I'm Remus Lupin's Sister (Marauders Fanfic)

Chapter 6 - In The Highest of Towers

After that day, I avoided my brother. That meant that I mostly had to avoid my friends, as well. In some occasions, Sirius, James or Peter spent time with me, but when Remus had to deal with his “furry little problem”, as James liked to call full moon, I had to spend the evening and night in my own company.

I could’ve been with Lily, though. We had actually been on a friendlier note during the last few weeks. Well, we still disagreed in many ways (she still thought of me as a stupid bully, and I still thought of her as a bossy bitch), but we decided not to dislike each other as much as we had the previous years. One day she even helped me with my Charms essay.

But this night I was planning something else. I had snatched the Map out of James’ bag two days before, and during the last couple of days I had been looking through all the dots (with hundreds of students and a good handful of teachers that took a lot of effort) that appeared on the Map, on the look for one special name.

As I walked down the many hallways and corridors, my eyes were stuck on one dot. Damon Elster was now in the Astronomy Tower, and I crossed my fingers that he would stay there. I tried to be as silent as possible as I sprinted towards the East side of Hogwarts. After many years at Hogwarts and spending loads of time in the corridors, I knew a few short cuts. Thanks to that, it took less than a quarter to reach the bottom of the Astronomy Tower. 

My legs moved fast up the stairs, and I sprinted upwards with the Map in my hand and my eyes on the dot with ‘Damon Elster’ above it. When I fell down on the last step my heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I feared Elster would here it and run. 

I tapped the Map with my wand, which I had ready, and whispered ‘Mischief managed’, voice shaky from the air that couldn’t please my lungs.

The night air felt fresh as I stepped outside. The sky was pitch black behind the few clouds that slowly drifted away. Bright stars were spread around like marbles, and the moon was round and gigantic. Maybe it was imagination, but I could hear a howl and a bark in the distant.

Without lighting up my wand, it was hard to see if there was anyone up here. The many instruments casted shadows that made it even spookier and hard to tell if I was in the presence of a living soul.

It was tempting to shout ‘Hello, anyone there?’ but that wouldn’t really give me an advantage. Instead I stalked around. For a moment, I evaluated on shifting to fox shape, but I preferred having my wand ready in case I had to defend myself from whoever this Damon Elster was.

As I gave up on looking around the many instruments, I walked to the end of the tower. On my way out, I tripped over something that exclaimed a surprised “OW!” and I fell to the ground and hit my forehead.

I massaged the sore spot as I sat up and lit my wand. A boy with dark brown, untidy hair looked at me with squinted eyes, which had dark circles under them. His nose was long and pointing upwards and away from his thin lips. 

He raised a hand before his eyes and said, disgruntled, “Could you please not?” 

I didn’t turn the light off, but I lowered it a little. The boy was wrapped into a sleeping bag and had probably been sleeping when I tripped in him.

“Are you Damon Elster?” I asked, quickly in case he decided to disappear or kill me or something.

“That’s me,” he said and yawned. 

I cocked my head to the side. I’d imagined he would look… different. Maybe scarier or more dangerous and less like a flimsy teenage boy.

“Why are you sleeping here?” I asked, still sitting on the cold stone floor. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping in your dorm room?”