A/N: Drabble written for The Houses Competition Year 10 round 8.

Prompt(s): [Restriction] Remus Lupin POV

[Action] Dancing in the rain

The Dance of Life

The rain beat against the window of my apartment and the sound of it made for the perfect background music to the book I was reading. It had been silent for about six minutes when Sirius' voice, coming from my couch, broke into my thoughts again.

"Moony. In an ideal world, what job would you like to do?"

I had to think for a moment. The wind outside was banging against my windows and I realised that Storm Margaret was really hitting the United Kingdom now. I put the bookmark on the page I was reading and shut it carefully.

"I think I'd like to teach," I replied thinking.

Sirius broke out into immediate, loud laughter, and when he looked at my face, he asked, "You are serious?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"You are Sirius," I replied automatically.

Sirius rolled his eyes, he didn't like it if I made the 'Sirius or serious' joke instead of him.

"Moony," he whined.

"Yes, I'd like to teach, because I have had enough practice motivating people by helping all three of you study ever since we became friends. So, I think I got it," I said.

Sirius looked shocked.

"Moony!" he said baffled whilst pushing his fingers dramatically on his chest in a performance of flagrant shock, "I've never heard you boast like this. I'd like to think James and I are rubbing off on you."

"It appears so," I replied, rolling my eyes

"So, how are you going to accomplish this?" Sirius asked, getting ready to take action on my dream.

I raised my eyebrows at him and moved a little in my seat. My muscles whined under the pain of being moved again and I gritted my teeth just for a second.

"I hate to give you a reality check about my dream job, Padfoot, but it's not for me. No one will let me teach and I don't blame them."

The rising anger inside of me of the injustice of my situation hurt me more than my broken body did.

We fell into momentary silence, both pondering the situation I was in. The book in my hand was forgotten, as was the rain that was pouring down, and I could not help but feel my heartbeat rising in annoyance.

After more minutes had passed, Sirius inhaled loudly, stood up and extended his hand towards me. "Follow me."

After pulling me up, Sirius put on his shoes and motioned me to do the same.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"You and I are going to live."

He opened the front door and grabbed my hand. I wanted to get our cloaks because it was storming outside, and I'd never seen such pouring rain before, but Sirius didn't let me. He pulled me out of the apartment and threw the door shut behind me.

He pulled me outside into the pouring rain and guided me towards the abandoned park near my apartment.

Within seconds, I was soaking wet and the rain was streaming down my face. I stepped into a big puddle and with each step I felt the anger, the powerlessness, lessen because of the elements that crashed down upon us. There was nothing I could do about it.

Once at the park, Sirius let go of my hand and began moving, he twirled around like a wannabe ballerina, jumped up and down and then began to dance like his parents had taught him.

There was no rhythm in the rain and deafening wind, but Sirius managed to move rhythmically and swayed around the park.

The anger of the fact that I could not do what I dreamed of, and the fact that there was so much injustice in my life also made me angry with myself. I was not the person who played the victim, and I was not going to be either. So, deciding to trust my best friend, I followed his lead.

I stepped from left to right, in big and small steps, and made imaginary patterns in the mud. I twirled around as if I wore the prettiest of dresses, and then I stomped hard on the ground as if to dirty everything around me with the soaked mud.

The wind was the music and the rain was the beat of the steps that I was taking. I felt each drop after drop, soaking my skin until it was saturated.

A few years ago, in the Gryffindor common room, Sirius had taught us the basic steps to the English Waltz. He taught us the closed changes that result in a box step and so change the dancing direction from clockwise to counter-clockwise. And right now, I was just doing those steps in random order, whatever I felt like.

The physical pain that I felt had mellowed with every dance step that followed and the surroundings washed away the psychological pain that had penetrated my mind after Sirius had asked his question.

The steps were getting more erratic now, and then suddenly, Sirius' hand enclosed mine. He swayed from his left to his right foot and I followed his lead. Whilst the first thunder deafened the sound of the pouring rain for a moment, I felt his support course through his hand entering mine. The strength that rushed into me, even while still doing the steps, doing the movement, was a force of nature.

Neither of us tried to speak because neither of us had to.

Because this, dancing in the rain, was all I needed.

It wasn't until years later, that I found out that when we got home soaking wet that night, Sirius had written to Headmaster Dumbledore. He'd written that teaching was my dream and that being a werewolf shouldn't define my abilities to teach. A rough fourteen years after that night, I stepped foot into Hogwarts once again, this time, as a Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts.