Chapter 8 – Roll with it

Monday morning dawned bright, fresh and cold. Remus lay huddled in bed with one of the many books he owned, and tried not to think about yesterday's letter. Eventually he gave up reading; the prospect of Katherine's reply, or lack of it, filling his mind. Books could never compare with real friendship.

A sharp tapping on his window made Remus leap out of bed and climb the chair that sat beneath it. He stared anxiously out into the sharp black eyes of a raven; it had a letter tied to it's leg.

Remus fumbled with the catch and pushed the window up, allowing the bird entry to his room. It fluttered in, landing on his bed post and promptly offered it's leg. Remus detached the note and unfolded it hurriedly, still unsure whether he wanted to read it or not.

He needn't have worried.

Dear Remus,

What are you on about? Why woodn't I want to be your friend? I know your a wherewolf. We had some wizards come around a few weeks ago looking for it. I guessed that was why you had to leave. You're wierd.

Katherine

PS: That letter wos abismallee short.

Remus had to read the letter a full five times before it sunk in. She knew – Katherine knew he was a werewolf, and what's more, she'd known before she even wrote to him. She knew...and she didn't care. In fact, she seemed far more concerned with the length of his message than his condition.

Remus grinned, snatched up pencil and parchment from his desk, and began his letter...

xxx

Charlotte Lupin couldn't understand the change that came over her son during the next few weeks. He went from being quiet and reserved to...well, almost normal. And he hadn't been able to stop grinning for days.

Whenever she or her husband questioned his sudden change of mood, Remus just grinned wider and told them it was nothing. Eventually they'd decided to just accept it – whatever it was, it made their son happy and that was all that mattered.

In another burst of good fortune, they received a letter that week from the headmaster of Hogwarts, informing them that Remus would be able to attend Hogwarts in four years time if he so wished. The letter indicated that the Ministry of Magic had agreed that, providing all safety requirements were met, Remus would be eligible to a full education just like everyone else. Dumbledore did not say what the requirements were, nor how they would be met, but the news was most welcome all the same.

The only odd thing Charlotte and John observed, was that as soon as they'd given Remus the good news, he ran upstairs, locked himself in his bedroom for half an hour, and refused to tell them what he was doing.

In fact, the only other person who ever discovered the reason behind this bizarre behaviour was a seven year old girl with jet black hair and bright blue eyes. Katherine Archer grinned as she read her friend's jubilant letter and sighed happily, glancing at the calendar on her bedroom wall and mentally ticking off another day till she'd get to see Remus again. Only four years to go...

xxx

Then, two years later, disaster struck once again in the form of a innocuous white envelope. A nine year old Katherine frowned as she gazed out of her bedroom window, deliberating over her newest letter to her best friend. She'd got as far as: Dear Remus, before she'd stopped. How was she supposed to tell him this?

She turned her fountain pen over and over in her hands, not knowing how to continue. 'Dear Remus, I'm moving to France. Good luck at Hogwarts. Love Katherine', didn't seem very appropriate somehow and yet there was no way of breaking it to him gently.

She dropped the pen on her desk and scowled out at the bright July afternoon. According to her parents, her father had been offered a new job in Paris, and that was that – they were going. It wasn't that Katherine didn't like France – they went there every summer, and she loved it, and thanks to her private school education, she'd been able to speak the language for years, but moving there was a different matter.

Her parents didn't seem to care that Katherine would have to move schools and make a whole new set of friends, or that she'd never get to go to Hogwarts now. Apparently there was another school – Beauxbaton – that French witches and wizards went to, so that's where she was going to end up.

It was just all so sudden, and it was made more shocking by the fact that Katherine hadn't even been aware her dad had applied for a job in the French police. They'd never even mentioned perhaps getting a holiday home in France, let alone moving there permanently, and now…

She sighed heavily, picked up her pen, and began to write.

xxx

Remus was climbing an apple tree at the bottom of his garden when the letter arrived. The apples weren't quite ripe yet, but the thick foliage hid him from any prying eyes. Bane fluttered onto a branch just above him and squawked a greeting.

Remus grinned and pulled himself onto a sturdy branch so he could read Katherine's letter. He untied it from Bane's leg and the raven immediately hopped away and began pecking at the young apples. Remus chuckled and turned the envelope over to slit it open. That was when he first noticed that something was wrong; there was no drawing over the seal.

Ever since her first letter, Katherine had always drawn some form of feline on the back of the envelope, partly as a sort of seal and partly as a private joke between the two friends. Remus always drew a crescent moon or a wolf on the back of his. She couldn't have forgotten, and yet it was definitely from her. The writing on the envelope matched hers, and Bane was her pet.

Remus frowned and opened the envelope, tugging the stiff paper out, unfolding it, and beginning to read.

Dear Remus…