— CHAPTER TWELVE —

The Golden Child

"What's got you so chuffed?" asked Sirius.

Remus looked up from his half-eaten breakfast. He hadn't even noticed the arrival of his fellow Marauders. He'd been too busy trying to scarf down his food so that he could go find Professor Jewel. Yesterday's revelation about their shared lycanthropy had ignited a thrill in him, like someone had cast Incendio on Remus's insides.

"Huh?" Remus said, though he very well knew the answer to Sirius's question.

"You're smiling at your breakfast like it just told you that you got full marks in last week's Potions essay."

"Funny," quipped Remus, whose eyes wandered up to the staff table. Jewel was still not there. Surely this meant he'd be in his office, right? Though his body ached from his recent transformation, with bandages under his robes for all his fresh wounds, Remus felt no pain. He drummed his fingers against the table with anticipation.

"Or that it bought you a new book," James ribbed, bounding over the Gryffindor table with unfair athletic deftness.

"Or that the library's closing late today," added Peter which, to his obvious delight, made James snicker.

"All right, I get it," snapped Remus, but he was smiling. He swallowed down the last of his breakfast and stood up just as the other three sat down. "Right then, I'm done here. See you lot in Charms."

Sirius looked baffled, and strangely incensed. "Where are you off to? It's eight-thirty in the morning!"

"Studying," said Remus as he departed, too excited to contrive a stronger excuse.

To his surprise, though, Sirius had gotten up once more. "You're a real tosser, you know that?"

Remus paused. "What?"

"You never tell your friends the least bit of anything," Sirius was ranting. "Aren't I right, James? Peter?"

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. Sirius was clearly still concerned about their conversation last night. Remus had better things to worry about.

Peter looked to James, unsure of what to do or say. James had fixed solemn eyes on Sirius.

Sirius didn't wait for an answer. "Like, where were you yesterday?"

The last thing Remus wanted to ruminate on was yesterday's transformation. It was like Sirius's words had cleared the happy haze over Remus's mind. Now he was as bothered as he felt right after a full moon. The pang of a new bite on his left arm. The sting of the long gash lining his left leg. The throb of irritation causing him to furrow his eyebrows.

James, to his credit, said, "Maybe lay off Lupin a bit."

Sirius refused to back down. "I'm right, though! He's always off doing Godric knows what. We don't know shite about him."

"Sirius." There was a warning in James's voice.

"How can we call him our friend?"

The sting of the slight was sharp. Any other moment in time and Remus would've folded like parchment, let the insult wear him down like a full moon. Remus opened his mouth to—well, he wasn't sure. Perhaps he would retort. Perhaps he would burst into tears. Sirius looked at him expectantly, as if to say, "Well?"

But the thought of Jewel—that there was someone just like him out there, only metres away—lifted him up like dragon's wings. Remus couldn't let Sirius's words bother him, no matter how terrible or truthful they happened to be. Sirius could never, would never understand why Remus held such things close to his heart. He just wasn't like Remus, the way Jewel was.

Remus promptly turned on his heel and left.

He found Jewel's office, a double-doored room tucked away in the corner of the second-floor corridor. He took a deep breath, then knocked. Behind it, he heard someone moving around. Before long, Professor Jewel opened the door, towering above him, and looking down at Remus with his kind eyes. (Instantly Remus was relieved. Jewel had clearly woken up on the right side of bed today.) And, embarrassingly, Remus couldn't quite help but notice something he hadn't before, that Jewel was a handsome sort of man, with a stylish auburn quiff and well-groomed moustache.

"Good morning, Remus. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Remus, despite everything, stumbled with his words a bit. "Sir! Sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but I really wanted to have a chat with you. About Whisperers."

"Hmm, right, come in then," said Jewel, letting Remus inside.

The office was a spacious, circular room that Jewel had clearly made his home the last few months. The desk in the centre of the room was stacked with papers and papers. Two large suitcases lay open on the floor, revealing piles of robes and button-ups and chinos and the like. Other trunks Remus recognised, the ones in which Jewel carried magical creatures into class. Unlocked cages and—to Remus's pleasure—a well-stocked bookshelf lined the domed walls. Underneath lay a couch and some cushions; Remus could imagine Jewel settled in comfortably, holding one of his many books, reading himself to a soft sleep. On the opposite side of the room was a door (presumably to Jewel's personal quarters), which was firmly shut.

"Sorry about the mess," Jewel was saying while kicking his suitcases closed and setting away his papers. "You know, Remus, I always figured you had a penchant for knowledge. Knowledge that goes beyond classwork. You're a bright one, I must say."

"Thank you, sir." It felt good to be noticed like that. Remus had to fight the blush that was creeping up on his cheeks.

"So," Jewel said, finally taking a seat at the desk and gesturing for Remus to do the same. "What did you want to learn about Whisperers?"

Few things were as scary as honesty. However, Remus had come all this way, so he mustered up all the Gryffindor courage inside him to say: "I think I'm a Whisperer."

Jewel's eyes widened. "Really? What makes you say so?"

After that, the words spilled from him as freely as water. Remus launched into the story of his friendships with Archie and Fawkes in his first year at Hogwarts, mentioned his conversations with Ruby, along with the other miscellaneous interactions he'd had with creatures, magical or otherwise, which he'd only really registered as unusual recently.

But then something halted his overflow of words. The entire time, Remus couldn't help but notice that Jewel kept glancing back at the door behind them, as if he was afraid it would burst open any second.

"And that's how I found out what Whisperers were, in class…" He trailed off.

"Of course, of course. That's fantastic, Remus," muttered Jewel to himself, but he sounded oddly distracted. Strangely tired.

The momentum that had kept Remus going had suddenly disappeared. Jewel's reaction had been stranger than he'd expected. It was this fact that stopped Remus from sharing the most important fact—that he was a werewolf, just like Jewel.

Remus was hopeful though. "I was thinking, sir, that you could perhaps teach me about being a Whisperer. How to talk to other creatures."

Jewel took two last haggard looks at the door. Then, he merely looked Remus in the eye, paused, and finally said: "Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. I might be busy this week. How does the Wednesday after next after class sound?"

After that, it seemed like Jewel was far too preoccupied with his own thoughts to bother with Remus, so he promptly excused himself.

On his way out, Remus made a judicious decision to set aside any worries about Sirius or the rest of his friends, or any misgivings regarding Jewel. Only the exciting prospect of future lessons with Jewel stayed within his mind. He couldn't wait to be honest with Jewel.

Reach out, the voice in his head said. I will, he told it.

Never had the walk to Charms looked so nice.

Saturday morning came with characteristic February cold. Slowly but surely the chilly temperatures would give way to Spring winds and showers. The icebound mountains would melt away into rivers, running down in rivulets into the Great Lake. The fields and flowers encircling Hogwarts would be lush once more. The air would grow hot and sweet and humid once again. The Whomping Willow's limbs would sprout, beautiful in its own way.

It seemed much was looking up for Remus. He'd even finally gotten a letter back from his dad, now that the Wild Wind had died down. So he held onto this optimism tight in his Gobstones match against Ryan Singh.

They were on the floor of the History of Magic classroom, having moved aside the chairs and tables to make room. It was nearing the end of the Ravenclaw's Round. Remus had been counting the whole time how many Serfstones each had collected, and they were neck-and-neck. Remus knew he needed to do something to give himself an upper hand and win.

His eyes glanced over the large circle they'd drawn on the ground, trying to strategise. He found a path and before he could hesitate, flicked that ratty, old, second-hand Kingstone of his with precise strength—so that it collided with a Serfstone (again, one from Remus's second-hand set), sending it tumbling away and out of the circle, but not before it had also collided with Ryan's Kingstone. Ryan swore. It wasn't long before Remus had taken the victory, and Ryan had taken a Globstone in his face.

"Good game," said Remus, shaking the Hufflepuff boy's hand, feeling quite pleased with himself, for the first time in a while.

The good feeling lasted about as long as it normally did. Throughout the rest of the day, he tried to relax by finishing off some of last week's homework. Futile, really. The ennui of alone time slowly chipped away at him. He had nobody to share his Gobstones victory with except Frank, of course, who he hadn't seen yet, and Ruby, who was still far too sick to give him much other than a sneezing fit. And there was the complicated case with the Marauders. Remus reckoned, now that he had the time to think about it, that his place with his friends was somewhat tenuous at the current moment. After all, he hadn't turned up to the Quidditch practice to see that broomstick trick James was so proud of. And he was sure Sirius was still annoyed about the tiff they'd had yesterday at breakfast, though not one of them had decided to address the hippogriff in the room.

If only they were all werewolves, Remus had lamented, thinking then he would feel comfortable being honest, then dismissed as a silly thought. He wouldn't want to wish that fate on anyone. Even if it would mean Remus could get to be forthright about everything.

This was why, that night, when the Marauders asked him to scout out if the Slytherins were plotting—some nutty idea or other about them wanting revenge about the Quidditch match—Remus agreed, even though he personally thought it was a foolish idea and would result in a fruitless mission.

"See you soon, Lupin," James said good-naturedly. Sirius said nothing as Remus walked out the door.

Remus was paranoid that the Invisibility Cloak wasn't fully covering his body, so he kept adjusting it. The last thing he wanted was to get caught in the corridors at night and get in trouble.

Remus was walking down towards the dungeons where the Slytherins slept. On his way there, he leapt aside to avoid a couple of bugs skittering past on the flagstones. However, he shut up immediately when he realised that he could hear voices. They were coming from a classroom up ahead. Remus approached silently, hearing the crackle of a fireplace undercutting the conversation. For a wild moment, Remus wondered whether James and Sirius's silly suspicions about Slytherin were correct.

He moved closer to peer through the door. Inside was Regulus, but he was alone, rather than being surrounded by Slytherin conspirators. He seemed to be talking to someone via the fireplace, perhaps with Floo powder.

Remus hadn't meant to eavesdrop, he really didn't, but he had to admit that there was something tantalising about listening in on something you shouldn't be.

"…have to do better than that, Regulus," the voice was saying. With a start, Remus realised that it was the characteristic caterwaul of Sirius's mother coming from the fireplace. "Your results on the latest Charms quiz were abysmal. I understand that that Flitwick filth—a half-breed if I've ever seen one—might be unfit to teach, but your academics have disappointed me thus far."

"I'm sorry, mother," Regulus's voice said. Remus had only really talked to the Slytherin first-year boy once, but he had none of the smug swagger when talking to his mother, which was fair enough, but it was replaced instead with a tight tension.

"Do better," she said curtly. "Well, I take it that you won your Gobstones match today?"

"Yes."

"Good," she said. "See to it that you win the entire competition."

The whole competition? Remus thought that would be quite a huge feat to pull off. After all, there were older Ravenclaws who were great at the sport. And who could forget Frank, the best of them all?

Remus was sure Regulus knew his odds. Yet he said, "Yes."

"What about those Transfiguration spells that half-blood said you were struggling with? Have you mastered them?"

There was a pause, and Remus could guess that Regulus hesitated. "No, mother," he answered finally.

Mrs Black's voice grew in volume. In viciousness. "Regulus. You come from the finest wizarding family trees. You have so much potential, yet you squander it. Don't tell me you'll let mudbloods and blood traitors surpass you. You must triumph in all your classes, in all your competitions. You are the heir now, Regulus. The family name rests on your shoulders. Do not make a make a mess of it."

"I understand, mother."

For good measure, she added: "You don't want to be like your brother, do you?"

There was an edge to Regulus's voice when he said, "No."

"Good. Then you know what you need to do."

Remus heard the fire extinguishing and held his breath. He couldn't speak, of course, but even if he were able to, he would have no idea what to say. He watched Regulus stand there for a few moments before turning around to leave. Remus stumbled back, making sure his presence was not apparent as Regulus stalked past, back to the Slytherin dorms, presumably.

If Remus hadn't known better, then he would've thought that the boy had been crying.

A/N: Hi everyone! I can't even BEGIN to apologise. (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ I don't know how long it's been since my last update. I am so so sorry to everyone who's read this. I am the absolute worst!

I'm back to say that, this time, I am going to try and come back for good. I have found myself recently falling in love again with this world, immersing myself in the things I've created and been inspired by. I just had to come back for Remus, y'know?! I still have complicated feelings about MM - like, I'm not completely happy with Remus's 1st year, and I haven't formulated a strong idea of what's going to happen in Remus's 3rd.

(If you choose to read MM, I recommend you reread at least Remus's 2nd year. Otherwise the following chapters might be confusing!)

But I'm happy to let you know that I have almost completely finished writing Remus's 2nd year! I'll be sure to update every few days. ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ

Again, I am sorry! I am so so thankful if you are reading this right now.