"Reya, Reya c'mere!" Lucille Lupin shouted up the stairwell. Remus and Reya had taken refuge in Remus' room. They were using the guise of Reya helping Remus with some homework to try to keep the psycho away from them. Unfortunately, it wasn't working very well as Lucille knew the Easter holidays had just started and Remus had a week to finish any and all schoolwork.
Reya scowled, but did not answer her mother. She continued to read Remus' homework, seemingly oblivious to the slurs and curses. Although she wasn't really reading it so much as fixing her gaze on it while clenching her jaw and muttering something along the lines of 'stay away from me, leave me alone'.Remus looked nervously at the doorway."Reya…she's going to come up here." Remus whispered."You might want to recheck your sources on this one, I don't think there were any goblin rebellions in China." Reya said tersely."Reya! Cummout an' talk to me! Oof!" There was a bang, and then several thuds and Lucille fell down the stairs. The kids waited in a tense silence, waited for her to get up and resume her shouting. After three minutes of silence, Remus stood up and walked to the door."Where are you going?" Reya growled."I'm going to go make sure she didn't kill herself!" Remus snapped."You act like that would be a bad thing." Reya said scathingly. Remus glared at her, then continued on his way.Mrs. Lupin was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, a smashed wine glass next to her. She looked dazed, and her knee was bloodied, but otherwise she was fine. Remus crouched down next to her. "C'mon mum, we need to clean that cut.""Jus' do a healing charm R'mus." Mrs. Lupin slurred, attempting to stand, but falling back against her son. Remus supported her and started leading her towards the bathroom.
"I can't use magic out of school so we'll have to take care of it the Muggle way, okay mum?" Remus said, trying to keep his voice even. She was reeking of alcohol and he had to fight the urge to wretch."I can do it." Mrs. Lupin insisted.
"M-mum, that's not a good idea. I mean, in your state-"
"What're you implying?" Mrs. Lupin asked angrily, pulling away from Remus and promptly tripping over herself and hitting the ground.
"Well…it's just not a good idea to practice magic when you're…er…not sober. You make more mistakes that way-""I know what happens! I'm not drunk!" Lucille yelled, some spit spraying out of her mouth as she spoke. Remus took a deep breath before helping her up again.
"Well, mum, see maybe you just…you know, don't realize how, er, inebriated you are-""I'm not drunk!" She yelled again. But she didn't try to pull away from him this time.
"Mum, you're slurring everything you're saying." Remus said rationally. "And, and I mean you fell down the stairs. And you've been drinking all day.""I have not!" She denied vehemently. Remus had just gotten them to the bathroom. He sat her down on the toilet and then found a clean face cloth and soaked it in water.
"Mum you smell like Southern Comfort." Remus tried again."I was drinkin' a little. But m'not drunk!" She yelled, spraying Remus with spit. Gritting his teeth, he began cleaning the cut."Okay fine then, you're not drunk. You're just tired and a little tipsy. You still shouldn't be doing magic though." Once Remus finished with the water, he poured a little hydrogen peroxide onto the face cloth and dabbed at the cut with that. He was applying a band-aid when Mrs. Lupin tried to get up again."Mum, wait a minute. I'm almost done." Remus pleaded."'M gonna go get m'wand an show you I can do m-magic. 'N tha m'not drunk!" Lucille declared, heading for the doorway. Remus grabbed her and attempted to pull her back."Mum, please! Just let me put on the band aid!" Remus begged."Leggo! Get yer hands offame!" Lucille pulled away from him and banged into the wall. Remus cringed. He'd gotten a deep inhale of Southern Comfort that time, and it made him nauseous."Just think about it! There's no risk this way! If you do magic you could hurt yourself! It makes more sense to just put a band aid on!" Remus yelled, but at the same time Lucille yelled over him.
"You don't hafta tell me wha' ta do! Yer the kid, 'm the parent okay? Okay Remus? Y'don' tell me what ta do!" Remus stared at the wall, trying to think. And also trying to ignore the knot of anger forming in his stomach."Fine, curse your damn leg off. I don't care, I'm going to bed."
"Don' talk to me like that! I'm yer mother!"
"And a fine one at that!" Remus yelled, storming up the stairs. He ran into his room and slammed the door behind him. Reya was sitting on his bed, a cruel smile on her lips.
"Well you handled that well, didn't you Remey?" She asked.
"Shut up. Leave me alone." Remus hissed.
"So she claims to be sober?" Reya laughed derisively. "Right. Well, anyway, you're the high and mighty one always telling me not to rise up to their level and all that. I love seeing you lose your temper." Reya said, stretching out. "And your essay sucks. Avoid using so many big words, there's nothing more annoying to a teacher than phony intellectuals. And having to use a dictionary to grade a paper."
"Oh thanks." Remus said sarcastically. "Now get out of my room." Reya looked out the window.
"Hmm. Jim just pulled up. And mum would be…?"
"Sprawled on the floor downstairs sobbing about what a horrible son I am…oh shit Reya." Remus whispered.
"What?" Reya asked. "You just kicked me out, I'm not helping you." And with that, she retreated for her own room. Remus crouched on his bed, hoping Jim wasn't in the mood to make this confrontation physical. Because there would be a confrontation. There always was.And, practically on schedule, five minutes later Jim was standing in Remus' doorway, glaring at him like some sort of vermin.
"So you been harassing your mother again boy?"
"I was trying to help her clean a cut she got on her knee." Remus explained, keeping his voice very small and meek.
"She says you were telling her what to do, and that you threw her into a wall."
Remus wanted to scream the truth at Jim, but he knew that wouldn't help, so instead he just stared at his hands, waiting.
'God I hate my life'.
SOME TIME LATER
"So I hope you all did your research like good little Marauders over the vacation?" James asked, once the four had gotten on the Hogwarts Express.
Remus was gazing out the window, but that query brought him back to the present. "Huh? What research?" Remus asked."Oh, you're exempt from that." James said dismissively. He turned to the others. "Sirius, did you break into the family library? You said there'd be some goodies in there.""Yeah…yeah lots of interesting spell books. And I did find a few things on the Anamgus transformation-"
"You guys are still doing that?" Remus practically yelped.
James, Peter and Sirius all stared at him. Then James said, in a very patronizing voice, "Yes, yes Moony we still are. We've never stopped working on it."
"It's just…well it's dangerous, isn't it?" He asked.
"Well it wouldn't be fun if it wasn't." Sirius said, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few pages he'd obviously ripped out of some massive books. "Now I'm wondering why the noble house of Black owns books that distinctly resemble those we found in the restricted section…"
Remus turned back to the window, knowing full well once James Potter and Sirius Black decided something, he would be hard pressed to talk them out of it. And once the two of them decided something, Peter Pettigrew would follow without question and with much enthusiasm. He looked up again when Sirius began talking about what was on the last folded page.
"And I found this excellent spell tucked away back there on how to transfigure water into different alcohols."
"Excellent." James said approvingly. "Good work Sirius."
Remus turned to look at his friends, a deep frown on his face, but as he had not told them about his aversion to alcohol, and didn't plan on ever doing so, he kept quiet.
LATER
"Ostentatious." Remus said miserably. The portrait swung open and he entered the Gryffindor common room. When he'd left for the library, James, Sirius and Peter had been trying out the new water transfiguration spells. Remus was relatively sure they'd have gotten it by now, and be drunk off their arses to boot.He dragged himself over to the dorm and looked in. Sure enough, the three were laying on the floor surrounded by empty cups, all of them giggling, Peter hiccupping."Tha's the best sp-spell yet. They should teach ush thing like tha' in shool." Peter decided, waving his near empty glass and spilling a few drops of wine.Sirius stood up and stumbled over to Remus."Moony! You mished the fun! We did it, was easy. An we got good too! I made vodka at one point, but thennit got harder again, so we went back ta wine." Sirius explained. Remus cringed. He could smell the alcohol on Sirius' breath. Granted that wasn't very hard, he was standing a lot closer to Remus than he normally would have.Remus adopted a closed look to his face, then got into his bed and snapped the curtains shut. "I think I'll just go to sleep now, I'm tired.""Wha' crawled up's arse an died?" James asked, which sent Peter into a fresh wave of giggles.
Remus closed his eyes and willed himself not to scream. He could feel angry tears stinging at his eyes. 'I hate alcohol, I bloody hate alcohol'.
"Yer so pissed Siriush." Peter giggled.
"Tha's the idea Pete." Sirius answered. For the next week, Remus completely closed himself off from the other three. Sirius was starting to get concerned, but he didn't pay it much mind. Remus was very temperamental, and he had mood swings a lot. Sirius figured it was part of being a werewolf.He didn't think about it again until Friday after Herbology. He'd been partnering Remus on a Mimbleus Mimbletonia and the ordeal had left them both covered in stinksap. Professor Sprout gave them permission to leave class early to shower and change."Sorry-sorry-sorry!" Sirius yelled, while they raced through the castle."It's okay! I should've told you it would do that if you pressed it anyway!" Remus yelled over him, in unusually good spirits considering the aroma they were giving off. "You should've seen your face when it squirted, it was priceless."Sirius grinned. "And you should've seen Sprout's face. 'And once again, Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin provide an example of what you should not do when handling the specimen…'"
Remus started cracking up. The fat lady gave them an insolent stare as they entered the common room.
"Skiving class again I see…"
"Oh give over, we have a reason." Sirius snapped at the portrait. She rolled her eyes, and Remus yanked him up to the dorms.
Sirius peeled off his now putrid robes and frowned. "I hope this stuff comes out."
"It had better. Mum'll kill me if I ruined another set of robes." Remus commented, as he disrobed.
Sirius looked up, intending to say something sarcastic, but stopped.
Remus' bare back was facing him, and there was a gigantic ugly bruise on his shoulder blade.
"How did that happen?" Sirius asked in shock. Remus snapped his head around, saw Sirius staring, and immediately turned around, his face now flushed.
"That? Oh it's nothing…I just, I was-um…I fell down over the holiday." Remus said quickly."That was from a fall?" Sirius asked in amazement.
"Yeah, I was climbing a tree near my house. I-I landed on a rock." Remus explained, wiping the stinksap off of him with more vigour now. He was desperate to get a shirt on.Sirius chewed his lip. "It looks really painful. Why don't you heal it?""Oh, um…well it just slipped my mind. I mean, since it happened over the holiday and all. Besides, I can't really reach my back anyway." Remus said quietly, reaching for a shirt.
Sirius stopped him, then turned him around. "I'll take care of it." He whispered. Remus' breath caught in his throat. Sirius moved his hands over the bruise and Remus winced, but the hands were gentle and soon he relaxed. Sirius muttered a healing spell and his hands grew warm. Sirius massaged the spot, and Remus felt the bruise disappear."Th-thanks." Remus stammered, wanting more than anything for Sirius to take his hands away, but at the same time wanting them to stay where they were more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life."No problem." Sirius whispered, right in his ear. Remus shivered, then pulled his shirt on."C'mon, we need to hurry. We'll be, we'll be late for Potions."
Sirius sighed in frustration, then continued to wipe off the stinksap.
Sirius didn't think back on the bruise, or how Remus went funny whenever the other Marauders drank, until sixth year. Over the winter holiday, the Potters were going away and Sirius didn't want to go back to his own home (obvious reasons), so he stayed at Remus' place. Remus seemed reluctant to let him do so, but he did, regardless.Then Sirius got a clear idea of why Remus would have mysterious marks on his body, and why alcohol made him cringe. By the end of the week, it made Sirius cringe too.Still, Remus didn't seem to want to talk about it, so Sirius kept quiet. But he was also careful not to drink around Remus, something that James and Peter didn't understand, but didn't question.Then one night when Prongs and Wormtail were passed out (and completely pissed) Sirius received another reminder of Remus' home life. Remus was explaining things about those books he liked so much, something of the ring, and Sirius was getting very bored. Remus could go on for hours about Hobbits and Elves if one left him to it.Sirius leaned over on the premise of looking at the book Remus was holding, and then snatched it out of his hands. "Hey, give that back!" Remus yelled indignantly.Sirius darted out of reach. "Only if you promise to stop blabbing on about it." Sirius taunted."I'll make no such promise, now give it back!" Remus yelled, diving. Sirius was very good at one on one keep away, and Remus' prospects of getting the book back looked slim…if he played fair.Remus feigned left, then charged right and pushed Sirius against the wall. He held his wrists, then reached for the book with one hand, but to do that, he'd had to release the other hand. Sirius made use of that and managed to get both of Remus' wrists in one hand."Ha!" Sirius yelled, waving the book inches from Remus' face."Don't make me bite you."
"Ooo…getting kinky now, are we?" Sirius teased.
Remus smiled an evil sort of smile, then kneed him in the crotch. Sirius fell over, making odd gasping noises, and also dropped the book. Remus caught it easily and smiled with satisfaction."That wasn't fair!" Sirius squeaked. Then he kicked Remus' legs out from under him and tackled him to the floor. He climbed on top of Remus while Remus did his best to get away."Ow, ow! Sirius let me up!" Remus yelled, all the mirth gone from his voice. Sirius got up and Remus sat up quickly, massaging his stomach."Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to." Sirius apologized quickly.
"No, it's just this bruise." Remus winced, rubbing his side. Sirius' eyes darkened."Another bruise?" He asked.Remus looked up. "Y-yeah.""Like the one from before?" A withdrawn look came to Remus' face. He stood up and inched over towards his bed.
"It's nothing, just a little bruise. Don't talk about it anymore."
"It didn't sound like nothing when you were screaming in pain." Sirius observed, but Remus had already retreated behind his bed curtains.
Sirius frowned. 'Soon, soon I will do something to actually help him.'END