Be Silently Drawn || Remus Lupin & Hermione Granger

Chapter 43

"Would you like some coffee, darling?"

Hermione mumbled a "no thanks" to her mother and continued flipping through the Daily Prophet as she'd done every morning the last week, scanning for news about Hogwarts and any staff changes. The morning after McGonagall had caught her with Remus, Hermione hadn't been able to bear facing either one of her professors and had left for home for the Easter holidays before she had the chance to run into them, and also before she could find out if Remus had been fired.

If he had, she expected it would be in the news considering the controversy surrounding his — a werewolf's — appointment at Hogwarts. This morning, however, like the others before, there was no mention of the dismissal or new hiring of a Hogwarts professor. This only left her feeling more anxious than relieved, though, because it didn't necessarily mean Remus hadn't been sacked. Perhaps McGonagall had just succeeded in keeping the news quiet.

Hermione was about to put the paper aside and start on her breakfast when she noticed Fenrir Greyback's name. Apparently he'd been mysteriously attacked in Azkaban last night — the perpetrator, whether fellow inmate or guard, presently unknown — and was currently at St. Mungo's in critical condition.

"Serves him right," Hermione muttered, thinking of the savageries Greyback had committed, all the children — including Remus — he'd infected and marked for life, and the horror she'd felt when she herself had almost become one of his victims, the way her flesh had crawled when he'd called her "delicious girl."

"Are you reading the article on Fenrir Greyback?" Mrs. Granger asked as she joined Hermione at the table, a steaming cup of coffee in hand.

"Yeah. I was just thinking of all that he's done and — wait a minute," Hermione said suddenly, giving her mother with a quizzical look. "How did you know there was an article on Greyback?"

"I subscribed to the Daily Prophet months ago," Mrs. Granger said, patting her own copy of the newspaper, which Hermione hadn't noticed was lying on the table by her mother's plate.

"But why —?"

"I wanted to keep informed on all that's going on in the Wizarding world — not like before when you shared with your father and me only what you thought wouldn't shock us and left out the bits where you and your friends were in mortal danger."

Hermione didn't know what to say. She gave her mother an apologetic smile. Mrs. Granger didn't return it.

Instead, she asked, "Didn't you say one of your professors was a werewolf like Greyback? Professor Lupin, I believe."

"Yes, Professor Lupin is a werewolf, but he's nothing like Greyback," Hermione was quick to explain. "Greyback is savage and wishes to infect as many wizards as he can. Lupin would never want to hurt anyone or pass his affliction on to anybody else. He's very careful about taking his Wolfsbane Potion, which alleviates the symptoms of his lycanthropy and helps him keep his mind when he transforms."

"So he isn't dangerous," her mother said carefully, "or else he wouldn't be allowed to teach at your school?"

"Right."

Mrs. Granger took a sip of her coffee before casually asking, "So how are things going between you and Remus?"

Hermione tensed, eyes darting back to her mother, startled by her abrupt change of subject, which she feared her mother knew wasn't really a change of subject at all. "What?"

"The boy who gave you that rose and heart necklace — how are things going between you two?"

Hermione stared at her mother. Did she know? Had she figured out that the Remus she was in love with, the Remus she'd told her about last summer but had carefully avoided discussing while at home over the Christmas holidays, was Professor Lupin? If she'd been reading the Daily Prophet for months, she likely would have seen Remus mentioned a few times, like when his appointment at Hogwarts had been debated at the start of the school year and when the werewolf attack on Valentine's Day had happened.