Que Sera Sera
By Aldesina
Chapter 4
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Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own, nada, neda, niddle, zip, zoop, zap, zomp, dittle, diddly, dit, squat, nothing, zero, nil, zilch……………need I say more?
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Dumbledore's Office, in the past
8:00 sharp
Harry and Hermione had left dinner early that night to ensure that they were promptly in Dumbledore's office at eight.
"Ton tongue toffees!" said Hermione. Being a prefect since her fifth year, she had access to the passwords of almost every room and office. Of course it was also expected that prefects would not abuse this power. The creature guarding the entrance leapt to the side and allowed the two of them to pass.
"Ahh there you are" Dumbledore greeted them in his usual melodious voice. "Did you both get enough to eat for dinner? I was informed by your friend Dobby that you had left the dinning hall early so you would not be late."
"We got plenty to eat professor. Thank you for asking." Harry said,
"Hermione?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the young girl
"Plenty" Hermione echoed. Which was true. They were both in such good spirits that from the thought that Dumbledore could already solved the problem that they had both worked up a healthy appetite by dinner time. They both speedily devoured the food that appeared in front of them, and ran to meet Dumbledore.
"Good, good, now I know that the two of you ran up here in the hopes that I would have some good news, well I have news, but I'm not sure that it is any good. But bear in mind…" Dumbledore added quickly when he saw their faces fall. "That we are not yet done researching all the facts yet. There is still much more to be looked into."
"We?" asked Harry, "Professor, who else do you have searching into this?"
"Is Rivera helping?" Hermione asked, she had hoped that the she werewolf would be there, it's been a long time since the two of them last talked and a lot had happened that Hermione would actually like to get a older woman's advice on. "She had a focus on psychology when she studied in her muggle schools." Over the years the three friends had formed a strong bond with the she werewolf, and considered her one of their friends.
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Rivera Lunestone had been in the employ of Voldemort for all her life. He had picked her up when she was little and had protected her from the three muggle children who saw her lying there in agony right after she had transformed back to her human form. They had tried to kill her. The muggle children got killed instead. Naturally she was very much weary of children of any sort. So when Remus first brought her over to Sirius's house to meet Harry, Hermione and Ron she was skeptical, she was twitching, and she was unbearably uncomfortable. And for good reason too. The three children that tormented her and were killed by Voldemort had been the trio's age, and happened to be a girl and two boys. She expected to be pointed at, laughed out and looked at with distrusting eyes. Rivera was also nervous because she was afraid that somebody might spot them out in the daytime. After all it had only been a month since she got away from Voldemort, and they were still on the run.
What greeted her however when she first walked in the room was the sight of three almost fully grown teenagers throwing themselves at Lupin in a gigantic hug.
"Professor Lupin!" cried out a girl with wild curly hair "It's been so long! Did you hear about the potion that Harry and I are working on? I think we might have got it! Would you like to test it? Not that I'm saying that your our guinea pig or anything it's just that well the next full moon is coming up and…."
"Whoa slow down Hermione I can barely make out everything you're saying!" Remus said laughing. "And it's just Remus now don't you remember?"
"Who can?" asked a boy with flaming red hair, he rolled his eyes. "Honestly Hermione how can you even suggest it? What is the potion goes horribly wrong?"
"It won't go wrong, " The girl named Hermione said pointedly "Besides, you should know by now Ron that I would never give something toxic to my friends unlike a certain people in this room, who go around telling people that he developed a anti acne potion , 'cough' RON! 'cough, cough"
"Ha ha, Hermione, very funny. Really!" Ron said blushing to the color of his hair.
"How are you Remus?" Came a calm voice. Rivera turned to see the last child standing there. He had jet black hair and bright green eyes, and was looked just as excited as the other two, but also seemed hesitant.
"Are you alright?" He asked, "You haven't had any death threats lately have you I
mean, well, he didn't try to go after you again did he?"
The other two quieted down after that comment.
"Of course he didn't. Remus has got Rivera living with him now, and she's like a trained assassin, Voldemort would be stupid to attack him now that has got his own personal bodyguard!" Ron said.
"Oh please Ron, She's not his bodyguard, she's his new friend and our new ally,
don't be so rude." Hermione rolled her eyes at him "By the way Remus, Hermione said, turning her attention back to Remus, "Where is she?"
"She's right here." Remus said turning around. "Rivera, hun, uh, Rivera, come here, and get out of the doorway." Three pairs of eyes turned to meet hers. Green, blue, and honey brown met rusty gold ones. And they smiled.
"Hi" They said simultaneously. She blinked, how curious they're synchronized. "Hi," she replied back shyly.
"Come on in," The girl said, she practically skipped her way over to Rivera and
took her hand, pulling her into the room and shutting the door behind her. Rivera looked longingly toward the door that was now shut, but followed the hand that pulled her.
"Would you like some tea, or something to eat?" Rivera found herself sitting down on a couch next to Hermione who was a whirlwind of activity grabbing teacups, pouring and mixing tea, adding honey and sugar or milk to each person's liking and adding a cookie or some other sort of treat onto the saucer where the teacup lay. She seemed to know how each person liked their tea down flat.
"How do you like your tea Rivera?" Honey? Sugar? Milk? Creamer? Hot? Warm? Cold? Or maybe some flavoring? This Earl Grey tea will go great with either a hint of jasmine or some orange, just a bit. I can fix it up anyway you like in a jiff."
"Hot," Rivera said, marveling at the way Hermione could talk, look at her, pour tea, mix in fixings and hand it to the correct person at the same time.
"Some honey would be nice, and no creamer." Rivera said.
"No flavoring either?" Hermione asked quickly pouring the steaming contents into Rivera's cup.
"No, that's not needed."
"Ok, here you go, hope you like it, I made Sirius take out all his teas, its atrocious, the shape that they were in, I had to use magic to sort it all out."
Rivera spit out her tea, and stared at the girl, she enspelled the tea? What if it was already taken affect? What if it was poison?
"Rivera what's wrong?" Lupin asked gently, as he moved from the rocking chair that he was sitting at to take the empty spot on the other side of her on the couch.
"She, she, she cast a spell on the tea, I, I, did I do something?" Rivera asked, she had dropped what was left of her tea onto the floor and clutched Lupin in blind panic. Voldemort used cast a charm on her food so that she would never be full and always be ravenously hungry. It would make her kill hundreds of people every time she turned into a wolf because she could never satisfy her hunger. By now everyone was looking at her, she shrunk back against Lupin.
"No, no, I didn't cast a spell on the tea, don't worry." Hermione said, gently reaching her hand out and held it with her palm up showing Rivera that she didn't have anything in it. "I just cast a spell to sort it, so you get only one kind of tea. Otherwise you'd have green tea with red tea and black tea and it would just taste like tea fruit punch" Lupin laughed at that and the other people in the room smiled.
"Don't worry Rivera, our Hermione here is the smartest and one of the kindest witches I know, even though she knew I was a werewolf, she kept my secret hidden away, even from her friends and family. Not only that, when Sirius and I were down trying to kill Pettigrew she was the only one down there with enough sense to see that I was not evil." Lupin smiled at Rivera and stroked her arm, "She won't harm you, none of them will, I promise." Rivera looked at the girl's outstretched hand, well just maybe…. Rivera smiled hesitantly and took Hermione's proffered hand along with a new cup of tea.
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