Bound To You

Chapter 20: Fly Away, Now

Some days, Remus would question what the world had come to. Some days, Remus would question himself, who he was and what about him that he should trust.

This was one of those days.

First things first, it was usually Severus that came first to the Great Hall, and then him. And then he'd sit beside the scowling man as he grumbled one thing or another. He was trying to keep a reputation in Hogwarts, so he understood why he kept on glaring, even as they ate their respective meals. But today was not like that. Severus was oddly late, and he'd started breakfast when he, in all his bat-like glory, swept into the Great Hall. Remus sighed, knowing that the scowling man wouldn't want to sit next to him, judging by his usual grumblings when he did so.

But to his surprise, he did, in fact, sit right next to him, grumbling as he did so.

"Good morning, Severus," Remus greeted, a hint of surprise colouring his voice. Severus looked at him, an amused twinkle in his eyes despite his ever present scowl.

"Good morning," he nodded, turning back to his breakfast. Remus was stunned. Severus, the Severus, had just replied a morning greeting properly, and not a set of grumbles as if he was irritated that he had to wake up so early in the morning??? Something was definitely odd there.

It was the first out of many that he'd noticed.

"Harry," a voice said softly, reaching his sleep-addled mind. "Wake up, Harry," the same soft voice tried to rouse him from sleep, and he opened one of his eyes with great difficulty. His eyes felt weird, sore, and his nose stuffed. His ears rang a little as he sat up slowly, a hand rubbing his eyes to rid the little bit of sleepiness that clung to him. He felt awful, to put it mildly.

"Good morning Harry," that same soft voice greeted, and Harry blearily opened his heavy eyes to find Professor Lupin sitting on his bed. It was all a blur of colours to him though, a blob of dark colours which was his teaching robes, brown-ish hair and a bit of amber somewhere on his face, glinting under the sunlight. Harry nodded, finding that simple action difficult since his head was pounding rather harshly. "How are you feeling?"

"... fine," he said, coughing a little. A glass of water was pressed into his hand, and he gladly accepted it, sipping it, savoring the coolness that slid down his throat. Professor Lupin just chuckled, and he peered at the man through the glass' rim, trying to gauge whether or not he could sense his lie like Tom did, back when he was still recovering from the aftermath of the mind control breaking.

"Well, if you say so," he shrugged, noting Harry's eyes following his every move. Harry attempted to smile when he noticed that he was being watched, but it came out more as a grimace than a smile. He then darted his eyes to his right, then to his left, trying to find the familiar neat dark hair. "If you're looking for Thomas, he's teaching class for today."

"Oh..." Harry nodded. "What happened?"

"To be honest, I don't know myself," the professor shrugged, "but Thomas and Severus said that Minerva had upset you somehow, and you had a complete breakdown and locked yourself inside a room and wouldn't come out until Thomas finally got inside and carried you out."

"Oh..." Harry said again, his eyes trained onto the royal blue sheets on his lap. The silence that ensued was awkward, and Harry wished for the professor to just go away, or say something. The silence was unsettling. When said professor coughed to clear his throat, Harry immediately looked up at him.

"This is awkward," he mumbled, making Harry smile briefly. "Let's... talk about something."

"Okay, sure," Harry nodded.

"Well then, what do you want to talk about?" the professor asked with a smile.

"Umm..." Harry thought for a while. "That dementor thing, what did you shoo it away with?"