Disclaimer: We don't own the characters, places or anything recognisable from the Harry Potter Books 'cause they belong to J. K. Rowling. We write only for our own pleasure and make nothing from it.
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How long should he wait before he went to see her? It would be four weeks until the next full moon so he would need to start taking Wolfsbane after three… Was it polite to wait until he needed it before he went to visit?
Remus would go and see April in two weeks, if he hadn't already seen her around the village. He decided to watch out for her.
Remus yawned, rubbing his eyes and running his fingers through his hair. It wouldn't matter what he decided to do; if he didn't get rest soon, he'd be dead on his feet. He dragged himself off the doorstep and went through to his bedroom.
He lay breathless, ensnarled in damp sheets, and thoroughly disturbed with himself. Remus had had feral dreams surrounding his transformation in his youth, before the Wolfsbane, but never anything like that.
No conscience, no control, just instinct. No human traits, just life, pure and simple, coursing through his veins. Knowing only what was most primitive and atavistic: hunger, self-preservation, and today… lust. A single minded drive, frightening in its intensity.
Remus shivered, suddenly feeling the cold the evening brought. He appeared to have slept all day. His stomach protested insistently against its lack of food, squirming and aching with hunger. Untangling himself from his bed sheets, he got up.
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Remus decided to have a proper look at where April lived (just to make sure that he definitely knew where it was, of course). He wandered slowly down the pavement, still aching from the transformation, kicking at weeds that grew out of the cracks in the asphalt.
As he drew closer to the house he was sure was hers, the most horrific squealing broke the tranquillity. He took a few more steps, getting ever closer to the path that led to April's front door. He was just wondering if he should look for the source of the cacophony when a piglet ran hell for leather out of the woods, squeaking raucously, followed closely by April. Once they were on her lawn, she dived on it, efficiently catching it. She looked up. "Oh, hello," she smiled, getting up, the pig wriggling vigorously in her arms.
"What are you doing?" Remus stared at her, unable to comprehend this bizarre situation. From somewhere he managed to marvel at the energy she had only the second day after the full moon.
"Looking for truffles," she answered as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Right." Remus blinked.
"Do you mind giving me a hand?" she asked, holding out the fat, little, squirming piglet to him.
Remus awkwardly took it and it squealed loudly, making him flinch. "Of course not," he added, rather belatedly, following April across her lawn and behind the house as she brushed her muddy hands off on the front of her, already grubby, dress.
"I'm sorry, Merrill is a little grumpy today."
"Merrill?" Remus managed as he fought to keep hold of the little pink creature she had given him; it's little hooves made contact with several tender, bruised spots of flesh, making him wince.
April shrugged and grinned in explanation and led Remus to the end of the garden where there was an extensive pigsty
"So… What brings you down here?" she asked, stepping right up close.
"Just taking a walk." Remus said, endeavouring to be casual as his muscles complained at having to hold onto the pig, and he took in her new closeness.
Reaching up, April took Merrill from his arms, "Well, me and Miss Piggy here have fulfilled our excitement quota for today. Would you like to join me for a cup of tea?" She bent over the side of the sty, depositing the irritable animal so that she could run noisily back to her peers.
"Yeah, sure." Remus brushed off his hands, trying to ignore how revealing her attire coupled with her stance was.
April straightened up, looking affectionately back at the pigs, and walked ahead of him, leading up some steps and in through the back door. "The living room's just through there," she gestured. "I won't be a minute; I'm just gonna get out of these dirty clothes."
April disappeared and Remus heard the pound of feet climbing stairs. Some juvenile part of him wanted to sneak up stairs behind her and watch, but he shook himself out of it and went through to her sitting room, choosing a spot on her sofa. Remus sank a little further into the cushions than he had expected and found his sore limbs floundering. He corrected himself, glad that April hadn't been there to witness his graceless little display.
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"It was so hard finding work that I decided to go into business for myself." April tucked her legs up under herself, smiling at the man sat on her sofa.
"What made you choose Potions?" Remus couldn't imagine it himself.
"I'd been really good at them at Hogwarts. Well, until my seventh year when our Potions teacher retired. His replacement took something of a dislike to me; I think I deserved a better NEWTs result. So, before I could be taken seriously in business, I had to do a year's intensive course with the Guild of Potion's Masters and get a qualification."
That sounded a little too familiar to Remus. "This Potions professor wouldn't happen to be Severus Snape?" He arched an eyebrow knowingly at her.
"How did you know?" She cocked her head to one side giving him a curious look.
Remus suddenly felt very old. He might not have known how long Snape had been teaching at Hogwarts but it meant that he himself was old enough to have taught her. She must be, at the very least, ten years his junior. "I taught there for a year a while ago and that description sounded a little too familiar." Remus found himself leaving out the fact that they had been in the same year at school.
"You taught at Hogwarts?" Her eyes brightened. "What an honour… What did you teach…?" When Remus went to reply, she put her hand up to stop him. "Let me guess." She sat back and closed her eyes.
"Alright," Remus agreed uneasily, mildly intrigued to know what she saw him teaching. Despite the fact that she wasn't looking at him, he felt under scrutiny nonetheless. Remus shifted in his seat, trying not to notice how at ease and open she looked, curled up in her chair in just a pale summery dress, feet and legs captivatingly bare.
April smiled and opened her eyes; Remus looked away, concentrating on his half drank cup of tea. "Well, I'm guessing from earlier that you didn't teach 'Care of Magical Creatures'." She sipped her drink. "And we've already established that Potions aren't your thing."
Remus nodded, "I'm not that bad with magical creatures," he assured her, "you just took me somewhat by surprise."
April laughed and continued. "You said you only taught for a year… so not 'Herbology' – that's too much of a commitment…" She paused for a long moment and stared at him openly.
Remus again felt self-conscious under her observation, all of a sudden very aware of his shabby clothes and how he was trying to manufacture his facial expression to be casual and composed.
"And you still dress like a wizard despite living around muggles… so not 'Muggle Studies'… and you are hardly a master of disguise, so I'd wager Transfiguration isn't your speciality."
She smiled knowingly making Remus wonder if he should worry about being predictable if she got it right first guess.
April drained the last of her tea and peered into the cup. Reminded of something, she said, "You use tea bags, so not Divination. Although I wouldn't have thought so anyway." She laughed a little at the thought. "Now, what does that leaves me with…? DADA, Arithmancy and …Ancient Runes …" She answered her own question. "Am I warm?"
"Very." Remus said with more conviction than he had intended.
He felt more than a little embarrassed when April's eyebrows danced a little, her face lighting up.
"Not bad with magical creatures…?" she pondered. "Now, an Arithmancy or Ancient Runes Professor wouldn't get their head out of a chart long enough to realise that there are animals, so I vote DADA." She looked expectantly at him, a smile already teasing at her mouth, clearly certain that she was right.
Remus smiled slightly and nodded, letting her know that she was correct in her supposition.
"Excellent. At least my detective skills have improved. With only Merrill and the other animals to practise on, I haven't really had much exercise in that area," she grinned. "So, are there any other secrets that I can unearth?"
"I think we should save some for next time," Remus said with a smile. "I haven't got that many, so it's best to spread them out."
"I'm sure you have lots of secrets!" April argued.
Meeting with a wall of silence, April looked up, and, noticing that Remus looked a little grey, leant forward to touch his arm. He flinched when she grazed a new bruise. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"What?" He seemed to surface from his reverie, "Oh, yes, I'm fine." he said as if on autopilot, backing up his words with an unconvincing smile.
"Still recovering from the transformation?" Her voice took on a new soothing air.
"Yes," Remus admitted.
"Hang on a second," she said, sympathetically rubbing his shoulder. April stood and left the room.
She was gone for some time and Remus started to wonder what she was doing when she came back in holding a steaming goblet with a large pair of fluffy oven gloves.
"Leave it a minute as it's hot, and when you do drink it make it slow because it's a powerful stimulant." April set it down on the coffee table and took off the gloves before vanishing again. She was back in a moment with a tray of food. "What am I bet that you haven't eaten since breakfast?" She knelt down and set the tray on the table as well.
Remus looked momentarily embarrassed.
"It's not a good idea to drink that on an empty stomach, that's all." she added hastily, setting two bowls on the table and filling each with what looked and smelt wonderfully like a cross between beef casserole and a hot-pot out of a green cooking pot with a large ladle. Then selected them both cutlery and a big square napkin.
The relish on Remus face was very rewarding when April handed it over. She was less pleased when Remus expression went to something uncomfortable almost immediately. "Are you alright?"
"I just try to avoid meat a few days after the moon."
"Oh, it is rather… stimulating, isn't it?" She looked a bit sheepish.
Remus started to tuck in.
"Are you sure you don't want something else?"
"No. This is wonderful. Really." Remus hadn't realised how hungry he was.
After eating the meal and drinking the potion, Remus felt as relaxed as if he'd just drank a bottle of fire whiskey and as energised as if he'd just swallowed a year's crop from a coffee plantation, it was the oddest sensation. April sat next to him, talking about something that Remus was sure he'd been really interested in when she started, but now all he could think about was her mouth.
Remus squared his shoulders and listened, he really concentrated, and it was interesting. Things proceeded in that pattern for most of the evening, until April started to yawn and sent him home.
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Remus returned home, surprised to find that he had spent most of the evening with April. There was a little wide-eyed owl in his porch with a note attached to its spindly leg. Remus bent down to undo it, patting the owl kindly. It fluttered about and then took off. "Not staying for a snack then?" Remus called after it, but the owl was already gone.
Moony,
I hope my owl can find your new place. It's not very reliable; I'll have to look into getting another.
Anyway, hope you've settled in all right. Sorry it's taken me so long to write to you but I've been in Paris with the lovely Chastity Murdoch! Do you remember her? She was a few years younger than us at school. I ran into her (literally!) in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago.
Anyway, I will be visiting you and your new abode soon so keep the kettle exercised!
Padfoot.
Remus was sure that Sirius only stopped off at his house around once a month to check in with the teapot and then was off to visit some long lost friend, charming some helpless young woman, or searching for his long-lost motorbike.
No doubt Chastity Murdoch would be long forgotten by the time he made his way here, along with countless others.
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A/N: Sorry for the huge wait for this chapter but I now know where the story is going… thank god! How it's going to get there though is a bit of a mystery though!
Thanks to Krusty, Jestr017 and Hopeful Writer for your comments.
Martha ad Squirrel. x.x.x