the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 33 Tall Tales

Severus eyes narrowed - the group of girls ranged from perhaps fourteen years of age to at least twenty and all of them were eyeing the young man rather hungrily. And while the girls of Hogwarts were rather reserved in their interactions with the boys their own age, Severus was very much aware of the fact that these girls, even the younger ones, had no such restraint. This society tended to live fast and hard and if Harry offered any sort of encouragement they would jump at the chance to share his bed this night. He also had no doubt that many of their mothers had given the girls fertility potions and urged them to lure one of the visiting men into their beds. Having a child with the Boy Who Lived or one of his companions would be considered a great blessing among such a group.

Severus threw a dark frown at the werewolf, who just glared right back. So the two of them were not so different; didn't mean they had to bond over the subject. And he certainly was not going to discuss his jealousy with a Gryffindor. His emotions were going to stay firmly where they had always been - buried.

While Sirius regaled the crowd of warriors with stories, Remus found himself spending most of the evening enduring the good-natured teasing of the warriors around him. Unlike his companions, Remus was an unknown quantity in this crowd. They all knew Harry Potter, and everyone had heard of Sirius Black and Severus Snape. They acknowledged those three men as superiors, and treated them with the respect due their stations, but they had no idea what to think of Remus Lupin. In the end they seemed to decide that he was little different from the rest of them, though worthy of respect by the company he kept. It opened Remus to a great deal more teasing than the others had to endure.

The gist of their joking seemed to be his choice of weapon. More than one man had comment on the size of the mace leaning up against the table by his chair. One brave soul had finally decided to test its weight himself - something Remus doubted they would have dared do with Severus or Sirius. The man, a blond, muscle-bound giant though perhaps no more than twenty-five years of age, lifted the heavy mace with both hands, grinning at his companions when he confirmed it weighed as much as they had guessed it did - far too much for someone like Remus to wield successfully.

"We'll get you another weapon, lad," the warrior grinned at Remus, despite the fact that Remus was at least a decade older than him. "My sister has a blade that would be about the right size for you." His words were met with laughter from the others.

Remus just smiled at the man and reached across to take the mace from him. He lifted the heavy weapon out of the warrior's grip with only one hand, tossing it briefly in the air as if it weighted no more than a dagger. "No thanks," he replied as he laid the mace once again beside him. "The mace suits me just fine."

The man's eyes had widened in amazement, and indeed several other warriors had leaned forward for a better look at him as if not believing he had done such a thing. Far from being angry or embarrassed the young warrior just grinned and sat down across from him, propping his arm up on the table. "You're stronger than you look. We must arm wrestle!"

While Remus just stared at the man in disbelief a dozen other men gathered around them, all seeming to think this was a grand idea. Of course he suspected in a society like this, arm wrestling likely passed for a form of entertainment. "You'd lose," he warned the man.

But the warrior just grinned harder. "Prove it."

And so while Sirius entertained one half of the crowd with wild stories, Remus found himself arm wrestling warrior after warrior, all wanting to test their strength against him. Surprisingly, despite losing one after another with seemingly no effort on Remus' part, none of them were deterred. Indeed several men came back more than once to try again. Remus found the whole thing perplexing.

Eventually they gave up and brought him food and drink for his effort, one man after another clapping him on the back as if they were now old friends. Bemused, he turned his attention to his companions instead, seeing that Sirius, Harry and Severus were now listening to Alrik retell the story of Harry's fight against the Dementors the night before. The warriors who had not heard the story were hanging on Alrik's every word, more than one man turning to stare at the now blushing Boy Who Lived when Alrik described Harry's Patronus as the 'Royal White Stag'.