He shook her hand. "Likewise." She giggled softly.

"What?"

"Oh, uhm, it's just… you really do have hair on your hands, don't you?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned the palms of his hands upwards. Small, soft, lightbrown hairs were painfully visible. Remus started to doubt if this interview had really been such a good idea.

He pulled his hands back and stuck them safely in his pockets. "Well, uhm, shall we?"

"Good idea." She followed him outside, to the Leaky Cauldron.

~*~

The wizard's pub was as busy and as cosy as ever. Bright sunlight filtered through the dusty windows. Tom, the bartender, was standing behind the counter. Linda pulled Remus' sleeve.

"He really does look like a walnut," she whispered, eyes shining with delight. He stared at her, then at Tom.

"He does," he said finally. "I never looked at him that way, but he does look like a walnut."

They found themselves seats in a quiet corner of the Leaky Cauldron, next to a window. Tom approached them to ask what they wanted to drink, and Remus noticed that, now he had seen the walnut-ness of Tom´s head, he couldn't keep himself from thinking about it every time he saw Tom.

After the bartender had brought them their drinks, Remus turned towards the girl opposite him. "So," he said. "Let's get started. The interview."

She nearly choked on her drink. "Ah, yes, uhm… wait a sec…" Then she started digging in her bag. "Uhm…I got it right here… ah." She triumphantly took out a sheet of paper. "The questions." She spread the sheet flat on the table. The handwriting amazed Remus – it was small and precise, all the letters the same height –

"You wrote this?" he asked, astounded. She frowned.

"No, my computer and my printer wrote this – oh! Of course, you wouldn't know, it's a Muggle thing." She saw his confused look, then started to explain with a lot of gesturing. "You see, a computer is a kind of box with a screen and a thing with letters on it and when you press the letters they appear on the screen, and it takes way less time and effort than actually writing it. And the printer, he can make the letters on the screen actually appear on paper, with ink, but I don't know how that works exactly."

He still didn't understand it.

"Never mind," she sighed. "Just remember it's a Muggle thing okay?"

"Okay," he replied, and he silently decided to get some books about modern Muggle-life; he wanted to be able to write like her.

"Okay, well, we'll start easy," she said. "Er – how are you?"

She asked it so seriously it made him laugh. "I'm fine," he said. "Really. I'm excellent."

"Great!" she replied. "Well, I wanted to start with what has happened before you came back to Hogwarts this year, things like your, uhm…" she lowered her voice, "you know, your… condition – "

"You can call it Lycantropy if you want to," he said helpfully.

"Ah, uh, okay. And uhm, of course your time at Hogwarts with the Marauders, and what you did after that. And then I´d like to ask some things about last year, when you were teaching, and then after that maybe your plans for the future. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure," he said. "Fire away."

"Okay. Er, when you were bitten, you were, uh, five, right?"

"That's right."

"Er, were you ever teased with it?"

"Well, no, not really. That may sound strange, but… no. Actually, not many people knew what I was, so they just treated me like everybody else. Of course, after they found, they would avoid me, but that's not really teasing. Uhm… I went to primary school for a couple of years after I was bitten, but my parents decided to teach me at home when there were too many near-accidents while playing, but I was never teased there. Simply because they didn't knew."

"And the Marauders?"

His eyes began to twinkle. "Ah, the Marauders. Yes, of course they teased me. But I teased them back so it wasn't a problem. Sirius would call me the Wolf-Man after some movie he'd seen, and I would call him a bad dog, and James was antler-boy, but it was just friendly teasing."

"What was the thing you heard the most?" she wanted to know.

It didn't take him much thinking to answer. "The thing I heard the most was probably if I was having my periods again. I have heard that so much I now sometimes have the urge to hit someone if they say it." Remus sighed. "One time, my mom and my sister-in-law started a conversation about having your period right in front of me, and when I asked them to discuss it another time, my sister-in-law tried to make me join their conversation. She has no mercy, really…"

"Ow, I'm sorry," Linda said, obviously biting back a grin.

"Yeah right," he said sceptically. "But anyway, I am not a woman, I am a werewolf, and that's quite different."

"Okay, got that," she said. "Well, that was everything I actually wanted to know about that… Uhm… Scotland! What would you do if Chrystal turned up on your doorstep with a child, claiming it's your child?" It was all a bit too much and it went a bit too fast for him to take in at once.

"What? what? what?" he stammered.

"Startled you, didn't I? What would you do if one day, the doorbell was ringing, and you open the door, and you see Chrystal – you know who I mean – and she has this adoring little kid, and she announces it's your child. What would you do?"

"Oh, ah… o dear…" He distractedly ran his hand through his hair. "Uhm… scream. And scream. And scream some more. And probably take care of the child, if I need to…but she probably would've told me sooner. I think."

"Yeah, probably," Linda agreed. "Maybe."

"What?" There was something in the tone of her voice he didn't like. "Do you know something I don't know?"

"What? No, no, of course not! It was just a 'what if'-question!" She fidgeted with the sheet of paper. "Uhm, okay. Have you even thought of going back to Scotland, to Loch Ness more accurately?"

"Yes, the thought did occur to me," he admitted. "But…I never did it."

"Why not?"

"I don't know… It'd just be… too complicated. And painful." He was amazed at how easily he confessed it. It must have something to do with the fact that I´ll probably never see her after this, he thought.

She nodded. "That sounds logical. By the way, how did your family react to it?"

"Well, I don't think they ever found out. My mom may have suspected something, but I never told them, so I don't think they know. So, they didn't react to it," he shrugged.

"Okay. Well, that was about everything I wanted to know… yep. Let's talk about last year – and let's get the most annoying person out of the way: Snape. If you could kick him, really hard and really painfully, like, in the groin or someplace like that, would you do it?"

Remus was starting to get amused by the whole interview and her way of asking questions. This question made him smile. "Well, I guess you're referring to that whole 'he got me sacked'-thing. Yes, at that moment I could kick him. Several times actually." He raised his hands apologetically. "What can I say? I'm only human!" He lowered his hands again. "But now, I've more or less come to terms with it."

"You mean you've accepted that Snape´s a… not so very nice guy?" she said.

"Well, you could put it that way…I mean, looking back at that night and the morning after, I´d probably do the same thing he did. He was just frustrated, and I was the one had to pay for his loss of the Order of Merlin."

"Are you sure you're human?" Linda wanted to know. Another question that made him laugh.

"Yes, pretty sure," he said. "Why?"

"Well, you're so… nice. Snape made you loose your job and he was the one who caused S – your best friend to go on the run again, and still you don't really hate him. He told the whole school what you are!" She indignantly slapped her hand on the table, causing several people to look at them.

"Shh!" he hissed. "I know he did. But I also know why he did it. Don't you think I'm pretty used to being avoided and having to leave suddenly? Let me tell you something: if you're avoided and lonely most of the time, you learn to appreciate the things you get. I enjoyed every day at Hogwarts because I knew it was another day in which nobody had found out what I was. Snape´s action came unexpected, but not really as a surprise. Yes, I hated to go, but I was also glad that I had managed to stay so long."

His little speech had impressed her, he could see it. She was silent for a few moment, then said, carefully: "I see what you mean. I can understand it. But – I still don't like it that Snape did that."

"That's fine with me," he said generously. "Next question. Not about Snape, please."

"Okay. What was it like to teach Harry?"

He smiled, this was a subject he liked. "It was… amazing. Strange, because he looks so much like James it's scary. And it felt like – this may sound strange – like I was teaching my own son or something." He laughed. "Because he was like James but he was so much younger. I mean, I remember him sitting in my lap when he was one, so, yeah, it was definitely strange to teach him."

"How'd you react to the whole 'him being famous'-thing? I mean, did you see him as really special, The Boy Who Lived, or as just a normal boy?"

"Pretty normal, I guess. Like I said, I knew him when he was a baby, so to me, he was just Harry. And about him defeating V – You Know Who; I was too much involved in that to see him as someone special. To me, his parents are special too. And Sirius, of course."

"And you," Linda added. He smiled.

"I'm just a tiny bit important," he said modestly.

"Well, not such a tiny, tiny bit actually… Next question! What did you do with the Boggart and the Hinkypunk and all the other creatures you had?"

"Oh, let me see… I set the Hinkypunk free in the Forbidden Forest… there's a group of Hinkypunks, so he's probably living with them now. My Grindylow´s now swimming around in the lake, unless the Squid ate it – but I don't think so. I don't think Grindylows are the number one on the Squid's menu – they're too difficult to catch. And my Boggart – I have to admit that I set it loose in the dungeons, so he's probably haunting around there. Hopefully it's Snape he's haunting." Remus grinned. "I might've forgiven him for what he did, but I simply can't kill the Marauder in me. He just has to live with it…"

She grinned too. "Makes you wonder what he fears most."

"Ah, a subject for a long discussion. I bet that if Sirius was here, he'd come up with a very long list." He'd have to bring that subject on some time, if he ever got the chance to talk to Sirius again.

"Ah, now you mention Sirius: did you believe him immediately when he said he was innocent?"

"Not immediately-immediately," Remus said carefully. "He'd been saying he was innocent since the moment he was caught. But he'd never said it to my face. I had read it in the paper, but he had never directly said to me. So, when I looked at him, and he said he was innocent – I just knew it was true. Besides, would he really go through all that trouble of finding Peter if he was guilty? I don't think so."

"That's true," she nodded. "Are you still in touch with him?"

Remus unconsciously looked around to see if anyone could hear him. "Yes, at least, he send me a very short note, saying he was fine and that he was going south. That was all he wanted to say, but it was enough for me. At least I know he's safe."

"Yeah, that's great," she agreed. "Well, I think we've reached the part of the interview about what you're going to do in the future. Any special plans?"

"No, not really. Ah, yes. About two weeks ago, Romulus announced that I'm going to be an uncle again, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Congratulations!" she said. "When will the child be born?"

"Around November, he said."

"What do you think it's going to be, a boy or a girl?"

He shrugged. "Well, I already have a niece, so a nephew would be nice, but it really doesn't matter. It's not my child anyway. It's clichéd, but… as long as it's healthy."

"Wouldn't you like children of your own?" was her next question.

"Of course! What kind of question is that?" he said indignantly. "I´d love to have children of my own, but… oh, you know, it's that whole Lycantropy thing again…" Remus sighed. "A couple of years back, there even was a group of anti-werewolf extremists, trying to get a law that would ensure that every werewolf was sterilised. We're just not extremely popular on the baby-market." He smiled wryly.

"God, that's terrible," Linda exclaimed, a disgusted look on her face.

"Tell me about it! That's probably also why it never became a law. Of course, there are still people who say that the law that forbids experimental breeding should include werewolves, but so far it has never happened."

"Let's hope it never does." She looked on her sheet of paper. "Okay, I got a few short two-option questions for you. Just pick the one you like best."

"Okay."

"Uhm, well, easy one: tea or coffee?"

"Tea. Got more different flavours."

"Puppies or kittens?"

He stared at her. "Euh, kittens, I guess."

"Live music or recorded?"

"Live, of course."

"Boxers or briefs?"

Remus burst into laughing, then he saw she was serious. "No," he said. "No way. Not gonna answer that one."

"But why not?" Linda wanted to know.

"It's personal!"

"I won't tell anyone!" she said. "My lips are sealed." She mimicked locking her mouth and throwing away the key. "Promised."

He glanced to his left and right, then bowed forward and said, almost against his will, "boxers."

"Yes, thank you," she said. "Okay, next one. Strangling Snape or strangling Peter?"

"Strangling Peter, definitely."

"How surprising," she said, with only a hint of sarcasm. "Uhm, hey, I believe that was everything I wanted to ask."

"Really?" He tried to read what was on the sheet. "It seems so."

"Yeah. Pity."

"Uhuh." They were so impressed by it that the conversation rapidly turned into the exchange of one-syllable words.

"So…"

"Well."

"Yeah…"

"So… now you've interviewed me," Remus asked, "what are you going to do with it?"

"Oh, I'm… going to put it in a story and… I don't know yet. I actually hadn't really expected you to react to my letter! So… I don't know," she replied vaguely.

"Well, you can always make a story out of it and write a book," he suggested. "As long as you give me some credit!"

"Yeah, maybe I´d do that," she said.

"If anyone's interested in that…"

"You'd be pleasantly surprised," Linda said cryptically. She checked her watch. "I really got to go." She started packing her bag, and was soon ready to go. "It's been really nice talking to you. To tell you the truth, you turned out even nicer than I´d pictured you!"

"Gee, thanks," he laughed, embarrassed but at the same time pleased. "It's been nice talking to you too. At least now I know what it's like to be interviewed!" She laughed.

"Oh, I certainly hope professional journalists don't interview like me! But I really got to go. Say hi to Monster for me." And off she went.

Remus remained on his seat a few more moments. Something was bugging him; he'd never told her about Monster, had he? And, apart from that, had he ever told her about Chrystal? How did she know those things?

He abruptly got up and practically ran out the Leaky Cauldron. He looked around, trying to find her. There – on the corner of the street, waiting for the traffic lights. He caught up with her.

"Wait a minute," he gasped. "How do you know about Monster?"

She turned around. "What?"

"I never told you about Monster," he said. "Come to think of it, I never told you about anything at all until today. How come you know everything about me?"

She looked at him as if she was measuring him. "Does the word 'God' ring a bell with you?"

He frowned. "I believe I've read about it. Don't Muggles believe he created everything?"

"Yes, that's true. They also think God is everywhere, and He can see everything you do and He knows everything. Well, imagine you could meet God. That's all I have to say."

Remus stared at her, and she stared back. He suddenly noticed her blue eyes – grey-blue with a dark blue edge. She had exactly the same eyes as that girl who appeared every day after the full moon, when he'd taken the Wolfsbane Potion! A crazy idea was taking shape inside his head. Imagine you could meet God…

Linda gently squeezed his arm. "I really have to go, sorry." She suddenly grinned, stood tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. "Always wanted to do that, and now was my chance!" she whispered in his ear. He didn't know that, at that very moment, she was thinking: okay Linda, there you go. Quoting from your own fict…

"What?" he stammered. She smiled and took his hand, palm upwards. She traced the lines of his hand as if she was Trelawney.

"I predict many adventures," she said in a mystical voice. "The return of an old friend, many old friends actually, your family will grow, a bit of travelling too… sorry, no love for you… and all ends well."

He stared at her as she stepped back, looked at the traffic light.

"Look, it's green," she said. "Gotta go, or I´ll miss my boat. Remus, just… hang on. Life isn't that bad you know." She flashed a smile with a sort of half-wink.

"Yes…" he managed to say. "I… bye."

She smiled again and turned around, crossing the street. She first looked the wrong way – left, instead of right – but safely reached the other side. She turned around once more and waved again. He waved back, and she disappeared in the crowd.

Imagine you could meet God…

Really, really, really The End…

Author's note.

And another fict finished!

Here're some statistics for Prisoner of the Moon:

- I started writing this fict on July 26, which means that it took me less than a year to finish this!

- It covers chapter 5, 'The Dementor' to chapter 22, 'Owlpost again' of Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban.

- It has, with an Arial 11 font, 83 pages, 58.406 words, 271.882 symbols without spaces and an astounding 330.313 symbols including the spaces. The story has 1.671 paragraphs, and 6303 lines…

- The very first scene I wrote – in my head because I had no paper at that moment – was the staff meeting. At first, it was a lot more violent, with Snape and Remus actually screaming at one another and using language that would not be possible with the PG13 rating… must have had something to do with the fact that my mood wasn't exactly great – I was on holiday in England, and it was unbelievably hot, just on that day Anne and I had decided to visit Highgate Cemetery, which involved a lot of walking… -sigh-

Of course, I also quoted in this fict! A lot of quotes come from Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban, of course. Entire scenes are taken from that book, and I must thank the people at harrypotterfreakz.com for that, because you can download the book there – it would have been torture to copy everything from the book. Especially the Shrieking Shack scene! Apart from that, I used a quote from Oz; into the wild, by Christopher Golden. A book that I, by the way, bought in England…

There's also a quote from The BFG, by Roald Dahl, and a really minor, somewhat altered quote from the movie Sense & Sensibility, that nobody found because you really have to be an obsessed fan of either the movie or Alan Rickman to find it. It's in the Halloween-chapter, when Flitwick says to Remus: "Remus, my boy, do not think on yourself so lowly." So there. Talking about really, really obscure references…