Rihanna's Son

Remus stopped before the apartment building, an unremarkable building in the middle of a small town in upstate New York. he frowned, wondering why his sister would choose to live here, so far away from the people who loved her. he opened the front door and walked over to the listed names on the wall near some mail slots. Aaaah. Fourth floor, apartment 45. He waved his hand slightly and the locked front door opened for him. He entered and hurried to the elevator. He was glad he'd spent so much time among Muggles in the last thirty-odd years and knew his way around their funny little inventions. The elevator creaked as it stopped on the fourth floor, the doors opening slowly. A couple of small children were playing with blocked out in the hall, near an opened door. He smiled at them and stroke to the apartment marked as his sister's, which was across from the children.


"Aunt Rinna's gone, sir."

Remus turned to the little girl who'd spoken to him. She was no more than five years old.

"Do you know where she is?"

She pointed to the open door. "My mom's in there. Aunt Rinna's real sick and we're taking care of Damien."


"Who's Damien?" Maybe he was in the wrong place after all.

"I'm Damien." The other child, black haired, blacked eyed looked up at the stranger. He blinked at the older man and cocked his eyebrow at him. It was eerily familiar. "Mommy's dying. Are you my uncle? You look like Mommy. You're from England like her is."

"Like she is." Remus automatically corrected the child. He shrugged and returned to playing with his friend, ignoring the man now. "Where can I find your mum again, little one?"

The girl pointed again to the open door. He took a deep breath and knocked firmly. Rihanna had a lot to talk about.


"Mr. Lupin? Oh, my goodness, I just mailed you the letter two days ago."
"You? I thought it came from Rihanna." Remus took in the blonde woman standing in the doorway. She checked behind him at the children, then ushered him inside. She left the door open.

"You two have two minutes then it's time to come in for reading and quiet time." She gave Remus a sad smile and motioned for him to take a seat. Mindlessly, Remus sat, waiting for word about his sister. "Yes, Mr. Lupin. I sent you the letter and addressed it from Ri. I'm sorry for deceiving you, but it was the only way I knew of to get you to come here. Ri's in the hospital. She doesn't have much longer and she wants her little boy to go back to England to be with his father.

"Why didn't you contact his father then?"

"Ri never told me his name. She wrote some letters to him, and when I told her that I'd written to you, she said you'd know who his father was; that you'd take Damien to him. I was going to go visit Rihanna in a little bit, but, I can take you now if you'd like."

"I would very much like to meet my nephew, please. Rihanna never told any of us where she was much less that she'd born a child. I've been very worried about her for the last five and a half years." He sat heavily on the pale blue couch. he looked around quickly. It was small, sparingly furnished, but filled with love, he could tell. There were dozens of pictures of the little girl from the hallway, along with some of his newfound nephew. The children were obviously close and he smiled at the Muggle pictures.

"I'm Anne Warren, by the way. Sorry for not saying something earlier. And that was my daughter, Heather, out there with Damien. Smart little guy he is. He and Heather are like twins. I met Rihanna at the doctor's office when we were both six months along. She was looking for a new apartment since she and her landlord weren't getting along. This place opened up and she moved in. We went into labor only a few days apart and attended each other's births. Damien's birthday is April fourth and Heather's is the twelfth. We've been neighbors and friends since then. Last month, Ri got really sick all of a sudden and went to the hospital. She thought she had pneumonia or something. But she has cancer, cervical cancer. And because she hadn't realized she was so sick, there's nothing the doctors can do. They can't stop the cancer. She's dying, Mr. Lupin." Anne's voice had become almost a whisper as she started crying, probably not for the first time and it certainly won't be for the last.

"She's only holding on now because she wants Damien to go back to England with you and his father. I think that now you're here, she's going to let herself go. She's in so much pain." Rihanna was her best friend, although there was a good twelve years between the two of them, the bond of impending motherhood had started their friendship, then helping each other raise their children and being neighbors had strengthened that bond. She was going to miss the older woman and would have raised her son without a moment's hesitation if Rihanna had asked her to.

"Oh, gods." Lupin dropped his head into his hands and started sobbing. After searching and worrying about his sister for the last five years, he'd found her only to lose her to a disease that magic still hadn't been able to stop or cure. Their mother had dided of it ten years before. "How--how is Damien taking it?"

"He's a quiet soul, Mr. Lupin. He rarely argues, he's quite advanced for his age and Rihanna says that, well, he's got a lot of magic in him." Anne laughed when his head popped up. "Yes, Mr. Lupin, your sister told me about her abilities. It was quite hard to hid when the boy would levitate around the room. She told me about four years ago."

"Call me Remus, please, Miss Warren. You've been like a sister to my sister. I think we should be on a first name basis, don't you? He looked like one of our friends from school, but Sirius was in prison at the time though."

"I don't know who his father is, Mr--Remus. She never told me. And call me Anne. Maybe we should get the children and head down to the hospital. She's already made arrangements for you to take custody of the boy and she has some other things she wants to tell you, in person. I'm so very sorry you had to find her like this, in that condition. She said something about a guy name Malfoy, and she worried. That's all I know."

"That son of a bitch! He's in prison under lock and key now. He's been there for the last year."

"Damien! Heather! Come in and get changed. We're going to the hospital." Anne called out the open door. Both children came running in. The girl was a happy, smiling auburn haired bundle of energy, but Remus kept his attention on his nephew. Damien moved quietly, a somber look upon his face. His hair was black, lanky and in need of a cut. He looked at his uncle unafraid and never let his gaze waver from the older wizard.

"Damien, this is your Uncle Remus. he's your mommy's older brother."

"Are you really a werewolf? Do you eat people?"

"No, little one! Your mum and her imagination." Remus looked uneasily at the woman standing on the other side of the room, ushering her own daughter into her room to change into her outing clothes.

"Oh, it's ok, Aunt Anne knows. Mommy tells her everything. They're bestest friends, like me and Heather. But I'm going to marry Heather. Do you know who my Daddy is? Mommy said you'd bring me to him, but she ain't never said who he is."

"I just discovered your existence just a few minutes ago, little one, and your mum never said who your father was. I'm sure he can't wait to meet you once he finds out about you." Lupin longed to pull his nephew into his arms, but the boy had an aura aound him, something that said 'don't touch me until it's alright.' Damien nodded sagely and climbed up onto the couch next to his uncle. Lupin smiled and hugged the boy briefly.

"Mommy's waiting to go to heaven. I told her I don't want her to go, but she said that's where she needs to go, and that she'll always be with me. And I'll go live in Inglend wif you and my daddy."

"You're very smart for a little boy."

"Mommy always said I'm a little version of my Daddy."

Remus tilted his head and looked at the boy a little bit closer. If he'd known for certain where Sirius had been when this one was conceived he'd think it was his animagus friend.

"Well, you certainly don't look like the Lupin side of the family."

Damien smiled.

"I told you, Mommy says I look like Daddy. You're going to take me to him, she said."

"If that's what your mum wants, little one."

Damien's face grew quite sad then. "I'm still going to miss her when I leave."

"I shall also. I've missed her for five years now, little one." Remus rubbed his face wearily. He'd travelled so far to find his sister, to just watch her die, if what her friend was true, she was close to the end. "You need to change from your play clothes, do you not?"

"Okay." Damien scooted down the front of the couch and ran after his little friend. Remus sat back and fought back tears. With his parents dead, Rihanna was the last of his family, now Damien was of course. He took a deep breath, steeling himself to confront his sister, afraid of what she would look like and what his reaction would be.


a/n~~ok, second chapter up....this story's mostly still being written in my head, so I hope to update fairly consistently. a later chapter is actually already written, lol

lisa~~you'll like this...can you see the twist now? *evil grin*....


this was just an idea that popped in my head one night...

please review, I love hearing from readers. getting reviews is like a warm cookie and cocoa on a hot wintry morning after playing outside for hours.

marti