numbers » remus lupin

chapter seven

The next morning Remus and Scarlett excused themselves from the Gryffindor Table at the Great Hall. They decided they would walk to Charms Class together.

They still had over 30 minutes left before the lesson would start, so they'd just be talking about anything and everything.

Right now, they were talking about Sirius' love life.

"I believe it's just a matter of time until Sirius shags Marlene," Remus said bluntly. Scarlett gasped, "I honestly don't know, Marlene has liked Sirius for over two years now, and Sirius has fancied her since the first time he laid eyes on her. But Marlene isn't that easy."

He nodded, "Well, he definitely shags everything that can't count to three fast enough... and that's almost the whole school."

Scarlett smiled and then laughed, which made Remus laugh.

"I honestly can't imagine being sexual involved with Sirius. It'd be just plain awkward," she cringed, "Great, now there's an image in my head. Ew."

He laughed again, admiring her beauty and her honest smile. He thought that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

He adjusted his bag on his shoulder, his right sleeve exposing his forearm. She noticed his bruises and scars on it, her eyes widened, "Remus, what is that?"

At first he was confused, but then he followed her gaze onto his arm and quickly covered it. "Oh, y'know I was, um, practising Quidditch with James last night."

She raised an eyebrow the way her mother used to do when she was little and did something wrong. "You were in the Common Room last night, don't lie to me."

He blushed, fearing that if he told her the real reason, she would be disgusted and tell the whole school about his 'furry little problem'.

But he knew she wasn't like that. She had told him she's kept a secret for sixteen years, almost seventeen, not even telling her best friends about it. So why would she tell anyone anything if she was asked not to?

"Remus, do you have any more scars except for them? Or bruises?," she wanted to know. His heart was pounding faster than usual; he was scared. "Uh-"

But she already pulled up his whole sleeve. She gasped when she saw all the bruises, some still fresh and others already faded, covering his whole arm. Then she looked up and into his face where scars from over ten years ago marked his handsome face.

Realization hit her. She now realized why he was acting so odd that night in the Common Room, it was a full moon, and why he looked so exhausted.

And she realized why he was in the Hospital Wing the day after, looking all beaten up and ill. She knew what Sirius lied to her about. She knew why Remus thought it was full moon.

"Moony," she whispered. His face fell. "You're a wolf, Remus."

He took a deep breath. So did she. And then there was silence. He tried to break it with a joke, "Well, I'm actually a werewolf."

And when he noticed her serious expression, his face fell again. "Was it really so obvious?" And when she nodded, he sighed.

"It's okay, Remus. Don't be ashamed of who you are, or what you are. It doesn't make you any less of a human being."

"It makes me a beast, Scarlett. I shouldn't even be friends with you. Now you're just in more danger and-" She interrupted his rambling by embracing him.

"Remus, it really is okay. I can deal with it. And I can keep a secret, you know. I'm aware that you're scared that I would go off and tell everyone about it. I'm not like that," she smiled.

"Who else knows about it?" "James, Sirius, Peter and Lily. And you," he added the last part with a bit of guilt. He wasn't happy that so many people knew about his curse.

"Oh, and why is it that the boys are gone by full moon? I mean, I understand that you go wherever you will go-" "I'm always at the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, so I won't hurt anyone. And the boys became Animagi to help me through my transformations," he said gratefully. He was honestly grateful for having such friends.

Her eyes widened in shock, "What? When? I mean, how, I-" He interrupted her again by laughing. "Sirius turns into a black dog, James into a deer and Peter into a rat."

She finally seemed to have understood, "So that's why you call each other those names!" He nodded. He thought she was being really cute, with her nose scrunched up and her brown eyes shining.

"That is a whole new world for me."

A few seconds later the remaining Marauders rounded the corner, Sirius letting out a low whistle when he noticed Scarlett and Remus being all by themselves.

"Prongs, I believe we arrived in an inconvenient time." "No, actually you didn't, Padfoot," Scarlett said emphasizing on the nickname.

"Oh, Scar, you know how much I like you but it sure does sound weird when you say- wait," he said, realizing mid-sentence what her raised eyebrows meant. He looked at Remus, who tried his best to hold in his laughter.

"She knows." "Yes, she does. Now I believe we really know everything about each other, don't we?"

Sirius blinked. "I suppose."
____________________

Now that December has already crawled its way into Hogwarts, every student that celebrated Christmas had to do some Christmas-Present-Shopping.

So the Marauders (without Remus) and Lily and Marlene planned a get-together in the library and they all agreed that this would be the opportunity to send their favorite 'ship' to Hogsmeade together. Finally.

So they came up with a plan. "It's the ultimate Masterplan!" Sirius had exclaimed.

So, when the time has come and Saturday finally arrived, the girls put Scarlett in a long sleeved shirt, a turtleneck jumper, her thickest jacket, a scarf and some gloves.

The boys did the same to Remus and even added some warm earmuffs, which Remus exclaimed were "totally embarassing and almost as ugly as Snivellus".

He received three concerned glances.

When they arrived at the Entrance to leave for Hogsmeade, the girls were already waiting for them, Scarlett blushing underneath her scarf.

The bespectacled boy pushed Remus towards Scarlett and they were on their way.

______
this is like so bad i apologize but i need some fillers to get to the events of this story and yesterday i had this brainstorming thing and it blew me away