Chapter Text
Warlocks Of Hogsmeade
Part 1: The Woman in Gaunt Manor
Chapter 1: The Teacher in The Dunes
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“Someone bought the Gaunt Mansion.”
That's what Sirius had said on the phone and like a flood the vision had come to him unabated. He could see a woman, though there were no details, standing in the dunes along the border of the estate. Her hair was long, thick curls blowing in the wind and obscuring her face. He knew then, in a way he had learned not to question over his years in Hogsmeade, as definitely as he knew his own name, that she would be his lover.
“Did you catch her name?” Remus asks, interrupting Sirius’ long winded explanation of whatever “bullshit” his ex-wife was trying to pull now. Remus was almost certain that he was exaggerating, knowing that Marlene wanted even less to do with Sirius than Sirius did with her. Remus knew he only complained about her and their few interactions over the years because his ego had been bruised when she filed for divorce first.
“You know it’s funny you should ask that. I know for a fact that Ol’ Millie told me, because I remember commenting on it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is.” Sirius replies, his voice tinny over the phone line.
Remus hums. “She’s a researcher though, apparently plans to expand the library, don’t know where she plans to get all the books to fill thought. Millie insists it will rival Hagwarts’ library. Oh and Millie says she’s an accomplished pianist. Has several of the things.”
Not long after they finish their conversation, reiterating their weekly get together the next night before hanging up.
The urge to go out hits him rather suddenly that afternoon. He blames his wandering thoughts and the melancholy of a perfect August Wednesday, still warm and bright despite the nearing end of summer. He despised it, the heat, the sun, the humidity this far north. With a sigh, Remus pulls himself from the syllabus he’s putting together, disrupting the grey wolf hound that napped at his feet. The dog sits up, watching him as he crosses the short distance to the door and the hooks on the wall beside it. As soon as the leash comes off the hook, the wolf hound is up, trotting over and panting happily.
“A walk on the beach Moony, what do you think?” Remus asks, clipping his leash and opening the door. Moony darts out, tugging Remus after him. He barely gets the door closed before following the large k-9 out to the car where he hops up into the back seat.
The drive to the beach isn’t long, only about two miles from his home on the inner outskirts of town to the shore on the other side. The fact that he has to drive past the long lane of a driveway of Gaunt Manor is simply a coincidence. He assures himself of this, even as he stops at the end, eyeing the shallow waves of water from the marshes surrounding the manor grounds. It’ll be another hour before the tide recedes enough for anyone to pass safely and so he drives on, trying not to think too hard on the figure in the front turret window of the manor.
The beach is full of teens and young lovers, enjoying the last dregs of summer before the school kids take over the town. Hogsmeade is a small town, a village really, at the base of a mountain where an enormous castle rests. The castle, built in the early thirteen hundreds had been converted into a boarding school in the thirties where the wealthy elite could send their children to avoid the coming war. Remus, though not of the elite, had attended the school in the seventies on a scholarship and would leave only for a few years to pursue higher education before returning to the castle and the surrounding village where so many happy memories had been made, to teach. He’d been here for the last five years, reaching the ripe old age of thirty in March of that very same year.
Remus helps Moony out of the car and lets the massive dog pull him toward the sand. The sand shifts under his old wellington boots, his blue jeans tucked in to the calf length brown shoes and the old t-shirt proclaiming his pride as a Gryffindor, though faded too much for anyone at a distance to see it, all felt overbearing in the heat of the last week of August.
Remus keeps his head down as Moony weaves his way through the small clumps of sunbathers and young lovers, trying not to be noticed. The children of Hogsmeade attend Hogwarts for no more than the cost of their books and supplies, an agreement made with the townspeople to grant discounts and other stipulations to the students who were allowed to frequent the town on Friday nights and throughout the weekend. He knows each and every one of the bodies on the beach; has taught them or will teach them again come September first. He has always been a firm believer in letting children be children and the last thing he wants is to put a damper on their fun by being recognized.
He makes it to the wet packed sand unnoticed and tugs Moony gently toward the edge of the public beach where a high cement break wave rests. If one were to follow this wall inland, they would find dunes of sand scattered tightly together, cresting a hill and making their way down the other side where sand would eventually give way to grass and eventually marsh land.
Remus finds the dunes have grown since the last round of summer storms and he inwardly curses, then questions why. Surely it could not be because, were the dunes just slightly shorter, one would be able to see clear across the marsh and directly into the ivy laced back wall of Gaunt Manor. No, that couldn’t be it. Remus was not a man who indulged such curiosities. He rarely indulged in much else either these days, but that was neither here nor there. No, the fact of the matter was, there was no way that Remus John Lupin, double master of Literature and Education could possibly be prone to a flight of fancy such as that of an unknown woman. He was not Sirius after all.
Turning away from the wall, Remus stands at the water line, staring out despite the harsh sunlight at the horizon. The melancholy that has seemingly taken over his life rears up within him and he grows angry at it, cursing himself for feeling such a way when there was nothing to feel such a way about. He had a good life, wonderful friends, and a faithful familiar. Surely he could find something amongst that list to cheer him up.
And yet he couldn’t. Every month he felt the same overwhelming melancholy.
The thought burdened him and he used that sorrow to dig deep inside himself. Deep into the well of power he had so recently discovered.
“Let the outside match the inside.” he thinks to himself tilting his face up to the sky and closing his eyes. It begins slowly, a cooling breeze that brings with it clouds to blot out the sun. As the sky grows dark Remus mutters the names of power, invoking one after the other. He can hear the children in the distance exclaiming their worry to each other, calling out to pack up quickly. Lightning splits the sky with thin boney fingers and he counts the seconds between light and sound. This storm he has conjured it no more than two miles wide, but he feels drunk with the power he is reminded he commands. His heart races with the energy, the electric buzz in the air making the fine hairs on his arms stand on end. And then the rain comes, lighting screams as the stragglers rush off the beach to the parking lot, now soaked with the sudden downpour. The rain washes over his upturned face, cleansing him of the dark feelings that clouded his mind. Clarity comes to him smoothly, sliding against his mind like soft silk.
He’s being watched.
His eyes open as the storm winds down, the rain once fat with his sorrow now a mist clinging to the shore. He turns slowly, eyes searching out his observer and landing on a figure at the top of the dunes. A woman, long dark curly hair blowing in the wind, her face obscured by it. He reaches out with his magic without thinking, changing the direction of the wind to free her face of obstruction. He’s met with bright whiskey brown eyes and ruby red lips turned up in amusement. The pure white sun dress she wears is not wet, despite the fact that the rain has not entirely stopped.
“Impressive.” her voice flutters to his ear as if she were standing right beside him. He takes a step, intent to go to her, his body moving on instinct but in an instant he blinks and she’s gone.