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

Chapter Seventy-One - Me In Your Sweater

Author's Note: chapter title says sweater instead of jumper since it is a reference to the song Heather by Conan Gray and gives me extreme Remus pining for Sirius feels so expect to see more lyrics again

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Despite Remus's nonchalance over Twycross, he did feel extremely sick. All day long on Friday the words my father works for the Capture Unit pulsed in his head, getting sharper whenever he saw her. What was worse was that he couldn't help but look at her throughout the day. She was only slightly taller than him, her long blonde hair kept back in its usual ponytail, her shoulders constantly back and her nose always in the air. She didn't look like a danger, but... she was. To Remus. He'd have to be extremely careful around her, and also pray she never mentioned him to her father.

There's a boy in my class who's really sick; he misses several classes at least once a month! he could hear in her voice. He's so pale and always looks tired. Says it's some sort of blood disease.

What if she did write to him? What would happen? Did Dumbledore know his classmate—a fellow Gryffindor—was the daughter of a member of the Werewolf Capture Unit? He had to know. And Fawley, did she know? If she knew she would have said something surely...

Dear Miss Fawley, he wrote that evening while the other Marauders tried playing Monopoly again.

Professor Charlemagne had his lesson on werewolves today. I found out that Matilda Twycross—you remember her, she is the one whose boggart is a werewolf. Well her father works for the WCU. She claims to know all about werewolves but most of what she said were lies. I don't think she personally would guess about me however I don't know if she'd ever have reason to write to her father about me. I'll be careful.

Love

Remus

It wasn't until it was closed and he was halfway to the owlery that he realized he signed it 'love'. Like it was a letter to... to his mother or something.

He froze in the corridor, clutching the letter tightly, debating whether to open it up and fix it. Leave it? Would it be awkward? How did he always sign his letters before? Suddenly he couldn't remember, and began panicking. Sweat formed under his arm and his chest clutched up. Was it weird?

He ran to a nearby empty corridor and opened the letter, intending to change it—except he didn't have any ink or quills with him. Licking his lips, he crouched down with the letter on the floor and tried to use his wand to change the word. It ended up becoming a blurred, unreadable smear.

The owlery will have something.

He folded it back up and hurried to the tower, pausing in front of the door. He hadn't been back during the past week, since... since he got Arthur's body. Slowly he went in, eyes zeroing in on Arthur's old cubby. It was completely empty. Cleaned out. Scrubbed out. No sign of an owl ever living there.

Shaking now, he went to one of the tables, pleased to not only find stuff for writing but also a small jar of InkAway. Yours, he signed after using a dab of InkAway to remove the blur. He did love Miss Fawley. Very much so! But he wasn't sure if he wanted to have his letters signed that way, or if Miss Fawley would appreciate it.

"Hey Cocoa." He approached Peter's owl, climbing partway up the ladder since Cocoa was in one of the upper cubbies. "Pete said you could deliver this letter, if you wanted. It goes to Miss Fawley."

Cocoa hooted and then darted forward, nuzzling Remus's hand. While Cocoa did tolerate Remus, that wasn't usual. Toleration usually meant Remus could attach a letter, not... get snuggles.