Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Not one bit! They belong to the genius that is J.K. Rowling. claps for her
Memories of Rain
Remus Lupin loved rain. Especially rain at night. He was not sure why he loved it; after all, rain was not linked with anything especially fortunate that had happened in his life. It had been raining the night Fenrir Greyback bit him, causing his now permanent affliction as a lycanthrope. It had been raining the night Lily and James were murdered, leaving little Harry an orphan with the weight of the wizarding world on his small shoulders. It had still been raining later that day when Albus Dumbledore had come to him with news of Sirius' betrayal and Peter's subsequent murder. It had been raining when he left his teaching post at Hogwarts three years ago, after someone "let slip" his… condition. It had rained the night Sirius Black, his last remaining best friend, the last remaining true Marauder (except Remus himself), had died; fallen through the veil at the Ministry of Magic after his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, had cursed him. It had been raining when, two months ago, news that Albus Dumbledore, the wizard Voldemort had always feared, Remus' mentor, the one man who trusted him unfailingly, despite his condition, trusted him more than anyone else alive (as James and Sirius were, now, dead), had been killed, murdered by a man Dumbledore trusted, they had all trusted, reached his overly sensitive ears.
No, rain was not associated with happy memories in Remus' life, so how he could possibly love it, the sound of it pounding on the roof, splashing on the windows, rushing down the street, pouring out of the gutters, the smell, a different scent before, during, and after the storm, the flashes of lightning that illuminated his quiet cottage every few minutes, he didn't know. He was not sure he would ever fully understand. But some things did not need to be understood.
Despite the hardships in his life that were marked by rain, he found comfort in, not the rain exactly, but… in what he found himself doing during a storm. Late at night in his cottage, when the storm had begun, Remus lit a fire, which now burned cheerfully, an opposite to the depressing rain on the other side of the wall. He had opened the cedar chest at the foot of his bed and pulled out his favorite quilt. It was blue-grey and bore an image of a werewolf, unmistakably him to anyone who had seen him during a full moon (and those people had always been few and far between, even more so now, as the majority of them had died). Under the wolf, in beautiful script, was stitched the word "Moony." It was a simple quilt, but by far the most treasured, cherished, and used one the man owned. Lily had made it for him in their seventh year, just as she had done for James, Sirius, and Peter, each bearing their respective animagi forms and Marauder nicknames. Prongs and Padfoot's quilts were now in the chest Moony kept his in, but Wormtail's was stored away in the attic. It was the only one of the turncoat's possessions he still owned, and despite the rat's traitorous ways, he could not make himself get rid of it.
Once the fire was successfully blazing and the quilt retrieved from the bedroom, Remus proceeded to make himself a steaming cup of hot chocolate. This was probably the best thing about rain, an excuse to drink cocoa. Not that the man usually had an excuse for chocolate. It soothed him, comforted him, calmed him, reassured him. Wrapped snuggly in the worn quilt and gazing deep into the red-orange flames, listening to them crackle over the plink of raindrops behind the door, the chocolate allowed him to reminisce about the good days at Hogwarts and after, instead of the bad. Becoming friends with James, Sirius, and Peter, and later Lily. When he first realized that his friends did not care about his lycanthropy, they accepted him anyway. The first full moon the Marauders had been with him. James and Lily's wedding. The birth of Harry. Remus reveled in these memories until the hot chocolate was gone, the fire died out, and the rain ceased.
He then allowed himself to curl up under the quilt and sleep.
Author's Note: Alrighty. Well. What'd'ya think? I couldn't sleep last night and suddenly the sentence "Remus Lupin loved rain." Popped into my head so I got up and wrote this down, finally falling asleep around one in the morning. 'Twas a random spurt of inspiration, which was warmly welcomed, as it hadn't come knocking on my door lately. I wasn't sure about the last sentence, whether to keep in on there or leave it off… so I put it in italics. What do y'all think? Any input/comments/criticism/whatever is welcome, just please review and tell me what you thought! Cha!