"Why So Suddenly?"

22 1 0
                                    

This one is a bit more serious

This one is a bit more serious

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.


   Remus stared with disdain at the hunched, grizzled old man who stood in his living room; a man he knew all too well. It was quite the surprise, he thought to himself as he stood in the doorway, to walk into your own home only to find an intruder. And an unaffected intruder at that, one who didn't seem petrified or tied up by the various charms set up around Remus's apartment that should have prevented apparition or Floo networking.

   Dumbledore, much to his account, remained unbothered by Remus's sudden return home and continued to mouth absentmindedly on some hard lolli he had procured from thin air. Remus crossed his arms and continued to stare at Dumbledore, wondering which of them would break the silence and either ask or explain what was going on.

   "Good to see you're doing well, Remus," Dumbledore suddenly spoke, completely at ease and not even bothering to get up from where he sat on Remus's couch.

   "And you as well," Remus responded, rather tersely even for himself.

   He could see Dumbledore's eyes crinkle behind his half-moon glasses as the Hogwarts headmaster finally looked up and made eye contact. "How has work been for you?"

   Remus's mouth went sour. He was sure his face conveyed the sudden bitterness welling up inside of him. Dumbledore only waited for a response Remus wasn't sure he wanted to give.

   Ever since that night, when his life as well as many others had gone straight to hell, he'd been left stranded. With the Order disbanded, the war temporarily at a standstill, and two of his three best friends killed in cold blood, he hadn't much to do. For years he had been forced to undertake jobs far below his true capability, and his never-ceasing lycanthropy made everything just that much more difficult. He had been scraping by on the lowest of the bare minimum and had just barely managed to retain his run-down Yorkshire cottage from the very beginning of the war.

   Remus narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore. Was the man provoking him? He knew very well what hell Remus had been living through and had done squat to help him; save for the occasional quest to spy on the very werewolf that turned him as a child, the old git.

   "Work has been fine," Remus all but snapped. "And I'm sure Hogwarts is faring just as well, even with the upheaval."

   Dumbledore's blue eyes suddenly lost their mirth, though his face didn't change. "Indeed it has been. Though, we seem to have come across a problem."

   Remus had yet to move from his doorway. "Dare I ask?"

   "You may," The headmaster hummed as if it had not been rhetorical. He popped a jelly slug into his mouth, chewing idly. Remus grimaced. "Hogwarts... finds itself short of a professor yet again."

   Oh, yes, Remus had heard of the Gilderoy Lockhart drama. The cheat had lost all of his memory and remained a permanent amnesiac, how fitting.

   Remus blinked away from his short yet bitter thoughts as he looked up to Dumbledore. The headmaster's words sank in. "No. You can't possibly-" He stopped to intake a sharp breath "You want me to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts? This year?" Dumbledore's bushy eyebrows rose but he didn't deny him. "Why so suddenly?"

   Dumbledore's mouth quirked up into a mischievous smile. "Because I have a sneaking suspicion a past flame of yours will be there and I enjoy the drama entirely too much."

   "Excuse me-?"

   "But never mind that," Dumbledore waved a shrivelled hand in the air and finally rose from Remus's rickety couch. "Yes, I do indeed wish for you to become a professor. And yes, I do realise how sudden it is, but I assure you the pay is good and it is all with my best intentions that I offer you this position."

   "You're on your last legs is what you are," Remus snapped and Dumbledore blinked at the venom in his voice.

   "My boy, I understand why you would say such a thing... and you have every right to be hesitant, but-"

   "But what?" Remus hissed.

   By this time he had given up on any manners or hospitality and had entirely lost himself to the slimy mass of negative emotion in his stomach. It writhed and squirmed as flashes of the last time he had agreed to help Dumbledore flashed before his eyes. Two of his best friends dead in the rubble of their new house, the cry of their only child shrill in the air. The echoing screams of someone he had once cared for, maybe even loved, pierced through his skull as they yelled and begged and pleaded and spat at him in hysterics.

   "We need you to teach this year," Dumbledore began, this time entirely mirthless.

   Remus snorted. "That isn't much of a selling point, Dumbledore," He was entirely done with this conversation, moving to open the door. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to leave-"

   "Wolfsbane potion."

   Remus's stomach turned to lead.

   "An unlimited supply," Dumbledore continued. "Freshly brewed for when you need it, straight from Severus if you agree to teach at Hogwarts this year."

   He stared at the headmaster, devoid of emotion and petrified in place. Had he found out? Did Dumbledore know about that darling child, Chiara? No, she would have been expelled had she been discovered and Remus had heard nothing of the sort.

   Slowly, Remus looked up toward the old man. "This... this is what it's come to?"

   "I'm sorry, Remus," He sure as hell didn't sound sorry. "We truly need your help... and you need ours just as much."


962 words

Marauders Incorrect Quotes but They're Short Stories!Where stories live. Discover now