The Family That Lived

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Lily and Remus were curious about the memory they had acquired but stayed away upon Dumbledore's orders. They had delivered it and seen him place it amongst the various vials on the counter.

"Remus, I must ask you to not return this year", he said in the usual monotoned voice. This took Remus by a surprise, clearly, his mind went to his insecurities about being a werewolf.

Albus noticed that and quickly covered up, "the ministry has sent a letter, they want to send a representative of theirs as the new DADA teacher."

Remus relaxed a little and agreed. He already had a lot on his mind and he did not mind spending time at home with his newly engaged fiancé and assist in running Sirius' pub. He was rarely there and mostly had others working but Remus did not mind the idea of spending a little time in Hogsmeade.

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Almost never had there been changes in faculty during the middle of the year. However, everybody saw a new addition to the teachers sit between Snape.

Dumbledore presented her as the new Defence against Dark Arts teacher. Many heads turned around to whisper at the time, everybody wondering about Remus.

"Professor Lupin will not be joining us this semester as he intends to plan his wedding." While this announcement calmed some down, Hermione, Harry, and the twins were not convinced. None of them were informed of this change.

The headmaster caught Harry's eye and through an exchange of a few glances and unnoticeable nods, the message was conveyed that Harry would learn of this later.

Delores Umbridge, the name itself sounded like venom. The thoughts were confirmed when she interrupted Dumbledore. The disturbance shook everyone, she took a step forward to the podium and covered her evil with the words spoken in a honey-like tone.

Harry tuned it all out, why was a worker from the Ministry here? To spy on him and to look for Draco. He was sure of this. She took her seat soon and everybody proceeded with their dinner.

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Even though Harry knew about the situation with Remus he constantly tried connecting with his family. None of his letters got any reply.

All the letters were sent with a similar spell used for the Marauder's map. If it were to be opened by anyone without saying the incantation of 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good', the letter would insult the intruder.

He had not been seeing Draco and started giving huge gaps between his visits as the terror of Delores Umbridge increased.

He looked down at the scar on his hand 'I must not tell lies'. He had made the mistake of raising his voice against the corruption of the Ministry. He saw her smile all the time as she punished children. It started out with fifth years but recently he had encountered more than a couple of crying first years.

They were sitting in the library, while Draco was a few feet away he could not risk blowing the cover. Hermione was next to him and she covered the written scar with her hand. He looked at her and she gave him a smile.

"Let's take a walk Harry," she said and started making her way outside. She didn't give him a chance to resist nor did he want to.

They held hands and walked around the empty Quidditch field.

"We will get through it, I will be there with you at every step of the way", she said fixating her gaze at the place their hands form their bond.

"I know, I have tried coming up with something, anything I can say to stop you but I know I can't and I won't. Really, if it wasn't for you I would have died in the second year" he said keeping his gaze straight.