Chapter XIX

The Aurors interrogated them separately, Andromeda first. Remus was locked inside a narrow room with bare, smudgy walls and as far as she could see, no enchanted window or anything to sit on. Savage ushered her into a similar room, except that this one contained a rickety table, three chairs, and a clock that told her it was eighteen minutes to eleven. Green told her to take the chair facing the door, which she locked with a Colloportus. The two Aurors sat down on the other side of the table, their wands in front of them. Her own was languishing in an inner pocket of Savage's robe. Together with Ted's - no, Remus's now, she thought with a pang that could be loss but was definitely mixed with anxiety.

'Well, Mrs. Tonks,' Savage began, 'We've already got your name and address and you are forty-five years old if our information is correct' - she nodded - 'so let's get straight to the facts. Your grandson Teddy is missing? Since when?' A quill hovering at his elbow began to scribble on a long roll of parchment that disappeared beyond the edge of the table.

'The day before yesterday, some time in the afternoon,' Andromeda replied.

Savage raised his bushy eyebrows in an exaggerated way. 'The day before yesterday? Then why didn't you immediately report it? And we know that you didn't, despite what the photo caption in the Prophet said.'

The day of Teddy's disappearance would have been right time, before she found out about Lestrange. So why didn't I report it then? Because I couldn't think clearly, and Remus dragged me home through the fireplace? But by saying so she'd incriminate him.

'We were going to, the next day,' she replied. 'But then the Howlers arrived. Dozens of them.' More like eight or nine, but they wouldn't be able to prove that. 'If you want to know what kind of abuse they screamed at us, have a look at the Letters section in today'sProphet. After a while, we couldn't bear listening any longer, so we stopped our ears and tried to get away, but they started to explode all over the house. It took us all day to repair the damage as best we could, and by the evening we were exhausted. You can return to my house and have a look at my bedroom door if you don't believe me.' Not bad, Dromeda.

'And today?'

'Today we were about to Floo to the Ministry when my sister arrived.'

'How very convenient.'

'My sister,' Andromeda told them, 'did read the Letters section of today's paper. She came to tell me I should throw out the werewolf, as she put it.' Which was true enough, if you squinted at it. 'I was about to throw her out when you arrived.'

They exchanged a look, and apparently decided this wasn't getting them anywhere.

'So,' Savage said suddenly, 'is it true what some of those letters to the Prophet said, that Lupin bit his son to make him like himself, but went a bit' - he grinned at his own horrible pun, and Andromeda wanted to hex him - 'a bit too far, and that the boy died of his injuries? That you helped him bury the body in the garden before you even went to the Ministry the day before yesterday?'

'Dig up my garden. Drain my pond, if you must,' Andromeda replied once she had unclenched her teeth. 'You won't find a thing. But before you do so, first ask Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger if anything was wrong with Teddy when they came to visit us, a couple of days after the full moon.'

They seemed taken aback. Harry Potter was about as easy to ignore as a Howler, and almost as likely to explode.

'Tell us what happened, the afternoon your grandson disappeared,' Savage ordered.

As Andromeda realised it was no use pretending she'd been at home when it happened, she had no option but to give a watered down version of her own so-called arrest by Gumboil, suggesting it was a silly misunderstanding and omitting any references to the Imperius curse. Teddy's abductor - the thought that she was in the same room with him or her made her sick - must not be alerted to the fact that she suspected foul play.

Both Aurors were observing her intently, seeming to hang on her every word. 'So you were away when the boy disappeared,' Savage concluded after she'd finished. His next remark was as predictable as it was rhetorical: 'Then you can't be sure Lupin told you the truth about the child's disappearance.'

'So far he hasn't given me any reasons to assume he's a liar.' Except by omission, that time he hadn't told her what it was Lestrange wanted.

'But you aren't wholly objective concerning him, are you, Mrs. Tonks?' Green stressed the name that connected her with her dead husband.

Now she had to tread carefully. As the Aurors already believed Remus and she were lovers, denying it would only serve to make both of them more suspicious. And to her own puzzlement, Andromeda realised she wasn't particularly eager to deny it.

'May I know what you are trying to suggest?' she countered.

'That your relationship with him has made you more tolerant toward him than you'd be towards anyone else,' Savage replied, 'and that you may be more inclined to... condone his actions than you would anyone else's.'

Deliberately, Andromeda caught the female Auror's eye and held it. 'My grandson,' she said slowly, 'is all I have left of my daughter. I loved her more than anything in the world, more than my own life. Do you seriously believe that any other consideration or emotion would override my devotion to that baby?'

Green looked away.

'Will the Wizengamot ever believe such a thing?' Andromeda went on. 'And will they believe a man would kill the living memory of the wife he lost?' And doesn't remember. But that was none of their concern.

Abruptly, Green looked up. Her eye glinted. 'Of the wife he doesn't seem to mourn at all, given the speed with which he has sought and found comfort elsewhere? We are talking about a werewolf here, which you seem to forget, Mrs. Tonks.'

'Would he even need such comfort, if he wasn't grieving?' Andromeda heard herself counter - to her own surprise, because this was dangerous territory she'd much rather avoid.

The Auror opened her mouth, but at that moment, Savage bent towards his colleague and whispered something into her ear. Green frowned, apparently not liking what she heard, but after a few moments she shrugged.

Savage cleared his throat. 'Mrs. Tonks,' he said in a formal voice, not quite able to hide his irritation, 'though we cannot hold you here, we must inform you that you remain under suspicion.' He reached into his inner pocket to separate her wand from its mate and put it before her on the table. It started rolling away, and Andromeda laid a hand on it. 'You may go for now,' the Auror added, 'but you will hold yourself available for further questioning.'

She rose and nodded, sweeping up her wand. 'Goodbye.' And pointing her wand at the door she opened it with a silent Alohomora, before either of them could do so.

Outside, she took a deep breath, wondering whether anything she had said made any difference for Remus.

&&&

'You'd better confess, Lupin,' was the first thing Savage said after he'd marched the werewolf to the interrogation chamber and tied him to his chair with a flick of his wand.

Lupin was a little pale, but his gaze was steady and he did not look intimidated, Niobe thought. 'How can I confess something I haven't done?' he asked. 'Or can't have done, to be more precise. I can give you the names of those who saw my son after the last full moon, and they'll confirm he was healthy and thriving.'

He was saying essentially the same as Andromeda Tonks, and Niobe could see the clouds gather on her colleague's face. His hands resting on the table, Savage bent forward, though not too far. 'Don't prevaricate, werewolf! You're undersuspicion of having murdered your own son, and if you didn't do it during the last full moon, you did it two days ago while his grandmother was out. Afterwards, you buried his body in the garden behind the house, and when she returned home you pretended the boy had been abducted. In addition, you probably Confunded her into thinking that someone else had taken him!'

For a fleeting moment, Lupin looked actually murderous. Then his face acquired a surprised expression that struck Niobe as less than sincere. Addressing himself to her he said: 'So, if I understand you correctly, the accusation has changed and is no longer related to my being a werewolf?'

From the corner of her eye, Niobe saw Savage point his wand at him with an almost violent movement. The next moment Lupin's entire body shook violently and his head jerked back. 'You will only speak when I ask you a question!' Savage gave an additional jab with his wand. 'This has everything to do with you being a werewolf. Some would have it that your kind are a menace only when the moon is full. But the likes of Fenrir Greyback' - and Lupin winced - 'provide ample evidence to the contrary. They kill and maim people in their human forms even when the moon is dark - though the word human is a mockery when applied to such monsters. Once a werewolf, always a werewolf.'

He really was in full swing now. 'What's more,' he went on, 'when the moon is full, you are nothing but mindless beasts, hardly accountable for your own misdeeds, but it is at times when it's not full that you werewolves are at your most dangerous and threatening. Evil can lurk underneath the most civilised of faces. You may -'

A knock on the door interrupted his rant. It was the new secretary, the one with the dreadlocks and the toothy grin. 'Hit Wizard Gumboil would like to see Mr. Savage,' she said. 'It's urgent, he claimth.'

With a scowl, Savage turned away from his prey. 'Coming,' he snapped, 'but don't let me hear you mimicking his lisp again!' The trainee's face fell. 'Niobe,' Savage added, 'make sure the quill writes down everything Lupin says.' He spelled the door open and marched out of the room.

Whatever you say, dear. Niobe locked the door again and turned to Lupin. 'What my colleague was trying to say, was that the accusation has everything to do with you being a werewolf, because you are one at all times. Even when you're looking deceptively human, like now. And I would like to add that my main concern is, that werewolves should not be entrusted with the care of children - of any age.'

Lupin remained silent for a while, his face closed and unreadable. At last he said: 'So if I could prove I'm no longer a werewolf, you'd be willing to consider I'm innocent?'

To me, it wouldn't make the slightest difference. I know you're innocent. But it was in the Wizarding World's best interest to make a case against child rearing by werewolves, and this was a golden opportunity. If this meant Lupin had to suffer - well, to make an omelette you needed to break eggs. 'I fail to see why this is relevant, as you are one,' Niobe replied.

'Perhaps I'm not.'

'Oh, really? Explain yourself.'

'During the last full moon, I did not transform.' Lupin tried to shift in his chair, but Savage's ropes impeded his movements. 'Nothing happened. I remained human all night.'

Niobe frowned. Had he lost his marbles? She'd heard a rumour that he'd been seen in the Janus Thickey ward of St. Mungo's. Not exactly a place where you went with a pristine mind. 'Are you sure you aren't engaging in wishful thinking now?' she asked. 'I warn you not to waste my time.'

'I agree that it does seem incredible,' said Lupin, as if he'd been eavesdropping on her thoughts. 'But it's -'

'Impossible. There is no known cure for a werewolf bite. Do me a favour, Lupin, and try to pretend we've both left the age behind us when Beedle-the-Bard tales were real.'

Stubbornly he shook his head. 'Is there some kind of procedure I could follow in order to establish whether it's true what I say? Spending a night here at the Ministry, with witnesses watching me from a safe vantage point?'

There had been a precedent, Niobe knew, a mere two years ago, shortly after Greyback had resumed his atrocities in the wake of Voldemort's return. A man he had bitten stubbornly refused to believe he had truly become a werewolf. They had given him the Wolfsbane Potion for a week and locked him up before the full moon. To nobody's surprise but his own, he had promptly transformed at moonrise, and that had been that: Registration, warnings, dismissal, the usual thing. Lupin was just clutching at straws.

On the other hand... 'I suppose we could give you the Wolfsbane Potion in the week preceding the full moon, put you in a cage and watch you to see what happens.'

'Wolfsbane.' Lupin looked surprised again, as if he'd never heard of it. 'Maybe that's a good idea. Not that the cage sounds very appealing, but...'

Niobe eyed him sternly. 'I have to warn you: if it turns out you're right - which I don't believe for a moment - this would not automatically prove your innocence in the matter of your son's disappearance. Nor does it mean we'll let you return home after this interrogation.'

'I understand that,' he replied calmly. 'All the same I think it might help.'

No, she thought. No, it won't. Lupin was overlooking something - or he'd forgotten it for some reason. Wolfsbane was a poison, fatal to normal humans. If he succeeded in proving he was no longer a werewolf, he would do so at the cost of his own life. And the Black bitch would lose her new lover, which was only fair.

'All right. I'll drop a note at Werewolf Support Services,' Niobe told him. 'The support wizard will be able to provide you with the stuff.'

'Thank you.' Lupin said gravely, looking directly at her. After a brief pause, he added: 'I am confident he's alive. My son. The abductor took his nappies and his baby milk and his clothes. Whoever did it will no doubt take good care of him - until he's found.' He smiled.

That hopeful smile really was too much. For the first time, Niobe felt a little uneasy about the whole affair, and she tore her gaze away.

TBC

A/N: As always, thanks for reviewing!