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See You Soon, Potter


Remus Lupin was just thankful that the staircase leading up to Albus Dumbledore’s office moved itself. He practically fell onto it and sat on the step as it carried it up, up, up, holding his side where the nip from Sirius was bandaged up beneath his shirt. Sirius had stuck him in one of his band t-shirts so that Remus’s school oxfords wouldn’t get ruined if the bite started to bleed again, and he’d pulled jumpers on over it (two to be exact, the top one James had given him just the week before, another jumper from some family member, he’d claimed, made too small for him, but mysteriously just the right size for Remus as usual) and he was still cold. He wouldn’t normally have ever dreamed of hauling himself from bed in his current condition but he needed to talk to Dumbledore and so when he woke up in the dormitory (with no memory of being carried there), he’d dragged himself to the fifth floor corridor and choked out Mars Bars to the gargoyles, who had moved aside.

The step reached the platform at the top of the stairs and Remus pulled himself to his feet, wincing as he did, and shuffled across to the wide door, glancing at a statue of what looked like a crup with a monophone that stood where the wellingtons and umbrella usually was. When Remus knocked, it was as though Dumbledore had been waiting for him. He opened the door without a moment’s hesitation.

“Good morning, Master Lupin,” he said, smiling and waving for Remus to enter the room.

Remus stepped inside and he saw Fawkes the Phoenix looked as miserable as he felt. Fawkes let out a little weepy cry in greeting and Remus nodded respectfully to the ashen looking bird and sat down heavily in the chairs opposite Dumbledore’s desk.

Dumbledore waved his wand and a cup of tea appeared before Remus. There were aconite leaves floating in it and Remus smiled thankfully at the headmaster as he took up the cup and Dumbledore sat behind his desk, taking a moment to settle in, so Remus could sip the tea and scoop one of the leaves out and stick it into his mouth.

“How are you, Remus?” Dumbledore asked.

“Quite sore,” Remus admitted, “But I’ve been worse.”

Dumbledore smiled sadly at him. “Brave boy.”

Remus felt his cheeks darken and stared down at his tea.

“To what do I owe your visit, Remus?”

Remus said, “It’s about Professor Gaunt, sir. I’m… concerned.”

“What about?” Dumbledore asked.

Remus thought for a moment on how to reply, and then answered, “Well, I’m worried that he might be… a death eater. Or at least a supporter of You Know Who.”

“Voldemort.”

Remus nodded.

Dumbledore rubbed his chin. “And what makes you say that, Remus?”

“I had a detention with him - and I left the detention feeling very odd. Very tired. I had memory of having done nothing but homework for the hours I spent there, and yet, when I reviewed all my stuff, I got nothing done.”

“Ah many a student has had such a phenomenon happen, Mr. Lupin, it’s rather common to hear that a student has done nothing but work on homework and yet have them have not completed it when the time comes to hand it in.” He smiled teasingly.

“No, sir, I mean nothing got done. I mean I didn’t do it. I mean my memory was altered. I mean that I think that I was under the imperius curse and my mind was magically modified.” Remus stared up at Dumbledore imploringly. “I mean that I think Professor Gaunt performed illegal magic on me and two other Gryffindor students - McKenna Alliston and Meg Johnson.”

Dumbledore steepled his fingers against his lips. “That’s… a very serious accusation to make, Mr. Lupin.”

Remus nodded.

“Have you any evidence?”

Remus replied, “James Potter and Lily Evans will back me in saying that we’ve seen Professor Gaunt perform the imperius on a student. He performed it on Sirius Black during one of our classes. And Sirius doesn’t remember it anymore than I believe I correctly remember the detention.”

Dumbledore’s hands lowered as he rubbed his beard. He looked concerned.

“Then apparently yesterday James and Sirius, the idiots, antagonized Gaunt and have landed themselves detention everyday for the rest of the term -- which they’ve already skipped the first of last night to --” Remus stopped himself just before he said come out to the Shack with me and changed it to, “-- study.”

Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands. A house elf appeared with a crack behind Remus, making him jump and wince. Dumbledore cleared his throat, “Go and fetch Pleiades Gaunt, please. Tell him it is most urgent that he visit me in my office. Then go and fetch James Potter and Lily Evans as well.”

“Yes, Headmaster Dumbledore, sir,” the elf replied, bowing, and disappearing again.

Remus looked up at Dumbledore.

“I’ll need their testimonies as well,” Dumbledore explained to the curious look on Remus’s face. He walked around the desk and he said, “Now, Mr. Lupin, in order to see for myself the strangeness, I will need the memory of the detention from you.”

Remus said, “I’ve just told you about the --”

“No, I mean for my pensieve.”

Remus looked over as Dumbledore raised his wand to open up a round cabinet across the room and there was a large sink basin with runes and etching in the stone, glowing silvery light, and above it, on shelves, were rows and rows and rows of little bottles with funny liquidy stuff inside. Remus had read about pensieves before and had a working knowledge of how they operated. He turned to look back at Dumbledore.

“Won’t hurt a bit, Mr. Lupin,” Dumbledore promised, “I simply need your permission to take it.”

“Yes sir, of course,” Remus said, “I trust you.”

Dumbledore smiled. “Then think on the memory of that detention for a moment…” and he brought his wand to Remus’s temple as Remus closed his eyes. It felt quite weird, and Remus squirmed a bit, uncomfortable, as his brain went sort of cold then sort of warm and then Dumbledore was taking his wand away from Remus’s temple and it felt as though he were drawing something out and Remus looked and hanging from Dumbledore’s wand was a glowing string - a liquidy sort of strand that hung there like a wet bit of spaghetti, and Dumbledore reached across his desk, took up a vial, bit off the cork, and carefully slid the noodley-looking memory into the glass before spitting the cork into his palm and sealing the bottle.

There was a knock at the door and Dumbledore smirked, “And here is the cavalry. Come in Mr. Potter. Miss. Evans.”

James and Lily stepped through the door together and Remus had a funny feeling inside of him when he saw it -- as though it was the most natural thing in all of the world, to see the pair of them together. He saw a smile flicker over Dumbledore’s lips as well and he wondered if the old man was thinking the same thing.

James was panting, though.

“We ran here,” Lily explained, also panting.

“All the way from the common room,” James said.

Dumbledore smiled, “I appreciate your prompt response to my summons. I’ve asked you to come today to verify with me a fact that Mr. Lupin has shared…” he paused, then, “Professor Gaunt --”

“...is an absolute arsehole!” James supplied.

Lily nodded, “Its true. He is.”

Dumbledore asked, “And you saw him perform the imperius curse on Sirius Black?”

“Yes,” Lily and James said in unison. They looked at each other in surprise.

Dumbledore said, “And are you each willing to allow me to take the memory of it from you for the pensieve?”

“Yes,” they said in unison again. Again, they looked at one another for a moment, then James turned back and added, “Anything to help get rid of him. He’s horrid. He’s a purist and he’s rude and treats Remus like rubbish, and he docked Gryffindor a hundred points for me helping Remus with his homework on Sunday, when his body hurt too much to write! Accused Remus bloody Lupin of cheating! As if Remus needs to cheat, he’s got more brains than all the rest of us Marauders combined.”

Lily said, looking at James, “Don’t say it like that, you’re very smart.”

James looked at her, again in surprise. “Did you just compliment me, Evans?”

“I did,” she nodded eagerly.

James stared at her for a long moment.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, then, without even the sound of a knock to have alerted him, Dumbledore waved his wand for the door to open, “Come in, Professor.”

They turned around to see Pleiades Gaunt standing in the door frame.

“Headmaster.” Gaunt nodded to Dumbledore and stepped inside, walking ‘round to the window side of the desk, inspecting Fawkes for a moment, who clipped his beak at Gaunt impatiently to make him turn away, smoke hissing off the top of the bird’s head. Gaunt looked at Lily, James, and Remus in turn and then said, “It’s interesting to see you Potter... nearly twelve hours later than I ought to have. Skivving off detention wasn’t very bright.”

James replied, “Well, we told you we wouldn’t be there so really you shouldn’t have expected us.”

Gaunt looked to Dumbledore. “Double detention for the attitude, I should think?”

Dumbledore’s voice was level. “I seem to recall a bit of attitude similar to that when you were young, Tom.”

There was a very long and strange pause that seemed to shiver the entire room.

“Tom?” James asked, confused. “Who the bleeding hell is T--” but before he could get the rest of the question out, there was a burst of power from Gaunt - like a strong gust of wind that knocked over Fawkes’s stand, sending the bird to the floor to burst into a spray of ashes, papers flying from Dumbledore’s desk, silver instruments clanging to the floor as little tables tipped over, Remus’s chair grunting across the stone floor, Lily into James’s chest as James caught her against himself protectively, one palm going up to cover the side of her face as he buried his in her hair, and the hat flew right from Dumbledore’s head.

“I’ve gotten what I wanted already! Mark my words, Dumbledore, this isn’t the last you’ll see of Lord Voldemort in these walls! MARK MY WORDS!” Gaunt shouted, laughing heartily, “I got what I wanted.” He grinned. “See you soon Potter.

Gaunt turned as the gust continued and Dumbledore stood up against it quickly, raising his wand, but before he could, Gaunt had pushed his way onto the balcony and Dumbledore went after him, and there was a roaring sound and the windows shattered as a second gust of the air came from Gaunt’s palms. Dumbledore lashed his wand, a firey rope emitted, whipping across the space between them, aiming for Gaunt’s ankles and Gaunt stepped around it and laughed, “Have to do better than that old man!” but before Dumbledore could do a thing, Gaunt threw himself over the rail of the balcony.

Remus’s eyes widened and he leaped to his feet, “What in the --”

But Gaunt had not thrown himself to his death, no, rather he transformed himself as he jumped over and his body became like black smoke, and he appeared like an asteroid as he flew over the grounds, the trailing stream of black billowing cloud drawing a streaky line over the grounds, all the way to the gates of the castle, where it pressed through and disappeared.