Harry Potter And The Delinquient.

Author's Notes: Okay here it is people, the talk you all knew had to happen. Professor Lupin finally breaks his silence and has a heart to heart with his most troubled student.

Katie wake up and found that sometime during the night Hunter had entered the room and covered her with his jacket. Smiling she holds the worn garment tightly to her face and inhales its fragrance. Cigarette smoke, old leather and HIM.

Getting up she wraps the jacket around her and goes upstairs to get ready for her match. She feels far better then she has in a very long time. She knows that they are going to win today. Even if you don't come to the match, you'll still be there in my thoughts.

The game had just begun and Hunter could hear the roar of the crowd from his seat on the bottom step leading up to the castle entrance. Smoking his second cigarette of the day Hunter thinks about last night when he entered the common room and found Katie smiling in her sleep. As silently as possible he draped his jacket over her and sat down to watch her sleep strumming his guitar quietly.

His memories are interrupted as his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher sits down beside him. Hunter takes another drag from his cigarette and awaits a punishment that never comes.

"Are you coming back to class next week or waiting till after the holidays?" Professor Lupin asks in a friendly voice.

"I haven't decided yet." Hunter answers him before taking another drag off the cigarette. Though he hasn't attended class since his tantrum, he's kept up with his schoolwork. Professor Dumbledore found him in the Room of Requirement, where he's been staying since that day, and they worked out the arrangement. Dobby has been bringing Hunter his assignments each night and turning them in for him each morning. Due to their last encounter, Professor Snape permitted Hunter to make his potions in his 'new room' and turn in a sample that the Professor would then grade.

"You know Hunter," Professor Lupin begins. "You can't run away forever..."

"But there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start." Hunter interrupts him. At the Professor looks at him confused Hunter takes another drag before explaining. "That's the next line of the song." The werewolf's still very much confused. "Meatloaf's Rock and Roll Dreams come Through off of his Bat of Hell II: Back into Hell album." Taking another drag he sighs. "He's an American Muggle Rock Star."

Professor Lupin nods; still not fully understanding but decides to drop it. "As I were about to say, sooner or later you have to face what it is you're running from."

Hunter chuckles softly, though there is no joy or amusement behind it. "I thought Professor's were supposed to be smarter than that." He flicks his nearly extinguished cigarette away as he looks straight at the Professor. "I'm not running," he says. "I'm pushing, there's a difference."

"You can't keep pushing people away,” his teacher said. "Sooner or later you have to let someone in."

"Forgive me if I find that just a little funny coming from a werewolf that locks himself up every full moon." Hunter says taking another cigarette out of his new pack. "You shut everyone out and then tell me to let people in." He lights the cigarette offering the pack to Professor Lupin.

The Professor politely declines. "I lock myself for the protection of others." The older man says.

Hunter takes a drag. "So do I," he says sadly. "Everyone I ever loved is dead..." His display of emotion more then his words hit Professor Lupin like a ton of bricks. Even though all the teachers had been informed about Hunter's past, only the Headmaster knew all of the details.

Professor McGonagall knew most of the story from Katie but there were a couple details Hunter hadn't mentioned during his little monologue. He never told Katie how a year and a half after his grandparent's had thrown him and his mother out they were murdered during a home invasion. He had failed to mention how their killers still haven't been found.

"I had no," Professor Lupin begins before thinking better of it. "No one can know exactly how another feels unless they've shared the exact same experience." He places a comforting hand on Hunter's shoulder. "I've lost people I loved as well, but I still have people I care about around me. There is no way for me to fully understand how you must be feeling."

Hunter drops his cigarette on the ground and crushes it out with his left foot. "Your the first person to admit that." They sit for a few minutes in silence listening to the cheers coming from the Quidditch pit.

"Gryffindor scored another goal." Hunter says looking down at the ground.

"How can you tell?" His professor asks. His werewolf hearing had allowed him to hear the announcer say that Katie had been the scorer but there was no way for Hunter to know that. What he wanted to know was how Hunter could tell which team had made the goal.

True to form Hunter answers the question without even looking at the Professor. "Two houses were cheering and two were booing."

Remus Lupin can't help laughing at the explanation. "You're right, Slytherin and Ravenclaw were booing." He looks at Hunter for a moment before continueing Katie scored the goal." He watches the young man for any signs of a reaction.

Hunter doesn't disappoint his teacher completely. Closing his eyes he smiles slightly at the mention of her but says and does nothing else.

"She really seems to care about you." The older man tells him. "You should try talking to her. She won't understand how you're feeling but I'm sure she'd be willing to listen to your story."

"She already knows." Hunter says plainly "I told her the night of the season opener. Right before I told her she should just forget about me and find someone else."

"It doesn't look like she listened." Remus observes. "It seems to me that maybe she has found someone, even if he wanted her to leave him alone." Remus listens closely to the sounds of the game. Even from this distance his werewolf hearing allows him to just barely make out what's going on. "She just scored another goal."

Hunter nods. "She's pretty good," he says softly. "I watched her practice a few times, she's amazing on a broom."

Professor Lupin smiles at him. "You really should talk to her before she leaves for the Christmas."

"She's not." Hunter says automatically. The professor looks at him as he explains. "She told Angela in the library last week that her folks were going on a 'second-honeymoon' ski trip to the Swiss-Alps and that she would be staying here." He lets out a real laugh which startles his teacher.” She said she wanted to track down the Phantom."

Professor Lupin laughs along with him. The entire staff had known from the beginning that Hunter Catiar was actually the 'Phantom Musician' and they found it quite amusing to listen to the rumors and speculations that followed in the wake of Hunters performances. "Does she know?"

Hunter knew what the Professor was asking. "She does now," he answers. "I left her my jacket last night." Hunter didn't need an invisibility cloak or a disillusion charm to move around the castle unnoticed. If Hunter didn't want to be seen, he wasn't seen. Years of alienation and being ignored had taught him how to move around without drawing attention to himself. Those skills had allowed him to observe the other students while at the same time having them believe he had actually left school.

He hadn't messed that night Katie and the others found him. He had been waiting for them to come in from practice and had chosen the classroom closest to the stairs for the encounter. Katie was worried and it had been affecting everything she did. Hunter couldn't watch her go through that because of him so he staged the meeting to let her know he was okay and still hanging around the castle.

"You're starting to care about her." Lupin says as if reading Hunter's thoughts.

Hunter can only nod as he takes out another cigarette and lights it. "I haven't been able to get her out of my head no matter what I try." He finally admitted. Taking another drag he looks at his teacher finally ready to admit that maybe he does have a problem and needs help.

Professor Lupin smiles reassuringly to his student. "Talk to her," he says warmly. "She cares about you and wants you to let her in. I know from my own experiences how hard that was for me to do with Harry's father and our friends but it was start. Let Katie be your start."

The thunderous roar coming from the field tells the game just ended. "Sounds like we're about to have company." Hunter gets up and offers Lupin a hand.

The professor accepts the aid. "Yes it does." Straightening himself he ask, "Want to know the score?"

"Gryffindor 310, Ravenclaw 100," Hunter answers moving up the steps. He takes one last drag before dropping his cigarette. Stomping on the cigarette then twisting his foot to make sure it's out; he looks back at Professor Lupin. "I'll think about it." After receiving a nod from his teacher Hunter walks into the castle and resumes his role as the Phantom... for the moment.