A/N:  All right, this is it.  The original ending to this story…so now I suppose it could be called an alternate ending.  I'd like to hear which one you guys like better.  This one isn't as refined as the other since I decided to go with the other one.  Please review.  And thank you all so much for reading and all the encouraging words I've gotten in reviews!!!  ~Jo

Hermione knocked on the door of the room that Lupin was staying in at 12 Grimmauld Place.

            He smiled at her from the open doorway.  "Hello Hermione, come on in."

            Hermione did so.

            "What can I do for you?" Lupin asked and then raised a cup to her.  "Tea?"

            "No thank you." Hermione smiled briefly.

            "Have a seat." Lupin offered.

            Hermione sat and adjusted the journal on her lap.  "Professor Lupin, do you remember a girl named Bethany Spence?"

            A vague smile passed over Lupin's face and he questioned, "Bethany Spence?"

            Hermione nodded.

            "Yes I remember Beth.  She was the kind of girl I wish we had met sooner in our Hogwarts years.  She was the kind of girl who would have been great to have in a bind.  She would have made a great Marauder."

"But Lily was part of your group."

            "Lily was James' girlfriend.  Beth was independent of being in our group because she was a 'girlfriend'.  Why do you ask?"

            "I was just wondering if you could tell me what happened to her after her sixth year at Hogwarts."

            Lupin continued to walk around his room doing little things like straightening a picture or moving a pile of parchments.  Hermione waited several moments before Lupin went to his bag.  He pulled out a tiny pouch and handed it to Hermione.  He went back about shuffling things around.  Hermione opened the velvet pouch and dumped three rings into her hand: two wedding bands, one small, one large, and a diamond engagement ring.  She looked back up to Lupin who had paused and was now standing still peering back over at her.  He went back to his bag and returned with a tattered picture.  He handed it to her.  "This Bethany Spence?"

            Hermione looked over the picture of the girl she'd seen in the front of the journal.  Her hair was tied up in a pretty bun with random spears of ringlets bouncing around her shoulders, in a long white gown she had a glass of wine raised and was tapping Lupin's glass.  Lupin was dressed in fancy robes, and behind the two were Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter.

            Hermione set the picture on the desk across from her along with the rings.  "What happened to Bethany?"

            "My wife was killed." 

            Hermione had never seen Lupin so melancholy and go that way so quickly.

            "I'm sorry Professor."  Hermione stood.  "I didn't mean to bring back bad memories."

            "They aren't bad Hermione.  That's why they hurt."

            "She loved you very much."  Hermione said quickly.  She laid the journal on Lupin's desk.  "Here.  I found this in my vanity a few weeks ago.  She kept if for most of her sixth year.  She gave it to Lily for safe keeping, then Lily graduated and she never got it back."

            Lupin touched the leather on the front cover gently.  He scooped it up and pressed it to his chest.  "I miss her."

            Hermione watched him for a few seconds.  She didn't speak, she waited to see if he wanted to tell her anything.

            Lupin chose to talk, he set the journal down but didn't take his eyes off from it.  "She stayed near me all the time at the end of her sixth year.  It felt good having the attention, something I'd never had before.  I think she was afraid that after I left we wouldn't see each other anymore.  Or maybe I would forget her, but she was still very independent.  Not only that but there's no forgetting Beth once you meet her.  She was intoxicating.  I loved her more than anything…I would have died for her.  But so would have Snape."  Lupin took a deep breath.  "She died…" Lupin took another deep breath and shook his head.  "Damn that Slytherin determination.  Regardless of what you think of the Slytherins and how it is true that they produce the most evil wizards there are many good ones.  When they set a goal they won't stop until they attain it, even if it means to their death or (for some) using dark magic.  Her determination betrayed her…to her death."  Lupin took a ragged breath.  "She was the first to make the Wolfsbane potion for me, she was patient and good with Potions despite what she said, and her help from Snape was no loss."  Lupin bit his lip.  "When James and Lily were killed and the blame went to Sirius Beth couldn't believe it, she couldn't live with it.  She appealed to the Ministry for another hearing in Sirius' defense, they denied her.  I didn't even believe her.  She told me to try and see Sirius, but I sighed and told her to let it go…that he betrayed us.  She tried to see him twice before she was killed.  She told me she wouldn't let Sirius rot for something he didn't do.  She stood by Sirius as James' best friend.  She said it was Peter all along.  She said Sirius was too strong to be led, but Peter had been that way since the day she met him…a follower.  I let her try.  She was an Auror, she could handle it.  She killed many Death Eaters, she slayed lots of evil beasts of Voldemort's, she could handle going to Azkaban and asking to see Sirius.  I knew they'd tell her no.  I knew it."  Lupin paused to take another breath.  "She would have done the same for James if it had been Sirius who was killed.  Word must have gotten out that she was after Sirius' release.  As you can understand, Voldemort had just been defeated by Harry so things were still touchy with those who stayed loyal to Voltemort.  They didn't want another person against Voltemort out to help get rid of the few remaining Death Eaters.  So Bellatrix waited for her to leave and cursed her.  The Avada Kedavra curse.  She couldn't beat it, as you know, no one has, except Harry.  Bellatrix was never charged with Beth's death, there was no way to prove it…though she was caught a month later for the Longbottom's.  If I had just believed her, if I had just helped her…she might still be here Hermione."

            "Professor Lupin." Hermione tried to comfort him.  "The two of you could have asked for nothing more.  You loved each other."

            "I've lost everything in my life." Lupin told Hermione suddenly.  Hermione was surprised at his abrupt outburst, it wasn't like Lupin at all.  "First James and Lily, then Peter, presumably at the hands of Sirius, then Beth, Sirius came back but he died a few years later.  I can't hold a job because of my condition and friends are hard to come by.  But the worst loss, alongside Beth, was my children."

            "You have children?" Hermione asked wide eyed.

            Lupin nodded.  "Remy was born just two weeks before Beth was killed.  He died on his first moon.  He was like me.  But my daughter was lucky, she was not born a werewolf.  Though after Beth's death the Ministry saw me unfit to raise a child and gave her to a Muggle family.  You must understand, I wanted to keep her…more than anything."
            "You have a daughter that lives with Muggles."

            Lupin nodded.

            "Do you keep in touch with her?"

            "If you mean does she know about me, the answer is no."

            "That's awful."

            "They thought that if she went with Muggles then I'd never see her again, and she'd be safe from my 'dangerous ways'.  The Ministry forgot, though, being too busy with Harry, that she was a pure blood and she would surely be a wizard when she got older."

            "You mean she's a wizard now?"

            "She's a Hogwarts student." Lupin nodded.  "A sixth year."

            "What house?" Hermione asked quickly.

            "Gryffindor."

            "But I'm the only sixth year Muggle born Gyff-" Hermione stopped, unable to speak.

            Lupin glance at her and gave her a weak smile.  He said nothing letting her absorb it all.

            Hermione looked at the journal held tightly in Lupin's arms.  She thought back to some of the things her mother had said.  "If I could have chosen my house on merit it would have been Ravenclaw, if it had been for the boys it would have been Gryffindor."

            "I was almost place in Ravenclaw."  Hermione said.  Lupin looked confused.  She eyed him slowly.  "But the hat must have seen the Gryffindor in me, from my father."

            Lupin nodded.  "Diligent study."

            "In our third year, in the Shrieking Shack Snape when Harry said that Snape didn't like you because he thought you were in on the joke…that wasn't the only reason, was it?"

            Lupin shook his head.  "Snape sees himself as a tragic figure that's had everything tugged out from underneath him by one of us.  He feels comfortable blaming us for whatever goes wrong in his life.  And if he can live with seeing the world as such a slanted view than so be it."

            "Be was mad about Beth.  He hated you and James because you both got the girls'."

            "He was perturbed about it.  Then I was offered the job of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.  He didn't like that either."  Lupin seemed surprised that Hermione was taking all of this information so well.

"I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't tell you when I received the job at Hogwarts."

            Hermione went to him and nervously hugged him, he hugged her back.  "I wish I could have stayed."