So rather than having one huge chapter, I've split this chapter in two. So Hogsmeade will be in the next chapter. Enjoy!
Thanks to irbzkay for your review, I really appreciate it and I hope you like this chapter too!
Friday Night-Lupin Household
Remus flooed into his parents' bedroom, his head clouded with grief and the need to see his mother. He stumbled through the house, brushing soot from his clothes as he went. His father's dog, a large brown mutt, greeted him with a wag of his tail and a lick on the face.
"Mum? Dad?" Remus called when he found no one in the kitchen or the living room.
"Remus is that you already?" Came his mother's soft voice and he hurried outside to see her sitting on their deck overlooking a small pond. It was dark out seeing as it was past eight o'clock and rain was pouring outside. She was sitting on a porch swing underneath an awning, rain hitting her outstretched feet. The deck light was on, bathing her in an artificial light. The woman turned to face her son when he opened the glass door, a small, sad smile on her face. "Oh Remus."
"Mum!" He ran to her, hugging her as tightly as he could. She followed suit, holding onto her son as though he was going to explode if she let go. After a few moments they separated and Remus sank onto the porch swing beside her.
"It'll be alright dear. Don't cry." She instructed him, gently rubbing the tears from his cheeks.
"Where's Dad?" Remus asked, searching their small backyard for the tall man.
"He ran to the Ministry to grab some paperwork, he's missed work since Wednesday."
"How can he leave you at a time like this?" Remus asked angrily but Hope soothed him quickly.
"The same way you'll be returning to school Sunday night Remus. You know that I like my solitude at times and I'm not going to have very many opportunities to do that soon dear. I have my friends around here, even if they are muggles like myself." Remus smiled at that and Hope stared out over the pond, rain pattering all around them.
"How much time Mum?" Remus asked after a moment and Hope sighed.
"Long enough for me to appreciate everything around here Remmy. I'll still be around for a while, I'm not one to give up easily."
"Mum how?"
"Enough of that talk Remus." She stated sharply. "You'll depress me if you keep going down that road. I want to hear about good things. How is school?"
"Great Mum, I've got all O's and E's."
"That's my boy. I am so proud of you Remus, so very proud. And your friends, how are they?"
"They're good Mum." He stated, wanting to ask her more questions about her condition but he wouldn't dare.
"How are things with James and that Lily?" Hope asked with a knowing smile.
"He's started calling her Lily not Evans so she's finally begun to call him James. I've never seen him look like that."
"Do you think he's got a chance?" Hope asked, a light in her eyes that hadn't been there before.
"For friendship definitely, for romance not this year. Maybe, probably next year though."
"Good for him, I never would have imagined." Hope stated with a warm smile. "You're all maturing so wonderfully my darling son."
A comfortable silence fell over them and Remus felt at ease.
"They're playing Monty Python and the Holy Grail over at theatre tomorrow, you want to come with me? Lyall and I went last weekend but he didn't think it was funny but I did."
"I thought that came out a while ago."
"It did but they're replaying the best movies of the 70's so far this month." Hope replied, sticking her feet out past the awning so they were splashed with the cool rain. "You know Ellie Burgess from down the street? We took her sons to go see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on Wednesday and they loved it nearly as much as you did."
"Who wouldn't love anything that had to do with chocolate?" Remus asked, making his mother laugh. Remus was going to miss that sound terribly, the tinkling and truly genuine sound that had been there his entire life. He couldn't imagine life without it.
"Did you eat supper yet darling?" Hope asked, standing up and straightening her light blue dress.
"Yes Mum at school." Remus replied, following the woman inside their small cottage.
"Well that's a shame because you see I made a nice chocolate cake just this morning. But if you already had supper..." Hope trailed off teasingly but she plucked a small, half-eaten chocolate cake from the oven. "Eat it up, you are far too thin. I'm beginning to think that they don't feed you anything at that school of yours."
"They do more than feed him at school Hope," Lyall stated, coming into the kitchen. He kissed Hope on the forehead and ruffled Remus' hair. As Hope and Lyall began to talk about Lyall's new job at the Ministry of Magic, Remus glanced around the familiar kitchen at all of the framed photographs. Since Hope was a muggle and was a sociable one at that, the photos didn't move but Remus still found them to be fascinating.
His absolute favorite was the one of him and his parents, not long before he was attacked by Fenrir Greyback. They were standing in Hyde Park, the three of them all grinning about some long forgotten joke. He had a copy of the photo at school with him and had been looking at it a lot over the past few days.
"Remus eat up!" Hope stated when she turned to see that her son hadn't started eating. "How was work darling?"
"Exhausting, there's so much going on out there with the werewolves-"
"What?" Remus asked suddenly, dropping his fork back on his table. The cake that had been on his fork flew up in the air between the three of them but no one noticed it or cared.
"God Lyall, really!?" Hope cried, throwing her hands into the air. "Tonight?"
"What are you talking about?" Remus asked but his parents ignored him.
"I told you that we should have told him when we first heard about what was going on out there!" Lyall yelled and Hope glared at her husband fiercely.
"Remus doesn't need to think about that. That won't happen to him!" She cried as Remus stood up swiftly, knocking the chair backwards onto the hardwood. His parents didn't notice though, they were too busy screaming at one another.
"It will if we don't tell him!" Lyall pounded his fist on the table and Hope looked like she was going to slap him.
"Tell me what?" Remus bellowed and his parents finally turned to look at him. Both of them had tears in the eyes and Remus wished that he had never come home.
"Sit down darling." At his wife's words, Lyall flicked his wand in the direction of the chair and it instantly righted itself. Cautiously Remus did as Hope told him and his parents looked at each other guiltily. Lyall grabbed Hope's hand and she gave him a small, sad smile.
"Remus we wish that we didn't have to tell you this, but we need to." Lyall started when his wife didn't and Remus wondered fleetingly if he could get any more anxious. He didn't think so. "Recently a lot of you know, werewolves have been joining You-Know-Who's forces and it's been bad for all the werewolves on the registry."
"Remus, some of them have been hurt even though most of them aren't even with You-Know-Who." Hope continued when Lyall began to wipe his eyes on a towel.
"I don't understand."
"Lynchings Remus, You-Know-Who's recruiting of werewolves has given them an even worse name." Hope replied thickly, reaching across the table to grab her son's hand. "It's not just the werewolves either, their families have been killed as well."
"Then I can't stay here! I'll stay at school for the holidays-"
"Don't be absurd." Hope cut him off and the young werewolf felt hot tears rolling down his face. "You'll be coming home. You're not on the registry either, you aren't seventeen yet."
"I will be though Mum, in March." Remus ran a hand through his hair, completely exhausted.
"Working at the Ministry has its perks, son." Lyall stated and the sixteen year old looked up quickly. "Part of my contract states that your name will stay off of the registry until you are done with school. You can keep going to school without anyone knowing."
"Is this all why the registry was in The Daily Prophet last week?" Remus asked after a moment and his father nodded slowly.
"Yes I'm afraid so."
"Then why aren't they publishing stories about it? Getting awareness?"
"You know The Prophet Remus. They're getting more and more corrupt every day. They're only publishing stories that will get people to read the paper, not stories that will give support to werewolves."
"We'll be safe Remus. All of us." Hope stated fiercely when a silence fell upon them, squeezing his hand tightly. The quiet descended back upon them and Remus nodded numbly. He wanted to be back at Hogwarts with his friends, carefree and without the worrying of the real world and the war.
Messalina Lucien rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night. Marlene had been going on and on about her boyfriend Gabriel since they had returned for dinner and Messalina and Lily were trying desperately not to laugh.
"He told me that my eyes were as bright as the stars that come out at night." At that Messalina couldn't contain it anymore and burst out laughing so hard that she rolled right off of the couch she was sitting on. The Marauders glanced their way, amused smirks on all of their faces and Messalina noted the faint blush on Lily's cheeks. She would have to talk to her about that.
"Stop it! It isn't funny!" Marlene cried but she was chuckling as well. "It was rather cheesy wasn't it?"
"Hey McKinnon!" The three looked over to the portrait hole to see an annoyed third year and the ever handsome Gabriel. "Loverboy's here!"
Marlene squealed and hurriedly got up. "I'll see you ladies later."
"Have fun!" Lily called after her, earning herself a wave from the pretty blonde girl.
"Use protection!" Messalina yelled, making the blonde turn around in mock surprise.
"Oh yes Lucien, I'll be sure to tell you every detail about this tonight." Marlene teased and the brunette clapped her hands over her ears.
"Oh Merlin the horror!" She cried in agony before moaning and groaning. "My ears are too delicate to hear that!"
Messalina flopped back onto the couch once Marlene was gone and looked to Lily who was absentmindedly flipping through a Witch Weekly.
"'Ten Ways to Charm Your Wizard', really Lils? Desperate are we?" Messalina asked a moment later when she was dangling upside down from the edge of the couch, her head resting on the floor.
"I'm terribly bored Lina and you aren't offering any alternatives." Lily replied and Messalina sighed.
"I'm so bloody bored!" She groaned, pulling herself upright once again. Her head ached slightly and she felt warm from sitting upside down. "Entertain me Evans!"
"I can't, I have rounds with Edgecombe in five minutes." Messalina grimaced and gagged at the thought and Lily nodded. "Exactly."
"At least we have Hogsmeade tomorrow." The brunette pointed out.
"I wish it was as much fun as when we were young." Lily stated wistfully and Messalina nodded in agreement.
"It's butterbeer, candy, the Shrieking Shack and jokes. That's literally it."
"And tea and coffee from the most beloved Madam Puddifoot." Lily replied snobbishly and the two girls burst out laughing. "Are the twins coming in?"
"No, they've got training. They've been working twelve hour days everyday but Sunday all year so that they can end training by summer."
"Is that what you want to do? Be an auror?" Lily asked, setting her magazine down.
"Definitely. I'm so over curse-breaking." Lily could tell that the brunette wasn't but didn't say anything, just nodding in understanding.
"Well I've got to go, I'll see you in the dorms later." Messalina waved at the retreating redhead and pushed herself off of the couch.
"Off to bed already Lucien?" James called and she nodded.
"Got nothing better to do."
"Come plan our next prank with us then." Sirius said but she shook her head.
"Thanks guys but that's alright. I can't get any more detentions, the Auror Academy looks into all of that and they barely let the twins in. Night." She smiled them and turned to leave but Sirius grabbed her wrist.
"Who are you going to Hogsmeade with?" He asked gravely and the girl gave him a confused look.
"Graham, John and Jenny...why?" She asked warily, eyeing the aristocratic looking boy up and down.
"Be careful Lina." Peter stated and she gave him a confused look.
"What the hell guys?" Messalina asked, pulling her hand out of Sirius' grasp.
"Just be careful okay?"
"You be careful." She snapped before turning around and rushing up the steps to the dorm. Merlin the boys could be so biased sometimes.
Please please please please review!