The Light

Chapter 46- The Christmas Day

They found forty Muggles hanging from trees in a graveyard about fifteen minutes away from the Potter house. Nobody really spoke about it, but they were all aware, and the mere knowledge was harrowing, eating away at their hearts.

According to Mr Potter, the Ministry had retreated and sent in a team the following night to clean up loose ends. The entire village had been obliviated and the bodies had been disposed of and that was that. There was nothing more to it.

Albeit hesitantly, Mrs Potter had supervised a shopping trip to Diagon Alley in the week leading up to Christmas and Hermione used some of the money Dumbledore had given to her to buy presents. It was only a short trip, and she was rarely alone as Mrs Potter, usually so unworried in her normal demeanour according to James, was frigid and tense. They were there for a total of fifty two minutes, before she had whisked them all away and they had flooed back to the manor.

Since then, they had done nothing else, just lounged in their fabricated safety, praying that their boredom would not be interrupted.

Peter left a few days before Christmas to spend it with his family, but not before giving Hermione a long hug, where he'd held her close and tight for a very long time and whispered, "Owl me every hour of every day."

Hermione had laughed and felt his grin against the side of her face. She promised.

And so far, she had kept it.

It had dawned on her then that Remus was not returning home, and when she'd asked him about it one night after supper, he just said, "My dad's busy," and had gone to bed without another word.

Now though, on the evening of Christmas Eve, as Hermione stood next to James, washing the dishes for his mother, she cleared her throat.

"What happened to Remus' dad?" She asked, trying to appear casual.

James flung the tea towel over his shoulder (he was on official drying duty) and ran his damp fingers through his hair. "What did he tell you?"

Hermione looked sideways at him. He sighed and said, "You asked him about it, right? And you're not satisfied with the answer. You can't be, you're you."

She frowned, uncertain whether this was an insult or a compliment.

"So what did he say?"

"That his dad was busy."

James hummed. "Yeah, I can see why that didn't appease you."

She raised an eyebrow, pausing in her chore. "So what happened?"

He faltered then, as if he wasn't entirely sure how to start. James said, "Remus' dad is... is the reason Greyback bit him in the first place."

Hermione felt the horror crawling up her throat, and her heart dropped to the very bottom of her stomach. He paused and added, "Do you know who Greyback is?"

Yes she knew who Greyback was- twisting his claws through the back of Ron Weasley, those same eyes that had creased every time she made him laugh, and narrowed when they argued; those same eyes that closed when she kissed him and softened every time they landed on her, those same eyes widened one last time, life and hope draining from them, before they fell like the rest of his body, crumpling to the floor like a sack of bones too heavy to hold the galaxy within-

Her body wanted to convulse, or sob. She couldn't speak, she just nodded silently.

James continued. "Right, well, good. Remus' dad worked at the Ministry at the time, and there had been a werewolf attack, where some Muggle kids had been killed. They brought in Greyback to interrogate and one thing led to another. Apparently he tried to get away scot-free... Remus' dad wasn't going to sit back and let that happen and he ended up calling werewolves evil, soulless... saying they deserved nothing but death..." Hermione inhaled sharply. His eyes shot to her. "Yeah, you get the point. I don't know what happened exactly. Needless to say, Greyback didn't like that." He threaded the towel through his fingers, staring at the soapy water. Hermione watched him. She knew where this story was going, but she didn't want to hear it.