Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗

Chapter one hundred eleven; Solving the mystery

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A.C., A.C., A.C., ...

Jasmine closed her eyes and let out the longest breath through her nose. Her eyes were tired, her back felt stiff from the way she kept on lying on the ground, yet her thoughts kept constantly revolving around one and the same thing. That discovery in the Defence classroom did not leave her mind nor did it leave any of her friends' minds as well. They devoted every second they had to get to the bottom of the question of why Smirnitsky was in the possession of the black and white photo of the family.

Soft yellow light was shining on the middle of the Marauders' dorm floor that was littered with books and papers and circled by the whole group. A few had their wands shining as well due to the poor light the room was offering as they went through the things they gathered on the Smirnitsky matter. They were like a club of misfits trying to solve a mystery together.

''Is she asleep?'' Sirius motioned towards Jasmine, who still had her eyes closed and was lying flat on the floor.

Remus looked over at her with a small frown. ''No, just tired.'' Then he nudged her lightly and called her name so she opened her eyes again.

''Okay, why don't we go over what we know, again,'' Lily suggested clapping her hands once.

''We've done this already. I don't want to listen to it anymore.'' Jasmine sat up with a groan and slightly leaned her weight on Remus beside her.

''But maybe this time something will click. We can't give up now.'' Robyn tried from her spot on one of the beds. The whole group turned their heads towards Jasmine and watched her silently. When the only reaction she could give was a shrug of her shoulders, they continued with what Lily suggested.

''Something felt off from the very beginning,'' Lily started. ''He's an unusual professor to be hired for a job like this. He's like three decades younger than every other professor, even though he's still qualified as we have learned from being taught by him. Then he reveals he's from Russia but has a very distinct British accent and he can read and write in Cyrillic.''

''He always wears black. Now the theory of a Death Eater doesn't sound so crazy, does it?'' asked James.

''I think he wouldn't be so nice to us if he really was a Death Eater. But that could also be a part of his manipulation.'' Remus added.

''Okay, let's get past the whole Dark Lord thing. I think Smirnitsky's is too smart to wait out on some plan that he surely must have had if he was one of his followers. Just think of it, there must have been a ton of opportunities to attack or cause chaos since September, yet nothing has happened. And not to mention, he's giving a particularly hard time to Rosier, Avery and Snape, who we know work for the Dark Lord. I think he would have favoured them if he was a part of their team.'' Robyn was speaking pure sense.

''Let's not forget, we still don't know who the fourth Death Eater is in Hogwarts,'' added Sirius. A brief eerie silence fell on the group at the thought of that.

''Okay, if we rule Smirnitsky out, what about the things we found? What about the picture?'' Peter asked, placing it in the middle of the circle they were sitting in.

''This is very clearly Jasmine's lost family.''

''James!'' Lily protested, slapping his arm for good measure.

He only sent her an incredulous look. Jasmine didn't react to it, even though Lily thought it will bother her. She heard the theory before, she even thought about it and it didn't settle in well.