In Perpetuum

Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Comperit,quae adhucin perditionem

The days following the discovery of this part of Remus’ identity were fraught with tension. Hermione would often flick her eyes nervously in the direction of either James or Sirius, only to catch them doing the same to the other custodians of this secret.

Each of them attempted to channel their nervous energies into their school work, however, even Hermione who was well practised in burying her worry with work, could do nothing to temper her frustration.

She was so very worried about the friendship between the boys and whether they would be able to weather this storm. It was the first time their comradeship had been tested by such adversity and they had resorted to communicating via non-committal grunts. They sat brooding on their thoughts, interrupted only by an occasional squeak from Peter.

The problems with Peter had been pushed to the backburner in light of recent events. There had been many a discussion in the Third Year Girls dormitory about what Lily had witnessed in the Great Hall, and Hermione was sure that these discussions were a parallel to what the others in the group would have been thinking.

It was not until three days after the full moon that Remus finally stumbled back through the portrait hole. For the most part, the occupants of the common room did not bat an eyelid at this; however, there were several pairs of eyes that zoomed up immediately. Clearly, this was a very practised move, and done more out of habit in the past few days without much meaning, because it took several seconds for them to realise that it was indeed Remus Lupin walking through the portrait door.

Whilst the normal clanging and goings on in the common room continued, the silence between the friends was impenetrable.

It was Remus who first broke the silence, slightly perplexed at his friends’ sudden coldness towards him.

“So...what did I miss?”

“Oh, nothing much - Sirius, Peter and I were put in detention for some minor disturbances we may or may not have not have caused.  Hermione received yet another one hundred and twelve percent in Defence against the Dark Arts...oh, and we ran into a werewolf whilst casually strolling the grounds several nights ago. You wouldn’t know anything about that, Remus, would you?”

Remus’ face changed colours more drastically than a toy kaleidoscope. His cheeks went from their normal rosy colour to a sea green, followed by a sallowy-white that resembled milk that had been left in the sun for several days.

“N...n...no, of course I don’t know anything about t...that!” stammered Remus.

“Is that so?” growled Sirius menacingly.

“Please,” begged Hermione, “let’s go talk about this somewhere more private”.

She led the boys up to their dormitory, where, forgetting all pretence, she flicked her wand to perform a non-verbal silencing charm. Fortunately for her, everyone else was too focused on Remus, and did not notice the lack of sound that preceded the spell.

They each sat on their respective beds atop the deep red bedcovers, with Hermione joining Sirius on his bed.

Once everyone had taken their place, the interrogation began.

“How long have you been a werewolf Remus?” said James in such a way that everyone in the room could feel his own anguish. It was very apparent that in these few moments, their friendship hung in the balance.

There was a moment of silence before the wolf replied.

“I was bitten when I was about six years old.”