The room fell into silence, invisible awkwardness spreading through the air.
All five warriors facing the wall wished they could curl themselves into shrimp-like shapes, while Lupin—who'd skipped an entire afternoon of work—was drenched in cold sweat.
The seasoned employee who'd failed to clock in, Remus Lupin, frantically tried to defend himself before his two bosses.
"I'm sorry, this is all my fault. Padfoot asked me for help... I thought lunch break would be enough time to take them shopping, so I didn't request leave."
"I absolutely won't accept a single Knut of this month's perfect attendance bonus. I don't deserve to be an exemplary employee. I'll make up every single shift when I get back..."
You had to admit, he had excellent self-management awareness—even Jane was shocked to hear it.
Dumbledore sighed softly, reproach in his voice:
"So Remus, why didn't you stop them?"
Lupin looked even more dejected. He fell silent for several seconds, his gaze flickering strangely between Harry and Sirius before forcing a bitter smile:
"Er... Ha—Padfoot just charged straight in. I was afraid it was a trap, couldn't leave them... leave him alone in there."
"And he ran so fast I couldn't catch him... so everyone followed him into the alley... and I missed clocking in too..."
Listening to Lupin's account, the ringleader Sirius grew increasingly restless.
He nervously glanced at his godson.
Now that reason had returned to his brain, realizing he'd nearly abandoned three children there, he broke out in a cold sweat.
And knowing he'd caused his friend to miss clocking in and lose his perfect attendance bonus made him feel deeply guilty.
Harry stepped forward, about to say something, but Sirius—who knew his godson's temperament all too well—quickly covered his mouth.
"Don't dock Moony's perfect attendance bonus!" Sirius immediately deflected, trying to salvage his friend's financial loss with additional explanation. "He said he'd go to work right away when we got back, but... I figured since he was already late and had lost perfect attendance anyway, why not just skip the whole afternoon so we could have a proper reunion? After all, we always took risks like this during school—mmph mmph—"
Lupin mirrored the action, clamping his hand over his friend's mouth. Seeing Jane's increasingly murderous gaze, cold sweat soaked through his robes.
This made his expression even more desperate, written all over with the profound sadness of "no hope for promotion or raise."
"I'm sorry, Jane—" he said guiltily, bowing his head. "I was worried about Sirius—sigh—"
Hearing "we always did this during school" made Dumbledore's expression darken as well.
"Sirius, I have always greatly admired you," Dumbledore suddenly began. "You were born into the Black family yet broke free from corrupt pure-blood supremacy, never bowing to oppressors. You're loyal to friends, willing to endure imprisonment rather than betray them. You truly live up to the name Sirius."
The bedroom suddenly became very quiet, only the wind chimes tinkling softly.
"But I worry about you deeply," he continued. "I worry you'll pay the price for your impulsiveness. When you attack enemies and people you dislike, you consider consequences too little. You've even burned your own soul, scorching the friends who truly care about you."
Sirius hung his head, shadows from his hair obscuring his bruised features.
Jane didn't know what he was thinking, but he seemed to have shed his usual bouncy, happy-dog demeanor, becoming much more somber.
Dumbledore continued his earnest counsel:
"I try to let Harry spend more time with you," Dumbledore sighed. "I hope that after suffering under the Dementors, you can feel love and family again, rather than sustaining yourself on hatred for enemies. But what I fear most is seeing the impulsive sides of both your personalities amplify each other, like today when you ran into Knockturn Alley dragging your friends into danger..."
Jane wasn't sure if he'd meant to say "dragging them to their deaths."
But she felt she had to speak up for her former excellent employee Lupin who'd been led astray:
"At the very least, you shouldn't have made Remus skip work. He works so hard, finally beat all the competition to become an exemplary employee, and now his bonus will be clawed back before he even receives it."
The more she spoke, the more heartbroken she felt. Seeing her excellent employee reduced to this truant state made her want to chain Sirius to a workstation for twenty-four hours straight.
"When you asked him to skip work, did you consider what would happen to Remus?" she continued. "If he didn't work under me, if he took unauthorized leave elsewhere, wouldn't he have already been suspended or lost his job?"
Sirius nervously transformed back into a dog, shook his fur, and cowered in the corner, not daring to meet her eyes.
He glanced at Remus, who also turned away, refusing to look at him...
Thinking of the serious consequences if his friend lost his job given his werewolf status and inability to find work elsewhere...
A long-forgotten sense of guilt suddenly pressed heavily on his chest.
Though somewhat defiant, Jane's words had truly struck him hard, making him realize:
Perhaps in the past, he'd considered Remus's feelings far too little.
Somehow, he suddenly remembered that night during their school years when he'd led Snape to the Shrieking Shack, and he was suddenly struck by realization:
If Snape had really died, given Remus's werewolf identity... having killed someone... could he have remained at school?
"M-Moony..." he said urgently, "Our friendship is unbreakable, right?"
Lupin still kept his head down, not looking at Sirius, his eyes sadly fixed on a corner of the wall as if that's where his lost perfect attendance bonus had gone.
His voice was firm yet carried other undertones—probably despair about promotion and raises:
"Of course..."
But seeing his friend's body language, even the most oblivious Sirius sensed something wrong and immediately grew anxious:
"I know I sometimes get carried away, sometimes I'm as arrogant as a fool, forgetting to consider consequences."
"I'm sorry, Moony. Go ahead and scold me, you—I—sigh—"
Lupin finally turned his face toward him. For a moment he found it hard to speak, as a bittersweet emotion suddenly spread through him.
During all those years of bearing the pain of friends' departure and suspicion alone, no one had ever asked him how he felt.
But Jane had asked that question no one had ever spoken for him:
What about Remus?
"All these years, I've watched people leave one by one," he finally spoke. "Among us, James and Lily were the first to go; Peter became a traitor, betrayed them, and died himself; only the two of us are left, Padfoot."
"I'm afraid I'll be the last one standing, looking at your photos, at your graves... I don't want..."
Sirius let out a low whimper from his throat.
"I'm very worried," Lupin said softly. "I'll lose your friendship, Padfoot. Today I originally planned to go to work, but I worried you'd be unhappy if I left, so I risked skipping work."
Sirius froze, mouth slightly agape, suddenly not knowing what to say.
He suddenly felt the silent pain radiating from his friend—as tormenting as Azkaban full of Dementors.
He let out a guilty whine.
He seemed to be crying, because the fur around his eyes was already damp and starting to clump together.
Harry quietly walked over and hugged his godfather, burying his face in his silky, highly absorbent fur.
Lupin also crouched down, embracing Harry and Sirius—two humans and one dog holding each other and weeping.
He felt he had thousands of words in his heart, but what came out were only simple sentences:
"Padfoot, I've wanted to say this for so long. Don't be impulsive when facing enemies—stay calm and rational..."
"Even toward people you dislike, like Kreacher, be polite and kind... I'm afraid your actions will bring trouble to yourself and everyone else."
He wiped his face and let out a long sigh:
"Live well, even if it's just for Harry, for me..."
He swallowed back the words about "my perfect attendance bonus and exemplary employee award."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 BOOK COMPLETED ON PATREON!📚
This story has reached its conclusion on my Patreon!
🔥 Full story available now
💎 Exclusive bonus content & early access to new books
👉 Join my Patreon community today!
[✨patreon.com/DarkGolds]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━