The Cursed Creature

Chapter 12

A Common Ground

Remus was shocked by the turn their conversation had taken. He had expected anything from fear to disgust from the girl but certainly not this. Every time a wizarding family had found out about him or just suspected something, all he had received was hate and rejection. After all the negative reactions he had received in the past he had vowed to himself to never share his secret with another witch or wizard ever again.

She wasn’t magical though. It was almost funny if he considered that this girl disliked wizards in general way more than the thought of him being a werewolf. Remus would take the insult ‘freak’ for being a wizard any time over the other indignities thrown at him for being a suspected werewolf. At least he liked being a wizard and he could see where the dislike of the girl for magic was coming from.

His mum also struggled around wizards and witches sometimes and he couldn’t imagine how hard it must be if one sibling had magic while the other did not. He considered how to answer her questions. “Do you know about the Hogwarts houses?” he asked instead of a direct answer.

She frowned and nodded. “I heard Lily and Snape talk about them. They were discussing if the green one or the red one was better. I can’t remember the names, though.”

“Okay. There are four houses in Hogwarts and each of them has different colours and qualities associated with them. I don’t remember all of the qualities, because each house has about four to five. Anyway, the red house would be Gryffindor for the brave, the green one is called Slytherin for the cunning, the blue house is Ravenclaw for the sharp witted, and the yellow one would be Hufflepuff for the hardworking.”

Here, the girl interrupted his lecture: “That is interesting and all, but what does that have to do with anything?” He snorted. The girl wasn’t really patient, was she?

“I was coming to that. To be able to live among many wizards and witches and find a good enough excuse to leave every month would require me to be good at lying. I am not cunning. I am actually a pretty bad liar. That's why I’m not allowed to make any magical friends anymore. We have to move often enough as it is. I can’t do that to my family.”

The girl stayed silent for a while before she asked “Which house do you think you’d end up in if you could go?”

Relieved that the topic got a bit lighter, he replied: “Probably Ravenclaw. I like to read a lot and learn new things. I would neither be cunning enough for Slytherin, nor brave enough for Gryffindor. I heard Hufflepuff is known for the sociability of its members and I’m bad at making or keeping friends. It doesn’t help that I would have to lie to them from the start.”

Remus had to admit to himself that it was pleasant to talk so openly with someone around his age for once. He’d never have expected that he’d one day meet someone who would be so dismissive of his situation and it made for a nice change.

The girl gave him a calculating look, her expression somewhat defensive when she asked her next question with a challenging tone: “And which do you think would be my house if I could go?”

Remus saw that she was afraid to be laughed at just for even imagining being admitted to Hogwarts and he felt for her. “I don’t know you well enough to be sure, but from what I’ve seen I’d say Gryffindor might be a good fit for you. It was brave to apologise and to write to Dumbledore. I wouldn’t have dared to write that letter. I accept the apology by the way.”

He cracked a smile and the smile he got in return told him that it had been the right answer.