Disclaimer: Sadly, hardly anything is mine - Charlotte and the events, but nothing else.
There goes another girl
Late November, 1977
“Merlin, that one was superb!”
Remus chuckled quietly. Sure, it had been superb; or that’s what Sirius says, because he couldn’t remember. He never did. He always had to trust what his friends said about
last night. The wolf remembered, but he didn’t.
Sirius was telling him all about the last full moon’s happenings. The four Marauders went terrorizing the few wizards awake at 2 am in Hogsmeade. The wolf hadn’t attacked anybody; instead, Padfoot presented himself as the Omen of death in some windows.
“Do you think someone really thought it was the Grim?” Peter was looking down, preocuppied.
“Wormtail, they
always think it’s the Grim. Everybody sees death omens everywhere. The last girl shrieked like mad””
“Her face was priceless””
“And the poor woman, she nearly wet herself””
“That’s one to do again.”
“Another frog, Wormtail?”
“No””
“You should make the change permanent, Padfoot, I tell you. We could go on tour after Hogwarts and people would see the Grim everywhere””
“Again with that, Prongs? I can’t stand the fleas, you know.”
“Then keep your fur clean, Sirius, for Merlin’s sake.”
“Look who’s speaking. You’re the ruddy werewolf covered in blood all the time.”
It was very early in the morning and the Marauders had skipped breakfast to come see old Moony. He didn’t have any new wounds, but his body was tired nonetheless. Though he couldn’t remember anything, he did feel like the wolf was happy last night; the wolf had had great fun.
As they all munched chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties stolen from Honeydukes last night (Wormtail felt extremely proud of this, as the rat had proved itself useful), a beautiful girl approached the bed. No one noticed until she spoke softly.
“Good morning, Remus, guys.”
He looked up to see Charlotte Smith staring at him, concern in her beautiful blue eyes. Her long, sort-of-silver hair fell untidily around her face, as she had just woken up and ran to the Hospital Wing just to see him.
“He-hello, Charlotte.” Remus glanced at Sirius and James quickly, who hastily stood up and headed to the door muttering “Morning, Charlotte” and “See you later, Moony” as they left. Peter seized the brown bag from Remus’ sidetable and ran after his friends, putting another chocolate frog in his mouth.
The beautiful Ravenclaw sat carefully next to Remus’, in the chair where James was sitting before. She crossed her legs slowly, tried to comb her hair with her hands a little (with no success) and looked down.
“It’s... it’s the second time this month that you are in the hospital.”
“I get the flu all the time. My defenses aren’t really good.”
“You had terrible wounds last time.”
“Had an accident.”
She looked up at him, searching for truth in his eyes. He wanted to look away, but couldn’t. If he did, she’d see that he was lying; but he couldn’t stand her sight, for she would know what was he was thinking...
“It was exactly four weeks ago.”
“W-what?”
“Four weeks ago. You left at sunset, same as yesterday. The wounds looked like they were inflicted by some kind of wild animal.”
“I don’t know”what””
“Remus, are you a werewolf?”
He opened his mouth trying to say something, yet he was speechless. He had been caught. Charlotte’s eyes were demanding an explanation, the cold blue demanded the truth, while her pupils were pleading,
please don’t let it be true...When she blinked, he looked down. It was time.
“I... yes, I am,” he said, his voice breaking, and looking up to meet her eyes again.
He saw the fear come up to them. She was a muggle-born witch. She’d be scared, even more than the other wizards. One single tear fell down her left cheek.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you’d shy away.”
“A... werewolf?”
“I’m sorry.”
She stood up violently and turned her head to the door, where Madam Pomfrey was standing. Looking back at him, another tear fell down her cheek.
“I’m sorry too, Remus.”
Charlotte left the Hospital Wing sobbing. A werewolf; those dangerous creatures that would tear her body apart if they saw her. She’d never speak to Remus Lupin again.
The rest of Marauders, eavesdropping from the door, saw her run down the corridor in tears. James and Sirius hurried next to Remus’ bed again, while Peter stood staring at the empty corridor after Charlotte bent left.
“She found out, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did.”
“I’m sorry, mate.” James sat tiredly on the chair again, looking at his friend.
“It’s okay.”
“Don’t worry, Moony. There are plenty of girls that will love you for what you are,” said Sirius, sitting on the bed and throwing everybody another chocolate frog.
“Not if I’m a werewolf.”
“The one’ll eventually come, mate.”
Peter finally came back, sitting next to James. He sighed, and seized a pumpkin pasty from Sirius’ bag.
Remus closed his eyes, trying to remember Charlotte’s smile next to him, when she thought he was harmless. Now she knew the truth, and she didn’t understand.
The only ones that had ever understood were his friends, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. He opened his eyes to see his friends’ tired faces. They had barely got any sleep last night, yet they were there, making him company.
“There goes another girl.”
“You can’t beat me, Moony,” said Sirius, blinking an eye to his friend. “I still have the record of girls dumping me.”
“That’s because you can’t stay loyal to one of them.”
“Course not. I have a duty with all the ladies.”
“Yeah, and meanwhile I can beat you in the number of detentions.”
“You wish, Prongs. Merlin knows I have 132 this year already.”
“Have you seen my file? One hundred and thirty SIX.”
“Prongs, you prat.”
“I told you. I beat you.”
Sirius jumped and started throwing everything from the candy bag at James, head, until he finally yelled, “Enough!”
“See? I beat you.”
“Shut up, you git.”
Remus laughed heartily at this new Marauder fight. His friends were there to cheer him up;
maybe the one will come up someday, he thought.
“Hey guys””
“What
now, Moony?”
“Thanks.”
A/N: I always thought that the Marauder's stories try to show the girl that will understand Remus' problem, and will love him, but we know that it wasn't that perfect. This is how I saw Moony going through rejection and fear, and of course, his loyal friends are always there. This was my first fanfic. Please review, if you like! And thanks for reading. - Satrina