The Songbird and the Serpent

Part I: Hogwart's

Lupin's first year at Hogwart's...

Chapter 5

The first week back went by quite well, and Remus even managed to get a few words out of Snape, his forced potions partner. Of course, most of these words consisted of phrases like shut up and you're doing that all wrong, but it was a start at least. In the time before Christmas holidays Remus had found himself starting to pity the greasy Slytherin. Remus had heard a lot of rumours about the boy's bad home life, and it was well-known that he knew more curses than most seventh years before he even came to the school. He certainly wasn't popular even in his own house, and the few friends he did have seemed to keep him around only so he would help them out with their homework. Of course, there was a good reason why he was unpopular; he was a thoroughly unpleasant person, and when he did bother to talk to anyone it was usually only to insult them.

"Lupin, seriously...shut up...pay attention to what you're doing and quit bothering me." said Snape towards the end of a potions class. Remus sighed, giving up on attempting pleasant conversation, and continued to work on the task at hand. He was in high spirits that day, as the previous class had been their weekly flying lesson, and Remus had finally managed to get off the ground without feeling physically ill. Lily was the one who had helped him do it. James, Peter and Sirius had long ago mastered the art of flying and were usually having far too much fun racing each other up and down the courtyard to help him out. Madame Hooch worked with him when she could, but she had a whole class to deal with, and couldn't very well spend all her time on some silly little boy with vertigo.

But Lily had come to his aid, and now he had successfully managed to overcome his fear of heights. Or at least, of small heights. He still preferred to stay no more than ten feet away from the ground, and had only managed to handle speeds of around fifteen miles per hour at the most. At first he'd been terribly embarrassed by his ineptitude, but Lily was so non-judgemental in helping him that he soon got over it. Of course, he did find it very hard to live down the joking from Sirius and James, who thought it awfully amusing that he needed a girl to help him. Remus wasn't quite sure just what they had against girls; Lily was definitely a better flyer than Sirius at any rate. And a great deal nicer, too.

Whatever wonderful things Sirius had managed to discover during the holidays seemed to occupy most of the spare time he and James had, and Peter would join them if he could convince them to let him. Remus didn't particularly feel any need to join in these expeditions, not being the type to ask for trouble, but occasionally he would find himself swept into them somehow.

One such time had ended with Remus being given his first detention. Filch the caretaker was busy cleaning a corridor in which Peeves, the school's nuisance of a poltergeist, had smashed a great deal of ink pots. Knowing this, Sirius and James had decided that they should search for interesting confiscated items in Filch's office, and had demanded that Remus come along to serve as a lookout. Remus was sure he didn't want to get involved in such a scheme, but before he knew it he found himself following Sirius, James, and Peter down the corridors, quite unsure of how he'd been talked into it. They reached the end of the corridor in which Filch's office was located, and they all stopped.

"Right...Remus, stay here and keep an eye out for Filch...Peter, go to the other end and do the same..." said James, glancing cautiously around him. "Oh, and don't forget to keep an eye out for that cat of his, too...she'll run right off and tell him if she catches us."

"Yeah but...what do we do if we see someone?" asked Peter, looking worried, his watery eyes darting from side to side nervously. James thought hard for a minute, since this was obviously something he hadn't thought to plan. Sirius leaned casually against the wall of the corridor, content to let James think things through on his own. He began to whistle.

"Whistle! Nice one, Sirius...if you see someone coming, whistle. We'll hear you and get out of there. Right...we're wasting valuable time..." said James, and motioned for Sirius to follow him to the office door. Peter ran enthusiastically to the other end of the corridor, leaving Remus alone and pondering the stupidity of getting involved in this plan.

After only a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, Remus heard footsteps, and his heart skipped a beat. Filch appeared at the end of the corridor, and Remus started whistling--only, no sound came out. It hadn't occurred to him that he didn't know how to whistle. He considered running, but thought that abandoning his friends was probably not the best thing to do. Instead, he decided that talking very loudly and trying his best to stall Filch was the only available plan of action.

"Lupin? What're you doin' here? You children shouldn't be hangin' around the corridors...don't you 'ave someplace to be?" said Filch, a very unpleasant smile on his face as if contemplating suitable punishments.

"Er...I GOT LOST..." said Remus, rather loudly, and Filch gave him a strange look. They were just out of sight of the corridor containing Filch's office, and Remus hoped that one of his friends had heard him.

"Lost? Where were you goin' then?" asked Filch, the unpleasant smile returning. Remus hesitated, and heard a door creak open. Unfortunately, Filch heard it too. "AHA! So that's what you're up to!" he shouted, grabbing Remus by the arm and running to his office just in time to see James and Sirius disappear around the corner at the other end of the hallway. Peter was nowhere to be seen, and Remus figured he must have scampered away at the first sign of danger. Filch pelted full-speed towards the two retreating students, but failed to catch them and instead returned to where Remus stood with his eyes wide as saucers in fear.

"Well now...this is interesting indeed...I think you ought to come with me to Professor McGonagall's office!" said Filch, with more than a small amount of malicious joy.

Remus followed the caretaker in silence. He was quite terrified, having never been in trouble at school before, and McGonagall, their Head of House, was a particularly strict woman who Remus certainly had no desire to anger.

They reached McGonagall's office, and Filch explained the situation at great length while Remus stared at the floor in shame. McGonagall looked at Remus from over her square spectacles, shaking her head, her mouth a thin, hard line. She motioned for Filch to leave, which he grudgingly did.

"I never thought I'd see you in here of all people, Mr. Lupin. Considering your situation I find it very hard to accept that you'd be willing to risk your position here at school..." she said, and Remus frowned, trying his best to fight back tears of shame.

"...I'm sorry, Professor." he said in a very small voice, and McGonagall crossed her arms.

"I can only assume that your friends, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter, were the two that Filch saw escaping around the corner...and I'll bet they probably talked you into this scheme of theirs..." she continued, but Remus said nothing. "However, I have no proof. But if I were you I would think long and hard about these 'friends' of yours and whether or not you think that they and their schemes are more important than your education. We've risked a lot to have you here, Remus." she said. Remus continued to frown and fight back the tears, saying nothing for fear of losing the battle.

"Well, all there is to do now is find a suitable punishment for you. You will serve detention tomorrow night at nine o'clock with Professor Tsepesh. He told me he could use some help organising and cleaning his classroom." said McGonagall, crossing her arms. He couldn't imagine that Tsepesh would enjoy having one of his worst students help around his classroom, and he was sure he wouldn't enjoy the experience either. "Now, off to bed with you...and I had better not see you in my office under these circumstances again!"

Remus made his way to the Gryffindor common room and flopped into an armchair, arms crossed and face set in a resolute frown. Sirius, James and Peter were sitting on the other side of the room, watching him silently, until Sirius finally spoke up.

"It's your own fault, you know...I mean honestly...why didn't you tell us you couldn't whistle!" said Sirius, rather harshly.

"Well...I didn't know..." said Remus quietly, and Sirius scoffed.

"Yeah, well...we almost got caught because of you..." he spat, and Remus turned to look at him in disbelief.

"You almost got caught? WHO CARES! I DID get caught! You lot ran away and I had to take all the blame!" he yelled, standing up and looking about ready to rip Sirius' head off.

"Sheesh, Remus...you wanna calm down? It's not that big a deal..." said Sirius, rather taken aback. James and Peter just listened in with guilty faces. Remus crossed his arms and took a few steps towards Sirius.

"Not to you perhaps...but I actually CARE about my education. And I don't like getting in trouble. I TOLD you I didn't want to do it in the first place..." he said calmly, and Sirius grinned.

"Well, why did you then?" he said. Remus hesitated, then sighed.

"I don't know...just leave me alone...all of you. I'm going to bed."


The next day Remus refused to speak to his friends, and even Snape noticed something was wrong in potions class that afternoon.

"Not going to attempt your usual annoying chit-chat today, Lupin?" sneered Snape, and Remus shot him a venomous look before continuing to work on the potion. "I'll take that as a 'no', then...good." he said with a grin, before doing the same.

James and Peter tried again and again to get Remus to talk to them during dinner that night, but to no avail. Sirius didn't seem so eager to rekindle a friendship, however, and did a fine job of mutually ignoring Remus. When nine o'clock rolled around, Remus headed for his detention in the dungeons without a word.

He was certainly not looking forward to returning to the potions classroom, and he found himself hesitating at the front door, his fist held about an inch from the wooden door in preparation to knock. Suddenly, the door swung open, and Professor Tsepesh loomed over Remus, raising a dark eyebrow.

"You won't do me any good standing outside my door all evening, Mr. Lupin...come inside, why don't you?" said Tsepesh, his fierce golden eyes boring into Remus, who obliged with dread in his heart.

"Sir...what exactly is it that I'm going to be doing?" he asked in a small, hoarse voice, and Tsepesh gestured towards the ingredients cupboard.

"You students never put anything back where it belongs...it's chaos in there, so I need you to reorganise it. Think you can manage it?" explained Tsepesh with a grin, and Remus nodded and made his way to the cupboard. Tsepesh sat at his desk and tied his long hair back, then began to scribble on a piece of parchment

Chaos was the perfect term for it. He never seemed to notice during class when using it, but the place was truly a mess. He began the tedious work without hesitation, wanting nothing more than to get it over with. After about an hour of nothing but the sound of Tsepesh's quill and of jars and pots and such being moved around, Remus was startled to see Tsepesh standing over him, and almost dropped a jar of leeches.

"Going well?" asked Tsepesh, and Remus nodded.

"I think I'm almost finished..."

"Good, good...I have things to do..." he said absently, then turned his golden eyes on Remus. "I've noticed you're doing much better in potions these days...I've been keeping an eye on you to make sure you're not just letting Severus do all the work..." said Tsepesh, and Remus could only nod, not really sure how to react to the conversation. Tsepesh returned to his desk.

"The full moon's next week, isn't it?" he asked suddenly, and Remus jumped up.

"What?" asked Remus, startled by the question. "Well, yes...but..."

"It's all right, Remus...surely Dumbledore told you that the staff know about your condition. I was merely confirming that it was next week...I can give you the make-up work now if you like...for the class you'll be missing." continued Tsepesh, and Remus blinked.

"Well, all right...but...should you really be doing this? I mean, talking about it like this?" he asked, finishing up his task and closing the cupboard.

"I see no reason why not...personally I don't think you should have to keep it a secret at all...but, such is the way of the world..." Tsepesh replied, staring off into space for a moment. Remus raised a brow.

"Sir?"

"Hmm? Oh, here...your make-up work." he said, handing Remus a roll of parchment.

"Oh...thanks." said Remus before turning to head for the door. "Am I all done here, then?"

"Yes, quite...I trust you'll stay out of trouble from now on..." warned Tsepesh, giving Remus a stern look before returning to his writing.


The year had almost ended by the time Remus saw fit to speak to his friends again. He'd done a fine job of avoiding and ignoring them for a few weeks, but found himself growing very lonely and unhappy as time went by. Finally, he decided enough was enough. Nothing was worth losing the only friends he'd ever had.

James and Peter happily accepted him back into the fold, both full of apologies and promises not to let similar things happen in the future. Even Sirius seemed glad to be back on speaking terms with him, and not only because by this time he was probably desperate for Remus' History of Magic notes.

At long last, their first year at Hogwart's was over, and as the four friends said their good-byes at the train platform with promises of letters and visits during the coming weeks, Sirius pulled Remus aside.

"I know your secret." he whispered, and Remus furrowed his brow.

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about...and don't worry, I'm not telling anyone...not even James. But you should, you know..." he said with a grin, and Remus just stared blankly.

"...I have no idea what you're talking about, Sirius." He lied through his teeth, and Sirius just winked.

"Sure you don't...see you later, Remus."