Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 49 - Sacked and Reconciled

Harry's POV

"Mum," Harry called dejectedly, rounding the corner into the office. His shoulders were slumped, and he was dragging his feet. He felt defeated. Umbridge had taken yet another thing from him. However, he hoped that instead of wallowing in self-pity, he could come to seek solace from his mother, the one person he knew would understand how he was feeling – and maybe even make him feel better.

"Mum," he said again, once he had made it over the threshold of her office doorway, "I don't suppose you've heard about what's happened with me and the Quidditch –" His voice fell silent in the middle of his sentence, as his eyes had only begun to comprehend what he was seeing. "Mum, what are you doing?"

Her office was bare. Her trunks were stacked away in a corner, clearly full of her things, and in the middle of the room, she stood behind the once-cluttered desk, rolling up some parchment and stuffing it into a briefcase.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked again, though he feared he knew the answer.

His mother looked up at him, as if just noticing him for the first time. Her eyes were red and puffy, like she'd just been crying. "I've been sacked. I've just finished packing up my office."

Harry felt like the floor had just fallen out from beneath him. "No!"

"Yes," Selene sighed wearily, sinking into the desk chair behind her. Her briefcase slid off her desk, but she made no effort to catch it.

"Mum, this isn't fair," Harry said, moving towards her desk and gripping onto it with white-knuckled fingers. "You're a perfectly good professor. I don't even like Astronomy, and I can pay attention in your class."

His mother chuckled half-heartedly. "I appreciate the sentiment, Harry, but Professor Umbridge does not feel I am up to scratch."

Harry scowled. "Who cares what she thinks? We both know that's not what this is really about anyways!"

Selene nodded. "You're right, so we both knew that this was coming before long."

Harry felt as if his blood was boiling, and it irritated him that his mother seemed so nonchalant about the entire situation. She should be angry. He was angry, at least.

"BUT IT'S NOT FAIR!" Harry shouted. "NOTHING IS FAIR! SHE'S TAKING EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME!"

"Harry!" Selene exclaimed, looking at him wide-eyed. She had jumped from her chair and hurried around the desk to set her hands on both of his shoulders.

He threw them off unthinkingly. "NO! IT'S NOT –!"

"HARRY!" Selene said again, grabbing his arm. "Harry! This is exactly the kind of reaction she wants from us! She wants to take everything away! She wants to take this all away! We can't let her win!"

"She basically already has," Harry began sullenly, but his mother shook her head.

"Now tell me that doesn't sound like Harry Potter of all people has given up," she said, eyeing him carefully.

"I haven't given up!" Harry said defensively, but his shoulders had fallen. His hands had unclenched. His mother was right. Umbridge wanted him to feel this way, and he was just going to have to endure it.

Hesitantly, his mother moved to grip his arm again. "If Umbridge does not return after the end of this year, then perhaps Dumbledore will offer me back my position... but until then, I have to go, Harry."

Harry looked up at her dejectedly. "But – but I'll miss you."

Selene smiled sadly, moving forward to wrap Harry in her usual motherly embrace. As she held onto him tightly, though, Harry thought he felt something else in her hold. Before he could think much longer on it, she had pulled back to look at him, her blue eyes swimming in front of his green ones.