Harry Riddle || Harry potter

Chapter 44: About Her

"Oh, and Mister Remus? My name's Harry."

Remus Lupin had to stop and lean heavily against a store window just to eliminate the threat of collapse. It couldn't be true. He told himself that it couldn't be, but then again, he knew it was. He'd known it before the boy had even said his name, suspected before he'd even seen his eyes—it was all in the scent.

Almost twelve years previous, Sirius had once accused him of never being able to keep a secret. The memory was faded a bit, but he could still clearly see the man's annoyance, hear the scathing tone in his voice.

"Goddamn it, Remus, you can't keep a fucking secret, can you?! And now if Lily and James get divorced it'll be your fault, you know that?!"

He'd been tongue-tied at the moment, too aware of Lily crying in the next room to think of a response, but over the years he'd been able to formulate one: "James was the one cheating, Sirius. If he and Lily get divorced, it's his own fault."

But he hadn't said that, and Sirius had continued.

"You weren't even there! You and that fucking nose of yours!"

Yes, that nose of his. It was true that, because of his lycanthropy, he could hear things and smell things a normal person would be incapable of. And Sirius had been correct to assume that was how he'd been able to tell James was cheating on Lily.

It was also how he'd been able to tell Lily was cheating on James.

Men don't wear perfume, and the man she'd been with hadn't worn cologne, so his scent had been there, crystal clear, masked by nothing. For months during that time, his senses had been assaulted with leftover arousal and lust every time they were in the same room, and he'd known that he wasn't smelling James.

Sirius had said he couldn't keep a secret—but he could. He hadn't said a word to anyone, not even to Lily herself. If James could be unfaithful (with more than one woman, in fact), why couldn't Lily be unfaithful with another man? Because she was a woman? To say she couldn't would be a shameless double standard, and if it made her happy, who was he to speak up about it?

But then, abruptly, he stopped smelling the other man, and something much more horrible took its place. He'd only smelt it to such a degree once before, when Severus Snape had been fleeing for his life away from the Shrieking Shack—terror. He hadn't been able to understand it then. What did she have to be afraid of? Impending parenthood?

No, that couldn't have been the explanation. The emotion was too strong in her for something like that.

He'd still been wondering nine months later, when Harry was born. Everyone said he looked so much like James, but he didn't really. He had dark hair; that was where the resemblance began and where it ended.

And half of Wizarding Britain had that color hair. Apparently Lily's lover had, too.

Sirius had said he couldn't keep a secret, but on July 31, he'd been burdened with yet another one. He was the only person who'd been able to tell that Harry wasn't James' child, the baby's scent was too different from his and too close to the other man's.

And for awhile, Remus had thought that he'd solved the mystery, that that was why she'd been so afraid during her pregnancy and still was. Having a child that wasn't your husband's wouldn't do anyone's reputation any good, and God only knew how James himself would react.

But, even after her husband and everyone else conceivable had, without a doubt, assumed it was James', her feelings hadn't changed. In fact, it had just gotten worse. Remus got jumpy just being in the same room with her, the fear was so overwhelming.