I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I ONLY OWN DEVYN AND HER PARENTS.

Chapter 34

From the moment that the sun rose in the Hospital Wing, Devyn had only one thought in her mind; Moony.

He was sure to be back to normal by now, she figured, and she knew that she needed to talk to him. The chances that he remembered was happened last night in full were slim, but he would probably remember a few details at the very least. And Devyn was sure that some of those details would include how close he came to killing her, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Neville. If Devyn knew Moony at all – and she did – he would be furious and horrified with himself.

Aside from her godfather's opinion of himself at the moment, there was also Snape to contend with. The Minister, evidently, was going to award Snape with the Order of Merlin for catching Sirius. Of course, that went down the drain when the Minister (and Snape) discovered that Sirius had escaped once again.

Fudge had been utterly bamboozled and embarrassed, but Snape had been livid. He suspected (and he was quite right actually, although he would never know that) that Harry and Devyn had something to do with Sirius' escape. He had come storming into the Hospital Wing, his face red with fury and practically frothing at the mouth, shouting his head off at her and Harry.

Unfortunately for Snape, no one else believed that they had anything to do with it, mostly because Madam Pomfrey confirmed that they had never left the Hospital Wing last night.

"I would have heard them, wouldn't I?" Madam Pomfrey said, staring at Snape stubbornly. The Potions Master had no other choice but to back down.

But then, the morning after Harry, Devyn, and Ron were released from the Hospital Wing, Snape had his revenge. The three of them met Hermione and Neville, who had been released the day before, in the Great Hall for breakfast. It was then that everything came tumbling down.

Devyn hadn't seen her godfather in the Great Hall that morning, but that didn't really bother her. He was probably still recovering from the full moon. Unfortunately, Devyn came to wish that Moony had been there because then Snape might not have had the gumption to do what he did.

In the end, Snape made the excuse that he did it 'accidentally', but everyone knew that was total rubbish. The Potions Master decided that he would 'let slip' the nature of Moony's condition to the entire Slytherin table.

It didn't take long for the word to spread to other tables and it took even less time for her fellow Gryffindors to glare at her angrily. She was Moony's goddaughter after all and she had known about his condition. Evidently, her housemates felt that it was a large betrayal on her part. It wasn't until Neville told everyone to leave her alone and mind their own bloody business that they stopped glaring at her. Her friends didn't seem to care and Fred and George didn't either, nor did Ginny.

Percy was a bit up in arms about the whole thing, but no one really listened to him anyway.

"We don't really care what he is," Fred told her sincerely.

"He's still the best Defense teacher we've ever had. Not to mention –" George said.

"He's one of the nicest people we've ever met," Fred finished, with George nodding emphatically. "Don't pay any mind to the people who care what he is. The ones who care don't matter –"

"And the ones who matter won't care, right, Fred?"

"Absolutely," he answered his twin with a large grin. Devyn smiled at the identical pranksters and thanked them. They both clapped a hand on each of her shoulders bracingly and then walked away with Lee Jordan.

Ginny had only three words for Devyn as far her godfather was concerned: "I don't care."

Devyn smiled at the younger girl and nodded. She understood exactly what Ginny was telling her.

Unfortunately, some people were not as understanding. Most of the Gryffindors got over the shock quickly, being able to look past the creature her godfather was and see the person that he was. Others, like Seamus, took a little longer but got there in the end.

Aside from the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs were really quite understanding about the whole thing and the Ravenclaws seemed to be in some sort of logic crisis. Everything they had ever read told them that werewolves were evil, but Moony was a living contradiction of that. They didn't know what to believe.

The Slytherins, on the other hand, were nothing but downright horrible, but none worse than – you guessed it – Draco Malfoy. Devyn was used to Malfoy saying awful things but she really did think that after being punched in the face as many times as he had, he would learn to keep his mouth shut.

Unfortunately for him, it took a little more than a punch this time to get him to keep his mouth shut.

Devyn had been walking down the hall towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom in order to talk to Moony when she had the misfortune to walk by Malfoy and his cronies on her way there.

She didn't hear the entire conversation but she distinctly heard Malfoy say, "…filthy werewolf. Wait til my father hears about this."

Malfoy didn't even have time to notice that she was walking by him before she reacted. Faster than lightning, she appeared in front of him, grabbed him by throat and picked him up. Slamming him against the wall, and ignoring his flailing feet that were now at least a foot off the ground, she growled loudly and snarled, "I will give you ONE warning, Malfoy. If you talk about my godfather one more time, I WILL RIIP YOUR THROAT OUT. Are we clear?"

Malfoy was struggling for breath but still managed to say, "Let go of me, you filthy blood traitor!"

"I said, ARE. WE. CLEAR?!" Devyn roared.

Malfoy, looking like he was about to mess his pants, nodded frantically. Devyn released his throat and he fell to the ground, coughing and panting. She ignored any other sound Malfoy made and walked on.

It took a few more minutes for Devyn to reach the DADA classroom, but when she did, she made a beeline for the stairs that would lead her to her godfather's office and, by extension, her godfather.

The door was open but Devyn still knocked on the door frame anyway. Moony looked up from where he was standing behind the desk chair and Devyn made a genuine effort to not react at the sight of his new injuries.

Looks like he's got some new scars to add to his collection, Devyn thought sadly. Moony must have noticed her expression because he smiled bitterly and said, "I've looked worse, believe me."

Devyn chuckled and said, "I know you have. I live with you, remember?"

"Ah yes, that's right," Moony said jokingly. Devyn smiled and asked carefully, "How are you feeling?"

Moony shrugged and said, "Honestly, I'm okay. My muscles are sore and I've got scratches everywhere, some of which will scar, but otherwise I'm alright."

"Good…" Devyn said. "Do you remember anything?"

"Not much, really. A few flashes of things but it's all dark and muddled so I don't really know what's going on."

"Oh," Devyn replied. Was there a chance that he didn't remember almost killing her? If so, she wasn't going to bring it up. He didn't need to feel any worse about himself than he already did.

"One thing I do remember, quite clearly, is a white wolf standing between me and Harry and the others. I also remember attacking that same white wolf, as well as a big black dog. That's Sirius, I know that…but the white wolf…that was you wasn't it?"

Devyn sighed and closed her eyes. "I was hoping you wouldn't remember that."

"You were hoping I wouldn't remember attacking you? Quite the contrary, Devyn; I can't forget it."

After a long pause, Moony said, "How close was I?"

Devyn shook her head in confusion and said, "What do you mean? How close were you to…?"

"To killing you. How close did I come?" Moony asked. Devyn noticed that he was gripping the back of the chair so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"Moony, I -"

"Please, Devyn. I have to know. What did I do? How close did I come to…to…"

"It wasn't you, Moony. It wasn't you that attacked me. It was the wolf."

"The wolf, me; what difference does it make? You were still attacked. Now, please, tell me how badly I hurt you!"

Devyn looked into her godfather's scarred face and saw the pain in his blue eyes. It was the last thing she wanted to do, but she knew that he wouldn't rest until he knew exactly what he had done; so she showed him the scar that stretched across her stomach. It looked better than it had the day before, but it was still obvious that it had once been a serious injury.

The color immediately drained from Moony's face when he saw the scar. "Oh, Merlin…"

Devyn, in seconds, rushed to her godfather's side and pleaded with him to look at her. When he did, she said, "Moony, please don't…don't worry. I'm okay, really."

"How can you say that? How can you even be in the same room as me, after what I did to you?" Moony asked, a tortured expression on his face. "How can you not hate me for what I did?"

"Hate you?" Devyn asked incredulously. "Moony, I could never hate you. I love you, so much more than you'll ever know. And if you think something like this is going to change that…well, I guess you don't know me very well."

"I almost killed you. If that wound went any deeper, I would have killed you."

"But you didn't! You didn't kill me!"

"But I almost did! I could have killed any one of you last night. I'm too dangerous to be around children!"

"Moony, stop it. It was an accident. Don't -!"

"Don't what? Don't blame myself? It was my fault, Devyn. Who else should I blame?"

"You don't need to blame anyone!" Devyn shouted. "It was an accident. It wasn't anyone's fault!"

Moony clenched his jaw and shook his head. "Stop trying to defend me, Devyn. I know it was my fault. I should have been the one protecting you, not hurting you."

"Moony, I'm fine. Okay? I'm perfectly fine. So are Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione. We're all fine. Sirius is safe."

That got Moony's attention. "He is?"

"Yeah. Pettigrew escaped but we got Sirius to safety. Everything is fine."

Moony smiled but then shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm resigning. I'm too dangerous to be around children and besides, somebody let slip the nature of my condition…once the parents get wind of this, they won't want someone like me teaching their children."

Devyn didn't know what to say. "Moony, I…"

"It's better this way. It saves Dumbledore the pain of having to fire me, and this way I can keep some of my pride. And it's not like we'll never see each other again. I'll see you in a few days."

"I know…it's just…this is so unfair! It isn't your fault that you are what you are! You didn't ask for it!"

Moony stared at her in amazement for a few seconds before saying, "How you can still think so highly of me after what I did…after you've seen the monster that I become…"

"Moony, I've told you this before. I love you, and nothing will ever change that. And the creature that attacked me that night…that was not you. That was the wolf. Not you. Besides, the wolf warned me. He told me to get out of his way, but if I did, he would have murdered Neville and the others. The only reason I even got injured the way I did was because I was protecting my friends. And I was protecting you. If you had transformed back to yourself only to discover that you had killed four students…you wouldn't have survived that."

"I can't say you're wrong. I'm just so sorry for what I did to you. I should never have…why I ever thought I could be around children and that nothing would go wrong…I shouldn't even be your guardian after this!"

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare say that. You are the only family I have left and I will be damned if I let you leave me. I refuse. You are my godfather and I love you and nothing – and I mean, nothing – will ever change that. Don't you dare give up. I won't let you."

Moony looked at her searchingly for a moment before smiling bitterly. "I'm not about to give you up, Devyn. I wouldn't ever do that…you know how I am…"

"Yes, I do," Devyn said. "I do know how you are. You're a good man, who seems to think that he isn't worthy of anyone's love…when in reality, you are loved. You're loved, Moony. And I just wish you would open your eyes and see that."

Moony's eyes became slightly watery and he smiled sadly before pulling Devyn into a tight hug. Devyn wrapped her arms around Moony's waist gently and rested her head on his chest, being careful of his sore muscles and numerous scratches. Moony dropped a kiss on the top of her head and said, "If only everyone could see me the way you do, Devyn…if only."

Devyn didn't answer but then, she didn't really need to. They pulled away from each other and Moony held her at arm's length. His brow scrunched up and he said, "Blimey, you're getting tall."

"Don't worry, Moony. I'll never be as tall as you," Devyn joked. Moony rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, well, you're only fourteen. Give it some time, and you'll probably come close. Both your parents were fairly tall."

Devyn merely shrugged. "Time will tell, I suppose."

Moony nodded and hugged her again quickly before saying, "You should probably get going. I do believe that you have some packing to do." Devyn nodded and Moony added, rather sullenly, "And I have some resigning to do."

Devyn bit her lip, feeling extremely sorry for Moony. She had known how much this job meant to him. Devyn was of the opinion that her godfather was the best teacher she had ever had, and that was saying something, considering that she had Minerva McGonagall and –as much as she didn't like him, she had to admit that he was a very competent teacher – Severus Snape as teachers as well. But, yes, Moony was most definitely the best teacher she had ever had.

"Yeah, you're right. Fine, fine, I'll go pack. Suppose I'll see you in a few days then, Moony."

He nodded and said, "See you soon, love."

Moony kissed her on the head before she left and she threw him a bright smile as she walked out of the door. He sighed deeply and looked around at his office – although it won't be mine much longer, he thought sadly – one more time before walking out from behind his desk and starting the fairly lengthy walk to the Headmaster's office.

The next day, Devyn was walking down the Grand Staircase towards the Entrance Hall. She was very hungry and she knew that in the Entrance Hall there was much food to be eaten.

"Hello, young Devyn," a voice said from somewhere on her left said. She looked over and smiled when she saw Nearly Headless Nick floating towards her.

"Hi, Sir Nicholas," she replied, looking up at the ghost. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well. Well, as well as I can be, anyway, considering the Headless Hunt denied me once again."

"Oh, Sir Nicholas, I'm sorry. They're all complete morons if they're willing to let a person like you get away. They don't deserve you," Devyn said heatedly. She really was sick and tired of people ostracizing other people because they didn't fit in or because they were different. Nick was a perfectly nice and (slightly) frightening ghost; he didn't deserve to be excluded from the Headless Hunt simply because his head wasn't all the way decapitated. Besides, being nearly headless, in Devyn's opinion, was much scarier and more interesting than being fully headless.

"I suppose," Nick sighed. Devyn frowned and said, "Well, look at it this way; being nearly headless is much more interesting than being actually headless. I mean, if you're beheaded and you become a ghost, everyone knows how you died. With you, if someone didn't know your name, they would be hard pressed to guess how you died, wouldn't they? It isn't obvious right from the off. You're much more interesting than any old headless ghost."

Nick smiled widely at her and said, "Thank you, Devyn. Really…thank you."

"You're welcome, Sir Nicholas."

Nick bowed his farewell, his head wobbling dangerously, and floated off in much higher spirits than he had been before. Devyn continued her walk down the staircases when she heard yet another voice from somewhere behind her.

"Hey, Devyn."

Devyn looked around and saw Harry trudging along a few stairs behind her, looking even more downtrodden than Nick had. "What's up with you, Harry?"

"Don't you know? Professor Lupin has resigned. He's leaving," Harry sighed. Devyn paused on the stairs and waited for Harry to catch up with her.

"Oh, yeah…yeah, I knew that."

"You knew? Why didn't you tell us?" Harry asked, arching an eyebrow at her. Devyn shrugged and said, "I got distracted with packing. Sorry."

"S'alright. It happens," Harry said. "I just wish he could stay. He's a really good teacher."

"I know. I want him to stay, too. But he can't. We both know that."

"I know, I know. It's so unfair. Just because he's a werewolf…that doesn't mean he should have to leave."

"Believe me, Harry, I know. But you know, it isn't like you'll never see him again," Devyn told him. Harry nodded and said, "Yeah…just wish he could still be our teacher."

"Yeah…"

"Harry! Wherever did you get it?!" Neville came running up to them as they crossed the threshold of the Great Hall.

"Can I have a go, Harry? After you, of course!" Seamus added, running up behind Neville. They both looked like they had sucked down too many Sugar Quills.

"What are you talking about?" Devyn and Harry said in unison. Neville and Seamus ushered the two of them up a table where Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and a few others were standing around.

"Quiet!" Ron commanded, moving slightly on his crutches. Thankfully, his leg was doing much better. "Let the man through!"

Devyn stayed with Neville off to the side while Harry approached the front of the table. "I-I didn't mean to open it, Harry…it was badly wrapped. They made me do it!" He pointed at Fred and George accusingly.

"Did not!" Fred and George said indignantly. Harry reached out and removed the wrappings, revealing a gorgeous looking broomstick. Devyn didn't know much about brooms, but she knew that this particular model was top of the line.

"It's a Firebolt," Fred told Harry, who was looking completely awestruck.

"It's the fastest broom in the world," George added.

"For me? But who sent it?" Harry asked, bewilderment twisting his features.

"No one knows," Ron replied. Hermione, however, smirked and said, "This came with it." She held up a large feather that looked like it was plucked straight from…from Buckbeak. Of course, it would be Sirius who sent Harry this, Devyn thought. It made perfect sense really.

"Well, are you just going to stand there, staring at it, or are you going to try it out?" Devyn asked Harry. He grinned and grabbed the broom before rushing out of the Great Hall. Neville flung an arm around Devyn's shoulders, which was easy for him, considering he was two inches taller than her, and Devyn wrapped an arm around Neville's waist.

They walked out together and watched happily as Harry climbed on the Firebolt. The broom took off almost instantly, causing Harry to become nothing more than a blur streaking across the bright blue sky. He whooped in glee and Devyn laughed at the sound.

Devyn glanced at Neville, who was watching Harry's lightning fast progress on the Firebolt with a wide grin on his face. She smiled at his happy expression; things were finally peaceful. The school year, Devyn realized with a sigh of relief as she rested her head on Neville's shoulder, had finally come to an end.

She also realized that this year had been even crazier than the previous one. She was almost afraid to think about what next year would bring.

That's a thought for another day, she thought as she watched Harry zoom around the wild blue yonder.

For now, everything was peaceful and she planned on making most of the lull while it lasted.

Well, there you have it! The third installment comes to a close! I honestly cannot believe that this story has made it this far. Thank you so much for all of your support! Hope you liked it!