Mischief Managed Year Two Part One: The Poisoned Truth

Chapter Fifty-One- Mutual Feelings

.................................................

Remus waited until his friends were all fast asleep to sneak down to the common room. Rolling out his parchment, he began to write, still feeling bad about what had happened nearly two weeks ago.

Are you alright? I didn't see you at lunch and you weren't answering earlier.

Remus waited impatiently for the ink to disappear and for Ryan to reply. He had thought about giving Ryan the other mirror so they could talk properly, but considering they weren't his he knew he couldn't do that. Plus, Sirius and James used them far too often when they were in detention. It seemed the professors had realized that keeping the troublemakers apart was a more effective and efficient punishment than letting them serve detention together. The wide-awake boy waited and waited, his worry growing.

After Sirius had talked to him alone with his usual infuriating mix of concern and curiosity, Remus had been quick to agree to no longer being friends with Ryan. At least that's how it seemed in the eyes of his other friends. Poor Ryan was so sure they were actually done being friends that when Remus had written him with the nifty communication parchment, the Slytherin had asked 'who is this?' Ryan had explained to him later on that he had been sure that Remus would have told his friends about the parchment. But even if Ryan thought it was a prank he was too lonely in his own house not to reply, After almost three days of writing back and forth, Remus finally got his jumpy friend to believe it was actually him. So while they couldn't meet face to face for a bit, they could still stay friends by writing to each other. Of course, when Ryan finally realized it wasn't a prank and it was Remus writing to him, he had been extremely apologetic for letting it slip he knew something the others didn't.

Luckily though that hadn't turned out to be a big deal. It hadn't taken much convincing at all to assure Sirius that Ryan didn't actually know anything of importance and only knew his mum had been sick since they had talked about it on the train. Thankfully the prejudices his friends had about all Slytherins gave them blinders to the fact that maybe Ryan was quite easy to talk to and that just maybe Remus actually appreciated the boy's friendship. That it hadn't just been a 'moment of insanity,' as the other Marauders had taken to calling it. It irked the werewolf that he couldn't see Ryan face-to-face. Remus didn't think he'd be able to convince the Slytherin to open up about the extent of the bullying any other way.

However, the Gryffindor found he quite enjoyed having Ryan be his pen pal. It reduced the stress of trying to meet up in person with the boy and it gave them more time to communicate about the varied interests shared between them. So he tried to bury his irritation at having to keep his friend a secret from his other friends. The werewolf believed he had kept his true feelings hidden, even as his roommates congratulated themselves on 'saving Remus' throughout the following days. Eventually, they seemed to forget 'that Slytherin' even existed. Despite this, Remus still hadn't met up with his friend in person. This was purely due to Ryan shooting down the idea, convinced they'd get caught again, this time by his fellow Slytherins. Even though Ryan didn't say it, the arseholes had become downright evil in their bullying of the boy.

Remus knew this because he paid particular attention to Ryan in class and noticed he walked slower. It was easy to spot the signs of bullying when he tried to because Remus saw a lot of himself in how he had responded to his uncle, and even his dad, in how Ryan interacted with his Slytherin peers. Unfortunately, Remus knew he couldn't get Sirius, and especially not James, to understand that. They were both so close-minded in their opinions of Slytherins. In fact, it seemed more likely they would accept dark creatures before they accepted a Slytherin, or maybe it was about equal.