Chapter Text
Remus Lupin did not have a ton of money. But he was not poor either. His mother Hope was a stay-at-home mom, even after Remus grew up. She cleaned the house, cooked meals for her husband Lyall and Remus, and she would make sure that everyone was doing alright.
Lyall, Remus’s dad, he made up for it by working with the government. So, because of this Remus had a decent life. In freshman year he met Lily Evans, they went to high school together, and they quickly became the best of friends.
At first they were school buddies. They were both in the honors classes together which meant that they shared almost every single class. At first they would wave to each other, then they started friendly conversation, then they would pull the other aside to ask about schoolwork.
Somehow the two decided that they were better than everyone else. That even in an honors class, everybody was stupid except for those two. So, they made fun of the others, made inside jokes, and sometimes confided in the other.
Then one day Lily plopped down at Remus’s lunch table, a couple of months into that year. Remus’s friends looked at her weirdly then shrugged and continued to eat lunch. Ever since then, Lily sat there. Why she did? He doesn’t know. But what Remus does know is that it was the best decision she has ever made.
The two just connected after that. Remus started visiting her house. She wasn’t rich, but she had money. Her house was one floor and had a sitting area, an eating area, and three bedrooms. Her mom even apologized for the mess that did not exist. Her dad eventually had him stay for dinner. The only problem was her older sister Petunia who always gave him the nastiest looks whenever he showed up.
After a few visitations, the two were able to easily talk to each other and become inseparable. That lasted for all of their four years. They both did have their own sets of friends, but everyone knew that they would die and kill for each other. A lot admitted that they thought that they were a couple, but Remus and Lily never saw each other that way.
After high school, the two went to separate local Universities. Remus decided to become a writer and Lily studied STEM. Her sister Petunia got engaged to a guy named Vernon Dursley who they all disliked. But he made her happy. So, he moved into the Evans’ house and bunked with Petunia much to Lily’s dislike.
After almost two years of this, Lyall was laid off from his job. He was getting older, which meant that he was making more mistakes. He tried his best not to, he even stayed at work for hours after which made Remus hardly see his dad. But he made one mistake too many when he forgot to grab money from one of their buyers. So, he was laid off.
Lyall was too old to get a job elsewhere, so he and Hope stayed at home living off what Remus made at his woodworking job and Lyall’s retirement fund. It was still not enough. They ran out of money so fast that Remus considered dropping out of university. But somehow, his parents argued against it.
So, even though it hurt Lyall's pride, the three of them asked the Evans’ if they could move in for a bit and pay the rent. They said yes. It was a tight squeeze. Remus stayed in Lily’s room and often slept in her bed next to her. Petunia and Vernon stayed in their room as did Rose and Pat Evans. And Hope and Lyall slept out in the living room.
It has been a year like this. And it’s not.. horrible. Petunia and Vernon are annoying, but they set a date for their wedding, and they have found a new house that they have been bringing stuff to. Hope and Lyall get along with Rose and Pat. And Remus and Lily are like siblings now. They get into dumb fights over the bathroom and food, then they gossip after school together.
Today was a Saturday, who knew Saturday could bring such sadness? Remus and Lily usually shop for materials together for their families, but Lily’s cramps were not having it.
Lily was perched on her bed with a hot pillow lying across her stomach as Remus got ready.
“Sorry Rem,” Lily called out, “it’s just.. it’s hard even standing up.”
“It’s aight,” Remus shook his head with a smile, “it’s just a bit of shopping. I should be back in like an hour.”
“Can you buy some medicine too?”
“Yes Lils, I will.” Then Remus left the room. He sneaked across the living room to not wake his parents, then he left the house.
He hopped onto his wooden bike with a basket on his back and rode down the hill and into the village. He parked his bike and walked into the grocery store. It was small, but it had all the necessities. Remus grabbed water, food, and medicine for cramps then stopped at the checkout station that Aberforth was at.
Aberforth was the owner of this store and was a nice man overall. He has known Remus since he was a little kid. It’s weird.. Aberforth has always been old to him. He was likely in his fifties when Remus was a child because he’s around seventy now. However, despite his age, he was quite healthy. He was still able to watch over his store without much help.
Remus said hi as Aberforth began looking at his stuff.
“Afternoon Remus,” he mused as the clock hit 12.
“Hello,” Remus looked over the stuff.
“Nice day huh?”
“Yea, sure is.” Winter was now ending as the sun shone more, flowers grew, and even birds were chirping in the morning.
“You doing much today?”
Remus shrugged, “Probably just hanging out at the house. You?”
He nodded, “Store’s not too busy Saturdays xcept for you two. Where is that Lily girl by the way?”
“She’s resting, bit sick.”
“Ah, that’s too bad.” Aberforth grabbed his keys, “I’m thinking of closing shop early. Want to grab lunch with me?”
“Sure, why not?” Remus shrugged as he paid. He was never sure if he was thankful to Aberforth that day or hated himself. Maybe a bit of both.
“Okay,” he walked out from behind the counter.
Remus put his stuff away and headed out with him. They walked over to Flitwick’s Café where the two ordered drinks and sandwiches. It was relatively quiet when they ate. Remus is usually quiet except for when it comes to friends like Lily. Aberforth is also quiet as he prefers to listen.
During the meal the clouds came, and it rained to the point where people were afraid to step out of the café. The two waited for half an hour and the clock chimed to show it was two o’ clock.
Remus began to feel his skin crawling and knew he had to get back home. His family might be worried by now and this rain might last a while.
Aberforth turned to Remus, “If you need to go. That is okay.”
“Thank you for the lunch. See ya!” Remus yelled and left.
He put his basket on his back and rode his bike. It was so stormy that the wind almost blew him off the road a couple of times and he could hear his wheels in the water. The sky was in the shadow and no hint of the sun was to be found.
Remus eventually made it up the hill and found Lily’s house in disaster. The windows were shattered with glass lying everywhere, the door was halfway open with it bent down the middle horizontally, and there was a hole in the wall with smoke coming out of it.
Remus gasped, threw off his basket, and ran up to the house to see blood. Blood on the windowsill, blood trailing out of the doorway, and blood in a puddle where the hole was. It smelled so bad to the point it made him feel suffocated. But Remus did not care about the glass, smoke, or blood. He ran straight into the doorway to witness a pile of bodies.
Lyall was leaning over the counter with his eyes bloodshot as blood trailed out of his mouth. Hope was underneath where Lyall was hanging, his blood dripping onto her forehead. Her eyes were glazed over as blood trailed out of her ears and nose. Her right leg was missing as the skin looked raw. Pat was leaning against the couch with five lines down his neck and he was thin and pale. Rose’s face was smashed in across the room to the point where it was just blood and tissue. Lily was near the hole in the wall. She laid in the blood as her arms were red with scars. Two holes in the right arm and one large hole in the left. But her bones and skin were still there. Remus breathed heavily as he walked over to Petunia’s room to see them.. gone? Did they run away, were they already out? As annoying as they can be, he hoped that they were not attacked.
“AHHHHH! WHA!” Remus froze and looked around. He was shaking and sweating. What in the world happened? Did a wolf attack them or something? “Nononono…” he leaned against a wall. Wait, maybe.. maybe they were still alive.
He felt Lyall’s pulse. Nothing. Remus shook and choked in a sob. Hope. Nothing. Remus was shivering. Pat. Nothing. He could not breathe. Rose. Nothing. He sluggishly walked to Lily, tears streaming down his face he couldn’t even feel. Weak. It was a weak pulse. But it was still there.
Remus threw her onto his back and ran out of the house. He was covered in blood, and Lily’s unconscious body on top of him did not help his worry. But maybe if he ran she could at least survive.
He ran and ran and ran. He could feel his legs grow heavier and his breath was struggling going through him. He was tired. His adrenaline was running out. He was panting more and running slower. “Must..” he mumbled, “I.. must..”
He felt Lily stir above him as he fell to the ground and held Lily on his lap not even caring as long as she was okay. “Lily, Lily are you okay?”
“Ra..” Lily looked around dazed and confused.
Remus sat and breathed as Lily looked at him. “Lily?” His voice shook.
Lily then lunged at him as Remus opened up his arms. They both needed a hug after all of this. He was glad that despite Lily dying, she was still..
“AHHHH!” She gave a high-pitched scream as her fingers clawed at his arms and her teeth grew fangs.
Remus held against her trying to get her hands away from him. How in the world? Does she have rabies or something? How did she grow fangs? Why are her pupils now slits? Now she was growing, she was taller than him now? How is that even?
Lily panted as she gave a single scratch to his cheek.
“Lily,” Remus panted. “Please Lily. Please come back.”
Lily looked over at his face when she heard his voice.
“Please Lils. I’m so sorry. Please. For me,” he held onto her hand, “Remember. I’m Remus Lily, Rem?”
Lily’s eyes widened as she just stared at him panting. Tears fell down her face too as did Remus even though neither of them were sobbing. Lily looked different. Even with her exertion her face was pale, and it looked like it was crackling. Her cheeks and forehead was severely chapped.
Remus was about to put a hand to her face when a sword came blowing past him aiming for Lily’s neck. He pulled her down towards him and the sword flew into the tree on the right and stuck there.
Remus looked over to his left where the sword came from to see a man in a blue and black uniform. He had long black hair, a chiseled beard, and deep black eyes. Despite throwing his sword, he didn’t even look tired. Just bored. “You’re getting in the way. Please hide from the demon.”
“I- the.. what?”
The man sighed and brought a hand up to his face. “You don’t know what a demon is do you?”
“Like.. from Hell right?”
“No, but unfortunately,” the man walked over to the tree and took the sword out effortlessly, “there’s no time to explain.”
Then without warning he flew past them when Lily jumped out of the way.
Remus quickly stood up, “Stop it! Why are you trying to hurt my best friend!”
The man chuckled, “You call that,” he pointed to Lily, “your best friend?”
Remus felt insulted, “Yes,” he threw his arms out.
“Let me make this a bit clearer for your tiny brain. Your best friend is not your best friend anymore. She’s a demon now. She can and will kill you.”
“WHAT IS A DEMON! AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HER! HOW DARE YOU JUST WALK IN AND TRY TO KILL HER!” Remus ran to Lily and blocked her, “SHE WILL NEVER ATTACK ME!”
“She has and she did! Look at your face!” The man motioned to it.
Remus brushed his fingers along his cheek when he felt blood. “Well I- She didn’t know where she was at first! But! When she did! She immediately stopped!”
“Likely story. All demons will kill. You just have no idea. Now stop wasting my time.” Then he ran up to Remus when a blinding pain went through his body and darkness emerged.
~
No, Sirius did not kill the boy. That would defeat his entire purpose for being an auror. He is supposed to kill the demons to protect the humans. Not just kill a human because they were bugging him. And this one was really bugging him.
Okay fine. The boy had no idea what was going on. Sirius does not know how he discovered his best friend. He likely saw her badly wounded but breathing then tried to get her to a doctor or something just to find out she is not the same as she was before. But come on! She was literally clawing at his face, and he still tried to defend her. Sirius is surprised he didn’t get himself killed by doing just that. Sirius knows that one must fight in order to survive. And yes, that means killing your loved ones. Especially because they aren’t even your loved ones anymore stupid.
So, he knocked the boy out. He was in the way. He was going to let the demon kill him and probably whoever else lived in this town. That was not only stupid, but highly inconsiderate of everyone else.
Now with him out of the way Sirius could finally do his job and kill the demon.
She jumped at Sirius as soon as he knocked the boy out. Sirius was able to dodge this. Her red hair was flowing around her as she attempted to claw at him.
All demons attack. That is just a known fact. They thirst for the blood of humans and would do anything, even kill a member of their own family to do so. Sirius has seen it, so of course he would not trust a stranger’s opinion who doesn’t even know what a demon is.
But, he has to admit: He was surprised that she didn’t kill the boy already. When Sirius and the boy had their little debate, she just stood there and only attacked when he knocked the boy out. Yes, the demon was attacking before Sirius had shown up, but maybe she did not know where she was until Sirius just happened to come by. Maybe the boy was right.
Eh, probably not. But he could tell that this demon would be easy to kill as she is exhausted so why not test this out. He ran to the boy and drew his sword up to him and
He was knocked out of the way and hit the ground. He stood back up to see the demon crouched over the boy with her arms out and a glare in her eyes. She was trying to protect him? She must be hungry, all of that exertion with her transformation and fighting Sirius, yet she has not even tried to eat the boy. All she did was scratch him. Could it be? That this particular demon was different? And fought her thirst for blood?
Sirius dropped his sword and crouched down. He raised his hands in surrender, “Fine. You win. I will not attack him.”
She sat in front of him, still guarding but more relaxed.
While Sirius waited, he saw the blood drying on the boy’s face which revealed a scar that the demon left behind on his cheek. The scar was in a crescent shape which for some reason reminded Sirius of the moon.
~
Remus awoke to find Lily sitting in front of him. She was sitting criss crossed applesauce and Remus noticed how even her hair was different. It was more spread out and even though it was red, it had green ends.
“You’re awake,” the man said which made Remus jump.
Remus sat up and looked at him. The pain was there, but it was faint now.
The man rolled his eyes, “Look, go to Mount Hallow. Alastor Moody will be there waiting for you.” He looked at Lily then back to Remus, “I’ll surely have.. someone tell him about your situation. It’s cloudy out so you should be fine,” Remus hadn’t even noticed that it stopped raining, “just don’t have her get exposed to the sun. Goodbye,” then the man jumped backwards and disappeared.
Remus looked at where the swordsman was to see him suddenly gone. He looked to Lily, “Do you know where he went?” Remus whispered.
Lily looked back with a “hm?” and shrugged.
Remus saw that Lily now wore a wooden structure in her mouth. Was it.. a wand? Remus moved his hand to graze it. Yep, definitely a wand. He was about to remove it when he decided against it and pulled his hand back. Maybe the swordsman put it there for a reason. He was cocky, but he definitely knew what he was doing. Remus sighed and lowered his hand.
He looked back to the hill where their families died and decided not to go back. Remus doesn’t ever want to see that again and he does not believe that Lily even a.. demon? Should bear witness to that.
So, he simply held Lily’s hand and they went on their way.
~
The Pheonix is where the order members live along with where aurors come to heal. It is run by Minerva McGonagall who helps run the cause to fight and defeat demons.
The order members are nice, and they get along well most of the time. Minerva is also nice to talk to and seek advice of for she is wise beyond her years. Most of them don’t even have a home to get back to, and even if they did what is the reason for going back after they left their entire world behind?
The gates opened where Sirius was walking through as James like always ran up to him and gave him a tight hug.
“Haha, I’m alright. Look,” Sirius let go and let his arms spread.
“I know you would be mate,” James shoved him. “I just like to make sure.”
James Potter was Sirius’s best friend. Ever since they were nineteen. They both found each other above the Chamber of Secrets where their auror testing was held. All of the examinees stood in a crowd, and it was by pure coincidence that the two wound up next to each other. After a week of fighting demons together, they claimed to be best friends and have been since.
“Something weird happened while I was gone.”
“Didn’t Snuffles say it was an easy mission?”
“Yes, it was. But.. I never even considered the idea.. that a demon could be.. friendly?”
“What?” James came to a sudden stop and turned to face Sirius.
“Exactly. This.. boy. I walked into the forest to see him being clawed by a demon who was apparently his best friend.”
“How old were they?”
“Probably our age. But you see, I tried to decapitate her, but he had her get out of the way.”
“Well, when someone close becomes a demon, it is hard for that person to let go of who they once were.”
“That’s exactly what I thought! He.. he told me not to attack her and I told him that I had to. But he.. he was so stubborn man. He kept on yelling at me insisting that I do not attack her.”
“What did you do?” James mused.
“I uh I knocked him out.”
“Let me guess, you beheaded her and disappeared right?”
“Actually.. no. She immediately tried to fight me which was to be expected, but I thought that maybe moon boy could be right.”
“Moon boy?”
“Yeah, from her nails he got a scar on his face which kind of looked like the moon. Anyway,” he raised his hands, “before I knocked him out, he claimed that she just attacked him cause she was dazed and confused.”
“It’s denial, they’ll always be in-”
“Wait. So, I actually thought, what if he’s right?”
James looked at him curiously.
“Like before I threw my sword at her, she did pause the attack. It could be possible. Maybe she was just attacking me out of self-defense?”
“Wow, moon boy really got to you huh?”
“I don’t know what it was. He was just. Like they’re all stubborn. But he was just something else. Like absolutely no part of him was filled with doubt. And if I killed her, he never would have forgiven me.”
“But aren’t you the one who says oh we’ll never see them again?” James smirked.
Sirius shoved him, “Shut up. But I dunno. We usually do see them again one way or another. So, I decided to test his theory. I drew my sword to him. I was never actually going to attack, but I wanted to see what she would do. Like she was starving, and she never even tried to drink his blood. Maybe, just maybe something was there.”
“So, you took a shot? I thought I was the one to do that?”
“Maybe you actually inspired me for once James. Anyway, when I tried to attack him, I was shoved out of the way. She shoved me out of the way, and she was like guarding him.. from me.”
“She remembered him?”
“In one way or another yeah.”
“That.. wow. Never thought I’d live to see it.”
“Never thought it was ever possible actually. But once she calmed down I put a wand in her mouth, so she’d have something to bite on. Then when moon boy awoke, I told him to see Alastor Moody.”
“Alastor Moody? But everyone who gets trained by him-”
“Yeah I know. But he’s a good guy and no other trainer lives in the area. Anyway,” they stopped at a wooden door, “I’m going to see Minerva so she could hear about the situation and access it. See you later yeah?”
“Yes Sirius, see you later.”