A Love Without Time (Remus Lupin)

Two.

The next morning I woke not feeling very rested. I didn't sleep very well if I'm telling the truth. It hurt that Remus didn't like me, I won't even lie, but at least now I know for sure and I didn't have to wonder anymore.

When I got down to the Common Room, Sirius came up to me, and he wasted no time getting into what he wanted to talk about. "I know Evans told you what Remus said last night. Don't worry. He just needs to get to know you. Don't give up."

"Sirius," I sigh, "it's nice of you to try but it's never going to happen. It's okay."

"No," he says, "I'm not letting you give up. I'm telling you if you just talked to him and got to know you he'd fall for you so fast."

"Stop it, Sirius," I say as I start walking. He follows me.

"No you stop it, Ellie," he says, following behind me close enough that he could still talk to me. "You're being stubborn. Just have a conversation with the guy. It's Remus we're talking about here. The only person less intimidating is Peter. Just face your fear."

"Easier said than done," I say, keeping my eyes forward as I exited the portrait hole.

"You're something else, you know that?" He says, standing next to me now.

"I just don't want to waste time on a lost cause," I explain, he sighs.

"It might not be," he says, his tone was like he was for sure.

I stopped on the stairs as the staircase moved, we were the only two of us on it. So I turned to face him as I spoke. "Do you know something that I don't? Did he tell you something last night? Because if he did you better tell me."

"I don't know anything that you don't. I'm just trying to play matchmaker with two of my best mates because I want them to be happy."

"Sirius. I'm begging you. Stop it. I've made up my mind. I'm not going to talk to him."

He looked at me like I was his mother who had just scolded him. It made me feel awful. "Alright, fine. I'll drop it because I love you. But I still stand by what I said. I think you and Remus would be great together. You'd understand him better than anyone else could. In ways you don't even know, but you would if you got to know him."

The staircase stopped moving, and we started walking again.

"Whatever you say," I say, trying to smile at him as best as I could right now. We headed down to the Great Hall together again and sat with our friends and ate breakfast until it was time to go to class.

When Marlene asked me if I was going to reconsider talking to Remus and I said no, she mentioned that there was always her brother Matthew. Matt Mckinnon was the stereotypical jock of our house. Lean athletes build, with curly dark blonde hair, pretty blue eyes, and he kind of looks like he hasn't slept in a few years. The kind of guy girls fawn all over. Kind of like my brother.

He's a Chaser and captain of our house Quidditch team, and he always somewhat flirts with me when we have practices. At least to Marlene it's flirting, to me it just seems like sportsmanship. She swears he likes me, but I don't think so.

The first month of school went by very quickly. Since we were taking our O.W.L. Exams in June, the teachers were piling on the homework. Also, we had Quidditch tryouts. I kept my spot as Seeker. James and Marlene stayed Chasers with her brother.

At the end of the month, it was the anniversary of my dad's death. I was up early due to not being able to sleep. No one was awake yet, the sun was just coming up. I was completely alone, so you can imagine my surprise when Sirius and James walked through the portrait hole holding up Remus with Peter behind them.

"Remus," I gasp, upon seeing him in the arms of James and Sirius.

They sat him next to me as I contoured up a First Aid kit. Remus laid back on the couch like he couldn't keep his eyes open. His face had some blood dripping from it. James took his shirt off for him and I saw even more open wounds, scratches, like the scars on his face.

"What happened to him?" I ask, as I begin to go through the first aid kit to clean him off.

"He's fine, Ellie," says James.

"Fine?" I repeated the word, "He's not fine. He's covered in blood."

I instantly went into healer mode where I wanted to make sure he was fine before he left my sight. I performed some quick spells to clear the wounds but I still had to clean up the blood on his chest and face.

"It's his own blood. If that helps," says Sirius, who smirked at me. I gave him a look that told him this wasn't the time for jokes.

"What happened to him?" I ask again, this time my tone is hard. "What were you guys doing?"

James tries his best to assure me everything is fine again, "We weren't doing anything we haven't done a million times before, Ellie. Trust us."

"We can't tell you," adds Peter.

Sirius looks at his friends, "Prongs, Wormtail, it looks like Eloise here has everything under control here. Why don't we give them some quiet space, for Moony's sake. He could probably use some quiet right now."

"Right," says James and then he places a hand onto Peter's shoulders, "Come on, Wormtail, Ellie's got this."

"See you upstairs, Moony," says Peter to Remus and then the three of them head for the boy's dorms, leaving me with Remus.

"Thanks Eloise," said Remus, his voice was tired, groggy, and nearly hoarse. I assume that the boys had been up all night long doing whatever it is they were up to.

"It's no problem, Remus," I assure him.

I examined the scars on his body as I wiped off his blood. They looked very similar to the ones my dad used to have. But Remus isn't like my dad, is he? That would explain why the others wouldn't tell me what happened to him. I wasn't sure if tonight was a full moon or not, because I had stopped keeping track after my dad died.

"Remus," I say, keeping my tone as level as I could, "how did you get all of these scars? Because if I'm not mistaken they look very similar to some that my dad used to have."

"Your dad had scars like mine?" He asks, sounding confused.

"Yes," I say, nodding. "But he was a werewolf. I'm sure you're not, right?"

He doesn't say anything. Instead he looks at me contently. It was like he was thinking very hard about what he was going to say next.

"Your father was a werewolf?"

I nod again, "Yes, he was."

"And you're not?"

"No, I'm not."

"And what about your brother?"

"He isn't either," I assure him. He nods.

I'm finished with his chest, and I'm at his face now. Wiping off the dried blood from his beautiful face. He was sitting very close to me now. "You and Archie were very lucky that you didn't inherit his condition."

"We were," I agree with him. "You know if you were one you could tell me. I know all of the signs and nearly everything about it. And if I'm being honest, now that I think about it these scars and blood aren't the only signs of lycanthropy that you give off."

"I am one," he admits finally. "I know you can tell. And if you didn't you're bound to see the signs more clearly now that you've seen me like this. There's no use keeping it from you. But just promise me you'll keep it to yourself."

"Of course, Remus. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you. Lycanthropy is serious. Agonizing pain, constant headaches, tired all the time. That's not even mentioning turning into a monster every month."

"Yeah, my dad never enjoyed his symptoms either," I admit to him, smiling a bit. "Sirius mentioned to me that he thinks you need to relax more."

"He said that to me, too," he says, a small smirk on his lips. We both laughed at that. "So what were you doing down here so early in the morning?"

"Oh," I say, kind of caught off guard with the question,"I couldn't sleep."

"Something on your mind?" He asks, and I can tell from his voice that he really does want to know.

"Um," I say, kind of feeling sheepish. I had finished cleaning him off now, and as I cleared off everything I told him, "today marks two years that my dad has been gone."

His face falls into a look of sorrow, "I'm sorry, Ellie."

"It's okay, he's been gone for a while now, and it's true what they say, every day gets easier, but that doesn't mean some days are harder than others."

"The ones who love us never truly leave us, you know."

He was sweet for trying, but the amount of times I've heard that since my dad passed is insane. I stopped counting how many times someone told me that.

"Thanks, Remus," I say, also trying to smile. I wanted to change the subject, I didn't want to talk anymore about my dad. "Why were James, Sirius, and Peter with you? Don't werewolves attack humans?"

"They're not human when they find me," he says, his voice rather calm.

I'm confused, but only for a moment, but then it hits me. "They're Animagi?"

"Yeah," he says, nodding, "it took them years to do it, but it finally worked. This was our first full moon together, actually, and it wasn't bad. It was actually nice. We ran around together in the forest. We actually had a good time. According to them at least. I don't know what happened."

"Is that what your nicknames for each other are about?" I ask, curiously.

"Yeah," he nods, and then he explains everything. About how they become Animagi for Remus for his transformations. About how James is a big, beautiful Stag, Sirius is a big, black fur dog, and Peter is a small, brown rat. It all made sense now. I always did find their nicknames kind of odd.

Now I get it.

"Well, I should be off to bed so I get some sleep after tonight."

"You should get one day off after the full moon," I say, shaking my head.

"I don't expect special treatment," he says, shrugging. He stands up, and he looks towards the boy's dorms, where Sirius was standing, watching us. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to hear you tell her all about what James, Peter, and I did for you," says Sirius, but I can tell he isn't mad about it. "Sounds like Ellie discovered your secret first. I knew she would, with her dad being the same thing."

"Yeah, she's a smart one," says Remus and he actually smiled at me. "Well I'm going to bed." His brown eyes were on me again, "Goodnight Ellie."

"Goodnight, Remus," I say, and he walks past Sirius and heads up the stairs.

Sirius is giving me a proud smile. "You're welcome."

I cross my arms over my chest, pretending to not know what he's talking about, "For what, exactly?"

"For getting the other guys to leave you and Moony alone," he says, sounding very proud of himself still. "I told you he just needed to get to know you, and he trusted you with his biggest secret. It took him years to tell us about his condition, and he told you in one night, because he knew you wouldn't look at him any different."

"He trusted me because he found out I was raised by a werewolf, that doesn't mean he likes me."

He smirks at me again, "Not yet. Give it a little bit. He'll be all over you in no time."

"Goodnight, Sirius," I say, smiling at him as well.

"Do you want some company?" He asks, his tone suddenly serious and not a hit of joking, "I know today is a hard one for you."

"No," I tell him, "I'm okay, Sirius. You go get some sleep."

"Okay," he says, nodding.

He starts to walk up the stairs, but I stop him again. "Sirius," I say and he stops and turns around.

"Yeah Ellie?" He asks, looking at me again.

"Is this why you were trying so hard to get me to talk to him? Because you'd know I'd figure out about his Lycanthropy."

He smirked evilly. "Duh, Ellie. I wasn't about to spill my best mate's biggest secret to you, but I knew if you just got to talk to him eventually you'd figure it out. Now he trusts you, he'll be more open to you, and you should do the same."

"Why do you care so much about this? Why does it matter to you if Remus and I get together?"

"Because," he says, taking a step down the stairs, getting closer to me, "Moony needs more people in his life that don't treat him like he's a monster, and you're head over heels for him. You'd be so happy together. I just know it."

He steps down another step, and he's directly in front of me now, "In fact, I think you should start trying to become an Animagus again, so you can come with us next time. You said you got close last time, when you were trying for your dad. You said you stopped because you didn't have a reason anymore, well, now you do."

"I knew it was me who gave you that idea as soon as Remus told me that story. It was your idea to become Animagi, wasn't it, and you got it from me."

He smiles proudly, "Yeah, you did give me that idea. But I think you should try again. You said you got so close last time you saw the shape of your form. You should try again."

"Alright, fine, but I need mandrake leaves."

"Ask Fortescue, she'll give you some. She's close with Sprout. If you start today you should be able to transform next month."

"Okay. I'll talk to Alice. Go to bed, Sirius."

"See you in a few hours," he says, smiling at me beheading up the stairs to go to bed.

______________________
Here's part 2!

I just want to say Matt Mckinnon is not a cannon Harry Potter Universe character. I invented him for the story.

And before anyone gets mad at me James Potter was a Chaser, not Seeker. Google it.

Also I'm working like 40 hours a week right now, so I will update as much as I can but it might be a while in between chapters sometimes.

-Emily Winchester.