Managing Mischief

Chapter 6: Ghosts of You

     As Remus walked the halls to his first class of the day, his head and his heart warred with each other. His heart was telling him that the voice, in the Wisp Twins' howler, was his Nikki. He, himself, had never been on the receiving end of her fury, but he had witnessed her unleash it on James and Sirius a time or two; not to mention her older brothers, as well. She could be terrifying, but Remus suspected he had never truly witnessed the full wrath of her fury, and gods he hoped he never would.

His head, however, had a bad habit of breaking his own heart. Logic told him that it had been so many years since he had last seen her that the probability of remembering her voice perfectly was, essentially, none existent. There was also the fact that the twins last name was Wisp. Not Black. Not Lupin. Not Prewett. So based on that little fact, it would be safe to assume that, if indeed it was her voice in the howler, she was married. She had left Remus and Sirius, and found happiness with someone else.

The thought of her being with anyone other than Sirius and himself, felt like a knife to the chest and made him feel nauseous; he felt a sting in his throat as he considered the idea of her running off without a word to marry someone else. No! No, what they had, had been real; there was no way that she would have done that. Right? Remus stopped the dark thoughts in their tracks (the pain of them too much to bear) and changed the course of his thoughts.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. He just couldn't shake the haunting feeling of hearing her voice again, however as he walked he started to doubt that it was her. It had been so long and being back at Hogwarts was bound to trudge up old memories, as well as rekindle and inspire hopes he still carried for the future.

With a sigh, he had to admit to himself that only time would tell if the voice did belong to Nikki. As Remus continued down the corridor his mind couldn't help but wander back to his own time as a student at Hogwarts:

It had been a damp, Saturday autumn morning. And the Gryffindor common room was buzzing with the excitement of the impending Gryffindor Vs. Slytherin quidditch match that was to take place later that day.

Remus sat on one of the chairs in front of the fireplace reading Fahrenheit 451 ( a personal favorite of his) that morning. Though he had awoken early that morning, like most other mornings, he found himself alone in the dorm room; something of a rarity if he was being honest. He, however, had decided to make the most of this small piece of peace and quiet and took his time to get ready for the day. Once he was showered and dressed he took the stairs two at a time in hopes of claiming his favorite chair in the common room; which was where he currently found himself.

The peace of the morning, and excited chatter of his other housemates was quickly shattered as the portrait of the Fat Lady flung open, rapidly followed by shouting.

He saw Sirius waltz calmly into the room first with his hands in his pockets, and a self-satisfied smirk on his face; Nikki was on his heels, Prewett red in the face, he knew she was furious. If the angry glare in her eye was anything to go off of, Sirius was lucky looks couldn't kill or he would be six feet under.

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE SIRIUS!?" came Nikki's voice in a righteous fury.

Remus sighed heavily. He now understood just why he had woken up alone in the dorm room. Though James and Sirius, for a short time, had gotten better at leaving Severus Snape alone and not seeking him out, there were still times they did just that. 'Old habits and all that' was always Sirius' response as to why, but Remus wasn't fooled. He knew Sirius didn't like him before and he liked Severus even less once they started courting Nikki. Severus and Regulus were two of her best friends, and this made Sirius jealous and insecure. Would he ever admit that out loud? Absolutely not.

So now here they were having another row about it in the Gryffindor common room.

"WHY SHOULD I? HE GIVES AS GOOD AS HE GETS!"

Remus saw Nikki visibly deflate in disappointment at Sirius' response. He was almost positive he could smell the salt of her tears that had gathered but had yet to fall, though he knew would, following this argument.

In a soft, strained voice, that was almost a whispered prayer Nikki said, "He is my best friend Sirius." She held up her hand to keep Sirius from interrupting her with his tired response to their friendship and continued, "He IS my best friend. He will always be my best friend. I had just hoped that you two would be able to put aside this foolish childhood bickering and schoolyard bullying. Even just for my sake. I see now just how naive that hope had been."

With that she walked past Sirius (who had the decency to at least look slightly guilty) and up to her dorm.

Sirius sheepishly looked at the floor and then up at the stairs that Nikki had just disappeared. He shook his head and looked around the room before spotting Remus and smiling. He walked up to Remus giving him a kiss on the cheek and sitting on the arm of the chair.

"What did you two do to Severus this time?" He asked.

"Nothing he didn't deserve." came Sirius' petulant response.

"Well whatever it was this time, you seem to have really hurt her."

"I know, but I'll make it up to her, I always do." He said staring once more at the stairs for a moment. "Or I'll get on my knees and grovel."

Remus laughed at the last half of Sirius' statement. "Well if I were you I would start groveling now. Don't you have a quidditch match to play this afternoon?"

Remus saw all the color drain from his boyfriends face at this reminder. Nikki may have gone off quietly after their row but they both knew better than to think she wasn't angry and likely to get a bit of revenge. She was a hell of a beater and deadly with a bat.

"You're right! I have to fix this! And fast." Sirius gulped as he swiftly jumped to his feet and took off to make plans to smooth over this tiff.

Remus, alone once more, shook his head at those two. He loved them both dearly but they were both so bloody stubborn, and damn it all, if he didn't find that shared trait sexy.

'That must say something awful about me, but I'll find time to unpack that later.' he thought with a smirk. Chuckling to himself quietly as he shook his head, he returned back to his book, making small notes in the margin with his thoughts.

Remus snapped back to the present as he neared his classroom. In an attempt to slow his rapidly beating heart and calm his emotions, he took a deep breath and shook his head to push the ghosts of his past to the back of his mind. Gryffindor's victory over Slytherin all those years ago had nothing to do with the Defence Against the Dark Arts. He had a class to teach and these thoughts would distract him. 

As the bell rang to announce the start of class Remus took a final deep breath and slowly released it, taking a few final steps to the door of the classroom.

With a smile on his face Remus threw open the doors," Good morning class! Books away, wands out! Today's class will be hands-on!"