The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

A Moment Alone

A Moment Alone

Remus woke up laying across a funny little velvet couch in a room he didn't recognize. He looked around slowly, taking in the dark wallpaper, covered with maps and pages torn from books. There were tall bookcases that reached the rafters and a huge telescope that looked out a high window, charts of the stars painted upon the ceiling, moving slowly, as though in real time. A gold perch stood in the corner, a basin beneath it... and as Remus watched, Fawkes the Phoenix fluttered onto the perch and preened himself a second before turning his eye on Remus, blinking at him as though he were a curiosity.

This must be Dumbledore's private quarters, he realized.

He sat up, and a pang of pain went through his abdomen. He looked down to see his bandage had been changed... and there were fresh, long scratches across his chest and up his forearms... He reached up slowly and touched his face. There was a cut across his jawline, deep enough it would leave another scar. He leaned back into the pillows.

"Good morning, Remus," came Dumbledore's voice.

Remus looked to find Dumbledore stood in the doorway, staring at him with pitying eyes. Panic went through Remus. "Bradley. No. No! Bradley! Where is he? Where is he? What'd I do?" Remus sat up, bandages be damned, leaping up from the couch, "What have I done?"

"Please, Mr. Lupin," Dumbledore hurried across the room and gently pushed Remus back into the cushions, setting him back down. "You must stay laying down. Bradley is fine. He is with Mr. Scamander and in good health, recovering from his transformation."

Remus relaxed. "Then why am I here?"

Dumbledore sat slowly down on the edge of the couch and patted Remus's shin gently. He drew a deep breath, "My boy... It has, once again, befallen on me to be the one to give you news that is rather unpleasant."

Remus drew a deep breath.

"When I was young, Mr. Lupin, I had a friend that I loved very much."

Remus looked up at Dumbledore.

"He was a young man, who had come to Godric's Hollow to live with family after some trouble back home. I, myself, was going through a hard time, and the pair of us bonded quite a lot over interests that we shared at the time." He folded his palms over his knee. "We were... inseparable..." Dumbledore hesitated. "We were in love."

Remus's heart nearly stopped.

"One day, Mr. Lupin, the man that I loved betrayed me in a way that I never thought possible..." Dumbledore hesitated. "I never forgave him." His eyes met Remus's. "And I have wished everyday of my life, Mr. Lupin, that I had found a way to let him back in."

Remus felt sick. "Sir..." he swallowed back a lump of sour feelings rising up from his belly, "What did Sirius do?"

The Marauder's dormitory was silent. It was Wednesday, but none of the three of them had bothered getting up for classes, nor had they gone for breakfast. They'd all been laying awake in their beds since returning from Dumbledore's office, none of them saying a word. The closest had been mid-morning, when Peter sat up and dug a bag of licorice wands from under his bed and offered the bag up to the other two boys. James had shook his head and Sirius had taken one, but not actually eaten it, just sat staring at it.

It was just about noon when James picked up his glasses from his nightstand and slid them onto his nose. He sat up, crossing his legs and cleared his throat. "Alright, we've all had time to process what happened," he said, "Time to talk before Remus gets back."