Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter Series or any of its characters. All rights belong to J.K. Rowling. There are mentions of assault in this chapter, so viewer discretion is advised. I will place a trigger warning just before the section.
For the next week Remus did his best to focus on his work and healing. Unfortunately, as the wounds he'd suffered had been more intense than the last time they were taking a good bit more time to heal. But after a week or so they'd healed up nicely, well as nicely as they could. The slightest bit of tenderness remained but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Things had been looking up for him and he did have a spring in his step, but the look on Murphy's face when he'd blamed Remus had really unsettled him. He really couldn't shake the feeling that Murphy was going to do something stupid. So, Remus did what he thought was best and kept an eye on him. Not for his sake but for Elizabeth's. He didn't care if Murphy did something to him, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened to Elizabeth.
Friday rolled around and the common room was buzzing with excitement for Hogsmeade. He too was excited, he finally felt alive. He'd be heading in alone this time, both James and Peter had found themselves in detention on Saturday and Sirius had a date with a cute Ravenclaw. Nevertheless, he wanted to make the most of the Saturday. He and his mates had occupied the large sofa in the common room, they were far too large for all 4 to sit but they made it work, although Peter was crushing one of his legs.
"It's not fair that we've got detention and you 2 don't." Peter moaned, he'd been complaining all day about it. "Well, if you hadn't tripped while running you wouldn't be in this situation. And I wouldn't have gotten myself caught up in it." James too complained. From where Sirius and Remus had hidden, they watched as Peter hit the floor, the shriek from James as he scrambled to help him. They had watched as Slughorn had found the 2 of them.
"Next time try not to trip over your own 2 feet." Sirius laughed only for Peter to wallop him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Thus, resulting in a small tussle between the two, neither one really trying to hurt the other. Although both Remus and James had found themselves in the line of fire. Remus took an elbow to the rib and James had had his glasses knocked off.
"Seriously you boys are such children." Lily had picked up James's glasses from the floor, "Try not to break them." Without another word she walked off, throwing James his glasses.
The fight stopped as the three boys laughed at the lovesick James. His eyes glistening with joy over the small interaction with Lily. "I'm in love boys."
Slowly the common room began to empty, the younger students headed up first slowly followed by the rest. Both James and Peter had headed up early, both having to be up at the crack of dawn to serve detention. Remus took this time to talk to Sirius about the Murphy situation. He wanted to express his concerns with someone. The two remained where they were, Sirius's legs thrown over his own. Remus had told Sirius about his interaction with Murphy in the library and why he felt so unsettled.
"I feel like I may have played a part in that. Liz told me that Murphy asked her out. I told her she should accept." Remus saw red. He didn't understand why Sirius would do that when he knew how Remus felt about her.
"You what?! Are you serious?! How could you do that?" Remus pushed Sirius's legs off him. "In my defence, you said it yourself. You have no intentions on following through with your feelings. I thought that it may kick you into gear. I thought that you would finally stop wallowing in self-pity and actually ask her out. My intentions were good." Remus remained silent. "Now that you've mentioned it, I have noticed a weird look on Murphy's face when he looks at both you and Liz."
Neither spoke for a while. Finally, Remus spoke up. "If she gets hurt that's on you.". Sirius shrugged and left him alone. Sirius knew it was best to leave Remus alone, so he headed back up to the dorm leaving Remus alone with his thoughts.
Remus wasn't entirely sure how long he'd stayed in the common room after Sirius's revelation. His mind had been spinning and he just didn't feel like being in the same room as the friend he thought he could trust. His gaze was trained on the flickering fire before him. He was deep in thought, when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He whipped around and was met by Elizabeth. She looked exhausted but none the less a smile played on her lips. She didn't say much but sat next to him.
"Everything ok, Lizzie?" Remus grew concerned as she said nothing. Her body pressed against him. "Had a nightmare, it was pretty horrifying." She smiled up at him and he noted the faint tear marks on her face. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Her smile faded and he watched as tears began to fall. He didn't know what to do, he wasn't used to seeing women cry. Especially women that always seemed so strong. Elizabeth buried her face into Remus's shirt. He did the only thing he could think of and held her tightly, offering her his support. He didn't need her to tell him what had happened, he just wanted to be there for him. At some point her crying stopped and he suspected that she'd fallen asleep. Remus did his best to dislodge her from his side and lay her out on the sofa throwing a blanket on top to keep her warm. He contemplated heading back up to his dorm but with the state she'd been in he decided to take the smaller sofa across from her, his frame much to large for it but he didn't care. With that he'd fallen asleep.
Remus was woken up by James and Peter making their way to their early morning detention. He jumped as they roughly jostled him, "Moony, what the hell are you doing?" He blinked a few times, briefly forgetting that he'd fallen asleep in the common room. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced towards the sofa where he'd left Lizzie. She had left but the blanket he'd placed on her he now found himself wrapped up in. He smiled, before getting up. His bones cracking like mad as he was finally able to stretch out.
"What time is it?" All three boys cast their heads towards the clock, 6am. Remus groaned. It was far too early for him to be up, considering the eventful night he'd had. "Mate, head upstairs." He nodded and watched as his best friends sullenly made their way out of the common room, a day of detention ahead of them. Remus went up to his room and got back into bed, however he was already awake, no matter how much he wished himself to sleep he just couldn't.
Once he was showered and dressed, he made his way out to the courtyard. Autumn had truly arrived. The morning dew was still fresh as he took a deep breath of air. He took a seat on a ledge and pulled out his book. He had almost finished reading so took this time to do so. Slowly the castle began to rise, he could hear the voices of students now, most clearly making their way to breakfast which he was in dire need of.
When he walked into the Great Hall, he saw Sirius sitting in their usual spot alone. Remus, while still angry at Sirius felt that he was probably a bit harsh towards Sirius. He decided that he should probably apologise to him. Honestly, he couldn't really stay mad at him. Considering Sirius's heart hadn't in a bad place when he did what he did. A look of relief washed over Sirius 's face as Remus made his way towards him, "Morning, Padfoot." Sirius cracked a smile and pulled Remus down to sit next to him, "I'm sorry about yesterday." Both boys apologised at the same time causing them both to laugh.
"I'm still annoyed, but I get why you did it." There was some honesty behind Remus' words but deep down he was still angry because he really was concerned about Liz. The two chatted away until it was time to leave. Both went their separate ways, with Sirius running off to find his date.
Once in Hogsmeade Remus set about getting the bits and bobs he needed, with a much needed stop in Honeydukes to restock his chocolate supply, that had taken quite a hit with the last full moon. Honeydukes was packed with students, he had to fight his way past the younger students to get to the chocolate. If there was one thing most people knew about Remus was that he loved chocolate. When he was a child, he'd never been a huge fan of it until he heard that it was poisonous for dogs. As silly as it was, he thought that if he ate it the wolf inside him would die. However, that was not the case and instead of doing that he'd ended up with a love of it. With his haul of chocolate secured Remus headed to the Three Broomsticks for a much needed butterbeer. It was busy, but he was sure that he'd seen Sirius among the crowd, however, the girl he spotted with him wasn't the one he'd left with. Remus managed to find himself a small table. Glad that he could sit down. Marlene made her way over to him.
"Hey Remus, where are the other 3?" Marlene pulled the chair out across from him and spilled some of her butterbeer as she did. "Guess?" Marlene thought for a second, "Well I saw Sirius snogging some girl earlier so he's on a date and I'm guessing Peter and James found themselves in detention."
"Bingo." He replied, "Where's Lizzie? I thought you two were hanging out today, at least that's what she told me."
"Well Murphy wanted to have a word with her, so she told me to head in first and that she'd catch up with me…although that was about 10ish minutes ago." Remus eyes went wide, and he slammed the almost empty tankard down. Marlene looked concerned at the sudden shift in Remus demeanour. "Is everything okay?"
"Where are they?" His voice was thick with panic and fear. "Remus what's happening?" Remus didn't bother to answer but grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the exit, "Stop it, you're hurting me." Remus let go of her wrist. "We need to find her now!" Marlene nodded and the two of them exited the pub.
TRIGGER WARNING
They frantically looked around together. She was nowhere to be seen. They asked any students that they saw. If they'd seen her. Nobody had. Then they heard it, the blood curdling scream. Both locked eyes with each other and took off in the direction of the scream. What they found made them sick to their stomachs.
Murphy had torn at Elizabeth's clothes and shoved her against the wall as he tried to attack her. Remus was enraged, he didn't remember a lot of what had happened other than having Sirius pull him off Murphy, blood dripping from his knuckles. Near him he could see Elizabeth in tears as Marlene held her, she was battered and bruised.
The events that followed were a blur. The authorities had been called in along with Dumbledore. Remus was questioned for what felt like hours about what had happened, he hadn't been allowed to see anyone. Eventually Remus was cleared and allowed to head back to the castle under the supervision of McGonagall. She had done her best to help him. Reassuring him that Elizabeth was ok and that he wasn't in any trouble. She rested a hand on his shoulder as they arrived at the entrance to the school. "Remus, you're ok. Everything is ok." She reassured him but he felt the tears coming. He hunched down, trying his best to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. "I knew something like this could've happened. What if I hadn't been there." His voice was shaky, he ran his hands through his hair. McGonagall squatted down before him. "But you we're there. Because of you Elizabeth is safe." She smiled, taking his hands gently in hers, "She's going to be ok." He took a few shaky breaths before picking himself up.
When he entered the school Marlene flung herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face. The eyeliner she'd been wearing smudged all over her face. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd have done without her." He wrapped his arms tightly around her.
"Did he, did he touch her?" his voice was barely audible. "He didn't. Her clothes were torn in the struggle. He said he had no intensions of… when …when she tried to walk away, he grabbed her and then they fought. She was trying to get back to me." He held Marlene close as she continued to cry.
Finally, Remus found the strength to go to the hospital wing. He wanted to check on Elizabeth. He needed to know that she was ok. That she hadn't been seriously injured. His injured knuckles forgotten about. He pushed open the door to the hospital wing and looked inside. He saw Madam Pomfrey and Elizabeth talking. She looked awful but a lot better than Remus had been expecting. The creaking of the door caused both women to look in his direction. Madam Pomfrey ushered him into the hospital wing, "Come in. We've been waiting for you."
He made his way over to where the two women were. Elizabeth had changed out of her torn clothes and into a hospital gown. Her left arm bandaged, lip split and a black eye. His face still dropped at the sight of her. "Remus, your hand!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she saw the dried blood and bruises that mottled his hands. "Don't worry about them." He sat down next to her bed. Madam Pomfrey left the two to talk. She needed to gather up the necessary lotions and potions for Remus.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, she smiled at him the best she could, however, winced when the cut on her lip opened back up. Remus handed her a tissue which she used to dab away at the blood. "A bit battered and bruised but nothing I'm not used to. I'm just shocked is all. I never thought Murphy would do something like this." Remus said nothing and cast his eyes down towards his hands.
"I thought something might happen. I'm sorry I didn't stop it before it happened." Elizabeth took his hands in hers as gently as she could. "Yesterday, I had a run in with Murphy. He was giving off this weird vibe. Like I felt uncomfortable around him. Anyway. The nightmare I had last night was about him. I thought I was being ridiculous so when he asked to talk today, I thought why not. I wanted to set the record straight. When he didn't like what I had to say…it got out of control." The smile that she had on her face hadn't left. "Thank you, Remus. Thank you for everything." For the first time since the event had taken place he smiled. "Anytime." The two continued to hold hands till Madam Pomfrey came back to bandage his hands.
That night Remus chose to skip dinner. Word had gotten around about what had happened and he didn't want to get stared out. James, Sirius and Peter fussed over him like parents. They wouldn't let him do a thing. They went down to the kitchens to get food so that Remus wouldn't have the whole school looking at him. They wanted to eat all together.
"I'm sorry." Everyone whipped around to look at Sirius, he'd been pretty silent since he'd come back. "It's my fault she got hurt." James and Peter did their best to tell him that he did nothing wrong and that it was an unfortunate event. What James and Peter said didn't matter to Sirius. He really wanted to hear what Remus had to say. Everyone waited for Remus to reply. "It's not your fault. You didn't know he was that kind of guy." Remus had initially wanted to blame Sirius, but while they'd been together since he came back, he'd given the situation some thought. Sirius didn't know what kind of guy Murphy was. Murphy seemed for the most part like a decent guy until his date with Elizabeth. Nobody could've known that he would get physical over something as insignificant as a rejection.
James and Peter headed off to bed early. Both had been absolutely knackered from their detention which left Sirius and Remus alone. "How did you find me? The events are kind of a blur, but I remember you pulling me off of Murphy." Remus asked.
"I saw you and Marlene leave in a hurry and then when I saw all your abandoned bags, I got worried. I followed you out. When I heard the scream, I ran. Then I saw you beating the shit out of Murphy, and I just had to jump in, for your safety." Sirius replied, he chewed on his bottom lip, "With you being a registered… you know…Moony. I just couldn't let anything happened to you since you've been working so hard." Remus pulled Sirius into a brief hug. He'd hugged more people in the last 24hrs than he probably had in years.
They talked for a while longer. Then they both called it a night. Remus did his best to sleep but the events of the day kept popping up. Remus genuinely thought that if Sirius hadn't jumped in Moony would've taken over and he'd be on his way to Azkaban.
Authors Note: Thank you to everyone who has taken time to read my story. I really appreciate it. I know that the majority of this story has been super dramatic so far. I apologise for making it so dramatic. I promise that we will get some happier fluffier chapters soon. I hope you continue to read and enjoy my story. Love NipponLife