InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "DAT GOOBIS!"

Remus J. Lupin (_moony) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2011-09-09 10:47:00

Entry tags:

ginny weasley, remus lupin

WHO: Remus Lupin and Ginny Weasley! (and OTA if anyone wants to jump in)
WHAT: Remus arrives!
WHEN: Mid-morning.
WHERE: The apartment complex parking lot.
RATING: PG.

Remus probably should have been more worried about where he was. One moment, he had been walking home from the bookstore, opting to take the longer route instead of simply just apparating straight back to the cottage, and the next he was standing in the middle of a parking lot that he definitely did not recognize. He should have been more concerned by this, and really, he was. He was just distracted at the moment by the sudden overwhelming sensation of vertigo.

It was similar to the sensation of using a Portkey, he decided. Similar, but not quite the same. He had been standing in the parking lot in utter confusion for several long seconds before the sensation happened. Instead of the tug at the naval that the little magical object usually incited, it was as if someone had reached inside of him and squeezed its paws around his heart and gave a great tug. The breath was yanked out of him.

Remus fell to his knees and promptly got sick all over the pavement in front of him. His arms were shaking with the effort to keep him up on all fours, and he forced his eyes shut to try to get the world to stop spinning.

What the bloody hell was that? he thought to himself.

Whatever that strange sense of dizziness had been, it was slowly starting to dissipate now back into a slow hum. He raised his head, opening his eyes as he did so to try to get a grip of where he was at the moment. A trembling hand reached back into his pocket and pulled out his wand. It certainly looked like he was in a Muggle neighborhood, but that - whatever that had been - was caused by no Muggle. That feeling - he had never felt it before. But it seemed familiar, like he should have known what had just made him so sick. There was only one thing that he could think of that affected him that badly, though, and that was--

His eyes widened.

He could feel it now. The moon. It was tugging and pulling at him, taunting him in a way that nobody except others in his condition could understand. His head snapped up toward the sky, but it was daytime and there was no moon in sight. But he could feel it. He could feel the goddamn thing. The full moon wasn't supposed to be for another two weeks. He knew this; he had memorized it at the beginning of the month, even before then, just a natural reaction so that he always knew - always - without question when the next moon would rise. But right here, right now, he could feel it pulling at him as if it would be full within the next few days. Maybe even tomorrow.

Somehow, someway - the moon cycle had changed up on him. Well, at least that explained why he had gotten sick so suddenly. His hand tightened on his wand defensively. But why? How?

And another good question - Where was he?

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fierygin
2011-09-09 04:41 pm UTC (link)

Ginny was on break from Romana's class and had decided she wanted fresh air and to get some food from the local deli shop. She was mostly used to the stares she got and just ignored them. Sometimes it was offsetting when she was in a rush and people thought she was Bonnie Wright, but she just smiled along and went about her business. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case today, though. After all. She had to get back to class and learn random things that were beginning to make more sense. Yes. She really needed to take Allana's advice about asking Connor for help in tutoring.

Truth be told, she was mostly bored this week. Neville was away at the training camp so she couldn't exactly just randomly show up and watch movies with him. She also wasn't sleeping that well at the moment because of the nightmares. They were getting better, they weren't every night anymore as they had been when she had first shown up and had learned of the threat of possession. But they still came up. She knew that something was off. The post she had seen on the board a bit back. Clearly whoever that was was evil and it made her nervous. But other than that, she was okay. Just slightly sleep deprived and missing her best friend. At least she knew how to keep herself entertained.

Coming out of the lobby of the Complex, the seventeen year old blinked as she saw someone in the parking lot. That was... odd. Eyes narrowing slightly, the witch grabbed her wand and made her way over. It was then she noticed that the person had a wand of their own and they looked disorientated. Pressing her lips together worriedly, Ginny lowered her wand and went over to the stranger.

"Are you okay?"

It was then she got a look at him and she felt her eyes widen slightly. She recognized Remus. Oh, she had known him as a teacher in his thirties, but that didn't mean she didn't recognize him. She had seen the picture from the original Order of the Phoenix. This was definitely Remus Lupin.

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_moony
2011-09-09 04:57 pm UTC (link)

The voice startled him, causing him to jump to his feet and spin around. For the briefest of moments, as he caught sight of the red hair, even though he knew it was impossible, he thought it was Lily. His breath caught in his throat before reality hit him and blinked the visage away. His hand made a jerking movement, as if to attempt to hide his wand, but he realized it was pointless. There was no way that this woman hadn't seen it, and even if she had - wasn't that a wand in her own hand as well? It took several moments for Remus to take all of this in before he realized that he still had not answered her.

"What?" he blinked at her before he realized what she had asked. "Yes, I'm fine," came the quick, practiced reply.

How often had he said those same words to the unimpressed glares of James and Siri-- Black, he reminded himself angrily. Not Sirius. Not Padfoot. Black. And besides, now was not the time to be thinking about that. About them. Hell, it was never the time to dwell on what could have been and what had happened. It usually led him down dark roads that he had a hard time climbing out of. He tried to focus on the witch (she had to be a witch, he concluded) in front of him. She had at least had an English accent, which meant that more than likely he was still in the United Kingdom. That was something at least.

He cleared his throat and attempted to offer a polite smile and hoped it hadn't come out more as a grimace as he feared it had. "This may be an odd question," he started gently, his wand lowered as he spoke. But he kept it in his hand, ready to be used at any moment. Maybe it was years of war that made him paranoid, but in an unknown place in the presence of an unknown witch, he couldn't relax. Especially not when there was a very uncomfortable tingling along the back of his neck. He glanced up toward the sky again just to double-check that the moon hadn't decided to randomly rise. "But... you wouldn't happen to know where we are, do you?"

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fierygin
2011-09-09 05:21 pm UTC (link)

Ginny didn't mind waiting for Remus' response. She knew how strange this place was, the overall confusion that he had to be going through. And given he looked to be in his early twenties, that meant he had probably travelled thirty years or something like that. So really, waiting for an answer was fine. Though she did just quirk a disbelieving brow at him when he said he was fine. Please. She pulled that trick all the time and she was used to dealing with Harry. But she wouldn't say anything. Instead she would wait for what would come next. The questions. There were always questions.

"Not that odd...And while you might think I'm completely off the bend, what I'm going to say is the truth. You're in Lawrence, Kansas. And it's September 9, 2011." Folding her hair behind her ear, Ginny shifted her weight some. She knew that she had a tendency to just... give all the information at once and it could be overwhelming. Neville teased her about it all the time. But she really wanted to keep telling Remus about what they were up against. He needed to know.

"You were brought here by a magical Seal form hell. It brings people from different worlds and times to here where we're fighting the apocalypse... You actually are in the parking lot of one of the complexes there are for people who are displaced."

That... was probably too much information. Again. Oh well.

"Oh! I'm Ginny Weasley. I should have introduced myself before!"

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_moony
2011-09-09 05:55 pm UTC (link)

Immediately, Remus found it a bit odd that she wasn't even the least bit concerned by his question. Generally when a person asked where they were, someone would at the very least question their sobriety if not their sanity all together. But this young woman seemed to take in stride, as if it was asked as often as How's the weather? or Would you like some afternoon tea? And considering her answer, well...

He didn't know where to start. He found himself just staring at her, waiting for the characteristic teasing grin followed by uncontrollable laughter that would have most certainly come from James or Black had they been standing in her place. And Peter... Well, he wouldn't have even been able to get through that entire sentence without bursting into giggles, so he would have been able to tell so easily. But this young woman, she was just standing there, looking quite sure of herself as if she knew she was giving him all of the correct information.

Okay, Moony, he thought quietly to himself. Think of this logically. But it was hard to come up with logic when she was talking about Hell as if it was actually a physical place that one could pull magic from. Certainly he had heard of magical seals before, a type of warding magic that was used to lock away objects or people. It was generally rather old and advanced magic. Not a whole lot of it was seen in modern day anymore. It was so much easier to focus on the details that he did know, the things that he understood, than the information that was going right over his head. Like the mention of the Apocalypse. Another mistake. Another joke. Was she waiting for him to say something before cracking?

Despite his better judgment, he turned to look at the apartment building that she had called out. It didn't look all that different. Like any normal apartment building, but then again, the Leaky Cauldron looked like any normal rundown pub. Sometimes looks... could be deceiving. He knew that better than anyone.

"Weasley..." he finally spoke, turning to look at her again. Yes, she did fit the Weasley mold. Red hair, freckles... "Do you know Arthur?" Might as well, even if he was halfway convinced that this witch was missing a few marbles. And then, as extra measure, he added, "You don't sound like you're from Kansas."

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fierygin
2011-09-09 06:04 pm UTC (link)

Of course Ginny knew what she was talking about. And she also knew that she sounded completely mental. That had been her reaction when she was told of this place. Of course, she also hadn't believed Ron was Ron until he proved it. So really, she didn't expect much in regards to Remus automatically believing her. The fact that he hadn't straight up told her she was insane was always welcome though. Though, it was weird talking to Remus as a young adult and not her professor. Was this how the kids from the future felt in regards to Neville as he'd been their professor? Interesting. Still, at least Teddy wasn't here. Oh, that would be awkward for everyone. If that happened, Ginny would have another kindred spirit in Remus of the having children here you don't even know genre. Of course.... Remus was also dead for Teddy.....Well, that was depressing.

Ah, but he recognized the name. Which of course he would. Still, at least he seemed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt. But Remus always had seemed to be with the patient.

"I do, he's my father. I'm his youngest and the only daughter. Ron's here, too. So's Fred I think, he's been quiet though." Pressing her lips together, Ginny tilted her head to the side. Hadn't she covered that? She knew she mentioned that people were just brought here... Oh well. It was a lot of information to take in, she'd let it slide.

"I'm not but I was brought here same as you. Last thing I remember was the Battle of Hogwarts from May 1998...." Shifting some, Ginny looked down and shook herself. There was nothing she could do about it. She knew how it ended. She knew they won. But still, being pulled from a battle was weird. It left bad memories. Taking a breath and shaking herself of it, Ginny looked at Remus and eyed him some, "So, Remus, what's the last thing you remember?"

It wasn't like he was Professor Lupin and as they had fought in the same battles together even after he wasn't her professor, Ginny was used to Remus being, well, Remus.

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_moony
2011-09-09 06:27 pm UTC (link)

If he was repeating questions, he wasn't realizing it. Things weren't quite connecting in his head quite yet. He was simply grasping onto information that he understood, that he could put a logical answer to, and so far that wasn't a whole lot. But he was doing his best not to completely toss aside everything he was hearing and give into either freaking out or assuming that this witch was completely - completely - mental. Maybe there was some truth to her words. Maybe everything she was saying was true. And if it was - what then? What did that mean for him? 2011 was so far in the future for him. He would have been 51 years old, an age that he wasn't even sure if his lycanthropy would allow him to ever reach.

"His daughter," he murmured, repeating her words. He wasn't intending to continually just repeat what she said, but they were just slipping past his lips unnoticed. Yes, he remembered the Weasleys finally having a daughter. It was in August, just a few months shy of... the end of the war. Or what he assumed was the end of the war. "You're probably about 2 in my time," he said, his words sounding as shocked as he felt.

Was he really starting to accept this? Could he truly accept the fact that not only was he in the future, he had been transported to America for some reason, and now there was something about Magical Seals from Hell or something going on. He pressed the butt of his wand against his temple tiredly. He was still feeling slightly nauseous and the all too familiar tiredness and headache that accompanied the approaching full moon was hanging over him, feelings that he should not have been feeling for another two weeks. At least, if nothing else, time travel explained the sudden change in the moon cycle that he could sense.

"I was walking home," he answered her quietly. Then, realizing that this told her absolutely nothing, he continued, "It was September 9," same day as today, it would seem, "1983." But definitely not the same year. And then he realized what she had said. He dropped his hand and wand from his forehead and looked. "You know my name." It was not a question.

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fierygin
2011-09-09 06:36 pm UTC (link)

While brash, Ginny was also observant, so she could tell that something else was going on with Remus. She just had to remember what the signs were... Okay, he got like this once a month and Snape would take over classes and... Right! The full moon was going to be happening on the 12th. She didn't understand a lot about lycanthropy, but she knew enough to have a basic understanding. Okay. They really needed to get Remus inside and settled. She didn't know if anyone here knew how to make wolfsbane... which would really be helpful. Suddenly things just got complicated.

"Yeah. You taught Defense during my second year at Hogwarts. You were also a member of the Order of the Phoenix when it was reformed."

Okay, that was probably a lot of information in two sentences but that was beside the point. She needed to let Remus know why she knew who he was...

"But okay. 1983. Yeah. 28 years... Come on, let's get you inside so you can get a room to stay in. Also an amulet to protect you against possession by demons. Because there's still a lot you need to know..."

And they had to figure out what to do about the full moon. Maybe it wasn't Ginny's responsibility exactly. But she wanted to help. So that meant having to figure out what to do for when he turned into a werewolf and how to make Wolfsbane. Did they even have the correct ingredients?

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_moony
2011-09-09 07:59 pm UTC (link)

"I taught Defense... at Hogwarts."

He was sounding oh-so very intelligent, he was sure. But hearing something like that - something that was almost harder to believe than seals from Hell and possession by demons - had a knack for knocking his IQ down a few pegs. Maybe he had hit his head on the way home at some point. Maybe this was all a dream. But on the off-chance that it wasn't - and the pull of the moon, well, that couldn't really be dreamed up or faked as far as he knew - he couldn't just toss this all to the side. The second part of that statement was something that he could believe, though. The Order had pretty much become his life following Hogwarts up until the day that James and Lily died, so if he had been needed again for some reason...

Why would he have been needed again?

It was a question that was burning in his mind, but he opted not to ask. On top of everything else, it just did not seem important. He used his free hand to run it down his face, trying to just take everything in. What was he supposed to say? He could just vehemently ignore what he was being told and attempt to create a Portkey back to England. If she was wrong, he could get in some serious trouble with the American Magical Government. If she was telling the truth, though, he could end up landing Merlin-knows-where. He could end up exposing them all by being dropped right in the middle of a crowded mall that he could have sworn was abandoned 28 years ago.

"Er, right," he finally said as he moved to walk with her, glancing around them as he did. He didn't let go of his wand, though. Not yet. He probably wouldn't for a while yet. "So, tell me." He was watching her as they headed toward the apartment. "You mentioned demons... what are they?" He knew the word, but in his world, that's all it was. A word. So, he had to ask, because he had to start somewhere.

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fierygin
2011-09-09 11:10 pm UTC (link)

Nodding at Remus as he re-stated the comment on teaching at Hogwarts, Ginny worried her lower lip some in thought. This was all very complicated. More complicated than usual new arrivals as well, they weren't werewolves who needed a wolfsbane potion. But right, first things first. Getting into the complex.

Smiling to Remus reassuringly, or she at least hoped was reassuringly, Ginny led him to the main lobby and grabbed a key for an open room as well as an amulet for Remus, handing it to her former professor. Or was it her young version of former professor? Okay. Again with the confusing. Ginny needed to remember not to try to make sense of the time line thing. Because really, it just ended up with confusion and headaches. And who wanted that? Certainly not Ginny. Besides, she had questions to answer.

"I haven't run into any myself, but from what I've read in my research, they don't have a physical form, which is why they possess people. But you can usually tell if a person is possessed if they have completely black eyes. One of the people who is helping us in the fight is a demon though, reformed. There are also angels here. They can't get in here though because of wards and the like. C'mon." With that, Ginny led Remus to the elevator and to the floor his room was on before going to said room and opening the door.

"Muggles have this fascinating machine called a computer, it connects you to this page where all of us can communicate. But you'll want to filter it against evil because yeah, demons and Lucifer, who is the Voldemort of this place as Ron put it, they can read the boards if they aren't filtered. So you have to be careful."

Going to the computer in the apartment, Ginny pulled up the information page and motioned Remus to sit down so he could read.

"We're going to have to figure out what to do about a wolfsbane potion here....I can look into it, but I don't know what ingredients we have here and what would need to be substituted and figured out. But I do remember the potion from school and I can get help from Neville in regards to plants and maybe Alice can help, too. Though I think she said she wasn't that good with potions, I'd have to ask..."

And cue Ginny's rambling to herself as she thought out loud.

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_moony
2011-09-10 08:56 am UTC (link)

Remus had no idea what she was thinking, but if he did, he probably would have laughed. Complicated? Yeah, that was a pretty good to describe him. Everything about his life since the time he was five years old and had been bitten all boiled down to it being complicated. If there ever was such a person that could be the epitome of such a word, he figured that he at least was in the running. Most questions that people would pose to him on a daily basis was usually met with a lie just to avoid all of the complications that a truthful answer would be met with. Complicated. Yeah, that was him.

And, well, all of this that the redhead was trying to tell him? Yeah, this was complicated as well. He knitted his eyebrows together as he tried to keep up with her words, but he felt like a first year who had been thrown into a sixth year course. He knew even without having to ask that there was just so, so much more that he had yet to learn about this world. And it was strange to even think that he was in another world. He could sense apart of his brain attempting to refute this reality, attempting to weave some other perfectly logical explanation for what was going on, but the longer that Remus was spending around this woman, the longer he was deciding that - if nothing else - she didn't deserve a one-way ticket to the loony bin. There had to be some truth to her words.

"Right," he offered, just a sign to let her know that he was still listening. And he was, with rapt attention, even if his mind was moving a mile a minute to the point where even he wasn't sure exactly what sort of whacked up conclusions he was going to come up with. Against everything, Remus felt a smile start to tug at his lips as she started to ramble on in attempt to explain a computer to him. He moved his hand for a second, as if to put it on her shoulder to stop her mid-rant, before he thought better of it and dropped his hand once more. He waited until she stopped to take a breath before offering, "I know what a computer is. Granted, it sounds like they've gotten highly advanced in the last 28 years, but... My mother is a Muggle. I'm sure I'll figure it out."

He really wasn't sure where she was leading him, but he found himself looking around curiously anyhow. They were in an apartment now. This place was better than the small flat he had rented during the First War, that was for sure, but he wasn't sure why he was here. And with that thought, he wasn't sure if he meant here as in in the apartment or here as in in this world. Perhaps both. Probably both.

Remus blinked at her, cocking his head to the side. "Wolfsbane potion?" he repeated. "What's that?"

She had spoken as if he should have known, and maybe he should. He had never been the greatest at Potions. He'd managed to scrape into the NEWT level Potion classes thanks to Slughorn's slightly lax policies on who should and should not be brought into the class, but he could honestly say that he never learned that much. The Potion-brewing part of the Marauders pranks had always been up to the other three, something that Remus had been more than happy to opt out of. But if he thought about it, thought about the name - Wolfsbane, he could feel his mind jumping into dictionary mode, also known as Aconite and Monkshood, is a plan with magical properties that is especially famous for being a poison against werewolves.

She had motioned for him to sit down, but he was still standing. His eyes narrowed suspiciously and slightly in fear. "How much do you know?" His voice was even, and he prided himself in the fact that somehow his hands weren't shaking as he asked.

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fierygin
2011-09-10 03:24 pm UTC (link)

Flushing in embarrassment about Remus knowing what a computer was, Ginny nodded some. Right. She didn't know the history of computers, so she had no idea when they first started showing up. But apparently it was at least as early as 1983. Interesting. Muggles really were fascinating in their technology.

But then Remus seemed confused about what she was talking about in regards to the wolfsbane potion, which caused her to be extremely confused. Why wouldn't he know about it? Okay. So it was discovered in the 1970s so it was still fairly new. But had no one thought he might like it? Well that was just rude! And now he looked suspicious of her. Great. Not what she had wanted. She liked Remus. Always had. He gave her chocolate after the Dementors showed up on the Hogwarts Express and she panicked completely because of what it made her think of.

"I know you're a werewolf and I know that once a month you lose control of yourself even though you don't want to. You kept it secret while teaching but it came out. I forget the details, but you left so as to keep parents at ease. But you took the wolfsbane potion. It helps to control the symptoms of being a werewolf. Keeps you mentally aware and the like. It's just really complicated to make and has to be done just so for it to work... But there's a library here that can pull any book you need so I know I can find a book that will tell us how to make it and what to look for to make sure that it's done correctly. It was discovered in the 1970s."

Really, Ginny didn't want to upset Remus. She had just been talking aloud and had thought he already knew. But right. He was from a time where it was still new and probably not widely spoken about. Think before you speak, Ginerva! Like she would listen to that mental push. Ginny almost never thought before speaking. Especially when she was nervous or trying to ease nerves. She just... spoke. Without breathing usually.

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_moony
2011-09-10 11:28 pm UTC (link)

He couldn't help it. The second the word werewolf was leaving her lips, he was flinching and looking away. It was still so foreign to him to hear others saying that word, practically accusing him of a fact that he couldn't control, that it was a natural reaction. But, he noted, that her words weren't really accusing; they were more just matter-of-fact. Almost too matter-of-fact as if this was common knowledge that anyone knew... And based off of her words, that's exactly how it was. He could feel what little color was left in his face starting to drain. His most guarded secret had somehow managed to come out to over a thousand students, and their parents, and the staff - Well, it wasn't like that could have hurt his job chances any worse, right?

He was obviously already doing such a bang up job as it was.

Remus was actually rather relieved when her moved onto the potion, as foreboding as the name sounded when he first heard it. He turned to look at her, giving her a quizzical look. Control the symptoms of being a werewolf she had said, but what exactly did that mean? And keep him mentally aware? As in... But the concept of keeping his mind during the full moon, of not becoming the blood thirsty monster that his species was so used to being known as, just seemed like something more out of a fairytale.

Even so, it was not hard to figure out why he had never heard of it, even if it had been discovered within the last decade in his time. A war had been going on, a war where werewolves had been on the bad guy's side. The last thing the Ministry probably wanted was to give the dark creatures full control over themselves during full moons. They probably thought it would increase the attacks or something. And even if it hadn't been some sort of secret, the discovery article had probably been so small - probably only a footnote - that everyone who read the Daily Prophet had probably simply glanced right over it, including him, in their attempts to see the new list of dead at Voldemort's hands. Even now, with the war having been over for two years time, he could already guess that whatever potion this was, he probably would have never been able to afford it on his own, let alone make it.

"I see," he murmured quietly, once he realized that he hadn't spoken. Finally, he decided to take her invitation to sit down as he sunk into the chair, trying to process everything he was being told. Remus almost wanted to point out that she knew his secret, but she wasn't running in the opposite direction. He stopped himself, knowing that she had already told him why, about how she knew him, and from her tone, he could only assume that she - like the Marauders and Lily - did not care. "When is it?" he asked, looking up at her, trying to get his mind to speed up and keep up with all of the information being poured onto him. Then, realizing how little sense that question made, he clarified, "The full moon. When is it?"

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fierygin
2011-09-11 06:22 am UTC (link)

If Ginny weren't in mid-sentence in her explanations on how she knew Remus was a werewolf, she would have chided him for looking away. It wasn't like he could just blame himself for something that had happened. It was part of who he was, but it wasn't all he was. He was still Remus Lupin, the nice professor who genuinely cared about the students and helped out. Oh sure, she knew he had run away when he found out Tonks was pregnant, but then he came back and they fought together. They died together.... He was an amazing person who didn't seem to give himself credit. Much like Neville in that regard.

Even so, the red head made a mental note that she was going to work on Remus' self confidence. But so long as he didn't view himself as nobody like Neville had, she probably wouldn't have as much work to do. Though the werewolf thing certainly would make it a different experience all together. No matter, Ginny was determined now.

Then the next logical question. Not about the apocalypse, but the full moon. Anyone else and she'd just wonder why it mattered when they were facing the end of the world, but for Remus? This was important.

"I think it's on Monday...." Moving forward, Ginny smiled to Remus before she started typing into the search engine to pull up the moon chart for the month. And there it was. September 12th. That... wasn't good. Ginny didn't know much about what happened during a full moon, but she did know that Remus always went away during it. And over populated apartment complex wouldn't be helpful.

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