Chocolate Toast, Remus Lupin

Ravenclaw Wit

After dinner, Lily found Avery in their dorm, curled up with the curtains drawn around her bed. "Avery? What are you doing?" Lily asked.

"My head hurts. Would you mind going on patrol alone tonight?"

"No, not at all. Do you want me to stop by the hospital wing and get you something for it?"

"No, I'll probably be asleep by the time you get back."

"Okay, feel better Avery." Lily closed the curtains around the girl's bed before going down to the common room. "Hey, Remus."

Remus looked up from where he was working on his DADA essay. "Hello, Lily. Are you okay?"

"I'm worried for Avery, she was fine earlier but she's not now." Lily sat next to Remus, fidgeting with her fingers.

"Oh, did she say why?"

"Just said her head hurt. I feel like there's something else though."

"We still have half an hour before patrol time. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well, she just gets moody sometimes, like she's bipolar. Which isn't supposed to sound rude! I just wish she'd talk to me instead of turning away." Remus nodded, understanding what Lily meant by saying she switches moods. "Do you know something?"

Remus' eyes widened. "What do you mean? I don't know anything."

"You do know something!" Lily exclaimed. "What do you know, why didn't she say anything to me? She barely likes you!"

"Wow, thanks Lily," Remus rolled his eyes. "We saw her when we were walking to dinner. I followed her and Oscar said something to her about her parents."

"Oscar? Why'd he do that?"

"Said he was trying to understand why Avery didn't like us and then he brought that up."

"Well, what'd she say to you? What'd you say to her?"

Remus looked around, making sure no one was around to hear. "Avery's grandma," Remus rubbed his eyes. "Her grandma blames her for her parent's death, and Avery thinks her gran is right."

"What! Why would her grandma say that and why does Avery agree!?"

"I asked James when I got back, when Avery's parents died they died protecting her."

Lily covered her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh, poor Avery. I can't believe her grandma would say that!"

"You should," the pair turned as Oscar walked over to them. "Her gran is horrible, I remember when she invited us all over during the summer before fourth year. Her Gran came home, thought we had left already, she just started yelling. We overheard some of it but not all. When Avery got back to her room we tried talking to her but she just told us to go."

"What did she yell at her about?" Lily asked.

"Her public appearance, the state of the house, her grade for the year. Everything that she could find wrong about Avery she said."

"And she just lets her grandma say it?" Remus asked.

"She can't really do anything. She can't get into her parents' Gringotts vault until she's seventeen and she has no other family to go to. Not only that but she can't use magic outside of school. Her gran holds too much power to do anything."

"It's all so horrible." Lily's voice cracked, hearing about the things her friend had to go through made her upset.

"That's uh, that's one of the reasons she doesn't like you and the others, Remus. Her gran gets all on about public appearances and who she can be around. When she told her grandma about the pranks and the reputation you all held she flipped. I didn't realize that was actually why she didn't like you guys until today. Ali and Piper told me after dinner."

The duo didn't know what to say to Oscar's words. For Lily, the minister of magic, who was supposed to be a role model, was no longer so great in her mind. For Remus, he realized that Avery's situation reminded him similarly of Sirius' except more verbal than physical. "I should get going, I think I'll stop by the library before I go on patrol," Lily said, wiping her eyes.

The boys said goodbye, waiting for the clock to hit 9 so they could go down to the dungeons. "Hey, did you leave a bag of chocolate frogs on my bed?" Remus asked Oscar.

"No, maybe it was Mason or Adam?"

Remus shook his head, "No, I asked them when they came in. James made a joke it was a secret admirer."

"It had to have been. If it wasn't one of the other boys then it has to be some secret admirer."

"The only people that can get in here are prefects and I doubt it's any of them."

Oscar thought for a moment. "Can you bring it down?"

Remus nodded and went upstairs to grab it. "Here you go." He set it on the table in front of Oscar.

Oscar took a moment to look over it, he looked all in the bag, looked over each chocolate frog, and finally looked at the bag itself. "You know, there's a common similarity when you transfigure something, when you transfigure an animal to a goblet the goblet becomes that color. When you transfigure something into a bag, there's a small pattern of what you used to transfigure. And this, was transfigured from an old assignment."

"Well, what's the reversal transfiguration?" Remus asked, interested in who gave him the chocolate.

"I don't know. I'll go to the library tomorrow and try to find it."

"Or, we could go and ask McGonagall right now. It's only 8:30," Remus said.

"Oh, yeah sure." Oscar grabbed the bag and Remus followed him out so they could walk to McGonagall's classroom.

When they got to Professor McGonagall's office Remus knocked on the doorframe. The woman looked up, surprised to see the two. "Mr. Lupin, Mr. Anderson, how can I help you two?"

"Professor, we were hoping you could help us with the spell to transfigure a bag back into its original object," Remus said.

The professor raised her eyebrows. "And why would you need to learn that?"

"I was left a gift, we were hoping to find out from whom."

"Bring it over," the boys brought it towards the professor's desk and Remus removed the chocolate frogs from it. "Elporta." The bag changed back into its original object. "Well, I was not expecting that," McGonagall said as she looked at the paper.

"What? Who was it from?" Oscar asked, getting closer to look. "Well, shit."

"Language Mr. Anderson!"

"Sorry professor," Oscar said.

Remus stepped forward and his jaw dropped. "This has to be a mistake! There's no way Avery did this! She hates me!"

"Apparently not Mr. Lupin. Now out, you both have prefect rounds." The boys nodded, grabbing Avery's assignment before exiting. After the boys left Professor McGonagall started to walk towards Dumbledore's office. "Lemon drop."

The eagle moved, allowing McGonagall to walk in. "Ah, Minerva, I thought I'd be seeing you," Dumbledore said, a smile resting on his face.

McGonagall dropped 5 galleons on the headmaster's table. "I don't think you should be a part of this bet, Albus."

Dumbledore laughed. "I am merely good at guessing Minerva."

I'm having a mental breakdown :)