Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Forty Two

It was early Sunday morning when Remus was hurrying down the stairs to the
third floor from his office, trying valiantly not to drop the few papers he
was trying to shove back into the pages of a rather large book. He could
very well have taken the book back to the restricted section at another
time, but he had a lot of things to do today, and didn\'t feel the need to
waste any time scurrying up and down staircases just for one item. Managing
not to walk into anything while his head was down, and thankful that it was
Sunday morning and no students were about, Remus shut the book holding his
papers, and continued down the halls to the headmaster\'s office. Aftery
y
requests for a private conversation with the elder wizard, Lupin was
rewarded with this scheduled meeting, for which he refused to be late.

Those many previous requests had been brushed off by the headmaster, not
even giving Lupin much of a chance to speak before he was waved off. Albus
only gave him the same short answers each time they were alone, but those
excuses were starting to wear thin. Lupin had to give the man credit,
though, for doing all the things he did, managing all the things he took
care of. The last time Remus had requested a meeting, Albus had been
rummaging through several books on his desk at the time, researching Merlin
knew what. Remus\' curiosity got the better of it, and he wboutbout to ask,
but then thought better of it, since the headmaster had all but forgot he
was there, having already agreed to a meeting the next morning.

Lupin wasn\'t quite sure of what time this morning Albus had meant, but he
didn\'t want to find out from McGonagall where the headmaster had whisked off
to after breakfast, so he\'d chosen a time well before breakfast. It was half
six in the morning, and Lupin was almost out of breath by the time he got to
the last corridor to Dumbledore\'s office. He walked at a normal pace down
the last stretch, as opposed to the bordering on jogging he\'d been doing all
the way down there, which had still taken ten minutes. He had no idea how
the students made it to classes on time with all this running around, in
crowds, with many distractions, no less; he marveled that he had once done
it himself, but he had more important things to think on right now, rather
than old memories.

He spoke the most recent password he knew for the golden statuary griffin,
and was glad to see the figure begin to turn with a dull scraping sound,
exposing the spiral staircase concealed behind. Lupin darted up them,
waiting impatiently for more to be revealed so he could get to the hidden
half-floor on which the headmaster\'s office was located. Once in the
hallway, he knocked on the wooden door, and waited. It clicked open gently,
and he took that as his cue to enter the room. \"Sir,\" he said as a greeting
when he stepped through the doorway, shutting the door behind himself.

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, and there were still several books laid
out on his desk, now void of the various trinkets that usually resided
around its edges. Lupin walked to the desk, taking a seat in an armchair in
front of it, and set his book down on his lap. Dumbledore didn\'t look up,
but rather flipped a page, gazing at the words written on it. Lupin honestly
had doubts that these books had anything to do with the reason Hawas was
missing. They seemed to be some type of medical books, judging from the
diagrams he could see, and the spines on a stack of books at the corner of
the desk. He really didn\'t want to think too much on that, though, not quite
content to think, and still trying to convince himself out of thinking it,
that Harry was sick in some way, and that Dumbledore knew all about it.

Lupin cleared this throat, and Dumbledore looked up, a small twitch at the
corners of his lips. Oh, how that would infuriate Remus, if he wasn\'t such a
passive person. Remus knew, or at least suspected, that Dumbledore knew more
than he was saying, and hopefully Remus would find out in this meeting,
since that was what it was for, to begin with. If Dumbledore knew something
important, something that could help save Harry\'s life yet again, and was
not actively doing anything to seek out the boy to provide such active help,
even if he could be in immense danger, he certainly didn\'t look very worried
about it.

The old wizard breathed in deeply as he sat back in his chair, folding his
hands together on top of the open book lying on his desk. \"Yes, yes,\" he
began, nodding, \"Harry is presumed missing.\" It grated on Lupin\'s nerves to
hear the obvious stated, and he knew he shouldn\'t even begin to get
frustrated right now. He\'d spoken to Dumbledore enough over the years to
know that this would go somewhere more often than not, if it was serious,
which it was. \"Telling students he is away on errands no longer suffices
their curiosity.\"

Lupin nodded. He had had several uneasy classes, some with even Ravenclaw
and Hufflepuff, and they obviously knew something was not as it should be.
The Slytherin\'s were a bit more easy going about this, since Harry Potter
was gone, and they seemed not to care less about it. They seemed the same as
always, if a bit more reserved, most likely due to lack of cues to laugh at
their missing Seeker\'s shots at the equally missing Gryffindor. The rest of
Harry\'s house mates obviously noticed the most, but it was the younger years
that seemed frightened. No doubt they had gone through their years at school
hearing all about Harry Potter and what he\'d done before and after beginning
his years at Hogwarts, and most of them still believed there to be something
big, dark, slimy and scaly living in the school. As long as Harry was there
to protect them from it, they had nothing to fear.

The Seventh Years took things in step, almost knowingly, but there was worry
throughout them all, even the Slytherins. No one seemed to know where either
boy had gone, and those who were close to them were barraged with questions,
as was Lupin, being Harry\'s guardian, albeit he was approached least of all,
and usually only by Gryffindors closer to Harry. He\'d find Ron and Hermione
later today, and relay the things they needed to know about their best
friend, but first he had to find things out for himself. \"What have you been
doing?\" Lupin asked, knowing it would both get him some answers as well as
facts he wasn\'t already privy to.

\"I\'ve been making sure everything is safe for the boys,\" said Dumbledore,
leaning forward again, and closing the book he had open, sliding it off to
the side a bit. Lupin thought the old wizard was going to sigh for a moment,
and noted that the headmaster did look very tired; whatever it was that had
been taking up all of his time lately had taken a toll. \"Not knowing even
remotely close to what route they might have taken, it would be near
impossible to keep tack of them, to keep them out of trouble.\"

\"So, you\'re waiting for them to find trouble themselves?\" Lupin asked. It
did sound like the situation that these two particular boyght ght get into
when left to their own devices, and having gone looking for trouble in the
first place. He had to admit it made a strange bit of sense, but it was a
risk, definitely.

Dumbledore smiled softly, pushing up more lines in his old face. \"Aurors
associated with the Order that are on holidays from the Ministry have been
alerted, and are searching abroad for anything relating to the boys. They
are as safe as they can be, until they reach their destination.\" Lupin
nodded again, and despite having been adamant about this meeting, he really
didn\'t have much to say, and his eyes roamed over the books on the desk as
he made sure he hadn\'t forgotten anything.

A title of one of the books caught his eye, \'Magical Gestation and Its Side
Effects.\' Remus\' brow began to furrow, and he looked up to the headmaster,
who was watching him carefully. \"Remus,\" he began, looking the werewolf in
the eyes, \"there are things I know, and things I do not. I will not
interfere with Harry\'s journey, but I will give aid when I can, and when it
is asked for. As for the things *you* do not know, I believe it wise for
Harry to tell you himself, though you are an intelligent man.\"

The frown had faded from his features, and Remus had to take a moment, and a
much longer time span later on, to reflect on what his mind was insisting
was happening. \"I do believe,\" Dumbledore began again, thankfully not
letting Remus\' mind wander too far, \"that I will ask your assistance before
this is over.\" He sounded serious, almost grave, and Remus knew he was about
to be leveled with someg img important. All he could do was nod again, and
he excused himself from the headmaster. There wasn\'t much more to say, and
Remus couldn\'t seem to get his thoughts straight at the moment. What made it
worse, though, was that he somehow knew that Albus had suspected the meeting
would go this way, with Remus leaving with his thoughts tangled up.

Oh, well. Lupin sighed when he was outside of the office, and facing the
golden statue again. Once he was down in thin hin hallway again, he began on
his way towards the library to drop off his book. Then, he had to make his
way down to the dungeons and into Snape\'s office. That\'s what his papers
were for, some notes for things he was going to be teaching this year, and
needed some potions supplies for various things he wanted to show them. It
wasn\'t the first time he\'d tried to collaborate between the two classes, and
Snape was still suspicious about it. He wanted Lupin\'s job, no doubt about
that, and even Snape didn\'t deny it. He didn\'t quite understand why Lupin
would want to have anything to do with his classes, or if he was simply
trying to curb his curriculum into things more easy for the duller students
to catch on to.

Remus still tried, though, but regardless of how that went over personally
between the two of them, he still needed some ingredients. First of all, he
needed Snape\'s help to find the damn things, since Remus had no idea where looklook in the Potion master\'s stock room, or even the shelves that lined
the classroom. He\'d just leave the lists and outlines on Severus\' desk, so
Lupin didn\'t lose them in the mess of papers that was his own desk. Most
students who\'d come into his office had been surprised to see the mess, and
Hermione had almost boggled her mind over it. Apparently, she had thought he
would be so articulate and neat about his space, like he was in the
classroom. He had too much to do to prepare for class, and look into things
to satisfy his own curiosity that had nothing to do with school work.

So, his desk tended to become a mess, and a subsequent black hole for any
important papers to become very adept at the game of being elusive. He\'d had
to ask for several copies of the permission slips to register books taken
out of the restricted section of the library, and Madam Pince was definitely
not happy about that. He nodded to the old vulture-like woman when he
entered the library, and gestured the book in his hands towards the back,
where he was taking it straight to the locked section. Merlin only knows
what time she got up in the morning, or went to bed at night, or where she
even slept at all, and rather opting to guard her precious horde of library
books. Even Hermione rarely got up this early to hit the books, so Lupin
knew he\'d have to seek out her and Ron later on.

He thought it would be a good idea to keep them informed, so as not to lose
another set of students to the lures of action and adventure. If they knew
what was going on, or as much as anyone seemed to know, or as much as Lupin
had figured out yet, perhaps they wouldn\'t feel the need to run off and try
to save the day; and Harry. If Dumbledore had people looking for the boys,
that was good, but even he had no idea where Durmstrang was located. That
put it at a bit of a moot point to go and try to find them after they\'d had
time to get there themselves, but then again, if they were hiding, which
they most likely were, since neither of them were that stupid, it would be
very difficult to find them after they got off the isle.

It would be a strategic advantage to find out where the castle was located,
but that would be a mystery until they spoke to either of the boys. They all
knew it was a definite bet that Draco was leading the way, but that wasn\'t
the problem. It made sure that Harry wouldn\'t simply get lost in the middle
of no where, though there was a potentially bad aspect of who was leading
Harry. Lupin surely knew the reason for Ron\'s animosity towards the blond,
as he did for the rest of the Weasleys, and many other people. No one had
actually spoken the concern that no doubt everyone had thought of: was Draco
leading him to Voldemort? Or, was the Slytherin simply trying to keep Harry
getting himself killed?

Lupin would like to believe the latter, but it was hard to tell. He\'d been
absent during the time the boys had apparently started their relationship.
How they had managed to get together, Lupin couldn\'t figure out, and there
wasn\'t anyone he could ask. There was obviously a reason they were going to
see Snape, but for the life of him, Remus couldn\'t figure it out. If
Dumbledore\'s books were anything to go by, it was definitely something
medical. He stepped through the threshold into his classroom, and hardly
realized that he\'d walked all the way back there from the library. He looked
at the clock at the back of the room, and it had been an hour and a half
since he\'d left for the private meeting.

His chambers were on the fourth floor, located past his office in the
Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. There were a couple classrooms,
actually, but this was the main one, that he preferred to use, since it
wasn\'t so far to lug books into. For all the years he\'d spent living as a
Muggle, he\'d gotten used to doing things by hand, and he still hadn\'t quite
got back into living as a wizard yet, despite it being almost five years.
Lupin walked up the steps, deciding he needed some time to think before he
walked all the way down to the dungeons. There were far too many stairs,
corridors and every other type of thing that took a lot of walking in this stlestle, but he didn\'t mind. This was one of the few chambers built into the
school, that now functioned as his living quarters, that was on a corner.

Remus liked it because he could look out the window in the morning, or any
time, really. He could always see the state of the moon from there, and he
liked it, even though it wasn\'t ever a good sign for him. He wondered if
that was how women viewed their impending \'time of the months\', looking at
their calendars, knowit\'it\'s coming. He smiled faintly as he walked through
a short hall to his private rooms. Sirius used to call the time of the full
moons Remus\' time of the month. Sitting down in the chair behind the desk in
his rooms, which wasn\'t quite as messy as the one in his office, Remus
stared out at the early morning sky. It was a lot to take on for Remus,
after the accident in the Department of Mysteries.

With James gone, Harry had been left supposedly in Sirius\' care. With no one
to help Remus during the full moons, he was in no shape to raise a child,
and with Sirius in Azkaban, neither was he. At the time, Remus had thought
it a good thing for Harry to be with his hateful relatives, rather than a
man who murdered his parents, whether or not he was the boy\'s godfather or
not. Remus knew that James would never have wanted Harry to be raised by the
Dursleys, but that was, sadly, the way it had to happen. That was all in the
past, though; yet without any of that happening, Remus wouldn\'t be the one
who now had custody of Harry Potter. He knew the boy missed Sirius, and that
he still blamed himself for what transpired, but there was nothing they
could do now.

Harry hadn\'t stayed with Remus over the past summer, but this one coming up
he would. Dumbledore had finally decided that it would be alright for Harry
to leave the Dursleys, as long as he was never far from Lupin for very long,
and if Lupin had to leave, or during the full moons, Harry would be at the
Burrow. Harry hadn\'t had much to say about how he felt living with Remus
over the summer, and then having to face the fact that he was out of school,
and would need a job somewhere. Lupin had talked to him, about Sirius, about
James and Lily, and other things last summer, but Harry hadn\'t actually told
him how he felt to be shifted off between all of his father\'s berienriends.

Remus half expected him to say, \"Who next? Peter?\" The thought made Remus
angry, and he let out a sigh, leaning his head back against the chair. No,
Harry would never, ever have anything more to do with Peter Pettigrew than
he had to. It was too much that he ever had to hear the man\'s name, or know
that he\'s out there, planning Harry\'s death along with his master. It wasn\'t
a good thought to think about dying, but it was a realistic thing,
especially considering the ongoing war. He didn\'t think he could take it if
Harry died before him, and just then, Lupin realized what Dumbledore would
need him to do. He wanted Lupin to go to Durmstrang and help the boys make
it back safe, along with Snape.

Snape was another thing entirely. He was so much different than Sirius, or
anyone he\'d ever known; and Lupin had barely known anyone from Slytherin in
his entire life, not counting students and talking to Phineas over the
summers, though the painting rarely ever wanted to talk to him. Mrs. Black
tended not to yell as loudly at him, considering he was a Dark creature, so
he even got a word or two that wasn\'t anything to do with screaming about
blood traitors and scum. Lupin had taken over main residence of Twelve
Grimmauld Place, since he basically lived there over the last summer anyway,
and the one before that, and he would have stayed there with Sirius, if
things had turned out differently.

He really wished things had. Harry would still have his godfather, and Remus
would still have his last best friend. It was sad to think about, and he
couldn\'t help but missing Sirius. They had lost so much time when Sirius was
in Azkaban, and now they\'d never get it back. The two of them had never had
a relationship, per se, but it came close enough sometimes. There were many
nights they\'d sleep in the same bed, holding each other for comfort. Nothing
had ever went past the occasional, more intimate touches between the two of
them, as they always had something more important to think about. That was
gone now, and it hurt; it hurt a lot more people than just Remus, but he at
least was going to try his damnedest to make things better for Harry. It was
definitely what both of his friends would have wanted.

There was no leftleft for him to call much of a friend anymore, either.
Tonks was the only other in the Order that could make him laugh, and really
feel it. She cheered him up sometimes, and was usually the only one to
notice when he was down, and he loved her for it. She was a great person,
but she wasn\'t what Remus was looking for. Over the past two years, there
had also been an awkward comaraderie between himself and Severus. They,
aside from Kingsley, were the only two younger, male members in the Order of
the Phoenix. Aside from their past differences and difficulties, they found
it was almost impossible for them not to spend at least some time together;
time that wasn\'t for business only.

It had started over last summer that Lupin had thought of the idea to
combine small parts of their two classes at school. They didn\'t get along
too well at all, by all means, no, but they still couldn\'t help but be drawn
together. Believe it or not, and most peowoulwouldn\'t even see the little
things, they were a lot more alike than they would care to admit. Lupin saw
it, but maybe it was only because he was looking too hard. He could admit he
was lonely, and though spending the next summer with Harry was going to be
fun, to have someone stay with him the entire time, able to teach him many
more things than was allowed at school, it wasn\'t what he needed. Remus
lifted his hands from his lap, and set them on the arm rests of his chair,
and pushed himself up from the seat. It didn\'t do to dwell on his thoughts
for the entire day, and he did have a few things to do before Monday\'s
classes.

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