𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖳𝗐𝖾𝗅𝗏𝖾: 𝖲𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒 𝖳𝗂𝗆𝖾 𝖶𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖬𝗈𝗈𝗇𝗒

| 𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕒 |

Once upon a time...

there was a countess, a witch most powerful. She carried with her an ability unbeknownst to most; it is for this reason the darkest of wizards sought her out. They longed to use her power, the power of foresight, to gain a leg up on their enemies. One such dark wizard, a knight in black, had disguised himself as a friend, posing as a concerned, loyal, devoted individual.

But the countess was not fooled. She knew betrayal was upon her; so she took her leave, slipping away unnoticed and unharmed. Only her husband, a brave knight of scarlet armour, knew of her true whereabouts.

Days, months, years went by, but still the countess remained hidden with only her husband for company, for she was w̶i̶t̶h̶ c̶h̶i̶l̶d̶ pregnant with a set of twins. They were born on the last day of summer, both beautiful, healthy babies, one boy and one girl. Unbeknownst to the countess and the knight their children shared their mothers gift of prophecy ── the girl could see the future in a positive light; the boy in a negative light. two sides of the same coin

Though the gifts were unknown to the countess and the knight they knew their children would one day be important to history; worried the knight in black would find them out, the two loving parents sent their children far away. To protect them from harm, the countess and the knight sent with them a silver chain, necklace which was embedded with the knowledge the children would someday use to defeat the dark wizards.

It was a cold, vile winter, the countess' last night; the night the knight in black had discovered her. He killed her at once with one swift swipe of his sword. The scarlet knight cried out in mourning and vowed vengeance. The knight in black cackled madly, declaring he would much enjoy the game ── like c̶a̶t̶ a̶n̶d̶ m̶o̶u̶s̶e̶ a dog chasing a rat.

And so it was with a heavy heart that the brave scarlet knight set out seeking companionship, allies to assist in his prolonged fight. He did not look for his children for he knew they were safe so long as they continued to wield their silver chain.

The first the scarlet knight happened upon was a small, fragile wolf. He was old and battleworn and much too tired to continue fighting much longer but the wolf was very knowledgeable. And so the scarlet knight struck a deal with the wolf. He would provide the wolf with food and shelter in exchange for knowledge of combat.

And so it was: every night the wolf trained the scarlet knight to better improve his skill with a sword so that he might one day be able to defeat the knight in black. In exchange, the scarlet knight, as promised, went hunting for the finest of deer meat which he fed to the wolf.

One day, while the scarlet knight was hunting he happened upon his second companion: a deer with mystical antlers.

"Do not kill me," begged the deer.."i have a family and i must return to them by nightfall for we are being hunted by the knight in black"

"the knight in black?" the scarlet knight gasped. "He has taken my wife from me. I have sworn vengeance. Come with me and together we shall put an end to his tyranny!"

the deer agreed at once. And so it was, his wife, a beautiful doe, and their child, a small fawn, went into hiding. Meanwhile, the wolf, the deer, and the brave scarlet knight set out to defeat the knight in black.

It takes months but eventually the three companions tracked down the knight in black. They had him cornered, slashing with swords, jabbing with javelins. He could not win! or so they thought.

The knight in black was a rather sneaky fellow. While the three companions had been busy hunting him they had left the deers wife and fawn unprotected. They had been discovered by the knight in blacks evil friends.

"Please do not hurt them!" begged the deer. "They have done nothing to you to deserve such hate!"

"well they dared to exist in my world," declared the knight in black. "And for that crime they must pay! Stand down or you will die with them!"

"i will not allow you to harm my family!" The deer insisted.

"Then you shall die alongside them." And the knight in black cut him down easily. The wolf and the scarlet cried out in mourning, vowing revenge for their fallen companion.

"You have tried and tried to defeat me before. This time shall be no different." Declared the knight in black. "But if you insist upon facing me then i shall make your demise quick and painless." he drew his sword.

"Tread carefully my friend," the wolf warned the scarlet knight. "The knight in black is very tricky."

"yes i shall," nodded the scarlet knight. "Go, protect our fallen companions family, if you can!"

"yes i shall," said the wolf and in a flash he was gone.

The scarlet knight raised his sword, prepared to fight the knight in black. The enemies charged the other, blades raised high into the heavens, clanking when they met. They fought and fought for hours on end until the knight in black finally gained the upper hand. He threw the brave scarlet knight to the ground, declared him weak, raised his blade and ──

"Matilda, are you listening?"

i jumped, blushing as i slammed my journal shut. "Uh, yes professor. Just, um, taking notes..." i felt bad lying to professor lupin, especially when he still looked ill and i was certain he saw right through me. But he smiled good naturedly anyway.

"Well, i can assume the rest of you find manticores just as interesting..?" professor lupin asked the rest of the class. he didn't seem surprised or offended by my lack of focus, thank goodness. In fact he almost seemed to expect it. It was the first week back to class after the holiday break. We were all a bit squirrely still, even if DADA was everyone's favorite subject. I'd been distracted since starting palmistry in divination. Apparently, i was going to have a very good love life and be very happy with my eventual wife.

Id been wondering who she could be ever since, but the real reason for my distracted state was due to the little fairy tale id just been writing before Professor Lupin had called for attention. I'm not sure what it was about divination but after every class i was always hit with a stroke of inspiration. The story was just something silly that had been in my head for ages, a royal family loosely based on my parents (well it had been in my head for a while but since ninas little reveal over the holiday i couldnt stop thinking about it; i simply had to write it down on paper). most of it was made up of course. It wasnt like i had any real facts to go off of.

At least i wasnt alone in my unfocused state. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan kept goofing off in the back; Harry seemed to be day dreaming (probably about that Firebolt of his since McGonagall had taken it away to be investigated).

the class muttered an apology But professor lupin shook it off. He seemed a little out of it himself. "I think we may as well end a little early today," he told us good naturedly. "Just read the chapter on manticores for homework."

everyone gathered their things and headed for the door, excited chatter about the holidays erupting. I wanted to hear about my friends' vacations but i still had to give professor lupin his get well card so i hung back, waiting for Harry to finish talking to him before i approached his desk. Up close he really didnt look well. I wondered if he should have had another week of bed rest. He looked as though he might fall over any minute; his eyes were droopy with dark bags under them. And he was much paler than should have been considered normal; i think, it was hard to tell, but I think i spotted a few new scars as well.

"I, um, made this for you..." i put the card on his desk. He stared at it for a moment, looking a bit surprised. "i would have given it to you during the holiday break but i couldnt find you and ── uh, you're not, like, allergic to glitter or anything are you?" it occured to me that i should have found that out before dumping a whole bottle on the project.

"No, no it's alright," he assured me.

I smiled. "Cool. Well, um... i suppose ill be going then..." I started for the door but stopped half way there. The idea had come to me suddenly, but i remembered professor lupin saying how he knew my father and harrys before...

"something else?" professor lupin asked kindly.

"Well..." I hesitated. I wasn't sure if he'd be willing to talk about it; after all, he had, if Nina was right and he was also friends with Sirius Black (i considered telling him her mad theory but ultimately decided that was a bad idea), lost two of his best friends and watched the third get hauled off to prison in a fit of madness. He'd been left all alone. If the tables were turned and i was in his place i knew i wouldnt want anyone to bring it up, i wouldnt want to think about those painful memories...besides i wasnt sure if it would be appropriate. did this violate the student-teacher relationship? but i also desperately wanted answers... i wanted to know who my family might have been, i wanted to know where i had come from. And i think i had a right to know, after all it was my family wasnt it?

"i was wondering, since you were friends with my father in school, if you could maybe tell me about him?" I took the plunge. "Ive never really known anyone whos known either of my parents before... well theres teachers here like Professor McGonagall for instance, she said he was in Gryffindor like me, but it's just... i thought if you were really good friends you might be able to give me a little more than that..?"

as expected, professor lupin tensed slightly as the subject was brought up. I instantly regretted it. "Unless its too invasive..."

"Oh. No, no it's... it's alright." He looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "There are a lot of stories I could tell you... all the mischief we'd get into... James, your father, myself, and..." he trailed off, like he didnt want to say who the fourth person was out loud and i thought again of ninas theory. "Well anyway. What would you like to know?" he looked back at me with a warm, kind smile.

I had to think about it. What did I want to know, besides the ovious: everything. I decided to start with something simple. "Well, what was he like?"

professor lupins smile widened the slightest bit as he took his walk down memory lane. "A bit like Neville Longbottom to tell you the truth. A little awkward and nervous about... well most things. Everything frightened him, and he was always forgetting things. He was terrible at school work, but when it came to making trouble with our little group he could get creative. Though, i don't think he had the confidence to share most of his ideas. I think we were the only ones he could consider real friends." 

hm. So my father wasnt the brave scarlet knight of the made up fairytale but that was fine. It's unfair to expect fantasy to match up with reality.

"Our little group met in our first year at hogwarts and had remained friends well after wards..."

he didnt have to finish that sentence. I knew what he meant. The war had changed everything for them. It was an utterly heart breaking tale. I thought i had better change the subject so as not to cause my teacher any more discomfort than necessary.

"Did you know my mother too then?"

Professor Lupin hesitated, which i thought was a bit odd for a yes or no question. "Not very well. We only met a handful of times and it usually wasnt under very friendly circumstances."

i looked back at him, fiddling with the zipper of my bag so id have something to do while he talked. "Why not?"

Professor Lupin hesitated. "When i first met your mother it was the height of the war," he said, a guilty sort of look in his eyes. "It was nearly impossible to know who to trust; your mother was a new face, someone i had never met before. She, as far as i could tell, just appeared out of thin air. for all i knew she was spying for Voldemort. I already had one friend in hiding at the time, i didnt want to make it two."

"so what? you came at her, wand waving? Hex first, ask questions later?" i asked. Im not sure why but i found the idea incredibly amusing. Maybe its becuz the idea was utterly preposterous. Our professor lupin wouldnt hurt a fly.

He grinned sheepishly. "Something like that."

"i cant see it."

"well, regardless, it wasnt the best of first encounters...in my endeavor to protect my friend, i may have crossed some lines. Admittedly, i did underestimate your fathers judgement..." 

"she turned out alright then?" i tried not to look like i was holding my breath. What would i do if one of my parents turned out to be a nutter who followed the Lame Lord?

Lupin offered me another one of those kind smiles of his. "yes, she did. although, after our first meeting, i can't say she cared much for me." he chuckled softly to himself. I offered a small laugh in return but, i was still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea of a violent lupin. it seemed utterly impossible to imagine

"What was she like?" I asked after a moment, deciding that a homicidal Remus Lupin was ridiculous and that he was probably just pulling my leg. "What house was she in? I'm assuming not gryffindor since you didn't meet until after school." 

"Well, actually your mother wasn't in any of the four houses of hogwarts. She went to a different wizarding school." Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten about the other magic schools around the world... "I'm not sure which one, she never said. Bshe was adventurous and courageous; and in many ways I think she's what Peter needed. She toughened him up a bit... or at least tried to anyway. They were only together for the one year but that's all it took for them to fall in love." 

 "did they have a very big wedding?"

"er...No, actually. I'm not sure they ─ er ─ had the time before..." he trailed off but i knew what he meant anyway. Sirius black killed my father. maybe my mother too.

"oh. Right." The news was a bit disappointing i will admit; i had always just assumed my parents had been married. I had always pictured a lovely little ceremony with lots of  confetti and beautiful music and doves soaring through the air for no reason at all, except to make people say, 'oooh!' 

Oh, well. My imagination tends to go rampant sometimes.  

"However, they did buy a house together," lupin went on. I got the feeling he was trying to raise my spirits; I must admit it did work. "He sent me a picture of it by owl when they first got it..." Professor Lupin opened a drawer on the other side of his desk; he rummaged around for a second before coming up with an old photograph. 

I took it when he handed it to me and made sure to absorb every detail of the place: a cute little cottage house somewhere on the beach with the porch going all the way around to the other side. It wasn't very flashy but it looked comfortable enough and big enough to accommodate a family of four. the sun was shining eternally, not a cloud in the sky and in the background the water gently swayed back and forth with the tide, there were birds soaring through the air overhead; the scene looked so absolutely peaceful it was hard to believe this picture had been taken during a time of war and hardship. 

i was so busy soaking in all the scenery that id almost missed the two people standing at the front of the house waving at the camera. It was almost chilling, becuz they were almost identical to the picture i had drawn so long ago back in that first divination class, it was almost eerie. dad had the same dark blonde hair and mum the same blue eyes... it was strange... seeing them in that picture, watching them smile and wave at the camera... it was actual proof, real and incontrovertible proof that they were, in fact, real, real and alive, real enough to take this photograph. Real enough to start a family together. 

they weren't just figments of my imagination, 

they werent knights or countesses or made up drawings or stories but instead real, living people who had, at some point in time, actually existed. They had flaws and hopes and dreams and thoughts. and they moved and acted like normal people. Maybe their story wasnt as grand as any of my fantasies but it was real and it was theirs. and somehow that was even better than my wildest dreams. 

I lowered the photo back on the desk as gently as i could, worried i might bend or tear it and ruin the peacefulness of it.

"what was her name?" i was still staring at my mother and father in the photo. Id learned his name but no one at hogwarts had ever known who she was.

"I believe she told peter her name was mary jane."

i stared at professor lupin for a moment, his eyes lighting up with amusement at my reaction in spite of looking like he desperately needed a nap. "Mary Jane?"

"yes," he smiled, the amusement in his eyes only growing.

"And Peter?"

"Well, I'm sure it was a fake name. As i said it was difficult to know who to trust, im sure she wanted to make sure she was safe before she revealed her true name. I never did but I'm sure she told your father at some point."

i was hardly listening. "Mary jane and peter. Peter and mary jane." Wow. "This is just fuel for six year old Magnus' theory that our father is somehow spider-man isnt it?"

Professor Lupin's lip twitched and i got the feeling he was trying very hard not to laugh. "No, I'm sorry. I'm afraid your father isn't Spider-man."

"right. Far as you know."

"As far as I know, yes."

We both shared a laugh before i had another thought. "Hold on. Have you just been carrying this Photo around with you for twelve years?" 

Professor Lupin gave a sheepish grin but shook his head. "I actually dug up a few of James' and Peter's old things recently. I thought you and your brother might be a bit curious about your father after our last conversation, as well as Harry about his. I've been waiting for one of you to ask. though i will admit i wasnt expecting it just now,  so i was a bit caught off guard. I would have thought someone would say something before now..." 

"Professor, we've all got undiagnosed ADHD. You can't expect us to remember we want to do things like that."

He nodded in understanding. "James and Peter were the same way. Peter was something of a daydreamer, a bit like yourself." Ooh. That was interesting, I thought. i had something in common with my father. "James could never focus on anything unless it was Quidditch or getting Lily's attention..."

"lily is Harry's mum?" i asked just to make sure I had remembered her name right. You couldnt very well disrespect the dead, could you?

"yes she was, yes. James had been infatuated with her since they met."

"sounds...hetero."

"on the contrary james was a bisexual disaster."

"like Harry" i grinned.

"Yes." professor lupin chuckled. "Like harry. though James wasnt the only one. There were times i was convinced Peter fancied him."

"Understandable. The potters have very good genes. I might fancy harry myself if i were a straight girl."

We shared another laugh. It was really nice to have someone to talk about all this with and it was so easy to talk to lupin that i could almost imagine i was reminiscing with an uncle id known my whole life rather than a teacher i had just met that year. I could almost pretend i'd been apart of these memories. That i had been there and lived it too. I could almost pretend i'd grown up in that little beach house with both my parents happily smiling the whole time and that nothing had ever gone wrong and everyone was alive and well.

I could almost pretend but not quite.

"But you still had the picture ready in your desk just in case." I asked, looking at the photo on the desk between us again. There was a sense of longing i couldnt quite explain. Id been robbed of something very good and it was quite sad to know that both those smiling faces in the picture were no more. That house, that family, that life was no longer a possibility even if my tea cup in that first divination class had told me otherwise...

"just in case," he agreed. "the boys have yet to say anything however." 

"They're a bit emotionally unstable professor. Just look at harry. Chap blew up his aunt this summer..."

 i didnt like being cynical that was my brothers job and besides there was no sense in being upset over things i couldnt change so i had decided i would go about joking as if nothing were the matter. Was i repressing my emotions? well perhaps i was just a bit but honestly i had no idea how to feel at the moment. I was glad to be having this conversation it was just that i was sad, not having my parents or any family around at all really. I thought i might even accept someone awful like the dursleys if it meant having some type of family out there...

professor lupin gave another soft chuckle at my comment but i think he could see my confliction anyway. Perhaps becuz he was having similar thoughts himself? he did look rather tired now and i thought he might be in danger of falling asleep in the middle of our conversation. I wonder what sort of flu did a thing like that?

"Well," he said looking up at the clock. "The other classes should be letting out now, i suppose you should start heading for your next class...and i should prepare for mine as well..."

"Oh, right. We're in a school." somehow id almost forgotten. "Your a teacher and im a student."

"Yes," he agreed with a soft smile. "That is a true."

"well then what have you been talking to me for so long for? Professor you have a job to do! You have to educate! i have got to be educated!" I stood up dramatically and swung my bag over my shoulder. "Good day to you sir!"

He laughed at my melodrama and stopped me again before i reached the door. "Matilda why dont you take this?" He held up the picture of my parents standing in front of their house. "I suspect you need it more than i do."

"Professor lupin, neville longbottom isnt the only one in this school who has a short term memory. If i take that with me itll be lost or ripped before i even enter the corridors." it was the truth i could be quite scatter brained from time to time. I really did want to accept the offer but i wanted to keep the photo's perfection. I couldnt allow myself to ruin it in anyway. "That gesture is very nice, though, so thank you"

"of course," he nodded.

"And thanks for talking with me. it was very nice."

With that i left the class room feeling very conflicted. i had learned so much and yet i felt like I still knew very little about either of my parents. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know every last detail i could get; but i suppose there's only so much an old friend could give. We could talk every day for the rest of our lives and it still wouldnt be enough.

There was only so much authenticity that could be stored within a single persons memories. hearing the stories and being told about them would never be the same as knowing them myself.

i was grateful however to have at least this much. and so i allowed myself to smile happily as i caught up with lavender and parvati.