Thank you to everyone that has reviewed! DobbysArmy had reminded me that I had been kind of ignoring Remus so this chapter is completely dedicated to everyone's favorite werewolf. I hope you enjoy this next installment of A Black and White Story and you leave a nice little review telling me what you think
Remus felt horrible. The last full moon had been absolutely horrible. The injuries he inflicted on himself in that single night left him in the hospital wing for more than five days. As he was walking back to the dorms, his shoulder felt like it was about to detach from him body it hurt so bad. He felt miserable and all he wanted to do was crawl into his warm bed and sleep forever. The Fat Lady gave him a sympathetic look as he stumbled towards the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. She didn't even demand a password from him.
He fully intended to go up to his dorm and think of a reasonable excuse as to why he looked like he just got run over by a rabid horde of Hippogriffs when he was only visiting his sick mother. Maybe, he decided to go for a swim in the pond near his house. Then, when he was swimming out to the middle of the lake, he was attacked by Grindywillows. Yeah, that would work. Then, following the ensuing epic fight, he crawled out of the water victorious when a wild Hippogriff spotted him and-
"Why, look oo's back from teh dead." A heavily sarcastic voice said from the couch.
Remus jumped a foot in the air. Sitting calmly with Ursula, Elyse was looking straight at him with most serious look on her face that Remus had ever seen. Ursula too looked strangely serious. The fading bruises on her face gave her an extremely grave appearance.
He smiled sheepishly at them, hoping that they wouldn't see his injuries in the dim light, "Hello guys. How long have you been sitting here?"
Remus had walked a little closer and saw that Peter, James, and Sirius were sleeping either on the smaller sofa or in the armchair. There was one person missing and that made Remus worry, "Where's Ben?"
Ursula raised an eyebrow, "His dad is being sworn in as Minister of Magic tomorrow morning, don't you remember?"
He did remember now that she mentioned it. He had never personally met J. Andrew White before, but he heard enough from his father and from his friends to know quite a bit about him. He became an Auror right after graduating Hogwarts (A Gryffindor Graduate) and worked his way up to become Head of the Auror department by the time Ben was born. He was often noted as one of the most fair and honest men in the Ministry. From what Remus had heard Ben had inherited a lot of his father's qualities. Now with the current Minister, an old man that Remus didn't even know the name of, was retiring, Jay White had been unanimously elected as the new Minister. While Ben's friends all thought it was cool, they never really talked about it. His dad just got a new job in their eyes.
"Yeah," Elyse continued, "Professor Dumbledore came teh get 'im aboot tree hours ago. It was nice oov Dumbledore teh take time oot oov 'is busy week from teh Ministry teh take Ben teh 'is family."
Remus paled a bit, "Busy week at the ministry?" He asked, his voice going up an octave. Of course the one time he specifically uses a professor's name is the one time the said professor isn't in the school. They would never believe the story he told them now.
Ursula confirmed his fears, "It was quite nice that Dumbledore took you to see your mother when he had so much more going on." She said in a patronizing tone.
Remus was silent, horrified.
"Have anything to tell us?" Ursula asked him after a minute. When he didn't say anything, she stood up and stood only a foot away from him. While looking him straight in the eye, she started talking in a soft voice,
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times, everyone has secrets; some are just darker than others. I have never lied to you and I have never pushed when you show up once a month with cuts and bruises but this is where I draw the line. I refuse to be lied to. Now, do you have anything to tell me?"
His eyes looked straight into her silver ones and he could see all her emotions play out in her eyes. He tore his gaze away and looked at the adjacent wall.
"No," he whispered softly, unable to tell her his secret. She would never accept him; her mother probably beat into her head that half-breeds, especially werewolves, were violent and murderous. There was no way that Ursula would be able to see past that.
His eyes flickered towards hers and now her eyes were completely different. They looked just like they did when she encountered Professor Avery or Snape.
"Then I have nothing to say to you."
She turned on heels, walking away from not only him, but the friendship he refused to trust.
Remus was miserable. None of his friends would talk to him. They had worked out that he had been lying to them the entire time since they've met him and they all took that hard. They had filled Ben in on the situation when he got back from his father's inauguration. He was skeptical but he believed them because the rest of them had never given him a reason to doubt them; Remus had lied to him in the past and Ben knew it. So now Remus sat off to the side by himself. In classes, since seats were assigned, he still sat next to them, but they never talked to him except when asking him to pass over some potions ingredient. It was absolutely horrible for all of them. They all looked like they wanted to take him back but knowing the lies he had fed them about his sick relatives left them avoiding him at all costs.
He happened to hear a conversation the day after his 'betrayal' when he was about to walk into his room.
"-heard him wrong!" He heard James say loudly to someone.
"We all heard him James. He said that Dumbledore was going to take him to his mother's house because she was ill." Sirius said in an agitated voice.
"Maybe he meant that Dumbledore arranged it! He might have meant-"
"Shut up James," Sirius snapped, "Remus is lying to us! We've trusted him with every bloody secret we have and here he is lying straight to our face. I bet he's having a right laugh about it, the little prat," he spat out quite loudly.
Remus winced when he heard his tone. He should have known that Sirius would be the most outspoken one.
"Don't talk bad about him!"
Remus's sadness doubled when he heard James still defending him.
"Sure he lied, but maybe he had a reason. Maybe his mom got really sick or is dying for all we know. I mean, I can't imagine how I would be acting if my mom was going through what Mrs. Lupin was going through so we should cut him some slack."
And now the guilt was tripled.
There was silence in the room before a third voice spoke. Remus had to stick his ear right up against the door to hear, but Ben's voice was clear,
"I saw her, you know."
"Who?" Sirius demanded.
From the other side of the door, Remus heard Ben sigh. "I saw Mrs. Lupin at my dad's swearing in. His dad is the Head Obliviator for the Ministry so obviously both his parents were there."
Silence.
Finally James's voice broke the deafening silence, "How did she look?" He asked in a choked voice, almost like it was impossible for him to believe Remus's blatant lies.
"She looked fine. There was nothing wrong with her; she looked perfectly healthy."
"Maybe she got better-" James said meekly, but Remus could tell that he was grasping for straws at this point.
"Oh, give it up James! If she was better four days ago, why was Remus missing for five? Hmm? Ever think of that?"
"This conversation is over." James said and Remus heard the sounds of curtains being pulled closed around a bed. Two more identical sounds followed. He waited a couple minutes before he walked into the room. He was just about to crawl into bed when the door opened again.
He met Peter's usually friendly eyes and tried to smile a bit. Peter just stared at him blankly for a moment before he went over to his bed, ignoring Remus completely.
As he lay in bed, it hurt him to think about what he was doing to his friends; especially James who seemed to take the betrayal quite hard. It haunted him for the next few days.
But in Remus's mind, it worked out better that way. The farther away from him the better; now there was no risk of them seeing him sneak out into the forest with Madame Pomfrey. Because he knew them, he knew that they would follow. He had played the scene over and over in his minds. Sirius and Ursula would be bantering back and forth about something extremely irrelevant. James would be leading the group as the natural leader that they would all have no problem following blindly. Ben would by on his left side (The Blacks were on the right) and he would be standing protectively in front of Elyse. Peter would be directly following James, just like he did every day. They would hear his snarls and howls from the Whomping Willow. Assuming the best of Remus and being intelligent, they would come to the conclusion that he was being attacked by a werewolf. Being the Gryffindors they were, they would rush forward right into their deaths at Remus's hands. He could just image the looks on their face when they realized the boy they trusted so much would be their murderer. All because of a stupid moon...
"Are you okay Remus?" He heard a soft voice ask him.
He had been staring at his friends about six days after they stopped talking, completely lost in his thoughts when Lily broke his train of thought. His eyes met Ursula's for just a second before she looked away with pain in her eyes. Guilt stabbed his heart, but it was for the best. At least that was what he kept telling himself…
"I'm fine Lily," He said giving her the fakest and weakest smile known to mankind.
She gave him a look and he knew that she didn't buy it for one second, "Don't insult my intelligence Remus. I know something happened between you and your friends- heck this entire tower knows."
He gulped nervously, "Really?"
She just nodded and settled herself next to him on the soft sofa. She looked over where his friends and two of her dorm mates were sitting. They had positioned themselves so that the two girls were sitting on the stairs to the girls' dorms and the boys were sitting around them in a little semicircle.
Ursula sneaked a look over at Remus for a brief second before she said something to Elyse before quickly disappearing up the stairs.
"You know Remus, I may not know how the guys feel but I've lived with Elyse and Ursula for the last two years. Elyse is very vocal about how she feels and she cares a lot about her friends so she is torn up about the whole thing. Ursula is another story. She may not show it all the time, but she takes everything personally. From her mother's howler last year to her mom beating her this summer; she claims it doesn't bother her, but it does."
Remus was shocked at what Lily said, "Ursula told you about this summer?"
Lily shook her head while laughing softly, "Do you think she would want my pity? She doesn't want to appear weak to everyone. It wasn't that hard to figure out what happened."
Remus was silent again. He knew his friends were hurt but it was better for everyone in the long run. They would go places in life; they didn't need a stupid, murderous monster holding them back. They deserved more than a werewolf for a friend.
A hand resting on his brought him out of his self-deprecating thoughts. He looked into Lily's brilliant green eyes and she gave his hand a soft squeeze before saying,
"I don't know what happened but you need them back Remus. And to be perfectly honest, I think they need you back more."
She smiled at him softly before she got up and walked up to her dorm. She had to step through the circle of boys and she may or may not have accidentally given James a kick to the leg when he asked her about Snivellus.
Just before she turned disappeared up the stairs, she turned around and gave Remus a small wave before disappearing up to her room.
Remus waved back to her and looked into the fire. After a moment, he covered his face with his hands, his elbows resting on his thighs. He may not want to admit it but there was no denying it as he listened to his friends' laughter only a short distance away from him. Lily was right; he did need them. He stole a look in their direction when their laughter cut short. They were looking right at him, sadness and disappointment and regret in their eyes.
And maybe, just maybe, they needed him more.
I know what you are probably thinking. Another chapter with the whole group fighting/ignoring one person? Didn't this just happen? Well, yes it did. But I am trying to keep a lot of this cannon so on top of everything I have planned, I needed to include a plot on how they discover his 'furry little problem'. This just happened to be the way I went with it. I am hoping to get the next chapter up by Monday but it might be sooner if I write it fast (I happen to write faster when I get reviews...hint...hint).