Prologue
Though still mourning the death of his best friend, Remus wouldn’t allow himself to focus on it. No, from the sound of it, he had other areas to concern himself with. Though Sirius’ death was a devastating blow, there was someone who needed him more than he needed to grieve; Harry.
As he read through the letter from Hermione again to ensure he picked up on everything she had to say he then sighed and shook his head sadly. While he knew Hermione was still in the infirmary, it appeared she heard plenty from Neville, who she made to sound almost panicked at what he saw from Harry. This wasn’t good.
While he remembered what Neville was like from teaching, he also knew the boy was a good friend with the others and what he said—well, he doubted Neville would panic enough to overly exaggerate Harry’s condition when it came to something so horrible and possibly serious. She also made it clear Harry hadn’t visited any of them in the infirmary for several days now. Yes, this was a concern he needed to take seriously.
He placed the letter aside and looked at it, shaking his head. Now he had to sort out how to handle the situation. Hermione wrote that Albus had talked to Harry, but he could remember Albus trying to help others deal with grief in the past. Oh, what he said was the truth, very logical, but grief didn’t always conform to one manifestation and when you’re lost in the throes of its grip, you didn’t think as rationally as normal, just focusing on the hurt. Now he had to not only assess the situation, but decide how to handle it from here. With over a week left of the school year, he had some time before Harry was once more forced to the purgatory called Privet Drive, something he was certain wouldn’t help his state. To do so, though, he needed more than Hermione’s letter as proof.
With a heavy sigh, he tried to think though his options. He could manage to get into the castle because of an upcoming Order meeting there in a couple of days. Before then—well, he could make an excuse of some sort to visit Albus then sneak off to talk to Harry. If caught—he could come up with a good enough excuse. He could even tell the truth. After all, no one would say a word if he expressed concern over Harry.
Plan in mind, at least the start of one, he decided to assess the situation first then go from there. Once he knew the state Harry was in, he would hammer out what to do.