I solemnly swear that I am up to no good | Professor Remus Lupin

Chapter 25 | The storm

She looked exactly like me, but she had a creepy smile on her face and had blood stains over her robe and her hands were covered in blood. She slowly walked towards me and as soon as she passed the closet Remus jumped protectively in front of me. The creepy version of me turned into a full moon.

"Riddikulus!" Remus shouted and the boggart turned into a balloon that flew back into the closet. Remus secured the door and dismissed the class. Everyone was hesitant and confused and I heard them already talking about me, but they left. Fred and George went up to me, I still hadn't moved and was standing in the middle of the room.

"Maeve..." George began carefully. He didn't knew what to say but Remus was walking towards us.

"Mister and Mister Weasley, i will take care of her" Remus told them and as they wanted to argue he immediately turned them down and motioned towards the door. They hugged me a last time and handed me my wand back before they left, Remus closed the door behind them with a flick of his hand.

My eyes were still darted on the place where the boggart of me had disappeared. Remus sighted and walked up until he stood directly in front of me, I still didn't move. He placed his hand under my chin and slowly lifted my face up with his fingers until I was forced to look into his face. Tears were filling my eyes and I drowned in his eyes as soon as I reached them.

"Remus...I am so sorry" i stuttered.

"Don't be, there is no need to be sorry"

"I...I am my own fear" I spoke more to myself and felt the tears streaming down my face.

"Oh, Maeve" he whispered and pulled me into a tight hug and I cried into his chest. He pulled me closer towards him, one of his hands was in my hair at the back of my head and the other was around my shoulder. He calmed me down and stroke my back. When I stopped sobbing i turned my face up towards him.

"Do you want to talk about it..." he asked softly and gently stroke a strand of my hair behind my ear. I slowly nodded.

"I am-" I started to explain, but got interrupted by loud thunder. A heavy storm was about to happen, this was my chance.

"Come with me" I told him, grabbed his hand and ran out of the room. He kept up with me and I let go of his hand when we arrived in front of McGonagall's classroom.

"Maeve, what is going on?" he asked me while he tried to catch his breath.

"I will explain later, but this is really important" I told him and opened the door. McGonagall was already waiting for me, I quickly walked towards her and we went to the small box with the potion. She opened it and I carefully grabbed the small bottle.

"You know what you need to do, Maeve. Go to the inner courtyard." McGonagall told me with a reassuring smile, but I could sense that she was nervous. I nodded at her and walked back to Remus, who was still struggling to catch his breath.

"Ready for a second round, Professor" I asked him jokingly before I grabbed his hand again and we ran down the corridor. When we arrived at the huge door, that lead us outside onto the courtyard, I noticed that all students had left and no one was outside. They all were inside the castle, because it was about to rain heavily.

Right when I stepped outside I felt the first drops on my skin. I let go of Remus hand and got out of my Ravenclaw robe. I stepped into the rain.

"Maeve, what are you doing? You are going to freeze" Remus shouted after me over the loud rain.

"Don't worry!" I screamed back to him and continued walking. I grabbed my wand and said the words McGonagall had taught me, while I pointed the wand towards my heart. After I had done that I turned around and it seemed like Remus had understood that this was the process of transforming into an animagus. I carefully opened the small bottle and lifted it up to my mouth. I breath a last time and closed my eyes, before I placed the bottle on my lips, ready to drink the mixture.

Suddenly I felt the bottle flying out of my hand, only a few drops had managed to get into my mouth. I immediately opened my eyes and searched the bottle. It was shattered into a million pieces and the liquid sank into the ground. I felt anger starting to boil in me and looked for the cause that had destroyed the potion and my first chance to transform. This process was so complicated and took a really long time, that the more I thought of it I got more and more angry.
I let my eyes wander around, it was hard to see through the rain.

"Lovegood, I haven't thought of you as an alcoholic" I heard a familiar voice shouting. I immediately turned around towards him. Blaise. He was basically the Draco Malfoy in my year. A few other Slytherins were surrounding him and laughed at his comment. I felt the anger in me grow and formed my hands into fists.

"Blaise" I growled "do you even have an idea of what you just did, you cunt!" My voice got louder as I walked towards him.

"Woah, honey! I would stay where you are!" He said with a smirk on his face and I stopped immediately as the Slytherin group parted and revealed Grace. She was between two tall slytherins that hold her. I didn't look like they had done anything to her, not yet at least. I continued stepping towards them.

"Stop!" Blaise shouted and one of the slytherins next to Grace hold a knife up to her cheek. "One step further and I will write mudblood over her large empty forehead! And she even told us what you are!" I stopped walking, the anger inside of me was becoming unbearable and I felt that the strength slowly left my body. I fell down onto my knees, I was only a few meters away from them.

Suddenly it felt like the anger was filling up my entire body, giving me strength, more strength I had before.

"Are you already giving up?" He asked and laughed. He stepped towards me.

"Leave her alone!" I heard Remus shouting, he ran towards us.

"Did you use you Veela powers to mesmerize this old stupid teacher?" He asked and turned towards me again.

"Leave him out of this" I answered, the anger was dripping from my words. I slowly lifted my head up. His expression turned into fear as he looked into my eyes. I managed to stand up and I noticed that his eyes widened in shock as he stared at my hands.

"Shit" was all he breathed out before he ran away, his friends followed him into the castle. I looked down at my hands and saw that flames were coming out of my palm. Remus didn't stop running towards me, before he could reach me I let myself sink down on my knees again. He got down next to me and cupped my face in his hands. I didn't wanted to look him in his eyes, I was afraid that he would be scared and leave.

"Maeve..." he began. "You did it"

I looked up at him in confusion, he wasn't scared he seemed to be proud.
"You aren't scared of me?" I slowly asked.

"No, Maeve"

"And you are not surprised"

"No"

"But how did you know?"

"I knew it when I first saw you..." he answered with a smile. It took me a while to process his words, but when I did realize that this was a huge compliment I couldn't help but smile and I let out a small laugh.