however I can.'
Ron said, flatly, 'You can't do him any good if he won't let you.'
Hermione looked at him. 'Why,' she whispered, 'do things have to get this bad before we can talk like this? You never said any of these things..'
'Yes, I did,' Ron said. 'Just…not, apparently, to you.'
She stared at him, a question blossoming in her mind. 'How did I never know,' she whispered. 'How did you never say anything to me, anything that would have given you away…'
Ron looked at her out of haunted eyes. 'You…there was a spell…' he began, but the door opened then, interrupting him, and Ginny came in.
She had her dark brown cloak pulled around her, and her cheeks were red with cold.
'The carriage is here to take you down to the station,' she said softly. 'We have to go.'
'Are you leaving as well, Ginny?' Hermione asked, not taking her eyes off Ron.
'No,' Ginny said. 'I'm going to stay.'
'Okay,' said Hermione slowly, ''Okay,' and then, looking at Ron, she said, 'And you're really going to go?'
'I have to go, he replied, not looking at her. 'I have to,' and he looked so miserable that she took a step forward towards him — it was her instinct to put her arms around him, but he stepped away from her violently, almost knocking into his sister. 'I can't,' he said. 'I look at you — I see her.'
'Ron,' Hermione said miserably, but Ginny had already taken her brother's arm shaking her head. She cast a desperate look at Hermione, who blanched and stepped back. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor, and waited until she heard the sound of the door clicking shut before she raised her eyes.
They were gone.
He had sworn not to do this unless it was an emergency, but he had begun to think that all this was exactly that. Sitting at his desk, Lupin reached with a sigh for the brass-bound box that sat on the left side of his desk, and drew it towards him. He opened it, and took out a parchment, which he unrolled across the desk blotter.
He remembered Sirius asking him to make a new map, at the beginning of term, handing him the last of the Zonko's Reality Pencils. He'd demurred -
it was hardly something a Hogwarts professor wanted to have discovered stashed in his office. But Sirius was very persuasive when he wanted to be.
'Just make a rudimentary map,' he'd said. 'One that shows the boys, at least.'
And so it did: as Lupin's eyes scanned the parchment, he saw the two blue dots that were Draco and Harry — Harry seemed to be sitting in Gryffindor Tower, and Draco was making his way up from the Slytherin dungeon.
Lupin sat and watched the progress of the second blue dot, his mind awhirl with confused thoughts, until it drew near enough to the corridor where his office was. Then he got to his feet, and went to the door, slipping the map into his breast pocket.
The hallway was empty, and for a moment Lupin almost rechecked the map. Then Draco came around the corner up ahead. He was walking with his hands in the pockets of his black trousers, his silver head bent, but he seemed to sense Lupin's presence, and glanced up as he rounded the corner. 'Hey,' he said, slowing down slightly, 'Professor Lupin. Hi.'
'Hello, Draco,' Lupin said. 'Have you got a moment to talk to me?'
Draco glanced down at the silver watch clamped around his slender wrist.
Lupin spared a moment towards wishing that the Malfoys weren't biased quite so heavily towards that particular metal. 'I'm meant to be meeting Harry and Ginny…'
'This,' said Lupin firmly, 'is important.'
Draco lowered his arm and shrugged. It was an elegant shrug. Everything he did was elegant. Sirius, at his age, had had much the same panthery grace. 'All right.'
Lupin ducked back into his office, and Draco followed, shutting the door behind them without being asked. He leaned against the door, and looked at Lupin with wide-eyed, put-on innocence. In the faint winter light, his eyes were bluish, like the shadows under them. 'What is it, Professor?'
'The wedding,' Lupin said, feeling it wise to start off with something safe.
'It's in less than a week, and since everything has been… chaotic, I wanted to make sure you have everything you need — '
'Harry and I had our clothes tailored months ago,' said Draco coolly.
'And sent to the Manor. We're fine.'
'And Harry, he is — '
'Just say what you want to say, Professor,' said Draco, rubbing the back of a hand across his tired eyes. The scar across his palm flashed once: brightly, vividly silver. 'I know you know. Harry told me. You're worried about him.'
'I'm worried about you.'
Draco looked momentarily surprised. 'Me? Why be worried about me?'
'Because you're obviously not doing well,' Lupin said bluntly. 'You lost that Quidditch match, your marks are down in your classes, you seem distracted and upset, you've not written your mother in over a month…'
'I also forgot to send my grandmother a toffee cake for her birthday,'
Draco supplied helpfully.
'And you look…'
Draco's eyes narrowed. 'I look what?'
'Bad,' Lupin said, and Draco immediately looked so offended that he was almost amused. 'Ill, I should say,' he amended himself gently. 'You're pale, you've lost weight again…'
'It's winter and I haven't been hungry,' Draco said. Lupin just looked at him: at the very thick fair hair that wanted cutting (and it wasn't like Draco to neglect his hair); Draco had always been slender, but now he looked thin. More than that, there was a translucence to him, a faint sort of silvery light that seemed to be shining through his eyes and skin. It was alarming. 'How much does Sirius know?' he demanded abruptly.
'I have told him nothing that Harry asked me not to tell him,' Lupin said heavily, 'although I wish it were otherwise, as I believe he could be a great help to Harry.'
'Mmm,' said Draco, noncommittally.
'I should also add that I was quite concerned about your altercation with Mister Finnigan at the museum,' Lupin added. 'It makes me wonder exactly what your motivation could have been. It is not like you to resort to fist fighting. I can only imagine you were trying to create some sort of distraction. But from what?'
Draco looked at his watch. 'I ought to go. I…'
'I know. You're meeting Harry.'
Draco smiled a sideways smile. 'Hermione agreed to talk to him. I'm meant to lend moral support.'
'Won't that confuse the other Gryffindors?' Lupin asked, somewhat amused.
Draco lifted one shoulder and let it fall. 'Harry doesn't seem to care about that much anymore,' he said thoughtfully. 'And since I'm persona non grata with the Slytherins…'
'Are you? Why?'
'The facade's pretty cracked at this point,' Draco said. 'Harry and I are friends. People know it. Word gets around. The Slytherins won't tolerate that. I don't blame them, really. And when I break it off with Blaise, that'll be the nail in the coffin.'
'You're breaking it off with Blaise?' Lupin asked in surprise.
Draco nodded. 'As soon as I can find her.'
'Is this because she was fooling around with Malcolm behind your back?'
Draco looked aggrieved. 'Does everyone know about that except me?'
Lupin shrugged regretfully. 'Sorry,' he said. 'And I'm sorry about the Slytherins as well.'
'Yeah,' Draco said. 'Right now, it just doesn't seem all that pressing.'
