Remus Lupin One-shots

Out of the Woods

Looking at it now

It all seems so simple

We were lying on your couch

I remember

You took a Polaroid of us

Then discovered (then discovered)

The rest of the world was black and white

But we were in screaming color

And I remember thinking...

We were sixteen years old, with nowhere to go and a war raging on outside of our restricted world that consisted of a castle full of ghosts, a lake full of merpeople and a forest full of creatures. In my dorm, attached to the curtains on my bed, there were photos. Photos of Lily, Alice and Marlene. Photos of the black lake, the forest and the castle. But most of the photos were of the marauders and I. Most of those photos had been taken at 3 a.m. and were just of us being crazy. But there was one photo that stood out to me. It was of me and Remus. Lily had been the one to take it. He and I had been standing in the middle of the court yard on a rainy afternoon, he had leaned in to kkkiss me and then we had heard the 'click' of my camera and looked up to see Lily standing there with it in her hands, along with a new photo. That photo looked beautiful to me. He and I stood out against the dull, dreary, grey walls of the castle. I kept that picture separate from the others. I loved it too much to risk it getting ruined.

Looking at it now

Last December

We were built to fall apart

Then fall back together

Your necklace hanging from my neck

The night we couldn't quite forget

When we decided

To move the furniture so we could dance,

Baby, like we stood a chance

Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying

And I remember thinkin'

We were sixteen. We didn't know what to do with our lives. We didn't fully understand what was going on outside of the castle walls. We didn't think about what was going to happen after school. We didn't stand a chance against the real world. We were childish and irresponsible when it ace to one another. For the moment, that was alright, so we decided to make that moment last as long as possible. I would wake up in his bed with a silver chain around my neck, the pillows and blankets everywhere. Chairs would be against the wall and I would look over to see the record player set up but silent as we would have finished listening to all the records last night. I loved these moments. The problem was, we didn't know how long they would last.

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods?

Are we in the clear yet?

Are we in the clear yet?

Are we in the clear yet?

In the clear yet?

Good

Stumbling around, trying not to think of the war, we let each other occupy our thoughts. We tried to pretend that this was it. That we were all that mattered in the world, but there will never not be something bad happening in our lives. Still, we avoided it, hoping that if we ignored it, it would go away. Somebody else would fix the world for us, before we had to actually enter it. We were only sixteen after all.

Remember when you hit the brakes too soon?

Twenty stitches in the hospital room

When you started cryin', baby, I did, too

But when the sun came up, I was lookin' at you

Remember when we couldn't take the heat

I walked out and said, "I'm settin' you free,"

But the monsters turned out to be just trees

And when the sun came up, you were lookin' at me

You were lookin' at me

You were lookin' at me,

I remember, oh, I remember

We were only sixteen. What you don't know until something awful happens, is that age plays no part in the selection of those with terrible fates. One full moon, we had been out in the woods near the shrieking shack. We weren't alone. There were death eaters hiding in the deep in the woods. Remus had already lost control of his mind and as he ran, I heard something. Something that wasn't the footsteps of the other animals that were running alongside me, trying to catch up to Remus. Wormtail must have heard it to because he stopped in his tracks and wouldn't go any further.

There were death eaters in the woods that night. If only we had known. I woke up three days later, with Remus in the bed next to me. James, Sirius and Peter sitting in chairs, all four boys watching me, hoping that I would wake up soon. When I did, Remus got up and sat on the edge of my bed, wincing in pain as he did. He was hurt too, with new scars on his face and his arm in a sling. He looked at me in pain and when I lifted up my shirt to see the source of the pain, tears started to roll down his cheeks and he kept whispering over and over about how it was his fault that this had happened. I told him to stop. I told him that it wasn't his fault. Through tears of my own, I told him never to blame himself for this mess, but every time he looked at me, he broke down. So when I left the hospital wing, I didn't go back. I spent days wondering how he was, but never visiting, knowing it would only remind him of the scars on my chest if I did.

Finally, around 6:30 a.m., after not being able to sleep at all, I gave in. I stole James' cloak and snuck down to the hospital wing, where I found him asleep in his bed. As I watched the sun come up, i heard him whisper my name. I looked down to see his eyes open and his hand reaching for me. The next few minutes were filled with whispered apologies. Mine were for leaving him here alone, his were repeated ones for leading me far too deep into the forest. We were only sixteen, thought to be safe inside the protective walls of Hogwarts and yet we were suffering because of this war. We needed each other. We were meant to be here together. We were made that way and we would get through this whether it be with our heads held high or leaning on each other to keep from falling over.

We were built to fall apart

Then fall back together