Chapter Eight: Tea with Remus

When Harry awoke the next morning, he had to fight an overwhelming urge to write a letter to Sirius. Sirius was gone; he wasn't coming back. Despite the fact that it was still early, Harry found that he was unable to go back to sleep. So rather than stay in bed and deal with losing Sirius, Harry dragged himself out of bed and went to breakfast. He was one of the only ones there, it being early on a Saturday morning. He ate quickly and returned to Gryffindor Tower for his books, and then he went to the library to do his homework.

Burying himself in his studies was Harry's newest way of coping. It kept Hermione off his back regarding their N.E.W.T.s, and it gave him an excuse to avoid Ron. Their friendship simply wasn't the same since Harry had quit the Quidditch team. The time passed quickly, and before he knew it, his stomach was letting him know that it was time for lunch. So he packed up his things and walked to the Great Hall.

Snape watched as Harry came in and sat down. He noticed that Harry was carrying his book bag, so he'd probably just come from the library. Obviously a new habit formed this year. Harry was still withdrawn. Snape also noticed that Harry sat at the end of the Gryffindor table and did not interact with his housemates beyond the briefest of greetings. He frowned at this, but pushed it aside. He'd observe Harry and find out what his state of mind was at their next lesson.

After Harry finished eating, he walked back to the library. Before lunch he'd hit a standstill with his Potions essay, but while he'd been eating he'd had an idea. Soon he was lost in a plethora of potions books. This was the state Snape found him in two hours later.

“Mr. Potter, would you care to explain why there is a very worried werewolf in my office?” he asked impatiently.

Harry jumped as Snape's voice brought him back to reality. “What was that, Professor?” he asked.

Snape sighed. “I asked if you would care to explain why I have a very worried werewolf in my office,” he repeated himself with an increasingly annoyed tone.

Harry frowned. “Remus is here already?” I thought he wouldn't be coming until later? We just had lunch...”

Harry's confusion was quite evident to Snape who wanted to roll his eyes. The boy was truly impossible. “Mr. Potter,” he said, “lunch was two hours ago. You told Lupin you'd be available at the Tower. You were not there. Then, for whatever reason, he felt that I would know where you were, so he came to me. Rather than have him wandering around the castle looking for you, it was decided that I would have the privilege of dragging you out of whatever trouble you got yourself into. So, Mr. Potter, what have you got yourself into?”

Wordlessly, Harry handed Snape his book. Then he said, “I was working on the essay you assigned us.” It was clear from his tone that he appreciated the irony of the moment.

Snape sneered. “Well, well, Mr. Potter, you have certainly picked an inconvenient time to take your Potions studies seriously. Pack up and come with me. I have no desire to spend more time with Lupin than is strictly necessary.”

“Yes, sir,” Harry replied. He hurriedly grabbed his books and parchments and placed them in his bag. Then he followed Snape down into the dungeons to his office.

When they arrived at Snape's office, they found Remus pacing worriedly. “Harry!” Remus cried out upon seeing them enter.

“Hi, Remus,” Harry said as he smiled sheepishly at his worried adopted godfather.

“Well,” Snape cut in, “now that you two have found each other, kindly vacate my office.”

Remus simply smiled at him and said, “Thank you for finding him, Severus.”

“It was either find him or have you pacing in my office all day until he came along,” Snape felt the need to point out.

Harry smiled as he watched the exchange, then he said, “Come on, Remus, let's leave Professor Snape to his work.”

“Yes, do so,” Snape agreed.

Remus just laughed and said said, “Very well then. Good afternoon, Severus.”

“Bye, Professor,” Harry said as they left Snape's office.

Snape only closed the door behind them in reply. Harry laughed again and Remus smiled. He knew that Harry's real laughs were few and far between these days. “What's so funny, Harry? And where were you?” he asked.

“Professor Snape, he's just so different when someone's with us. He's not like that during our Occlumency lessons, only in public. I think the effort he goes to convince everyone that he hates me is funny,” explained Harry.

“Oh,” said Remus. He was rather surprised by Harry's reply. “Where were you, though?” he asked again.

“In the library,” replied Harry promptly.

“In the library?” echoed Remus.

“Yes,” confirmed Harry. “Why?”

“By yourself? Voluntarily?” Remus was surprised.

“Yes, really!” Harry was getting a little annoyed, was it really so surprising that he would go to the library on his own?

“Sorry, Harry,” said Remus, picking up on Harry's annoyance. “You've just never been known to do that before.”

“It's all right, Remus,” Harry replied. “Where are we going?”

Remus smiled. “To the lake,” he answered. “I want to take advantage of the last few warm days. It's rare that it's still so nice at this time of year.”

“We're having tea by the lake?” Harry asked.

“Yes, indeed.”

After that, they walked in silence out to the lake. Harry was once again lost in his thoughts, and Remus was considering Harry. He found it unusual that Ron and Hermione weren't anywhere to be found when usually they weren't far at all from Harry.

They arrived at the lake and settled themselves under the tree. Remus enlarged the picnic basket he'd been carrying, and after observing Harry for a while, spoke. “You really miss him a lot, don't you?” he asked quietly.

Harry looked up at him. “Yes, I do. It surprises me sometimes, because I knew him for such a short time, and I didn't really know him. I mean, I knew that he loved me, that he loved pranks and causing trouble, but I didn't really know him because he had to stay on the run or hide. We couldn't exactly spend much time together,” he said softly.

“I know, Harry,” replied Remus. “It's terrible that this happened before we could catch Wormtail.” Remus sighed and tossed some crumbs into the lake. “The trouble that rat has caused us...”

Harry sighed too. “We'll catch him, Remus. We'll catch him,” he promised.

After that exchange, they sat together in a companionable silence that was only occasionally broken as Remus tried to find out what was going on with Harry. He didn't have much luck, and that worried him. He knew that Harry had given up Quidditch; Harry's whole life seemed to revolve around Defense now. This saddened Remus, and after a while he gave up.

Soon Remus said that he had to leave. So Harry said good-bye to him and walked back to the castle alone. Deciding that it would be futile to return to his homework, he went to his dormitory to read.

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Author's Note: Nope, definitely not dead! I will finish this one, as I've got an outline with some notes and everything.