Unforgivable

"Everybody take your seats!" Professor Sprout called as she blustered into the greenhouse, her arms full of the day's lesson as usual.

I couldn't resist casting my eyes back to James and Sirius one more time, but Sirius didn't say anything, just staring back at my reaction with interest.

He was dating Marlene, and no one had told me. Why had they not told me?

I felt a distinct onslaught of betrayal and I looked away quickly to hide it, a gnawing sensation growing in my stomach.

Keeping my focus on the other side of the greenhouse, I walked sightlessly over to where Lily and I usually sat.

My resentful thoughts went into overdrive as I made my way along the length of the walkway towards her, remembering the way she had refused to keep my secret about what Anthony had done.

"Hey," I greeted without the usual warmth.

"Hi," she replied tightly, clasping her hands on the table in front of her.

Settling myself down, I looked over at Professor Sprout.

"You told her?" I questioned.

She knew exactly what I meant straight away, and her guilty expression told me everything I needed to know.

"And?" I demanded, fighting my impatience. "What did she say?"

"She said she'd look into it," she replied eventually. Her expression was critical, as if she was dissatisfied with Sprout's response.

I chanced another glance at the Head of Hufflepuff house, busying herself with setting up her demonstration table at the front of the class.

She gave absolutely no sign that she had just heard one of her students could be a murdering psychopath.

"Maybe she won't need to talk to me about it at all," I hoped aloud.

.o.

"Do you want to clear our table ready while I fetch everything?" Lily asked me.

Having just shown us the correct method of re-potting a Puffapod, Sprout had ordered everyone to 'get on and give it a go' while she went to fetch more seedlings.

"Yeah sure," I replied, already tidying up our quills and parchment to place on the window ledge behind me.

I ended up finished and already waiting at our desk while Lily was still in the queue to get a plant pot and trowel.

As the lesson passed my irritable mood started to calm a bit.

Re-planting the Puffapods was a pretty soothing process, just as long as you didn't drop them, of course. By the end of the hour, I had managed to forget all about both Sirius and Marlene, and possibly more importantly, Lily's conversation with Sprout.

That was why it was such a shock when the Professor called me back before I was able to reach the door to leave at the end.

"Miss Morland, may I have a word?"

I shrivelled inwardly, casting a look of regret towards my only means of escape. I had been so close and yet so far.

Giving me an apologetic look, Lily continued out of the greenhouse, reassuring me that we'd meet up in the hall for dinner that evening.

Holding back for the other students to leave, I avoided Sirius's fleeting eye contact as he walked past, and once the last person was out, I slid the door shut, blocking out potential eavesdroppers.

When I reluctantly made my way over to Sprout, she looked at me with raised, bushy eyebrows, her slightly bulbous eyes scrutinising. She didn't say a word.

We must've stood like that for what had to be at least a minute.

"Is this about Anthony?" I asked finally, unable to take it any longer.

Finally looking away, she picked up a pair of clippers in satisfaction. "It is indeed," she replied boisterously.

Brandishing her tool in her still gloved hands, she put her back to me and started to trim a plant I didn't recognise.

If she had meant to unnerve me, it had more than worked.

"Well?" she asked, making a series of precise cuts in each of the spindly vines growing up a battered looking trellis.

"Well what, Professor?" I asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

She stopped and caught me with her large, unblinking stare again, "Are you going to tell me your side of the story, or ought we pitch our tents in here for the night while we wait?"

Seeing no other option that didn't involve simply running out of the greenhouse and never coming back, I told her everything I had already told Lily that morning.

Sprout listened in silence, continuing with her work as I spoke.

"And did Anthony mention how often this has happened to him?" she asked when I had finished, now taking a watering can to the freshly pruned plant.

"How often he's been sleepwalking?" I clarified.

"Indeed. Or whatever else it may be."

"He said it's happened a few times," I replied. "But Professor, he asked me not to tell anyone about any of this. He made me promise. If you do talk to him about it-"

"Which naturally I must," she interjected, raising her eyes to me.

"-Can you please not tell him it was me who told you," I asked entreatingly.

She stopped what she was doing again, turning to face me this time.

"Well the truth of the matter is, you didn't tell me, did you?" she said, putting down the watering can.

I stared back at her questioningly.

"The truth of it is, Miss Evans told me," she said.

Propping one side of her backside on the table next to her, she allowed her wide eyes to go back to their surveillance of me.

"One thing you must learn about me, Miss Morland," she said, more serious than I had seen her, "Is I don't entertain hearsay."

I frowned at her. Did she think I was lying?

"One thing I particularly can't abide?" she asked rhetorically, "Letting your friends do your dirty work."

I tried to say something, to tell the normally genial Professor that she had got it all wrong, but she held up a thickly gloved forefinger.

"Next time you have something to tell me, I would greatly appreciate if you came to speak to me about it yourself. That would save us both a lot of trouble, and avoid the rather embarrassing situation of my having to seek you out," she said. "Do I make myself clear?"

"But Professor..." I objected, finding my voice. "I didn't ask Lily to do my dirty work. If anything I told not to say anything at all."

If it was possible, Sprout's eyes became even larger, and I instantly knew I had made a mistake.

"So if it were up to you, you wouldn't have told me one of my students could be endangering not only himself, but everyone else within Hogwarts?" she asked.

I opened my mouth, but then closed it again when I realised I didn't have an answer, because that was exactly what I had been planning to do.

"You're making quite the impact this year, aren't you Morland? " she noted. "I've already been asked by Professor McGonagall to keep an eye on your falling grades. And now this. There seems to be something of a pattern forming in your significantly poor choices. You might want to bear it in mind before making future decisions."

From then on, I stood there and listened to her berate me in silence.

I was a good student. I had always been a good student. The quiet one in class the teachers always liked, who would never in anyone's wildest dreams be the suspect of any wrong-doing.

It was because of this that I was ill-equipped to deal with the kind of reputation I somehow seemed to be building.

When I was finally allowed to leave, I sucked the cool air in gratefully, relieved to be out of Sprout's glass oven grilling.

Ah well, on the faint glimmer of a bright side, at least now I wouldn't need to worry about Anthony ever again. He was Sprout's problem now, and she was in a way better position to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with him.

Now if only I could guarantee the 'missing Professor Mison' situation could be dealt with by someone else as well, maybe I actually would be able to focus on my schoolwork.

.o.

I was the first of my friends at dinner that evening and I took the opportunity to fill my plate with as much food as I could fit on it. Not caring that I was on my own, I started to stuff it into my ravenous face, starting with the creamiest mashed potato I had ever tasted.

I had barely touched my lunch that day thanks to worry, and now everything seemed to taste even better than usual.

"Hungry?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin, having not seen anyone approach.

I swallowed quickly. "Remus..." I watched him sit down on the opposite side of the table, "Hi."

One glance behind him told me he was weirdly alone.

"Where is everyone?" he asked, clearly thinking the same about me.

"I haven't seen anyone since lessons finished," I replied. "Got held back in Herbology."

He looked as mystified as I was. "I've been in the library catching up on some homework."

Picking up a full soup ladle sticking out of a huge cauldron to his left, he started to pour the contents into a bowl.

"More food for us I guess," he said pleasantly.

"Did you know Marlene and Sirius are dating?"

I couldn't actually quite believe I had said it myself.

Remus's hand slipped and a splash of soup landed on the table.

"Hmm?"

I knew I had no choice but to brazen it out now I'd already said it.

"James said something earlier," I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible. "It made it sound like they were dating."

"Oh," was all he said in reply.

"It's true?" I realised.

"Perhaps you're better off talking to Marlene about it," he advised uncomfortably, placing the ladle back into the cauldron more carefully this time and picking up a spoon.

"When did it happen?" I asked, suddenly feeling a lot less hungry. "We were all together in Hogsmeade yesterday, and they never once mentioned anything..."

I tried to reign myself in, aware I was starting to sound conspicuously bothered by it.

"I think perhaps something happened between them while you were on your date," Remus revealed, eyeing my reaction.

"Oh," I said simply, unable to think of anything else to say that wasn't 'what the hell?'

He peered up at me, his spoon still raised with untouched soup inside.

"Are you okay?" he asked carefully.

"Yes," I answered immediately. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He nodded.

In an instant, all of the space around us closed up and we found ourselves surrounded by figures. My friends, all except Marlene, had finally made it to dinner.

The topic of Sirius's love life was instantly dropped.

"How did it go?" Lily asked as soon as she sat down. "Was she angry? Did she say any more about what she was going to do about it?"

I had to think for a second what exactly she was on about.

"It went fine. Yes. And no," I answered her questions in order.

She paused, working out each one.

"Was who angry?" Remus asked mildly.

"Anthony Javerhops tried to kidnap Cheryl from Hogsmeade yesterday," Sally told him as if she was discussing a soap opera. "And now Sprout's angry with Cheryl because she didn't go and tell her."

Ignoring Remus's confused frown, I looked at Lily in shock. "You told them as well?" I asked, unable to believe it.

Dorcas looked hurt. "You mean you weren't going to?"

I felt myself deflate. "No, of course I was," I said honestly. "Eventually."

"Sorry, Cheryl," Lily said genuinely, looking as if she'd put her foot in it yet again, "I only told them because I felt like you might've needed the support."

"Wish we'd been there when it happened," Dorcas said, shaking her head. "What a coward. Picking on someone half his size like that."

"It's not what it sounds like. He didn't realise he was doing it," I told her, not feeling like it was right to talk about him like he was a serial killer or something.

"What do you mean, didn't realise he was doing it?" Remus asked curiously.

"He said he'd been sleepwalking or something," I replied.

"Apparently," Sally added, making it clear she didn't believe it.

"The same thing happened that night on the grounds," I continued, "When he left me with the big black dog."

Remus's forehead creased, looking thoughtful.

"What are you thinking?" Lily asked him, filling her goblet.

He shook his head, "Nothing, it's fine."

"Tell us," Sally urged him.

Remus's cheeks turned slightly pink under her gaze.

"Er, well," he started, flustered, "It's just that, I mean it's impossible, don't get me wrong, but it's just that..."

"What?" I pressed.

He glanced across at me. "It sounds a lot like the Imperius curse," he said uncertainly.

Dorcas looked at him like a frightened mouse, "No, it can't be that."

"It's impossible, obviously," Remus cut in, hastily backtracking, clearly worried what he had started, "It just sounded a bit familiar, that's all."

"Imperio is illegal, plus it takes a serious amount of willpower to perform," Lily told Dorcas reassuringly. "Considering Anthony first showed symptoms that night on the school grounds, I highly doubt any of the students at Hogwarts would even be capable of it, let alone stupid enough to attempt it right under Dumbledore's nose."

"Except Dumbledore isn't at the school right now, he's at Durmstrang," Sally reminded her, starting to look doubtful herself. "Has been for weeks."

"Okay, well even forgetting all of that, why would anyone want to use him to target Cheryl, for goodness sakes?" Lily countered. "That's twice now that Anthony has either left her to be attacked, or done the attacking himself."

"They wouldn't," Remus agreed. "It was silly of me to suggest it. Perhaps we should all just eat and forget all about it."

"Well Sprout is dealing with it now, anyway," I said, though I was finding it extremely hard to shake off the creeping feeling spreading along the back of my neck.

"Yes, so can we all just please forget about it?" Dorcas pleaded.

"Of course," Lily replied gratefully.

I continued with my meal despite the dryness of my mouth.

"So where's Marlene?" I asked, her absence still glaringly obvious in our little group.

For some reason all three girls paused and exchanged glances at this.

"What?" I said slowly.

"She's with the boys," Lily answered eventually, trying hard to keep her voice light. "They've gone to see if they can 'infiltrate the kitchens'," she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. It was as if she thought the fact she was with them would upset me in some way.

"Oh yeah, she and Sirius are together now, aren't they?" I said carelessly.

I ignored Remus's surreptitious glance towards me. It was satisfying to see the look of shock on my friends' faces.

"You already know?" Lily asked.

"James mentioned it earlier," I explained with as much apathy as I could muster. "How come I'm the last to know?" I pretended to chastise them.

Though it was meant to be a joke, even I noticed that it came across as slightly defensive.

"You were on your date when it happened," Dorcas replied apologetically. "It didn't feel right to steal your thunder when you got back."

"Marlene finally got her way with him then," I muttered. To think she had been worried about me getting in the way of her little childhood fantasy of them ending up together.

"What's that?" Lily asked.

"I said how did it happen, then?" I corrected quickly.

"It was when we left the pub," Sally replied. "Marlene pulled him around the side to 'tell him something'."

I mouthed a wordless 'Oh'.

"Yeah," Sally said, shaking her head with a grimace. "When we went round there to let them know we were heading to Zonko's they were all over each other. A proper snogfest."

Lily gave her a look to stop. "Anyway," she said, "Marlene seems to think they're official now. Not sure what Sirius has said about it," she added, glancing at Remus.

"Not much," he replied, looking at me as he said it.

"It'll probably only last a day anyway," Sally said dismissively. "You know what they're like."

"Too similar," Dorcas agreed, sipping her drink.

I thought about what Sirius had said in The Three Broomsticks, going on about how opposites attract. He had obviously ignored his own advice when it came to Marlene.

Loud, arrogant, popular, liked to laugh at others' expense. They were practically personality twins.

My mind wandered back to my date with Jesse. He wasn't at all arrogant or loud. And I couldn't even begin to imagine him bullying anyone.

He was nice and uncomplicated.

If a sordid snogfest round the side of a pub was the kind of thing that Sirius wanted, then he could gladly have it.

Jesse was exactly what I needed. A nice, uncomplicated opposite to Sirius.