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Harry Potter did not like Halloween.
His guardians would take him to visit the graves of his parents, but that was not the reason he didn't like the holiday.
He didn't like it because his classmates at primary school told him scary stories.
Well, they told everyone scary stories, but Harry knew that a lot of the creatures they were talking about were real. Vampires, for instance, could bite you and turn you into a vampire, too!
(Padfoot told Harry that most vampires were rather nice, especially if you gave them a blood-flavored lolly. Harry didn't quite believe him.)
Or ghosts, which were the spirits of the dead. Harry was scared that Voldemort was a ghost. He killed Harry's parents, tried to kill him, too, and killed a lot of other people.
(Moony said that Voldemort wasn't quite dead, and that even if he were, it would be very unlikely for him to become a ghost.)
Or werewolves, who turned into scary wolves every full moon and could bite you, and then you would be a werewolf.
(Padfoot said that werewolves were much better than the stories and the Ministry gave them credit for.)
"Padfoot?" Harry asked that night, as soon as they all got back from the graves at Godric's Hollow.
"Yeah?" Padfoot replied.
"What would you do if I got bitten by a werewolf?"
Padfoot tensed. "Why?"
"The other kids at school were talking about werewolves, and one of them said that he saw a werewolf in real life once, and I wanted to say that they were real, but I know that I'm not supposed to talk about magic, so I didn't. But if he saw a werewolf, that means that there's a werewolf here, and I could get bitten, then you won't love me anymore because I'll hurt you, and you'll be mad at me!" Harry's eyes were flooding with tears, and he hugged Padfoot very tightly.
"Uhh..." said Padfoot, struggling for words. "I... We'll love you no matter what, Harry, you know that. And... And you won't get bitten by a werewolf. Moony and I will make sure of that."
"You're sure?" Harry asked.
"Am I ever not?" Padfoot answered. Harry smiled at this and let his godfather walk him to his room and tuck him into bed.
Sirius had never given as much thought into writing children's books as he did when he walked out of Flourish and Blott's empty-handed. If the bastards at the Ministry just treated werewolves as people and not Dark Creatures, then maybe it'd be easier to explain all of this shite to Harry. Alas, every bloody kids' book that so much as mentioned werewolves just painted them as evil and vile creatures.
They never mentioned that werewolves were just people most of the time. Merlin's beard — Remus was a quiet and peaceful man who loved chocolate and books; the most dangerous he'd get would be when his sarcasm turned bitter.
Well. Fine, then.
Sirius Apparated back to the place that he shared with Remus and Harry and immediately grabbed a quill and parchment.
If no one else would write it, he and Remus would.
Harry was on the floor with his coloring book, swinging his legs as he made sure to color inside the lines. Whenever he finished coloring a piece, it would start moving! He laughed with glee as the dragon he had just finished coloring flew across the pages.
He could hear one of the doors open, and he looked up to see his godfather and his husband. "Hi, Padfoot! Hi, Moony!" he said, grinning. Padfoot was carrying what seemed to be a book of some kind, though it didn't look like any of the books that Harry had seen. It looked like he had made it himself; the pages were on parchment that was cut up, and the whole thing was bound with string. "What's that?" Harry asked, pointing at the book.
Padfoot scratched the back of his head and opened his mouth, but Moony took over. "There's something that we need to tell you, Harry, and we made a book to help explain. Would you like us to read it to you?"
Harry scoffed. "I'm too old for bedtime stories."
"Good thing that it's nowhere near your bedtime, then," Moony said with a smile.
"I guess I'll let you read it to me if it'll make you feel better," said Harry as he rolled his eyes. Moony smiled at this and Summoned Harry's favorite beanbag chair. Harry sat on it and attempted to hide his excitement to hear the story.
"Take note of the illustrations, Harry," Padfoot said, pointing at the cover of the book. Under the title Moony and the Wolf, there were doodles of wolves and dogs and Moony.
"Is that you when you're a dog?" Harry asked, pointing at one of the dogs on the cover. Padfoot grinned and nodded.
"We can talk about your illustrative talent later," Moony said with a smile, "for now, let's read the story."
Moony and the Wolf
By Padfoot and Moony
Illustrated by the Most Brilliant Artist, Padfoot
Once upon a time, there was a little boy. His name was Remus Lupin. He was a happy little boy who spent his time reading and playing.
His dad worked at the Ministry of Magic, and one day, he learned that there was a big, bad werewolf who hurt some other children. Mr. Lupin was very mad at this, and wanted the bad werewolf to die.
The bad werewolf knew about Mr. Lupin's opinion, and he wanted to target Remus. He snuck into Remus's room on one full moon, and bit him.
("Moony's a werewolf?!"
"Let's finish the story first, love.")
Mr. Lupin ran in and fended off the werewolf, and went to hug his little boy. Remus's mum heard the commotion, and asked what happened.
"Remus got bit," Mr. Lupin explained. Mrs. Lupin was a Muggle, but her years being married to Mr. Lupin meant that she knew exactly what he meant.
"Is there anything we can do?" she asked.
"We'll see," Mr. Lupin replied.
The next day, the trio went all over to all sorts of healers. They all said the same thing — Remus couldn't be cured. He was a werewolf.
("I don't like this story."
"Let Moony finish reading it. It has a good ending!")
Remus continued being the shy and quiet little boy that he always was. On every full moon, his parents would take him to the cellar, give him some stuffed animals, set Cushioning Charms on the walls, tell him that they loved him, promised sweets afterwards, and locked him in.
Then, Remus would transform.
The wolf inside Remus kept looking for human prey. He tore his stuffed animals to shreds and ran around the cellar. When he couldn't find anyone, he started biting and scratching himself. The boy inside the wolf wanted to cry.
Remus's parents loved him very, very much, and Mr. Lupin never gave up on finding a cure. They felt as though they were keeping Remus hostage in his own house, but they were very scared for him. They were scared that he wouldn't get to go to Hogwarts and learn how to be a wizard.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, knew about the Lupins' situation. He knew that Remus was a nice boy, and didn't see why he couldn't go to Hogwarts. He decided to make some accommodations so that he could go.
First, he had a house built. The house was made so that Remus could transform without hurting anyone. The entrance was secret, and could only be entered through a very dangerous tree called a Whomping Willow. The tree would hurt you if you didn't know how to disable its branches, which would flail around.
When Remus was in Hogwarts, he would be taken to the shack, where he would transform. The wolf still clawed and hurt itself, but Remus's secret was safe, and that was the most important thing to him.
Remus's friends at Hogwarts — James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew — wondered where he went every month. Remus told them that his mum got sick, and he had to visit her.
Peter thought that he was lying and that it was Remus's dad who got sick.
Sirius thought that he was lying and that Remus was a secret agent, working for the Ministry.
James thought that he was lying and that Remus was a werewolf.
James was reading about werewolves once, and he realized that Remus's absences coincided with the full moon. At first, he was confused. Werewolves were mean, but Remus was very nice. Then, he thought of Sirius, his best mate.
Sirius's family was notorious for being bigoted. This meant that they hated Muggles, Muggleborns, and half-bloods. Sirius, however, was nice. He didn't like judging people based on their blood status, and he seemed to thrive on defying his parents.
There were only three other members of Sirius's family that James could think of that were nice. A lady named Andromeda, her Muggleborn husband Ted, and their newborn daughter, Nymphadora. If people in Sirius's family could be nice, James reasoned, there was no reason why a werewolf couldn't be.
He told Sirius and Peter at once. They noticed that Remus always came back with more scars, and they felt very sorry for him. So, the three of them started working on a plan. They would become Animagi.
The process of becoming an Animagus took a long time, but they all thought that it was worth it. If they couldn't keep Remus company as humans, they would keep him company as animals.
Peter was a rat, Sirius was a dog, and James was a stag. Every full moon, they would transform into these animals and sneak into the house where Remus transformed. They played with the wolf and kept him company. Not only did this keep the wolf from hurting itself, but this helped Remus feel much happier and less resentful towards his transformations.
Now, Remus lives with his husband Sirius. Every full moon, they go to the cellar, and the wolf and dog play together all night. Sirius sends his godson, Harry, off to have a sleepover and playdate with one of his friends so that he won't get hurt.
Just like Mr. and Mrs. Lupin loved their son, Remus and Sirius love their godson very, very much.
They hope that he loves them back, even if one of them is a werewolf.
For a long while, Harry was speechless. "So that's why I have sleepovers every month?" he asked. His guardians nodded. "I... I need to... I need to think about this!"
With that, Harry ran to one of the bookshelves that Moony kept around the house. Harry had seen Moony after he got sick. He always looked very tired and sometimes had new scars. Harry decidedly would not stand for it anymore! Moony's dad tried to help him, and it didn't work, but that was forever ago. Harry was eight years old; his guardians told him that he was very smart for his age, and he knew a thing or two about potions.
(Padfoot helped him brew a potion with milk, chocolate, and peppermint last Christmas. Moony said that it was just hot cocoa, but Padfoot was insistent that it was a potion. Potions were cooler, so Harry went with that.)
He picked up a book all about potions and skimmed through it. Cauldron, yeah, they definitely had a few of those. A bunch of plants that Harry couldn't pronounce — well, Harry figured that there had to be a few of those around here. Snakeskin...?
Harry grinned and ran outside. In the language only he knew, he called out to all of the snakes nearby. "Snakes! I've a question!" he cried.
"What issss it?" asked a snake, slithering out from behind a bush. Harry crouched down to talk to it.
"Moony's a werewolf," he explained.
"Oh?" the snake replied. "What'ssss that?"
"He turns into a wolf every month, and the wolf hurts him, and I don't want the wolf to hurt him anymore, and I picked up a book about potions because I thought, 'Hey, what if a potion could help Moony?', and a lot of the potions mentioned snakeskin, and you're a snake," said Harry.
"I'll sssseee what I can do," said the snake. "Wait here."
Harry waited.
A few moments later, the snake returned with something gross-looking in its mouth. It spit it out and began to talk to Harry. "You're in luck," it said, "another ssssnake was sssshedding. I told it about your problem, and it offered itssss skin."
Harry gingerly picked up the skin and smiled. "Thanks, snake!" he said, and he ran back inside the house.
"Now to find a cauldron..." he muttered.
"Why?" Padfoot asked. Harry nearly jumped up in shock!
"Padfoot!" he exclaimed.
"Is that a snakeskin?" Padfoot asked, gesturing towards Harry's hand.
"Uh," said Harry.
Padfoot grinned. "Trying to cure Moony, eh?"
"How'd you—"
"Lucky guess. Now, Harry, there's something that you need to know." Harry cocked his head; Padfoot sighed and continued. "There is no cure."
"Bugger," Harry said. Padfoot laughed.
"Don't let Moony hear you say that," he chastised. "What we can do is, well, we can be there for him and make him soup or tea when he recovers."
"Do I still have to go to sleepovers?" Harry asked.
Padfoot thought for a moment. "I should say so, yes. The wolf can get rather loud and scary, even when we're both locked up."
Harry nodded. "Oh, okay." And that was that.