More Secrets of Teresa Doony

Mrs. Weasley convinced Teresa to stay one last night at their house. Lying in Percy's bed that night, she stared at the ceiling, thinking. Now that she thought about it, Professor Lupin had let her stay with out knowing, really, who she was. Mrs. Weasley had at least met her before and she had made a good impression on the woman. But Lupin had just met her minutes before, and she had hurried out rather rudely. She'd have to apologize the next day for being rude. But, then again, maybe he knew…

Early afternoon the next day she said good-bye to the Weasleys, Mrs. Weasley pulling her into a large hug. The twins opened their arms as well, grinning, but Terry merely pat them on the back.

'No hug for us?'

'I'll see you at work tomorrow,' she said, and they nodded.

'Fine,' Terry caught a glance of something silver in Fred's hand and had the strangest feeling she had made the right choice. She waved one last wave, and with a pop! Dissapparated. Back at the Weasley's Fred and George let one particularly loud sob out, and pretended to cry on each other as the others went back to do their normal business.

'Really,' said Ginny, putting her hands on her hips, 'you'll see her tomorrow!'

'She's right,' George said, straightening up.

'Well, let's get some things to test on her for her first day back…' Fred muttered, wiping his nose on his sleeve, though it was clear he was smiling. The twins then popped out of sight and into their room.

Teresa had apparated into the hall above the stairs, facing directly into the face of a stuffed house-elf.

'Ugh…' she said, shaking her head and turning the other way, 'that's nasty…' She had just made sure she still had all her belongings in her hands when she saw the door down the hall open, and Professor Lupin walk out, dusting his mended robes off with his hands.

'Miss Doony!' he said, still smiling, 'I- is something wrong my dear?' he asked, looking her over, 'you're looking quite pale.'

'No, no, I'm fine,' she said, and smiled, too.

'Good! Good, well, there are… many rooms here, choose which ever you like, considering mine is downstairs. I'll be downstairs making tea, if you'd like to join me,' he said and left down the staircase. She turned and walked down the hall to the left. She knew which room she wanted, and went into the first one, opening the door.

It was a small room with one rather large window opposite the door. Dust had settled everywhere, but she could fix that fast enough. Right now she just wanted to check for bugs in the bed, or a stray boggart. She made a quick surveillance of the room and found that it was completely livable, even if there was dust. She opened her trunk quickly, and hung her other three sets of robes (two blacks, one deep, deep green) and one set of Muggle clothes, and put her hairbrush and other toiletries on the dresser. When she thought the room was quite done, she went downstairs.

In the kitchen she found Lupin quietly stirring his tea.

''Ello!' she said, and sat down, pouring herself a cup of tea. 'I'd like to apologize for yesterday,' she said, and he raised an eyebrow, 'for running upstairs like that, it was extremely rude.' To her surprise he laughed and shook his head.

'Just a bit of a shocker, wasn't it? Not many people know werewolves, and if they do, they don't realize it. Not something most people are proud of.'

'But there's no reason for that, really,' Terry said, staring at her tea cup, 'it's not something they can control.'

'True, but people conceal it any way. I met someone once who was quite near transforming and still denied it.'

'You were near transforming, though, weren't you?'

'Of course, but not as near as he was. We don't all go at the same time.'

'Do you mind if I ask you something?'

'Not at all.'

''Ow old are you?'

'I am thirty six years old,' Lupin said, 'I was about to ask you the same question. Do you-'

'Twenty-two,' she replied, sipping her tea again. 'Prematurely gray runs in the family,' she added when his eyes flickered to her hair.

'Ah, I see,' Lupin said with a small grin, looking into his own tea. 'What did you say your last name was?'

'Doony,' she replied, 'I have a thirty-four year old sister.'

'Oh? What house?'

'Erm- Slytherin. The whole lot of them were except me, family wasn't too happy wiv me when I was sorted into Gryffindor.'

'Are you sure you're all right?' Lupin asked again. She had been here about an hour, and she was getting paler, he was starting to wonder weather she was getting ill.

'Sorry?' she asked; she had let her thoughts wonder to her earlier parts of her life.

'Are you all right?' he asked again, and she nodded.

'Perfectly fine, it's just this 'ouse,' she said, and he looked around the kitchen.

'If you didn't like it you shouldn't have asked to stay,' he said, more worried still, and she shook her head, standing.

'I couldn't stay there,' she said, and suddenly fell into a quieter voice, as though talking to herself, 'they would have asked questions, and I couldn't have that, it would have been madness, one of them could have been killed!' Lupin was starting to wonder if she was battling for her sanity.

'Terry?' with this she seemed to be brought back, and she stood upright quickly.

'Hm?'

'When were you bitten?'

'Sorry?'

'You know what I mean. Now, sit down and calm down,' he said, going to the ice box, where there were three more goblets of that potion he had drunk the day before. He gave it to her, and she looked at it, as if she didn't know what to do. 'Drink it.'

'What is it?'

'Wolfsbane. It's perfectly safe. It will help you to think more like a human.' She took a tiny sip and crinkled her nose.

'That's 'orrid,' she said, and he shrugged.

'The things we do,' he said, and sat back down. 'Now, could you answer my question?'

'I was eleven…' she muttered, 'three days before I went to 'ogwarts. Family was shocked, but didn't make a big deal about it and they sent me all the same. After the start-of-the-term feast I went up to Dumbledore and told 'im what was wrong. 'E nodded and said it was fine; it 'ad 'appened once before. Gave me directions about the Whomping Willow, and I used that tree for seven years.' She had only drunken half the goblet by that point, and he made a motion for her to keep drinking.

'Yes, that was me,' Lupin said grimly, 'my friends caught me at it, but they understood and became Animagus to help me. After a while we actually had good times, traveled about Hogsmeade. One of those friends used to live in this house, his name was Sirius Black.' Terry's stomach flipped and she knocked over her now empty goblet.

'You knew Sirius?' she asked, and he nodded.

'Did you?'

'Sirius was my cousin… I doubt he remembered me, but… do you know what happened to him? How he… you know…'

'Died?' Remus nodded, and looked all the grimmer. 'Yes,' he then went on to explain what happened at the Department of Ministries. When he was done both was silent. After a moment, Lupin looked at her; 'you dropped your accent.'

'I'm not really cockney…' she muttered.

'It must have been easier for you to get a job that way,' he nodded, 'most people can sense there's something different about you, and growing up in a different manner just as well might have fit the bill.'

'I don't think my employers would have cared either way.'

'Who do you work for?'

'Weasley twins,' she said, and he laughed.

'In that joke shop?' he asked, and she nodded, 'what do you do?'

'Test jokes,' she said, and he laughed even harder. 'I needed some work.'

'Which brings me to another question,' he said, looking at her robes, 'why would you need a job at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes if you can afford such expensive clothing?'

'Ah, that's something I haven't told any one…' she said, and he nodded.

'Well if you don't really want to tell me-'

'No, I need to tell someone, I guess. The Weasley's think that my family disowned me when I was sorted into Gryffindor, but that's not true. My mum came up and said that there was still 'hope' left for me after the first year. They tried to make me think like them because of what I was, using excuses like 'the Dark Lord could fix everything, you'd be normal again.' I didn't doubt for a minute that he could, but calling someone 'master' was not my idea for a good time so I told them to lay off. They unfortunately didn't, and when I left Hogwarts I went straight to America to get away from them.

'Well, that was not the best of plans. Some one caught me coming out of the transformation the third day I got there, and they sent me to a small American Wizarding prison. Hardly as huge as Azkaban, but they had two Dementors guarding my cell… only my cell. Two months ago, when I transformed I kept my mind set on thinking more like a human. I'd been practicing for two years, and had become quite good at it, so I finally did it that one night when a guard had opened the cage a wee bit, stupid young kid he was, I bet it was a dare.

'Anyway, I knocked him over, went to the room where they kept every prisoner's wand and clothes, took mine and ran off. Next day I took a Muggle plane to Britain, and used my key for Gringotts to get a bit of money, not so much that the family'd notice, but enough, and the day after that got a job. Haven't been able to control myself like that again,' Lupin sat, looking at the opposite wall.

'No one knew about it when you were at school?'

'Nope,' she said, and laughed. 'I would have been shunned anyway, I wasn't particularly in with the rest of the school, they didn't like my family back round, bunch of Slytherins. The Slytherins didn't like me 'cause they thought I was rebelling against the house.'

'Does that explain Severus yesterday?' Terry laughed loudly at this, and sat back in her chair.

'He's just an old favorite to taunt. But, yeah, he was particularly nasty about it; my brother told me mum and dad had written him asking him to. He was more than happy to have parent's permission to taunt a Gryffindor. He'd purposely make me mess up, so I'd sneak out at night and left him things to… find… in his office. Got quite a few detentions because of that, but I lived.' All the while she had started rubbing her right arm, though she didn't seem to notice she was doing it. 'So, what gave you the first clue that I was a werewolf?'

'Your hair,' he admitted, and she nodded.

'Oh, yeah, that just started happening last year. By the way, the wrinkles…'

'Start in your mid thirties,' Lupin said, and she nodded.

'Peachy,' she said, and looked at the clock. It was nearing eight o'clock. 'How long've I been here?'

'Six hours.'

'Time flies.'

'It does.'

'Is my condition the reason you let me stay?'

'It is.'

There, the answer! THE ANSWER!!! But you were confused, weren't you? Yes… I believe you were confused… quite confused… WAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!