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Remus lupin loved thunderstorms, determinedly so. He loved everything about them, the cool weather it brought on, the dark atmosphere, the loud noises, the startling thunder, everything about them.
And if you asked him about it he would tell you just that, he loved thunderstorms and that was the end of the conversation.
The thing was, even though Remus loved them, the wolf didn’t. The loud noises were scary, the lightning unusual and the rain uncomfortable.
Now, if you asked Remus what his reason was for loving such unpleasant weather, he’d list out the reasons aforementioned.
However, if you asked Sirius or James, or his mum and da, they would tell you it's probably because he's a stubborn bastard or lad in his parent's case.
Remus refused to accept that the wolf was afraid and insisted on subjecting himself to horrible weather in the name of pride.
The wolf hated it, so, just as a ‘fuck you’ Remus decided he didn't.
'Oh, you don't like the loud thunder, guess I’ll go stand in the rain for an hour because the last moon you decided to shred my skin into bloody coleslaw', That is until James had to physically carry him back to the dorms.
Mostly because he was petty.
The first time he’d realised the wolf was afraid was during the first storm after being bitten.
He was six and it was well into October when the weather channels predicted a thunderstorm during the night, it was a relatively safe storm and no damage was expected.
So, his parents tucked him in just as they did every night and all three of them went to bed falling sound asleep quickly.
They didn’t stay asleep for quite as long though.
In the middle of the night the storm picked up, the thunder came on stronger and louder, it wasn’t necessarily enough to wake them up.
No, what woke Remus’ parents up in the middle of the night was Remus yelling out in pain.
For one painful moment, hope lupin thought Greyback had come back for her son, and this time he’d come to finish the job.
Hope and John were up immediately and ran to his room, John had his wand braced in his hand ready to stop whoever was attacking his son.
To their surprise, Remus was still asleep but he was yelling in his sleep.
Whenever Remus had nightmares in the past he’d never yelled so it was strange that he was today, except John had a feeling this wasn’t a nightmare.
Remus looked like he was in actual pain but he was trapped in his dreams.
Hope quickly shook him awake calling out his name softly, watching remus’ eyes open a look of terror and he stopped yelling for a moment until his face crumbled in agony and he began to whimper again.
He couldn’t stop crying enough to tell them what was wrong, and he kept clutching at his chest as if trying to pull the pain out of himself.
Hope slowly reached out to him, trying not to startle him too much and started to unbutton his shirt.
John heard his wife gasp loudly when she saw looked at remus’ chest, he rushed over to check himself.
They saw raw, red gashes near his ribs. that looked deep enough to be bleeding but they weren’t, when John got closer he saw that it looked like the skin was being scratched from the inside.
And in that terrifying moment, he realised what had happened.
The wolf was trying to tear its way out of Remus because it was scared and wanted to hide and remus’ refused to hide because as Sirius would say, he was a stubborn bastard.
John quickly started on healing charms trying to close up the wounds and get Remus to stop hurting.
But every time he would fix them the wolf would open them up again, so they had to resort to muggle ways to keep the wound closed.
He had bandages on his chest for a week before John could use charms to heal the scratches, and he was in pain for that whole week.
It wasn't like Remus let it show that he was in pain, but John knew his son.
After that anytime there was a thunderstorm John and Hope were fully prepared with sound-blocking earplugs and blackout curtains.
If Remus’ consciousness wasn’t aware of the thunder it wouldn’t scare the wolf.
The tough part was getting Remus to cooperate and put on the earplugs, eventually, only the terrified look on hope's face could convince him.
So, it made sense that once Remus reached Hogwarts he wasn’t making much of, or any effort to stay away from storms, because what his mom didn't know wouldn’t hurt her.
The first storm they’d had at Hogwarts was in their second year, the boys already knew he was a werewolf and unbeknownst to Remus were working on becoming animagi.
But he still hadn’t told them about the storms, and he wasn’t planning on it.
So, that night he hid in the potions lab in the dungeon where the noise didn't reach him.
By their fifth year, Remus had mastered the art of hiding during the storm and much to James’ disdain befriended a lot of Slytherins in case he needed to hide out for the night.
surprisingly enough they turned out to be very cool people.
If Remus believed in bad luck he would also believe all the bad luck in the world lay with him, especially one night in Fifth year.
There’d been nothing in the daily post about a storm but around 11 at night he heard the thunder cracking down loud enough to wake him up.
Sirius was sleeping beside him his face burrowed into remus’ chest and arms around his waist.
This was a seemingly normal occurrence for them even before they started dating because they both had nightmares and having each other around was calming.
Also, what two boys madly involve with each other, however deep in denial, would pass up the opportunity to share a bed
. If Remus wasn’t one of the boy's involved in this case he would point out how common the ‘sharing one-bed trope was.
Though he might be reluctant to give up this information willingly since it primarily concerns him pining.
Usually sharing a bed with Sirius, being able to hold him would be ideal, but that night it was in his opinion very inconvenient.
If he got up and moved away Sirius would wake up and ask him what was wrong and he’d have to tell him because he wasn’t any good at lying to him.
If he stayed there then the wolf would literally tear him open from the inside.
Now if it were you or I, we would’ve just confessed and not gone through the pain. But Remus wasn’t us, was he.
So he just lay back down and pulled Sirius closer, hoping that in the past few years the wolf had grown some balls or his body had become strong enough to take it.
Obviously, Remus lupin is an idiot, and neither was the case.
He really should carry a sign labelled ‘caution, do not try at home.’ But Sirius would make too many innuendos for that to be possible so the idea was discarded.
An hour into the storm the sounds got louder and the crawling beneath his skin started.
Two hours in the lighting and thunder were going strong and Remus could feel the pain, which probably meant the wolf had started to break skin.
He wasn’t too bothered about stains because the wounds never bled, he just pulled Sirius in tighter and nuzzled into his neck trying to muffle any sounds that might escape.
Sirius was a light sleeper and eventually, he woke up to the sound of Remus whimpering softly.
He quickly got up assuming it was a nightmare and he’d have to wake him up. He slowly ran his hand up and down remus’ back and saw remus’ eyes open.
He realised Remus wasn’t asleep and immediately got up. It wasn’t a nightmare, which meant something was wrong.
He pulled Remus up into a sitting position asking him what was wrong, but he didn't get much of a response other than Remus shaking his head ‘no’.
Sirius went to place his hand on remus’ chest when Remus physically recoiled backwards away from the touch.
“Moony, what's wrong?” all he got was Remus shaking his head 'no'.
“babe, you have to let me see what's wrong, can I take off your shirt” he only got a shrug of resignation which he took as a yes.
He quickly unbuttoned Remus’ shirt and saw what Hope and John had seen all those years ago.
If this was a show now would be the moment Remus would break the fourth wall and rant about how the wolf had NOT in fact grown some balls, surprise, surprise.
But, he wasn’t in a show however he was in fact in copious amounts of pain so what he did instead was huff and lie back down, trying to ease said pain.
Sirius was frantically trying healing charms, having come to a conclusion on what had happened. Which they worked for a few minutes before the wolf reopened them.
Each charm lasted longer than the previous one. By the time they got the wound closed for 10 minutes at a time Remus was able to explain why the wounds wouldn’t close.
As an afterthought, Sirius thought to remind himself to yell at Remus for being an idiot when he wasn't in grave danger.
Eventually, Sirius got too tired to keep casting charms and Remus went in and out of consciousness.
For a brief moment, Sirius considered taking him to the infirmary but Remus had explained how the wounds didn't actually cause any real damage, it was just forced transformation, so Remus just felt the pain of normal transformation times ten. just.
And Remus hated hospitals, Madame Pomfrey would probably freak out and make Remus stay there for a week because she wouldn’t understand what was happening.
Sirius remembered a spell his tutor had told him about when he was homeschooled before Hogwarts.
“ If the should bond is strong enough a man can transfer pain”
That, but less cishet and bigoted.
There wasn’t really a way to do it, you just had to want it enough for it to happen.
He really had not signed on for his love to be questioned tonight, but he was going with the flow.
He knew he had to be close to Remus and touch him, so he pulled Remus to him and placed his head on his chest, near his heart throwing his arm over him.
He matched his breathing to Remus’ and closed his eyes. Thinking about what the pain would feel like.
Eventually, his chest started hurting, small stabs of pain and he knew it was working. He focused harder and tried to transfer most of it to himself.
He felt Remus stir against him after he’d managed to take the pain away for long enough, but he couldn’t be too sure. All the focusing and pain was making him dizzy.
Now, if someone were to ask you how he managed to transfer pain, he’d laugh and say he was into it.
But really he had no idea what had happened.
Allow me, as the all-knowing narrator, to tell you what researchers have found a few decades after this incident was shared.
When Sirius imagined how the pain would feel he developed sympathy pains and when he was able to feel how bad Remus was feeling he was able to will himself to take that pain away from him even if that meant he’d have to bear the pain instead.
I know, I can hear your awws from all the way back here. The dumb gays know how cute they are.
Sirius knew how to keep the spell intact if he actually passed out, and he was feeling really dizzy, so he’d need it in a few minutes.
The last thing Sirius did before he passed out was make the spell subconscious.
The storm ended somewhere between 3 in the morning, but the spell stayed as a bond connection.
Remus woke up in the morning feeling better than he had in weeks, which was strange because the last thing he remembered was fainting because the pain got too much, he’d expected to feel much worse. Like hit by a bus or worse.
As soon as Sirius woke up, he checked on Remus and made sure all of his wounds were healed, he also noticed that some of his previous scars were fading.
Sirius explained the bond connection to Remus and they both realised after his wounds were healed the bond connection didn’t break so it started sending Sirius's strength to Remus.
After that particular incident, Remus no longer tried to "brave" the weather out. this time when he went hiding from the thunderstorms the marauders were right there with him.
I mean the Slytherins were great, but have you ever had Sirius black kissing you? Nor have I, pass the bottle. Cheers to Remus Lupin, the most stubborn bastard of all time.