Lunch [With A Bite]
It’s around lunch time when Remus notices it. A folder with the symbol on it.
The class has been moved to an isolated section of the second floor so as to not “get crumbs anywhere important” as Lily stated. A room closed off by three hazy glass walls and one clear one. It’s as Sirius steals Peters frazzles that Remus locks eyes on the folder. Tucked between the arms of a dark skinned girl with white-blonde braids. She seems to be talking to someone but the someone is blocked by a marble pillar.
Once he’s spotted it Remus can’t take his eyes off that folder. That folder with that symbol. The folder his parents died for.
The girl turns to leave and Remus’ is suddenly full of trepidation. If he doesn’t do something he may never see that folder again. The only connection to his parents.
“I’m going to the toilet.” He stands abruptly, Catching the attention of everyone on his table including the next one over. Real smooth Remus.
He hurries his way over to Professional McGonagall deep in conversation with Mary MacDonald and Dorcas Meadows.
“Excuse me Professor, can I go to the toilet? I’ll be right back?” He asks politely despite being in a state of panic.
“Oh Mr Lupin.” McGonagall turns to look at him. “Of course you can. Thank you for telling me. If you get lost just ask Miss Evans, she said she would be just outside.”
“Thank you Professor.” Remus speed walks out the room and thanks god Lily isn’t right outside. If she had been he would have no idea how to get past her rambling quickly enough. Remus tries to act as inconspicuous as possible going down the corridor he’d seen that girl go down. As soon as he's hidden from sight Remus starts to bolt it after that girl. Ignoring the blatant ‘STAFF ONLY’ above the next door.
Remus decelerates as her back nears, he's close enough not to lose her but far enough not to be spotted. His feet pad swiftly under the carpeted floor, changing speed up with each step. She rounds a corner and Remus slows, grabbing for a nearby wall. With caution he pokes his head out.
She stands still staring at a door. Looking just as worried as Remus, she triple checks the corridor. Making sure she's alone. Remus ducks out of view just in time. Peeking back just as she holds a badge of some sort against the scanner adjacent to the door. The door clicks open and with bated breath the girl walks on in.
Well it's now or never.
The door starts to swing shut and Remus leaps to catch it just before it closes. Holding it open an inch or two, he waits for the girl to walk further in before slipping in and letting the door close and lock.
Blue light bathes the corridor. A smaller room tucked in the corner on Remus' right houses said light. There's a small window that Remus peeks through. It's a room full of what seems to be cotton, strung from each wall to the next. Nearly making the back wall invisible.
Making a stealthy way forward Remus catches two hushed voices, one with panic -the girl- and the other sounding familiar. Calm yet sounding sure of themselves. Remus only realises who that voice belongs too when his face comes into view. Remus' stomach plummets.
Regulus Black. What the fuck does Sirius' little brother have to do with the work Remus'parents died for.
At first Remus was just curious, now he's fully intrigued.
Remus stays out of sight, crouched but itching forward, staying behind a cabinet. He takes in the room as he sees it. Circular and white as snow. Dimly lit by yellow light. Paper full of words are stuck all over the walls. Pictures of DNA strands and what seem to be… spiders. Inkwells along with more files scatter the smooth edged desk separating Regulus and the girl.
“-we can't, you know were not even supposed to know about this, let alone be in here.” The girl's voice rising with worry.
“Pandora, do you have the folder?” Regulus stays as calm as he always is.
“What do you need with it? What's this about Reggie?”
Regulus sighs. Most likely due to the name calling. “I can't tell you.”
“What!” Pandora splutters. “I’ve helped you with all this and you're not even going to tell me why.” She holds the folder tight to her chest. “I could get fired for this, you know. We both could.”
Regulus takes a tentative step towards her. “It’s better if you don't know. I promise you if I could tell you I would. But it’s safer the less people know.” He holds his hand out for the folder. “I just need to you trust me on this.”
Pandora flicks between looking at Regulus' outstretched hand and his pleading face. Trepidation painted across her own.
“Please.” He asks, voice shakier than normal.
Pandora takes a deep breath and passes the folder into Regulus' grasp. “Don't do anything stupid Reg.” And with that she stalks past him. A door squeaks open and shut.
Regulus’ shoulders sag with a sigh. For a moment he just stares at the folder, the symbol blazed across the top corner. Two zeros with a diagonal line crossing through them both. He looks at it as though he can't believe it's there. Then he brings it to his face and whispers something incoherent.
Remus' heart jumps to his throat as Regulus abruptly slams the file down onto the desk, flicking it open and carefully inspecting each and every inch of it. He runs his hand through his ebony hair and a small smile erupts on his face.
Remus shifts as one of his legs goes dead but as he does the floor creaks. His stomach drops to the floor. Regulus' gaze snaps up just as Remus hides from view. He holds his breath and listens for any sort of movement. Remus breathes once again when he hears Regulus shuffle some papers. Remus thinks it's about time to leave. He sneaks his way back down the corridor and to the door he came through. Now he realises there's no handle… or any way of opening it. Shit.
It then, does the sound of approaching footsteps grow louder. Remus does the first thing he can think of, which is dive into the only other room available. At least this door slides open just with his presence. Pushing in as far as he can, Remus hides between the cotton. Which now feeling it against his skin, doesn't feel like cotton. Before Remus can make the awful revelation Regulus appears at the window. Remus backs up so his back touches the far wall. Trying to shroud himself in web. The door opens with a swoosh, Regulus reaches a hand into the web and flicks it. Sending vibrations down each and every connecting string. He leans back out and presses some sort of button as something activates, causing spiders to drop from the ceiling. Remus clamps a hand over his mouth. His whole body full of fear.
As hundreds of spiders scurry among the webbing one makes its way onto Regulus hand, climbing over his fingers. One also makes its way onto Remus' face. Its eight legs dancing across his nose. Regulus takes his hand out slowly, with his free hand pulls a plastic box from his lab coat and gingerly places the spider in it. With the arachnid secure, Regulus heads back to the main section of the room.
As soon as the door swooshes shut Remus pats every inch of his body. Flailing his arms to get rid of that horrific feeling of hundreds of tiny legs tap dancing all over him. Though his dance party is soon interrupted by a returning Regulus. Remus stills, freezing mid flail, watching Regulus scan a similar pass to Pandora's against the door he followed her in just a few minutes ago.
Seeing this as his only opportunity of escaping the tank of eight legged creatures, Remus makes his way back to the door. As soon as Regulus passes through into the hallway Remus' body floods full of panic, seeing the door starting to swing shut through the window. He lunges through the sliding door and successfully catches the exiting one just before it shuts. He sighs. Peeking through the crack as Regulus retreating back. It's only when he turns a corner does Remus finally slip out, listening to the door lock behind him.
With a lingering feeling of him just witnessing something he definitely shouldn't have, Remus wanders back to the glass room where his class were having lunch when he left them. As he approaches, Lily Evans pops out from thin air with a look of determination on her face. Her ponytail swinging violently as she quickly grows nearer.
“Remus Lupin.” She says fiercely. “What were you doing down there?”
Remus turns to look at where she's pointing, like he doesn't know where she means. His mind blanks but he opens his mouth trying to form some sort of valid excuse. Thankfully she gives him more time to think of one.
“You know that's staffonly. If you were caught down there I could lose my job.” She says, reminding him of Pandora and Regulus. “I thought someone would wander off but I was betting it would be James not you. What-”.
Remus flinches as a sharp pain appears and disappears within seconds at the nape of his neck. That stops Lily in her tracks.
“Remus?” She looks up at him. “Are you ok? You're quite pale.”
“Sorry-” he says, blinking rapidly, “I was just looking for you actually. I just wanted to let you know I wasn't feeling well.”
In all honesty all Remus felt was a bit sweaty, but he reckons that's more from the pressure of sneaking around than actually feeling unwell.
“Oh.” She slams a hand to his forehead. Remus tries to lean away but Lily's maternal instincts take over. Rendering Remus to just stand there and take the criticism. “You do feel a bit warm. How long have you felt like this?”
“Fifteen minutes- ish” he lies.
“You should've told me as soon as you felt even the smallest bit nauseous. We're sending you home, who knows what being here would do if you're sick. All these chemicals and-” She gestures around the room and huffs. “Right where abouts do you live?” She asks while rummaging through her pockets.
Remus hesitates. He hasn't exactly told her that he lives at the orphanage, it's not like he's been avoiding telling her. It's just that it's never come up in conversation. When telling someone you've lost both your parents comes the inevitable pity they look down on you with, and he supposes he doesn't want Lily to just see a charity case. Plus he'd much rather tell her on his terms. Not here at her place of work under the excuse Remus was feeling unwell.
“Uh, Webber Street, near Waterloo.” That should be close enough, it's just a few streets away from the orphanage.
“Waterloo.” Lily repeats. She reaches for Remus' hand and dumps a disarray of notes and coins. The coins feeling cold against Remus' alarmingly warm hands. “Jesus your hands are boiling.” Lily exclaims. “Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital, I can take my break and go with-”
“No, don't be silly, I wouldn't want to spoil the trip for everyone else just because I've caught some sort of bug.” He looks at her with uncertainty. “Really I'll manage.”
“Fine, this should be enough to cover a train ticket. The station is just out the front and to the left.” Lily turns as the rest of the class emerge from the lunch room, led by McGonagall.
“Thank you Lils.” Remus smiles, feeling the rising temperature grow up his neck. “You didn't have to do this.”
“Just promise me if you feel any worse you'll go to the doctors, I know how stubborn you are.” That classic listen-to-Lily-Evans look appears briefly before melting into a returning smile. They both turn to the sound of someone clearing their throat. Now facing a stern faced McGonagall Lily steps up, checks her clipboard and redirects the group to the floor above.
“Go get better, I'll talk to McGonagall.” Lily trails after the class, making her way back to the front, using her clipboard to push students out of the way.
What she misses during the array is that not everyone has left the room yet.
James and Sirius stumble out of the lunch room in a fit of giggles, James trying desperately to tie his shoelace and hop at the same time. Which just results in him bumping into Sirius over and over. Peters follows behind, holding a half empty packet of biscuits. When they look up and notice him stood there Sirius instantly straightens up.
Remus goes to meet them halfway but finds he can't move. Like his feet have been glued to the ground. He subtly tries again to no avail. Before he can panic he tries a third time, luckily they seem to unstick.
“You ok Remus?” Peter asks, chewing on a custard cream.
“Yeah you do look quite peaky, and you're almost as pale as Sirius.” James says as he hops.
“Watch it bunny boy.” Sirius retorts.
“I think I've caught someone’s bug so Lily was just recommending I head home.” Remus says with a pained smile. James and Peter give him apologetic looks while , quite out of nowhere, Sirius copies Lily's method and slaps a hand to Remus' forehead. Causing him to flinch.
“You are unusually warm.” Sirius states, blushing slightly.
Remus looks up at Sirius’ hand on his forehead, gingerly grabs his wrist and slowly removes it. “Thanks but Lily's already given me the lecture.”
“Well we won’t keep you.” Peter says.
“Yeah, go and get better “ James pats his arm.
🕸
Everything that happens next happens in such fast succession Remus doesn’t even comprehend what’s actually happening until he feels his rucksack weigh him down. One second he’s happily asleep on the London Underground, the next everyone is upside down and gawping at him.
Following everyone’s lead, Remus slowly gawps at himself. Extremities seemingly glued to the ceiling of the Underground. Still in a state of shock he experimentally tugs at his palms. They don’t move an inch. The panic only increases.
Someone coughs below him and that apparently distracts Remus from this sticky situation enough that in the next moment, he finds himself crumpled on the grimy floor.
While trying to collect himself and figure out what the fuck just happened, Remus whirls upright due to this sudden ringing in his ears and pressure on his shoulder. Kicking some poor man off his feet. Switching their roles so Remus is looking down at the grown man, suit crumpled and glasses askew, in horror of what he just did. While receiving an offended glare back Remus offers his hand and repeated apologies, though the man flinches he allows Remus to help him up.
As the train suddenly slows he notices everyone’s wide gaze stuck solely on him. He can feel the sweat dripping down his neck. Having enough of the stairs Remus waits for the ding of the doors before dashing straight of the train, not caring where he is, just knowing he needs away from whatever that was.
Remus doesn’t hear the buzz of London on his frantic escape. The tattoo of his beating heart suffocating his thoughts. Adrenaline flowing through his veins. Suddenly feeling boiling despite it being a usual cold January night, Remus sheds off his sweater and desperately tries to stuff it into his rucksack while trying to navigate the busy streets of London when that painful ringing in ears starts again. Without a second thought he unconsciously leaps into the air, and time slows.
He can feel the cold air rush under his shirt and through his hair, the vehicle fly underneath him and he feels his body realign itself to land perfectly back on the road.
He watches as his school bag hits the ground a split second after he lands and the tires squeal over his sweater. Leaving a black trail in its wake.
Panting for breathe and head throbbing Remus’ mind consists of: what the fuck is happening?