Who: Fenrir Greyback/Remus Lupin What: Fenrir finds Remus chained by his parents When: The morning after the full moon Where: The shed outside the Lupin home/Fenrir's domain Rating/Progress: TBD/In-Progress
He was tired. Laying on the floor of the shed, Remus stared up at the slats of ceiling. Tears trailed clean streaks from the corners of his eyes, leaving long white lines on a face made messy from blood and dirt. New scratches were on his face, his wrists and ankles mangled messes from where the cuffs had gouged his flesh.
The young boy looked not a werewolf, but a torture victim, with wounds that hadn't fully healed from the moons prior, and a body that was nearly starvation thin. For a few moments after he shifted back, the boy lay motionless, simply still as the tears drew lines of white over his temples, into his hair. Then he finally gasped, a low, miserable whine coming from his throat, staying as still as he could. He had perhaps an hour. Maybe more. And if he moved...if he moved it would only hurt more.
~~
What had drawn him there, Greyback was not certain, but in the dim light of morning, the woods opened up, and he stood staring at the scene as though it had been clipped from his memories and set on a reel to be played. The Lupin house was so similar…but the difference was smothering. No light came from the empty panes, and every curtain was drawn as though to keep something horrible from entering in the night. His lips twitched in a faint grimace as he moved about the perimeter of the property with his nose in the air, trying to catch the scent of the elder Lupins in the air…but even that was too faint to recall.
It was quiet, but his ears caught the quiet sound of a child’s whimper, hardly too small to be audible, and his head cocked faintly as he sauntered closer to the source of it and pressed his nose against the creaky, dusty slats of the old shed’s walls. His breath snorted, his clawed hands reaching to unlock the bolts from the outside that kept the tiny thing of a puppy inside, and slowly pushed open the door to slink inside quietly with a snarl of anger.
It was deplorable. His eyes narrowed as he slowly hunched around to tenderly reach and unfasten the leather bonds from the boy’s chaffed and bloody wrists. "Bloody idiots…Don’t move, puppy…I’m here."
~~
Even through his haze Remus knew that voice. Panic gripped him as he gave out a gasp of a cry, free arms flying up to try and shove the larger man away. It was a weak effort, fueled mostly by a fear of strangers that had wormed it's way into him since that day. And a fear of this man - the person who had done this. The one who had hurt him.
"Stop," he whispered roughly. "Papa says I am still contagious." Sniffling, he tried to tug away, wincing as it caused his wounds to pull and strain, whimpering. "Are you going to kill me?"
A child had no right to sound so hopeful with such a question.
~~
"No, child…" There were so few human traits left to him, but as he swept the tiny, wounded boy up, he was as tender as a protective father with arms that bid him to be still so that he could slip the bonds free of his ankles, and throw the rusting chains against the old wall of the shed. "I’m not going to hurt you…be still." There was a tin of water placed in one corner of the shed, and he reached for it with clawed hands to drag it nearby and to dip the edge of his shirt which he tore away carelessly from the hem, and tenderly began to wipe the tears and dirt from Remus’ face.
"I’m here to take you away, pretty…I’m here to take away the pain."
He whispered gruffly as his fierce eyes began to survey the child’s delicate wrists in his hands and bent low to affectionately nuzzle the inside of his arm as though to soothe the raw bite of pain.
~~
Shaking as he was gathered up, Remus winced as the cloth dragged over the scratches, curling into the soothing touches despite himself. He hated to be alone after the full. Hated how much it hurt. Years and years and years of hell, and he was so tired of being alone now.
Pulling away from the cloth when his wrists were grabbed, he pushed his face into Fenrir's neck. "You're the one who did this, aren't you? You're the werewolf who cursed me.... I don't know what I did to make you hate me, but I'm sorry...can you please take it back now?"
~~
"I don’t hate you, pretty…" He whispered hoarsely as he slowly lifted the weightless child upward, holding him tightly against his chest as he shoved open the creaking doorway and begun to carry him toward the edge of the trees. "I made you because I love you…Go to sleep now, child. When you wake, you’ll be free of those chains forever."
John Lupin was more stupid a man than Fenrir had ever calculated, and the crumpled little bit of scarred boy in his arms was enough evidence of it to last his lifetime. They could come for him if they dared, but the wolf was quick and agile, and his instincts clever as he carried him into the depths of the forest, rocking him to peace in against his heaving chest.
~~
When he was lifted, he didn't fight. Slender arms twined weakly around his shoulders, resting against him with heavy exhaustion. "I won't bite you," he promised thickly. And loved him...that wasn't what his parents said. Remus had been made because his Papa was being punished. Because Fenrir hated boys who were human, and a million other things that had so been said. But he didn't care about that at the moment.
There was a fear of being taken - tears sprang to his eyes when he saw his home fading in the distance. But he didn't have much energy to say it. His eyes slid closed, trembling in the larger wolf's arms. "I need to be home before dark," he simply informed him as he drifted off. "Mummy will be mad if I do not wash before supper, ok?"
~~
It was nearly night again when he felt Remus rustle against him. The sky was a deep violet, and the trees that towered near the crop of rocks outside the mouth of the cave were cast in amber shadows from the dancing flames of the fire he’d built in the cold claws of the night. The boy had slept, curled up against him for hours until finally Fenrir shifted his head to the pallet of straw that was his makeshift bed, and moved only so far as to throw a bit of skinned rabbit into a pot of water that had begun to boil over the lapping flames.
Normally he would have torn into the hares fresh from the kill and eaten the sinewy meat raw. But Remus was hardly strong enough to walk, and as frightened as he’d been huddled in the darkness of the shed, Fenrir had too clear a suspicion that such animalistic instincts as to eat the raw meat of animals had been choked from developing in the young lycan.
~~
There was warmth, but not the softness of his bed. It was a very nice sort of warmth all the same, melting his insides and making something in him feel...soothed...for the first time. He still hurt, the injuries screeching on his body, and wondered why his mum hadn't gotten out the lotions for him yet, or what in the world he was doing sleeping so very late. Scrubbing at his eyes, he slowly blinked them open...and found himself facing a chest he had bundled into, in a place that was most definitely not home.
And then he remembered the site of his home fading in the distance.
He jerked back in shock, skittering away, eyes wide and all too aware that he was not a) properly dressed, and b) in a safe spot with a safe person.
"You," he gasped, thin legs pressed together, looking around wildly for a direction to run. He sounded too old for young age, as if they had tried so hard to compensate for his animal side by making him more human. "I want to go home!"
~~
"This is your home, puppy." He growled as he stood slowly tended the stew that he’d nursed for the sole sake of Remus’ delicacy. "Calm down, pretty…Come here. Sit." He motioned aside himself, spreading the bit of mangled fabric of his cloak against the ground as he reached inside the pocket of a tattered back and retrieved a jar of salve that he too sat aside himself. "Are you hungry?"
The stew wafted around the cave, kicking straight to his stomach though his tongue hungered to lap at the blood that had dripped down from the rabbits and to tear into the supple flesh of the hares that hung over a ledge away from other predators. Somewhere in the distance a lonely howl echoed through the trees, and his lips curled in a snarl as he looked through the darkness with a sharp, commanding bark before he hunched down once more and turned his honey-colored eyes back to Remus. "Come to me, puppy."
~~
He was going to protest. Really, he was. The whole scene was savage - absolutely savage - but then he heard the howl and all pretenses of modesty or childish courage went out the window, and he rushed at Fenrir as if he were on fire. Grasping onto the larger man's arm, he went behind him at once, wild and dirty waves of hair still carrying a hint of the curls he had possessed as a young child, of a little softer now in appearance.
Even through it all, the scent of the cooking rabbit made his stomach knot with hunger. Of course, it wasn't his mothers meat pie, but it was food and that really was all that mattered, wasn't it? Though, he would have prefered his stash of chocolate over all of it. Of course a kidnapper wouldn't have the kindness to have made a detour and kidnap the box of french truffels kept hidden under the bed. Blast.
"Will it come after us?" he wondered. And how quickly his tenses shifted from accusing "you's" to terrified "we's".