The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

Musclemalha

Remus sneezed, and a billow of dust drifted up from the binding of the book he had laying across his knees. He was sitting in the wide window of the library - his favorite place at Fallengunder. He rubbed his nose with his jumper sleeve and stared out at the steep mountain face beyond for a moment before letting his eyes slip closed...

Suddenly there was a quiet thump and Remus was stirred awake to find the sun had gone down outside of the castle, the stars were dotting the sky he could see above, and a faint glow of the aurora borealis tinged the sky. He drew a deep breath, which made the bones in his back ache and he winced with the feeling of it.

There was a tap on his knee and his eyes turned to see the orange kneazle, sitting on the bench before him.

"Hullo," he murmured, through his grit teeth. The kneazle purred quietly and got up, pressing it's head against his leg, rubbing along so that his whole side and tail passed against Remus's leg. Remus couldn't help but smile, the little creature was quite fluffy after all, and generally it was quite hard to resist anything so soft. Especially when it was purring. "You've become a mite more friendly than you were last time I stayed here, eh?" he asked it, and he reached down and scratched behind its ears as the cat-like creature's tail swished and it pressed it's head into his palm persistently. A small laugh escaped him, and he murmured, "Yes, yes... hullo."

"He likes you." Remus looked up to see Ned Veigler limp into the room, leaning heavily on a cane. "He's never this friendly."

"No?" Remus asked, and he scratched the kneazle behind his ears.

"No," Ned answered. He drew his wand and one of the arm chairs scooted across the room to him, and he lowered into it heavily, sighing with relief as his weight came off his legs, which were in terrible pain. "I'll be bloody happy to see this moon go past," he commented.

Remus nodded.

"Not that the phases have made much difference lately," Ned added.

Remus hugged his knees as the kneazle curled up on his feet and tucked it's nose beneath it's paws. "Has Mr. Scamander figured out what's causing it yet?" he asked.

Ned shook his head, "He's hard at work at it, of course, though."

Remus nodded.

Ned asked, "Have you been taking the aconite?"

"Yes," Remus answered, "But it's seeming to help less these days."

"Building up an immunity to it," Ned nodded, "I did the same after awhile." He sighed. "I wish they'd just legalize the Wolfsbane potion, make it affordable, give us a chance..." he shook his head.

Remus looked down at his feet, at the rise and fall of the kneazle's back as he breathed quietly, sleeping.

"It isn't fair," Ned said. And Remus looked up at him, recognizing the sound of a cracking voice. "They fear us because the moon makes us monsters, but they can't bloody well provide the one antidote that tames us. It's as though they want to oppress us..." 

Remus murmured, "Thank my father for it. He's the one who helped draft the laws."

Ned's voice was gentle, "He didn't know better, Remus."

Remus shrugged and turned to look out the window again.

Ned was about to say more on the subject, when there came a great banging that echoed though the castle. The knocker on the castle's entrance door. Ned's head turned in surprise and he looked at Remus. "Who d'you reckon...?"

Remus looked nervous, "My friends are abroad," he answered.

Ned stood up, leaving his cane against the chair, and drew his wand, whispering, "Wand at the ready, Remus," and waved for Remus to follow him. Remus drew his wand, too, clutching the bulbous end, where the moonstone was hidden within the wood, and keeping close to Ned's heels. The kneazle ran up the stairs and slunk into the shadows, staring down with glowing eyes from the dark at the top of the staircase. Ned glanced into the foeglasses that lined a table in the entrance hall, but the figures within them were still shadowy and far-off, none were close enough to be on the door step of Fallengunder.