The Old Days

You look back on the years of school, and you think of the people you knew. Of course, he never thought he would be friends with someone like her, who always made him and everyone around her laugh, always made the day interesting. Then, years later, your stomach still ties into knots when you receive one of those dreaded letters containing some sort of awful information that has recently happened to said person, whether it be 'We're sorry to inform you but so and so is comatose and has, in his or her will, requested for you to chuck their ashes out at sea' as if they were already dead. Well, this was exactly how he felt after he opened and read the letter at the table, in front of the same school he went to with her, in front of nearly the very same professor's who taught both him and her, or tried to anyway.

During school they both tended to run in wide-eyed, innocent mirth after they'd just dumped a tube of vibrant pink Circe's-Permanent-Hair-Dye that's guaranteed to last several weeks, in Severus Snape's hair. No one ever seemed to recognize them for what they were, the two most scheming children in the school, rather like Fred and George, only worse.

When those two, darkened years of school came when Carmen's parents had pulled her from school, and sent her to Beauxbatons, he'd been devastated and, contrary to popular belief, that's when he had become friends with the Marauders. His second and third year, and by forth year he'd become best friends with Sirius, Peter, and James, and when Carmen suddenly appeared in the Great Hall that welcoming ceremony fourth year, he didn't know what to do. He just stared, and ended up ignoring her the entire meal while stealing glances at her.

At first, James and Sirius thought he held a liking to her, before he told them she'd been his best friend first year. They laughed at the time, and wondered how he'd become friends with someone like her. Apparently, they knew about her and knew some of the more devious things she had done. They only thought that she'd been the only one to do them, as he, most of the time, ended up in her shadow, the one planning the pranks.

Sirius even had the gall to go up to Carmen and tell her that she was a slimy good-for-nothing charlatan that Remus wanted nothing to do with. She'd ran away, and according to Lily, cried herself to sleep. He felt an immense of quilt, and didn't talk to Sirius for the next two months, instead spending his time trying to get Carmen to speak to him again.

When she finally realized he didn't actually think that, she'd jumped in his arms, and laughed, her mouth speed talking as she spoke of all the times she had at Beauxbatons and how much she'd missed him. He then felt quilty about nearly forgetting about her since she left, having been so caught up with the Marauders, since they accepted his Lycanthopy and even became Anigmus to help him. He felt the bond with the boys was now stronger than it was with Carmen.

He remembered a time when, during one of the first Muggle Studies classes Hogwarts offered in their sixth year, after the teacher assigned them something that Muggle students did, which apparently was writing about kindness. They had to write a small paragraph on what they might do to help better the world, and he'd just said he would try to offer better training for Auror's and to give them better protection.

Carmen drown them all out, she had said: 'In the interests of sanity and kindheartedness, I think we should coordinate huge efforts to remove, in a discreet manner, deceased trees from forests. How would you like to be in a crowded room standing shoulder to shoulder with dead people?' Of course Professor Goldstein hadn't been very happy with that, but they had a good laugh and some even eyed her with a bit of apprehension as her words had made sense to even them.

She had been funny like that, always attempted to make people laugh, and sometimes did it without knowing as she said what she sincerely thought, and consequentially, made people laugh and be in high spirits around her.

Muggle-born though she was, she still happened to keep her words(for the most part) wizard-like, although sometimes she would go off on some sort of muggle invention that only the Muggle-born's would laugh about, the rest of us would glance uncertainly at each other.

When, after a Transfiguration class dealing with potted plants, she'd, out of no where turned to him and said: 'If inanimate objects were sentient, I think their lives would be in a constant state of suffering. I certainly wouldn't want to be a headlight on a sports car in the dead of winter. Nor would I want to lead the life of a ping pong ball. Or a spoon.' Afterwards, Remus had assured himself that this had something to do with the lesson, as he didn't know what a sport's car was, nor a ping pong ball, but he did know what a spoon was. It still hadn't made much sense to him.

Still, she was a wonderful person, with a pretty smile but ratty brown hair and regular brown eyes. She had always been sort of chubby, but after returning to school for her seventh year, she had somehow shrunk in size, and became boner. She said it had something to do with recent exercise videos her mum had bought her, he only nodded his agreement and changed the subject.

She even had weird antics that, when she said them, she sounded completely serious and sounded as if she was thinking about trying it sometime. This only proved, when at the end of a Defense Against the Dark Arts class that had to do with the defenses of several different types of creatures, she'd said in such complete seriousness that it had taken him a moment to digest what she'd said.

'When a predator attacks a starfish, often what the starfish will do is purposefully detach one of its limbs and swim away, in the hopes that the predator will go after the severed limb instead of the rest of it. Why can't people do that? I think it would be wicked if we could. Like, this thug would be chasing you down a dark alley in London. Instead of getting beat up, you'd take your arm and fling it over somewhere.'

As weird as the statement may have been, it was helpful. She tended to teach him things he didn't know in her statements more than she knew, for he hadn't known starfish did that.

After a while, he started to draw away from the Marauders, and Carmen still didn't know(or at least he hadn't told her) that he was a werewolf, a diseased piece of garbage that would eat her alive even if she was his best friend. Though he sometimes had a sneaking suspicion she knew, like when she'd give him concerned looks just days before the full moon. Although that could also have to do with the fact he always looked sick at the time.

When she had said 'I think I turned into myself this morning. But I'm not sure. I certainly don't feel any different' the day after the full moon during breakfast, after giving him a quick, but uncertain smile, he was sure she knew. She could be like that, she would know something that you for sure thought she didn't know, and it would suddenly become painstakingly obvious that she did know, and had known for a long while.

After that, he had kept a close watch on everything she did and said, although when she said, after spotting a banana on the lunch table, 'I think bananas are really big inch worms, frozen in mid-stride' that that probably hadn't anything to do with him being what he was, but he decided he had better analyze it, just for good measure.

It wasn't until the end of sixth year, when he was positive that she knew when she had been waiting for him by the Whomping Willow. Surprised though he was, he managed to squeak a greeting and she only smile politely back, her brown eyes glittered with mirth. She told him she had known ever since forth year, when Severus Snape had been going off to himself while walking down the hallway about 'Bloody stupid werewolves named Lupin etc. etc.' during her Divination class(She’d been skipping, those tea-leaves had gotten old by then).

She had kissed his cheek and patted his shoulder, telling him good luck and that she'd be there in the morning for him, which, as he found, she had been sleeping by his bed side until her first class.

Just the next day, as if nothing odd had happened, after she slapped one of the Care of Magical Creature books in the library particularly hard with the palm of her hand, she told him: 'Speaking of bugs, I just smooshed one of those really tiny, small, nearly microscopic white bugs that don't seem to exist except when they're walking across the page of a book you're reading. They're almost impossible to detect -- you don't notice them by their color but by their movement. Where do these truly bloody ridiculous bugs come from? How did they survive before they had book pages to walk across? I think they are actually human life forces encapsulated in little gunk particles. You smoosh one, and somewhere in the world, somebody dies. Somebody dies; somebody smooshed one. If we recognized this phenomenon, we could end all death in the world. So, whoever I just killed, I am truly sorry. My sincere condolences to your family.' She went on reading as though nothing had happened.

So when, after she had started to be seen less and less around him, and had started to lessen her pranks on the Slytherin's, did he find who she had suddenly developed a relationship with(well, suddenly to him.) Severus Snape was the lucky man in question, though he always, even alone in her company(or so Snape thought), never to actually smile at her, but only half-smile.

He never actually changed from the bastard he had been either, though he never truly insulted her, and on the occasion's when he insulted Remus, she'd glare at him and tell him off for it. Snape never did catch the hand of apologizing, and the disagreement between them would last for a day at least, before he would eventually say he didn't actually mean it and that Remus wasn't all that bad, while mumbling about attempting murder.

During that time, Remus had felt at a loss, Carmen was spending her precious time with a git like Snape, instead of with him, like she normally did. He felt possessive, and a need to have her back, like an addiction. His attraction for her had become readily apparent after realizing she didn't only like him the most, and that there was another man in her life.

He felt immensely relieved when, after about five or six months, just before graduation in June, they had 'broken up.' She had come crying to him about how stupid boy's were and how prejudice Slytherins were. He had a good idea of the reasons behind the breakup.

After that, she began to become herself again, developing earth-shattering pranks to be played on one Severus Snape and his little group of pricks. One had to do with a finger in a cup of warm water, which resulted in red faced Slytherin boys the next morning. They had laughed nearly the whole breakfast away, well at least until their faces hurt.

So, here he was, after so long from not hearing from her, he was getting a letter about her most imminent death. An official St. Mungo's letter, in fact, and if he hadn't been so involved in the past, he would have noticed that Severus had also gotten one, and had turned an even paler shade that made him look especially sickly.

It read:

Dear Remus Lupin,
I regret to inform you of Miss Carmen Davenport's sudden arrival last day at our Intensive Care facility unit in a most disagreeable situation. It seems that somehow her arm has been taken from her body, and was found in a near-by dumpster in London, near the Leaky Cauldron. Although, the reason behind the sudden amputation is questionable, we do know that she had been attacked by what we must name as Death Eaters for an envelope she tells me that you would know about.
She is nearing her death, and we are trying everything possible to save her. If you wish to visit her, then please come straight-away and bear in mind, that you may not like what you see. If not, than reply with you answer to our question. If you wish for a extent of her injuries, then send in a request along with your answer, they will be mailed by this Wednesday.

Our Sympathies,
Reina Wood
St. Mungo's Chief of Secretary

Remus sat a moment, and re-read it. A small smile twitched at his mouth as he wished to bash in her head as soon as the re-read the arm-amputation bit, he hadn't thought she would have been as stupid to even try the tactic, it wasn't her meat those Death Eater's were after. Obviously it had something to do with an envelope he didn't know a wit about. He sighed, thought more of the Old Days, before he inevitably decided that he would visit her early tomorrow.