In the Present

A HariPo fanfic

by mew-tsubaki

Note: I haven't finished To the Future and already I'm starting its second companion story. AGH! However, J.K. Rowling's characters are in good hands by now, so I hope everyone enjoys this Rena story. But to reach the present, one must glance at the past, where our story begins… READ & REVIEW!!!

-------------------------------- ^-^3

The Eighth Harvest (& the Nineteenth Wax)

It was amazing what magic could do, really. Not only in putting things together, but also taking them apart, in order to analyze them. As it turned out, the powder had required Neville, Charlie, and Snape's areas of expertise. They had spent the night dissecting the tiny particles only to come up with an outrageous discovery:

It was a deadly mix meant to harm only Muggle-borns.

There were about one part kelpie's mane to four parts ground nixie scales in the dry potion. It had been simmered in Felix Felicis, which turned the good luck potion into a Muggle-born poison. Miraphina and Raven had breathed it in and, as they were both Muggle-borns, they potion had attacked them immediately and severely. Madam Pomfrey had expressed amazement that they were still alive.

Remus was bothered by the fact that something had actually gotten into the school, though, just like the others had concern for the same reason. Voldemort was gone; did they really have to put up with the Dark Wizard's remaining followers? Remus vaguely recalled Harry's section in the Auror Department as being the section that hunted down and captured those remaining followers or the ones who thought they could be the next Lord Voldemort. How could they have missed this?!

In Defense Against the Dark Arts that Monday evening, Remus saw Ginny joined by her friend Raven. Raven had been released, because she had only breathed in a small dose of the poison. The werewolf thought back on the other girl, though; Miraphina was still in the Hospital Wing, still very sick, but she was doing better with Madam Pomfrey's constant care. Dumbledore had gotten her parents to Hogwarts without delay.

Remus started class, reminding the seventh years that dueling would still be a part of the N.E.W.T. Most were listening, but a ruckus was growing in the back. He stopped and squinted to see Ginny arguing with her now-healthy friend Raven.

"Then prove it!" Raven hissed.

"I will!" Ginny yelled back.

"Miss Crowley, Miss Weasley –keep it down," he called to them. A few snickers escaped their classmates, but the two Gryffindor girls humbly quieted.

----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3

At supper, Remus breathed deeply. "I'm exhausted."

"What do you mean, you're exhausted?" Neville complained. "I was one of the three who didn't sleep last night!"

"It was still emotionally exhausting yesterday, Neville," Sirius replied. "It was scary."

Remus nodded and bit into a warm biscuit. He rubbed his eyes, wishing Luna was there just to hold him. With a lifetime full of scary things, it would be nice to just settle down and have some peace for once, even if in only one sitting.

"You haven't had the chance to speak to her, have you?" Remus asked Sirius in undertones.

"No," Sirius supplied, finishing a chicken leg. "She hasn't even spoken to Charlie. What makes you think she'll speak to me if she won't speak to her brother?"

"You're her love."

"Not at the moment." He raised his eyebrows and jerked his head towards the Gryffindor table.

Remus looked and saw Ginny and her friends speaking closely together. "Maybe you just need the right chance. You know, the right timing."

Sirius grunted in response.

The werewolf rolled his eyes. Do I really always have to be the sensitive, insightful, optimistic one? he groused to himself. "Whatever, Sirius; moan and groan for all I care."

Again, Padfoot grunted in response and finished his meal. "I think I'll go for a walk," he stated, and he left the Great Hall.

So suddenly? Remus looked back at the Gryffindor table and saw that Ginny and her friends had left. He smiled. So he's listening. If he can't have the right time, then he'll make it the right time. Good for you, Sirius.

----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3

By second period, Remus knew something was wrong.

Tuesday was awfully quiet, considering what happened over the weekend. Breakfast wasn't much, since Sirius was absent. Remus had supposed his best mate was simply still asleep. After all, Sirius almost always overslept when they had been Hogwarts students.

But second period had come and gone, and Remus also realized that some students were missing. First period, he'd had the seventh years, and three students were missing: Ginny, Raven, and Mavrick Morris, that Gryffindor Beater who had broken his wrist in Sunday's explosion. He dismissed the nagging feeling he got and taught the third years with a calm mind during the second period.

When his third-period break came, though, his suspicions were confirmed in a round-about way. A note flew into his classroom, zipping up right into his face. It opened without his help, and he scanned the familiar, spidery script.

Remus, you must report to Sirius's classroom and cover his classes today. All will –hopefully –be explained later.

-Albus

Any idea Remus had had of relaxing flew out the door when that note popped in. The wizard had to run to his friend's class to make it in time, and Remus had the fourth years right before the fifth years, and the last three groups of students.

Of the fourth years, Derrov Benton, the other Gryffindor Beater, wasn't in class. Of the fifth years, the Gryffindor Seeker, Nigel Creevey, was absent.

Ginny and her friends were missing, along with Sirius.

That night, Remus skipped supper and went straight to Dumbledore's office. McGonagall was already there, and both were standing in the room. Their eyes flicked to Remus as he entered.

"Where's Sirius?" he blurted before they said anything.

"He didn't say anything to you?" Minerva asked.

Remus furrowed his brow. "No. The last I saw him was last night. He stood up after supper and left, saying he was going to take a walk."

"I find it rather peculiar that right after Sunday's incident, the victims' friends disappear. And the better half of one of the students also disappears," Dumbledore commented with raised eyebrows.

"You think Sirius went with them wherever they are?" the werewolf asked incredulously.

"Several months back, one of our seventh year students received a missive from his parents, beckoning him back home. Grant Selwyn, in Slytherin house, first went to Professor Snape, who brought him to me. I permitted him to leave, for Mr. Selwyn was insistent that he would be gone for only a short amount of time. He has been absent since then."

"He's still not back?" Remus paused. "Wait –what does that have to do with Ginny and her friends?"

"Grant Selwyn was –is one of Ginny's friends," Minerva answered. "She has known him the longest of her friends. I think it's safe to say he is her best friend."

"And?"

"He was also dating Miss Atherton," the witch grimly stated.

Remus could follow the logic now. The Selwyns were a pureblood family, old magic… He befriended another pureblood (despite most other purebloods calling the Weasleys blood-traitors)… He had been dating a Muggle-born… He disappears, no return in sight, and his friends are caught in a mysterious explosion, his Muggle-born girlfriend suffering the most. Though Albus and Minerva tried to be neutral, the history of pureblood families tended towards Dark Magic, so it was only reasonable that they were worried. It made sense, however, because the Selwyns would've been disgraced by their extended family when the Second Great War was won and most Death Eaters were either killed, caught, or given up.

"What do we do, Albus?" Minerva entreated her love.

The headmaster shook his head. "This is a very fragile situation, I'm afraid. They…used the Floo network to leave the grounds."

"How?" she asked.

It dawned on Remus when Dumbledore crinkled his eyes. "In here?!" he spat.

Albus shook his head. "I don't know how, but they came into my office while I was upstairs cataloguing some personal effects. I'm sure it was Sirius, along with Mr. Reaves's help," he added with a quirked eyebrow, "who broke in."

Remus knew what Dumbledore was implying. Marauders pranks had extended to every part of the castle; back then, no teacher was safe, though Remus himself had never pranked the headmaster with the others. "You think they went to the Selwyn home?"

"Without a doubt," the elderly wizard replied. "Yet as we don't know the case, we are left with our hands and wands tied."

"So there's nothing we can do?" Mooney managed, though he could feel his anxiety flood him. They were sitting ducks.

----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3

Luna had fallen asleep at her desk when a paper bird fluttered in through her open window. Her articles were spread all over her room. She was preparing to meet numerous deadlines, but had decided that she needed a little catnap.

The paper avian nudged her cheek and she awoke. She blinked sleepily at the bird, and it folded into a note in her hands. She opened it, reading Remus's message expressing his wish for her to see him. That night.

The witch didn't question anything as she grabbed her sweater and pounded downstairs. Her father peeked around a book stack as she reached the front door.

"Luna, where are you going?" Xenophilius hollered.

"I've got to go!" was all she answered. As soon as she could, she turned on the spot and Apparated. Gasping air in her lungs, she ran up to the castle, heading straight for Remus's office.

----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3

The werewolf looked up when he heard the knock at his door. The door handle turned and she stuck her head in. Luna's blue eyes fell on him, her lips not really forming a frown, but not staying quite straight.

His anxiety waned only a bit.

"You called?" she prodded, coming right up to his desk.

Remus shook his head. "I did, but… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have worried you." He flicked his eyes to hers. "Sirius is missing."

Luna blinked. "Just gone?"

"With Ginny."

Now she looked surprised. "When did that happen?"

The D.A.D.A. professor stood and walked around to the front of his desk. He drew the reporter to him and rested his head on her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him gentle, as if he were fragile and about to break. "Apparently it happened back in December. But that's not the point. The two of them and her friends seem to have left on a rescue-or-destroy mission."

"What for?"

Remus launched into the story of the weekend, and he also included Dumbledore's theories. He spoke of the explosion itself, the Hospital Wing, the item… He didn't leave out any details.

Luna shook her head. "Sometimes we have to just let things happen," she said in a quiet voice, in that mysterious tone of hers. "Sometimes things just work themselves out, without our intervention. But," she continued, lifting his chin and resting her palm on his cheek, "we have to recognize the times when we must wait."

"But I want to do something!"

She kissed him softly. "I know, Rem, but the waiting is harder. Believe me, it is."

----------------------------------------------------------- ^-^3

And on to 20 we go!! I can't believe the story has come this far, but I actually still have a lot of ideas in mind. I don't intend to end our Rena love story any time soon, folks, so keep on reading.

AND REVIEWING!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

-mew-tsubaki