Disclaimer: The fine tapestry of plot and characters belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am merely pulling threads at will and weaving my own design in counterpoint to hers.
Chapter 65
Field Trips
By pressing their ears to the doorjamb, Lupin’s voice could be heard faintly. “”only if you try my patience, Severus. I assure you that if there’s any fallout about how drastic a means my wife employs to subdue you, you won’t be around to care one way or--”
The sudden buzzing in their ears was an indication that a Muffliato charm had been cast from within. Reluctantly, they turned away from the closed door.
“Do you think Professor Lupin is really going to kill Harry?” Neville asked tremulously.
“He was just exaggerating, mate,” Ron reassured him. “Sure seemed angry, though.”
“I don’t think he was even angry anymore,” Hermione offered with aplomb. The incredulous stares she received from the others prompted her to elaborate, “Oh, I don’t deny he was furious with Harry earlier, but that all played itself out in the inner office. You could tell by the way he clasped Harry’s shoulder as they joined us in the main room that they’d already settled things.”
“What do you think they’re doing with Snape?” Neville prodded.
“Interrogating him to within an inch of his life, I hope!” Ron shot back immediately.
“We’ll just have to wait and see.” Hermione shrugged. Then in a conspiratorial tone she added, “I can tell you this, though: thanks to Neville’s restored memories, we have finally found a way for Harry to visit his parents’ house in Godric’s Hollow.”
“Thank you for waiting for me in the corridor, Minerva,” Tonks whispered as she squeezed herself into the dimly lit antechamber. “I was unfamiliar with this area of the castle.”
“Perfectly all right, my dear. Can I interest you in a spot of tea? A snack from the kitchens?” The Headmistress smiled in return.
“Nothing, thank you,” Tonks replied automatically as she struggled to get her bearings. “Begging your pardon, but it’s a rather strange tea party that requires guests to bring potion ingredients as a condition of their admittance. Don’t you think?”
Just wait until you meet the Mad Hatter, Harry thought wryly.
The Headmistress chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it, Tonks. Remus will fill you in.”
“Please, won’t you join our august assemblage?” Snape drawled as he caught sight of Tonks. “I’d offer you my chair, but I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage.” He waved vaguely in the direction of the wands that were currently trained upon him.
“Shall I call for Ginny, Remus?” Harry suggested with a long-suffering look. “She’s the master of hexes that are supremely annoying without causing any long-term damage.”
“Who says we want to be that charitable?” Lupin returned dryly.
“Have you boys still not learned to play nicely together?” Tonks sighed with mock sternness. She surveyed the scene before her: the mugs and discarded plates, Snape lounging indifferently in his chair, the wands both Harry and Lupin had pointed in his direction.
“We’ve been working out a bargain with Severus, dear,” Lupin replied sweetly. “He’s kindly offered us his superior skill with potions.”
“And you made promises to him in return, I take it? Without consulting with the rest of the Order?” Tonks inquired doubtfully.
“Let’s just see how his potion formula works out first,” Lupin stipulated.
“You mean, you want us to brew up a batch now?”
“I find it difficult to get away… from my other duties,” Snape supplied artfully. “Conveniently, I am here now.”
“You’re going to actually trust this man?” Tonks was dumbfounded.
“We have to start somewhere,” Lupin replied casually. “I’m going to have him prepare an antidote as well.”
“And have it all tested rigorously!” Tonks cried.
“Absolutely,” Lupin agreed. “But we can do that at our leisure. I don’t wish to have my blood drawn by the likes of any of you, thank you very much. Despite her supercilious attitude, Poppy Pomfrey is at least proficient at that.”
Of course the patient’s blood would be necessary to test the medication; Harry couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of that before now.
“Truly, I expected no less,” Snape assured them as he started to assemble the necessary tools on his worktable. “I can’t work miracles, though. You will still have to take a month off periodically to allow your metabolism to reset itself, so to speak. There’s no escaping that reality, Lupin.”
“I can accept that restriction,” Lupin acknowledged. With barely contained zeal, he added, “Incidentally, Tonks, if Severus starts to give you any trouble, I assured him that your youthful innocence is just a cover for your deadly skills.”
“Ooooh, you didn’t tell me we’d be playing for prizes!” Tonks crooned back, getting into the spirit. She started to eagerly unpack the ingredients from her satchel.
“Before we proceed any further, though, I need to ask Harry a question,” Lupin remarked as he drew up a nearby chair. He leaned forward as he addressed Harry softly, “Are you sure you want to be a part of this? It’s not too late to walk out now.”
Harry could feel the intensity of Lupin’s eyes as he replied without hesitation, “I’m sure, Remus.” He couldn’t help thinking that Lupin was wrong to suppose he could turn his back; they had each become too involved in each other’s lives for that.
Besides, the floorshow was much too entertaining. He suspected they might not even mind if he joined in himself.
Harry found a grim tableau of faces when he returned to the common room. Even Ginny had been anxiously awaiting his arrival.
“I told you Lupin was bluffing,” Hermione remarked at the look of unabashed relief on Neville’s face.
“Even the Headmistress herself wasn’t so sure,” Ron reminded her pointedly.
“Remus can be very masterful.” Ginny nodded sagely. “You should've seen him when I was late to class. Disembowelment at wand point seemed a distinct possibility!”
He definitely hadn’t felt threatened in that manner, Harry mused, although he had absolutely no doubt that Lupin’s anger had been entirely genuine. In response to their inquisitive looks, he supplied, “We talked things out.”
“There was a tremendous amount of arm waving for a discussion, if you ask me,” Hermione muttered.
“Lupin doesn’t like being confined in small areas,” Harry returned without missing a beat.
“You’re more and more like him every day, mate,” Ron commented with a knowing chuckle.
In less than a minute, Harry re-emerged from his bed chamber with the two-way mirror wrapped securely in the pages of his contact log.
“I promised Lupin I would get this to him,” he explained, turning towards the sconce. “Ginny, would you like to come along? We probably still have enough time for a sunset stroll afterwards.”
Ginny jumped up eagerly. “Aren’t you worried about--” she began to ask as Harry allowed her to catch up to him.
“Not tonight,” he corrected her with confidence.
“I felt I owed you an explanation since I rebuffed you so handily before,” Harry offered the Headmistress.
“Thank you, Harry,” she replied graciously. “But you really haven’t given me many details about Dumbledore’s assignment.”
“I know. I wanted to share those with Professor Lupin first, if you don’t mind. Let him thoroughly enjoy himself by asking all sorts of questions about the minutia. He already has the bare bones version I gave you.”
“You understand him all too well.” She chuckled in return. “Still it seems a terrible waste to have destroyed that textbook. Severus’ notes must have been an invaluable source of information. None of the rest of us can even approach his natural affinity with potions. No, not even Horace -- although I will deny I ever said that,” she added with a wink.
Harry considered for a moment before volunteering, “If you promise not to ruin the surprise for Remus …. I made a copy of the Prince’s book “ notes and all. It’s hidden in the same place as the original one. I was finally able to master the spell that copies entire volumes at once. I recommend confining yourself to those that are not overly thick, though.”
“Very ingenious,” she commended him.
“Might I ask you something about the Fidelius Charm that’s been bothering me? I intended to ask Remus directly…”
“None of us expected the Order to move this quickly,” the Headmistress admitted. “He was whisked away just as soon as his classes were over this morning. I offered to fill in with you.”
“Not meaning to be rude, Headmistress, but aren’t you a member of the Order as well?”
McGonagall smiled indulgently. “I will be there for the general meeting this evening. Many of the other members hold jobs that don’t allow them to meet during the day, either. Remus went early so he could meet privately with Arthur Weasley. Maybe Kingsley Shacklebolt, also; I’m not fully certain.”
Harry nodded in understanding. Admittedly, his heart had skipped a number of beats when he had found McGonagall seated at Lupin’s desk earlier. All sorts of unsavory possibilities streamed unbidden through his mind but her calm manner had finally put his fears to rest. In this instance, it truly was a routine absence.
“Your question?” she reminded him.
“Right. It’s about the charm that was placed on Grimmauld Place. Dumbledore was the Secret-Keeper who gave me the address on a slip of paper. Yet yesterday when we were working with Neville’s memories, Remus was able to speak the street address out loud. I can’t do it; how can he?”
The Headmistress smiled as his perplexed expresssion. “It’s not as much a contradiction as you might suppose; you just don’t have all the facts. As it happens, I cast the charm that originally hid the house as the Headquarters of the Order and established Dumbledore as the Secret-Keeper. After Dumbledore’s demise, however, I was able to uncast the charm and then re-establish it with Remus as the Secret-Keeper. We’d had reports of unauthorized trespass and we needed to do something immediately. It would have been preferable to use you, I know; but you were still with the Dursleys and Remus had just returned from his honeymoon.”
“That makes sense,” Harry replied slowly, feeling that something was still nagging at him. Suddenly, he had it! “Except that Remus swore to me up and down that he couldn’t tell me where the meetings of the Order were currently being held. Claimed unequivocally that he was not the Secret-Keeper.”
“Forgive me for laughing, Harry; Remus was splitting hairs with you. The Order no longer meets at Grimmauld Place. He is the Secret-Keeper for Sirius’ house, but not for the Order’s Headquarters. They are no longer one and the same.”
Harry sighed in resignation as it all finally fell into place. What a ruddy mess! They’d timed their visit to Grimmauld Place just right, too. He shuddered to think where their Horcrux search would have been without the locket that unlocked it all.
“I understand the need for urgency, but did anyone consider what would’ve happened if I’d taken a notion to visit Grimmauld Place on my own? You did initially indicate I would be allowed to leave school grounds at will; surely that must have seemed like a foreseeable circumstance.”
“You’re visualizing yourself being rebuffed at the curb, bounced back from an invisible trampoline, aren’t you?” The Headmistress chuckled at Harry’s determined stare. “Remus made certain he spoke the address aloud to you in the course of your lessons in the early fall; thus empowering you once again directly from the Secret-Keeper.”
“Are you certain?”
“Absolutely. He made a report to me immediately afterwards so I would know you had not been left out in the cold, so to speak.”
“I confess that Remus is often much too subtle for the likes of me,” Harry admitted with a small shake of his head. Not to mention devious, he added inwardly.
“As long as we have a bit of time together, Harry, I wouldn’t mind hearing your verdict on Severus Snape. Guilty, innocent, something in between?”
“Admittedly, it’s something I’ve been struggling with most of the year,” Harry confessed, not sure how to begin.
“Let me warn you that Remus showed me your essay wherein you compared him to Odysseus. At the time, I was actually somewhat concerned that you couldn’t seem to put the man from your mind. Knowing now that the two of you were having regular discussions throws a wholly different light on it.”
“I’m not sure those encounters should be classified as discussions,” Harry protested. “Verbal sparring would be more accurate. My psyche was definitely black and blue after many a session.”
The corners of McGonagall’s mouth twitched as she barely suppressed a smile. “Still you managed to hold your own.”
“Only by insulting him back,” Harry conceded candidly. “There was no taking the high road with him. No matter how determined I was to not let him needle me, he always succeeded in making me lose my temper.”
“Severus doesn’t always approach things like everyone else.”
“No, he doesn’t. But I can’t say his life has been a bed of roses, either. He purposely puts people off and then bemoans the fact that he’s misunderstood.”
“Severus has always reveled in the ironic.”
“Not just that, it’s his circuitous manner. People seem to think he’s avoided their questions, yet he’s given them an honest answer in his own way. It’s just not what they were expecting.”
“What about on the issue of guilt or innocence?” the Headmistress prompted.
“He’s been tested more than most, yet he won’t give himself credit for what he’s rejected,” Harry replied thoughtfully. “If you ask me, he’s spent so much time in the shadows that he no longer sees things in black or white like the rest of us, just varying shades of grey.”
“What do you make of Hermione’s theory about the Patronuses?” she asked.
“At least she’s trying to make a fair assessment. I didn’t need convincing at that point, so her arguments didn’t have as much power to move me.”
“What convinced you? The fact that he assisted with your poisoning or with Remus’ potion?”
“Certainly those were significant issues. But I think what really turned the tide for me was the unwavering anguish he still feels over the death of his first wife. The grief he feels for her is boundless because his love for her was boundless as well…. It’s difficult not to feel compassion for someone like that.”
“It always seemed to me that Severus embraced his sorrow like a fanatic; as if he was determined to hang on to the past to spite the present.”
“There’s certainly a selfish element to it,” Harry agreed. “All I can say is that if anything ever happened to Ginny, I wouldn’t want to end up like him.”
The Headmistress nodded solemnly. When Harry walked out of the office, she knew she could finally proclaim without reservation, “He’s ready.”
The first surprise was that Kingsley Shacklebolt was waiting for them in the Room of Requirement on Wednesday afternoon. The second was that Luna would not be joining them; she had been reassigned to work with Professor Flitwick on the theoretical implications of the Godric’s Hollow Conundrum.
“It’s not that Luna’s not a valuable member of your cadre,” Lupin concurred. “We just have a limited amount of time and, unfortunately, she’s not of age.”
“Neither is Ginny!” Ron interjected.
Lupin flashed an apologetic smile towards Shacklebolt. “That’s true,” Lupin affirmed. “But numerous members of her family are already part of the Order. I had planned for this contingency months ago.”
“You mean I’m going to be allowed to join?” Ginny cried.
“That’s entirely up to you,” Shacklebolt volunteered. “I can tell you, however, that Remus spent a goodly portion of yesterday afternoon obtaining approval from Arthur on your behalf.”
“You spoke with Dad? And he agreed?” Ginny returned with mounting excitement. “What about Mum?”
“I only needed the approval of one parent, Ginny,” Lupin clarified.
“Mum wouldn’t have been so easy to convince,” Ron remarked with authority.
“He did mention that he was on a time constraint,” Hermione interjected, followed by a smattering of laughter.
“You could've contacted Luna’s father,” Neville suggested with newfound boldness.
“Yes, I could have, Neville,” Lupin responded evenly. “But there was a logistical problem with trying to acquaint him with a covert group of which he was not a member. Surely, you follow my train of thought.”
“What about the fact that Mr. Lovegood publishes a tabloid newspaper?” Hermione supplied intuitively. “Would that have been a mitigating factor?”
“Don’t you think it should be?” Lupin replied candidly. “Recall that the Order is a secret society. Makes for great copy: a bit of inspiration for the downtrodden masses who feel the Ministry is not really protecting them as it should.”
“Doesn’t seem fair to Luna,” protested Neville. “I’m sorry, Professor, but that’s the way I feel.”
“Please understand, Neville, that if Luna had been of age, none of this would have been an issue,” Lupin assured him. “She has always acquitted herself most admirably in every respect. As it is, she will be working behind the lines with the Headmistress who, as you well know, is already a member of the Order. It was the best compromise I could find.”
“You make it sound like the rest of us will be marching into danger!” Ron remarked.
Shacklebolt cleared his throat for attention, ignoring Ron’s comment. “There was also a general meeting of the Order last night where the consensus was that the five of you would be allowed to join. It’s not our practice to recruit members who are still at school, regardless of their ages; but circumstances are such that they were willing to make an exception.”
“Why now?” Ron prodded.
“All that will be made clear once the allegiances are pledged, but not before,” Shacklebolt intoned cryptically. “Is everyone with us? Remus reported he had secured promises from Ron, Hermione, Neville and Harry. You should know that those are not binding “ and if you wish to back out now you may still do so… Although, you will have to answer to Remus personally, if you do.”
“Don’t tell them that, please.” Lupin shook his head ruefully. “They’ve already seen me lose my temper with Harry…”
“He’s still alive, isn’t he?” Shacklebolt shot back. “Ginny, where do you stand?”
“Count me in!” she replied without hesitation.
“Anyone else who wants out, needs to speak up now,” Shacklebolt reminded them as he surveyed the rapt faces. “If not, then I’m here to induct you officially into the Secret Order of the Phoenix. Please stand.”
There were smiles, handshakes, and more than a few hugs all around as the allegiance oaths were completed.
“Now to answer your questions, Ron,” Lupin offered. “We are planning an incursion operation to Godric’s Hollow this Saturday, just the five of you, Tonks, Kingsley and myself. It will be structured as a simple school field trip; a cover that we need to maintain as long as possible.”
“The consensus from various sources is that the Potter ruins have been set up as a trap by the Death Eaters. Pettigrew and Bellatrix Lestrange have been seen frequenting the area,” Shacklebolt elaborated. “On Saturday, we intend to spring that trap!”
“With such a small contingent?” Hermione gasped. “No wonder you’re concerned about danger!”
“We will have the ability to call for reinforcements,” Lupin assured them. “That’s one of the reasons a weekday was not selected. It will be easier for Order members to respond if they are not at work when, and if, the call comes. We intend to strike them before they have a chance to call for reinforcements of their own.”
“Sounds like a tricky balance to achieve,” Harry noted.
“I can’t deny there will be an element of danger involved,” Lupin admitted.
“To that end, by Friday afternoon’s reconnaissance meeting, everyone is to prepare a letter to their parents or other loved ones, to be used only in the case of an unforeseen tragedy,” Shacklebolt instructed them. “I don’t expect anyone to die--”
“Nor do I,” Lupin insisted.
“”but it is standard procedure for any operation. You are to be treated no differently than any other Order members in this.”
“Make no mistake about it,” Lupin added with authority. “No letter, no leaving school grounds with us on Saturday, no exceptions. Harry, the Headmistress attests that you already have such a letter on file with Gringotts. It will suffice in this instance unless you wish to add anything else. All of you need to take this operation very seriously.” He locked eyes with each of them in turn. “Any words you want to share among yourselves should be done before Saturday morning. No last minute confessions in the thick of battle, is that understood?”
Invigorated with the promise of a real mêlée, the day’s practice session was particularly hard fought and enthusiastic. Shacklebolt joined forces with Tonks and Lupin as they tried to break through the students’ defensive shield. Professor Flitwick had instructed Ron on the ancient Roman practice of fighting in a square, backs to the center, allowing them to present a united front to their attackers at all times.
Collapsing in a sweaty heap to down the bottles of Butterbeer Tonks supplied, they congratulated each other on a well-fought battle. As Shacklebolt took his leave, he nodded curtly in Lupin’s direction to indicate that he was pleased.
“Join me for dinner tonight, Harry?” Lupin suggested heartily. “I have a few things I’d like to discuss.”
“You do owe me after yesterday’s missed session,” Harry noted with a grin. “I had to make do with the Headmistress.”
“Most people would consider that an upgrade,” Lupin commented dryly.
“Unless they’re a member of the Order!” Harry volleyed in return.
“I see you’re already warming up for ‘Boys Night Out’,” Tonks commented as she excused herself to get cleaned up before joining the Hufflepuffs.
Harry caught Ginny’s eye, but she nodded her head indulgently. “I’ve learned to save some of my class assignments for Wednesday nights,” she whispered as she gave him a quick kiss. “Go and have a good time with Remus!”
“Do you think we could order à la carte tonight?” Harry inquired as he ran his fingers through hair still damp from the shower.
“Sure, if you feel like celebrating,” Lupin replied. “What are you craving?”
“How about a steak?”
“Sounds good. I’ll have them include some of that green peppercorn sauce Tonks likes.” Lupin returned moments later from the private dining room to add, “There might be a bit of a wait.”
“No matter. I have something to entertain you with in the meanwhile. Guaranteed to make the minutes fly past.”
Lupin handed Harry a deep snifter with a half inch of robust amber liquid swimming in the bottom. The aroma was deeply alluring.
“What’s this?” Harry asked.
“Cognac, courtesy of Ted Tonks. It’s not everyday a man is inducted into the Order, you know.” Lupin took a small sip and looked up expectantly. “You mentioned something about entertainment?” he urged.
Harry took a tentative taste and felt the warmth slide down his throat. “Remember the conversation Neville recalled where Wormtail was taunting Bella with the Handmaiden?” If only he had a drum roll, he thought to himself. “I have it on the best authority that the Handmaiden, or ‘Fudge’s Handmaiden’ as she is also called, is none other than Dolores Umbridge!”
“No!” Lupin returned incredulously, then began to chuckle. “Bella jealous of Umbridge? This is just too rich!”
As easily as that, Harry slipped into his long, convoluted tale about the Horcurxes. Lupin was still peppering him with questions when they laid down their forks and pushed away from the dinner table.
“I suppose I can still ask more questions tomorrow.” Lupin sighed with evident disappointment as they returned to the inner office. “Unfortunately, there’s a small excursion of sorts that has priority for us tonight.”
For the first time, Harry noticed the Pensieve that had been set up on one of the side tables. Thank goodness the hearty meal had settled the giddiness in his stomach from the cognac, he thought. “Where are we going tonight?” Harry asked aloud.
“To your first birthday party,” Lupin replied inexplicably. “Now that we’re set to go back to that house on Saturday, I want to see how far we can explore.”
Harry wasn’t sure what Lupin intended, but he was willing to go along for the ride. He had yet to be disappointed.
After the obligatory mid-air flip, they found themselves next to the small table in the kitchen that had been decked out with birthday trappings. Lily was approaching carefully, the lit cake in her hands. Since this was all familiar territory, Lupin motioned Harry to follow him as he turned his back on the celebration.
Past a long worktable lined with knives and other kitchen implements, they found the door that led out into the hallway. Almost immediately a staircase rose narrowly to lead them up to the bedrooms. Lupin mentioned that there was a broader staircase on the far side of the drawing room, but the cellar could only be accessed through the cupboard under the back stairs.
With practiced grace, Lupin led him upstairs in stocking feet. They arrived in a short hallway that ended in two doors. To the left stood the nursery door, with the one on the right leading to his parents’ bedroom. Lupin warned that it was likely this portion of the house had been damaged during Voldemort’s rampage.
“You won’t be able to reach the other wing in which Sirius and I usually stayed directly from these back stairs. I’m not sure we will be able to travel that far away from the main event in a memory, so we’ll leave that for last,” Lupin suggested.
He led Harry out into a walled patio at the back of the house that was also accessible through French doors from the dining room. He pointed out the windows above that corresponded to the nursery and his parents’ room. They weaved their way past an assortment of wrought iron garden furniture to an arched gate in the ivy covered wall. He stood next to Lupin and gazed out among rolling hills, bright green with summer growth. On the far horizon, the steeple of a small church could be distinguished among the lush tree line.
“Is that the village of Godric’s Hollow?” Harry asked in awe. It must have seemed like a fairy tale existence until Voldemort had smashed it all.
“Yes, there’s a clearer view from the end of the front lane, but you have to go all the way down to the caretaker’s cottage before there’s a break in the tree line.”
Back inside, Lupin led him down the main corridor and into a large sitting room. Harry would have liked a closer look at the ancestral portraits lining the walls, but he understood Lupin’s brisk tour was timed to coincide with the length of the memory. The arched windows of the front room opened onto a wide lawn where a discarded croquet game could be seen. Near the front gate, a pair of bicycles leaned against the rustic stone wall. Harry wondered if they had been used to travel back and forth to the village instead of Apparating.
Next to the front sitting room was a tall entrance hall, its floor checkered in black and white tile. Beyond was another room Lupin indicated had once held an old billiard table, but Sirius had appropriated it for his sitting room on the floor above. The portions of the walls Harry could see were covered in bookshelves from floor to ceiling.
“See the French doors at the end of the former billiard room?” Lupin pointed. “Those open onto a circular courtyard with a huge oak at the center. It was very shady and pleasant even in the hottest days of summer; you used to play there often. James was determined to build a tree house in the branches of the oak when you got old enough to climb, although Lily was not so certain they should deface such a venerable old tree.”
“Can we try to reach the other wing where you and Sirius stayed?” Harry urged.
With a curt nod, Lupin tore himself away from his memories and ventured as far as the checkered tile of the entrance hall.
“I’m prevented from moving beyond this point,” Lupin admitted as he waved Harry over.
Harry balanced himself with a hand on Lupin’s shoulder and then leaned over as far as he could. A smaller version of the marble stairs from Hogwarts entrance hall twisted up before him, opening onto a gallery corridor that led in both directions.
“If you follow that corridor to the right,” Lupin indicated, “you’ll be back in your parents’ bedroom. To the left, it leads to where Sirius and I slept. You could also access that wing from the arbored patio, as we liked to call it. There was a beautiful old piano your father liked to play while looking out on the courtyard. It was a lovely place from which to watch the twilight fall in warm weather and wait for the fireflies to dance among the bushes. You had only just started chasing those with your first steps that summer.”
Harry heard Lupin’s voice catch and tightened his grip on the man’s shoulder in silent comfort. Lupin managed a small smile in Harry’s direction as they felt themselves being propelled upward. Like their invisible tether, the memory drew to an end.
“We could go back again if you think there’s more to see,” Harry suggested.
Lupin shook his head silently as he sat down in one of the armchairs. His eyes were squeezed shut and Harry could see the pain etched upon his features. It was only too evident that the brief house tour had taken Lupin back to his paradise lost.
Gradually, Lupin’s features relaxed and he looked up at Harry apologetically. “There’s no need to go back again -- I just wanted you to be able to get your bearings on Saturday. I’m pleased the memory allowed us so much wiggle room. I’m sure everything will appear totally different on the surface, but it helps to see how things once stood.”
Lupin’s voice didn’t sound pleased, Harry noted to himself, it was too full of sadness.
When Harry returned to the common room that evening, he found everyone was still keyed up with excitement from having pledged to the Order. He shared with them the innovative technique Lupin had employed to give him the lay of the land. At Hermione’s insistence, he sketched out the floor plan from memory as best he could.
“That seems odd; the plan seems lopsided somehow,” Ron commented as he turned his head to gaze at it from various angles. “The house wasn’t located on a sharp hill, was it?”
“As far as I could tell, only slightly rolling fields surrounded it,” Harry replied. “Although the village of Godric’s Hollow could be seen atop a rise in the distance.”
Ron shook his head dubiously. “We need to have Ginny look at this; she’ll be able to tell instantly.”
“How’s that, Ron?” Hermione countered. “She’s never said anything about being an expert on architecture.”
“It’s Mum’s most secret vice.” Ron grinned. “She likes to look at the floor plans of fancy houses and dream of our family moving in. Muggle magazines are chock full of them.” He lowered his voice to a mere whisper. “She’s roped Ginny into her obsession often enough, but both of them still think the rest of the family doesn’t suspect.”
Harry couldn’t help but chuckle at how each member of the Weasley clan was fascinated with Muggles in their own unique way. “By all means, let’s recruit Ginny for a brief consultation,” Harry agreed.
“I’ll fetch her, I could use with stretching my legs,” Ron volunteered. “What’s the password, Neville?”
“It’s embêtement,” Neville replied without hesitation and without the need to consult his dictionary.
Minutes later, Ginny was sprawled on the floor while Harry pointed out the various rooms in his diagram. She had him detail the exact route Lupin had taken in his virtual tour.
“Ron’s right,” she announced. “If Sirius and Lupin stayed in a wing to the south, then there would also be a north wing. The area with the kitchen and parlor is generally in the central portion of the house.”
Lupin had not mentioned anything about another wing, but it was likely the memory would not have allowed them that much leeway, Harry mused. Due to the enclosing wall, it would not have been visible from the back patio, either. Harry made a mental note to ask about it next time he had an opportunity, but he did not want to cause Lupin to make a return visit to those poignant memories if possible.
Harry Potter and the Hero's Lament by L A Moody
Chapter Notes: The Headmistress solicits Harry’s honest opinion; everyone jumps at the opportunity to be treated like an adult; Lupin demonstrates a new technique with the Pensieve in preparation for their field trip.