Chapter Twenty-Five: The Good, the Bad, and the Worst
Dinner went very well, and Remus was surprised at how his parents got along with his friends. He hadn't expected fights or anything, but he thought they would be more withdrawn from the group. He smiled as his father finished his story.
"Boy, was Minerva McGonagall embarrassed! She didn't show her face in the Great Hall for the last month before she graduated!" Remus' dad laughed.
"I can't believe you knew McGonagall when she was at Hogwarts," James commented, enthralled.
Mr. Lupin chuckled. "I wouldn't really say we knew each other, we were six years apart after all. But we certainly knew of each other."
All six students gave a sigh of happiness and moved back from the edge of their seats. Then Lily spoke up.
"What was your job after Hogwarts, Mr. Lupin?"
"I was very interested in potion work, so I was a researcher at a potions shop. I worked with a lot of experimental potions." He smiled nostalgically and a bit sadly. "Now I work as a researcher at a chemical company. It is much the same."
Remus could see that Lily felt bad for bringing up what turned out a touchy subject. She looked down at her plate very intently, so Remus rescued her by changing the topic of conversation. Soon after dinner was over so Remus and all of his guests retreated to his room.
"France will not make it to the finals, Sirius!" James yelled heatedly.
"I'm telling you, Potter, Russia and France are the best teams this year," Sirius fired back.
"England beat Russia 400-120!"
"Only because Russia's seeker was out with an injury," Sirius taunted.
"Even with their seeker, they won't make it past Columbia!" James was close to losing it.
Peter interrupted. "Hey, guys?" he said. "There's no point in arguing about the Quidditch World Cup now. It won't help and you're hurting our ear drums."
James and Sirius looked around sheepishly at the pained expression on Lily, Austin and Remus' faces, as they sat in Remus' room after dinner.
"Sorry guys," James said. "We tend to get a little caught up in quidditch."
"Really?" Austin said. "We hadn't noticed."
Sirius stared blankly at Austin for a second, then his eyes lit up and he laughed. "You were being sarcastic!"
James and Remus immediately went into hysterics, while Austin and Lily looked at Sirius warily before joining in on the laughter. Before long, they were all rolling on the floor in uncontrollable mirth.
Remus' mom opened his door and peaked in. "Oh, I thought maybe something was wrong up here. We could hear things falling. Don't stay up too late!" With that, she closed the door and went back to her husband downstairs.
Of course, this interruption just increased the level of hysteria reigning in Remus' bedroom. It was ten full minutes later before anyone could speak through her or his giggles.
It was technically early morning when James and Sirius retreated (excitedly, strangely enough) to the couch downstairs, and Lily reluctantly began leaving for the spare room. Remus was very tired, and it wasn't long before he, Peter and Austin were all deeply asleep.
Remus awoke to Aidan's hoots and he noticed the sun was pretty high in the sky. He sat up sleepily, grumbling at Aidan.
"Aren't you supposed to sleep all day?" he mumbled. Then he realized that it was Easter and he shook Peter and Austin awake.
"Wake up! It's Easter!" he cried as his friends looked at him; sleep still in their eyes.
Peter rolled back over, saying, "So what?" but Austin sat up and asked in mock excitement, "Did the Easter bunny come?"
Laughing, Remus replied, "Sure he did. Let's go see what he brought."
"Who's this?" Peter asked, a bit more alive, but Remus and Austin had already moved on to the guest room to wake Lily.
Austin knocked and surprisingly Lily answered cheerfully. "Come in."
Pushing open the door, the two boys saw Lily sitting in front of the mirror, brushing her long auburn hair. Remus felt a jolt of admiration inside, but he recovered quickly enough to say, "Lily, we're going to go see what we got for Easter. Want to come?"
By the time she nodded and set down her brush, Peter had joined Remus and Austin in her doorway.
"What's all this about a bunny?" Peter asked sleepily, looking bleary eyed his three Muggle raised friends.
Lily giggled. "You don't know about the Easter bunny? He brings you treats for Easter!"
Peter's eyes lit up. "Treats?" Then he paused. "Are you saying there's a magical rabbit that goes to all the Muggle houses leaving treats for kids?" He looked highly confused.
Lily giggled even more. "No, silly, it's our parents, but when we were little we believed it."
"Oh, I knew that," Peter said unconvincingly. "Let's go get James and Sirius."
They ran down the stairs and roused Sirius and James from the couch where they slept. Surprisingly, once they were awake, they were excited to be up and they weren't at all grouchy.
"Let's find our baskets!" James yelled.
"How'd you know about those?" Remus asked.
"Oh, Arthur Weasley told us all about it at school when he found out we were coming here," Sirius answered smoothly. "Fairly talked our ears off."
Remus nodded and smiled, knowing from experience how Arthur could talk about Muggles.
A furious search for Easter baskets followed, and after ten or fifteen minutes everyone had found their basket of treats. Inside each was a huge chocolate bunny. Immediately, everyone went for them and took a huge bite. Actually, Remus realized just as he put the chocolate in his mouth that James and Sirius had picked theirs up, but weren't eating them yet.
'Oh no!' he thought, as it was too late to withdraw his chocolate from his hungry mouth.
His mouth was flooded with a gooey liquid that tasted like bogeys. He spit it out as soon as he could, but it wasn't soon enough. He heard several other shrieks of dismay as James turned to Sirius and said in a perfectly serious voice, "I'm glad we didn't start with our chocolate bunnies."
"James Potter!" Lily sputtered.
James looked angelically at Lily and composedly answered, "Yes, Lily Evans?"
This, as James had planned, was too much for Lily to take seriously. Her anger dissolved in a fit of giggles. "Don't you 'Yes, Lily?' me," she halfheartedly scolded through her laughter.
James smiled sweetly back, then looked around at Peter, Remus and Austin. His smile faltered as he realized his charm hadn't worked so well on them. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Luckily, Sirius came to his rescue.
"It was a harmless prank." Sirius fought to remain straight-faced. "I mean, you all kind of deserve it for letting me and James spend the night together...alone...on a separate floor..."
Then it dawned on Remus why the two boys had been so agreeable about having to sleep downstairs on the couch. He groaned. "He's right, you guys, we should have seen this coming."
"Even so," Peter began, but it was no use. He was outnumbered, and what did it really matter? "If you'll excuse me, I suddenly feel the need to brush my teeth," he finished.
The rest of the victims followed Peter's example, then they all helped themselves to the good candy, though it was examined much more closely. The weather was warm and sunny, surprising for England in the spring, but the Marauders and Lily took advantage of it, spending the whole day outside. By the time dinner rolled around, they were all famished. They were eager to taste the Easter dinner Remus had told them all about.
After a delicious dinner, it was (sadly) time for Remus' friends to return home. They all thanked the Lupins for having them over, and one by one, they disappeared through the Lupin fireplace to the fireplaces in their homes.
Remus heaved a sigh, sad to see them go. 'We really reconnected,' he reflected. But he couldn't help but be grateful to have them out of harms way when he turned werewolf again in a day. He was thinking about the differences in transforming at home when his mother's voice interrupted.
"Remus, you know that tomorrow is the full moon, right?" she asked quietly.
Smiling weakly, Remus answered, "Of course, mom."
"He is keeping on top of this, Jane," Remus' dad said, softly but sternly. "You have to trust him to be responsible."
His mother looked hurt. "I know that, Nick. I trust Remus to be careful."
Remus couldn't stand to see his parents this way, so he told them about the "treat" that James and Sirius had cooked up that morning.
His dad laughed loudly. "You'd never guess from their appearances that they would make that much trouble."
"They're not trouble, Dad, they keep things fun," Remus explained.
The next night was the full moon, and as the sun began to set, Remus and his father went down to the basement of their house. A corner of it that was about 3 meters by 3 meters had been sectioned off into a smaller room. The walls of the room were extremely thick and the door was the sturdiest ever made by Muggles. Because of this, Remus' father stayed outside the room all night, wand ready, in case it gave in.
"I'll be out here, son," Remus' dad said as he locked Remus in. "Don't you worry about anything."
Inside, the room was bare. Remus decided to lay down and sleep until the moon came up, having nothing better to do. Sleep came upon him and he knew nothing until it was morning.
Outside Remus' room, his father sat nearby, listening to the violent noises issuing from within. The experience was more painful for him than it was for Remus. Not only was it horrifying to know what one's son had to go through, but knowing that one could have prevented it by being just a bit more careful was maddening. For this reason, Remus' mother had never been in the basement while this was going on. In fact, while her husband was keeping watch, she was in the bathroom on the top floor, wearing earmuffs and playing Elvis music very loudly. She hadn't yet heard Remus' wolfly howl, and she didn't ever plan on it.
The next morning, Remus woke, very exhausted, but he had no way to tell what time it was. He got up and knocked on the inside of the door. His father woke with a start and called, "Good morning, Remus," as he unlocked the door.
"Morning, dad," Remus answered sleepily. His fingers absentmindedly wandered over the scratches on his arms as he climbed the stairs to the main floor.
His mother was busy making breakfast as Remus walked wearily into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Remus!" she said cheerfully. The smile on her face turned to concern as she caught sight of Remus' arms. "Are you ok, honey?" she asked, trying not to panic.
"Sure, mom." Remus shrugged. "Just a little tired."
His mother's voice shook as she asked, "Don't your arms hurt a bit?"
Remus looked down at his arms. "Oh," he quietly replied. "I hadn't noticed. It must have happened last night."
As he finished speaking, his mother ran from the room, unable to control the tears streaming down her face. Remus, of course, felt awful. He hadn't meant to upset his mother.
"Where's your mother?" Remus' father asked, shutting the basement door behind him.
Looking down at the floor, Remus answered, "She left the room crying when she saw my arms."
"They do look pretty painful, son. Let me take care of them for you." He pulled out his wand and muttered something. Bandages wrapped themselves around Remus' arm.
"There you go," his father said, smiling. "Not as nice as old Bell could have done, but it'll do."
"Who's Bell?" Remus asked, instantly curious.
"Oh, he was the nurse at Hogwarts when I was there. I imagine he's long since retired."
Remus nodded. "Madame Pomfrey is the nurse now. She took care of my arms last month."
Now it was his father's turn to look concerned. "This has been happening often, then?"
"Recently, yeah," Remus reluctantly answered.
"Maybe we need to take you back to Merlin's Hospital for Injuries by Magical Creatures," his dad said.
"Dad, I'm fine! That's just what happens to werewolves and there's nothing we can do about it!" Remus shouted and ran from the room.
In his room, he wrote a letter to James complaining about his parents' constant worrying, then sent Aidan off with it. Then he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time. 'I've accepted my werewolf-ness, why can't they?' he thought angrily. 'I'm the one who has to live like this'. He felt like going outside with his broomstick and just flying until the bad feelings left him, but there wasn't any place nearby where he wouldn't be spotted by his Muggle neighbors. Reluctantly, he took out his history book and began his essay on the development of witchcraft in Asia. All he wanted was to be out of his parents' sight.
About an hour later, Remus was deeply immersed in his essay and he barely heard the knock on his door.
"Remus, honey?" His mom's voice came through the door. "Can I come in?"
"No!" Remus called back. "I don't want to talk about it. I'm fine!"
"Alright, but if you want to talk, your father and I are here."
Remus remained silent, and soon he heard his mother's footsteps retreating.
Dinner went very well, and Remus was surprised at how his parents got along with his friends. He hadn't expected fights or anything, but he thought they would be more withdrawn from the group. He smiled as his father finished his story.
"Boy, was Minerva McGonagall embarrassed! She didn't show her face in the Great Hall for the last month before she graduated!" Remus' dad laughed.
"I can't believe you knew McGonagall when she was at Hogwarts," James commented, enthralled.
Mr. Lupin chuckled. "I wouldn't really say we knew each other, we were six years apart after all. But we certainly knew of each other."
All six students gave a sigh of happiness and moved back from the edge of their seats. Then Lily spoke up.
"What was your job after Hogwarts, Mr. Lupin?"
"I was very interested in potion work, so I was a researcher at a potions shop. I worked with a lot of experimental potions." He smiled nostalgically and a bit sadly. "Now I work as a researcher at a chemical company. It is much the same."
Remus could see that Lily felt bad for bringing up what turned out a touchy subject. She looked down at her plate very intently, so Remus rescued her by changing the topic of conversation. Soon after dinner was over so Remus and all of his guests retreated to his room.
"France will not make it to the finals, Sirius!" James yelled heatedly.
"I'm telling you, Potter, Russia and France are the best teams this year," Sirius fired back.
"England beat Russia 400-120!"
"Only because Russia's seeker was out with an injury," Sirius taunted.
"Even with their seeker, they won't make it past Columbia!" James was close to losing it.
Peter interrupted. "Hey, guys?" he said. "There's no point in arguing about the Quidditch World Cup now. It won't help and you're hurting our ear drums."
James and Sirius looked around sheepishly at the pained expression on Lily, Austin and Remus' faces, as they sat in Remus' room after dinner.
"Sorry guys," James said. "We tend to get a little caught up in quidditch."
"Really?" Austin said. "We hadn't noticed."
Sirius stared blankly at Austin for a second, then his eyes lit up and he laughed. "You were being sarcastic!"
James and Remus immediately went into hysterics, while Austin and Lily looked at Sirius warily before joining in on the laughter. Before long, they were all rolling on the floor in uncontrollable mirth.
Remus' mom opened his door and peaked in. "Oh, I thought maybe something was wrong up here. We could hear things falling. Don't stay up too late!" With that, she closed the door and went back to her husband downstairs.
Of course, this interruption just increased the level of hysteria reigning in Remus' bedroom. It was ten full minutes later before anyone could speak through her or his giggles.
It was technically early morning when James and Sirius retreated (excitedly, strangely enough) to the couch downstairs, and Lily reluctantly began leaving for the spare room. Remus was very tired, and it wasn't long before he, Peter and Austin were all deeply asleep.
Remus awoke to Aidan's hoots and he noticed the sun was pretty high in the sky. He sat up sleepily, grumbling at Aidan.
"Aren't you supposed to sleep all day?" he mumbled. Then he realized that it was Easter and he shook Peter and Austin awake.
"Wake up! It's Easter!" he cried as his friends looked at him; sleep still in their eyes.
Peter rolled back over, saying, "So what?" but Austin sat up and asked in mock excitement, "Did the Easter bunny come?"
Laughing, Remus replied, "Sure he did. Let's go see what he brought."
"Who's this?" Peter asked, a bit more alive, but Remus and Austin had already moved on to the guest room to wake Lily.
Austin knocked and surprisingly Lily answered cheerfully. "Come in."
Pushing open the door, the two boys saw Lily sitting in front of the mirror, brushing her long auburn hair. Remus felt a jolt of admiration inside, but he recovered quickly enough to say, "Lily, we're going to go see what we got for Easter. Want to come?"
By the time she nodded and set down her brush, Peter had joined Remus and Austin in her doorway.
"What's all this about a bunny?" Peter asked sleepily, looking bleary eyed his three Muggle raised friends.
Lily giggled. "You don't know about the Easter bunny? He brings you treats for Easter!"
Peter's eyes lit up. "Treats?" Then he paused. "Are you saying there's a magical rabbit that goes to all the Muggle houses leaving treats for kids?" He looked highly confused.
Lily giggled even more. "No, silly, it's our parents, but when we were little we believed it."
"Oh, I knew that," Peter said unconvincingly. "Let's go get James and Sirius."
They ran down the stairs and roused Sirius and James from the couch where they slept. Surprisingly, once they were awake, they were excited to be up and they weren't at all grouchy.
"Let's find our baskets!" James yelled.
"How'd you know about those?" Remus asked.
"Oh, Arthur Weasley told us all about it at school when he found out we were coming here," Sirius answered smoothly. "Fairly talked our ears off."
Remus nodded and smiled, knowing from experience how Arthur could talk about Muggles.
A furious search for Easter baskets followed, and after ten or fifteen minutes everyone had found their basket of treats. Inside each was a huge chocolate bunny. Immediately, everyone went for them and took a huge bite. Actually, Remus realized just as he put the chocolate in his mouth that James and Sirius had picked theirs up, but weren't eating them yet.
'Oh no!' he thought, as it was too late to withdraw his chocolate from his hungry mouth.
His mouth was flooded with a gooey liquid that tasted like bogeys. He spit it out as soon as he could, but it wasn't soon enough. He heard several other shrieks of dismay as James turned to Sirius and said in a perfectly serious voice, "I'm glad we didn't start with our chocolate bunnies."
"James Potter!" Lily sputtered.
James looked angelically at Lily and composedly answered, "Yes, Lily Evans?"
This, as James had planned, was too much for Lily to take seriously. Her anger dissolved in a fit of giggles. "Don't you 'Yes, Lily?' me," she halfheartedly scolded through her laughter.
James smiled sweetly back, then looked around at Peter, Remus and Austin. His smile faltered as he realized his charm hadn't worked so well on them. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Luckily, Sirius came to his rescue.
"It was a harmless prank." Sirius fought to remain straight-faced. "I mean, you all kind of deserve it for letting me and James spend the night together...alone...on a separate floor..."
Then it dawned on Remus why the two boys had been so agreeable about having to sleep downstairs on the couch. He groaned. "He's right, you guys, we should have seen this coming."
"Even so," Peter began, but it was no use. He was outnumbered, and what did it really matter? "If you'll excuse me, I suddenly feel the need to brush my teeth," he finished.
The rest of the victims followed Peter's example, then they all helped themselves to the good candy, though it was examined much more closely. The weather was warm and sunny, surprising for England in the spring, but the Marauders and Lily took advantage of it, spending the whole day outside. By the time dinner rolled around, they were all famished. They were eager to taste the Easter dinner Remus had told them all about.
After a delicious dinner, it was (sadly) time for Remus' friends to return home. They all thanked the Lupins for having them over, and one by one, they disappeared through the Lupin fireplace to the fireplaces in their homes.
Remus heaved a sigh, sad to see them go. 'We really reconnected,' he reflected. But he couldn't help but be grateful to have them out of harms way when he turned werewolf again in a day. He was thinking about the differences in transforming at home when his mother's voice interrupted.
"Remus, you know that tomorrow is the full moon, right?" she asked quietly.
Smiling weakly, Remus answered, "Of course, mom."
"He is keeping on top of this, Jane," Remus' dad said, softly but sternly. "You have to trust him to be responsible."
His mother looked hurt. "I know that, Nick. I trust Remus to be careful."
Remus couldn't stand to see his parents this way, so he told them about the "treat" that James and Sirius had cooked up that morning.
His dad laughed loudly. "You'd never guess from their appearances that they would make that much trouble."
"They're not trouble, Dad, they keep things fun," Remus explained.
The next night was the full moon, and as the sun began to set, Remus and his father went down to the basement of their house. A corner of it that was about 3 meters by 3 meters had been sectioned off into a smaller room. The walls of the room were extremely thick and the door was the sturdiest ever made by Muggles. Because of this, Remus' father stayed outside the room all night, wand ready, in case it gave in.
"I'll be out here, son," Remus' dad said as he locked Remus in. "Don't you worry about anything."
Inside, the room was bare. Remus decided to lay down and sleep until the moon came up, having nothing better to do. Sleep came upon him and he knew nothing until it was morning.
Outside Remus' room, his father sat nearby, listening to the violent noises issuing from within. The experience was more painful for him than it was for Remus. Not only was it horrifying to know what one's son had to go through, but knowing that one could have prevented it by being just a bit more careful was maddening. For this reason, Remus' mother had never been in the basement while this was going on. In fact, while her husband was keeping watch, she was in the bathroom on the top floor, wearing earmuffs and playing Elvis music very loudly. She hadn't yet heard Remus' wolfly howl, and she didn't ever plan on it.
The next morning, Remus woke, very exhausted, but he had no way to tell what time it was. He got up and knocked on the inside of the door. His father woke with a start and called, "Good morning, Remus," as he unlocked the door.
"Morning, dad," Remus answered sleepily. His fingers absentmindedly wandered over the scratches on his arms as he climbed the stairs to the main floor.
His mother was busy making breakfast as Remus walked wearily into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Remus!" she said cheerfully. The smile on her face turned to concern as she caught sight of Remus' arms. "Are you ok, honey?" she asked, trying not to panic.
"Sure, mom." Remus shrugged. "Just a little tired."
His mother's voice shook as she asked, "Don't your arms hurt a bit?"
Remus looked down at his arms. "Oh," he quietly replied. "I hadn't noticed. It must have happened last night."
As he finished speaking, his mother ran from the room, unable to control the tears streaming down her face. Remus, of course, felt awful. He hadn't meant to upset his mother.
"Where's your mother?" Remus' father asked, shutting the basement door behind him.
Looking down at the floor, Remus answered, "She left the room crying when she saw my arms."
"They do look pretty painful, son. Let me take care of them for you." He pulled out his wand and muttered something. Bandages wrapped themselves around Remus' arm.
"There you go," his father said, smiling. "Not as nice as old Bell could have done, but it'll do."
"Who's Bell?" Remus asked, instantly curious.
"Oh, he was the nurse at Hogwarts when I was there. I imagine he's long since retired."
Remus nodded. "Madame Pomfrey is the nurse now. She took care of my arms last month."
Now it was his father's turn to look concerned. "This has been happening often, then?"
"Recently, yeah," Remus reluctantly answered.
"Maybe we need to take you back to Merlin's Hospital for Injuries by Magical Creatures," his dad said.
"Dad, I'm fine! That's just what happens to werewolves and there's nothing we can do about it!" Remus shouted and ran from the room.
In his room, he wrote a letter to James complaining about his parents' constant worrying, then sent Aidan off with it. Then he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time. 'I've accepted my werewolf-ness, why can't they?' he thought angrily. 'I'm the one who has to live like this'. He felt like going outside with his broomstick and just flying until the bad feelings left him, but there wasn't any place nearby where he wouldn't be spotted by his Muggle neighbors. Reluctantly, he took out his history book and began his essay on the development of witchcraft in Asia. All he wanted was to be out of his parents' sight.
About an hour later, Remus was deeply immersed in his essay and he barely heard the knock on his door.
"Remus, honey?" His mom's voice came through the door. "Can I come in?"
"No!" Remus called back. "I don't want to talk about it. I'm fine!"
"Alright, but if you want to talk, your father and I are here."
Remus remained silent, and soon he heard his mother's footsteps retreating.