Chapter - 9

Remus P.O.V

Remus was glad to be returning home for the Christmas vacations. Especially since nobody was going to be in school this year, so he would be utterly lonely in the castle if he had remained behind. Even McGonagall wasn't going to be staying at the castle, at that was saying something.

He had also missed his parents, a difficult thing to accomplish when surrounded by people who were perfectly happy where they were. James loved Hogwarts so much that he wouldn't even mind staying there year-round, and his parents adored him, but allowed him free reign for anything he wanted. Sirius was the exact opposite, in the sense that he would rather be anywhere but Hogwarts but would stay at Hogwarts just to spite his parents, who disliked him with a passion. Peter was just along for the ride, not pressured to go home to a busy mother, or to stay at Hogwarts, but he had no attachments either way.

"So, ready to head home, Remus?" Sirius asked, glaring sulkily at the approaching platform as if it had personally offended him.

"Of course, I am," Remus answered, lips tilting upwards as the train started slowing down. "And I wouldn't even miss you lot!"

Peter frowned at the scowl on Sirius' face. Where Remus and James were at least slightly excited to see their parents, Sirius was downright annoyed, and Peter was merely apprehensive.

"That's not true, Remus!" James said, pouting. "You know you will miss us all, as soon as we disappear!"

Remus rolled his eyes at James' dramatic lines, which he continued to babble, like a soliloquy.

'Awfully irritating, yes?' Moony growled at the back of his head, and Remus almost scowled. Almost.

'Shut up! Nobody asked you, anyways!' Remus snarled back at the irritating wolf.

"Talking to Moony, eh?" Peter asked, completely ignoring James' unending monologue about how pretty Lily was. And how wonderful that house he had transfigured was. Or something along those lines, at least.

"Shut up, Peter!" Remus muttered, half-heartedly whacking Peter's head. As soon as Moony appeared, Remus' temper and mood instantly took a turn for the worse. And that happened every time. The only thing that improved was his appetite, which was inconvenient.

'Ah, the rat!' Moony sighed. How a wolf managed to sigh, Remus wouldn't understand, but he also didn't know how a wolf could speak. He didn't bother to question it. 'Are you sure we can't eat him?'

Remus groaned out loud, not that it interrupted Sirius' sulking or James' monologue, which was getting increasingly stupid. Peter seemed to be finding the whole situation hilarious, as each of them were prone to do when they weren't a part of it.

'We. Are. NOT. Eating. Peter. Or Wormtail for that matter!' Remus said, visualizing the full stops and capital letters in his mind, and then shoving them at Moony.

It probably wasn't entirely sane to be talking to himself, or a version of himself, at least. Wasn't that a definite sign of insanity?

'What is insanity?' Moony asked, as easily distracted as Remus. They did share some personality traits. They were the same person, after all! Or were they?

'We are insane. I am insane. Talking to yourself, or in this case, somebody, in my head, is insanity.'

Remus and Moony were interrupted from the mental self-conversation by Sirius storming out of the compartment, practically emanating the 'I'm getting this over with as fast as possible' energy.

'What's emanating?' Moony asked, and Remus groaned again. He did not want to be Moony's personal dictionary or encyclopedia. That wolf was stuck in his head, the least it could do was learn the meanings itself.

Choosing to avoid talking to Moony, Remus walked right out of the train and regretted it instantly. Moony was most probably grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Mainly because stepping out of the train was like walking into a disco club. It was torture. It also didn't help that Sirius had abandoned them… him, James was chasing Sirius down and Peter, the poor short kid, had gotten lost in the crowd.

"Remus, darling!" His mother's voice pierced the resounding noise of the platform. "We are so glad to have you back for the vacations. You never come home anymore!"

'That's because your husband despises me!' Moony roars at the back of his head, and Remus clutches his already throbbing head. Moony was such a petty wolf. The least he could do was reduce Remus' current hearing range to that of a human. But no! Never!

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Hopefully his mother wouldn't take offense.

"Oh, darling." He heard his mother say something else, but her voice merely faded into the cacophony of other voices – children yelling out, parents crying, birds squawking, shuffling of feet, trunks thumping onto the floor, the train whistle blowing, people talking. All of it blended together and stood out.

'Noisy!' Moony commented, and Remus cursed him – out loud or in his mind – it didn't make a difference. He didn't have the right to comment!

"You are the cause of this noise! It's all your fault! So, just. Shut. Up!"


Days after his disastrous return home, he was still squandering away his time with his mother by brooding in his room. His mother was annoyed at him, and he knew why. But it wasn't her fault any of this had happened, and his father was keeping far, far away from him. Especially this vacation. Even though Remus wouldn't let Moony out until the full moon, and the December full moon passed early in the month. None of that made a difference to his father. Why would it?

Either way, Remus had a very nicely set routine. He spent time in the precious company of his books and the newspaper. His father avoided him, going so far as to having lunch and dinner at his office and his mother was unsuccessfully trying to have a conversation with him. His friends had also somehow managed to forget to send him letters, and Moony was still a constant fixture in his mind.

His winter vacations were going just peachy, thank you very much for asking!

'Are they really?' Moony asked, and Remus resisted the urge to bang his head on the table. He would only hurt himself. At least, that's what he told himself every time to justify it.

'No, really, I am fine. And my vacation is going perfectly well.' Remus told Moony. He thoroughly disliked the wolf, but well, desperate times call for desperate measures. And in return, the blasted wolf hadn't pulled another trick like that at the station.

'I am researching, which is one of my favorite pastimes, if you didn't know.' Remus informed Moony. He couldn't believe he was actually doing this!

'Other than beating Lily at chess and irritating Sirius.' Moony mocked, but luckily didn't say anymore, instead choosing to root around in his memories. Which was irritating and distracting.

'At least it's relevant to the world outside, for once.' Remus snapped at the irritating creature and wrenched his memory back from Moony.

'Aw… that's too bad, Rem-Rem.' Moony didn't even pout for long, simply moving along to the next thing that caught his interest.

Remus sighed, turning back to his research and ignoring the relocation of his memories in his head. It wasn't long before his mother called him down for lunch.

He was reluctant to head down, but the thought of reading and researching stuff with Moony persistently asking questions was nauseating and eating seemed like a better option. Even though he was going to get mobbed by his mother. Oh, well. One devil for the other, he was going to end up extremely done with life.

As it stood, he was right about getting mobbed by his mother. But he was wrong about the eating being a better option. Until an owl arrived to save him.

The owl, scared thing that it was, gave the letter meant for him, to his mother. Poor animal didn't even come within arm's reach of him. And Moony was howling in glee at that, so it was understandable.

Opening it, he scanned through the untidy scrawl that comprised of the letter from Sirius.

Remus blinked. Moony stopped howling.

Remus shook his head, then read the letter again.

'Aha! So, that happened.' Moony said, and Remus could feel him mentally shifting, as if to get comfortable in his head. Thankfully, the full moon had passed early in the month, before the vacations started. Or Remus would be dealing with a very irritated wolf.

'Don't be thankful for that! I barely got any time this month!' Moony whined, and Remus banged his head on the table, scattering food on his plate.

'Shut up, Moony! This is important!'

'Ooh!' The wolf sniffed, haughtily. 'Whatever is more interesting than what I have to say?'

Remus glared at the table, avoiding his mother's eyes. She was looking at him with what he assumed to be a mixture of amusement, pity and hope.

'Alright, alright. That is important. I'll agree with that.'

Remus sighed. 'Thank you, for once.'

Moony seemed to be contemplating something. Remus rolled his eyes. His mother stared at him.

'A truce.'

"What?" Remus blurted out loud. His mother was staring at him again. She had to be used to this by now, but clearly, she wasn't. Remus cleared his throat.

'What?' He asked, a cackling Moony.

'I propose a truce, Rem-Rem.' Moony explained. He had probably gone through Remus' head to find half those words. No wonder he was rooting around all the time. 'You eat something that keeps me happy and give me free reign sometimes, and I will help you in your quest and I won't kill anybody.'

Remus actually thought it over. 'No hurting anybody unless I agree, I'll only eat rare meat once a week, I give you free reign for an hour every two week unless it's an emergency and you keep silent at all other times.'

'No hurting anybody unless you want me to, rare meat twice a week, free reign one hour every week excluding emergencies and I'll help.' Moony said, clearly displeased with the idea of keeping silent.

'Wonderful!' Remus said, grinning maniacally. 'We have a deal!'

'Oh, also your Voldie guy could be that Riddler boy who graduated in 1945.' Moony commented and Remus scowled. That wolf could have saved him so much effort.

Little did he know that the letter from Sirius was just the beginning of everything else that would happen that cursed winter.

The day after his truce with Moony, Remus got a letter from James. However, he ignored it. Which was a first for Remus. The reason for that, of course, was that he was unusually busy creating a murder board. For one particular man who graduated from Hogwarts in 1945.

An obscure child. Hardly a mention of him in recent times. Not sighted in over two decades. No one knows what happened to him.

But when he was a student at Hogwarts? Oh, he was labelled a genius. A prodigy. A hero. A Slytherin, perfectly capable of manipulation. And someone who had so much potential in politics, in defence, in magic, in evolution. Someone who was second to only Dumbledore.

Remus grinned maniacally at the clipping he found of the student; of the one person everyone was terrified of. He had just found the real name and blood status of the most blood purist lunatic in the world. But he still had to let his friends know about his discovery. And so, Remus sat down and wrote a letter.

Dear Peter,

You won't believe what I just found out! Remember what I told you I would research? About You-Know-Who? Well, apparently, he isn't actually a pureblood after all. His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, and he lived in a muggle orphanage.