Author's Notes:Thanks again to my beta-reader, Shimotsuki.

Previously, in "Transformations": While visiting Arthur in St. Mungo's, Tonks recognizes another patient as a former classmate, Ethan Bulstrode, and discovers that he'd been bitten by a werewolf. She visits with him, and learns that his family and friends have completely disowned him. She decides to help him, and promises to come back the next day. Remus returns to Grimmauld Place, where Sirius vents to him about his anger over Dumbledore abandoning him to Azkaban without hearing his side of the story. The next day Tonks tells him about Ethan and asks him to join her efforts to help him. Remus is uncomfortable about the situation, and he and Tonks have their first argument, and part in anger.

Chapter 7: A Growing Mystery

Tonks fumed all the way to the hospital. She had no idea how things in her conversation with Remus had gone so badly so quickly. Did he really think that she had taken him on as another charity case? Did he suddenly believe that she was one of those women that seek out men as projects? As something that they can fix? What had she ever done to give him that horrible misimpression?

A few minutes after leaving Grimmauld Place she felt like turning around and going back to shake some sense into Remus. But she was already running late, and she was not going to back out of her promise to visit Ethan. She only hoped that giving Remus this extra time to think about their disagreement would help him come to his senses.

When she saw the way Ethan's eyes lit up as she entered the ward she began to feel better. She said a brief hello to Arthur, and then headed over to Ethan's bed.

"I didn't think you would really come," he said.

"That's just because you don't know me well enough yet," she said. "But you will."

She gave Ethan the magazines, some snack foods, and a container of take-out curry that she had brought for him. He gobbled the curry hungrily, after remarking on the lack of flavor on the St. Mungo's menu. She asked him how long he was going to be in the hospital, and he told her that it was standard practice for St. Mungo's to hold patients with his condition until two days after their first transformation. From then on out, they were expected to fend for themselves.

Tonks wasn't sure if she should be asking this but she decided to anyway. "So how... How did it happen? How did you get your bite?"

His face once more became somber. "I was set up. I was lured into an abandoned warehouse on the night of the full moon, and a werewolf was waiting for me. I'm lucky I escaped with only two bites."

"That's outrageous! Is it being investigated?"

"They say it is," he replied, "but I'm not so sure. I don't have much faith in the Ministry anymore."

"I can't say I blame you," she said. "I haven't much faith in the Ministry anymore either and I work for them." She shook her head. "Do you know who's in charge of your case?"

He shook his head. "No."

She frowned. "This really is outrageous. I told you before, I'm an Auror. I have lots of friends in Magical Law Enforcement. I'll do some asking around, and see who's working your case. Maybe I can make something happen."

"You could try," he said. "I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it will do much good."

"Anything I can do to help," she said. "Do you have any idea who set you up?" She had heard of rumors of murder-by-werewolf before, but since meeting Remus she had given them no credit. She was sorry to find that she had been wrong. This is why he expects people not to trust him, she thought.

Ethan nodded. "I have some ideas. I had trouble finding my place in the world after leaving school. But in the past year, I finally found my calling. I've been writing investigative reports for the Daily Prophet. I was working on a freelance basis; I hadn't even gotten a full time position yet. Now I never will." He paused, shaking his head. "I buggered it. I buggered everything. In the process of trying to fulfill my dream of being a reporter, I ruined my whole life." He looked down, poking at the curry with a plastic fork.

Tonks waited impatiently for the rest of his story. Finally, he continued. "I was working on a story about werewolf brothels. I didn't even know they existed until last month when one of my old dorm mates from Hogwarts told me about them."

Werewolf brothels? Tonks had never heard of them either. She couldn't believe that the Ministry would allow something like that to exist. She listened attentively as Ethan continued. "I thought that I'd finally found the story that would help me get my big break. I was going to write an exposé. I started looking into it, and I was amazed at what I was finding. Girls—mostly Muggle girls—were being purposefully bitten. They were picked out, selected on purpose by Wizard pimps who wanted them for the purpose. And the pimps were forcing the girls into prostitution in exchange for a safe place to transform each month and a monthly supply of Wolfsbane Potion. That's why they chose Muggles. Without the pimps they would have no access to that sort of protection. And because they were Muggles, it was easy to bribe Ministry officials to look the other way."

As Ethan talked, Tonks's eyes grew wider and wider. She had never heard anything so despicable and outrageous in her life. What kind of sick and twisted people would think of using such a horrible curse to profit off of the bodies of innocent women? And how could any ministry official dare to ignore it? "I can hardly believe what you're saying—it's so horrible!"

Ethan looked at her with earnest, sad eyes. "It's all true. Why else would I be here? Someone involved got wind of my story and wanted to make sure that it was never published. I was a complete idiot to fall for the trap they set for me."

Tonks his head was spinning. Werewolf activity might not normally fall under the jurisdiction of the Aurors, but if this didn't count as Dark Magic, she didn't know what would. "Something has got to be done about this. I'll go to my superiors at once. This can't be tolerated."

"It shouldn't be—but it is," said Ethan, pulling open a bag of crisps, and popping one in his mouth. "I hope you can do something about it, but I wouldn't count on it if I were you. I have a feeling that the bribery on this one extends up to the highest levels of the Ministry."

"I hope you're wrong," said Tonks, feeling sick inside.

"I wish I was," replied Ethan, picking out another crisp. "But I'm not. And it wouldn't surprise me if an organization capable of this was involved in other criminal enterprises as well. It's like there's this whole werewolf underground twining all around us—yet none of the so-called respectable citizens know anything about it. We have no idea how dangerous they are. That's how they got me. An informant told me he wanted to meet me during the night of the full moon, because that's the only time his werewolf bosses wouldn't be looking over his shoulder. And he led me right into a trap," he shook his head. "I was so naïve. I couldn't believe they would actually stoop to that level."

He shook his head, staring at the blank wall across from him. "I was wrong." He popped the crisp into his mouth.

Tonks had always been a strong believer in justice, and she had always counted on the Ministry to provide that justice. But increasingly over the past year her confidence in the Ministry's brand of justice had been eroding. From the gross miscarriage of justice in the Ministry's handling of her cousin Sirius, to the ousting of Dumbledore from the Wizengamot, to the installation of Umbridge at Hogwarts, to this. It was unbearable.

"I'm not going to stand for it," she said fiercely. "Something's got to be done."

"That's what I thought," replied Ethan, popping another crisp into his mouth. "And look where it got me."

Tonks shook her head. "You can't just give up!"

Ethan clenched his hand tightly around the top of his bag, and Tonks heard several crips crunch in his grip. "I don't want to give up. I have no choice. I wrote to my editor and begged him to run the story, but all he wrote back was that the Prophet doesn't accept submissions from known werewolves." Ethan shook his head, and took a few deep breaths. He looked so angry, and so helpless. "But I think the real reason was he was afraid. He saw what they did to me, and he was afraid it would happen to him too. And I think that's why my family—my father—really turned on me. He never approved of my writing. He thought it was beneath the dignity of our family. He thinks that this is my punishment for going against his will. He doesn't want my free-thinking to bring harm to the rest of the family, so he turned against me. And he turned everyone else against me, as well—even Beatrice."

"Your fiancée?"

He nodded. He looked pale, and sick. Tonks couldn't imagine being in his position—assaulted, betrayed, abandoned, and alone. Damn Remus for not coming. He could really help here. She tried to push the thoughts of Remus out of her mind—they would only muddle her thinking. Right now she needed to focus on what Ethan was telling her.

"I'm so sorry, Ethan," she said. "You were only trying to do the right thing."

Ethan shook his head. "I don't know anymore. Was it right to pursue this at the expense of my safety? Was it right to defy the values and standards of my family just to satisfy my own ambition?"

"It might have been," said Tonks softly. "My mother defied her family when she was younger than either of us. She came from a family a lot like yours, and she disagreed with some of the things that her parents had taught her. She eventually eloped with a Muggle-born—my father. Her parents never spoke to her again. They passed away without reconciling. I know that sometimes she still regrets losing that relationship—but she has never regretted following her own convictions, and her own heart. That doesn't make the pain of her loss go away, but it does make it worth it."

"I don't know if anything I do now will ever make this worth it." Ethan sounded bleak, and broken.

"It will," she insisted. "Do you still have your notes for the story?"

He nodded. "Yes. They're in a trunk of my personal items that the hospital is keeping for me."

"Okay," she said. "I have to leave for work now, and you need to get those notes organized for me—especially anything that you think might help a serious investigation, like names, addresses, those sorts of things. You can give them to me when I stop by tomorrow. I'm going to take them to my superiors at the Ministry, and we are going to put a stop to what's happening. That's what will make your sacrifice worth it."

Ethan nodded weakly. He didn't look convinced. "I'll have them for you."

It wasn't until she had left St. Mungo's that Tonks allowed herself to think of Remus again. Why had he picked that fight with her? Did he really think so little of her? Or was it himself that he thought so little of? Those uncomfortable thoughts mingled with the unsettling information Ethan had given her as she made her way to work, and there were no easy answers for either situation.

After several hours of thought, Remus had come to a conclusion: he had behaved like a total wally with Nymphadora that morning. It was up to him to make things right. He knew that her motives had been unselfish—he was the one who was being selfish and demanding. He just needed the chance to apologize.

Sirius's unusual chipper mood hadn't let up and Remus was finally fed up with his incessant caroling. He decided to go run an errand that had been on his mind ever since sitting in on Varick's interrogation. It was time to pay a visit to the Ministry.

Normally, he avoided the Ministry except for his once-yearly required visit to the office of the Werewolf Registry. It was humiliating to be forced to don the red visitor's badge, warning everyone around him that he was a werewolf, and degrading to be forced to surrender his wand at the security desk. However, duty demanded that he follow up on the information he had gotten from Varick and the best place to start was in the Ministry.

He made his way quickly through the corridors, avoiding the gaze of Ministry employees looking at him askance after catching sight of his badge. Soon, he reached his destination: the office of Werewolf Support Services.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside. The shabby office suite consisted of a central room lined with crowded shelves and dominated by two cluttered desks and several chairs. To one side was a small meeting room. For more than a decade, the office of Werewolf Support Services had consisted of only two people: Sarah Browning, a short, stout, gray-haired woman in her sixties, and her assistant.

Sarah was sitting at her desk, and looked up when Remus stepped inside. Her face broke into a broad smile. "Remus! It's been ages and ages!" she said, rising and stepping around her desk to give him a warm embrace. There were very few people Sarah did not greet with an embrace, and Remus was grateful to receive it. She might be a little scatterbrained, but she had one of the best hearts he'd ever encountered.

"Hello, Sarah," he said. "How are things?"

She sighed. "I can't complain—too much," she said. "Things have been harder since—well, you know." He could only assume she was referring to the passage of the Umbridge Laws, which required that every werewolf disclose their condition to prospective employers or face criminal penalties. The laws also required employers to pay the expense of their employees' Wolfsbane Potion, thereby making employers even less likely to take on werewolf employees. Finally, the laws had required employers of werewolves to post public notices in their places of business to inform their customers of their werewolf employee. Remus could only imagine that Sarah's efforts to place werewolves with open-minded employers had been significantly hampered by the new laws. "And how are you doing, Remus—is there anything that I can help you with today?"

"Not for myself, Sarah, I'm happy to say," he replied. "I've actually been doing quite a bit of freelance work for Little Red Books, lately. The pay isn't great, but it's keeping the bills paid."

"Wonderful! How splendid for you!" she said, clasping her hands together. He could sense some relief behind her exclamations, and suspected that she was indeed struggling to help other out-of-work werewolves. He knew his own search for steady employment had been more difficult in the past few years, and could imagine that others in his condition would have things equally hard. In fact, it was only his longstanding friendship with Emmeline that had garnered him his freelance work.

"Have a seat," Sarah said, gesturing at the cluster of mismatched chairs.

He selected a wobbly green wooden chair with the last remnants of a seat-cushion clinging stubbornly to its frame, leaving a more comfortable leather-upholstered seat for Sarah.

"It's so nice to hear that you're doing well," she said lowering herself into her chair. "There's so many wonderful Lycans that are going through hard times right now. I'm being run ragged trying to find positions for them all. I've even resorted to looking for Muggle jobs."

Remus nodded. "I've held a few Muggle jobs in the past. They're not too bad, and many Muggles are far less suspicious about the once a month absences than wizard employers."

"Oh really? I hadn't even thought about that—but I can see how you might be right. Perhaps I'll have to spend more time looking for Muggle jobs."

"Or you could see if there are any Squib business owners out in the Muggle world that are looking for employees. They're more likely to disdain wizarding laws and have sympathy for fellow outcasts."

Sarah sat up straighter, blinking rapidly with a stunned expression on her face. "Why…that thought never even occurred to me! Oh, Remus, I do wish you would stop by more often. You always have the most wonderful ideas. If the Ministry would ever give me the funds for a second assistant, I would hire you on the spot."

Remus smiled. "I appreciate that, but funding your office has never been a Ministry priority." He tactfully decided not to mention the Ministry's policy not to hire part-humans. Sarah seemed to have forgotten it again.

"Don't I know it," she said, shaking her head. She looked at him quizzically. "Have you told me why you stopped by yet—did I just forget?"

"You haven't forgotten. We hadn't got round to it yet."

"Oh good. Like I said, I'm being run ragged." She slumped somewhat in her chair, summoning her cup of tea. "Would you like anything?"

"No, thank you."

"So," she took a sip of her drink. "What's on your mind today, Remus?"

Remus rubbed his chin, wondering just how to approach the subject without giving too much about the Order's activities away. Finally, he said, "I ran into a bloke the other day, in a pub. He was going on and on about some…ahem…ladies of disrepute…whom he had been visiting. He mentioned something about werewolves, and a group he called theMoonies. I was wondering if you've ever heard that name tossed about?"

Sarah pursed her lips. "Oooh. I have. And none of it's good."

"Can you tell me?"

She nodded. "A year ago, one of the younger Lycans that I work with told me that some fellows had showed up out of the blue at his flat, claiming to be werewolves from some sort of brotherhood They tried to bully him into collecting information on his wealthy relatives that they could use in a blackmail scheme. He managed to get rid of them, in the end. But it was very disconcerting to us to think of a group of unregistered werewolves forming a gang, and wandering around trying to commit crimes."

Remus frowned. "It is a disconcerting thought. Extremely disconcerting."

Sarah nodded again. "But that's not the worst part. You know how poor Tommy spent all those years searching for his sister?"

"Yes," said Remus, curiously. Sarah's current assistant, Tommy Rocker, had joined Werewolf Support Services about six years ago after his own beloved sister had been bitten, and, a few months later, had vanished without a trace. "Did he finally find her?"

Sarah nodded. "He did, thank Merlin. But she was in a sorry state, poor girl." Sarah sniffed loudly. "It makes me want to cry every time I think about it."

"What happened to her, Sarah?"

She conjured a hankie, and dabbed at her eyes. "She'd been living in a brothel. She said that nearly all the girls there were Lycans—all of them were unregistered, and all of them but her were Muggles. When Tommy found her she was shocked that he would still love her enough to want to bring her back home. But he did. He dotes on her day and night. I think he's trying to work out his guilt over not finding her sooner. But all those other poor girls…with no one else to turn to." A sob escaped from her. "I wish I could help them all, but no one else in the Department seems to care. They seem to think that because the girls are Muggles and the brothel gives them a secure place to transform that it's none of our business." She shook her head violently. "Heartless cowards, the lot of them!"

Remus's jaw was set. How much of this had been happening under the Ministry's nose for years, without anyone noticing or caring? And now, it was no surprise that this hopeless group of outcasts and been swayed to the support of Voldemort—after all, no one else in the wizarding world cared.

"I…" he could hardly think of a reply. "I had hoped that it wasn't true."

"I wake up every day of my life wishing that it was just a bad dream," said Sarah, still sniffling. "But it's not. And the Ministry seems entirely unwilling to do anything about it."

Remus stood, and paced the room. "I wish there was some way I could help," he said.

"There might be," said Sarah.

"How?" he asked, stepping toward her.

"Tommy and I have been talking about going outside of the Ministry. Raising funds to start a charity. A halfway house, where homeless werewolves could live together and work to gain skills that would help them find honest employment. We know it's a huge undertaking, but we're beginning to see that it might be the only way to achieve our goals. And we could use all the help we can get—if you're willing?" The look of hope and pleading in Sarah's eyes was intense.

Remus didn't know how to respond. He had always shied away from associating with other werewolves—he had no desire to form a club or friendship based on wallowing in self-pity, and from his experience that was all that other werewolves ever wanted to do with him.

However, from the sound of things there really was a desperate need for help. And perhaps his experience would actually be able to do someone some good. But with his commitments to the Order he wasn't sure if he would even have time for such an ambitious undertaking.

Besides, the idea of turning his condition into the center of his life—like it was some sort of badge of honor—made him feel sick to his stomach. He longed to be known and respected as a wizard, not as an advocate for victims of a disease. He had never let his condition define who he was, and he worried that getting involved in an organization like the one Sarah suggested would force him to do so.

"I don't know. It's a brilliant idea—it really is," he said politely, "but there's a lot going on in my life right now. I'm not sure how much time I could give you."

"Even a few hours a week would be wonderful, Remus. Any time at all. We're barely getting started. We've only just begun compiling a list of potential donors. Anything you can do would be simply outstanding."

Remus contemplated her offer for a minute. As loath as he was to get involved, he couldn't deny that working with her very well might put him in a position to further investigate the Moonies' connections to Voldemort. That alone would make the experience worthwhile. He would have to discuss it with Dumbledore.

At last, he nodded. "I'd like to help. I'll just have to go home and think on it a bit, to figure out when and how I can work it into my schedule. But as soon as I do, I'll get back to you. I promise."

"Oh Remus!" cried Sarah, rising to her feet and throwing her arms around him again. "This is so fantastic! I'm so glad you stopped by today."

"So am I," said Remus, returning her embrace. "So am I."

On his way out of the Ministry, not much later, Remus hesitated. The lift had stopped on Level Two—where the Auror Headquarters were located. He found himself deeply tempted to get off and see if he could find Nymphadora. He had almost worked up the courage to take a step to exit, when the lift doors slid closed.

He sighed. It was just as well. The last thing she needed right now was to be seen in her office being pestered by a man wearing a red werewolf badge.

Sirius hadn't been this happy in ages. Not long after the Granger girl's arrival Harry's friends had managed to lift him out of his dark mood. Sirius was glad that Harry had such a good gang of friends to turn to—just like he had once had with the Marauders. And he still did, in a way. After all, Tonks and Bill might not be the friends that James and The-Rat-Who-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned once had been, but they were on their way to becoming so. And though Remus might be bossier and broodier than he used to be, at heart he was still good old Moony.

So now with Harry and his gang over for the holidays, it almost felt like the big family Christmas parties that James and Lily had once dreamed of.

Sirius had spent the Christmas after Harry's birth with them, not long after they went into hiding. They were holed up in a tiny Muggle flat in Manchester, and he was the only friend who could be with them for the holiday. They had stayed up long into the night on Christmas Eve, spinning out plans for what holidays would be like once the war was over. They had pictured all the Marauders getting their families together in the large, rambling house that James dreamed of building, with the children running wild through the place while the grown-ups got drunk on eggnog by the fire. The place would be decked with the gaudiest of decorations, and the sound of carols and laughter would fill the place to the brim.

That Christmas Eve spent spinning fantasies with the young Potter family was one of the memories that Sirius still drew upon when casting his Patronus, and now that Harry had perked up he was determined to do his best to recreate that vision of a happy holiday that James and Lily had shared for their son.

Once Harry and his chums came down from their rooms that night Sirius got them all caught up in a game of charades in the parlor. Ron led his team to victory by somehow conveying the title The Monster Book of Monsters through his wild gesticulations. Now Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had settled down to a game of Exploding Snap, while the twins pored over some dusty old books from his library, and Molly sat knitting in the corner.

Sirius surveyed the scene with a wide grin on his face. Somehow, he had managed to bestow domestic bliss on the whole pack of them. Who would have thought he had it in him?

He heard the front door of the house open with a bang as a gust of cold wind blew in. Despite the hasty shutting of the door by whoever had come in, the damage was already done.

"Freakish creature! Half-blood pauper! Go back to the streets where you belong!" bellowed his mother.

"Sounds like Remus is back," said Sirius cheerily, standing up and heading for the hall to help his friend.

After helping to pull the curtains back over dear old mum, he led Remus down the hall to where they could talk without disturbing her. "Care to join me for a nightcap downstairs?"

Remus nodded. He looked troubled. And who could blame him? After all, he'd just had his first row with his first girlfriend in a decade. This probably called for the strong stuff. When they reached the kitchen, Sirius pulled out the Firewhiskey. Remus didn't object.

"So, where've you been?"

"I had to stop by the Ministry—Werewolf Support Services."

"Oh." Sirius decided not to pry. He wasn't in the mood for depressing topics. "But didn't most of the Ministry folks go home hours ago?"

Remus nodded. "Yes. I went to Hogsmeade afterward. I managed to get a meeting with Dumbledore in the Hog's Head, to report my findings from Austria."

"Hmm," said Sirius, taking a sip of his drink, once more choosing not to pry.

Unfortunately, Remus was in the mood to share. After finishing most of his drink, he said, "There are signs that an underground werewolf criminal organization is throwing its support behind Voldemort." With that, he finished off his drink in one gulp.

Sirius let out a low whistle. "I think you could use another one of these, mate," he said, refilling Remus's glass. Moony had never been fond of discussing his condition and he had outright avoided associating with other Lycans. Sirius had always thought it a bit priggish to be so prejudiced against people who shared his condition, but that was Moony for you. If werewolves really were throwing in their lot with Voldemort, Sirius had no doubt who Dumbledore would call on to look in to it. Poor sod.

"Thanks," said Remus, taking another drink.

"Well," said Sirius, "on a lighter note, we've been having a positively splendid time here without you. You ought to join in the festivities tomorrow. Might take your mind of off your troubles."

Remus just stared off into space. "Humph."

"Humph? That's all you can say, is Humph? Next thing you know you'll be spouting Bah Humbug, and seeing ghosts."

Remus finally cracked a smile. "I wonder if Peeves would pay us a visit from Hogwarts, to play the part of the ghost of Pranks Past," he said.

Sirius chuckled. "Now that would be something worth seeing." He went on to chat about gift ideas for Harry, and Remus agreed to go shopping for him tomorrow.

Finally, Remus stood and stretched. "It's been a long day. I think I'll turn in."

Sirius nodded, and followed him up the stairs to the ground level. Remus turned to continue up the stairs, and Sirius stopped him saying, "Mate?"

"What?" he replied, looking back over his shoulder.

"She won't be angry for long," Sirius said. "She cares too much about you to hold a grudge. If you can catch her tomorrow, you'll probably find that everything's already forgotten and forgiven."

Remus nodded, with an uncertain smile. "Thanks."

"No problem, mate."

Sirius turned to head back to the parlor, humming "Deck the Halls". Maybe he could still join in that game of Exploding Snap.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Another update will come soon. :)