"Harry, I-"

The Boy Who Lived looked completely uncaring. "Yes, Professor? If you would excuse me, I have other classes to get to," said Harry, turning around and leaving the moment Lupin failed to immediately answer his prompt.

"No, wait, please!" Lupin said, taking a step forward and putting a hand in Harry's shoulder. "Please, just... just let me explain!" pleaded the shabby looking man.

"Explain what? There is nothing for you to explain here, Professor. It seems my father had terrible taste in friends," said Harry, looking positively disgusted as he glared at Lupin. "We have nothing to talk about. You should have come to seek me out when I was starving, locked inside a cupboard."

Looking horrified, Remus Lupin threw himself back as if he'd been struck by the Cruciatus Curse. "W-W-What!?"

Harry swore under his breath. For some reason, Lupin managed to get under his skin and make his blood boil just by existing. He'd been looking forward when the man proved himself actually competent by chasing away a dementor and countering its effects, but now every lesson with the man was a reminder of what a shitty friend he'd turned out to be.

"Harry! Just... Just let me explain to you why... why I never visited you, before you make up your opinion, okay? If you want to hate me then... I will never reach out again and I will let you live in peace, okay?" pleaded Lupin, throwing himself to the floor.

Seeing how desperate the man was, Harry sighed. "Nothing you can say could explain why you decided it was a good idea to never, ever, check on the orphaned boy left alone in a hostile environment," said Harry, clearly still pissed, "but I will humor you," he added.

"Thank you, for at least giving me a chance," said Lupin, sounding truly grateful. "Believe me, Harry, I wanted so bad to visit you... to hold you in my arms like I used to when James and Lily had to take a rest or go to work... But I couldn't, Harry. I... I'm a werewolf, Harry," Lupin said, shocking Harry into silence. "Even then, I still made several attempts to visit you. All of them illegal, since werewolves are not allowed into the Muggle World," well, law abiding ones anyway, "but the wards around your home, the same wards that kept you safe from the last remnants of You Know Who's servants, kept me out too. I literally couldn't have visited you, even if I'd wanted to. I couldn't approach your person openly in public, for reasons that I think you're still too young to burden you with, and I couldn't approach you privately in your home."

"I've been at Hogwarts for two years now, going on a third. Why not approach me then?" asked Harry, skeptical.

"Every time it came down to it, I got cold feet. After eleven years, I thought to myself I didn't have the right to interrupt the good life you had no doubt lead... imagine my surprise when I learned that my thoughts were all wrong... I sort of admire you, Harry. You had a background almost as bad, if not worse, than any of the Marauders, but you're dealing with it so much better than we did. Far as I know, you're not taking out your frustration on anyone, like we used to. Damn right nightmares, we were," said the man with a little humor in his voice, clearly fond memories in his mind.

"So you're not so much a negligent arse trying to hang onto my fame. You're just a pathetic coward," summarized Harry in a cold voice, making Remus cringe, "I guess I could at least forgive you for that, however... I... Could you... tell me a little about my parents, sometime?"

Remus smiled a bright and warm smile. "I'd like to do that, whenever you've got the time, Harry," he said, pulling the boy into a bone crushing hug, "I'm sorry I was never there,"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Man up, Lupin, and work towards making up for it. I said I MIGHT forgive you. You've got two years of shitty teachers to make up to."

"I'll do what I can, and I'll pull something out of my arse if I have to. I was the idea man for the marauders, you know?" said the older one with a grin.

"We'll see," said Harry with a matching grin, "by the way, I've got a set of friends to introduce you to..."