Trapped In Time: Love's Secrets (Adult)

Chapter Thirteen

It was grey and silent when Shannon finally woke the next morning. The silence told her that it wasn’t raining and glancing over to Moss’s cage, she saw the dark bird peering at her through the front bars, blinking his good morning. Shannon smiled back at him and then last night came flooding back to mind and she groaned and threw the blankets back over her head.

“Why didn’t I ask Dobby to show me the way to the kitchen?” she mumbled from under the blankets and then pulled a pillow over her face for good measure. If she smothered herself to death, she wouldn’t need to worry about eating breakfast.

Moss knocked his beak against the bars in reply and Shannon groaned back at him. “Yes I know, and then no one would feed you right? Fine, I’ll get up” she muttered and dragged herself out of bed. Using a scoop to put a measure of dried, dead insects into the dish in Moss’s cage, she considered going through the day without eating. Realizing she was being a coward, she frowned down at herself and saw she was still in the clothes from last night.

Fifteen minutes later, with her hair clipped up on her head and in her work clothes of jeans and a loose blue sweater, Shannon was walking down the corridor towards the staff room door. The good news at least was that everyone was on their own schedule for the day, so there was a span of time where breakfast was available and instead of individual meals it was mostly platters to pick and choose from. Maybe, if she was lucky, she had missed the rush and could eat quickly by herself and then rush to work. She had slept in after all!

Upon opening the staff room door, her hopes were dashed. Sitting on the edge of a table, turned slightly so that one long leg hung off the ground and seeming happy and relaxed, was the one person she had hoped to avoid.

“Ah good, the one I was waiting for.” Remus stood slowly and smiled at Shannon, “how was your night?”

Shannon thought of all the possible answers she could give ‘oh good except half the time I was crying and hating myself and half the time I was imagining you naked’ seemed like a good one but maybe she’d keep that to herself. “Fine” she finally answered and smiled slightly, “you?”

“Oh I was a bit restless. It’s quite strange being back in the castle, it holds so many memories…” he trailed off, looking away for a brief moment. On closer examination he looked completely exhausted and unkempt. “Anyways, I was up late getting my lesson ready and had a talk with Dumbledore about it. He approved my lesson but then said I should run it by you.”

“Oh?” Shannon replied wondering how far their conversation on the subject had gone, she hated the idea of people talking about her and not knowing what was said. Then she quickly remembered what the first lesson was and where this was going. “He told you to warn me because I was in danger of everything and completely unable to take care of myself” she frowned down at the floor.

“What? No” Remus answered quietly and took a step towards her “in fact he said you were a quite talented and remarkable woman but lacked training in some areas.” He was smiling down on her now, his chin tucked against his chest and his hands in his pockets looking rather shy himself. He hadn’t expected this reaction but recognized it far too well.

“You know, being different has that nasty side-effect of making one feel unworthy.” He said almost in a whisper “and as we get older, we believe we are supposed to be above such childish emotions and have a more developed self-esteem. Unfortunately it never works that way, and while we go through life feeling as though we will be judged, we forget that every person around us has their own reasons to feel the same.”

He reached out and put a hand on Shannon’s shoulder, squeezed her quickly to his side and added “now do me a favour, come have breakfast with me and don’t go opening the wardrobe in here.” His hand slid to her lower back as he led her slowly, as if he barely had the energy to walk the length of the room, to the Great Hall.