[HP] Love Song for a Werewolf (ch4)
Posted: 2004-12-31 04:44am
Firstly, yes I know I'm supposed to be writing about Harry's university hi jinks, but while I was rereading Order of the Phoenix for research, I was inspired to write this, and then had to read Prisoner of Azkaban to research this.
Secondly, please someone come up with a better title. I hate this beyond all reason.
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CHAPTER ONE: On the Hogwarts Express
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Remus Lupin yawned and rested his head against the train window, staring out at the hectic platform filled with students and their relatives. He reflected briefly on how lucky each of them was to be here, after what he and his friends – especially Harry Potter, the son of his once best friend – had done for them over the past few years, and then decided not to dwell on the past. What mattered was that they were mostly alive and safe, and that he was about to resume his post as Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his alma mater.
It was the second day after the full moon and he was still tired. His transformations were less taxing nowadays then they had been before the Wolfsbane Potion, but he still didn’t get much sleep, and it usually took a couple of days to make up for it. He leaned his head back again and allowed his eyes to close…
“Is it OK if I come in this compartment?” came a voice, and Remus snapped his eyes open again, and then smiled in recognition at the figure in the doorway.
----
“Is it OK if I come in this compartment?” At these words, eleven year-old Remus Lupin looked up from his book – which he hadn’t been reading anyway – to see, standing in the doorway to his compartment, a tiny little girl whose robes were at least two inches too long at the wrists and feet. Her fine brown hair was nominally tied back into a plait, but was fighting against its restraints and sticking out in all directions. A smudge of soot on her forehead completed the look of the world’s smallest scarecrow. Remus nodded silent, surprised ascent, and she attempted to pull in a trunk at least as big as her, at which point he leapt up to give her a hand.
“Thank you,” she said and grabbed a cat basket off the top as he heaved the trunk on to the overhead rack. “My brother would’ve helped, only he’s had to go to the Prefect’s carriage.”
“That’s OK,” Remus said, shyly, as she swung herself up on to the seat opposite him, on which she perched cross-legged, pulling a tortoiseshell kitten out of the basket and into her lap. “I guess you’re a first year too, huh?” he asked
She nodded vigorously. “My name’s Fiona Weathercock. My brother’s Ryan. He’s Ravenclaw prefect this year.” She said this all at once, as if afraid she might run out of time to complete the speech.
“You said that,” Remus smiled, and she blushed with embarrassment. “I’m Remus.”
“Hi Remus,” Fiona said enthusiastically, and gave him a toothy grin. She had a small gap between her top two front teeth, he noticed.
There followed an awkward silence, in which Remus picked up his book again and Fiona’s face fell with disappointment and boredom. It was only broken when the door to the compartment was pushed open again, and a red haired girl with sparkling green eyes looked in.
“Hi,” she said shyly. “Mind if I join you guys? All the other compartments are full.”
“Sure,” Fiona brightened up. “Come in. My name’s Fiona Weathercock and this is Remus…” she looked at Remus expectantly and he supplied the “…Lupin.”
“Hi,” the newcomer said, pulling in her own luggage. “I’m Lily. Lily Evans.” She took a seat and sat next to Fiona. There was clearly something preying on her mind, as her brow furrowed and she blurted out: “So… did you know you were a witch? I had no idea.”
“Sure,” replied Fiona. “Both my parents were, and my brother’s a prefect at Hogwarts. But don’t worry, loads of students are from muggle families. My mother’s from one.”
For the next hour or so, Fiona proceeded to chatter away to Lily about her family, the wizarding world, and what she knew about Hogwarts already; Remus only chipped in when he felt he had anything to add, which wasn’t often. His mind turned to what he had been thinking of before Fiona had disturbed his train of thought: how he was going to hide his lycanthropy from the other students. The new headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, had promised that something would be worked out, but he hadn’t been specific about what, so Remus was relying on something uncertain for now. He was almost as terrified of what his fellow students would say if they found out than what would happen if he hurt one in his werewolf form.
Suddenly there was a scream of laughter from further down the carriage, followed by running feet towards the compartment they were in, which ended as the door was yanked open and two boys with black hair hurtled in. One, the taller, stockier of the two, whose straight hair was long enough to reach his cheekbones, framing his eye, doubled up in sobs of mirth, while the other, a skinny boy with glasses, whose much shorter hair was almost as messy as Fiona’s, slammed the door shut behind them, and leant against it, trying to catch his breath against his own laughter.
“Did… you… see… his… face?” the larger boy gasped. “I… almost… died!”
“I can’t believe you did that!” the other replied. “With his own wand!”
The trio already in the carriage looked at the two boys bemusedly until they finally straightened up and noticed them.
“Sorry,” the boy with glasses grinned, “We’ve just met the slimiest...”
“…Most obnoxious…” his friend added.
“…creepiest kid you’ve ever met!” the shorter one finished. They caught each other’s eyes and laughed again.
Fiona was staring wide eyed at the duo, Lily looked a little disgusted, but Remus couldn’t help smiling at seeing two boys his age genuinely having fun.
“My name’s Sirius,” the longer haired boy told them, sitting down next to Remus and pulling Fiona’s cat basket towards him in curiosity. “This is James.” James smiled and sat next to Sirius as the others introduced themselves, Fiona adding the extra qualifier of her brother being Ravenclaw prefect, just in case they’d heard of him. They hadn’t.
“What’s Ravenclaw?” asked Lily: her discussion with Fiona hadn’t covered this yet.
“One of the houses at Hogwarts,” explained James. “There’s Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. I guess your brother’s a bit of a swot, huh?” he asked Fiona, who puffed out her chest.
“No!” she exclaimed indignantly.
“I doubt it,” said Sirius, who had been reading the label on the basket. Fiona jumped down to snatch it from him, sending her kitten leaping to the floor, where it hid under Lily’s seat. Sirius held it out of her reach. “Did you write this?”
“What is it?” James asked, and Sirius showed James and Remus. Fiona finally grabbed it and stormed back to her corner but not before Remus caught sight of the name “Nefatity Weferkok” scawled on it in appalling handwriting.
“What’s that supposed to say?” James asked, his mouth turning up at the corners, but not unkindly, at least in Remus’ opinion.
“Nefertiti Weathercock,” said Fiona sulkily. “It’s my cat’s name. But I call her Nefy,” she added, turning pink.
“I’m not surprised,” Sirius started, but Lily interrupted him, desparately trying to change the subject from Fiona’s spelling.
“So, do you all know what houses you’ll be in?” she asked. James shook his head.
“Not officially. But I hope to be in Gryffindor. My parents were.”
“I hope that’s not the rule,” Sirius said darkly. “My family are all Slytherins.” Both Fiona and Remus visibly shifted away as he said this, but James shook his head. “Nah, you’re just not that slimy. Besides, at least it’s not Hufflepuff!”
“Oh yes!” Sirius laughed, and explained to Lily, “All the real thickos get put into Hufflepuff.”
----
Fiona Weathercock had aged well, especially compared to him, Remus reflected, thinking of his own prematurely greying hair. Her hair had yet to be touched by age, and the lines around her eyes merely served to make her smile particularly warm, as she entered the compartment with her broomstick over one shoulder, an owl cage in her other hand, and her trunk floating gently behind her.
“Now I understand why Dumbledore wanted me to take the Hogwarts Express. Guess you could use some company.” She levitated her trunk up to the rack and sat opposite him. Her feet still didn’t touch the floor.
“And I’m glad of it, believe me,” Remus replied. “Starting at Hogwarts this year, Professor Weathercock?”
“Madam Weathercock, please,” she replied with mock-indignation. “But I still answer to Fi, you know, Remus. And yes, this is my first year. Dumbledore wrote to me last month and told me his current Quidditch mistress was retiring, and offered me the job. I leapt at it, of course.”
“Tired of the celebrity lifestyle?” Remus joked, and her cheeks coloured slightly, but she smiled.
“Tired of commentating. Tired of having to talk for so long at a time. Tired of writing for The Daily Prophet’s sports pages and tired of receiving long edits from subeditors making snide remarks out my literacy. Tired of not doing anything productive with my life. I guess you wouldn’t understand it, being new to the whole ‘celebrity lifestyle’ thing.”
She was referring, of course, to the media circus surrounding the Order of the Phoenix over the summer. All the members had been covered to great extent. Some effort had been made, at Dumbledore’s suggestion, to downplay the contribution made by the teenage wizards involved, in some way to protect the youngsters, but the adults had not been so favoured. Remus had become used to seeing his life talked about in The Daily Prophet, and Molly had said there was an article about him in Witch Weekly, but he declined to even look at it.
The upshot of all this, of course, was that he was no longer ostracised for being a werewolf, and Dumbledore had felt comfortable in reinstating him as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, a post that he was determined to hold for more than a year. He had to admit, however, that he was becoming weary of the attention. He was looking forward to Hogwarts, and could fully appreciate why Fiona - whose fame was admittedly only minor since she ceased playing professionally - would leap at the chance to return to its relative isolation.
They fell to talking in a relaxed manner about nothing in particular. Remus imagined Fiona would have read everything she needed to know about the Order, and she certainly didn’t want to talk about what was probably still a painful subject for him. Just as the conversation turned to the Quidditch World Cup that had taken place that year – Fiona asserting that Scotland would have emerged champions if they’d played Wood earlier – the door opened slightly and a head poked itself around. It belonged to a slight young woman of 17, with bright red hair and a lot of freckles. She smiled at Remus and entered the compartment.
“Hi, Professor Lupin,” she started before noticing Fiona and blushing profusely.
Remus understood immediately, and smiled. “Madam Weathercock,” he said formally, “I would like to introduce you to Ginny Weasley: Head Girl and Gryffindor Quidditch captain.”
Fiona held her hand out. “Pleased to meet you, Ginny. It’s an honour to meet one of the famous Weasley family.” Ginny blushed even further as she took her hand, so Fiona patted the seat next to her and added: “So what do you think of your team’s chances this year?”
Ginny brightened up at this, but she did not sit down. “I think we’ve genuinely got a chance. Of course, we’ve lost our keeper and the best Seeker we’ve ever had,” – Remus looked out of the window and smiled at this comment, but Fiona ignored it – “but the Chasers really work as a team and the Beaters are coming along as well. I’ve already got someone in mind for Seeker, and I’m sure we can find a good enough Keeper.”
“That’s good,” replied Fiona. "I look forward to seeing your team play. I’m not supposed to be biased of course,” she added in a false undertone, “but I would like to see Gryffindor retain its winning streak.”
“I do my best,” Ginny gave a little mock salute and turned to leave. “I should go and be head girl for a bit before I can be Quidditch captain, though. Oh, Madam Weathercock…” she added quickly, “I don’t suppose I could get an autograph? My older brother’s a big fan.”
Fiona grinned broadly. “Sure you can.” A wave of her wand opened the trunk above her head, and with an “Accio autobiography” she retrieved a glossy hardback book filled with pictures covering her Quidditch career. “Who should I make it out to?”
“Charlie,” Ginny replied, and Remus watched Fiona write a brief message to the second Weasley brother on the title page before signing it and passing it to Ginny, who thanked her and left, tucking the book into her bag.
Fiona turned back to Remus. “I’ve heard so much about that family, I wandered if I should ask for her autograph,” she joked. “Now, what were we talking about?”
Secondly, please someone come up with a better title. I hate this beyond all reason.
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CHAPTER ONE: On the Hogwarts Express
----------------------------------
Remus Lupin yawned and rested his head against the train window, staring out at the hectic platform filled with students and their relatives. He reflected briefly on how lucky each of them was to be here, after what he and his friends – especially Harry Potter, the son of his once best friend – had done for them over the past few years, and then decided not to dwell on the past. What mattered was that they were mostly alive and safe, and that he was about to resume his post as Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his alma mater.
It was the second day after the full moon and he was still tired. His transformations were less taxing nowadays then they had been before the Wolfsbane Potion, but he still didn’t get much sleep, and it usually took a couple of days to make up for it. He leaned his head back again and allowed his eyes to close…
“Is it OK if I come in this compartment?” came a voice, and Remus snapped his eyes open again, and then smiled in recognition at the figure in the doorway.
----
“Is it OK if I come in this compartment?” At these words, eleven year-old Remus Lupin looked up from his book – which he hadn’t been reading anyway – to see, standing in the doorway to his compartment, a tiny little girl whose robes were at least two inches too long at the wrists and feet. Her fine brown hair was nominally tied back into a plait, but was fighting against its restraints and sticking out in all directions. A smudge of soot on her forehead completed the look of the world’s smallest scarecrow. Remus nodded silent, surprised ascent, and she attempted to pull in a trunk at least as big as her, at which point he leapt up to give her a hand.
“Thank you,” she said and grabbed a cat basket off the top as he heaved the trunk on to the overhead rack. “My brother would’ve helped, only he’s had to go to the Prefect’s carriage.”
“That’s OK,” Remus said, shyly, as she swung herself up on to the seat opposite him, on which she perched cross-legged, pulling a tortoiseshell kitten out of the basket and into her lap. “I guess you’re a first year too, huh?” he asked
She nodded vigorously. “My name’s Fiona Weathercock. My brother’s Ryan. He’s Ravenclaw prefect this year.” She said this all at once, as if afraid she might run out of time to complete the speech.
“You said that,” Remus smiled, and she blushed with embarrassment. “I’m Remus.”
“Hi Remus,” Fiona said enthusiastically, and gave him a toothy grin. She had a small gap between her top two front teeth, he noticed.
There followed an awkward silence, in which Remus picked up his book again and Fiona’s face fell with disappointment and boredom. It was only broken when the door to the compartment was pushed open again, and a red haired girl with sparkling green eyes looked in.
“Hi,” she said shyly. “Mind if I join you guys? All the other compartments are full.”
“Sure,” Fiona brightened up. “Come in. My name’s Fiona Weathercock and this is Remus…” she looked at Remus expectantly and he supplied the “…Lupin.”
“Hi,” the newcomer said, pulling in her own luggage. “I’m Lily. Lily Evans.” She took a seat and sat next to Fiona. There was clearly something preying on her mind, as her brow furrowed and she blurted out: “So… did you know you were a witch? I had no idea.”
“Sure,” replied Fiona. “Both my parents were, and my brother’s a prefect at Hogwarts. But don’t worry, loads of students are from muggle families. My mother’s from one.”
For the next hour or so, Fiona proceeded to chatter away to Lily about her family, the wizarding world, and what she knew about Hogwarts already; Remus only chipped in when he felt he had anything to add, which wasn’t often. His mind turned to what he had been thinking of before Fiona had disturbed his train of thought: how he was going to hide his lycanthropy from the other students. The new headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, had promised that something would be worked out, but he hadn’t been specific about what, so Remus was relying on something uncertain for now. He was almost as terrified of what his fellow students would say if they found out than what would happen if he hurt one in his werewolf form.
Suddenly there was a scream of laughter from further down the carriage, followed by running feet towards the compartment they were in, which ended as the door was yanked open and two boys with black hair hurtled in. One, the taller, stockier of the two, whose straight hair was long enough to reach his cheekbones, framing his eye, doubled up in sobs of mirth, while the other, a skinny boy with glasses, whose much shorter hair was almost as messy as Fiona’s, slammed the door shut behind them, and leant against it, trying to catch his breath against his own laughter.
“Did… you… see… his… face?” the larger boy gasped. “I… almost… died!”
“I can’t believe you did that!” the other replied. “With his own wand!”
The trio already in the carriage looked at the two boys bemusedly until they finally straightened up and noticed them.
“Sorry,” the boy with glasses grinned, “We’ve just met the slimiest...”
“…Most obnoxious…” his friend added.
“…creepiest kid you’ve ever met!” the shorter one finished. They caught each other’s eyes and laughed again.
Fiona was staring wide eyed at the duo, Lily looked a little disgusted, but Remus couldn’t help smiling at seeing two boys his age genuinely having fun.
“My name’s Sirius,” the longer haired boy told them, sitting down next to Remus and pulling Fiona’s cat basket towards him in curiosity. “This is James.” James smiled and sat next to Sirius as the others introduced themselves, Fiona adding the extra qualifier of her brother being Ravenclaw prefect, just in case they’d heard of him. They hadn’t.
“What’s Ravenclaw?” asked Lily: her discussion with Fiona hadn’t covered this yet.
“One of the houses at Hogwarts,” explained James. “There’s Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. I guess your brother’s a bit of a swot, huh?” he asked Fiona, who puffed out her chest.
“No!” she exclaimed indignantly.
“I doubt it,” said Sirius, who had been reading the label on the basket. Fiona jumped down to snatch it from him, sending her kitten leaping to the floor, where it hid under Lily’s seat. Sirius held it out of her reach. “Did you write this?”
“What is it?” James asked, and Sirius showed James and Remus. Fiona finally grabbed it and stormed back to her corner but not before Remus caught sight of the name “Nefatity Weferkok” scawled on it in appalling handwriting.
“What’s that supposed to say?” James asked, his mouth turning up at the corners, but not unkindly, at least in Remus’ opinion.
“Nefertiti Weathercock,” said Fiona sulkily. “It’s my cat’s name. But I call her Nefy,” she added, turning pink.
“I’m not surprised,” Sirius started, but Lily interrupted him, desparately trying to change the subject from Fiona’s spelling.
“So, do you all know what houses you’ll be in?” she asked. James shook his head.
“Not officially. But I hope to be in Gryffindor. My parents were.”
“I hope that’s not the rule,” Sirius said darkly. “My family are all Slytherins.” Both Fiona and Remus visibly shifted away as he said this, but James shook his head. “Nah, you’re just not that slimy. Besides, at least it’s not Hufflepuff!”
“Oh yes!” Sirius laughed, and explained to Lily, “All the real thickos get put into Hufflepuff.”
----
Fiona Weathercock had aged well, especially compared to him, Remus reflected, thinking of his own prematurely greying hair. Her hair had yet to be touched by age, and the lines around her eyes merely served to make her smile particularly warm, as she entered the compartment with her broomstick over one shoulder, an owl cage in her other hand, and her trunk floating gently behind her.
“Now I understand why Dumbledore wanted me to take the Hogwarts Express. Guess you could use some company.” She levitated her trunk up to the rack and sat opposite him. Her feet still didn’t touch the floor.
“And I’m glad of it, believe me,” Remus replied. “Starting at Hogwarts this year, Professor Weathercock?”
“Madam Weathercock, please,” she replied with mock-indignation. “But I still answer to Fi, you know, Remus. And yes, this is my first year. Dumbledore wrote to me last month and told me his current Quidditch mistress was retiring, and offered me the job. I leapt at it, of course.”
“Tired of the celebrity lifestyle?” Remus joked, and her cheeks coloured slightly, but she smiled.
“Tired of commentating. Tired of having to talk for so long at a time. Tired of writing for The Daily Prophet’s sports pages and tired of receiving long edits from subeditors making snide remarks out my literacy. Tired of not doing anything productive with my life. I guess you wouldn’t understand it, being new to the whole ‘celebrity lifestyle’ thing.”
She was referring, of course, to the media circus surrounding the Order of the Phoenix over the summer. All the members had been covered to great extent. Some effort had been made, at Dumbledore’s suggestion, to downplay the contribution made by the teenage wizards involved, in some way to protect the youngsters, but the adults had not been so favoured. Remus had become used to seeing his life talked about in The Daily Prophet, and Molly had said there was an article about him in Witch Weekly, but he declined to even look at it.
The upshot of all this, of course, was that he was no longer ostracised for being a werewolf, and Dumbledore had felt comfortable in reinstating him as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, a post that he was determined to hold for more than a year. He had to admit, however, that he was becoming weary of the attention. He was looking forward to Hogwarts, and could fully appreciate why Fiona - whose fame was admittedly only minor since she ceased playing professionally - would leap at the chance to return to its relative isolation.
They fell to talking in a relaxed manner about nothing in particular. Remus imagined Fiona would have read everything she needed to know about the Order, and she certainly didn’t want to talk about what was probably still a painful subject for him. Just as the conversation turned to the Quidditch World Cup that had taken place that year – Fiona asserting that Scotland would have emerged champions if they’d played Wood earlier – the door opened slightly and a head poked itself around. It belonged to a slight young woman of 17, with bright red hair and a lot of freckles. She smiled at Remus and entered the compartment.
“Hi, Professor Lupin,” she started before noticing Fiona and blushing profusely.
Remus understood immediately, and smiled. “Madam Weathercock,” he said formally, “I would like to introduce you to Ginny Weasley: Head Girl and Gryffindor Quidditch captain.”
Fiona held her hand out. “Pleased to meet you, Ginny. It’s an honour to meet one of the famous Weasley family.” Ginny blushed even further as she took her hand, so Fiona patted the seat next to her and added: “So what do you think of your team’s chances this year?”
Ginny brightened up at this, but she did not sit down. “I think we’ve genuinely got a chance. Of course, we’ve lost our keeper and the best Seeker we’ve ever had,” – Remus looked out of the window and smiled at this comment, but Fiona ignored it – “but the Chasers really work as a team and the Beaters are coming along as well. I’ve already got someone in mind for Seeker, and I’m sure we can find a good enough Keeper.”
“That’s good,” replied Fiona. "I look forward to seeing your team play. I’m not supposed to be biased of course,” she added in a false undertone, “but I would like to see Gryffindor retain its winning streak.”
“I do my best,” Ginny gave a little mock salute and turned to leave. “I should go and be head girl for a bit before I can be Quidditch captain, though. Oh, Madam Weathercock…” she added quickly, “I don’t suppose I could get an autograph? My older brother’s a big fan.”
Fiona grinned broadly. “Sure you can.” A wave of her wand opened the trunk above her head, and with an “Accio autobiography” she retrieved a glossy hardback book filled with pictures covering her Quidditch career. “Who should I make it out to?”
“Charlie,” Ginny replied, and Remus watched Fiona write a brief message to the second Weasley brother on the title page before signing it and passing it to Ginny, who thanked her and left, tucking the book into her bag.
Fiona turned back to Remus. “I’ve heard so much about that family, I wandered if I should ask for her autograph,” she joked. “Now, what were we talking about?”
. In this story he's at least 2nd generation. It's not important anyway. There's only one person in this story who's racist, and he hates Lupin anyway.
