Rosabell Writing

Remus Writing

The second day at Hogwarts was a Saturday. First thing in the morning I woke up to the pain of a cutting curse to my right arm. This time on my forearm instead of the bicep. The pain shocked me awake, and I jumped up from the blood stained sheets.

"We assumed you learned your place last time, mudblood." My dorm mates were all sneering at me while the one closest had her arms crossed, and a wand held loosely in her hand. "You aren't welcome here."

Raising an eyebrow I took a slow step forward. Her look of disdain changed into something more wary. She obviously remembered last year when I punched the girl who did this before.

Instead of hurting her I quickly snatched her wand out of her hand. She gasped in astonishment and lunged for it. I easily sidestepped her and backed away. All the girls stared at the wand in my hands with horror, the owner of the wand especially. "Give me back my wand, you disgusting creature!"

Her voice grated on my nerves. "Why should I?"

"Because it's mine!" She shrieked. "You're getting your filthy blood all over it!"

That was true. My blood slowly flowed from the six-inch wound going up the back of my forearm. With my arm hanging by my side it made all the blood flow down to my hand, where I held the polished wand. "It doesn't look filthy." She made a frustrated noise. I was surprised she didn't stomp her foot, too.

In an act of good faith I held it out for her to take. She gave me a disgusted look, obviously not happy her wand was covered in blood. One girl scoffed. "Take your wand, Crystal. You can scrub off her dirty blood later."

Hearing that removed any guilt I would have had for my actions. When Crystal delicately took the wand from my hand, trying to prevent blood from getting on her fingers, I jerked forward and punched her breast.

A collective gasp sounded throughout the room. Crystal loudest of them all. Her hand came up to cradle her chest, and I deftly skirted around her to grab my wand and a robe.

All the girls were wide-eyed with shock. Obviously none of them were used to violence. Not in Muggle ways, at least. My arm was proof enough that they didn't care about what measures they took against me. They never seemed to think I would actually fight back.

My appearance in the common room gained sneers from the few people already awake. Only two people had different reactions.

Severus sat at one of the small tables off to the side. He must have noticed the blood and immediately searched my eyes, silently asking if I was okay. I tilted my head in a "sort-of" gesture.

Regulus' eyes were glued to my arm. He obviously noticed the blood, too. I assumed it shocked him because he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of it.

I exited the common room with my head held high. Thankfully it was early morning so everybody would still be in their dorms sleeping in.

Last time I hadn't told anyone about the cutting curse because I figured a punch to the face was enough revenge. They probably kept my actions a secret because they didn't want anyone knowing a mudblood had taken them down with a single hit.

Once away from all prying eyes I allowed myself to show weakness. The injury burned like no other, and while the bleeding was slowing down the entire inside of my forearm was covered with blood. Tears of pain and frustration made themselves known, but I forced them away and hid my arm under my sleeve to continue walking.

Trying to hide a wound from a werewolf made subtlety next to impossible.

Remus Lupin rounded the corner at the end of the hallway, no doubt up at the early hour to get food. When he saw me his hazel eyes brightened, then his nostrils flared, and I knew I was busted. His gaze latched onto my arm, and when he got close enough he demanded in a tone hard as stone, "What happened?"

I gave him a calm look as I continued walking towards my destination. "Don't worry about it, Remus. Just a scratch."

"A scratch?!" He hissed. His hand wrapped around my bloody one, and yanked up my sleeve. The gash had almost stopped bleeding, but my arm had blood all over it. My hand did as well, and it was getting onto Remus'. "You call that a scratch?"

I huffed and weakly pulled my hand away from his. He definitely could have prevented it, but he allowed me to slip away. "I've dealt with it before," I admitted. "Let me worry about it."

"This isn't the first time?" His breathing became rougher as he checked me over a second time.

"The first time was last year." We neared the corridor belonging to the Kitchen. "I didn't need help then, and I don't need it now." Not from anyone except the elves, at least.

Remus didn't share my sentiment. "Come on." He grabbed my left arm and began dragging me through the corridor. "We're getting Madam Pomfrey."

Indignant, I tried wrenching my arm from his hold, but he wouldn't budge. "I just told you I don't need help!"

"You did see the bloody wound on your arm, right?" He asked incredulously. "Let Pomfrey heal it. It won't even scar!"

I went quiet. Something in me protested the thought of it not scarring, and it took a minute for me to understand why. "I want it to scar, Remus." My claim surprised him into stopping. The two of us stood in the middle of the hallway with him looking at me in disbelief. "They give me purpose. Show me the hardships I need to face."

He stared at me sadly. "You're twelve. You shouldn't have scars."

With a sad smile I brought up my right hand, the blood on it now dry, and ran it over a small scar on the side of his jaw. "Nobody should have scars, but sometimes it's out of our control."

Remus shied away from my touch, and I slowly pulled my arm out of his grip. We stared at each other, him in suspicious worry and me in understanding. This seemed to scare him slightly, so I smiled to try and calm him. "I'll take care of this." I gestured with my damaged arm. "Go hang out with your Marauder friends."

When I turned to head for the Kitchen Remus stopped me. "Marauder?"

I cursed silently, then faced him with a cheeky grin. "Sirius, James, Peter, you – you're marauders. Causing trouble wherever you go." Before he could respond I spun around and walked away as quick as I could.

Thankfully the amount of blood I lost wasn't enough to make me lightheaded. Had that been the case I would have allowed Remus to take me to Madam Pomfrey. Instead I had to deal with frantic house-elves. At first they'd been overjoyed to see me again, but they spotted the blood and panicked. Taffy more than the others.

She pulled me to the table and sat me onto the bench, snapping at the other elves to get warm water and gauze. Taffy tended to my arm while the other elves went back to their jobs. Occasionally glancing over to check if I was okay.

She cleaned the blood from my arm. With most of the blood gone she could see the wound more clearly. Taffy looked up at me with worried eyes. "Does Miss wish for Taffy to heal her?"

I rose an eyebrow. "You can do that?"

She squirmed. "Elves not be specialized with the healing magics, but Taffy will try for Miss."

Nodding my head I stretched out my arm to give her a better angle. She stared at the appendage cautiously before focusing on the cut. Taffy brought her left finger to one end of the cut and slowly started dragging it across. I expected to feel pain, but instead there was a light tingling sensation that begged to be itched. I didn't dare try until Taffy finished her work.

All that remained of the gash was a six-inch line, slightly raised from my skin. Rolling my sleeve up to my shoulder I compared it to the one on my bicep from last year. Having Taffy heal it definitely prevented the heavy scarring I would have gotten if left alone. My other scar wasn't as long but it was thicker, making it more noticeable.

"Thank you, Taffy," I said sincerely. "It means a lot to me. To know you're willing to help me when I need you."

Her eyes grew teary. "Taffy be happy knowing Miss is so grateful."

All the house-elves became rather protective; Taffy especially. They made sure I had everything I asked for, and during dinner they always asked if I got hurt at all. Their devotion touched my heart.

Outside of the house-elves I only ever talked to Remus. In potions I claimed a seat next to Severus, so the only words we exchanged were about when to add what ingredients. Regulus and I exchanged discreet nods in the hallways. Neither of us shared a class since we were in separate years. The first nod surprised me, but it became a normal thing for us.

Remus must have told the others about me calling them Marauders, because they're next prank was a wide scale attack during dinner. They flooded the entire Great Hall, then set off fireworks that spelled out "The Marauders strike again!". Everybody talked about it, which was how I heard of it. Everybody could figure out who The Marauders were since the boys had no shame hiding it.

During free periods I worked on my homework in the library with Remus at another table. He surprised me one day when he discreetly placed a journal beside my books. I flipped through it confusedly before words suddenly appeared on the first page.

I spelled two journals so when we write on one it will appear on the other. You have one of them and I have the other.

My eyes widened at the genius behind his creation. That's genius! How long did this take?

I started when we came back to Hogwarts. I could practically feel his sheepish tone through the parchment.

The journals enabled us to talk outside of the library as well. I always thought of him as a friend, but it wasn't until Remus outright asked me (wrote in the journal) that our doubts surrounding a friendship between us evaporated. It was unheard of for a Slytherin and a Gryffindor to become friends, with Lily and Severus as the only exception. Even if I am the mudblood of my house. No doubt if they found out I befriended a Gryffindor their treatment of me would become even worse. Perhaps they would finally find better insults.

I kept my friendship with Remus a secret so my life wouldn't get worse. From what I could gather he didn't tell the other Marauders about me either. Our hidden friendship worried Remus. He was afraid Sirius, James, or Peter would find out about it and hate him. I assured him that they wouldn't. Instead I would be blamed for poisoning his mind with my snake-like ways. That only made his worry shift towards me.

At the end of each day, after dinner, I wrote goodnight to Remus so I could spend the rest of my night uninterrupted. I asked Taffy to make sure my trunk always went into the Room, so I wouldn't have any more instances like the cutting curse. Like in first year I used the Room as my dorm. I could complete my homework while playing music from my past life. I didn't know it had been possible, but one day I had really wanted to listen to an Adele song and suddenly "Hello" started playing. Knowing I could listen to music from the time I originally nearly sent me to tears.

The Room was a godsend for me. Not only for the music and ability to sleep peacefully, but because I could practice my Animagus transformation in secret. Nobody had a clue what I was studying. That could also be the result of me never talking in class, and barely anybody knew who I was.

Regardless, I took advantage of the Room's resources to get books on how to transform. One said I needed to get a hold on my magic; get in-tune with it. The book didn't describe how I could do that, so I asked for even more books regarding the topic of finding my magical core.

Two books were very helpful. One of them wasn't so much a book as it was a diary. The diary gave better step-by-step instructions while the books went further in-depth for the process.

Even with the books I had a very hard time trying to accomplish the task. I constantly questioned whether I had the magic but immediately scoffed afterwards. I used magic for over a year, of course I had it. Despite the frustration I continued to practice finding my magic.

Midterms passed and winter break came right around the corner. I sent another letter inquiring about whether or not I should stay at Hogwarts. Brandon surprised me by sending a letter of his own with explicit instructions not to listen to Natalie, because I was family and deserved to be home for holidays.

The first day of break saw me packing up my trunk and saying goodbye to the house-elves. They were sad to see me go, but I reassured them I would only be gone for two weeks.

Those two weeks went by rather slowly. Kevin was thrilled to have his big sister home while Natalie did her best to act polite, even though I could tell my presence made her uneasy. Brandon actually ignored her, and I could see tension between the two of them. I wondered what happened between them while I was gone, and if I was the reason for it.

Before Christmas Brandon pulled me aside so we could speak privately. He brought up my idea to transfer my college fund into Gringotts. All we had to do was empty the account to shut it down, then we could just bring it to Gringotts to open a new one.

Our plan to switch my account was kept from Natalie. She didn't approve of anything regarding the magical world, so keeping this a secret was fine by me.

The transfer was done on my birthday. Brandon took me out for a birthday lunch before heading to the bank. I waited patiently for the money to be removed, and the account to close, before the two of us drove to The Leaky Cauldron. I had to direct him there since Muggles couldn't see the dingy pub.

Brandon and I went straight to Gringotts. We waited in line for the main teller before Brandon took over. Unlike last time, his voice was firm when speaking to the goblin, "I'd like to open a new account for my daughter."

The goblin called over another of his kin to lead us into a separate office. The goblin inside, named Sharpknife, gave us the paperwork for setting up a vault. The fee for opening the vault cost fifty Galleons, and to keep it open needed a minimum of three hundred. We asked how much ￡4,237.00 was worth and it turned out to be 1,406 Galleons and 15 Knuts. More than enough for a vault and some Christmas shopping.

Brandon intrigued me when he proposed a deal. He would give me money to add to the account every summer, but would stop after I graduated from Hogwarts. I happily agreed, and we left Gringotts with a vault key and a money pouch connected to the vault. I could reach in and grab from my account instead of having to go to the bank every time I needed money.

I always tried to be sensitive with money. I made sure to know how much I had before going shopping. Even then I worried about going over my limit. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about overspending because the presents I bought for Regulus, Severus, and Remus weren't too expensive.

Even though I wasn't exactly close with Regulus I bought him a simple black scarf, and got his initials embroidered in silver stitching. I wasn't close with Severus either, but I bought him a good quality potions book. Remus' gift was a little more thought out.

In the past few months of the school year I thought of various ways to tell him how I knew about his "condition". The excuse the school knew was that his mother was ill, and he visited her once a month. It was a good ploy, but if anybody paid attention they would see Remus get sickly pale, and his eyes became more gold than hazel. He also grew extremely irritated with everybody, which definitely wasn't like him. Those signs and his "visits home" always happened around the full moon.

For my gift to him I tried finding an unbiased book on werewolves. Brandon didn't understand why I would give that to someone for a Christmas present, but I shrugged and gave an excuse about Remus' love for reading.

When I finally found a book that didn't preach utter nonsense we collected my shopping bags and left Diagon Alley. We drove home to find Natalie cooking dinner in the kitchen. I let Brandon deal with her questions while I raced upstairs to wrap my gifts. They were perfect until I realized I had no way to send them.

My gifts to them had to wait until break ended. I used the connected journal to tell Remus I would give him his gift when we returned to the castle. I could open his gift of chocolates without feeling bad. Regulus and Severus hadn't gotten me anything, but I expected that.

Brandon and Natalie bought me a new school bag. It had a strap to go over my shoulder like my other one, and thankfully didn't have any holes in it. I needed a new one and thankfully this one was black, so ink stains wouldn't be visible.

The train ride back to Hogwarts ended up being just as quiet as the ride home. Instead of immediately hunting the boys down I decided to wait until getting back to the castle. It was dinner by the time we reached Hogwarts. I went to the Kitchens like I always did, and enlisted the help of the elves.

"Taffy can you make sure my trunk gets put in the Room of Requirement?" She nodded and quickly popped away. With her busy I called for Shaggy. There were so many elves I only remembered Taffy and Shaggy's names.

"What does little miss needs Shaggy to do?"

I took out the three Christmas presents I'd hidden beneath my cloak. "Take this one to Regulus Black," I pointed to the one on top then moved to the second one, "Severus Snape," then the bottom one, "and Remus Lupin."

"Yes, little miss!" Shaggy happily took the pile and disappeared.

Later that night, when everybody was in their dorms, I sat in the Room of Requirement with the journal Remus gave me propped open on a desk. I tried focusing on finding my magic, but I was too distracted.

When his familiar handwriting appeared in the open space I stopped what I was doing to peer at the page.

Thank you for the book but why this one?

Because I was hoping it could help you. Unless it's all wrong, then I apologize.

He responded a minute later. How would I know if it's wrong?

I paused first to think of what I should say. I think we both know how.

An hour passed with no response. I resigned myself to the fact I scared him away and wrote, Your secret is safe with me, Remus, but I believe it would be best if we spoke face to face. I'll meet you tomorrow outside the Great Hall. Slapping the journal closed I shoved it into my book bag before focusing my thoughts on finding my magic.