Remus Lupin
"Are we there yet?" the bespectacled boy that was one of my best friends asked for about the millionth time. His hazel eyes stared intently at the signs on the road and his legs shook up and down, anxious and unwilling to sit still.
"Five more minutes, love," his charming fiancée, Lily, answered back. "We'll be there soon, I promise."
Thank Merlin.
I mean, I guess it was my idea to use the Muggle system of transportation for the trip, but if I had known what that involved, I would have never dared suggesting it. Between James's constant complaining, and Sirius's muttering and random singing, the journey was much longer than I imagined it would be. I suppose that I should have known since both of them were Purebloods. They'd never been on a road trip before. They didn't know how to act on a long journey.
"I can smell the ocean!" Sirius soon proclaimed. "We're almost there."
"That's just what I said," Lily rolled eyes, turning the wheel of the '75 green Civic that Lily's parents agreed to let her drive for the week. She took a right turn off the highway and we were several meters closer to the beach that was awaiting our arrival.
"99 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall, 99 bottles of Butterbeer. Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall," Sirius sang, joy in his voice.
"Come on, Padfoot," I shouted, "You were just at 9. Did you really have to start over?" He'd been doing it for four hours, nonstop. Enough was enough.
"I lost track," he answered. "No reason not to start over."
I sighed. Lily sighed. Peter sighed as well. James and Sirius had to be the two worst travelers ever. On the way back, I planned on telling them to just Apparate home. Lily and I and maybe Peter could do the journey back alone. Another four hours of songs and complaints was going to make my brain explode. And the trip was supposed to be relaxing.
"We're here," Lily finally announced as she pulled into the driveway of a delightful cottage, adjacent to the waters of English shore. It was quite quaint with a dirt brown colored roof, and a white exterior. It only had four bedrooms, but that wasn't really a problem. James and Lily didn't mind sharing.
I walked out of the car, soon to be followed by the rest of my mates. I heard the slamming of the car doors, followed by the gleeful singing of Sirius with James joining him not too long afterwards.
"96 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall, 96 bottles of Butterbeer. Take one down, pass it around, 95 bottles of Butterbeer on the wall."
Luckily, James joined in on the singing that time, so Lily had the opportunity to speak. "James, dear, I think you have a wonderful voice and everything, but if I hear you singing that song one more time, I might just leave you."
The singing instantly ceased. Even though James knew it was a joke, he did not want to risk it. Lily was everything to him. "Sorry, love," James apologized.
We walked into the cottage, luggage in hands, waiting to be blown away by the wonderful dwelling of our vacation. Instead, it was a rather broken down, rusty shack that had probably not been occupied in years.
"I thought you said it was big and amazing," James asked, turning to Lily, somewhat startled by the look of the cottage.
"I guess not," Lily answered. "It was probably just because I was a kid. Because everywhere I went as a kid seemed spectacular." The cottage was owned by Lily's parents. She and her family used to go there every summer until she started attending Hogwarts. When we all graduated, we wanted to take a trip together before starting our own careers, and Lily automatically thought of the cottage that she vacationed at as a kid.
"That's okay," Peter announced, "We'll probably spend most of our time at the beach anyways."
"Always the level-headed one," James patted Peter on the head as praise. I became somewhat annoyed because I usually got that compliment. I was the one that brought sense to the Marauders and I was the one that kept everyone at peace. But I guess I couldn't make it too big of a deal. Peter deserved some credit every once in awhile.
"I found my room," we heard from Sirius, who had been particularly quiet in the last several seconds. "I've already put my things down and claimed it."
Lily ran up the creaky stairs, wanting to know what bedroom he claimed. She soon shouted at him and demanded him to move his trunk. "That's our room," Lily yelled. "It's the biggest and there are two of us sharing it. If you were sharing…-"
"I don't mind sharing with you, Lily," Sirius had a wide smirk on his face.
"Out!" she yelled.
Sirius pointed his wand to move his trunk to the nearest bedroom. Peter and I walked up the stairs as well to put our trunks down. Peter and I claimed whatever room we found first. He was probably correct in assuming that we wouldn't be spending much time in our living quarters anyways, so rooms didn't matter. And it's not like it was something that a simple spell couldn't fix anyways.
My room was relatively cramped. There was a twin sized bed that took up much of the space and a small dresser to the side of the bed. There wasn't even a closet so that I could hang up my clothes. Immediately, I grabbed my wand, plainly flicked it, and watched to see my room expand and a closet appear.
I then grabbed my trunk, placed it on the now queen sized bed, and held my wand up, ready to start the job of unpacking.
Before I even took out my first shirt, I found a jubilant Sirius sitting on top of my trunk, swimsuit on, and towel in hand. "Come on, we can unpack later. There are some ladies waiting for us out in the sun," Sirius managed to say.
He was right. I didn't really want to unpack right away. After the painful trip, I just wanted to relax. I wasn't as into the lady bit as Sirius, but I wanted to lie under the sun, carefree and at ease. It was a good thing that the full moon was still two weeks away.
"Okay," I answered back, trying to convince myself that for one entire week I would be able to enjoy myself. To not worry about a thing. "I'll meet you downstairs."
Sirius ran into the other rooms to tell them all to get dressed, while I changed into my swimsuit. I put on a shirt as well, as I was not ready to show the world the scars hidden beneath. If we did happen to go swimming, I would just keep it on anyways.
Within minutes, Peter, Sirius, and I stood at the front of the cottage with our swim trunks on and our towels in our hands. James and Lily decided to stay in while we explored the beach for the first time.
We all walked outside. At least the location of the cottage was nice; barely any walking was involved in order to make it to the beach.
My toes began to feel the smooth, crinkle of the sand. It was warm as it invaded my sandals, reminding me of the times when I was younger. Those times that I went to the beach with my family. My younger brother trotting along with a sand bucket in his arms, falling along as his short and stubby legs became used to the feel of walking in the sand. My father throwing me a Frisbee, expecting me to catch it somewhere along the shoreline. My mother taking pictures, making sure that the memories would last forever. When I was a child, everything was so much simpler.
"Look at that," Sirius interrupted my thoughts, as he made a statement of joy, with absolute glee apparent in his eyes. "This is going to be one fine week!"
We approached the main area of the beach and soon I realized what Sirius was talking about. The whole beach was filled with quite attractive gals. There was some male competition, but it wasn't like that was going to stop Sirius.
We walked closer to the crowd of people and Sirius immediately laid out his towel next to an attractive blond. I rolled my eyes and then watched as Peter found a spot next to a brunette a little further down the shore.
As for me, I walked further. I wanted a more private section. I wasn't there for love or whatever Sirius and Peter were looking for. I just wanted to relax, carefree for a couple of days before the real world set in.
I spotted a cliff several meters away from the general population of vacationers. It didn't look too intimidating, and it seemed like a nice, secluded area of relaxation. There I would be able to listen as the waves splashed against the shore. The sun was starting to set as well, so I could watch the sunset, without the fear of what the moon would do to me.
By the time I made it to the cliff, I had to take a break to catch my breath. It was a lot further than I first thought and I wasn't used to walking along a sandy path. But as soon as I was able to breathe normally again, I started up the cliff.
It was somewhat of a difficult climb. It didn't look as intimidating as it actually was. I stumbled several times along the way, almost falling down to the ground in one instance, but I did eventually make it to the top, after muttering to myself two or three words that I typically did not like to use.
And at the top there was a surprise, which annoyed me quite a bit. Once I had made it to the cliff, I didn't look at the top to see if anyone had already occupied the area just because I didn't think anyone else would want to be secluded from the crowd of hot girls. But I was wrong.
Sitting in front of me was actually a rather beautiful girl as well. She had shoulder length black hair pulled into a half ponytail. Her skin was pale and flaky, and she had several bruises running along her arms and legs. She was wearing a dress – it was yellow and it had flowers of purple, red, and blue. It cut off right above her knees and even hidden beneath those scars, she looked beautiful.
At that moment she was curled in a ball, her eyes hidden from me as her hands covered them. I could hear her crying and it was evident that she was distressed. And without further thought I bent down next to her, ready to offer my help.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned about the stranger.
She lifted her head up, jumping to her feet, as she realized that she was no longer alone. "Just peachy," she answered as soon as she found her voice, "Thanks."
Her eyes stared up, but not exactly at me. They were more positioned towards the sky. They were grey like Sirius's, but they had a kind of sadness to them and some type of dimming to them. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize someone else was here. I should go."
"No, I was just about to leave," she refused. She then started to look at me more intently. Her eyes stared at mine and I could tell that she was slowly searching through my facial features, eventually staring down to examine the rest of my body. It was actually quite cute, how unsubtle she was.
She soon started to walk away. I tried to stop her, feeling terrible that I caused her to stir. "You don't have to leave," I tried to convince her, "We can share this spot."
"I need to go," she resisted. She started walking quicker down the uneven surface and it seemed as if she was having trouble keeping her balance. I watched, cautiously, wanting to help her, but not wanting to be the creepy stranger. But as she was halfway down, she stumbled completely and she started to fall towards the ground.
I rushed down the cliff to help. To try to stop her from falling or do whatever I could to make sure that she wouldn't get too hurt. I was not quick enough to stop her from falling all the way down, but I did make sure that he landing was not too rough.
"Of course, of course," I heard her mutter as soon as she landed on the ground. I held out my arm to help her up, and she graciously accepted, as soon as she saw that I was there. "Thank you," she smiled.
"Are you alright?" I asked again, concerned about her.
"Marvelous," she answered. She then surveyed her body, looking for her injuries. It seemed as if her legs were badly bruised and had some scrapes on them. Her arms were a little wounded as well, but not quite as bad as her legs.
"You're bleeding," I did not buy her previous statement.
"Am I really, Sherlock?" she questioned. "I would have never known." Okay, so maybe it was a pretty stupid statement, but I was just trying to help.
"You're not okay," I added in. At least that made more sense.
"I've had worse," she answered quickly, without thought. She then covered her mouth, as if she hadn't wanted that fact to slip.
I soon put two and two together and realized what the scars on her body meant. "Wait. Does this sort of thing happen to you often?"
"I have terrible balance, okay?" she answered honestly. "No big deal."
But I was worried. Because she was a teenager, probably about 17, and I knew that plenty of teens had troubles. Even though I didn't know her, I didn't want her to be hurting herself. She didn't even know what real trouble was. She didn't have to worry about transforming during every full moon and worrying about a Dark Lord who was ready to take over the Wizarding World.
"Damn," she soon said, as she circled around, searching for something, "I can't find it."
"Your home?" I soon asked.
"No, my airplane," she answered, "I left it parked here somewhere and I can't find it anywhere…-"
"I'm just trying to help." I was starting to get annoyed. I had only been kind since I ran into her, and she was cold and demeaning. I almost didn't want to help her anymore, but it's not like I could run away from her. I wouldn't be able to walk away from anyone needing help.
"Well, I don't need any!" she seemed to shout, her grey eyes turning sour. She rubbed her arms, as she tried to stop the bleeding and she turned towards the ocean, staring at it like it could guide her home. "I'm such an idiot," she muttered under her breath. "I knew I shouldn't have left," she thought she spoke in a whisper that I wouldn't understand. It was relatively loud for a whisper and I could hear each word.
"Look, I'm staying in a cottage just a little further down shore," I offered. "There's a phone there. You can come with me and call whoever can help you get home."
"I'm not a lost little kid," she protested. "I can find my way home." She seemed to be trying to convince herself more than me. I could tell that there was a little more to her than just the troubled teen. She just was unusual.
"I know that," I reasoned, "But maybe you can come to my cottage and get cleaned up. It's really not far from here. Just right there," I pointed to the shack. It really was not a long trek from where we were standing.
She tried to concentrate on where my finger was pointing. "I don't see it," she managed to say.
"Just right behind that group of people," I pointed my finger, trying to guide her eyes to right spot.
"I don't see them either," she was frustrated. "But whatever. Just as long as you promise you're not some pervert or anything, trying to take advantage of me."
"You think I would admit it if I was," I teased. She was overly sarcastic. Maybe a little humour would help her to ease up.
"I guess you're right," she started walking to where my finger pointed. "I'll take my chances then."