Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

15 March, 1980 - Target

Remus Lupin was tired. He had spent the last several days immersed in the society of his werewolf brethren, spying on them and he was so very very tired. It was necessary work, the spying, and he knew that but it never failed to make him feel rather dirty. And lucky. So lucky.

Every time he came back from the tiny and ramshackle wooden structures that passed as houses for most werewolves, he was reminded that he was lucky. He couldn't help but feel rather guilty for it, if he was honest. Most of his kind struggled to scrape together enough money for meals, much less decent housing and clothes. Their lives were in tatters, clinging to existence by a thread thanks to the prejudices that had built up against them over centuries. And he... he lived in comfort in a house by the sea and maybe it wasn't perfect but Merlin he was lucky. Every step he made anywhere near these broke down slums reminded him of that, ringing in his head. Lucky lucky lucky. And it wasn't just because there were clothes on his back and hot meal waiting at home.

By now, plenty of the werewolves in these rundown communities had embraced the stereotype. Remus couldn't alway bring himself to blame them either. They were angry, after all. They had been tossed aside and called monsters all their lives and decided that if that was all anyone would see then there was no point in trying to be anything else.

Fenrir Greyback was the worst of them. The name alone sent a shiver down Remus's spine. He'd barely even seen the werewolf who attacked him when he'd been bitten as a child and it was so long ago that he didn't remember it at all. But it had been Greyback. And now, that same violent, bloodthirsty man was a self appointed leader of the werewolf community, encouraging those afflicted with lycanthropy to give up and give in. To embrace the beasts they were and use their 'gifts' to pay back the world for the awful lives they'd been forced into.

So when Death Eaters had come knocking and offered free reign on battlefields and access to new targets, Greyback had been the first to join and the first to encourage others to as well. It was for justice, they said. For payback.

Remus's job was simple: be one of them. He played at the hesitant recruit, someone open to their offers to join but not entirely convinced. Those had been Dumbledore's instructions and that was exactly what Remus did. He did his best to make them trust him, believe that he was young and impressionable and could be convinced. And then he turned around and gave everything he had learned of their plans and movements to Dumbledore.

At least it was useful work, even if he left the rundown shanty towns with something tight and awful in his heart. It was better than nothing anyway and nothing was really the only other option. He had known for years and years that he was utterly unemployable. No one wanted a werewolf doing much of anything for them. Everyone would much rather keep their distance. Which was why so many of his kind were so poor. And one of many ways in which Remus was lucky.

Honestly, without his friends, he didn't know where he would be, but both Sirius and Lavinia insisted that he stay with them. He had offered to leave more than once, especially as it became clear, at least to him, that one of these days, they were going to take the next step and no married couple should be sharing their house with him. And if they had children... Well, if that happened, Remus would put his foot down. He couldn't be trusted with children.

In the meantime, he accepted their help, if only because the look Lavinia gave him when he brought up leaving was enough to make any sane person back down. Not that he always chose the sane option. They had squabbled about it on more than one occasion, actually, and though Remus still felt bad, he was somewhat reassured by the fact that Lavinia insisted, every time, that she wanted to take care of him. That he did her a disservice by refusing her kindnesses. And slowly, Remus had started believing her.