A Most Unusual Student

A MOST UNUSUAL STUDENT

Chapter 5 - Settling in

Two nights after Remus left the hospital wing, I returned to the Shack. Bands of moonlight shone through the cracks in the boards over the windows, making bright stripes across the bare wooden floors. I lit the lantern I´d brought and moved slowly through the rooms, trying to imagine what had happened, what it was like for Remus. Alone like this, the damage was somehow all the more shocking - the stains on the floor, torn bed-hangings, scratches on the walls and the pieces of broken furniture. The wolf had obviously run through the Shack in a frenzy, and every room was marked in some way. Even the small bathroom hadn´t escaped: there were bloodstains in the bath and the water in the toilet bowl was red - had the wolf tried to have a drink there?

I started with the upstairs rooms and did what I´d come to do, cleaning the worst of the stains on floors and beds, repairing covers and bed-hangings as best I could, and collecting the torn clothing before returning to the school. As I made my way back along the silent tunnel, I found myself wondering what the Shack would be like in seven years´ time, when Remus finished school.

Gwen´s owl reached me the next morning. She´d waited to reply to me until she´d received Remus´ own letter, wanting to compare our accounts.

"We just can´t thank you enough for all your care for Remus." She had written. "You said nothing about your feelings of course, but I can imagine your thoughts when faced with all that.

Remus assured us it wasn´t too bad, though from your description I think he was just trying to make light of it to ease our minds. But if you kept him in hospital for three days, he must have hurt himself quite badly - normally he is up and about after one or two days. We know he couldn´t be in better hands, but we still worry about him. I do hope the next one is easier - for both of you.

We´re so glad he seems to be settling in - he tells us he´s happy and enjoying the lessons, and that the others are "very nice" to him. But he´s still nervous about accepting friendship. He so desperately wants friends, and wants to be just a normal boy, but at the same time he dreads getting hurt again. He is always so scared that others will find out and reject him.

I think I told you that we lived near Chester about four years ago. Our wizard neighbours had children - a couple of boys around his age and a younger girl. The four of them used to play happily together and Remus had been going to the local school. The old healer had been quite good to us, but she left to live with her family in Kent. The new young apothecary who took her place was not so tolerant, and after the first full moon he told people about Remus. Two days later those three children - his `friends´ - led a gang of kids who chased Remus home, throwing stones and bottles and other things at him. We moved immediately of course, but in the days before we left, I could hardly let Remus out of the house for fear of him being attacked. I think he cried himself to sleep for weeks - at seven, he couldn´t understand how people could change and turn on him like that.

So the more he gets to like people, the more desperately he wants to keep his secret. And of course he´s always wanted to go to Hogwarts and be a "proper wizard". Unfortunately he needs to realise that if the other students somehow think he is hiding something, there will always be those who will not rest till they find out.

Anyway, Edmund and I are most encouraged by what you´ve both told us about the boys from his dormitory. I´m almost afraid to say it, but James and Sirius sound just his sort, and it doesn´t surprise either of us that he likes them. You probably haven´t seen it yet, but Remus has a very good sense of humour and rather enjoys practical jokes. Only a few weeks before term started, he put some Constable´s Colouring Crystals in the toilet bowl one day - poor Edmund got quite a shock at the huge flush of silver and purple bubbles which shot up at him. Unfortunately for Remus, he had used a little too much and they filled the entire bathroom and flowed down the hallway - so he spent the next few hours cleaning up the mess and washing out the towels! So be warned! Though I think Edmund is secretly looking forward to the day when a Hogwarts owl will arrive with a letter telling us that Remus has a detention for some prank or other - not that he would never admit to such a thing, of course."

I was highly amused at Remus´ more "colourful" tendencies, and I rather looked forward to them showing up at Hogwarts sooner or later.

Nearly two months into the term, the four boys were becoming good friends. James and Sirius seemed almost inseparable, but Remus and Peter usually joined in with them, and I was pleased to see Remus looking more relaxed and happy. Once I´d been called to attend to an injury at the Quidditch field, and had seen him standing in a group chatting with other students, a mixed group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws.

It seemed no time at all before I was sitting at my desk on a wet October night, writing to Gwen about the second full moon.

"Yes, even with what you´d told me, the first transformation was a bit of a shock." I wrote. "Luckily, when treating patients I´m usually able to put my own feelings into the background and just focus on the healing. Children are very quick to pick up if you are worried about them, so I have to be as calm as possible and try to tread the fine line between "care" and "fussing". Though boys are apt to take any expression of concern as "fussing" of course!

"But I think it all went slightly better this time," I continued, trying to reassure her. "He certainly seemed a bit calmer about it all. He said he´d told his friends that he´d been called home on a "family matter". He went up to the dormitory while they were in afternoon classes and collected his things so they´d think he´d really gone home. It seems to have worked because they didn´t come near the hospital wing, though I really wonder how long those boys are going to believe that his mother is always sick or there are "family matters" that call him home regularly. By all accounts, James and Sirius are extremely bright."

"There were a lot of bites and gashes, mainly on his chest and arms, but nothing quite as deep as that one he had on his leg last month. Though I´m afraid he broke his right arm during the night. Fortunately it was a clean break, so it was easy to heal, and with the Bonesetta he should be right again by tomorrow evening. But he was very cold when I reached him and his hair was wet - he was lying on the floor upstairs near one of the beds, and I found the clothes in the next room. The only water in the Shack is in the toilet bowl - do you think he might have tried to drink out of it? I could try and leave a bowl of water in the Shack for him if he is thirsty, but I think he´d upset it very quickly. I put him on the bed and used some drying and warming charms before I did the initial healing, then got him back to the hospital wing as quickly as I could and put him into bed with a hot drink.

I thought of that scene upstairs, with Remus lying there looking so frail and helpless. I didn´t know how long he´d been like that - probably at least half an hour.

"I gave him a good dose of Pepperup Potion just to make sure he didn´t get a cold. He slept for a few hours, had some soup for lunch, went back to sleep again and then ate some scrambled eggs for dinner. I´ve given him another sleeping potion so he will sleep though the night, and I expect him to be much better in the morning. If his arm is healed properly I´ll send him back to his dormitory tomorrow night."

"I´m rather worried about him with winter coming on, though, because the Shack will get very cold. If he´s lying round after the transformation without clothes like that, he could get quite ill. I´ll try to reach him as quickly as possible of course, but even so he could get a chill in his weakened state. Is that what he does at home, and if not, how can I keep clothes on him or just make sure he is warm? Do you think it´s something that will settle down gradually as he becomes more used to the Shack, or is he always likely to be like that? It would be much too dangerous to leave any sort of fire in the fireplace for him of course, though if you like, I could ask Professor Flitwick if there are any charms we could use to warm the Shack." I felt a little silly asking these questions, but winter here in Scotland was much bleaker than Exeter, and the last thing I wanted was to have Remus down with pneumonia.

Gwen replied three days later, grateful once again for my care of Remus and my concerns. "I´m not sure about the thirst," she wrote, "and Remus has never said anything. I certainly wouldn´t worry about trying to leave anything for him. I´m not really sure about the clothes either - I don´t even know whether he tears them off while he is transforming, or whether they transform with the wolf and he tears them off changing back. He can´t remember much to tell us. I´ve often wondered whether or not that is a good thing. You say there are a couple of beds in the Shack - maybe once the wolf gets used to the surroundings he will prefer to curl up on one of them, which might help him keep warm. Our own shed is quite small, and we leave an old mattress in there, but I´ve often found him lying on the floor. And I suppose we have to assume that the wolf gets a good thick winter coat anyway.

Please don´t worry too much about him in the winter. I know you will do your best to reach him quickly, and that is all anyone could possibly ask. It probably seems rather harsh to say this, but he´s rather a tough little boy and he´s survived so far. We just have to do what we can and hope it is enough. Our only comfort is that he IS loved and looked after - my heart goes out to those others who may suffer this disease and who don´t have anyone to take care of them. And I think Remus has become quite fond of you already, which is a great comfort to us."

It was the next bit of news that made me really happy though.

"Now that this second full moon is safely over, Edmund and I are taking the chance to go away for a short break. He finished a case earlier than expected, so is not quite as busy, and it´s our wedding anniversary next week. We haven´t had a holiday since Remus was bitten: we´ve been so busy trying to help him that we´ve almost forgotten what it was like for just the two of us to be together. We´ll be back home before the next full moon of course, in case we´re needed. We´re going over to Ireland. Edmund says we´re going to look at castles and coastlines, visit pubs and do tourist things, though I´ll settle for getting him alone in a nice little country inn, with no other distractions! We know Remus is safe and happy, so it seems like a good opportunity.

Gwen

PS. If Remus happens to get a detention, tell Professor McGonagall to hold the owl! While we´re away I´m not opening any letters from Hogwarts unless they´re from Remus or you.

Well, if anyone deserved a holiday, it was Gwen and Edmund. I had occasionally wondered whether they would be driven to visit Remus at school, like some other parents, but clearly they were happy with his progress and had resolved to let him find his feet like other students.

Her postcard ten days later had just a short message: "Poppy - I think we´ll try for a second honeymoon every year! Love, Gwen."

Many months later, I realised that this was also a vote of thanks and confidence in Albus and me.

* * *

The staffroom was crowded as I took my seat for our November meeting. The staff met monthly on the last Friday afternoon: general administration; reports from each Professor; reviews of student progress (or its lack, as Minerva had been known to say); attendance records; House marks, detentions and student conduct; and - of course - the Quidditch matches and standings.

My official role was to report on student health matters, and verify attendance records for those who had been sick. But I enjoyed the meetings as a most useful source of gossip and "intelligence" about the school. For the most part, the Heads of House knew their students well and were aware of what was going on in their Houses: most problems were quickly solved by them or their prefects. The meetings were a good opportunity for staff to compare notes though, and deal with matters of common concern.

The interaction of staff members themselves was always fascinating: Professors Lutz and Flitwick rarely agreed on anything, least of all Quidditch. And Minerva´s no-nonsense approach had little tolerance for Divination or its succession of teacup-gazing Professors, the latest of whom was Cassandra Tetley. (Mind you, Cassandra was more down-to-earth than some - I suspected that Minerva´s opinions were somewhat coloured by her prophecies of doom and gloom for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, most of which had come true last year.)

The detention list often produced moments of hilarity: student pranks could be extremely entertaining and inventive. Certain names invariably cropped up on a sort of unofficial list of troublemakers, though Minerva was always careful to insist that new Professors came to their own conclusions about students. I suspected that "Black, Sirius" and "Potter, James" were already on that list.

We´d reached the first year attendance records. "I see young Mr Lupin was away for two days again," remarked Professor Halley, who taught Astronomy. "He had a few days off last month I remember - he´s been ill rather frequently."

"Yes, I was a bit worried about him last week too, " added Professor Sprout. "He seems rather a delicate boy, Poppy."

"Delicate, eh?" Professor Heldin sounded amused. "I didn´t think he looked too delicate when he and Mr Potter set off those Zonko´s Zoomers in my class the other day - had everyone jumping round in all directions, and we nearly lost several cauldrons of Smoothing Solution. Whilst I have a certain admiration for the timing of their little exercise, I had to deduct ten points from Gryffindor - each!"

"Are you sure it was Mr Lupin?" asked Minerva. "That sounds much more like Mr Black to me."

"No, Minerva, I had already carefully separated Mr Black and Mr Potter, and Mr Black was sitting right in front of me with Mr Pettigrew. He certainly could not have done it. For once Mr Black was, ah - almost white, shall we say." Horace Heldin was clearly awake to the Black/Potter combination, but the addition of Lupin might make life much more interesting for everyone, I thought. I kept my face impassive.

"Well, I find it very hard to believe that Mr Lupin would do such a thing!" said Ivy. "He is such a nice boy - always helpful, very polite. I´ve never had any trouble with him. But he does look so very ill at times."

I´d been wondering when Remus´ absences would be noted: there had been three full moons since he came to Hogwarts. "I know, Ivy," I responded calmly. "It´s most unfortunate, but I think he is just going to be one of those sickly children who will get every sneeze and cough going round."

"Poor lad!" Ivy shook her head sadly. "He´s quite a bright one, too - knows a lot about herbs and plants, and very careful with their handling."

"Oh dear," said Professor Halley, now looking very worried. "I hope he will be strong enough to continue our studies properly, Madam Pomfrey. "It´s very cold up in that tower, even with both the fires lit, and I always try to insist the students wear their warmest clothing."

"I´m sure it will be all right, Cosmo," chirped Filius. "Why, I remember we once had a student who seemed to miss every second day for nearly a year at one stage - and she ended up one of the top students!"

"Oh well," I said casually, "there´s a few of them like that, I´m afraid. Young Doris Champion from Ravenclaw - she´s not very strong - and that boy Allan Williams from Sytherin seems to be prone to accident as well as illness. And the Odgers twins from Hufflepuff - well, Ivy, you know they´re always getting colds. Remus Lupin´s probably like them. Maybe, Minerva," I turned to her, "... maybe you would remind him to rug up and keep warm now winter is upon us."

"Good idea, Poppy," she said briskly. "Ivy, Filius, Bernard - we should all remind the prefects to help us keep an eye on the first years in particular, and make sure they look after themselves. Some of them have no sense at all, living away from home for the first time. I´ll speak to Filch about the heating in the classrooms. Might save us a few doses of Pepperup Potion, eh Poppy?"

We shared a brief glance of complete understanding: if the staff considered Remus as "delicate", then his regular absences would be thought of as normal and would provoke little comment or query. Of course, I reflected in secret amusement, if one member of that little Gryffindor group happened to look totally innocent and was regarded as "delicate" - well, I certainly wasn´t going to spoil their fun.

* * *

The following Monday I was roused from my paperwork by a loud knocking at the hospital wing door.

"Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey! There´s been a bit of an accident in Potions." James Potter´s voice.

I hurried out, to find the waiting area full of students. Three or four of them in obvious pain, the others there for support and assistance. With something of a shock I recognised the four Gryffindors; the others were Slytherins.

"Right!" I said briskly. "Who´s hurt, and what happened?"

"This idiot upset a cauldron of Wrinkling Solution all over the bench and over us!" The speaker was a sallow, dark-haired Slytherin boy, who was holding his arms stiffly in pain and glaring across the room at Sirius Black.

"I´m sorry - it was an accident! I told you that! I slipped when I was carrying the ficus solution over to the cauldron - I didn´t mean to spill it." Sirius was equally furious, though I noticed he was also one of the ones injured.

"Yeah - slipped and it conveniently goes all over us!"

"Well, it went over Peter and Sirius too. They´re hurt just as much as you are." Remus´ voice had an angry edge.

"That´s enough!" I moved between them. "Never mind the arguments! Who´s hurt?"

"These two here - Severus Snape and Nigel Avery," said another Slytherin boy, medium height with fair hair and pleasant smile. "I´m John Rosier, Madam Pomfrey, and Professor Heldin told us to bring the injured students down to you - he only had a little bit of the antidote."

"Right, Mr Rosier, take your friends through there - on beds to the right. I´ll be with you shortly." I turned to the Gryffindors. "All right - which of you are hurt?"

"Peter and Sirius," said James Potter. "And I think a bit splashed onto Remus too. And it really was an accident, Madam Pomfrey."

"Yes, well I hardly think you´d deliberately hurt yourselves like this if it was a prank," I said mildly. "You´re not that stupid. In here, all of you, over to the left. Who´s the worst?"

"Probably Peter and Snape," said Remus calmly. "They were right next to Sirius when he slipped, and most of it went over their books and onto their hands and arms."

`We´re OK," said Peter, though his face was screwed up in pain.

Swiftly I handed out doses of painkiller potion, settled the injured ones on beds and commenced work. For some reason I dealt with the Slytherins first: Severus Snape was still seething with anger. The skin on his arms and hands was badly affected, and a few drops had splashed up onto his face, leaving large pockmarks on his left cheek. I applied the antidote and a soothing cream, bandaged both arms and told him to keep the bandages dry, and come back this evening for another application of the dressing. Nigel Avery wasn´t as badly affected, though his left hand was quite nasty.

Angry or not, they both thanked me politely when I´d finished and I soon had them on their way. It was the first time I´d met Snape: I wondered about his own health, given his sallow skin and somewhat oily hair. I had some remedies that might help him, but somehow had the impression that any suggestions from me would not be welcomed. I gathered my things and headed to the Gryffindors at the other end of the ward.

Remus introduced Peter Pettigrew, the only one of the four I hadn´t officially met. He was sitting on one of the beds, his arms held out in front of him, the skin and nails shrivelled and ghastly. Remus was perched on the end: Sirius and James were sitting on the next bed, and they all watched as I examined Peter.

I applied the antidote, which I knew would sting. "I´m really sorry, Peter" said Sirius softly, seeing his friend wince in pain. "It´s all over your workbook too, I´m afraid. And mine - so we´ll have to write it out again. But you can copy mine when I´ve done."

"Thanks. Doesn´t matter." Peter grinned ruefully as I started bandaging. "You know ... " he paused and looked over at Sirius thoughtfully, "next time you do that - d´you think you could try and pour it all a little lower down over Snape?"

There was a second´s silence, then the four exploded into gales of laughter, and I had to stop bandaging until they came to their senses.

"Peter - that´s a disgusting thought!" James had removed his glasses and was wiping tears from his eyes.

"Great idea though!" Sirius eyed Peter gleefully.

"You´d need a lot of it to go through all his robes." Remus was thinking of practicalities.

"They´d shrink too!"

"Snape in a mini-skirt!"

"Wonder what he wears underneath?"

"Well, I´m not asking him!"

I held Peter´s arm still and reached for the second roll of bandage. "Gentlemen, I have not heard all that." I said with a straight face. "But if I should find out that a certain portion of Mr Snape´s anatomy has been - ah - "adjusted" in that way - I shall be most irate. And I will know exactly where to come for the culprits!"

"Of course, Madam Pomfrey." James had replaced his glasses and was watching as I moved over to treat Sirius. "He is a bit of a git though."

"Maybe we should just send him some soap." Remus was looking positively innocent. "You know - must be something we could do to help his skin."

I finished with Sirius and moved across to check Remus. "Mr Lupin," I said softly, "just be very careful!" The smile he gave me would not have reassured Minerva.

I took my tray of bandages back to the dispensary and returned with a block of Honeydukes chocolate. "One piece each!" I said firmly. "For strictly medical purposes, you understand! And Mr Pettigrew and Mr Black, keep those bandages dry and come back in the morning. You too, Mr Lupin."

They departed noisily in a chorus of thank you´s and laughter. Somehow I did not think it would be too long before Edmund Lupin received his Hogwarts owl.

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