Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Sixty-Six- A Twinkly-Eyed Explanation

Remus felt himself grow red. Dumbledore merely smiled good-naturedly at him before pressing on.

"When Professor Blavatnik found out, he was forced to either protect his nephew or turn him in and watch him be expelled. Convinced he could get through to his nephew, he didn't alert anyone to the boy's activities. Then after a month, in which his nephew hid in the Forbidden Forest during the full moon, Professor Blavatnik followed Carlyle and discovered the other part of the story."

Remus was beginning to understand and felt sick, remembering the small space he had recognized as a room to keep a werewolf in.

"He...enchanted his office," Remus spoke slowly and carefully, not wanting to bite his tongue.

"Quite right. However, a strained relationship became even more so. An uncle who adored his nephew began to convince himself it wasn't really his nephew. He had...a very misguided notion that once someone was bitten, they stopped being a person at all. It was easier for Professor Blavatnik to believe his nephew was gone than to believe that he was on Voldemort's side. That his nephew was hurting students and even physically attacking his own uncle."

Remus recalled the slap, and how broken their professor had sounded afterward, how defeated. Professor Blavatnik hadn't known what his nephew had been turned into at that point. He must have been confused. As Remus fought against feeling a bit bad for the man, he realized with a jolt that it was his professor that had gotten hit, not the other way around.

Remus recalled the angry young man and the way he had smiled at mentioning his uncle, at attempting to frame him for something he had done. Remus shuddered.

"The...other poisonings..." Remus stammered, again sure to be slow and careful.

Dumbledore looked sad and sighed heavily again, "Professor Blavatnik began to...unravel from the stress of it all. There was a time he liked teaching. After that particular encounter, he began to see all his students as potential enemies, as possible monsters."

Remus shuddered again.

"And there was me..." the werewolf stammered uneasily, nearly biting down on his tongue this time though he hardly noticed. His suspicion was confirmed as Dumbeldore gave him a sad, sharp look.

"There was a dedicated student with lycanthropy in one of his classes, yes. But that doesn't excuse any of his behavior, Mr. Lupin."

Remus nodded, as if he didn't believe Professor Blavatnik didn't have a point in attacking him. Dumbledore continued, eyeing him sharply for a moment before doing so.

"He started trying to poison his nephew, or who he no longer felt was his nephew, with the same poison his nephew had first used. Only there was a failed attempt, which made Carlyle very angry. They both backed off one another for a while except for at the full moon. Then, Carylye started bragging to his uncle about how pleased Voldemort was and how he'd be helping him this summer. So Professor Blavatnik tried again, this time poisoning who he intended."

Remus nodded again, looking at the spot where his professor had crumpled, "Then he went after me," he concluded sadly.

"Yes. His guilt at attacking his nephew manifested itself into sheer hate. There is nothing more dangerous than a man devoid of hope, whether truly hopeless or only perceived as such. Knowing it was only a matter of time until he was fired, especially once I discovered Carlyle had lycanthropy, he became reckless. He went after you attempting to prove something to himself."

Dumbledore gave a sad little smile, "The fact you got top marks in that class was simply too much for him to handle."

Remus would have said sorry for this, despite how ridiculous apologizing seemed to be. But Dumbledore sounded amused. The headmaster winked at Remus, sounding quite proud of this fact. Remus decided to keep his mouth shut.