Gryffindor's Flame || Fred Weasley

Partial family secrets revealed

Everyone was silent as they sat down in the Transfiguration classroom with Professor Mcgonagall.

Harry's tea leaf reading went.... well, let's just say Professor Trewlaney predicted that he's going to die soon.

Mcgonagall was telling them about Animagi and transformed herself into a tabby cat as an example, yet no one really reacted.

"Really, what has got into you all today?" Professor Mcgonagall said, turning back into herself with a faint pop and staring around at them all. "Not that it matters, but that's the first time my transformation's not got applause from a class."

Everybody turned their heads toward Harry again, but no one spoke.

Hermione raised her hand.

"Please, Professor, we've just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and –"

"Ah, of course," Professor Mcgonagall said, suddenly frowning. "There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?"

Everyone stared at her.

"Me," Harry finally said beside Maeve.

"I see," Professor Mcgonagall said, fixing her gaze on Harry with her beady eyes. "Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trewlawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them had died yet. Seeing death omens is her favourite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues –"

Professor Mcgonagall broke off, and they saw that her nostrils had gone white. She went on, more calmly, "Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall nor conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trewlaney –"

She stopped again and then said, in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

Maeve snorted, and Hermione laughed. Harry seemed a bit more relaxed now, but Ron still looked worried.

When the Transfiguration class had finished, they joined the crowd towards lunch.

"Ron, cheer up," Hermione said, pushing a dish of stew toward him. "You heard what Professor Mcgonagall said."

Ron spooned stew onto his plate and picked up his fork but didn't start.

"Harry," he said, in a low, serious voice, "you haven't seen a great black dog anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I have," Harry said. "I saw one the night I left the Dursleys."

Ron let his fork fall with a clatter, making Maeve wince slightly at the sound.

"Probably a stray," Hermione said calmly.

Ron looked at Hermione as though she had gone mad. "Hermione, if Harry's seen a Grim, that's – that's bad," he said. "My – my great uncle Bilius saw one once and – and he died twenty-four hours later!"

"Ron," Maeve said, trying to hide her irritation. "Do you see Harry sitting here, alive and well?"

Ron slowly nodded.

"Then he probably saw a stray, just like Hermione said. Not every dog is the Grim, you know," Maeve said and continued eating her lunch.

"I think Divination seems very woolly," Hermione said, searching through her Arithmancy book. "A lot of guesswork, if you ask me."

"There was nothing woolly about the Grim in that cup!" Ron said hotly.

Maeve had enough. She stood up from her seat and left her friends arguing about stupid stuff like always.

She still had about forty-five minutes left until she needed to head down to Hagrid's Hut for Care of Magical Creatures, so she just wandered through the halls.

She went out to the courtyard to get some peace and quiet but noticed someone else.

"Professor Lupin?" Maeve asked, recognising him from the compartment.

"Miss Selwyn? Aren't you supposed to be at lunch?" Professor Lupin asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said, then frowned. "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"You told me on train," Lupin said, rather quickly.

"No, I didn't," Maeve said slowly.

He sighed. "No, you didn't. You just look a lot like your mother. Hence, I knew your last name." 

Maeve frowned. "You knew my mother?"

Lupin looked at her, shock written over his face. "You don't?"

Maeve shook her head. "My father said she died when I was only a few months old. For the rest, he won't talk about her at all."

Professor Lupin nodded slowly.

"Can you tell me about her?" Maeve asked.

"I don't think I'm the right person to tell you that," Lupin said.

"Please, I just want to know more about her. I dont even know her name. Even if she wasn't a good person, can you tell me?" Maeve pleaded.

She didn't know why she desperately wanted to know about her mother. She never bothered to ask anyone before. Maybe knowing that someone knew Maeve's mother made her realise she knew nothing about her.

Professor Lupin took a breath. "Okay, I'll tell you. Your mother's name was Katherine Selwyn –"

"Wait, what? That's not possible," Maeve interrupted.

"And how is that not possible?"

"Because that would mean that my father took my mother's last name and –" Maeve's head was spinning. "It would mean he lied to me my whole life."

Maeve saw in Lupin's eyes the question she hoped he wouldn't ask. Thankfully, he didn't.

"Maeve – that's your first name, right?" Maeve nodded. "Maeve, I don't know a lot of your family. I don't know who your mother married, I only know how she was in school and that –" He hesitated. "And that she's not dead."

Maeve felt like her whole world turned upside down. "What?"

"Katherine Selwyn isn't dead. She's in Azkaban," Professor Lupin said, looking down at his hands.

Maeve didn't say anything for a few seconds. What? How come she never knew or even found out?

"How?" She finally spoke up.

"Sorry?"

"How did she end up there?" She asked again.

Lupin took another breath. "Are you sure you'd like to know from me? Isn't it better you ask your father?"

Maeve shook her head. He would for sure kill her on the spot.

"Okay," he shifted his footing. "Your mother had... unusual power. Nothing like it had been seen since the age of the founders," Godric Gryffindor flashed through Maeve's mind, but she quickly pushed it away. "Katherine joined Voldemort during the first Wizarding War and – and she was known for the number of people she killed. The only reason she wasn't caught at first was because her magic was undetectable. Finally, on the 31st of October 1981, Katherine Selwyn got caught by aurors and was sent to Azkaban."

"The day Harry's parents died," Maeve whispered. "Please don't tell me she had anything to do with their deaths."

Professor Lupin didn't say anything for a few seconds.

Maeve got all she needed to know from that.

"I've got to go, I have class," Maeve said, turning around and leaving the Professor calling her.

She hadn't noticed tears streaming down her cheeks until she reached the girls' bathroom. She quickly wiped them away and made her way down to Hagrid's Hut.

Her mother was alive. And a killer.