The Foreigner {Fred Weasley x OC}

18.

A Week Later

"Oh, Charlie! I wasn't expecting you." Lupin says when I open the door to his office. I bow my head slightly, "Sorry, Professor, I didn't mean to scare you." I walk into his office, "I thought it was about time I started up my lessons again."

"You are looking a lot better now, Charlie."

"Yeah. I've been trying my hardest to look healthy... I'm hoping that if I look like everyone else people will forget about me."

Lupin stands from his chair, "The rumours have not been kind to you."

"If they're bad enough for you to have heard them. I must be in a real cinch."

"You're not a monster, Charlie. Trust me I know monsters." Lupin smiles. I try to smile back, "I just wish I could go back... Back to before... Before all of this."

"I know how you feel."

"You're just saying that because it's your job." I pace in front of his desk.

"Trust me. I understand better than anyone else in Hogwarts."

I stop my pacing, "Sure you do." I say in a cold tone, "Unless you are some sort of secret demon, Professor, I don't think you could ever understand how I feel."

Lupin doesn't say a word in response and his silence speaks as an answer, "Professor... You're not?"

"You must have noticed the scars on my face by now." Lupin gestures to the slices that mark his otherwise gentle face, "These scars were given to me by a man named Fenrir Greyback and they are a constant reminder of what I am."

"What you are?" My curiosity has been perked.

"Haven't you wondered why I am unable to teach once a month?"

I think back to every month of class so far - excluding January - and he's right, at one point of each month his position was filled in by Professor Snape. Once a month... Once a month... Once a month!

"Professor Lupin are you... A werewolf?" I ask with hesitancy. He smiles faintly and nods his head, "I should have expected that you would solve it so easily. All you have been doing for the past several weeks is reading about magical creatures." He chuckles, "I told myself I wouldn't let any students know... I suppose you are a good choice. I don't think you'll be telling anyone my secret."

"But Professor, why tell me?"

"Doesn't it make perfect sense?" He says, "We're the same, Charlie... I spent my years at Hogwarts very similarly to you, hiding a deep and dark secret that no one could know - of course my friends quickly realized. There was no hiding anything from them."

I sigh, "It must have been nice to have friends you could trust that much."

"And you don't? You seem quite close with your friends despite the little time you've known each other."

"That's the thing... I really like my friends, but I haven't known them very long and I don't know if I can truly trust them with knowing the whole truth."

"Who says they need to know the whole truth?"

I drop my shoulders and complain, "People keep saying that to me, but I don't know how to do that. Every part of my story is so integral to the next. How am I supposed to eliminate a whole part of that story?"

"I don't know the whole story and I am happy with knowledge I have about you. Your friends would most likely feel the same way."

"I wish I was the type of beast that was easy to explain to everyone."