love, lupin

twenty-one

November 18th, 1976
Thursday

Thursday was always one of those days which Remus thought were overbearingly boring. He had DADA which was never bad but it was one of those lessons where because he was too good at it and was far ahead of many students in his classes that it was boring learning spells and new information that he already knew. Then there was transfiguration with McGonnogal which honestly was sort of tense because not only was it a class with Gryffindors, having McGonnogal teaching him while she was still very mad at him wasn't ideal.

Then there was lunch. On Thursdays lunch seemed barren as it was just Regulus and Remus every Thursday. Regulus wasn't always up for a chit chat and on this particular thursday he was not so the pair settled into a comfortable silence while they ate. Remus wasn't sure what the other three were off doing but he was sure Regulus knew.

After Lunch was Ancient Runes and Herbology which neither of them were difficult subjects. He atleast had the company of Jack in one.

Then dinner, all of them were there but after their absence at lunch neither of them, Jack, Evan or Barty, were really up for talking much so there was limited conversation.

After dinner they seemed livelier after eating and suggested going out by the lake. Remus declined as he'd received a hefty Herbology essay he wanted to get done as soon as possible.

So after a string of goodbyes, Remus set off to the library with his bag held in his hand rather then slung over his shoulder. The strap was wrapped around his fist a couple times. He knew it looked odd but his shoulder ached from carrying around textbooks, yeah he could have used a lightweight charm but why make life easier?

When he got to the library, Remus settled down in the herbology section at a two person table.

Remus was never too much of a perfectioniat but he liked to follow routines to the Tee. First he'd get out his parchment and place it right infront of him, then he'd set out the black ink pot and quill just right of it, making sure the quill was pointing up and not down although it was impractical. Finally he'd set his bag on the seat across from him to make sure noone felt welcome to sit with him. Not that anyone would sit with him anyway, but the precautions were always nice.

He dove straight into the essay after he grabbed a book fron the shelf to help him out.

About half way through it he heard a noise. Now of course noises were normal but the sudden sound of a harsh sob in the silence of the library was a bit odd. Not out of the ordinary, loads of people cried over work in the library, but still odd.

Remus managed to ignore it for a couple more lines before he got disgustingly curious about what some kid was crying about. So he got to his feet and rounded the shelf to the dark creatures section where he knew the sobbing was coming from and when he made his footsteps heard the sobs ceased.

Remus almost smiled at that. The noise was ugly.

Pretending to check one of the shelves nearby, Remus peered over at the table the boy was sat at and scanned over the open page and his heart felt like it dropped to his stomach.

Werewolves. The kid was studying werewolves.

A third year then, Remus thought absentmindedly and he frowned at the empty parchment. He huffed slightly as he lugged a random heavy book off the shelf and walked back to his table where everything was as he left it.

He sat down and placed the book on the empty side of the table, he didn't need it but he had to make it seem like he wasn't just spying on the crying boy.

Remus continued his essay as the sniffles started up again and he tried to concentrate but all he could think about was that essay the boy had to complete on werewolves of all dark creatures.

The Slytherin managed another ten lines before he gave in and grabbed an empty sheet of parchment and wrote in  bulletpoints all sorts of fact about werewolves, even ones he knew weren't in any of the library books and was just stuff he knew from personal experience such as the exact scent certain emotions gave off and all that stuff.

He knew it wasn't wasted as he still heard the now much quieter sobbing.

He folded the parchment twice before grabbing the book and standing. It wasn't hard to remain anonymous as the Gryffindor third year refused to look up and show the tear streaked face. He reached and slid the book back on the shelf and as he walked back past he pretended to drop the parchment by accident on the table and took longer strides to dissappear around the bookshelves.

He quickly went and sat back down.

Remus just stared at his own almost complete essay with a frown at what he'd done. An unfamiliar feeling swelled up in his stomach and it was warm, warm enough for Remus to think he was getting sick so he threw his belongings into his bag, swung it over his shoulder and shot for the door.

He was going to go up to bed for an early night. A very early night, it was 7pm.

He got to the Charms section which were beside the doors when Sirius Black appeared infront of him, looking rather frantic. Remus gave him an odd look.

"Alright Black?" He asked, practically bouncing on his feet to get out.
Black let out an exasperated laugh before he seemed to calm.

"You-You're a fast walker mate. I tried to catch you in the Divination section but you were already gone, I had to run to catch you." Black gave an explanation that Remus didn't care for.
"You need something?" Remus asked, tone showing his impatience. Black frowned ever so slightly.

"Right. I uhm.." He seemed to get a but awkard and Remus' lips tugged into a small smirk in amusement. "Just wanted to say I saw you help out that third year and just wanted to say that it was really nice of you."

Remus stared for a moment.

"Is that it?" He asked and the Gryffindor nodded.

"Right, well," Remus twisted to step past him and Black moved out of the way, "Have a nice evening."

Black nodded.
"Yeah, you too Greyback."