Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 53 - Kids Will Talk

Harry was very quiet on the way home. No matter what Selene tried, she couldn't get him to talk to her. She brought up Quidditch, she asked questions about Muggles, and she even made a few of the ugliest comments about Snape that she could think of. Nothing could get him to laugh, or even talk. He would barely even look in her direction.

"Harry, are you sure you don't feel sick or something?" she finally asked, looking at him worriedly. Molly had asked him the same question several times before, and he gave Selene the same answer that he'd given the Weasley matriarch.

"I'm fine, Mum," Harry said quietly.

Selene nodded reluctantly, sitting back in her seat, as the train continued to hurtle along its dark tunnel.

When they'd gotten back to Grimmauld Place, Molly suggested that he go to bed and try to sleep for a few hours before dinner, which Harry did without a word. Selene watched him disappear up the stairs, her lips pressed together anxiously.

"What's wrong with him?"

Remus appeared behind her, looking up the stairs worriedly.

"I don't know," Selene said quietly. "You noticed how quiet he was when we left Arthur... You don't think he heard us talking, do you?"

"How could he have?" Remus asked, though he looked uneasy. "We were whispering the entire time, and the kids were all the way out in the corridor."

Selene sighed. "I don't know. I'm not exactly sure how to help... He's been so – so moody – all year... is this what parenting a teenager is like?"

Remus gave her a faint smile. "I don't know, it might be a Harry Potter-exclusive."

Selene groaned.

"What's wrong?"

Sirius had appeared at the end of the hall, looking at them concernedly.

"Harry's upset," Remus said, "and Selene doesn't know why."

"Ah, well, after the day he's had, who can blame him?" Sirius said, though his expression was doubtful. He looked between Selene and Remus. "How's Arthur?"

"Positively cheery," Selene said, tearing her eyes away from the stairs. "You'd never believe that he'd just been bitten by a giant, poisonous snake."

Sirius grinned. "I'm glad to hear it. Wish I could've come too." His face fell slightly at that, but the dark look in his eyes disappeared as quickly as it had come. "So, what's up with the two of you?"

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Selene asked suspiciously.

Sirius shrugged. "You tell me... the two of you seem very... buddy-buddy all of the sudden... almost as if –"

"Sirius –" Remus started warningly.

"– as if you've got something going on you're not telling me about," Sirius said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"There's nothing going on," Remus said in a hard voice.

"Right," Selene said, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "Nothing at all."

"Nothing, at least, that is any of your business, Sirius," Remus added, a faint smirk on his face. Then, as if Selene wasn't surprised enough, he winked at her. Then, he walked away, heading down the stairs in the direction of the basement kitchen, presumably to help with dinner.

"Did he – was that –" Selene stammered in disbelief. "I don't –"

Sirius' jaw had dropped, and he was staring wide-eyed at Selene. "You didn't tell me that you and Moony were –"