There’s No Bright Side>
- Someone was always going to be discriminated against; there would always be someone who would stereotype another. -
“Dumbledore took the spell on the stairs off for us. Take advantage of it, Sirius!”
“How do you know he really did? He could’ve lied.”
“Why would he lie when the situation is like this? Come on, Sirius.”
“If you’re so sure then you go up first.”
“Fine I will.” Remus marched determinedly up the stairs leading to the girls’ dormitory and waited for Sirius to come follow him. Professor Dumbledore had lifted the privacy curse just for the boys so they could visit Rachael as she recovered. When Professor Lupin had told Professor Dumbledore about what had happened, Dumbledore was infuriated. He placed a special charm over the Gryffindor fire and then personally saw to it that the authorities would take care of Mrs. Lupin.
No one had ever seen Dumbledore so upset. But to have something like this happen in his school, it made him beside himself with anger.
“Told you he took off the spell,” said Remus smugly as they stood in front of the dormitory door. Sirius just glared at him and pushed him into the room. They saw Rachael lying on her bed and for the first time were able to take in her injuries. Her eyes were swollen and bloodshot; her lip was bruised and had dried blood smeared all over it. Her hair was a little uneven (they had no doubt that Mrs. Lupin went as low as hair pulling) and that was only her face. They didn’t want to imagine the injuries on her body where he clothes covered.
“How’d you get up here?” she asked sleepily, having noticed the boys’ presence. As she spoke it seemed as though every word was costing her a terrible price.
“Dumbledore lifted the spell for us,” Remus explained, walking over to his sister’s bedside. “How are you?”
“A giant bruise,” she answered miserably. “I’ve got bruises all over my face, my arms, my stomach,” she inhaled deeply, wincing. “And I think my ribs are broken… Madam Pomfrey must’ve missed them.”
“Rachael,” said Sirius. “What was in that letter?” He knew it was the letter that had sparked the reaction. But was it so bad to beat her?
“Nothing bad enough for her to do this to me,” Rachael replied. “I just said I wasn’t stupid, and assuming like she was. And well… I told her that if she wanted me dead she was going to hell before I do.”
Remus and Sirius looked at each other. That was a mistake for her to say. But it wasn’t that bad. It was the truth after all.
“Rachael,” Sirius said. “You’re not going to hell… Your mother is, not you.”
“But-”
“She is, not you,” he interjected firmly and sincerely.
Rachael remained bedridden for the remainder of the Christmas break. Madam Pomfrey would appear in Gryffindor Tower every day to go and check on her. Sirius and Remus would wait patiently for her to come back down and give them her daily report. Each day it was the same thing, “she’s recovering… just a few more days.” And so it went on for the rest of the break.
Remus and Sirius spent most of their time over the next week or so playing chess, Exploding Snap, and just doing whatever popped into their head. They soon learned it was a mistake to do whatever popped into Sirius’s head. Sirius decided to do something called Snape Hunting, having heard about a Muggle sport called Fox Hunting. He led Remus out on a trek through the castle to find their prey.
They saw Snape coming out of the dungeons and heading towards the Great Hall for lunch. Normally, Sirius would have hexed him; taking advantage of the magic he’d been granted. But no, he had to resort to an old Muggle prank. He snuck into the kitchens beforehand and asked them for some balloons. The house elves always had balloons for the end of the year feast, and they were only too quick to oblige.
So they were standing over the banister on the floor above their enemy, Sirius with the water balloon held firmly over his head, aiming carefully. Just as Snape walked out from under the arch, Sirius let the balloon drop and he and Remus quickly fled the scene. However, Snape knew perfectly well who had dropped the balloon on him. So he searched out Sirius and Remus and found them a few hours later when they were having a snowball fight on the grounds.
He had his own, equally larger, water balloons and chucked them at the two boys, who were drenched from head to toe. Taken completely by surprise, neither had time to react, so Snape got away. Now soaking wet and out in twenty-degree weather, the boys retreated to the castle. After that incident the boys knew that Muggle pranks weren’t going to work on Snape. Besides, it wasn’t any fun to prank him when the castle was empty; there was no place to hide. So the boys had to wait until the castle filled up again once the break was over.
The castle did fill back up eventually. The day before classes resumed all the students who had went home returned to Hogwarts. Remus and Sirius ran to meet James and Peter as they entered the common room. James and Peter were happy to see their friends and eagerly told them all about their Christmases. Though when they asked how Remus and Sirius spent their Christmas, they merely said that it was a quiet one.
“Hey, where’s your sister?” James asked Remus. “I wanted to see if she got that model Quidditch player I sent.”
Remus quickly looked up at the staircase. “Yeah, she got it… but she’s… err… she’s sleeping right now,” he lied.
James nodded and continued telling Remus and Sirius about how his dad had slipped into their cake on Christmas Day. The story was quite amusing. James had accidentally, or as he put it, left a blob of dough on the floor when he was helping his mum cook, and he never cleaned it up. His father did however. His shoe wiped it right off the floor when he slipped on it. Sirius had no doubt in his mind that James didn’t ‘accidentally’ leave the dough there. He knew his father could take a joke.
“Rachael, how was your Christmas? I see you did something new with your hair.” Lily had just appeared in the dormitory to see her friend sitting up in her bed with her knees drawn up against her chest.
“Yeah, uh… I did.” Rachael answered dully. She had been forced to wear her hair in a ponytail so she could hide the fact that it was uneven due to her mother’s aggressive hair pulling. “How was your Christmas?”
Lily walked over and sat at the foot of the bed, prepared to tell her friend what her sister, Petunia, and her boyfriend Vernon did that was absolutely hysterical. But she forgot about the minute she got close enough to her friend.
“What happened to you?” she asked bewilderedly.
Rachael still hadn’t recovered from her venture to the Whomping Willow, nor had she recovered from the beating her mother had inflicted on her. Her eyes were still a little swollen, her lip was black and blue and she had scrapes all over her face. Her ribs were still sore, which was why she was leaning against the headboard, for support so she didn’t hurt herself.
“Nothing,” she said, hoping Lily wouldn’t press her on the subject. “I’m fine. Really, I’m okay.”
Lily frowned. “No you’re not, tell me what happened!”
Rachael flinched slightly at her friend’s raised voice. She didn’t want to tell. If she told her why it would reveal her being sent to an orphanage and it could also reveal Remus being a werewolf. Neither of those things did Rachael want Lily to know. But as she looked up at Lily… she could tell Lily was truly worried. She was concerned; she wanted to know what happened. And Lily was her best friend after all… how could she keep this from her?
She would just have to tell her. She could do it without revealing Remus’s identity. She’d just have to do some quick thinking.
“Lily,” she said quietly. “I love you like the sister I never had… you deserve to know.” Lily inclined her head to listen. “You see, the thing is, I’m not one of my mother’s most favourite people… Me and her, we haven’t been getting along for five years.”
“Your mother? I don’t get it.”
“My mother disowned me five years ago and I never forgave her, she never forgave me… She loved Remus, not me. I was just the other kid in the house. So on her birthday a few weeks ago, I sent her a present as a sort of peace offering. She took the letter I sent with it the wrong way and she sent a really nasty one back. I got mad and sent her an even nastier one. She was really mad; she Flooed here and sort of… sort of took her anger out on me.”
“Your mother did this to you? What did your dad do about it?”
“He and Dumbledore have got the authorities on her… She’s supposed to be sent to Azkaban for a year. That’ll only make things worse for me though…”
“But I don’t understand. How could your mother just disown you?”
“Because of what I did!” Rachael yelled hysterically. “It’s all because of what I did…”
The corner of Lily’s mouth twitched. She didn’t know what to say. How could she know what to say? She had never known about any of this and it was quite clear her friend didn’t want her to know. She suddenly wished she hadn’t asked. Rachael’s mother did this, her mother! She had met her mother at the platform before. She seemed like a nice woman. But for her to do this, what kind of mother would hurt their child in such a way?
“But what did you do?” Lily asked softly.
“I can’t tell you,” Rachael whispered.
“Surely it’s not that bad that you can’t tell your friend?” She blanched when Rachael began nodding her head.
“It is… I’ve been saying it wasn’t my fault for ages, but it is my fault. I ruined his life!”
“Whose life?”
“I ruined Remus’s life…”
Lily didn’t ask any further questions. It was clear she had just stepped into an area in her friend’s life that was off limits to her. She didn’t like to even think of what she could have done. But she had no doubt in her mind that whatever Rachael said she’d done, it wasn’t her fault. Lily stood up and walked over to her four-poster bed, suddenly she felt sick to her stomach.
“Are you going to be able to go to class tomorrow?” she asked as she removed her cloak and began folding it.
“Yeah, McGonagall said I’m well enough.”
Lily nodded and managed a small smile. Lily thought she would never feel so sorry for someone. Not even when she was in the fifth grade and saw this group of boys in her grade tormenting a poor little first grader. She thought that then would be the only time she had felt so sorry for someone. She never thought that it would be her best friend she would feel bad for. What a horrible woman, Lily thought angrily as she pulled the curtains around her bed so she could change. If I had to chose between living with Petunia or that woman… I’d pick Petunia in a second.
Lily had to admit, she thought her relationship with Petunia was horrible. But at least she and her mother got along. She remembered at the end of their first year when Lily suggested getting together over the summer. She hadn’t noticed the sadness in her friend’s voice when she said it wasn’t a good idea, now she knew why. Rachael felt like she was imposing if she said that she, Lily, couldn’t go to her house. Lily very much doubted she would like the visit her friend in an orphanage.
Lily always knew the world wasn’t a nice place, that there was always going to be some problem. Someone was always going to be discriminated against; there would always be someone who would stereotype another. But she never thought in a million years she would ever meet someone who suffered from one of these problems. She never expected to meet someone with a life like that. Now that she had met this person, she didn’t know what to think.
She knew one thing though, she wasn’t going to treat her friend any differently then she always did. That was probably one of the reasons Rachael never told her, she didn’t want anyone to feel bad for her. Lily couldn’t blame her. She wouldn’t want anyone to feel bad for her either and treat her different. She would never do that to her friend. Things would still be the same with them, like nothing had changed.
Class began the next day and the entire castle was one large groan. None of the students wanted to resume their dreadful classes. After having a three-week break it was like a form of cruel and unusual torture. In fact, it was cruel and unusual torture. They had to do so much work it was almost as though they hadn’t been in school for a year rather than for three weeks.
Professor McGonagall had them transfiguring everything in sight. Professor Flitwick was doing an extensive review of all of their spells. Professor Sprout was making them work extra hard on caring for the Mandrakes. And so it went with every class, until they got to Defence Against the Dark Arts, that is.
Class started out as it usually did. Professor Lupin would take role call and then would explain their lesson. But they all noticed the professor, who was usually so full of life, seemed rather detached and ghost-like to the class. When he spoke, it was with a hollow, distant voice, as though he was Professor Binns. Luckily he was a tad more interesting than the History of Magic professor.
“Can anyone tell me how to ward off a vampire?” Professor Lupin asked his class in his hollow voice. Rachael raised her hand in the air and waited patiently for her father to call on her, as she was the only one willing to answer. But her father merely scanned the classroom, as though hoping someone else would answer. When no one did, he called on his daughter.
“You can ward off a vampire with garlic or with a cross,” she answered promptly, though looking a bit disconcerted when her father awarded three points to Gryffindor. Why was he acting like this to her? She shook her head and resumed her work.
Defence Against the Dark Arts was the last class of the day, so all of the Gryffindors were eager to get out of there. Once the bells sounded they packed up and ran out of the room. Rachael shouldered her book bag and waited patiently for Lily to come out of the classroom.
As she waited, Rachael couldn’t help but notice she was attracting stares from her fellow students. She wished they wouldn’t do that. She didn’t look as beat up as she did three weeks ago. Though it was still noticeable, that wasn’t any reason for them to stare at her. She wondered what was taking Lily so much time to gather her books. Readjusting the strap on her book bag, she went back into the classroom to see that Lily’s bag had split in two and she was collecting her books again.
“Need help?” she offered, stooping down next to Lily and picking up her friend’s Transfiguration book.
Lily took it gratefully and placed it on her desk. “Thanks,” she said, picking up her Charms book and stacking it on top of her Transfiguration book.
“How’d your bag break?”
“Potter.”
“James? Well, you know he only does this stuff because he likes you…”
Lily gagged in horror at the thought. Rachael had no doubt in her mind that Lily was dreading the thought of James being in love with her. Well, Lily did have a right to fear it; James could be a little overbearing when he wanted. Still, it was mean of him to break Lily’s book bag.
“You two might want to hurry up, or else there’ll be no food left in the Great Hall,” came Professor Lupin’s voice from his desk.
The girls muttered a response and, after repairing Lily’s bag with a nifty spell, they high-tailed it to the Great Hall. They walked into the Great Hall and located two empty seats at the end of the table closest to the Staff Table. They deposited their bags under the table and began loading their plates.
“So,” said Lily, looking around the room. “What was with your dad today?”
Rachael shrugged. In truth, she didn’t even know what was with her dad. He had been acting oddly all through class.
“I dunno,” she admitted. “Maybe he’s still upset over… well, you know.” Lily nodded automatically. “Then again, who can blame him? Sometimes I wonder what possessed him to marry my mother.”
“Well I imagine she used to be nice… I mean, she hasn’t always been like that, has she?”
“Well, she was always a little harsh with me, but she did love me… I guess the accident was what finally broke her. Crazy as it sounds, she used to be nice. Right now she’s like a teacher who plays favourites.”
“At a more extreme level,” Lily added. “I still find it hard to believe you did anything worth being sent to an orphanage for.”
“You wouldn’t understand….” Rachael looked up from her plate of macaroni and glanced around at the Slytherin table, to see them all staring at her as she turned. What were they staring at her for? Why was everyone staring? No one knew what happened. The only people who did were her, Professor Lupin, Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, Sirius, Remus, James, Peter and Lily. What was everyone else playing at?
Her answer to that question, however, was brought to her almost immediately, and by one of her least favourite people in the world. Snape got up from the Slytherin table and made his way over to them.
“Hullo there, Lupin,” he said slyly.
Lily and Rachael groaned simultaneously. Lily didn’t hate Snape as much as her friend. But it was still a pain to have him around, especially on a day like this.
“Hullo there, Snape,” Rachael replied, just as slyly. “What do you want?”
“Can’t a person just come over to say hullo?”
Lily and Rachael exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing.
“If the person is you, Snape?” Lily said. “Then no.”
Snape sneered. “I just came over to say that everyone’s staring because it’s common knowledge now that Lupin here can’t stand up to her mother.”
Rachael rolled her eyes. That was about as low as Snape could go.
“Right, Snape,” she said conversationally, not even daring to ask how the word leaked out. “I really want to waste my time hurting a forty-three-year-old woman. I’m not you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Lily had to choke back a laugh by turning it into a rather obvious cough.
“Shut up, Mudblood,” Snape spat at Lily, who merely sneered as she refused to be dissuaded by such an insult. “Not even going to use magic? I thought you would’ve at least had the decency to take your mother down with MAGIC!”
“Oi, Snape!” came another voice.
The three turned around to see Remus, James, Sirius and Peter approaching them. Rachael and Lily knew it was Sirius who had spoken; it was his trademark greeting for Snape. Snape glare at Sirius for a mere moment before turning his attention back to the girls.
“I am ashamed… especially coming from someone who’s not afraid to duel,” Snape mocked.
“Snape, has your life become so miserable that you’ve been reduced to mocking girls?” Sirius questioned with an air of sarcasm.
“No, Black. I was merely stating how pathetic it is that “”
“Shut up, Snape!” Remus yelled suddenly.
The six heads snapped towards Remus, who was now holding his wand out and fuming madly. Snape merely sneered. He doubted Remus would really have the nerve to take him on. But Snape didn’t know how Remus had been feeling the past few weeks. Snape didn’t know that, despite how Remus acted around his friends, he felt as though his world was collapsing around him. He couldn’t take everything that was happening to his family.
He had bottled up his anger far too long and now was as good a time as any to release it.
“You have the nerve to take me on, Lupin?” Snape retorted daringly.
“I’ve had the nerve for a long time,” Remus whispered menacingly.
James nudged Remus in the back as a way of telling him he should quit while he was ahead. Remus wasn’t listening, though. Snape had gone too far, he was asking for it. Snape smiled maliciously at hearing that, this wasn’t anything but a joke to him. He gave a short laugh and slowly pulled out his own wand, as though he was pulling a gun from his belt.
“Remus,” Rachael said slowly, she didn’t want her brother to get into a duel on account of her.
“No,” Remus shot back. He knew what she was going to say. “He has no right to say that!”
“But, Remus, he’s “”
She was too late to stop him. Remus fired a curse at Snape, who quickly dodged it, causing Rachael and Lily to run out of the way. Now seething with rage, Snape waved his wand and sent a curse back at Remus, who also averted it, making the three boys run into the Ravenclaw table to avoid it. On it went, firing curses and dodging them. Now the whole hall was watching them and there wasn’t a professor in the room to stop them.
All of the students were now crowded around the two duelers, looking for some action, which really meant for someone to get hurt. However, it wasn’t going to happen, both Remus and Snape were too good of duelers to harm each other. They dodged every curse thrown and sent back even more powerful hexes.
“Remus,” said Sirius warningly. “Not that I don’t appreciate you trying to massacre Snape, but you’re going to get yourself in trouble!”
“Yeah, Lupin,” Snape mocked. “Don’t want to get hurt do you? Well, maybe you can take the pain a little better than your sister can…”
“That’s it!” Remus yelled, flinging his wand down on the floor and lunging at Snape. He didn’t need his wand; all he needed was his fists. He just wanted to pound Snape to dust. Snape, taken completely by surprise, hadn’t the time to react and ended up getting punched in the nose. Ignoring the stinging pain in his nose and the blood dripping from it, Snape used all of his strength to turn the fight around. He flipped Remus over onto his back and gave him a hard punch in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
Enraged, Remus hopped up onto his knees and pushed Snape over onto the floor and kicked him.
“Remus!” James yelled. “Leave him alone!”
“You’re defending Snape?” Remus yelled, only to be hit in the back as he turned to look at James.
“No! But you’re gonna get hurt and in trouble!” James said in defence.
Again Remus didn’t answer, he went on fighting Snape. Sirius looked over at James and James immediately knew what Sirius was thinking, they had better stop this before it got any worse. James stooped down on the left side of Remus and Sirius on the right and they grabbed his arms and yanked him up.
They stumbled backwards slightly and tightened their grip on Remus’s arms, thinking that if they let go for a minute that he would lunge at Snape again. Snape on the other hand, got up, dusted himself off and walked away as though nothing happened. Rachael and Lily exchanged glances. Both were clearly shocked at what had just taken place before them. Not only had they never seen Remus start a duel, they had never seen him resort to Muggle violence. As a matter of fact, Remus never resorted to violence.
“Remus,” said James slowly. “What just happened?”
Remus shook his head as he walked through the dispatching crowd of students. He sat down at the table and placed his head in his hands.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I just lost it.”
James sat down next to Remus.
“Obviously,” James replied, trying to make light of the whole event. Sirius, however, threw James a look that said this wasn’t a joke. “You’re just lucky none of the professors were in here,” James said quickly, as though trying to make Remus feel bad. Remus didn’t need James to make him feel bad, though. He felt stupid enough just thinking about what he had done.
“Come on,” said Sirius, getting up from his place at the table. “Let’s go up to Madam Pomfrey so she can fix you up.” He began to leave the hall with Remus following slowly behind him. Remus was grateful that he didn’t have too many bruises. He could just lie and say he fell down the stairs. James and Peter stood up and followed the two out of the hall, both looking utterly shocked. Now there was only Rachael and Lily.
“Has your brother ever done that before?” asked Lily in an almost awed voice.
“No,” Rachael answered bitterly. Remus had never lashed out like that before, no matter what the situation. He knew better than to resort to violence. He was practically the male version of their mother. She stood up, muttering to Lily she needed to go do something, and made her way out of the hall to the Hospital Wing. She desperately needed to talk to Remus about this. She was afraid of what she had just witnessed.
She trudged through the Entrance Hall and up the stairs, wondering if Remus had already faced the wrath of Madam Pomfrey. Rachael had to admit that she admired the witch. She had to put up with a lot between her and her brother, and then with the rest of the school as well. If it wasn’t for Madam Pomfrey, Rachael wouldn’t be as well as she was. Though her sides still ached and her face show clear signs of abuse… Madam Pomfrey had done her job.
She walked slowly up to the third floor, and listened for any signs of shouting. But as she strained her ears she recognised that all was silent within the halls. Maybe Madam Pomfrey went easy on him? It was highly unlikely that she did any of the sorts. But she did have a soft spot for Remus.
She finally made it to the Wing and pushed the door open to find Remus sitting up on one of the beds, nursing his bruised arm. He looked up when his sister came in and smiled weakly.
“I can’t say you didn’t deserve it,” Rachael said fairly, taking a seat across from Remus.
He grimaced as she said that. She was right but he didn’t like to be wrong when Snape was right. Though he thought Snape was just as wrong as he was. “You can’t say Snape didn’t deserve what he got?” Remus countered.
“Well, I can say he didn’t deserve the Muggle punishment. Maybe he didn’t even deserve the magic either.”
“You honestly think Snape didn’t deserve that “ why are you nodding?”
“Because he didn’t deserve it “ yes he was being a jerk “ but he’s always acting like a jerk. That’s not a reason to abuse him like that.”
“I don’t get it. How can you say he didn’t deserve that? He was practically begging.”
“Remus, you’re missing the point completely! Don’t you realise what you just did? You did what Mum did to me!”
“This is different! Snape was insulting you so badly. You wanted me to take that lying down?”
“Remus, it’s not different. It’s the same thing. Mum insulted me and I didn’t take it lying down and look what happened. As for you taking it, this wasn’t your battle, it was mine.” Remus didn’t say anything; he merely studied his sister and what she had said. “You know it’s true, Remus.”
Remus nodded slowly. “You’re right. I don’t know why I did what I did…. I just lost it.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “It was just that listening to Snape saying all those things, he wasn’t there. He didn’t know what really happened.”
“So then if he didn’t know what really happened, why’d you care so much?”
Remus gave a frustrated sighed and threw his hands down. “Because I really can’t take this anymore! What happened three weeks ago was the breaking point. I’ve had to sit here and watch our family fall apart like this and I’ve said nothing and done nothing about it. I should have, but I didn’t. I should have told Mum that she was out of her mind, but I was afraid to. I should have tried to convince her that you were innocent, but I didn’t! I didn’t do anything and look what happened.”
“Remus…” said Rachael, her voice softening sympathetically.
“I could’ve said something!” he growled in frustration, not listening to his sister.
“You did say something. Mum just didn’t listen.”
“I didn’t try hard enough! I’m your brother; I’m supposed to help you.”
Rachael sighed heavily. She was at a loss for words. What could she say? He was blaming the entire events of five years ago and three weeks ago on himself. He knew it wasn’t his fault, and yet he couldn’t help but blame himself. He was always told that the brother was supposed to protect the sister, and if that philosophy was true… than he had failed dismally.
“There’re some things you just can’t help, Remus,” said Rachael comfortingly. “You did try, you did your best. You told the truth and that was the best you could do.”
“I guess this is how you feel most of the time?” She smiled weakly and nodded. “How do you stand it?”
It was a while before Remus was calm enough for his sister to leave. But by the time she was able to, Remus was ready to go back up to Gryffindor Tower, although he received a lengthy lecture from Madam Pomfrey before he left. His idea of telling her he fell down the stairs didn’t work as well as he had hoped. She was absolutely disgusted with Remus’s behaviour and warned him that if he went fighting again she wouldn’t heal his wounds. Though he knew perfectly well that she didn’t have the authority to do so, he was still frightened by the statement.
They trudged down the hallway; not speaking to each other, as neither of them had anything to say anyway. They wanted to catch up with James, Sirius, Peter and Lily so the first place to look was to common room. Rachael was busy trying to figure out how the entire school learned of her painful punishment. No one was in Gryffindor Tower that night that could have said anything. It was only her, her mother, Sirius, Remus, Professor Lupin and Madam Pomfrey. She highly doubted that any of them, save for her mother, would’ve said anything.
Her mother… could her mother have possibly said something to someone? Her mother certainly had to mind to do that, it could serve as another chapter in making her daughter’s life living hell. It made enough sense, though it was near impossible that she did do it. Her mother was being tracked down by the authorities and likely to be thrown to the Dementors. She wouldn’t go around advertising the crime she’d committed. But then if her mother hadn’t said anything, why did everyone know?
She figured it was just a rumor, which happened to be true, and started the day they got back to school. After all, she did look beat up, but then why would everyone automatically know that it was her mother who had done it?
“Can you two come here for a minute?” came a voice from behind Remus and Rachael. They spun around and saw their dad poking his head out of his classroom. Curious as to what he wanted, they followed him into the room. “Sit down; I’ll be with you in a second.” Doing as they were told, the two sat down and waited patiently for their father to speak with him.
“I’ve got something to tell you two,” said Professor Lupin as he took a seat at his desk. “I’ve been offered another job.” Remus and Rachael looked at each other. That would mean he had to leave Hogwarts. “The job’s in America…”
“America?” Remus said, completely shocked. “You’re going to go to America?”
“It’s not forever, Remus,” he said, hoping this would make them feel better. But it did anything but that. “With your mother in Azkaban, there’s no way I could raise you both on the money I make as a teacher. This job they’re offering me pays a good salary. I have to make enough so that when I come back I’ll be able to raise you for a good long time.”
“So you’re just going to leave?” Remus said angrily. “Where are we supposed to go?”
“I’ve worked it out with Dumbledore, you two will stay here during the holidays. Look at the bright side,” he said turning to his daughter, who was glaring daggers at him. “You won’t have to go back to the orphanage.”
“I have a question,” she said quietly. “Is leaving the country a way for you to escape all that’s happened? So you won’t have to think about what that woman’s done to our family?”
“What? No of course not, it’s just-”
“Because that’s not the way out, and I don’t care if I have to go back to the orphanage, it was better knowing you were still around.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just something I have to do.”
“Abandoning your children is something you have to do?” Remus snarled as he got up and left the room, his sister following him.