Lupin lay sprawled on the ground before me. He groaned and looked around. He'd landed on and broken three cornstalks.
"What do you want?" I demanded.
"Olivia, it's me," he said. I didn't exactly lower my wand.
"I know."
"Why are you pointing your wand at me? We used to be friends…we're both in the Order."
I lowered my wand.
"We were more than friends," I muttered as I stowed away my wand.
"It's stupid to be mad at me for that," he pointed out. "You knew."
I had nothing to say to this.
"What are you doing here? In Ireland?" I demanded. "How did you find me?"
He let out a groan and tried to get to his feet. By the light of the half moon I could see his robes were more tattered than ever before and he looked as if he had aged ten years since I last saw him at the meeting.
I recalled that he had been living amongst savage werewolves and felt pity for him. I helped him to his feet.
"Thanks," he said.
"Whatever. What happened to your cane?"
"One of the little werewolves chewed it up."
"There are baby werewolves?" I asked, thinking this was both horrible and cute.
"Well there are children who were turned and there are the children of the alpha male and female…" he said, his voice sounding distant.
He was silent a moment.
"Dumbledore helped me find you," he said finally.
"Oh of course," I scoffed. "Why?"
"I need someplace to stay for a while. He thought I could work on the farm- he said there are a lot of Squibs who work here and less-skilled wizards. Plus there's all that forest, so when I transform…"
I looked up at the sky, at the moon.
"Why? Why me? Why now?" I said, then looked back at him. "I thought you were underground?"
"That, ah…well, it backfired," he said and showed me a particularly nasty gash on his arm.
I tried to ignore the pang of concern I felt.
"When did it happen?" I asked coolly.
"Late last night. I went to Dumbledore immediately and he suggested I come out here. I've been out here all day, scoping things out."
I shook my head.
"Why did you lure me out here? Why not just come and knock at the house?" I asked.
"Well, I wasn't so sure that Severus would be thrilled to see me And I thought maybe if I talked to you first…"
"Ugh," I exclaimed, frustrated, and kicked at one of the downed cornstalks. "Why do you have to come and ruin everything? This is supposed to be a vacation. Life is supposed to be simple."
"I'm not here to complicate things. I just need a place to stay," he said quickly. "…If you don't want me to stay, just say so. I'll leave."
I let out a frustrated growl and took off through the corn. I wasn't going to tell him he couldn't stay. The farm was supposed to be a safe haven.
I morphed into my Animagus form in order to find my way out of the field. Then I let my instinct carry me away form the corn and back to the barn. I slipped inside quietly and Titri started to whinny. I quickly morphed back into human.
"Shh," I said soothingly. "I'm sorry."
The filly quieted down. I approached her stall but she wouldn't let me touch her so I went over to Moonstar instead. I patted her and talked to her quietly, then sat down on a stool just inside her stall so I could run my fingers through her mane while I pondered my predicament.
I felt suddenly as if someone else were in the barn with me. I looked up, expecting to see Lupin or at least Don. What I saw instead was a seventeen-year-old red-haired girl with almond-shaped emerald green eyes, leaning against the stall door and looking down at me with a mild expression on her face.
"Hey Livvy. How's it going?" Lily Evans asked me casually.
"How's it going?" I repeated. "Great. Excellent. I'm just completely insane, that's all. Seeing dead people I've never met. As if my night didn't suck enough already."
"We have met," she said indifferently.
"When, on Spinner's End? That doesn't count."
"No. When you were a baby."
"…You knew my mother?"
"No I didn't know Lynn. Or Ellen."
"…Severus?"
She nodded.
"He brought you to me first when he found you. We cleaned you up and took care of you before he took you to Ellen."
I could think of nothing to say to this. I noticed what she was wearing for the first time- boots, jeans and a white t-shirt. Her red hair was in one long braid down her back and she wore a white cowgirl cat on her head.
"Why me?" I asked for the second time that night. "You know Severus will know I've seen you. It will just upset him."
And in that instant I really didn't like her, charismatic person though she was.
"I don't mean to hurt him. I never meant to hurt him…" she said softly, then shook her head. "This isn't about him."
"Who is it about?"
"Remus. He needs a place to stay."
"I'm aware," I said coolly.
"Are you letting him stay?"
"I don't really have a choice. I have to do what I can to help the Order. Besides, he could use the job and he would fit in well here…"
"And you and Severus can brew the Wolfsbane for him."
"What? No we can't. The month is half over," I said. "There isn't enough time to brew it."
"There is. Start tomorrow, add double the Wolfsbane on the seventh day. Stir it three times clockwise, three counterclockwise each night at sunset every day of the week leading up to the moon. And watch it carefully to ensure it doesn't start to boil, just let it simmer. And Remus should take it every night for three days before the full moon."
I stared at her silently.
"Have some parchment and a quill by any chance?" I asked dryly.
"You'll remember it," she said certainly. "…I know you are a good person at heart, Olivia. You will help Remus."
"Yeah…but what about Severus?"
"Don't' worry about that- Severus loves you."
"…He loves you," I said somewhat bitterly.
"You and I are very alike," she admitted. "But Severus loves you, Olivia."
I stood with a sigh. Lily walked around the barn, looking at the horses. She stopped outside of Titri's stall and snapped her fingers. The filly's ears perked up and she trotted over to Lily and allowed her to pet her soft muzzle.
"Hey," I said, leaving Moonstar's stall and walking over to Titri's."
"She's a very smart horse," Lily said. "She has a lot of energy."
Cautiously I reached out and touched Titri. She didn't pull away.
"You'll find Lupin down by the river," Lily said, taking the hat off her head and putting in on my own. "Oh I almost forgot- when you go to make the potion, add honeysuckle. It eases off that illness. You'll find honeysuckle is a good addition to a lot of potions."
"What is this, a potions lesson from beyond?" I asked. She chuckled.
"No. I learned these things from experimenting. You have good instincts, Livvy- follow them."
And then she was gone. Just like that. One minute she was there, the next she was gone and I was left with a cowgirl hat. My hand was still on Titri's muzzle and she didn't seem the least bit disturbed.
"I guess I'd better go see Lupin… I hope you're still this nice tomorrow," I said to the horse and she nickered.
I left the barn and touched the hat on my head, making sure it was still there.
It was a long walk to the river but I didn't want to risk transforming and losing the hat.
Lupin was sitting with his back against an oak tree, his feet trailing in the river.
"There are snakes in there you know," I said as I approached. He looked up, not surprised to see me there.
"I've been bitten by worse," he stated simply.
I tried not to laugh and he grinned.
"So…can I stay?" he asked anxiously.
"You can. I guess."
"Thank you," he said. He stood up, put his shoes back on, and we started towards the house.
"Where did you get the hat?" he asked.
"It's a mystical object that shouldn't exist. Some sort of delusion or phenomenon," I murmured.
"Really? It looks like a hat to me."
I pondered what to do the whole walk back to the house but was saved the need to make a decision when Ms. Hudson came out the house as we approached. She wore a furry pink housecoat and matching slippers. She held a flashlight in her hand. She didn't even ask for an explanation.
"Come on dearie. We'll get you a nice cup of tea and something to eat. How does that sound?" she asked, taking Lupin by the arm.
"Excellent," he said, wincing slightly as she had unknowingly grabbed his injured arm, "Really excellent. Thank you."
I followed the two of them into the kitchen. Ms. Hudson motioned for Lupin to sit at the counter on a stool while she boiled water for tea and searched for something for him to eat. Under the fluorescent lights, Lupin looked even older, dirtier and even wearier than he had outside. The gash on his arm looked worse, too.
"I'll get you something for your arm," I told him. "…Don't worry. Ms. Hudson will take good care of you."
"I'm sure," he said, smiling politely at her. "Ms. Hudson, is it? My name is Remus John Lupin. It was very rude of Olivia not to introduce us."
I made a face at him and left the kitchen.
I went upstairs quietly and crept past the door to Snape's room. The light was out and I hoped that meant he was asleep. I went to my own room and dug through my suitcase in the compartment where I kept my medical supplies and potions ingredients until I found all the things I needed. Then I crept back downstairs, levitating the lot of it in front of me with my wand.
When I came back into the kitchen Lupin was eating ravenously from a plate of leftovers Ms. Hudson had fixed for him.
"You eat like you haven't had a decent meal in ages," Ms. Hudson said to him.
"I haven't eaten a meal this good since I quit teaching at Hogwarts," he said through a mouth filled with ham and biscuit.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," I said sharply, frowning, as I laid out my supplied.
He rolled his eyes at me and closed his mouth.
"Why did you quit teaching?" Ms. Hudson asked him curiously. He and I exchanged looks.
"She should know," I said. "You're going to be staying here, after all."
He nodded solemnly and waved his hand at me, since he was still eating.
"…Remus is a werewolf, Ms. Hudson," I said, regarding her reaction carefully. She didn't seem fazed.
"Oh you're not the first, dearie," she said dismissively.
"Wha- really?" I asked. "Who else? Anyone I know?"
"Hm… Do you remember Rudy?" she asked.
"Sure."
Rudy was a big, burly black man who had been around when one year when Ellen and I had visited. He had mucked out stalls, fed the cows, did the milking, fixed the doors…anything he got asked to do, he did. He was skilled at any type of manual labor.
"He was one. They come and go throughout the years and they never stay long, but they are damned good workers. As long as you stay away from the horses and get far off during the full moon, we'll be fine."
"I will," he said solemnly.
"You aren't so different, dear," Ms. Hudson said. "Werewolves aren't the weirdest people we've had around here."
"Really?" he said, intrigued.
"Well sure. Used to be this girl we let stay up in the attic- that's where she wanted to stay- that was covered in thick, long hair, all over her body. Some sort of charm or potion that backfired, that they hadn't been able to reverse. She looked like cousin It from The Addams Family."
Lupin and I exchanged confused looks.
"It's a Muggle TV show," she explained. "Her name was Nora- leastways, that's what we called her. She couldn't really talk though. Used to help me clean."
"Well that's not as bad as turning into a savage beast once a month," Lupin pointed out. "Nora never killed anyone, did she?"
"You won't kill anyone," she said dismissively. "You can lock yourself in the root cellar, with magic. That's what some of the others did."
"Actually that won't be necessary," I interrupted. "Severus and I will be brewing the Wolfsbane Potion for him."
"But the month is half over," Lupin pointed out. "Doesn't it take a whole month?"
I thought quickly.
"There have been some breakthroughs," I said. "There is a whole Healer's team dedicated to experimenting with Wolfsbane at St. Mungo's. …I feel confident I can do it in two weeks. And if not, well, I'm an Animagus. I've controlled you before."
I didn't want to admit where I'd actually gotten the idea for the Wolfsbane- after all, that would mean admitting I was totally insane. It was bad enough I was going to have to let Snape know I had seen the ghost of his ex-love once again. Luckily, both Lupin and Ms. Hudson were ready to believe my lie- Ms. Hudson seemed more intrigued by the fact that I was an Animagus and wanted me to show her.
"Later. I want to work on his arm. He's got quite a nasty gash," I said. Lupin nodded and pulled up his sleeve to show her.
"Oh my! That looks terrible," she gasped, turning a bit green. "Uhm…It's rather late. I think I'll turned in. Livvy looks like she can handle it."
She bade us goodnight and scurried out of the kitchen.
"Huh. I wouldn't have pegged her as the squeamish type," Lupin said, watching her leave.
"She is. She fainted when I broke my arm as a kid. Luckily, Ellen was able to heal it pretty quickly."
"You broke your arm?"
"Yeah. Fell out of an apple tree. While you're just sitting there, can you look for a knife for me? Most preferably a fillet knife."
"Wait, why do you need a fillet knife? You're not cutting into my arm, are you?" he asked, panicked.
"Don't be ridiculous," I snorted.
While he rummaged through the drawers I put his plate- which he had practically licked clean- into the sink. Then I laid my Dittany on Ms. Hudson's ceramic cutting board.
"Got it," Lupin said, and handed me the knife handle-first.
"Good," I said as I began rapidly dicing the Dittany. "Now, shirt off."
He smiled slightly.
"I would say something witty but I don't want to push my luck."
"Don't," I warned, pointing at him with the fillet knife. He raised his hands innocently.
He removed his shirt, which was ripped and dirty, and sat down again. I worked on his arm for a good half hour, carefully cleansing the wound with an antiseptic I mixed up, then putting essence of Dittany on it. If it had been any other wound, it would be nothing but a scar by that point, but this one was still oozing blood.
"…Did a werewolf do this to you?" I asked, dabbing on some more Dittany.
"Duh," he said, his teeth set against the pain.
"But he wasn't transformed."
"No. It is still considered a magical bite. It will take a while to heal."
I frowned at the wound and after trying a few other things- Lupin claimed I was purposefully torturing him- I bound the wound well with bandages.
"Don't let that get wet," I warned as he helped me clean up.
The clock on the wall said 2 a.m. by the time it was all over.
"Where can I sleep?" Lupin asked. "I'm exhausted."
"Hm. Tomorrow you'll be in the workers quarters. For tonight you can sleep upstairs."
He followed me upstairs and I opened my bedroom door.
"You can sleep in here. Don't touch any of my stuff. There's a bathroom across the hall, you can shower if you want. Just try not to make a lot of noise- Snape's room is right next door."
"And who's room are you going to be sleeping in?" he asked somewhat playfully.
"Don't," I growled. He just smiled and walking into the room. He looked around curiously.
"Cute," he said, grinning at the horse bedspread.
"Shut up," I snapped. "…Don't let Severus see you in the morning before I can talk to you. Don't leave the bedroom door open. Don't get your bandages wet, don't sleep on your left side, and don't take the bandages off."
"Yes Healer Cain," he said lightly.
I scowled and shut the door on him.
I went into Snape's room quietly so as not to wake him. I felt somewhat guilty, though I hadn't done anything wrong. I kicked off my shoes and crawled into bed. Snape moved in his sleep to put his arms around me.
"I love you," he murmured.
"You won't in the morning," I murmured back, but he wasn't really awake.