Кассандра Клэр - Draco Veritas

"Sure."

He reached to take her hand as they walked down the corridor, and this time she let him.

"You're sure he'll be all right?"

"I'm sure." Lupin tried to make his voice as soothing as possible — Sirius was looking extremely anxious. Lupin was sure that some of the heat radiating out from the fire through which he they were conversing was Sirius' anxiety, and not the flames. "He's already fine. Perfectly fine. Just worn out and his shoulder has to heal."

"And you're sure we shouldn't come to school?" There were dark lines of strain around Sirius' eyes. He looked tired, and uncomfortable — he was wearing Muggle clothes, at least from the shoulders up (which was all that was visible in the office fireplace): a white shirt and an unknotted dark tie. Lupin had asked him what he'd been doing but had been brushed off with the response, "Auror business. Dull stuff."

"I'm sure, Sirius. There's no need. Draco is fine and if you come here, it'll just panic him and all his friends, make them think something serious is going on — "

"Something serious? He could have died!"

"Right, I know. But so could we, dozens of times. How many times did you land in the hospital wing?"

"Because we were being stupid. If it was Harry — but Draco, he doesn't do reckless things. He's too careful for that. Whatever happened, he wasn't expecting it."

Lupin sighed, and leaned back against the legs of the chair he'd pulled up to the fireplace. "It was a puncture wound, a regular puncture wound -

possibly a knife wound, or an arrow. Whatever it was had been pulled out.

There are plenty of spells that could accomplish that effect. It could have been a duel gone wrong…or even a spell Draco was trying to cast himself could have backfired. We just don't know."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"If it's any consolation, Draco himself doesn't seem very worried."

"No. It's no consolation." Sirius raked a hand through his black hair — no gray yet, although Lupin had a feeling that if Harry and Draco kept up their near-brushes with death, that would change. "You're sure we shouldn't come?"

"Dumbledore specifically said no." Lupin hesitated. "How's Narcissa?"

Sirius' eyes darkened. "Not very well. She's lying down — she had to take half a philter of Tranquility Solution."

Lupin sighed. "I'm sorry. It'd be harder for her, wouldn't it? I mean, you must remember that time you dueled with Snape?"

Sirius chuckled.

"He threw that curse at you that practically took your arm off."

Sirius looked rebellious. "I was about to win that duel before you interfered."

"Sirius! Your hand fell off!"

"Madam Pomfrey put it back on," Sirius pointed out cheerfully. "James was always a better second than you. He never got in the way." His eyebrows knitted. "Which makes me think…maybe you should ask Snape if it looks like some kind of Hex wound?"

"Already have done," said Lupin. "He's looking into it."

Sirius expelled a breath. "And Draco doesn't seem… panicked at all?"

"No." Lupin shook his head. "Harry seems to be taking care of that angle for him."

Instead of smiling, Sirius' mouth tightened. "Harry. Is he not taking all this well?"

Lupin shook his head. "No. He threw a tantrum. Accused me of hiding things from him, not telling him what was happening — basically, of lying."

Sirius swore quietly.

"You aren't surprised?"

"No," said Sirius ruefully. "I tried to have a talk with him the other day, because I was worried. He seems so thin and pale these days. I thought…maybe problems with Hermione? Maybe he was anxious about the wedding, thought I wouldn't be around as much for him afterward?

But he just shut me out. Accused me of being a liar as well, by the way."

"Sirius…has something happened to him lately to damage his trust?

Because that's how it seems to me. As if he wants to trust, is afraid to, and is resentful as a result. On top of that, he seems to be feeling — " and Lupin was about to add "abandoned", when there was a knock at his office door.

He got to his feet and went to open it, keeping his body between himself and the fireplace, blocking Sirius from whoever might be at the door. To his surprise, it was Harry.

"Hello, Professor Lupin," he said. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Lupin looked at the boy on the threshold. Sirius had been right. Harry did look thinner, and paler, and more tired than he had before. The shadows under his eyes seemed bruised. It was odd, but as Harry grew older, and especially when he seemed tired or troubled, his resemblance to his father faded slowly and in his face Lupin could once again see Lily. She also had not been beautiful in a conventional sense of the term, but there had been a bravery and grace to her spirit that made her always worth looking at.

Harry had that as well, along with the emerald-green eyes that had once prompted a particularly nasty Daily Prophet reporter to remark that "those eyes, hidden behind the famous old-fashioned spectacles, are the one beauty of an otherwise unremarkable face."

"Professor," said Harry politely. "Can I come in?"

"You should know I'm not alone," Lupin replied, but Harry had already looked past him and seen Sirius in the fireplace. His hands tightened at his sides, but he evinced no other expression of nervousness.

"Sirius," Harry said quietly. "Are you all right?"

Sirius nodded. "Fine, Harry." His eyes went to Lupin. "Could you give us a moment?"

Without even thinking about it, Lupin nodded and went out of the room, closing the door after him. Only then did he realize that he had just shut himself out of his office while shutting a student in. This was not generally considered good practice. Still, Sirius was there to keep an eye on Harry.

He leaned back against the wall and sighed. The look on Sirius' face when Harry had appeared at the door…Lupin had recognized that potent cocktail of hope, love, pride, concern and fear. Certainly it was the way his own father had looked at him when the letter of acceptance had come from Hogwarts. He remembered hearing his parents' voices through the bedroom wall that night…He can't go, he's so small for his age, and what will the other students do, how will they treat him? What if he gets hurt or hurts somebody else? But how can we keep him back — can't he have a normal life?

If there was one thing Lupin had learned since then it was that there was no such thing as a normal life, not for some people. Not for himself. And not for Harry. He had been branded by the bite of a wolf; Harry was branded by something much graver and much darker. It showed itself now in his eyes and the knowledge in them, as much as in the scar on his forehead.

The office door opened, and Harry looked around it. "Come back in, Professor," he said. He wasn't smiling exactly, but he seemed relieved, as if a burden on him had been lightened. Lupin presumed that he and Sirius must have made up their fight. "Sorry I kicked you out of your office."

Lupin followed Harry back into the office and bid goodbye to Sirius, who was also looking a deal more cheerful. "Right then, Sirius…owl me tomorrow."

"Will do," said Sirius, and disappeared in a shower of blue-green sparks.

Lupin turned to look at Harry. "What was it you wanted to see me about, then?"

"Oh." Harry considered a moment. "It was about the DADA homework, actually."

Lupin, despite himself, was surprised. Usually when Harry wound up in his or any other teacher's office, it had little to do with homework and more to do with life-threatening emergencies. "What about it, Harry?"

"Well, I know we were supposed to have chosen at least our first assignment today.."

"Obviously, I understand if you and Draco need some time to get that to me. A week's extension would — "