The Marauders: Year Six Part 2 #Wattys2017

M-Mature Were-Wereolves

M-Mature Were-Werewolves

Hello Mr. Scamander -
You may remember me. I'm Remus Lupin's... mate... Sirius Black.
I'm writing you in regards to Remus, actually. You see, it seems that Remus has been ill lately, in the time leading up to the full moon. He is having all of the regular reactions he has to the full moon, but nearly a week in advance. It's very alarming. Aconite barely helps at all. Do you know what is causing the illness and how I might go about helping him to feel better?
Sincerely,
Sirius Black

Newt lowered the letter to the table.

Tina was clutching the baby, Rolf, feeding him a bottle of milk as she rocked him gently and sang, staring down at him with glistening eyes. Newt watched her for several moments as the words that Sirius had written tumbled about in his mind. He rubbed his chin with the edge of the parchment and frowned.

When he got up from the table, Tina paused in her song for the baby. "Is everything alright?"

"Y-yes, of course," Newt replied, and he nodded a bit too enthusiastically. "Just g-got to - to floo Ned."

Tina watched Newt walk out of the room. He passed her sister, Queenie, in the doorway, who was just entering the kitchen, her steps like floating on air. Queenie watched Newt pass through and smiled after him as he slouched away before turning back to look at Tina and Rolf at the table. The bottle stayed suspended by magic as Tina sighed and brushed a bit of hair from her own forehead that had fallen out of the bun she'd tied it back into.

Queenie settled into the chair beside her, leaning over the table to rub Rolf's chubby cheek with her fingertips, smiling at him. "Little bean," she whispered, smiling, "You're a little bean..." Her eyes sparkled in that way that Tina had always been jealous of (they came from the same gene pool - why did Queenie's eyes do that thing when Tina's didn't?). She looked up at Tina, then glanced over her shoulder the way Newt had gone, before turning back to her sister. "Who is Remus Lupin?"

Tina looked up from the baby again. "Remus? What about Remus?" she asked. Fear trembled her voice.

"Newt was just thinking of him is all, just now, as he was leaving..." Queenie explained. "That's why he's going to speak with Ned Veigler..." she hesitated, then, "Remus is sick?"

Tina pushed Rolf into Queenie's arms rather abruptly. "Here, hold him a moment," she said, and she hurried out of the room.

Queenie stared after her sister, then shrugged and turned to nuzzle her nose against the baby's, cooing quietly as she did.

Tina caught Newt in the living room, where he was pushing some of Queenie's laundry away from the fireplace, where it was floating on wooden drying racks, the pink and lace garments fluttered in the warm air that the fireplace put off. Tina caught Newt's elbow. "Mr. Scamander," she said in a stern tone that made Newt look at her with eyebrows raised. "What's wrong with Remus Lupin? Was that letter from Dumbledore?"

Newt explained, "It - it was from, uh, Sirius... Sirius B-black, that is." He paused as Tina continued staring at him, waiting for the rest of the explanation. "Seems - it seems as though something is m-making Remus s-sick, as though he's, uh, experiencing the full moon, but - but a bit in adv-advance."

Tina's eyebrows went up. "Like what Ned has been experiencing."

"Y-yes," Newt nodded.

Tina's eyebrows folded in concern, "But Bradley hasn't --"

"Bradley might be too, uh, young," Newt supplied.

Tina fidgeted with the hem of her long sweater. "But what do you think is the cause?"