Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 45 - Late for Class

"Professor, just one more question about the essay –"

Selene sighed somewhat exasperatedly. "Hermione, it's just me and you here. You can call me Selene. As for the essay, I really don't think there's any more information that I could give you that I haven't already."

The first week of class had come and gone without major event, and Selene finally felt like she'd fallen back into her rhythm at Hogwarts.

This particular morning, she'd come down early to the Great Hall for some breakfast and come across Hermione, who'd stopped her to ask some questions about an essay Selene had assigned. Selene had perched herself on the edge of a seat at the Gryffindor table, while 'some' questions had turned to 'many.' An hour and a half later, Selene was still sitting at the Gryffindor table, Ron and Harry having long since joined them, and Selene had still not eaten breakfast.

"Sorry," Hermione said abashedly, her cheeks reddening. "I'm just trying to stay on top of my work since it's O.W.L. year."

"Hermione, you stay on top of your work any year," Ron said, or at least, Selene guessed that was what he said. His mouth was full of toast.

"But –" Hermione began, but Selene waved a hand.

"Hermione, honestly, I'd give you an O based on the conversation we just had about the essay alone," she said dismissively, "so don't worry about it."

"Okay," Hermione said meekly, reaching over to pick up that day's edition of the Daily Prophet, her eyes scanning through it.

"Anything interesting?" Harry asked.

"Doesn't seem so," Hermione sighed. "Just some guff about the bass player in the Weird Sisters getting married..."

"Good for him," Selene said absently, plucking a scone off of Harry's plate.

"Mum..."  Harry groaned, before reaching to grab himself another one.

"Wait a moment," Hermione said abruptly. "Oh no..."

"What's happened?" Harry said, and he ripped the newspaper out of Hermione's hands frantically, so that it ripped down the middle.

"'The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murder... blah, blah, blah... is currently hiding in London!'" Hermione whispered, reading from her half of the Prophet.

Selene's stomach dropped so that she held onto her chair to steady herself.

"Lucius Malfoy, I'll bet anything," Harry said furiously, leaning his head towards them. "He did recognize Sirius on the platform..."

"On the –" Selene began, her eyes flashing. "I'm sorry, do you mean to say that Sirius escorted you to the train station?"

Despite the fact that Selene was whispering, the trio collectively winced, leaning away from her in a grimace.

Selene gripped the edge of the table so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "What was he thinking?!"

Harry shrugged. "I didn't ask him to, Mum. He insisted."

"And you're just now telling me this?"

"Actually," Ron said, "he told us not to tell you."

"HE WHAT?" Selene screeched, this time unable to control her volume. Students from other tables glanced around, looking for the source of the noise.

Hermione gave Ron a scathing look, as if to say, you complete moron. Ron looked at Selene apologetically.

Selene ignored him. "Does the article say anything else?"