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#remus lupin is still my comfort character even though i encourage you to NOT buy harry potter books
homenum-revelio-hq · 4 years
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Welcome (back) to the Order of the Phoenix, Gabe!
You have been accepted for the role of REMUS LUPIN! We loved your thoughts on the darker, more difficult layers of Remus’s friendships and fears and we were fascinated by your ideas about lycanthropy’s effects on his gender transition! We’re so happy you’ve come back to Homenum Revelio, and excited to see you on our dash again!
Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!
OUT OF CHARACTER:
NAME: Gabe
AGE: 22
TIMEZONE: GMT-3
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Honestly pretty active, I’m still quarantined and will stay that way for a good while, probably. Remus is just one of those characters that comes easy to me, so good chances that I’ll be around a lot, hah. I’m most active on the weekdays! Weekends my sister usually tricks me into watching a billion movies or a new show, so I end up being less present.
ANYTHING ELSE: Nope!
CHARACTER DETAILS:
NAME: Remus John Lupin
AGE: 21
GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: trans male, he/him/his, he’d rather not classify his sexuality as anything other than not-straight.
Remus didn’t start taking the wonderful Attisgalli Corrective Draughts until he joined Hogwarts officially, as his parents wanted to wait for that before they started him on the gender reassignment potions. That’s not to say they didn’t support their son’s identity, which he’d been frankly very vocal about since he could talk, they just wanted to be sure that he would be safe. He already had a lot on his plate. Being a werewolf, they needed to make sure the potions could even be safely used with someone like him, so they waited to talk to Dumbledore and his trusty team of potion-makers about it. Remus was on corrective draughts for all of his puberty and he’s currently on the heavier dose that only needs updating every few years. He has a few annoying side-effects after taking the wrong dosage too early. He doesn’t suppose many people know about this, and he doesn’t particularly care to tell anyone, apart from the people who already know.
As far as his sexuality goes, I don’t think he likes any of the labels he’s stumbled upon, I don’t think he openly – or even privately – calls himself anything when it comes to sexuality. He just doesn’t give it much thought. He likes whoever he likes, and if you were to say “oh, so you’re pansexual, then”, he might simply offer you a tired grunt and an unhappy twist of his face. He doesn’t feel comfortable in any boxes. “Queer” as an umbrella term would be the closest he’d get to labeling himself. All that being said, as the writer, I’d personally put him as a 4 on the kinsey scale, but that’s between you and me.
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood/Half-breed
HOUSE ALUMNI: Gryffindor
ANY CHANGES: Don’t think so! I’m keeping the fc of Charlie Rowe after surfing through many others because I think he does Upset & Angry right. That’s really important for a Remus, he’s working through a lot right now. I also really considered to go for Paul Mescal from the new show “Normal People” because I think he has a great normal face and (from what I can tell, maybe) some pretty scars on his chin and he has some great scenes BUT he currently has no resources. Also considered Louis Hofmann, from netflix’s Dark, but decided he looked too young, even though he’s in his twenties, too. Anyway, just wanted to briefly take you with me on that faceclaim journey, the conclusion is that I love Charlie Rowe and I didn’t know him before so I thank you guys for suggesting him!
CHARACTER BACKGROUND:
PERSONALITY:
Remus today is very different from who he was in Hogwarts. That’s no surprise, of course – who doesn’t grow out of their weird teenage years? But it feels different with him, and that’s because at seventeen, Remus already had enough baggage to count for an adult. So where does that leave you, at twenty-one?
He is a lot of things. He is tired, he is angry, he is devastated, he is young. If before he was only a boy, crushed under the weight of all the things that happened to him, now he is a man, standing tall but hardened by life’s constant beating. He hasn’t so much overcome his issues as he has simply grown friendly with his demons. His edges have turned sharper, his hands have grown colder, he’s losing contact with his faith.
That’s not to say his core has changed. Remus is kind, before anything else. He hasn’t lost the warmth his mother taught him, because that kind of empathy is not something one easily shrugs off. Even the war couldn’t take this from him. It wears him down these days, being selfless, having a caring vein and needing to look after others. He’s already lost so much, and he doesn’t see this changing anytime soon, as they continue to lose battle after battle, but this is still who he is. He wants a better world, he wants the good side to win.
Remus is also very secretive. He can come across as cold or distant to people he doesn’t know, because he had a lifetime of keeping himself concealed. It’s his defense mechanism and it’s how he’s kept himself alive after all these years.
In fact, he’s not even fully sure how his few friends managed to slip under that armour so easily. Sure, his armour wasn’t so well-built when he was a child, but it was still some work. He was once simply a scared eleven-year-old, eager to learn and be a good student, and suddenly he ended up in a lifelong bond with three other idiots. In a lot of ways, he owes so much of his personality to the Marauders. He bloomed in Hogwarts, he had a safe and healthy environment with people he loved, he could finally grow into a normal boy; he cracked jokes and he made fun of himself and he learned not to take things so seriously. He was not just a werewolf, not just a monster. He’s a great friend, he’s funny on his good days, he’s sarcastic and kind and protective of his friends. He owes this to them.
Remus is a trans man who started taking corrective draughts as soon as he entered Hogwarts. Dumbledore was the one who encouraged his parents to allow this, promising he’d keep an eye out and take care of Remus. There wasn’t exactly any research done on whether or not the potions would affect a werewolf’s body differently, so they’d have to be cautious, but several potion makers insisted nothing should go wrong.
They were right, technically. The potions didn’t react any kind of way with his blood, they did their work normally. It also perhaps helped that most of the side-effects were all things that Remus had been dealing with his whole life, due to the curse: muscle and joint aches, mood swings, headaches. The only catch was that every time he turned, every full moon, when he came back into his human form, the draught had completely worn off.
This made things a little more complicated. It didn’t mean anything to his health, thankfully, all he had to do was take another dose of the potion in the morning and he’d be back on track. It was something about his metabolism overworking, the fact that his body healed itself after each moon. They could never quite fix that little quirk – every morning after the full moon, he’d wake up in a body that didn’t belong to him.
This was when he was on a small dosage of the draught, of course, still going through puberty and taking the so-called “Children’s Corrective Doses” that had to be ingested every week.
Despite the general crippling discomfort of briefly being in the wrong body once a month, it was fine when he was making the turns by himself at first. Then the Marauders joined, and that was weird; it took him a while to agree to their presence and it wasn’t only because they could be in danger. He was scared of being that vulnerable, too.
Because of this monthly hiccup on the process, potioneers instructed that he should be on this smaller dose for as long as possible before he transitioned safely into the “Permanent Corrective Dose”. Five years at least, seven if he could, before he switched to the potion that he’d only have to take every two years or more. This shouldn’t be a problem, he thought innocently, hearing this at age eleven.
By sixteen, the temptation of the Permanent Dose was too grand. It stopped being bearable after a while, the whole “waking up in the wrong body once a month” experience. And the temptation was there because the potioneers said that an adult dosage would likely fix that monthly issue. All he wanted was to stop worrying about this thing – wasn’t the fact that he turned into a murderous beast more than enough? Besides, he was turning seventeen soon, he was most likely done with puberty, he had done the smaller doses for six years already.
So the Marauders made a grand plan. And out of all the illegal, morally questionable things Remus has done, he probably holds this one as the best. They managed to buy him a vial of a Permanent Corrective Dose, and he drank it without thinking twice.
This didn’t come without consequences. Dumbledore was mad. His parents were mad. Every potioneer he knew was pretty annoyed. He frankly couldn’t give a damn, he was overjoyed – it had worked. The moon came, and for the first time when he came back to his senses, he was in the right body, his body. He didn’t care if anyone was pissed at him.
He still doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about the debilitating migraines he still gets as a side-effect. He doesn’t care that his muscles will sometimes cramp, or that his skin sometimes feels raw. He can handle all of that – quite frankly, he’s happy to deal with all of that, if it means keeping his body through the transformations.
It’s important to take from this that Remus Lupin doesn’t shy away from many things. He likes to deal with things head-on, he is a Gryffindor, after all. Once Dumbledore sent him to live with the werewolves shortly after graduating, he made sure to take another permanent dose, a heavier one, to last him however long he stayed out. This time the draught was acquired legally, since he was already of age, but the higher dose in this short amount of time wasn’t exactly what the mediwix ordered. This ended up aggravating his side-effects.
Still – and perhaps that is a testament to his stubbornness –, he’ll tell you this was all worth it.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:
Remus grew up in a happy home. Well, as happy as a family could be, while plagued by the curse of lycanthropy. So maybe not so happy at all.
He doesn’t remember much of his early childhood, if you ask him. He remembers the looming sense of despair, he remembers seeing his parents cry through cracks of barely open doors, he remembers quiet dinners and he remembers feeling awful. He can’t remember not being a werewolf, but he thinks they were the happiest before that.
They were okay after it, eventually, too. They all had to learn to navigate it, and once he grew a little older, things were easier, as easy as they would get. He remembers that time a little better – the times just before he went to Hogwarts and his time at the castle, too.
Overall, Remus grew up with a good family, he’d tell you. They didn’t have many distant relatives, so it was always just the three of them, and his parents were supportive – mostly. Hope was the warmth of the house, and if anything, she only grew closer to Remus after he was bitten. She was overprotective, and stern, and she had trouble handling when things didn’t go exactly her way, but those are hardly things kids notice about their parents when they’re still kids. He could tell you this today, but his memories of her are still all sugar-coated, tinted pink, gentle.
She didn’t understand his gender identity at first, his father once told him. Hope still had too many roots in the muggle world, it took her some time to wrap her head around all of these ideas. Lyall was the one who had to sit her down and explain to her about the corrective draught, and how common it actually was, how safe. She was the one who wanted to wait for a talk with the Headmaster before she let him take the potions.
Luckily for Remus, he was so young by the time she was having those first doubts and issues with his identity, he doesn’t have any bad memories of that. To him, she never mistreated him, and he never felt anything but accepted. She protected him with all of her heart, and that included all of him, her son, and a werewolf.
In fact, one of his fondest memories of her is getting a haircut, before his very first day in Hogwarts. He usually wore his hair somewhere a little above shoulder-length, a little choppy; he just liked how it swung when he ran, to be honest, and how it splattered water everywhere if he spun his head really fast in the shower. But he was terrified of having magic classes for the first time, he was scared of being thrown into a castle full of people he didn’t know, far away from his parents, the only safe haven he knew. She was the one who suggested a haircut first. They sat and flipped through silly muggle magazines until he found a cut he liked on some cologne ad, and she did it herself. Looks somewhat similar to what he still has as a haircut, if only with more bowlcut-esque qualities back then.
Lyall was more distant, growing up. Hope had little trouble getting over her bias of gender to accept his identity, but his father couldn’t do the same for his curse. If you asked Remus, he never really accepted his child being a werewolf, he was ashamed of his condition.
If you asked Lyall, the story’s a bit different. He was distant, but only because he couldn’t deal with all of the turmoil within himself. He couldn’t look at his child without thinking that he was the one responsible for Fenrir’s attack. He was responsible for his son being a werewolf, cursed forever – how could he look at Remus and see past that? Of course he was distant. Of course he dedicated his time trying to find a cure. As the turns hurt Remus, they hurt his father just as much. Every moon, he suffered with him.
It was hard for him, looking past that, but not because he was in any way ashamed of the condition. He felt sorry, and he didn’t know where to put all the guilt. He didn’t want to spend all of his time pitying his child, but he did. And it was easier to be distant when he felt undeserving of his son’s love in the first place; there would never be anything he could do to make up for this.
In conclusion, they were good parents, but it would also be unfair to completely ignore that Remus has such an issue with being a werewolf, as an adult, and – given that he was closeted about that his whole life –, this must’ve come from his parents. Their efforts to protect and hide Remus’ lycanthropy have not done him any good on the long run, they have not quite focused on the “but also, love yourself” part of their speech. Not to fully blame them or anything, of course there isn’t a “how to raise a werewolf” manual out there, and they had to deal with so much since he was just a little boy, they did what they had to do to keep their child safe. Remus truly believes they did the very best they could, and that they were perfect parents, given the circumstances.
I don’t think it registers to him that they may be the very root of the crippling self-deprecation he feels, and frankly, I don’t think it ever will register. This is not the kind of thing you unravel within yourself without some serious help.
Nowadays, since Hope’s passing, the two Lupin men have managed to grow closer. The hurt is still there, Remus still thinks his father is too cold and ashamed of him, and Lyall thinks he’s guilty and that Remus must hate him. They’re not big on talking about feelings, but they’re warmer with each other now than they ever were. That’s not saying much, it’s barely anything more than the occasional back pat and smile, but Remus likes to think Hope would be happy.
OCCUPATION:
He currently still works with the Dissendum Task Force, as he feels truly at home taking care of that part of things. He wants a job, he always wanted to be able to take care of himself, of course, I imagine he put up a fight when it came to depending solely on James’ money. He always intended to pay it back, to eventually find something for himself. He grew comfortable, the slightest bit, with James’ money, knowing he had that safety net while he figured things out, and while they all had bigger things to worry about. Now he has lost his friend, and he needs to find something, anything, to keep himself afloat, and all of this on top of the grieving, it might just make him reach a breaking point.
ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:
Remus feels like a paradox within the order. He feels both at the very center of it, as well as standing on the outside, looking in. He believes in them wholeheartedly, even if he’s not so sure he stumbled upon all of this belief himself, or if it’s been drilled into him by one very dedicated James Potter. And now that James is gone – how should he know how to feel?
More and more, he feels like he’s simply floating around in this war, a walking mystery, neither here nor there. He does as he’s told, he helps whoever he can help, and he won’t say a peep but he is starting to question his own faith, at this point. It’s difficult not to. He had a problem going with the werewolves, of course, and that time was generally awful, but he owed Dumbledore too much to say no. How much of what he does really is his choice, or someone else’s? He’s starting to grow tired of it.
He loves his friends more than anything, therefor he loves the Order, but he’s afraid of how long this might last.
SURVIVAL:
Remus is always on the move, but that’s nothing new to him. He’s been on the move since he was a kid, occasionally dragged off from one side of Europe to another, their family led by his father’s blind ambition towards finding a cure. He never felt like he could truly stop, and he grew up to embrace a sense of restlessness. The first place he truly understood the meaning of “home” was the castle, and even then, he knew his time there would have an end. In a way, this has helped him survive. He stays alert, he stays on the move. He’s always ready to pack up and disappear, as long as he knows he has the right people on his side.
His current living situation is, I imagine, complicated at best. He wouldn’t want to get a place on money that’s not his own, and he’s never been able to make his own money, at least not substantially. First, he was out with the other werewolves, he followed them anywhere and slept wherever he could when he needed to.
Then, he stayed at the McKinnon estate, and even though he knows he can stay there, he’s still often looking over his shoulder, waiting for the day they’ll kick him out. It still doesn’t feel right. It never does. He hasn’t felt at home since Hogwarts – or, perhaps, the odd times in between when he couch surfed wherever Sirius, James, or Peter were staying.
Now, he’s with his father momentarily, hiding. He hasn’t told Lyall anything that happened, he just packed up and showed up at his father’s doorstep. The contact isn’t ideal, but Remus needed the full recharge, even if just for a day or two. Lyall welcomed him with a brow heavy with concern, but he put the kettle on for some tea anyway, and he didn’t ask questions he didn’t want the answers to. Remus deemed that good enough.
RELATIONSHIPS:
Oh, boy. Things are a mess. This is the emo part of the app.
I must start this section talking about how much friends mean to Remus. They mean everything. Everything he heard since he was five-years-old was how much he needed to hide himself, how badly he needed to keep this secret, or everything would end terribly. He was a monster. He was capable of horrible, despicable things, and no one could accept him. By eleven, he’d come to term with this. By eleven, he barely even believed he’d get the chance to study. This is the weight this little kid had to carry around.
And then – enter the Marauders, the best, most miraculous thing to happen to him. A boy with a curse, suddenly welcomed into the coolest group of kids he’d ever met. He honestly felt like it was some kind of lie, or an elaborate prank. Those very first months after they met, he’d wait until the others all fell asleep and he’d write letters to his mom, telling her all about them. He’d write fast and he’d write over several sheets of parchment, talking about all the wonderful, terrible things that boys their age did. He was happy.
Eventually, he stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop. They grew close, the others found out his secret, they never once turned away from him. They helped him. They loved each other, the lot of them. And it was so, so much more than a monster could hope for – still, to this day, he’s not sure how they do it, how they can love him. He owes them so much, but it’s not even about that, it’s not about owing. If he did, he’d owe them his entire soul. There’s not enough space in his body, in his heart, for how much he owes them.
They were, and they continue to be, everything.
And then the war happened. They parted ways, and by the time Remus came back, things had shifted. Things felt off. He was certain the love was still there – it has to be, it has to –, but it felt like it was stained, tainted by something else, something ugly. Suddenly, he’s not sure he can trust them anymore, but he doesn’t know if that’s his gut speaking, or if it’s paranoia.
That’s the duality of man, and the duality of monster, he supposes. Everything trails between gut feeling and paranoia. He’s scared of being doubted, so he’ll turn a pointing finger right back. If they think he can be a mole, then they can be a mole.
He’s terrified of losing them. More than anything, Remus really is terrified of losing his loved ones. He knows he can survive it; he’s lost his mum, he now lost James, you would think he’s hardened enough by now to be able to take it, but he’s not. In his eyes, they are his humanity. What is he, if he doesn’t have his friends? What’s a monster if he isn’t loved?
They all knew going into this that it wouldn’t be easy, sure, but sometimes Remus feels a little alone in how much he feels. It seems like the world keeps turning, the war doesn’t stop for grief. And it feels like everyone else picks themselves up and moves right along with it, but he can’t. Every death weighs on him, every loss has just been piling and piling up onto his shoulders and he doesn’t know how much else he can take. He feels like everyone else is so much better equipped for this. They all mourn, sure, but… do they? They can’t be feeling this like he does, because if they were, they’d be feeling this crippling dread. They’d be feeling how hard it is to move, how shaky his hands feel all the time, how his heart seems to be broken into a million pieces and all of his insides have rottened.
He resents that. He wants to be able to grieve openly without feeling like he’s slowing anyone down. He wants to be able to feel things, and give them time, before they’re running into the next death trap that could easily take another one of his loved ones. He really needs the time to stop and feel this, because it’s crushing him, and he doesn’t feel like any of his friends understand how bad it is – which in itself is the most crushing part of it. When did they all become these sort of robots programmed for war? And why didn’t he get that memo?
James Potter – Don’t get me started on the duality of being so hurt by the fact that your best friend outed your biggest, most damning secret to everyone, and then died. I mean. What the fuck, James. In all seriousness, this is a lot to handle, which is why he deserves to be mentioned in this section even if this doesn’t exactly make for new plots. Remus doesn’t know how to feel; normally he’d be upset at that betrayal, accidental or not, but he didn’t even have the time to process that, before grief steamrolled into everything. He wants to be angry. He wants the right to be mad, to maybe yell at James, to hear his apologies and immediately forgive him, because of course he’s not really angry, he’s just scared. And instead, he gets silence.
Sirius Black – Sirius always has a way of filling up every room he walks into. Remus always thought he’d be better off if he was a little more like Sirius, and maybe that’s why they work – how opposing their energies are. Remus is always trying to make himself smaller. In a way, this is also why they don’t work, on the times they don’t. Sirius was probably the person he trusted the most, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye. It hurts him a lot to think that maybe this trust is broken now; that maybe after all of this, they’ll end up too cold and distant to have the friendship they used to have. He hopes, blindly, that’s not the case.
Peter Pettigrew – He feels protective towards Peter. Maybe that stems from their years in the castle, how Peter was seen as the little kid who trailed behind them and not one of the Marauders himself. Remus never liked hearing that. And Peter is different than the others to him, he always seemed a bit smaller, a bit more innocent; Sirius and James have no trouble taking care of themselves, that’s not even a question. Peter, on the other hand. Remus feels like he needs to help him any way he can.
Lily Evans – He loves Lily like a sister. She reminds him of his mother, sometimes, with her warmth and her determination. She’s the strongest person he knows, and he think he’d probably trust her and follow her blindly anywhere – or, at least, he felt like that when they were all in school. He still wishes they were closer nowadays, he wishes they spoke more.
Marlene McKinnon – She’s too cool for him, honestly. Plain and simple, somewhere in the core of his being, he’s still just a really lame teenager who thinks she might be too cool to hang out with him. He’s grateful that he gets to crash at the estate, but he’s also well-aware of her family’s view of the half-breeds. He can’t quite relax while he’s there, he keeps expecting to be discovered and kicked out any passing second. Now that his secret is out, he fears she’ll turn on him.
OOC EXPLORATION:
SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS:
I ship Remus/chemistry first, always, of course! I always find that you have to throw characters together in action before you start planning anything, you never know where the chemistry will be. I’ve taken part in many a ships in my time, Sirius/Remus probably being the main one, but in this context, everything’s a little trickier! It’s a very unstable, difficult time, and this is a very sad and angry Remus. He wants something, he wants to have someone, I just don’t think he even knows how, or where to begin with. I think he pushes the idea of romance so far back in his brain, thinking he can never have it, that it’s almost an impossibility in itself because of it. I think he’ll have a very difficult time believing anyone wants him like that, even if it does happen. I really look forward to possibly exploring any ships if chemistry happens! And I don’t think I have any anti-ships, currently. All is fair in the rp land.
WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?
It is safe to say Remus has a bias against werewolves, in the saddest, most twisted way possible. Yes, he is one, and he doesn’t deny that to himself, but there’s a reason why he’s so careful to hide it from everyone else, why he was so reluctant in letting even his closest friends help him out – he agrees with all the stories and tales. He doesn’t feel proud to have this curse, he wouldn’t defend it if someone were to attack it.
They are monsters, once a month, under the moon. It doesn’t matter if his friends for years tried to convince him he’s a good person, he won’t believe it until he lets go of these horrible ideas he has of the curse itself. Even after meeting so many others like him. He may think hating it – hating himself – makes him better, a higher moral ground on the scale, as opposed to the werewolves who flaunt it. He may think some of them, like Fenrir, are worse than him for this, but it doesn’t make things that much better for how he views them.
As far as privileges go, Remus recognizes he has it pretty easy as far as his family life goes. He had loving parents – as far as he can tell –, he had a normal home life; he’s a half-blood, which meant he usually flew under the radar, considering how other wix seemed to view muggleborns, in contrast.
But as far as privileges he doesn’t recognize, I’d say that’s probably more interesting. Remus thinks of himself as a monster. A werewolf, bitten while he was still so young. His bite scar sits on his shoulder, now grown and shifted but the pale scar tissue never gone, an ugly mark. He doesn’t think himself particularly handsome, he doesn’t see many talents that stand out. He thinks he’s pretty much at the very bottom of the food chain.
Which is all kind of untrue, he’s blinded by his self-deprecation. Everyone has privileges, he is no different. He’s a werewolf, and that’s terrible, but other than that he’s not exactly doing too bad. He was always a good student, he liked studying, good grades came easy. His looks had never proven to be a problem, even if he believes it is. He had a good home, dedicated parents, he never ran out of money for books and robes and chocolate bars growing up. If you strip Remus of his lycanthropy – and lord knows he’s dreamed of that –, the truth is, he doesn’t have anything else to feel sorry about. And he’s so stuck feeling sorry for himself all the time, that he has a hard time recognizing his privileges and biases.
To him, he’s a monster, but to anyone else who doesn’t know of his condition, he’s really just another regular guy fighting the war. Of course, now, with everyone’s discovery – things will change.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?
Well, I’m not new to this scene, hi, hello! So I already know everyone here is an amazing writer, and I adore you admins (I promise I’m not just sucking up for the sake of the app, it’s true). I love Remus, it’s been a few years since I last played him but he’s the muse that’s always alive in my head – this is the fastest and longest bio I ever wrote, to prove my point, aha. I especially love this Remus, the mid-war, post-Hogwarts, “can’t get a job”, “questioning the loyalty of the people I love the most” Remus. He’s feeling a lot. He’s tired, he’s angry, he’s grown sharp edges from the soft boy he once was. There’s so much to explore, and while it’s definitely a little scary to fill in someone else’s shoes, I’m really looking forward to writing with everyone and exploring all the many plots and relationships possible!
PLOT DROP IDEAS (OPTIONAL):
I’m terrible at these, I’ll admit, but I am open to everything you may want to throw my way! I also think I’ll need to take a second to acclimate into any of Remus’ pre-existing plots before throwing around any specifics of my own.
That being said, though, something that I’m excited to explore is his current unemployment. I want him to search for some kind of proper job to try to pay things for himself. I think he’s too proud to ask anyone else for help at this point, and he might have several emotional breakdowns on this process, but he’s gonna do his best. Also anything to do with his current (quite terrible) side-effects from Attisgalli Corrective Draughts, or exploring his gender identity in general, I’d love that!
ANYTHING ELSE? I was gonna do a pinterest board but I’ll spare you guys the trouble for now, this is already 11 pages long. Oops! Thank you for reading!!
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We Are Young (Part 1)
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Summary: Grâce is a young witch that already prove herself to be an excellent student of Hogwarts. This year though, some things might change as her little sister, in turn, enters the school of wizardry.
Characters: Female!Original Character(s), Young!Sirius Black, Young!James Potter, Young!Remus Lupin
Parings: Female! OC x Young! Sirius Black
Word count: 1780
A/N: Hi there! So this is my first Harry Potter fanfiction. I thought I’d never write it, or write again for that matter, but here we go, this fandom gave me the inspiration to get back into reading and writing. I’ll try and keep writing chapters as long as I can and I really hope you’ll enjoy this!
Another quick note before we begin, the name of the main character is Grâce (I spell it the French way) but it can is pronounced by most of the other characters like the name ‘Grace’. Let me know if you would like for me to get rid of the accent on the ‘â’ for reading comfort.
Let’s get started now!
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“But what if I’m not sorted into Ravenclaw, I will never see you again…”
Grâce took her bag off of the luggage rack and put it down on the padded seat before looking down to find her sister’s eyes. They were full of apprehension, her brain storming with bad thoughts, anticipating her sorting. It was her first year in Hogwarts and started preparing for it as soon as she got her letter, excited by the start of this new step of her life. That was until excitement was replaced with doubt and concern.
“Stop worrying so much, everything will be fine,” Grâce said, trying in vain to help her sister calm down, “Besides, we can still see each other even if we’re not in the same house,” she added, “we can meet at breakfast and lunch, and on breaks too…” she explained, pulling two long black robes out of the bag.
“But everyone in the family was a Ravenclaw, what if I’m different…?” Her sister said, shifting her position on the seat to kneel on it, facing the back and turning her head to look into Grâce’s eyes.
“Not everyone,” Grâce corrected, “Grandma was a Gryffindor, remember, and a proud one at that,” she stated, giving her sister a nod. The latter sat properly again, looking a little upset.
Grâce was right, but still, she wanted to be in Ravenclaw. Almost every member of their family that attended Hogwarts was sorted into Ravenclaw, a lot of them excelled in school. The past year, Grâce achieved all her O.W.L.s, she was so skilled in Arithmancy, Divination, Potions, Herbology and many other subjects and fields, including Quidditch, being part of the team since her third year. She would be expected to do as well as her older sister. At least that’s how she saw it, and she would hate to be a disappointment to her family.
“Come on, you should put on your robes, we’ll be there soon,” Grâce interrupted her sister’s train of thought, gently nudging her arm with the hand that held the robes. The girl took them and proceeded to put them on. Grâce sat down again, unfolding her own garment.
“But what if I’m in Slytherin…?” She asked quietly, taking a quick look at the boy sitting across from them, on the other seat. Grâce mechanically turned her head to find the student, already in his black and green robes, the Slytherin emblem on his chest. He was reading Libiatus Borage’s book of Advanced Potion-Making, a book that Grâce herself had to buy this year, and seemed absorbed in his reading.
To her surprise, the boy looked up from his book, and Grâce’s look briefly met his black eyes, peeking through equally dark stands of hair. She quickly looked away though, scolding herself for being so intruding and impolite. She came around quickly and looked at her sister again. Reaching out to arrange the fastening of her robes.
“Well, then you’ll still be an excellent witch, except you’ll be wearing green,” she simply said, playfully poking her sister’s nose with her finger.
Grâce looked over at the boy again, just to make sure she didn’t upset him too much, but he was still reading in silence. After she quickly slid on her own robes, she sat back and turned her head to the window, letting her eyes wander to the slow-moving mountains, still slightly visible in the light of the setting sun, her ears filling with the metallic clatter of the train zooming along the railroad as everyone in the compartment stayed silent.
Later when the train reached Hogsmeade station, Grâce guided her sister out of the compartment, making sure she didn’t forget anything, and out of the train, leaving the dark-haired boy behind without a word.
As soon as they stepped onto the platform, a loud and hoarse voice reached their ears. “First years! This way please,” the voice said and Grâce turned her head to see Hagrid standing at the end of the platform, a lantern in hand. “Come on, don’t be shy…” he said playfully.
Grâce turned to her sister who looked back, concerned, expecting her to confirm what the man said. “This is Hagrid, he’ll take you all to the castle,” Grâce announced with a gentle voice, her sister didn’t move. “Come on, off you go…” she said, gesturing her to make her way to the end of the platform. “I’ll see you later in the great hall,” she then explained with a nod, and the girl was off to join the other first year students.
Grâce’s lips bent into a small smile as she watched her sister walk away, her robes swirling slightly with each step in the gentle wind. She remembered her first year, she remembered walking along the train to join the crowd. She remembered the excitement and the amazement when she first saw the stone castle, its thousands of lights standing out in the dark of night and reflecting on the surface of the lake. With this in mind, she turned the other way and started walking towards the carriages, hoping to catch one before they were all gone.
                                                     *****
“Edward Doyle.” Professor McGonagall’s voice resonated within the great hall as she called another student. Grâce watched the boy walk towards the stool and sit down. McGonagall put the old hat on his head and it came to life instantly.
It frowned in deep thought, taking a few seconds before answering, searching for a suitable house for the boy, “Slytherin!” it then declared as a round of applause went up among the students. Grâce briefly turned towards the table of the Slytherin house, her eyes immediately finding the dark-haired boy, he was the only one to barely applause, his face neutral, the slight movement of his hands making the sleeves of his robes brush back and forth over the book that was set beside his plate, the same book she saw him read back in the train.
“Victoire De Beaumont,” McGonagall called, looking away from the parchment she held in her right hand. Grâce was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt a slight pinch in the heart when she heard her sister’s name. She turned slightly on her seat to get a better look at what was happening a few feet away, at the head of the great hall.
Victoire slowly made her way to the stool, briefly looking back at Grâce as she nodded with a smile, encouraging her to go. The professor gently put the hat on her head and waited for it to start talking.  
“Aaah, I see, you want to prove your worth, don’t you…” Victoire bit her bottom lip slightly, her eyes finding Grâce’s. “And you have quite a few skills already, you might fit in Slytherin,” the girl’s heartbeat quickened suddenly. “But… I see something more here, don’t I…” she looked up, waiting for its final decision, silently pleading to be sorted into Ravenclaw, where she could stay with her sister. “Well then, that’ll be… Gryffindor!”
Surprise and excitement washed over Grâce as students of every table applauded at the same time, the Gryffindor one being the loudest, of course. Grâce applauded too, and smiled to her sister who seemed to join her housemates with a bitter-sweet smile on her face.
After all the new students were sorted, Dumbledore summoned the food for the feast and wished everyone a good appetite. The first year students were all amazed by the sudden appearance of the food but Grâce didn’t pay attention to it as she looked around to find where her sister was seated. Luckily, she was almost right behind her, only a few feet closer to the head of the hall.
Grâce sneakily got up from the bench and quickly crossed the space left between the Ravenclaw table and the Gryffindor one. She approached her sister and crouched beside her, taking her hands in hers. “Hey, Vicky, don’t be upset, you’ll do great in Gryffindor, I promise…” she said quietly, so that only her could hear. Victoire gave her a smile. “You’ll make a lot of friends, you’ll see,” she added, nearly interrupted by another voice coming from the other side of the table.
“That’s quite alright, Victoire, we Gryffindors are friends with everyone,” the boy said with an enthusiastic voice, “Except with Slytherins, they can’t be trusted,” he added mockingly.
Grâce got up and looked at the boy as he laughed with his friends. “Oh shut up Potter,” she said, rolling her eyes slightly. James Potter made a hobby out of despising Slytherins, as well as generally getting on people’s nerves. Grâce hardly came across him during her past few years in Hogwarts, except on Quidditch events, but she knew him from reputation, he and his three friends.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Vic, we’re here if you ever need anything,” he said with a more serious tone that Grâce rarely heard coming from him. “We’re all friends here,” he announced, stretching the word ‘all’, giving Grâce an insisting look that made her roll her eyes. Good words and noble promises… She smirked slightly.
“Alright, then I’ll hold you accountable if anything happens to her, Potter,” Grâce said and James looked confused and ready to talk back. For an instant she thought she beat him at his own game. She might have…
“It would be an honor to be of use, My Lady…” the boy next to James said, patting his friend’s shoulder. She looked over at her new interlocutor and pulled a fake smile.
“Don’t be cocky, now, Black…” she said with a tilt of the head. The very few times she saw him, he had made a habit of sarcastically mocking her. This time was no exception, and she responded as usual. Ending the conversation with them, she turned to Victoire again, gently tucking a stand of blond hair behind her small ear. “I’ll see you later, Mon Cœur,” she added quietly before addressing James with a monotone voice, “see you later on the field.”
She went back to her table without another word and as soon as she turned her back, a sly smile played on Remus’ face. “See you later in class…” he corrected and his friends looked delighted. As a matter of fact, Remus had already had a look at the class schedule. N.E.W.T.-level classes involved students of all houses, as long as they met the requirements. And he knew he and his friends were taking a lot of the same classes as Grâce did. Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration…
Oh the Marauders would get to have fun again this year.
                                                     *****
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you liked it, please consider leaving feedback to let me know if you would want to read part 2!
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