A Pitiful Holiday
1971
The Great hall is practically empty now that all of the students have gone home. Several of the professors are absent as well.
There are only four Slytherin students still in the castle. Myself and three sisters, whose parents are off on some hunt for an elusive creature. They are triplets, and fifth years, so we haven’t spoken much.
The only other first year here is Remus Lupin. He is seated at the Gryffindor table by himself, apart from the other lions.
He catches me staring and abandons his plate, running off somewhere.
I didn’t mean to make him leave. I suppose I was just curious why he was here. I’ve made up little stories about everyone else left behind. Sibling rivalries and busy parents.
I don’t make any of them orphans though.
Tucking two pumpkin pasties into a napkin, I pour my tea into a thermos and pocket the treats into my robes, standing from the table and walking away from the triplets without a word.
Madam Pince is nowhere to be seen when I enter the library.
The library is silent. Finding a table near the windows looking out over the lake, I set down my bag and thermos, trying to determine where I should start looking.
Wandering the rows and rows of books, I pull down any book with a title related to pureblood laws and property. I also include a few on genealogy and the history of Hufflepuff house.
I would not be caught by anyone, even Lily, reading about Hufflepuff House. Still, I have a lot of questions about the house most of my family hailed from.
The stack of books on my table is nearly two feet high.
Diving in, I don’t realize the sun sets until a cough pulls me from my reading.
Looking up, Remus Lupin is standing there holding a tattered book. He isn’t smiling.
“Can I help you?” It comes out snottier than I intended.
He bounces on the balls of his feet, as though he intends to turn and walk away.
“Lily mentioned you were hoping to find your family’s home,” he says, glancing at the dozen open books in front of me. Looking at the mess I’ve created, pumpkin crumbs peppered over the pages, I realize how mad I probably look.
“And?”
“She only mentioned it because she thought I could help. She knew I was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas.”
“Why are you staying?”
“Why are you?”
Touche.
“McGonagall told me my family has an ancestral home that is probably sitting somewhere, untouched.”
“Why do you want to find it?”
“Because if I don’t, I’ll have to go back to St. Joseph’s.”
He looks at me in question.
I don’t feel like talking about my less-than-happy childhood.
When I don’t offer up an explanation, he just shrugs and grabs one of the books I haven’t gotten to yet.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Helping.”
We read in silence for nearly an hour before my stomach starts to rumble. I’d finished my pumpkin pasties hours ago.
Remus covers a smile with his hand.
Instead of being angry, I smile too.
“Hungry?” I ask.
He looks up from the page he was on.
“Probably as much as you,” he says.
We close the books and stand up. Walking back to the Great Hall, I think about what to do when we get there.
Luckily, I don’t have to make a decision.
“Would you mind if I sat with you?” Remus asks.
I shake my head and we sit at the Slytherin table.
No one gives us a second look.
Out of our school robes, we all just look like kids.
“Why didn’t you go home?” I ask after my first bite of steak and kidney pie, my favorite.
His eyebrows crinkle behind his light brown hair. I’ve never noticed, but he has a very thin white scar across the bridge of his nose. And another one along his jaw.
“My parents went on holiday,” he says.
“Without you?”
“It’s their anniversary,” he doesn’t look up at his plate as he answers.
I drop it. He was kind enough not to pry into my life. I don’t need to pry into his.
“Your disarming spell is very impressive. I’d say you are the best in our class,” I opt for a complement.
It was true. A few weeks ago he had managed to disarm our Defense professor, Madeline Kirsch, in seconds.
“Maybe in Defense. You’re better in every other subject. James was absolutely peeved when your teacup turned into that stunning parakeet.”
“Really?”
“You can stop being so smug. I know you’ve had all sorts of help from that girl Eleanor.”
“Intelligence without ambition, is a bird without wings.”
“Spoken like a true Slytherin.”
We eat quietly, neither of us intend on becoming best friends anytime soon.
“Do you like living with Sirius Black?” I ask, the randomness of the thought obviously throwing Remus for a loop.
His face goes slack for a moment.
“Where did that come from?”
“He just seems to be insufferable. I wondered if living with him is as exhausting as being in class with him. Maybe he was the reason you always look so tired?”
For a moment, I think he isn’t going to answer me.
I glance around the room, thinking perhaps I should have found someone else to eat with. Except I doubt any of them know my name.
“He isn’t always so obnoxious. James usually manages to get him to shut up so we can all sleep.”
For a second, I don’t understand. Until I remember that Gryffindors share rooms with each other.
“Does he blather on at night?”
Remus chuckles.
He takes a sip of his tea and then leans in.
“Mostly about his hair,” he jokes.
We both laugh and I decide Remus Lupin isn’t so awful. A few days later when he finds an application for a title to one’s ancestral home in a book with about a thousand pages, I decide he is rather fantastic.