Chapter 29: A Brief Respite

After Potions that morning, their next lesson was Defence Against the Dark Arts.  Potions had been more bearable than normal, Tanwen had even managed to concoct her draught correctly without any trouble- which, as Jon had pointed out, was a first.  Jon however, was never very good in Potions, something to do with his lack of patience was Tanwen's private opinion, and had accidentally caused his potion to emit brightly coloured sparks, which as Snape had pointed out, was also a first.

As the class entered the room Professor Lupin was just finishing magicing the chairs and desks to the walls of the room. Tanwen smiled, another practical lesson, this day was just getting better and better.

"Ok class," Lupin said, smiling at them all as they filed in.  "Today you're going to be learning the Shield Charm.  This casts a temporary invisible wall around you that can deflect minor curses.  Organise yourselves into pairs please and line up opposite one another."

There was an outburst of talking as the Gryffindors paired up.  Predictably Chris and Leo, Alicia and Clem, Dom and Lou were among the first to pair, on an unspoken agreement.  Mark and Cassie were a relatively unusual pairing which meant Jon's usual partner was taken.  After several particularly stressful and unproductive pairings between him and Marcia, the two of them had agreed never to partner one another ever again.  Shrugging at Tanwen, Marcia joined Dave.  With a pretend look of disappointment, Jon sidled over to Tanwen.

"I suppose that leaves me with you," he sighed.

"Don't pretend you aren't delighted," she grinned back, giving him a playful shove and walking a few steps away.  Jon opened his mouth to reply but was cut short by Lupin telling them what they were supposed to do.

They were to take it in turns to perform the Shield Charm while their partner tried to penetrate it with several spells that he had written on the board behind him.

"I'm not expecting you all to be able to master the Charm immediately, so I've chosen relatively harmless spells," he told them, gesturing to the spells and incantations behind him.  "They should all be familiar to you, but if there are spells here that you don't feel comfortable with then I suggest you either ask me or avoid them."

Tanwen grinned at Jon, twirling her wand between her fingers, "so Mr Contay, feeling comfortable?"

"Well actually-"

"-Locamotar mortis."

After all the unhappiness she had suffered over the past months Tanwen felt that someone was trying to make things up to her over the next week or so.  Things had gone ok with school work, and things between her and Cedric were better than ever!  Quidditch practices went well and as she walked off the pitch with her victorious team mates after the Ravenclaw match she could hardly remember what it had felt like before.

The noisy and exuberant Gryffindors made their way noisily back to the common room.  Someone brought down a radio and loud music was soon pumping out of the small triangular box.  Several people arrived late with drinks and snacks from the kitchen, joined not long after by Fred and George who also had refreshments, but much better ones, such as butterbeer and Honeydukes chocolates.

Tanwen and her friends settled themselves in a corner of the common room and the guys elbowed their way through the rabble to get some drinks.

"That was great!" Cassie said enthusiastically to Tanwen.  "You know we're back in the running now!"

"Yep," Tanwen nodded, and grinned, "of course I knew Harry wouldn't let us down."

"Riight," Marcia replied, rolling her eyes.

"Was it worth all that training then?" Jon asked, handing Tanwen and Marcia a bottle of butterbeer as he and the other boys returned.

"Don't ask that," Marcia replied, "you know she loves practice, don't you remember how every time Wood came in and pushed out the team for practice Tanwen was always the first one out the door."

"Yep, couldn't escape quick enough," Mark grinned.

"Some people just don't appreciate dedication," Tanwen said in a lofty tone.  Jon rather ruined it by pinching her side causing her to yelp and jump to the side into Dave, making his drink slosh down his robes.

"Sorry," she apologised, wiping the front of his robes with a clean handkerchief, glaring at Jon.

"No problem," Dave said, stopping her, "I was going to take it off anyway, it's getting so hot in here."  He gave her his bottle to hold and pulled his robes over his head.

"I didn't know this was going to be a strip show," Jon commented, with a grin.

"It's not," Dave replied firmly, taking his bottle back.

"Unless you can't see, he has clothes underneath," Tanwen said, speaking to him as if he was stupid.

"Hey, I'm not stu-"

"Yes you are," Marcia said, covering his mouth with a hand.

"Besides," Cassie said, "I think that was a good idea of Dave's.  With all these people in here, it really is getting hot!"  She pulled off her own robes and dumped them on the floor next to Dave's.

It wasn't long before the rest of them followed suit.  When most of them were on about their third or fourth butterbeer a fast paced song came on the radio.

"Oooh, I love this song!"  Marcia said, "Come dance!" she urged the others.

"Oh no, you're not getting me out there," Lou said, backing away, "I can't dance!"

"I'll come," Tanwen said, draining the last of her drink, "and seeing as no-one else seems to be forth coming, we'll have to pick volunteers."  She grinned and grabbed Cassie and Mark by the arm and dragged them to the space that had been cleared for dancers in the middle of the floor.  Marcia followed with Dave and Mark; even Lou could be seen being manhandled onto the dance floor by a grinning Dom.

"Finally!" Fred said, coming over to join them, "someone who wants to dance."

"We were beginning to despair," George added with a grin.  He gave a mock bow and held out his hand to Tanwen, "May I have this dance, milady?"

Tanwen laughed, and took his hand, "Why thank you gentle sir."

"Gentle?" Fred snorted, "I thought you knew him."

"Well my dancing's less life-threatening than yours anyway," retorted George.  Fred stuck his tongue out and went to harass someone else into dancing with him.  George turned to Tanwen to whisper, "Never dance with him if he asks, I'm not kidding when I say it's an extreme sport."

Tanwen grinned, she wasn't entirely sure he was exaggerating.  Grabbing her hand, George began to spin her around the room.  Well, to be more precise, he twirled her round and round while standing still for the most part himself.  The room span round and round in quick succession and Tanwen found herself very dizzy.  As the song ended she fell forwards and clung to the person she had crashed into, her vision swimming back and forth.

"Merlin's beard!" she breathed, blinking her eyes in an effort to focus them.  Firm hands half carried her to the edge of the room and deposited her into a spare chair. 

"Having fun?" someone asked.

Tanwen turned to see several grinning Harrys swimming before her eyes.  "Hey, Harry and sort of.  At the moment I'm mainly concentrating on not being sick though."

"Well now you know not to dance with George," Ron said, grinning too.  "That's one of his favourite tricks."

"And there was him telling me not to dance with Fred!" Tanwen replied, with a laugh.

"Yeah, you shouldn't dance with him either," Ron laughed.

Jon and Marcia came over to see her.

"Alright?" Marcia asked, with a smile.  Jon was openly grinning.

"Care to go for a spin with me?" he asked.

"I'm not doing anymore spinning for a while," Tanwen replied firmly, "I can only just see properly again."

"I'm going to take a break too," Marcia said, plonking herself down next to Tanwen.  There was a moment of shuffling around as the two of them tried to fit themselves into a single armchair.

"Is there room for one more?" Jon asked, grinning at them.

"Definitely not!" Marcia told him.

"I could sit on your lap," he offered.

"No thank you very much," Tanwen replied, "I don't want to be squashed."

"It already looks like you're being squashed," Harry pointed out with a laugh.

"Well, yes," Tanwen admitted laughing, "I don't think this chair was made for two people."

"But we're always trying to expand the realms of possibility," Marcia replied with a broad smile.

Several butterbeers later the common room began to empty as the students were chivvied to bed by McGonagall.  Tanwen walked tiredly up the stairs, yawning widely.  She'd be glad of her sleep tonight.

Marcia pushed the door open and went straight to her bed and kicking off her shoes and crawled under the covers, "Not a word about bedclothes people!  I'm way too tired to change."

The others managed a reasonable effort before following suit.  It wasn't long before the sound of deep, rhythmical breathing was heard. 

Back down in the hastily abandoned common room a tall figure slowly made his way up the staircase.
**

"What in Merlin's name was that?" 

Tanwen shot bolt upright in bed, instantly awake.

"Did you hear that?" a voice asked out of the darkness.

"Yeah," Tanwen replied, "what do you think it was?"

There were some rustling noises and someone swore under their breath.

"Marcia?"

"I'm going to see what's going on!"

"It's probably nothing," Alicia muttered sleepily, a large yawn interrupting her words.

"No, I want to see to," Tanwen decided, slipping out of bed.

Cassie and Clem were still fast asleep and Lou decided not to come, so in the end it was just Tanwen and Marcia who made their way down the staircase into the common room.  One or two other girls were reappearing as they headed down.  In the dimly lit common room the third year boys were standing in the middle, more boys were appearing out of the other staircase door.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

"What's all the noise?" Tanwen interrupted.

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed."

Fred and George appeared followed by Percy as more people started to fill the room.  Tanwen and Marcia, being amongst the first girls to make it down moved to stand close to the portrait hole.

"Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, pinning his Head Boy badge to his dressing gown as he spoke.

"Perce- Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly.  Tanwen glanced sharply at him, her heart beginning to pound with anticipation.  "In our dormitory!  With a knife!  Woke me up!"

The common room went very still.  Tanwen stared at him in horror.  Surely there must have been some kind of mistake!  Her father would never do anything like that!  He'd never try to kill a sleeping boy!  Not ever!

"Nonsense!" Percy said, breaking the silence.  "You had too much to eat, Ron-had a nightmare-"

"I'm telling you-"

Tanwen was so busy trying to get her head round what Ron was saying that she didn't notice Professor McGonagall come in behind her, slamming the portrait hole shut behind her angrily, "Now, really, enough's enough!  I'm delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous!  Percy, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorise this, Professor!" Percy replied indignantly.  "I was just telling them all to get back to bed!  My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled, "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

Professor McGonagall stared at him.

In the brief pause that followed Tanwen span round and bolted out of the portrait hole.  People were so busy staring in horror at Ron to even notice her departure.  Outside she paused briefly, looking wildly to her left and right.  He had been so close, if only she could catch up with him he could explain the whole thing to her.  Tell her that there had been some kind of mistake.

"Were do you think you're going you scurvy cur?" Sir Cadogan demanded from behind her, brandishing his sword.

"Which way did he go?" Tanwen asked, "Please, it's really important."

"That away," he said showing the direction with a flourish of his sword.

She sped off in the direction he had pointed, heedless of his shouts behind her.  As she rounded the corner she thought she heard the sound of Professor McGonagall quizzing the knight, but she couldn't be sure.  All she could think about was what on earth Ron could have been thinking?  Percy must have been right, it must have all been a bad dream- he could never have- her mind paused for a moment, as her feet rushed on down corridor and staircase.  If she didn't believe Ron's story then what exactly was she doing running around the castle in the dead of night after someone who had never been there in the first place?

She skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs.  The corridor divided here into three.  Two doors were closed, but one was swinging gently on its hinges.  Making her decision she pushed the door open violently as she raced through, hearing it bang noisily against the wall behind her.

Several more, equally unfounded decisions later and Tanwen was beginning to wander what on earth it was she thought she was doing.  It had seemed the right thing to do when she had fled Gryffindor common room, but now, ten minutes later, the whole thing seemed like a bad idea.  She didn't have any idea where he could have gone and he was probably so far ahead that even if he had come this way he would be long gone by now.

"Tanwen!"

She span round to see a very surprised looking Professor Lupin standing behind her, his wand drawn.

"What are you doing out of your common room?"

She suddenly felt very sheepish and telling the truth seemed like a recipe for disaster, especially when Professor Snape appeared out of the other door, looking equally displeased to see her.  Just as quickly as she had decided to run after her father she made the decision to lie and she heard herself saying:

"I was in the common room when Ron told us about Sirius Black…I guess I just panicked."

Lupin's sharp eyes looked at her sceptically. 

Snape sneered and said, "So, knowing a murderer was on the loose in the castle you decided that the safest course of action would be to run around alone in the middle of the night."

Biting her lip to prevent herself from answering back about the murderer comment she settled for a mute nod while staring at the ground.

"Detention Miss Gray, and ten points from Gryffindor," he responded silkily, "you should have known better than that."

"That's enough Severus," Lupin interrupted, "I'll escort Tanwen back to her common room and you can continue the search."

"Tell Minerva she should keep a better eye on her students," Snape said mildly as he swept up off another corridor, leaving Tanwen alone with Lupin.

He turned to look at her critically and she gazed at the floor.  Then he sighed and touched her elbow lightly, "Come along then; let's get you back."

She nodded and they set off in silence. 

After they'd been walking for about a minute he spoke, "That was a lie wasn't it?"

She half turned to look at him.  The expression on his face was something she had never seen and she couldn't tell what he was thinking.  "I wasn't really thinking I guess.  I heard Ron say that he saw…and I just lost it I guess."

He stopped and she stopped with him, "You wanted to find him."

"Of course I did," Tanwen replied in surprise looking up, "that's all I've ever wanted since I knew."

He fell silent again and they continued on their way.  As the entrance to the Gryffindor common room came into sight he paused again.

"Tanwen, no-one alive knows Sirius better than I did, and I know that you don't believe the accusations against your father, but surely tonight's events will make you think about-"

"-No!" she interrupted, "you're wrong!  Until I hear the words from his own mouth I'll not believe it!"

"But what if you're wrong?" he asked her, frowning, "what if everything you've heard is true and you had found him tonight?  What then Tanwen?  Do you think he would welcome you with open arms?  He thinks you're dead Tanwen.  I can't make you take him seriously, but knowing what happened tonight, doesn't that make you wonder what could have happened if he met you?  He could have-" he broke off agitatedly, unable to complete his sentence, or even the thought.

"My father would never do anything to hurt me," Tanwen replied in a low, level tone, her eyes glittering.  "If you were half the friend to him you say you were how can you even think that?  I thought you said you knew him."

And with that she strode off up the corridor without a backwards glance, fuming inwardly.  How dare he imply that!

As the portrait door slammed closed behind her Remus shook his head sadly and sighed,

"I thought I knew him too Tanwen.  I really did."  He walked over to the window that looked out over to the Whomping Willow and the Greenhouses, faintly illuminated by the crescent moon.  "These are strange times," he said to no-one in particular, "and I find that I'm not the person I thought I was.  To spend all my efforts trying to crush the dreams of a lonely child- the only daughter of a once dear friend, what kind of man says those kinds of things to someone like that?  Whatever the motives."  He shook his head again and rested his head against the windowpane.  "The future's nothing like we planned my friends.  And I am all alone in the world again."

**********

A/N:  Aww poor Remus!! It's so sad for him!!  Hope you enjoyed this chapter.  It's interesting hearing about what you think about the couplings, and how opinion swings from one direction to the other, it makes me proud because that's how I want it to be! Hehe!

Anyway, I've got exams at the moment, so I won't be updating until the end of May.  Must force self to work! *sigh*