Remus talked to Myfawny the following day about Selene's offer, and Myfanwy was briefly interested until she thought about it further.
"I dunno," she said. "I'm kind of self-conscious about my voice now." Her voice had properly dropped in the last few months, but she was trying to speak as high as possible. It was clearly quite hard for her, and she was still in the process of training her voice so that it was easier for her to speak that way, but overall, she avoided speaking out loud as much as possible nowadays. It was a lot to ask her to sing.
"No one in the pub will care about your voice as long as you can sing well," assured Remus. "If there's any place you can sing without being judged it's there."
"Will I get paid?" Remus smiled. Money was always more of an incentive than anything else.
"Yeah, a bit. My aunt said she would."
"Alright, I'll think about it then. The girls have stolen all my clothes so I've got no choice but to wear theirs, which is fine and all, but I'd like to buy my own."
"Well, hopefully Selene can arrange that."
"You really think my voice is that good?" Remus nodded.
"From what I've heard from the showers, it's certainly not bad." Myfanwy laughed lightly.
"Thanks. I suppose it'll be pretty cool, although... I don't know how to sing in a higher voice, and I don't know if I want to sing lower." She sighed. "I wish there was something I could do about my voice. It's cool yours gets to change. Mine's stuck like this."
"I'm sorry." Remus didn't really know what else to say.
"It's not your fault. It just kinda makes that potion a bit useless."
"It must do something." She shrugged.
"Probably. I don't know if it's even worth it. The only thing I'd want to change is my voice, otherwise I don't really care. I'm happy with how my body looks right now, so I don't really need it."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Myfanwy just shrugged. "Does that mean you won't be talking to Madame Pomfrey?"
"No, I want to ask her exactly what the potion would do, then I'll decide."
"Alright," said Remus. "Sounds like a good plan." The two had been sitting out in the courtyard, basking in the rare January sun which wasn't exactly warm, but was at least nice to sit in. It was peaceful, the chatter of the other students blending into the background as the birdsong took centre stage instead.
"Do you ever think about telling your parents?" asked Remus, a question that didn't really need an answer.
"Of course I do," replied Myfanwy. "I think about it all the time."
"I know I shouldn't ask but—"
"I'd rather not think about it. They're just... traditional."
"In what way?"
"They're strong believers in men having one role and women having another. Stuff like that. The idea of a man becoming a woman? They would never accept that. They'd never accept me." Remus looked at her, and she fiddled with the hem of her skirt. She had made such progress in the last year or so, but she was still being held back by the people around her. Remus felt powerless. All he wanted to do was help her, but in this situation all he could really do was offer her empty words. What else could he do, change her parents' minds? He didn't even know them.
"You know... Sirius's family doesn't accept him either."
"Accept him for what?"
"Just... for being himself. They don't like him. I think that's pretty obvious by now but... what I mean is, he's not planning on sticking around for long."
YOU ARE READING
Boys Will Be Bugs
Fanfiction[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...
