A Common Acquaintance or Two

Setting: The summer after the events of Prisoner of Azkaban, before the Quidditch World Cup.

Ron Weasley sat on his bed in his room, where, as usual, everything was covered in Chudley Cannons' paraphernalia. What was unusual was the fact that two extra beds had been crammed into the space as his brothers, Charlie and Bill, were due home anytime now. They were coming home, both to assuage their mother, who had been begging them to visit, and to catch some rest before going to the Quidditch World Cup with the majority of the Weasley family. For this reason, the twins would be living in Ron's room for a while.

Ron was especially looking forward to Charlie's visit. He always had such interesting stories to tell about the dragons in Romania. Ron also had a closer relationship with Charlie than he did with his brother Bill. Bill was older than Charlie and as a result had spent less time with the youngest Weasley boy. Ron had loved the summer Quidditch lessons Charlie had given him when he was little. He only wished that he could be on the Gryffindor team someday to make his brother proud of him.

The red-haired teen sat cross-legged on his bed, rereading the last owl message he had from Charlie. For this reason, he failed to notice when the door to his room creaked open. In stepped an auburn haired, freckled young man, who was not that much taller than Ron. A grin crossed the young man's face, breaking his intense look.

"Hey, Ronnikins," Charlie said in greeting.

Brown eyes leapt off the parchment they were reading to look at the second oldest Weasley boy. "Charlie!" Ron exclaimed happily, not as ticked off at his childhood nickname, as he would have been had Fred or George used it, "I didn't think you'd be here till later tonight!" The fourteen year old jumped up and gave his brother a hug. Then feeling a bit childish, he backed up and blushed red.

"Glad to see you too, kid," Charlie said, trying hard not to laugh at his brother's antics. Ron was so refreshingly honest in his emotions. "Can I sit?"

"Yeah, sure," Ron said, scooting stuff over on the bed so there was room for his brother. He sat down and managed to hold back his questions until Charlie had a chance to sit down. He took a good look at his brother in the meantime, taking note of his green Weasley sweater emblazoned with a red dragon, the heavily callused hands and the merrily dancing brown eyes.

"So why are you here so early?" Ron asked.

"Work was going slow, so they let me out early. There's not much to do when the dragons are nesting. They get a little overly cranky at that point. Plus my supervisor wanted me to take a notice to the Ministry of Magic, which I've done. So how was your third year of Hogwarts?"

Ron shifted a bit awkwardly, not quite sure how much to tell his brother about what had all happened in the last year. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to forego any mention of Sirius Black and stick to the academic areas of school. Charlie sensed the pause, but did not remark on it, figuring Ron would reveal all eventually. His little brother, after all, did not excel at subtlety.

"It's basically the same," Ron said with a shrug. "I'm definitely no Percy, but I get by."

"Well, no one is. He's worse than Bill was by far because at least Bill was still cool. Not quite sure how Percy ended up so Percy-ish, but he's a good sort despite all the prissiness and rule-abiding stuff."

Ron pulled a face at that, but didn't disagree. While Percy was indeed unbearable, at least he did look out for other people. As he was removing the sour expression from his face, Charlie asked a question. "So how were your professors this year?"

"Well, McGonnagal still has it out for all of us, but at least she doesn't hate Gryffindor. She leaves that up to Snape. He's absolutely insufferable. Hagrid taught Care of Magical Creatures this term. That was a disaster waiting to happen. His interest in what he calls interesting creatures can be a bit alarming. However, after Malfoy pulled his stunt with the hippogriff, we got stuck with flobberworms. They're so boring. The only really good class was Defense against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin, this new teacher, actually knew his stuff and wasn't scared of any of it, not like Lockhart was. He even brought in this boggart. And it turned into this nasty spider, but I got rid of its legs..."

"Remus Lupin?" Charlie asked suddenly, interrupting Ron.

"Yeah," Ron said. "Professor Remus Lupin, but he won't be back next year..."

"He used to babysit Bill and me all the time!" Charlie exclaimed, interrupting again. "Way back, before you and the twins were born. I think he even watched Percy once in awhile, but I could be wrong. Back when Voldemort was getting really dangerous. Last time he watched us, was, well, oh before the Potters were killed. Does he still have a dog?"

Ron, a bit stunned at this revelation from his brother, took a while to answer. He wondered if that meant they had known Harry's godfather from before as well. And what was this about a dog? "No, the only thing Professor Lupin had in his office were magical creatures like a grindylow, at least that's what Harry said."

"Oh," said Charlie, sounding a bit crestfallen. After a moment, he continued, "Many of the times he was watching use, either here or at Arabella Figg's house, he'd have a large black dog with him. It kind of looked like the Grim. If I remember right, the dog's name was Snuffy or Snuffles or something. Now that I think about it, I never actually saw where Lupin lived. He always watched us at other people's houses. Always looked a bit rough around the edges, Lupin was. He didn't have the newest clothes, but he was a fun guy. He knew lots of stories to tell us and played with the dog and us. He looked down right ill a couple of times."

"A dog that looked like the Grim!" Ron exclaimed. "I'm surprised mom let him near you with a dog like that. Was there anything else weird about it?" Ron asked this mainly to buy sometime as he had a sudden weird thought in his head. This sounded way too similar to someone he had just met at the end of his third year at Hogwarts. Someone who had been quite entangled in the past with the Potters and now, apparently, with the Weasleys.

Charlie gave his youngest brother a sidelong glance. Ron seemed a bit more excitable than even he normally have should been at just the mention of a dog. "Well, he had the strangest blue eyes for such a black dog, but no nothing really out of the ordinary. You said Professor Lupin wouldn't be back. Why not?"

Ron wondered if he should just dodge answering Charlie's question, but then he decided to tell the truth, at least part of it, as he was sure by now that the Slytherins were in the process of telling the whole world. "Well, you see, Professor Lupin, well, has this condition that's incurable."

"You mean like a disease?" Charlie asked, a bit stunned.

"Well, no," Ron replied, "He's a werewolf. Snape told his whole house about it, so Lupin left before he could be fired."

Charlie paled. "No wonder he looked ill. But how could they fire him if he did a good job? It's not his fault that he's a werewolf."

"No," Ron agreed, "But he's afraid that he'd bite a student. He almost bit me, but that wasn't his fault. I was somewhere where I shouldn't have been, helping Harry out. The Whomping Willow, which was planted to protect Lupin and people from him when he was at Hogwarts, guards a tunnel that leads to the shrieking shack."

"So that's where that tunnel led. I never could figure that out from the Marauder's Map. Got caught with it when I was trying to figure that out by Filch. Never saw it again."

Ron's jaw dropped open, "You know about the Marauder's Map?"

"You mean you do too?" Charlie looked at Ron suspiciously.

"Well, the twins had it."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Charlie asked no one in particular.

"But then they gave it to Harry." Ron, quivering with things he needed to vent got up. "I'll be right back, I have to, uh, go check on the ghoul in the attic. It's been causing problems lately."

Running out the door, he ran up to the attic and began writing a very quick note to his best friend Harry Potter, ignoring the ghoul's loud antics nearby.

HARRY!!! You'll never believe what I just learned. Charlie and Bill used to get babysat by LUPIN. And guess what? He brought a dog named Snuffles with him, a dog that sounds a LOT like Sirius. Had blue eyes and looked like the Grim. Oh, and Charlie also had the Marauder's map at one point in time! Anyway, got to go. Can't wait till you get here to go see the cup.

Ron

Tying the note to a wobbly Errol's leg, Ron sent the owl off to his friend. He then muttered at the ghoul, who had quieted down of its accord. He headed back to his room to talk to Charlie.

The End