A/N: Ok, I'm sorry that this update is late and I know that the length of it is disappointing, but I have massive writer's block and I can't think of anything else in terms of Remus to write. I know Lily and Harry aren't in this chapter very much, but I had to catch up with Remus and school for now. Next chapter will be Lily. And of course, that will have her on the train.
Summary: In all of his infinite wisdom and loneliness, Harry recreates his sixteen-year-old mother. Of course, having a teenage Lily Evans running around England causes new problems. With both Remus Lupin and Severus Snape as teachers, Lily has to learn about what happened in the twenty-five years since she was in school, as well as work her way around that bitchy slut Soleil Lovegood, who seems to be hitting on both Remus and Snape. What's a young Gryffindor to do?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, never will. Sorry to disappoint you.
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Chapter 6: Remus
The rest of the week, Harry and Lily hung out around the house, trading stories and anecdotes. Two days after her sudden arrival, Lily found the house library, more importantly, the books I had added when I moved in. She dove straight into the few books about this past century, and gasped accordingly at the articles about her son. We all knew that Lily didn't belong here, but it was nice to have her around. The dark and creepy halls that were haunted with memories of Sirius, Ginny and Nymph were now filled with flaming red hair and Witch Weekly magazines once again.
Of course Lily also had to worry about resuming school, and when there was only a day left before she boarded the Hogwarts Express, I realized that there was one more person we had to warn of Lily's impending return. Severus.
Normally one would cower with fear at the mere suggestion of pulling Severus out of his personal research before the students came back. He spent the days during the summer locked away in the dungeons, doing experiments on various potions variations, something he could never find time to do during the school year. The only person who had ever been allowed to visit him during this period of solitude had been Dumbledore, and the chance of myself being skewered on a stirring rod for interrupting was quite high.
But this was big. This was Lily.
It was true, what I had said to her, that I hadn't known what had caused Severus and Lily's falling out in our sixth year. It did have something to do with Death Eater initiations, but there had been an underground rumor that Severus had fallen in love with her. James, who had already been smarting over the news that she had harbored a crush on me, was infuriated beyond belief, and his revenge had been unforgivable. This had only further built up the wall between the two friends.
With one final deep breath, I smiled at the dark portrait guarding the passage to his rooms. The sinister looking little girl leered back at me.
"Can you please tell Professor Snape that Remus Lupin wishes to speak with him?" I asked fearlessly, though the creepy painting always gave me the shivers. The girl, who Severus had once told me was named Violet, gave me a funny look before answering,
"Professor Snape is busy, as you well know." She blinked, twirling a strand of her long black hair around her waxy finger.
"Please, this is very important." Violet sighed airily, before narrowing her eyes suspiciously at me. In a deeper voice than normal, the girl said darkly,
"It's going to happen." I rolled my eyes while she stared off above my shoulder, knowing these random predictions of hers were just part of her pessimistic charm. She bent her head, causing her hair to fall dramatically over her face. "This thing you're fearing, it's going to happen for you and Professor Snape."
"I'll keep that in mind." She skulked out of the frame without further comment. I awkwardly shuffled my feet and lent against the wall, until the portrait creaked open. Severus looked as he always did, sallow skinned, lanky frame, with a murderous scowl. He glared at me, as if accusing me of disturbing his eventful schedule. "Good morning Severus," I said politely, stepping forward. He folded his arms and looked down his long nose at me. "I trust you're doing well."
"What brings you out of your little wolf den, Lupin," he sneered, but I was unbothered. The werewolf jibes had slowly lost their kick years ago. "Surely you don't expect me to join you and Potter in your mourning circle." This time his words stung, but I merely frowned before responding,
"Something came up which drew my presence here."
"Let me guess," he interrupted. "The little brat blew himself up in despair, taking 14 muggles with him? That seems to be common with your friends, Lupin." My hold on my tempter was straining, but I kept myself calm before saying,
"Harry remains fine at his house, but what has happened is important in its own right." Again, he interrupted, already in a snippy mood.
"In its own right? What, did the school kitchens run out of chocolate?"
"Severus, this is very important." He glared at me, but allowed me to continue. "Lily Evans is back." There was no noticeable change in his appearance other than the widening of his eyes. I knew better than to think that he was unaffected, however.
"How on earth could she back? I'm sure you're lonely enough by now to invent imaginary friends, are you sure that that's not the case?" My eyes narrowed and I resisted the very strong urge to hex him into the wall.
"The Mauvais spell, Severus, she's back and she's sixteen." At last I got the response I wanted, the mix of shock and fear in his eyes. Yet, his face remained in a tight scowl. Unlike me, he was not stunned into silence. The tension in the air could have been sliced with a knife and sold in little jars. His voice was icy as he hissed,
"Sixteen?" I nodded. "What date did she leave?"
"October fourteenth." I didn't need to elaborate in terms of what she knew, for he understood what this meant. Lily had absolutely no idea about how much he had changed. "When the Hogwarts Express leaves Kings Cross tomorrow, she will be on it." He snorted.
"You can't expect her to be schooled here, shouldn't Potter be punished? I'm assuming that he's the dunderhead who brought her here."
"We're hoping his popularity at the ministry will be enough to let him get away with it." Severus scoffed, clearly against this idea, but I didn't give him a chance to offer a nasty comment. "Lily is a little naive, you could say. She's still the average teenage girl, meaning you must not treat her as an adult, and do not hold her accountable for what her older counterpart may have done." He sneered bitterly, an awful expression that could and had made first years soil their underwear.
"Rest assured, Lupin, that Evans is just another student in my book." I winced, knowing that this would not be the case in the slightest. Lily would endure the same torture that Harry had, and wouldn't understand why.
"Severus, if she comes to me upset-"
"I'm sure that Potter would gladly defend her honor and curse me into the future." I didn't bother correcting him, since that was pretty much the truth. He still looked weary, underneath the hostility. As cruel as Severus could be to his students, he was still an aging man like myself, who was lonely and afraid. I sighed, already expecting Lily to see this and attempt to cheer him up as she was doing with me. She reminded me of Nymph that way, and Severus had never liked Nymph even slightly. There as no doubt that he would feel the same about his new student, who also had a broken friendship to go against.
"This is a stretch, I'm sure, but could you attempt to be nice?" I asked, my voice serious. He arched one of those dark eyebrows, before drawling nastily,
"You've said your part, Lupin. You can go scurry home to your underage bint now." I pressed my tongue against the back of my teeth, struggling not to retaliate. He seemed satisfied.
"Fine, fine," I murmured, realizing he was a lost cause. "She's not our Lily, Severus, remember that." He rolled his eyes dramatically before waving me off. I sighed as I walked away. This was pointless.
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The Hogwarts staff had taken a serious hit because of the war, meaning new staff. People like Severus Snape and I were rare, few adults had returned for this term, and other than Minerva McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Hagrid, and Professor Sinistra, most of the positions were filled by younger adults who had graduated around the time of Harry's final year. Dinner the night before the official first day was an odd affair with just the teachers, and all of the new staff members twittered with excitement and nerves. I sat on Severus' right, as he was next to Minerva, with the rest filling out the sides. Luna Lovegood, the new charms teacher, hummed softly on my other side, with Cho Chang, the new flying instructor, on the blonde's right. Also joining the head tables were Oliver Wood, Blaise Zabini, and Parvati Patil.
Severus looked disgusted by the pleasant atmosphere, quickly downing his elf-made wine so as to leave as soon as he could. He was still in a foul mood, predictably of course, and had already spooked the new Ancient Runes teacher enough for him to run from the room. I wasn't hungry, though I packed up salad for Lily and Harry at home.
"Are you quite well, Professor Lupin?" Luna asked blandly as she enchanted her napkin ring to spin around like a quarter on its edge. I smiled wanly, though I was fond of the girl, and quickly assured her that I was. She blinked, her face betraying no emotion, before adding, "You look as though you could use a good nap."
"I'm sure I could," I responded, not all offended. The full moon had passed two weeks ago, but stress was taking its toll. She nodded sympathetically. "I best be off, I have to spend the night at home before returning tomorrow morning." Sliding my chair out from under the table, I said a hurried goodbye to Severus, who barely waved his hand in return, and turned away. Luna's round blue eyes followed me out of the hall, and I only breathed clearly when I was out of the building and into the muggy August air.
The start of school would be refreshing, I rationalized, starting down the road to Hogsmeade. Classes and grading papers would be a good distraction from- well, her. Nymph. With nothing to do all day, she was constantly there in the back of my mind, her laugh, her smile, her miraculous ability to break everything, even plastic. I sighed. Here I go again.
Instead of going straight back to Grimmauld Place like I should have done, I took a small detour to the Hog's Head, which was fairly empty. I ordered a stiff drink and quickly downed it, putting up the hood of my cloak. It was always so much harder to picture her face when I could hardly see my own hand in front of my face. The bartender kept filling up my glass and I just kept drinking, too tired and too depressed to think of the consequences of my actions.
I wasn't really even sure how I got home at all, but I could remember the next morning was Lily, a look of concern on her face as she stood over me, her hand cool on my forehead. It made me regret drowning my troubles away, but nothing really seemed to make sense. Not even Harry's voice, which went in and out of focus as if he were speaking from a microphone miles and miles away. My stomach lurched uncomfortably.
"He's got to stop doing this, or I don't know how long he'll last at Hogwarts this year."
"How long has he been drinking?" This was Lily, sounding disappointed and tired.
"Ever since she died. We all have our ways of dealing with loss, and I suppose that he chose Fire Whiskey."
"But I thought he was the reasonable one!"
"Reasonable one my arse. He looks better in public, of course, but he's just as messed up as the rest of us."
From then on everything was just one giant fuzzy blur. Like the previous night, I slept.
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A/N: Yeah, I know. Tiny. But I'll make a huge one for the next chapter, so don't flame me yet. And no teaser, but it will be Lily on the train. It's decided.