Chapter: 12
Remus Lupin looked up at the ceiling in the Great Hall. He took a deep breath. It had been a little more then three years since he had last been to Hogwarts. His face was now lined with thin wrinkles from stress and grief as well as the effects of being a werewolf. He started to head towards the headmaster's office. He did not want to have this meeting with Albus but knew that it needed to be down.
"How am I going to explain this to Harry and the Weasleys?" Lupin thought with a sigh then frowned. He was face to face with the gargoyle when he heard a small group of people heading his way.
He mumbled the password "Heinz Ketchup" and looked down the corridor to see who was coming as he stepped on the moving stairs, heading towards the office. It was Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Lupin heard their conversation as he ascended the stairs.
"What are we going to do if Dumbledore doesn't know where Ginny is at?" Ron asked his friends in desperation.
"What am I going to do?" he asked to himself in a mumble.
"We don't even know that she is missing." Hermione tried to point out.
"Umm Hermione?" Harry asked timidly for she could be very fierce when provoked.
"Yes." She said as if daring him to continue on with his thought.
"Well it's just, that's what you said three days ago when we first realized she was gone. You told us not to jump to conclusions and we listened, but she still isn't here so." Harry looked up from the ground where he had been staring as they walked towards the Headmasters office.
"I was just trying to be reasonable Harry." She said rather shakily. Harry looked into her eyes which were filling with tears. "Oh come on 'Mione I didn't mean it like that." Harry said as they turned to face the gargoyle.
"What's the pass word?" Ron asked Hermione who shrugged and turned to Harry.
"Hey just because I seem to always get in trouble doesn't mean I know the password." He said with a smirk. His friends laughed at the joke.
"What are you lot doing standing around the corridor?" Professor McGonagall asked the students who looked down. Harry began to tell their teacher about Ginny, but she interrupted him and had them follow her to her office. She knew of the meeting going on in the Headmasters Office and she knew the truth about Ginny. She also had orders to keep the trio and anyone else from finding out the truth until Mr. and Mrs. Potter were ready.
"Remus! It is good to see you!" Said the old Headmaster, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Remus smiled at him and he strode over to a chair facing Albus and sat down.
"So have you any news on their return?" Remus asked hope evident in his voice. Albus chuckled.
"Aye, I have news. I dare say that Mr. Weasley has noticed his sister's absences." Remus took a deep breath and sighed.
"This is going to be hard. Sirius and I had not planed on Tom's return so soon. We didn't plan on a lot of things. did we?" his eyes were glazed with tears. He was thinking of his childhood memories.
"Life was so much easier. It wasn't filled with the worries and evil it is filled with now." He looked up at Albus who was observing him over his half- moon spectacles.
"Remus, life is always full of worries and evil. If not for you, then for someone else. It is the way things are. For if there was no evil there would be no good. If there were no worries then there would be no calm. With every sorrow there is always a joy. It may not always seem evident now but in time you shall see." He smiled at his former student/ employee. "Oh and by the way Mr. and Mrs. Potter are on their way. I would say they shall be in London in one month's time." Now Albus was beaming and so was Remus.
"And Sirius?" Remus asked hopefully. "And Sirius."