Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Sixty-Seven - Farewell

Author's note: CW pet death. I'm so sorry :(

-x-

Dearest Remus

Please write back as soon as you can.

I am so sorry for what happened. Your father feels regret over his reaction, and apologizes for storming out. You took us both by surprise and he wasn't prepared to tell you everything. Please understand that his views are very old. He no longer views werewolves like he used to. He loves you very, very much. And I, of course, love you very very much too. Knowing that I've caused you pain and sadness tears me apart.

I understand you want time to think about everything but I would ask you reconsider not coming home for the holidays? If you do, you will have all the privacy and time to yourself that you need.

Darling, you are everything to me and always have been.

Love, Mum

Remus lowered the parchment and rubbed his forehead, feeling like he didn't get enough sleep to deal with this letter. It didn't surprise him when the owl flew in and woke him up around the time owl post should have been. He figured his mother would be writing soon, though wished she had taken a little more time than... well, probably that very day.

He considered writing back then decided he didn't need to, not right away. He folded the letter up, thanked the owl which was perched on the end of his bed giving him the evil eye, and then got up to put the letter in his desk. Everyone else was still sound asleep-or rather, the other Marauders were. Dave and Spinnet were gone.

After debating whether to go back to sleep or not, he got his slippers on and went to the bathroom to check on the plant. He peeked into the stall and saw the sack was still there and still intact. It wriggled a little bit, but the snare was probably happy enough. He sprayed the box with some water to keep it damp before retreating back to bed for more sleep, which ended up being only an hour before James was jumping on his bed trying to get him to wake up.

The morning consisted of a very long game of Monopoly, as James wanted to try it again. This time Remus was the banker. It was more fun watching others play than playing at the moment; his brain wasn't quite able to focus on properly playing the game, so he purposely lost. He got into enough debt to sell his properties to the others and once the last one was gone, he distributed his money evenly among them and took his token off the board. He remained as the banker, though, rather enjoying the attempts at bribery when James needed a loan. He finally accepted a full bag of creep clusters and turned his nose up at Sirius and Peter who said that was cheating.

"No where in the rules does it say the banker can't accept real sweets as payment for a loan," Remus said, pulling one of the sugared roots out of the bag and nibbling on it.

This game ended in another big fight and Remus thought Sirius and Peter might end up not on speaking terms at all, before James landed on another one of Sirius's properties and owed him a lot of money. Enough that it bankrupted him. He sold his properties all to Peter because Sirius was 'mean' for not wavering the hotel fee, and Sirius lost his temper because there was little chance of him winning with Peter owning most of the board. He flung all his money in James's face and called him a sore loser. James retorted it was Sirius's fault for not letting his own best friend stay in one of his hotels for free. In the end James and Sirius got into a fight which was better than Sirius and Peter, since James and Sirius rolled around on the ground hitting and kicking and biting until they were tired out and called it a truce. Sirius and Peter would have simply not talked to each other and dragged it out for a day or two.

They packed the game up and then went down to get a late lunch. Everyone they passed shot them dirty looks and a few of the students added some nasty names on top of it.