Hurt | Remus Lupin

~64~ Christmas Eve

Remus and I spent our days at the Burrow with Bill and Fleur, and sometimes Fred and George when they weren't at work. Harry and Ron were usually together stuck up in the attic. Soon, Christmas Eve arrived and we were all sitting in the Living Rom after dinner. Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion.

We were all listening to a Christmas Broadcast by Mrs. Weasley's favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, who I was trying not to fall asleep too. I always found her dull. Apparently, Fleur found her dull as well because she kept talking very loudly, which resulted in Mrs. Weasley making the stereo louder too. Fred and George started a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny. Ron kept shooting Bill and Fleur covert looks, as though hoping to pick up tips and I rolled my eyes at him. Tonks and Ollie were curled together, watching the twins and Ginny play their game, while Remus was staring into the fireplace. He tended to do that a lot. I was curled up next to him, with my head on his shoulder, and my shoes very slightly over his legs,  and one of his hands on my knees, absent mindedly drawing circles. 

"We danced to this when we were eighteen!" said Mrs. Weasley, wiping her eyes on her knitting, listening to the song. "Do you remember, Arthur?"

"Mphf?" said Mr. Weasley, who was sitting on the sofa across from us and whose head had been nodding over the satsuma he was peeling. "Oh yes ...marvellous tune ...

With an effort he sat up a little straighter and looked round at Harry, who was sitting next to him. "Sorry about this," he said, jerking his head towards the wireless as Celestina broke into the chorus. "Be over soon."

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"No problem," said Harry, grinning. "Has it been busy at the Ministry?"

"Very." said Mr. Weasley. "I wouldn't mind if we were getting anywhere, but of the three arrests we've made in the last couple of months, I doubt that one of them is a genuine Death Eater – only don't repeat that, Harry," he added quickly, looking much more awake all of a sudden.

Harry stayed silent for a few moments. "Mr. Weasley, you know what I told you at the station when we were setting off for school?"

"I checked, Harry," said Mr. Weasley at once. "I went and searched the Malfoys' house. There was nothing, either broken or whole, that shouldn't have been there."

I turned my head fully towards them.

"Yeah, I know, I saw in the Prophet that you'd looked ... but this is something different ... well, something more ..." said Harry.

Remus, now out of his daze, turned a little towards Harry and Mr. Weasley too while Harry launched into his story again about what he heard between Snape and Malfoy.

"Has it occurred to you, Harry," said Mr. Weasley, "that Snape was simply pretending –"

"Pretending to offer help, so that he could find out what Malfoy's up to?" said Harry quickly. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that. Sara said so too. But how do we know?"

 "It isn't our business to know," said Remus. He had turned his back on the fire now, and faced Harry across Mr. Weasley, shifting me slightly so that now my legs were fully over his lap now.  "It's Dumbledore's business. Dumbledore trusts Severus, and that ought to be good enough for all of us."

"But," said Harry, "just say – just say Dumbledore's wrong about Snape –"

"People have said it, many times. It comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore's judgement. I do; therefore, I trust Severus."

"But Dumbledore can make mistakes," argued Harry. "He says it himself. And you –" He looked Remus straight in the eye."– do you honestly like Snape?"