I solemnly swear that I am up to no good | Professor Remus Lupin

Chapter 71 - "the condition"

We stopped in front of the elegant staircase as Snape looked at us impatiently and annoyed. When we all got onto the stairs it started moving and we found ourselves at the top, right in front of the headmasters office.

Remus opened the door and let me walk inside first, Snape immediately followed me and looked around for Dumbledore. „Where is this old man now?" Snape muttered to himself impatiently. From the little balcony in his office I heard Dumbledore cough. We all turned our attention towards him.

I smiled at him, still unsure of what was about to happen to us, but Remus greeted him, like we weren't here for an important matter. „Please have a seat you two" Dumbledore said and motioned towards the two chairs in front of his desk. Remus and I did as we were told and exchanged a look before Dumbledore sat down across from us.

„For reasons I can't explain, Sirius Black managed to escape this morning" Dumbledore stated with a slight smile towards me. „And Severus informed me about last night..." he stopped and turned towards Remus. „It seems like we all know about your secret, I guess you have no problem with talking about it in this room?" The headmaster asked Remus.

„No, Sir" Remus replied, but I interrupted their conversation. „Headmaster, is this really necessary...?" I asked worried about Remus. I didn't wanted him to feel bad about himself and I was unsure about the following words from Dumbledore - or worse - Snape. „If we all know, why do we need to talk about his...condition?"

Remus placed his hand on my arm to assure me, that it really was okay for him, but before he could said something, Dumbledore spoke again. „That is an odd word to describe it..." We looked at him confused.

He stood up and with wand-less magic he placed tea cups in front of us and filled them. „Please" he gestured towards the tea and waited for us to drink, before he continued. We took the cups and began to drink from them as Dumbledore finally explained what he meant.

„Condition" he repeated my word and turned away from us. „This sounds so negative... Is being in love really a condition?"

I almost choked on the tea at his words. Remus struggled too, but was the first to catch his breath again. „What?!" He asked nervously. „I don't know what you are talking about..." He added and tried to sound a bit more calm, but his red face and the shakiness of his voice said something different. The look Dumbledore gave us over his glasses made the both of us realize, it was useless to lie about this.

„I-I..." Remus wanted to respond, but had no words nor an idea of what to say to the headmaster.

„Don't worry" Dumbledore said, casting Remus and I to exchange a confused look. „This is not the reason you have to leave this school"

„The lycanthrope? Seriously?" I blurted out before thinking. „B-But you knew about this when you gave him the job and...and he didn't hurt a soul!"

„Maeve" Remus tried to calm me down, but I ignored him and stood up. „I knew this would be a problem in the end. I fucking knew it! Professor you can't take away the best teacher this school has ever seen, just...just because-"

„Maeve!" Remus said in a louder voice this time, causing me to immediately sit back down in my chair. Sometimes I forgot the intimidating side of Remus, if this was under other circumstances I would probably turned on by that, but right now, all I could think of were Dumbledore's words.

„She is right, Remus...I am sorry my friend, but I can't let you continue to teach at this school any longer" Dumbledore said looking at Remus.

„I understand" Remus said and nodded. „I am a threat to students..." He said, his voice turning more and more silent.