Chapter 7
Trees
The next morning, Sunday, Remus got up and carried papers that needed to be graded out by the lake around 9. No one was up yet, being it still a weekend, so the grounds were quiet and deserted. Remus sat by a tree and removed a piece of long rolled up parchment.
Unrolling it, he saw that it was an essay written by Hermione Granger. Remus groaned, knowing how long it was going to take. Hermione was a amazing, intelligent, sweet, talented witch. But that did not mean Remus enjoyed grading her papers. Long and tedious hours were spent grading some of Hermione's papers. She always just had to put that little extra 3 rolls of parchment. Remus had asked for 5. He, and although he had expected no less from her, had gotten 8. Not to mention her handwriting was miniscule.
Remus sighed, leaning against the tree and stretching his legs out and crossing them, deciding to get comfortable, he would be here for a while. He took his quill out and dipped it in ink and began the first few lines of Hermione's essay. It's like reading out of textbook, he thought.
It did not help that there was a very strange noise coming from above him. It was very distracting and when ever he looked up to see what it was, there was nothing there, but the crunching noise continued.
It must have been his imagination, because it soon came to abrupt halt, and then a thump was heard behind the tree. Remus looked around it but there was nothing there.
A cool gust of wind breezed past him and there was no more sound but that of the rustling of tree leaves. Remus looked back down at his paper, thinking maybe he would get some peace and quiet. He had finished the first two paragraphs of the essay when something dropped on his head. Remus reached up and removed a twig with green leaves on it from the tree above. He frowned and looked at the twig. It looked like it had been forced off.
Before Remus could analyze the situation further, another twig dropped on his shoulder. It looked just as torn off as the first one. He looked up, thinking he would perhaps see one of the early bird first years acting immature as always. The tree held nothing but leaves. He looked back down at his paper. The first two twigs had been coincidence. But as the third twig fell on his head he let out a frustrated but slightly muffled yell. Laughter erupted from the tree above him, ringing in his ears like a loud bell.
A head poked out from the large quantity of leaves that Remus wasn't able to see past. The head held mirthful chocolate eyes and a pair of open laughing lips. Sarah.
"Sarah!" Remus hissed.
She laughed at him again. "I'm sorry, but when I saw you come into the grounds I couldn't resist."
"What was the noise?"
Sarah threw her head back and laughed. She reached her hands out to the nearest sturdy branch and grabbed it, letting her body hang from it. She was wearing the same pajama bottoms of the day before, but her large baggy sweat shirt was abandoned, and in its place was a white camisole, which rose up above her belly-button as she hung from the tree.
"Can I get some help here?" She asked.
"You got up there; can't you get down by yourself?"
Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly. "Remy, haven't you ever climbed a tree?"
"Err, yeah, when I was 9. And stop calling me that."
Sarah ignored his request. "Well if you recall then you would know that getting down from a tree is 10 times harder then climbing up one."
"Well I'm sorry I don't recall," Remus said.
"I'll forgive you if you help me down."
Remus couldn't help but laughing at her. He walked over to her and reached up and put his hands on her waist. "Let go," he told her. She did. He set her on the ground and then removed his hands. "If you knew it was hard to get up there, why did you go up there?"
"I was banking on the fact that you'd come and save me."
"I see."
"Since I know none of the other teachers would help me."
Remus grinned at her. "You know I was grading one of Hermione's papers when you decided to drop things on my head."
"What's wrong with that?" Sarah asked, tilting her head to one side, her eyes wide with innocence.
"What's wrong with that? Look at this!" Remus said bending over and giving it to Sarah. "8 pieces of parchment. It's the first week of school and I only asked for 5."
Sarah laughed. "Well since I'm your little assistance teacher, give it to me to grade."
Remus looked at her like she was an angel and handed the paper to her. "Do you have a pen?" Sarah asked him.
"A what?"
"A quill," Sarah corrected herself.
"Yeah, here," Remus said and he handed her a white quill.
"Watch this, I'm really good at it," Sarah said and on the parchment she drew in 'O'. "I'm done."
"You didn't even read it!"
"She's obviously intelligent. You know you'll end up giving the paper an O anyway. Why waste your time reading it?"
Remus shrugged. "Well while your at it you can look at some lesson plans back in my office," he said.
"Okey-Dokey!" Sarah said, grinning at him. "I don't know what time your lesson's are at either."
"I'll give you the schedule when we get to my office," Remus said and he and Sarah walked silently back to the DADA room. "I only gave practical lessons this week so I haven't had too much to do."
"If you only gave practical lessons then where did Hermione's essay come from?" Sarah asked.
"Homework," Remus responded.
Sarah scrunched up her nose. "Homework? On the first week back? Are you mad?"
"Apparently. Ah, here we are—" Remus broke off and picked up one of the picture frames Sarah had set on his desk.
"What's the matter?" Sarah asked.
Remus looked at her and then back at the picture. "Do you know the people in this picture?" he asked her.
"Obviously, I'm in it."
"Where?" Remus asked.
"On the left of the guy."
"And the girl on the right?"
"Lauren Caps," Sarah said, looked at Remus oddly. Then her eyes got a sparkle. "You might have known her! Oh, she went to Hogwarts. Changed her name to something though."
"Lily Evans?" Remus asked, breathing hard.
"That's the one."
"You said you went to her wedding?"
"I was a bridesmaid."
"Do you remember how I told you about the woman who had to weddings?"
Sarah gasped and then grinned. "Oh my god! Remus, I remember you! You were my escort! In the wedding in America!"
"Well Harry will most likely warm up to you now," Remus said, also grinning.
"This is unbelievable! But what does that have to do with Harry?"
"Lily was his mom," Remus responded.
A/N: This will be the last update for about a week, because I'm going on vacation.
