Since the beginning | Deamus |

(fourth year) Ch. 31 Dad Almost Kills Me

"Hmm, looks like a Professor at your school quit, Seamus."

"Really?" I said, uninterested. We sat at the table, mam reading her paper, while I was just trying to focus on eating.

"Yup. A Remus Lupin."

"Lupin?!" I dropped my fork in surprise.

Mam nodded. "Turns out he's a werewolf and quit before the whole school found out. Awful, that they let someone like him teach..."

Mam continued talking but I was barely listening. Professor Lupin, the man who spent countless hours helping me with my explosions, who bought me gifts on Christmas because he saw them and thought they'd help me, the man who knew (unlike every other teacher) that I wasn't doing all of this on purpose. Had quit!

"A werewolf! Honestly. They just let anyone teach now a days."

I was in too much shook to tell mam that Lupin was probably the least dangerous person you would ever meet, and that being a werewolf was just an awful thing that happened to people and wasn't a measurement of how evil someone was.

I couldn't finish my breakfast, I stood up and went to my room without even clearing off my food.

For a few minutes I stood staring at my wall, freaking the fuck out over the idea of never seeing my favorite teacher again. Who would be the new DADA teacher? What if we had another Lockhart! Most of all I was stressed about Lupin. Now that the entire Wizard inch world knew that he was a werewolf, he would have trouble getting a job and he could even get killed! What pissed me off was that it was people like mam who caused all these problems for nice people who were bitten and now have to go through a horrible transformation every month.

I was brooding, thinking about going out and yelling at my mom for saying those unkind things to the best man in the world, when the sound of shattering glass interrupted me.

The sounds of yelling and furniture being knocked over could be heard all the way in my room. I quietly tiptoed to the door to peak and see what it was all about. There was dad, drunkingly shouting and crashing into things. Mam was there too, using her wand to fix everything he broke and to make sure he didn't fall out of the window.

"This is the last fucking time I'll deal with it!" He shouted. "That boy messed with my stuff!"

"No one touched your stuff, dear!" Mam shouted in a voice just as angry.

"He did! He fucking did!"

At that I quietly started to back away from the door, my heart beating out of my chest and my breathing becoming fast. Dad always got drunk, it was his whole thing. But he never accused me of doing anything, and he definitely never attacked me. That's why mam always had her wand out.

But now I could hear him lumbering to my room. I did the only thing I could think of, jumping out the window.

Just as I had lowered myself to the ground, dad burst through the door.

"Where is he!" He started to mess up my room, pushing things away and throwing them against the wall trying to find where I was hiding. "Where is he!"

Before dad could do anymore damage to the room, he fell to the ground. Mam was behind him wand outstretched and panting. She knocked him out.

"Seamus dear, you can come out now."

I slowly climbed back into my room, trying to ignore my broken bed frame and wood from the door scattered everywhere.

"I'm so sorry honey." Mam scooped me into her arms, her wet cheeks pressed into my hair. "I couldn't knock him out at first."

"I know," I stared at the snoring figure of my father. "I know."