Four: Hope and Desperation

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

Title: Hope and Desperation
Rating: PG
Prompt: # 4 at barefootboys
Word Count: 450
Summary: Remus is used to desperation. AU

August 4^th, 1982

The morning of the full moon, Remus Lupin receives a letter from Albus Dumbledore. The owl that delivers it is large and tawny; it swoops through the window and drops the letter on Remus’ copy of Hamlet, which he is reading at the kitchen table. Remus does not very often receive mail any more, and it startles him. He has become unaccustomed to the constant coming and going of owls, which he took so calmly during his school days, and afterwards, when letters to and from his friends travelled back and forth daily. The owl lands on his shoulder and pulls his hair gently in her beak, and then leaves again, back out the kitchen window and into the pale blue sky.

Slowly, Remus opens the letter, recognizing with surprise the clear, slanting writing so particular to the Headmaster.

Dear Remus,
    This letter does not, perhaps, reach you on the best of days, but I do hope you are well in spite of it. The timing is not to be helped.
Yesterday I went on business to Azkaban. I was just leaving, finished with my business, when I passed the cell of Sirius Black. He looked—not well, certainly, but alive. Coherent. Human, as many other prisoners do not. I spoke to him, and he answered quite intelligently, though without any of the humour he once possessed. He told me a story. A story I believe to have the appearance of truth. He told me he is innocent.
The full tale I would like to relate to you in person. If you would like to visit me at Hogwarts this Friday, it would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore

-

Remus is used to desperation. By now he has absorbed it into his skin, to the point where without it he would feel truly naked. But he is only now realizing that the thing he is desperate for is hope.

That evening, Remus goes down to the basement cellar of his parents’ house. He bolts and bars the door, and locks it by magic. He puts his wand carefully into the solid wooden chest at one corner of the room, so that he does not step on it or chew it and break it when he is the wolf. He strips off his clothes and folds them carefully, setting them atop the chest. He wraps himself in a blanket, and waits.

The night is not any easier than it has been in the year since he last had the company of his now-broken pack, but it has lost some of the desperation that usually comes with the violence. The wolf, like the man, allows itself to hope.

Day Five

Comments

[auberus.livejournal.com]

ohgod! and now i'm all on edge. damn you...

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

Heehee! Yay for being on edge! By the way, I refreshed my flist again, to see, of all things, a new chapter of Destruction Where You Stand! I then proceeded to squee like a mad thing. I may have just overused that most fabulous of punctuation marks, the exclamation point!

Oh dear.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

...have you ever read Terry Pratchett? He has some wonderful things to say on the use of exclamation points. Because he rocks.

and yeah, that chapter kind of finished itself out of nowhere. I was pretty surprised myself.

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

I have not, actually, though perhaps I should.

Well, it was a very good chapter. I love it when writing does that.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

you *must* read Terry Pratchett. He is Indispensable. Indispensable, I say!

Start with 'Guards, Guards'. If you don't like it, I shall write you as much MWPP fic as you desire as penance.

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

Righto, I have just orderd Guards! Guards! from the library. I was wanting something particularly spiffing to read, anyway.

I shall hold you to that. The world can always use more MWPP fic.

Hey, I just saw lightning. And thunder. Er, heard the thunder.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

ooh, thunderstorms. i love those.

and you must tell me what you think of 'guards, guards', because i love pimping books to people.

(order good omens, too. i make the same offer re: mwpp fic.)

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

The pimping of books (and other things--movies, fic) is such fun. Especially when it creates yet another person to squee over things with.

I have just done so. I will be able to make good use of my very long bus rides in reading.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

*mwa ha ha*

spreading my fandoms, one person at a time...

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

I love spreading fandoms. I have to take all the credit for spreading the fabulousness of Shoebox Project to two of my friends, and a large amount of the credit for obsessing one of said friends with Remus/Sirius in general. My next goal is to get her to write fic.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

oh, shoebox.

i love it so.

yeah, i definitely got my beta into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, mainly because Spike kind of lives in my brain and makes me write lots of fic about him. (stupid vampire)

(i'd also like to apologize for general incoherency. i am so very, very stoned right now, thanks to the miracles of modern medicine and health insurance.)

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

I place humble offerings of bits of my brain on golden plates before the alter of Shoebox.

I am very used to incoherency. I spend a lot of time with it, we are very good friends. My incoherency, however, is usually a result of it being the middle of the night and the rummyness that ensues.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

yeah, i get that a lot too, plus the extra joy of jetlag. right now it's sort of a combination, (minus the jetlag) so extra incoherency may occur.

yeah, the first time i found shoebox i nearly died of glee.

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

I have never been jetlagged, having never been on a plane. But I should really go to bed. Damn the whole determination to finish the next fic.

[auberus.livejournal.com]

sleep is a good thing.

[tartancravat.livejournal.com]

It is indeed. And now I have finished, I can go to bed. Cheerio. :D