Heya Guys,

Finally finished this chapter and I've got to tell you, it took a while. I'm still not entirely happy with it but I figured it was about time I posted, so be warned – I may tweak it a little at a later date. This is sort of the necessary mid-chapter where Remus discovers what's happening, I had to write it before I could move on to the cute Tonks/Remus stuff which is coming soon.

Anywayz – I was kinda overwhelmed by all the reviews from last chapter, it was amazing actually and I hope this chappy receives the same support crosses fingers

So I want to thank all the people who took the time to read the last chapter and extra thanks goes to the people who left a review. So – lady herenyaUma-Thurman, ctc, ombrerose92, pinkmoonflower, Flo M Nimo, Bookish Brownie, EragonandArya, Miss Wolfsbane, kk11819, Copperboombaby8, vampiratelycan, CrystalClearElphaba444, someone, Fe, Death's-Razor-Blade, ZemISHlyEmyTheGreatheyyodudeTiredGreenEyes and Dark Duchess and Shadow Queen - heres to ya.


IMPORTANT- // blah blahblah//- indicates a woman's thought (without the blah's of course)

Candy and Regret

"... and we kept track of them for a bit but it turned out..."

The detail-filled Order reports somehow filtered into Remus' addled brain as he sat in a semi-detached state of consciousness at the kitchen table in the grimy basement of Grimmauld Place. All the information passed at these meetings was of the strictest importance and was crucial in the defence against You-Know-Who. He knew that it wouldn't pay to be uninformed but as hard as he tried he couldn't force himself to pay the required amount of attention. He was fast beginning to regret his prior choice to consume a Weasley product.

The headache from earlier was barrelling on, gaining in strength until it became almost too much to bear, the ringing resounding louder and louder in his ears until it was impossible to concentrate on anything else. He was definitely regretting being goaded into trying the twins sinister concoction. He gently raised his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger in an attempt to encourage the blood flow and force some of the pain away.

When that didn't work he brushed his hands over his face, his fingers gently massaging his throbbing temples as the ache increased, barraging quickly over his incredibly high pain threshold. He let out a small strangled whimper when the noise levels in the room rose to an unbelievable stage, why was everybody shouting at the same time?

Suddenly everything just faded away leaving behind a sense of complete peace and calm, the room fell completely silent and the pain which had reached passing-out level dissipated into nothing. Nobody spoke to give a report, there was no idle chatter but he could hear the faint whispering of the women in the room.

-//Good heavens, is he alright?//-

-//Oh Merlin, he doesn't look so good. I wonder what's wrong//-

-//Forgive us if we're boring you Lupin!//-

-//I do hope he's not ill.//-

-//It's not near the full moon, is it?//-

It was the last comment, which sounded like it came from Hestia, that made him realise that they were all quietly discussing his well-being, most likely because he was sitting hunched over, his elbows up on the table and his head in his hands. He briskly rubbed his hands over his face to put some colour back in his cheeks before he brushed them through his rough brown locks, his hands finally coming to a rest at his sides after he slid his elbows off the table. He sat up a little straighter and looked up to find the entire Order staring at him with concern.

"I'm fine."

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he tried to convey his wellness and the entire Order shot him looks of unabashed scepticism. He removed his hand from his neck and balled it into a fist before placing it just in front of his mouth, clearing his throat in an anxious manner. If Dumbledore thought he was sick then he wouldn't allocate him missions, he had to convince them that he was well.

"Really I'm quite well."

He tried to make his voice sound reassuring but it came out gruff and husky instead. Dumbledore eyed him curiously over his half-moon spectacles so Remus cleared his throat and tried again.

"I'm not ill, really and I assure you that it's nothing to do with the full moon." He shot Hestia a reassuring smile even though it hurt him to realise that deep down people didn't really trust him, she looked away in shame. "I just tried a new potion earlier and it gave me a slight headache but it's clearing now."

Sirius let out a small chuckle in remembrance of the events that happened that afternoon and Remus shot him a pointed glare, shooting his eyebrows up in a way that conveyed the unspoken question – Do you want me to tell them what really happened? He stopped laughing immediately, a pathetic puppy-dog expression taking over his face. He reached for his glass and just before he took a gulp of the amber-liquid, Remus heard him mutter 'Your no fun anymore Moony' under his breath.

Remus shook his head slightly at the antics of his sulky, middle-aged best mate before turning his attention back to the Order. Dumbledore watched him inquisitively for a moment, his hand absentmindedly stroking his long snow-white beard, before nodding his head in understanding. He either believed Remus' story or knew that Remus didn't want to discuss it, either way he had soon directed everyone's attention back to the more important matters that plagued the Order.

Most of the Order shot Remus a final worrying look before becoming engrossed in the next report but the pretty witch with vivid pink hair, who sat directly across from Remus, kept her unwavering gaze on him, an uneasy look striking across her youthful heart-shaped face. It didn't take long for Remus to notice the lavished attention of Nymphadora Tonks and he shot her a brief smile of reassurance to try and ease the concern that was evident in her pretty brown eyes. She narrowed her eyes at him as he mouthed the words 'I'm fine' and her face contorted in a look of concentration as though she was judging his health for herself. Eventually the concern left her eyes and she shot him a sweet smile before turning away. It was the strangest thing but Remus could've sworn he heard her say 'OK' even though her lips didn't move.

Dismissing the notion as completely absurd, probably a hallucination brought on by a combination of lack of sleep, alcohol and the twins nasty surprise confectionary, he turned his attention back to the current speaker. He sent a silent plea of thanks to Merlin, for the fact that the headache had completely disappeared and he could now concentrate on Order issues, as he listened to the report given by Emmeline Vance, a dignified old witch with an emerald green shawl.

Remus felt his chair lurch forward as Sturgis Podmore raced past him and out of the kitchen, he was due to give his report on Knockturn Alley next but he'd left his findings in his coat pocket. When Emmeline had finished her elemental report the Order was granted a quick reprieve whilst waiting for Sturgis' return. It was during this brief intermission that Remus heard the chiding voice of Molly Weasley.

-//Sirius – drinking yet again and now bringing poor Remus down as well. What kind of example is that going to set for young Harry when he gets here? As if the poor boy doesn't have enough to deal with.//-

Remus' head snapped up from the table fast as he heard Molly's distasteful outburst. He turned to look at her, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead in a look of utter dismay, shocked that she would call attention to such a socially awkward subject in the middle of a crowded professional meeting. Molly Weasley was sitting near the head of the table next to her husband Arthur, her hands folded politely in her lap as she feigned interest in an exuberant conversation with Hestia. Yet even as she nodded along politely in response to Hestia mind-numbing words, her eyes had a reproachful look as she continued to shoot filthy looks of disapproval at the chair next to Remus, which was currently occupied by Sirius.

He didn't have to look at Sirius to know that his old friend was probably seething about Molly's latest remark. He always acted hostile when the Weasley matriarch called him on his drinking but Remus was expecting a colossal outburst this time given the fact that she brought both his oldest friend and his godson into the equation. He leant in closer to Sirius, desperately trying not to make his intentions obvious enough to attract attention, and when he spoke it flowed softly from the corner of his mouth.

"Just let it go, Padfoot."

Remus continued to stare blankly ahead as he spoke in hushed tones to Sirius, silently pleading for him to just head his words. Meanwhile Sirius' eyebrows were knitted together in the middle of his forehead, his face scrunched up in a look of mild confusion as he stared strangely at his old friend.

"Let what go? What you on about Moony?"

Remus let out a small sigh at his friends thickheadedness, trust him to want to play dumb tonight. He leant further back on his chair, still facing forward as though not talking to Sirius at all and when he spoke it was quieter still.

"Look, I know that Molly's on you again tonight about your drinking and yes, her comment was really unfair and uncalled for, I know that. But for just this once could you please just let it go and not make a scene."

The hustle and chatter around the table subsided when Sturgis re-entered the room and the meeting reconvened but Sirius' attention was solely on the man sitting next to him. His eyebrows grew even closer together as he trawled back over Molly's comments to him that evening and the concern became more evident in his black eyes when he didn't find one suitable to what Remus was saying.

"I don't know what you're talkin bout Moony. Molly hasn't said anything about my drinking all night."

Remus' head snapped around quickly to face his mate, the muscles in his neck screaming in protest at his sudden movement. Shock registered momentarily on his features when he saw his friend looking so serious and he was left with a strange feeling of incomprehension.

"You feeling alright mate?"

Sirius' words brought him out of his shocked stupor and Remus' eyes darkened slightly as he tried to comprehend his friend's words. Molly was sitting closer to Sirius than she was to Remus, so if he'd heard her callous words than surely Sirius had to.

"But I just heard her say..."

His sentence trailed off when he realised that Sirius had reached one of his hands across the pristine lily-white tablecloth, a look of disconcerting worry across his rugged features. He snaked a hand around Remus' drink, grasping it tightly before shooting him a look of incredulity as he shook his head slightly, Sturgis' report continuing unnoticed in the background.

"I'm cutting you off mate."

Muttering 'And they say I've got a drinking problem' under his breath, Sirius drew the crystal glass emblazoned with the Black family crest back towards him. Remus didn't have the sense to stop him from taking his drink, not the he wanted the damn Firewhiskey anyway, nor did he have the sense to ask him to elaborate. He was frozen in position, sitting there in stunned silence. He knew that he'd heard Molly make that comment, in fact he would have sworn upon it, but Sirius was adamant that she'd never said a thing. It didn't make any sense.

When he felt Dumbledore's alarming gaze on him again, he turned his attention back to the meeting at hand and feigned interest, dutifully hoping not to be called upon to discuss something. Bringing his hand up to his face, he lightly tapped his chin with his index finger in a thought provoking gesture. Something strange was happening and he was...

-//Emmeline actually thinks that she has a chance with him, ha. Does she not realise the connection we share, the amount of time we spend alone together at Hogwarts. If she wants a fight than, well, me-ow.//-

Remus' head snapped around fast in another whiplash inducing move as heard the voice of Minerva McGonagall, his eyes expanding wide in disbelief. Expecting to see the older straight-laced woman flushed with embarrassment over her inappropriate outburst, he was shocked to see her sitting up pretentiously in her chair, her hands resting in her lap. More alarming than her absent embarrassment was the non-reaction of the Order, nobody had even seemed to notice her uncharacteristic proclamation. His eyebrows shot up high on his forehead, disappearing beneath his fringe as a small smirk appeared on his face but before he had time to decipher what was happening, he was interrupted again.

-//Sturgy looks so good talking up there, so powerful. I can't wait to get him home and...//-

Remus tore his astonished gaze away from his ex-professor and proceeded to look at the squat little witch in the seat beside her, a slight blush tinging his cheeks at her racy words. He stared mesmerised as he continued to hear Hestia's squeaky voice clearly even though her mouth didn't appear to be moving but it wasn't until she took a sip of wine from her goblet, her words continuing un-garbled, that Remus realised why no-one else was reacting to her heated words – no-one else could hear them. He felt like a total idiot and he let out a small groan of displeasure when he realised that he was hearing voices in his head. Time to call in the loony squad because after a lifetime of craziness, with a myriad of foolish friends, Remus Lupin was finally entering the realms of insanity.

He shook his head slightly in disbelief, this could not be happening to him and yet strangely it all made sense. It was plain and simple really and it explained so much – the unspoken words of concern, Molly's harsh critique of Sirius that didn't faze him, Minerva's catty remark and now Hestia's unbridled words of passion. He brought his hand up to his face and scrubbed it roughly over his forehead before rubbing his eyes then pinching the bridge of his nose, even though the headache was long gone. He was going crazy, an obvious side-effect from the twins botched spell work, his brain was playing tricks on him, making up fanatical thoughts and he was hearing them in other people's voices.

He let out a sigh as he blew a long breath out through his closed teeth, the reality of the situation dawning suddenly on his outlandish situation. How could he have been so stupid as to be coerced into trying an untested product, a Weasley one at that? He knew that he had to speak to the twins to work out a solution to his current predicament but he was stuck in this meeting for a while yet, not that he was concentrating much with other people's voices racing through his head.

-//How long can this report go on for?//-

-//I wonder if Dumbledore will stay for a while after the meeting?//-

-//I hope the children aren't listening at the door again. Really they're too young to be involved in this.//-

-//Sturgy's voice is so deep when he talks at meetings, it's nice//-

He was slowly getting another headache again as the voices in his head ran together so much that he could hardly decipher each individual one. He was contemplating excusing himself from the meeting early so he could scare the twins into fixing him but he stopped when he heard the sweet voice of Nymphadora Tonks.

-//Could this meeting go on any longer? This is worse than auror meetings when they bring in Mad-Eye to reinforce constant-vigilance. At least it has a good view though, he does look awfully scrumptious tonight.//-

He would never understand why at that particular moment he felt his heart give a strange lurch as he watched Tonks stare keenly at Kingsley, her imagined voice resounding in his head painfully. He tried to block out her heavenly voice as his imagination continued to rattle on without his control.

-//He's so smart and really good at spells and stuff, I bet he could give Dumbledore a run for his money and...//-

"Tonks, how was duty last night?"

The disillusioned musings stopped suddenly as she replied thoughtlessly to Moody's gruff enquiry.

"I didn't do it."

Alastor Moody looked completely outraged as his 'mad-eye' roved over his protégée imploringly, several of the older Order members, even the voices in Remus' head, tutted under their breaths about 'irresponsible young people being the reason the Order failed last time'. Remus felt outraged on Tonks behalf at the close-mindedness of some of their colleagues, meanwhile Tonks appeared flustered for a moment as a slight blush spread across her cheeks, her eyes widening in horror as she realised what she'd said.

"No, no – of course I did my duty; I wouldn't shirk my responsibilities like that. All I meant was that nothing happened of any interest."

Tonks finished lamely but it was enough to appease the astringent group, the voice in Remus' head however felt that the story wasn't yet finished.

-//Except covertly hexing my cheating ex when I saw him out with his 'new girlfriend'//-

Remus smiled a little at the amusing running commentary racing through his head but he could've sworn he saw Tonks' face drop a little as he heard the words 'new girlfriend'. But that was impossible, he was just hallucinating. In front of him Tonks nervously changed her hair colour from the bubblegum pink that he was fond of, to an awful shade of green before settling on a dark blue, something she did when she was uncomfortable.

-//Nice going Tonks, way to look competent in front of the Order. You'll be sure to get all the good missions now.//-

Remus let out a short bark of laughter at the thoughts in his head and Tonks turned quickly to look at him appraisingly, he had to get rid of this annoying 'voices' thing soon before people thought he was a complete head case. Thankfully though, Tonks abrupt report of her mission had concluded the meeting. Dumbledore ended things by giving everyone their missions for the week and as Remus expected he didn't get anything serious, just a guard watch with Tonks tomorrow evening. He smiled slightly when Sirius sulkily huffed about not getting any assignments again but his heart went out to the cute witch across from him as a frown crossed her delicate features, her lips pouting to complete the dejected look.

-//See, they still don't take me seriously here even though I'm an Auror. All they see is a girl with daft hair who's as clumsy as hell, it's just like work. On the bright side at least I get guard watch with Remus.//-

It was when he heard this comment that he knew he had to reverse this stupid spell quickly, his brain was starting to give him hope. Like Tonks would want him, a middle-aged werewolf, when she could have any guy she wanted, she was practically a fantasy come to life, not that she had to change, she was gorgeous as herself. Oh god, he really needed to fix this so as soon as Dumbledore officially ended the meeting Remus practically jumped out of his seat and ran out of the basement kitchen in a desperate search for the twins.

-//Strange man//-

-//Well that certainly is peculiar//-

-//Odd sort of fellow that one//-

-//I knew he wasn't ok, I hope he can still do guard duty tomorrow night//-

-//Maybe it's a werewolf thing//-

Thankfully the voices in his head faded slightly as he ascended up the stairs from the basement kitchen. When he reached the ground floor he rushed along to the entryway, honestly a little surprised that he had found the children closer to the action, they'd taken to snooping outside the meeting hoping for little scraps of information. After discovering that they weren't lurking in the corridors on the first floor, and figuring that they wouldn't be in the library, he continued on up more stairs to check their room.

Remus sighed dejectedly as he knocked on the Twin's door to no avail; they were obviously somewhere else in this musty old house. His face screwed up as he tried to puzzle out where exactly the boys could be and he was so lost in thought that he almost didn't realise that he'd run into one of them on the stairs on his way back down. He relaxed slightly as he stared at the red-headed boy before him but he tensed again quickly, which one was he?

George had a longer fringe and Fred had a wispy little curl at the side, that couldn't be right. No, no George had a dark little freckle just near his left ear, or was it Fred with the freckle near his right. He was never going to work it out, they looked too much alike, so he squinted his eye's imploringly when he realised he just have to hazard a guess.

"Fred?"

"George"

George looked at him with quiet disdain in his eyes as he answered him in a bored tone, it must be hard to always be confused for your twin. Remus cursed inwardly as he revealed his identity, Fred had been the one to find the spell so theoretically he would be the one to talk to about countering it. It couldn't hurt to ask where he was though.

"Where's Fred?"

George's features were soon consumed by a deep frown as he shook his head slightly, his lips pursing in impudent contempt.

"We're not conjoined twins you know, despite popular belief."

He scoffed slightly as he spat out the statement in utter resentment and Remus immediately felt a little guilty. He hadn't meant to offend the boy he just assumed that they would be together since they always were; he hadn't seemed to be bothered by it before. George must have felt a little bad for snapping at Remus because his stony features relaxed slightly when he noticed Remus' apologetic look.

"If you must know then he's up with Buckbeak, having an instant-owl conversation with Angelina since Mum's too busy downstairs to notice."

Remus face fell slightly when he heard of the other twin's whereabouts, chatting to a girl now that could take a while, so if he wanted this thing resolved right away than he would have to question George about the spell.

"Well, uh, perhaps you can help me then. You see I seem to be feeling a little, erm, well ill and I was wondering if perchance it was a side-effect of your 'confectionary'."

He used air-quotes to highlight the word confectionary and George stared at him curiously, stroking his bare chin in the same manner Dumbledore used to stroke his beard.

"Nah, I don't think it could be the sweet causing it and I'm not just saying that to save us either. I brewed the potion myself and there was nothing in there that would cause illness, I got the recipe from a Honeyduke's candy and I've seen you eat them before without consequence. We used some minor spells to change the appearance of the candy but they wouldn't cause it either and you don't have to worry about the spell cause I'm pretty sure that Fred just made it up because he was too busy chatting with girls when he should have been researching it."

When George had finished rattling off the reasons why it couldn't be their fault, he gently pushed past him and continued up the stairs, leaving a stumped Remus in his path. If it wasn't the candy causing it then he really was going insane. When George was a few steps above him, he turned slightly and casually spoke over his shoulder.

"If it helps the spell was 'Eadray Omensway Indsmay'. Fred reckons its Latin but I don't reckon you've got anything to worry about. If you're feeling sick then you should see my Mum about it, she's always been good at fixing them things."

With that he turned and continued his way up the stairs, disappearing into the darkness when he reached the landing, leaving behind a confused Remus to contemplate the spell, Latin being the only thing he had to go on. Remus turned and continued descending the stairs towards the first floor library in the hopes that he would find something useful there, the spell repeating over and over in his head. As he neared the first floor landing he searchingly trawled through all the Latin phrases he knew but the spell didn't seem to fit the language at all.

"Eadray Omensway Indsmay. Eadray Omensway Indsmay. Eadray Omensway Indsmay."

He repeated the spell under his breath in a sort of mantra as he made his way down the first floor corridors towards the musty old library. He tried adding emphasis to different syllables in a vain attempt to better understand it but he ended up giving a loud frustrated sigh every time it failed to shed new light on his trying situation, although thankfully the voices had quieted for the moment. He was almost at the library when he was interrupted rudely from his musings by a sarcastic snort and a squeaky voice speaking in a language he didn't understand.

"Oodgay ucklay!"

He looked up abruptly when he heard the girly adolescent tone of the youngest Weasley and was a little surprised to see Ginny Weasley walking out of the library and withdrawing further down the hall. It took him a moment to connect the similarities between her statement and the outlandish spell but when he did he quickly started after her retreating form. When he'd finally caught up to her he reached a gentle hand towards her shoulder to stop her.

"Pardon?"

-//Uh-oh, busted//-

The annoying voices started back in Remus' head as Ginny quickly spun around to face him, a small blush tinging her freckle-ridden high bone cheeks.

"Sorry Professor, I didn't mean to interrupt you."

Remus stared curiously at his ex-pupil as she cast her gaze shiftily around the corridor, apparently still nervous about being called out by an authority figure, not that he technically was anymore.

"Ginny I haven't been a Professor for over a year so I think it's time for you to start calling me Remus. And you didn't interrupt me, I was only wondering what language you were just speaking?"

-//No way I'm going to call you that, it's just too weird. You'll always be Professor to me.//-

"If it's all the same, I think I'd just rather call you Professor and I was speaking Pig Latin, same as you right?"

Remus stared at her quizzically for a moment.

"I have no idea what that is, I simply, erm, read the phrase in a book and I didn't know what it was." He scratched the back of his neck as his brows furrowed in confusion. "I had no idea that muggle pigs spoke Latin, it's quite ingenious really."

Ginny let out a loud jolt of laughter at her former Professor's ludicrous comment but she sobered immediately when she saw him watching her curiously with his head cocked slightly to the side, no laughter present on his features.

-//Oh he was serious, oops.//-

"They don't, it's not a pig language Professor, it's just muggle pop culture. Some girls from the village near where I live taught it to me last summer when I came home from Hogwarts."

Remus continued to look at her with a confused expression on his stoic face so she continued on.

-//Ok he doesn't get it.//-

"It's really quite easy once you get the hang of it. All you do is when you're talking you just don't say the first letter of a word, instead you put it at the end of the word and add an 'ay' sound. So instead of Ginny, my name would be Innygay," she gestured to the grim framed photograph hanging on the even grimmer wall, "and this would be an Icturepay."

-//Geddit?//-

Remus looked blankly ahead and his forehead un-creased slowly as comprehension dawned upon him and he realized the covert teenage language. He repeated the spell once more.

"Eadray Omensway Indsmay," he paused for a moment whilst he deciphered the spell and when he finally worked it out his eyes widened in shock as he let out a small gasp, "Read Women's Minds!"

-//DUH!!!//-

A cheeky grin engulfed Ginny's face, a mischievous twinkle glinting in her eye, as she brushed past him.

"Like I said Professor, good luck!"

With that final parting comment she pranced off down the hall, becoming the second Weasley of the night to leave Remus shocked and confused.

He steadily leant back against the wall as his mind went into overdrive. Fred hadn't made up the spell, he'd actually found it but he obviously didn't realise what it did and the backwards spell had essentially worked after all, it just had a delayed effect. The voices in his head weren't a side-effect of the spell, they were the point of it but they weren't just voices, he was reading other peoples thoughts, women's more specifically.

He took a deep breath, in and out, as the reality of the situation finally sunk in.

His conservative ex-Professor, Minerva McGonagall, was fighting with Emmeline Vance over Dumbledore, Hestia and Sturgis had something going on and with a visible gulp he realised the most startling revelation of all – Tonks liked someone in the Order. He figured that it was probably Kingsley since that was who she was looking at when she was talking, no thinking about it but before he could question things further, he was startled when he heard someone calling his name.

"Remus, there you are."


Okay I know it was kinda long and for that I'm sorry but it just sorta flowed out and I didn't have the heart to cut any of it. And just to explain some OOC's – it's people's thoughts and most people are usually a lot more adventurous in their thoughts than in what they would say out loud (BTW- I've always seen McGonagall as having a little minx inside) and I'm ignoring the whole 'Dumbledore's gay' thing because I needed someone older for them to fight over.

And I know that George was OOC in that he wasn't his usual jokey self but I'm guessing that since he ends up marrying Angelina than of course he's going to be a little peeved by the fact that he's brothers crackin on to her.

Hate it/Love it – leave a review and let me know, I'll luv you forever if you do. Oh and if you don't want me to reply to your review that's OK, just put a (NR) at the end of it so I know.

HUGZ N KISSES
EllaQueenB