Howdy buckaroos : ) How does the tumbleweed roll with you? Here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: Rowlings characters, etc. Not mine.
Chapter Ten
Remus is Sent to the Office!
The first day of Hogwarts was a whirlwind adventure of learning for Remus. He absorbed the touch and scent of the rich earth as he and his fellow Gryffindors learned to plant violet and orange Wyndl ferns in Herbology. His head was giddy with dizziness after practicing Dizzying Spells in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Proffesor McGonagall amazed him after she turned her desk into a large sow in front of the class in Transfiguration. Even Potions had been enjoyable with all the messy explosions instigated by the inexperienced first years. And of course the Library was to Remus the greatest treasure at Hogwarts. It was filled with more books than he ever hoped to read in a life time. He was eager to open their cracking covers, smell their papery inky smells and take in all that they had to teach him.
All of these experiences were not unique to the first day. Everyday was like this for Remus at his new home. He was accepted more deeply into the circle of James Peter and Sirius. He (a bit reluctantly) participated in their mischievious yet simple plots largely revolving Dungbombs and Rashy Powder. Remus even discovered (to the delight of the other three) that he had an amazing apptitude for creating magical explosive devices. For the first time he felt a fragile sense of happiness.
However, a dark cloud of worries floated persistently above him. The usual worry of being discovered as werewolf was always there, but new worries weighed upon him and made his brow furrow. That one day in Potions troubled him...Snivellus?
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Professor Slughorn started the day off as usual. He rambled and gossiped good naturedly to the puzzled first years about the various social gatherings he had been to and the comings and goings of wizard aristocracy. During the first first few days of school Slughorn started recruiting members for his "Slug Club." He scanned the the Gryffindors and Slytherins for signs of wealth, talent, and family connections. After he had assertained the worth of his students he gave the ones he deemed worthy party invitations under their graded homework.
During this particular Potions class, Sirius recieved one of the invitations.
"What the hell?" Sirius read the fancy invitation with suprise and growing disgust, "Where does this leech get off!" Sirius scanned the room and saw other finely dressed youngsters with powerful last names reading the identical invitations.
"What is it Siri?" James said sweetly for no apparent reason.
Sirius ignored the perversion of his name for the time and seethed, "Slughorn is a leech! He wants me to go to some stupid Slug Club party so he can start to wheedle me for my parents' money and influence. Peh!"
Remus heard Sirius' rant. A little dark place inside of him hated Sirius for taking all his attention for granted but it was buried quickly.
Sirius chucked the invitation into the cauldren of the Flemming's Anti-Nausea Potion He and James were preparing, "He can have all that as far as I'm concerned!"
Remus looked past Sirius and saw a little pale boy working alone at his cauldren across the table. He was glaring at Sirius and James while looking as though he wished to move somewhere else. It was Severus Snape, the boy he met in Diagon Alley. Remus had meant to speak to him but he was never close enough.
"Hullo, Severus!" Remus said perkily with a huge smile directed towards Snape.
Severus looked at Remus with annoyence, although his face had softened from the expression of pure loathing he was directing at James and Sirius.
"What?" He asked, trying to be irritable but failing miserabley in the light of Remus' smile.
"How are you?" Remus said shyly, feeling as though he had done something wrong to ignite Severus' crankiness.
"Fine." he huffed, trying to appear hostile to this curly haired Gryffindor accquaintence. Of course he failed at this too, "What about you?"
"Oh, I'm fine too!" Remus answered ethusiastically and began to pour newt secretion into the cauldren he and Peter were working on. Or rather, the cauldren Remus was working on because Peter was preoccupied with doodling all over his textbook.
"No! Don't do that you stupid git!" Sevurus snapped as he snatched the bottle o' newt away from Remus. "The instructions clearly state to put in three newt tails. But really you can do away with newt all together. It's just meant to make your feet hurt to distract you while the potion cures the nausea. Putting a few dashes of cinnamon or some sort of spice makes the whole process much easier I've found..."
As Severus explained further his voice lost its hostility and turned into the patient voice of a lecturing professer. Remus noticed advanced potions and various tomes of knowledge books at Severus' cauldren and was struck with admiration. They continued working on Remus' cauldren in a comfy silence.
Remus pointed to one of the books by Severus' cauldren, "Is that Mermish Dialouges? It was so interesting. It made learning mermish surprisingly easy."
For the first time, Severus lost his composure. He gaped at Remus. How did this blond airhead learn mermish? I've had that book for weeks and I can't understand why 'guurgbbbuissssh' means hello! He is surely lying, that must be it.
"It's all in the throat really," Remus said matter-of-factly, "I learned it over the summer because I heard merpeople lived in the lake here and I wanted to try it out, heh heh."
Severus simply shook his head in disbelief and continued to chopped the rat tail needed for the concoction.
"Oy, Snivellus," Severus flinched inwardly. He knew he should not have ventured so close to Remus with those band of idiots nearby. He grudgingly admitted that he did everything he could to make those Gryffindor oafs angry but, they started it!
"Snivellus, where," Remus looked around expecting to see thr montrous oaf James, Peter, and Sirius kept going on about.
"What are you doing hanging around Snivellus, Remus?" James asked increduously as if his friend had betrayed him in some way.
"Ugh Remus, we are going to have to give you a washing as soon as possible. I never thought those scourgify charms we learned in detention would ever come in handy. It may be too late for you though. Once in contact with King Snivy, Lord of the Grease you could very well mutate into an oily acne ridden beast!"
Severus and Remus opened their mouths to speak. Severus was going to dip their souls into his icy vat of sarcasm and Remus was about to shyly denounce the unniceness of Sirius' remarks. However, neither of them had the chance to speak.
James and Sirius drew their wands and said, "Scourgify!"
Severus and Remus were hit with painful invisible scrubbing and foul smelling soap suds.
"Wow we actually did Snape a favor by scrubbing his grease. We can't have that can we? Peter?" James shot a mischievious glance at his friend who crept up behind Severus with Remus' cauldren. Peter took his cue and dumped the lumpy ungodly smelling liquid upon Severus' head.
The class roared with laughter. Even the Slytherins chuckled. Severus stood there trembling with indignation and shame. Proffessor Slughorn sent him away and incompetently did not charge anyone with an offense (he did not want to offend his future connection to the Black family).
When Severus had left Slughorn said sympathetically, "Poor kid, he'll smell like that for at least a week."
The class erupted once again with laughter and Sirius, James and Peter smiled triumphantly...
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Remus thought about that incident over and over. He was so angry at his friends for being so cruel to Severus. It was not just an innocent prank, there had been malice behind their action. He half-heartedly chastised them later. He just could not seem to stay mad at them. But he worried he could never be friends with Severus as long as there was a feud between his friends and the dark Slytherin.
This worry seemed small compared to the one looming before him. He had been at Hogwarts for three weeks. The full moon was fast approaching and Dumbledore had never told him what would happen when the time came. He was afraid to ask any of the other professors because he did not know whether they knew about his condition. Dumbledore had been unreachable absent on a fairly consistent basis.
Even this did not compare with the anxiousness he felt as he half-trudged down a nearly empty hallway after supper. He had been called to the office. Dumbledore's office. His palms were sweaty and a pit was sinking into his stomach. Enough people complained me. They don't want a monster at school. I'm sure the proffessors found out and they are clambering for him to expell me. The thought cast him into misery like nothing else. It would not be so bad if everyone in the school knew what he was and shunned him. That was nothing compared to being cast out of the wonderful school he had come to love in such a short time.
Remus walked up to the giant stone gargoyle and muttered the password, "Fruitcake annihilation." The gargoyle lept out of the way and Remus proceeded up plush carpeted steps. Despair, despair, despair, it was consuming him. He could not bear to go back home and live the rest of his days in that damned shed.
His misery only amphilfied when he opened the door and saw all the staff of Hogwarts on either side of the seated Dumbledore.
"Have a seat Remus," Dumbledore said warmly.
Remus sat in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. He averted his eyes from everyone and focused on his tattered shoes. Expulsion, he could feel it.
"Remus, I want to talk to you about your condition. Before you even arrived I notified all the staff of you and we have been wracking our brains ever since. About where to put you when you transform that is."
Remus all but fell off his chair with relief, "You mean I'm not going to be expelled!" he blurted.
"Of course not, why would you ever think that? Don't be silly. Anyway we have found the ideal place. It's an old mansion a couple miles away from school grounds and Hogsmede. It's isolated so no one is likely to unwittingly put themselves in danger or discover you. You can conviently sneak out of Hogwarts through one of its passageways and end up there. We've planted a particulary viscious tree so know one else is likely to find the passage way. It's as simple as that my boy!" Dumbledore smiled at Remus' overjoyed reaction.
"Wow sir, you've really thought of everything!" Remus exclaimed.
"Oh well it wasn't my idea exactly. A little birdie told me," he said his eyes twinkled as if he were laughing at his own private joke.
"A few more things Remus. All the staff is here to help if you should ever need it. And ah, well," for once Dumbledore was at a loss for words.
"You don't have to do this if you don't want to Remus, but you see no one has ever seen a werewolf transformation--and lived to tell about it. A few other professors and I would like to see this transformation take place. It seems like a brash thing to ask but I believe the people who hate werewolves are simply ignorant. If we could find out a bit more, maybe things would change in the public opinion," Dumbledore explained with great difficulty.
Remus just could not turn the request down, he was just too grateful to be allowed to stay at Hogwarts, "Sure."
"Good," Dumbledore put on a warm smile, "Now we come to the matter of lying to your peers," he said with candor, "Your grandmother is dying, lung cancer is consuming her," he said gravely.
"What!" Remus felt sick. Oh, not Gran. Why?
"Oh no! She's not really dying. Goodness no! That's just what you will tell everyone when they wonder why you've been gone for two days. You'll say you've been visiting your sick grandmother when really you'll be in the hospital wing recuperating!" Dumbledore looked expectantly at Remus.
"Yes that sounds like a good plan," Remus nodded, but he felt uneasy. He had always been horrible at lying. Something about lying to his friends just didn't seem right.
"Alright then," Dumbledore clapped his hands together, "That's all! Here, have a cookie and sleep well tonight. I will see you when the time comes." He smiled his old coot smile and handed Remus a double chocolate chip cookie.
Okay. Was that awesome or incredible? hehehe. I'd like to say thanks to all my reviewers so far. And as always reviews are very much appreciated. : )