Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 16 - The Quidditch World Cup

Selene woke up that morning, bleary-eyed and sluggish. She trudged down the stairs behind Ginny and Hermione, having bunked with them the previous night.

Selene took a seat at the kitchen table and had the first cup of coffee she'd had all summer, just because she was still so tired. It made her feel slightly better that it tasted nothing like Remus' coffee but was instead slightly weak tasting.

"Morning, Selene," Harry said, yawning, as he took a seat next to her at the kitchen table.

"Hiya, Harry," she said bleakly, taking another sip of coffee.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny said tiredly, taking the seat next to Harry.

"We've got a bit of a walk," Arthur said.

"Walk?" Harry said, slightly startled. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?"

"No, no, that's miles away," Arthur said with a smile. "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup—"

"George!" Molly said sharply, making everyone in the room jump.

"What?" George said innocently.

"What is that in your pocket?" Molly asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Nothing!" George insisted, raising his hands in the air.

"Don't you lie to me!" Molly pointed her wand at George's pocket and cried, "Accio!"

Several brightly colored toffees flew out of his pocket and into Molly's hand. George scowled as his attempts to catch them in midair failed.

"We told you to destroy them!" Molly said angrily. "We told you to get rid of the lot!  Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!"

Selene subtly grimaced as Molly Summoned more and more of the twins' charmed toffees out of varying degrees of unlikely places. Privately, Selene thought that they were pretty cool, but she didn't think it was appropriate of her to voice that opinion. She wasn't convinced that her opinion meant much anyway, especially considering who she had been friends with at school.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted as Molly tossed the candies in the bin.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" she yelled back. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s! I'm glad one of your professors is here to see why you failed her exam!"

Selene winced. She had indeed failed the twins, but she wasn't proud of it. She had even warned the twins that they'd probably fail if they didn't pick up their efforts in her class, but after they'd told her that they weren't wanting to pursue academics much further, she shrugged it off, shared a laugh with them, and sent them on their way, only after asking them kindly to at least try their best. She thought school was important, but she sympathized with their goals. Having a joke shop was – while not something she thought James and Sirius would've done – was something she thought the Marauders would have whole-heartedly supported, had they not been going to school in the middle of a war.

The mood was unpleasant as they left the Burrow. Selene tried to ignore Molly's sour mood as she waved good-bye to her and followed Arthur and the rest of the group in the direction of the Portkey.

"Well, have a lovely time," Molly called after them, "and behave yourselves! I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday."

Harry looked towards Selene as they began their trek in the woods. "It's kind of a shame about the twins' Ton-Tongue Toffees. They told me that I could have some to test out on Dudley."