Harmony Not Understood

Story:

Harry, the last to arrive, stepped out of the fireplace and into the clean room that was Phoenix Cottage’s hallway. Already assembled there were Lyca, Lupin and a very lost looking Gabrielle. Lyca gave Harry a grin. He returned it. After they had all stood in an awkward silence for a couple of seconds, Lyca turned to the kitchen door and called. "Mum, the visitors are here!"

"Coming dear..." came the reply. A moment later, a woman who Harry assumed was Lyca’s mother came in. She was also a strawberry blonde, hair hanging jut past her shoulders in the same style as her daughter’s. Quite slim, she had kind brown eyes that were very warming. Harry thought she could only be in her late thirties. It was then that he remembered that Lyca’s mother was a single parent.

"Mum this is...Mum?" Lyca said. However her mother’s attention was elsewhere.

Lupin and the woman were looking directly at one another, as if astounded the other was standing there in front of them. "Remus?" whispered Lyca’s mother in a disbelieving voice.

"Is that really you Saskia?" asked Lupin in a similar tone, "But...I haven’t had any word from you in....18 years!"

Saskia turned to her daughter, "Why didn’t you tell me you worked with Remus Lupin?"

The girl look more than a little confused, "I thought I had. Why? Where do you know each other from?"

"That doesn’t matter," said Lupin quickly. His face was white when he muttered to the woman, "We need to talk."

She nodded, "Lyca, can you and Harry here show Gabrielle to a spare room. And could you set the table at some point, Ron and Hermione will be joining us for dinner tonight." Turning back to Lupin, she ushered the man into an adjoining study, before closing the door behind her.

Lyca stood looking at the way they had exited for a long while, before turning round to face Harry and Gabrielle, who looked even more lost than before. "C’mon," she said to the younger girl, "I’ll show you to your room."

* * * * *

Lupin walked over to the window where the sun was setting. He heard Saskia shut the door quietly. Eyes still on the view outside, he started to speak.

"Am I going mad? Is all this real? You look real, but are you just an illusion that will crumble as soon as I look at you properly. I thought you were dead..."

"Remus, listen."

However, the man still looked at the dying sun, which reflected on his world-weary face with orange flames. He didn’t appear to have heard Saskia speak. "I can still remember that day, 18 years ago. How the front door had been wide open. How though no one was there, everything was still in its place. How there had been no sign of an intruder...no note, you nowhere to be found. What was I supposed to think?"

Saskia put a pleading hand on Lupin’s shoulder. "Remus, I can explain..."

The man finally looked at her, "Saskia, why did you go? Why didn’t you leave a note? It was only a year after Voldemort’s downfall. I thought you’d been kidnapped by Death Eaters. And when there were no responses to the missing person posters or the article in the Daily Prophet...well, it nearly destroyed me. First James dead, then Peter, or so I thought, and then Sirius in Azkaban. You were the only person I had left...and then you were gone too. I very nearly went mad; Dumbledore was my only friend. But you disappearing like that...you couldn’t have hurt me more if you’d tried."

"Remus...I...I’m sorry."

"Won’t you even give me an explanation?"

Saskia shook her head sadly, "I can’t tell you why...I just can’t"

* * * * *

"It is very......’ow do u say......what iz ze word!"

Gabrielle stamped a foot in frustration as she tried to find the word she wanted to describe the room they all now stood in.

"Neat?" Offered Harry, casting an eye over the perfectly made bed and the vase of Heather sitting beside it.

"Small?" offered his younger colleague

"No....ah!" The French girl snapped her fingers in a strange enthusiasm for someone who had just lost all that remained of her family. With an equally strange grin she said. "It is very pretty and it is very kind of you to ‘ave me ‘ere."

Lyca smiled back, "You’re welcome Gabrielle. Listen, I expect you want some time on your own now, so we’ll go. Just give me a yell if you need anything ok?" With that, both Harry and Lyca left the room, leaving the part veela to her thoughts.

* * * * *

Sitting down on the sofa next to Saskia, Lupin looked into the woman’s eyes. "Did you stop loving me? Is that the reason?"

The woman shook her head. "No."

"Was it because of...you know...what I am..."

Saskia’s face filled with horror. "Honestly! What do you take me for?! I went out with you for two years" Two years of transformations, and did I complain once?! No! Because I look beneath the surface!"

Lupin shifted uncomfortably. "If it wasn’t either of those, what was it?"

The woman shook her head sadly, "I can’t tell you Remus, you just wouldn’t understand. I wasn’t really your fault.....it was an accident..."

Lupin opened his mouth to speak, but the strawberry blonde put a finger to his lips. "Remus, I know you are confused, and for that I’m sorry. If I thought I would gain anything from telling you, I would, but......just trust me on this one. In regards to my feelings, I still love you, and always have."

She took a deep breath, "So, all that remains to be asked is.....will you still have me?"

* * * * *

Lyca slammed down the last fork with annoyance. "Why are they taking so long in there?" she asked with hands on hips.

Straightening to fork, Harry looked at the girl calmly, more than used to her little tantrums. "I honestly have no idea." He looked at his watch, before returning his gaze to her. "Listen, its only just gone six, and the others wont be here till seven at the earliest. How about you show me around your grounds? You’ve told me all about your lake, and I’m aching to see them. So, how about it?"

Lyca let a grin flicker across her face. "That’s a great idea. Come on then." With that, she pulled on her cloak, and half dragged Harry out of the kitchen door.

* * * * *

Lupin stared at Lyca’s mother in an awkward silence before he could clear his head enough to really understand what the woman had said. Finally, he took hold of Sashia’s hands in his own and started to speak in a slow and gentle voice.

"Saskia, I have loved you from the day I met you. When you went for a date with Sirius in 6^th year, I wouldn’t speak to him for a week afterwards. But...I have never loved anyone since you. No one." He gave her a little smile. "So it’s really a question of whether you can put up with a man who is.....not very approachable at certain times of the month."

Saskia gave him a mischievous grin uncannily like her daughter’s, "Oh, I’m sure I can put up with it. Must be that animal magnetism."

Laughing, Lupin pulled the woman closer and kissed her, overcoming the inner feeling telling him he was doing the wrong thing in not pressing the matter of Saskia’s disappearance. After all, he had her back. What did it matter...

* * * * *

Lyca and Harry sat in silence by the glass-like lake. The unusually early sunset made the perfectly still water reflect the pinks, light blues, yellows and oranges visible in the sky above. The quarter moon shone quietly amongst the peaceful mix of colours. As the watched, the night’s first star appeared.

Harry smiled, "Aren’t you going to make a wish Lyca?"

The girl grinned, "Maybe."

"Well? What is it?"

"Now that would be telling." Lyca replied with firmness.

Harry put on a mock pout and folded his arms in a pretend sulk. "Spoilsport." He said jokily

Lyca smiled again and leant on his shoulder, "I wish we could find out who this murderer is. It’s sick what’s happening. Any leads yet? Possible motives?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Not a bit of real evidence, and no motives. We just cant find links, and if we dont find things soon there are going to be more murders." He sighed and put an arm round her shoulders. "At least we can enjoy this together."

Lyca looked up, eyes and mouth smiling even more. "Something I am eternally grateful for."

Looking down into the girl’s golden eyes, Harry felt a feeling of warmth stir in his gut. Slowly, he bent his head down towards Lyca’s. When his lips were scant inches away from hers, he pulled back. She frowned at him. "Why d’you pull back? Harry Potter, I am not here to be messed around. If you are going to kiss me, for god sakes do!"

Harry grinned, and for once in his life, did what he was told.

* * * * *

Looking at the picture of the young pair kissing in a crystal ball, the killer sneered. So Potter and Lupin had found love. How.... amusing. Take their minds of the carefully concealed trail they had been trying to follow.

Placing the now clouded globe back on the ebony desk, the figure turned to a calendar. On it was written a large amount of Quidditch fixtures, both domestic and abroad. Picking up a quill, the person smiled as then slowly drew a circle round one match taking place in a week’s time.

Pride Of Portree Vs. Wigtown Wanderers