Shifted

Betrayal

A thick, dangerous silence followed Theo's declaration. No one lowered their wands.

Hermione turned to Draco. "Is he lying? He has to be lying."

But Draco wasn't paying her any mind. His line of sight was pasted on Theo, looking completely gobsmacked.

Harry stumbled to the railing and grabbed it with a white knuckle intensity. His face was so pale Hermione feared he might pass out.

Draco took three steps backward until his heels slammed into the wall. His eyes were wide and crazed.

Good Godric, was she the only one keeping it together?

She snapped her attention to Theo.

"This is it? Your master plan?"

He threw his arms out wide. "I've not been shot yet, have I?"

She could kill him. She was going to kill him.

Behind her, Lupin's voice came to life. She almost couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"Stand down."

The sound of wands being dropped against thighs echoed through the dead quiet.

Hermione felt like she was floating through space, spinning around and watching things unfold, powerless to stop it.

Theo had the smallest hint of an arrogant smirk on his lips. Hermione wanted to smack it away. She spun around to face Lupin instead, who was trudging up the stairs, looking exhausted.

"What's your plan?"

Lupin searched her face for a moment before sighing.

"If he's telling the truth, it could end everything."

Hermione's heart stuttered.

Five years. Five years they'd been fighting. Losing, then winning just to lose once more. Teetering like the most dangerous seesaw, never truly knowing how things might turn out.

No more dead bodies. No more lost friends.

She could see her parents again. Check on them, at the very least. Make sure they're okay and happy and—

"What if he's lying?"

Behind them, the others were clambering up the stairs, throwing their arms around Harry and pecking him with questions. Ron and Ginny slid questioning eyes toward Hermione, but neither attempted to approach.

The chasm between them had never felt larger. It made her chest ache.

"We can't go on like this forever, Hermione."  Lupin pressed his lips together. "One day, there will be too much. We can't keep giving without results."

The bags under Lupin's eyes had never been more prominent. His thin, sickly figure seemed to stand out dangerously against the bright sun.

Lupin had done nothing but fight and lose.

Lose his friends. Lose hope.

Lose the war.

It was inevitable. He'd had to have thought it, at least once or twice. Pictured a world where he'd given up everything and got nothing in return.

She missed Sirius. She pictured a universe where she got to know James and Lily as Harry's happy parents more times than she could count.

But those had only ever been daydreams. There was never a chance of it. In some ways, she thought it made acceptance worse. That Harry would never know the love of a mother or father. She'd lost her parents, could never undo the decision she'd been forced to make at seventeen.