Remus had decided to use his old cottage as a base for his mission with the werewolves to start with. Eventually, he'd need to join a pack. Maybe in the next month or so, once he had established where it was most useful for him to be.

He'd stayed in contact with the four werewolves he'd met at the first rally. Eugenia still didn't say anything, and Mike not much more, but Ottoline and Anna were good company. He'd made contact with a few more werewolves, too, from the other group he'd had his eye on at the rally. There was seven of them, all bitten recently as adults. Most of them seemed positive, although a few were leaning towards Greyback.

He was now working on some of his old contacts, from years ago. A couple of them he'd spotted at the rally, a few more were dead, and others he was in the process of arranging to meet.

He was writing a letter to one of these werewolves, a lonely old soul called Hunter, when somebody else's owl swooped through the window. Assuming it was one of his werewolf correspondents, he reached into the air for the handsome tawny as it came in to land. He unrolled the scroll carefully, hoping it was an offer to meet rather than an outright rejection. He'd had a couple of those already.

It was from Tonks. Why was she writing to him? He thought he'd been clear enough when they'd left one another.

Dear Remus, the letter read.

I hope you're well. Albus says you're on track, which I assume means nobody's scratched you up wherever you are.

Mad-Eye, Molly, Arthur and I are off to Kings Cross tomorrow to meet Harry's train coming back from Hogwarts. We think it would be a good idea to chat to his aunt and uncle and make sure he's going to be well treated over the summer. Especially now Sirius is gone.

I didn't really want to write to you as I think you made what you wanted from me clear. But Arthur thinks you should be there, and well, I agree. Harry would like to see you I think.

Let me know if you're coming. Train's due in around 3pm.

I promise I won't say anything to you if you don't want me to.

Tonks

Remus could picture her writing it, scrunched over the parchment in the way she always sat to read or write, curled over and tiny. There was a blob of ink on the signature, as if it had come into contact with water.

He balled the letter up and threw it into the fire. He'd go, of course he'd go. Harry was too important to him not to go. But if he remained looking at the piece of parchment with her words scrawled over it for any longer, the piece of parchment that radiated her feelings, he'd go to her and hug her and then where the hell would he be. There were reasons he'd spent years practicing his self control.

Instead, he pushed the letter to Hunter away and grabbed a new piece of parchment to write his reply to Tonks.

Dear Tonks,

Thank you for your letter. You're right that we should talk to Harry's family. I'll be there tomorrow.

Remus

"There. No feelings. Best that way. Don't give in to desires. You'll hurt someone," he said to the owl. It hooted softly and gave him a puzzled look.

He sealed the letter, fastened it on the owl, chucked it an Owl Treat and encouraged it out the window.

Don't think about seeing her tomorrow, he thought. He needed to get on with those letters. Nobody else could do this job, so he was going to have to.

In the morning, he rose as usual, batting away the strange twist of nerves in his stomach. He knew exactly why that feeling was there, but also knew better than to acknowledge it. He completed his morning routine, slow and steady.

He had some things to do before he needed to be at Kings Cross. He'd agreed to meet Ottoline and Eugenia, just to get a coffee and have a chat, and then he was going to finally tackle that hole in the roof of the cottage. He'd looked up the spells he needed to fix it with magic, and if it didn't work he just about had the gold now to hire a handyman to come and do it for him.

Some hours later, he arrived at Kings Cross slightly early for the train. He'd Apparated to a goods yard behind the station and unlocked the gate by magic to get out. He re-locked the gate before leaving; he didn't want some Muggle station guard to get in trouble for it being unlocked.

Remus had always had a soft spot for the station. From his second to seventh years at Hogwarts, six Septembers in a row, he'd loved the sight of the grand old building. It was the first sign of seeing his friends again. He even liked the smell of the place, all musty and weird and slightly petrol-tinged. Sirius had loved the smell too. James used to say it smelt like too many people.

They'd agreed to meet by Platform Nine and not to go onto the Hogwarts platform, so Remus had dressed in his Muggle best. He needed to buy some new Muggle clothes when he got a chance. He'd ripped his last t-shirt the night of the last full moon, and his only shirt was in desperate need of a wash. He'd had to resort to a jumper with nothing underneath, and an overcoat to hide the really quite big holes in the jumper's left sleeve.

Mad-Eye was already there. "Alright, Lupin?" he asked, as Remus approached. He was leaning against a railing, eating a sandwich.

"Just fixed my roof," said Remus. "It's been leaking since about 1990."

"I remember that damned roof," said Mad-Eye. "Tonks crashed over onto the bucket that time we met at yours in the rainstorm and covered me in water. Ruined my boot."

Remus had forgotten that story. They'd met there to go over known Death Eater properties and to attempt to highlight their existence to the Ministry to get some help with watching them. The Ministry had not been admitting Voldemort was back and so had flatly refused to do anything official. But, with their contacts in the Auror Department and Arthur's Muggle Artefacts team there was scope for catching Death Eaters officially under other grounds. Tonks had been particularly clumsy that day. As well as the bucket incident, Remus had lost two mugs and the bathroom mirror.

They were happily trading stories of injuries Tonks had caused them when the woman herself showed up on the platform, accompanied by Arthur and Molly. Fred and George were behind them.

"Talking about me?" she asked cheerfully, although the usual glint of mischief in her eyes had disappeared.

"All bad things," said Mad-Eye.

"Terrible," Remus added. His heart wasn't really in teasing her. It seemed unfair. Molly glared at him. She clearly felt the same.

Remus glared at Molly. More for something to do than because he disliked her, but she really needed to drop this matchmaker thing.

Tonks refused to speak to him the rest of the time they were at the station. In front of Harry, she was bright and bubbly, and suitably played her part in front of Harry's aunt and uncle. In fact, she was excellent. Once they were gone, she reverted back to into her shell. She spent a few minutes talking shop with Mad-Eye about things at the Ministry, and then said her goodbyes.

Remus felt terrible. He knew there was nothing he could do to stop her feeling this way, but it was still his fault. He too said his farewells to the Weasley's and Mad-Eye, refusing their offer of a drink at The Burrow. He had a job for Dumbledore, he told them.

Her face swam in his mind as he walked away. Dejected, glassy-eyed, hair hanging limply around her face. Any idiot could see that she was desperately unhappy.

Still, he thought, all the more reason to stay away. She could be happy quicker. He decided not to come in the future. He could maybe arrange to see Harry separately.

He walked to his next destination. It wasn't far, and he'd always been told it was a bad idea to Apparate if you were feeling particularly strong emotions. Besides, he needed to be calm and normal for this next meeting.

He arrived at the Leaky Cauldron in plenty of time, and asked Tom the barman to show him to the private parlour he'd reserved. Ordering himself a butterbeer, he made himself at home. He thought he'd finish that letter to Hunter while he waited. Somehow, he'd still not managed to finish that despite starting it hours before.

Just as Remus dotted the 'i' in Lupin to finish the letter, the door to the parlour opened and Tom ushered in three people. They were all clutching bottles of bitterer, looking nervous. A tall, bearded man led the small group, his dark hair flecked with grey and his grey robes immaculate. Behind him were a woman and a teenage boy. The woman was fiddling with the hem of her sleeve, blonde hair held back with a jewelled clip.

The boy stepped in last. He was dressed in Muggle clothing, as most wizarding teenagers did outside of school. He'd have passed for a Muggle, if the t-shirt hadn't had the name of a wizarding band across it in flashing yellow and green letters.

"I'll leave you be, then," said Tom, making to close the door. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Please, have a seat," said Remus, shifting his parchment off the table and stowing it in his back. They did. All of them made to sit at a distance from him. "You must be William." He held out his hand to the boy, who shook it nervously. His palm was slightly sweaty.

"And you're the werewolf? Lupin?" asked the man. "Jamieson Tolliver. My wife, Lucina."

"Call me Remus, please," he said. Remus shook hands with the other man, but addressed his next statement to the boy again. "Albus Dumbledore asked me to meet with you, William. I believe you were recently bitten by a werewolf."

"Yes, at Easter," he said, staring firmly at his trainers.

"And you've been in St Mungo's since?"

"Yep. Missed exams. Been wishing for a reason to not have to take them for ages, now look."

Remus fought back an urge to laugh. It wouldn't have been appropriate, and the boy's mum looked as if she trusted him little enough already.

"Dumbledore has said you'll get the opportunity to sit them late if you wish," Remus reassured him. "Or, if you'd prefer not to, that's up to you."

"He said might be able to go back to school next year," said the boy. "That you were at school when you were a werewolf."

"I was," said Remus. "It wasn't easy, but I managed. I've got OWLs and NEWTs, and I had friends. I went to Hogsmeade, Quidditch matches, I was in a few detentions, aside from once a month I had a fairly normal teenage life."

"I don't know if I want to," William said. "I just don't know if I can. Everything's changed. I'm of age now, I'll be eighteen in September, and loads of people don't stay on to get their NEWTs. I wasn't much of a student anyway."

Dumbledore had given him a potted history of the boy, and unfortunately the boy was right. He was a Hufflepuff, and he did work hard at school, but had scraped a bundle of A's in his OWLS with a few P's.

"Education is important, William!" said his mum. "And it won't be easy for you to get a job, now now…"

"Mum says the Ministry's made it so werewolves can't get jobs," said William, looking less positive than he had done before.

"Unfortunately, your mum is right," said Remus. "I've been finding it tricky to get work myself." His task was to make the boy feel better about his condition, but Remus couldn't bring himself to lie or even to sugarcoat stuff William would be able to find out on his own. Werewolves knew how shit their life was. Telling them it wasn't was a good way to alienate them, not convince them.

"What do you do, then?" asked William.

"A bit of everything. I do some work as an editor for writers of Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts books. Bit of Boggart catching and other removing of Dark Creatures. Before the current rules I occasionally took Ministry jobs, but that's not an option now. Bookshop work. Done a few Muggle jobs. I do some work from Dumbledore, from time to time."

"None of that I'd be much cop at."

"You'd find something," Remus said, with a warm smile.

"What about girls? Can I still, you know? Do you have a girlfriend or a wife or something?"

"William!" exclaimed his mother. Remus chuckled. He was starting to quite like this kid, and he definitely didn't blame him for asking that question.

"It's quite alright, Mrs Tolliver, I can see why he'd be concerned. You can have girlfriends, many werewolves do form attachments or relationships. Others prefer to keep it more casual. The one area we're not sure about is what happens if werewolves father children. Relationships between werewolves and normal witches are uncommon, and there is little evidence of children born to such pairs. As for me, I'm not interested in a girlfriend."

"Oh, right," said William, eyes wide. Remus belatedly realised what the boy thought he'd meant by that statement.

"No, erm, I'm not gay," he said, unsure of why he was getting into that level of detail with these people he didn't know. "I just… I had to put a stop to a thing with a woman recently." He settled on the reason he'd given the werewolves he'd met when they'd asked about Tonks.

"Ah, fair enough mate," said William, grinning. He looked like he'd discovered a secret about one of his teachers. Remus remembered teaching the kid, so thinking about it that's exactly what he'd done.

Mrs Tolliver looked shocked at the turn of conversation. Remus frantically tried to bring it back to where he was supposed to be.

"So," he said, stalling for time. "Is there anything else you'd like to know from me?"

"Yeah, is it right you have to register? Mum says I do."

"Legally, you're supposed to," said Remus, carefully. "I haven't. I don't believe in it. While there is so much prejudice against us, it can be safer for nobody to know what you are. Provided," he said, adopting his best stern face, "that you always remain safe on the full moon nights and keep yourself from humans."

William's face changed back into the scared boy look of the beginning of their conversation.

"I wouldn't ever, I don't ever want to bite someone," he said, a shake to his voice.

"You won't, if you're careful. I can help you with that. I'm here to offer my help, so if there's anything you want then you can always call on me."

"Do you know any other werewolves?"

"Quite a few. There's a girl I know, Ottoline, I think you'd like to meet her. She was bitten recently too, and she's quite close to your age. I think it'd be good for you both to have a friend. There's quite a lot of us, and unfortunately the population is growing more rapidly than ever before."

"Is it… is it him, Mr Lupin? You-Know-Who?"

"I think so."

"Mr Lupin, I'm scared."

"Please, call me Remus. I'm scared too, William, but I think we can all get through this. Now, I know your parents will want to get you home, so I'm going to give you an address owls can find me at, and you'll give me yours so I can write to you. And then we can arrange to meet again in a couple of weeks."

William nodded. They exchanged pieces of parchment, Remus shook hands with Mr Tolliver again, and everyone gathered their bags to leave.

"Hey, Mr Lupin? I thought you were a good Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." William shut the door behind him with that parting shot.

Remus drained the last of his butterbeer. Today had been more than he was used to. Time to go and collapse on his sofa with a least he'd made a positive impression on William, had made sure Ottoline and Eugenia had somewhere safe to transform on the full moon, and had seen Harry. And finally finished that letter to Hunter.

He had just a few more days to the full moon, and he was feeling it.