As I got off the Hogwarts Express with Hermione, I spotted Remus straight away. He was standing against one of the pillars and stood out quite a lot in his scruffy robes. Hermione and I were just at the bottom of the stairs when we got shoved out of the way by Malfoy.
"Watch it!" I exclaimed, as I straightened my robes.
Before Malfoy could respond, I saw Lucius Malfoy walk up behind him and rest a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't respond to her, Draco. Blood traitors aren't worth your breath," Lucius said in his oily voice.
"If you still believe that strongly about that rubbish, you're even more pathetic than I thought," I retaliated.
"I suggest that you watch your tongue, Black," Lucius warned me.
"Or what?" I challenged. "What are you going to do about it?"
Considering we were on a packed train platform, there wasn't really much he could do, something it looked like he had realised too.
"Come along, Draco," Lucius said instead, leading Malfoy away.
"Slimy git," I muttered to myself, as Hermione and I started to walk over to where our bags were.
"Emery, what did he mean 'blood traitor'?" Hermione asked.
"It's complicated but a blood traitor is basically something most often used by the oldest pure-blood wizarding families to describe witches or wizards who willingly associate themselves with muggles, or with Muggle-borns," I explained briefly, as we carried our bags over to where our families were waiting.
"Oh. I'm guessing it isn't just you in your family that they think is a blood traitor," Hermione guessed.
"In my family there have been very few people who believe like I do. The only people that immediately come to mind are my Aunt Andromeda, my cousin Tonks and... and my dad," I hesitated at the word dad as it wasn't like he had been there for me for the last ten years so he didn't really deserve the title.
By now we had reached Hermione's parents so we gave each other a quick hug.
"Have a good Christmas," Hermione smiled.
"You too," I replied, as we pulled back and went our separate ways.
I ran over to where Remus was, dropped my bags on the ground and was immediately engulfed in a massive hug.
"Right, that's it. You're not going back," Remus laughed, as we hugged. He then pulled away and looked down at me. "Have you grown?"
"Maybe," I smiled.
"I have a surprise for you," Remus smiled, making me look at him in confusion. He then pulled a bar of chocolate out of his coat pocket. "Surprise!"
I laughed and happily took the chocolate. You can always count on Remus to have chocolate on him. You know, the werewolf thing.
"So, tell me everything," Remus said, as he picked up my bag and swung it over his shoulder.
I started to explain everything to Remus that had happened, only stopping when we had to apparate back to our cottage or to eat a piece of chocolate. As soon as the dizziness from apparating had passed, I continued my story. Although, I didn't tell Remus about Nicholas Flamel, not yet anyway. That would be a topic of conversation for another day.
When we entered the cottage, I stopped my story telling when I saw what Remus had done. He had decorated a cute, little tree with flashing lights and there were candles dotted all around the place. There was a roaring fire in the living room as well as a pile of presents under the tree.
"Do you know how difficult it was to find a tree like this one?" Remus asked, smiling at the tree. "I know, it isn't like the ones at Hogwarts, but--"
"I love it," I squealed.
"You do?" Remus asked hesitantly.
"Of course, I do. It's so cute. It's perfect," I smiled, collapsing into my favourite chair in front of the fire.
My eyes wandered around the room but stopped when they saw the presents. Crap!
"Remus? When can we go to Diagon Alley next? I haven't had a chance to get my Christmas presents yet," I asked innocently.
"Don't worry we have a whole week before that. Although it should be in the next few days. I'm guessing you still need to send them by owl," Remus muttered the last bit to himself. "We can go tomorrow and get it all sorted out."
"Ok, thank you," I sighed in relief and stared into the fire happily.
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The next morning, Remus and I grabbed our cloaks, and I got my small pouch of money and we apparated to Diagon Alley. It was absolutely crowded with people like us who were doing their last-minute Christmas shopping.
Remus and I would have managed to get in and out of the shops we needed to go into within the hour if only the queues in every shop weren't the length of the Hogwarts Express!
So three hours later, Remus and I returned home and started to wrap the presents. Obviously, I made him look away while I wrapped his but apart from that, we spent the next couple hours wrapping presents and singing out of tune to some muggle Christmas songs.
Firstly, I got Remus a sneakoscope that not only made a whizzing sound when someone untrustworthy was near, but it flashed brightly until you picked it up. Next I got him about a dozen chocolate frogs (I mean, you can never have enough chocolate, can you?).
Next, I had got Hermione some colour-changing ink that depending on what mood you were in, changed colours.
For Ron, I had got him a pile of the best Wizards sweets that should last him until next Christmas but knowing Ron they would be gone by the end of the holiday.
For Harry, I had got him a golden snitch that could float around you so you could try and catch it. But the thing was, it wasn't ever going to be possible. The wizard behind the counter asked if I wanted to put a spell on it that made it impossible to catch as every time you go near it, it flies away or starts flying around your head. Of course, I said yes!
I felt like I should get something for Dumbledore, but I wasn't sure what to get so Remus suggested some socks. Imagine your headmaster wanting socks for Christmas!
Remus and I also thought Professor McGonagall would want something. Remus said that her having to put up with me every day deserved a reward. Rude! So we got her some nice perfume that you could make by yourself and add your own choice of flavour.
Finally, for Hagrid, I had got him some butterbeer cookies as well as the recipe so he could make an endless supply of them. Hopefully, they'd be better than his rock cakes.
When they were wrapped up, I went and put Remus' presents under the tree.
The rest of the day was spent with Remus and me doing some Christmas baking, adding a couple more decorations around the house and playing several games of gobstones.
We went out on a Christmas walk later that week so that I could owl everyone their gifts. I felt slightly sorry for the two owls who had the fun of taking all of the gifts, apart from Hermione and Remus', to Hogwarts. A separate owl would take Hermione's to her.
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Before I knew it, Christmas day had arrived. Like I was a child all over again, I ran through to Remus' room and started jumping on his bed.
"Wakey wakey. It's Christmas day!" I yelled while jumping everywhere.
"What's the time?" Remus groaned into his pillow.
"Time to get up!" I replied, jumping off his bed and grabbing his arm. With my whole strength, I pulled Remus off the bed so he lay a crumpled heap on the floor. "I made breakfast."
I saw Remus raise an eyebrow at me so I gave him an innocent smile.
"What is it?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" I smiled before walking out of the door.
"Emery Black, what is for breakfast?!" Remus yelled through.
"Come and see for yourself!" I called back through, sitting on one of the living room chairs.
I heard footsteps walking to the living room before a thud, swiftly followed by a...
"Oh, Merlin!"
Remus then came through, limping slightly.
"What's the matter with you?" I asked, getting up and grabbing the breakfast tray.
Remus didn't say anything but he held up one of my potion books.
"Why did you leave this in the corridor? I walked straight on the sharp corner of it," Remus explained, showing me his red foot. I looked down at it and tried to hold back a laugh, but I couldn't. I just started laughing at his expression. "It's not funny," Remus said, though I could see he was fighting back a smile.
"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. How about to make it up to you, I give you this..." I trailed off, placing the tray on the side table next to Remus' favourite seat.
"You actually made breakfast?" Remus asked hesitantly, looking down at it.
"Wrong. I attempted to make it but I may have burnt several pieces of it," I admitted sheepishly. I had tried to make him a full English breakfast but I had accidently burned some of the bacon and sausages.
"It hasn't got like maggots in it, has it?" Remus asked.
"Nope. It's Christmas day. Any other day I would have but not today. Don't worry there's nothing in your food," I assured him, getting my own food, and sitting in my chair.
Remus sat down and ate the food. He then went to take a sip of his tea but immediately spat it out. As I saw it coming, I had put my knife and fork down so I could pay attention to it. When he spat the tea out, I burst out laughing and ended up clutching my stomach cause it hurt so much.
"What the hell?" He muttered, wiping his tongue on a napkin. "I thought you said--"
"I said there was nothing in your food. You never said anything about your drink," I laughed.
"How much salt did you put in it?" Remus asked, getting up to get another drink.
"I don't know. I started to put a little bit in but then the lid fell off and probably about half the bottle went in," I continued laughing.
I abruptly stopped when I felt something cold sliver down my back. I leapt off my seat, knocking the rest of my food to the floor and started trying to get the cubes of ice that Remus had put down my back out of my top. Even as I was shaking away the cold, I could hear Remus laughing.
"You're horrible," I shivered, as at least a dozen melting ice cubes came falling out of my top.
"More like brilliant," Remus corrected before waving his wand to clean up all the food that was splattered on the floor.
"You're so bloody annoying," I complained.
"Oh. I'm guessing that means you don't want your presents," Remus sighed.
"I never said that," I smiled.
"Ok, then. Sit," Remus said, going over to the tree. I did as he said and waited anxiously. He came back a couple moments later with two, neatly wrapped presents. "I know it's not a lot but you know..."
I knew what he was insinuating. This year had been particularly bad for money after we had to get all of my school supplies.
"It doesn't matter," I assured him. "I'm sure I will love them."
"Good," He smiled weakly, handing me the presents.
I opened them and honestly, they were some of the best presents Remus had ever got me. Sometimes he struggled with these sorts of things as, I mean, it's not like he exactly expected to be raising a teenage girl from the age of 21. He'd practically put his whole life on hold for me.
First, Remus got me a smart, new quill that was soo much better than the one I had been currently using as it kept on blotting ink everywhere.
The next one was an expensive looking moon necklace. It was absolutely gorgeous but it made me worry about how much he had spent on it. Sensing my worry, Remus grabbed my hand and gave me a small smile.
"What have I told you before? You're too young to be worrying about it," Remus said. He took the necklace from me and helped me put it on. "So, what do you think?"
I pulled Remus into a tight hug.
"I love them. Thank you," I smiled. "Right. Your turn."
It was always funny watching Remus open presents as he was so awkward about it all the time. I let go of Remus and ran over to get the two gifts.
When he opened the sneakoscope, I explained to him that I didn't like him being here alone so this would make me feel better. And when he opened the chocolate frogs, I could have sworn I saw his eyes light up in excitement as Remus LOVES chocolate. It's actually pretty bad how much he loves it. And seeing as I have grown up with him since I was a baby, that love of chocolate is now a mutual thing.
But as I watched him trying to open one of the chocolate frogs, I noticed just how tired he looked. There were large dark bags under his eyes and he was slightly pale. While he was distracted by the chocolate, I got up and went through to the kitchen where we kept the calendar. As I looked at it, I realised that tomorrow was the full moon and Remus hasn't had any wolfsbane potion. Not that he ever did. We couldn't afford the things for it.
Every full moon, Remus would take himself away to an abandoned building about three miles away from the main town. That way he thought that he was safe from other people and other people were safe from him. There was still the risk that people would approach it but most people believed it to be haunted so they stayed away.
Whenever he gets back, though, he looks awful. He usually has scratch marks all of himself and is bleeding in several places. I've still not gotten used to seeing him look like that but for him, I keep a brave face and help clean up some of the worst wounds. I mean, it is the least I could do.
"I'll probably leave around lunchtime," Remus' voice said from the doorway.
I turned and saw him standing there with a chocolate frog in his hand. His eyes trailed over to the calendar where he sighed. It wasn't even like I could leave to help him as he would, subconsciously, attack me. Every full moon he was left to suffer alone. That was one of the main causes of pain for Remus. I could see it in his eyes. Even now, as he looked at the dreaded date of his next transformation. This was what I feared the most, his pain.
And at this moment I made a decision. I am going to learn how to brew the wolfsbane potion, even if I had to ask Snape himself. Not only that, but I was going to learn how to become an Animagus. That way he wouldn't be alone. I don't care how many years it takes; I will do it.
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