Secret Keeper - Chapter Four

----------

The Great Hall was filled with the usual clamour the following morning. The apprehensive mood that had initially permeated it had been lifted when the Daily Prophet, delivered by hundreds of owls in all colours, nearly every student having taken out a subscription, had contained no new worrisome news to follow-up the attack on the Longbottoms yesterday, the W.O.R.R.I.E.R. (Wizarding Organized Responsible Risk Informant and Endangerment Report) level in the upper right hand corner next to the date glowing a pleasantly reassuring shade of fuschia. Remus only glanced at this and skimmed the front page -- stopping only briefly to re-read a headline on alternate career choices for werewolves ("Hedge-trimmers! Effective guards against unwanted In-Laws! And more!") with some amusement -- before folding it up and tucking it into his bag to be thrown out later.

The Ravenclaw table was abuzz with chatter about plans for the holidays, and Remus leant it only half an ear as he set about eating. He himself had already signed up to stay at the school over Christmas, under the pretense of catching up on his studies, but really to keep Sirius and Peter company. With James heading home for Christmas, Remus knew that Sirius had signed on to stay, unwilling to spend the holidays in his own newly-purchased and lonely flat, and Peter himself went home only reluctantly during the summer holidays. James's parents had made it quite clear that all three of them were more than welcome to come and stay, but Sirius had been making a point to seem more self-reliant, and Peter seemed merely uncomfortable. While the Potter household always offered a wonderful retreat from school, especially around the holidays, Remus didn't regret his decision, however; he really did intend to catch up on his studying when not with his friends. After all, his last essay in Transfiguration had only gotten one-hundred-and-five-percent.

"Morning, Remus." Lily said brightly as she dropped into the empty seat beside him. She pulled a basket of fried bannocks towards herself with relish, already spearing several pieces of cumberland ham from a nearby plate with her fork. "Ooooh, lovely. All we ever have at home is porridge, you know . . . I love my mum, mind, but she could do with a cooking lesson or two."

"Where on earth do you keep it all?" Remus asked, aghast, staring at her slender frame as she tipped bacon on top of the ham.

"A growing girl needs her energy." she said, after swallowing a large mouthfull of bacon with difficulty.

"Keep that up and you'll be growing sideways instead of up." he said with a grin, finally starting in on his own plate as well.

At the teacher's table, stretching to either wall at the end of the Hall, the talk looked to be no less cheerful. Professor Frewin had adorned his sweeping green robes with sprigs of holly and twinkling, imitation fairy lights around the cuffs. Reubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper, was in a good mood as always, but was wearing a festive -- if hideous -- vast green and red checked shirt under his usual moleskin coat. Tiny Professor Flitwick had finished his breakfast and was now issuing lazy streams of present and reindeer shaped silvery bubbles from the tip of his wand, much to the delight to a group of first year Hufflepuffs. And Professor Dumbledore, rarely dour no matter what the season, was himself enjoying a plate of what looked like green pancakes and red kippers. While coloured food had little appeal for Remus, he was more reassured by the sight of the chipper teachers than he was by any colour on the Prophet.

These past few months had been the source of precious little to feel good about. Not in the past hundreds of years had the wizarding community seen a threat the likes of the one which had chosen to rear it's head these past seven years . . . nor had the Muggle world, though it was as of yet unawares. When the attacks had first began, the panic had been stupendous; promient members of the wizarding community found dead in their homes, shockingly brazen acks of thievery on the most well-guarded places. There hadn't been any point to it, at least at first. No demands made, not even a visible face behind it all.

Of course, that had been nothing compared to the panic when the name Voldemort finally became known.

Nor to the violence that followed after.

"I know it isn't the best," Lily was saying irritably, her words cutting through Remus's thoughts, "but you don't have to scowl at it like that."

Startled, Remus blinked. She was holding a black tie under his nose. It looked hand-made, a single tasteful small golden snitch embroidered on the bottom. "What's this?"

A look of exasperation crossed her face. "Remus, where have you been? I just told you! It's the tie I made for James for Christmas. I wanted to get your opinion . . . "

Smiling now as he mentally shook the last unpleasant remants of his thoughts off, he took the tie from her and studied it more closely. "It's wonderful, Lily . . . and you made it yourself? What spell did you use? I mean, I don't know much about the home economic spells, but . . . "

"I used knitting needles, Remus. Knitting needles." She smiled wryly at him as she took the tie back and folded it carefully before slipping it into her pocket. "Not all of us got to grow up using magic for every little thing you know." Before he could respond, she had taken out something else and handed it to him. "Now, what d'you think about this? I used magic for that."

Curious, Remus tilted it up to the light streaming in from the windows. It looked to be some sort of golden clip, worked in the form of a rearing lion. When he looked at the line itself, the lion's head turned and bared it's teeth at him in a ferocious expression that was undoubtably a smile. Etching on the golden scroll of parchment the lion stood on read, Embodying all the qualities of the above.

"I bought the clip, of course," Lily was saying, beaming down at it affectionately, "and I did the etching myself . . . that's dead useful, that charm, isn't it? And of course, I made it smile . . . it's more cheerful than that horrible snarl it had before, don't you think?"

"Yes, and it's very nice, but . . . " Trailing off, Remus looked at her curiously.

"It's a scarf clip, to keep your scarves in place." She took a long swallow of pumpkin juice and pushed her picked-clean plate away from her. "For Peter."

Remus was so surprised he nearly dropped it as he handed it back to her. "Peter Pettigrew?"

"Well, yes. Your Peter. I mean, I know he doesn't like me very much -- "

"Lily, that's not true." Remus protested.

" -- but I want to make the effort to be his friend, since he's James's." she went on, as though he hadn't spoken. The clip went back into the pocket with the tie, smiling until it vanished out of sight. "I'd like it if I could get to know him better."

"That's fine," Remus said, rising with her as the whole table finished eating and began to head for the doors, "that's a really good idea, in fact. But really, Lily, he doesn't dislike you."

Lily, however, merely gave him a wise look as they walked out, tossing her fall of red hair over her shoulder.

They wound their way through the halls with several other seventh year Ravenclaws. A quick glance at their schedule indicated that Divination was first on the list, and Remus was privately glad that a recent illness had prompted their Divinations teacher, Professor Fensworthy, to move her class out of the drafty dungeon room she had previously occupied into a much warmer room on the first floor. Lily chattered happily as they walked about her plans for the holidays -- going home to her family, by the sound of it -- bag swinging at her side.

Remus was too aware of how odd a pair they made; pretty, vivacious Lily Evans in her immaculate robes, and pale, drawn Remus Lupin, looking even shabbier than usual by comparison. The truth was, although she had never been unfriendly before, she had only recently begun to spend more time around him, shortly after she had begun to warm up to James. Remus, who was usually more than happy to go from class to class with his gaze locked firmly in the pages of a book, was nonetheless glad for the company. He'd often felt jealous of James, Sirius, and Peter, all together in the same house; although he was on friendly terms with the other seventh years, he'd always wanted to be part of the group that were the remaining three Marauders as they waved to him, passing in a clump on their way to the next class.

Lily had been silent for a few minutes before she spoke again, looking up at him. "Aren't you going to ask me how last night went?" she asked, looking slightly disappointed.

"I didn't want to pry. Besides, I'd have thought you'd have already told all your friends all about it the moment you got back."

"Not really." she admitted, before grinning. "All my friends have always fancied James a bit, honestly, and if I started talking about him again, they'd just think I was bragging. Besides," she added, shoving him gently, "you're my friend, too, aren't you? And I'd rather talk to someone about it who'll be happy for me."

Smiling now himself, Remus asked, "I take it it went well then? James didn't try to impress you by spelling out your name in the sky with his broom and fly straight into the Whomping Willow instead?"

Lily laughed. "No, but I think he might have, if the captain didn't have all the brooms in for a mandatory check up. He mentioned that." She smiled again, eyes going distant. "He showed up outside the common room with his hair all slicked down, though . . . not that it didn't stay that way for long. It was a lovely time, though. We didn't really do anything special, but we spent a lot of time walking around the grounds and just . . . talking."

"Well," Remus said with a slight smile, "that's special, isn't it?"

Lily looked up at him again and smiled as they stopped outside the classroom with the other students. "Yes . . . yes, I suppose it is."

He was about to ask her wether they'd made any further plans when the door opened and tall, thin young man in faded black robes with green trimming stepped out. He looked mildly taken aback to find the hallway filled now with students, and had started to turn to leave when his eyes suddenly met Remus's. A familliar expression of great dislike crossed his sallow face as his upper lip twitched almost imperceptibly. "Hello, Severus." Remus said mildly.

Severus Snape merely continued to glare at him with loathing before turning to go, chin lifting arrogantly. Lily, however, stepped forward and grabbed his arm before he could get more than a couple steps away. "Hang on," she said angrily, "Remus said hello to you."

Snape yanked his arm away, taking a step backwards and now including her in the malevolence smouldering in his dark eyes. "I heard him perfectly." he said stiffly. "My hearing is as well as yours, Evans, or do you have mud gumming up your ears as well as your veins?"

Remus felt his polite expression falter. In effort to make his remaining year as pleasant as possible, he had made it a point to try to smooth any feathers he might have ruffled during his years as much as possible. Where, in Snape's case, reconciliation was about as possible as Remus bellowing his lycanthropic condition from the teacher's table at lunch time in the Great Hall, he had simply made the decision to keep things as forcibly polite as possible. Now, however, he found himself taking a step forward. "That's out of line, Severus." he said, coldly.

Lily's expression, however, remained calm. "This is our last year sharing each other's happy company, Severus. Surely it isn't too much to ask to at least keep our mouths shut if we can't say anything nice about one another?"

For an instant, it looked as though Snape was on the verge of going even further with the insults than he had. The other Ravenclaw students, however, had fallen silent in their own conversations and were now listening closely to the exchange. Unwilling to press in the company of an already hostile opposing house, Snape's lip only curled once, before his face lapsed into calm as though someone had wiped off the animosity with a cloth. "Perhaps you're right, Evans." he said smoothly. One hand rubbed almost absently at his forearm. "We all must do what we can to make these troubled times bearable, musn't we?" he added, before turning and sweeping off down the corridor.

Looking surprised but pleased, Lily smiled in bewilderment after him. "That was less painful than I thought."

Equally surprised, Remus shrugged. He was glad Snape hadn't said anything that would have forced him to do something he'd regret later, but the whole encounter struck him as very odd. As far as he knew, Snape didn't take Divination, and was probably late for whatever class he had now.

Conversation gradually rose in the corridor again amidst the Ravenclaws, but now it rang oddly. The corridor was now completely devoid of any other students, and the distant drone of voices came from other classrooms. Lily glanced at her watch. "The Professor's a bit late getting started, isn't she?" she murmured.

"You know how she is." piped up a nearby Ravenclaw boy. "Probably making sure all our chairs are properly positioned for maximum flow of harmonious energy through the room."

Several students laughed, but only a slight smile begged at the corners of Lily's mouth. "Maybe I should just poke my head in and see if she needs some help . . . remember last time she kept us all waiting because she wanted to position that huge globe model of the universe in the center of the room to study? It took all of us to roll it off of her."

Remus laughed, but quickly covered his smile when she shot him a disapproving look. "Go on then," he said, "just a quick look. Don't blame me if she fortells you failing your exams for interrupting her."

Shooting him an exasperated look, Lily stepped up to the door. She rapped once with her knuckles, waited a moment, then laid her hand on the handle and pushed. "Professor?" she called tentatively. "Do you need any help in there? . . . Professor? We . . . we . . . haaaaaah . . . " Suddenly hitching in a great breath as the door swung inwards, Lily's hands flew to her mouth as she staggered backwards into the curious knot of Ravenclaws, green eyes suddenly huge in her pale face.

Alarmed, Remus hurried forward. By this time, several other students had peeked into the doorway as well. One girl leapt back as Lily had, tripping and falling in her haste to get away. "What's going on? What is it?" Remus asked breathlessly, as he pushed aside a student. "Professor Fe--" He broke off, one hand suddenly clutching the door with a death grip, the other suddenly limp, dropping his bag at his feet. The already strained seam burst, sending quills, books, and empty bottles of ink scattering across the floor.

One such bottle rolled in a circular arc across the polished wooden floor. It came to a rest only when it bumped gently against the outstretched hand of Professor Fensworthy, who was sprawled splay-legged on her back on the floor, mouth agape, and eyes staring quite glassily and unmistakably blankly at the ceiling above.

Remus barely heard it when several of the Ravenclaws began to scream. He found himself sitting down quite suddenly and very hard on the floor, suddenly cold as ice.