Living with Danger

Chapter 1: March 15, 1982, Surrey

Happy damn birthday to me.

23 years old and nothing left to live for.

A passerby dropped a coin at his feet, apparently mistaking him for a homeless person. He was about to call after her, but thought better of it.

What the hell. 50p is 50p.

He picked up the coin and pocketed it.

This time last year, I had friends. I had what amounted to a family. I had work - it was dangerous, sure, but what isn't? I had a purpose in life.

And then, in the space of two days - gone. All of it. Three people dead. One a traitor and locked up forever. And one hidden away where no one will find him.

No one including me.

He stared up through the leafless branches of the tree at the overcast sky.

Why am I even bothering anymore?

Tomorrow, I'll call the local authorities just before sunset and report a rabid animal on my property. Then I'll leave the door open.

End of problem.

End of everything.

----------

This was definitely not one of Remus Lupin's better days.

But fate, as it so often does, was about to play a trick on him...

----------

Having made a decision, he felt a little better. He sat up and looked around. Two tiny children in hooded coats chased one another around the swing set nearby, giggling. A young woman sat on a bench nearby, reading.

They're so little. They can't be more than two. Probably not even that.

Harry's age.

His heart clenched painfully. No one would tell him where the boy was. The official story was that it would be better for everyone if Harry grew up fostered by Muggles, without contact with the wizarding world, without knowing that he was a celebrity and a hero. But Remus knew better.

They're afraid of me. They're afraid I might try to take him, and then lose control one night and bite him or even kill him. And the worst of it is, they're right on both counts. I'd take him in a heartbeat. And there's no guarantee he'd be safe with me.

He sighed as the shrieking from the playground rose in volume. No, I'd better just leave well enough alone. I'm sure he's happy where he is.

Wherever that may be.

"Neenie, no!" shouted the young woman at one of the children. There was no telling which, since both their faces were hidden by their hoods. "No pushing! Play nice with Harry!"

Remus sat up straight, every nerve alert. Oh my God.

Then he forced himself to calm down. No. It can't be. It has to be a coincidence. It's not that uncommon a name...

But it had started him thinking, and he couldn't seem to stop.

Lily had a sister, a Muggle sister. Petunia, I think. It's just possible he's with her. Lily's sacrifice would have left blood magic traces. If anyone could bring them to full strength, it would be Dumbledore. Which would make his aunt's home the safest place for him.

Possibly. I just wish I felt better about Lily's sister. If I remember correctly, she didn't think much of magic. Or of Lily.

But she wouldn't harm a child because of that. Would she?

I have to find out where she lives. If she doesn't have Harry, maybe she knows where he is... I think she might even live somewhere in Surrey, that's a start at least...

One of the children pushed the other one down. The fallen one started to cry.

"Oh, it's ok, sweetheart," cooed the young woman, hurrying to the child's side. "Don't cry, Greeneyes, it's just a little bump, right?"

Green eyes? Oh God...

Remus was on his feet without knowing it as the young woman gently pulled down the child's hood, exposing black, tousled hair and bright green eyes in a tear-streaked face.

James' face. And Lily's eyes.

He was running toward the child, unable to stop himself, knowing he must look completely mad, and not caring at all...

"Mooey!" the little boy squealed. His face lit up, and he lifted his arms in a "pick-me-up" gesture. Remus snatched him up and held him close, reveling in the feel of trusting arms around his neck, in the scent of the boy's hair and skin, in having the last person in the world he cared for close to his heart once more.

And I'll never let him go again...

He suddenly realized that the young woman was staring at him. Of course she's staring, she's probably Harry's foster mother or his aunt or something and she wants to know who you are and what the hell you think you're doing!

"I'm so sorry," he began, turning to her with Harry squirming happily in his arms. "I was a friend of Harry's father in school, I haven't seen him in a while..."

"I married you last night," she whispered.

"What?"

Her eyes went very round. "Oh my Lord. Oh my Lord, I did not just say that out loud. I did not. I did not. I did, didn't I."

"Yes, you did."

"Oh my Lord. I'm so sorry. What a way to start a conversation. Please, can we start over?"

"I'd love to," Remus said, looking more closely at her. She had quite a lot of curly brown hair, as did the little girl holding onto her pant leg and regarding him solemnly, though the effect was a little spoiled by the thumb in her mouth. The girl was adorable, he decided, and the woman rather lovely, in a bookish sort of way...

"I had a dream about you last night," the woman said, getting herself under control. "Even though, as far as I know, we have never met in the flesh. Am I right?"

"I think I would remember it if I had met you before, Miss..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Please, call me Danger. It's my nickname, I answer to it faster than anything else."

"Well, if we're on nicknames, please, call me Moony." He transferred Harry to his left arm and shook hands.

"Is that what Harry said, then? I was wondering." Danger gave a lopsided smile and bent down to the little girl. "Neenie, this is Mr. Moony." She straightened up. "My sister, Neenie."

"Hello, Neenie," Remus said, smiling at her. Neenie gave a tiny wave with the hand that wasn't partially in her mouth. "Your sister?"

"I know, it's a big age difference, everyone thinks she's mine, but no, definitely my sister."

"So how do you know Harry?" Remus asked, sitting down with the child in question snuggling down on his lap.

"He lives up the street from us a little ways with his aunt and uncle. You said you were a friend of his father's?"

"Yes."

"May I ask, then?"

"Ask what happened to his parents?"

"Yes."

Remus took a deep breath, feeling the weight of Harry against his ribs. All the nightmarish images of the last six months flooded through his head, starting with the moment he had heard the news, and not from anyone he knew, anyone in the Order, no, just some random witch on the street, who had shouted it out to him when she saw him coming...

"They were murdered," he said. "Betrayed by a friend and killed by a lunatic."

"And his mother threw herself in front of him, to save him," Danger murmured as if to herself. "A flash of green light and a rushing sound like death on invisible wings..."

Remus stared at her. "How do you know that?" he demanded.

She met his eyes openly, and Remus saw something he'd never seen before - pain, grief, loss, all there, and all equal to his own.

"I dreamed it," she said softly. "I dreamed it all. You, and him, and this. Please, tell me something, and tell me the truth."

"If I can, I will."

"Is magic real? Because I dreamed of magic when I dreamed of you, and you're real, and here in front of me. So please tell me."

Harry squirmed. "Down, Mooey," he requested. Remus let him slide to the ground, still looking at Danger. Should I tell her? It's against the law, but she seems to know already...

"Yes," he said finally. She deserves the truth, if only for the pain in her face.

"Thank God," Danger breathed. "There was no other explanation."

"For what?"

Her eyes closed for a moment. "I was at school. I went to get Neenie from day care, then I went home. And there were my parents, lying in the living room, dead. They had these expressions on their faces..." She broke off. "I can't describe it."

"Pain," Remus said, thinking of the Longbottoms. "As if they died in pain."

"Yes." Danger's voice choked. "They never did anything wrong. Why them? Why?"

"The Dark Ones lost their leader just half a year ago," Remus said quietly. "You saw it in your dreams. They're trying frantically to stay out of prison, but some of them can't control themselves. Please believe me when I say that I wish I could have stopped them."

"I believe you," Danger said with her face in her hands. "And thank you." She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and went on. "So, after that, I got custody of Neenie, and I got a job, and life went on. My parents were both professionals, they were fairly well off, so we have a little saved up to help eke out my salary. But then I started dreaming. Pictures, words, and finally, last night, a story."

"Yes, you said a wedding?"

Danger smiled wanly. "Said more than that, didn't I? Yes, it was a wedding. I was the bride, and I realized I had no idea who any of the people were. Except my maid of honor, that was Aletha, my best friend when I was little. I haven't seen her in years, I wonder how she's doing... anyway, I got to the altar, I looked at the groom - and it was you. And please don't take this wrong, but if you kiss in real life like you did in the dream... damn."

"Thank you," Remus said. "I'm flattered. I think."

"Oh, it's a compliment, trust me," Danger said. "And I was so happy to see you that I forgot I didn't know anything about you - and suddenly I did know all about you. Everything."

"Everything?" As in, everything?

"Yes. Everything. Like how you have a hard time getting a job, because you have to be, shall we say, 'away' for a couple days every month, and everyone in the magical world would know why and be afraid, and no one in the rest of the world will put up with it, even if they don't know why."

Remus shook his head slowly, bemused. "You know what I am, and all about me, and you're still sitting here beside me?"

"Not everyone's a bigot," said Danger. "And besides, Harry likes you. I trust that kid's judgment."

"He liked Sirius, too," Remus said quietly. "It was Peter he wouldn't go near. He may not be the best judge of character."

"I'm sorry?"

"A couple of men I knew."

"Friends of yours?"

"At one time." Remus hoped she would be able to tell from his tone that he really didn't want to talk about this.

Danger was silent for a moment. "Do you believe me?" she finally asked. "About the dreams?"

"I don't know. You could have found out what you know somewhere else, I guess. Though it seems unlikely. Let's say I remain unconvinced at the moment."

"I think I can convince you."

"How?"

Danger pulled a pad of paper and pen from her bag, scribbled something on the paper, then handed it to Remus. "Hold this. How many people know your full name?"

"My full name? Middle and all? Not too many. And I never told you any part of my name. Just my nickname."

"Open that."

He did so. Scrawled on the page was Remus John Lupin.

"Mine's Gertrude," Danger said quietly. "Gertrude Kelly Granger. Convinced now?"

"Yes," Remus said, still staring at the paper. "Yes, I think I am."

"Would you like to come over for some tea, then?"

"Come over?"

"To my house. It's not far. And there are a few things I want to tell you. About the dreams. Things I think you need to know."

"If you're not busy..."

"I have the day off at work, so my only job is watching Harry until his aunt and uncle get back. And he's a great kid, so no, I'm not busy. It's just a few streets this way..."

----------

The little house looked even more inviting when the skies opened as they had been threatening to do all day, and Remus was obliged to stay "at least until it stops raining." Danger - Remus found himself unable to think of her as Gertrude - changed Harry's nappy, then turned on the TV for the children, and put the kettle on to boil.

"The dreams are always similar, if not exactly the same," she said without preamble, sitting down at the kitchen table. "Cacophony, madness. Blurs of color and sound. But I can get bits and pieces here and there. Lots of orange, but always associated with the word red. That confuses me a lot. When is orange red?"

Remus was taking notes on a pad he'd noticed on her desk. When is orange red?

"Along with the orange, or the red, or whatever, flashes of black and flashes of brown. And then it's as if someone shouts a couplet in my ear.

"Black to red and red to brown

"Shall truly bring the darkness down.

"But I don't know what it means," she finished in frustration, lightly pounding the table. "Then I start getting actual pictures. Four boys. One of them is you. Then two with dark hair - one of those looks like Harry - and one kind of mousy-looking one."

"My best friends at school," Remus said. "We called ourselves the Marauders. The boy who looks like Harry is his father, James, the other dark one is Sirius Black, and the mousy boy is Peter Pettigrew."

"Thank you," Danger said in relief. "Having names makes everything easier. I see James, then, with a red-haired girl, flashes of dates, a wedding, a baby - Harry - and you and Black and Pettigrew around them, doing the things friends do. And then it all goes awful." She shuddered. "One of you goes over to the Dark. To some horrid scary guy who looks like a snake gone wrong."

"Sirius," Remus said bitterly.

"No. Pettigrew."

"What?" Remus jerked his head up from his notes to stare at her.

"That's what I see," Danger said. "It's definitely Pettigrew talking with the nasty one. Pettigrew telling him where to find them. Pettigrew turning into a rat. Can he do that?"

He almost didn't want to believe her, but her last comment clinched it. No one besides the Marauders had known about that.

And I'm the last Marauder.

About that, at least, she had to be telling the truth.

And if she's telling the truth about that, what about the rest?

"Yes. He can."

"He did it the day everyone thinks he died," Danger said, her eyes almost closed. "I always see it in slow motion. He shouts something at Black, he pulls out this little stick behind his back," she shuddered, "cuts off his own finger with it - I don't know how, or why - "

"A finger was the most they ever found of him," Remus said in a deadly quiet voice. Too much was making sense all of a sudden.

"And then the street behind him just explodes, and he shrinks down to rat size and shape and runs away while the smoke is clearing. And Black looks at the place where he was, and he starts laughing. And then I drift into a kind of foggy place, and I hear a poem, repeated over and over again until I wake up with it drumming in my head."

She clutched her hair melodramatically, then smiled apologetically. "I always thought that was just an expression, until I started dreaming like this. I finally wrote it down, and then it left me alone. I think you should see it."

"I think I should too," Remus said grimly. Several loose parts of his world were starting to fall into place. Specifically, the "Sirius would never betray Lily and James" part, and the "Peter doesn't strike me as the martyr type" part.

"Here it is," Danger said, handing him a sheet of paper, half-covered with lines of neat handwriting. "I did a clean copy once I was sure I had it right."

Black to red and red to brown

Shall truly bring the darkness down.

Find the red and find the rat

Whose cunning plot did catch no cat.

Trust thy heart and try the grim,

And truth shall bring new life to him.

The wolf that runs in brightest dark

Of fear in danger strikes no spark,

For she is maid of warrior soul,

And by her touch his mind is whole.

When they who saved the savior twine

The freshest blood with founders' line,

Then has the age of hope begun,

And peace comes to the man who won.

"That couplet from before, it's in here as well," Remus said as he scanned the lines.

Danger nodded. "I know. It must be important somehow."

"But we don't understand it at the moment, so let's look at the first quatrain, after the couplet."

"Sounds good."

The teakettle whistled. Danger got up to tend to it. Remus copied the four lines onto his notepad, impressing them carefully on his memory as he did.

Find the red and find the rat

Whose cunning plot did catch no cat.

Trust thy heart and try the grim,

And truth shall bring new life to him.

"Anything?" Danger asked as she lifted the kettle carefully off the heat and poured the steaming water into the pot.

"Not yet."

"Trust thy heart and try the grim..." The grim what? That doesn't make any sense, grim's not a noun, it's an adjective... unless...

Unless it's a proper noun.

"I think I have something."

"So tell." Danger handed him a mug. "Do you take sugar, or milk or anything?"

"Sugar if you have it. Have you ever heard of a Grim?"

"A Grim, as in a thing?" Danger had her head in the pantry. "Vaguely. Some kind of spirit, like a big black dog, I think. Isn't it supposed to be bad luck?"

"Yes. Another name for it is a Padfoot."

"Padfoot?" Danger sat back down, placing the sugar bowl on the table. "That sounds familiar. From the dreams. It was one of your nicknames. For the boy who could turn into the dog. For Sirius." Comprehension dawned on her face, and she planted her finger on the word in the poem. "This means him, doesn't it?"

"It may well. The rest of the line is phrased as a command. Trust thy heart and try the Grim."

Danger blew on her tea. " 'Trust your feelings, Luke,' " she quoted. "Or rather, Moony. What does your heart tell you?"

"That Sirius would never have been a traitor," Remus said bitterly. "That I was a fool not to question, not to ask. They just threw him into Azkaban, he never even had a trial - ah!"

Danger jumped. "What?"

"Try the Grim. Try him, as in, give him a trial. The kind he never had."

"What kind of laws do you people have?" Danger asked, shaking her head.

Remus groaned. "The evidence was overwhelming against him. And we were still in the middle of a brutal war, with measures taken everywhere that shouldn't have been. So the man in charge of the case decided he'd expedite things, and I was too wrapped up in my own grief to notice, or care..."

"You can't blame yourself," Danger said quietly, putting her hand on top of his. "What matters now is righting the wrong, not assigning blame for it. There's still hope, isn't there? Look at the next line. And truth shall bring new life to him. If we can bring the truth out in the open, wouldn't he be released?"

"The problem is, there's no evidence that he didn't kill all those people, and every indication that he did. And all the evidence points to him being the betrayer." How could I have forgotten? Dream or no dream, it can't have been anyone but him... "He was the only one who could have betrayed Lily and James."

"Why the only one? Isn't everyone who knew where they were suspect?"

"Sirius was the only one who knew. Or rather, the only one who could tell other people. They were under a spell called the Fidelius Charm. Sirius was the key to that spell - "

"The Secret-Keeper," Danger interrupted.

"Yes. How do - of course, you dreamed it."

"Yes, I dreamed the Secret-Keeper," Danger said, her eyes half-lidding and her voice falling into a monotone. "I dreamed the Secret-Keeper and the Dark Lord. They were alone together. They spoke."

Her voice changed, and Remus bit back an exclamation. She sounded exactly like Peter, like Peter at his whiniest.

"My Lord, it has happened - the Potters have made me their Secret-Keeper..."

"Well done, Wormtail," said a strangely high, cold voice through Danger's mouth. "You had no trouble convincing the cur it was his own idea to switch you, then?"

"None, my Lord. He sees me as weak and foolish, he would never believe such a clever idea was mine..."

"You are weak and foolish, Wormtail," said the cold voice in tones of amusement. "But not as foolish as your former friends, who continue to hold out vain hopes of my defeat. You will be rewarded for this, I promise you..."

Danger's eyes closed entirely, then shot open as she gasped for breath. "What was that?" she coughed.

"You looked as if you were in a trance," Remus said quietly as everything fell into place in his mind. "And you told me exactly what I needed to know."

"Are you all right?" Danger asked, getting her breathing under control.

"Just angry." His hand tightened around the mug, ignoring the heat of the liquid inside. "Very angry. And perhaps a little bitter."

"Why?"

"They changed Secret-Keepers. They used Peter instead of Sirius. And I didn't know. They didn't tell me. There's only one reason they wouldn't have told me."

"They thought it was you," Danger whispered. "Oh God, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault..."

"I know, I'm just... damn, why did I ever have to get mixed up in this?" Danger buried her head in her arms. "I'm sorry I ever got involved," she said muffledly. "I'm sorry for everything."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Remus felt an insane urge to pull her into his arms, but settled for resting his hand on her arm. "You're telling me the truth. I need to hear it. An innocent man has been wronged, and there's a rat somewhere out there who wants Harry dead. Now that I know, I can do something about it."

Danger sniffled. "We," she said.

"I'm sorry?"

"We can do something about it." She raised her head. Her face, though tear-splotched, was filled with determination. "I may never have met you before today, I may not have wanted to get involved, but now that I am involved, I'm staying that way, so don't think you're leaving me behind!"

"I would never leave you behind," Remus said, intending it to sound humorous. A mild feeling of shock spread over him as he realized the depth of feeling in the words, and the depth of his feelings for this woman he had only met a short time ago...

A two-part chorus of wails arose from the other room, and the attention of both adults was diverted.

Harry was hungry and Neenie was wet, as it turned out, so Danger attended to her sister's problem while Remus slid Harry into one of the two battered high chairs that sat in the kitchen. "What should I give him?" he called.

"There's dry cereal in the pantry, he can have some of that," Danger answered.

Remus poured some of the cereal onto the high chair tray, and Harry grabbed for it with a gleeful squeal. He stuffed a fistful in his mouth and gave one of his signature grins, and Remus felt his heart melt. Where do children learn how to do this? Is there some kind of secret Cuteness Correspondence Course they all take?

"I'd suggest setting up over here," Danger said, carrying Neenie into the kitchen and indicating a corner fairly far from the table. "You'll see why."

Remus pulled Harry's high chair across the kitchen and parked it next to Neenie's. As soon as Neenie got her serving of cereal, she scooped up a handful and pelted Harry with it. Harry responded in kind, both of them giggling madly, and soon there was more cereal on the floor than anywhere else. "I can always sweep later, and it keeps them happy," Danger said. "We just have to reload them every so often. Now where were we?"

"We have the last two lines of this stanza figured out. Sirius is innocent, which would have been shown if he'd ever had a trial, and if we can prove the truth somehow, we can free him." But something niggled at Remus. "...truth will bring new life to him." Truth, and Sirius...

"The truth and the star, what a combination," he murmured.

"What?"

"Something Sirius' girlfriend used to say about them. Because he was named after a star, and her name means 'truth.'"

"What's her name?"

"Aletha. Aletha Freeman. I haven't seen her since last July..." He stopped, realizing Danger had made a sound resembling a stifled squeal. He looked over at her. She had her hand pressed to her mouth as if she were about to be ill. "What's wrong?"

"You know Aletha Freeman?"

"We were in school together," Remus said. "She was a year below me. Why, do you know her?"

"She was my best friend when I was little," Danger said, looking shaken. "She was in my dream..." She blushed. "...about the wedding. But I haven't seen her since we were kids. Are you telling me she's a - a wizardess?"

"A witch," Remus corrected. "If it's the same Aletha Freeman. Can you describe her?"

"I have a picture," Danger said. "Of the two of us, before she went away. I'll get it." She hurried up the stairs. Remus took the opportunity to put more cereal on the children's trays. Harry yelled happily and pounded one or two pieces to dust before throwing another handful at Neenie as Danger arrived breathlessly with a framed photograph in her hands.

"That's her," Remus said, looking at the grinning, dark-skinned girl with the cap of black frizzy hair, arm around the waist of a younger version of Danger, both of them frozen in time in the Muggle picture. "That's Letha."

Danger shook her head. "This is way too weird for me. My best friend when I was little dated your best friend from school, I baby-sit your other best friend's kid, and now we just happen to meet in the park?"

"It is strange," Remus said, looking again at the picture. "But I'm unbelievably glad that it happened. If it hadn't..." He stopped. No need to tell her everything. "I would have spent the day alone and depressed," he finished. "Like I've spent most of the past few months. And it's my birthday, which doesn't help matters any."

"Happy birthday, then," Danger said, smiling at him. "I'm glad I could help."

"So "truth" in the poem may mean Aletha," Remus said, pulling himself back to the original subject. "If it does, she may be important in whatever it is we're going to do. We should get in touch with her. I can do that. Tomorrow - no, not tomorrow, or the day after. The day after that."

"Why not tomorrow?"

Remus flinched, inwardly. She already knows, he reminded himself, and she doesn't care. But old habits died hard. And they really shouldn't die at all, I need them for the rest of the world, the kind with normal attitudes about lycanthropy... "Tomorrow night is the full moon, and I'm not much good for a day before or after."

"Of course," Danger said, getting up to give Harry some more cereal. "I can understand that. So in three days, we'll get a hold of Aletha and see how she reacts to this. What can we do in the meantime?"

"Keep working on the poem," Remus said. "If we can get all this from just two lines, what secrets does the rest of it hold?"

Working from the identification of Sirius as the Grim, they were able to identify the rat of the first line as Pettigrew fairly easily. "Find the rat/ whose cunning plot did catch no cat," Danger chanted. "It caught no cat because it caught a dog, a Grim. It must be Pettigrew."

Remus ran his finger along the first line of the quatrain. "This first part is some kind of clue about where to find him. Find the red and find the rat. Red again. Could this be the same red as in the couplet, the red that's really orange?"

"Could be. That line comes right after the couplet, so it makes sense. All right, thinking time. What's black, brown, and red but really orange?"

"It sounds like a joke," Remus said. "A very bad joke."

Danger grinned. "Like, what's black and white and red all over?"

Remus sighed. "That is so old."

"How old is it?" Danger asked in a sing-song tone.

"It's so old that even wizards know it."

"Bravo!" She applauded him. "You know, I've never had anyone actually give me a comeback on that line before?"

"They were probably slain by your rapier wit," Remus said, smiling in spite of himself. He had never met anyone who intrigued him as Danger did.

I've never met anyone even remotely like Danger!

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," said Danger, jumping up. "It is my house, after all."

Remus watched her go down the hall and open the door onto a wet but no longer raining day. "Hello, Mrs. Dursley, how was your trip?"

"Not too bad, thank you," said the woman at the door, who was blonde and rather thin. "I just wanted to let you know we were back, so you can send him along any time you get tired of him." Her tone suggested she expected this to happen sooner rather than later.

Does she mean Harry? She must be his aunt...

Good Lord, she doesn't look a thing like Lily.

No, I take that back. There's a slight resemblance. Very slight.

And she doesn't seem to care for Harry much...

"Thank you, I'll do that. He's quite happy at the moment, though, so it may not be for a while."

"That's just fine," the woman said in a more cheerful tone. "Thank you again for watching him, it's such a nuisance for Vernon to have these all-day conferences, but they need his advice desperately..." Remus had the impression she was lingering on the doorstep to see if she could get a look inside the house, as if she was simply dying to know everything that went on inside.

Well, if I can see her, she can see me... And just as he realized that, she did see him, and her eyes widened quite a bit. "Well, I'll be going, then, Dudders will want his tea," she said. "I'll see you later, dear, thank you again..."

"Horrible woman," Danger hissed after the door was safely shut. "You disgusting old gossip-monger. May you fall down the stairs and bite your tongue out."

"Harry's aunt?"

"The one and only. She saw you, didn't she? I didn't have time to warn you to stay out of sight... well, too late now... damn."

"What's wrong?"

"By tonight, every woman on this block will know that I had a strange man in my house. They'll have us dating by tomorrow and sleeping together the day after that."

Remus couldn't resist. "Sounds like a good schedule to me."

Danger's eyes went very wide. "Why... you... you..."

He grinned at her.

"You MAN!" she shouted, laughing, grabbing a handful of cereal out of the box on the counter and throwing it at him. He dodged it, but Neenie and Harry immediately decided he was a fair target for them as well, and before long there was cereal flying everywhere in the kitchen.

The battle ended when Neenie got hit in the eye with a bad throw of Remus' and began to cry. Harry started crying in sympathy, so both children had to be cuddled and comforted, and since Neenie didn't know Remus, he got to hold Harry again.

It was bliss.

After Harry had finished sniffling, he looked up at Remus. "Mooey, where Pa-foot?"

It was a natural question for the boy to ask - Remus and Sirius had seldom visited the Potters separately - but it caught Remus by surprise, and he had to sit down and get himself under control before he could answer. "Padfoot's away on a trip, Harry. But I think he'll come home soon. And then he can play with you."

"Yay, p'ay wif Pa-foot!" Harry said, wiggling. "Where Mama an' Dada?"

He would have to ask the hard one. Remus looked over at Danger and mutely appealed for help.

"Oh, Harry," she said, sitting down next to them, with Neenie, on her lap, sucking her thumb again. "Your Mama and Dada had to go away."

"Go 'way like Pa-foot?"

"Well, yes and no. They did go away, but Padfoot is coming back. Your Mama and Dada aren't going to come back. They're watching over you from far away, and they love you very much, but they have to stay where they are."

Harry considered this. "Mooey," he finally declared with true toddler logic, bumping his head against Remus' chest. "Dayger." He pointed to Danger. "Neenie." He indicated the girl. "An' Pa-foot come back soon."

"That's right," Remus said. "Harry, do you remember your Auntie Letha?"

Harry nodded, looking around expectantly. "No, she's not here," Remus said, smiling at the boy's eagerness. "But she might come back soon too. Would you like that?"

"Yay!" Harry bounced up and down on Remus' knees. Remus laughed aloud at Harry's obvious delight in life.

"How he stays that happy I don't know," Danger said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"I have to show you something, and I don't think you're going to like it."

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