Traces of what remains: chapter 1
A/N: hey readers! You are in luck because I was close to finishing chapter 1 when I posted the prologue hence why it's published on the same day. This is the first chapter to the story, and it's long, specifically 2281 words long. So hold your horses and read at your pace cause the next chapter won't come straight away. There is a trigger so be careful.
wordcount: 2.3k
Warnings: blood, I guess that's it?
Masterlist | prologue | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 (coming soon)
Traces of what remains: chapter 1
What if, instead of being poor and homeless and struggling to find a will to live before harry potter crossed paths with him, Remus lupin had a home, a dead mother of his child, a husband who is in Azkaban for reasons the world, including himself, believes and a daughter of the night who will change a course of the wizarding history in the most brutal way possible? Read the story to follow the life of the daughter of Remus lupin to find out who she is and how she shapes the future.
Chapter 1
Two years later, in the setting sun of London, Sirius Black was sent to Azkaban without a trial in 1981. He was imprisoned for the murder of James and Lily potter, leaving one year old Harry Potter orphaned, Peter Pettigrew and 13 other muggles, and accused of being the right-hand man to Voldemort.
At the same time, Remus was sitting in Leila’s bedroom, sipping hot chocolate as he watches his daughter sleep. He didn’t know about the arrest until later in early morning, when he had about three hours of sleep since he’s an insomniac werewolf. He was stirring water into his coffee, wondering about when his boyfriend, the unofficial stepdad of his daughter, will come back from rushing off last evening after finding out someone revealed the Potter’s location to Voldemort.
As he was deep in thought, a letter swooped through the chimney, a barn owl flying away from the childhood cottage he grew up in. The letter gracefully landed on the kitchen counter next to his coffee. Its addressed to Mr Remus James lupin from the ministry. He raised his eyebrows as he stared down at the letter. He knows the letters he receives from the ministry are always threats about his werewolf identity and how he should give up his job where he works in a random family-owned muggle shop, trying to make ends meet for himself and his daughter, despite Sirius trying to help him with his rich family Black money.
He sighed in annoyance and picked up the letter, while he magics the milk to be added to the coffee. Remus turned around, leaning on the counter, he opened the letter and pulled it out of its snug envelope. What he thought to see was threats, but instead it’s a brief statement about his housemate as the ministry thought Sirius is that to the Lupin household. He widened his eyes as he read about Sirius being sent to Azkaban for the murder of 13 muggles, Peter Pettigrew and even worse, the involvement of the murders of James and Lily potter, their lifelong best friend and his wife.
Remus stood there speechless. He thinks to himself, how can I look after Leila on full moons, how can I raise her alone? And that’s not Sirius, he would never do that, he’s not a murderer.
Then his mind was interrupted with a cry upstairs coming from his two-year-old Leila, who just woke up in the wrong side of the bed. He groans at the revelation of Sirius, before walking upstairs. Coffee all forgotten.
Time skip, a year later. Leila is now 3 years old. Remus is doing better than he thought, he still has the same crappy job, but he found a witch that works in a job for looking after children who are the offsprings of werewolves, at full moons, protecting the child as their parent(s) go off to transform under the full moons influence. He is very grateful for the use of nannies. His daughter’s nanny is called Beatrix, and she is a plump middle-aged woman with light ash brown hair.
Beatrix is very jolly and loves Leila like a niece and additionally always makes sure Remus pays the minimum price. She also stays in the morning after full moons to look after the daughter while Remus rests his weary cursed body.
On the night of a full moon in august, seven months after the arrest, the very curse was bestowed on Leila all purely because of the hatred of the lupin family from the attacker.
It was a warm rainy autumn night, pained howls can be heard across towns and cities as werewolves transform under the full moon, Remus is one of them, prowling through the forest near his cottage, his skinny wolfish body silking through the low branches as the horror happened in his home unbeknownst to his hungry werewolf mind.
Beatrix was on duty, rocking the three-year-old to sleep. After she was sure that the toddler was soundly asleep, she puts Leila in her bed and went downstairs to make coffee for herself. The mistake was that the window in the little girl’s room was wide open to cool down her room.
What Beatrix didn’t hear is the large grey monstrous thing crawling up to the top floor and slipping into the Leila’s room. Its nails lightly clink on the wooden boards as it approaches the bed where the peaceful toddler slept. Its snout nudge against the curly brown head of the girl, coaxing her awake, its seemingly aware mind wanting the girl to experience the horrors awake rather than half asleep.
Leila woke up with a start, and she screamed in shock as the thing suddenly yanked the duvet back, exposing her fragile body to itself. Beatrix heard the yelp and grabbing her wand, she scrambled upstairs, kettle whistling loudly behind in the kitchen, she rounded around the banister to reach the toddlers bedroom. But before Beatrix touched the door handle, a blood curdling scream emitted from the room.
Inside, the monster has bitten Leila in the stomach, not killing her but just enough to make her bleed out and haemorrhaging with the creature’s venom running through her veins. The door banged open and Beatrix gasp in horror as she sees the monster which she connected in her mind, is a werewolf.
Not just any werewolf. Fenrir Greyback, with his iconic grey muscular body and the ragged scar on his snout which is now bloody and buried in the stomach of the crying screaming pale girl.
Beatrixs face paled and she screamed out, pointing the wand at the snarling werewolf. “Locomotor werewolf!” and she yanked the wand to the window. The wolf flew out of the open window, its head bashing against the window frame. He slammed against the tree line, but Greyback simply stood back onto his four paws, shaking his head and licking the blood off his snout. He ran off as soon as he heard the warning howls from the other wolves, muggle and magic alike.
Beatrix, as soon as she expelled the wolf out of her client’s cottage, rushed to the bleeding girl, she knew she have a matter of minutes before she dies. She pulled her jacket off and wrapped it around Leila’s ruined stomach and hauled her into her arms. Beatrix muttered under her breath as she gathered courage and strength to apparate to st mungo’s. With the wailing girl in her arms and a hope that she doesn’t accidently splinch herself or worse the toddler, a crack resounded in the now empty bloody bedroom.
Wet, cold London is bathed in the warm full moon, cobbled street acting as veins of London, full of old shops under flats of small shabby homes. In a street, in the poorer parts of London, where it’s unsuspecting and quiet, hold a magic barrier on a shop window, specifically a barrier for muggles and a gate for the wounded wizards and witches. If you would walk past this barrier, you would suspect it is a material clothes shop. A creaking old sign swung above the door saying Purge and Dowse Ltd.
The air was disturbed by a similar sounding crack. Beatrix appeared out of thin air, almost tripping on her own two feet, clothes, hands and arms covered in Leila’s blood, she stumbled to the grainy window, her pale face looking back at her. She hurriedly screamed at the mannequin not caring about the sleeping muggles in homes above her. “A toddler, bitten by greyback!”
Suddenly the window shimmered, and a hand emerged and yanked the poor nanny through the portal. A nurse was the owner of that hand, she immediately guided Beatrix towards the double doors, helping her with the bleeding toddler. The waiting room full of patients glared at the nanny, thinking that it’s not fair for her to go through immediately, but as soon as they saw the blood and the pale curly haired girl in her arms, they looked away in shame and shock.
The nurse spoke to her as they hurry into the elevators. “what’s her name? and where was she bitten?”
Beatrix pants softly as she leaned against the elevator wall, the nurse slamming a finger onto the creature induced injuries, which is the first floor, “Leila Lupin, and she was bitten in the stomach.” She sobs as she hugged the little girl to her bosom. The nurse nodded and guided them through the open doors into a long dimly lit corridor. As they hurried down, a woman in doctor’s uniform stepped into the corridor at the end from a room. The woman has black hair tied up in a secure bun, a few strands grey with age, her eyes blue as the palest seas, her skin very lightly winkled, she seems to be too old to be in her 30s but too young to be in her 60s. the nurse called out to her, “a toddler, named Leila Lupin, she was bitten by Greyback in her stomach! Very severe, lots of blood lost.”
The other woman’s eyes widen at the name, Lupin, and she pales slightly at the name, Greyback. She lets Beatrix into the room. The room is bustling with doctors and nurses, lined with beds and cabinets of medicine, and a separate room at the far end of the main room. The beds are half full of either sleeping or moaning bandaged patients. The nurse whispered in Beatrix’s ear as the doctor barked out orders, “That’s Doctor Pomfrey.”
Doctor Pomfrey pulled fainting Leila out of Beatrix’s arms and rushed her the closed room at the back. Other doctors and nurses carrying trays of equipment followed Pomfrey into the room like a parade, inside the room, Beatrix briefly saw an operating bed.
The nurse who helped her though the hospital guided her down onto a bed and handed her a damp rag to clean the blood left on her from Leila’s bleeding. Beatrix burst into tears, “Oh my god! Leila! She’s too young to die! I failed as a nanny!” she cried into the bloody rag.
The nurse rubbed her arms, trying to calm her down, “Please, calm yourself down, you mustn’t worry, Doctor Pomfrey is the best doctor when dealing with severe werewolf and vampire attacks, your kid is in good hands, I promise.”
Beatrix gasp as she remembered something and went back to sobbing. The nurse looked at and waited for her to calm down. Beatrix blew her nose in the dirty rag, not caring about the blood.
She spoke after a second of silence. “That kid…I was looking after her for a werewolf father. I should have expected this, the father is the son of Lyall Lupin, well known for his role in the beasts division in the ministry, his father made a negative comment about werewolves, said it right in front of Greyback, that led to the werewolf attacking Remus when he was a wee little lad, but Leila….at two years old! Oh, my gods!” she burst out crying once more.
The nurse frowned as she hears her words, that girl will have a rough childhood, she thought.
The door opened and a nurse walked through, she approached the seated duo, and spoke to Beatrix, “madam, Leila is now stable, she will live, she is being closed up…but unfortunately, she now have lycanthropy.”
Beatrix gasp in horror as she looked up at her. “Ooh but how can Remus handle that?”
The door opened again, and Doctor Pomfrey walked out. She is removing bloody surgical gloves off as she spoke, “we have companies that helps with werewolf families, please let the father know after he is ready to hear the news.”
Later on in the early morning, after ensuring Leila will be safe and stable in st mungo’s, Beatrix was sent out to go back to the lupin cottage.
She stepped through the front door, fearing the worst. The house is dark and there is a flickering fire light on the ground on the hallway emitting from the living room. Beatrix slowly peeked into the living room. Sitting on the couch, elbows on knees, hands in head, sat Remus, new red scars that haven’t healed from the full moon last night peeking out of his clothes. Remus looked up, and Beatrix gasp at the state of his pale worn out face who looks like he is over his thirties when he is only 24 years of age.
Remus spoke first, “where is she….where is my daughter? Why is her room covered in blood?” he whispered, the crackle of the fire almost overshadowing his voice.
Beatrix sobs as she walks into living room and sat down next to her client which she is becoming to see as a friend and someone she wants to protect. She began to explain what happened in the previous night. Remus listened and sat back on the couch, his head falling back as he closed his eyes, his face a passive calm, masking the anger and pain in his eyes.
“So let me get this straight, greyback found a way into my house, attacked my daughter, my daughter is now a werewolf?” he muttered low and grave.
Beatrix nodded, “yes, I’m afraid so, but there are companies that helps with werewolf families, maybe you would want that?” she suggested.
Remus groans, “Hold on Beatrix, I just found out my daughter have been bitten by my maker and somehow survived, just please, we have four weeks until the next full moon, enough time.” Beatrix nodded glumly and sat back as she stared into the fire.
They both stared at the fire, wondering how their lives will progress onwards.
A/N: hope you liked this, comment and like! Love you all if you read and loved it. Let me know that you like it and want more. I will still be writing chapters but will be motivated if I know people enjoy it. Make sure if you have tips or suggestions, let me know.
