Chapter Fifty Six- The Mystery that is Remus Lupin
AN: Sorry for the little delay. Hurricane Ike actually hit Ohio! Go figure! All of my husbands fam is in TX and are fine, here we are in Ohio getting pummeled. It was never on the news from what I was told. We were not prepared, thank God we had TWO candles and one radio. All our food spoiled. Nearly four days without power, I just now got it turned back on, since Sunday at 1pm! Ugh. Where we live was hit with 70 MPH winds for five solid hours, that's the equivalent to an F-1 tornado, now imagine that for five hours. I'm from Miami, FL and Hurricane Andrew was a million times worse but we were prepared, this just sprang on us out of no where! No gas, no ice...and we'd just been to Sam's and bought a freezer full of steaks, all gone. Oh well, our house is fine, lost about 103,498,392,029 tree limbs though, still cleaning up. OKAY so that's why the update is late...enjoy!
Disclaimer-Most of these characters belong to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing…
Severus waited one more week to prove his hypothesis of Remus Lupin. As he suspected Remus was missing from dinner on the evening of Thursday January eighteenth and was absent from classes the following day. Severus cast a burning charm on his hand and told Madam Pomfrey had burnt it on steam in potions class so he could go to the infirmary to check and see if Remus was there. Sure enough, he was.
On his way back from the infirmary he ran into Lily who was leaving the Great Hall after dinner. He noticed she was wearing the hair comb he bought her. She topped in the hallway long enough to really talk for the first time since they returned from holiday.
"Hey, you're wearing it!" he said admiring its pretty iridescent wings.
"Oh yeah, it's so pretty," she said touching it. She wore it to hold up one side of her long and straight hair. She smiled shyly at him and then looked down. She looked uneasy and embarrassed for some reason.
"Yeah, it really is," he said looking deeply into her green eyes and not the dragonfly comb at all. The two shared a smile while a couple of their counterparts walked by and giggled and made kissy-noises.
"Ignore them," she said breaking her smile.
He continued to stare at her and was really feeling rather funny, all over, and did not know what to do or say next. He was relieved he was wearing rather loose fitting robes and had his book bag with him to hide any evidence of his ever growing crush on Lily.
"Well, I'm really glad you like it Lily," he whispered. He was standing inches from her when she bit her bottom lip and began to sway from side to side.
"Thanks, me too," she shyly whispered back, looking down and giggling. She finally raised her head to look into his black eyes again before mouthing the word "bye". She turned and walked off in the other direction leaving Severus standing there, stunned, rather light headed, and feeling somewhat euphoric. 'Does she like me?' he thought to himself. She'd been avoiding him, and then was suddenly acting odd around him and almost blushing.
He was smiling the largest smile he'd worn in months when he turned on his heels and without noticing, because he was still watching as Lily walked off, bumped his head into the chest of Sirius Black.
"Watch where you are going Snivellus!" Sirius said pushing Severus back so far he nearly fell.
"Yeah, keep your eyes on where you are going, not where she is going," James Potter added, reaching for his wand.
Before Severus could reach for his own wand he heard a very cold and firm voice come from behind him.
"Back off Black, or else."
"Or else what Malfoy?" Sirius asked, crossing his arms.
Severus turned to find not just Lucius behind him, but Narcissa, Travers who tended to always be in close proximity to Lucius along with Wilkes, Mulciber, Rosier, Regulus and two sixth years he'd never talked to, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Well let's see, there's ten of us and only two of you. For starters I will deduct House points to make it official. Unofficially we will hex you so bad you may not recover. Afterward we will destroy your wands. So now, what do you want us to do?" Lucius asked.
When Severus finally got his bearings straight, he noticed everyone had their wands drawn. For the first time in his life he had a whole group of his peers standing by to defend him.
"You are all talk Malfoy. Besides, James and I would never wish to harm your little lap-dog here," Sirius said, slowly putting his wand away and taking several steps back.
"Come on Sirius, let's go," James said, also stowing his wand and walking away from the Great Hall instead of towards it.
"You stay away from him, or you deal with us," the boy named Travers who hung around with Lucius a lot said.
"One day, your body guards will be gone Snivells, but we'll still be here," Sirius said giving him a wink before returning to the Gryffindor Tower with James.
Severus watched as the boys nearly ran off and then turned to face Lucius. If he thought some money, a tea pot and saving him from a hex in the hall was apology enough for destroying his priceless book…he was probably right. He mouthed the word "Thanks" and then went back to the dungeon.
Why did Lucius and his gang of morons finally decide to help him after all of these years? Crabbe and Goyle along with the others had never given him the time of day before. Perhaps they all followed that Dark Lord too and thought he did as well through his affiliation with Malfoy and suddenly liked him?
He went and checked up on one more book to confirm his beliefs on the wonder that was Remus Lupin. He was certain that he was correct too.
On Monday Remus reappeared in class but had a horrific scratch across his face and looked rather pathetic. He avoided Severus all day but by chance Severus saw him seated alone in the library that evening. He finally had his chance to confront him.
Severus took the chair directly across from Remus, sat with his hands crossed on the desk and stared into the boy's pale blue eyes.
"Severus?"
"Lupin," he said, staring at the boy. He could not believe what Remus was and that he was going to confront him about it. Certainly Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey knew, but he felt everyone should know too.
"Can I help you Sev?"
"Don't call me Sev. Don't call me anything."
"Look, I tell them not to tease you…"
"I don't care about that…werewolf!"
Remus stopped what he was about to say and just stared back at Severus. If any part of Severus was telepathic it was working. His eyes simply told Severus that he was right, even if his mouth was not going to.
"I'm what?" he asked nervously, trying to smile but clearly starting to sweat.
"You heard me. You are a werewolf."
"Sev…erus. I am no such thing," the boy lied, trying to laugh but clearly having difficulty with that.
"You are a filthy, lying, despicable werewolf. I should kill you."
"Severus, now listen to me. I'm no werewolf and you wouldn't kill a fly."
"I've killed flies and I could kill a werewolf," Severus said with conviction. Could he though? They were not human but neither were rats and he could not kill them either. If Lupin tried to bite him, he felt confident he could kill him.
"Severus, I'm no werewolf. I'm clumsy."
"Do you think I'm fucking stupid Lupin? Ugly perhaps, crazy, possibly but stupid? Most definitely not! How does being clumsy cause scratches?"
"Marlene. It's Marlene. She's my cat. I uh, got her for Christmas and she's well…brutal! She scratched me."
"On the eighteenth of the month? What happened last month on the twentieth or the month before on the twentieth also? Know what those dates all have in common?"
"No," Remus lied, biting his bottom lip and looking visibly scared.
"All were full moons and you were missing on each of those nights and in the infirmary the next days."
"Coincidence?"
"Coincidence that your name is Remus Lupin for Christ sakes?"
"Uh…uh huh!"
"My ass Lupin. You are a fucking werewolf. Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were friends."
"We are but I'm not a werewolf, really! I'm not. And if I was, which I'm not, I wouldn't tell anyone, for obvious reasons," he said with sudden force. He slammed his book shut and rose from his seat. "Severus, has it ever occurred to you that you may be too smart for your own good?" he asked before running at full speed from the library.
Remus Lupin was a werewolf and Severus was certain of it.
His first instinct was to tell Lily. He did not have the opportunity to sit with her in private until the next weekend. The two were in the library. It was the day of the Ravenclaw/Slytherin Quidditch game but neither attended. They had the library to themselves for the most part as all members of the two Houses were in attendance; the Gryffindor's were probably up to no good in their common room and the Hufflepuff's were probably somewhere pigging out.
He had to tell someone, he had to tell Lily about Remus. He didn't want to tell Malfoy for some reason. He was not sure why but something told him not to.
"Lily, I have to tell you something but you need to keep it to yourself."
"A secret? Really!" she said with a wicked smile. She leaned in close so he could whisper to her. Having her apple blossom smelling hair and pretty smiling face so close to his made him forget what he was going to say. "What?" she asked again.
He just stared at her and smiled apprehensively. What he did next shocked him more then her. Without thinking he leaned in a few inches further and kissed her. It was a fast, dry and pretty benign kiss right on her lips. No one was around to see it so he didn't feel too bad. He was not sure who blushed more, he or she but he quickly pulled back and looked down.
"Was that your secret Sev?" she asked.
Yes but no.
"No, it's about Remus Lupin."
"What about him?" she asked putting her hair behind her ear and easing back in her seat, no doubt, to be out of reach from his invading lips.
"He's a werewolf."
She smiled a huge and nervous smile. At first she looked confused, then annoyed, then shocked, and then frightened.
"What? No, no!"
"Yes. He gets hurt each month, always at the full moon. Always."
"No, you said those creatures were not allowed to go to school here."
"They aren't!"
"Then it can't be!" she said sounding terrified.
He instinctively put his hands on her shoulders and drew her closer to him. He stared deeply into her eyes and tried to convince her that she was in no harm.
"I'd never let him hurt you Lily. I'll kill him before I let him hurt you. I hate that he sleeps and lives so close to you."
"No, he can't be, it's just….it's so…it can't be!"
"I'm going to his Head of House after the game today. She has to know but maybe she doesn't. He can't go to school here; he could kill us all or worse, turn us. I'll get him expelled so you will be safe."
She smiled and genuinely seemed comforted at his words.
"I'll always keep you safe Lily," he said leaning in closer still. She smiled but then pulled away; so far he could not touch her anymore. She rubbed her neck with her one hand and did not look him in the eye. She was still smiling but it seemed like a frozen smile.
"Okay, well…thanks."
"You won't tell?" he asked her.
"No, I won't," she said. The two stopped talking about Lupin and studied together for a potions exam until the game ended.
He was waiting outside of Minerva McGonagall's office when she made her way down the hall.
What she said to him shocked him more than the kiss he planted on Lily, more than even discovering that a werewolf was among them and more that Lucius was so interested in him. Minerva McGonagall did not believe him.
She claimed to not notice his bruises, the occurrences happening on full moons or even the correlation with his name. She became rather furious and instructed him to mind his own business, stay out of the restricted section, and leave his stupid hypotheses behind. She docked points from Slytherin just from assuming he found information in the restricted section and assigned him two days detention for accusing a fellow classmate of being a Dark Creature.
He was livid. He knew in his heart that Remus Lupin was a werewolf and he knew that she and Dumbledore knew as well. Why did they allow him to go to school there? Why did they allow him to live and sleep so near Lily knowing he could kill or turn her? Why was he the one getting in trouble for them letting a Dark Creature into Hogwarts?
He wanted to scream, cuss and hex anything and everyone he saw on his way back to the dungeons. As it turned out, he'd get his chance to do just that.
