The Christmas Card

It was the last day of term before Christmas. Professor Lupin's first year class worked in silence, occasionally glancing worried glances in his direction, as if afraid he might drop dead where he was sitting. The full moon was drawing closer, and Lupin was feeling its effects. Many fingers seemed to scratch the inside of his skull, and his nights had seemed sleepless. In spite of this aching exhaustion, Lupin still turned up for classes every day. Soon, he would face his tormentor. Soon, he would get it over with, and then recuperate.

Every so often, Lupin flashed a reassuring smile at anybody who had given him a look of concern. He was used to this by now. Although he might have looked as if on his deathbed, his pain was rarely unmanageable. The transformations and effects of the full moon were made more bearable by the Wolfsbane potion that Severus concocted every month. He would survive.

The first years were becoming fidgety. Were they getting bored, Lupin wondered? He glanced at his watch, the display showing that nearly an hour had passed. The professor smiled, now. The class had worked well, today.

"You may pack away your belongings," Lupin said at last, slowly standing up. "Class dismissed."

An excited buzz filled the room as the students began to discuss Christmas plans, next classes, and their homework. The classroom emptied, except for one student, rummaging through her bag. Finding what she was looking for, she smiled, closed her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

The girl began to approach Lupin, holding something tightly. Her face had turned slightly red, but she was still smiling. Lupin nodded to her when she stopped at his desk.

"Miss Farrier, what can I do for you?" He asked.
"Please, sir," Farrier started, her face turning a brighter shade of red. "It's the last day of term, and I'll be going home for Christmas." She paused, and handed something to Lupin. "Um, I wanted to give you this before I leave."

The something she had handed to him was tucked into an envelope. Lupin inspected it. She had written "To Professor Lupin" in curly handwriting on the front. The back was sealed carefully. Lupin gently tore open the envelope. Inside was a card. It had a white owl braving heavy snow on the front. He couldn't help smiling as he opened the card, to find a note written inside.

"Dear Professor Lupin," it read. "In the primary school I went to, we used to give cards to our teachers. It was our way of saying 'thank you' to them. So, I also want to thank you, Professor, for being our teacher. Merry Christmas, Sir. Love, Sarah Farrier."

Lupin looked up from the card, about to thank Sarah for her card. She had disappeared. He chuckled and placed the card back in its envelope, guessing that Sarah had managed to creep out while he was reading her card.

Sirius grinned expectantly at Lupin, who was cautiously looking at what he had just been handed. They hadn't been his friends for long, and yet, there they were -- Sirius, James, and Peter, standing over his bed in the hospital wing. As far as they were aware, he had simply fallen sick with the flu. They didn't know that just the evening before, he had become a monster. His body ached, even though Madam Pomfrey had been able to treat his wounds, leaving him with no visible marks of his transformation.

Sirius and James were known pranksters. For all he knew, this enveloped gift could have been another one of their pranks.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Open it!"

With shaking hands, Lupin began to open the envelope, on the front of which was his name, in James' tidy handwriting. He pulled out a card that seemed to stick inside its enclosure. The card had a picture on it, of an owl frowning at the fast-falling snow.

Lupin felt his throat becoming jammed. It was a Christmas card. He smiled, then coughed and was startled by the warm tears that flowed down his cheeks. He rubbed his nose.

"Read the inside," James directed him. Lupin opened the card, to find more of James' handwriting, accompanied by Sirius' messy scrawl of a signature, and Peter's name written in tiny letters.

"Dear Remus," it read. "It's a shame you had to fall ill just before Christmas. We think you would have enjoyed transfiguration -- turning mice into toy soldiers. (Peter only managed to turn it into a tin mouse with a uniform on - Sirius.) You should have seen Snape's face. He looked so pained!"

"You should know that we'll be here if you need us. You're our friend, Remus. We know your Mum's been sickly, but now for you to get ill, too, seems really bad luck." James' handwriting had seemingly faltered. A small inkblot indicted where he had rested his quill-point while thinking of what to write. "This said, all of us admire your strength and how you stay so calm, in spite of everything you're going through."

Remus swallowed the lump in his throat and breathed in deeply, before releasing it, relief coursing through him. His friends didn't suspect anything. They hadn't realised his true condition. They hadn't seen through his lies.

"You certainly gave us quite a scare when you fainted the other day, though," the card added. Then, it returned to its once cheerful manner.

"We tried to give you a toilet seat as well," the card continued, "but Madam Pomfrey confiscated it."

James had left his quill-point on the card for too long again, indicated by an inkblot just above the next line.

"Merry Christmas, Remus. Hope you feel better soon. James, Sirius, Peter."

"I-" Lupin started, and found himself stumbling over his words. His chest seemed to be swelling with gratefulness. The last time he had been this happy was upon being accepted into Hogwarts.

Remus wiped away his tears and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. Thank you."

His friends just smiled. Suddenly, his pain didn't feel so terrible anymore. Lupin put the card on the bedside table and smiled back at them.

"Thank you," He whispered, and tucked Sarah's card into his robe pocket, smiling. If only for a few minutes, his pain had been easy to ignore. Perhaps this month, his transformation wouldn't be so bad.

-The End-