A Chance to Explain
- A Slytherin? A Slytherin? What the heck was she playing at? -
Anna Lupin sat at her kitchen table, clutching a letter some unfamiliar owl had just given her. She hadn’t looked at the name yet, but somehow she had a feeling that it wasn’t from one of her favourite people. Sure enough when she looked at the return address she saw that it definitely wasn’t. She did not want to read a letter from Greg, but when it said “URGENT” in big bold letters, she couldn’t resist opening it.
She tore the envelope; with the thought of maybe something happened to Remus. However, when she read it she saw quite the opposite. She read the letter slowly, a small pit of anger bubbling in her the pit of her stomach. Why did her husband have to bother her with such things? She didn’t care what that girl did. As far as she was concerned, her mere presence there could’ve scared Remus.
But suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud coming from the living room. She jumped up from her seat and dashed into the other room, skidding to a halt when she saw who it was.
“What do you want?” she snarled.
“To talk to you,” Professor Lupin answered, removing himself from the fireplace and dusting his robes off. “Because I knew you weren’t going to take the letter seriously.”
“Who said I didn’t take the letter seriously?” his wife retorted coldly.
“Well then I knew you weren’t going to care, like always. You never care about your daughter.”
“Why are you here?” his wife yelled, getting fed up with her husband already.
“To talk to you!” he yelled back, equally louder than his wife. “Please, Anna, just listen to me.”
Defeated and knowing that he would never leave, Anna nodded and gestured for her husband to sit down. “You want to talk, talk then!”
Professor Lupin took a deep breath and began.
“Okay you read in my letter what our daughter did?” She nodded. “She did it because of you. The least you could do is talk to her about it, in a nice way, not shouting or in horrible letters like you usually do.”
“Why should I talk to her? After what she did to my son-”
“After what you think she did! You have no proof! You weren’t there in the forest with them. You didn’t see what happened! How could just accuse her of this? And then when she really shows she wants to be a daughter to you, you shun her. And what I told her before, I was wrong. You don’t deserve a second chance.” And with a faint, but furious, crack, he was gone.
Anna shook her head as she watched her husband Apparate. Who was he to tell her what to do? If she didn’t want to talk to that girl then why did he keep insisting she should? On September first he wasted his time trying to convince her to see differently, to try and give her a talk without shouting. Why would she need to forgive her daughter? She saw no reason to.
Rachael woke the next morning, still in the Hospital Wing. She rolled over onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. Her face still stung from the potions. She figured they didn’t do anything except inflame her cuts even more. But she knew Madam Pomfrey knew what she was doing.
She sat up and saw Remus lying in the bed across from hers. He looked terrible. His face was covered in marks, and his arms covered in bites, his face pale and weary. He didn’t look as though he was going to wake up any time soon, so Rachael was forced to sit quietly until Madam Pomfrey came in. Rachael looked out the window to discover a freshly fallen layer of snow out on the grounds. She sighed. She knew Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t allow her to go outside, or if Madam Pomfrey would allow it, her father certainly wouldn’t.
She leaned back on her pillow and waited patiently for Madam Pomfrey to wake up and let her leave. She wanted desperately to go back up to Gryffindor Tower. Luckily she didn’t have to wait too long because only ten minutes after she woke, Madam Pomfrey came bustling into the room carrying a tray of food.
“Good morning,” she said, setting the tray down on Rachael’s nightstand.
“Good morning,” Rachael replied.
Madam Pomfrey knelt down so she was eye level with Rachael and began observing her patient’s cuts. They were still there, but they would eventually turn into barely noticeable scars, just exactly as she had planned. She stood up and went over to check on Remus, who was still sound asleep and probably wouldn’t be up for a few more hours.
“Once you finish eating you may leave,” said the nurse, gathering up so sheets off one of the beds. “But I would not like you to go outside.” She left the room and Rachael finished her breakfast and high tailed it out of the Hospital Wing as fast as she could.
She walked down the cold, completely deserted corridor, shivering slightly, and walked up to the seventh floor. She wasn’t in a rush though to get to the common room. She knew she was going to run into Sirius. She didn’t feel like talking to him since she was nearly positive he was going to bring up the night before and she wasn’t willing to talk about it. It was still completely unreal to her that she’d actually risked her life. She needed to let it sink in and a day wasn’t enough time for that. So she was in no hurry.
As she walked she heard another set of footsteps coming towards her. Thinking it was Filch taking Mrs. Norris out for a stroll, she paid no mind to it. She sighed. Thinking about the night before was something she wanted to stop doing and yet she couldn’t help it. Every time she thought of being in the Shrieking Shack, almost about to be turned into a werewolf, she would silently curse herself for being so stupid. She felt bad for Sirius too. She had caused him such a scare she couldn’t even imagine it. It must have been the most horrible thing for him to discover.
Suddenly her thoughts were disrupted by a sneer. She looked up and saw Severus Snape standing a few feet away from her, a smirk playing on his lips. She’d forgotten that he decided to stay at the castle for the holidays… though it wasn’t surprising. Who would want him on Christmas? Sighing in frustration, she walked casually up to Snape, as he was blocking her only means of exit.
“Hullo, Snape,” she said, keeping her voice even.
“Hullo, Lupin,” he said in an unhinging voice.
Rachael didn’t like the way he said that. The last time she encountered him alone in a hallway it resulted in a near duel and it had not come off very well. Rachael looked around, hoping for a professor to come by. She did not want to get into a duel with Snape. “Yeah well… I should be getting to the common room,” she said, trying to make a break for the stairs, but Snape blocked her.
“Oh I don’t think you will be,” he said slyly. “I have a question for you.”
“Snape just let me leave!”
“Answer my question first.”
“FINE!”
“Would you mind telling me why you were going to the Whomping Willow last night?”
How did he know that? Was he a stalker or something? Though severely rattled by hearing that question, Rachael remained calm and collected, though her hand was slowly drifting towards the pocket of her robes containing her wand. Snape smiled; despite his adversary’s composed face he knew he had touched a nerve. He inclined his head as though asking if she was going to answer any time soon.
Not knowing what to say, Rachael didn’t say anything. She merely tried shoving past Snape. Surprisingly enough, Snape stepped aside and let her through. However he didn’t let her leave quietly. As she progressed down the hallway he let his voice follow,
“Lupin’s got a secret!” he taunted, watching gleefully as she quickened her pace. “What could it be?”
“Shove it, Snape!” Rachael hollered back, turning sharply around the corner. She ran down the hallway, trying to rid her mind of that encounter. How had Snape known where she’d gone the night before? Why would he even bother to find out? What’s he stalking me? She thought as she spun her wand absentmindedly around her fingers. The very thought scared her to death. But, then again, maybe it wasn’t her he was watching. After all she’d only gone there twice in her life. The first time had been in her first year when Madam Pomfrey had accidentally left Remus in the Shrieking Shack and the second time was the night before.
Maybe Snape was trying to find out where Remus went every month. He was sure to start getting curious about his whereabouts eventually. Still… Snape shouldn’t care about those things. His big ugly brain couldn’t comprehend them probably. Looking behind her to make sure Snape was clear out of sight; Rachael went on to Gryffindor Tower.
She approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, who was immersed in a conversation with Sir Cadogan, a knight from one of the portraits on the way up to the North Tower.
“Goblins!” Rachael shouted over the knight’s barking laughs.
When he heard the word Goblins, he immediately withdrew his sword from its shaft and looked wildly around. “Goblin?” he cried. “Where?” He then spotted Rachael, who was watching him with an odd expression on her face. “Good lady! Where is this goblin you speak of?”
The Fat Lady laughed. “No, that’s the password,” she explained as she swung open, letting the Gryffindor enter.
She hopped through the portrait hole and saw an empty common room. Sighing in relief, she sat down in front of the fire. A moment of peace finally, she thought gratefully. She gazed lazily into the crackling fire, her eyes slipping in and out of focus. Despite the fact that she’d just woken up, she still felt incredibly tired. Trying to stay awake she gently slapped herself in the face. It didn’t work too well, but it did wake her up somewhat.
The fire continued crackling in a way that made you want to drop off. Slowly and steadily Rachael found herself doing that… but didn’t protest this time. She needed the peace and quiet and sleep was the one way to get it. She shut her eyes and let her mind wander off until she fell into a deep sleep.
She had a very odd dream… She was sitting in an old house, though it had the look of a house that was once very fine and belonged to a rich family. Though the silver set in front of her was tarnished, and the table she was sitting at was wobbly on one leg, the house could have been quite nice in its day. She looked around the room and suddenly realised she wasn’t there by herself. There was someone else sitting at the table with her. A girl she had never seen before was watching her with an expression of both nervousness and anger.
As Rachael looked more closely at the girl, she noticed a strange resemblance between the girl and herself. They had the same hair, and facial structure. The only thing different was their eyes. This girl did not have the green eyes that Rachael did. This girl had bright blue eyes. They struck Rachael as oddly familiar, though she couldn’t place where she had seen them before. She wondered where… Again she looked more closely and noticed something else different, and rather disturbing.
The girl’s face was covered in light scars, a pale pinkish reddish colour. Her eyes had bags under them. She looked highly worn out, and as though she could just drop to sleep right then and there. Then someone else entered the room, and she knew who this person was. It was a man who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. He walked into the room, wearing a look of great strain on his face. At first glance, this man could have passed for Gregory Lupin, he looked exactly like him.
But, taking a second glance, Rachael knew who this was… it was her brother. But what was he doing here? And why was this girl here? And what was here anyway?
Remus turned to look at her. “Rachael…” but it was a distant voice. “Wake up…”
Rachael was being shaken awake by her brother. Rachael sat up, having slid over sideways when she had fallen asleep. She looked at the blurry image of her brother standing in front of her. Slightly annoyed at being disturbed, Rachael lifted herself up, waiting for her brother to say something.
“Good morning,” said Remus in a cheerful, yet exhausted voice.
“Morning,” his sister answered a little uneasily. Had he run into Sirius? If he did, did Sirius tell him what she’d done? She hoped he hadn’t. How was she going to explain this?
“Slept well I see,” he said sarcastically, dropping into the seat behind him and resting his head on his hands.
“Looks like you did too,” she retorted, doing her best to keep the atmosphere light.
Remus nodded his head absentmindedly, for he’d just noticed several cuts and scrapes on his sister’s face. Where had she gotten those? They couldn’t have been from a Slytherin like Madam Pomfrey had told him. Those did not look like fingernail marks. Fingernails couldn’t possibly make scratches like those.
As a matter of fact, crazy as it seemed, they looked remarkably like werewolf scratches. Inattentively, he gazed at the back of his hand and observed the scratches he’d gotten from the night before. He let his hand drop down off the side of the chair and looked blankly at the wall across from him. But if they really were scratches from a werewolf, she couldn’t have… or did she? But why? He shook his head, he was thinking crazy. It was possible for a person to do that… especially a Slytherin.
Still… it was highly unlikely that she did anything to provoke a Slytherin that much. Not with the way she’d been acting lately. She was so quiet and closed up that she probably wouldn’t even acknowledge a Slytherin if it danced around and spit nickels, though maybe if one provoked her… she’d been on edge lately… especially yesterday. He hadn’t the slightest doubt that if a Slytherin said something foul to her she’d be yelling at the top of her lungs.
Then again, he’d walked by the hourglass on his was up here, no points were taken. He was positive that if she was caught in a fight with a Slytherin, Professor Binstom would have subtracted fifty points from Gryffindor. It had to be… but the thing of it was… Remus didn’t want to believe it. Why would she do such a thing? It wasn’t anything like her, not a bit like her at all.
“Rachael,” he said slowly, cautiously. She grunted in response, wanting to drop back off and finish that dream she had. “Where did you get those cuts?” He gestured warily to the several scratches on her face. She shrugged. How could she explain it to him? “Come on,” Remus persisted. “You had to have gotten them from somewhere.”
“A Slytherin,” she answered simply.
“Are you sure?” he asked. He still wasn’t convinced, but why would she lie to him?
“Yes I’m sure.”
A Slytherin? A Slytherin? What the heck was she playing at? Who did she think she could fool? Well obviously she’d fooled her brother, but still. Sirius sat up in his dormitory, his mind racing at the conversation he’d just heard. How could she just lie to him about something as important as this? Though he was the one who had made up the story, it was only covering the truth from Madam Pomfrey.
The one person this shouldn’t be kept from was Remus. He, out of all people, deserved to know. But then why wasn’t she telling him? Was she afraid that he would be angry and take it out on her? Why would she think that? He was her brother, for Christ’s sake! He would never do that and yet she thought he would.
“Sirius,” came a voice from the doorway.
Sirius turned around in his chair and saw Remus coming through the door into the room. “Hey, Remus,” Sirius said, keeping his voice as even as he could. “How’re you feeling?”
“Alright,” Remus answered, sitting down on his bed and removing his cloak. “Just a bit tired.”
Sirius nodded and tried returning to his Transfiguration homework.
“Hey, Sirius,” Remus said suddenly. “Do you know if any Slytherin happens to be serving detention?”
Sirius whipped his head around at Remus. He had actually fallen for it? Remus was supposed to be the smart one, the one who knew when he was being lied to. Sirius didn’t want to answer this question. He felt like he’d be betraying Rachael since she clearly didn’t want to tell Remus. But then he would feel like he was betraying Remus too. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand he’d be doing both of his friends a favour by divulging to Remus his sister’s secret. On the other hand, however, he would be betraying her if he told.
“Sirius,” said Remus again. “Is there?”
Sirius didn’t know what he should do, but he did know what he had to do. He just prayed that she wouldn’t be mad at him. Slowly he shook his head in response. “No, Remus,” he said quietly. “There isn’t.”
Remus didn’t say anything in response, or do anything in response. His worst fears were confirmed. Please tell me I didn’t bite her, he thought frantically.
“Then… those scratches… those marks… they weren’t from a Slytherin. A Ravenclaw?” he asked hopefully. But Sirius shook his head. “A Hufflepuff?” Sirius shook his head again. Remus couldn’t believe it. “Would they be, by any chance, from a werewolf?”
Sirius flinched. He hadn’t expected Remus to ask that so quickly. He thought his friend might’ve beaten around the bush for at least more than thirty seconds. But Remus wanted to know and Sirius couldn’t stop him from finding out.
“Yes, Remus, they did.”
“But… why? How?” Remus was now standing up and advancing towards Sirius.
“Remus, sit back down,” Sirius said in an exasperated voice. “I need to explain this to you.” Remus hesitated, he was ready to go downstairs and wring the explanation out of his sister. Why bother getting one from Sirius? “Sit, Remus,” Sirius ordered again.
Reluctantly, Remus heeded his friend’s request. “Why’d she do it?” he asked again, dreading the response he would get.
“Because… because….” Sirius couldn’t figure out quite how to explain it. It wasn’t just something that rolled off your tongue, telling your best friend that his sister wanted to be a werewolf for such a reason. “Remus, your sister followed you on purpose to the Whomping Willow.”
Remus’s eyes widened in fury, what? “What?” he yelled. “How could she do that? What’s wrong with her?” He was now on his feet again, this time determined to go downstairs and wring the stupidity out of her.
“Remus, sit!” Sirius yelled; his voice firm and yet frightened. He had never seen this side of his friend before. “Don’t go down there and yell at her,” he said softly. “She feels bad enough.”
“But how could she be so stupid?”
“Remus, she feels stupid, she feels bad. She feels worse than she ever has! Don’t you think that’s enough? She doesn’t need you down there yelling at her.”
Remus slowly backed away from the door and removed his hand from the knob. “But she needs to be!”
“Yes she does. But she’s already gotten yelled at! I made her feel bad enough yesterday. Just let me explain to you why she did it.”
Remus once again, very reluctantly, retreated back to his bed and sat down. “Okay, Sirius,” he said; his voice full of anger. “Why? What possessed her to act so stupid?”
Sirius sighed. “She did it because she wants to be like you!” he yelled. “She thinks that if she’s like you then your mum will love her again!”
“Wh-what?” he said. He didn’t know what to say. He never thought that it bothered her this much. Remus always knew his sister was always troubled by her mother, but he never thought she’d ever take it to this level. Right now he bet he felt just as worse as his sister did. How could his sister just do this? She could have been killed! He could have killed her! How could she just do that and let him rest with this on his conscience.
“She wanted to be treated like an equal and she couldn’t find any other way to do it,” Sirius explained heavily.
“She couldn’t just talk to Mum? She had to do something this desperate!”
“Remus, you know as well as I do that every time she owls that woman that she ends up getting yelled at! She was desperate! So you can’t exactly blame her for acting desperate!”
“But-”
“Remus, no matter how much you argue against it you can’t blame her and you can’t be angry at her. She just wanted life to be normal again. Like it was before you were a werewolf. Even if you still were one, that nothing would be different and that she didn’t have to leave.”
“But I could’ve killed her!”
“But you didn’t. And even if you did, no one was going to blame you. You know it wouldn’t have been you who killed her, it would’ve been the werewolf.”
“But-”
“Remus, just go talk to her, she needs a brother right now.”
Remus tried to retain his anger as he walked down the steps into the common room. He didn’t want to yell at her, as Sirius had already done that for him. He jumped off the last step and looked to see his sister in the same spot as when he left her. She was staring into the fire, looking as though she was in deep thought.
“Hey,” Remus said, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice. Don’t get mad, don’t get mad, don’t get mad. She looked up at him in acknowledgment. “I found the, uh, the Slytherin.” His sister raised an eyebrow, now he was getting somewhere. Maybe he didn’t have to say anything at all; she might just let it slide.
“You did?” she asked, fighting to keep her shock out of her voice. “Who?”
“The Slytherin?” he said in a casual voice, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking around. “Oh he was… well you know… he was me!” He had said it a little louder than he meant to, but he wasn’t sorry he did.
“Remus, I-”
“‘Remus, I-,’ what? Remus, I just felt like following you so you can turn into a werewolf and kill me? Remus, I should be saying I’m sorry for almost making you a killer? Remus, I WHAT?”
Rachael looked like she was on the verge of tears. But she didn’t let any flow. “Remus, I’m sorry!”
But Remus didn’t care how sorry she was. She could be on her knees begging for forgiveness but he wasn’t going to let his anger pass that easily.
“Damn right you are! You should be sorry! You could’ve made me a killer! You could’ve made Mum disown me!”
“Well then you’d know why I did what I did.” And with that she stormed out of the common room.
Remus watched her go, but he didn’t feel a hint of remorse. It was as if some unknown force had taken over and forcing him to act mean and nasty. He didn’t care though; he didn’t care if she was upset about it for weeks. Honestly, putting him in that position. What was she thinking? As a matter of fact, was she even thinking? He highly doubted it. He threw himself down in a chair. It wasn’t even eleven in the morning and it felt like it should be eleven at night, so much junk had gone on.
“Remus!” came Sirius’s voice from behind him. Remus grunted in response. What did he want? “What’s wrong with you?”
“I believe the correct question is ‘what’s wrong with her?’”
This got Sirius mad, madder than he had been after he heard his friend shouting moments before. He stalked up to Remus and shook him by the shoulders, as though ridding him of some evil thoughts.
“Remus!” he yelled. “What’s the matter with you? Why’re you acting like this? What’s your problem?”
“I have no problem!” Remus shouted. “Maybe you should be asking her that question!”
Sirius looked as though he’d been slapped. What wasn’t Remus getting? Did he not understand that she was sorry? Didn’t he know that yelling wasn’t the way to solve this? “Okay, I’ll go ask her that question!” he lied and stormed off to go find his friend.
Remus shook head. He honestly didn’t think he was wrong.
Sirius walked briskly down the hallway, positively fuming. He couldn’t comprehend what was making Remus acting in such a way. Remus had never been one to yell much, not even when he and James were in a fight. Remus had withdrawn then. But now… now he was shouting at every chance he got. Things were just becoming way too confusing for Sirius to handle. One minute he and his friends are enjoying the Christmas Feast, the next he’s chasing one to the Whomping Willow and shaking his other friend.
Why wouldn’t Remus listen to him? Why was he being so stubborn? Was it because he was afraid of what he might have done? Well of course that’s one of the reasons. Maybe he didn’t want to face facts and realise that there was something wrong with his sister? There had to be something wrong, not just the fact she wanted to be treated as an equal. She had wanted that last year and ever since she first went to the orphanage.
There just had to be something else. He just couldn’t think of what it might be. He quickened his pace as he walked, hoping that he would find her. He couldn’t help but remember, as he walked, the story Remus had told him. Over the summer, Sirius had asked how his sister’s life was at the orphanage, if he knew anything that was. Remus had been very hesitant to answer that question, as he knew really very few stories about it and one wasn’t the best one. But Remus felt that if there was one person he could trust with that information, it was Sirius. Sirius would keep it quiet. He wouldn’t mention it to anyone, not even Rachael herself.
Rachael had just gotten too stressed out over everything. The orphanage was like a living hell. She couldn’t take it anymore, it was horrible! Everything was closing in on her and she just wanted to end it all by performing the Killing Curse on herself. That had been from kids she didn’t like harassing her. He could hardly imagine what she would do to herself if it was her brother! He trembled involuntarily at the thought. I’ve gotta find her! he thought, breaking into a furious run.
He ran down the flight of steps in the Entrance Hall and turned right into a mad dash into the Great Hall, hoping to find a sign of his friend. But, as he looked around, he saw she wasn’t there. There were only a few professors up at the staff table and one or two of the students who had chosen to remain at Hogwarts over the break. But maybe Professor Lupin was there. Sirius could definitely talk to him right about now. Professor Lupin, however, wasn’t there either.
Sirius’s heart began pumping wildly. Where could she have gone? He looked around wildly, ignoring Professor McGonagall when she told him to take a seat; he just dashed out of the hall again. He stood in front of the giant double doors, scratching his head, trying desperately to figure out where she would’ve gone. Perhaps she went to Hagrid’s? But his answer to that question was answered as Hagrid came walking in.
“Hagrid!” Sirius called.
Hagrid smiled and approached the boy. “Hey there, Sirius,” he said pleasantly.
“Have you seen Rachael?”
“No,” Hagrid answered in a plain voice, but when he saw the look of dread appear on the boy’s face his tone changed. “Why?”
Sirius looked around, making sure there were no nosey students within earshot. “I’m scared, she and Remus had a fight and she ran off.”
“How bad was the fight?” Hagrid asked, his voice sounding worried.
“Bad, Hagrid. Remus said some things I know he didn’t mean but… she took them hard. I’ve gotta find her before she does something she regrets!”
“Where do we start then?” Hagrid asked. “I’ll help yeh find her.”
Sirius shook his head; he didn’t know where to start. He had no idea where she could be. Hagrid on the other hand seemed to have an idea. He pushed Sirius forward and they ran up the stairs in the direction of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Sirius didn’t know why they were bothering to go there. If she had wanted to be alone then that was the last place she would’ve gone. But Hagrid must have known something.
They burst through the door and found Professor Lupin sitting at his desk grading some papers. He looked up curiously when the two came into the room, both short of breath and gasping for air.
“Can I help you?” he asked. Hagrid walked forward and whispered into the Professor’s ear. “WHAT?” Professor Lupin yelled, jumping to his feet. “What do you mean she’s missing? Why’s she missing?” Hagrid put a massive hand on the man’s shoulder and pushed him back down into his seat and tried to explain the situation to him. But Professor Lupin just wouldn’t listen, how could he? His daughter was missing! “I’m not sitting here listening to explanations!” he shouted, jumping to his feet again. “I’m going to find her!”
“Dad, you don’t need to,” came a small voice from the doorway. The three turned around to see Rachael standing there, red faced and her eyes bloodshot. Obviously she had done some serious crying.
Professor Lupin sighed in relief. “Rachael,” he said exasperatedly. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Dad,” she lied. “I’m fine.” She was lying through her teeth. Sirius knew it, just like she had lied to Remus, and just like he, Sirius, had lied to him. But he didn’t say anything, not in front of the professor anyway.
“Where’d you go?” her dad asked.
She shook her head. “Just somewhere,” she replied vaguely. “I really needed to think.”
“Okay, I’m just glad you’re alright.”
She nodded and left the room without even acknowledging Sirius and Hagrid. Sirius thanked Hagrid for his help, said goodbye to his teacher, and ran to catch up with Rachael.
“Are you really okay?” Sirius asked her when he caught up with her. She didn’t answer; she just tried brushing him off. “Come on,” he persisted. “Are you?”
“You heard my brother yelling at me,” she choked. “You think I’m alright after that?”
“I know… you’ll be fine,” he said encouragingly, though he doubted in his mind that she would be all right for a while. Not after that fight at least.
Remus slowly turned the doorknob and swung the door open and walked into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. He was here on his father’s orders of course. Professor Lupin had come up to him in the Great Hall during dinner and asked to speak with him later. Remus knew what his father wanted to talk to him about. He was so sick of discussing his sister. Couldn’t everyone just leave it alone? How would anyone expect him to forgive her when they kept hounding him about it? Sirius was using every opportunity to talk to him about it. Hagrid had talked to him out on the grounds. His sister, well she hadn’t been seen since she was talking to Sirius. But Sirius wasn’t worried since she said she just needed to be alone and for him not to go looking for her. Now Professor Lupin was going to bother him about it. Couldn’t they just let him handle this on his own? He was twelve years old, for goodness’s sake!
Remus walked through the rows of desks towards the office door in the back of the room. He tapped the door lightly, hoping that maybe his father wouldn’t hear him. But to his misfortune,
“Come in, Remus.”
Highly reluctant Remus entered the room. As he opened the door he couldn’t help but think, if I walk away now he’ll never know I was here. But that thought was futile because his father pulled the door open and he fell into the room. Professor Lupin knelt down and held out a hand to his son, who gratefully took it.
“Sit, Remus,” said Professor Lupin, striding over to his desk and pulling out a chair. He sat down opposite his son and leaned forward on the desk. “So, enjoying your vacation?”
Remus raised an eyebrow, what kind of question was that? Remus spent his whole dinner preparing to be yelled at, not being asked how his vacation was going.
“Uh… yeah?” he answered uncertainly.
His father smiled, with a hint of glory in his eyes.
“Good, son,” he said in a brisk voice, slapping a hand down on the desk. “Because it’s not going to be fun anymore.”
This is what he had been dreading…. His dad was going to relentlessly ground him. That was the downside to having your dad as a professor. You could still be grounded.
“What are you going to do to me?” he asked, fear evident in his voice.
Professor Lupin smiled. “Well you know,” he said slowly. “I’m not quite sure… Grounding wouldn’t help, would it? It’s got to be something more elaborate!” The professor threw his arms in the air, motioning for elaborate. Remus sighed in disgust. He didn’t have time for his father’s antics. “What do you suggest?”
“Letting me off the hook?”
His father chuckled.
“No. Seriously, Remus, I’m giving you the chance to make your own punishment. You’re old enough to know what you need to do.”
Remus groaned, now he knew he couldn’t let himself off easily. But still, he couldn’t think of any punishment that fit the situation. What was he going to do? Bite himself on the next full moon? He did that without being told to. Well he knew one thing he had to do, and right now he felt he really needed to do it.
“Apologise to my sister,” he said. His father nodding, looking highly pleased. “And for my punishment… I’d willingly take twenty points away from Gryffindor.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I was the opposite of what every Gryffindor should be. I was a jerk, heck I was a Slytherin.”
Professor Lupin stood up from his desk and walked around to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t have been more pleased at what his son had said. It was exactly what he wanted to hear.
“Remus,” he said happily. “That was exactly what I needed to here. Now go find your sister.”
As it turned out, once Remus walked past the giant hourglasses, no points had been taken from Gryffindor. His father didn’t have the heart to take points, being so proud of what his son had said. Now he was on his way to find his sister, who was nowhere in sight. She wasn’t in the common room. When Remus ran into Sirius, Sirius just said that she left him at the portrait of the Fat Lady, needing some breathing space. He checked the Great Hall, no sign of her.
It shouldn’t have been this hard to find her, all the students were gone, and the castle was nearly empty. But she was nowhere in the castle, she wasn’t anywhere on the grounds. He looked around the grounds towards the Forbidden Forest; she definitely didn’t go in there. She knew better then to wander through the Forbidden Forest without an adult.
The violent swinging of the Whomping Willow suddenly caught his attention. Right then he realised that it had been silent the whole time he was out on the grounds. The only way for the Willow to be quiet was for the little knot on it to be pressed. Very few people knew that… and his sister just happened to be one of them. He knew where she was.
He sprinted towards the tree, dropping forward snatching the long stick lying on the ground. He doubled backwards as the Willow swung a mace like branch at him and swerved to his left and dove forward onto his stomach. Panting slightly, he prodded the knot and the Willow froze. Picking himself up, he walked over to the passageway under the trunk and slid down into a dark passageway. He pulled out his wand and muttered, “Lumos” illuminating the passageway. He didn’t have a lot of time to find his sister… curfew was soon.
He ran down the passageway, knowing it well by now and able to avoid hitting his head on the door at the end. He walked through the door and immediately ran up the steps to the room where he had his transformation. He didn’t know why she had chosen this place to hide out. She should have been terrified of it. He pushed the door open and entered the familiar room. He looked around, at first not seeing any one at all. Then something caught his attention in the corner.
“What do you want?” Rachael muttered, looking up and seeing her brother standing in the doorway.
“To talk,” Remus answered truthfully.
“Now you want to talk? How about some yelling? I don’t think you yelled enough before.”
Remus flinched. He should have been expecting this. She wasn’t going to forgive him easily. But he was ready with an apology, having been thinking up one since he went on his search to find her. He crossed the room and sat down in front of his sister, who immediately looked past him. She didn’t understand why Remus was bothering. After all, he didn’t bother to hear her out when she tried explaining.
“Listen, I’m really sorry,” Remus said.
Rachael merely scoffed at him. She had no doubt in her mind that their dad, in some way, made him do this. “Sure you are,” she retorted. “Did Dad make you do this?”
This was when Remus said possibly the stupidest thing he could have said.
“Dad said I needed to think of a punishment and-”
“AND THIS IS A PUNISHMENT?” his sister bellowed, jumping off her feet. “You’re not even really sorry? This is just a stupid punishment?” She couldn’t believe it. This was just a punishment? He wasn’t really sorry. He was just trying to get their dad off his back. She wasn’t going to sit around and listen to false apologies. She shoved past her brother and made to leave the room, but her brother yanked the back of her cloak, preventing her from going any further.
“Remus, I swear if you don’t let me out-” she began.
“It’s not a punishment!” Remus said. “Not anymore, at least.”
He cautiously let go of his sister’s cloak, hoping that she wasn’t going to make a break to the castle. Rachael did consider taking this opportunity to run back up to the castle. But she didn’t, if Remus really was sorry… She backed away from the door and sat down on the four-poster bed, looking up at her brother.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” said Remus sincerely. She looked at him, still disbelieving. How could it just go from being a punishment to be that he really meant it in a second? Remus sighed, why wouldn’t she believe him? “I really mean it! I feel like such an idiot for not listening to you and Sirius and dad.”
“Yeah, you should feel stupid,” his sister shot back, still not listening to his apologies.
“Why won’t you listen to me?” Remus said tiredly, he couldn’t have made his point more clear than he already had. He felt stupid, he was sorry, but she still wasn’t listening. “I said I was sorry, I mean it! I’m really sorry, I seriously am! I wouldn’t be saying it if I wasn’t.”
Rachael wasn’t going to listen to him at first. Her anger was still seething through her. But, as she looked at her brother, she could tell he meant every word he said. He was right, he wouldn’t just say that he was sorry and not mean it….
“I’m sorry too,” she confessed. “For putting you in that position.”
“It’s alright,” Remus said, smiling a little. “So you’re not mad?”
“No…”
“Good, let’s go back up to the castle then?”
Rachael nodded and the Lupin twins made their way out of the shack and back up to the castle.