A knock on the door rang out in the silence. A lone man, sitting at a desk lit by candlelight, glanced up from a picture. His face, while handsome, was worn and covered in thin scars. "Come in," he called, his voice a bit hoarse, but strong all the same.
The door creaked open, and a head of messy, jet black hair poked in. A body followed, the body of a teenage boy, with the pinched, unhealthy appearance of someone who had grown quite a bit in a rather short space of time. The expression on the boy's thin face was pained, but guarded. The man furrowed his brow and stood.
"Harry," he sighed, striding over to the boy quickly. He shut the door with a quiet snap and turned, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders.
"Professor Lupin-" the boy started, before the man cut him off.
"Harry, I'm not your teacher anymore," he reminded Harry gently.
The boy flushed pink, and apologized, "Right, I'm sorry. It's just-"
"No need to apologize, Harry. Did you want something?"
Harry's head snapped up, his emerald eyes meeting Lupin's darker, pine-colored ones for the first time since the Ministry. "I had to ask," he began hurriedly. "I mean, I know that this probably isn't the best time, after-" Harry's voice cracked, but he plowed on bravely, "after Sirius, but I had to know-" Harry hesitated.
Lupin assured him, "Harry, whatever you need. All you have to do is ask."
"Well, you were one of my dad's best friends, right?" Lupin nodded once, slowly. "Can you tell me- how did they get married, if they hated each other?"
Lupin sighed again, rubbing his eyes. "You have to understand, Harry, they didn't hate each other. James chased Lily for years before she caved-"
"But she hated him."
Lupin lowered his hands and met Harry's gaze steadily. "Lily had no intentions of changing her opinion of James, and that blinded her to the changes he was making in himself for her sake."
"Please, Lupin," the boy begged him. He's so young... Lupin thought sadly. Harry hadn't yet turned sixteen, but he had already lost almost everything. Harry's eyes, so like Lily's, were begging him earnestly for a tale that had been so twisted, had so many holes, that he didn't know what to think anymore. "I have to know."
Lupin closed his eyes, his bedraggled appearance betraying the heartbreak and exhaustion within. "You may want to sit down," he stated, lowering himself into his own chair. "It's a long story."