Chapter Text
“Lost?”
The unfamiliar voice rings through the air like a victory bell. Remus has been riding in circles since before nightfall and the Dark Forest only grows angrier with each passing breath. He’d stupidly forgotten to mark the path back to his camp after veering off the King’s Road, thereby leaving himself to cut through the maze of trees without even a torch to guide him.
“Hopefully not for much longer,” Remus says genially and nudges his horse forth so he can face the stranger head-on.
Moonlight illuminates the man’s face and at once all the breath whooshes from Remus’ chest. This stranger looks like every fictional knight Remus has ever imagined falling in love with. He is tall and broad with shiny dark hair and eyes the color of steel. Though his clothes are ragged and dirty, he strides an onyx destrier and wears an impressive longsword strapped at his side.
“You’re Lord Remus of Moonstone?” The man drawls. “Here to wed the Prince?”
Remus contemplates his reply, though he knows his options are limited. A heavy silver pin, the wolf sigil of House Lupin, sits proudly atop his heart. His overcoat is new and luxurious, made of light grey wool and lined with soft fur. The mare he straddles, named Moony, is a pearly white beauty his mother had imported directly from the Ivory Isles for Remus’ eighth name day. There is no use lying, so Remus nods shortly.
Delight spreads across the stranger’s face, and for the first time since meeting, Remus’s stomach turns with wariness.
Before he left home, Remus’ mother had warned him of the dangers he might face on the King’s Road. Long used to her fretting, he nodded courteously while internally shaking off her ramblings. Now, however, Remus wished he had thought twice before venturing off without his guard. His old tutor, Professor Poppy, had once told him that a man with nothing to lose has everything to gain, and Remus knows that in these tumultuous times, he would make a valuable hostage if the stranger had the mind for it.
Remus contemplates offering a generous sum of gold in exchange for safe passage back to the King’s Road, but the man speaks first. “You’re quite lovely. In the streets, they whisper of an ogre with a hunched back and clubbed feet… but you’re rather more an orchid than an ogre.”
A fire ignites in Remus’ belly that rises all the way up to his face. He needn’t a mirror to know that his pale cheeks are flaming red.
The stranger speaks again, “Follow me, my Lord. I’ll show you back to the main road.”
Remus searches for his voice. He has no reason to trust this man except for the sparkle in his shrewd eyes, but that’s enough for Remus to bow his head and say, “Thank you, but I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. What should I call you, my Lord?”
After too long of a pause, the stranger simply replies, “I’m not a Lord. Call me Alphard.”
It must be a lie, but it matters not to Remus. “Alphard,” Remus repeats softly.
“You must be hungry,” Alphard says once they set off.
“Very.” While lost, Remus had been able to forget the rumblings of his empty stomach, but now the ache is too strong to ignore.
Alphard tosses Remus bread, a block of cheese, and a flagon of wine. It’s rich and delicious and Remus wolfs it down with a speed that would have earned him a swat from his mother if she was there to witness it. Embarrassed by his ill manners, Remus clears his throat and broaches another topic. “They whisper of me in the streets?”
Remus can’t see Alphard’s face but can practically hear his grin when he answers, “It’s highly unusual for Great Houses to lock their heirs up in towers. Most believe you to be deformed and kept hidden by your mother out of shame.”
“I was not locked in a tower the whole time,” Remus huffs. Most of the time, yes, but not the whole time.
“Being locked in a tower for any length of time sounds dreadful.”
“My mother had barely been pregnant with me when my father went off to war.” Remus owes the stranger no explanation, but he finds himself offering one anyway. “By the time she gave birth, he was dead and the bloodshed was ongoing with no end in sight. Her labor was traumatic and left her unable to bear more children. I don’t fault her for keeping me close.”
Alphards hums in what Remus thinks is sympathy. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Remus shrugs. “You can’t miss what you never had.” This is untrue, but Remus doesn’t need to explain it to a stranger.
“Still, it must have been hard to stay in one place for so long.”
“I love my tower,” Remus argues. Truly, he does. Built by Lord Romulus Lupin centuries earlier, Moonstone is the tallest castle in the entire kingdom. It is so high in the sky that some say Lupins are closer to Gods than men. “At the top, you can count every star,” Remus says. “The moon is so bright, that night sometimes feels like day.”
“As beautiful as that sounds, a gilded cage is still a cage,” Alphard says.
“I admit,” Remus sighs, “It would have been nice to travel the kingdom. Or fight in a tournament. Perhaps even ward at another house for a time.”
“If it gives you consolation, I hear the King is planning a tournament in honor of the wedding.”
Remus smiles to himself. That would be a consolation. All his life he’d begged his mother to attend one. To a little boy who spent most of his days reading about brave knights, there was nothing he wanted more than to watch the greatest swordsmen of the realm gather around to fight for glory right before his eyes.
“I look forward to it,” Remus says. “What about you? Have you traveled far?”
The boy hums thoughtfully. “I was born near Castle Black, but spent most of my youth up North.”
“Near Gryffindor?” Remus wonders, thinking of the castle belonging to House Potter. It is a stone fortress built to withstand heavy winters and enemy soldiers with equal ferocity.
“The very same,” Alphard sings.
“I hear it’s beautiful,” Remus murmurs. “I’ve always wanted to see the snow. Real snow.”
After briefly hesitating, Alphard says, “I’m sure your Prince would be happy to take you for a tour.”
An undignified snort escapes Remus’ lips. The Prince had indeed spent his youth as a ward to Lord Fleamont Potter, but Remus doesn’t expect him to put much store into Remus’ wants. He’s about to say as much when Alphard stops abruptly, leaving Remus and Moony to clumsily yield several feet ahead of him.
“Has your betrothed offended you?” Alphard demands.
Remus eyes the man’s sword. For all Remus knows, Alphard is one of the King’s soldiers in disguise, and it would be treason to speak against the royal family, so he quickly backtracks. “I’m honored to be betrothed to the Prince. I will love him with my whole heart.”
There is a heavy pause, and to Remus’ relief, Alphard barks in laughter. “You have been trained well, my orchid.”
My orchid. This is a rather intimate address, but Remus can't find it in himself to object. He clears his throat. “In truth, I know very little of the Prince.”
What Remus hears of his future husband comes only from the mouths of townsfolk and any visitors who pass through Moonstone. They say he is even more handsome than Gilderoy the Gilded and a better swordsman than Godric Gryffindor himself…but they also say he is a favorite at lowly taverns and brothels. Needless to say, Remus isn’t naive enough to believe his marriage will be anything like the romances in his favorite books. If Hope had granted Remus more freedom, or if the Prince had bothered to visit Moonstone, Remus might’ve had the opportunity to form his own impression, but as it stands, he will be entering Castle Black blindly.
“Is it his family name that plagues you?”
“You’re making many assumptions,” Remus frowns, even though Alphard is mostly right. The royal family is not known for their kindness.
“It is you who makes assumptions,” Alphard counters wryly.
Remus frowns. “I’ve never met the prince before. It’s reasonable to question our compatibility.”
Alphard hums. “Have you ever considered ending the engagement?”
Remus can’t help but laugh. “And how would that go? Wouldn’t be much point if the King instead put my head on a spike”
“You could run away. Go North and see the snow. Go to the Ivory Isles and see the beach. Leave the Kingdom altogether.”
Remus sputters for a few moments. “ I couldn’t do that .”
“Why?”
“Because marrying the Prince is my duty,” Remus replies, affronted.
He has been betrothed to Sirius Black since before he was born. It was a smart decision for both House Black and House Lupin. Once enemies, the Hound and the Wolf united against a greater evil: the Snakes of House Riddle.
The War of Black Death is what historians would eventually call it, where House Riddle attempted to usurp the throne. House Black and their allies eventually stamped out the entire Riddle family, but not without heavy losses of their own. Even though nine long years had passed since the end of the war, it was known that Riddle’s supporters still lurked in the grass, waiting to strike when the kingdom was most vulnerable.
This is what made Remus and Sirius’ marriage so important. In combining the abundant wealth and influence of the Blacks with the massive, highly-skilled army of the Lupins, the alliance became thus far undefeatable. Now that Remus was finally of age, their marriage would reinforce the union once and for all. It was agreed that Remus and Sirius’ firstborn would take the name Black and rule the kingdom after Sirius, and their secondborn would take the name Lupin and rule Moonstone after Lady Hope, who currently ruled in Remus’ name.
“Is duty all that matters to you?” Alphard demands. “You’re a man of eighteen. You say you wish to travel the realm. Has it never occurred to you to just do it?”
“What would you know about duty?” Remus snaps back. “You might wear the rags of a beggar, but your arrogance betrays you. Who are you running from, my Lord?”
“What would you know about duty?” Alphard repeats. “You’ve spent your entire life counting stars in your castle in the sky.”
Indignation fuels Remus as words fly from his mouth. “I know that commoners struggle to feed their children under the current tax laws set by the King. I know they suffer the most during war and plague and the long winter. I know letting the Lupin line die with me would set Moonstone into chaos. I may not carry a longsword or triumph at tournaments, but I am one of the few who has the power to help our kingdom’s most vulnerable.
“If that means marrying a man I’ve never met, in the rare hope that I may warm him enough to overhaul a history of his family’s royal decrees, then so be it. If that means giving House Black my army so that the entire realm can live in peace, then so be it. If that means producing heirs and spares so my cousins in House Greyback don’t claim my castle in the sky and burn it to the ground, then so be it. That is what I know about duty.”
By now, both men had stopped in their tracks, glaring at each other and huffing as if they’d dueled with swords and not words.
“The Prince will be lucky to have you by his side,” Alphard says finally.
In an instant, all the fire within Remus was extinguished. “Who are you?” he asks in bewilderment.
Alphard ignores the question. “This trail will take you back to the King’s Road. We are only a short ride away and I’m sure your guard will be patrolling nearby in search of you.”
“You’re leaving?” Remus mutters as something unfamiliar pangs in his chest.
“We will meet again soon, my orchid,” Alphard promises.
As Remus watches the strange man disappear into the darkness, he can’t help but believe him.