JULIET {remus lupin}

ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR

October

Remus settled into teaching as easily as Juliet knew he would, there were excited whispers about his lessons from every house, even Slytherins seemed to look forward to his lessons. It was as if it was what he was always meant to do, which made Juliet laugh as she thought of how the marauders would always joke that one day he'd be a professor. She observed the man in the hallways, seeing how he softened and smiled when he talked to Harry, following his sad gaze as the boy laughed with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. She remembered feeling like that too, in her first year of teaching. Hogwarts had only been memories, she'd envied the lightness of the student's lives. 

Now, Hogwarts was home.

Remus walked the grounds of Halloween weekend, enjoying it being so empty due to the year's first Hogsmeade visit, he smiled, remembering how no matter what, he and the marauders would always use the secret passages to go to Hogwarts, enjoying the daring feeling of breaking school rules. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself when he noticed Harry, alone, presumably because of the incident that he had heard about with his muggle aunt and uncle. James Potter would have gone to hell and back to ensure he didn't miss Hogsmeade, he guessed Harry was more like Lily in this instance, more rule abiding. 

He approached the young wizard with a smile, who returned it halfheartedly, looking completely disappointed.

"No Hogsmeade for you, Harry?" He asked kindly.

The boy sighed and shook his head, muttering something about muggles under his breath.

"You're incredibly like James, Harry."

Remus smiled as the boy's eyes lit up, looking at him expectantly.

"Apart from your eyes, of course. They're your mother's."

"That was the first thing Professor Blair said to me," he muttered, looking at the man again, an eyebrow raised.

Remus sighed, "yes, I knew them too. Both exceptional people."

Harry seemed to hesitate a little, leaning against the wood of the bridge.

"Why wouldn't you let me face the boggart, Professor?"

Remus looked a little confused, "I would have thought that's obvious." When he shook his head the man continued, "I assumed it would take the shape of Lord Voldemort."

Harry sighed again and absentmindedly rubbed his scar before going back to his professor to talking about dementors.

"Will you tell me about them, Professor?" He asked as their conversation slowed.

Remus sighed, "would you like a cup of tea?"

He nodded eagerly and followed the man back towards the castle, before asking him to wait a minute and sprinting back up to his room, and returning with a huge book. Once settled and with a cup of tea, he handed it over to the professor.

"You're in quite a few of these," he said. "I thought I recognised you on the train but wasn't sure until our first lesson."

Remus swallowed as he opened the book, James and Lily, dancing, kissing, with Harry, happy on every single page.

"Hagrid gave it to me," Harry said awkwardly, leaning forwards and flicking some pages forwards. "Who's that?" He asked, pointing at a photograph of him, James and Sirius - indistinguishable from the maddened photos of him displayed on every corner of every street.

"A friend of ours," he said quietly. "Padfoot."

"That's an odd name."

Remus laughed and nodded, turning the page and biting back a smile at a photograph of Lily with her arms around Juliet.