A/N: Remus steels away to the Hospital Wing one night and waxes nostalgic about his stays during his years as a Hogwarts student. RxR. FxF.
Submission for:
Fanfiction Scavenger Hunt Competition: A fic between 700 and 900 words using the prompts sentimental, purple, and hospital wing
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Remus Lupin walked from his living quarters, through the many halls of Hogwarts and down to the Hospital Wing. His thoughts were muddled and preoccupied and he didn't think he would be able to sleep unless he visited for himself. The place held sentimental value to the werewolf and coming back to the castle to teach for the year had brought back many memories.
There were bad memories. It was here he woke up once a month every night, admiring the new set of scratches that adorned his body and suffering from the aches and wounds from his recent transformation. It was here he had many panic attacks and hallucinations which were after effects of the transformations. It was here he stomached potion after potion in order to heal and to return to being Remus Lupin, the shy, bookworm Gryffindor boy with the bad boy scars. It was here he would mull over how dangerous he was to society, if he should leave Hogwarts to keep his friends and the other students safe, if he should just run away and roam the countryside on his own. It was here he was at his lowest.
He padded quietly on the reflective stone floor lit balefully by the half moon hanging in the night sky, careful not to wake Poppy. Though they were now coworkers, he would always see her as his nurse, almost like a grandmother. She would have his eternal respect. She had looked kindly on the scared, lost and lonely werewolf kid of many years ago. He owed her his life.
He stood before 'his' bed, the one farthest in the large room, the bed she always reserved for him. He had noticed then that even when he wasn't in the Hospital Wing, no one else used that bed. He wasn't sure if it was purposeful or not. It looked exactly the same as it did back then: the pale white sheets in the plain metal bedframe, the pale privacy screen which she usually drew to hide him from other visitors, the stiff chair next to the bed. His second home away from home.
He smiled to himself, for despite the bad, there were many good memories he had had with his favourite people. After each transformation, he would always wake up to his smiling friends. After they had figured it out his secret in their third year, they never missed seeing him after he came back to the hospital wing. Even in the dead of night, they would spirit through the castle to sit at his bedside. That happened so often, Poppy was no longer surprised to see them all sleeping in the beds and chair beside his. Sometimes he saw the smile she tried to hide as she roused them all up and sent them off to classes. Another reason why he loved the nurse.
He could see them now in his mind's eye, the image superimposed on the scene before him. The Marauders, all at the age of 15, the bright morning light reflecting off the small dust particles in the air. The sterile smell of the different potions and whatever cleaning agent Poppy used. The soft screams from outside the window if they were there on a Saturday morning. None of that mattered to them in their special place. He could see himself, sitting up in his bed, bandages wrapped around his arms, legs and abdomen, clutching his side in pain but laughing too hard to care. Sirius lying in the bed next to his, slapping the bed with his hands and his loud barking laugh bouncing off the high walls. James with a smug smile and small chuckles having set all his friends into uncontrollable laughter and propped precariously on an unbalanced chair. Peter, the Peter he used to know, looking up at all of them with tears spilling from his eyes holding his round belly. And all around them, littered over his bed and on the floor, bright purple chocolate frog cards from tall mountain of sweets they would bring him to eat.
Remus climbed into the bed and looked around the empty silent Hospital Wing, placing himself into the scene. His mind finally felt at ease and he was ready to go to sleep. In his bed reserved just for him.