As Serenity strode towards Professor Dumbledore's office she had too many concerns jostling for dominance in her consideration. The interlude with Lupin, the meeting with Dumbledore and what he might know about her, how long she would have to stay here – but the one that won out was the fact that the boy who had been infected as a werewolf mid-term had not been bitten at all. The venom must have been introduced to his blood in some other way. She had only heard of this happening once before and that was over a hundred years ago. It was a wantonly moronic dunderheaded thing to do. Whoever had done this must have known the potential carnage it would cause, which was undoubtedly the reason for it. Could this be a teenage prank? It was far too cruel and idiotic to be that, there had to be more to it.

"Lemon drops." Nothing happened. She began rattling off every confectionary based potential password that she could think of. She must have run through three dozen when the gargoyle swung back and Professor Dumbledore appeared before her looking highly amused.

"I never would have guessed that you knew the names of so many sweets. Please, come through and have some tea with me."

Serenity followed the Headmaster into his study, trying to keep calm.

"Please have a seat. Sugar? Honey?" he asked innocently as she fidgetted.

"No. No thank-you. I have something terrible to tell you."

"I thought you might. Not that I would use the word terrible. No, not terrible. Difficult maybe. Please sit down."

Serenity didn't sit down but paced.

"You know already?"

"Of course I know. I knew in Russia."

"Russia? He could only have been infected in the last month."

"Ah. We are not talking about yourself then? I had hoped..."

She paled slightly, but stuck to the topic.

"Me? No, the boy. Someone did it deliberately. There is no bite, the venom must have been introduced to his blood by other means, I have no idea how, but it's horrific. I have never come across anything so appalling."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "Never?"

Serenity made a noise of exasperation, flopped down into the chair and downed half the cup of tea in one mouthful. She steadied herself before looking up at the old man, he really was infuriating. She knew what he was up to but she tried to remain on track.

"Are you listening to me Headmaster?"

"Yes my dear, I am listening quite attentively. You believe that our young werewolf was made so by the deliberate act of a non werewolf."

"Yes. I really don't know what security measures to suggest to protect the students. I cannot assess the risks without knowing the full cause."

"I trust you to investigate the matter fully. We have a full month before the boy is affected again and we shall make sure that he is well cared for. There is that wonderful potion of yours after all."

He smiled warmly at her, his eyes offering such genuine care and pride that Ren gulped visibly. He continued.

"Hopefully you will have made some headway before then. In the meantime I will make sure that all the staff are alerted and ask the students to be extra vigilant."

"Investigate fully? Headmaster, I had no plans to remain here."

"I really would like you to be the one who deals with it."

"I had not intended to stay."

"So you said. Plans change though, don't they. When you were last here, I doubt that you imagined that you would one day be the world's leading werewolf expert, living with them on a daily basis and finding yourself caring about them. Life offers us the most amusing choices sometimes." He paused, trying to gauge the emotional state of the woman in front of him. She seemed to be more concerned about business. Maybe that was a good sign.

"Perhaps it is time for you to come home now. Perhaps it is time to let people know what happened. You could start by telling me; I cannot imagine that you chose this for yourself."

Serenity realised how one conversation had been concluded and the other, the one she was avoiding was in full swing. She found herself frozen, unable to respond. She opened and closed her mouth like fish gasping for water, she looked frightened.

He did know.

The old man moved from his chair and guided her to a chintzy sofa by the window and took her hands in his.

"Serenity is a rather interesting name. I wondered if you had finally found that, but Rubor? Disgrace? Do you still see yourself that way?"

There was no way out of this; he wasn't asking; he was just talking on the basis of truth as though there was no question about it. She finally found her voice, small and unsure, "I don't know. I try not to think about it anymore, I just got on with my life."

"You didn't though. You left your life behind and started something new."

"I didn't know what... I didn't want ... I felt ... humiliated." She hung her head; she couldn't believe he was managing to get her to open up so easily. He always could though, couldn't he?

"Was it Voldemort?"

"No. Death Eaters. Combined curses, they struck each other before they hit me and their function changed."

"I thought you were dead."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think I would be missed."

"You were. You still are, even by people who never knew you."

Serenity looked quizzically at the old man. He chuckled, "You have a rather...forceful personality Serenity. Remove the bomb and you are left with the crater."

Serenity laughed at that.

"Who would have thought the threat of explosion would be desired?"

Professor Dumbledore chuckled a little deeper at that. Ren decided to steer the conversation away from herself, if only to delay this for a moment.

"Is it as bad as I am told?"

"Worse. A solution is desperately needed. It's a terrible situation, with little hope of improvement." He was twinkling already; this was not a good sign. She could smell a plan already being imposed upon her.

"Oh no! Albus, I can accept that you have realised who I am, but you cannot turn back time. I just couldn't do it. It would be too difficult. I couldn't keep up the façade."

"Do you always have to live behind a mask? You have worn some kind of mask for your entire life, isn't it time you took it off?"

"And what? Walk back into my old life?"

"Why not? It's yours."

"My embarrassment and humiliation aside, I can just see the start of term feast there – To the new students welcome, to returning students welcome back. This year we welcome back an old student, once again, to the top table. If you value your life, don't venture into the forbidden forest and don't be fooled by the corset, it's packed with dynamite. Bon bon anyone?"

Dumbledore began chuckling and it soon developed into a full on belly laugh. Serenity tried to scowl but disturbingly found herself smirking nonetheless. Merlin, this was going to be hell.