Remus Lupin was a fun teacher. At least in his opinion. He tried to be a fun teacher. But he didn’t know why he wasn’t. His students saw him as strict and unchanging. So no matter how hard he tried to change that, he knew it would never change. He would always be the strict teacher. So he would embrace it. He wasn’t going to ignore how the students saw him. He would embrace it, and hope for the best.
Which is why when he caught Lavender Brown and Parvatti Patil passing notes in class he took the slip of folded paper. He grabbed it off of Lavenders desk just as she tried to pass it to Parvatti Patil. “No passing notes in class.” He said. Lavender and Parvatti looked embarrassed as he shoved the note into his pocket. “Please get back to work.” He walked back towards his desk and sat down. They knew the rules, as he told them every time he caught them passing notes, which happened fairly frequently.
He opened his email and clicked on a email from a colleague about a class field trip they would be chaperoning together. He typed up his response, telling her they could meet up later this week to discuss the details outside of school, when he heard a whisper from the back of the class. He glanced up, expecting to find Parvatti and Lavender whispering gossip to each other, but saw them both staring at their computers working on their essays. Remus shrugged, and turned back to his email.
As the bell rang for the end of the school day, he motioned for Parvati and Lavender to stay behind. “What did I tell you two about passing notes?” He asked. “We’ve talked about this before. You need to stop and focus on your work otherwise you’re not going to pass my class.” They both knodded. “That’s all. You may go.” They hurried towards the door and closed it loudly behind them. Remus let out a small sigh, placing his head in his hands. He knew he had sounded harsh and strict. But he didn’t know how else to say what he meant.
He pulled the note out of his pocket and walked over to the trash, about to through the paper out, when he paused.
A tiny corner of the paper had folded over so he could see what was on the other side, and he could spot his name written in Lavender’s curly handwriting. Remus knew he shouldn’t open it, but he couldn’t help himself. What did is students actually think of him? He unfolded the paper and sat down at his desk. There were multiple messages written on the paper, so it appears they had been passing the note for a while before he caught them. He started to read.
Lavender: do you think he’s single?
Parvatti: Who?
Lavender: Lupin of course!
Parvati: I don’t know. What do you think?
Lavender: He’s definitely single
Parvati: How would you know?
Lavender: well, for one he’s not married. I know that for a fact. And look at his desk. He doesn’t have any pictures except for him with Mrs. Potters husband.
Parvati: How does this prove anything?
Lavender: It doesn’t prove anything. I’m just guessing. But based on how often he stays here late doing school work and how early he comes in, and when I’ve checked his social media it’s only photos of him and Mrs. Potters family; he’s single.
Parvati: you found his Social Media?
Lavender: yeah. I’ll give you it later if you want it. It was incredibly hard to find. I had to bribe some people. But that’s not the point. If he is single, which I’m pretty sure he is; why is he single?
Parvati: Your so right; He’s really hot. Why the hell is he still single?
Lavender: I have no idea. It’s so weird.
Remus stared down at the note. This is what his students talked about? About why he was single? He knew he should be angry over it. But he wasn’t. He was just too stunned. What else did they talk about without him noticing? He shivered, and crumbled the note up into a ball, tossing it in the trash.
He knew he should probably get some work done, but he couldn’t stand staying here any longer. He needed to leave before he exploded. He grabbed his coat, hat and gloves and put them on quickly. He picked his bag up off of his desk and dug around for his car keys as he walked out the door. He locked the door to his classroom, and turned around just in time to bump into someone. He glanced up.
He felt his mood turn even worse at the sight of the man in front of him. It was his least favorite colleague, Mr. Black, the band teacher. Remus muttered a quick sorry as he pushed past the man, not wanting to deal with him today. Not after reading that note. He felt Mr. Black’s eyes following him as he quickly rushed down the hallway towards the exit to the parking lot. He pushed open the door and rushed out to his car, not stopping to take a deep breath until he was sitting inside.
He took a deep breath. And sat there in complete silence. He placed his head in his hands, staring down at his gloved fingers. He wasn’t lonely. He wasn’t. He just liked living alone. He pulled his gloves off his hands, feeling the cold air hit them for the first time as he threw them onto the seat next to him. He couldn’t help but stare at the snow that was slowly starting to fall around his car. He watched as it collected on his windshield. He sighed again. He couldn’t sit here anymore. He had to move. He had to go home. He wiped his eyes in the sleeve of his coat. He hadn’t even realized he was crying. He pulled out of the parking lot, not ever realizing that Lavender and Parvatti were sitting in the red mini van next door, watching him through the tinted windows.
________________________________________
The next day as the bell rang signaling the end of seventh period, Remus watched as all of his students filed out of the classroom. “Make sure you have your essays finished for tomorrow to hand in.” He said as they left. He turned back to find Lavender and Parvati standing silently near their desks. “Did you need something?” He asked them, narrowing his eyes.
They exchanged a look, then Parvati said “Nope! We’re good!” And pulled Lavender out of the classroom. Remus closed the door behind them, and returned to his desk, pulling out a stack of essays from under his desk.
After about ten minutes he heard a knock on his door. He walked over and opened to door, and found himself standing face to face with Mr. Black. He felt his eyes narrow. Mr. Black shuffled his feet nervously. He was wearing a sweatshirt with a logo on the front so faded Remus could only see the outline, with jeans and tennis shoes. He always wondered how Mr. Black could stand to show up for work looking so unprofessional.
Mr. Black smiled at him, but Remus didn’t return the smile. “Hello Mr. Lupin,” he said. “I was wondering if I could borrow a few of my students that are in your 7th hour class tomorrow? We need to practice for an upcoming band performance and I would like the entire band to be able to practice together at least once because they’re split into two different classes.”
Remus frowned. “Which students?” He asked.
Mr. Black handed him a list, and pointed out eight names. His frowned deepened. He really knew he should try to be nicer to Mr. Black, but he couldn’t help it. “No.” He made to close the door, but felt something wedge itself in the doors way.
“Why the hell not? What are these kids doing in your class every day that so important that they can’t leave for twenty minutes to go play some music and then come back!” Mr. Black asked loudly. He had shoved the list of students back into his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest.
Remus felt his temper rise like it did every time he talked to Mr. Black. “The reason why is because these students will be missing class time. And when they aren’t here, I have to waste time reteaching the lesson I have already taught the rest of the class. So the answer is no, you can not borrow my students for twenty minutes tomorrow. Pick a different time, try after school, I don’t care! But my students will not miss my class to go practice playing an instrument!” He slammed the door, barely giving Mr. Black enough time to move his foot out of the way before the door slammed in his face.
Remus heard him swearing under his breath as he walked away. Remus returned to his desk and continued to grade the essays. After around a hour, he packed the rest of them into his bag to do when he got home, and locked his classroom door. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, responding to a text from Lily asking if he wanted to come over for dinner that night. He started to type out no thank you and that he had lots of essays to grade for tomorrow, when he stopped. When was the last time he had gone over to the Potters? He couldn’t remember honestly. He would see Lily and Harry sometimes in the halls, but he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen them outside of school. He backed up, then typed ‘I’d love to’. He paused. Then hit send.
________________________________________
He rang the doorbell, waiting nervously. He shivered in the cold air. The door swung open, revealing James. “Remus!” He yelled excitedly, pulling him into a hug. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
Remus smiled at him. “It’s nice to see you too, James. Is there any chance you could let go of me?” James stepped back, and adjusted his glasses. Remus unzipped his coat and removed his gloves, shoving them in his pockets. He hung his coat on a nearby hook, and followed James down the hall.
“I hope you don’t mind,” James said as they walked down the hall. “We invited Harry’s God Father over for dinner too.”
“I don’t mind.” He said. He didn’t remember much about Harry’s God Father. He had been at James and Lily’s wedding, but all he remembered about him was that he was the same age as Remus, and he had been bald at the time. He had said something about his mother shaving his hair off.
Remus walked into the kitchen to find Lily placing a bowl of spaghetti on the table. “Hello Remus.” She said as he walked in the door. James rushed over to help her. “Could you go get Harry? He’s upstairs in his room with-“ she was cut off when their cat leaped up onto the table and lunged for the spaghetti bowl. “Get off the table!” She said, picking up the cat and placing him gently on the floor.
Remus turned back towards the hall and walked back towards the front door, and up the stairs. Harry’s room was at the end of the hall, and Remus could hear two voices coming from within. He slowly walked toward the door, and stopped in the doorway. He glanced around the room, and spotted Harry and his god father sitting on Harry’s bed, laughing at an image of James wearing antlers. Harry looked up toward him and smiled when he saw him. “Hey Remus!” He said.
Harry’s godfather turned, and Remus froze. Everything seemed to stop. Because the man on the bed was-“Sirius.” He got up, his long black hair falling out of a ponytail. “Sirius Black.”
His expression wasn’t full of laughter or giggles anymore. He was completely serious.
Harry looked back and forth between their grim expressions before comprehension glanced across his face. “Does Mom want us downstairs?” He asked Remus, interrupting the strange staring contest between Sirius and Remus.
“Yeah. She sent me up here to get you.” Remus said softly. Why was he talking like this? Harry pushed passed both of them. He was nearly as tall as Remus now, something that he had a hard time believing no matter how many times he saw him.
“Come on.” Remus glanced at Sirius, who looked away nervously. “Are we going to just stand here?” He said it more to the carpet than to Remus, but Remus followed Harry down the hallway with Sirius close behind him. Lily and James were waiting for them in the kitchen, and they both sat down. Lily and James next to each other on one side of the table, and Harry claimed the chair at the end. Leaving Remus and Sirius to take the other two chairs next to each other. They both hesitated, then sat down, not looking at each other.
“So how was your day Remus?” Lily asked him as she started distributing spaghetti around the table. Remus jerked his head upwards. He had been staring at his own plate.
“It was-“ he paused, glancing at Sirius, who was watching him. “Fine.” He finished quickly, after a few seconds pause.
“That’s good. How was yours Sirius?” Lily asked, choosing to ignore how uncomfortable he looked to be questioned. Sirius shifted in his seat. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, his eyes flicking across the table. “Mine was-interesting.”
A long silence followed were all you could hear was the sound of Lily scooping spaghetti out of the bowl and placing it back onto the table. After about a minute, Harry broke the silence. “So are we going to keep pretending they don’t know each other and fight at work all the time or are we gonna acknowledge it?” Lily shot her son a glare, but said nothing. Neither did anyone else. “that answers that question.” Harry said after a few seconds, and started eating his spaghetti.
No one talked as they finished eating. James grabbed their dishes and rushed off to wash them. Harry ran upstairs to finish a math assignment, leaving Lily with Sirius and Remus. “I’m going to go help James with the dishes.” She said, grabbing a few of the dishes he missed.
“I’ll come help you.” Sirius said, starting to stand up but Lily waved him off.
“We’re good. You stay here.” She left, closing the door softly behind her.
“So…” Sirius said slowly. Remus glanced over at him. He had pulled the loose strands of his long hair back into a new ponytail, but a few had already started to slip out and fall in front of his eyes. “How do you know James and Lily?”
Remus watched him for a few seconds. Then he said “childhood, High school, That sort of thing. You?”
Sirius looked away. “I don’t like to talk about it.” Remus was about to open his mouth and question him, when he stopped himself. He wasn’t going to give into his frustration. He was going to stay completely calm.
“Okay.” He said. He stood up and walked to the window, staring out at the snow that was slowly falling. It covered the grass in speckles of white, hiding the green and brown.
“Okay? You’re not going to ask why?” Sirius asked.
Remus turned around to find him standing up, with his arms crossed over his chest. “Would you rather I’d asked?”
“No.”
“Okay then.” He turned back to the window.
After a few more seconds, Sirius cleared his throat and said “Do you think we could try to be less aggressive towards each other? Remus didn’t say anything. He continued to watch the snow fall. “Remus?”
Remus turned, to find Sirius standing directly behind him. He felt himself take a small step backwards, and his back hit the wall. He didn’t realize how heavily he was breathing until Sirius took a small step backward. Remus let out a small breath of air. “I guess we could try.” He said it so softly he didn’t even know if Sirius had heard him until he nodded.
Remus hesitated, then said “when is your band concert.” Sirius looked up.
“Next week Tuesday.” He paused, watching Remus. As if he expected something.
“Maybe, as long as they’re not missing to much, and all of them get back on time, the students in band could practice for twenty minutes.” Remus said softly.
Sirius smiled at him. “Thanks Remus.” Remus nodded. He felt a small smile on his lips. Remus took a step closer to Sirius, staring into his eyes. They were gray. He’d never noticed it before.
Lily walked back in the room and froze when she saw them. Remus and Sirius both jerked away from each other quickly. Lily looked back and forth between them for a few seconds, then shook her head. “We have leftover spaghetti. She handed each of them a container.
“I should probably get going,” Remus said as he walked towards the hall. “I have lots of essays I need to grade tonight.”
“I should probably head out too.” Sirius said.
James came out of the kitchen and followed them to the entrance hall. “Thanks for coming over guys.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose, when they started to slip off.
Remus smiled as he said goodbye, and pulled on his coat. He reached into his pocket for his gloves and shoved his hands inside. “Thanks again!” He said as he opened the door. It closed gently behind him. He walked down the driveway, shoes crunching on the newly fallen snow. He had parked a bit farther down the street but stopped when he heard the sound of shoes approaching from behind. He glanced back, to see Sirius following him. Sirius smiled at him, and climbed over the back of a motor cycle.
“I know I already said it, but thank you. I means a lot to me.” The motorcycle roared to life and Sirius sped off down the street before Remus could respond.