love, lupin

eighteen

November 16th, 1976
Tuesday

"I wanted to say thank you."
Remus grimaced and watched as the food that Black had just been chewing was suddenly all over the desk.

It was after dinner and they were back in McGonnogals office and they were on their own again, Remus had purposefully waited till she had left to talk to Black.

Remus looked away with a frown as Black began gathering up all the food bits and vanishing them with a spell.

"Sorry about that." Black whispered and when he heard the clatter of his wand on the table Remus looked back at him, a frown still present. "It just shocked me that you said thank you."
Remus watched on unimpressed and Black looked like he was growing uncomfortable. "You never normally thank anyone for anything. Let alone me."

"Well you did stop me from bleeding out so I could get to Pomfrey. Why did you do that by the way?" Remus asked and he'd discarded his own wand on the table and stared at Black curiously. This time he'd decided to sort out all of his piles before binding them and he felt like it was going much quicker then it had before. Black's eyes became frantic and he stumbled over his words, Remus remained patient.

"You see- I- There's obviously the heartiness of playing a prank but then I realised you were there and then noticed when you were pulled out that you obviously weren't okay." The Gryffindor picked at the skin around his nails as he continued, "So I was thinking about what it could be and then the trail of blood from the lake to you was quite obvious so I figured you'd cut yourself on a stone badly getting out. But when I saw it worse then I thought that it was probably those carnivorous water demons-"

"Grindylows." Black glared at Remus' corrections,
"Grindylows." He repeated before he began to blab again, "I doubted it for a second because they usually chill at the bottom of the lake but that bite couldn't have been for anything else."

"That doesn't explain why you healed it."
"Well, like I'd said, I'm not a-" He stopped himself, "I'm not just going to let someone bleed out infront of me as much as I don't like them."

"Well thank you."
"You're welcome,"
They moved to work in silence again and Remus had managed to finish a whole binding spell before there was s disturbance from Black, like he'd been waiting for Remus to finish.

"Greyback."
Remus looked at him but didn't say anything.
"When I was healing your leg, I saw.." Black trailed off hesitantly.
"Well spit it out then." He pressed as he looked away and picked up the finished stack and placed them in a box with the rest of the ones he'd already completed.
"I saw a bunch of other scars and stuff-" Remus tensed up as he grabbed his next stack and put it infront of him. "and you don't seem like you outwardly agree with what your parents say," Remus looked at him again, brows furrowed and fingers digging into the paper into his hand, scrunching it slightly, "So I was wondering if like- I know it's not any of my business- but do they hurt-"
"You're right. It's not any of your business." Remus spat harshly. Most of his scars on his legs were admittedly from either full moons when Fenrir would have to keep him under control or after being stuck in that horrid shack all night. Some were from practice duels over the summer. But there were definitely scars littered on him from when Fenrir would get angry, whether that be at him or something else.

"Greyback-"

"Stop prying into my home life Black," Remus snapped and had grabbed his wand and pointed it at Black, their tables weren't far apart and with Remus' arms being so long, his wand almost grazed Blacks nose. The boy visibly gulped in fear. "We aren't friends. I was just saying thank you." He pulled his wand back and instantly moved onto the next binding spell.

He felt Blacks gaze on him for a moment longer before it vanished and he heard the same incantation being muttered to his right.

Remus finished before Black again and after marking which boxes had the complete binded sets of paper with a spell he packed his wand into his robe pocket and looked at Black as he did. His head was down as he sorted the papers out ready to bind them, he still had a while to go. Remus rushed through charms like it was walking, Black was slow and steady. He'd been listening.

"Bye." he offered and Black looked up, surprised as Remus turned to the door.

He got to the door when Black spoke up.
"Greyback." Remus looked over at him, he was still sat down but all of his attention was on Remus, wand down again. "I don't want to pry, but if my suspicions are right and I know they are otherwise you wouldn't have told me to stop-"
"Black -"
"Let me finish." He interrupted and Remus complied, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I want you to know that I know what you've been through." Remus watched as Black pulled up a sleeve and it was littered with small, sharp and concise scars. Remus would have thought them self inflicted if they weren't so neatly done. Remus met Blacks eyes and frowned.

" It's nothing like that with my family Black. Goodbye." He turned around and walked away.

Remus was so mind boggled as he took an extra slow stroll to the dungeons. His first thought was that why since what he'd seen on Regulus' skin, scars admittedly inflicted as a punishment from his parent, he'd just assumed Sirius Black didn't have any. Of course he would, he was way less well behaved them his little brother. Remus felt stupid about that. The second thing he pondered about was why had he opened up and showed a few of the end results to Remus of all people.

Black had never really been perceived as a thoughtful person in Remus' eyes.

The third and final thing he was absolutely racking himself over was why Sirius Black had helped him on Sunday. Sure the Gryffindor had given a reaosn but Remus didn't quite believe it.

"Oh your back!" Evan exclaimed and Remus smiled as he moved to sit beside Regulus but Evan motioned him over. He sat beside Evan and the boy laid his head on his lap and Remus couldn't help but smile as his stomach fluttered happily.

"I was thinking, all of yesterday, " Evan started and Remus waited, "and I've decided I support your decision Remus."

"We'll talk to him at the beginning of December. You can tell Reg by the way," He knew Regulus was listening, "I'll talk to Jack."