InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Dude, I know, I'm not an idiot"

notamoonbeam (notamoonbeam) wrote in expresslogs,
@ 2012-09-19 15:43:00

Entry tags:

!open, {jack harkness, {remus lupin

Characters: Remus Lupin and OPEN
When: Wednesday night
Location: Near his room, R 304
Warnings/Rating: none
Summary: Remus arrives on the train
Status: open and ongoing

So much was happening so quickly. Lily and James and baby Harry had gone off into hiding, and the war was showing no signs of slowing down. There was a mole in the Order and he wasn't so oblivious that he couldn't figure out that people thought it was him. Sirius kept his distance, Peter kept his distance, and even Dumbledore was keeping his distance. For the second month in a row he'd been on his own during the moon. The transformation hurt, but the lonliness hurt more. He wasn't going to betray the Order and toss his lot in with the werewolves. It was they who cursed him to this. Why would he willingly go along with them and inflict that pain on other innocent children?

It was wrong. It was also wrong that the people who had given him love and a family were abandoning him. He'd taken to spending his free time volunteering at the Muggle Cathedral in London. He cleaned, he organized, he held doors on Sunday mornings. They had taken a liking to him, the small young man who politely deferred all questions about himself and instead talked about anything else.

Some nights they even fed him. They must have thought he was younger than he was, a runaway of some sort, and Remus did nothing to have them think otherwise. The service tonight had been brief, with no meal afterward. It was just past the moon, and he was exhausted, with a long cut running down his face. He hadn't offered any information, and some of them had known better than to ask.

He didn't sleep in the church, but sometimes, when he knew the pastor was going to be busy in a meeting, he'd go back to the kids' play area and sleep on the small cot they had there. He didn't think it was much of a secret, but nobody had made a fuss about it, and Remus always left the room nicer than he had found it. It was there on the tiny cot he went to sleep, and it was not there he woke up 20 minutes later.

For a brief moment, panic seized him, and he wondered if they'd done what he'd been scared someone would do to him his entire life - lock him up. He felt for his wand and was relieved to find he still had it. Very cautiously, with his wand out, he slipped out of the bed and opened the door.

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thetravelled
2012-09-20 12:54 pm UTC (link)

Jack was more than a bit put off that this Simon character had turned down his help. He was an idiot for turning away anyone willing to help out on the train, but if that's the way it was, Jack wasn't going to push buttons. The good doctor would have to manage on his own. Jack was just going to have to find something else do to.

Helping out new people seemed like it might do the trick. He had rather enjoyed helping Tietjens out ...

"You look lost," he said to a kid (oh, the kids, did they gravitate towards him or something?) "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and you've been snatched up by the crazy time-travelling train."

Jack wasn't much for softening the blow.

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notamoonbeam
2012-09-21 11:14 pm UTC (link)

Remus tensed slightly as the man approached him, but relaxed when it was evident that the man wasn't what he had been fearing. And American to boot. The Captain bit threw Remus off a bit. He lowered his wand, unsure if the man before him was a Muggle or not.

"A time-traveling train?" Remus clarified. "Though I must admit, this isn't where I fell asleep. The Cathedral? St. Paul's? In London?" Perhaps this man knew of it and could get him back to where he belonged.

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part the 1.

thetravelled
2012-09-24 09:49 pm UTC (link)

"I know St Paul's," Jack said, looking over the young kid again. Now that Jack was looking at him, he looked a little older than the teenagers. The wand though, Jack recognized the wand. "You another one of those wizards? You have a long stick." Jack snickered slightly at his own joke, and winked at the boy.

Remus was perturbed by the man. He knew St. Paul's which was the only helpful thing about him. "Would you happen to know the way back to St. Paul's?" He inquired. There were a few more people passing them in the hall, people who seemed utterly unconcerned about the conversation taking place. Remus was getting the strong feeling that this was a normal occurance, a confused person standing in the hallway while someone else spoke with them.

His mind didn't go towards You-Know-Who. This didn't have evil written over it. Sinister, yes, but not evil. A long stick? Were they twelve again? If Remus tilted his head and squinted he could see how the man resembled what he thought an older James might look like. This man was not James. This man was a crazy American Muggle.

"No way to do that, I'm afraid," Jack shrugged. "You're stuck with us, we're stuck with you. Time-travelling, the whole lot. If you are one of those stick wizards, there's plenty more of them about. Too many of them. Then they all leave at once."

He wasn't deliberately being unhelpful. Not really.

Remus was trying to think while the man spoke. When he mentioned that there were others, he couldn't help himself. "What of the others?" he asked. He'd lowered his wand, but not sheathed it. Now he gripped it tightly. Others. Who could they be? His mind jumped to those who were dead but he dismissed it just as quickly. That would mean he was and he wasn't in an area where You-Know-Who or his supporters could easily find him. Captain Jack hadn't mentioned anything about being dead. While he wasn't forthcoming with other information, Remus hoped that information would come first.

There was the possibility as well that this was all in his head but he dismissed that just as quickly as well. His imagination wasn't as clever as James and Sirius were. His dreams were of werewolves, not of alternate realities. There were a few other things he was considering but the evidence did seem to line up nicely with him having been transported here. Inexplicable for right now but he'd keep pushing for the truth.

"Just a few others. Mostly Weasleys. There were a few Potters for a while. Lily and Jamie are the head wizards in charge. Jamie greets everyone and Lily runs the front kitchens. Lots of parents and children reuniting," Jack mused, thinking about what he'd seen in the journals. "Couple more, like I said, but I don't know too much about them." Jamie he knew the most, Jamie who had something to say to everyone, all the time, whether they liked it or not.

Remus perked up. "Lily Evans?" If Lily were here, that wouldn't be so bad. He didn't know anyone named Jaime but his heart ached to see Lily again. The war had pulled them apart and now it appeared there might be a chance to get them all back together again. Before he could ask about the others he needed to clarify something.

"Time traveling train? Could you explain that a bit more, please?" He was polite even when he was confused and hopelessly lost. James liked to joke one day it was going to get him killed. It had kept him alive so far and he was hoping that it would keep him alive on this unexplicable train.

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part the 2.

thetravelled
2012-09-24 09:49 pm UTC (link)

Jack decided to start with the train - better to start with the part he knew best, really. "It hops all across realities and times and picks people up as it goes - all from different times inside their own reality. Take the guy I know. He comes from farther into the future than I do. So did Rose." Oh, Rose. She had left again, but Jack wasn't nearly as despondent about it as the Doctor. The Doctor had grown ... odd in the future. Mopey. Jack didn't like mopey Doctor. Jack wanted adventure fun Doctor back. Never mind that, back to the train. "There's no way to get off it, unless it sends you back home. Sometimes the train will stop in other realities, but there's no way to stay off the train there either. As for Lily, I don't know when she comes from, but it's before she dies. Train took her roommate away a few weeks ago too - back when it took a bunch of the wizards off. Or maybe that was the last round. There's so many of you, it's hard to tell."

Remus was thoroughly confused. Just when he thought he might have a grasp on the situation Captain Jack would tell him something else confusing. His heart skipped a beat. "Dies? When does Lily Evans die?" His head was now spinning so badly that he had to use his hand on the wall to steady himself. "Captain Jack, what is going on?" He thought he might faint. Lily Evans wasn't allowed to die unless she was a very old lady with a large family and lots of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. If Lily was that old on the train what did that mean for him? How could they come from two different times and places at the same time.

He was taking deep breaths to steady himself and was only comforted by the idea that James had been here as well. "When did James leave?"

"Whoa, whoa," Jack said gently, placing a steady hand on the boys shoulder. "I don't know that much. Lots of people on the train are dead in their realities. I just know she's one of them. As for James ... Potter, right? He was here, Harry was here. You were here, Snape was here, Jamie I already got, and there's a few others I can't remember, but pretty sure if there's a redhead on the train they're a Weasley or a Potter." He didn't know much about them, just who they were. They were everywhere. Then they disappeared. Then they came back. Then they disappeared. Rinse. Repeat. "It's the train," he said softly. "We don't know why it does what it does."

Remus's heart jolted at the mention of Snape. Jack didn't seem phased by it. A Death Eater. On the train. Lily Evans died at some point. He didn't shrug Captain Jack's hand off. He needed the comfort right now. This was a lot to process. "Snape." He said it softly. Snape had been here. "Are there other non Weasleys and Potters? Besides Evans?"

"Snape was Lily's roommate," Jack said. The food in the kitchen hadn't been up to par for a few days after that. "Otherwise ... I think there was a Tanks? Tonks? Something like that. There's a Granger wizard too, and ... I think one more non-Weasley/Potter, but I can't think of his name at all." Jack rubbed the man's shoulder, "Now, you okay? It's a lot to process. Sometimes the train plays tricks on us."

Remus was still a bit short of breath. He turned around and saw his name on the door. "Oh." So it was real. Tonks was a name he recognized, but only because of Sirius's cousin. Granger he didn't recognize. It made sense that he wouldn't know them all. The Wizarding world might be small but that didn't mean Remus knew every name. His hand still gripped his wand. He didn't think Captain Jack was a danger but he didn't trust the situation to let go of it yet.

"I'm fine." It was the easiest response. In turn he would be. He would like to walk the train and see who else he might recognize. He needed to also process the idea the Lily Evans died or would die. James had been here so he could come back. There was the matter of him also having been here which he distinctly didn't remember himself doing. Future him. "How long have you been here, if you don't mind answering?" Remus asked, still polite as always while trying to clear his head. A general timeframe to work with would be good. Remus was the sort who could readily accept a reality of a situation. This was no different.

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