Chapter 36
(A/N: Sorry for the delay! )
December 25, 1995
"Remus... wake up..."
"Hm."
"Remus, wake up... its Christmas... REMUS, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, GET YOUR LAZY ARSE OUT OF BED AND OPEN YOUR PRESENTS!"
"Agh!" Remus yelled, nit used to being woken up at six in the morning, especially not by a witch, and never in a witch's bed.
"Come on, sleepyhead," Tonks was saying. Her hair was bright red this morning, in celebration of Christmas. At the end of her bed was a huge pile of presents; both hers and Remus's.
"Wha-? Why are mine here too?" he asked.
"I guess Father Christmas must have known that we got together," Tonks replied, already ripping the wrapping paper off of her gifts.
"Father Christmas isn't real, Nymphadora. Hey, wait a minute... didn't I overhear Molly saying that she puts them there, since Kreacher won't do it?"
There was silence as they both realized what this meant.
"Shit! She's going to KILL us! She would have seen... and it would have looked like..."
"Should we go down for breakfast? Maybe explain to her—"
"NO! We should run, we should hide! We should—"
"Come on, Nymphadora, we're going downstairs," Remus said, lifting her up and carrying her from the room.
"No, never under estimate the wrath of Molly!"
"Good morning, Tonks," Molly said through gritted teeth when they reached the kitchen. "Good morning, Remus. How did you two...sleep?"
"Um," said Tonks.
"Just fine, thank you, Molly," Remus replied.
"YOU TWO WERE IN THE SAME BED! HOW INAPPROPRIATE, WITH ALL THESE CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE!" she shouted.
"Molly, it wasn't like that—"
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU'LL RUIN THEM, JUST LIKE...just like..." she stopped speaking, and buried her face in her hands.
"Molly, it wasn't like that, honestly, don't cry... nothing happened, and neither Tonks nor I would ever do anything to 'ruin' your children," Remus told her, now that she had finally stopped screaming.
"I believe you," she sniffed. "It's just..."
"Yes?"
"It's Percy!" she wailed. "He's sent back his Christmas jumper, no note or anything!"
"What's mum yelling about now?" the twins asked, apparating nearly on top of Tonks.
"Watch it," she snapped.
"Percy!" she sobbed. "Sent back...his jumper..."
"Aw, mum, it'll be okay..."
"Yeah, Percy's nothing but a humungous of rat droppings..."
This did not seem to make Molly feel any better, and the twins apparated away, presumably to warn the other teenagers about their distressed mum.
Later on in the day, while Tonks was at work due to the large amount of people imagining they'd seen Sirius Black, and were worried about him interrupting their festivities, Remus, Molly, and Mad-Eye escorted the teenagers to go see Arthur in St. Mungo's. Mundungus had stolen—'borrowed'—a car for the occasion.
When they arrived, Arthur was propped up in bed, with the remains of a turkey dinner on a tray on his lap, and a rather sheepish expression on his face.
"Everything alright, Arthur?" Molly asked, after they'd all greeted Mr. Weasley and handed over presents.
"Fine, fine," he said, a little too heartily. "You — er — haven't seen Healer Smethwyck, have you?"
"No," said Molly suspiciously, "why?"
"Nothing, nothing," said Arthur airily, starting to unwrap his pile of gifts. "Well, everyone had a good day? What did you all get for Christmas? Oh, Harry - this is absolutely wonderful!" For he had just opened Harry's gift of fuse-wire and screwdrivers.
Molly did not seem entirely satisfied with his answer. As her husband leaned over to shake Harry's hand, she peered at the bandaging under his nightshirt.
"Arthur," she said, with a snap in her voice like a mousetrap, "you've had your bandages changed. Why have you had your bandages changed a day early, Arthur? They told me they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow."
"What?" said Arthur, looking rather frightened and pulling the bed covers higher up his chest. 'No, no - it's nothing - it's -l-" He seemed to deflate under his wife's piercing gaze.
"Well - now don't get upset, Molly, but Augustus Pye had an idea… he's the Trainee Healer, you know, lovely young chap and very interested in… um… complementary medicine… I mean, some of these old Muggle remedies… well, they're called stitches, Molly, and they work very well on - on Muggle wounds –"
Molly let out an ominous noise somewhere between a shriek and a snarl. Lupin strolled away from the bed and over to the werewolf, who had no visitors and was looking rather wistfully at the crowd around Arthur; Bill muttered something about getting himself a cup of tea and Fred and George leapt up to accompany him, grinning.
"Do you mean to tell me," shouted Molly, her voice growing louder with every word and apparently unaware that her fellow visitors were scurrying for cover, "that you have been messing about with Muggle remedies?"
"Not messing about, Molly, dear," said Mr Weasley imploringly, "it was just - just something Pye and I thought we'd try - only, most unfortunately — well, with these particular kinds of wounds - it doesn't seem to work as well as we'd hoped –"
"Meaning?"
"Well…well, I don't know whether you know what - what stitches are?"
"It sounds as though you've been trying to sew your skin back together," said Molly with a snort of mirthless laughter, "but even you, Arthur, wouldn't be that stupid —"
"I fancy a cup of tea, too," said Harry, jumping to his feet.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THAT'S THE GENERAL IDEA?"
"Hello," said Remus to the newly bitten werewolf over the screams of Molly. "I'm Remus Lupin... I heard about your condition, and—"
"You wouldn't want to come any closer, then," mumbled the werewolf sadly. "I've been... cursed..."
"Well, so have I. For nearly thirty years, actually..."
By the end of the visit he'd learned the werewolf's name (Andrew) and that he was absolutely terrified of himself now, even more than the average person was. His girlfriend had left him, his parents had disowned him, and he had lost his job. In addition to that, now he had to deal with the torture of the monthly transformations.
"Well, there's this thing, called wolfsbane..."
"Remus, are you coming?"
"And it helps you keep your human mind..."
"Remus! Hurry. Up."
"But it tastes bloody awful..."
"REMUS!"