously. “I remember a twist-ier road. Less.. people.”
Hope hides any trace of a frown from her boy as she pretends to be thoughtful, “Well dear, you were very small. It was a long while ago. Come along, we've errands to run.”
The first store the duo visit is the cauldron shop. The potions Lyall brews have become the normal means of medical treatment in the Lupin household, and Hope might've burned a hole through the last surviving cauldron a fortnight ago. Lyall had finally given in and allowed Hope to brew basic potions with those magic infused stir sticks he keeps atop the fridge and she'd gone and melted all of those too. Seriously, for a non-magic folk Hope didn’t think she'd done too badly. Each melted stick had resulted in a working potion for her little boy.
Thankfully the store owner was familiar with Lyall, and after only a slight alteration to her shopping list, helped Hope purchase all new supplies. The kind fellow even laid out a new list of proper prices for the ingredients that she would need across the street at the Apothecary.
Their business across the street went about as well as the first shop. They were in and out in a matter of minutes. Which Hope was most grateful for as Remus' nose had begun to twitch the instant they'd entered the ingredient's shop and had gotten steadily worse the more time passed. Just as they were leaving Remus' suppressed a sneezing fit in her skirts and Hope thanked her lucky stars it was simply a sensitivity to smells and not an allergic reaction.
Remus became more wary after the Apothecary and Hope made certain their time at the stationary store was short. In roughly a half hour most of their errands were completed, and with only one item left to purchase, it was Hope's hope (haha) that they would make it home before her little werewolf became hungry. Of course it wouldn’t be too much trouble to find something suitable for his particular diet, it was simply easier to prepare food that he actually likes to eat at home.
And so, it is with these mealtime thoughts mulling around in the young mother's head that she leads Remus into a corner alley, dark and off-putting. She doesn’t notice the irises of Remus' eyes shrink down to pinpricks. Nor does she feel the blood stop flowing to her fingers because of the vice-like grip her only child has on her wrist.
“Mum? Mum is this part of the trip?” The boy questions, his eyes darting this way and that. He glares at a pile of filthy tattered cloths on the side of the street that appears to be… breathing?
“Mum!” He tugs on her arm.
“Mmhmm.” Hope turns them with the narrow twist of the road and down further into the dirty alley, passing the dirty pile on by. “We have just one thing left to do, sweetheart.”
“Then we can go home?”
“Mmhmm.” Hope catches sight of their final destination and smiles down at her son, reassuringly.
There's only one last thing to do, one last item that Remus needs from the list, and Hope will be prepared for a lyall-less full moon.
What happens next is not any one person's fault, but rather the result of a culmination of consequences born of multiple people who all made their own stupid, cunning choices.