CHAPTER SEVEN: TALKING TO HARRY.

Halloween came and with it the first Hogsmeade week end. The weather was cold but it was still a little sunny. I didn't feel like going to Hogsmeade but ventured in the entrance hall anyway before lunch. The third years were there with Filch and McGonagall checking their authorization. I spotted Harry and watch curiously as McGonagall told him off. The poor kid wasn't allowed to go to the village with his friend. His permission wasn't signed by his guardians. I was really sorry for him, after all, the wizard village was a great attraction for kids but it was an opportunity. Dumbles was nowhere in sight. Lupin was probably in his office at this hour of the day. And Harry was alone.

"Hey Potter!" I called.

He stared at me curiously. Well it was true it wasn't every day you could see me in the castle he didn't know me. And it was curious for a six year to talk to a third. He stopped in his track and waited for me politely.

"Sorry," I said, "Professor Lupin is probably waiting for you in his office, he asked me to tell you if I saw you."

He looked at me curiously.

"Do you know why he wants to see me?" he asked.

"Not really," I lied, "He just told me that he was hopping to talk to you."

"Oh, ok, thank you." He said.

I watched as he took the direction of the DADA classroom. I had to warn Lupin before he gets there. I change form in a desert area and ran in the same directions, taking some shortcuts.

I knocked and entered without waiting for an answer, he started berating me about politeness but I stopped him.

"Sorry, professor, Harry is on his way, I told him you were waiting for him and that you wanted to talk to him."

"Really?" he asked with a big grin. "Dumbledore isn't around?"

"Nop," I replied. "No Dumbledore for now, I'll keep an eye open for you. It would probably be a good idea to take the discussion outside, it is sunny after all."

He looked like a kid on Christmas day. I chuckled.

"Ok prof, I let you to your little chat, don't mess it up. And don't be afraid of telling him you knew his parents, he will probably be happy."

"Don't you want to come?" he asked a little pleading.

"Er… Harry will be more comfortable talking to you he doesn't know me. And it is between you and him…"

"You could come as LuLu," he said, "It would give me some courage."

I muttered some comment about the nickname. I wasn't used to it.

He was doing the dog puppy eyes. God, men are supposed to be manly and courageous, and not needing women, but seriously they don't have balls at all.

I sigh and agreed reluctantly. He smiled happily and opened the door leading to his bedroom so I could change without setting off the old coot's toys. I jumped on the desk while he closed the door, and installed myself comfortably on the papers he was grading. He glared at me but didn't have the time to push me away as Harry knocked on the door.

I could feel the two of them were anxious. I was watching their interaction with interest. I knew Lupin was a kind person as annoying as he could be with me, he wasn't a mean person. He was a person you could trust. Harry was a little wary at first about the professor; he asked some question about his boghart. I snorted a little inwardly. Maybe I could give a hand at the two of them, so they could relax a little. I started sniffing Harry, he giggled a little because I tickled him intentionally with my moustaches. I climbed carefully on him to not startle him and take precaution to not scratch him. He smelled a little of sickness witch was normal considering his condition. I take advantage of being a cat to make a close physical inventory. Harry and Lupin were chuckling at my behavior as I was climbing on the kid's head.

Lupin presented me a little more formally and warned him about my inner demon, telling the story of how he "cached me". The kid tensed a little at my contact on his shoulder but relaxed after a bit of cajoling on my part. I was being particularly sweet to him but I didn't have to try very hard. He was an animal person and had a calm presence. He must be good with magical creature, I realized. Lupin seemed grateful that I was making an inspection and cajoled Harry into going to the ground with him to take advantage of the sunny weather. I followed them, trotting on right and left.

The real conversation didn't start until we reached the lac. Some of the tentacles of the squid were surfacing; he was apparently taking the sun. Not that it could get a tan anyway. I chuckled inwardly. Deciding to let some space to my professor and Harry I let my inner cat took over and starting playing with the tentacles, I tickled it a little. The squid had always been playful, I had swum a few time in the lac, and had a few contact with the beast. It was just dying of boredom and wanted to play. I liked him quite a lot. Harry was laughing at my antics and joined me with Lupin. This one seemed to know the squid quite well, because he took out of his pocket some sweet. Who could have guess that a big calamari had a thing for sweet.

Harry started to ask how Lupin knew about the squid preferences. I observed him in the corner of my eyes. He had tense but there was some determination. He started to talk about his days at Hogwarts.

"You see Harry," he started, "I used to come her a lot with my friends when I was young. We used to swim in the lac when it was sunny outside and we even played with the squid. It wasn't me who discovered about the squid weakness about sweets. It was your father. James was one of my best friends when I was at school…"

He explained gently to his son's friend that he was a friend of James, and later Lily. I listened quietly as Lupin talked about his youth and Harry's parents. It was entertaining at least. The kid was hanging on his every word. He had a thirst of knowledge about his parents that seem disturbing. It startled Lupin a little. Harry explained it to the professor.

"It is the first time someone tells me something about my parents that isn't about my appearance. All I have heard is that I look like my father, but I have my mom's eyes, and that my dad was good at transfiguration and my mom was a genius in charms. I didn't even know how they looked like until the end of my first year when Hagrid gave me a photo album."

Lupin was outraged that his son's best friend didn't even know all of that until he started Hogwarts. The magic was swirling once again around him. I sigh inwardly. Why couldn't he control himself? Seriously I didn't want the headmaster interrupting this reunion. I climbed on Lupin's lap and started working on absorbing part of the magic. It's a cat's ability. It is said that normal cat can sense when you are sad or nervous, they have an ability to calm down someone. It's the same for me but it has to do with magic because I am not a normal cat. I am part human and I am a witch. So it is kind of obvious.

"You didn't know about James and Lily before you started Hogwarts?" Lupin had somehow calmed down enough to ask the question. I had this feeling he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Er…No. All the Dursley's told me was that they had died in a car accident, that my dad was a worthless drunk and that it was his fault if my mom was dead."

Lupin started an angry colorful tirade about Dumbledore and where the hell he had sent him. Seriously the guy was always berating me for my language and he had a better insult repertory than I did.

Harry obviously didn't understand Lupin's reaction. I nudge Lupin with my head and pointed at Harry. He regained his bearing and sighed heavily. It was under control for now but I was sure that when harry will be out of sight he was going to explode. I understood him perfectly. I was starting to get mad too. There had been some warning. But still. It was taking it too far. The fact that it was the first time that he heard stories about his parent's youth at Hogwarts was sad. It seemed he didn't even know how they looked like until his first year at school, and that until his eleventh birthday he didn't know how they died.

Lupin then explained during half of an hour what happened back in 1981. Well not all of it. He explained how he had tried to have custody, how it was refused to him. He explained about the gift the letters and how Dumbledore didn't even tell him where he was sent.

Harry obviously didn't understood how people and especially the headmaster could have deprived him from one of the last link he had to his parents.

"You mean you didn't know I was sent to my mum's sister?"

Lupin face went blank. I stared curiously. I felt vibrations in the air around him. He was going to lose it. Shit.

I didn't know what it was about Lily's sister that sends Lupin into a catatonic state but it was certainly bad. I meowed.

"You mean to tell me that Dumbledore sent you to leave with that dreadful woman and her pig of a husband? He sent you to live with people who hate magic? How in the hell did you ended up there?"

Lupin's voice was barely controlled. I was hissing furiously. If the kid had lived all his childhood with people who hated magic… I was afraid to even imagine what could have happen to him.

"Well…" stammered Harry uncomfortably. "Apparently they found me on their doorstep with a letter explaining things…"

"What?" roared Lupin. "They found you on their doorstep with just a letter?"

"Er… Yeah. That's what they told me anyway. Found me in the morning with just a letter from Dumbledore…"

"In the morning… he let you on their doorstep in the middle of the night with a fucking letter? Is it even legal to let a one year old in the middle of a November night on a fucking doorstep with a single fucking letter? Didn't he even talk to them? Was he mad? You don't let a child on a doorstep like an abandoned kitten, fuck!"

Lupin was going on and on. Harry stared at him with a puzzle expression. He wasn't afraid witch was a good thing and he seemed even grateful that someone was concerned about him. Lupin was literally losing his shit. He was pacing back and forth. It was good thing we were out of sight of the castle. But I knew Dumbles would be tracking Harry down here soon enough when he'll realized he was probably with Lupin.

He needed to get his shit together and soon. I meowed loudly to get his attention. Harry glanced at me curiously. I knew I was acting a little too intelligent as a cat but we didn't have a lot of time. Lupin appeared to realize where he was and with who. He pulled himself together quickly. He kneeled before Harry to at his level eyes.

"Listen to me Harry," he said seriously, "If I have had the choice twelve years ago, I would have raised you without hesitation, and I would have happily done it. I don't know why the old coot…"

I meowed, that was my line! Lupin rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

"As I said, I don't know why our dear headmaster sent you to be raise in hell, but I know that I have known you since you were a little baby and I care about you Harry. If you let me, I would like to get to know you better, and I would like to have the possibility to take care of you as much as I could for now. Is that ok with you?"

"Sure." Said Harry smiling happily. I smiled inwardly. I liked the kid. I couldn't help it. Maybe I could convert him so we could annoy Lupin together…

"And it is going to sound a little farfetched but if it could stay between us it would be better, I have some… reserve about professor Dumbledore right now, and I think he may try to keep us apart. He had done so for twelve years already."

"Ok, I understand." Said Harry a little bit perturbed by the request. "Can I tell it to Ron or Hermione?" he asked.

Lupin sighed and seems to hesitate.

"Not right now, maybe later when we will have talk a little more."

I heard some cracks in the trees behind us about two hundred meters away. Lupin heard it too as he tenses. Harry was oblivious as to why his professor was now hastily getting up. Weird. Lupin had a good hearing. Was he an animagus?

"We don't have time anymore Harry. If the headmaster asks, we have been talking about dementors and the way to defend yourself against them. You want to learn it. Understand?"

Harry nodded and Lupin launched himself on a discussion about dementors and patronus.

Five minutes later, the headmaster stumbles by a lucky chance on his new professor and his favorite pupil. What a shit liar. I was a pro at reading between the line and he wasn't happy about the little chit chat Harry and Lupin were having. He started to rant about how insecure it was to wander on the ground with a killer on the louse and proposed Harry to accompany him to the hall. Lupin jumped in and said they were about to go back. I didn't trust the old man, I was suspecting he might want to obliviate Harry as soon as he was alone with him. Or Lupin. I jumped in Harry's arms. I was going to stuck him like glue, Lupin could defend himself alright, the kid was only thirteen and defenseless when it concerned old meddling and smelling man.

The DADA professor shot me a brief grateful glance. The kid seemed to have understood that his headmaster was somehow not happy about the current situation and was starting to realize something was wrong. He didn't meet the old man's eyes, something I was grateful for. He kept petting me and played a little with me keeping silent on the way to the castle. I started once again to play with his hair. The bird's nest that was taking place up there was just to fun to play with. Dumbles chuckled a little.

"Oh, Remus I see you had kept that cat. He seems to be quite playful, isn't he?"

Lupin's acting skills were amazing. He had kept his cool something I found amazing in the current circumstances.

"I didn't find who he belonged to Albus, and he seems to have a thing for me when he is not throwing thing off of my desk. I decided to keep him for now; it is comforting to have a little bit of a presence in my quarters at night."

I glared at my professor. He was implying I was a male, which I had to admit was quite a good idea but I didn't have to like it. And he had remind me of the night I had spent as a cat in his bed just to annoy me. What did I say about his acting skill again? Lupin was pure evil.