Author's Note : Not dead. Be amazed. :D My apologies, I went through a bad depression and school's just been so crazy and stuff that next thing I know it's been quite a few months since my last update. Things are still nuts in school, so hopefully once summer break comes I'll be able to write much more often.
Anyway, I do not own the song that is in this chapter. All rights go to Garbage.
Thanks To:
Sidra Elf
Loupetchien
Drama-queen8
PsYcHo SaM
JVanilly – Argh, I did. That chapter took me bloody forever to write.
xMadgirlx
lilchick
Rocky Vladmir
Monica-Chan the Hanyou Kitsune
Krazykat12992 – What consequences? O.O
Hey Darlin
Noename
Milanorie aka Shadow Dancer
Padfoot the Marauder – Ne, I'm just addicted to the uke boys. ;; Eventually I'll write something where Remy isn't such a bottom. Eventually. As for the Britney Spears, yeah, yeah, I know. It was a remix of the song though, that I found when looking for Marilyn Manson, strangely enough. Harry does know that darling Sevvy used to have a crush on Remy and all that good stuff. As for education in ghosts, it's probably not going to play that huge of a role, just thought it might be nice for some irony there. It might play a tiny role, but it definitely won't be a plot-altering situation.
Emirie Katakana – You don't want to eat me. I taste bad and stuff.
Stella Delight
annonymous- Of course I'm not J.K. o.o;;
Stormey-Skye
Baby chaos – Not the end.
Otakugirl – Nope, having stopped, just got extremely busy.
Rowenna – Don't strangle yourself, I haven't given up.
"The first time Severus and I came face-to-face at the school…" Remus said, shaking his head and running his hands over the tablecloth as though just to distract himself. "Was in the Great Hall after we arrived. Maybe that's not particularly face-to-face, but that was the first time I realized he was there. Nice little surprise," he said grinning and looking up at Harry.
"What did you do?" Harry asked, shaking his head in amazement.
"What do you mean, what did I do?" Remus asked, leaning back and laughing. "I had to stay and protect you. I sat down at the table and ignored the glares of death that were being sent my way. That's all I could do."
Harry was silent, as though contemplating this.
"All right, point made." He answered with a nod.
"That part isn't much of a story, but my first class..." Remus rubbed his temples and shook his head, sighing heavily. "That part still gives me nightmares and headaches."
Harry looked up, a grin already starting to spread across his face.
Remus looked around the bedroom that had been assigned to him, complete with office and private bathroom, and let out a sigh of relief as he fell face first into the bed.
How the hell could Dumbledore have missed the little detail of telling him that Severus Snape was here? In fact, it wasn't even a little detail, more like a huge, in your face, impossible to bloody miss detail.
Remus rolled over on the bed, and sat up, half-heartedly wishing that he had never come.
But it was too late to do anything now.
He sighed and started to get undressed, studying the schedule of classes that had been left on his desk.
Sixth Year Slytherins first thing in the morning.
Wasn't that just peachy.
He didn't sleep well that night. In fact, he barely slept at all. His nerves felt like they were on fire, and he paced around the room, running his fingers through his hair, wondering time and time again how in the world the Headmaster had convinced him to come. Just after three a.m., he fell into an uneasy, fitful sleep and woke up to find that he was running late for his first class.
Some things just never change.
Remus sprinted out of the bed as quickly as he could, grabbing around for his clothes and books, which were still packed away.
He stopped briefly to glance in the mirror, to make sure that nothing was unclothed that wasn't supposed to be, and after ruffling through his notes and books once more, he headed down the hall, praying that none of the rooms had moved since the last time he was here.
He must have finally received some luck, because the classroom was exactly where he remembered it being. And was completely empty.
Remus's breath caught in his throat for a brief moment as he looked around the classroom, caught in a moment of irony and disbelief. He was actually about to teach his first class. He went numb for a brief moment, before he shook it off, and headed to the front of the room, placing his things carefully on the desk.
He glanced around, finding that he had five minutes left before the class officially started. And he wasn't expecting very many of the Slytherins to be on time on their first day. Or any of the students for that matter.
Remus bit down on his lip, and said a silent prayer one last time as the first group of students walked in, talking drowsily and sitting in the back of the class.
The class slowly filled up, Slytherins entering with various degrees of exhaustion on their faces.
Once he thought the entire class was there, he stood, preparing to move the entire class to where had intended the lesson to be.
And that's when the trouble started.
In all fairness to Remus, there were just some things that couldn't be prepared for. And Mari was just one of those students, who unintentionally lived to torture teachers, and quite a few of the students also. It just so happened that she was in Remus's first class.
She was late, though she had no idea of that. They could hear her coming down the hall from about twenty feet away, since she was wearing a type of Muggle music-playing device, a portable CD player, with headphones around her head, and the volume turned up all the way. She was singing along, banging her head along with the rhythm as she entered the class room, apparently not even aware that she had entered a class.
"But she gave you everything she had
But she was young and dumb
She's just turned twenty-one
She didn't care to hang around
So when the shit came down
Why she was nowhere to be found
This life can turn a good girl bad
She was the sweetest thing you
That you had ever seen."
She paused, slightly after that, the music continuing on without her singing, as she realized she was in class.
"Let me just get to the end of the song, Sir!" she yelled too loudly, not taking off the headphones.
Remus was at a loss of what to do, his mouth hanging slightly open in disbelief as Mari continued on with the song.
"You're such a delicate boy
In the hysterical realm
Of an emotional landslide
In physical terms
With your cherry lips and golden curls
You could make grown men-"
Mari suddenly froze, her eyes wide in amazement and horror as the CD player let out a loud whiny beep, signaling the most awful thing when in the middle of a song.
Low Batteries.
"Noooo!" she yelped, pressing at the 'Play' button desperately, and then looking up at Remus. "Hey, Sir dude, can I-" she stopped in mid-sentence, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at Remus. "You're gay, aren't you?" she said suddenly.
"W-What?" Remus stammered in utter shock.
"You're all girly and feminine and stuff." She said, looking him up and down, before scurrying to the front of the class, the crisis with the music soon forgotten. "However," she said, slapping a pack of Tarot Cards on his desk. "Since you're gay and all, I'll tell your fortune for free."
Remus stared.
Needless to say, nothing got done in the class.
"You're lying!" Harry protested after hearing the story. "That did not happen!"
"No, I'm not," Remus said shaking his head sadly. "On Merlin's beard, I swear it is the truth. Of course after that, most of the classes were like your first class with me. With the exception of a certain third-year Slytherin class." Remus answered, grinning slightly. "But nothing ever exceeded that first class."
Harry rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too.
"There was just one other important thing that happened my first day," Remus said, growing serious after a moment, standing to go make another pot of tea.
Harry turned in his chair to listen to Remus as he started to talk again.
Remus fell asleep at his desk after the last class, exhausted mentally and physically. He was still beating his head on the wall for the first class, though he had to admit after the two hundredth and fifty-sixth hit that things could have gone much worse.
Right after he had fallen asleep, he was suddenly awoken by the noise of the door to the classroom closing. He sat up sharply, squinting his eyes as he tried to get them to focus, and then sat back in the chair, yawning and deciding he was hearing things.
"Lupin." A calm, chilly voice spoke suddenly, nearly startling Remus out of the chair.
It took him a whole fifteen seconds to recognize the voice.
"Snape," he answered in return, standing as the Potions Master came into his sight. "How can I help you?" he asked in an overly polite voice.
"Just wondering how your first day went," Severus replied in the same tone, trying to disguise the sneer that was over his face for a smile.
"Fine." Remus replied, not looking away from Severus's gaze.
"Good." Snape spoke evenly. "I was…worried… you might be so preoccupied with darling Harry that you might not be able to teach."
Remus stiffened, barely able to contain an extremely wolf-like growl that had grown in his throat. Severus was crossing into dangerous territory, and he knew that. The less then pleasant feelings that the two had departed with had grown over the span of time, until the lines of friend and foe became nicely blurred.
Severus didn't miss Remus's reaction.
"Or that you would be too busy trying to find a way to find and save your precious lover." Severus said in a low, taunting voice.
"Are you done lying?" Remus asked in a low snarl. "You know as well as I do that I'm not here to help him. The Headmaster wouldn't have hired me if that was the case."
"But why did he hire you?" Severus, asked crossing his arms, and stroking his chin pleasantly. "After all this time of you hiding away from us and cowering, why would he decide to bring you back into the fold now? The Headmaster always has some plans for each of us, Lupin, you surely now that. So what part are you playing in his game? He risks a lot by hiring you, werewolf, so you must be very important to him right now."
Remus didn't answer, a lump suddenly appearing in his throat as his mouth went dry.
"Get out." He growled croakily, his thin frame shaking faintly.
"As you please." Severus answered, sounding falsely civil.
Remus sank down back into the seat as soon as he was sure that the other was gone. He gripped his forehead tightly, Severus's words still ringing in his ears.
He could barely breath, as he stared blankly at the papers in front of him. And he wondered, just how Snape could have read his mind to know the exact questions he had been wondering ever since Dumbledore had contacted him.
Not extremely far from the castle, a black dog looked up from where it had been curled up on a doorstep, sleeping for the most part peacefully. It growled, faintly, a strange feeling having curled up in his belly.
The dog stood from the stoop, shaking itself and whining as it yawned. He had been walking all day, and had collapsed on the stoop of the door, happily to have finally found a good place to sleep. The people living there had even given him something to eat, and he had looked forward to having a breakfast, but the gnawing sensation in his gut, told him to press onward, that he needed to get to Hogwarts faster and that there was no time for rest.
The dog let out what could be considered a sigh as it started off at a steady trot, despite the fact that his paws were already sore and pounding with pain. His leg muscles pained him from being used so much after having been hardly moved in twelve years.
Sirius glanced up at the night sky briefly, and then at the town he was leaving behind him before breaking into a run, determination being the only thing fueling him once more.
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