Care of Magical Creatures wasn't until next week, but Remus at least had Ancient Runes to look forward to on the following day. He had been reading the textbook for quite a while beforehand, so he already had a basic grasp of some translation. The numbers were easy, because numbers were usually represented in an image by something, such as a single unicorn horn representing one, or the five legs of a crab-looking creature naturally representing five. He struggled to remember all of the names though, and kept calling five Quintapeed when it was actually Quintaped.
The first lesson happened to be about numerology, so Remus didn't have to concentrate too much. The teacher gave them simple calculations to do using the numbers and Remus breezed through it. He knew he shouldn't relax too much; he was essentially learning a new language. Translating the old language of witches and wizards, and if he knew anything about learning languages (of which he didn't know that much actually, because he couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been bilingual, and for the rest of his life he'd never had the chance to even try and learn another language), he knew that it started out simple but got harder and harder as time went on. He knew the days would come where he'd throw his books away in frustration, but for now, he was content in knowing how to count to ten in ancient runology.
Remus was updated on his mother's condition every night by his father, and when Hope was finally discharged from the hospital, Remus would talk with her for almost an hour each night. He'd give her the entire blow-by-blow of his school day, leaving out no detail no matter how boring. He would only stop when his mum insisted that it was late and he needed to go to sleep. Remus would reluctantly say goodbye, and sit there in the dark and silence until he almost fell asleep on the common room floor.
He didn't want to admit to himself how scared he was. He didn't want to admit that he talked to her for so long each day because a part of him was always worried it'd be the last time they spoke. He didn't want to admit that he put off going to sleep every night because he could never shake the memory of being woken up in the middle of the night to find out his mum was in hospital.
If it was up to him, he'd sleep right there on the carpet in front of the fireplace, where his mum was only a quick call away. But Sirius wouldn't let him.
"Come on," he'd say, holding out a hand for Remus to take. Sirius had sat up with him almost every night now, and the only nights he didn't was when Remus felt too guilty about making Sirius as exhausted as he was, and was adamant that Sirius should go back to bed. But it wasn't long before he wanted Sirius by his side again. The boy would listen patiently to Remus's ramblings about his day to his mother, no doubt incredibly bored by the retelling of events that he'd been present at, but he never said anything. He'd always greet Remus's parents politely, and would chat to Hope if she asked him any questions– which she usually did– and the two ended up building up quite a good rapport with one another, which Remus was glad about; he'd wanted his mum to meet Sirius for a while, but he was worried that she still might think Sirius was like his family, and would therefore disapprove of him. But this wasn't the case, especially when Hope asked what Sirius was studying and he replied with muggle studies. Sirius couldn't help himself afterwards from asking Hope a hoard of questions about his homework, which she seemed happy to answer. Remus, on the other hand, wasn't... entirely okay with it.
"If you need help with your homework, you can just ask me," he said after his mum had said goodbye.
"I know, but... well, you already have enough of your own homework and since she was here, I thought–"
"But I'm talking to her. She is my mum after all." The exhaustion was finally getting to him, and Remus found himself angry about things he hadn't ordinarily been angry about.
"Yeah, but–"
"I'm going to bed," he huffed, leaving Sirius on his own. By morning, Remus was kicking himself, and he apologised as soon as possible.
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Boys Will Be Bugs
Fanfic[REUPLOAD] Remus Lupin has more than one secret, and there's no way of knowing who he can trust. All he has are his parents, but they can't protect him when he goes off to Hogwarts. But then Remus meets a boy and his two other friends, and soon real...
