Side Stories: Snakes and Wolves

AN: This one jumped on me when I started working on a prompt for a Sirius POV. That's still happening, but it wasn't willing to come until I got this little bit of angst out of the way. Uh, enjoy?

XxXxX

Remus Lupin falls in love at first sight.

Not romantically. There are still too many obstacles in his life for a werewolf like him to even dream of a romantic love right now. No, from the moment the werewolf first sees her, Iris Euphemina Potter is the apple of his eye.

The morning of July 31st, he, Peter, and Sirius are summoned to St. Mungo's with Patronus charms that simply say, It's time. They have to stay out in the waiting room while James and Lily disappear into the back, and then, they're left to hours of tense waiting before they get word that the twins were safely born. James, the overprotective git, takes forever to invite them into the hospital room after the twins are delivered.

By the time they're allowed in, James has stopped fluttering around in a panic (or, more likely, Lily loses her patience and snaps some sense into him) and Lily is sitting up in bed with the twins in her arms. James immediately scoops Harry up to meet his godfather. Remus is marveling, as he always has since the Marauders adopted him, that he's even included in this moment when he suddenly has an armful of baby girl. Iris. His goddaughter.

("You're responsible for the next little bugger, Peter, assuming Lil's willing to go through that again." James assures the last marauder with a wink. "Don't call my godson a bugger, deer boy!" "Stuff it, dog breath!")

Large, dark eyes peer up at his panicked ones with a look that's far too intelligent for any infant, and the little girl smiles. Remus' heart melts. He smiles back, and gladly cuddles with the little girl to make her gurgle and giggle. Through it all, he is careful, oh so careful, of the precious bundle given to his care. Unlike her brother, Iris does not cry that evening. She simply falls gently asleep in his arms. Peter doesn't feel comfortable holding the babe, and Lily had fallen asleep before Iris, so Remus ends up taking responsibility for her while James and Sirius bumble and panic their way through Harry's first changing.

"You're a good girl," Remus coos when he's finally willing to set Iris back in her crib. The shift to the crib has woken her, but she still doesn't cry. "You're probably going to be keeping your brother out of trouble as you grow up, aren't you, little one?" Iris yawns in response.

Sirius finally gets Harry down, and the three friends take their leave of the hospital room for the night. Remus' rambunctious friend bounces his was out to the apparition hall in uncontained excitement. Remus joins Peter in rolling their eyes at Sirius' antics, though inside he's beaming with pride and excitement as much as Sirius is. It's just three days after the last full moon, normally a time of miserable recovery for him, and yet he's never been happier.

It doesn't last. Not a week after their birth, Dumbledore brings news that the twins are in danger. That Voldemort himself may be coming for them. The children can't possibly understand the news, but Remus swears his goddaughter shows fear at the revelation. She's certainly fussy enough the rest of the evening to be feeling distressed.

"It's going to be okay, 'Rissy. We're going to keep you safe," he soothes the crying child. She stops bawling and blinks up at him with that same strange intelligence from her birthday. He says again, "I promise everything's going to be fine." She smiles a toothless little grin like she believes him. Like she knows what he's saying and trusts him to keep his word. And he does, for a while.

He's not supposed to visit while they're in hiding, but Lily and James send him regular updates to make up for it. Little notes about their progress, like how Iris can hold her head up on her own or Harry's teeth are growing in. Pictures, like Iris taking her first wobbly steps. Letters that swear Iris is teaching Harry to walk too. Confined as they are, Lily has time to include all the details, such that Remus almost feels like he's there too. Almost.

He and Sirius (okay, mostly Sirius) chip in to buy toy brooms for the twins for their first birthday. They also plan to make candies ("Lily'll never believe we actually pulled it off without blowing something up. It'll be a greater prank than just sending something store-bought!") to send for Halloween, but Sirius gets called to deal with a Death Eater raid. They postpone to November 1st (the twins don't know the dates anyways, and it's the spirit of things the counts). Sirius is late, though, so Remus gets the recipe started without his reprobate of a friend. He vows not to let the scoundrel lick the spoons when he inevitably shows up late with a stupid excuse.

Samhain morn, 1981, Remus Lupin is the last of the Marauders to learn of the Potters' fate. The wizarding world cheers and his oven smokes and all he can do is cry. That week, Remus buries three of his best friends and curses the fourth. He doesn't see Iris or Harry for one hundred and forty-four of the loneliest full moons of his life.

He does try to have contact with them, of course, but Dumbledore had already spirited them away to somewhere 'where they'll be safe' before he had even heard the news and the Ministry will not let a werewolf near The Boy Who Lived and his sister, godfather or not. He switches tactics to asking Dumbledore for updates instead. The older wizard convinces him its best for the twins to grow up in their own way, without wizards looking over their shoulders, so he gets no word until their first year at Hogwarts. Harry's the youngest seeker in a century. Iris is in Slytherin. That's about all he gets, and Remus is grateful for it.

Two years later, Sirius breaks free from Azkaban and Dumbledore offers Remus a job as the Defense Against the Dark Art professor. He knows the older wizard is only asking now to put another loyal body between the twins and The Traitor, but he accepts anyways. DADA curse or no, this is the only thing he has to offer to Harry and Iris, and he'll be damned if he lets them be harmed when there is anything at all he can do to stop it.

He later regrets falls asleep on the Hogwarts express. It's not even a deep sleep, just the light kind of napping that happens when you're traveling. He's vaguely aware when students join him in his compartment, and when they start moving. He doesn't stir, content to catch up on his sleep until a cold misery creeps up to suck at his heart…

I'm so sorry. It seems that Sirius betrayed them. Peter went to confront him… they're all dead…

No!

"Expecto Patronum!"

He jolts up and a savage wolf tears through the dementors in the compartment and down the length of the train. Sanity retakes him as the foul creatures retreat.

It is only now that he is not concentrating so intensely on the spell that he notices the chaos in the compartment around him. Both of the twins have collapsed. Harry's lying still, and seems around be coming to now that the dementors are gone. Iris, however, is writhing on the floor, screaming. She doesn't show any signs of waking even once Harry is up and well enough to worry over her. Remus shoots a stunner at her. Her movements still but she's unconscious now how is she still screaming? He doesn't know what to do.

He was right there. He was feet away from the goddaughter he was supposed to be protecting, and it didn't even matter. Iris is still out of it. He was supposed protect her, but she's still hurt. This isn't supposed to happen.

With no other recourse, he sends two more patronusses to Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey. The train is pulling into the station by this time, thank Merlin. Iris needs help now. Remus scoops Iris up in his arms to head for the exit. She's still screaming. It hurts. Not just the sound, but that something is hurting her so badly that she screams in his arms, something she never did even as a baby. It's too much. A freezing charm forcibly paralysis Iris' vocal cords. In the sudden and uncanny silence that follows the children trailing after him try to ask him what's going on. He brushes them off.

"I'm taking her to help. Keep out of my way!"

Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey are rushing down from the castle to meet him at the station. He's forced to give his precious charge over to their care. He and Harry follow them up to the hospital wing, explaining what happened as they go. Severus is waiting for them there, and the bitter old man promptly throws him and Harry right back out into the hall. Dumbledore apparently has little to offer to either, as he follows them out only a few minutes later. The headmaster calmly assures them that everything that can be done is being done, and that it's best for everyone if they all go down to the Great Hall for the welcoming feast.

Remus grudgingly accepts this, as he has always accepted these things, and helps the older man coax Harry into coming with them. Dumbledore seems to think everything is going to be fine, so everything is going to be fine.

Remus keeps telling himself that, even when Iris never joins them at the feast. He tells himself that when she doesn't come to breakfast the next morning. He thinks it when she's not in his defense class, and when the students are still speculating about it that afternoon, and when he goes to retrieve Harry from his vigil in the hospital wing for dinner. He says it in his head every time he remembers that even though he was right there this time, he still failed to protect her. Another failure in a list that's dripping with blood.

Remus didn't think he could loathe Sirius Black any more than he already did, but every day Iris doesn't wake up, he feels his hatred increase tenfold.

He still hates himself more.