Summary: Marauder's Era. Remus explores his budding feelings for Sirius, intending to keep this secret safe. Too bad he's too oblivious to realize that Sirius not-too-secretly feels the same way. Meanwhile, Peter gets the guys into trouble with McGonagall. SBRL.
A/N: Thanks to Fishy Custard who reviewed to Chapter 1, and also to everyone else who faved and put this on their story alert!:) Much love!
On a random note, I always imagined Remus' voice to be much like Jason Mraz's. Smooth, clear, and undeniably sexy. *swoons*
Now, on to the fic!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its characters and plot, all belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything. I'm only paying a small tribute to the SBRL fandom.
Of Apple Trees and Honey Bees
Chapter 2
The Hogwarts landscape was now a peculiar sight to behold.
Many of its students and staff would have previously agreed that the surrounding forestry was a much refreshing sight, especially compared to heavily crowded and urbanized muggle London.
However, with the latest addition to the castle's architecture, namely the transfigured apple tree, many would comment that Hogwarts was now a tad bit too sylvan for their tastes.
When interviewed about this issue, the headmaster Albus Dumbledore commented that Hogwarts' newest addition was indeed a most novel one. His half-moon spectacles had twinkled as he spoke, but his eyes had betrayed something else.
The white-bearded wizard was always surreptitious about his musings.
Well, a week had passed since that fateful incident, and the apple tree itself had begun to have some inhabitants. Some birds started creating their nests on top of its luscious branches (yes, it was really a rather large tree). The surrounding area then became always endowed with birds singing nature's song.
That was good...right?
Too bad the now-ubiquitous presence of birds also meant that the classroom in ruins, aka the Marauders' detention cell for the next few weeks, was literally inundated with bird droppings.
It seemed that even Mother Nature was vengeful against Peter's act of Transfiguration.
In hindsight, Professor McGonagall considered that Peter's skill in Transfiguration was really quite commendable; to have had the tiny apple seed mature into the most of its evolutionary capacity was remarkable for the short chubby boy to accomplish.
But, detention is detention, and McGonagall was never a woman to go back on her words.
She had already been lenient enough to allow the foursome some form of slack. The Marauders were not forced to rebuild the aforementioned classroom on a daily basis per se, as long as the classroom was fully rebuilt and refurbished by the time the two months' detention sentence was up.
She had also given them the independence to decide who in particular, and which days they would work on it. The discipline mistress also didn't see the need to supervise them all the time. She had her own responsibilities too. And after all, fifth year was their O.W.L. year, and she was not to deny any of them study time (especially for Remus), if they needed it.
Remus sighed.
He was waiting for Muggle Studies class to begin, while sitting next to a recuperating Lily Evans.
Madam Pomfrey had healed most of her apple pie-induced burns the previous week, but there was left some pinkish patches on her face and arms that would only heal with time's passing.
Lily was never narcissistic for a girl her age, but then again, it would be natural for anyone would absolutely loathe pink patches defiling their otherwise pristine features. (The latter would have been asserted strongly by one adamant James Potter).
"I mean, really, Remus, how could he even think such a thing? At first I thought he was merely daft, but does Potter even have a brain?"
"It's been a week, Lily, I can lend you some soothing lotion later if you like?" the sandy haired boy digressed. He grew tired of defending James (although James was really innocent in this particular accident), and just acquiesced mostly to whatever Lily had to say.
Remus really hoped for Professor Cassels to come in soon, Lily's complaints were getting a bit too irritating for his own threshold to bear.
If only Sirius were here, I wouldn't need to go through this alone, Remus thought.
The closet-werewolf constantly found his thoughts going back to Sirius since their fifth year started.
Sure, the Black heir had grown taller and much more handsome through the holidays, but did it really mean anything at all, though?
They were just best mates.
Best mates who often fell asleep on each other's shoulders in the warmth of the Gryffindor common room, best mates who had a bit more physical contact than most heterosexual males could stand. But still. They were just the best of mates.
Remus was jolted of his reverie when a middle aged man in his late 30s, entered the Muggle Studies classroom. He had long auburn hair that reached his shoulders, a fair complexion, and stood to around 6 feet tall. He had a dazzling smile, and an aura that made the classroom's occupants rush into silence.
"Good afternoon guys and gals," the man began, "your dear Professor Cassels is on leave. She got into a terrible accident, and got trampled by a raging herd of Hippogriffs last weekend." He paused and gave a mildly confused look. "Still not too sure how she got into that predicament."
Most of the students blanched. Professor Cassels was a rather bookish, often in the depths of her own world, in her early 50s witch. It was very likely that she had wandered in her own thoughts, not even noticing that she had indeed trespassed on Hippogriff land. Very territorial, those creatures.
"Anyway, not to worry, she's under the best care in St. Mungo's now. In the meantime, I'll be taking her classes until Professor Cassels makes a smooth recovery."
After some moment of awkward and muted silence, the man laughed to himself. "Oh yes, introductions. You guys can call me Professor Charles Simpson. I used to study at Hogwarts too, a few years ago. "
A resounding nod of acknowledgement came from the students, and some "ooohs".
"Anyway, without further ado, let's take your attendance."
Professor Simpson shuffled through the many books he was carrying, finally whisking out a parchment with the students' name list.
"Argyle, Thomas."
"Here."
"Douglas, Samuel."
"Present."
"Longbottom, Frank."
"Present!"
"Lupin, Remus."
"Here."
"Nice name, Remus." The professor smiled toothily.
"Uh...Thanks?" Remus' face coloured, and sunk lower in his seat.
"Alright...Evans, Lily."
"Here."
The professor continued to call the names down the list.
Remus really involuntarily blushed at the professor's unexpected compliment. It was not common for anyone to compliment his appearance. Being a werewolf also made him more self conscious about his features, for fear of others' noticing his monthly transmogrification scars.
Professor Simpson's striking smile had also made Remus' kness turn weak. Thankfully he had been sitting down, or else Remus would have hyperventilated in the embarrassment that would have ensued.
The sandy haired boy winced as a mental image of what could have happened involuntarily conjured itself in his mind. He saw an image of his knees buckling in shock, resulting in his person falling on the classroom floor. Like a puppet.
He shook his head, as though the action could clear off his imagined embarrassment. Oh, the power of the mind.
Get a grip of yourself, Lupin, he berated, this is most inappropriate, and you know it.
Only Sirius had made him blush like that before, and that was saying something.
He sank deeper in his seat. He remembered that he had to serve detention with Sirius later after class. It was going to be a very long day.
To be Continued...
A/N: Uh-oh. Who's this new professor that's making our favourite werewolf's heart beat a little faster? Why didn't Sirius even make an entrance here? Stay tuned to find out!
Aaaaand...Reviews are really much welcome! So please review! I'd really want to know what you guys think, so be able to write a fic that all of us will enjoy ;)
Kudos, and see you guys in the next update!
Here's a sneak peek in Apple Trees and Honey Bees, Chapter 3!
It simply never occurred to him before – that Moony, with his sandy blonde Moony-hair, golden brown Moony-eyes, and symphony-of-church-bells Moony-laugh, was the one responsible for his effervescent mood whenever the skinnier boy was around.
