A/N: This one-shot is my shoulda-coulda-woulda’s. It takes place during the 2nd war.
Tick, tock went the clock as the pendulum swung back and forth. Almost silently in the rich, dark, wood paneled room, cusses rebounded off the walls, while the man shifted through papers on the desk that had been pilling up nonstop since his initial drive to research. Remus was determined to attempt a herculean effort of support for Markus Fredricks’ research on a possible cure for the Lycanthropy disease which gripped both he and Markus’ older sister Hayden. For the last half week, the Lycan was immersed in study. He examined clinical research that had been taking place over the past three and a half years under the leadership of Markus in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He even read old legends, lore and anything else that might help the youngest Fredricks brother. Everything he scrutinized lay in a haphazard pile upon his desk.
When Markus had first purposed the idea to Remus after dinner at the Fredricks local home in Tunbridge Wells, the older man had been skeptical of his belief that a cure was out there and that he, Markus, would be the one to find it. It hadn’t been until the two were alone in the darkness of Goudhurst’s Bedgebury national pinetum and forest that he divulged to Remus about the unknown sub-department within the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The Werewolf Bureau of Research and Development. A department closely tied in with the Department of Mysteries.
“Development?” Remus asked. The thick heat of the summer hung in the air.
“The Development of a quicker, better way to help out those like yourself and Hayden with Lycanthropy to deal with the problem. A possibly easier or less painful transformation during the full moon. --Even the prospect of a cure...” Markus answered. “But we could be several years from that.” He replied quickly, as any trained scientist might, not wanting to give any well placed hopes too early.
Remus sighed deeply, leaning back in the leather bound chair that Hayden had given him when his old, tarnished swivel broke the month before. With a long yawn, his eyes met Hayden’s in mid-stretch in an attempt to shake off his exhaustion.
“Still working the night away, love?” she asked, but before Remus could utter a word his stomach spoke for him; grumbling when the warm scent of the plate of food in her hands drifted past his nose. Remus smiled cheerily.
“Is that for me?”
Hayden chortled. “Ah, the true way to a man’s heart—his stomach.”
Remus smiled brightly at the scent of her vegetable soup that hung in the air, and the idea of the beef that lay within the bowl swirled immeasurably within his mind. He hadn’t even smelled her cooking dinner, let alone the wonderful aroma of the crescent rolls beside his bowl on the plate. His hands went out for the plate, helping her set it upon his desk as she set a drink along side it.
“So, how are you coming along?” Hayden asked looking over the papers.
Remus sighed in response. “In circles,” he replied, blowing gently on the soup in an attempt to cool the steaming bowl.
“Sounds like fun; chasing your tail,” she joked taking a seat on the edge of the desk. When Remus didn’t respond, instead sat eating, Hayden spoke again. “You know, Mark is just taking advantage of you. He knows you’re not going to let it go until you’ve something to show him. My brother is conniving like that.”
“…Yes, I suppose so,” Remus mumbled between spoons. “I’ve been at this longer than you, so it’s understandable I’d pursue this, at least from his angle.”
“It must be nice to play that card whenever it’s convenient,” she said tartly, crossing her legs.
Remus looked up into the face of the woman he had infected many moons ago in his school boy days and his brow knitted together. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it as it may have sounded…” he placed his hand upon hers lovingly. “It seems I’ve been saying that lately a great deal this past week. It’s just that more than anything, whether you like to hear it or not, I regret what I did to you. I sometimes wonder if you and I had never spoken that night in the common room you might have been spared from this,” Hayden opened her mouth to interject, but Remus pushed on. “And I know that it would have happened eventually, because of your grandfather--”
“Stop,” Hayden demanded. “Lycanthrope was already in my family long before you came along and I would have become a Lycan anyway. It was bound to happen. How many times must we have this conversation before you understand that?”
“I know, I know… but if Markus can create a cure--,” he trailed off. “I would like to be a part of it.”
Hayden sighed this time, waving her hand dismissively. “I know. Anyways, I’d like to see you in our bed sometime this week.”
“I have to agree,” Remus smiled. “This couch isn’t comfortable at all.”
“Then quit sleeping on it!” she chuckled. “Finish your dinner before its cold, take a bath, and then come to bed,” Hayden said as she stood. Her long white hair coming slightly loose from its tie as she leaned over, brushing her lips softly against Remus’ unshaven cheek.
Before the man could answer, his stomach grumbled again. “I may have to have seconds,” Remus laughed.
“I would suggest it,” Hayden replied, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Night love. Don’t stay up too late.”
But before Hayden could leave, Remus’ hand gripped her own that lay upon his shoulder still and he pulled her back to the desk before him. “Thank you for dealing with my short temper all this week. I know I haven’t been the nicest of company these past few days, but I do love you.”
“I know that,” she replied, her voice nearly a whisper just before Remus’ lips pressed against hers in a warm kiss. His hand sliding up her arm, pulling her closer out of habit and her hair came loose, cascading over her shoulder, tickling his face gently. Tick, tock went the clock as the pendulum swung back and forth.
“That vegetable soup of yours was always hard to resist.”
A/N: A strange little one-shot, but it might actually be a build up to a short story if I've the time as the department I created rather interests me. Lol, so you never know. I suppose if you guys like it enough I'll try and dive farther into the story line.
In answer to: Is Lycanthropy hereditary?
- Some people may ask if Lycanthropy is hereditary. Now we know that was one of Lupin's fears should he have children.
"My kind don’t usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it – how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child?"
So in my personal belief it's a genetic virus that mutates DNA and changes cell structure, the virus rapidly multiplying like a factory; the DNA being recombined in large quantities. That alone would have to be possible to even allow the change of form that a Lycan goes through. So, with that said, it's more than possible to have the virus passed down through the family line.
For example the common cold is caused by a type of virus known as Coronavirus. Just like any other virus Coronavirus is just a packet of DNA information in a dormant state.
With that said, it is very much possible that any person born from a Lycan would have that packet of DNA information, simply in a dormant state. So, yes it can be hereditary.
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