Hunting The Traitor

Friends and Foes

It took Remus every bit of his long-trained self-control not to start trembling as he approached the Ministry building in London.

It was now near the end of March and he had handed in his petition of custody for Harry two weeks ago. Remus didn't like that it had taken nearly three months to make that step once that Janus had agreed to help him, and he had uttered this dislike in any given situation, but his brother and father seemed for once to have found something to agree on. One small part of his brain, the part that still remained thinking logical even when Harry was concerned, had told Remus that his brother was right with his hesitation to hand the petition in, but that little piece of logic had not helped easing his mind at all. Harry was not treated right with that poor excuse of a family he had, and Remus needed to take him out of there before any lasting damage had been caused.

But though Remus would never admit it openly, he knew Janus was right. It was of no use to hurry things, if he had handed in a half-hearted petition his chances would have been even more slim than they already were.

Also, Remus was fairly sure that Janus wanted to test the strength of his will concerning the custody case. Janus was always testing Remus as it seemed, always trying to find out how serious he was about things, how strong his conviction was.

Remus had been willing to hand in the petition four weeks ago, but Janus had insisted on continuing their research. In the end, Janus must have been convinced that this was not just something Remus had set his mind on to stop from brooding about the deaths of his friends. Remus wanted to get custody for Harry, the longer he contemplated this idea the more determined he got. By now, Remus could not imagine any other idea than having Harry grow up with him.

The Lupin family had spent those last three months researching everything they could find on werewolf cases, custody cases, adoptions and Ministry laws. They still had yet to find a real loophole in the werewolf regulations, but nevertheless Janus had agreed to finally hand in the petition. They had searched all the files, reports and dusty old books Janus and Remus could think of, they would not find anything more on their case. He and Janus had gone through every scenario they could think of to prepare for the first hearing, hoping that nothing the caseworkers asked would come as a surprise. As unprepared as Remus felt, it was now or never.

Taking one last deep breath of the lukewarm early spring air, Remus pushed open the doors and entered the Department of Family Regulations.

After some quick questions for directions, he found himself in front of the office where the hearing would take place. Just as he raised his hand to knock, the door opened and an elderly wizard, dressed in standard black robes opened the door. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Remus, but didn't make any move to greet him. After some moments of uncomfortable silence, Remus was sure no greeting would come, so he decided to make the first move.

"Good morning. My name is Remus Lupin, I have an appointment with Mr. Stuart Nichols at nine o'clock. It concerns the custody case for Harry Potter."

"I am Stuart Nichols."

With this, the wizard turned around and left the door open behind him, the only gesture to enter the room he gave to Remus. Remus stepped in and closed the door behind him, then sat down in a chair Nichols indicated. Just then, the door opened and two witches entered the room as well. Not even looking up, Nichols gestured at them.

"Ms. Levins and Mrs. Smith, caseworker and chief caseworker of our Department. They're here for protocol reasons. Take a seat, ladies, let's get over with this."

The two witches sat down without another word of greeting and Remus felt an uneasy feeling spread through his stomach. It was the day before full moon, he had already guessed that the Ministry had intentionally chosen this date because it was when he was struggling hardest against the wolf's pull. The behaviour so far shown by the three caseworkers in front of him only confirmed this concern. If Nichols didn't want to spend more time on his case then necessary, he already seemed to have his mind set on a certain decision. And somehow Remus had the feeling that he would not like that decision at all.

Nichols shifted some papers in front of him, then for the first time since Remus had entered the room looked him straight in the eye.

"So you've decided to petition for custody over Harry Potter."

He shook his head, adding only to Remus' growing unease with this small gesture, and looked into the file that was placed on the table in front of him.

"Remus Jonathan Lupin, registration number 014-1965-A-7?"

Knowing fully well what message was being carried by reading out this number, Nichols looked up at Remus again and could not hide the grin that had started to spread across his face. It was not the kind of grin one gave when they were jesting, Remus knew that.

Remus fought hard against his urge to beat that arrogant grin out of Nichols' face. Trust the Ministry of Magic to bring up his registration number before even starting the hearing. This little combination of numbers and letters that had, ever since he had received the bite, regulated and limited his life. The Ministry had their hands on him with this number, it was to be found straight next to his name in any legal papers concerning him, marking him as an outcast of the wizarding society right from the start. The fact that Nichols brought it up now, with that smug grin on his face, didn't bode well, and Remus realized that this was exactly what the caseworker had wanted.

No space for illusions, in this room Remus was the one who pleaded for something, and it was in the hands of the Ministry to grant him his wish or to deny it. And judged from the superior grin on Nichols' face and the completely disinterested looks on the faces of the two other caseworkers, it was not granting what they had come here for.

Tensing ever so slightly, Remus held Nichols' smug gaze and as calmly as possible nodded. Nichols checked off a box on his parchment and began the questioning. Remus tried to answer the older wizard's questions as truthful and calmly as possible, but with the approaching moon and his steadily growing anger towards the man in front of him, it was not the most easiest of tasks. Not that it made any difference anyway, the decision had already been made before Remus had even arrived at the Ministry. One didn't need to be a genius to come to that conclusion.

The hearing didn't take half as long as any of his rehearsals with Janus had done. Remus did his best to bring the caseworkers' attention to the fact that Harry was being neglected by his relatives, but he soon had to realized that the three had not come to hear anything about Harry's circumstances of living at all. Over and over again, they repeated the Ministry regulations, asking what legal basis he had for his claim. The only flaw in Remus' arguments, and he had no chance whatsoever to hide it. Even worse, he had no chance at all to bring forth his own arguments, to underline and emphasize the reasons why he saw the need to take Harry in.

Every single of his attempts to talk about his relationship to the boy, his close friendship with James and Lily or even his emotional and financial capability to take care of a child were blocked immediately.

When Remus left the room fifteen minutes later he knew that he had lost. No, not really lost. Losing meant that you had a fair chance of winning to begin with. Which he had never had. This meeting had only taken place for formal reasons, and so that the three caseworkers had something to laugh about in the pub after work.

Remus resisted the urge to smack a dent into the door as it closed behind him, instead he calmly made his way out of the corridor and into the entrance area. Quickly deciding that apparating was out of question for the time being, Remus went over to the public fireplace and flooed home. The last thing he needed today was splinching himself up while apparating, he really didn't need the embarrassment to find half of his body in Kent and the other half in South Africa. He wouldn't give those Ministry idiots that satisfaction.

As Remus stumbled out of the fireplace in the living room, the first thing happening was that he tripped over the rug that was lying in front of it. The rug that had been lying there for years, the rug that had never been an obstacle before. But no, today of all days he had to stumble over that blasted thing.

Barely holding his balance, Remus finally let his anger boil over, grabbed the rug and threw it into the corner. It his the vase on the windowsill, but the vase only tumbled a little and didn't fall. Angry at himself that he didn't seem able to at least achieve the aim of breaking something, Remus crossed the room with quick strides, grabbed the vase and smashed it against the wall over the fireplace with all his strength.

With a satisfying sound, it exploded into a myriad of shards, the dried flowers that the vase had been holding circling down to the floor. Not caring the slightest for the mess he had just created, Remus left the room. He had hated that vase anyway.

Remus barely let his emotions get the better of him, especially not in times approaching the full moon. Though the wolf's pull on his reserve was strong during those days, Remus had learned at an early age what the price of giving in to his anger could be. And if he had forgotten about that after years of control and patience, the full moon after Halloween last year had been the perfect reminder of the possible outcomes.

But today Remus could not help it, he was fuming, he wanted to break something, wanted to cause damage. Preferably not break something but someone, smashing the slimy grin out of Nichols' face was on top of his list at the moment. Frustrated that this wish would not be granted to him just as well, Remus slammed the doors shut behind him, kicked the table in the entrance hall over and stormed upstairs. His father was not home and would not return until some hours later, so Remus could let his anger out for the moment. He'd tidy up later.

On his way to the upper floor, Remus ran into something solid that was not supposed to stand in the middle of the staircase, and only after some moments he realized that he had run into Janus. His older brother was swaying dangerously on the stairs, the impact had caught him by surprise. As soon as Remus realized that Janus had regained his balance, he continued his stampede through the house, finally reaching his bedroom and slamming the door shut behind him.

Janus just stared after him, completely paralyzed for the moment. One part of his mind was telling him that he had just seen Remus, his younger brother who never seemed to lose his composure, knocking over the furniture in the entrance hall and then nearly throwing him down the stairs in an attempt to run upstairs.

Another part of his mind told him that of all the things Remus Jonathan Lupin would ever do, throwing over furniture and knocking down family members were very low on the list. Rather impossible, to be precise.

It took him some moments to decide which part of his brain was winning over the other, then realization dawned. Today had been the custody hearing. And from the way Remus had been behaving, it had not gone well.

"Great, just great. Why does it always have to be me?"
Janus desperately wished that his father was home, he would know what to say and what to do. Janus had no experience in consoling Remus, there had never been a situation in which he had needed to do it. To be honest, he had no experience in consoling anybody, and not very much experience in being the receiving end of a consoling process.

But Richard was still at work, and he'd be in his office until at least four in the afternoon. Janus knew that he and Remus were not as close as they could be, and actually his brother's state of mind was not his concern at all, but he also knew that Richard would not appreciate it very much to come home from work and find his house in ruins and his youngest son as a sobbing heap in the middle of destruction.

With a sigh he made his way up the stairs.

It seemed as if it was up to him to check up on Remus now.

Even if Janus had not seen where Remus had been heading, the upturned furniture of the hall pointed clearly in the direction of Remus' room. Janus knocked.

No answer.

With a shrug, he knocked again.

"Remus?"

Still, no answer.

"I'm coming in now. So whatever you're doing, make sure that you're decent in three seconds."

He received no answer to that little jest, so he opened the door and took a look at the room.

Judged from the traces Remus had left in the house, he had not been very careful with his own furniture either. His bedside-table was knocked over, and the pillows and blankets from his bed were strewn across the room. Remus was standing in with his back to Janus, looking out of the window. He didn't make a move to turn around.

"I guess it didn't go well today?"

As an answer, Remus' shoulders twitched and for a moment, Janus thought that he was starting to cry. He was surprised however, when the sounds he heard were not sobs or hiccups, but laughter. Remus was laughing. Finally, he turned around and looked Janus straight in the eye.

Janus had never been very good at reading his brother's face, but right now he really could not tell whether the look in his eyes was angry, sad or simply insane. Though Janus feared it might be the last.

"Remus, are you alright?"

Remus only laughed loudly for some moments, in fact he laughed so hard that he was holding his left side with his hand. However, what it was that had made him laugh himself into stitches remained a mystery to Janus. After some moments, Remus sank down onto the windowsill and the laughter subsided, his expression changing into one of barely back-held anger and an unbelievable underlying sadness.

"Am I alright? Are you kidding? Did it go well today? What do you think? It's all been in vain Janus, they didn't even want to listen to me, they didn't even give me a chance to explain my reasons. Heck, they didn't even show any interest into the fact that Harry is neglected with his relatives. The only reason why they even bothered with meeting me today was protocol reasons. Oh, and of course the chance to have a good laugh on my account. A werewolf claiming custody for the Boy Who Lived, after all that's been unheard of so far.

At least going there makes some sense, we all could do with something to laugh about, don't you think?"
Janus picked up a pillow from the mattress, threw it out of the way and sat down, facing Remus.

"And what do you intend to do now?"

Remus laughed harshly.

"What is there for me to do? In a couple of hours, an owl from the Ministry will arrive, telling me where exactly I can put my petition for custody. It's over Janus, we lost. No, not we, I lost. I'm sorry that you've wasted all your time helping me, you could have used it better doing something else. Anything else."

Janus leaned back and stared at his younger brother intensely. He might not know Remus as well as older brothers normally knew their younger siblings, but he had learned to understand a thing or two about Remus in the past. One of those things being that it was not advisable to leave him alone to deal with his moods once they got hold of him.

And he didn't intend to put his father through something like the last November again.

"So that's it Remus? You tried it once and now you can lean back with a clean conscience, saying that you did everything in your power to help Harry. Not very convincing, if you ask me."

"Oh, and who did ask you? Honestly Janus, I had thought that especially you would understand it. You know better than anybody else in this family how the Ministry works. I tried to show them that their prejudices are wrong, that a werewolf isn't necessarily a monster for thirty days a month, they didn't listen to me. That's all there was I could do, what else is left to do now?"
Janus shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. He didn't really know what to make of his brother's words, they didn't make sense at all.

"Remus, just tell me one thing: Is this whole custody thing something you do for Harry, something you do to grant him a better life than he has with his relatives, or is it something you do for yourself?"

Remus looked up, confusion showing on his face.

"What?"

"I guess you understood me quite well."
"Why do you ask such a stupid question?"
"Because Remus, I'm not so sure about it right now. If you tried to get custody to show the Ministry about their failures concerning werewolves, then I agree with you: you failed. But I would not have expected differently. What confuses me is that I never thought this was about you.

From what you told me, I thought that you did this for Harry, to get him out of there. Not because the Ministry attitude insulted your pride as a human being."

Remus crossed his arms in front of his chest in a defensive gesture.

"Of course I did this for Harry and not for myself."

"Then pray tell me, why do you give up so quickly? It's been the first hearing in your case, did you honestly expect them to hand Harry over the moment you arrived at the Ministry? Did you really expect them to treat you in a fair way? If you did, then I guess you have not listened to anything I said during the last three months.

Of course they did not listen to you. Of course they kept on rambling about the Ministry regulations concerning werewolves. Of course they were enjoying to point out why you had no chance on earth to ever get custody for Harry.

And do you know why?
Because they wanted you to react like that. They wanted you to give up straight after this hearing. It spares them a lot of work if you're already so discouraged by your first attempt that you'll never think about trying it again. You're reacting just the way they expected you to react, you walked right into their trap.

But I had thought different about you, Remus.

During the last three months, I got the impression that you really wanted custody for Harry, that you really wanted the boy to grow up with you. And now you want to give up, just because the first thing you tried failed? Don't you think Harry has deserved better than that, don't you think that you owe him to try anything you can think of?"

If Janus had planned to coax Remus out of his reserve with those words, he had failed just like Remus thought he had. His younger brother merely pulled his knees towards his chest and looked out of the window.

"What is there that I can possibly do about it, Janus? The Ministry will never allow me to take custody for Harry, they made that quite clear today. And maybe they're right about it."
Janus had never been the most emotional person in the world, but at that moment, something inside of him snapped. He had never been extremely protective of Remus, knowing fully well that his brother had learned to take care of himself at an early age and had his father to aid him whenever he needed, but Janus knew that this was something Remus would not get out of alone. Trying to increase his presence in the room, Janus got up from the bed, walked over to Remus and came to a halt in front of him.

"Back to self-pity, aren't we? Well, let me tell you something: The Remus Lupin I used to know would have never given up that easily. And do you know why? Because the Remus Lupin I used to know always fought for what he believed right.

For so many years, you've not let anybody bring you down because of something you could not help, and now you're willing to let them bring you down because of something you can very much help? Tell me, where did the Remus I knew go to?
So they turned down your first petition for custody. So what? Write another one, ask for another caseworker. And if they turn that down as well, then write another. And another, and another. The Ministry might not notice how serious you are about this right now, and maybe not in a month or two, but they'll definitely never notice it if you give up now. What do you want to tell Harry if he ever asks you? That you've given up so easily?

You've always been a fighter Remus, and I just don't believe you if you give up now. That's not you, Remus.

It's up to you now, if you say you give up then I'll never talk about it again. But then don't expect me to pity you when you can't stand yourself anymore because you realize that you've given up too easily. And don't expect me to stand by and watch how you dig yourself into a depression again."

At this, Remus only laughed harshly.

"As if you had ever cared about me or my state of mind."

Janus pulled his brother around by the shoulders and forced him to look into his eyes. His gaze was every bit threatening and most people in the right state of their mind would flinch under that stare.

"I might not have been there last time, but I don't intend to stand by and watch it happen again. I promised dad that I would not let you down, and I don't intend to break that promise.

And even more important than that, I don't intend to let dad scrape your bloody remains from that blasted shack once more because the wolf has shred you into pieces. Tomorrow is full moon, don't you think I know what will happen if you go through it in the state you're in right now?

If you don't believe I do this for you, then I can't blame you. I've never given you any reason to believe otherwise. But you can rely on the fact that I won't allow this to happen to dad once more. Do you honestly think he likes worrying about you? Sure, he'll accept your decision and he'll also do his best to deal with the consequences, just like he has always done for you. But do you really think that it's his sole purpose in life to catch you when you've once more fallen? Do you think he has the strength to go through this over and over again? I won't let that happen again Remus, not if I can help it. Especially not when I know it's not necessary. Not here, not now, get me?

So for fuck's sake get a grip on yourself and get your ass down into the living room. Write a new petition even before they have turned the first one down officially, that would be something reasonable for a change.

But if you prefer to stay here and brood over the unfairness of life, I won't hinder you. I just tell you that it won't help you at all. It's up to you now."

Remus stared at Janus in complete and utter shock. Whatever reaction he had expected from his brother, it definitely had not been this. Rubbing his palms across his face he desperately tried to think of the best thing to do now.

Of course, Janus was right. Remus was not the kind of person to give up something he believed right, but then again this was the Ministry of Magic he was fighting against. How on earth could he possibly stand a chance to ever get custody for Harry when his opponents had already made their decision.

But wasn't that exactly what Janus had been talking about? Whether he liked it or not, Janus was right. Remus would preferably go to hell before he ever admitted that openly, but his brother had a point in what he had said. This was not about him or his lycanthropy, this was about Harry. He owed it to James and Lily to fight for the boy. If he didn't try, he would not be able to look into a mirror anymore.

Remus looked up, some of his previous resolution returned into his eyes. Slowly he nodded.

"Then let's find out what you did wrong with the first petition."

He got up from the windowsill and walked out of his room. Janus took some moments to process this information, then he ran after him.

"What do you mean 'what I did wrong'?"

Remus' voice from the staircase sounded slightly too mischievous for Janus' liking.

"Well, you've been formulating that blasted thing. And at some point we have to start thinking about what we did wrong. And now move your ass down into the living room, I don't have all day."

Janus sighed and rolled his eyes. Sudden mood changes close to full moon were another thing he'd never get used to when his brother was concerned. He hadn't decided yet whether he liked his brother in this new-found mood, but somehow he got the feeling that he'd be in for an interesting ride.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Many hours southwards of Azkaban, in a deep woodland area somewhere in Scotland, a small stream was flowing merrily through the thick undergrowth and bushes. The bushes provided protection from the sides, and the high treetops with their thick cover of leaves shielded it from any eyes that came looking down from above.

Not that there would have been anything unusual to discover, had anybody by chance been looking at the stream at this point of time. At least not if the watchers had not known what they were looking for.

Amidst the flora of the Scottish forest, a large animal was sitting besides the stream. From a distance, any observe might have mistaken it for a bear and turned to leave without attracting its attention, only a closer look revealed the creature as a large, black dog.

The dog had been running southwards for hours, driving his canine body to the edge of exhaustion, until it had had no strength left to continue his mad chase and thirst and fatigue had claimed the upper hand.

Of course dogs had no sense for the concept of time like humans use it, hours and minutes were unknown to them, but this animal was not completely what it appeared to be. A part of his being was human, human of wizarding origin, to be precise.

This human part of his mind had screamed his protests against the rest, it knew well that it was chased. But as it happens so often, the bodily needs had overruled the mind's protests and now it lay, still panting, on the small riverbank.

It had drunk from the water greedily, indulging in the luxury of having more water than it could possibly drink as a resource, and now it was hanging his front paws into the cold flow of water. Its entire body was hurting from the race across the country, but its paws were hurt most badly. They were swollen and callused, bruised and scratched. The dog knew that as soon as it would start running again, the pain would become more and more unbearable by the minute.

But now it was too tired to think about running any further, it knew that the rest it was taking was deserved as well as necessary.

As it lay there on the ground, the dog could not help but let his human thoughts take control of his mind again.

If it wanted, the dog could change its shape any moment and resume its original form of a male, human wizard, but this was not an option at the moment. Even if exhaustion had not made the change more difficult than it normally was, the man knew that his canine form provided the only protection he had from the people who were chasing him.

Unable to assume his human form, the animagus allowed his human thoughts to run freely in his mind. Unpleasant as they were.

It was still a mystery for him why he had run away from those who had freed him from his prison. Even though also his human mind had no precise estimation on the time he had spent in Azkaban, he knew that it had been for years. And though his animagus abilities had provided him with a refuge not available to most of the other prisoners, the dreaded wizarding prison had left its marks on his mind.

Deep inside of his mind, he had known that he had encountered men like those who had freed the prisoners before. But at that moment, they had been his only chance for freedom, and he had not had a chance or the time to dwell on it. Whether those men had been his enemies or his allies in his life before Azkaban had not mattered at that moment, they were giving him a chance for freedom and he did not intend to let that chance pass unused.

The warden who had entered his cell that night had had a slightly different perspective of those events.

After it had stilled its thirst, the dog had spent long minutes in a desperate attempt to clean his muzzle from the dried blood. But no matter how hard it tried, the coppery taste on his tongue and inside of its muzzle did not go away. It lingered there, reminding him of the desperate moments of his escape.

The man did not remember whether he had killed before, but the impassive feeling with which he had looked at the corpse told him that death was no new experience for him.

In fact, the man did hardly remember anything from his life before Azkaban at all. Most important, he didn't even know how he had been captured and brought to prison. Memories were like shadows, dusting away whenever he tried to get a hold of them.

All he remembered was the ever-boiling anger inside of him, the anger that had been merely a kindling flicker inside by the time he had been delivered to hell, the anger that had steadily grown over the years until it had become an irate fire that was burning deep inside of him.

With a painful whine, the dog rose to his feet again and, at first slowly limping then steadily getting faster and steadier, took up his run through the forest again, his mind still filled with human thoughts.

He might have forgotten most of his life in the hands of the Azkaban guards, but one memory had remained. The one memory in which he had anchored his sanity throughout the years. The one memory that would grant him revenge.

He didn't know what kind of person he had been before his imprisonment.

He didn't know how he had been caught.

He didn't know how he had managed to survive and to escape.

But he knew he would get his revenge, that was all he had survived for.

And while the dog, the illegal animagus about whom the wizarding world didn't know, the man who was hunted under the name of Sirius Black, ran through the forest, only one thought went through his mind.

Remus Lupin. Wolf. Werewolf. Once friend. Once bound as pack mate. Now the enemy. His prey. His way to get revenge.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Remus looked at Harry with an exasperated sigh. He did remember the time when he had been at Harry' age, and he also remembered Janus at that age. But either it had completely slipped his mind, or he and his brother had never been as exhausting as Harry was.

Remus made a mental not to apologize to his dad, just in case.

This morning, Harry had had his second Quidditch lesson in Highley. And though it had taken nearly the entire morning, the boy had not shown any signs of fatigue when Richard had brought him into the bookstore after lunch.

Remus knew that a bookstore was not the best place for an active child like Harry was to spend his afternoons, but twice a week it could not be avoided.

Harry loved books, no doubt about that, but he preferred to read in the evening, before he went to bed and not in the afternoon while the sun was still up.

Normally, Remus made him use this enforced time in the bookstore to do his homework, but even that had been a struggle today.

Harry visited the local muggle elementary school, together with David and Eric. Though all three of them were wizarding children, neither of their parents had the time to home-school them as it was common in wizard families. Eric's father Martin was a single-raising parent and Remus' co-worker in the bookstore, and David's parents both worked until mid-afternoon, so the children went to school with the muggle kids in town. Remus knew it was a struggle for them not to let anything slip about their magical origins, though there were quite a few wizarding families living in the outskirts of Highley their presence was carefully hidden from the muggle inhabitants. So far, it had worked.

Drawing his thoughts back to reality, Remus noticed that Harry had left his desk while he had been thinking. Only minutes ago the boy had been sitting right here in front of him, kicking his feet at the legs of the table in an attempt to express his anger about being forced to sit still.

The constant knocking sound had not helped Remus to concentrate on the bookkeeping he had been attempting, but while he had been lost in his thoughts for a moment he had not even realized that it had stopped.

Mumbling a few choice words, Remus put his quill aside, marked the line he had just been calculating and left the room in search of his restless godson. Harry was nowhere in the backrooms of the store and neither in the small storage room. That meant he had gone out into the public area of the store, and though Remus had not explicitly forbidden him to do so, Harry knew that Remus didn't approve of him roaming the store without supervision.

When Remus entered the store through the small door behind the counter, he found Martin in front of the shelf with Introductory Texts on Defence, deeply engaged in a discussion with a customer. Claire, the co-owner of the shop besides Remus, was standing at the cash register and just handed out the change to the customer in front of her. When the man had left the store, Remus addressed Claire.

"Have you seen Harry? He must have slipped out while I have not been paying attention for a moment."

Claire smiled knowingly, but shook her head. She knew Harry quite well by now and had witnessed a few of Remus' attempts to make him do his homework silently while the boy had been more interested in exploring the store.

"No, haven't seen him. But I haven't been paying attention to him, I had a customer."

Remus sighed and let his eyes wander across the store.

Martin was holding out an old volume to the customer in front of him, pointing between the book in his hand and the one the customer was holding while he explained something. The small corner with books on Potions behind where Martin was standing was empty.

Remus sighed again and rounded the counter. Harry knew perfectly well that he was not allowed to leave the store without telling anybody about it, so he had to be somewhere in here.

The child was not hiding behind any of the presentation tables in the middle of the store, and neither was he in front of the shelf with the books on Transfiguration where he normally enjoyed looking at the illustrations of misplaced Transfiguration spells. That left the two shelves with literature on advanced defence, but still the boy was nowhere to be seen.

That left only one place for Harry to be in, and Merlin help him if Remus really found him in there.

With a few quick strides, Remus crossed the room and walked through the open door of a small side room. He arrived just in time to see his godson in front of one of the shelves, balancing on tip-toes on a shaky three-legged stool. He was obviously trying to pull out a book from one of the highest shelves and had not realized that Remus had entered the room.

Suppressing his anger for the moment, Remus quickly went over to Harry, grabbed the boy by his waist and pried his fingers away from the spine of the book. Lifting Harry with his left arm and holding the book in his right hand, he went over to the table in front of the window and placed Harry on top of it, the book next to him.

Harry looked at Remus with wide eyes. Remus was furious, that was plain to see and Harry knew he was in for it now.

"What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing?"

Remus' amber eyes were hard and so was his voice. Harry flinched and tried to look away, but Remus' gaze didn't allow him. His green eyes misted over and his chin began to tremble as the child searched for an explanation he knew he wouldn't find.

"I...I...Remus, I just wanted..."

"Harry, what have I told you about this room?"

Again, Harry tried to look away.

"I just wanted to..."
Remus took the boy's chin into his hand and forced Harry to look into his eyes again.

"What have I told you about this room Harry?"

Harry sighed and looked at his feet.

"That I'm not allowed in here."

Remus nodded.

"And why?"

"Because it's dangerous."

Remus pulled the chair Harry had been balancing on over and sat down so that he boy had no chance to avoid his eyes.

"And if you know that you're not allowed in here because it's dangerous, then please tell me why you sneaked off, came here and tried to read one of the books."

Harry's chin trebled more and more. Remus hardly ever got angry with him, and normally when he was angry he tended to shout a little until he had calmed down again. This low and cold manner of speaking was completely new behaviour and Harry didn't really know how to handle it.

"I wanted to look at the book you and Claire have been talking about this morning."

Remus grabbed the book and held it in front of Harry.

"This one?"

Harry only nodded.

"And why didn't you ask Claire or me if you could look at it?"
"Because you wouldn't have allowed it."

Remus nodded.

"That's right. We would not have allowed it, because this book is dangerous. Look at the title, Harry."

His chin still trembling, Harry raised his glassy eyes and looked at the front page of the book.

"C-Cursed Writings o-of G-Grindelwald's Reign."

Remus realized that Harry was close to breaking into tears, but at the moment he was far too angry to care. There were only a few ground rules Harry had to mind, and one of those was that if Remus forbid him to do something, he better stuck to that interdiction.

Remus angrily rose from the stool and put the book back onto the shelf. Then he turned around towards Harry again. The boy still looked at his feet.

"Harry, that book is dangerous. If you had accidentally read the wrong parts, you could have been cursed and nobody might have realized it in time.

I told you not to come into this room, you disobeyed. I told you not to read any of the books in the store, let alone the ones in this room, without asking first. You disobeyed again. I'm really disappointed Harry, I had thought that I had raised you differently."

Harry's shoulders tensed. He had not wanted to disappoint his godfather.

"I'm sorry."

"You'd be even more sorry if I had not found you before you opened the book."

"I...I didn't think that..."

"For sure you didn't think! Otherwise you would not have come here in the first place! And now I don't want to hear anything more from you."

During this last statement, the anger Remus felt finally found its way into his voice and the words came out as a shout. That was all it took to send Harry into tears. He sobbed loudly and the tears started to fall down his cheeks.

Remus shook his head. He didn't like to see Harry like this, but the boy needed to understand that what he had done had been wrong and highly dangerous. Remus had thought that he could trust Harry not to open a book without asking, especially after he had told him more than once how dangerous that could be.

He went over to Harry, lifted the child from the table again and carried him out of the room. Claire and Martin were busy with placing books back into their proper places and shot him curious looks as he went by with a crying child over his shoulder. Noticing that Remus and Harry had come out of the small side room, Claire got worried.

"Did something happen?"

Remus just shook his head.

"He wanted to read the cursed Grindelwald texts and didn't really like being caught in the act."

And without further explanation, Remus went back into the back rooms of the store. Claire could not help but sympathize with Harry. Though Remus loved the boy more than anything, he also knew about the importance of punishment. And though Harry would never be punished physically by his godfather, the rest of the day would surely not be pleasant for him.

When they reached the back office from which Harry had sneaked off earlier, Remus put Harry down on his chair, then went to close the door. Harry's eyes widened a little between his tears as he saw Remus locking the door and pocketing the key.

Turning back towards his godson, Remus sighed inwardly. He hated punishing Harry.

"Alright. I hope you know that I'll have to punish you for that stunt you pulled. You disappointed me greatly today Harry, and therefore this door will remain locked and you won't go out into the store or the other backrooms again until I'm convinced that I can trust you again. Furthermore, there won't be any flying for a week and you'll go straight to your room every evening after dinner. No TV, no reading in the living room, no chess. For one week.

And for the rest of the afternoon, you'll silently do your homework while I finish these accounts. Understood?"

Harry nodded and took up his pen, pretending to focus on his spelling exercises, though Remus doubted that he could see anything through his still misted eyes. He handed Harry a handkerchief and then sat down at his desk again.

As he had expected, Harry remained silent for the rest of the afternoon, listlessly scribbling down his homework, and he remained silent even when Remus packed away his folders and told him to pack his bag.

With a sigh, Remus unlocked the door and Harry went out of the room without any comment. Claire and Martin greeted the boy with sympathetic looks and Remus was just about to comment this when a voice from the door interrupted him.

"Have you been crying, Harry? What in Merlin's name has happened to you, little one?"

Looking up, Remus much to his surprise saw that Janus had just entered the store and was now crouching in front of Harry. The child didn't answer his uncle's question and merely flung his arms around Janus' neck and held on tightly, burying his face in Janus' shirt.

With a puzzled expression, Janus lifted Harry up and walked over towards Remus. His brother merely mouthed 'I'll explain later' at Janus before he asked his own question.

"What are you doing here, Janus?"

Janus shrugged his shoulders, at least as far as it was possible with Harry clinging onto him.

"Nothing to do at work, so I thought I'd visit the little one and maybe fly with him for an hour or so."

Remus shook his head.

"No flying for Harry today."

Janus raised an eyebrow.

"Well, then we'll play chess."

Remus shook his head again.

"No chess either. But let's go, I'll explain later. Bye Claire, Martin."

The two brothers and Harry left the store and made their way towards Remus' house quite quickly. When they had entered, Harry immediately struggled against Janus' hold and ran upstairs as soon as his uncle had set him back on the floor.

Following his brother into the kitchen, Janus leaned against the counter and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Now tell me."

Remus looked up from behind the refrigerator door and rolled his eyes.

"It's a long story."

Janus sat down on top of the counter and grabbed an apple.

"Then just give me the short version. What on earth have you done to the little one?"
Remus put the ingredients for dinner onto the counter next to his brother and started to pull out pots and knives.

"I haven't done anything to him. He sneaked off into the side room and tried to read a tome of cursed writings, just because he was curious. He had not even been allowed to go in there and he was quite lucky that I found him before something serious happened. So I punished him."

"Remus Lupin in parenting mode? Wow, that's something new."

"Don't tease me, I didn't like it at all. But Harry needs to learn that when I forbid him to stay away from something dangerous he'd better stick to it. He's angry and upset now, but he'll get over it.

At the moment I'm more interested in the real reason why you are here."

Janus choked on his apple and gave Remus a look the other could not interpret. Afraid? Angry? Guilty? Remus could not tell and after a moment, Janus got his facial expression under control again.

"I told you, I just dropped by."

Remus shook his head.

"Janus, you don't just drop by. Especially since you've told me only two days ago that you're quite busy at work at the moment."

Janus shrugged.

"Not really, at least not anymore. Can't I just drop by and look after my little brother?"
Remus raised an eyebrow but bit back any further comment. Instead, he handed Janus a knife.

"Well, if you're only dropping by then at least make yourself useful and chop the onions."

Janus did as he was told and both men worked in silence for twenty minutes. And while Remus was inwardly contemplating whether he had been too harsh with Harry's punishment Janus pondered completely different thoughts.

Of course he had not just dropped by, but no way could he tell Remus the real reason for his visit. The raid in Azkaban was now three days ago, and still no sign of the escaped Death Eaters had been found.

Further investigations in the raided prison had shown that all those prisoners who had not been in either the mental or the physical condition to leave the island had been locked up in a large room in Azkaban's basement. Why the raiders had taken the time to move them and lock them up instead of just killing them remained a mystery so far. Janus could not believe that the Death Eaters had grown soft when confronted with their former partners in crime, especially when killing them would have meant salvation compared to their current state. But then again, maybe that was the answer. No matter how hard he tried, the way Death Eater minds worked was too big of a puzzle for him.

Also, Janus knew that at the moment there were far more important things to worry about than why the Death Eaters had not killed the remaining prisoners.

The ones who had managed to escape were still out there, and so far no sign had even indicated where they might have gone to. And amongst them was Sirius Black.

Janus had little doubt that his brother's former friend would seek Remus out to finally complete what he had attempted six years ago. Whatever Black might intend to do in the near future, Remus was a very probable target for him. Not to mention Harry, the boy was absolutely defenceless against a fully educated wizard.

On his way here, before he had fetched Remus and Harry from the store, Janus had checked the wards around Remus' house again and had reinforced them. Some of the protection charms had worn off a little during the last couple of months and Janus didn't intend to take any chances with Black on the loose. He had also added a couple of other wards, just in case.

If it was possible, Janus would want to keep an eye on Remus and Harry whenever possible, especially when they were home alone with nobody else around. But he knew exactly that Remus would grow suspicious if he came to visit everyday without a proper reason, and if there was one thing he couldn't do then it was telling Remus about it.

It was already bad enough that his brother had linked Harry's nightmares to Death Eater activities, Death Eater attacks that had really taken place.

Janus' work was classified as top-secret, and as much as he wanted it he could not tell Remus about it, neither about the two Death Eater attacks nor about the raids in Azkaban.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Remus with such a secret, though he truly didn't trust him completely, but most important it was a question of principles. When Janus had entered the Department of Mysteries, he had vowed not to tell anything about his work, not to anybody. That was the whole sense of that Department, outsiders were not to know who was working on what. Otherwise undercover operations were bound to fail. If he had wanted it differently, he could have joined the Aurors.

No, he definitely couldn't tell Remus about what had happened, he'd just do his best to protect his brother and Harry without them even noticing that they needed that protection.

Though he had no idea how to manage that.

When the pasta was nearly done and the sauce was boiling on the stove, Remus finally broke the silence.

"Do you want to eat with us?"

Janus didn't miss the slightly teasing tone in his voice.

"Do you honestly think I'd help you with your cooking if I intended to leave before dinner? Remus, sometimes I really worry about your state of mind."

Remus laughed and put the plates on the table.

"I'd better call the pup, he must be starving by now."

But when Remus went into the hall and called for Harry to come down for dinner, he received no answer. Frowning slightly, Remus tried again to call his godson, with the same results. Janus stepped at his side.

"I guess Harry is still upset about his punishment."

Janus nodded.

"Let me try, I'll talk to him."

Hesitantly, Remus nodded.
"Okay, I'll wait in the kitchen."

Janus watched him leave and then went upstairs towards Harry's room. He couldn't hear any sounds through the door, but even if Harry had been sleeping he must have heard Remus' call. The boy had always been a light sleeper. When Janus opened the door he found Harry lying on his bed, curled up into a ball and holding his old stuffed lion tightly in his arms.

"Harry? It's time for dinner."

The child stuck out his lower lip.

"'m not hungry."

The statement would have been more convincing if Harry's stomach had not growled loudly at that precise moment. With a small smile on his face, Janus sat down on the mattress next to the child.

"Somehow I doubt that's the reason. Come on Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry only shrugged and stared ahead, still clutching the lion tightly.

"Are you angry with Remus?"

This time, Harry shook his head.

Janus sighed. This wouldn't go very far if the boy refused to speak.

"So if you're hungry and not angry with Remus, then why don't you want to come down for dinner? Hey, I cooked for twenty minutes, do you want the good food to go to waste?"

Harry curled up more tightly.

"Remus doesn't want to see me."

Well, at least Harry had finally said something.

"You think he doesn't want to see you?"

A nod.

"Why?"

"Because he's angry."

Janus rubbed Harry's back encouragingly.

"Just because he's angry with you doesn't mean he doesn't want to see you."

Harry stubbornly stuck out his lower lip again.

"Yes it does. He doesn't want me anymore."

"Harry, never say something like this. Of course Remus wants you here."

Harry only shook his head.

"No, he doesn't. He said he was disappointed. And he was angry. And he didn't talk to me, didn't look at me."

Janus rubbed his face with his hands and prayed to whatever deity listening that his daughter would skip the phase Harry was currently in.

"Harry, if Remus really didn't want you then he would not have cared whether you opened the book or not. He wouldn't have cared if you got hurt or not.

But he does care about you and he doesn't want you to get hurt. That's why he punished you. He got angry with you because you did something that was dangerous, and because he had told you not to do it. But Remus loves you, alright? More than anything. He doesn't want anything to happen to you and he did punish you because he wants you to remember this and not to do something as dangerous as that again. He's only worried about you."

Harry slowly nodded, but it was obvious that he still wasn't entirely convinced. Janus pulled him up into a sitting position and cuddled the small boy into his lap.

"Okay, I already figured out that you're not allowed to fly and play chess for a week. What else?"

Harry hugged Rory the stuffed lion tightly.

"'m not allowed out of the backroom of the store anymore. And I have to go to my room straight after dinner."

Janus smiled sympathetically. He knew exactly how much Harry treasured the hours in the living room with Remus before he went to bed. If anything, Remus definitely knew how to punish Harry so that he'd surely remember.

But then an idea occurred to him.

"Well, I can't do anything about the store, but I guess we'll be able to dodge our way around the other part of the punishment."

Green eyes looked at him curiously.

"How?"

"Well, Remus didn't say you had to be alone in your room, did he?"

Harry shook his head.

"There. What would you say if I promised you to drop by every night as long as your punishment lasts? If you're not allowed to leave the room after dinner, we'll find a way to spend the time here."

"Really?"

Janus smiled at Harry, not only because he had managed to lighten the boy's mood. By the promise of dropping by every evening, Janus had killed two birds with one stone. He'd be there to entertain the boy during his punishment, and also he had found the perfect excuse to have a closer eye on his brother and Harry in case Black decided to show up.

"Really. Okay?"

Harry nodded vigorously.

"Okay."

"Good. Now that this is settled, could we finally go down to eat something? I'm starving, you know?"

Harry smiled and slipped out of Janus' lap, pulling his uncle out of his room behind him.

Remus' eyes were wide in surprise when he saw his godson coming into the kitchen, smiling and pulling Janus behind him. But he decided not to comment on it, he would ask Janus what he had told Harry later. Right now he was content to see that the child wasn't brooding over his punishment anymore.

Harry must have been really hungry, he devoured his dinner without really chewing and only stopped after his second helping. Remus smiled and shook his head. If the boy continued eating in those amounts, he'd surely grow a couple of inches soon. Whether in width or height he wasn't completely sure, but with the amounts Harry usually ate, it would have to show sooner or later.

When they had finished and Harry put the plates into the sink for Remus to clean like he always did, Remus finally found a moment to ask Janus what he had done.

"What have you told Harry? He doesn't seem upset anymore at all."

Janus grinned smugly and whispered back.

"In the future you'll have to think carefully how you formulate your punishments, little bro'."

Remus shook his head and was just about to process that piece of information and think about an answer, when suddenly the lights in the room began to flutter and Janus' wand that had been lying on the table beside him began to buzz and vibrate. Behind them, Remus heard the sound of breaking china. Remus spun around and found Harry, bent over the shards of a broken plate. The child looked up with a scared look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Remus...I...the lights..."

Remus raised a calming hand and went over to his godson. He pulled Harry away from the broken plate and quickly mended it with a flick of his wand.

"It's alright pup, nothing happened."

He turned around to Janus, but his brother wasn't sitting on the kitchen table anymore. Moments later, he came back into the room, a worried frown on his face.

"Janus, what has just happened? Why did the lights go down and your wand began to buzz?"
"I reinforced your wards today, my wand reacts to them. Same goes for the lights."

Remus just shook his head.

"And?"

"Alarms, Remus. Do you still have the portkey?"
Remus nodded. Dumbledore had made a portkey set for Hogsmeade for him shortly after Harry had moved in. It was meant as a mean of escape in case of an attack on him or Harry, but other than renewing the charms on it every second month, Remus hardly thought about it.

"Yes, it's in the living room. Why? Janus, what does all that mean?"

Harry didn't really understand what the adults were talking about, but the tone in Remus' voice scared him. Something was happening, and Remus didn't know what. This was not right, Remus always knew what to do. And Janus was worried, which also scared Harry. Janus was never worried, he was always laughing and cheerful. And what was he talking about? Which alarms and wards?

Without really realizing it, Harry moved as close to Remus as possible, until his godfather finally picked him up and placed him on his hip.

Now at least that was something that secured Harry. In Remus' arms he was safe, he had always been. His godfather wouldn't let anybody hurt him.

Janus meanwhile had moved to the kitchen window and looked outside through a slit in the curtains.

"Janus?"

"Remus, get the portkey, use it to get you and Harry to Hogsmeade. Go to Hogwarts immediately, tell Dumbledore what happened, and if possible call Lucas and send him here."

"Janus, I will only ask once more. What. Is. Happening?"

Janus sighed and turned around.

"I don't have time to explain, I can't explain. I've set up additional wards around the house today and connected them with the lights in the house and my wand. Wards that get triggered by the Dark Mark."

He looked Remus straight in the eyes and saw understanding dawn in them. He nodded at Remus.

"Yes. Someone who carries the Dark Mark has just breached the outer barrier. Go now!"

"What about you?"
Janus sighed.

"I can look after myself. Just do what I told you, there isn't any time left to discuss this. Go. Now!"

Remus nodded and adjusted Harry's weight on his hip. He headed straight into the living room to retrieve the crystal-paperweight that was the portkey to Hogsmeade.

He pulled the box down from the top shelf and opened the lid.

"Harry, I want you to grab the paperweight, at the same time that I do, alright?"
Harry just nodded and tightened his hold on Remus' neck. He stretched his hand out to the crystal and together Remus and Harry touched the portkey and vanished.

Seeing that they were gone, Janus extinguished the lights and drew his wand.

If there were Death Eaters, or worse Sirius Black, coming to get Harry and Remus, they would be disappointed. They'd only find a thoroughly pissed off Unspeakable who was prepared for their arrival.

Retreating into a corner of the room, Janus waited for his wand to signal him that the last barrier around the house was breached. He was prepared.