Chapter 25

Dear Remus,

I'm glad to hear that you are having a good time at Hogwarts, but make sure you do take all your classes seriously. I don't want to get another letter from Mr. Malfoy, expressing his concern for your "wasted talents". Also I heard that there was an incident at last week's Valentine's Day dance, saying that unknown students first poluted the punch with love potion and then made every pair of kissing lips adhere to each others. Now, I am not accusing you or your friends of this prank, but that was very irresponsible. Remain the good boy your mother and I raised, the last thing our family needs is you to be in the spotlight. Blend into the background and focus on your studies.

As an answer to your questions, I have very good news. The ministry and I have managed to capture allies of Frederick Greyback and we are currently using . . . methods of interrogation to gain information of his whereabouts during the rest of the month. We believe if we can find him while he is in human form, it will be much easier to take him into custody. Also your mother is doing very well at her new job - she's the best saleswoman there. Because of our new more prosperous jobs, I can proudly say that we are looking into nicer townhouses to move into.

Your mum and I send you love and hope you will have a great school year. She sent some chocolate chip biscuits for you and your friends as well. I love you, Remus.

-Dad.

Remus folded the parchment neatly and put it away in his nightstand and grabbed a biscuit and started munching it. Peter entered the empty room.

"Hi Remus!" Peter said as he sat down next to him.

"Hi Peter. How are you?" Remus asked. He offered the plate of biscuits to Peter and he took one.

"I'm fine. This is the best biscuit ever. Are this from your mum?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, Vladimir just brought them. Do you ever get mail from your parents." Remus asked cautiously.

"No, they're both very busy people. My mom's a waitress at a tiny dinner and my father's always traveling."

"Is he a salesman?" Remus questioned.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Remus confusingly asked.

"I haven't seen him since I was seven." Peter confessed.

"I'm so sorry, Peter." Remus said softly.

"My mom still says that he's just traveling. She even tries to write birthday cards in his handwriting, but I can see right through it. People always assume that I'm dafter than I really am." Peter said coldly.

"That's not true, I think you're brilliant." Remus said.

"No you don't. You're the top of the class." Peter mumbled.

"In herbology, you were the only one to know how to properly extract the gillyweed juice yesterday. You gave Gryffindor 20 points!" Remus reminded him.

"But what will herbology do for me? It's not a practical class like potions or transfiguration was." Peter argued.

"Where do you think all the ingredients for potions come from? And all the wizard medicine?" Remus asked. Peter looked at him. "You are way smarter than you give yourself credit for." Remus said. "It's almost 7pm, I have to go down to the library to study with Severus and Lily." Remus started walking out the door but abruptly stopped. "Would you like to come and help us with Herbology?"

"You mean with you guys, the smartest of the class?" Peter asked excitedly.

"You are too now. So are you coming?" Remus asked. Peter nodded and followed Remus to the library. They sat down at a table that Severus and Lily were sitting at in awkward silence.

"Hi, I brought Peter tonight to help with identification of magical herbs."

"That's fine." Severus said quickly. Awkward silence ensued again. Remus noticed that Lily and Severus were desperately trying to avoid looking at each other. Remus remembered how they sort of avoided each other all week since the Valentine's Day Struggle and he thought how this must be the first time they confronted each other since.

"Congratulations you two!" Peter blurted out.

"On what?" Lily asked.

"You two are dating now, right?" Peter asked. There was another awkward silence. Remus tried to give him a look to shut up but he continued. "The whole school is talking about it. At the dance, you professed your love for each other."

"That was a punch intoxicated with love potion talking, right Severus?" Lily asked. Remus watched Severus's face drop into disappointment and nodded. "And then we were humiliated and were stuck kissing for two hours. TWO HOURS! Of being conjoined at the lips. It was the most embarrassing thing I've ever experienced. I can't believe the immature pranksters that did it were never caught. If I would ever catch them, I would make them kiss for two hours in front of the whole school, see how they like it."

"So you're not dating?" Peter asked confused.

"NO! Severus and I are just friends and would not want to risk our friendship." Lily screamed. "Right, Severus?" he once again disappointedly nodded.

"Good. I'm going to bed instead of studying tonight. This whole event gave me a headache." Lily said as she stormed out the door. Remus watched as Severus pushed his head hard into the table.

"You didn't want to stay just friends, did you?" Remus asked quietly. Remus shook his head and gave him a crumpled up letter with neat cursive on it.

"What's this?" Remus asked.

"It's a letter that I wrote her on Saturday night. It confesses my true feelings for her. I was going to give it to her on that Saturday night but then it was ruined when we were drugged with that love potion. I never got to give it to her after that." Severus mumbled. "If I ever catch the hooligans who planned this prank, I'll - I don't know." Severus stopped talking.

"I'm sure they didn't mean to do so much harm." Peter stammered.

Severus stopped, crinkled his eyebrows and stared at Peter who was starting to sweat. He slowly said "It was Potter, wasn't it?" Peter gulped and looked away. "It was James! He was mysteriously absent from the dance and I heard someone shout Exposmise. Did you know about this, Remus? Did you know that your friend was going to humiliate hundreds of students?"

"No! Of course I didn't!" Remus stammered.

"But you admit that it was him?" Severus asked threateningly. He stood up.

"No! I didn't mean it like that! I don't know who it was!" Remus screamed. Severus took his wand and dug it into Remus's neck and held his shirt.

"Tell me the truth, Lupin!" Severus shouted.

"Stop it! It was James! It was James! Don't hurt him!" Peter screamed from the side. Remus sighed. Severus released Remus and looked at his wand.

"Audioxo Repartarum" he whispered and Remus heard their own voices coming from Severus's wand, repeating the conversation.

"Please Severus, don't do this to James, he didn't mean to hurt you." Remus begged.

"You've never seen the way he and Sirius hex, curse, and charm me constantly. Every day I am harassed by them, but they always hide it from you."

"What?" Remus asked in confusion. He knew James had played two pranks on him, but not every day.

"You're friends with a bully, Remus. Up until this point I've been passive, but no more. I will turn this confession into Mcgonagall and James will pay for the pain he has inflicted upon Lily and I and the entire school. Don't worry though, he won't know that you two snitched as my gift for you." Severus explained.

"What about our friendship?" Remus asked. "I do consider you and Lily as my friends."

"We will appear as "friends" in front of Lily because she is fond of you. But I will never be able to accept you as a true friend until you abandon the ones who torture me every day. Goodnight, Remus." Severus maturely answered. He then left and headed to Mcgonagall's office. Remus and Peter returned to the Gryffindor house in silence. Remus stared out the window to the nearly full moon, reflected on what he had done.