Chapter 3
“If you’d like, I can tell you more about them in the morning.”
“I’d like that very much, thank you.”
“Good night, Harry.”
“Good night, Emmeline”
Emmeline was awoken by the sunlight pouring in the tall windows of the hospital wing. It took her a moment to take in her surroundings and remember where she was and what happened. According to the large clock above the entrance, it was quarter past ten. Thankfully, it was Saturday and she had no work.
She rolled over to face Harry, still in the bed diagonally across the aisle. She glimpsed him staring at her, as if he’d been waiting for her to wake up, but his eyes quickly darted back to his hands.
Emmeline smiled and moved to sit up in bed, “Morning, sunshine,” she stretched. “You’ve been up long?”
Harry looked a little thrown by the nickname, but shook his head. Lying, he said, “No, I just woke up.” There was no need for her to know he’d been up for at least an hour, excited to hear more about his parents and unable to go back to sleep in case she left while he was resting.
“Feeling any better?” she asked.
He nodded, “Yeah, thanks.” He didn't really know how to broach the subject, but before he could try, Emmeline started the conversation.
“So what exactly happened to your broom? I heard something from some students it…that it flew into the Whomping Willow…”
Harry swallowed hard remembering the day before, “Yeah…” he said softly. “Yeah it’s…it flew into the Whomping Willow…”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Emmeline said. “I know it’s like losing a friend. Not everyone understands that. I remember one year a few cruppies got into the changing room and gnawed on my friend’s broom until it was unusable. One of his friends said it was just a broom and he almost broke his finger…” she chuckled. “I’m sure it’ll be replaced soon, so don’t worry about that. But I do also know it hurts, so don’t feel bad about that. It’s normal.”
Harry, seeing a window of opportunity, pushed down his feelings of grief and asked, “Was it my dad?”
Emmeline’s smile strained a little, but not enough for anyone to notice, pushing back memories of Sirius Black, “No, no it was a mutual friend of ours who played beater for a bit. Your dad always brought his broom back to his dorm and made sure no one could mess with it.”
There was a beat of silence. Emmeline, still riding the high of talking to Harry after all these years, asked, “So. Your parents. Anything in particular you wanted to know?”
“What were they like?” Harry asked, unable to come up with anything more specific as he knew very little about them.
Emmeline smiled, trying to not to focus on the desperation in his tone and how little he presumably knew about them based off of that. ‘I’m so sorry’ she silently offered up, though to whom exactly, she didn’t know. To Harry, to Lily, to James, hell even Marlene. She rolled out of bed to stretch and make her way over to Harry, gauging his reaction to make sure her approach was welcomed before coming over to sit on the bed next to his.
“Where to start?” she said, stretching out and yet still looking at him, her mind deciding where to begin. “They were kind. And so funny. And had such big hearts- they loved with everything they had and they loved you so much- please know they loved you so much.”
She looked at him and held his gaze, finally seeing his eyes in the light. “You do have her eyes,” she said softly. “Lily was a fierce defender of those she loved, and anyone who was facing a disadvantage or needed a friend. That’s kind of how we met, though now that I think of it, I think she also needed a friend.” Emmeline gazed off for a second.
“We met at the feast, both newly sorted Gryffindors. She wanted to put forth the best foot with those she was going to be living with, though I think she just did that with everyone.” She chuckled, reminiscing. “She introduced herself as soon as I sat down- ‘Evans’ before ‘Vance’ and all that… asked me where I was from and some other basic questions… by the time night fell I felt as though I had made a new friend. She had a way of doing that, you know. Making people feel at ease. One of the best friends I ever had…” she shook her head, breaking herself out of her train of thought that had perhaps begun to spiral.
“James was hard working- sometimes we would joke that he should have been Hufflepuff, but he’d always vehemently fight that he belonged in Gryffindor- which he did, and he proved it time and time again, but it was always fun to tease… had he been a badger, they would have gained a wonderful student. ‘Course, he always said that he was probably the only one who could have saved their quidditch team- our friend Marlene disagreed but of course James believed in his abilities- which, to be fair, were unmatched, but even he couldn’t have turned that team around. I’m really glad we were teammates, and then he was captain. Those were the best games we ever played, I’d reckon…”
She looked at Harry again, “To answer your question, they were brilliant and it’s a crime you neve got to properly meet them, but they loved you so much and from what I’ve heard, you’re a mix of the best of both of them.”
“Who did you hear that from?” he blushed and couldn’t help but ask.
Shit. Emmeline told Remus that she wouldn’t say anything about the letters to anyone- even though his letters had left much to be desired. “A few of the professors who have been here for years have indulged me,” she said vaguely, hoping he’d be content with that. “And then also the stories I hear from other students-”
“Other students?” he blushed again at his interruption, not knowing where it came from. There was just something about her that made him comfortable asking. Maybe that she had been putting up with him since last night, or maybe that she was the one who initiated the conversation and, unlike most adults, seemed to have no ulterior motives.
Emmeline nodded and softly replied, “Yes, my daughter is in her first year, Gryffindor. That’s actually why I was at the game- she invited me. She’s told me stories she’s heard from other students. If any of the rumors are true, what you’ve accomplished is no small feat.”
Harry blushed again as he felt a new feeling, was this what being complimented by someone whose opinion you actually cared about felt like? “It was mostly Fawkes and the Sorting Hat-”
He caught sight of her confused expression. “What are you talking about?” she asked. “I was mostly referring to your quidditch feats-”
“Oh,” he accidentally cut her off, feeling embarrassed. “Well yes, those. I was talking about last year, I fought a basilisk-”
“You what?” she almost shouted. She composed herself and reigned in her expression at his reaction. “Sorry. Lucy mentioned something about the Chamber of Secrets but I figured that was something they told the first years to mess with them, like the indoor swimming pool passes.”
Harry nodded, though he had no idea what she was talking about, “Oh, yeah. No, my first few years have been wild…” he kind of trailed off.
It was then that Madam Pomfrey came in to check in on Harry and Emmeline then. After a quick scan, Emmeline was deemed clear to leave. As she moved onto Harry, Emmeline piped up, “I will be right back Harry, I promise, I just need to run and do something really quick.”
At his uncertain nod, she left the hospital wing and made a beeline for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and by extension, Remus’s office and living quarters. She knew it was the night after the full moon, but with the Wolfsbane potion, he shouldn’t be as banged up as usual, and even if he wasn’t prepared to face other people, he should be well enough to face her.
She banged on his door before casting Alohomora and entering. She scanned the room until she saw him. He appeared to have woken him up, but couldn’t bring herself to feel any remorse. He was curled up on his bed, still naked from the night before. She didn’t give him a chance to cover his morning shame as she marched in and pulled up a chair.
“You never told me. Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
He looked confused, “About-”
“About anything! You write letters that don’t say anything! ‘Lucy is doing well in Defense’ ‘Harry is passing his tests’- you never say anything of substance!”
Remus raised an eyebrow as he adjusted himself for this conversation, “That’s not nothing, I’m a teacher-”
“I just met Harry and within the brief conversation we had I learned he doesn’t know anything about James and Lily and also he fought a basilisk! You’re going to tell me you never heard anything? Nothing from McGonagall or Dumbledore or anyone-”
“No,” Remus said, as he slowly moved to fully sit up, aching all the while, moving a pillow to cover his wolf peen, which was still standing at attention. “Believe it or not we don’t just talk about Harry’s endeavors, especially with a certain someone on the loose trying to kill him-”
Emmeline cut him off almost immediately, “Speaking of which- why didn’t you tell me about them?”
Remus looked at her blankly, “About who?”
“The McKinnons,” she said, looking at him with wide eyes. “Morgan and her brother. Why didn’t you tell me about them?”
“Well I didn’t think there was anything-”
She snorted and cut him off, “You didn’t think there was anything?? She has Marlene’s face-”
“And Marlene had like a dozen siblings-”
“Yeah, but the boy is the spitting image of Sirius,” she hissed, feeling weird about saying his name but powering through it.
“We know Malcolm survived, I thought-”
She shook her head, cutting him off again, “No, because they referenced an Uncle Malcolm…”
“Shit…” he muttered.
“I have to get back to Harry,” Emmeline said after a minute of silence where both their minds were elsewhere. “But we will be talking about this again.”
Remus nodded, eyes still unfocused.
“And hey-” she lightly snapped in front of his face. “It won’t kill you to talk to him. He is starved for any information about Lily and James…even if you just tell him that you knew them, he just lights up any time they’re mentioned.”
She got up to leave, but was stopped by “Emmeline-”
Emmeline turned around to face Remus. He sighed and didn’t seem to know what he was going to say. He gestured to the door, “Just. Nevermind…”
“This conversation isn’t over,” she said, before turning and leaving, shutting the door behind her.
Remus sighed and deflated, then tried to curl up under the covers and go back to sleep, but couldn’t help his mind from cycling through ideas of how to talk to Harry.