Chapter 9
Something was not right. Remus had felt something off when he picked Meredith up at Andromeda's
house. He could sense the tension when he'd stepped in the door. Meredith had been unusually quiet
since he picked her up. He watched her now as she sat quietly doing her numbers.
"Anything wrong, love?" he asked her. She didn't look at him as she shook her head. Remus sighed
and sat down next to her. He reached over and took the quill from her hand.
"Meredith look at me," he said firmly. She raised her head and looked at him.
"Did something happen yesterday?" he asked her. Meredith looked down at her lap.
"We went to Diagon Alley. There was a man and a lady. They were mean. Auntie Andromeda called the lady, um, Narsa"
"Narcissa?" Remus asked, a bit startled. Meredith nodded. Remus sighed. The Malfoys. That
explained so much.
"Andromeda sounded really angry when she talked to them. The man called Uncle Teddy a
mudblood. I don't know what it means but it must have been bad because Dora got mad and kicked
the man. Then he hit her and Auntie Andromeda pointed her wand at him." Remus shook his head.
It was no wonder things were so tense at the Tonks house. Andromeda and Ted must feel bad that
Meredith had witnessed that.
"Remus," Meredith said. "What's a mudblood?" Remus reached over and pulled her into his lap.
"Mudblood," he said slowly. "Is a very foul name for someone who is muggle-born like Ted. You
see,love, there are some wizards who think that they are better than others because they're
purebloods. They think that being muggle born makes you inferior"
"That's awful," Meredith cried. Remus nodded and patted her back.
"I know love," he said. "This hatred between wizards because of lineage has existed since the days
of the four founders. Families torn apart, fighting amonst ourselves." He thought about Voldemort
and the war and wondered if he should tell her. 'She has to know,' a tiny voice in his head said.
"I've told you before that there a bad wizards and good wizards," he said. She nodded.
"Before you were born one wizard went about as bad as one can get. His name was Voldemort.
There are those who to this day are afraid to speak his name. He gathered as many followers as he
could and set out on a mission to rid the world of muggle-borns and all those he thought were unfit
to study magic. They were dark days. Wizards being killed, no one knew who to trust. But there
were those who stood against Voldemort and his followers"
"Like you?" Meredith asked. Remus smiled.
"Yes," he said. "Me and my friends, and many others who strived for peace. Dumbledore was our
leader. They say that Dumbledore was the only one Voldemort ever feared"
"Did my mummy and daddy fight Vol-Voldymort?" "Yes," Remus said his voice breaking a bit. "Yes
they did." Meredith lowered her eyes.
"Is that how they died?" she asked. "Yes," he said. It was close enough to the truth and he wasn't
ready to tell Meredith that her father had been Voldemort's spy. Meredith's lip trembled and he
hugged her tight. When she had stopped trembling she looked up at him.
"What happened to Voldymort?" she asked. Remus adjusted her in his lap and tried to get his
emotions together.
"Well," he said. "A few days before I came to get you Voldemort disappeared"
"How?" she asked.
"There was a man and a woman, James and Lily Potter and they had a son named Harry. James and
Lily had defied Voldemort several times. They were in hiding but Voldemort found out where they
were. He went to their house and he killed them. Then the strangest thing happened. Voldemort
tried to kill the Potters baby son Harry. When he cursed Harry it backfired"
"Voldymort died?" Meredith asked.
"Some think he did. Others say he's still alive though stripped of all his power. No one knows how
little Harry survived the curse because no one ever has before. All that was left was a lightning bolt
shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Everyone in the wizard community knows the name of Harry
Potter and he is the Boy Who Lived"
"What happened to Harry?" Meredith asked.
"He lives with his mother's sister and her family. Muggles." Remus tried to keep the snarl out of his
voice when he thought of Harry living with Petunia Dursley.
"That's good," Meredith said. "I'm glad he has people to take care of him and he doesn't have to live
in an orphanage." Remus was startled at the insightful comment. He hadn't really thought about it that
way but he supposed from Meredith's point of view a rotten family was better than none at all.
"They were your friends weren't they? James and Lily." Meredith asked. Remus looked down at
her.
"What makes you say that"
"The way you talked about them. You sounded really sad."
"Yes," he said feeling his eyes grow moist. "They were my best friends." Meredith put her arms
around his neck and hugged him.
She was on her knees digging in the dirt. She set a pretty red rose in the dirt and patted the soil around it. All of a sudden a black rose popped out of the ground to stand beside the red rose. Strange. It didn't seem to belong there but it looked right. Suddenly the sky turned dark and a bolt of lightning split the sky. She got to her feet and turned to hurry into the house. There, blocking her path was a big black dog. It was growling and snapping it's jaws. Saliva was dripping from it's mouth. She wanted to run but she was frozen to her spot. She screamed as the dog leaped at her...
Meredith's eyes flew open and she sat up with a cry of terror. Her heart was pounding in her chest
and she was sweaty. 'It's okay,' she told herself. It was just a dream. She was safe in her bed.
Remus was down the hall. There was a flash of lightning outside her window and she threw off her
blankets. With Tuffy under her arm she jumped out of bed and scampered down the hall. She
pushed the door of Remus's bedroom open. She could hear him breathing. Just knowing he was
here made her feel safe and less scared. She tiptoed over to the bed as quietly as she could. Remus
was lying on his side facing away from her. She reached up and put Tuffy on the pillow that Remus
wasn't using and crawled up into the bed. She laid down on her side and curled up as small as she
could hugging Tuffy to her. She closed her eyes and was asleep in minutes.
Remus could sense something in the room. Even asleep werewolves were ultrasensitive to those
around them. He opened his eyes and sat up. It was still dark outside and there was a storm coming.
He felt movement beside him and turned his head. Meredith was curled up in a ball on top of the
covers on the edge of his bed. His heart melted as he looked at her in her little purple pjs, with her
puppy clutched to her chest. She must have been scared by the storm. Carefully so as not to wake
her he pulled her closer to the center of the bed and tucked the blankets around her. He lay back
down and closed his eyes. Before drifting off to sleep he was aware of a small form pressing against
his back. He fell asleep with a smile on his face.