And by midnight you'll be so convinced [OPEN]

[Remus John Lupin]

[just so you peeps know, Rem's slight awkwardness is due to the willow incident happening just before the OWLs and the holidays - he's got a slight reason to feel a little insecure about where he stands now (the Gods know I hate a perpetual emo Remus, so cheer him up! xD]



'cause poison goes better with grenadine
And deceit's always lovely with lime
Oh, bitterness can be so sweet
When it's served in the right place and at the right time

Was it wrong of him to think he was, to a degree at least, safe here? Was it wrong to use the word 'safe'? The journey by train had been awkward and silent (moreso because Remus had half-considered not sitting with his friends - but they had found him). Remus had been hiding behind his book pretty much the whole the time (best defense meganism when it came to anything social) and honestly glad when Lily came to pick him up to go to the Prefect's meeting - thank Mordred for that.
It had not been a quiet summer in the wizarding world, not by a long shot, but Remus had made it quiet for himself. He had barely sent any letters at all, only in response to others as a matter of fact, and had simply refused to read the Prophet. This summer, Remus had been sick of the wizarding world, some sort of bitter hangover both due to the willow-incident and the news that some of their classmates wouldn't be returning. Then even more so than ever, Remus had wished he was a normal teenager, but where in the past he had always wished he were a normal wizard, he now wished he knew nothing of that. A few times, Remus had seriously considered how he could have lived quite happily as a muggle.

Truth was, though, that he wasn't a muggle, and because this was his sixth year and as Remus didn't like disappointing people (least of all Dumbledore, to whom he owed so much) he had decided to at least make a good start (even if it was a sad excuse to lay low in the library because he was too much of a coward to test the water around his friends like a real Gryffindor would).
It had never hurt him to work ahead a little, after all, even if good grades would probably not get him anywhere in life. Merlin knew the full moons would be harsher if his friends had decided not to accompany him anymore. This, in Remus' mind, was a very real option, simply because his friends had now been confronted with not only the risky side of it, but also the dangerous and very, very lethal side of the entire business. Sure, they were Gryffindors, but anyone would wet their pants when confronted with a transformed werewolf out for blood. Those who didn't, were just fools; fear wasn't always irrational.

So here he was, Remus - Gryffindor Coward and Bookworm Extraordinare - reading a book on maintaining different species of plants outside of their regular habitat (though in all honesty, he couldn't quite remember if he was taking Herbology or not).

And we'll toast to a lifetime of happiness
And we'll catch up on mutual friends
Yes, we'll laugh with good cheer and not mention that we're
Just a means to each of our ends

[serena]

Start of a new school year and hopefully that meant new books that Serena could weasel her way into and hopefully lose herself for a while before anything happened to knock her back down to Earth.

The weather wasn't the best it could be outside and Serena assumed plenty of people would find their way to the library to start reading up on their school books. Of course she was wrong. She sometimes forgot that most people were not like her and did not find the library as a sanctuary from life. The main difference was that Serena had no life where as others often did and there go pursued fun and friends and love interests where as Serena's life was dull and worth escaping from sometimes (though sometimes she rather enjoyed some things such as a really good lesson of just reading a text book).

Walking into the library with her book bag slung over her back, Serena was a little surprised to see there were not many there at all. Pleased with the still silence the library was currently holding Serena hurried her way across the library, heading for a cushiony seat she frequently liked to relax in but she didn't make it to her seat. As she was passing by Remus Lupin she tripped over absolutely nothing and landed face first on the floor just a little past him.

Sitting up Serena covered her nose with her hands as everything turned blurry and she could feel a stinging sensation in her nose. Yes, she'd broken her nose once more. Feeling the warm trickle of blood running over her hands she started to panic in fear that she was creating a scene (as she was not one to want an awful lot of attention) and so took away one hand and fervently started looking through her book bag for her wand. A quick spell would fix her nose up and another would tidy her and the carpet, but it was just a case of finding the damn thing.

[Remus John Lupin]

Books were wonderful things, indeed. Remus was, as of yet, unaware of it, but during the summer holidays the school had invested in a few interesting new titles - not all scholarly, but also some delightful (muggle) fiction. (The muggle fiction section existed under the pretense of being useful for students taking muggle studies at a higher level, but Remus had a hunch that Dumbles himself was secretly just fond of modernist fiction. Then again.. the idea of Dumbledore reading Ulysses was one that made his brain itch just a little.)

Anyways, Remus had just been reading happily (well, not quite happily, really, but he could pretend he was happily reading and for now that was fine) until someone crashed into the floor violently not too far away. Never one to turn away from others in need of a helping hand (a quality only more pronounced now that he was a Prefect), Remus didn't really hesitate before closing his book with a deciding snap and moving over to the girl currently bleeding on the library carpet.

He recognised her - she was in his year and they had shared some classes, though her first name escaped him at the present moment. Pulling his handkerchief out of his back pocket, he offered it to her to stop the blood running down her chin from getting into her clothes. Remus wasn't unfamiliar with blood stains and, by now, knew the best spells to get stains out of any kind of fabric of any colour, really. "Are you alright?" he asked, gently putting a hand on the arm that was frantically digging through her stuff in search of what he suspected to be her wand.
Her nose didn't look very much out of the ordinary, but as it was bleeding rather profoundly and she seemed in serious pain, Remus suspected it to be broken. "Let me," he said softly, though with a certain quiet, gentle authority, tilting her face towards him and muttering a spell under his breath. It was a variation of episkey, only specifically tuned to heal minor bone damage, and a spell which had come in more than handy for Remus in the past.
"Should I help you get to the hospital wing?" he then asked, sitting back and giving her a moment to respond. Remus suddenly wondered if he hadn't been too brusque like that, just picking her up, pushing his handkerchief into her hands and fixing her nose like that without her having asked for any help. Still, he had meant no harm, and although her broken nose was back in place, it probably still hurt and as the fall had been hard enough to break her nose, she might have a mild concussion of some kind, too. In any case, Remus did think she needed to get a check up at the hospital wing, at least. True, the place smelt of anticeptics and unpleasant medication in general, but it couldn't hurt. Not really.

[serena]

Serena wasn't used to anyone helping her out but here was someone from her own year offering to lend a helping hand. She couldn't quite remember his name but knew she would think of it the second she saw him clearly and not through watery eyes from tears of pain but she tried not to actually cry (and growing up with plenty of other children around sort of toughened you up a bit).

A spell was muttered and her nose felt a little better. It cracked a little back into place and the stinging sensation worsened for a moment but before she knew it the pain was starting to ease away and was just dull compared to what it had been but it still lingered.

Looking up at who had helped her out, Serena blinked a few times to clear the tears. Of course it was Remus Lupin, she should have known because she had just walked past him but she hadn't thought he would be kind enough to help her out because really most people just left her but she supposed when there was a bit of blood involved and in danger of messing up the library someone had to step in but Serena was perfectly certain she could have managed it herself (even though the help was very much appreciated).

"I'll be fine thank you." She muttered as her hand found what it had been looking for and she pulled out her wand. Always too late but now it didn't matter someone had helped her which was quite refreshing. "I'm sorry to have bothered you Remus." She said in her delicate Irish voice and her apology barely above a whisper.

Giving her wand a flick she used one of the many spells her mother had taught her and the mess of the blood was soon gone from her face, her hands, her bag and the library floor. "I don't think the hospital wing is necessary. I just fell at an odd sort of angle I feel." She said still quiet but offering a smile.

Serena stood herself up and picked up her bag. She caught a quick glance at the book Remus was reading and smiled a little wider. "Are you studying Herbology this year?" Herbology was a favourite subject for Serena as it surrounded some of her most favourite things, caring for something else, plenty of book research and usually silence unless you were pottering around with something as noisy as a mandrake but even then you had to cover your ears so as not to hear its cry.

[Remus John Lupin]

She seemed just a little surprised (and maybe even overwhelmed) that he had decided to help her so readily, but then again that might also have been the blow. The bleeding seemed to have slowed down now that her bones had knitted together again, at least that was a good thing. There was nothing more annoying than half-clotted blood in your clothes, and Remus should know.
At least she wasn't crying, he was thankful for that. No matter how resolutely he could act in a situation like this, crying girls made him nervous; he didn't know how to handle them. The last time it had happened to him (a first year getting stuck in a treacherous step on a flight of stairs), he had hugged her after helping her out, in an attempt to comfort her, and (to Sirius' delight) the girl had turned into an avid stalker. It had been a remarkable Valentine's Day..

The girl (why could he only remember her last name!?) looked up at him and Remus was glad to see she looked pretty focused, not at all concussed or desorientated. Even her voice hardly trembled when she spoke. "I'll be fine thank you." Remus nodded a little, still squatted in front of her just a little awkwardly, and watching as she cleaned herself up. It somehow felt wrong to just get up and leave now.
"I'm sorry to have bothered you Remus." He winced inwardly. She did know his name, why didn't he know hers? He blushed a little, trying to remember - Irish accent, he knew her older brother, for Mordred's sake! "Not, eh - It was no trouble, you didn't bother me." Nope, her name would not come to him. Remus just hoped she didn't realise.

"I don't think the hospital wing is necessary. I just fell at an odd sort of angle I feel." He nodded slightly, getting up slowly and leaning against the table nearby, waiting for her to get up and only realising after she had gotten up that it would've been better if he'd offered her a hand - she had just fallen and hit her head, what sort of an idiot was he for just letting her get back on her feet of her own accord?
She caught him off-guard with her question, because he had half-expected her to walk on now that the whole ordeal was over. "Are you studying Herbology this year?" As a result, he looked a little surprised and slightly tongue-tied. "Herb-? Oh," he chuckled a little nervously. "Yes. I'm not taking potions, which my mum loves, and as I'm better when it comes to taking care of plant-life than of animals.." He smiled a little. "I fear this means she'll make me do all the gardening next summer, though," he joked.

[serena]

Remus seemed extremely nice. She had been paired with him once for a lesson in their first year but that was almost six years ago so if she had known he hadn't remembered her name, she wouldn't have been surprised as she never really left much of an impression on anyone.

"Well good, we'll probably have at least one lesson together this year and if you're doing the gardening then at least you wont have to do any cooking." She said. She associated herbology with gardening and potions with food, it was all a little more precise in the magical world but in the muggle world you could be almost as care free as you liked, though there was always some limit.

Patting herself down and getting any dust or muck off of herself from the floor Serena smiled at Remus. "You're so lovely." Stepping back a little Serena pulled out a chair at a table and sat herself down. It was probably going to be better if she sat for a little while and didn't push herself too much even if she did feel perfectly fine apart from a dull ache.

"I hope you don't mind me sitting here for a little bit." Serena then realised she was probably jabbering on quite a bit. "I'm sorry you're probably trying to read." She said quietly. "I'll just sit here for a little while. Just ignore me and I'll be on my way soon." It was strange, she wasn't usually the social type but she felt it would probably have been a little rude if she didn't talk to Remus after he had helped her. She had been in a bit of a pickle and it had been awfully nice of him to help her out. Usually she was just so clumsy and people knew it, that they just let her get on with it.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus was often rather nice. He tried to be. He also had his very not-so-nice moments, but he tried to keep those in check, really. Apart from that, Remus was, of course, sixteen, and had a weakness for girls with dark hair, so yes - he was nice to her alright!
"Well good, we'll probably have at least one lesson together this year and if you're doing the gardening then at least you wont have to do any cooking." Good indeed - now he could work on picking up her name sometime soon. "Oh, good you're also taking herbology." He felt a little stupid for his lack of originality in his answer, but well.. He'd never been particularly good at talking to girls. Remus laughed a little at her comparison of potions and cooking. "I think you have a point there - I can't cook to save my life, either, and as our house has a tatched roof I think my parents would rather let me do the gardening instead of burning down the house in an attempt to bake pancakes or something." He chuckled at the idea of such a scene, though he was pretty sure his dad had spelled the roof to be water and fire proof.

"You're so lovely." That took him by surprise, there, just for a moment, and he blushed faintly (because a lot of sixteen-year-old boys tend to blush around girls). "Oh- eh, thanks."
As she sat down, he also slid back into his chair, absent-mindedly running his finger along the edges of the book's binding. "I hope you don't mind me sitting here for a little bit. I'm sorry you're probably trying to read. I'll just sit here for a little while. Just ignore me and I'll be on my way soon." Remus smiled a little. "It's fine, I'm not bothered. You sure you're alright, you're apologising an awful lot." He knew it was a stupid attempt at a joke. Remus was not usually very good at joking around unless it was with his friends or maybe with Lena, around strange people he usually end up being awkward and silly. If Serena thought she wasn't a social type, Remus would argue he was worse.

[serena]

Serena chuckled lightly and smiled at the thought of Remus burning his house down. "Oh my! A thatched roof? How marvellous and picturesque your home sounds!" She thought of an old thatched cottage on a bit of land with some beautiful flowers out the front all purples and pinks with splashes of white here and there with some pale blue thrown in. A white picket fence at the front and an old stone wall defining the boundaries of the property. For some reason Serena also imagined an old apple tree that bore lots of cooking apples and imagined that Remus's mother (even though she had no idea what the darling woman must look like) making apple pies and apple sauce to have with some roast pork and roast potatoes and freshly grown vegetables from the vegetable garden.

"Oh my oh my. I just had the most beautiful image of what your home must look like with a lovely garden and a thatched roof home." Sometimes Serena found herself lost in her own imagination as it had been her friend for so many years and it had never left her. It was something she knew she would always be able to depend upon and she thanked God for it every day.

Serena watched Remus blush and knew she had probably over stepped some boundary and embarrassed the poor boy. "I mean in a helpful sort of way. You have a very kind heart and a lovely aura." To Serena that sounded perfectly fine as a compliment and she hoped she didn't make Remus feel any more uncomfortable or embarrassed.

Remus said that she was apologising a lot and this time it was Serena's turn to blush. "Oh I'm terribly sorry, I don't mean to apologise a lot I just don't know when to stop and I do feel terrible for disturbing your peace and quiet with my clumsiness." Serena had not realised that Remus was joking and had thought he was being serious about her apologising. She wasn't ever really socialised enough to tell the subtle differences sometimes.

[Remus John Lupin]

"Oh my! A thatched roof? How marvellous and picturesque your home sounds!" Remus chuckled. He'd heard that a lot. He guessed he was lucky to live in a cozy home like that, with space and secludedness where he could do as he pleased, but sometimes, when he heard Sirius about London, he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to live in a bustling city like that. "It's nice, yeah. We live in Wales." Even if Rem was, by no means, Welsh!
"Oh my oh my. I just had the most beautiful image of what your home must look like with a lovely garden and a thatched roof home." Remus grinned. "It's probably usually like that.. in the late spring and summer. I wouldn't advise you to stop by during winter." Now, of course, Remus wasn't at home during winters very often. He had gone home for christmas in his first year, but Sirius and James had convinced him to stay from his second year onwards.

Serena needn't worry about making Remus blush. He could be easily embarrassed and puberty wasn't doing him any good blushing-wise, either. Still, it was nice of her to try and rectify her statement and Remus smiled a little lopsidedly. "Thanks," he said, adding an 'I guess' in the back of his mind. He'd never had such a compliment before and he bet his wand on it that if Sirius had heard him, the shirtlifter-jokes might just've gone on for months (if they had been on better terms, anyway). But Sirius wasn't here. That was good. It was rarely good to have Sirius around when you were speaking with a girl. He'd either embarrass you or (a little worse) the girl would completely forget about you because Sirius Sexgod Black overshadowed Remus so easily.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry, I don't mean to apologise a lot I just don't know when to stop and I do feel terrible for disturbing your peace and quiet with my clumsiness." He laughed softly, but it was in no way mocking. "No, I mean - don't worry about it. You needn't apologise, it's fine."

He realised he was running out of conversational topics, but then couldn't come up with anything. "Eh- do you also take advanced transfiguration?" Remus was and he wasn't sure what his next question would be (no matter whether she said 'yes' or 'no'), but for now, he had said something that wasn't completely ridiculous. Good.

[serena]

Remus didn't sound Welsh to Serena but just because he lived in Wales didn't mean he was Welsh. After all the majority of students at Hogwarts were English but spending most of their time in Hogwarts that was presumed by many to be in Scotland so that didn't mean that they were Scottish just because they lived there for most of the year.

"Oh! I'm sure that in winter it would be even more stunning with snow!" Serena smiled. "You sound like you're a very lucky boy to have such an amazing home." Serena never spent her Holidays at Hogwarts. Her family were all very close even though they were rather large. Her older siblings that had left Hogwarts had left home but it was still quite cramped especially over the Christmas Holidays when her older siblings that had moved out moved back in for a couple of weeks. There was very little room in the Aurora household when everyone was home.

Serena wasn't sure if she should apologise again or not. Now that Remus had pointed it out she was becoming quite self conscious about it. Very rarely did she talk to people and she was always worried about saying the wrong sort of thing so she decided that instead of saying anything further that she would probably just be better off with a small smile so that's what she did. She smiled at Remus and then lowered her head a little and watched her hands lay still in her lap. She did not want to continuously disturb him. Especially in the library.

Remus started speaking to her again though and she felt a surge of pure happiness run through her. It was quite a lovely feeling that someone was trying to talk to her. She looked up at Remus and shook her head. "No I'm not. I'm not too good with Transfiguration at all unfortunately. I'll be doing Charms, Care Of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy and History Of Magic. I know Professor Binns has a very unique way of teaching but it really is a fascinating subject and gives me plenty to read about." Serena thought about leaving but decided she didn't converse a lot very often so she would try and keep things going. "What about you? What have you chosen to study this year?"

[Remus John Lupin]

He sure wasn't Welsh, well, not by heritage, anyway (though he was a little French?). They had lived near Ipswitch before, but that had been an area too 'inhabited' to live with a werewolf-son, according to the Ministry.
Remus smiled at Serena's enthusiasm - it was refreshing and pleasant. Like Katsurou before him, he couldn't help but think that she was a true Hufflepuff. "I admit that it looks amazing in winter, but it tends to be cold - we have no central heating, really." Remus was used to it by now, plus there were loads of spells to heat up blankets or sweaters to keep him warm, but he usually didn't need it anymore. After all, during the winter, Hogwarts could be pretty chilly, as well, and if Remus was thankful for anything, it were the rugs in their dormitory, so he didn't have to put his warm feet on the stone cold floor. Nothing worse than a cold floor under his feet.

As close as Serena was with her family, so secluded were the Lupins. They didn't have a lot of family in the UK to begin with, part of the family still in France (and they hadn't been in contact with those even before Remus was born) and the few relative they had in the UK had either moved or pretended to have moved after Remus' accident, kindly sympathising in one letter just after Mary and John Lupin had told them the news, but that was the last they'd ever heard of them. It was only to be expected, of course, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Mary, especially, was a warm sort of woman who didn't like anything more than being a perfect hostess and who valued family-life immensely. Remus sometimes felt devastatingly sorry that he didn't go home for christmas anymore, knowing his mother would miss him sorely. Maybe he could go home this year, though (especially if the situation with his friends remained unchanged). Maybe he could ask Lena if she wanted to come along, if her family didn't mind (as Remus was happily oblivious that Lena had no family at home).
Still, for all the secludedness, it had made the three Lupins very close to each other, even if Remus was at Hogwarts most of the time. Rem was more than glad to have at least that - just imagine having terrible parents, like Sirius' - nowhere to go home to! It was unthinkable to him. Remus didn't like thinking about the inevitable day that his parents would die. He hoped it was a long way away.

Remus was unaware he had made Serena uncomfortable. He hadn't meant to do so, obviously - quite the opposite, actually, and if he'd known, he'd have felt very sorry. She smiled, however, and Remus returned it, thinking nothing was amiss. She was not disturbing him. If anything, he was glad for her company.
"No I'm not. I'm not too good with Transfiguration at all unfortunately." Remus nodded and smiled. "We can't be good at everything, right?" he said with a shrug and a smile - quite a thing to say for a perfectionist like Remus. "I'll be doing Charms, Care Of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy and History Of Magic. I know Professor Binns has a very unique way of teaching but it really is a fascinating subject and gives me plenty to read about." He smiled a little when she asked him what subjects he'd chosen. "Oh, well, DADA obviously." He smiled - it was one of his favourites. "And Charms and Transfiguration. Eh - Herbology, like I mentioned, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy." He smiled. "I doubted about History of Magic for a bit, but the class coincides with Transfiguration sometimes. Though I plan to start apparition classes once I'm of age, but that is months away.. and I heard of this optional subject called Ghoul Studies? Might enlist for that.." He smiled a little. Yes, sometimes, he was so studious he might've been in Ravenclaw. Sometimes, Remus wondered what life would've been like then.



[I just picked some random subjects, waah - I tried to look up the Hogwarts education system after OWLs stuff, but I couldn't find it xD Don't kill me if it's not accurate P:
I did find an actual thing about Ghoul Studies, though xP]

[serena]

Serena laughed softly and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't mind the cold at all. We don't have any heating at all but we always have plenty of spare blankets in the linen closet." And much like Remus' situation there wasn't really much need for heating anyway because likewise their family used charms when they really need warming up, usually it was the towels that were charmed so that you weren't cold when you got out of the bath or shower.

Serena knew that not everyone was brilliant at everything. She wasn't very good with things to do with actual wand work but she was good when it came to hands on things and she had decided to take Charms because she supposed it would probably come in handy considering she wasn't taking any other wand based subjects. "I couldn't agree more. Though I suppose it would be nice to be brilliant at everything. Even if just for a little while."

Serena listened to Remus' list of subjects, well they would have two together and she supposed that would be nice if they talked though they had had quite a few lessons together over the years and neither had ever really talked to the other in all that time. "Well it'll be nice to share Charms and Herbology with you Remus but what's ghoul studies? I've not heard of that option before. It certainly sounds interesting from the title." she wondered what it was all about and she would certainly be interested in looking into it. Clearly it had something to do with the study of ghouls and she hoped that it would have a lot to do with reading. She couldn't see how itbwould be a wand based subject but it certainly seemed like you might need a lot of brains for it and Serena wasn't overly confident when it came to her own intelligence.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus smiled. "I don't like being cold, but at least there are magical solutions to that." It was one of those things that made him think 'thank Circe for magic!'. After all, they really had no heating, only a fireplace, and no matter how many blankets you have, at some point the cold gets into everything - unless you charm them to be comfortably warm!

Rem's smile turned a little melancholy when Serena commented that it would be nice to be perfect at everything at least for a while. "Yeah." He half grinned, a little lopsidedly - it was pretty much his trademark - and shrugged. "Hah, if only." Remus wanted to be brilliant, but he knew he couldn't be and he knew it wouldn't help. No matter how brilliant a creature is, it is still a creature, and would never classify for auror training. Maybe, Remus thought, he should be glad that he wasn't brilliant - wouldn't that only make it even more bitter than it already was?
Still, no harm in making his parents proud.. Besides, doing his best in school was the least he could do to repay Dumbledore the huge favour he had done him, right?

Like Serena, Remus was also glad they at least shared two subjects. She was a nice girl, after all, and not all of his friends were doing the same subjects as he did and he liked knowing someone nice in a class, it gave him a little more confidence than if he'd been on his own. He just hoped they wouldn't treat Wolfsbane in Herbology. He'd need gloves.
He smiled a little when Serena asked about ghoul studies. Rem wasn't sure if she was into Defense Against the Dark Arts, but her interest made the conversation run so smoothly - very pleasant and so different from, say, talking to Sirius or Peter. "I'm not completely sure what Ghoul Studies is, either, they don't teach it until the second term," he said. "I suppose it would be about ghouls, ghost, poltergeists.. that sort of thing? Basically non-material entities?" He shrugged a little. "It sounded interesting, anyway, and as I'm also taking DADA I thought it would fit with the rest of my subjects. Plus," he smiled a little, "I've given up on Care of Magical Creatures because, well.. they don't like me-" he shrugged again, interrupting himself "-but these are also sort of creatures, so I'd still be doing something that's at least moderately similar." He would've kept COMC if he could, but the subject was such a struggle that he had allowed his father to talk him out of it.
John Lupin was specialised in magical creatures himself and Remus had wanted to make him proud of him by choosing the subject even if it would be a recipe for disaster. Now, he was actually pretty glad his father had stopped him.

[serena]

Serena smiled and nodded enthusiastically though not so enthusiastically that someone might think that her head was going to fall off of her shoulders. "Yes, magical heating solutions are the best that's for sure." It was a strange sort of sensation but Serena was starting to feel really rather comfortable in Remus' presence. It was probably because he'd been so friendly and kind to her and helped her out when she'd more than likely broken or fractured her nose a little.

Serena really quite liked the sound of Ghoul studies. She wondered why she'd never heard of it before. She'd heard of music and art studies and muggle music and muggle art studies but ghoul studies sounded like it might involve a lot of reading and that was something that Serena had a passion about. Though she giggled a little when Remus said animals didn't like him "Nonsense! I'm sure they would love you if you felt comfortable around them. Animals are very accepting, at least most of them are as long as they don't view you as a threat."

Serena thought for a second. "I don't think you could really class ghouls and ghosts and poltergeists and such as 'creatures' They have a human intelligence and were once humans." Serena felt out of place speaking up. She barely even spoke in classes unless prompted by a Professor. "I wonder if they have their own classification or if they are a sub-classification like centaurs and mer-people. 'near human intelligence' It seems so silly to me." Serena stopped and sighed a little. She'd been rambling and Remus probably thought her a little bit crazy. "At least I don't think ghoul studies will actually involve taking care of them, they tend to do pretty well by themselves, especially Peeves."

[Remus John Lupin]

"Yes, magical heating solutions are the best that's for sure." Remus grinned. "Especially when I go to bed, really. We have this fireplace in the livingroom and going straight from that heat into a cold bed.." He didn't finish his sentence but pulled a face. "Then again, I'm usually only home in the summer now," he admitted. The more he thought about it, the more Remus missed Christmas at home. He really ought to go home this year.
He was rather proud of himself, to be honest. Here he was, talking to a nice and good-looking girl and not making an arse of himself. Oh, sure, he was no Sirius, but Remus didn't want to be, so that was fine. Rem did feel at ease around Serena; they seemed to like the same things.

He was a little confused when she seemed to think that Remus' inability to be around animals was a laughing matter, but Remus realised she didn't mean it in that way. "I'm sure they would love you if you felt comfortable around them. Animals are very accepting, at least most of them are as long as they don't view you as a threat." He smiled a little placidly. "Oh, well, that's the thing, you know. They sense I'm nervous, they hate that," he said with a slight nod. Lies, lies, absolute lies. "I'm just not good with them." Remus hoped to end the subject of Care of Magical Creatures there, really. He didn't feel like lying to Serena even more.
Thing was, most magical creatures didn't like him because they regarded him as a threat. He was a preditor, after all, it was only natural that they'd want to get away. The small percentage of animals they had covered in class that were not afraid of him, had been distracted with bits of meat and dead rabbits - in that case it had not been the animals being afraid that had bothered Remus, but the bait they were tearing to pieces. The sound of flesh being ripped off bones and being mauled simply made him feel sick - not to mention the smells!

"I don't think you could really class ghouls and ghosts and poltergeists and such as 'creatures' They have a human intelligence and were once humans." Realisation dawned in Remus' eyes and he nodded. "Oh, you've got a point there!" He smiled. He didn't mind being corrected - one couldn't always be right, after all.
Remus nodded a little, agreeing, as Serena wondered about how ghouls&c. would be classified. "I don't know either. I suppose I could try to look it up," he mused, "or we could just both attend the class?" Rem'd like it if she'd join him. His friends had not really showed any interest (well, Sirius had for a little moment, until it became clear it would not be about catching poltergeists and setting them onto other people).
"At least I don't think ghoul studies will actually involve taking care of them, they tend to do pretty well by themselves, especially Peeves." Remus laughed a little. "Yeah, he sure does. I suppose it would be more about the theory and maybe some practise in how to get rid of them if you wanted?" Remus hoped there would be a practical side to the class. Sure, he liked books and reading, but theory was nothing if it couldn't be put into practise!