Chapter Text
Waking up was a slow affair. The first thing Remus felt after leaving the land of dreams was a warm body snuggled to his back. The second was a quiet shuffle coming from somewhere beside him.
“G’morning,” he mumbled, struggling to open his eyes and finally seeing his lanky figure sliding from the room.
“Go back to sleep,” the man answered, softly closing the door.
But the sleep seemed to avoid him now that Remus was awake. He grunted and rolled to his other side, seeing a mop of blue hair there.
The four of them ended up in a cuddle pile on the floor of the living room, having brought an atrocious amount of mattresses, blankets, and cushions. After hours of trying to figure out how to make the Time Turner work Poppy and Minerva went to their room, and neither of the others wanted to take a small guest room, hence the accommodation they ended up in.
Remus tucked the blanket around Teddy as he stood up and tried to be quiet as he walked out of the room.
“Told you he won’t sleep for much longer,” Sirius’ chirp voice sounded, and a stimming mug appeared next to the other two.
“Well, sometimes I manage to go back to sleep, so there was a chance.”
“Yeah, one out of ten.”
“That's quite a good possibility.”
Remus watched with amusement the banter two men were immersed in. In the end, he interrupted them with “Good morning to you two too, happy to see you too.”
“Yeah, so we are, kid. I’m just saying you could use a lie-in.”
“Who even likes lying in at,” Sirius looked at the clock in the corner of the room, “6.30 am.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Teddy. Lily. Poppy and Minnie. You. ”
“Excuse you, I am up and shining.”
“Yes, and that happens two or three times a year.”
“Are the ladies that into sleeping?” Remus interrupted once again, falling more than sitting on the chair, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “Wouldn’t peg them a type.”
“They are,” Sirius answered enthusiastically.
“It’s just difficult for them to indulge in this habit in their line of work,” Remus added. “They’ll sleep through half a day if given a chance.”
They sat there for a couple of minutes after that, seeping their respective drinks. Sirius was indeed surprisingly lively, given the fact that he used to be the last one to get up back in Remus’ time.
“So when I was with Ted yesterday,” Remus started, keeping his eyes on the cup in his hands, “he asked me something. He asked me if I’ll run under the moon with you.”
“Oh,” his own gasp sounded, and looking up he saw the same speechless expressions.
“Well, yeah, that’s a good question,” Remus ran a hand through his greying locks.
“You-, you haven't told me it’s the moon already,” it sounded almost like a question. He was confused as to why they wouldn’t do that.
“Well, we actually hoped we'd manage to find a solution before that,” Sirius answered.
“Haven’t you felt that?” Remus saw his own dark brown eyes inquiring.
“Yes, now that I think about it,” Remus thought back to the usual feeling of being tired and his limbs throbbing slightly that accompanied him for the past couple of days. “I guess I just wasn’t mentally ready to entertain the idea of a full moon so soon after the last one.”
That got him a squeeze of the shoulder from Sirius and the understanding look from Remus. Yeah. That was for sure a little too much for one week.
“So,” he cleared his throat, looking back to the cup still in his hands, though his tea wasn’t as hot as it was before. “How do we do this? I don’t think the Ministry will appreciate a time travelling werewolf in their cells, not that I particularly like the idea, and I’m not sure if the Shack would take three werewolves-”
“Oh no, no, no,” Sirius cut in with a wide smile. “Forget those barbarian habits. We are not incaging the nice freedom-loving people now. We let them run.”
“What do you mean, run?” Remus furrowed his eyebrows, looking from one man to the other.
“Isn’t that what Teddy told you? It’s not like there are too many meanings to the phrase run under the moon. ” Remus saw the smirk appearing on his own older face, not quite like Sirius’ grin, but what he came to think of as a sarcastic expression.
“Yeah Ted told me exactly that, I just didn't quite understand. I thought maybe that's a euphemism to make it sound not as bad as it is for Ted.”
“Oh kid, no, it’s not that.” The sarcastic smirk changed into a softer one. “We do run under the moon. As in get out into the fresh air and stay there for the whole night.”
“Isn’t it-” dangerous. Illegal. Potentially murderous.
“It’s really not. I used to go to the deserted places as far from any Cities and villages as possible and change there. But with Teddy here it’s more difficult to apparate, cause he feels sick every time, and so we need some kind of a safe hut nearby to rest after changing back.”
“So what do you do?” Remus watched their faces, trying to understand the implications of all the new information.
“We spend the moons in the Forbidden Forest.”
Remus let out an audible gasp. “What? Is it-”
“It’s really okay. We set up the magic wards around it so that no students would be able to come in and so that The Wolves wouldn’t run out of it. Professor McGonagall comes to check them every month in case something happens.”
“Alright, that means no people. But there are still lots of creatures in the forest. Centaurs, thestrals, I’ve heard there are unicorns there.”
“Yeah, and all of them are completely capable of standing for themselves. And the Wolves aren’t really interested in any of them. Something about the magic flowing differently through them, or about their smell. And in case something happens we have Sirius here with us.”
“And what about Sirius-”
Remus didn't manage to hear the answer though, as Sirius jumped from the chair, and in a moment there was a big black dog in place. The dog barked happily, and came to Remus, resting his paws on the boy’s thighs and licking his cheeks enthusiastically.
“Holy fuck,” Remus whispered, running his hands through the dog’s soft fur. “How did you-, Did you really-”
“They really did,” the man across from Remus answered as he watched with amusement how frantically the dog wiggled his tail, nudging his head against Remus’ hand, clearly asking to be runned behind his ear.
“They?”
“The three of them. Sirius, James, and Peter,” Remus’ expression was fond but saddened now. “They became animagi during our fifth year. James is a deer, Pete is-, was a rat. And Sirius turns in this big furball you see now.”
“Look at yourself, Mister ‘Furry Little Problem’,” Sirius recounted turning back into a human and pecking the top of his boyfriend’s head before sitting down. “So, how did you like Padfoot?”
“Padfoot?”
“Yeah, that cool dog with a cute face and pretty eyes,” Sirius answered, while the man next to him explained, “They all have the names for their animal versions. This one is Padfoot,” he bumped his shoulder with Sirius’, “James is Prongs.”
“And you are Moony,” Sirius smiled widely, gauging Remus' reaction.
“O-okay, so that’s what these weird nicknames are,” Remus tried to wrap his head around all this new information. “Okay, so you tell me, that you went through the impossibly complicated process of becoming animagi while still in school? And all this for…”
“And all this to be able to help you through the moons.”
“Oh. Well, thanks I guess?”
“No need to thank us. We are happy to do this,” Sirius leaned in to rest his head on his boyfriend's shoulder, who wrapped his arm around him in return.
“The Wolf actually was kind of lonely. And really didn’t like the idea of being in a closed space when all the instincts tell him to run, to smell the fresh night air, to howl on the moon. Dealing with those two factors almost completely solves the problem.”
“Wow,” Remus thought back to all his full moons, trying to remember if he had felt like that. He couldn’t very well remember the nights spent as The Wolf, all of them reduced to the pain of transformations and the numbness of the animal’s mind.
He did remember the feeling of being trapped, of wanting to get out. If he had someone there to occupy him otherwise… If he could get out… “I guess I can see how these new laws of yours change the situation,” he smiled at Sirius.
In a moment, both of the men’s faces darkened. Sirius bit his lip and looked down as a crease appeared between Remus’ eyebrows, his eyes growing distant.
“There is no law like that,” Sirius answered the silent question. “And they are actually trying to push back. They pretend to care about the people, so they want all the werewolves to be in the Ministry during the full moons. No exceptions. They’d like to go as far as to chip all of them, to keep track.”
“But that’s-,” Remus spluttered. “That’s, isn’t it against human rights?”
“Yes, but it’s not like we were ever considered to be humans, were we?” Remus asked darkly.
“How is it even possible then? I mean, if it's proven that being free, even on the fenced territory, worked out better…” Remus’ voice trailed off.
“That’s the problem,” his older self answered, smirking mirthlessly “That’s not exactly proven.”
“Well, can’t there be research? A way to prove it’s better this way?”
“Surely there is a way,” Sirius looked up, the spark in his eyes gone as well. “But not everyone is willing to listen. And some people insist on going against us.”
“In what way?”
Sirius eyes’ flicked to the man next to him. He then took a deep inhale.
“They brought up Dora’s story.”
“You mean… The girl who turned Teddy?”
“Yes, that Dora. ”
“But… From what future you told me she was young? And she was new to this werewolf thing with no one to help her? And she was actually trying to get to the Ministry when the moon came?”
“Yeah, that’s how you see the story. And it’s not exactly how the others”
“And how do they,” Remus asked, feeling the cold feeling colling in his stomach.
“They say that even the youngest, the ‘most innocent’, the newly turned werewolves are ready to attack, kill or turn even the innocent kids.”
“Who would even say it, if she was just a kid herself?”
“Well, remember good old Dumbledore? He is a Minister now. He became one at the end of the summer. We gathered our case on the new werewolf laws in October. He was against it. He was the one to be against us on this issue.”
“What? Why? He… Professor Dumblerdore always did what is best for others. He let me study at Hogwarts. He let that man, Hagrid, live on the school grounds and be a groundskeeper, though I heard that he was accused of killing someone. And Filch! He isn’t even a wizard, but he gave him a home and job.”
“Okay, kid, look. All of that is true,” Sirius shook his head, leaning hard on his elbows, “but at the same time, there is so much more to that. Have you ever thought about the fact that in a castle full of people with magic, the one overseeing cleanliness and hygiene is a man without it, living in a dingy and windowless office? You don’t know that yet, but Hagrid was actually falsely accused. Dumbledore knew that, but he didn’t do anything beyond the bare minimum.”
“Yeah, but, I don’t get it. He let me study at Hogwarts. Nobody else would…”
“And that would be their fault,” there was a storm Remus saw in his own eyes. The man looked down, rubbing unconsciously the skin between his thumb and forefinger. “You know that neither Beauxbaton nor Ilvermony have this problem? The werewolf students study there and that’s okay. Not ideal, but okay.”
Remus looked down, trying to piece it all together. Dumbledore was the first person to allow a werewolf student to Hogwarts. Why would he be against werewolf rights laws now? Maybe it was in fact dangerous. Maybe-
“Look, I wouldn't even have a job now if he was still a Headmaster.”
“Why’s that?” Remus looked up. “Haven't you been here since last year? When he was still here?”
“Yes, it is indeed the second year of me teaching in Hogwarts. Last year was a good one, relatively speaking. I loved being a Professor, loved helping children, loved seeing them learning more and more new stuff. It was a little weird having my past Professors as my colleagues, but their company was genuinely fine and welcoming. By the end of the year, shit hit the fan though. Someone revealed the fact that I was a werewolf. Some of the parents started sending the letters, asking Professor Dumbledore to fire me. The others sent me the letters. The most courteous ones asked the same, the others were death threats.”
“I was ready to go, and Dumbledore agreed with that, but Professor McGonagall wasn’t having this shit. She said that I was one of the best Defence teachers, and she had seen lots of them and that losing a Professor over bigotry like this would be stupid. That was soon after the Social Department of the Ministry opened, and the main idea behind that department was supporting different people and fighting against bias. Well, as much as the Ministry could understand that, because explaining a bunch of purebloods why living the way they did for centuries and viewing anyone not from their tight circle as inferior is bad. But we’ve already seen what indulging into hatred towards those, who aren’t like you, can lead to, and not having to go through one more war is a very good reason to see the world with new eyes.”
“With that in mind, we went to Dumbledore. He said that he is really sorry for me but he can’t do anything. He said he lost a lot of greater teachers due to this stupid curse, and he actually can’t do anything about it.”
“Also that it’s great for students to try different teaching types anyways,” Sirius chuckled humorlessly.
“And that. I’m not sure what happened after that. Minerva asked me to leave them alone, and the next day Dumbledore announced that he was quitting. I guess Minerva had some kind of evidence on him, though she refuses to talk about it.”
They sat in tense silence for a couple of minutes after that, each in their thoughts.
“It’s gonna get better. And these laws would be passed. You told me that.”
“Well, that’s certainly something to be looking forward to.” The man’s smile was warm. “Now let’s get through the moon and get you home, yeah?”
The first sunrays have just started appearing in the night sky when Remus was shaken awake.
“Remus! Remus! You need to wake up.”
It was Sirius and he was looking frantic.
It couldn’t be long since they came back from their night in the forest. Remus was sprawled across the sofa in the Shack, covered with a thick blanket.
“Sirius?” he whispered, sleepily turning away. “Can’t it wait?”
He was tired from the night they had.
It was weird to feel just that. Well, he was also rather hungry and his body was sore from his bones and muscles turning into those of the wolf.
Still, it must have been the nicest full moon he had in a long time. Maybe ever.
Obviously, he didn’t remember a lot, his mind was mostly overpowered by The Wolf’s. So whatever memories he had now were muffled and perceived through the prism of the animal’s perception.
It was nice though. He remembered the happiness he felt as they left the shack. He remembered being overwhelmed by all the smells he could feel so close for the first time in his life. He remembered the overpowering urge to howl at the moon, now that he could see it only through the crack in the wall.
And he remembered running around with the others, playing, getting back to look for the pup when he had fallen behind.
All of this was very nice.
“Sorry, Rem, but it can’t,” Sirius shook him, once more for good measure, then started the explanation. “The Ministry came here.”
“What?” that got Remus’ answer, as he hastily sat up, all the remnants of sleep gone.
“People from the Ministry came. They want to see us. Say that the laws are breached. You need to go to the castle, we don’t want them to see you.”
Remus was already standing up, tagging on his pants, and trying to button his shirt.
“But what about all of you?”
“We’ll be alright. Poppy is about to come and take Ted to the castle, and Minerva is waiting there for you. While we were having a fun night she figured out how to get you back home,” Sirius smiled widely. He took the invisibility cloak from his bag, giving it to Remus.
Home. It was strange for Remus right now. The wish to get back was the main thing he concentrated on for the past week or so. Home was good. Home was safe. Home was… so fucking lonely.
He knew it wasn’t true. It just wasn’t. But it surely felt like that.
He knew he had the best friends. He knew his friends would support him. He knew his friends would accept him, just the way he is.
But that’s the problem. He knew it now. The Remus he was a week ago and the same Remus he would become in less than an hour if Professor McGonagall really knew what to do, that Remus doesn’t know that.
That Remus is desperate. That Remus is exhausted. That Remus believes he is alone.
And all the confidence Remus got in a week. All this knowledge and understanding of lycanthropy as something neutral, just like humanity is, just a part of himself, and not a disease, an abomination. It would be gone in less than an hour.
And Remus couldn’t do anything about that. That’s how the time works. It wouldn’t risk ruining everything.
Remus couldn’t risk ruining everything as well. He saw with his own eyes how much love he would have. How many people who care and who he cares about he would have. He wouldn’t risk all of them even if he had a chance. But he didn’t.
He just felt so powerless right now. Unable to do anything but go with the flow.
“Okay. Can’t I wait until the people from the Ministry are gone to go back?”
“You could,” sounded from the doorway, Remus coming in. “But we genuinely think it would be better if you do that now.”
“Things are about to get hectic here soon,” Sirius said, coming closer to Remus, clasping his shoulder. “They would want to investigate. They are trying to take us in for breaching the law, for Remus and Ted not spending the moon in the cells, but the law is that they did nothing wrong. We’ll prove that, but they would want to poke their noses around here before accepting that.”
“It’s gonna be alright, kid,” the older Remus came closer to them, tugging both him and Sirius into a tight hug. “Minerva will get you home and we’ll fight the Ministry pricks. I promise.”
“I believe that,” the involuntary sob left Remus’ throat. “I know that. I saw you in the future. I just-”
I just want to stay here for a bit longer. Here, where the Ministry was trying to tell him he doesn’t deserve to be called human, being even worse than they are back in his time. Where it is dangerous to stay, for no one knows what they would do to the other time’s werewolf. Where it feels so safe.
“I know, kid. I know,” the man murmured into his hair, and Remus knew he really got it. “I promise, you’ll get through it and it will be so much worth it.”
“I know.”
“Dad?”
The faint voice sounder and one small figure added to their hugging pile. “Why are you all up so early?”
“Remus needs to go home, Ted.”
“Oh,” the boy crawled out from them, the thudding steps going to the next room and then back. “Here.” He gave something to Remus, trying to shove it right into his hand.”
He reluctantly separated, hands still staying on his shoulder and gently ruffling his hair. In his hand was a drawing from yesterday.
Only there was one more figure added to three that already were there.
Dad, me, Papa, Remus.
He was drawn with a yellow, just as the sun at the top of the drawing.
“You can take it back with you,” the boy was slightly bouncing. “And put it on the wall, as we do now with my drawings. ”
“Thanks, Teddy,” he crouched down, squeezing the boy tightly, switching to tickling his sides, producing the squealed giggles.
“Okay,” he stood up after a minute, his hand ruffling Teddy’s blue hair. “I’m ready to go.”
He was once more enveloped into a hug, though it was brief.
“Travel safely, kid.”
“Give all the kisses to your time’s Sirius.” And okay, wasn’t that a nice thought?
“Oi, they are like three years before that and you know it as much as I do.”
“Well, nobody ever said no to quickening the process,” Sirius winked at him.
“Oka-ay,” Remus refused to acknowledge the blush lingering on his cheeks. “Stay safe, you all, okay?”
“Sure. We went through more than a few Ministry Dugbog-heads, don’t worry about us.”
“Okay. I’ll try.”
“Come on then,” Sirius pressed a kiss to his boyfriend’s lips, leaned down to kiss Teddy’s temple, and then tugged Remus to the door.
Remus took the cloak, and with the last look back to the Shack, he followed Sirius out.
The early morning was remarkably cold and crispy. It was nice to see the forest he ran through as the Wolf in the early morning lights.
They walked in silence until one more person, Remus, joined them.
“Poppy came for Teddy,” he whispered, looking ahead of himself.
They stopped at the edge of the forest, seeing two figures halfway through the path from the gates to the Hogwarts doors.
“We’ll go talk to these prats and you go to Minnie, she has to be waiting at the entrance of the Headmistress Tower,” Sirius said, his eyes concentrated on the Ministry workers. He then looked at Remus, and he was once again enveloped in a tight hug. “Get home safe, you hear me? It’d be really sad to not have you as my boyfriend, as my future husband, and as my best friend.” He stepped back, leaving his place for Remus’ older self.
“Travel safe, kid,” the man whispered in his ear. “And it’ll all be alright.”
“Okay,” was everything Remus managed to say. “You too. Be safe.”
“We’ll be,” the men answered. Remus wore the Cloak, and the three of them started moving to the castle.
“Mister Black! Mister Lupin! It’s great to see that you joined our impromptu little meeting.” The figures they saw turned to them, revealing Albus Dumbledore, who looked the same way he looked in Remus’ time, and a blond long-haired man with a pale, pointed face.
“Albus, Lucius,” Sirius’ voice was cold and sharp. “What kind of a meeting is it, so early on a Sunday morning?”
“You know what this meeting is about, Black,” the man, apparently Lucius, bristled. “I’m sure even you can guess why we are here. You breached the law. Do you know what it entails?”
“What law?”
“You know that too.”
“Come on,” Remus exhaled tiredly, “It’s completely legal to spend the night out of the Ministry, as soon as we are sure no harm would be caused.”
“Not with the new law, no.”
“There would be no law like that, and I'm willing to die on this hill. And there certainly was nothing like that on Friday evening. Or do you mean that you passed the law on Saturday when the Ministry doesn’t even work?”
“Even if it is so, do you really think spending it in a school full of children is the best option?”
“It is completely safe and has been so for more than ten years. I’m sure Albus could prove that.”
“I’m sorry, Remus, but I don’t think I can agree with you on that. I guess taking you to school was a mistake. Too dangerous.”
“Is this a joke? ”
Remus entered Hogwarts then, the door muffling all the sounds
He quickly approached the Headmistress’ tower, where Professor McGonagall was already waiting.
“Hello.”
“Come with me, Mister Lupin,” the woman whispered the password and started going up the spiral staircase leading to the Headmistress Office.
That’s it. He was one staircase apart from his own time, his friends, his life. But Remus felt stuck. How could he go? He couldn’t leave all those people who helped him, who cared for him, behind.
“Remus,” Professor stopped and turned back. It was the first time she called him, him and not his older version by the name. “They’ll be alright.”
“How do you know that?” Remus frowned, still not walking further.
Minerva let out a sigh, and waved the door to close, nudging Remus in. “Come on. I’ll explain.”
Hesitantly, Remus started taking the stairs, waiting for what the woman had to say.
“You have been to the future, right?” she turned her head to look at him. “Have all of you been alright there? Alive, healthy, not imprisoned?”
“Yes. But- How do you know the future isn’t changing itself right as we are talking? What if Sirius’ laws aren’t passed, what if Teddy is taken away, what if-”
“What if nothing like that happens?” They finally reached the top of the stairs, Professor McGonagall pushing the door and coming in, gesturing for Remus to come after her. “The time as we know it is not all solid. We think that the future is never decided. But you’ve been to the future. Whatever happens right now has already happened for those you met there.”
“But Professor,” Remus thought about the thing he kept coming back to again and again lately. Remus fell rather than sat on the chair. “Why didn't they have memories of this in this case? If it had already happened for them, that means they would already have known about me time travelling, and how the Time Turner really works and we wouldn’t have searched for hours.” He looked up at the woman in front of him, who took a seat with much more grace than he did
“Well, Mister Lupin, there may be many explanations for this phenomenon.” The woman took the Time Turner from the top cabinet, placing it carefully on her table. “Maybe they forgot,” she smirked at Remus’ affronted gasp. “Maybe the time cleared the evidence of your travel for things to go their own way, same as your memories would be cleared out if you wouldn’t do it beforehand. Maybe, and that’s my actual best guess,” she looked right into his eyes. “Okay, no, we need to discuss something else before that. Do you know what this is?” She took a silver basin from the shelf, putting it on the table.
“Pensieve.”
“Do you know how it works?”
“In general terms, Professor. You syphon the memories into it and after that, they could be viewed from a non-participant, third-person point of view.”
“That’s right, that’s how it usually works,” Professor McGonagall nodded, sliding a finger along the rim of the basin.
“Usually? Do you mean there is another way to use it?”
“There is. Nobody usually talks about it, because it's too… intimate. Even the usual way the Pensive is used, with the owner of the memories pouring them into the basin and making it possible for the others to watch them, to abuse them, is highly personal. But what I am to tell you… It is even more than that.”
She sighed, looking up to Remus, “As you said, the usual way Pensieve is used it is possible to watch the memories from the third-person. But there is a way to extract and conserve the memories so one could get through all of them as if these are their own memories, all the thoughts, all the feelings ensued. ”
“Oh. That’s… a lot.”
“It is. But the memories of this kind, they can’t be both here and there. After one extracts them, they forget everything until and if they take them back.” Her gaze grew distant, features sharpening. “The most often use is at the war, for when one needs to do a secret service and is scared that the enemies would torture the information out of them.”
Remus just sat there, trying to assess all the new information as Professor McGonagal visibly shook herself, looking back at Remus. “Anyway, I had a talk with Professor Lupin recently, and he told me that going back to your time and being forcefully stripped from everything you got and learned here might be hard for you.”
“It is,” Remus answered, trying to wrap his mind around everything. “So, does that mean that I can get the memories of all this time out of me myself? And then get them back?”
“You can.”
And that brought a whole lot of new possibilities to Remus. It wasn’t an ideal solution. He would still be back to his old self the way he had been a week ago.
But that gave him a choice. A possibility to do it himself. Not to just passively give up what he got, but to voluntarily leave it here.
And then get them back.
If he would want to.
“That also answers your question about why the people from the future do not remember all this.”
“You think they had stored, they would store their memories?”
‘’I do. It makes the most sense to me. It’s not like we could depend on the chance here. If they wouldn’t do that, they’ll know how to send you back right into your time. If you do just that, you wouldn’t come here. If you don’t come here, neither of us would know how the Time Turner works. It creates a paradox, and it’s not really good.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Are you going to wipe your memories as well?” he looked up at the woman in front of him.
“No,” she smiled mischievously. “Someone needs to know how to retrieve them after all the hard work is done back in the future.”
“So you aren’t going to help us then?”
“It seems like you all would manage just fine,” she answers. “Now, let’s get you back until something else happens.”
“Okay, so what do we do?” Remus asked, eyeing the Time Turner and the Pensieve in front of him.
Omnino Oblivisci
He muttered a spell, concentrating on all the memories of the past days. Thinking of the moment he found himself in a dark alley, watching himself finding Teddy. He thought of the way he met Sirius, thought of all the changes he had seen in him, in himself, in the others. He thought of those hours of research along with Lily and James, and the latter hours of research in Professor McGonagall’s house. Of all the easy affection he and Sirius would be showing. Of Teddy’s drawings. Of the night of freedom, he had never experienced before.
Remus felt a soft tug in his mind, prodding on some part of it. The tug got harder and a wave of nausea hit him as he felt the memories coming out of him, pouring as the shining light sticking to his wand.
The feeling stopped and Remus quickly removed the wand from his temple, trying to put it to the bottle opening, seeing his memories being poured into it.
The feeling of sickness didn’t stop, and he felt dizziness and a new wave of nausea adding to it.
And then it all stopped. He looked around himself, trying to get fully back to himself, thinking about where and why he was.
Oh.
“I-, I don’t think it worked,” he looked at Professor McGonagall, who was now holding a vial with a shiny white liquid in it. “I remember everything.”
“That’s alright,” she answered, putting a vial down on the table and taking the Time Turner. “From what they say there are ghosts of the memories left in your mind after the spell. You remember what you lost for a couple of minutes, and we need to send you back in that time.”
“Okay,” he nodded, looking into himself, trying to gauge if the memories felt any different. The answer was kind of. They seemed to be blurry and he couldn’t feel the same connection to them as he did to the others. But he could still reach out and bring up certain events, thoughts, or emotions from the past few days. “So what do we do now? And how did you figure out how it works?”
“Well, Mister Lupin,” the woman smiled contentedly, “as it often happens, the answer was hidden in plain sight. I was going through the dictionary Juan left us, trying to see if anything would work on it. I tried using the translating spell, though I don’t think the scheme of translating English words to another language and hoping that it would turn out to be a spell, especially considering the differences appearing between the ancient languages and their modern versions.”
“And then I thought about how these people were close to Nature and close to Mundanes. Bringing in a spell, that would just turn the band, to the whole tangle of already existing for the time travel itself just didn’t sound right. So I did something like this,” she pressed a bump on the side of the hourglass which Remus didn’t know was there, and twisted the band at the same time, “and here we are. Now just set up the right time.”
“Thank you,” Remus felt his eyes watering as he took the Time Turner from Professor McGonagall. It was irrational right now, but he was overwhelmed with being so close to going home, with leaving this time, with getting to live a great life he had seen here. “Thank you for the help.”
“You are welcome anytime, Remus,” the woman took his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. “I mean it. Just try not to get into this much trouble, okay? And keep your friends from it.”
“Yeah, alright,” Remus laughed softly. “Alright.”
Now nothing was stopping him from going back. Everything was said and done.
He pressed the bump and twisted the band to the years.
Ten years, two seasons, six days, and twelve hours.
He’d get back a little later than he left, just to avoid one more time problem.
Remus twisted the band, turning the hourglass the right number of times.
Only one thing left now.
He looked up to the woman in front of him, who smiled softly.
“Gusto ko nga mopauli.”
I want to go home.
The now familiar feeling of drag of time took over him, returning him home. To his friends, to his life.
He won't know it in a minute, but he’ll be back to a life full of wonders.
And everything would be alright.
Remus wasn’t sure how a kid’s drawing got into his pocket. He wasn’t sure what exactly it was drawn. A family of sorts, judging by the barely legible inscriptions. And still, he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away, storing it far down his trunk.
His time travelling plan didn’t work out, as he was just sitting at the same place after turning the hourglass.
It was a stupid idea anyway.