The Angel Within Hogwarts (Year 1)

The Secret

Castiel takes a breath, preparing himself for the multiple outcomes of telling the professor about what the Sorting Hat had told him. 

"Well, during my sorting, the sorting hat mentioned you," Castiel starts. 

Lupin raises his chin slightly, curious as to where Cas was going with this. 

"The hat mentioned that you had a secret that was similar to mine. And I was thinking that if you do have a secret like mine, that perhaps I could confine in you about it. At home, I have one of my brothers helping me, but here it's a bit different..." 

Lupin's eyebrow rises and he crosses his arms. The professor has an idea what Castiel is talking about, but waits for Cas himself to say it. "That depends on what your secret is." Lupin pauses. "If you do not wish to tell me, I understand." 

Castiel shakes his head. "No, I think I can tell you." After a deep inhale of breath, Castiel rolls his shoulders and wills his secret to reveal itself. 

Two, big, black wings appear over Castiel's shoulder. Lupin looks at the wings, surprised. Cas gets worried when Lupin doesn't say anything so the pure-blood goes on to explain. 

"W-when I was born, I got cursed. Cursed to have these wings. They never caught who cast the spell and they still have no clue who did it. After a few weeks of me being alive with the wings, my mother couldn't handle it. So she left. She left because of the curse. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I like them. They make me, well, me. But they make me different. For the first five years of my life, I was hidden away because of my wings. I didn't go out unless into the woods with my siblings, I couldn't have any friends. Now, I just use my clothes to cover them and will them through a different plane of existence so they can appear while I still have clothes on." Castiel explained all of this to Lupin, while expecting a negative response from the professor. 

Lupin is silent for a moment, taking in Castiel's story. And then he lets out a soft chuckle. "Yeah, actually, I do believe we have similar secrets." Cas looks at him, silently asking the professor to explain. 

"When I was a small boy, I got attacked by a werewolf. It bit me to get revenge on my parents. From then on, I would turn into a werewolf every month. It's the reason I left teaching here all those years ago," Lupin says. "But I had friends that helped me get through. Peter, James and... Sirius. They helped me get through the night each month. They stayed with me the whole time." Lupin laughs sadly. "Y'know, Sirius... he used to be my mate. He kept me sane all those years." 

"Past tense?" Castiel asked quietly. 

Lupin nodded. "He died on a mission. It was a long time ago, though." 

"Will... Will I have a mate too?" Cas asks. 

"I assume so. I know a curse that can turn someone into a deva, a winged human. And devas have mates." Lupin looked at him for a second. "Is that about the boy you were talking to?" 

Castiel's face went a deep shape of pink. "N-no!" 

Lupin chuckled. "Wouldn't be a bad choice," Lupin commented. "You two really remind me of Sirius and I when we were young." The professor smiled sadly, remembering his past. 

The two of them stay quiet and then Castiel excuses himself and goes back to the classroom so he could at least get started with reading the first two chapters of the book. He rolled his shoulders and his wings disappeared. 

Lupin watched as the young boy left his office. The professor shook his head, "Minerva's right, that boy's going to be trouble." He whispered to himself. 

Back in the classroom, Castiel walked back over to Dean. Dean looked up and smiled over to Cas, Cas smiled back and sat down next to his friend. 

Shortly after Castiel went back to the classroom, the class ended and the students were free to go. Cas gathered his things and walked with Dean to their next class. The two of them walked throughout the castle and eventually made it to the castle grounds where the flying lessons would take place.