It is one of those annoying facts of life; the more you dread something, the faster time goes, and the next thing you know, you are standing outside Professor Lupins office on a Friday evening, trying to convince your shaking hand to knock on the door.

Even though it had been five days since that fateful morning in the staff room, I was no less nervous about the idea of spending an hour alone with Professor Lupin, nor had I spoken to him at all, even in class. The only communication we had occurred this morning; he sent me an owl asking me to meet him in his office at five to eight so we could start our rounds.

Okay, just chill, Faylinn, I thought to myself, be cool, and an hour from now it will all be over.

Breathing deeply, I knocked on his door. For a moment there was no reply, and just as I considered knocking again, the door opened to reveal a smiling Professor Lupin. Merlin's beard, how I love that smile…

"Good evening," he said pleasantly, "Come in, please, we still have a few minutes before our patrol begins…"

"Okay," I said nervously, entering his office. His pleasant demeanour made me feel more comfortable. Hopefully, the hour would be less excruciating if Professor Lupin keeps his cool (even though I probably won't).

I allowed my eyes to scan his office, and to my relief, the boggart trunk was not there any more. The last thing I needed was a repeat of that incident.

I sat down in the seat across from his desk, which was covered with papers and folders, as well as an empty, though still steaming goblet. It emitted an odd smell, not pleasant at all, something like a cross between raw fish and scrambled egg. Some trace of repulsion must have shown on my face, because Professor Lupin, who had just taken a seat behind his desk laughed, and said,

"Not very pleasant smelling, is it?"

"Oh," I said, slightly taken aback, "It's, er, unusual, I guess, but if that's how you like your tea…"

Professor Lupin smiled broadly at this,

"I assure you, I can't stand it. I only take it for medical purposes."

"Oh," I said, blushingly slightly. That should have been obvious; I'm so slow sometimes… well, not sometimes, usually just when I'm alone with Professor Lupin…

"Faylinn, I've wanted to speak with you," Professor Lupin said seriously.

"Really?" I said casually, though my heart was beating frantically against my chest. Did he mean what I thought he did?

"Yes," he said, "I want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened with the boggart incident, and for how students have been treating me because of it."

I blushed, but much need relief rushed through my body. Even though Madam Pomfrey had said the same thing, it was more real when he said it himself.

"That – that's good to know," I said, a genuine smile playing at my lips.

"And I hope you can forgive me also for everything that happened –" he added.

"It wasn't your fault professor, you had no choice," I said quickly, "I understand, really."

"Thank you for understanding," he replied, looking as relieved as I felt, "I know you already clarified that on the night that it happened, though I was concerned that perhaps you had changed your mind after the news spread across the school."

"Why you think that, Professor?" I asked curiously.

"Well, you were avoiding me, and were acting less friendly than usual," he said off-handly, "Though clearly I was wrong, forgive me."

"Oh, yeh, that was because I was, you know, worried about how you felt, sir, and I was a bit embarrassed too," I added sheepishly. It was an unusual conversation to be having with a teacher, especially one who you happen to have a crush on, have kissed and have been avoiding for the last few months. But after seven years, you come to accept that unusual happenings at Hogwarts are common place.

"Understandable," he said, nodding slightly, "Though I must say it is a shame that this had to occur – especially in your NEWTs year. I don't think you are doing as well as you would have been if we had maintained a normal relationship. I think perhaps it is best if we start over, what do you say?"

"I think that's a good idea," I agreed.

"Well, I think it is time for introductions then," he said, standing up.

I watched him uncertainly as he stopped next to me. He extended his hand and said,

"Professor R. J. Lupin, it is my pleasure to meet you," he said, smiling cheekily.

I was taken aback at first, and then I laughed, stood up and shook his hand enthusiastically, my heart fluttering slightly at the warmth of his skin.

"Faylinn Goodwill, and the pleasure is all mine, Professor."

Professor lupin beamed, looking positively gorgeous as he did it, and resumed his seat. I was extremely impressed; he was handling the situation so smoothly, so maturely, to the extent that I was actually feeling comfortable in his presence. Sure, perhaps he still makes me feel a little nervous when he smiles, and so he can still make my legs feel like jelly just by shaking my hand, but, I thought happily, at least we are on speaking terms again. Suddenly, I was feeling a lot more hopeful about tonight.

"Right, now, to business," he said, looking down at a piece of parchment, "I received this message from Professor Dumbledore this morning; it says we are to patrol the transfiguration and charms corridors on the third and fourth floor, and check all classrooms to see that they are empty, and that we will be required to cast the homenumrevelio charm on every corridor, classroom and passage behind the tapestries. After that we just need to patrol the corridors."

He frowned slightly then looked up at me, "You've only recently learned this spell, do you think you can manage it?"

"Er," I said. Truth be told, I had spent most of the class trying to avoid Professor Lupin, and so did not master the spell as well as Audrey did, but I did manage it a number of times.

Professor Lupin seemed to take my hesitation as a no, and asked, "We still have some time before we need to start – shall we practise?"

"Okay, Professor."

Five minutes later, Professor Lupin had corrected my wand technique for the charm and we were ready to start patrol.

It was dull work, made interesting only by the presence of my partner. Not that we spoke much, we were too preoccupied checking classrooms. I took those on the left hand side, and Professor Lupin took those on the right.

It was almost half past the hour when we reached the last corridor in the transfiguration wing of the fourth floor. We continued our inspection as normal; it did not take long, the corridor was shorter than most, and darker, though I was not one to admit to being scared. There was a beautiful tapestry on the wall at the end of the corridor, showing a magnificent hall in which a very pretty woman dressed in what could have easily been a very fancy though provocative wedding dress, had it not been coloured blood red with silver and gold embroidery, dancing happily with a handsome man clad in black, obvious to the fact that the forty or so wizards that surrounded them were duelling violent.

Shortly after, we finished our inspection, and I breathed a sigh of relief, while Professor Lupin examined the tapestry curiously.

"Finally!" I said, rubbing my wand arm, which was sore from over-use, "I didn't think it would take so long. It would be a shame if I'm not asked to use this spell on the NEWTs exam at the – Professor, what are you doing?"

I starred, stunned as Professor Lupin, apparent no longer content with looking, reached out a hand and started to stroke the woman's back. I blushed as I watched him; okay, so she was an extremely pretty witch with a gorgeous body, but surely he did not need to do that in front of me?

After a few moments of stroking, the witch in the tapestry stopped dancing and looked up at Professor Lupin, smiled flirtatiously, winked, and then, leaving her dance partner looking thoroughly disappointed, walked out of the hall. Professor Lupin watched her leave, smiling amusedly, and then looked surprised when he turned to look at me, seeing me starring back and forth between him and the tapestry, blushing furiously and looking stunned.

For a moment he looked confused, and then, he must have realised something, because his eyes widened, he blushed and he let out a "Oh!"

"Er, Faylinn," he said, looking embarrassed, "Please don't get the wrong idea – the tapestry conceals a secret corridor, which can only be accessed by stroking the witches back…"

"Oh!" I said, still blushing, though now smiling, "Oh, right. I'm sorry, it's just, I was quite surprised…"

"Very understandable," he said, now also smiling, "I still remember – ah!"

He was cut of by movement behind him; the tapestry sprung backward, revealing a long and dark stone passage way behind it. The walls were covered in spider webs, and the few doors that I could see looked like there were ready to collapse. It smelled odd, like a very old attic. I started at it, shocked.

"How did you know that was there?" I asked, looking at Professor Lupin with wide eyes, "Is this a staff thing?"

He smiled reminiscently, "No, no I don't think many people know about it. Filch does, of course, but my friends and I found this one night back when I was a student here. We were exploring the castle, after curfew," he added, smiling guilty, "and one of my friends, er, couldn't help but stroke the witch. He was only thirteen."

I laughed in wonder. Out of bed after curfew? I should have suspected as much, especially after reading about the jelly prank. The image suited him, very much.

Professor Lupin took a few steps into the corridor, and looked around swiftly, his wand raised. He cast the homenumreveliocharm, but there was no one there. He moved forward towards the first door, and then seemed to realise that I had not joined him, and looked back towards the opening of the corridor.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked.

"Er –" I said awkwardly. I was not ready to admit that the corridor was freaking me out; it was dark, dusty and ugly, it smelled funny and I was not a fan of spiders, to say the least.

He seemed to understand however, because he smiled knowingly and said, "Never mind, it's a small corridor, I can finish it off myself."

A minute later, he was finished. He closed the tapestry behind him, and we headed of along the corridor to continue our patrol.

"Do you think Black knows about that? The corridor, I mean," I asked, eyeing the tapestry suspiciously.

Professor Lupin hesitated nervously, and then I remembered. He was friends with Black! He would know exactly whether Black knew or not. And judging by the fact that he bothered to check the corridor at all, Black must know about it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I stuttered, "I didn't mean to, um, well, you know – I'll just shut up now…" I finished lamely.

Professor Lupin raised an eyebrow.

I felt my self blushing, and I hesitated for a moment. Should I tell him I knew about Black? Well, might as well…

"I, um," I paused, cleared my throat, and then said, very quickly, "IknowaboutyouandBlack."

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said, I um, I know about you, and Black," I said awkwardly, "That you were good friends, at Hogwarts."

Professor Lupin looked very taken aback, his face slightly pale. There was a moments silence, and then,

"How did you find out?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

I felt horrible for bringing this up; he obviously was not keen on the subject, and who can blame him? Former best friend, murder, apparently killing his two other best friends was not enough, and now he was determined to kill his best friend's son…

"My uncle," I said timidly, "He told me, over the winter break. He was an auror, back when Black was arrested and friends with him in Hogwarts too."

Professor Lupin frown, "Uncle?" and then, he his face lit up in realisation, "Not, not Graham Goodwill?"

"Yes," I said smiling, "That's him. Do you remember him?"

Professor Lupin smiled now, "Yes, he was a few years above us in Hogwarts, but he struck up a good friendship with Sirius, that's how I meet him. He was head boy back when I was in fourth year; he let us get away with so much when we should have been given detention. Haven't seen him in years though, how is he?"

"He's good," I said happily, glad that Professor Lupin was smiling now, "He has a young family, he's retired, of course, just a few years ago, got hurt on the job so he couldn't really continue, being an auror is a tough job, you know…"

"I never realised you were related to him," he said, "You're muggle-born, aren't you?"

"Yes," I said, "I'm the only witch in the family, and he's the only wizard… weird how it works, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said thoughtfully, "Fascinating, but not uncommon."

I hesitated for a moment, and then said, "He, ah, he showed me something, I've been wanting to show you…"

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"It's in my dorm, wait, I'll just – accio uncle grahams photo!" I said, holding out my wand.

Professor Lupin looked startled, "You can't just summon something from the other side of the castle!"

"Why not?" I asked, grinning, "The corridors are empty –"

I was cut off by a soft zooming sound, and when I looked to my left, I saw the photo stop right in front of my face. I grabbed it quickly, and handed it over to Professor Lupin before he could rebuke me again. He took it curiously.

I watched his eyes grow wide when he realised what it was, smiling sadly as his eyes took in every detail of the picture. He lingered especially on his then girlfriend – Rose Wilson. After a moment, I said,

"There's writing on the back."

He turned it over eagerly, and as he read, his smile lingered but his eyes grew sadder by the second. After a moment, he looked startled, but he read on. I knew he had just seen the part about my name. When he finished, he looked up sadly, but his eyes were full of wonder when he said,

"They used the name I suggested?"

"Looks like it," I said, happily.

"I don't even remember suggesting it, it was so long ago… but I always loved the name Faylinn."

"I like it too. It's different. I guess I have you to thank for that!" I said playfully.

"My pleasure," he replied, his eyes twinkling happily; the traces of sadness lost. Part of me felt guilty, knowing that the next thing I said was likely to cause the sadness to return.

"My uncle, he, um, told me something," I said carefully, "About Black, I mean."

I watched him to check his reaction. He stiffened a little but did not say any anything, so I continued.

"About why he was taken to Azkaban. But he, ah, actually thinks there is a chance he might be, you know, innocent."

Professor Lupin looked at me when I said this, looking mildly surprised though grim.

"Really? How did he manage that?"

"Well," I said more confidently, knowing that he wanted me to continue, "First he said that Black would never go over to the dark side. Ever. And he said that Black would have done anything for you, Potter and Pettigrew. And that he loved Potter like a brother. He didn't believe that Black could have betrayed him. He said there was no proof either way. Even if Black was the secret keeper, he could have been forced to speak, tortured or something, but because Black wasn't given a trial, he never have had the chance to defend himself."

Professor Lupin nodded sadly, "Yes, I told myself that too. When I heard the Potters were dead, I was worried about Sirius, knowing that he had been secret keeper. I thought they must have tortured him into speaking," his expression darkened slightly when he said, "It wasn't until he killed Peter and thirteen muggles that I realised that he hadn't been tortured at all – that he had betrayed them."

Seeing him so hurt was depressing.

"He doesn't buy that though. My uncle, I mean."

"No?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "How did he manage to do that? As much as I tried I could not find an excuse for Black – and I tried for months."

"Well, he thinks that muggles aren't reliable witnesses for magical duels. So their testimony won't hold much with him, seeing as how they don't understand magic and all. But what really got to him, and mind you, he is an auror, was the fact that only Pettigrew's finger was found. He said it didn't fit – that he was blown up so badly that only a finger survived, and yet the dead muggles weren't blown up that badly. And then there's the finger itself; why did his finger look like it had been cut off so smoothly, why wasn't it even scratched when the rest of his body couldn't even be found? He doesn't believe it, he thinks things aren't as they seem."

There a moments silence, in which Professor Lupin took in what I said, gazing unseeingly at a stair case to his left.

"I never thought of it that way," he said finally, in a hushed voice. He sighed, longingly, "I – I wish I could believe it. It took me months to stop denying that Sirius really did betray us. What you've told me is interesting, but there's the problem that he has breaken into Gryffindor tower – twice. It doesn't make sense – if was innocent, why would he break into Harry's dorm with a knife?"

"I don't know," I admitted, "Well, I don't know what really happened, but I do know that my uncle was a great auror, even back when Black was arrested, and I respect my uncle heaps, and if he has doubts that Black was guilty, then that's enough for me have doubts too."

Professor Lupin nodded, but did not speak. In fact, I did not think he was able to speak – he looked sad, confused though hopeful, all at the same time.

We continued out patrol in silence; not an awkward one, but one of understanding. I respectfully gave him time to think, to digest what I had said. Occasionally he would look at the picture again, and re-read the letter at least twice. I like to think I've given him hope, and part of me prayed that it was not baseless; that Black was innocent, and that he had some other reason (unfathomable though it may be) to breaking in to Harry's dorm.

At the end of our shift, as we parted ways, he asked me,

"Faylinn, can – can I make a copy of this?"

"Of course, Professor," I replied.

He waved his wand and a moment later, he was holding two photos, and handed the original back to me. I said good bye and left him there. Looking back when I reached the end of the corridor, I saw that he had not moved from his place. His gaze was fixed on the happy memory that he held in his hands, and it was not until I reached Gryffindor Tower that I realised the shine in his eyes at that moment might not have been from the adjacent torch after all.