Part 2:

"You don't really expect me to believe that do you?" Remus crossed his arms and gave the man a glare that would've made Severus squirm. The stranger squared his jaw and leaned forward over the table, his voice barely a whisper as his heavy gaze followed Remus closely.

"You're a bloody wizard, aren't you?"

Remus blinked, of all the snide comments he'd expected, this was probably the last. "Excuse me?"

"Don't play with me you bastard!" The stranger banged his fist onto the old table, causing the plate of food to tilt back and forth dangerously before once again finding its balance. Remus was once more aware of just how quiet the room had become at this outburst; he could practically feel the sets of eyes burning into them, and the creaks of the chairs as people moved around to stare at them. "I know what you are!" Although his tone of voice wasn't necessarily loud, the room had chosen just that moment to go nearly silent.

Remus had to calm this man down – he had to take care of this quickly before this grew into an uncontrollable situation. This was what he did, wasn't it? This was his specialty in the Order – keeping potentially dangerous people cool and calm. So why was his mind suddenly a complete blank? He tried to think back to other situations, other times when he might have had a similar situation. Then the briefest of memories suddenly flew through his mind like a wild snitch.

"Honestly, Severus, I swear it was an accident. Sirius would never have wanted to-"

"Like hell he wouldn't! So help me, Remus, if you don't get away from me this very instant I will not hesitate to use force!"

"Severus, please just put away the wand. Can't you see I'm not going to hurt you?"

"Get back!"

Severus had been distraught, angry, and simply wanted to strike out at the next person that happened to look at him the wrong way. At the time, Remus had made a gamble, but surprisingly enough his tactic had worked. He just had to hope that it would work again.

He started laughing.

The stranger sitting across from him sat still for a few moments, watching him with his head cocked to the side. Remus' laughter started getting louder and longer as he doubled over onto the table top clutching his side with one hand and wiping the tears from his eyes with the other. "Oh my god, man that's a good one!"

"What are you laughing at?"

"Me – a wizard!" Remus gasped for breaths quickly before breaking out into more raucous laughter.

"What is so damn funny?!"

The heavy waitress came over again, two of the larger men from the bar were standing closely behind her. "Is everythin' alright over 'ere?" She glared from one to the other suspiciously, arms crossed tightly in front of her.

"Oh yes!" Remus sighed, reaching into his pockets and pulling out some muggle money and dropping it onto the table. "We were just about to leave, weren't we friend?"

The stranger's mouth was wide as his face was contorted with a mixture of rage and confusion – he had no idea how to react to this. Perfect. The only sounds he was able to produce were incoherent cries of outrage as Remus quickly took the man by the arm and started to bodily drag him to the door. He whispered to the waitress as he passed, "Please pardon my friend, one drink and he thinks he owns the place!"

As Remus dragged his fellow werewolf to the door, he was fairly certain the woman hadn't believed him. She glared at the two of them as they passed out the doors, her brow creased in suspicion. Remus called back as casually as he could, "Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets home safe," before dragging the man out of the bar and into the pouring rain. He pulled him around to the side of the building away from the bright windows of the bar. The rain had lessened slightly since Remus had been outside, but the puddles in the mud around the bar still came up to his ankles and the rain still poured steadily from above.

The stranger pulled himself free of Remus' grip and spun around quickly – his teeth bared and his fists balled. "How dare you!"

Remus didn't give the man a chance to strike. He grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand and covered his mouth with the other as he shoved him into the wall of the tavern. The man made a strange grunting sound as the wind was knocked out of his chest. "Listen to me!" Remus hissed. The man pulled out an arm and tried to claw at him. Remus put his forearm against the man's throat, still covering his mouth tightly with his other hand. "Quit struggling and listen to me! Are you such a fool that you want to be put in Azkaban for the rest of your days?" The man's chest heaved for a few moments as he stopped struggling, his eyes watching Remus intently.

"Now, if I let you go, will you promise to be still and listen to me? I know you need something from me, and if it is within my power I will try to help you. But you need to calm down first. Angering a room of drunken humans is not the best way to stay hidden! Not to mention keep your damn skin!"

The stranger studied him for a long moment, his eyes wide and untrusting. The rain fell steadily all around them, hitting the wooden walls of the building and the metal gutters above. A low roll of thunder swept through the sky as water trickled and pooled in the soggy mud in which they stood. Slowly the man nodded. Remus stepped back slowly, releasing the man who promptly doubled over coughing and clutching his throat.

"There are others," his voice was strained, as he doubled over in another coughing fit. Remus' heartbeat skipped a beat at this. Of course there were others. Why hadn't he thought of it before? But if there was a pack out here, why was this man so determined to protect them? Surely a pack would have shown themselves to him upon his first entering the town and given him a fair warning. He'd never known of an individual being sent.

"How many are there?"

"Only two…" the stranger stood then, keeping his distance but studying Remus all the more closely this time. "You know of the prison then? The prison where they've sent so many others like us?"

"You mean Azkaban? They send more than just werewolves there, my friend." Remus put out a hand to help steady the man. Only three of them… By their very nature werewolves were pack hunters, they were drawn to large packs, and it was very unusual for only three to be living together. That was unless you were both a werewolf and a wizard like Remus – then you were shunned by packs simply because you were accepted by the very group that dominated the werewolves' existence. What had kept this man from joining one of the many groups that lived around England? Surely he appeared fit and strong enough to join a pack. Were the others diseased? Perhaps they were too old to be accepted by a pack, but if that were the case why was this one so obviously fearful of Remus? "How did you find out about Azkaban?"

The man's eyes turned downward at this question, and Remus realized that this was perhaps the first sign of weakness from the stranger that he'd experienced. "A friend of mine. Captured by those bastard wizards. He never came back, but I don't need them to tell me where he's gone. I'm not a fool, I can read those bloody wizard papers!"

"I see…" Remus looked away. This entire situation was beginning to smell of very bad news. Surely the man had obtained a copy of the Daily Prophet sometime within the last year, because details of Azkaban seemed to be at the forefront of every article. That would explain why he knew about Azkaban, but that wouldn't explain what happened to his friend that caused him so much fear. If he had indeed been taken to Azkaban as this man feared, then that person must have indeed done something terrible. At the moment Remus' instincts were telling him that he needed to find a way out of this situation and fast.

"You are a wizard then," the stranger smiled at him almost thankfully. "I knew it, I knew when you first came into town what you were!" He studied Remus for a moment, as though inwardly congratulating himself on figuring out the mystery. "Why did you pretend not to be? Why did you embarrass me like that?"

Remus sighed, "Look I just saved you from being kicked out by a mass of drunks. Surely my method of leaving wasn't that terrible." He turned around to head back to the road, pulling his coat around him tighter to fend off the rain and the wind.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving," Remus growled, refusing to turn around to him again. He'd wasted enough time with this idiot. If he couldn't find shelter here for the night then he'd need to keep searching. He had no intention to get involved in this mess, not when he had so many other important matters to attend to.

"Wait a second! I never said you could go!" He heard the man's footsteps splashing in the water as he ran up beside him.
"As far as I can remember, I never asked."

"But I need your help!"

"Well you have a sorry way of asking for it," Remus snapped, quickening his pace.

"But I don't know what to do with her!"

Remus sighed. He was well known in the Order for his undying patience regardless of the situation. But here, Remus found his patience finally wearing thin. He turned around to the man, staring at him with the light of the tavern silhouetting him in the darkness. His long black hair hung down in clumps around his pale face, his features for the moment were unrecognizable. Memory once again held sway over Remus and for a moment he was at a different time once again.

"Leave the country? At a time like this?"

"I have to Severus, I can't stay here anymore."

"So you're just going to leave? Just like that? You're one damn cowardly Gryffindor, you know that?"

"I just, I have a bad feeling about all of this. I mean honestly, just because your idiot friends don't seem to trust you very much doesn't mean you can just leave me here with them."

"You don't know a goddamn thing about this, Severus! Don't even pretend that you understand what I'm going through!"

It had always stayed with him, the look in his eyes when he finally left. The utter shock and desolation that had fallen like a heavy load onto Severus' usually emotionless expression. He would never forgive Remus for it anymore than Remus would ever forgive himself for leaving.

"Please, I need your help. I have no one else to turn to here and you're the only werewolf I've seen in the last two years. You know more about the laws than I do, if you would only see her…"

Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, Remus cursed his weakness for people in need. He cursed Albus for sending him on this mission. He cursed Sirius for being dead and not here with him. And most of all he cursed Severus because it was his damn fault that he gave in so easily to his emotions.

"Well lead the way then, stranger. Bloody hell…. I can't believe I'm doing this. I don't even know your name."

The man's pale face gleamed for a moment before he turned and began walking in long strides, forcing Remus to quicken his pace to keep up. "It's Milo."

Remus smirked. "Of course it is. We really need to work on your social skills, Milo. Lesson One: don't ask people to leave when you need their help!"

Milo ignored him but only walked in silence as they headed off down a dirt path into the woods. "And yours?"

"My what?"

"What's your name then?" His eyes were barely discernable in the dark forest.

"Remus."

It was Milo's turn to smirk. "'Course it is."