Lupin kicked aside the chair he had overturned.

“You have only ever seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore’s

protection at Hogwarts! You don’t know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures

like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don’t you see

what I’ve done?

Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents want their only

daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child – the child – ”

Lupin actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged.

“My kind don’t usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it – how can I

Forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent

child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times

so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!”

“Remus!” whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. “Don’t say that – how could

any child be ashamed of you?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Hermione,” said Harry. “I’d be pretty ashamed of him.”

Harry did not know where his rage was coming from, but it had propelled him to

His feet too. Lupin looked as though Harry had hit him.

“If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad,” Harry said, “what will they do

to a half-werewolf whose father’s in the Order? My father died trying to protect my

mother and me, and you reckon he’d tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure

with us?”

“How – how dare you?” said Lupin. “This is not about a desire for – for danger or

personal glory – how dare you suggest such a – ”

“I think you’re feeling a bit of a daredevil,” Harry said, “You fancy stepping into

Sirius’s shoes –”

“Harry, no!” Hermione begged him, but he continued to glare into Lupin’s livid

Face.

“I’d never have believed this,” Harry said. “The man who taught me to fight

dementors – a coward.”

Lupin drew his wand so fast that Harry had barely reached for his own; there was

A loud bang and he felt himself flying backward as if punched; as he slammed into the

kitchen wall and slid to the floor, he glimpsed the tail of Lupin’s cloak disappearing

Around the door.

“Remus, Remus, come back!” Hermione cried, but Lupin did not respond. A

Moment later they heard the front door slam.

“Harry!” wailed Hermione. “How could you?”

“It was easy,” said Harry. He stood up, he could feel a lump swelling where his

Head had hit the wall. He was still so full of anger he was shaking.

“Don’t look at me like that!” he snapped at Hermione.

“Don’t you start on her!” snarled Ron.

“No – no – we mustn’t fight!” said Hermione, launching herself between them.

“You shouldn’t have said that stuff to Lupin,” Ron told Harry.

“He had it coming to him,” said Harry. Broken images were racing each other

through his mind: Sirius falling through the veil; Dumbledore suspended, broken, in

midair; a flash of green light and his mother’s voice, begging for mercy . . .

“Parents,” said Harry, “shouldn’t leave their kids unless – unless they’ve got to.”

“Harry –“ said Hermione, stretching out a consoling hand, but he shrugged it off

And walked away, his eyes on the fire Hermione had conjured. He had once spoken to

Lupin out of that fireplace, seeking reassurance about James, and Lupin had consoled

him. Now Lupin’s tortured white face seemed to swim in the air before him. He felt a

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 784