crying wolf

As fortune would have it, Remus Lupin heard the news a day too soon.
Another twenty-four hours, and he could have grieved as a man. You! You-- my star, my friends--
But in the fullness of the lunar cycle and the capriciousness of fate, the owl came at dusk, that evening. His hands trembled, as they had not since he was a small boy, new to his change.