Two: Somewhere
Remus Lupin leans back in his chair, steeples his fingers and looks over them at the folded piece of parchment on his desk. It’s been a long day, and it is very late. The candles on his desk are burning low. In the window behind him his reflection wavers, flashes as his hand moves forward to pick up the map. He pulls his wand out of the pocket of his robes and sets it to the parchment.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
-
Harry Potter lies in bed, hands folded behind his head, staring at the canopied roof of his bed. A sliver of moonlight leaks through the parting in his curtains, falls across his chest like a bandolier. He mourns the loss of the map, thinks sleepily about the Grim, listens to the rhythm of Ron’s snores.
His only family are his aunt and uncle, who gave him a coat hanger for Christmas. Somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, a big black dog is sleeping.
-
Remus can’t help being struck by the circularity of this moment. Being here, back at Hogwarts, sitting up late at night looking at this map. If he were more supersticious, he would think it was a sign. They had thought the map was lost forever. Remus had never expected to see it again. Yet here it is.
There are other things he thinks are lost forever.
-
Somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, the big black dog snuffles in his sleep.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.