Perfect Illusion: Scars Saga 2

A Wolfsbane Tea

Chapter 7

A Wolfsbane Tea

For his crude drawing that blatantly disrespected two professors, Wilkes received detention. He had to scrub all the boys' bathrooms by hand and without magic. He was also banned from Hogsmeade for the first term. For disrespecting me, Jonathan saw to it that Wilkes lost his hair.

Temporarily.

At least...it was supposed to be temporary.

On the night that Wilkes was to begin his detention, there was a large explosion of dung bombs, stink pellets, and a nasty little mess that vaguely resembled a swamp for Filch to clean. (I suspect the Weasley's lent their expertise.) It is supposed that something may have fallen into the cleaning solutions that Wilkes was to use, and he had an adverse reaction to it. True to his word however, Jonathan left no evidence behind that he had been involved. Thus, without full hard proof, there was nothing I could do to punish Jonathan. Not that I really felt like looking too hard for evidence either.

The days slipped steadily on. September faded into October. Nights came on sooner and the air grew colder. Quidditch practice picked up for those participating as the first match, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, was set for the first weekend in November. Remus and I, despite a little awkwardness after Wilkes' drawing, continued to spend time together and we continued to get a little closer. Surprisingly, the friendlier Remus and Katherine became, the less Kate protested. I started having fewer memories and dreams appear, and the ones I did have were pleasant ones that reminded me why I had fallen for him in the first place.

In late October the first Hogsmeade weekend came around, and every student that could, left the castle for the day. Remus and I were in his office enjoying the use of his sonophone. Remus stepped out for a moment to receive the delivery of a grindylow, but he returned with much more.

"Harry!"

"Er—hi, Professor Porter."

"You know, Remus, he really doesn't look like a grindylow," I teased.

Remus smiled. "The grindylow is in the tank in the classroom; Harry is here for tea."

"Ah, yes, silly me."

"I'm afraid I only have tea bags," Remus said as he pulled out his kettle. He looked at Harry knowingly. "But, I dare say you've had enough of tea leaves."

Harry sat in a chair and ran his hand through his hair. "How did you know about that?"

"Professor McGonagall told me."

"Wait, what are you going on about?" I asked as I sat on the corner of Remus' desk.

"We're reading tea leaves in Divination and Professor Trelawney read mine. She...she said she saw the grim," Harry replied, making a clear effort not to sound worried.

"Is she still pulling that sh..." I stopped as Remus placed his hand over mine.

I stared at his hand for a moment, at the way it sat carelessly over mine. I could see the faint line of old scars; I could feel callouses on his fingers where his claws sprouted every month. There was an old, familiar stirring in the pit of my stomach that hadn't been there for years. I slowly brought my eyes up to look at his face. Our eyes met, and it was strange. Very strange. At the same moment I pulled my hand out from underneath his as he pulled his hand off of mine.