Chapter eleven: The Nightmare at the Meadow
"Hello, James," Remus replied. "Is anyone else here yet?"
"Sirius is here somewhere," James said, laughing. "Probably looting the kitchen."
Remus chuckled. "That sounds about right." He looked around the room in amazement. There were several large leather chairs arranged about the room. The walls were paneled in a dark wood and the carpet was so thick and soft Remus sank an inch into it. He turned to look at the fireplace he had fallen out of. It was huge, about 5 feet high and four across, and surrounded in marble.
James noticed Remus' staring. "Like the room, do you?" he asked.
Remus nodded, dumbfounded. He had never been in a house this nice.
"When everyone's here I'll give you a tour," James said.
Finding his voice, Remus marveled, "You're so lucky to live in a house like this, James."
James shrugged. "It's nice, but I don't need all of the fancy stuff. As long as it is comfortable and I have my family and friends, I'm happy."
As Remus nodded, there was a large popping noise and Lily fell out of the fireplace, stumbling on the marble. When she caught her balance (and Remus had caught his breath) she said, "Hello, boys. How was your Christmas?"
They both told her their holidays were fine. Lily looked about the room as Austin came in through the immense fireplace.
"Holy smokes," Austin said. "Nice place, James."
"Thanks," James said. Then he rang a little bell in the corner of his room. A small and rather ugly creature came into the room.
"Yes, sir?" it said in a small voice. "What can I do for you, sir?"
"Could you please take my friends' trunks to their rooms while I take them on a tour of the house?" James asked the small creature, who was wearing only a bit of fabric tied about its waist.
"It would be my pleasure, sir," the creature said excitedly, as he began to pull one of the trunks from the room.
"Thanks, Pokey," James said. "Come on guys, let's get Sirius and I'll show you the house."
As they left the room, Remus looked back at the creature with the big ears and huge brown eyes. "What is that?" Remus asked.
"That's our house elf, Pokey," James replied.
"Is he like a servant?" Lily inquired.
"Kinda. All of his family has worked for our family. House elves belong to a certain family and they devote their lives to doing things for the family and keeping their secrets and stuff," James explained.
"Do they get paid for all that work?" Remus asked.
"No, they don't want to get paid for it. They like what they do."
"That sounds horrid!" Lily exclaimed. "What if their masters are awful people?"
"Some families are pretty cruel to their house elves," James said. "They force them to punish themselves for bad behavior and tell them to do things they aren't capable of doing. They see them only as slaves and not as individuals. That's why we treat our house elf really well. We're always polite to Pokey, and we make him as comfortable as he'll allow us to."
Austin piped up. "That doesn't sound bad, then. As long as you treat them nice, it's a win-win situation."
By that time they had reached the kitchen and found Sirius there, eating sweets off of a large tray. "Hello everyone," he said. "Would you like to help me eat this food? Pokey seemed to think I needed to be fattened up."
Everyone laughed and sat down to finish the sweets before they got the grand tour of the Meadow.
Sirius, of course, knew the house almost as well as James did, since he had grown up with James. As they led Remus, Lily and Austin around the house, they related stories of the trouble they made in the house and where they went to hide from it. James showed them a couple of secret passages, one of which led out to the stable. They also walked through 8 grand bedrooms, which all had their own bathroom, the crowded and dusty attic which had been James and Sirius' secret headquarters, the kitchen full of modern appliances, a dining room with a table large enough to seat 20 people, an entrance hall, a library complete with billiard table, and another sitting room that contained a large grand piano. Remus, Lily and Austin were breathless with amazement.
"Do all pure wizarding families live like this?" Austin asked.
Remus knew the answer to this because he had just been at the Weasley's house. They were a very old and pure family, but lived simply and happily.
"No," James answered. "But some ancestor of ours was the first maker of cauldrons in England and so we've always had money in the family. My dad's company still makes some fancy cauldrons, but we're not as involved in the industry as we used to be." It was obvious that James was unimpressed with the money and luxury he had been born into. "My dad expects me to take control of the company when I'm older, but I'd rather sell it and spend my time traveling the world defending helpless wizards or something."
Remus definitely sympathized with James' views and he could tell Lily felt the same way. "You shouldn't have to be tied down to some office job you don't like if that's not what you want to be doing," she exclaimed.
Smiling, Sirius said, "He's got plenty of time to work that out, Lily. I'm more interested in seeing you all open the presents I got you."
His suggestion was met with enthusiastic shouts. James showed each of them the room they would live in for a week and suggested they meet in the sitting room with the piano in 15 minutes to exchange gifts.
Looking around his room, Remus still could not believe how nice it all was. The bed appeared to be a king size, with a large carved headboard, and covered in a dark blue comforter. Remus flopped himself down on the bed and sunk into the down that filled the bedspread. Across the room were two French doors that were about 10 feet tall. Getting off of the bed, Remus went to investigate what was outside the doors. There was a balcony that appeared to go all around the house. Beyond the balcony was a field of snow as far as the eye could see, broken only by the dark shape of the stable. ' So that's why it's called the Meadow,' he thought. Remus knew he must be at the back of the mansion because he couldn't see any other houses. Looking back into the room, he noticed a small fireplace that wasn't yet lit, and the door to the bathroom. He opened the door and walked in, wanting to wash his hands before joining the others.
He was amazed to find that instead of a normal bathtub, there was a circular tub that was 5 feet in diameter and about 4 feet deep. It looked more like a hot tub than a bathtub. Remus couldn't wait to try it out, but he knew he had to get back to his friends. He quickly washed his hands and got the presents out of his trunk. It took him a few minutes to find the room they were meeting in, and when he got there, everyone else was waiting.
They all exchanged gifts and tore through the wrapping paper. Lily was thrilled with her new pet toad, which she named Chester. James immediately began to read his book of quidditch plays and Sirius was waving at his trading cards. Austin started to set up his chess set and asked if anyone wanted to play. Remus was happy to see that everyone liked what he had given them. He was equally happy to see what presents he had received. Austin had bought him large quantities of candy, especially chocolate frogs. Lily had given him a small radio that was capable of receiving the frequencies of wizarding radio stations. James and Sirius had pooled their money to buy Remus a quaffle and a small hoop to set up in his backyard to practice quidditch.
It was getting very noisy in the sitting room with everyone yelling excited "thank you"s and "look at this!" But all of the noise stopped when James' parents walked into the room. They were definitely people who demanded your respect. For one extremely long moment, Remus thought they were all going to be in trouble. But then their seemingly stern faces broke into huge smiles.
"Hello," Mrs. Potter said. "How are you all doing?"
All at once they answered, "Fine."
James stood up. "Let me introduce you," he said. "Mother and Father, these are my friends Remus, Lily and Austin." To his friends he said, "And these are my parents, Victoria and William Potter."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Mr. Potter said.
"No, the pleasure is all mine," Sirius said in a high voice while rolling his eyes. Everyone laughed and felt much more relaxed. Mrs. Potter sat down at the piano and played some Christmas carols while everyone sang along. They had a very good time and too soon it was time for dinner
Dinner was a very grand affair. Remus had only seen so much food on one table at Hogwarts start of the term feast. The food was delicious, too. He wanted to try all of it, but he was just too full. All seven of them at the table sat back trying to catch their breath as Pokey cleared the dishes from the table. James had tried to persuade the house elf to eat dinner at the table with them, but Pokey had looked angrily at James as he told him that the place of a house elf was not at his master's table.
As Pokey took away the last of the dishes, James said, "Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?"
Remus, Sirius and Austin immediately agreed, but Lily looked unsure. "Shouldn't we help with the dishes?" she asked.
James rolled his eyes. "It's a nice thought, but Pokey wouldn't let you within a mile of dirty dishes if you offered to clean them. Believe me, I've tried."
Lily shrugged and smiled at her friends. "Alright then, let's play exploding snap!"
It was late before any of them went to bed. When they were together, they lost track of time. Back in his room, Remus was tempted to take a bath before bed (the tub looked too inviting) but he was just too tired.
The next two days passed very pleasantly. Remus really enjoyed being with his friends and not having to worry about lessons. He learned several new wizard games and let everyone take a turn on his broom. His third night there, he ate something that didn't agree with him and went to bed a bit early. In the middle of the night, he awoke at the sound of his own voice screaming in fright. He sat up straight, panting and sweating, even though the fire in his room had gone out.
Trying to forget the horrible images of his wolfish form tearing at the flesh of innocent victims, he laid back down, shuddering violently. He wondered why he had had this dream again. It had come once before, soon after he had first transformed. Only a minute had passed since he had screamed, but the interval felt like years. A knock on his door brought pulled him back from the edge.
"I'm fine," he said, his voice shaking. Whoever it was, he wanted them to go away without asking any questions.
To his dismay, the door opened. Lily's voice floated through the air to him. "You don't sound fine," she said as she came all of the way into the room.
"It was just a bad dream," Remus said, hoping he didn't sound as desperate for her to leave as he felt. She was the last person he wanted to be involved with his monstrous side.
Lily smiled sympathetically and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Would it help you to talk about it? I always feel better when I do. It makes nightmares seem less real."
His mind was spinning rapidly with desire. He desperately wanted to things and his brain was battling for a decision to be made. He wanted her to leave, was willing to use force as long as she didn't ask any more questions. But he wanted to grab her and hold her close to him, run his fingers through her long hair. She was looking at him closely, waiting for an answer.
As the look on her face changed from sympathy to concern, one of his desires won out and he lost all self-control. He bellowed, "GET OUT!" as he lunged at Lily, attempting to knock her onto the floor. Reacting quickly, Lily moved out of the way, but Remus couldn't stop himself. He fell off the side of the bed and landed with a loud thud. The fall seemed to restore some of his senses because he stopped yelling and didn't try to stop Lily from coming over to help him.
She helped him sit up. "That must have been some awful dream," she said, still holding his hands tightly in hers. "You don't have to talk about it. Do you really want me to leave?"
Remus shook his head silently as tears ran down his cheeks. "Alright," she said. "Do you want to talk about something else or do you want to go back to bed?"
"I think I'll take a bath," Remus said quietly. "It'll clear my mind and then I should be able to sleep."
Lily nodded as if she understood. "Do you want me to stay until you are ready for bed?"
For a moment, Remus was tempted to say yes, but he thought better of it and shook his head. "No, I'll be fine," he answered, standing up.
Lily stood as well. Her green eyes were locked with his and there was a look on her face that caused Remus to wonder if she was thinking the same thing that he was. After a moment, she shook her head, as if waking herself up. "Good night," she whispered.
The door closed behind her and Remus stood still for a minute longer. Then he, too, shook his head to wake himself and proceeded to run the bath water.
"Hello, James," Remus replied. "Is anyone else here yet?"
"Sirius is here somewhere," James said, laughing. "Probably looting the kitchen."
Remus chuckled. "That sounds about right." He looked around the room in amazement. There were several large leather chairs arranged about the room. The walls were paneled in a dark wood and the carpet was so thick and soft Remus sank an inch into it. He turned to look at the fireplace he had fallen out of. It was huge, about 5 feet high and four across, and surrounded in marble.
James noticed Remus' staring. "Like the room, do you?" he asked.
Remus nodded, dumbfounded. He had never been in a house this nice.
"When everyone's here I'll give you a tour," James said.
Finding his voice, Remus marveled, "You're so lucky to live in a house like this, James."
James shrugged. "It's nice, but I don't need all of the fancy stuff. As long as it is comfortable and I have my family and friends, I'm happy."
As Remus nodded, there was a large popping noise and Lily fell out of the fireplace, stumbling on the marble. When she caught her balance (and Remus had caught his breath) she said, "Hello, boys. How was your Christmas?"
They both told her their holidays were fine. Lily looked about the room as Austin came in through the immense fireplace.
"Holy smokes," Austin said. "Nice place, James."
"Thanks," James said. Then he rang a little bell in the corner of his room. A small and rather ugly creature came into the room.
"Yes, sir?" it said in a small voice. "What can I do for you, sir?"
"Could you please take my friends' trunks to their rooms while I take them on a tour of the house?" James asked the small creature, who was wearing only a bit of fabric tied about its waist.
"It would be my pleasure, sir," the creature said excitedly, as he began to pull one of the trunks from the room.
"Thanks, Pokey," James said. "Come on guys, let's get Sirius and I'll show you the house."
As they left the room, Remus looked back at the creature with the big ears and huge brown eyes. "What is that?" Remus asked.
"That's our house elf, Pokey," James replied.
"Is he like a servant?" Lily inquired.
"Kinda. All of his family has worked for our family. House elves belong to a certain family and they devote their lives to doing things for the family and keeping their secrets and stuff," James explained.
"Do they get paid for all that work?" Remus asked.
"No, they don't want to get paid for it. They like what they do."
"That sounds horrid!" Lily exclaimed. "What if their masters are awful people?"
"Some families are pretty cruel to their house elves," James said. "They force them to punish themselves for bad behavior and tell them to do things they aren't capable of doing. They see them only as slaves and not as individuals. That's why we treat our house elf really well. We're always polite to Pokey, and we make him as comfortable as he'll allow us to."
Austin piped up. "That doesn't sound bad, then. As long as you treat them nice, it's a win-win situation."
By that time they had reached the kitchen and found Sirius there, eating sweets off of a large tray. "Hello everyone," he said. "Would you like to help me eat this food? Pokey seemed to think I needed to be fattened up."
Everyone laughed and sat down to finish the sweets before they got the grand tour of the Meadow.
Sirius, of course, knew the house almost as well as James did, since he had grown up with James. As they led Remus, Lily and Austin around the house, they related stories of the trouble they made in the house and where they went to hide from it. James showed them a couple of secret passages, one of which led out to the stable. They also walked through 8 grand bedrooms, which all had their own bathroom, the crowded and dusty attic which had been James and Sirius' secret headquarters, the kitchen full of modern appliances, a dining room with a table large enough to seat 20 people, an entrance hall, a library complete with billiard table, and another sitting room that contained a large grand piano. Remus, Lily and Austin were breathless with amazement.
"Do all pure wizarding families live like this?" Austin asked.
Remus knew the answer to this because he had just been at the Weasley's house. They were a very old and pure family, but lived simply and happily.
"No," James answered. "But some ancestor of ours was the first maker of cauldrons in England and so we've always had money in the family. My dad's company still makes some fancy cauldrons, but we're not as involved in the industry as we used to be." It was obvious that James was unimpressed with the money and luxury he had been born into. "My dad expects me to take control of the company when I'm older, but I'd rather sell it and spend my time traveling the world defending helpless wizards or something."
Remus definitely sympathized with James' views and he could tell Lily felt the same way. "You shouldn't have to be tied down to some office job you don't like if that's not what you want to be doing," she exclaimed.
Smiling, Sirius said, "He's got plenty of time to work that out, Lily. I'm more interested in seeing you all open the presents I got you."
His suggestion was met with enthusiastic shouts. James showed each of them the room they would live in for a week and suggested they meet in the sitting room with the piano in 15 minutes to exchange gifts.
Looking around his room, Remus still could not believe how nice it all was. The bed appeared to be a king size, with a large carved headboard, and covered in a dark blue comforter. Remus flopped himself down on the bed and sunk into the down that filled the bedspread. Across the room were two French doors that were about 10 feet tall. Getting off of the bed, Remus went to investigate what was outside the doors. There was a balcony that appeared to go all around the house. Beyond the balcony was a field of snow as far as the eye could see, broken only by the dark shape of the stable. ' So that's why it's called the Meadow,' he thought. Remus knew he must be at the back of the mansion because he couldn't see any other houses. Looking back into the room, he noticed a small fireplace that wasn't yet lit, and the door to the bathroom. He opened the door and walked in, wanting to wash his hands before joining the others.
He was amazed to find that instead of a normal bathtub, there was a circular tub that was 5 feet in diameter and about 4 feet deep. It looked more like a hot tub than a bathtub. Remus couldn't wait to try it out, but he knew he had to get back to his friends. He quickly washed his hands and got the presents out of his trunk. It took him a few minutes to find the room they were meeting in, and when he got there, everyone else was waiting.
They all exchanged gifts and tore through the wrapping paper. Lily was thrilled with her new pet toad, which she named Chester. James immediately began to read his book of quidditch plays and Sirius was waving at his trading cards. Austin started to set up his chess set and asked if anyone wanted to play. Remus was happy to see that everyone liked what he had given them. He was equally happy to see what presents he had received. Austin had bought him large quantities of candy, especially chocolate frogs. Lily had given him a small radio that was capable of receiving the frequencies of wizarding radio stations. James and Sirius had pooled their money to buy Remus a quaffle and a small hoop to set up in his backyard to practice quidditch.
It was getting very noisy in the sitting room with everyone yelling excited "thank you"s and "look at this!" But all of the noise stopped when James' parents walked into the room. They were definitely people who demanded your respect. For one extremely long moment, Remus thought they were all going to be in trouble. But then their seemingly stern faces broke into huge smiles.
"Hello," Mrs. Potter said. "How are you all doing?"
All at once they answered, "Fine."
James stood up. "Let me introduce you," he said. "Mother and Father, these are my friends Remus, Lily and Austin." To his friends he said, "And these are my parents, Victoria and William Potter."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Mr. Potter said.
"No, the pleasure is all mine," Sirius said in a high voice while rolling his eyes. Everyone laughed and felt much more relaxed. Mrs. Potter sat down at the piano and played some Christmas carols while everyone sang along. They had a very good time and too soon it was time for dinner
Dinner was a very grand affair. Remus had only seen so much food on one table at Hogwarts start of the term feast. The food was delicious, too. He wanted to try all of it, but he was just too full. All seven of them at the table sat back trying to catch their breath as Pokey cleared the dishes from the table. James had tried to persuade the house elf to eat dinner at the table with them, but Pokey had looked angrily at James as he told him that the place of a house elf was not at his master's table.
As Pokey took away the last of the dishes, James said, "Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?"
Remus, Sirius and Austin immediately agreed, but Lily looked unsure. "Shouldn't we help with the dishes?" she asked.
James rolled his eyes. "It's a nice thought, but Pokey wouldn't let you within a mile of dirty dishes if you offered to clean them. Believe me, I've tried."
Lily shrugged and smiled at her friends. "Alright then, let's play exploding snap!"
It was late before any of them went to bed. When they were together, they lost track of time. Back in his room, Remus was tempted to take a bath before bed (the tub looked too inviting) but he was just too tired.
The next two days passed very pleasantly. Remus really enjoyed being with his friends and not having to worry about lessons. He learned several new wizard games and let everyone take a turn on his broom. His third night there, he ate something that didn't agree with him and went to bed a bit early. In the middle of the night, he awoke at the sound of his own voice screaming in fright. He sat up straight, panting and sweating, even though the fire in his room had gone out.
Trying to forget the horrible images of his wolfish form tearing at the flesh of innocent victims, he laid back down, shuddering violently. He wondered why he had had this dream again. It had come once before, soon after he had first transformed. Only a minute had passed since he had screamed, but the interval felt like years. A knock on his door brought pulled him back from the edge.
"I'm fine," he said, his voice shaking. Whoever it was, he wanted them to go away without asking any questions.
To his dismay, the door opened. Lily's voice floated through the air to him. "You don't sound fine," she said as she came all of the way into the room.
"It was just a bad dream," Remus said, hoping he didn't sound as desperate for her to leave as he felt. She was the last person he wanted to be involved with his monstrous side.
Lily smiled sympathetically and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Would it help you to talk about it? I always feel better when I do. It makes nightmares seem less real."
His mind was spinning rapidly with desire. He desperately wanted to things and his brain was battling for a decision to be made. He wanted her to leave, was willing to use force as long as she didn't ask any more questions. But he wanted to grab her and hold her close to him, run his fingers through her long hair. She was looking at him closely, waiting for an answer.
As the look on her face changed from sympathy to concern, one of his desires won out and he lost all self-control. He bellowed, "GET OUT!" as he lunged at Lily, attempting to knock her onto the floor. Reacting quickly, Lily moved out of the way, but Remus couldn't stop himself. He fell off the side of the bed and landed with a loud thud. The fall seemed to restore some of his senses because he stopped yelling and didn't try to stop Lily from coming over to help him.
She helped him sit up. "That must have been some awful dream," she said, still holding his hands tightly in hers. "You don't have to talk about it. Do you really want me to leave?"
Remus shook his head silently as tears ran down his cheeks. "Alright," she said. "Do you want to talk about something else or do you want to go back to bed?"
"I think I'll take a bath," Remus said quietly. "It'll clear my mind and then I should be able to sleep."
Lily nodded as if she understood. "Do you want me to stay until you are ready for bed?"
For a moment, Remus was tempted to say yes, but he thought better of it and shook his head. "No, I'll be fine," he answered, standing up.
Lily stood as well. Her green eyes were locked with his and there was a look on her face that caused Remus to wonder if she was thinking the same thing that he was. After a moment, she shook her head, as if waking herself up. "Good night," she whispered.
The door closed behind her and Remus stood still for a minute longer. Then he, too, shook his head to wake himself and proceeded to run the bath water.