Trapped In Time: Love's Secrets

Chapter Fourteen

“So, am I too late for breakfast?” Shannon finally spoke, interrupting his internal dialogue.

“No, not at all” Remus said, standing and putting the paper down on the arm of the chair.

“Oh, then… why are you sitting in here?” Shannon also stood and eyed him curiously.

“What? Oh I... well I got caught up in the paper.” A faint blush crept across his face. He had never felt so many conflicting emotions at once and all because of one person. She was a puzzle and the idea of spending time piecing this one together was particularly thrilling.

Shannon just smiled and started walking towards the door at the far end. When they reached the doorway, she gestured Remus in ahead joking “age before beauty!” It had been one of her dad’s sayings and she couldn’t help a laugh when Remus’s eyebrows shot up. She grinned playfully and walked in ahead.

During breakfast, Shannon had decided that given the time she spent on the owls yesterday, she would easily get them done in one go if she had an early lunch and rushed straight to the Owlery. So instead of heading over to start right away, she went to her room and gathered up a couple of her owl books and the files Dumbledore had given her on who all the owls were, name, species and which student they belonged to.

After letting Moss out to climb and hop all over the room while she read, Shannon laughed when she discovered her little owl from yesterday was a Whiskered Screech Owl named Herman. He belonged to a new first year Hufflepuff girl with huge brown eyes and honey coloured hair. She wasn’t sure she needed the pictures of each student but she mentally thanked Dumbledore for including them. Maybe she wouldn’t feel like such an outsider if she knew the students as well as the professors did.

In a flash of curiosity, Shannon started flipping through the files that were in alphabetical order by the owner’s last name. She flipped past the usual suspects with only a quick jolt of interest, Granger, Malfoy, Potter; she even passed Weasley to land on the file she had been looking for. Oliver Wood, keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, in his last year at Hogwarts and also the boy her own sister had a huge crush on. His owl, Shae, was a pretty Spotted Wood Owl, big with a light brown body and dark brown spots and stripes, she had interesting pinkish eyeliner.

Back to Oliver, he was definitely a handsome young man, tall and well-built with wavy deep brown hair kept short. The way his brown eyes twinkled and the set of his proud smile had Shannon grinning back at the picture thinking maybe someday she’d come up with a way for the two to meet.

“Moss, what on earth are you doing, you fool” she tucked the files away and went to retrieve her bird who was hanging upside down off the fireplace and bobbing his head up and down. Chuckling as she picked Moss up and placed him upright on her arm, she strolled to her window and opened the blinds that covered the lower half so she could look out into the Northern courtyard. The students were all in class now so it was deserted and sort of lonely looking in the weak sunlight.

Across the courtyard she could see the windows of a corridor where maybe Remus was teaching and her thoughts started to wander once again. Wishing she could watch him, feeling slightly jealous of his students, wondering if she crossed his mind. Realizing what she was doing, she scolded herself and went back to the owl files, setting Moss back on top of his cage.

When finally it was time to head to lunch, Shannon opened her door to the stream of students just out of class. The Slytherin and Gryffindor third years were coming up the stairs from the dungeons and she scanned the crowd noting that Neville Longbottom was pink faced and glassy eyed but clutching his toad Trevor who seemed in good shape. Once again her thoughts jumped to Remus, who she knew would be kind to that boy and would stand up to Severus for him. Smiling to herself and ignoring that red flag, she waited for a break in traffic and crossed the hall to the staff room.