Chapter Eight
(Present Day)
The next day came far to early for Kit's liking. She had spent hours talking to Remus the night before, mostly about what he had been doing with his life for the past decade or so. He had only left when Madam Pomfrey came into the room, shouting about how Kit still needed her rest from the jump in time and all the stress it created. Now, at the crack of dawn Kit was pulling the blankets over her head in order to block out the sun that shone into the room when Madam Pomfrey opened up the curtains.
Although trying to stay asleep didn't last long, seeing as a few minutes later Professor McGonagall (Looking just a tad older then the last time Kit saw her) came in, wand drawn and ready to transfigure the hospital pajama's Kit wore into a Hogwarts uniform for her to wear. At that point, a small house elf came in with a breakfast consisting of oatmeal and fresh fruit alongside of some Pumpkin juice. Kit stuck her tongue out at the tray of food for a moment before downing the juice and ignoring the other food. Perhaps while out she could beg Remus to take her to get some real food. The choice of food that was delivered to the Hospital wing was never the greatest.
Hair would be tied up into a pony tail with wisps of bangs hanging around her face, and she'd sit on the edge of her hospital bed and wait for someone to come and get her. Around fifteen minutes of waiting the doors crashed open, and caused her to nearly fall out of her bed seeing as she jumped at the sudden noise.
Someone strode in, and that someone was rather familiar to her. Although, it was probably just her mind playing tricks on her, she thought to herself as the man approached her bed. The man was clad head to toe in black, and shoved a vial into her face.
"I've been summoned by Madam Pomfrey to give you this pepper-up potion, seeing as you will be having a busy day." He sneered. Kit looked at the bottle, and then at the man, then back to the bottle, and back to the man.
Clad in black head to toe, monotone voice that sneered in a way that made her skin crawl, greasy black hair…
"Se-Severus?" No, it couldn't be possible. He gave a slight grin that looked rather sick and twisted on his face and caused Kit's heart to stop.
"Ah yes, it's good to know that after aging I'm still recognizable."
"The greasy hair gave it away." She shot back, and his eyes blazed with anger for a moment.
"5 points from Gryffindor for insulting a professor."
Kit blinked, it couldn't be. Dumbledore wouldn't hire Severus…would he? She clenched her jaw shut in order to avoid saying a few more colorful phrases. She could just hear James in the back of her head telling her to give snivellus a good kick in the balls.
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It was approaching the noon-time hour, Remus and Kit had been in Diagon alley for nearly two hours and they had yet to get everything on the list that McGonagall had handed to Kit. They had went by floo powder, landing in a heap at the leaky cauldron and getting a few odd looks from some people when they saw the position that the two landed in. Kit was on the ground with Remus atop her, both of them after a moment were struggling to get up, with bodies that really didn't want to move.
On their way to gringots to pick up money from the school account, Kit had told Remus about her meeting with Severus, Remus just told her that it was bound to happen sometime, and Kit told him that if Severus tried to act like he was better then her again that she would break the mans nose…again.
Now, they were trying to get a wand for Kit to misplace the one that had been lost in the past. This was a rather hard task, and with every wand that was given to Kit to test out things seemed to explode or crash off the shelf's. Remus even had his head bashed in with a lamp.
"My, my…I'm sure we'll fine one soon enough my dear girl." Olivander said to her before wandering off into the rows of wands once more.
"It looks like a tornado hit inside of here." Remus told her, a grin set on his face as they looked around. Yes, it did look like a tornado hit the inside of the shop. After being there for nearly an hour, and each wand causing some little mishap-hap or another, things were bound to get messy.
"Not my fault." Kit stated, watching as the elder man came back now with an armful of boxes full of wands. It was in this armful, that Kit found the perfect match.
The wand was white in color, made from a beech tree and as soon as she swished it back and forth it was easy to tell that this wand was meant for her. The swish of the wand created a small burst of blue light, and everyone in the room sighed with relief.
"Beech wood, seven inches, with a most peculiar core." Olivander said, as he accepted the payment from Remus.
"And what makes the core so peculiar?" Kit asked, a brow raised as she went about stuffing the wand into her pocket (Greatly happy to have the weight of a wand against her body back).
"It came from a donor, I'm not entirely sure who but Albus Dumbledore had been the one to deliver it. It would seem he had managed to acquire hair from a werewolf…"
Kit glanced up at Remus, who looked rather surprised to hear what the core of her wand was made out of. After getting his change, Remus would place his hand on her back and lead her out of the shop.
"Well…that's ironic." Remus started, breathing in the fresh air once they were out of the shop and headed towards a place that supplied things for potions. Kit looked up at him in question and he grinned, "There is this lovely potion that is for werewolf's" he started quietly, "It let's the drinker, keep their mind while transformed. At Dumbledore's suggestion, I allowed him to snip some of my hair while in werewolf form to be given to Olivander to make a wand out of."
"That is ironic. Maybe we should cut some of my hair and put it in your wand?"
"Yes well, your hair isn't that magical…about the time I would try and use it, the wand would spit out daisy's or something." Remus told her, as he lead her into the potion supply shop.
"Oh gee thanks."
"You're very welcome.
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It was in the Potion supply shop where something interesting happened. Kit and Remus had split the list of things they would need to get, so now as she was looking at all the different measuring cups, Remus was off in another part of the shop gathering the few potion ingredients that had been listed.
It had been during this time, where she had been humming a David Bowie song and looking at a glass measuring set when she seen a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. Her head turned slightly, and she nearly dropped the cups that she was holding. Standing next to her, with cool blue eyes looking her body up and down had been a man that haunted her dreams for many many nights. She knew who he was the moment she laid her eyes on him, just like he as mind boggling as it was for him, knew who she was.
She was the same little girl that he had left for dead so many years ago, and she hadn't aged one bit.
He was Lucius Malfoy, the scum of the earth who had nearly killed her. He smiled rather smugly, and her breath caught in her throat. He looked just as cruel as always, and she stepped back until she bumped into a table showing off a scale made of pure diamond.
"Well…in all my years…" Had been the first things that were uttered out of his mouth, cool and calm just as the last time she remembered it. She had only really been in contact with him twice, but that was enough time to cause her to hate him more then she could ever hate anyone else. "An interesting development now isn't this? Here I stand and here you stand, except you my dear girl look exactly like you did over a decade ago…" He drawled on, and she gulped.
It probably wasn't good that he knew without a doubt that she was who she was. Anybody else would just assume her to be her own daughter…but he knew that she really was Kit, and that scared her. Next to her father, this man was the only man that she was utterly terrified of. She couldn't even open her mouth to scream as he stepped closer to her. Even though Kit knew he wasn't stupid enough to do something in the middle of the shop…she was still scared.
Just as he reached his gloved hand out to brush against her face, Remus appeared with a furious look on his face. 'Not a moment to soon'. Kit thought, a sigh of relief being let out, as he stepped in front of her.
"Don't you dare touch her." His voice was deep and serious, and Kit was pretty sure that if they had been somewhere else, Remus would have attacked Lucius and tore open his throat or something.
"Well, this situation is growing more interesting by the minute." She heard Lucius say, and she shut her eyes just wanting the situation to be over.
"I swear if you do anything…"
"You'll do what exactly? You couldn't do anything to me then, and you most certainly can't do anything now." Kit could just hear the cocky grin in his voice, he spoke with such confidence of a man that couldn't be touched by anything. He even had the nerve to give a deep laugh, but it was cut off when Remus extended his hand rather quickly in a punch to Lucius in the face.
Even if she couldn't see the punch, Kit could hear it. The sound of flesh hitting flesh, and the growl that came from Remus as he did so.
"If you do anything…I'll kill you."
And with that, Remus and Kit hurried out of the shop leaving Lucius standing there with a furious look on his face while a gloved hand cradled the side of his face. Potions supplies would be purchased later, for now both of them just needed to walk away from that place, the memories, the emotions…
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Remus was fairly certain that he did more bad then good when he had punched Lucius in the face. He couldn't help himself, one moment he was coming up to ask Kit if she had a measuring set picked out, and the next moment he had seen his hand brushing on her face, and Kit looking very freaked out as if she was about to pass out at any second from fear.
Remus was also certain that it wasn't a good thing that Lucius seen Kit. Lucius apparently recognized Kit for who she was, and was very obvious not the age she was supposed to be for the time they were in. He thought about all of this as he led himself and Kit to the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron, both of them taking a seat on the ground.
"Would you really kill him?" Kit asked, her head turning to look towards him. He nodded, certain of the fact. He wasn't able to protect her so long ago, but now he was. He was older now, stronger now…
"The next time he lays a finger on you, I'll beat him to death."
"Promise?" She asked, grinning; obviously amused at the fact he was protective. Then again, she had always been amused by that, ever since the first time he stuck up for her after hearing her being called a mud-blood.
He kissed her forehead with a smile, he was calm now. The anger had slowly went away, and now as he sat out there next to Kit looking around the dirty alley for a moment. "I promise." Then after a few moments of silence he continued on, "Perhaps we grab a bite to eat? Then finish up our shopping?"
She nodded, and he stood, offering his hand to help her up.
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The inside of the leaky cauldron was rather empty, and they didn't have to wait long before getting their food. Kit had ordered a simple turkey sandwich with butterbeer on the side, and Remus ordered the soup of the day and a cup of tea. His order made Kit blink with surprise, "Tea? Are you sure that you're my Remmy? It was only a couple of days ago when you were telling me how Tea was the most awful thing in the history of the world and if you had to drink it one more time you'd be sent to the nut-house for going on a rampage destroying all the teabags you could find…"
Remus grinned at that, he could remember that day he said that rather clearly. He had been forced to drink several hundred cups of tea on Divination and it seemed that he had finally had enough of it. "For you that might have been a couple of days ago, but for me…it seems that a few years have changed my opinions on the drink."
She gave a small sad smile, and her head would tilt to the side slightly. "I guess I have a lot to learn still huh?"
"We'll have time, as long as you don't take a trip through time again…"
"Funny."
"I thought so."
With that, their food arrived and silence fell over the table as they ate. Neither Kit nor Remus spoke much while eating, it was one of those activities that they could easily spend thinking about this and that simply enjoying each others company. She put down her sandwich after eating a little over half of it, and upon seeing this Remus pushed his soup towards her and took her sandwich.
"I almost thought you would have forgotten about that." Kit said, digging into the chicken soup. Whenever they were out, that's what they did. Ordered two completely different things, and switched halfway through. Usually this was done during their dates during the summer, or whenever they had a Hogsmeade trip. Remus grinned as he took a bite of the turkey sandwich.
"I almost did. But I'm happy I didn't"
They spent the rest of lunch in silence, only to briefly cause a slight ruckus in the bar when Remus forced her to drink some of his tea. She didn't care for the drink much either, but he still tried to explain the finer points of it anyway.
As Remus paid for their Lunch, Kit had found something she didn't like seeing.
Have you seen this wizard?
Approach with extreme caution.
Do not attempt magic with this man.
It was a wanted poster, for Sirius. His picture was right in the center of the poster, in the photo he only looked a few years older then when she last seen him. It looked like he was screaming in the picture, looking left and right and struggling to stay still. As her hand reached out to touch the picture, she could feel the tears.
Sirius had been a good friend, a person she could count on to make fun of her and Remus, a person she could rant to about how horrible charms was (which he had hated as well). He was like a brother to her, much like James had been. Now, seeing this poster…
She was reminded about how much the world had changed. According to both Dumbledore and Remus, Sirius had been the one to give away James and Lily's location, and he had also went crazy and killed Peter and a group of Muggles.
Kit couldn't believe it…even now seeing the poster…she just couldn't believe that he could do such a thing. Just a few days ago in her time, Sirius had been calling James a brother…
It really just didn't make sense. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and tensed up for a moment before she was pulled away from the poster to face Remus.
"Try not to dwell on it…Thinking about it will only make things harder." Remus told her, his hand coming up to brush away her tears.
"Do you really think he did it Remmy? In the bottom of your heart do you believe that he could have done something so horrible?" She asked him, her voice almost begging him to believe that Sirius didn't do the things that she had been told he did.
"I don't want to believe he did it…but the proof…it's everywhere."
Kit sighed and let her shoulders fall just slightly before crushing herself against Remus in tears.
The future sucked. It really did.
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It took Remus the better part of the afternoon to calm Kit down. He had a feeling something like this would happen sooner or later. The other day in the hospital bed, she had cried because she would never get to see her friends again, and now she was crying because…it just hit her that things were so totally different.
At Tom's suggestion, Remus took a room above the Leaky cauldron. It wasn't helping business much, having a man with a sobbing girl in his arms down in the bar after all. Now, they were sitting on a bed; he was laying back, and she was atop of him, using him as a bed rather then the bed itself. Her eyes were puffy and very bloodshot from crying, whenever she spoke her voice sounded funny due to the fact that her nose was plugged up…although it didn't really matter because when she spoke he couldn't really understand her to begin with.
Now she lay on top of him, and he just listened to her as she breathed raspy breaths. One of his hands had slipped under the back of her shirt and was now gently rubbing circles on her lower back. She kept clutching and un-clutching his robes as she slowly calmed down. After a moment, her head lifted up of his chest to look around the dark room, slight confusion on her bright red face before she looked back to him.
"When did we get a room?"
"When we started to drive customers out of the leaky cauldron…or rather, I should say when you started to drive them out…" He stated with a grin, but she just frowned and that sad face stayed still.
"I'm sorry…I didn't--"
Remus wasted no time in cutting her off, "Don't worry about it. I can only imagine how hard it is to deal with." She just nodded and let her head fall back down onto his chest.
"Everything is just…different, and I think that seeing Sirius on that poster made me realize just how different that things were."
"Don't worry about it, okay? I'm sure that if Dumbledore can find a way he'll send you back and you can tell me how ruggedly handsome I have become" Remus said, trying to lighten up the mood just a little bit. "Speaking of Dumbledore, I owled him hour four of your crying session. We'll be staying here for the night, in response he said that it was foolish to send you out where you could be seen by people who knew you a long time ago, and where you could see the posters…"
"Good, because…it looks kind of dark, and most of the shops are probably closed. Going back with half the supplies I need would probably be a bad idea."
"Yes, well…he understands more then we think he would." Remus told her, as she picked herself up off of him. Rolling off his body to stand, she rubbed her eyes and stretched out slightly.
"At least we'll have some time together before we have to go back tomorrow, how are we going to be able to have a relationship hidden from everyone else anyway?" She asked, a frown on her face and a slight sigh given.
"We'll think of something, we always did. I can remember you sneaking into the boys dorms at night just to lay with me, and sneaking out during the morning before anyone knew."
Kit grinned and pulled off the shoes she wore before getting back into the bed with him, she still felt like crap. Between Lucius, Crying, and Everything it was just a bad day, but laying with Remus made up for it…like it always had.
"Yes well, you are a comfortable pillow…besides the girls snored."
"And the boys didn't? If I remember correctly Peter snored so loud that you got out of the bed and went to his and stuffed a sock in his mouth."
"Well…it made him stop…"
The night was spent just like that, talking about everything and nothing as they lay in each others company.
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Woo, finally done with this chapter. Longest one so far, yay! Fluff, action, and angst…just the way I like it. Hopefully you like it as well, and with that…Good-bye until the next chapter comes out…I need some sleep. I'm also planning on re-reading POA just to make sure I get the time line in later chapters right. So, ta ta for now.