"I have a confession to make."
"Is it about socks?"
"What? Why would it be about socks?"
Kadin had been sat at the Gryffindor table, happily drawing the anatomical diagram of the Welsh Green Dragon (she had a long-running correspondence with Charlie Weasley on the subject of dragon cross-breeding). Devin Wood-McKinnon, sat opposite, was watching her over a mug of coffee with a vaguely concerned expression.
"Someone's been messing with my socks." Kadin explained matter-of-factly, "My sock pile has been disturbed."
Davin blinked, "I really want to ask about the sock pile now, but I have a feeling I'd regret it."
"It's just a pile of socks." Kadin shrugged, "Not mine. I find them and keep them for the house elf that comes to visit me."
"I knew you'd been bribing Dobby." Devin eyed her suspiciously.
"So." Kadin put down her pencil and leant across the table, "If your confession is super un-sock based, what's up?"
Devin put on her best inconspicuous whisper, "A couple of weeks ago, I found Hermione in the library, bashing her head against a stack of shelves-"
"The revision ritual, I'm familiar with it." Kadin nodded.
"Right, except it wasn't about revision." Devin said, "She was looking for something about your mystery woman."
"It's getting really hard to keep calling her a mystery when everyone seems to know about her." Kadin muttered.
"Kade, I've known you for years and you're terrible at keeping secrets. Obviously, I know." Devin rolled her eyes, "Hermione needed help, and also she writes essays for you when she's grateful, so I sent out a letter."
"To who?"
Devin winced, like she was impending a blow, "My mum."
"Dev." Kadin moaned.
"I know what you're going to say-"
"She's an auror."
"She was also really good mates with your mum." Devin argued, "So she'll probably have known about your missing Blacksmith."
Kadin rested her chin on her fist glumly, "I don't know what else there is to find out. She went to Azkaban for what my dad did."
"Right. And that's bad." Devin said slowly, like she was trying to explain something to a child, "You do get how an innocent woman being in prison for twelve years is bad, right?"
"I know. My head's just all in the wrong place." Kadin shook herself, "It's another thing he did wrong. I thought I knew everything... I made myself know everything. But I'm starting to think there's maybe not going to be an end to 'everything'."
Devin shrugged, "There can be. That fucker is gonna die at some point. And you'll rise from the ashes to be the most majestic creature anyone's ever seen. You can end it by being better than him. This is how we start."
"I am a majestic creature." Kadin agreed quietly.
"Right. So now we've got that sorted," Devin sat forwards, "My mum says she can't get involved because of super secret Auror reasons, but she's put in some calls to a few friends, and they are going to be 'visiting' Hogwarts this week, if you catch my drift."
Kadin nodded, "I'm all kinds of drifty over here."
"Uh huh."
"But I might need you to explain just a little bit." Kadin conceded.
YOU ARE READING
ONCE BOY |2| Remus Lupin
Fanfiction'Grown up' has never been more foreign. Kadin Bell is the daughter of a disgraced murderer and a practically perfect war hero. The hero is dead. The murderer has escaped. It's a classic story. But something's wrong. The adults are keeping secrets, a...
