lupercus @ 2004-06-19 22:52:00

Current mood: calm
Current music:Moonlight Serenade, Glenn Miller

(And they were never really stars at heart)
Exams begin next week, and the library is absolutely teeming with worried expressions, sleep-deprivation (though nothing approaching the magifnicent delirium of Draco and Millicent) and panic attacks. Friday evening I escorted two fifth-year Hufflepuff to Poppy after they began gnawing at their books. I have to start keeping Sugar Quills on hand to slip to the ones who look like they're just about to snap.

No word of Peter, no sign nor hide nor hair nor worm-like tail of rat to be found. I have had a few owls on the subject, none of them bearing any sort of news at all. No news is never good news, in times of war, but unfortunately it leaves me in a rather useless position of not being able to do anything but worry, and wonder. And I have really no interest in doing that all of the time, so I have just instructed Harry to never let his wand out of his sight in the hopes that he will never be caught offguard. We can only wait and see, at this point.

Speaking of Harry, he and Sirius spent last night working on his motorbike. I don't know what they were doing to it, tightening grommets and clanking spanners about, Muggle devices, haven't a clue where Sirius got his hands on them. They seemed to have a good time, and they returned far too late covered in motor oil and laughing about some dirty joke or another. I read my books and finished off some overdue correspondence, because they certainly didn't need me around mucking up their fun. At any rate, I love to see them spend more time together, the two of them. Sirius has become an excellent dogfather.

I took a walk today, in the woodsy area on the other side of the lake. From there you can see for miles, and there's a spot (you may remember it, Harry) that is excellent for watching the Squid perform its afternoon water aerobics. I must have sat under the tree for hours, and it wasn't until the sun began to set that I remembered having found the spot as a boy. A favourite escape, from schoolwork and pranks, and myself. I am happy to have rediscovered it again now, twenty years later. And the boy is still there under the tree, happy to share it with the man. I am glad to have found him. I was wondering where he'd got to.

There is no moon tonight, it has hid its face among a crowd of stars, and the air is warm. Sirius is dozing on the sofa beside me, and I don't want to disturb him so I think I shall read, perhaps have a bath. It is a lovely, quiet night for doing quiet things. I love this time of year, when the days are long, the shadows longer and everything just stretches out as lazy and relaxed as Padfoot here, who is drooling upon my leg. So perhaps the first thing I shall do is scratch him behind the ears.

And then, I think, I will sleep.


Comments:

blondenarcissa @ 2004-06-20 02:54 am UTC

I'm glad you are well, Remus. May you find time in your schedule in the next few days for a visit from a friend?


lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:10 am UTC


I don't see why not. Are you free Tuesday?

(parent)
blondenarcissa @ 2004-06-20 03:13 am UTC

I believe I am free until evening. Would tea be all right?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:17 am UTC


Certainly. Hogsmeade, then?

(parent)
blondenarcissa @ 2004-06-20 03:23 am UTC

Hogsmeade it is! I am quite looking forward to seeing you; I've something I'd like to give you.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:31 am UTC

That's not necessary, Naricissa. I require nothing.

(parent)
blondenarcissa @ 2004-06-20 03:33 am UTC

I know it isn't necessary; that's why I'd like to do it. No arguments. I insist.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:43 am UTC

All right, I shan't argue then.

See you Tuesday.

(parent)
blondenarcissa @ 2004-06-20 03:43 am UTC

Tuesday it is, then!

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 02:57 am UTC

I'm hungry and you aren't giving me any Sugar Quills, is this the opposite of favouritism?


lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:09 am UTC

How can you possibly be hungry? You ate Canada at dinner tonight.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 03:10 am UTC

Canada's not very filling though. I should have had China instead.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:13 am UTC


No, because you'd only be hungry again an hour later.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 03:15 am UTC

Well I'm hungry now anyway. I think you should give me permission to sneak down to the kitchens after curfew.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:16 am UTC


That would be favouritism, Mr Potter. I'm not that kind of fellow.

I have biscuits. They were Sirius's, but he is asleep. You can help me eat them all before he wakes up.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 03:21 am UTC

He'll never know it was us. We should take his records and throw them in the lake, too, so it'll look more random.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:22 am UTC


That is an excellent suggestion. I should like to start with the Whitesnake.

How can anyone listen to Whitesnake, Harry? Where did we go wrong with him?

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 03:25 am UTC

Maybe it's because we're so great he needs something really awful to balance it out.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:30 am UTC

That has to be it. There's no other explanation, short of the Imperius Curse.

We'll spare the Queen. That was your mother's influence, anyway. She single-handedly saved Sirius from a complete lack of good taste. We are forever in her debt.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 03:32 am UTC

Really? What else did my mum like?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 03:55 am UTC

The Beatles. She tormented us all by singing a song about a yellow submarine for, I think, the entirety of 1977. David Bowie. Elton John. She also loved an artist named Andy Warhol (something about soup tins), and she would read Tolkien out loud to us in the Common Room during seventh year. She could do an amazing impersonation of Gimli the dwarf.

Sometimes, when you're reading and you think I'm not looking, you look remarkably like her.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:02 am UTC

I should read more. I only ever read about Quidditch. Hermione likes the hobbit books but I tried to read one of hers once and I couldn't get through the foreword. I should have tried harder to read them.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:06 am UTC

You should read more, but read something you find interesting. Your mother loved Tolkien but your father never read them, I don't think. Sirius has, but Sirius reads everything. You don't have to like all the same things your parents did, Harry. You aren't them, no matter how much you look like them and how much of them I do see in you. You are just Harry, and if just Harry doesn't find Tolkien interesting, no-one's going to be disappointed.

I think you'd enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia, actually. Has Hermione got them? Would she lend them to you?

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:13 am UTC

Dudley has them in my room, but the religious stuff made me kind of uncomfortable. It kind of seemed like a bit, um, much?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:16 am UTC


Yes, the overt Christianity inherent in Narnia is a bit off-putting, but if you can tune it out it's actually quite a compelling read.

There's always that other book series. I hear it's incredibly popular. Though really, it likely does not measure up to all the fuss made about it.

Perhaps you should just stick to those Roald Dahls I gave you.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:21 am UTC

I like James and the Giant Peach. I don't think I'm a very good reader though. I still like Quidditch better. I wish they wrote more books about Quidditch. They could be Quidditch adventure stories or something.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:26 am UTC

I remember reading James and the Giant Peach. Then I made the mistake of lending it to Sirius, and your father went round the school with a peach for a head for close to a week. It didn't help that the boy's name in the story was James Trotter. Sirius had a field day.

You are absolutely right about Quidditch adventures. If you were more of a writer, I'd suggest that you write some. However, as I once marked your essays, I cannot encourage you in such an endeavor. Your penmanship is atrocious, and there is no such word as "alot."


(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:32 am UTC

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Was it during the summer? Did anyone try to eat his head?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:34 am UTC


No, but he did contract a severe case of aphids.

He smelled a damned sight better than usual, though, so none of us in the dormitory minded in the least.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:37 am UTC

A case of what?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:39 am UTC

Those little green insects that eat plants. I think they only eat roses, but these were similar. He had to be sprayed.

Your father was not nearly so cool as we've previously claimed, Harry. I'm sorry.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:41 am UTC

But did the peach have a face? And ears? I think that's pretty cool.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:48 am UTC

It did! It had his face in the middle of this gigantic peach. He couldn't walk upright for the first six hours. It was pathetic, really.

The peach fuzz was cute, though.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:52 am UTC

You should turn someone else's head into a peach over hols so I can see. Maybe Frivolous White.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:53 am UTC


I should. In the interest of education, of course.

I'm certain Frivolous won't mind at all.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:55 am UTC

I heard stories about Frivolous and I think I can say he's dodgy like that.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:57 am UTC

He certainly is. He's a very shady sort of character, best to steer clear of the likes of him.

Also, he is a biscuit hoarder. I found more. He's holding out on us!

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 05:06 am UTC

Maybe he turned his records into biscuits so we wouldn't throw them in the lake.

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:41 am UTC


Of course he wasn't.

I was much, much cooler than he was.

I didn't have fruit for a head, for one thing.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:49 am UTC

Don't listen to him, Harry. As soon as Poppy got James back to normal, he went straight to Sirius and gave him two plums and a banana for a week.

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:54 am UTC

You are sleeping in the bathtub.

And you owe me more biscuits!

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:58 am UTC

Are you getting the biscuits for me?

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:59 am UTC

No. They're mine.

I hope you both know, those were dog biscuits.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 05:04 am UTC

Dogs eat oatmeal raisin?

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:21 am UTC

Any part of you that touches my albums you will get back via owl.

Whose side are you on, anyway!

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:23 am UTC

The good side?

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:32 am UTC


You ate all my biscuits.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:32 am UTC

I did? Are you dreaming?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:33 am UTC

Can't you see his legs twitching?

I bet he's chasing bunnies.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:37 am UTC

It's nice of him to dream about us, really.

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:39 am UTC


Run, little bunny. Should I catch you, I shall eat your face.

Arf arf. Woof.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:42 am UTC

My face would probably be pretty stringy. It couldn't be filling, it just couldn't be.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:46 am UTC

It's hardly Canada.

It's more Norway, your face.

Don't listen to him, Harry. His bark is much worse than his bite.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:48 am UTC

Are you trying to say I look Norwegian? Is it my eyebrows?

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:52 am UTC

No, your eyebrows are Russia. So expansive.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 04:53 am UTC

Me and Viktor Krum could be brothers.

(parent)
lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:58 am UTC

If we shaved your eyebrows we could knit a new Krum.

(parent)
just_harry @ 2004-06-20 05:05 am UTC

I think one Krum is probably enough. Unless the new Krum would be friends with me and Ron. That would be pretty cool.

(parent)
purestblood @ 2004-06-20 04:20 am UTC

And I do so love a happy ending, don't you? Your tales of domestic bliss (albeit not the drooling) do make me feel rather nostalgic. Maybe you can buy something to celebrate your reunion. A silver tea set, perhaps?


lupercus @ 2004-06-20 04:21 am UTC


One day, I will kill you.

(parent)
purestblood @ 2004-06-20 04:25 am UTC

Promises, promises. I never knew what a tease you were.

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:40 am UTC


You forgot to say it in French.

(parent)
purestblood @ 2004-06-20 04:52 am UTC

Would you like me to? You used to, as I recall.

(parent)
jadedsirius @ 2004-06-20 04:56 am UTC

"Used to" being the operative phrase.

You're pathetic.

(parent)
purestblood @ 2004-06-20 05:01 am UTC

You're the one drooling on Remus's leg. Q.E.D.

(parent)