Author's Note: I felt compelled to write a Remus chapter. I hope it's not too boring or out-of-character for him. I'm trying to settle Remus into Hogwarts, but I really don't have as much experience with him as I do Sirius and James so hopefully I'm not offending any Remus Fans with this one! fingers crossed
Come to think of it though, this turned into more of a Violet Chapter, than a Remus one. But I think a bit of his personality managed to peek through in here.
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As Remus began to walk back to the common room, he suddenly noticed an elderly witch that was following him from portrait to portrait out of the corner of his eye.
Turning to confront her, he was surprised when she dove behind a barrel of rotting fish in what appeared to be a dungeon. He was just about to call her out when she emerged herself, pinching her nose with a spotted hand.
"Oh that smells terrible!" she exclaimed rather nasally. "Ooh if I get my hands on the wizard responsible for-Oh! Hello dear," she added, her eyes widening in an effort to look surprised.
"Hello yourself, madam," Remus answered, a small smile edging onto his features. Noticing how uncomfortable she looked, he decided that perhaps a change of portrait would be nice. "Would you like to move further down the hall? It can't be all that pleasant in there with all that fish."
The woman positively beamed at him, flushing as she realized that he must've caught her following him from Dumbledore's office. "Why thank you dear," she said as she hurried over to the next portrait-one of two wizards engaging in some kind of duel.
Batting an errant spell away with her crocodile handbag, she pulled out her wand and strode right up to the closer wizard, shaking a bony finger at him. "Never in all my life have I seen such behavior!" she shouted, her small voice echoing shrilly.
The two duelists winced and the closer one hastily pocketed his wand and bowed slightly. "Sorry marm, we meant no offense."
"There," she said, rapping the young gentleman on the head with her wand. "That's what I like to see. Nice, quiet, respectful young men who actually allow their elders to have a conversation!"
"Excuse me, madam," Remus started, wiggling a finger in his ear. He really didn't want to be getting into trouble on his first night at Hogwarts and he was sure that the time was getting close to curfew.
"Not now dear, I'm in the middle of a tirade," she said simply, as if this was quite the normal thing to say. Remus immediately clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter as she turned back around to shout at the duelists again, indignantly stamping her high-heeled shoes as she caught sight of the coat-tails of the second disappearing out of the frame. "Oh the nerve of young people today!" she said angrily as she turned back toward him.
Remus Lupin hastily dropped his hand and did his best to look solemnly as she stowed her wand in her rather large handbag.
"Sorry about that, dear. I just can't help myself around some of these young hoodlums. You'd think after I don't know how many centuries up on these walls they would've learned how to behave themselves! But no! Every night when the castle goes to bed, these two start firing jinxes at each other until sunrise. How is anyone supposed to get any sleep up and down this corridor, I ask you? No, don't answer that, dear," she added quickly, as he opened his mouth to respond.
"And they aren't anywhere near as a bad as some of the portraits around the Great Hall," she added, throwing up her hands in frustration. "In fact, I came up here to sit with a nice gentleman who hangs in the corridor we left, just in front of that nasty pair of gargoyles who guard the Headmaster's office, to enjoy a nice cup of tea when-well it was before you came dear," she added, beginning to walk across the frame and into the next portrait as she talked.
"But the most interesting thing happened! Two students, a boy and a girl-oh do you suppose they're the new Head Boy and Girl?" Her face lit up at the prospect and she continued on with her story much more excitedly. "Well anyways, the two showed up round about the same time, but not together-oh no. Because the girl, I think it was Ms. Vance-she's really a very lovely girl from my friend's house-Oops." The woman blushed and covered her mouth. "I really wasn't supposed to tell you that dear."
"Oh, were you talking about the Fat Lady? She guards the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, that's where I'm headed."
She beamed at him and continued on, "So it was Ms. Vance. I thought so," she said, though Remus actually hadn't said anything like that at all. "Well she took one look at the boy and positively flushed! Oh but that Edgar Bones-he could really use a lesson in the subtlety department if you know what I mean."
At the amused expression on Remus' face, she burst into giggles and nearly missed ducking out of the way of a rather tall, tropical, fern in a portrait of a man being penned in a tree by what looked like a manticore. "A little help, Violet?"
"Oh look it's Charles!" The woman named Violet said, waving cheerily at him as he hoisted himself onto a higher branch, narrowly escaping the manticore's claws. "Good show, Charles, dear!"
"Er-Ms. Violet…shouldn't you do something about that? Help him out or something?"
"Oh no dear," she said, waving a hand dismissively as she crossed into the middle of a group of what looked like Elephants practicing a tap dance. "What else would he do if he wasn't fighting the manticore? And really, it is his painting. So I suppose it's his purpose on canvas to get it before it gets him." She twittered at this, apparently tickled by the prospect of the unfortunate Charles being devoured by the manticore. "Of course," she reflected, "If he were to get eaten, that would make that portrait terribly unsafe."
As they ascended they came out on the Grand Staircase, Remus wondered about Violet's sudden lapse into silence. "Ms. Violet? Are you quite alright?"
"Yes dear," she said brightly, waving her hand as she leaned against the frame of wizard in a bathrobe who looked positively startled at being barged in on. "Just a little winded, dear."
"Violet! Madam I am indecent!"
Violet waved a hand at him, not looking as she bent over, trying to catch her breath. "Yes, Felix, I know."
"Would you like me to wait for you?"
"Oh no, I wouldn't want you to be late. Run along, I'll catch up."
Though he wasn't quite sure how the elderly woman would manage to catch up to him, Remus started up the stairs suddenly wishing he had someone to talk to.
Halfway up a flight of stairs toward the fifth floor, Remus nearly lost his balance as the whole thing began to move. Pulling away from the wall, Remus was alarmed to discover that the staircase was floating down toward the level he'd just gone to. "I want to go up, you!" he muttered, smacking his hand down upon the banister.
"They do that, sometimes," a familiar voice said and he started, looking at the picture to his left, surprised to see Violet waving brightly at him. "Told you I'd catch up, didn't I?"
Remus returned her smile, glad of the company as he began to reclaim the ground he'd lost. "So is there a pattern to it?"
"To what?"
"The stairs moving about and such?"
"Oh that. Well not that I've noti-don't step there!"
Remus, who was about to put his foot down on the next step, jumped backwards in surprise. "Why not?" he asked, scanning what appeared, to him, to be a perfectly normal step.
"It's a trick step dear. Put down your foot and you'll sink right through! I've heard that it's really a top-notch sensation in your bare feet…but it's really quite hard to get out all by yourself."
"But I'm not-Oh, right." He had been about to insist that he was hardly alone, being with Violet, but then realized that she wouldn't be much help in a situation like that. Suddenly wishing he had real friends to talk to, Remus sighed and hopped over the trick step, glumly ascending the next flight in silence.
"Oh now I've gone and upset you!" Violet exclaimed, wringing her hands anxiously. "Everyone misses that step their first couple of times, dear. I wouldn't get too frazzled about it. Oh I don't know why Emmeline didn't point that out to you on the way up here!"
"No-it's not that. It's just-"
"VI!" An excited voice called from down the hall and Remus looked up to see the Fat Lady waving exuberantly at them.
"Oh look, we're back already," Violet said, sounding down herself.
"Felix, you know that charming man down on the 2nd floor landing?"
"We've met," Violet said as she squeezed into the portrait nearest the Fat Lady.
"Well he sent me the most wonderful tasting chocolate covered cherries. I really must know where he got ahold of them! Oh, Vi you didn't tell me you made a friend!"
"Violet's terrible about things like this," she added to Remus.
"Well he's-" she flushed, realizing that they'd never actually introduced themselves.
"I'm Remus, Remus Lupin."
"Well Remus it was very nice to meet you," Violet called cheerily as he delivered the password, her voice muffled by the Fat Lady's canvas.
"You as well," he said softly as he entered the dark common room.
Sighing as his eyes adjusted to the sudden absence of light, he could pick out the soft glow of embers and the figure of a small boy with spiky hair curled up in one of the armchairs.
"James?" he whispered, surprised.
The boy jerked, his eyes opening, blinking as he realized that his glasses were askew. Straightening them with a laugh, he yawned, his hazel eyes catching sight of Remus. "There you are!" he said, grinning. "You've been gone absolute ages!" he added softly. "I think the others are already asleep. Come on, I've got loads to show you!" he added as he slid out of the red plush chair.
Remus followed him to the staircase, smiling as James relayed parts of their night. It sounded as though the three boys had had fun exploring their dormitory and common room. "And here we are!" he said, stopping on the first door to their left. "The loo's right down the hall if you need it. And I think your bed is across from mine-by the window," he added as he pushed open the door.
Remus, still feeling slightly overwhelmed by the fact that he hadn't needed to fumble around for their dormitory-or his bed-in the dark, merely smiled and nodded. But this didn't faze James all that much; he was used to a Remus who didn't say much.
"I think the house elves might've gotten your pajamas out," he added thoughtfully as he tiptoed toward his own four-poster. And, sure enough, Remus' pajamas were sitting on his bed.
Sliding the curtains closed, he changed quickly and slipped under the covers, smiling as he nestled into the comfort of his soft pillow. "Thank you, James."
The other boy blinked and smiled sleepily. "Y'welcome." And with that, the dormitory was silent.