RUNNING WITH WOLVES remus lupin

OO7. 𝐁𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒

𝐒 𝐄 𝐕 𝐄 𝐍

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

OCTOBER HAD BROUGHT THE START OF THE QUIDDITCH SEASON, and Remus had been amused but not surprised that Minerva seemed to have chosen her team captain in her image: Oliver Wood was fanatically determined, and he had none of Minerva's political incentives to keep his fervor to himself.

It turned out that Fred Weasley had been exaggerating when he had suggested that Oliver was going to start working his team on September second, but not by much.

It had been Remus's turn to patrol the second floor one night, and he had passed by a north-facing window just in time to see the Gryffindor Quidditch team wander its way back up towards the castle after practice.

Harry was easily the smallest person on the team, and one of the Weasley twin-- from this distance Remus couldn't tell which it was-- had thrown his arm around Harry's shoulders to mess up his hair. It was moments like these that he couldn't help but think about James and Sirius.

𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠. . .

James and the rest of his team stumped their way into the Great Hall after practice in a particularly brutal rainstorm. Scowling, James plopped himself into the seat beside Lily and wordlessly dished stew onto his plate.

"Rough evening?" Sirius asked.

"Are you going to join the team like I've been asking you since third year?" James snapped without looking up from his plate.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "What, and take orders? From you?"

"Then shut up."

𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠. . .

Remus stood still, out of sight, and watched the Gryffindor team as it was now making its way back into the castle. There were days where he barely thought of James and the others even once, and then there were moments like this one, where their ghosts crept up on him, so vivid that the last twelve years may as well have not happened.

He was exhausted as October neared its end and felt his skin itching with the need to get out of the castle, even if only for a few hours.

He glanced at the lesson plans strewn across the small table in his private quarters as he wrapped his cloak around his shoulders and tucked in his scarf; the fourth years were moving through the unit on Disillusionment Charms faster than he had anticipated, and he was going to have to give them the option of moving the test up a day so they'd have more time for their papers, or having a class devoted to exam review.

Sighing, he fastened his cloak and pushed his way out the door. As he descended the steps from his office to the classroom, he counted the days until the full moon off in his head. Eleven. A little over a week. He'd better write that exam soon, then, while he still had the energy for it.

Remus had made it all the way to the entrance hall before he remembered them. Dementors, stationed at every entrance to the grounds. The air left his body in a rush. God, he didn't think he had it in him to deal with the foul creatures, not now.