Tossers and Turning
By the end of September, the workload had increased. And Dorcas had figured out that the common room was actually not the greatest place to study, not unless you wanted someone constantly bothering you. Sometimes it was the first year boys causing a ruckus, other times it was her own friends interrupting her, but it was always something. She briefly wondered if the Ravenclaw common room was like this- probably not, but it didn’t matter, she wasn’t a Ravenclaw.
Lily walked into the dorm as Dorcas was packing up her things.
“Ugh,” she started.
“What’s the matter?” Dorcas asked.
“That dolt James, just can’t get rid of him. How’s a girl supposed to study when he’s practically stalking you?”
“I’m going to the library, you can come with.”
“That would be perfect actually."
It was a Tuesday, so the library was packed, but Madam Pince kept it nice and quiet. Most of the tables were taken, so they headed towards a Gryffindor boy in their year, Remus Lupin.
Lily whispered in her ear, “He’s one of James’ friends.”
“It’s just studying, he can’t be annoying.”
“You never know.”
“Come on Lily, there’s nowhere else to sit.”
“Ok, ok, I’m coming.”
“Would it be alright if we sit here?” Dorcas asked when they were finally in front of the boy.
He gave a tight smile, “Oh, yes, of course.”
“Thanks,” Lily conceded.
Upon closer inspection, the boy was even more sickly than she had thought. He was extremely pale, and there were even a few faded scars that marked his skin. She tried not to stare, but curiosity overtook her. Eventually she snapped out of it and began her work.
“I’m still confused as to why we’re even learning about Uric the Oddball,” Lily argued.
“It’s interesting, and the only thing keeping the class awake,” Dorcas suggested.
“I’m not complaining, it’s just a wonder there’s nothing more important to learn about,” Lily replied.
“What, like Emeric the Evil? I hear we’re to learn about him later.”
“You don’t like it?” Remus finally spoke up.
“Hmm?” Dorcas mumbled.
“You don’t like History of Magic?”
“I like history, just not the rubbish Binns teaches.”
“I think we’ll learn about more interesting things later,” Remus said.
“If you say so, I can’t even remember any of the facts about the Gargoyle Strike of 1901 correctly.”
“It’s 1911,” Remus volunteered.
“See? I’m absolutely hopeless,” Dorcas crowed.
“I could help.”
“Really?”
“I’m quite good at History of Magic, it’s no big deal.”
Dorcas exclaimed, “Thank you!”
“Madam Pince will have your head,” Lily chuckled out.
Dorcas whispered this time, “Thank you, really.”
And Remus returned her thank you with a smile.
***
It was awfully late when they returned to their common room.
Upon seeing Remus with the two girls James shouted, “Oi, Remus, if you’d told us who you were studying with we would’ve come along!”
Sirius rolled his eyes at this but joined in, “If we knew where you were at all we would've joined you!”
Remus laughed, “You? Studying?”
Sirius responded, “I get incredible marks!”
“Mate, that doesn’t equate studying,” James interrupted.
“Whose side are you on?” Sirius frowned.
“We’d better get going before this turns into, well whatever this turns into. Thanks for the help and have fun with those two,” Dorcas said before crossing the room with Lily to the girl’s stairs.
When Sirius thought the girls were out of range he told James, “I can’t believe you fancy her, she’s always got her knickers in a twist.”
She only heard Remus say, “I’m knackered,” in response.
Dorcas hoped Lily hadn’t heard the interaction, especially not Remus’ part in it, or lack thereof. Back in the dorm, Marlene and Mary were getting ready for bed.
“Do either of you know what’s with Remus?” Lily questioned the girls.
“Reckon he has some sort of muggle disease,” Marlene suggested.
Dorcas spoke, “I heard his dad’s a wizard, he would be able to cure it.”
Mary asked, “There are wizard diseases then?”
Lily answered, “Yes, haven’t you read a word of our Potions textbook?”
“Slughorn is boring enough to listen to.”
Marlene chuckled at this, but Lily only frowned.
“That’s what St. Mungos is for,” Dorcas said, hoping to break a bit of the tension.
Mary began, “Right, I think I’ve heard of that before.”
“Maybe you’re not totally hopeless,” Lily said.
“We have lessons in the morning, less fighting, more sleeping,” Dorcas said.
A few sighs left them, but they all complied. After all, she was right, and Mary had already missed breakfast two days in a row. In her bed, Dorcas compiled a mental list of all the wizard diseases she knew. Obviously it wasn’t dragon pox- he was pale, not green. Couldn’t be spattergroit either, he wasn’t covered in pustules of fungus. Besides, both were highly contagious and last time she had checked, nobody had gotten this mystery disease that Remus seemed to be affected by. Suddenly, Marlene had crawled into the bed.
“Thinking about Remus?” Marlene asked.
“I just can’t seem to figure out why he looks on the brink of death at any given moment.”
“Maybe he just wasn’t fed much at home, his plate is always piled high at mealtime.”
“It’s more than that, I can feel it.”
“You should take up divination,” Marlene chuckled.
“This isn’t funny! It’s serious.”
“Actually, his name is Remus.”
“This is why I don’t hang around Sirius, now I have to get this from you too?”
“Alright, I’m sorry, no more Sirius jokes, I promise,” Marlene said with some actual sincerity, “Tomorrow we’ll go to the library and read every book ever made on wizard diseases.”
“He’ll be in the library.”
“Then we’ll check them all out.”
“You think Madam Pince will let us check out that many books?”
“If she doesn’t, I’ll just have to steal them.”
“You’re not going to steal a bunch of books.”
“I would, for you.”
Dorcas turned her head as a deep blush filled her face.
“Night,” she said.
“Night,” the other girl replied.
Marlene had taken to cozying up with Dorcas whenever either of them was worried. It worked well; Marlene knew how to calm her down, and Dorcas knew how to calm Marlene down. Circe wasn’t quite as happy about it though, the bed was quite small and she usually got evicted when the girls shared it. She’d learned better after being physically kicked off the bed in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago.
***
“Mary, wake up!” Marlene shouted in a voice that it was much too early to use.
“Just five more minutes,” Mary replied, half asleep.
“You said that last time and then you were grumpy all day,” Lily butted in.
Marlene added, “She’s right.”
“Ok, ok, I’ll get up.”
After breakfast, Dorcas cornered Remus.
“Is there something you need? We really ought to get to Herbology," Remus asked her.
“I’d much rather be in Herbology at the moment.”
Remus muttered, “So why aren’t you?’
“Do you think making fun of girls is just hilarious? I mean really, I expected it from James or Sirius, but you?”
“What?”
“Last night, Sirius was being a tosser about Lily and you just stood there and said, ‘I’m knackered.’”
“What would you expect me to do?”
“Stand up for her? This is why I don’t hang around you boys, disgusting, the lot of you, no human decency in sight.”
Remus stood with his mouth hanging open slightly as Dorcas walked away. Immediately, she felt terrible. What had gotten into her? It wasn’t as if he’d encouraged him, and besides, he barely knew Lily. Maybe, she thought, maybe it was the fear that people said those same things behind her back. She couldn’t control that- but she could make sure the same didn’t happen to Lily.
“Hey,” Marlene said as Dorcas approached their station, “You ok?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Your face is all red and your nose is scrunched up.”
“Oh,” Dorcas said, embarrassed.
“Don’t be embarrassed, it’s a good look on you,”
This only made her face even redder.
***
“Can’t you just get the books for me?” Dorcas pleaded.
“I’m not as strong as you think. Why are you so afraid to see Remus anyways?” Marlene replied.
“I kind of freaked out on him,” Dorcas mumbled.
“What does kind of mean?’
“I just scolded him a bit.”
“Uhuh, and why?”
All in one breath Dorcas said, “Sirius was making fun of James fancying Lily, which is basically just making fun of Lily. Said something about her knickers being in a twist. Which is preposterous, cause he’s the creepy stalker, Lily’s the innocent one. And Remus was there and he didn’t even do anything, just said he was knackered. We’d just studied together so I thought maybe he’d stand up for her.”
“So he didn’t actually say anything about her?”
“No,” Dorcas replied while playing with her nails. She’d finally gotten them to grow out a bit and didn’t want to bite them.
“He’s friends with a bunch of tossers, but maybe he’s alright. Just ask him, calmly, you might even be surprised.”
“You’ll come with me then?”
“No,” Marlene laughed, “this one’s all you. I’ll wait outside the library till you’re all made up.”
“You said you’d steal books for me!”
“All out of love, and it wouldn’t be very loving to stunt your emotional growth or whatever.”
“I hate that you’re learning new words!” Dorcas huffed.
The library wasn’t quite as packed as the night before, but it definitely wasn’t empty either. To no one’s surprise, Remus was sitting at a table tucked away into one of its corners.
“Hello,” Dorcas cleared her throat, “I just wanted to let you know I’m sorry for blowing up on you like that earlier. But, it really is rude to not intervene when your friends are being jerks.”
Remus rubbed the back of his neck for a moment, “I didn’t know there was anything to say. Didn’t think anyone could hear anyways, you know, no harm, no foul. Sirius really does need some lessons in keeping his mouth shut.”
“That he does. I shouldn’t have assumed, I really am sorry.”
“It’s alright,” Remus answered to her pleas with a smile.
“Speaking of, well not really, actually this is kind of off topic, but I have a question. Are you sick? I’ve noticed you’re quite pale and a bit frale.”
“What are you talking about?” Remus asked, his temperature rising.
“I don’t mean to be rude, just thought I could help or something. You have those scars also- is that a part of it?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sorry, I just thought-”
Remus interrupted, “You thought nothing. Let’s just pretend this never happened. Ok?”
“Ok,” Dorcas replied with a lump rising in her throat.
“See you around,” Remus said, as if they hadn’t just had the most tense interaction Dorcas had ever been in.
“See you.”
Marlene began to walk in, but Dorcas shook her head.
“What about the books?” Marlene asked.
“I don’t think we’re gonna figure anything out about his mystery illness.”
“But it seemed really important to you.”
“Just drop it, ok?”
“Ok, yeah. What do you want to do then?”
“Reckon we should go for a walk? Nice days are getting to be slim chances.”
“Good idea, should we run up to the dorms to see if Mary and Lily are around?”
“No,” Dorcas replied, “Let’s just go, the two of us.”
Marlene shot her a grin, “Ok.”