Platform Nine, summed up in two words, was cold and draughty. Lupin stared up at the daunting wall the separated platform nine and ten. Before he could stop himself, he scanned the scattered crowds of early morning commuters for the familiar faces of James and Sirius or at the least Peter. He couldn't remember ever making this trip alone. They had always met up before hand, stayed the night at Diagon Alley or something.
But James was dead. Sirius and Peter, well best left that subject alone. Lupin never would have predicted this day, not in a million years. Having to return to Hogwarts alone, having to recall all the memories, with no one to laugh nervously with and change the subject. The people who he had always felt so good with, people who just didn't care about slight full moon tendencies. Now just some people that he had known, once upon a time.
Lupin dragged himself back to the cold drafts of platform nine. It was either now or never. With a small shake of his head, Lupin stepped through the wall between platform nine and platform ten.
As soon as he had stepped through he felt, rather than knew, that something was wrong. Hogwarts either had done some major renovations and turned platform nine and three-quarters into a cramped, dark, cold room the size of a broom closet or Lupin was in the wrong place. He tried to squish his body into a more comfortable position so he could figure out exactly what he had done wrong, a hard task when ones elbow is suddenly on quite friendly terms with the back of your left knee.
A cool centred voice drifted down from the darkness above Lupin's head, "Platform nine and three-quarters is open between the times of 8 am and 4 pm from Monday to Thursday, and 9 am to 5 pm on Saturdays, excluding public holidays. We apologize for any inconveniences' this may cause, Thank you," and with that Lupin was rudely shoved from the dark cold cramped place back onto the ever cold and ever draughty Platform nine.
Well that was a first, Lupin thought in a daze. As his thoughts regrouped and Lupin rearranged his slightly dishevelled appearance, he happened to glance at his watch. "Oh well what's so inconvenient about a one hour and forty five minute wait on a cold draughty platform?" Lupin turned to address his next stream of thoughts to the wall, in particularly to the cool centred voice that resided inside it "You twat." Tired, depressed and dying for some chocolate Lupin leaned against the wall only to hastily recoil as he felt himself falling through it. 'I wonder how many Muggles have fallen for that one. Get it "fallen", oh god this is bad, now I'm explaining bad puns to myself'
But, still curious, Lupin gave the wall a few experimental pokes. Maybe it had been trained to be able to tell the difference between when a Muggle was trying to pass through and when a Wizard was.
'What!? What nonsense was this? Walls are not intellectual beings!' Lupin thought to himself in a poncy British accent, because, as any mind reader would have guessed, Remus Lupin was incredibly tired and incredibly bored. Boredom such as this makes one pause to wonder if it really is impossible to wake a hibernating bear. 'Well these are the type of thoughts you get when you don't get a decent sleep in a decent bed,' a voice in Lupin's mind said, a voice that sounded eerily like his mothers. Hastily Lupin snapped himself into reality, thinking realistic thoughts. When that failed, he began reciting chapters of Hogwarts: A history.
As Lupin raked his memories for whether he had actually read Hogwarts; A History he spotted a rather interesting looking woman making her way through the crowd towards him. No, not that kind of interesting, though some 80+ bachelors may have begged to differ. There was something familiar about the bustle of her skirts, the wobble of her double chin, the stern determined expression on her face. 'It couldn't be,' thought Lupin. But, as she came closer and he began to recognize her features Lupin knew it had to be true. For fate had indeed intended for today, of all days, to be the day that Lupin reunite with the lady he had know so long ago, in what seemed now like a different life.
'Yes!' he thought as she pushed past him and through the wall, 'It was indeed! Indeed the lady who totted the refreshment trolley up and down the Hogwarts express. "Ye Gods! How old was she?" But in that same thought Lupin realised that she had gone through the wall and began to wonder what she knew that he didn't about getting through the wall to Platform Nine and Three-quarters outside, "the hours of 8 am to 4 pm from Monday to Fridays and 9 am and 5 pm on Saturdays, excluding public holidays,". Lupin, in a way that he thought was very subtle and discreet, pressed his ear to the wall to perchance hear what was going on inside it. Of course his ear went through the wall and therefore had no barrier to shield it from the roaring tones that issued from the trolley ladies mouth "get on with it Pip, its freezing in here,"
"Sorry Miss Potts!" the cool centred voice replied in a surprisingly high pitch tone. Lupin felt a rush of air on his ear as Miss Potts presumably was then let on to Platform Nine and Three-quarters.
Lupin held his damaged ear and began thinking that screaming randomly inside a cold, cramped dark place at a bodiless voice was a much better way to pass the time then waiting for another hour on this incredibly cold and draughty platform. As another cold draft ran down the back of his shirt, Lupin hastily stepped into the wall. It seemed a lot colder and a bit damper than it had been before, as the, slightly less cool and collect voice began to recite its message. Lupin took a deep breath and bellowed. "Come off it Pip, its freezing in here"
"Sorry Miss- hey, wait a minute." All of a sudden, Lupin had the feeling that two small beady eyes were peering down at him. Looking up he noticed a little tiny ledge with a little desk and a little tiny lamp. On this little tiny ledge, behind the little tiny desk beneath the little tiny lamp was a little tiny imp. This little tiny imp was now staring discriminatingly in a little tiny impish way down at the top of Lupin's head. Lupin gave a half-hearted attempt at an apologetic grin. "You isn't Miss Potts!" the imp said scornfully, all pretences of having a cool and collect voice gone. Lupin winced,
"Yeah sorry about that didn't see you the- didn't um know that you were-" the imp gave Lupin a slight uneasy look,
"You didn't realise I was right above you?"
"Yeah that's it," Lupin sighed, relieved, "But um, ah, do you mind letting me through, I mean, it is really cold in here."
"Yeah, and this is news to me how?" the imp interjected. Lupin had never been good at talking to little people, and this time was no better. "Did you ever think about how I might feel about the whole situation," asked the imp, standing up and gaining an inch, "five years of acting school, three of elocution lessons, and look where it gets me! Stuck in a cold miserable wall and I hardly ever get to say my lines,"
"Well I heard you say them just before and they sounded pretty good," Lupin said, giving the ole sucking-up-as-if-your-life-depended-on-it tactic a go,
It was waved off as faint praise, from the imp, "Go to acting school I thought," it continued staring off into the space above Lupin's head, "Become a big star I thought. Course that was before I realised there wasn't exactly a high demand for imp sized actors, well not much of a demand, damn Tinkerbelle."
"Life can be harsh like that, now about getting through to-"
But Lupin was interrupted again by the imp's narration of its hard-done-by life story, "Ever caught the west wing elevator at St Mungos hospital?"
"Cant say I-
"Got a cousin that works in there, 'Ground floor. Third floor," Hardly any difficult lines to remember. Families so proud of him, he even makes the ding when the doors open. Git"
"Well that's-"
"Pip let the poor man through," a voice shouted from outside of the wall, and suddenly Lupin experienced a strange weightless sensation as he fell from the wall onto the solid cement of Platform Nine and Three-quarters.
He could just lay there he thought as he rested on the deserted platform, never get up again; see how the world handles it when Remus Lupin has finally had enough. But Lupin had never been one to cause a drama and so slowly and tenderly he picked his battered body up from the pavement. Once he had stood himself up he paused for a moment to witness the peculiar sight of a serious looking women dressed in a stiff business suit, short brunette hair held back by a single clip, sticking her arm through the wall, waving it around and occasionally sticking her whole head into the wall and shouting, "Pip come on out, this isn't funny anymore,".
She spotted Lupin watching her and gave him a small grin as if to acknowledge that this was a bit of a strange situation. Finally, she managed to locate the imp in question and hauled it out of the wall to shove it into a small cage that looked like it probably might have housed several mice at one stage. Lupin smiled down at the imp, feeling that maybe fate did indeed have a sense of justice and a wee bit of humour. "Thank you for that," he said turning to the serious women, who was no longer there. In her place stood a grinning young woman with bright pink hair and a pale heart shaped face, "Um," Lupin stared at this peculiar looking girl, wishing he had put a bit more thought into his appearance this morning.
"You!" shouted the imp angrily standing up in his cage. Both Lupin and the girl looked down at the imp who was no cursing savagely in a language, which Lupin felt rather relieved that he did not know. The girl turned back to Lupin, who was still getting a grip on that the serious looking women he had seen before was now a not so serious looking young women. He quickly averted his eyes back to her face as she caught him staring
"They're easier to catch when they don't immediately recognize you," she said as explanation for her change in appearance. Lupin nodded, she seemed sane, in a very cheerful sort of way. "Tonks," she said sticking out a hand, "Trained Auror at your service," an Auror, well that would explain it. Lupin shook the hand timidly. "Remus Lupin" he replied.
"Sorry about this one," Tonks said, giving the cage at their feet a kick, which started a new spiel of curses, "He often tries to do that. His career never really took off you see, so he assigns himself work where he sees fit," Lupin looked down again at the imprisoned imp who was still muttering incoherently. All of a sudden, the imp whipped out a small imp sized wand from the recesses of its coat and pointed it at Tonks.
"Look out!" Lupin cried grabbing Tonks and pulling her out of the line of fire.
The curse appeared to have worked but somewhere on route to Tonks, it seemed to rebound off the cage door. It ricocheted around the cage for a while before returning to the imp and hitting him in the eye. The imp's shrieks could be heard echoing around the empty station. Lupin, feeling a bit of a Dolt, let go of Tonks, who, seemingly not at all put off by recent events smiled broadly at Lupin, "Thanks, for that. Its not every day a girl gets heroically saved by a handsome stranger," Lupin tried to, unsuccessfully, explain himself,
" Sorry I, you know, didn't realise, the cage was um" Tonks' smile was faltering a little as she tried to decipher exactly what this mumbling, yet still hellishly handsome, stranger was trying to say. "Secure?" she offered, as Lupin's stuttered rambling drew to an unhappy close," that's it!' he said, relieved his point had been made and any confusion was now cleared away, "I didn't realise the cage was, um, that word you just said, secure."
"That's all right," Tonks said, heaving the cage up with its passed out occupant that was beginning to develop green and red spots. "Most people would have just stood back and waited to see what this critters curse could create." Tonks smile vanished for a while "Bastards," she muttered. "Anyway," she said perking up again, "hope you have a nice day," she took a minute to look around the station and actually get the bearings of her surroundings. Lupin watched a slight puzzled expression appear on her face. She turned back to Lupin " Bit old to be starting Hogwarts aren't we?" she asked him, " ah no, well actually," Lupin laughed before realising there was nothing remotely funny about what Tonks had just said, " I'm starting work there," he answered seriously,
" Oh have fun with that," Tonks said cheerfully, " keep the pesky buggers in line," she gave a grimace, " would have hated to teach myself when I went there," Lupin rolled his eyes in agreement, he wasn't looking forward to having to keep in line any new James or Sirius pairs in his class.
Lupin and Tonks both looked up as a few early students and parents began to pilfer through the wall, "We better get out of the way, ay?' said Tonks. Lupin agreed. As he walked himself over to some benches he noticed Tonks following him with a slight guilty expression on her face, " Mind if I sit with you for a while?" she asked, " its only that I've got nothing but paper work back at the office and I hardly ever get out much these days," she added hastily.
Lupin had actually been looking forward to possibly getting some sleep after his wild morning but he thought, what the hell, this was probably the last decent girl he'd be able to talk to after he was locked away up in Hogwarts. As she sat down next to him, cage at her feet the full thought hit him that he would be working and living at Hogwarts, surrounded by bratty teenagers and old teachers from his past for the next set of months. He clamped his eyes tight as an image of him eating breakfast at the staff table sandwiched between professor McGonagall and Snape arose in his mind. When he opened them, he noticed Tonks looking at him biting her lower lip. "You now I'd never put much thought into it," she started, "But how do teachers get to Hogwarts?"
"Well we're supposed to find our own way there," Lupin replied, this made Tonks grin, she nodded at the Hogwarts express
"And this is your way?"
Lupin smiled, "This is my way," Tonks raised her eyebrows,
"It's practical," she pointed out. Then she turned to him grinning devilishly, "Let me guess, you don't know how to get to Hogwarts any other way?"
"Pretty much" said Lupin grinning himself, it was hard not to with Tonks looking at him like that.
"Can't blame ya I guess," Tonks said "I mean, I for one couldn't tell you where to even start looking for it. Tried getting there by broomstick once, when I had a fight with my father in the summer holidays." Tonks face went blank as she recalled the memory. "Didn't go so well for anyone involved."