The Ravishing Thrall

Chapter Five: Trouble in Paradise

"Harry," whispered Hermione, "I don't think we should stay here."

Harry looked puzzled. "Yeah?" he asked. "What's up?"

Hermione just shook her head, and shot an appealing look at Lupin. He had his eyes on the door, the corners of his mouth turned down in a distant, concerned sort of frown. "I think Hermione may be right," he said, unexpectedly backing her up. "I don't believe in grasping at shadows, but I don't think it would be wise for us to stay here at the moment. It's very likely that someone might have seen us here together, and even if they haven't recognized me, I'm afraid that Harry is unmistakable."

"Don't I know it," muttered Harry. Hermione squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. It wasn't his fault that he was the savior of the known world. Well, actually, it was very much his fault, but she didn't think that was anything to be ashamed of.

Lupin strode to the door, opening it a crack to peer outside. Hermione craned her neck to try and catch a glimpse of the hallway over his shoulder, but he slid the door shut again before she'd had a chance. "Very good," he said. "All clear. Let's go now, shall we?"
"Wait," Harry was insisting, as Lupin pulled the door open and began to walk briskly through the main lobby towards the parking lot. "I don't understand. Five minutes ago you said that you didn't think you'd be going anywhere. What gives?" He quickened his pace to keep up with them as Hermione followed Lupin out of the building at a very fast walk.

Lupin didn't say anything in response until they were out on the sidewalk, watching a few straggling cars pull away into the darkened street. Hermione almost bumped into him as she emerged from the building, with Harry, still sputtering in some confusion, close behind her.

"We'll go back to my place," Hermione was saying. Harry nodded, and slipped his wand from his pocket. Even as he raised it, and opened his lips to begin an incantation, Hermione grabbed his wand hand and forced it back down towards his pocket again, hissing through her teeth at him as she did so. "Don't, Harry! If we're being followed, we don't want to be seen with our wands waving around."

Lupin shook his head. "Doesn't matter," he said, "if we're being followed, then we've already been seen. Best to get out of here as fast as we can." Glancing around, he added, "there's no one here anyway. No one's going to see us."

Hermione wasn't sure, but Harry and Lupin had clearly made the decision for her. Pursing her lips, she grabbed on to Lupin's arm. "We'll meet you there, Harry," she said, raising her own wand with her free hand. Harry nodded, and, with the same popping noise that she'd heard that morning in her bedroom, he had disappeared. Hermione took a nervous, furtive glance at each of the parked cars before lifting her wand, focusing hard, and whispering, "2051 Beulah Street!" She tightened her hold on Lupin's arm as they disapparated.

***

Harry was seated at the kitchen table when they arrived, the dirty plate that had contained his eggs having started to attract flies in front of him. Hermione released Lupin, and drew a chair out for him, even as she muttered "lavendium," and waved her wand at the offending dish. The plate disappeared.

"Will someone please explain," Harry began, "what exactly we're doing?"

Hermione gave him an exasperated look. "Don't be stupid, Harry," she shot, and then sighed, smiling to try and take some of the sting out of her words. "Honestly. You heard the knock on the dressing room door when we were back there. Whoever it was who knocked only needed to hear Lupin's voice to know what he needed to know, and then he was off. I didn't feel like we should take any chances, after that."

"Could have just as easily been a wrong room number, like I said," Harry insisted, Lupin shook his head. He gave Hermione's small but decently tidy kitchen a cursory, somewhat surprised glance. Before he had a chance to voice whatever his opinion was on that matter, however, they heard footsteps on the stairs.

Ginny Weasley was taking the stairs two at a time, as she rushed headlong down towards where Harry sat. He went rigid upon seeing her, and his knuckles turned white as he clenched his hand on the edge of the table. Hermione stepped forward, worried that some sort of row might break out, but Harry waved her back with one hand, still looking at Ginny.

"Harry!" Ginny was calling, her faced suffused with what Hermione judged to be relief. "I'm so glad I've found you! I came home, and there wasn't anybody there. I didn't have any idea where you'd gone!"

"It's not unusual for me to go out alone," Harry was saying, somewhat coldly. "Why would you be so anxious to know where I was?"

"Well, because I..." She trailed off, glancing between Harry's closed face, and Hermione's averted eyes. "I suppose it wasn't rational, really. Just a woman's silly concerns." She grinned, shrugging, but Harry didn't return the smile.

"I thought you'd told me," he said, "that you had been planning to spend the night at Hermione's last night. Isn't that what you told me?"

"Oh!" Ginny's grin broadened, but Hermione could see her washing her hands together behind her back in some agitation. "I'm so sorry, Harry, I meant I was going to Neville and Luna's! They had me over for dinner last night. Is that why you're looking so angry? My goodness, Harry, you've been out looking for me all day, haven't you? Silly...you're always so worried about me." She took a few steps forward, and reached up to kiss Harry, but he coughed, and turned away from her. Gesturing at Lupin, he spoke over his shoulder to Ginny, not meeting her gaze.

"Actually," he said, "Hermione and I met up with an old friend of ours."

Ginny stared for a moment, and then squealed with delight, running up to Lupin and hugging him. "Professor Lupin! It's been so long, we were starting to really wonder about you! How are you?" She gave him a cursory glance. "You don't look a day older than when we last spoke, still as young as ever .It's so good to see you!"

Lupin looked somewhat taken aback by this effusion of Ginny's. Harry continued to glare at her, and Hermione felt the tension in the room reaching the breaking point. "We were just going to have some dinner," she said, deciding that now would be the perfect time to distract her friends with some food. "Harry, Ginny, you two sit down. You too, Professor. I'll just-!"

Harry shook his head. "No thank you, Hermione. I think Ginny and I will just be going home." Ginny opened her mouth to protest, but Harry gave her such a stern look that the words wilted on her lips, and she allowed him to lead her away from the table with a meek, very worried look on her face. "Goodbye, Remus. See you again soon, I hope."

"Goodbye!" called out Hermione, trying not to be very worried as she heard her front door close behind Harry and his wife. Maybe, she thought hopefully, Ginny really had been at Luna and Neville's. But no, that couldn't be. After all, she' d used Hermione's house as an alibi more than once...and who knew if she'd done it many times before, times that Hermione had never even known about?

"Trouble in Paradise?" asked Lupin quietly from just behind her. She turned to see that he, too, was watching the passage that led to the front door.

Sighing, Hermione sat down across from him at the table, shaking her head helplessly. "You could," she muttered, "call it something like that. Are you hungry?"

Not waiting for his answer, Hermione strode over to the refrigerator. She began rummaging around in it, looking for something suitable that she could prepare for dinner. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what Lupin liked. "Do you have a preference?" she asked him, with her head still in the fridge. "I can't say we've got a wide and luxurious selection, but I'm sure I could figure something out if you wanted anything in particular."

Lupin's answer was a strange one. "Is Harry happy?" he asked Hermione, in a distant, thoughtful voice. Hermione looked at him, uncertain of how to answer that. "It's just," Lupin added, as if feeling the need to justify his question, "that he didn't look terribly happy, and I'd always sort of hoped that when the war was over, he'd get to settle down and live a normal life."

"Oh," Hermione assured him, trying to suppress a derisive laugh, "his life is normal enough. It's not like numerous other, much less famous men don't suffer exactly the same thing."

"Yes," agreed Lupin sadly. "But I'd just hoped that maybe he'd get some peace and quiet, that's all. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than Harry."

Hermione sighed. She abandoned the fridge, and took a seat across from Lupin again, watching the worry lines in his brows. "I know," she said, "I really do. God knows I want him to be happy more than anyone else I know, but...sometimes I feel as though he brings it upon himself, with the people he takes up with, and the things he spends his time doing. Harry's meant for action, and I wonder if he really could live a peaceful life, after all. Doesn't mean I don't wish he could."

Lupin didn't speak for several minutes. "I don't suppose I've very good about looking after him," he said, in such a low tone that Hermione had to lean forward to be sure that she was hearing him correctly. "Seeing as I've been hiding for three years, I haven't exactly been around to check up."

"You? It's hardly your fault," Hermione assured him, a bit surprised. "Harry's a grown man, capable of taking care of himself. We all want to help him, but ultimately he's got to make his own decisions and live with them. Ginny Weasley's one of them. Maybe he'll come around, or maybe she will, but you of all people shouldn't be kicking yourself for it."

"No," Lupin responded adamantly. "You're wrong, Hermione. It's more my concern than anyone else's. I...I was supposed to look after him, when James and Sirius died. I'm the only one left, after all, I was supposed to make sure that he was happy. That's what I wanted. That's what we all wanted." He grimaced. "I know that sounds very strange, but...it's important to me, and I haven't been there."

Hermione didn't blame Lupin for being overly concerned. As Harry's best friend, she'd spent plenty of sleepless nights herself wondering why, after everything he'd been through, Harry couldn't have settled down with a woman who'd at least make him feel safe and comfortable, somewhere that he could recover from and shake off the effects of his part in the war. She'd even broached the subject with him a few times, but he was always so insistent that Ginny would change, that he loved her, or that there wasn't anything for it and that they'd just have to ride out the storm together. "He wants to make it work," she said, with a shrug. "He thinks that ultimately, everything between theme will work out."

"Never one to give up, our Harry." Lupin smiled appreciatively, despite his misgivings. Hermione found herself smiling back, something that was a lot easier to do when the older man wasn't looking so sad. In fact, she'd seen him looking concerned so often that she was surprised at how much she liked his smile. There was something quietly, elegantly charming about it, something strangely innocent, in a way that she couldn't quite describe. It brightened Hermione considerably, and she spoke with more conviction than she'd felt the minute before.
"No, he's not the type to quit," she agreed, "but he's also pretty good at bouncing back. I think he's going to be okay."

"You'd know better than I would." Lupin's smile faded for a moment as he spoke, but he made an effort to revive it again, gesturing towards the table. "But you're hungry, and I'm rambling on. You wanted dinner. Can I help? I'm not a marvelous cook, but I have learned how to throw some things together. It comes from living alone for so long, I think."

"I know," Hermione replied, shrugging.

"Yes," agreed Lupin, "I guess you do, don't you."