No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 33

The two witches sat outside a coffee shop, both sipping tea and watching the people go by.

"Wasn't Sirius supposed to be the Secret Keeper?" Arlene asked "That would mean he really was the spy."

"The only people that knew were Sirius and the Potters," Paloma agreed "but we never got to hear Sirius' side."

Paloma paused and took a bite from her scone "I don't know, Arlene, maybe this is just me trying to make sense of Sirius being a Death Eater. If he was, why didn't Orion Black rewrite him in his will? Why write him out at all if he was a spy all along?"

She sighed and leaned back on her chair.

Arlene didn't ask more questions, it appeared her mum didn't have as much answers as she would've liked, only speculation.

Her mother didn't appear to want to talk anymore, either "Who are those?"

She looked in the direction her mother was pointing at and rolled her eyes "That's Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy, they're probably going to hex each other right now, I would suggest watching, it's very entertaining."

They were two far to hear what they were saying, they weren't two far, however, to see mud rise and hurl itself at Draco.

Arlene chocked on her tea "Wha-" she coughed a few times before breathing again "I heard the shack was haunted."

"Oh that's not true," Paloma said dismissively "One of our classmates was a werewolf and used to spend his full moons here, Dumbledore told the ghosts and teachers to spread rumours that this place is haunted so that nobody would wonder about the strange noises."

Arlene stared at her mum "Then what the was that mud-"

She didn't finish the question, because at that moment, Harry Potter's head appeared, floating in mid-air as he laughed.

"I see the Potter genes are still as strong as ever." Paloma said, shaking her head with amusement.

Her mother dropped a galleon and a handful of knuts then stood up "Let's go."

They started walking back to the castle, Paloma waving and stopping to greet some of the shop patrons as they went on.

"So," her mother said once they were outside the village and crossing the train tracks "how was the new term?"

Arlene shrugged "Studies are fine, I guess. I'm closer to Hermione now, which is cool, and oh! Sage is saying that I'm becoming part of Pansy's gang now, which I am totally not, I don't think Draco is a blond slug anymore, which is kinds weird-"

She was interrupted by her mother's laugher.

"Arlene, sweetie." She told her "People who are not friends with a person, don't spend time convincing themselves that they are not friends with a person."

"We are not friends." Arlene protested again.

"Sure." Paloma said, mimicking Sage's 'I am not convinced' tone of earlier.

"I'm not!"

"Not what?" a voice interrupted their mini argument, Remus Lupin stood at the open bridge between the two towers that Arlene and Paloma had just taken a turn to cross.

"Friends with Malfoy." Paloma replied "Hello Remus."

Lupin gave his student a look "Sure."

"Oh come on!"

Paloma burst into laughter again.

"Hello Paloma." Lupin returned the greeting politely.

"You know each other?" Arlene questioned in confusion.