Chapter Twenty Nine

A/N:

The smell of the draught bubbling away in the cauldron was so heady that the trio had to take it in turns getting up to stand beside the window, just so they could breathe a little fresh air. At times, the temptation became so great that they almost abandoned the potion altogether, but they could not. They had taken so many risks to get this far, they could not let it all go to waste.

"How long does this thing take to brew?" Fred asked, in between taking gulps of cold Scottish air.

"Until it turns a silvery-blue, according to the book." Selena shrugged, running her eyes over and over the page. Of all the seemingly endless instructions, none of them gave any hint how long it would take for the potion to reach that colour. It could be only ten minutes, but for all they knew, it could be ten weeks.

"We'll just have to keep an eye on it until the colour changes." Teddy suggested, as if none of them had thought of that brilliant plan.

"But we have to go back to classes tomorrow." Fred prompted. It was not often that he was the practical one, and Selena looked up in surprise. "We can't watch it then, and if we leave it, it could end up ruined by the time we get back and we'll have to do this whole thing all over again."

"Fred, we'll think of something." Lena protested sharply, if only to stop him rambling on about the consequences of their failure. Of course, she felt those fears more acutely than anyone.

Four hours later, the potion looked almost identical, and they were no closer to finding a solution. They had taken it in turns to go to the Great Hall for dinner, more to cover their tracks than to actually eat, as none of them had much of an appetite. Eventually, it was Lena who was left alone with the steaming cauldron, her eyes drifting closed as she studied the liquid for even the slightest change.

When the door swung open, the girl did not look up, assuming it was the two boys returning from their meal. They were not arguing for once, it seemed, both of them walking into the room in silence, and they stopped in the doorway, not even bothering to greet her. Lena was so tired, it took her a few moments to realise there had only been one set of footsteps.

"Professor!" the brunette exclaimed, leaping to her feet at such a speed that she almost fell back to the ground. Though she was a slight woman, Professor McGonagall seemed to tower over her, her face set in a mask of disapproval.

The clatter of running footsteps came from the hallway, and Teddy and Fred burst through the door, red-faced and breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry, Lena." Fred whispered, his throat so dry he could barely make a sound. "We tried to stop her, but we couldn't catch up."

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" asked the headmistress. Her eyes were fixed on the potion bubbling away in the cauldron. Lena followed her gaze and almost cried out in distress. The dark slick of the surface was steadily lightening, the slightest tinge of silver beginning to appear. "Well? Are any of you going to answer me?"

"We were practicing potions, professor." Teddy claimed, trying his best to keep his voice from shaking. "The exams are coming up soon and we wanted to make sure we did well, so we're practicing a few potions in our spare time."

"And you expect me to believe that you are brewing potions this complicated for leisure?" McGonagall scoffed, her eyes flitting constantly between the three children, as if she were searching for signs of falsehood among all three of them at once. "I doubt you will reap many benefits in a first-year potions exam from trying to brew Wolfsbane."

Lena gasped, her mouth falling open in shock. She knew that she ought to have kept up her pretence, for the sake of her best friend and brother if nothing else, but she could not. The way the headmistress was looking at her, it was as if she was not seeing Lena at all, but someone else.

In the end, the girl did not have to ask the question, for Professor McGonagall volunteered the information herself. "I've seen the potion before. When I was a member of the Order of the Phoenix during the war against the Dark Lord, I spent a great deal of time at Grimmauld Place during the holidays."

"There were werewolves in the Order of the Phoenix?" Fred asked, watching Lena out of the corner of his eye. He was still not quite used to talking about lycanthropy around his best friend, and with every word he worried he was going to offend her. "I thought they were fighting on the Dark Lord's side."

"Most of them were." Minerva conceded, though she was not looking at the redheaded boy. Instead, her eyes flitted to Teddy, then came to rest on Selena. "But not one. He was a good man, one of the best I ever knew, and he went to extraordinary lengths to brew this potion for the sake of making sure he did not hurt anyone when he transformed."

"Who was that?" Fred asked, confused. But Selena was not. A shocked smile began to spread across her face, realisation flowing through her. This was not a freak accident that she was born this way. It seemed she had inherited just as much from her father as her mother.

"Remus Lupin." Professor McGonagall's own smile was watery, her eyes filled with tears. Of course, long before she had been a headmistress, she had been a Head of House, presiding over the lives of hundreds of children. "I may be your headmistress, but that does not mean you cannot come to me. I assume that this potion is for you, Miss Lupin."

"Yes, professor." Selena sighed, her eyes moving in horror to the potion as the headmistress pulled it from the flame, holding the cauldron for a second before she held it out to the little girl.

"I will not have you stealing ingredients from Professor Prickle's stores any longer." Professor McGonagall chastised. Her face was still fixed in that expression of disappointment, but her eyes were soft and kind. "Nor will I have you spending all your free time brewing this concoction."

"But professor, I need it!" Lena exclaimed, beginning to panic. The headmistress held her hand out to appease the girl.

"Leave it with me." the Scottish woman smiled, moving across the room to rest a hand on the girl's shoulder, a moment of comfort before she resumed her authoritarian identity once more, and strode out of the room as if nothing had happened.

Teddy and Fred were frozen in place for a good two minutes after the headmistress left, unable to quite process what had happened. But it was not the same for Lena. As she held the now-cooled cauldron to her chest, eyeing the silvery-blue liquid within, she thought of the father she did not remember. 'There we are, Daddy.' she sighed inside her head. 'It looks like we do have something in common after all.'

A/N: I knew this couldn't stay secret for long, and so I introduced McGonagall (also because you can never have too much McGonagall!)- hope you enjoyed, and please review!