Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The steady sound had been echoing through the room for who knows how long, until a low groan stirred, overlapping it and breaking the rhythm.
"Uh..."
Lupin's consciousness stirred, and he let out a hoarse groan. His mind felt like a complete wreck when a flood of white light overwheld his eyes, making him squint.
He struggled to focus and forcibly opened his eyelids, but everywhere was just… brightness.
He sat up slowly, wincing at the soreness in his limbs. The room was still too bright, but eventually, shapes had begun to sharpen.
First, he was in a narrow bed. It looked clean, with crisp white sheets and pillows. Beside him were unfamiliar machines with blinking lights and glowing green screens, all flashing symbols and numbers he didn't understand.
"Where… am I?" he muttered, speaking to no one in particular.
Unexpectedly, a voice answered him, "North Arica…"
Instinctively, his head snapped toward the sound, and there he spotted a man seated not too far away, calmly flipping through what appeared to be a newspaper.
"Mr… Ali?" he asked uncertainly, then winced again and lowered his head as the dull throb in his skull slamd against his temples.
"Here..."
When he glanced up again, he found Ali now beside the bed, offering him a glass filled with sothing he didn't recognize.
"It'll help with the headaches," Ali said to him. "I know the feeling... I've been through it too."
Lupin humd softly as he took the glass and emptied it in a single gulp. His head was still pounding, but his thoughts were clearer now, and he now had a rough grasp of his current situation.
Last night—or was it the night before?—was supposed to be just another cruel routine in the long, miserable history of his cursed existence. Another full moon, another transformation, and another night spent losing himself to the beast within.
But never did he imagine that night would mark the end of that miserable chapter. That the curse he had carried for so long might finally be sothing he could control, even wield.
He rembered the offer as if it had just happened. Two paths laid bare before him: be rid of the curse forever, at the cost of sothing vital... or keep it, conquer it, and turn it into power.
He had thought about it, truly thought about it, before he made the decision. First, he thought about the man who had presented him with those options, and then about what accepting either would an for him and his future.
The na Maverick Caesar had started appearing everywhere not long ago—first whispered with awe as the youngest master alchemist in history, then announced with even greater noise when he beca the personal apprentice of one of the most powerful wizards alive.
And before the magical world had even processed those feats, the headlines changed again. That very sa young man, barely past his teens, had risen to the peak of power and influence, shaping the magical world like no one else in recent mory.
It was that sa young man who had co to him with the offer, inviting him to be part of sothing greater. A new order of things—or to turn the world upside down, in his own words.
Now, did he see Maverick Caesar as the next Albus Dumbledore? Not a chance. From the handful of interactions they had had over the past month, he knew Maverick wasn't the type to linger quietly in the background, offering wise counsel like so great sage.
No, the young man was already sothing else entirely. He wasn't evil—Lupin could tell that much—but he wasn't the kind to play by anyone's rules, either. And certainly not a saint.
But then again, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.
Because the truth was, Lupin had spent all his life trying to follow the rules of a world that had no place for him, one that labeled him a monster and cast him out. And when soone ca along who offered to tear down that world and build a new one in its place, why wouldn't he be tempted?
In the end, the choice hadn't been difficult. He had taken the offer. He wanted to help build sothing better—not just for himself, but for everyone who had been cast aside and forgotten.
"How long was I unconscious?" Lupin asked, setting those thoughts aside. He wasn't the sa man anymore. He wasn't the cursed creature scraping by with nothing to lose. For the first ti in years, he felt like a man who might actually have sothing ahead of him.
"Two days," Ali replied. "You should stay in bed a while longer. Let everything settle in. How do you feel now?"
"It's getting better," Lupin murmured, lowering his head back to the pillow. A small, knowing smile tugged at his lips. "You know... I can feel it. The beast. It's right there. Like... like I could turn any ti I wanted to."
"Don't," Ali said firmly. "Not yet. Rest first. Take the potions Ms. Sarah Walker left for you. Then we can begin the tests. Oh—and the leader said to tell you that he'll handle Hogwarts. Said sothing about arranging a leave of absence for you with the Headmaster."
"Mm. I see..." Lupin said, making no objection. There was nothing to argue with, and more than anything, he wanted to test the changes he was feeling before going anywhere.
The rest of the day went by in a blur, and he barely left the bed. People ca in and out of the room with food, potions, even injections ant to help his body adjust. And in the afternoon, he finally t the woman behind the miracle—the brilliant mind who created the potion.
Sarah Walker.
She wasn't at all what he had pictured—not the cold, emotionless type most potioneers tended to be, at least in his experience. In fact, she was downright charming, warm, and expressive—not at all like a certain other master potioneer he knew who dressed like a bat.
And under her supervision, the next day, he finally got to test the results for himself.
rlin be damned, it felt good, was the first thought that crossed Lupin's mind.
The power that coursed through him, the ease of transformation—as though he were rely stepping into a different form rather than unleashing so terrible inner monster—it was everything that had been promised and all he had hoped for. He felt no pain, nor any madness. The transformation, for lack of a better term, was like putting on and taking off a mask.
Then ca even more astonishing news. Apparently, his magic had reached the critical level commonly known as the bottleneck point—aning he was now only a single step away from becoming a Greatmage, sothing he had never even dared to dream of.
All that was left was the final spark, the sudden clarity or awakening that would push him across the threshold.
A Greatmage. Even now, it sounded absurd to him. For most of his life, he had been treated like a liability. And yet now, he stood on the edge of becoming sothing only a handful of wizards ever achieved.
True, he was still technically a mage, but it was only a matter of ti. He knew he had the intellect. He always had—no one had ever denied his brilliance, only ignored it because of what he was.
Sooner or later, he would get there.
---
The days passed. A full week went by as he trained under Ali's supervision, slowly adjusting to his new abilities. Sarah oversaw the more technical parts of his recovery, running tests and noting down observations, and when she finally signed off on his discharge, Ali took over fully.
Finally, at the end of the week, he saw Maverick again—for the first ti since he had willingly agreed to beco his subordinate.
"Leader…"
"Just address as you used to, Remus…" Maverick waved a hand at him. "How are you coping with the changes?"
"Never felt better in all my life…" Lupin said with a grin.
"That's good…" Then, turning to Ali, Maverick asked, "Has the teacher finished running all the tests?"
"Yes. She finished a couple of days ago and has already left."
"Right…" With that, Maverick finally took a proper look at the man, who now exuded so confidence—a sharp contrast to the hollow shell he used to be.
Interesting.
"Your magic's grown a lot too, I see. Won't be long before we've got another Greatmage in our ranks."
From the feedback he was getting, Maverick could sense that Lupin's magic was now at the edge. Unfortunately, he hadn't taken that step like Ali, but that wasn't a problem. Lupin was only a single step away, and Maverick would soon have another Greatmage on his side.
"Yes… I can feel it too," Lupin said, glancing down at his hand and gripping his wand. "My magic has beco much stronger."
"I've got a few thods in mind to help you push through," Maverick said, tapping a finger to his chin. "We'll try them next week. For now, just focus on getting used to the power-up you have now."
"I understand…" Lupin also agreed thinking it was best not to rush the process.
"Right then. Show your transformation."
"Alright." With that, Lupin took a breath and, tapping into the instinct he had honed with Ali all week, transford into a massive werewolf nearly three ters tall—radiating power, nothing like the thin, wiry creature he used to beco.
"Okay, that's enough. Change back." Maverick gave a few nods, made so observations, and told him.
The massive creature gave an intelligent nod, then reverted just as quickly—his clothes and all, all intact. But that had nothing to do with natural transformation; it was all thanks to the ring now on his finger. With a bit of clever alchemy, it wasn't much of a problem.
"Let's head back to Hogwarts then… That old man has been grinding the entire week, making cover your classes…"
Today was the last day of the weekend, and tomorrow classes would start again.
"By the way, where's Black?" he asked Ali before leaving.
"At ho. Going over the Christmas plan."
Hearing that, Maverick couldn't help but chuckle, imagining Black buried under a ton of papers. The Christmas plan was actually the script Sirius had to follow after turning himself in to the Ministry and during the trial, so it was for his own good anyway.
With that thought, he made a circular motion with his hand and conjured a portal straight to Scotland.
"Co, Remus, let's go back."
---
A few minutes later, the two of them walked side by side along the winding, sloped path lined with trees and fences on either side, leading from Hogsade toward the school gates.
"By the way…" Lupin asked as they made their way, "what are we going to tell the headmaster about not needing to take ti off during full moons anymore?"
"You don't have to worry. I've reported your situation to that old man already. Sooner or later he'd find out, and I figured it's better to get it over with."
"Everything?"
"More or less… He knows now that my teacher has developed a potion to cure lycanthropy and is planning on mass producing it. I didn't go into details about your version, but… yeah, he knows you don't need Wolfsbane anymore, or the full moon."
"I see…" Lupin nodded thoughtfully as they passed through the front gate.
No dentors guarded the entrance anymore—not after the incident during the Quidditch trials—but several of those cursed things still circled high above the school.
—————————
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