[Harry Potter] Moonbathing

A Harry Potter version of "Atonement"

After the war, the Order of the Phoenix disbanded. Remus Lupin had lost his best friends and his job.

He could only make ends meet with odd jobs, quitting before his employers began to suspect he was a werewolf.

When he applied to become the tutor of nine-year-old Lucia, the Bobbin family's daughter, he had the same plan.

"I'll quit at the end of the month," Lupin told himself. "Otherwise they'll notice I always take leave on the night of the full moon."

But the Bobbin family had such a wonderful home life, and Lucia was so reluctant to lose him, that he couldn't help staying another month.

After graduating, Melinda Bobbin worked for a few years at the chain of potion shops run by her family. Then she applied to become the youngest Potions professor at Beauxbatons in France.

During summer vacation, she returned to the family estate and discovered that her former classmate Lupin had become her little sister's tutor.

She curled her lips into an amused smile.

Even when they were students, she had never liked Lupin and had given him plenty of trouble. Every time, though, he had calmly stood up to her.

With the gentlest, most harmless expression, he'd make cutting, sarcastic jokes that left her humiliated.

His cronies nicknamed him "the deadpan comedian." Melinda just wanted to rip away the mask he wore.

Now that she'd run into him again, he was done for.

Melinda finally ripped away his mask.

Under the moonlight, in the greenhouse behind the estate, her voice sounded like a ghost's. "Don't struggle, or the Devil's Snare will tighten around you."

Lupin's already tattered robes split open in several places, revealing pink skin. His eyes were closed, his lashes fluttering slightly, and for the first time a crack appeared in his usually composed expression.

"Don't... Please, don't..." he gasped, pleading.

Melinda let him go and used fire to drive away the Devil's Snare.

But she didn't let him go, not really. She was the most wicked devil of all.

Melinda and Lupin began going to the greenhouse at night to bask in the moonlight. But they didn't know that, because they were making so much noise, Melinda's little sister Lucia had passed by, grown curious, and accidentally seen them.

The little girl thought Lupin was hurting her older sister.

Lucia began to realize her tutor wasn't the person she had imagined him to be. His image crumbled in her eyes.

The Bobbin estate was always crowded, with distinguished guests coming and going. One day, the Lancelot couple, members of the Extraordinary Potionmakers Association and friends of the Bobbins, arrived with their twelve-year-old daughter for a short stay. But their visit happened to coincide with the full moon, and something happened to their daughter.

She had sneaked out to play at night and been bitten by a werewolf.

Lucia stepped forward and pointed at Lupin. "It must have been him! He took the night off, and nobody saw him! I once saw him trying to bite my sister!"

Melinda immediately stopped Lucia's nonsense and firmly took Lupin's side, trying to explain to everyone.

Melinda's father waved a hand and said to Lupin, "It all looks like a suspicious coincidence, but proving your innocence is simple. Just show us evidence that you're not a werewolf. Everything will be clear on the next full moon."

Lupin's face turned deathly pale.

A woman named Umbridge in the Ministry of Magic issued an expulsion order concerning werewolves, forcing Lupin to leave human society and return to the wilderness.

Almost everyone was convinced Lupin had bitten the girl, except Melinda.

Melinda swore she would find the real werewolf and clear Lupin's name.

For that, she was willing to venture deep into the wilderness, carefully blending in among the werewolf clans as she searched for answers.

A sudden idea for a story. I love the movie "Atonement" so much: the manor in the scorching summer, the passionate clash of pride and prejudice, and the tragic ending for the hero and heroine.

Theme: Love can conquer everything.