A worsened day
It had been almost a week since the new years kiss with a man and Nymphadora had not texted him once or called, she did not even respond when he tried to. He sat down sulking, arms crossed and feeling sorry for himself in his favorite armchair while watching a lousy romance tv-series James had put on to imagine himself with his girlfriend Lily who he dearly missed. He couldn’t have bothered more about what was happening on the tv, maybe if you asked him a week ago but not anymore. He started to question things about his relationship with Nymphadora, questions like ‘Was it even real?’ ‘Did it matter to her?’ ‘I wonder if she’s laughing at me now?’ started to pop up in his head, he imagined all those dates they had been on, at the cafés and restaurants, at zoos and at the LEGO store …If you could even count that as a date? He let out a loud, boring sigh and turned his head restless at James who sat in their small, brown couch. Somehow he was happy he lived with James and not with Nymphadora, because he would hate it so bad. Sure, James could get irritated with him now and then but it was all fun in the end, but if Nymphadora got irritated with him it was as if hell broke loose. James pointed at the tv when the two main characters of the romance series kissed and smiled so brightly.
“I want her to be here now, I miss her so much!” He whined like a dog.
“You know, she lives just 10 minutes away.” Remus reminded him as he lifted his eyebrow at his very lazy roommate.
“Yeah but… Yeah…”
The romance series ended the episode with the kiss with a text saying ‘Next episode out next week’ and a loud groan was heard from the other side of the living room. James shut off the tv and rested his head on the couch as he looked up at the ceiling. They were quiet like that for a while and Remus thought it was nice, it was one thing he liked about James. If they didn’t have anything to say they just enjoyed their own silence. Once, they went silent for two whole enjoyable days until James had mourned about there being no chicken nuggets in the freezer. He thought he was silly for this, and it was always when the chicken nuggets were gone. He could mourn, huff and puff all day until it was time to go to the grocery store, sometimes he was a little embarrassing when he was huffing and puffing on the bus to the grocery store, and inside the grocery store…
The thoughts about James' silliness quickly went away when he realised what was actually happening in his life, for once he needed the mental and physical support from his friend. He felt as if the situation with Nymphadora had escalated inside his brain and was the only thing keeping him awake. He needed his friend to take the vacuum and suck his brain out so he didn’t have to endure his thoughts about her.
“Hey James?” He said, still looking over at him.
“Hey Remus?” He responded.
“Dora said I kissed a man at the new year party.”
“Oh… Yeah, I’m sorry I was meaning to tell you…” He said as his face fell into his hands.
“It’s okay, it’s just… She confronted me in the car, but I have no memory about the kiss. And now she hasn’t answered my messages or calls in a week.” Remus said as he felt small amounts of tears swelling up in his eyes. “Do you think she will break up with me?”
Remus’ voice began to crack, he was no hard-teller if he was actually crying or sad. James noticed this too and told him to sit on the sofa with him. As he moved places to the sofa his friend embraced him in his arms and he began to sob on his shoulder.
“She won’t break up with you, she just needs time… You know, girls?” James said, at least he tried to be supportive and Remus knew he felt sad for him but just didn’t know how to express it.
The rest of the night was spent watching comedies to try to cheer Remus up, but at the end of the night they ended up watching Dead Poets Society and he probably cried even more than he had on his shoulder just some hours ago.
The next morning Remus woke up early and took a long shower to wash off the sadness stuck on him since yesterday. He had to be quicker about his morning routine since his route to work was very different now that Nymphadora couldn’t drive him, he didn’t want to ask James since his job was at a different place, so him being a person without a drivers license had to commute his way to Oxford. It took longer than the car drive but all the time he spent on buses and trains he could grade students assignments and answer emails. It was somewhat a relief to take the public transportation, he could just sit there and scroll on his laptop as he now and then looked out from the window to take in the views. As the transport passed through areas of farms and fields, he began to miss his home Wales. Wales had always been in his heart wherever he went. Of course, he was biased to Wales and not the typical English countryside. He loved the mountains and hills, the streams in the forests and the rocky landscape. He always dreamed of his grandparents' old cottage that sat close to the sea between Wales and Ireland.
That day had been difficult for him and his thoughts, and not to mention his students seemed to be in a rough mood to toy with their teacher’s breaking points. Throughout the day he had ventured off on breaks frequently to his favourite hiding spot beneath a willow tree close to one of the Oxford buildings, in front of the willow tree was a calm river where ducks often swam in or slept on the grass. He always came there to smoke a cigarette. When the clock turned 18:00 and his day ended he felt as if he had smoked a hundred cigarettes in one sitting. When he began to make his way to his trainstop he felt like a snail, a snail whose goo dragged behind him and was pulling on him. His grip around the handles of his briefcase tightened as if he was gonna fall from the weight of imagining himself as a snail. He finally managed to get to the trainstop when he saw his train pass by through the station, maybe imagining himself as a snail actually made him into a snail … had he walked so slow he missed the train or was he merely late? He let out a sigh and looked down on his feet as he kicked a small pebble onto the tracks. Across the street from the train station was a pub called the Golden Dragon, it was a small pub that had been located in the same spot for more than a hundred years. Remus thought why not go there, now that he has to wait for the next train? The next train left in an hour so there was no panic on being quick. He entered the pub to loud laughter and a weak tone of music blasting from a very old record player, immediately he sat down in one of the seats at the bar - since he wasn’t gonna be there for a while. The lady in the bar was old, it looked as if she had been serving the pub for many years as she brought different people to their ‘regulars’ as quickly as they asked. She seemed like a stubborn and confident old woman who you could ask any life advice to. She caught Remus sitting at his chair without a drink and hastily walked over to him.
“What will it be, professor?” She asked with a smile.
“A good pint, cheers. How did you know I was a professor?” He asked her and raised an eyebrow.
She pointed at the badge on his chest with the saying ‘Professor Lupin - Ancient History’, he must have forgotten to take it off after leaving the university grounds. He smiled back awkwardly as if his mum had caught him with cigarettes …which never would have happened since they weren’t alive anymore. Remus shook his head to get rid of the sudden thought of his dead parents as the lady poured up the beer and put it in front of him. He was just about to take a sip from the beer as the lady crossed her arms.
“Pay, will ya’?” She asked with a stern look on her face.
“No, I was planning on taking it with me in my bag.” He answered sarcastically with a cheeky smile as he reached for the 5 pounds from his wallet to give her.
He sat there for a while and drank his beer as he looked over at all the people in the pub. Everyone was here for a reason, he thought. As he shoved the remaining beer into his mouth he felt someone nudge his side with their body. He raised his eyes and met a brown haired young man who seemed to be his age, their eyes met and Remus knew he had been looking at him for a while before he turned his head.
“Professor Lupin huh?” The young man said and raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“Yes, who are you?” He asked with an awkward smile on his lips.
“A fan of your ancient history paper. You know, the gay ancient history paper.”
The young man took Remus' hand in a hurry and shook it, his grip was hard on his hand and he didn’t know if his bones would crack or not.
“Bartemius Crouch Junior, but you can just call me Barty, professor.” He said with an enormous smile which he couldn’t tell if it was cheeky or snobby. A sudden movement of a palm was stroking Remus’ knee under the bar table. He frowned unpleasantly at the surprising touch.
“Mr. Crouch this is widely inappropriate.” He said in a very stern voice.
“Mr. Crouch you say..” The young man continued to move up to his thigh. Remus was looking at him with a serious face, he couldn’t hear the words coming out from his mouth, but then, in one second, Remus stood up quickly and the chair he sat on fell down behind him. His hand slapped the man hard in his face which left a shocked mark in his expression.
“Excuse me?!” Barty wailed in shock.
Remus fixed his tie, put on his jacket in a swing and grabbed his briefcase. He took one last look at the disgusting excuse for a man. He realised the whole pub had gone silent as the sound of the slap. He fixed his posture and said;
“Yes, excuse me for my hand must have fallen from my wrist.”
Remus hurried out of there to not awake any more realisation of what had happened to the young man. There across the street the new train waited for him, he let out a sigh of relief as he hurried over to the train.
That night on the train and on the walk home he thought about the young man and why he even would think his actions were appropriate, and at this time? When he felt sad? Wasn’t this just his oh-so-great luck? He made it into their flat and sneaked inside not to awake James since the clock was more than ten, he knew his friend was an early sleeper because he was such a pain in the ass when he woke up early in the morning. He saw James sleeping on their couch with the tv turned on and a romance channel active, he rolled his eyes. Of course he fell asleep to this, he thought. Their flat wasn’t so big, directly when you entered their flat you stumbled into the living room where in the left corner a brown corner-sofa sat. To your right into a separate hallway was the tiny kitchen with ugly, yellow tiles. And in the same hallway were two doors that lead to James’ and Remus’ rooms. He dropped his briefcase onto the chair to his desk that was in his bedroom before lazily taking off his clothes and then, finally, stumbling into bed. With his face planted down into the bed he began thinking about what had happened in the pub. That guy… that touched him… he didn’t know what to think, it all happened too quick and Remus felt as if his world stopped - and not in a good way. He tried his best to fall asleep that night and hoped that tomorrow would greet him with at least one good thing.