“I swear it was all an accident…” James bumbled aimlessly, one hand seeking the bed behind him without looking, the other clasped to his face, as Madam Pomfrey tried desperately to help him take off his shoes before he got into the bed.
“What I’m trying to say is…well, I’m not sure what I’m trying to say, but there isn’t any need to punish her. Isn’t that right, Remus?”
James threw Remus a hopeful glance. He was prevented from replying, however, by Madam Pomfrey interrupting, “There is no need for you to defend her, James. She was seen performing the hex by at least five other people. She has already been given a week’s worth of detentions for it.”
James had had his face covered since they had entered the hospital wing. Only now did he seem to forget about the large purple boils he had been hiding, allowing both his hands to drop to the bed as he stammered, “B…but there isn’t any need for that…honestly! It was all just a…a misunderstanding. Remus was there. He’s a Prefect. He wouldn’t lie!”
“Now don’t you go getting poor Remus involved!” Madam Pomfrey’s voice was threatening as she uncorked a bottle of brown, sticky liquid and began to pour it into an extremely large spoon. Remus couldn’t help but smile as James turned up his nose at the sickly odour of the antidote, his glasses slightly askew as he shrunk away from the advancing nurse. Madam Pomfrey exhaled deeply, placing one hand on her hip as she continued, “Regardless of what you boys seem to think, he was not made a Prefect for you to take advantage of him.”
Madam Pomfrey looked at Remus warmly, and he returned her look with an affectionate grin. He had spent more time with her than anyone else in his year; she was the one who had been given the responsibility of leading him towards the Whomping Willow. Sometimes he remembered with an abstract sort of amusement the hesitation she had shown in the beginning; when he had been an awkward and incredibly shy first year, and she had approached the task Dumbledore had given her with a justified amount of trepidation. Yet as the years had passed, they had grown to trust each other more. The tenderness and understanding Madam Pomfrey had shown in the days after the full moon, when Remus would be weakened and injured from the violence of his transformations, had transcended what could be expected between the ordinary patient and nurse. Remus appreciated her quiet concern.
Of course, the rest of the Marauders were not exactly strangers to Madam Pomfrey either. Hardly a week went by without one of them required a visit to the hospital wing (often, but not always, alongside Snape). And, however much she would scold them and roll her eyes, Remus knew that she was fond of them really.
“You’re going to have to take this.” James winced, sliding away from the spoon, closing his eyes as if this alone would make the sticky liquid disappear. Madam Pomfrey sighed before a mischievous smile curled the corners of her mouth and she said, “Well, of course, if you want to walk around for the next week with those boils…”
James’ eyes shot open and with grim determination he took the spoon from Madam Pomfrey, closed his eyes once more, wrinkled his nose and swallowed down the liquid hard. Remus laughed as James spluttered, sticking out his tongue so the air would take the taste away.
“There we are!” Madam Pomfrey said triumphantly, re-corking the bottle. “In an hour or so those boils will be completely gone. And who knows...” She winked at Remus who has opened a copy of The Daily Prophet where he sat beside James. “Maybe you’ll have better luck next time.”
“I don’t know why you have to laugh at your girlfriend’s jokes, Moony,” James said sulkily, slipping down beneath the sheets. Remus stopped laughing and rolled his eyes. The boys often liked to tease that him and Madam Pomfrey were conducting some scandalous love affair.
“Don’t strop with me just because she hexed you again. She warned you…didn’t she warn you?”
“Bah!” James kicked the sheets off his legs as he asked, “Where’s Wormtail?”
Remus shrugged, allowing the paper to fold gently into his lap as he replied, “Last time I saw him he was scurrying off after you got yourself into this mess.”
“Typical Peter…anything to get out of trouble.” Remus sighed. Only yesterday had Sirius and Regulus disappeared from school; only yesterday Sirius and Remus had argued in the Astronomy Tower and Sirius had left words of farewell for James and Peter behind. There would be no contact from Sirius. All the Marauders knew better than to Owl him at home. It had long been established that letters from whatever friends Sirius had made in Gryffindor were not welcome at Grimmauld Place.
Remus watched the way James was blinking heavily; something in the medicine Madam Pomfrey had administered was making James sleepy and he yawned deeply as he waved a hand in Remus’ directions with the words, “Get as a drink of water will you, Moony?”
As Remus turned the faucet and watched the icy cold water splash down into the enamel basin, his mind was plagued with the heated words that had been uttered only days before. Once again he could see the mirth in Sirius’ eyes as he coolly and unashamedly stated that he had nothing to apologise for. Remus let the glass fill and turned off the tap. As he turned to walk back to where James was laying, the same words he had been replaying over and over swam into his mind, and he could once again hear the hurt behind the voice that had spoken them… Is this all that is between us now Moony? Once again he saw the dark haughtiness that had engulfed Sirius’ features as he had bowed and left Remus standing in the Astronomy Tower. They had argued before, but this time there was something in Sirius’ reactions that Remus could not place. There had been something about the way that Sirius had muttered under his breath, ‘Too quick, Remus…far too quick…’that gave Remus a nauseating feeling of guilt he could not shake.
A rattling snore shook Remus from his musings he looked down at the sleeping form of James; mouth wide open, glasses crooked on his nose, his feet twisted awkwardly round the white linen sheets. Remus couldn’t help but laugh as he felt a strong urge to add to the boils that were already starting to fade. His palms began to itch as he debated reaching inside his robe for his wand. No, he scolded himself, placing the glass of water on the table beside the bed; he couldn’t hex a sleeping friend (however much Sirius and James seemed to ignore this basic rule). After carefully removing James’ glasses and placing them beside the glass, Remus had moved to take the seat beside the bed once more, and he heard a familiar voice say, “One of Evans’ hexes I take it?”
For the first time since they had entered the hospital wing, Remus looked over to the bed opposite and to the smiling face of Eleanor Figg. Her blonde hair was pinned back messily, and idle strands fell down over her shoulders. She was wearing a bronze and blue Ravenclaw jumper that looked to be about three sizes too big; her bed was strewn with magazines and Chocolate Frog packets and crumbs from eaten Pumpkin Pasties. As Remus stood up and moved across to where Eleanor was sat, legs crossed as she flicked through the same copy of the Daily Prophet Remus had just been reading, his gut was suddenly seized and twisted so he halted; frozen in his tracks, aimlessly staring at Eleanor’s lowered head. As if she felt him staring Eleanor lifted her eyes and smiled, waving him over.
“I’m so sorry,” Remus said, sitting down tentatively at the end of the bed. Eleanor shrugged as if it was nothing before offering him a Chocolate Frog. Remus declined, his eyes scanning the enchanted “Get Well” cards on Eleanor’s bedside table. She was obviously a well-liked and popular girl.
“How did you know it was Lily that hexed him?” Remus couldn’t help but smile at his own question as Eleanor emitted a short burst of laughter.
“Please, I think half the school knows that Potter is absolutely obsessed with her. Besides, I’d recognise one of her hexes a mile off…so it doesn’t take a genius to work it out.”
Remus beamed in response as Eleanor rested back, exhaling deeply before she picked up a letter and waved it, sighing, “Don’t you just hate Halloween?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say I hated it, but…” Remus hesitated, wondering whether the anti-social comment he was about to make would go down well or not. He decided to risk it. “…But I guess there is something I don’t like about all the fuss that gets made…”
“Finally, someone who agrees with me!” Eleanor leant forward and pushed all the papers and empty packages from the bed as she crawled out from under the sheets and began to re-pin her hair. “My family seem to have always been into it. I mean, I get that it’s an important event in the Witching calendar but…you see all those?” Eleanor pointed to the twenty envelopes that had been stuffed inside the cover of her textbook. “Those are all invitations to distant relatives’ parties; Aunt Agatha’s something or other, or Great Uncle Phineas’ annual Halloween get-together. I tell you, it’s exhausting having such a big family!”
Remus nodded in agreement, fixated by the way Eleanor was swamped by the jumper that was now stretched over her knees. As if she had suddenly realised that Remus was studying her so intently, Eleanor’s eyes locked with Remus’ and for one tantalising moment, Eleanor blushed before looking away. This was something that Marianne Merrydew did when Sirius smiled at her. Things like this didn’t happen to Remus Lupin.
“Well, we’ll be forced to go to the Halloween Feast anyway, I suppose,” Eleanor recovered very quickly, the heat in her checks disappearing. Remus nodded. The Halloween Feast was only a week away. Sirius had to return by then; he would never miss it.
Almost at once Remus stopped; he stopped thinking of Sirius and pushed away the concern he was feeling. Sirius was responsible for this girl being here, now, in the hospital wing. Whatever the reasons he had been called home, he would soon know - but he couldn’t forgive Sirius…not just yet.
“Well I better be going…” Remus spoke suddenly, a little embarrassed, and rose to his feet. “I can’t stay here and baby-sit James all day…not with Peter out there, all alone.”
Eleanor let out another ripple of laughter, her brown eyes warm and her cheeks flushed; and Remus could feel the knot in his stomach tighten as he struggled to keep his own face pale.
“Yeah I’ll see you around,” Eleanor said, before her voice took up the soft tune that Remus had heard her humming before. As he turned his back he gulped hard in attempt to swallow whatever feelings were rising up in his throat. He turned to go, but Eleanor spoke agan.
“Remus?” The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he rubbed the flesh there as he turned around, irritated that the use of his name could inspire such a reaction. Despite this when Remus faced Eleanor once more, her face was impassive as she asked, “Do you collect the cards?”
Remus was confused for a moment until he saw the purple card that Eleanor was twisting in her hand he understood. She smiled and threw the card towards him. He caught it and read, Monsieur Marmaduke, 15th Century French Wizard who infamously transfigured his wife into a toad. He was quoted to have said, “I prefer her zat wayz.”
Remus laughed and said as he pocketed the card, “I have about a hundred of him.”
“Yeah, me too,” Eleanor replied.
Without you, I'm nothing by Clare Mansfield
Chapter Notes: In Sirius' absence James gets into a spot of bother, resulting in a trip to the Hospital Wing, Meanwhile, Remus speaks to Eleanor again for the first time since the accident.