The Truth About Remus
Chapter Six

It was October 31st; in the Great Hall, it was breakfast time, and students, fourth year and up, were fidgety and excited about the night's events. The Halloween ball was going to take place beginning at eight that evening and would run all the way to after midnight. Remus and I continuously looked up from across the table at one another and smiled. Ever since fourth year, the exchange of shy glances and silly grins became a tradition the morning of the ball. James was nowhere to be found and Sirius kept looking around and winking at his several dates.

He is such a player, I caught myself thinking in between chewing my banana and looking up to see if Remus was looking at me.

"Good morning, Marauders. May I introduce you to my date tonight…"

I looked up from my breakfast as I heard James' voice behind me. The broad smile on Sirius' face told me who was on James' arm. I turned around and saw Lily Evans beside James, looking particularly happy.

"Doth mine eyes deceive me," Sirius asked. "Mademoiselle Evans, 'tis that really thou?"

Lily laughed, "Give it up, Shakespeare."

James took a seat and Lily sat in between him and me.

"Do you have to do this every year," Lily asked after a few minutes, "I mean, every time I look up to grab something, there you two are, practically falling all over each other," she exclaimed, talking about the way Remus and I always looked up at each other, "You shouldn't look so bashful – I mean, you have slept with the guy. Tie the knot already!"

"I have not slept with him," I told her, "I mean, I have, but I have not had sex with him."

Lily shook her head and opened her mouth to say something, but I noticed that Remus had gotten up and was walking over to me.

"Anistasia, may I escort you to our first class," he asked.

I laughed, "Getting formal on me?"

"I don't know. I just though I would ask."

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"You may escort me to our first class!"

"Right," Remus exclaimed and held out his arm, "Let us be off, beautiful maiden."

"Yes, brave knight. You have banished my breakfast, and now you are off to slay the evils of Divination!"

Remus and I laughed at the memory of one of our childhood make believe games as we headed up to the top of the North Tower. Once, Remus so much as carried me up the stairs until I opposed swearing. We settled down tremendously once we were inside the classroom and sitting on the pouf chairs that Professor Trelawney had positioned around tables. The other students staggered in and Professor Trelawney prepared to start class.

"Your crystal balls are in front of you. You will have thirty minutes to work with them, and then we will work with the Wicca boards," she explained, "get to work."

Remus smiled at me as I took my position in front of the crystal ball.

"Do you want to try partner Seeing," he asked.

I nodded and Remus sat across from me. He took my hands and we closed our eyes as they hovered over the ball. I could hear Professor Trelawney walk over and stand over my shoulder.

"I feel a strong power and energy in this partnership," she said.

"Concentrate, Ani," Remus whispered.

I took a deep breath and relaxed. I was immediately pulled into the world of Seeing. Since I was inexperienced, all that I saw were small flashes – an image appeared and was replaced almost immediately by another. I saw Remus and I dancing, a full moon, a piece of tattered parchment, Snape in a dark place, Padfoot jumping, rose pedals sprinkled over a piece of grass and the last image was – I couldn't tell. It went by too quickly. Out of shock, obviously, Remus jumped and he and I were pulled out of the zone.

"What did you two See," our professor asked.

Neither of us knew what to say – all we could do was shake out heads and I slid the crystal ball to the side of the table. Professor Trelawney sighed and handed us a Wicca board.

"Remus and Anistasia," she said, "I want you two to stay paired up."

I smiled at Remus, but he gave me nothing in return.

"What's wrong," I asked as I spread out the Wicca board.

Remus shook his head, "What was that?"

"What?"

"The last thing we saw…"

"I don't know…it was…steamy and there was a bed…"

"Lets ask the Wicca board."

I nodded and Remus and I took hold of the Eye. I could feel Professor Trelawney's glare on us as I asked the question.

"What was the last thing that Remus and I saw in the crystal ball?"

The Eye moved under our fingers and, slowly, the letters were revealed. I looked up at Remus. He raised his eyebrows at me.

DEATH

Then the Eye stopped completely. All Remus and I could do was look at each other.

"Hey, hey – looking good," I exclaimed, walking into my room, wearing my bathrobe and drying my hair.

Lily was standing in front of the mirror, doing her make up.

"Thanks," she told me, "but what are you doing? You haven't even gotten dressed yet!"

I laughed, "Don't worry about me! I will be ready in time. Just worry about yourself. Your date is James Potter, you know."

"Yeah…you know, he has asked me out countless times, but I never even thought to say 'yes' until he asked me to go with him to the ball tonight. I wonder why."

"Maybe is it because you were meant to be."

"Sure Ani…"

I pulled my dress robes from my trunk, laid them on my bed and with a simple drying spell, my black, wet hair became dry, wispy and shiny. I pulled a few strands of hair apart from my head and began curling them with spells and then put on my robes.

"Wow, Remus is very lucky."

I smiled at Lily, "Thanks."

"Here, let me do your make up – the Muggle way."

I laughed and sat in front of the make up counter.

"My gods, Ani! How long has it been since you have taken care of this jungle above your eyes," Lily asked.

"What?"

"Your eyebrows! There are so many ingrown hairs and rough spots ---"

"Oh shut up and just tweeze them!"

We laughed and Lily got down to work. Every time I tried to look at the mirror, Lily would turn me around and scold me endlessly as she added more blush or put on eye shadow. After thirty minutes, Lily stood back.

"Wow, is that a beautiful face," she asked, admiring her work, "Remus is not going to be able to take his eyes off of you! Stand up and turn around!"

I took a deep breath and, smiling, I looked in the mirror.

"Oh my Gods," I gasped, "Lily, you are my best friend."

My straight, black hair was accented with a few curly locks here and there and my deep, green eyes were brought out by the light brown eye shadow. The dark, black eyeliner darkened my eyes and the black mascara lengthened and curled my eyelashes flawlessly. A peach colored blush brightened my cheeks and my lips were shiny, smooth and irresistible. My royal purple dress robes had been modified (by me) so that they formed to my curvy body to my waist and then they belled out like a dress. Around my stomach and around my elbows the dress material was lace and after the lace on my elbows, the sleeves belled out to my fingers. On my feet, I wore purple glass slippers and I took my black cloak from the bed. I clipped the pennant of the Hogwarts Crest at my neck and spun in my costume.

"What do you think," I asked.

"Get out of here before I kill you for being so damn pretty," Lily ordered.

I laughed and led the way out of the room and onto the balcony overlooking the Gryffindor Common Room. James and Remus were sitting on the couch beneath us, deep in conversation. Lily cleared her throat politely and the men's conversation ceased. I was looking at Remus, waiting for his reaction. He and James looked at the two of us at the same time and I was happy to see Remus' jaw drop. Lily and I walked down the stairs, side by side, and our men met us at the landing, holding a dozen orange roses each.

"You look absolutely stunning," Remus told me, placing the flowers in my arms and stepping back to look at me.

"So do you," I replied, observing him.

Lily and James were just staring at each other and Remus gave James a nudge. He reacted with a sudden, jolted reflex – his arms shot out and they held the roses out towards Lily as though he had just realized that they were infested with bugs. I laughed as a few of the orange pedals flew off of the bouquet and hit Lily. Remus shook his head as Lily took the flowers, dropped them, picked them up and dropped them again.

Remus held his arm out to me as Lily's flowers lie on the ground, forgotten. "May I?"

I nodded and slipped my arm into his. We watched as James held his arm out to Lily. She tripped as she tried to intertwine her arm with his, which made James face her and catch her before she could hit the ground. I had to bury my face in Remus' shoulder so my giggles were muffled, Once Lily was straight and calm again, the four of us left the common room.

"So, Padfoot is making his rounds," I asked.

"Actually, no," James said, and it seemed to me that he was back to his right mind. "He told the girls to meet him in the Entrance Hall."

"You're kidding," I asked, "There should be a law against taking more than one date to the ball."

"Well, what can you expect? He is Sirius after all," Remus said.

"Jesus wept," Lily hissed as we entered the Entrance Hall.

"Good Gods," I exclaimed, looking at Sirius and the mob of no less than fifteen girls around him. "He has really done it this time. Prongs, you have to talk to him about this after the ball."

"Me," James asked.

"Yes," Lily said, backing me up.

"Okay."

I raised my eyebrows. It was then that I knew James had totally lost it. The four of us neared the Great Hall and the two great oak doors were standing wide open. Inside, it was nearly pitch black. Of the several candles floating in midair, only a few of them were lit. Most of the light was coming from the jack-o-lanterns that were talking in rough voices and making faces at the couples dancing. We entered the hall and I saw that small, round tables were placed at the edges of the room for students to sit at and have a drink. The ground was bewitched to have fog cover it, which moved swiftly and curled lightly around peoples' feet and robes. The wizarding rock band, Lucius and the Slyths, were performing their song, "Nothing Today".

"Hey, didn't that guy go to Hogwarts," I asked.

"Who," Remus asked.

"The lead singer – the electric guitar player with the blonde hair."

"Yes," Lily told me, "That is Lucius Malfoy. He was in his fifth year when we came here. His band played at several of the school balls.

"How do you know all of this," I asked as we took a seat at one of the vacant tables.

"I dated the drummer when I was a third year and got to come and watch them perform."

"You dated a Slytherin," James and I asked in unison.

"Don't sound so surprised," Lily said, "He, Rabastan Lestrange, was Head Boy in his seventh year, so he was the best out of the bunch."

"I should have known," I mumbled lightly as a pitcher of warm butterbeer appeared at the table.

We talked about our classes as the songs played and we laughed as we watched Sirius get thrown around by his dates.

"I don't think you'll need to talk too much sense into old Padfoot, Prongs," I said with a laugh. "I think that those chicks are knocking it into him."

"I hear that he only asks so many girls is because he doesn't want his little brother to think that he is a looser," Lily informed us.

"He hates that little slime ball – why would he worry about impressing him," I asked, "No, he hates his whole family. I wonder why he still lives with the lot of them."

"He doesn't," James said quickly, "he ran away during the summer. He lives with me now."

I took a drink of my butterbeer and wondered why he or Sirius hadn't told us that before when Remus nudged me and pointed to the doors.

"Speak of the devil," he said and I looked to where he was pointing.

Regulus Black, Sirius' fourth year, Slytherin brother, had just walked into the Great Hall with a girl on each arm.

"My Gods," I gasped, "I forgot that he was in his fourth year now. Bloody hell, there is going to be trouble tonight."

"Maybe we should get Padfoot and leave," Remus began, "before anything can start up."

"No, Moony. Everything will be fine," James assured us, "Not even Regulus is thick enough to pull something while Dumbledore is around."

Remus took a sip of his butterbeer and I looked worriedly at Regulus.

"If you want to keep an eye on him, we can go out and dace," Remus said to me.

I shook my head. "I don't really want to watch him…but I would like to dance."

With a nod, Remus took me onto the dance floor. Sirius saw us at one point and shot us a look, a pleading look, to get him off of the dance floor. I shook my head at him and he was pulled back into the mob of girls.

"Hey look," Remus yelled over the music. "Its Bill!"

I turned around and there he was, dancing with a fourth year Hufflepuff, his long, red hair flying everywhere. He had a huge grin on his face as he looked up at the girl who was nearly a head taller than him.

"I think Bill out does Padfoot any day," I laughed, as the music slowed down into a ballad, "Look at the little guy go!"

Remus pulled me toward him for a slow dance. He put his hands on my waist and whispered in my ear:

"Yes, but no one can out do me."

I smiled sheepishly and put my hands around his neck, "Oh, Remus…"

"Shhh…"

He quieted me and we just stared at each other as the music went on. After the song ended, Remus smiled, grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the Great Hall.

"Moony, where are we going," I asked.

"I thought we could take a stroll," he told me.

I wondered why Remus had this certain and sudden urge to be outside; instead of pounding him with questions, I just followed his lead. Once outside, Remus didn't let go of my hand. He just continued to lead me silently toward the lake. Once we were on the very edge, he looked at me.

"I have a little Halloween treat for you," he told me, "Look out at the lake."

I did as told and Remus took out his wand. He muttered an incantation I could hardly make out, and a mist came from the tip of his wand. The cloud formed to create a life size castle with several towers. A pack of unicorn were grazing in the distance and two seven year olds, a girl with long, black hair and a boy with short dark hair, were riding on the back of a dragon.

I smiled, "Moony, that is so cute! Just how I imagined my fairy tale home."

"You don't have to imagine anymore," he whispered to me, "Given you can't live in it, that image will be there every night, until the end of time. The best thing about it is that we are the only two who can see it…only we can share it."

"Thank you, Remus."

He hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. The two of us walked around the lake admiring it for a while and headed back to the castle. As we entered the doors to the castle, there was a good bit of yelling that could be heard coming from the Entrance Hall. Remus and I entered Ground Zero where Sirius and Regulus were yelling at each other.

"My guess is that Dumbledore isn't around," I mumbled to Remus.

"--- disgrace to the Black Family," Regulus was yelling, "I can't believe you even still dare to call yourself a Black!"

"Oh, believe me, Regulus," Sirius spat, "I would rather be kissed by a Dementor than be a part of your family."

"Don't worry, sissy. My mum blasted your name off of the tree ages ago."

Sirius advanced on Regulus, "You won't be calling me a sissy once your mouth finds that it is a bit preoccupied with my fist!"

"Bwing it on, widdle Siwius! 'Boo-hoo, I couldn't be a weal man, so I wan away fwom home!' Come on, coward! What the fuck are you waiting for?"

BAM! It had to be Sirius' mighty fast dog reflexes, because I didn't even see his fist hit Regulus' nose. One minute, he was standing, the next moment, he was on the ground, holding his nose and a puddle of blood was forming on the ground.

"Get up, pussy, or have you had enough," Sirius asked.

Regulus jumped up and lunged at Sirius without thinking. Sirius bent over, picked him up by his knees and flipped him over his shoulder. Regulus landed on his back, but had strength enough to kick the back of Sirius' knees and he went down. Regulus mounted him and began throwing punches at Sirius.

"Who – is – the – pussy – now," Regulus asked, placing each word between each punch.

Sirius threw a great punch into Regulus' jaw and, while his bro was dazed, got back onto his feet. He kicked Regulus in the stomach and he doubled over in pain.

"Remus, do something, please," I begged, "and why the hell isn't James here?"

"Padfoot is probably getting laid," Remus told me as he left.

I watched as Remus pulled Sirius away from Regulus and whispered something to him. Sirius took a deep breath to calm down, and right when neither of them were looking, Regulus jumped up and punched Remus in the face.

"Hey," I yelled, pushing my way through the throng of people, "dumb fuck!"

Just as Regulus turned to face me, I took a shot at landing a sidekick in his face. He grabbed my foot and flipped me over. I landed on my left arm hard and Remus punched Regulus in the spine. He turned around and went for Remus when I jumped on his back and bit his ear.

"Hey! No fair! That's three against one," I heard one of the chicks that Regulus brought to the dance yell.

"Not anymore, it isn't."

Professor and Deputy Headmistress McGonagall emerged from the parted crowd. I dropped off of Regulus' back and looked her in the eye.

"What is going on out here?"

"A fight," one of the Hufflepuffs yelled.

"Ms. Willow, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black, I would like to see the four of you in my office immediately," Professor McGonagall ordered.

"Professor," Sirius spoke up, "Please leave Anistasia and Remus out of this. This whole thing was mine and Regulus' fault."

"Fine," she said with pursed lips, "Sirius and Regulus, to my office. Ms. Willow and Mr. Lupin, you both will be receiving three days detention for what I have witnessed, and Mr. Lupin, your Prefect status shall be suspended for two weeks. Hand in your badge first thing tomorrow morning. As for the rest of you, twenty points will be taken from each of your houses. Now, please, return to the ball."

I slipped my arm in Remus' and whispered 'thank you' to Sirius before walking back into the Great Hall with my date.

"Grab a partner and huddle close for the last dance of the night," Lucius announced.

I placed my arms around Remus' neck and noticed how miserable he looked.

"Moony, its only for two weeks," I said, knowing that the suspension of his Prefect duties was what was bothering him.

"Its not only that," he replied, "I feel as though I have let my parents down. Did you see how proud they looked when I was wearing that badge for the first time?"

"They are always proud of you!"

"No they aren't. They are always afraid of me. Do you know what it is like, coming upstairs after a night in the basement and seeing the sheer horror on my mum's face? Do you know what it is like to see your dad get scared when you start arguing with him and then he stops when you get too close because he is afraid that you might loose control and attack him? The only time I saw them forget their fear is when I got that badge. That was the only time that they accepted me for whom I was."

"Remus, that is not true. Your parents love you."

"Yeah? Well, what about everyone else who knows my secret? They are all afraid of me! Even Dumbledore is afraid…he planted that damn tree out there and hasn't spoken a word to me since. Sometimes I see that Padfoot and Prongs are scared…and you…that night when I almost attacked you."

I looked him in the eyes. I had never seen so much sorrow in his face before.

I put my hand on his cheek, "I am not scared of you. I love you, Remus."

He took one of his hands from my waist and placed it under my chin. Remus bent over slightly as his face came closer to mine and I closed my eyes. I felt his warm breath on my lips before I felt his lips part mine.

The clock struck twelve. The song stopped abruptly on one horrible chord as Lucius and the members of his band grabbed their forearms. In James' room, Lily screamed, but it wasn't for the reason that James believed it to be. In Professor McGonagall's office, Regulus winced and clenched his left fist, but, besides that, ignored the pain, and Peter, alone in his hide out room, screamed and clenched the curtains of his four-poster. Only one person truly acknowledged this pain and bowed before his master.

But what did I care?