A/N: there's currently no beta, so apologies for spelling/ grammar. This is an old story, I'm hoping to finally finish, currently working through all the chapters to correct old stupid mistakes. Hopefully have a new chapter up soon.
Prologue
Sirius padded slowly across the wildflower meadows that surrounded Remus's old cottage, he hadn't been here since Remus's parents were alive, but the double fronted white washed thatched cottage looked exactly how he remembered it. Light flooding out of the kitchen window informed him Moony was home and thankfully awake.
He hadn't bothered to visit when he first escaped, knowing his presence would've been less than welcome, and probably would have ended in a bloody mess. One year and several letters after that night in the shrieking shack, where Remus finally learnt the truth. Sirius was happy to feel as if he'd finally gained his friend back, that he had no reservations transforming back into his human self, entering the garden, and prepared to walk straight into kitchen. When he noticed a familiar figure enter the kitchen, Sirius felt his own heart skip a beat as he quickly transformed back and scampered behind the large Oaktree at the edge of the garden.
Well, this was something Remus had failed to mention in any of his letter. Sirius watched, as the Witch in front of him switched the radio on with a flick of her wrist, and pulled a bottle of red wine out of the cupboard. That if someone had asked Sirius, he would swear on his own life was a Spanish Rioja, as it was the only thing she had ever ordered down The Stag (the pub, that sat at the bottom of the lane to Fleamont and Euphemia Potter house).
A little bit thinner than the last time he had seen her, but Tessabella Faoil looked just has he remembered her. she was slight framed, nearly a head shorter than himself, chocolate brown hair in its usual high pony tail, highlighting her prominent cheekbones and if he could see them ( for even his canine eye sight wasn't that good) her eyes would still be as blue as the Aegean sea. What shocked him the most though was seeing her in nothing but one of Remus old red plaid shirts, ending just below the upper thigh. Sirius quickly realised why Remus hadn't mentioned Tess, he hadn't wanted him to know she had moved on, moved on with him anyway. Sirius watched as Tess filled her glass up with the wine, turning the radio up, with a song Sirius didn't recognise, and started to dance uncontrollably around the kitchen, her arms flailing about in the air. He stifled a laugh as he watched her jump around the poky kitchen.
Remus walked in smiling at the woman's frenzied dancing, making Tess's smile widen with playfulness, grabbing him by the forearm, she forced him to join her. Sirius watched as his friend hands wrapped around the woman's waist, and he let out an involuntary snarl.
Remus stiffened swiftly, flicking his own wrist in turn to switch the radio off, while placing his body protectively between Tess and the open window, his eyes scanning the garden and the dark fields beyond. Sirius made sure he shifted from behind the tree just long enough for his friend to see him.
"Moony, what is it? What do you see?" Tess asked, trying to peer over Remus's shoulder into the garden.
"Ah nothing" lied Remus, turning his back to the window "just a fox"
"A fox?" questioned Tess "They never come this close to the house"
"Probably just a juvenile it'll disappear after the next full moon" he explained
"Wine?" Tess asked still trying to survey the garden. Sirius knew she had no hope of spotting him, Remus had only managed it in the dark due to his superior wolf vision.
"Just a small one" he replied, taking a seat at the small battered wooden table "What time did you say you were leaving in the morning?".
"I have to fly to Madrid to get the port key to brazil at 11 o'clock" she explained, handing a rather large glass of wine to Remus "so I thought, if I left about 5am, I should just get there in time". Taking a sip from her glass she spat "Bloody ridiculous, having to go through the Spanish ministry".
"Yes, but they're not as bureaucratic as ours" he reasoned with a sad smile. Sirius listened with interest, he'd often wondered what had happened to Tess in the years that he'd been gone, and this little snippet of information already had his brain whizzing. Tess had worked for the ministry back during the war, same as Sirius, there should be no reason why she wouldn't be granted permission to travel internationally from Britain.
"You'd better get some rest then, its already gone eleven" continued Remus.
"Calm down! Can't wait to get rid of me again is it?" Tess teased, taking the seat next to him.
"Hardly, you know I hate the fact you have to leave, you could always get a job more local".
"We've talked about this before Remus, getting a job here is nay on impossible for me. Plus, these places are paying a fortune! Double anything, I would earn here for the same job, and we need the money".
"Well stop paying for my potion then – "
"Not going to happen" Tess replied sharply, "you spent nearly a year having the wolfs bane potion, and I know how hard that first full moon without it was for you Remus, how hard it was for you to lose that control. I'm not going to let you go through that again."
"Its expensive Tess" Remus pleaded, rubbing the bridge of his nose "don't think I haven't Noticed you skipping meals the last few weeks so we can afford it".
"I'm about to stay in one of the top wizarding resorts in south America, with all my expenses paid. I could stand to lose a few pounds before I have an all you can eat buffet, 3 times a day, for the next 3 month".
"3 months?" gasped Remus "I thought you was going to be back before September?"
"Hopefully," she tried to reassure him "they've promised me a hefty bonus if I can get rid of their Acromantula problem before then"
Remus smiled knowingly, "Shouldn't be much of a problem for you…"
"Anyway" Tess said standing up at last and gesturing towards the pantry "there are cakes, half a lamb and a roasted pig in the pantry", she turned back to Remus and begged "Please, try and make it last longer than last time, otherwise you'll be living on beans on toast till I come home".
Sirius stomach grumbled at the mention of food, Tess had always been a brilliant cook, between her and Lily the Maunders had always had a wide choice of delicious gut busting meals. He couldn't wait to get his hands on that lamb. He watched as Tess moved around the table stooping down giving his friend a peck on the cheek.
"Good night Remus, love you" she told him happily, before walking out the kitchen.
"I love you to." he called smiling behind her.
After a minute, a now sombre looking Remus, finally stood up closing the kitchen door, pulling his wand out to lock it. He stalked over to the cupboard on the wall, pulled out a bottle of fire whiskey with two glasses, placing them down on the kitchen table before unbolting the back door and opening it wide.
"You'd better get in here" he mumbled not much louder than a whisper.
Sirius heard him easily enough and sprinted up the garden through the back door, transforming back into his human self in a blink of an eye.
"well, you kept that quiet" Sirius spat out as he stomped off into the pantry.
"Do we really need to have this conversation now?" Remus responded wearily closing the door behind Sirius bolting it back again.
"No, probably not" he replied wretchedly, piling a plate up with cheeses, crackers, dried fruit and some of the roast lamb he heard about earlier.
"Really?" Remus sighed "do you honestly need to eat that lamb? She wasn't joking about the beans on toast you know. What are you even doing here?"
Sirius paused at the pantry door munching away on a chuck of lamb, looking at his oldest living friend pour the fire whiskey in the glasses he had pulled from the cupboard, he felt the blood drain from his face remembering the news he had heard earlier that night, the whole reason he was here. The reason Dumbledore had sent him to Remus's house.
"Harry won the Triwizard cup…"
"Bloody hell! He did-" Remus paused, suddenly seeing the pale, horrified look on Sirius face, "what happened?"
"He's back Remus, Peter brought Voldemort back." Sirius sat at the table downing the glass of fire whiskey that Remus offered in one, and proceeded to tell Remus everything that had happened earlier that night with Harry, from the maze to the graveyard, Voldemort resurrection, Cedric Diggory's death and Barty Crouch Jr. Remus sat still through the whole story only moving to take a swig from the fire whiskey bottle, the glasses long forgotten.
"-And then Dumbledore sent me here, wants me to gather the old gang. We need to get the order back together Remus, figured that's why he sent me to you first, can't exactly go marching up to everyone's house when they all still think I'm guilty".
Remus sat still for another minute processing everything Sirius had just said, taking one last swig of the nearly empty bottle, he asked urgently "How Harry?".
"Probably scared out of his mind, I didn't really get a chance to speak to him before I had to leave again" Sirius told him guilty "I need to borrow some parchment, make sure he's ok".
"Of course," Remus said, not making to move from the table "so we'll need to contact, Arabella Figg, Fletcher, Bones, maybe Shacklebolt, between him and Moody they should be able to tell us who we can persuade in the Auror office… and we'll have to tell Tess" he admitted slowly, his eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"How do you think she'll take it?".
"Which part? The part where your innocent, Voldemort alive or I've been lying to her the past year" Remus asked leaning back in his chair rubbing his hands over his face.
"All of it?" replied Sirius crumbling the left-over cheese on to his plate.
"Bad, bad and worse" Remus admitted bitterly "she's going to be so pissed".
"I'm sorry mate" Sirius told him sincerely "I'm sure she'll be ok eventually, I mean she… she looks happy with you", he may not have liked it, but he could see they were both happy, he would never want anything to come between them especially because of him, not when they had looked so blissful together.
Remus looked confused, then he sniggered as he noticed his friend looking sheepishly at the floor, shaking his head he said "Merlin, you always did get stupidly jealous over Tess, you don't think we're together, do you?".
Sirius lifted his head slowing looking unsure of himself "you're not?".
"No!" he said now with laughter "she's my friend! We've always been friends. She moved in a few years ago so we could help each other with the bills nothing else" he explained.
"Oh, but –"
"Honestly, it's Tess we are talking about remember? She's always been affectionate, especially with me, likes to make sure I feel 'loved'", Remus reminded him.
"Yes but, I thought she mainly did it because she knew it drove me mental" He admitted, she'd always been a hugger even in Hogwarts but he always thought she amplified it just to bug him, he'd never hidden the fact he hated it, when she would hug or kiss Remus let alone anyone else that wasn't him. He thought that would've died down without him around, but seems he was wrong.
"That's was just an added bonus" Remus smirked.
Sirius smirked back, it was nice to know not everything had changed, "How are we going to tell her?".
"Oh no" Remus warned hastily holding his hands up "there's no we, only me, you will be safely in the garden at the very least, when I speak to her in the morning".
"You don't think I should speak to her?".
"Not if you value your life at all, no." Remus warned, "She will kill you the second she spots you, and I'm not joking Sirius."
Sirius nodded slowly in forced agreement, "What happened to her, you know after?" Sirius queried .
"Can't tell you" refused Remus.
"Moony-".
"I can't tell you, it's not my place," he told Sirius flatly "if she decides to tell you, that's up to her but I'm not telling you anything. I won't betray her trust like that".
"Was it that bad? I figured she lost her job?".
"She lost a lot, and it was far worse than you could imagine".
After a few minutes of stoic silence Sirius added "I thought she might've been dead, when you hadn't mentioned her in your letters, and I wasn't ready to deal with that".
Remus exhaled a deep breath "I didn't say anything because I was worried, you'd show up and get yourself killed trying to talk to her".
"That bad?".
"That bad".
Remus poured the very last of the whiskey into the two glasses handing one to Sirius, he lifted it up in to the air, "to the order" he toasted.
Clinking his glass with Remus, Sirius echoed "to the order".
…
Sirius was back outside again, this time further from the house, so no chance of Tess spotting him in the morning light before Remus had finished telling her the truth. Sat hiding in the long grass of the meadows, Remus had agreed to leave the kitchen door open for him to listen. If Remus sent him the right sign, he could come back into the house and speak to Tess himself, but Remus warned him not to hold his breathe.
Tess came through the door, hair up dressed in muggle clothes of jeans, black top, a woollen grey cloak wrapped around her shoulder's, wand safety strapped in to her old leather hip holster and a large worn out looking duffle bag in her hands.
She saw the tired looking Remus still sat in the same spot she left him in last night, she stole a look at her battered brass wrist watch.
"Have you been up all night?" Tess chided.
"Yes" he replied morbidly, "I need you to sit down Tess, I need you to listen to what I have to tell you, and swear you won't interrupt me".
"Merlin Remus, what's wrong? I haven't seen you this nervous since, well I don't think I've ever seen you this nervous"
"Just swear it Tess" Remus irately demanded.
"Alright, I swear I'll keep quiet, now what is wrong?" she asked again taking the seat opposite Remus.
"I've been lying to you Tess, I've been lying for the past year" Remus blurted out "Sirius is innocent, he switched with Peter last minute, he was James and Lily's secret keeper, he betrayed them" Sirius watched Tess's face fall, trying to interrupt Remus "there's more" Remus added before she could stop him."Voldemort's back as well" with that Tess stood up pushing the chair to the floor and starting pacing the tiny kitchen tirelessly. Remus continued to tell the tale of how he discovered Sirius innocence, and what he had learnt throughout the night. True to her word Tess remined silent, with each new piece of the information she would pause as if to interrupt but remembering her promise she would bite her lip to keep from breaking her silence. Her once neat pony tail had turned to a wild mess thanks to her frustrated fingers running their way through her locks.
When Remus finally stopped, he looked like a weight had been lifted. Tess however looked, far worse than Sirius had ever seen her, which he'd previous thought impossible having seen her hungover from the two bottles of champagne from James and Lily's wedding.
"Say something Tess", Remus pleaded after a minute.
"I don't - I don't know what you want me to say", Tess stuttered mournfully, stopping in front of the kitchen sink and stooping over it, arms outstretched.
Remus picked himself up, zipped his way to her and rested a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her "well" he started slowly "do you want to speak to him?".
"Speak to him" Tess snapped tears falling down her cheeks "why would I – Merlin-" Tess lurched forward emptying the contents of her already empty stomach in to the sink. Remus did all he could and rubbed her back until she had finished. "I've got to go" Tess said quickly composing herself, pushing Remus away from her.
"Go?" Remus asked stunned "you're still going to brazil!"
"I have a job to do" she reminded him through gritted teeth grabbing her bag off the floor "hopefully I'll see you when I get back".
"Tess, wait" Remus screamed, running out after her.
Sirius heard the door slam out-front and when he was sure she wasn't going to return he bounded back to the kitchen closing the door behind him he boiled the kettle, making coffee and tea for him and Remus respectfully, and waited.
Merlin, he hadn't realised how much he had missed her, not till he was unable to comfort her in her turmoil, it had been gut-wrenching watching her frustration, knowing he had caused that, having to force himself from coming to her aid. Even though Remus had warned him, he'd still hoped deep down that she would want to see him, welcome him back and embrace him, as he wanted to embrace her.
This was not going to be easy…