Song:
Willow (Taylor Swift)
"How the hell did you even manage to do that?" Remus questioned, irritation evident in his voice as he looked down at a black, shaggy dog. "Why the hell did you eat the tulip, Padfoot?!"
The dog just stuck his tongue out, rolling to the side with a thump and closed his eyes. Sirius had decided to go on a walk in the forest and apparently all the brain cells he had disappeared when he transformed, causing him to eat a bunch of red tulips. Of course, he had forgotten that tulips were poisonous to dogs, but thankfully, instead of dying he was just too drowsy to transform back to his human self. The worst part was that this had happened at least three times before and Remus had learned to recognize the signs of poisoning in the dog's eyes.
"I swear to God, you are insufferable! How many times have we talked about eating random plants?" He huffed, running a hand through his hair.
"I hope you're not expecting him to answer that." A feminine voice stated, causing Remus to turn around. Callisto was standing behind him, her bag hanging from her shoulder as she stared at the dog with amusement.
"I'm late, aren't I?" Remus mumbled and Callisto nodded, walking up to the dog and sitting on the ground. He was supposed to meet her in the Dungerons about fifteen minutes ago, but he got caught up with with Sirius' poisoning.
"It's fine." She muttered, patting the dog's fur. His eyes immediately opened and he sat on her lap, his tail wiggling happily as she scratched his tummy. "Is that your dog?"
"It's...complicated." He hissed, glaring at Padfoot. The dog just jumped completely on Callisto and she laughed as he licked her face. "Okay! That is enough! Bad dog!"
"Relax, Lupin." Callisto mumbled, startled by his sudden hostility to the dog. If she knew who the dog really was, she would have the same attitude. "He's just a dog. Have you named him?"
"Yes." He answered, still glaring at Padfoot. Even when drowsy, Sirius never passed up the opportunity to get some attention from the girls at Hogwarts who for the most part, adored dogs. "His name is Fucker."
"You named your dog Fucker?" Callisto questioned, raising an eyebrow just as Sirius let out a loud bark.
"Yes, it suits him like a glove." He responded calmly, his eyes fixed on Sirius on her lap. "Shall we get going?"
"Sure." She agreed, patting the dog's head one more time before she got up and straightened out her clothes. They both silently made their way back into the castle, Remus already preparing yet another speech on how Sirius shouldn't eat random things as a dog and on how licking people's faces was creepy since he wasn't a real dog. He wouldn't listen to him, but what else was he supposed to do?
"Sorry for not being on time." He mumbled, turning to look at her. "I had dog problems." He mentally face-palmed at the lame excuse, hoping that she wouldn't consider him completely ridiculous.
"I figured that much." She responded, opening the door to the empty classroom. Slughorn had decided to let her use one of the classrooms for her tutoring sessions with Remus as long as she made sure to lock it later and leave the keys on his office. "I have already set up the cauldron, which could have blown the whole school up, but time efficiency is more important."
"Do we really have to do Potions?" He groaned, the moment his eyes fell on the set cauldron. "Can't we just play Monopoly or do anything else that doesn't involve a cauldron?"
Callisto raised an eyebrow suggestively at Remus, who tried to suppress a forming smirk. Over the past few weeks, he had started to enjoy those little comments, flirty looks and inappropriate jokes more than he originally thought. Although the mystery girl hadn't left his mind and he had spent countless hours trying to distinguish who it could be, he had grown rather fond of all the time he spent with the blonde. Of course, these meetings had sparked a series of teasing comments from the other three Marauders, but he had made it clear that they were just friends.
"You must be a fool to want to play Monopoly with me, Lupin." Callisto scoffed, taking some of the ingredients from the cabinet. "I've gotten slapped twice because of this game."
"And somehow, having to face your competitive spirit in all its glory is better than Potions."
"You really need to sort out your priotities." She muttered, struggling to reach the knotgrass. Her fingers barely brushed the shelf when she felt Remus standing closely behind her, his hand wrapping around the small box. She turned around, immediately noticing the boy's smug smile as he shook the box in front of her face teasingly. But that wasn't what made her stomach jolt. No, it was the fact that she was trapped between his body and the shelves, his chest dangerously close to hers. Recomposing herself, she took a breath. "Stop procrastinating and hand me the knotgrass."
"You're killing me..."
Fifteen minutes later, Remus was watching the cauldron as if it was going to bite his head off, while Callisto read the instructions out loud to him, explaining every step of the process.
"Why can't we just dump all the ingredients inside and say a prayer?" Remus whined, adding the spearmint extract.
"Don't ever attempt to cook, Lupin." She commented, observing as the potion turned teal. "Let this shimmer for a bit and in the meanwhile, chop up the knotgrass. The finer you make the pieces the quicker you can move on to the next step."
Remus started cutting the knotgrass, the small knife feeling foreign in his hands. Callisto observed as he tried to cut it in small pieces only to fail miserably and let out a small laugh, receiving a glare from the young werewolf. She got up from her chair and took the knife from his hand, keeping the other on the knotgrass.
"Instead of raising the knife completely every time you want to cut, try to maneuver it like that." She explained, as she put her hand on top of his and guided the knife. A jolt of electricity shot up his arm at the feeling of her hands touching his and he turned to glance at her, the weird feeling only growing more intense as her sweet perfume lingered around him. It was weird how familiar that scent was to him, but up to now, he couldn't really link it to a particular person.
"Much better than those chunks you had." Callisto said, removing her hands from his. "Throw them in."
Remus emptied the chopped up knotgrass in the potion, the feeling of her hands still lingering on his like a thin veil. Now that he had seen the little scars on her knuckles closer, he was willing to bet that there were small words etched on them.
"Can I ask you something?"
"You just did." She pointed out, scribbling down on the book. "But sure, ask away."
"Your hands," He began, her head slowly raising from the notes. "I just noticed those small words and I wanted to make sure you're okay."
Her eyes immediately darkened and she glanced down at the small scars, a sense of dread filling her. Normally, she would have told him off before storming out of the classroom, but there was genuine concern in his eyes that stopped her from doing so.
"You think I did that to myself?" She asked, her voice sounding ten times softer.
"Did you?"
"No." She simply answered, shaking her head. "Back in Durmstrang we have this DADA professor and let's just say that he's not the best person to ever step foot in there. Anyway, every time I was with him in detention he'd make me write lines with a special quill that doesn't need ink. Instead, as you write, it uses your blood and at the same time, the words are etched in your skin. Usually it doesn't leave scars, but I was a special case."
She raised her hand and pointed at the little words with her finger, so that Remus could see what was written. Most of the phrases had faded away with time, but only two stuck out, prominent as ever. The first one wrote "I will not sympathize with filth" and the next one was even clearer, the small phrase making him feel sick.
"I will not act like a bitch." Callisto enunciated carefully as his fingers trailed over the words, feeling hypnotized by the feathery touch. She cleared her throat, shaking the thoughts off. "Now that we got that out of the way, let's go back to the potion."
She tore her hand away and sat back down on her chair, searching for the next step. Remus stood there, unable to gather his thoughts. Of all the possibilities, never did he consider that this would be the cause of the mysterious scars. And the phrases that she had to write as punishment for whatever the hell she did, left him with the uncontrollable need to hug her and tell her that he would never think something like that about her. Nothing of the sort happened. He continued to work on the wound-cleaning potion not really knowing whether he should apologize or not. His motives were pure, that much was true, but he shouldn't have rushed into asking her like that.
"What color is it?" She questioned, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Purple." He answered and she nodded before she got up and took a small bottle out with a potent, green substance inside. "What's that?"
"Dittany essense." She responded, pouring a single drop inside. The potion turned two shades darker. "It'll make the potion ten times stronger."
"How do you know?"
"I stabbed someone twice and tested it out." She sarcastically retorted. "He bled out dry on my table and it took a fuck ton of time to clean it up, but mistakes happen to the best of us."
"A fuck ton, huh?" He murmured sceptically. "That has to be around ten shit tons."
"That son of a bitch." Callisto confirmed, nodding in agreement. "It wasn't that bad now, was it?"
"Must be because I had good company." He mused, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips.
"The great and mighty Lupin just admitted to liking my company?" She dramatically inquired, putting a hand above her heart. "This has to be the highlight of my week."
"Glad to see I play such a big role in your life."
Callisto smirked, leaning slightly closer to him, "I thought I had made clear that you're all I think about..."
"You're unbelieveable..."
~ ~ ~
"Merlin's floppy ears!" James exclaimed, as Remus closed the door behind them. "Is that my old comrade I see or do my eyes deceive me?"
Peter jolted out of the bathroom, a hand covering his eyes. "Where-wolf?"
"There-wolf!" Sirius answered loudly, pointing at Remus. "Where have you been, young man?!"
"Potions lesson with Callisto." Remus answered, choosing to ignore the puns. "You should know since you saw us leaving."
"Calling me Fucker was very mean of you, by the way." He complained, pressing his lips in a tight line. "It was true, but mean."
"How is our favorite Wicked Witch of the West doing?" James questioned, letting the snitch fly out of his hand, while Remus removed his shoes and lay down on his bed.
"She's fine." He answered briefly, his mind trailing off to the words permanently scarring her skin. He knew that Durmstrang wasn't a school for the faint hearted but there was a line, and they had crossed it. They young werewolf could only imagine how many times she had to write the lines down for it to have such an impact.
"I will not sympathize with filth."
"I will not act like a bitch."
What could she have said or done? He didn't know the blonde for long but from what he had found out about her through the occasional past story and the way she acted, she could keep up a very good act. He saw it every time Slughorn approached her. Just like an automatic response, her lips immediately tugged up, her posture straightened and her eyes brightened with a glint that was truly hollow, but could deceive those who saw the image as a whole. Callisto had obviously dropped the act and she payed dearly for it. As terrible as it was to think like that about something as horrible, he couldn't help but feel warm in the inside because that was solid proof that no matter her questionable actions, her heart was in the right place.
The second phrase, on the other hand, made his insides burn with anger. There were not enough words in any language to describe how fucked up it was for someone, much less a teacher, to not only think that of a person but also make them write it down enough times to leave a mark. He had seen how her expression fell as she uttered the words, the bitterness in her voice having the same effect on him. He wanted to comfort her and stay with her even when they finished the potion. It probably wouldn't change anything but he'd feel less guilty about asking her in the first place.
And then there was the mystery girl. It would be a lie to say that he hadn't thought about that night countless times since then. As the days passed, nothing of importance had come to mind concerning her identity except for the way his name rolled of her tongue in a way that made him shiver, just like when Callisto had called him Remus instead of Lupin in the library. He couldn't shake off the feeling of her hands and her soft lips, as well as the warmth of her voice, leaving behind a trail of goosebumps. It was like all these sensations were mocking him in the most brutal way possible. The necklace was still lying in the small box inside his drawer. There were no initials etched on it, no small photos inside, no family crest. It was just another reminder of the night, tormenting him with every chance it got.
"What are you thinking about, Moony?" James questioned, noticing his friend's troubled expression.
"Nothing important." He muttered, his fingers fiddling with the corner of the blanket. "Just homework."
"Maybe you could ask Callisto to help you relax." Peter hinted, snickering slightly at his own suggestive comment. Sirius shot him a pointed look and the young boy's eyes widened at the realization that maybe he should not have said that after all.
"Yes, Peter." Remus agreed, a straight expression on his face. "I will make sure to do that next time we meet."
"Homework must have you riled up." Sirius observed calmly, examining the way Remus' gaze averted to the ground nervously.
"I guess it has..."