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The Werewolf Patronus


...the rise of the goblins in 1465 led to an unease throughout the magical communities. Wizarding relations with other magical species were strained and this led to talks between the non-human species such as the goblins, mermish, and centaurs…

”Fuck it!”

Remus looked up from the paragraphs upon paragraphs of goblin uprisings he’d been sifting through in his textbook all evening at the sound of Sirius Black’s voice breaking the silence... “What?”

And before he’d known it, Sirius’s hand was in his hair, Sirius’s face was hovering over his, Sirius’s mouth was against his mouth… Remus was certain it was a dream. Certain that this couldn’t possibly be happening. He’d fallen asleep by the fireside while the boys were at the Yule Ball and this was nothing but a vivid dream.. But it wasn’t a vivid dream, it was real… it was real and one of the most happy memories that Remus Lupin had.

And that was why he used it for casting his patronus.

The wand burst with light as the form fell forward, running before Remus merrily… and his heart skipped a beat for at first glance he thought it was a dog, thought it might be Snuffles, and thought of how happy that would make Sirius… He had hoped that it would be Snuffles, he’d wanted it to be Snuffles. Relief poured through him at the sight of the four legged, waggy-tailed creature running before him, glowing brilliantly light.. But then he blinked and the patronus turned about and came a bit more in focus as it stopped running, and the other students in the room, people who had been clapping and cheering a moment before suddenly gasped and one girl screamed loudly.

It was no dog that stood before him.

It wasn’t even a regular wolf that stood there.

It was a werewolf.

Remus’s heart skipped a beat for it wasn’t even just any werewolf…

It was himself.

He stared at the werewolf facing him and they stared at one another and Remus felt like he was going to throw up as his breath caught up in his throat sharply, burning as it went down...

Sirius skid to a stop behind him so hard that he slammed into Remus’s back with a thump and hooked his palms over Remus’s shoulders. James and Peter came right up behind him so there were a cluster of Marauders at one end of the gap among the students, where they’d all backed away from the shimmering werewolf.

“Oh fuck,” Sirius whispered, filling with dread.

“Isn’t that --” Peter started, but James stepped on his foot to shut him up.

Lily looked from the wolf to Remus her eyes wide with nervousness.

“Very good master Lupin!”’ called Gideon Prewett, who was beaming - beside him, Fabian nodded enthusiastically, grinning.

No, not good at all, Remus thought. Very, very bad, actually.

Frank looked at Remus with a stunned expression on his face and all seven of the first years were gaping at it from where they sat on the floor, watching the older kids producing their patroni.

“Ooh a wolf!” said Macy, with excited eyes.

“That ain’t just a wolf,” whispered Liam, “That’s a werewolf.”

“A werewolf patronus?” Harry Warbeck’s voice carried through the silence. “Is that… is that even normal? I mean for a boggart, sure, but… but a patronus?”

Remus jerked his wand upright as Gideon and Fabian had instructed them, calling the werewolf to himself, and it ran to him and leaped and disappeared back into the wand. He stood, breathless, staring at the afterglow that seemed to have burned its way into his eyes.

He looked around the room as people started whispering.

“A werewolf...”

“Who has a werewolf for a patronus?”

“...terrifying…”

“Look at those teeth!”

“It’s supposed to be a protector, not a monster!” Ollie looked panicked.

It was Ollie’s words that stung most.

Remus couldn’t move. He wanted to run away, he wanted to hide, but couldn’t. It felt like a petrificus totalus had been put on him.

“Oi! Imagine the dementor that’s gotta face a werewolf patronus!” Sirius suddenly said quite loudly, “Bleedin’ dementor’s going to wet himself!”

“Do dementors wet themselves?” Peter asked.

“Guess we’ll find out!” James beamed, “Dementor’s not gonna cross that patronus!”

“Wish I had a werewolf for a patronus!” Peter declared.

Frank looked around, “It is a pretty wicked patronus,” he relented.

Slowly everyone calmed down and a couple people were even patting Remus on the shoulders. But through it all he just stood there, Sirius’s hands still on his back, staring at the spot where the patronus had disappeared back into his wand.

“C’mon,” Sirius whispered as Jasper Odair cast a fox across the room and the attention shifted from Remus to Jasper and Sirius quickly guided Remus out of the room, quietly followed by Peter, and James, who glanced back over his shoulder just long enough to see Lily jumping up to hug Jasper with excitement as the fox patronus ran about the room.

The four Marauders ran down the hall, Sirius steering Remus along, ‘til they got to the tapestry at the end of the Trophy Room Passageway and they ducked through quickly, James tucking the tapestry back into place behind them before they sped off along through the tunnel. When they got to the alcove, Sirius set Remus down on the couch and threw himself onto the cushion beside him, crouching there, hugging his knees, his hands wrapped ‘round Remus’s arms, holding onto him tight. James sat on the other side of him and Peter sat on the floor at Remus’s feet, looking up at him as Remus stared straight ahead, his face pale.

“Okay, so… plus side,” James started, “You bloody cast a patronus, mate!” He nudged Remus, “First one of us.”

Sirius nodded eagerly, “Yeah, yeah, that’s right! And you didn’t even have to go to the first class, even!”

“You’re bloody brilliant!” Peter said. “And not many people have succeeded yet either, you’re one of the first people! If you’d been at the first class, you would’ve been the first!”

Remus looked ‘round at them. “My patronus was my werewolf form!” he said, “Everyone saw it.”

“They dunno it was you!” Peter said, “They just think it was a cool patronus.”

“They were scared,” Remus said numbly, “Didn’t you hear them? They were afraid. Even the first years were afraid of me and they know me well!”

Suddenly there was a sound in the passageway and James leaped to his feet, followed by Peter, and ran to the mouth of the alcove, facing down the passageway the way the noise had come from. Peter raised his wand - James patted himself down for his, then looked back to see it laying on the couch cushion. “Oi, toss me my wand,” he hissed and Sirius leaned over Remus to grab the wand and chucked it across the room. He drew his wand, too, but stayed there beside Remus, holding his forearm with his free hand.

“Bloody hell, put those down. It’s just me… will the lot of you calm down?” Lily’s voice carried through the tunnel, echoing.

James lowered his wand. “Evans, what’re you doing?”

“Why is it always surprising to you lot when I check on you?” she asked. Lily came ‘round the room and into the alcove, followed by Peter and James. She went over to the couch and set herself down next to Remus, “Are you okay, love?” she asked.

Peter and James sat down on the floor before Remus together.

“He’s worried about the way everyone reacted,” Peter caught Lily up.

“They’re stupid for being scared,” James said, “It’s a patronus, what’d they think, it was going to bloody attack them all? Bleedin’ idiots.”

Lily looked at James with narrowed eyes.

“What? It’s not like that’s what was about to happen.”

Lily rolled her eyes. She turned to Remus. “Rey… think about what it means. It means you’re strong.”

He looked at her. “Strong?”

“Yes. Remus, your patronus is your greatest protector. It’s your defense against a dementor,” she was petting his arm gently, “Remus, your greatest protector is yourself. You are strong enough to protect yourself… and you know it. That’s the bravest thing I’ve ever heard of!”

Remus looked at her, eyes wide with panic, “But they all saw,” He shook his head, his mouth moving with words he couldn’t quite form. “They saw that… that… bloody… horrible… mon--”

“Don’t you dare say monster,” Sirius said lowly.

Remus looked at him, then back to Lily, “Monster,” he said firmly. “Did you hear Ollie? Ollie even called it a monster. Even little Ollie!”

“Of course they did,” Lily said quietly, “They didn’t know it was you inside there.”

Remus rocked himself a little bit, “What if - what if somebody - figures it out?” he asked, worried, “What if somebody saw that and they figure out… about… about me? What if they tell? What if they tell and the whole school finds out and the Ministry? What if they come for me? Make me register? Throw me into some werewolf… detainment… program… every month? And I’m labelled. Scarlet letter on my forehead, you know. Nobody wants to hire a werewolf. Nobody!” he started to panic even more now, “I’ll be ruined. And you lot will be too busy with your regular people lives to bother with me and I’ll - I’ll end up begging on a street corner… I’ll end up all alone.”

“Bleeding hell that went from zero to fucking depressing in like a nanosecond, Moonshine!” Sirius said, “Gotta calm down, you do.”

“Yeah, you aren’t going to be alone,” Peter pledged.

“We’re not going to forget you,” Lily added.

“None of us are regular people, mate,” James nodded.

“And nobody’s going to figure out about it!” Sirius added, “There’s no way. They’d have to be a mind reader.” The words were out of his mouth no more than a second before he looked up and met Lily’s eyes.

LIly glanced at James, who was looking at Sirius with wide eyes.

“What?” Remus asked. “What’re you lot looking like that for?”

Peter looked just as confused.

Sirius glanced between James to Lily. “Could he…?” he asked.

“Very unlikely,” Lily replied, “He knows better --”

Does he?” Sirius asked. “He was just listening in the hall last night, wasn’t he? When we went down to Sluggy’s room?”

“Who? Listening ot what?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, what’re we talking about?” Remus’s eyes swiveled from James to Sirius to Lily. “Guys?”

James cleared his throat, “Were any of us thinking it?”

“Of course --” Sirius said, “Bleedin’ hell, we had to have all been thinking it.”

“Thinking it? Thinking what?” Remus looked about, his panic growing, “Thinking what? What’s thinking got to do with -- guys?”

Lily bit her lower lip nervously.

“It’s Severus Snape,” James said darkly. “Severus Snape can see minds.”




Severus Snape had caught himself by leaning against one of the desks in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

It had been James Potter’s mind he’d seen.

He’d been watching his mind from the moment that his face had fallen at the realization that the doe patronus had been his and not Lily Evans’s. He’d been wanting to see the fall of the crushed ego. Everyone knew what deers meant to Lily Evans, how she loved them so. She’d worn a necklace shaped like deer antlers everyday for over a year now - of course everyone knew what they meant to her. Having a doe for a patronus… it meant that it was Severus that was meant to be with Lily Evans. Not James Potter. And the moment that doe had been produced by his wand, Severus had known that it would shock James Potter to see it. Had waited for the moment that his eyes laid upon it, for James to see that he was Lily’s soulmate. And he’d seen exactly what he’d wanted.

He’d seen the crash of James Potter’s ego as he’d run from the room in dismay that Severus Snape had produced the doe.

Because it wasn’t easy to sever the connection once it was made, the thoughts had burst easily in Severus’s mind when James had come running back in and seen the werewolf patronus. He’d heard James’s thoughts before he’d seen the patronus itself through the thick crowd of students surrounding it, before he’d even seen whose it was…

They’ll know, James had thought… and a clear image of a room - a run down, dust-covered room - had filled his mind. A howling wolf - the werewolf - and the shining of the moon through the cracks of boarded up windows… slicing through darkness, catching floating particles of dust… and there was that dog. That dog that Severus had seen in Sirius Black’s mind. The shaggy black dog. The same dog that Regulus Black had cast as a patronus, only not shimmering and white, black and furry and real. And there in his mind was a rat with twitching whiskers and trees… thick and dark… and the black lake and the castle, windows glowing, far off across it…

Severus stumbled and that was when he’d caught himself on the desk and he stood there, catching his breath, dizzy from the speed with which the images had flooded him, dizzy with the shared panic that filled James’s veins and sped up his blood pumping through them.

Werewolf.

The word burned clear in Severus’s mind.

And then the images were gone, erased as James ran from the room with the other three Marauders, with Sirius guiding Remus Lupin - his boyfriend - along.

Severus’s arms shook as he leaned against the desk.

And suddenly his breath caught in his lungs as it dawned upon him what the truth must be…

How perfect could it get?

A patronus shows a soul mate…

Remus Lupin’s soul mate would be Sirius Black…

So, given the evidence… Sirius Black must be a werewolf.


Severus Snape’s mouth curved into the most wicked grin.

Now the murderer shall pay his debts.