Chapter Thirty Two
Remus was lying on the bench in the kitchen with a report to read and a cigarette in hand, with lots running through his mind at once. Now that no one else was in the house, both Remus and Sirius had taken to smoking inside. It probably made the house stink, but it would have infuriated Sirius’s mother, and that was a good enough reason for them both to keep doing it.
The last few months had been full of news, but Remus and Sirius were no longer at the centre of it. They were never meant to survive the old war, and they didn’t really fit into the new one. As dangerous winds rose and dissipated around them, Remus’s only concern was keeping Harry out of the eye of the storm for as long as he could. He stood helplessly aside as reports worked their way back to him of Harry’s year. First dates and struggles to improve grades met on the same page with physical assaults and invasions of the mind, and there was nothing Remus or Sirius could do about it.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel a burning sense of pride whenever anyone mentioned Harry’s secret club. Perhaps, when he grew up, Harry would become a real teacher, just like Remus had been. Had Remus influenced his choices? He liked to think so. Other members tried to impress on him the dangers, and to get him to discourage Harry from continuing, but their words disappeared into soft mist around Remus’s glow, even from afar.
Dumbledore’s abrupt departure from Hogwarts brought him back into the real world somewhat. Grateful though he was that Dumbledore had managed to protect Harry, Remus didn’t like the thought of Umbridge gaining even more powers.
“Only thing worse than him being headmaster is him not being headmaster” muttered Sirius when they heard the news. Remus, who had spent weeks trying to manage a fallout in centaur relations after Dumbledore’s cavalier appointment of Firenze, was inclined to agree.
He’d heard from Rowan recently too, there had been an incident at the camp with some of the newest recruits trying to home brew their own Wolfsbane. Eloise and Remus thought it would be helpful, arming everyone with as much information as possible regarding the potion ingredients, but now they saw how foolish that had been. The only way to ensure safe access was to legalise it.
So there was a lot going through Remus’s mind as he lay in the kitchen, ash gently dropping from the end of his cigarette. He and Eloise were planning on submitting a paper to the Ministry, with hopes of changing legislation. He was reading through his first draft of it, when suddenly he heard a voice coming from inside the room.
“Padfoot? Sirius?”
Remus jumped up from his perch, and ran over to the fireplace where Harry’s face had just appeared. “...Harry? What is it, what’s wrong?”
“Remus? I need to speak to you, and Sirius.”
“SIRIUS?” Remus yelled.
“WHAT?” Came the annoyed reply, several floors up.
“IT’S HARRY!”
Remus heard footsteps thundering down the steps, and a moment later Sirius skidded into the kitchen. His face was light and expectant.
“Here,” Remus took his hand, and brought him down to the fireplace.
“What is it, Harry? Are you ok? What’s happened?”
“It’s… it’s about my dad. I saw something in Snape’s memories…he was… Sirius, was my dad a bully?”
Sirius shifted uncomfortably. “Look Harry, you musn’t judge him. He was only 15”
“I’m 15!” Said Harry, indignantly. He looked at the floor, embarrassed. “He kept… he kept messing his hair up.”
Remus and Sirius looked at each other and grinned.
“Was he playing with the snitch?” Remus lent in, keen to hear more.
“Yeah…” Harry admitted.
Sirius clasped Remus’s shoulder excitedly.
“I thought he was being a bit of an idiot…” Harry continued.
“Of course he was an idiot!” Laughed Sirius. “We were all idiots! Well - not Moony so much.”
“Hey, I never told him to quit it either.”
“Well…” Sirius cast about for a response. “You sort of made us feel guilty for it - sometimes. Anyway, he mostly just made a fool of himself when Lily was around.”
He’d hoped that hearing that would make Harry smile, but he frowned. Apparently, this was seriously bothering him.
“She hated him, didn’t she?”
“Nah, she never hated him.” Said Sirius. “Thought he was an arrogant berk for a while -”
“And he was” Supplied Remus.
“He was.” Sirius agreed. “Until he wasn’t. When it really mattered. He may have had an ego, Harry, but he had a heart of gold - truly. He took in us misfits, after all.”
“And Lily pretty much solved his ego problem when they started going out. He was viciously humbled, and much improved.”
Harry smiled slightly, and Remus sighed with relief.
“I just never thought I’d feel sorry for Snape,” said Harry.
That shamed them both into silence, at least for a moment.
“Remember, Harry, there’s a difference between silly pranks, and actually wishing harm on someone. And I’m not saying we didn’t cross the line occasionally - ” he shot Sirius a look, and squeezed his hand, “but we always came back from it.”
“Speaking of -” cut in Sirius. “Why were you in Snape’s memories?”
It was Harry’s turn to look guilty. “I sort of ended up there in an Occlumency lesson.”
“How did he react to that?”
“Oh, you know - told me to get out and said he’d never teach me Occlumency again - like that’s a big disappointment or something!”
“He WHAT?” Exploded Sirius.
“Are you serious, Harry?” Said Remus.
“I’m going to have a word with him, oh, I’m going to kill him -”
“Maybe it had better be me…” Said Remus.
Suddenly, something made Harry cry out in shock.
“Shit - I’ve got to go!” He whispered, and promptly disappeared.
Moments later, a stubby hand appeared, apparently searching into the grate.
“Oh shit!” Shouted Remus, and then “Aguamenti!”
A jet of water shot out over the fire, and the hands and the flame all gave way to smoke.
“That was close.” Said Remus. “That was too close.”
Never one to dwell on danger, Sirius only shrugged and stormed over to check the calendar.
“You need to take your first potion tomorrow, right?”
“Yep, why?” Remus frowned at him.
“Perfect. When Snape drops by, we can have our little chat.”
Remus fully intended on intercepting Snape before Sirius could, but his propensity for sleeping in got the better of him. He awoke to three screaming voices; Snape, Sirius’s, and Sirius’s mum.
The painting he quickly shut up with a violent tug on the curtain, and then he barrelled into the fray in the hallway.
“...and if you can’t get past a silly grudge that doesn’t even have anything to do with the boy, you have no business in the Order!” The two men were facing each other from opposite ends of the hallway. Sirius’s hand was an inch from his waist, hovering above his wand. The way they stood brought to Remus’s mind a Western, and he almost laughed.
“At least I’m in the Order” Snape sneered, “not just skulking around this house all day, no help to anyone.”
Sirius had no response to this.
“And he is every bit his father’s son, an arrogant little toerag -”
“He’s Lily’s son too, you know.” Remus stated icily, stepping into the light at the top of the stairs. “You look at him, and you see James. But he’s Lily, too. Remember that. They’re dead - both of them, because of you. It’s a debt you’ll never stop repaying. And Harry’s all that’s left of them. So don’t you dare come into this house, telling us he’s not able to learn."
Remus gripped the rail to the staircase, pressing down on his grief with white hot fury. "You’re his teacher, it’s your job to teach him. Maybe that job could have been mine, but you took that away from me, too. So here you are. You’ve made your bed, you’ve made it again and again without ever learning a thing. Now get the fuck out of our house.”
Snape left.
There was a sudden silence in the house, broken only by the faint bubbling of a goblet on the mantle. Remus was grateful Snape had left that, at least.
Sirius was smirking at him from across the room. “Our house now, is it?”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
He raised his hands defensively. “Nope - only that I wish you’d let me have that last line. I’d have loved to tell Snape to get the fuck out of our house.”
They laughed, and that day Remus had no missions, and Sirius didn’t drink. They sat in the kitchen, Remus rewriting his proposal for the distribution of Wolfsbane, while Sirius read his book. It was the kind of mundanity they’d rarely been afforded, and they were fully content. It ended up being their last good day together.