La Belle et La Bete (do I really need to translate that?)
Disclaimer: JKR is a Goddess, but I do like to play with her toys, and I always put them back up when I'm done.
Don't worry, I'm still captain of the H/G ship! : )
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"Damned cat!" Belle muttered furiously, once again having to step over one of the cursed creatures. She glowered at the black and white tabby, only one of the many she had. The bloody creatures were all in an uproar because of the rather large eagle owl, which had just delivered a letter to her, had decided to perch on her countertop to rest. The cats were hissing and meowing, all trying get to the poor owl, who was ignoring them. Belle sat down in a nearby chair, pushing yet another feline out of the way, and opened the letter.
Arabella,
Need you to Apperate to Remus Lupin's for a while. Voldemort is back. Sirius Black and Mundungus Fletcher will be there as well. Place a Shield Charm over the
Dursley's, it'll be sufficient until you get back.
Albus Dumbledore
Belle read the letter three times before the words sunk into her brain. She closed her stormy-gray eyes and ran her fingers through her long silvery hair, tears stinging the back of her eyes as she read his name over and over. It was so hard to think of him now. So hard to thing about all the time they'd lost, all the time that had been stolen from her. Did he ever think of her now? Did he ever wonder what she was up to? Would he even care? He didn't seem to care when he broke her heart, crushed her dreams, and blackened her future, all with one simple, single word.
She had loved him almost from the first, from the very moment he'd turned to her the Gryffindor common room and asked her if she could help him out with Transfiguration. He wasn't exactly what one would call handsome, his hair was too long, his nose a bit off-center, but he always appeared to be so calm, so in control with everything, that Belle couldn't resist him. Belle may have been two years behind him, but she was excellent in Transfiguration, a class that most people found to be quite daunting. He was impressed when she showed him a secret way to transfigure a teapot into a tortoise and from then on, they became the best of friends. He'd told her that he loved her in his seventh year, only to shatter her heart and soul one beautiful autumn day two years later.
Shaking her head at the path her mind had wandered down, she studied the goblet of Aging Potion she was just about to drink. Should she just ignore the summons? It would certainly make her life easier to pretend she never received it and go back to the daily life she led.
Belle glanced around the kitchen, noting the fading curtains, smelling the stench of cabbages and cats, wondering if the task she was about to face was any harder than the one she'd been doing for almost half her life. She'd been in this house at Number 6 Privet Drive for nearly fifteen years, guarding a very special boy, and protecting her own self from the pain. The pain of not being able to be with him. So she volunteered herself for a most important and difficult task, one that Dumbledore himself protested against. Not that he didn't need someone to do it, but she was so young, her life ahead of her, why did she want to become some sour old maid? Why indeed.
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Remus Lupin stared at the message in his hand, blinking his eyes to see if he'd misread it. No, there it was, plain as ink. Why her? Why did Dumbledore need her here? What had she been doing that would require her to get involved in this? Years ago, he had tried to find her, tell her he made a mistake, tell her he was wrong, but she had disappeared. Totally eradicated from the face of the earth. Did she ever think of him now, wherever she was?
Remus closed his eyes in agony, thinking of that beautiful autumn day. He remembered how she smiled up at him, her pretty face alight with love and laughter. She always had a strange, quirky sense of humor, one of the things he loved most about her. She could banter with the best of them; James, Sirius and Peter felt the sting of her barbs on more than one occasion, but she always saved a sweet smile for him. A smile that would reach her eyes and set them twinkling and she'd toss that beautiful mass of sliver locks over her shoulder, making his fingers itch to touch such softness. She looked up at him that autumn day and told him she'd gladly spend the rest of her life with him, no matter what, if only he wanted her.
It was the single worst moment in Remus' young life, telling her no, but he'd felt he had to do the noble thing, even if it wasn't the right thing to do. She needed someone who would love her three hundred and sixty five days straight, and not just when the moon wasn't full. She needed someone who could give her children to love as much as he loved her, not someone who could tear her to pieces in the blink of an eye. She needed everything that Remus couldn't give her, and so he had set her free, tearing his own heart to shreds in the process. He'd left her that day, standing in the square of Godric's Hollow, tears streaming down her face. He'd turned and walked away on the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to him. Denied himself the one chance at happiness he had. And if he thought about her everyday since then, then so what? So what if he dreamed about her at night, evil wicked dreams, dreams where he loved her in ways he'd never thought possible, dreams where he'd wake up sweating and shaking with need. That was his punishment, he supposed, for breaking both their hearts.
But how could he ever face her again?
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A/N: No, this isn't my usual H/G fluff, although I'm sure I'll manage to sneak some into this story. : ) I've always loved the character of Remus Lupin, and I've always wondered why Arabella Figg would take on the job of guarding Harry at the Dursley's. Consider this my version of what might have happened.