The Songbird and the Serpent
Part I: Hogwart's
Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...
Chapter 4
Finally, it was time. After lunch on Friday he received a note to meet Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing, and he left discreetly without a word to his friends, not sure what to tell them. He figured he could use the next few days to think of a good excuse for his absence. He met with Madame Pomfrey while everyone headed to their afternoon classes, and she led him as discreetly as possible to the Whomping Willow, and down into the passage towards the Shrieking Shack.
The place seemed a lot less inviting this time around; cold and damp and shuddering slightly in the cold autumn wind. Remus wondered if the weak-looking walls could even hold him in, but he was sure it was protected by magic and perfectly safe. Madame Pomfrey made sure he was as comfortable as possible and told him she would be back in the mornings to look after him. He thanked her and said goodbye, and she left through the heavy door into the passage. Remus was now alone in the rickety building, and decided that he might as well try and get a few hour's sleep before the moon came out.
The next few days were a blur as usual. He had occasional moments of consciousness where he could remember being fed, or having newly-acquired wounds healed up, but mostly he could only remember pain and an extreme desire to destroy. When he woke up on the final day, he was relieved to see that nothing had gone wrong. He guessed that Madame Pomfrey had already been and gone, since he was bandaged up and there was a half-eaten plate of food by the bed.
He wondered what time it was, and even what day, and as he clambered out of the bed he noticed the terrible mess that had been made of the room. He wandered through the rooms of the house and found them the same; almost every piece of furniture had been scratched, broken or smashed to pieces, and there were claw marks all over many of the doors and windows too. He knew it wasn't something he could help, and was something that was expected, but he still couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for having ruined and destroyed things that didn't really belong to him.
He removed all the bandages that he could, but a few of his wounds still looked angry, so he wrapped them back up. He still felt exceptionally weak and tired, but he figured he should get back to his classes as soon as possible, and so he made his way through the heavy door and down the passage to the grounds. He was very careful to make sure he wasn't noticed leaving the hole at the foot of the Willow, and then proceeded up to the castle.
His first stop was at the infirmary, where Madame Pomfrey was happy to see him up and about so soon. She told him it was late afternoon on Monday, and that the students would be getting out of their last classes at any moment.
"Your friends were in here on Saturday asking about you..." she added, and Remus smiled at the thought. "I told them you had to go home for a family emergency and you'd be back as soon as possible...you'd better be careful around them...I'm told they're right clever boys, and obviously curious, too. You'd best make sure they don't find out anything, Remus." she said seriously, and Remus nodded.
"I'll be careful..." he assured her, and she checked over his wounds before letting him go. He immediately made his way to the Gryffindor common room, hoping to arrive before everyone got out of class. When he got there however, he found that they had beat him to it. James ran over to him, closely followed by Peter. Sirius looked up but didn't leave his seat.
"Remus! Where've you been? You just disappeared after lunch on Friday...we looked everywhere...I reckoned you'd fallen ill again, but Pomfrey said you'd gone home..." James said quickly, and then he noticed the bandages on Remus' arm and the healing cuts on his face. "...what happened?" he asked, and Peter just looked up and him, worried and confused.
"Er...I had to go home because...my mum was ill. She's getting better now though..." he replied in a tired voice, and James nodded.
"Well, I'm glad she's better...but what happened to you?" he asked, and Remus hesitated.
"Uh...broom accident. I was practising flying and...um...crashed." he replied, not sure that he would have believed himself if he'd been them. Lily was right, he was a terrible liar. However, James and Peter seemed to buy it.
"Wow...well I hope you're all right...and your mum..." said James.
"I wish you'd have been here for Potions this morning, Remus...they put Snape with me and Avery...it was horrible..." Peter added, and Remus nodded.
"I can only imagine...sorry, Pete." he said, and then followed James and Peter back to their seats. James had apparently been involved in a game of wizard chess with Sirius, who was getting impatient for him to take his turn.
"All right, Remus?" Sirius asked, his eyes still locked on the chess board. Remus sat in an armchair next to James, who was now contemplating his next move.
"Yeah...mum was ill..." he replied, and Sirius cut him off.
"Yeah, I know...I was listening. Glad you're both okay." Sirius said hastily, and Remus couldn't help but feel surprised at this rare show of concern, half-hearted and rather insincere as it was.
The following weeks seemed to race by, and before long people were eager for the imminent Christmas holidays. Things seemed to steadily improve for Remus as the holidays got nearer; he was improving in potions despite Snape's silent and continually cold and unhelpful attitude, James and Sirius had managed to stay out of trouble most of the time, and there hadn't been much more taunting from the Slytherin crowd. As for Sirius, he seemed almost friendly at times, and Remus was thankful at least that he didn't just ignore him completely as he did Peter.
The holidays came and went, and Remus found it difficult to leave his parents a second time. However, the thought of seeing his friends once more kept the parting from being as difficult as the first. When he got back to school, slightly earlier than most, he found Sirius alone in the common room. He hadn't gone home for the holidays, and had refused James' offer to stay at his place, too; the Black pride at work.
"Hello Sirius...have a good holiday?" Remus asked politely, taking a seat by the fire.
"Wasn't so bad...great opportunity to explore this place a bit...but mostly I was just bored. You?"
"It was nice to see my parents again, but to be honest I was mostly bored, too..." he replied, and Sirius grinned.
"Well, I'm glad someone else had a boring time...James kept writing to me telling me about the excellent time he's having at home..." said Sirius, rolling his eyes.
"Well, he did ask you to go..."
"Yeah, I guess I should've gone. Oh well. Too late now." said Sirius, and at that moment a large group of Gryffindors entered the room, including James.
"Hello! Have fun?" he asked, and Remus nodded half-heartedly.
"I found some rather interesting things around the school..." said Sirius with a grin, and James smiled in turn.
"Excellent..." said James, and Remus got a bad feeling that this could only mean trouble.
