Advoco Lupum

I sat at the kitchen table trying to fight back the headache that was pounding in my skull. I hadn't been able to talk at the hospital, so I'd let the muggle lawyer explain things to my nephew as we just stared at each other from across the hospital room. The lawyer was kind enough to drive us to my family's house, a house I hadn't set foot in in over two decades. It was all too strange and too sudden. Five shocks in a little over a day was just too much for me to deal with.

Sirius was innocent, Peter wasn't dead, all of Hogwarts knew of my curse, my brother was dead and now I had to take care of a nephew I hadn't even known I had, and he just happened to be a werewolf. It was official, Fate hated my guts.

I let my head slip from my hands and pressed my forehead against the cool wood of the table. 'What am I going to do?' Visions of how hard it had been on my parents to raise me kept flashing in my mind. I didn't know the first thing about raising children, let alone a werewolf cub. Kids tended to learn best by example and I didn't want any child, werewolf or not, turning out like me.

"Uncle Remus?" my eyes snapped open and I looked up to see my nephew standing in the doorway looking wary and confused. It suddenly hit me that I didn't know anything about him.

"I don't even know your name," I winced as the words left my mouth, 'great move' I though to myself. 'First thing out of my mouth and I sound like an idiot.'

"Aeneas," he said quietly. I found it almost painful to look at him. Before he was bitten he must have looked exactly like Romulus, but now...gold eyes haunted with pain and uncertainty, he reminded me of me. And I vowed right then that I would do anything in my power to make sure he didn't end up like me.

"What...what's wrong with me?" I looked at him sadly before lowering my head back to the table and sighting. 'You're a teacher, so teach!' I yell at myself after a few moments.

"How much did your father tell you about our parents, or me?" I asked as I looked back up at him. If he didn't know anything about the Wizarding world the explanation would take a great deal longer.

"Dad said...that grama and grampa had been special and he...he never mentioned you.." I chose to ignore that last part. Romulus and I had never gotten along; it didn't surprise me all that much.

"Yes, your grandparents were special because they could use magic." Aaneas didn't look all that surprised so I continued with my 'lecture.' "There are not only people who have magic but animals too. You feel... strange because you weren't bitten by a dog, you were bitten by a werewolf." He just nodded, solemn and quiet. How could he be so much like me when I'd never met him before that day?

"You are too," he said quietly. I couldn't stop myself from looking at him in surprise. He could tell that already? I mused that that was yet another thing all those books were wrong about.

It still amazes me that both of us made it through that first year with our sanities intact. The hardest thing for me was grasping the workings of the 'state school' that Aaneas attended, it was nothing like Hogwarts, the only school I'd ever attended. And for Aaneas, no amount of explaining could prepare someone for the Change, from human to wolf and back again, especially for someone so young. But we both survived and things had settled into a normal routine. Well, until...

"Wolf!" Last time I'd checked, Aaneas had been in the back garden, looking like he had been trying to catch something. But at his yell I turned just in time to see him speed in the back door and run and hide behind me. I looked out the window and saw nothing.

"Aanei," I said as I tried to pry his hand from my shirt before he ripped it. "I doubt you saw a wolf; it's broad daylight, tomorrow's the new moon, and there aren't any normal wolves left in England." Aaneas just looked at me with wide gold eyes, refusing to let go of my shirt.

"But I saw one," he said with conviction. "It was in the backyard." He looked sufficiently terrified that I agreed to go outside and looked around. At first I saw nothing, that was until my eyes landed on a large black paw sticking out from under a hedge. I turned back to Aaneas, who was peering around the edge of the back door.

"It's alright, there's no wolf," I assured him and then smiled as I looked back at the hedge. "Though I think there is a scraggly old mutt hiding under the bushes." I chuckled as an indignant snort issued from said bushes and a pair of pale eyes glared up at me from a break in the foliage. "Hello Padfoot, are you going to hide under there all day?" I ask lightly.

As the big black dog wriggled out from under the bushes I got a chance to study him. 'Poor Sirius,' I thought sadly. He was a mess, his fur matted and paws caked with dirt, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in a month. 'Well, for as long as he's staying here I can try and do something about that,' I thought to myself.

Aaneas was alternately looking at me like I'd gone crazy, and looking at Padfoot like the dog was going to bite him. As I lead Sirius into the house, he kept a watchful eye on us both as he backed across the room.

"It's alright, Aanei," I said, trying to sound as calm as possible, But he didn't look like he believed me.

"Can I go to my room?" he asked softly, still backing away. I nodded and he disappeared around the corner.

"Annie?" The voice behind me made me jump and I whirled around to see a gaunt, unshaven and absolutely filthy version of Sirius standing in the corner of my kitchen. He looked better than the last time I'd seen him but that wasn't saying much. He smiled at me with cracked lips and quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't that a girls name?"

"Aanei," I corrected, though it sounded almost the same. "It's short for Aaneas." He just nodded and sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. He leaned his elbows on the table and held his head in his hands.

"Remus there's a lot of stuff I've got to tell you," he said softly, not looking at me. I sat down next to him at the table and put my hand on his arm. He looked so drained and so tired.

"If it's about what happened to Harry after the Tri-Wizard tournament, you don't have to tell me. Dumbledore sent me an owl not long after it happened telling me everything, including that you're supposed to be staying here for a while." Sirius looked very relieved that he didn't have to explain.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, getting up to go look in the cupboards. "I think we might have some leftovers."

"You didn't cook them, did you? Because if I have to choose between starving and being poisoned I'll pick starving." I smiled to myself before shooting him a mock glare over the top of the door to the muggle icebox. At least he could still make jokes.

"My cooking is not that bad," I retorted as I fished out some curry from behind a carton of orange juice. It felt so good to have someone to joke with. It had been...too long. I looked back over at Sirius and smiled.

"I'm glad you're here," I said, absently casting a heating charm on the food without really looking at it. But I looked back at my work abruptly as I smelled smoke. I sighed and started looking in the icebox again because I doubted that the charred lump I'd created would be edible even to someone who's been living off of rats for the past year. I could hear Sirius laughing at me and rolled my eyes. At least I was good for something.

"I'm glad I'm here to," Sirius managed between chuckles. "Even if you do poison me." I threw a bagel at him and continued my search.