✔️ 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓&𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 → 𝑓. 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

72 | K N I F E

•••
and the stars look very different
                         tonight.
•••

   "They look for you", Remus said, his eyes on Harry and Lynnea. "They want Harry for questioning him about Dumbledore's death. That's the official version they published in the Daily Prophet. And you two are officially twins now, so they look for Lynnea accusing her for betrayal, as she lived under a false identity."

   "That's ridiculous", Hermione snapped.

   "Well, they can't write the truth, can they?", Lynnea quietly said.

   "That's not all", Remus went on. "There's a register for muggle-borns. They have to come to the Ministry to get 'checked'."

   "People won't let that happen", Ron growled.

   "It is happening, Ron!", Remus replied. "Muggle-borns are rounded up while we speak."

    "What if a pureblood swears to be related to a muggle-born?", Ron said in a desperate voice, his eyes on Hermione. "I'll teach Hermione my family tree, she'll be able to answer questions -"

   Hermione covered his hands with hers, and gave a shaky laugh. "Ron, as we're on the run with Harry and Lynnea Potter, it doesn't matter, what blood status we both have. If they'd catch us, we're dead, I guess."

   Remus hesitated.

   "I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Harry, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you a mission."

   "He did," Harry replied, "and Lynn, Ron and Hermione are in on it and they're coming with me."

   "Can you confide in me what the mission is?"

   Lynnea looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but graying hair, and wished that Harry could return a different answer.

   "I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore didn't tell you I don't think I can."

   "I thought you'd say that", said Remus, looking disappointed. "But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to."

   "What about Tonks?", Lynnea asked, cutting Harry off, who had already opened his mouth. "Will you leave her alone all the time?"

   "She'll be fine", Remus replied. "She's at her parents house. She'll understand."

   "Remus", said Hermione tentatively, "is everything all right ... you know ... between you and - "

   "Everything is fine, thank you," said Remus pointedly.

   Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lynnea's godfather said with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant: "Tonks is going to have a baby."

   "Oh, how wonderful!", squealed Hermione.

   "Excellent!", said Ron enthusiastically.

   "Congratulations", said Harry.

   "So just to be clear", I said with narrowed eyes. "You want to leave your wife and your unborn child to go on a pretty adventure with us?"

   "She'll be perfectly safe, her parents are looking after her, caring for her", Remus answered. "See, I don't think James and Lily would have wanted their children to go on their own. James would have wanted me to stick with you."

   "I don't think so", Harry told him in a cold voice. "I'm pretty sure our father would have wanted to know why you don't want to stick with your own kid, actually."

   "You don't understand", said Remus at last.

   "Explain, then", said Harry.

   Remus swallowed.

   "I - I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against my better judgment and have regretted it very much every since."

   "I see", Lynnea hissed. "So you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?"

   Lupin sprang to his feet: His chair toppled over backward, and he glared at Harry and Lynnea so fiercely that she saw, for the first time ever, the shadow of the wolf upon his human face.

   "Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!"

   He kicked aside the chair he had overturned.

   "You have only ever seen me amongst the Order! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child - the child - "

   "What should we see you?", Lynnea whispered through gritted teeth. "You're my parents best friend, and Tonks doesn't care what you are, we don't care what you are, for we all know, who you are!"

   "My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it - how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

   "Remus!", whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. "Don't say that - how could any child be ashamed of you?"

   "Oh, I don't know, Hermione", said Harry. "I'd be pretty ashamed of him."

   "Harry ..."

   "Our father died trying to protect my mother, my sister and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?", Harry snarled.

   "How - how dare you?" said Remus. "This is not about a desire for - for danger or personal glory - how dare you suggest such a - "

   "I think you're feeling a bit of a daredevil", Harry said, "You fancy stepping into Sirius's shoes - "

   "Harry, no!" Hermione begged him, but he continued to glare into Remus' livid face.

   "I'd never have believed this", Harry said. "The man who taught me to fight dementors - a coward."

   Remus drew his wand so fast that Harry had barely reached for his own; there was a loud bang and he felt himself flying backward as if punched; as he slammed into the kitchen wall and slid to the floor, he glimpsed the tail of Lupin's cloak disappearing around the door.

   "You shouldn't have said that!", Hermione shrieked.

   "He should", Lynnea muttered, walking over to her brother, stretching her hand out to pull Harry up. "If that made him go back to Tonks, every word Harry said was worth it."

   "Parents shouldn't leave their kids", Harry said, still fuming. "Unless they have to go ..."