Chapter Text
(Remus Lupin P.O.V)
November 1st found Remus Lupin sat in Albus Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts. The full moon had ended a few days ago, and Remus was ready to make the requests of Dumbledore like he had every year for the past six years since James and Lily's deaths and Sirius Black's incarceration in Azkaban.
Remus looked around the Headmaster's office while he waited for Dumbledore to return from dinner in the Great Hall. Did the man have to have so many trinkets?! And the portraits of former Headmasters were all staring down at Remus. It was unnerving.
It was no excuse, but Remus was bored, Fawkes was out on a flight, and Dumbledore had left Remus sat on an uncomfortable chair waiting for the Headmaster to return. Remus's curiousity got the better of him. He began looking at all the books on the shelves, and glancing over all the trinkets.
One thing was for sure. Dumbledore had a lot of stuff.
"Well, if you're going to have a look around boy, might as well do it properly." The portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black said sharply, making Remus startle and look up at the former Headmaster who happened to be Sirius's great-great-grandfather. "Might as well open the drawer to the left under all those potions."
Remus hesitated. Phineas went back to sleep. Remus moved over to the drawer. He really shouldn't. But it wasn't wrong to look, right? Especially if a Headmaster told him he could.
Remus slid open the drawer and froze in shock.
He would know that sparkling fabric anywhere.
Folded up in the bottom of that drawer, was James Potter's invisibility cloak.
Remus wasn't sure whether to feel anger that Dumbledore had the cloak, or relief. At least it had been safe from harm here with Dumbledore. But on the other hand... the Headmaster having it, meant that James had loaned it to him, and that the night that James needed it most for his family... the cloak had been with Dumbledore.
This was one of Remus's best friend's cloaks. Really, it should be in Harry's possession right now, not Dumbledore's. James had told Remus and their other friends how it had been passed down through generations in his family. As the last living Potter, Harry deserved to have it.
Remus glanced up at the portraits again. All the former Headmasters looked asleep. Making up his mind that he needed to do something if tonight went as every time Remus saw Dumbledore did, Remus pulled out a copy invisibility cloak he had pawned off some shady bloke at a pub when he had met with Hagrid one night, and swapped the two cloaks.
Tucking the Potter invisibility cloak into his extendable bag, Remus closed the drawer and went to sit back down in the chair he'd been sitting in before. Determined to now wait patiently, Remus sighed and rested his chin on his hand and tried to not look so bored.
"Good evening Remus, my boy. How good it is to see you." Dumbledore said with a smile as he walked into the office. "I trust you are well?"
Remus replied almost automatically. "Good evening Headmaster. I am well enough. How are you and Hogwarts?" As upset as Remus was at the way things had gone the past several years, he wasn't about to drop his manners.
"The school and I are well." Dumbledore said softly. His hands now steepled with his elbows resting on his desk, while looking at Remus over his half moon spectacles.
"You know why I am here." Remus finally said when the silence became unbearable.
"Then, you already know the answers also my dear boy." Dumbledore responded.
"Those shouldn't be the answers." Remus insisted. "None of this makes any sense!"
"Unfortunately, often life does not make sense." Dumbledore replied. "Lemon drop?"
Remus stared as the Headmaster held out a small bowl full of yellow sweets to him. "No. Thank you." He ground out.
Dumbledore took one for himself and said conversationally. "It's a muggle sweet that I find myself rather fond of."
"Headmaster please." Remus tried again. "The Sirius Black I knew, would never do something like this."
"People, at times, reveal themselves to be not who we thought they were when times get difficult." Dumbledore said.
"I don't see why you won't let me go talk to him!" Remus tried very hard to keep his voice level and calm. "Maybe there were matters we knew not of!"
"It is not me that won't allow you to go speak with him." Dumbledore sounded so calm that Remus wanted to rip the old man's beard out! "Mr. Black is a high security prisoner. No one is allowed to visit that sort of prisoner except the minister himself and the aurors to bring the food."
"Then push the Wizengamot for a fair trial!" Remus insisted.
Dumbledore looked so sad. Like he pitied Remus. And Remus hated that. "My dear boy, there is no evidence that we are wrong in this. James and Lily told me themselves that they were making Sirius their secret keeper. Unfortunately, they put their faith in the wrong person. Others who were Death Eaters also claim that there was one among them named Black. For all evidences, it was Sirius. The Wizengamot won't hear of wasting time and money on a trial over nothing."
"For all evidences, it could be Regalus they spoke of!" Remus exclaimed. "He was all too happy at that point in time to please his parents and uphold pureblood supremacy! Sirius would have rather died than uphold that viewpoint! It's why he ran away at sixteen to live with the Potters!"
But Dumbledore didn't even warrant Remus's outburst with a response.
Remus sighed. "At least let me raise Harry."
"You know it is not possible for me to do that Remus." Dumbledore sounded so weary. "He is much safer where he is at."
"Because I am a werewolf?" Remus shot back. "I can make precautions. You know I always do."
"No Remus. It is not because you are a werewolf." Dumbledore replied. "Where Harry is, grants him protection from Voldemort and his followers. He is safe. That is all you need to know."
"Fine. Then, let me visit him." Remus pushed with a determined look. "I want to see for myself that James and Lily's child is being raised in a loving and healthy environment."
Dumbledore sighed. "You cannot go see Harry. It is part of the agreement I have made with his guardians. No contact with anyone who knew James and Lily Potter. It simply must be respected. Visitations are not allowed. You can see him when he turns eleven, like everyone else."
Remus mind was working quickly as Dumbledore spoke. But he was careful to only think of the scene in front of him, and keep his face neutral. "So that's it. Nothing will be done about Sirius. And Harry is safe where he is at."
"Precisely my boy. Harry is safe. You need not worry so. Go rest up from your last transformation." Dumbledore reassured with a smile.
"Thank you for your time Headmaster." Remus said with a tired smile.
"Oh anytime Remus. My door is always open." Dumbledore said cheerfully.
Remus stood and said. "I think I will go say hello to a few of my former Professors if you don't mind my intrusion."
Soon, he was walking from the Headmaster's office.
True to his word, Remus went and visited McGonnagal and a few others, before he passed Filch's office. A thought came to him and he smirked. Nothing stopping him from having a look around. Filch couldn't give Remus detention now.
Remus slipped into the office and began searching all the drawers and shelves of contraband that Filch had confiscated from students over the years. Finally, he found the folders of students names and the lists of detentions. Smiling a bit as he reminisced on their school years, seeing how thick their four folders were of notes and detentions.
A drawer lower took some work to bust into. And there it was. A familiar bit of parchment.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Remus murmured, and the map came to life in his hands. He didn't open it, just wanted to make certain that he had the right parchment. "Mischief managed."
Once the map was tucked away, as well as a few items that Remus was sure Filch wouldn't miss, Remus left the office.
Might as well visit Hagrid for the evening before heading home. Hagrid would be sad if he knew that Remus had come to the school and had not paid him a visit.
On his way out the front doors, Remus had the unfortunate luck of running into none other than Severus Snape.
"What business do you have being here, Lupin?" Severus sneered as he somehow managed to look down his nose at Remus whilst being a stair below him just outside the doors.
"I had a meeting with the Headmaster. And now I am off to see Hagrid." Remus replied coldly. "Not that my business is any of your concern Snape."
"Careful Lupin." Severus scoffed. "One in your condition can't afford to get upset." He looked Remus up and down. "Nor can you afford new robes it would seem."
Remus glared and stormed past Severus and off toward Hagrid's hut. He didn't need to get into a fight with Snape. Apparently some people hadn't matured at all since graduation.
Remus knocked on Hagrid's door, and didn't have to wait long before he was engulfed in a happy embrace. "Remus Lupin! How have you been?" Hagrid asked as he let Remus into the hut.
"Doing well enough." Remus answered. "Just thought I would stop for a visit after my meeting with the Headmaster."
"Are yeh looking fer a job here?" Hagrid inquired as he set the table with a few rock cakes and put the kettle over the fire for some tea.
"Oh no. I... will find someplace to work soon." Remus replied awkwardly as he sat at the table.
"That's the spirit." Hagrid encouraged.
"I actually came to ask Dumbledore about Harry." Remus confided. "I wondered if I could visit him. Seeing as the anniversary of his parent's deaths was last night and all."
"Professor Dumbledore says it be best if we leave Harry be for now." Hagrid said as he set out some mugs and tea leaves. "Says the only place safe for him given his mother dying for him and all that." Hagrid blew his nose on a handkerchief and said. "Sorry. I don't like talking about James and Lily dying is all. So sad that little Harry has to be all alone with none of us to help him."
Remus stayed a while longer. But his talk with Hagrid had added proof to the idea Remus had thought of in his meeting with Dumbledore. Harry was not being raised within the wizarding world.
Remus tripped over the threshold of his own front door when the truth hit him in the face and he was certain of it. The only people Dumbledore would trust to raise Harry outside of the wizarding world, that would not break the statute of secrecy, and offer Harry protection from Voldemort due to Lily's death was Lily's older sister, Petunia.
Remus stumbled to a chair in his kitchen and put his head in his hands as his mind raced in horrible assumptions.
Petunia had hated Lily. Petunia's husband had hated James. The two despised magic.
And they were who Dumbledore entrusted with raising Harry?!
Hours later, Remus was tearing apart his little cottage that James had gifted him back when he was alive.
He needed to find those old letters from Prongs and Lily. They would tell him the things about Petunia that his own memory wasn't recalling at the moment.
He needed to find Petunia.
Whether Dumbledore liked it or not.