Love Sees More 3: Greyback's Pack
Chapter 21 - A Single Step

Remus ate his entire lunch. It felt so good to have a full stomach for a change, and he became very drowsy afterwards. He almost wanted to trudge right back upstairs and fall into bed again, but he couldn't. He still had something else he had to do. Something that was much more important than himself at the moment.

Under the guise that it would wake him up, Remus took a shower. He knew he didn't need it. After all, he had just taken the longest bath in the world not more than ten hours earlier, but he still felt so dirty. It seemed like there was invisible dirt clinging to him, because he scrubbed himself until his skin began to turn red again. There was no dirt that he could see, but that feeling wouldn't go away. It was almost like being around the filthy Greyback for so long had permanently imprinted something on his aura, something that was sinking into his skin. Remus knew that was absolutely silly, but he also knew that that feeling - whatever it was - wouldn't go away for a long time.

At first, Remus took his time getting dressed. He wanted to see Althea, of course, to see how she was doing, but a part of him was very scared. Ever since he remembered the dream he'd had the night before - the one of her crouched in a corridor at Hogwarts, clawing and growling at people even though she was still very much in human form - it kept replaying over and over again in his mind. The way she was cowering there like a caged animal. But that was also silly, Remus decided. There was nothing even remotely animalistic about Althea. If there was, he was certain she never would have chosen to come with him in the first place. Never would have chosen to try and reintegrate herself into the human world.

There would obviously be a period of adjustment for her. Remus was indelibly feeling the effects of living among the werewolves himself, and he had only been there for two months. Althea had been there for two years, so things would certainly be harder for her for a while. But she would get through it. Remus knew she would, he would make sure of it. In fact, he almost felt like it was his duty now to keep an eye on her, to help her through this.

Armed with this new determination, Remus decided to finally stop beating around the bush about it. He quickly finished getting ready and made his way downstairs into the foyer, reaching for his traveling cloak that hung near the door. That felt nice - being able to do something as simple as put on his cloak - and just one of the little things he had taken for granted. He was about to open the door, to be on his way, but as always, Sirius could be counted on to hamper his progress.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Sirius asked, emerging from the stairwell to the kitchen. "Keep an eye on you in case you pass out again or something?"

"Yep, quite sure," Remus said firmly, although he had to admit, it was quite nice to have Sirius fussing over him once again. He'd missed it. "I'm fine, Padfoot. But look on the bright side - if something does happen to me, Madam Pomfrey will be right there."

Sirius stared at him. "That…doesn't really make me feel any better."

"I was kidding. I feel fine," Remus repeated, "really. Nothing at all like I did last night. Some food and some sleep did wonders for me. Besides, I think you should stay here and keep an eye on your godson. He has a habit of getting in to trouble."

"Harry's fine," Sirius replied. "After last night, I don't think he's going to go looking for trouble for…at least a week or so."

"Only a week?"

"And don't change the subject."

Remus expelled a soft, short breath, taking a few steps closer to Sirius. "Padfoot…this is just something I need to do on my own. I need to talk to Albus about some things, and I need to see Althea, and…I guess it's my way of trying to put this entire thing behind me. Of making sure that I couldn't have done things any better-"

"You couldn't have," Sirius interrupted gently. "You know that. We talked about it already. Where Harry is concerned, there wasn't one single thing you could have done better."

"I know." Remus ducked his head and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He knew he was being a bit silly, but he couldn't help it. It was simply in his nature to question himself. "I just need some assurances from Albus, too, and I need to make sure that Althea's all right." Remus swallowed hard, looking up again to meet Sirius's gaze. "I need to talk to them about some things that I'm just not ready for you to know yet."

Sirius's head tilted back a minute amount, and Remus barely noticed it. It was like Sirius was taken aback by what Remus had said, but was trying to hide the fact that it had hurt his feelings.

"And please don't take that the wrong way," Remus pleaded, closing his eyes. He felt uncomfortable looking Sirius in the eye, and he didn't know why. It never used to be that way, but he suspected it might have something to do with being submissive to Greyback for the last two months, with ducking his head every time his alpha wolf spoke to him. It had become habit. "There are things about this that I'm just not ready for anyone else to know. Albus needs to be told everything, because that was one of the purposes of my being there, and Althea was there, so she already knows. But I'm not ready to repeat certain things to anyone else, not just you, and I don't know if I'll ever be." Remus bit at his bottom lip in uncertainty. "Please don't be mad."

"Moony…" Sirius took a step forward, just close enough so he could rest his hands on Remus's shoulders. He lowered his head a bit, trying to get into Remus's field of vision, which was currently pinned somewhere around the stairwell behind Sirius. "I told you when I asked you about the Talon thing that if you didn't want to talk about it, you didn't have to. That still stands, not just about that, but about everything else you've been through. I know this whole thing has been difficult for you, so it stands to reason that talking about it will be as well. I understand that, and I'm not mad at you for it. Not a bit. If this is the way you need to deal with it right now, then you go right ahead. I told you I'm going to be supportive of you, and there's nothing wrong with not being ready to talk about certain things yet."

Remus was still staring off somewhere behind Sirius, but he tried his best to smile. He was having a hard time trying to find the words at the moment, and perhaps that was just another casualty of his time with Greyback. Remus had gotten so used to giving Greyback his silence that talking felt almost foreign to him. There were a lot of those issues with him now, Remus was coming to realize.

"You know, I was thinking about something," Sirius went on. "The first time you came back here after you had gone to Greyback, you compared it to my time in Azkaban. About how I was uncomfortable around people for a good long while, and you were absolutely right. I was a downright mess when I came to stay with you, but you never got annoyed with me, or did anything or said anything that upset me. And I was very quiet at times, and the last thing I wanted was to dredge up everything that had happened by talking about it. I'm sure that must have been a bit maddening on your part, not knowing how I was doing or what was going on in that head of mine. But you never let it show. You never once stopped being completely supportive of me and letting me work through things on my own. I'm sorry I haven't been that for you."

"Oh, Sirius," Remus gasped, finally meeting his eyes. "You have been. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you weren't. You've helped me so much in the hours since I've been back. I really doubt I'd be standing here, having a completely sane conversation if not for you."

"I'm trying," Sirius said, "but I have said some things that I shouldn't have." Remus opened his mouth to stop him, but Sirius talked over him. "We talked about this already, and you said it was fine, but…I feel bad about certain things I said, certain things I implied. Not just last night, but since this whole thing began. Looking back, I know those weren't things you needed to hear. And you're right. I shouldn't be pointing out things that you're obviously already aware of."

Remus shook his head, reaching up with his own hands to place them on Sirius's arms. "I meant what I said. It is fine. You are helping me, and I don't know what I'd be doing right now if not for you. I think I'd really be losing it."

"Well, I'm going to try to stop saying things like that," Sirius said firmly. "And whatever you feel is going to help you right now, I want to do it. If that means not talking to me about certain things, if you'd rather work through them on your own, I understand that. Better than I thought I did."

Remus took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He'd actually been afraid for a moment that Sirius would be angry at him for not wanting to immediately open up about everything. Sirius liked to know what was going on with him, and it sometimes drove him up the wall when Remus was particularly quiet, but Remus supposed he had forgotten something. Sirius was the person who knew him best in the world, so if anyone was going to understand where Remus was coming from, it was him.

"Thank you, Padfoot," Remus whispered. "It means a lot to me that you do understand it. But just so you know, there are things that I do want to talk to you about. Just not everything, and just not right away."

"And you know where I am," Sirius replied. "Whenever you feel ready. I want to do everything I can to make this transition as easy as possible for you, so if that means waiting, I can do that."

Remus gave him a wary look. "You're the least patient person I know."

"Well…" Sirius drawled, "normally that's true, but I think you're forgetting something. I've done pretty much nothing but wait for the last two months. Waiting for any kind of word from you, anything so I would know you were all right. If anything, it was a lesson in patience. If I can wait that long not knowing what was going on with you, I can do this. As long as you're here, as long as I know you're safe, it'll be a hell of a lot easier."

"Fair enough," Remus conceded, but he felt like he still had to explain himself. He gently pulled away from Sirius and turned around, taking a few steps closer to the door. He looked back over his shoulder at Sirius before continuing. "I suppose this feels like the last part of my time with Greyback, you know? I just have to do this one last thing, and then I can work on getting past it. And for some reason, I know I need to do it by myself. The whole time with Greyback, I was alone. Well, not truly, because I know you were here, but I was there by myself. It was my mission, my journey. I did it all alone, so I need to complete it alone, too." He finally turned around to fully face Sirius. "Does that make sense?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, it does. It makes perfect sense."

"I have this crazy idea that when this is out of the way, I can start trying to get back to normal…" Remus trailed off and stared down at the floor. "I don't know. I keep thinking that. Thinking that as soon as I do certain things, like taking a shower and eating a full meal, it'll make everything magically better. But I know it's going to take a hell of a lot longer than that. It's going to be a hell of a lot harder than that. It's going to be-"

"Moony," Sirius cut him off gently. He closed the distance between them again, reaching out for Remus's shoulders once more. "I think you're getting ahead of yourself. I know it seems daunting, looking at where you are now and where you'd like to be, but sometimes you need to focus on where you are now, and how far you've already come. You told me just this morning that you felt so much better than you did last night. That you didn't think you would, but you did. Try and think about that, how far you've come in the last twelve hours, because let me tell you, there is a difference. The person I'm talking to now is not the same person I was talking to last night." Sirius momentarily released one of Remus's shoulders to gesture behind him towards the lounge where they had been the night before. "At all."

Just a moment ago, Remus had felt an intense ramble beginning, but now his words were dying in his throat. They were replaced by a powerful sense of calm that Remus hadn't felt since before he had left to join Greyback's pack. Sirius was completely right, and Remus didn't think he could have said anything else that would have made him feel better. Remus didn't have to be back to normal right away, and that was okay, because Sirius was going to be around to help him through it. That was all that mattered - the here and now.

"I am getting ahead of myself, aren't I?" Remus asked.

"One day at a time," Sirius said. "And if that even seems like too much, take it one hour or even one minute at a time. One second."

"I read once that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

"Indeed," Sirius agreed, then he nodded his head at the door. "This is the next step in your journey, so go on. Go do what you need to do. I'll be right here waiting when you get back."

"Padfoot…" Remus stopped himself, because he didn't think that anything he could say would show exactly how grateful he was. He simply buried his head in Sirius's shoulder again, wrapping his arms around him. "Thank you. For everything. Because I don't know what I would do without you."

"Told you," Sirius said, hugging Remus in return. "It's what best friends are for."

Remus clung on to Sirius for quite a while longer, savoring the feeling of being completely safe and protected. He finally forced himself to pull away and said, "I'll be back later."

As Remus turned and reached for the doorknob, Sirius called, "I'll have dinner ready for you. Anything you want."

"We just had lunch."

"I know," Sirius said, "but I need something to do. You're right, I'm not patient. At all."

Remus snorted and rolled his eyes. Sirius was looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer, so Remus paused for a moment. "Er…" Remus began, "well, it might be a bit late. I was thinking I would stay at Hogwarts for dinner, just to spend the time with Althea, making sure she's okay. I won't eat there. I'll wait till I get home, as long as you don't mind eating late."

"Not at all."

"All right then." Remus thought for a moment longer before he said, "Beef stew. Not the soupy kind, the thick stuff. And cornbread. That was how my mum always served it, with cornbread."

"Consider it done." When Remus reached for the door again, Sirius added, "Just don't be too late. It'll make me nervous, thinking something's happened to you, and I'll want to send out a search party."

"I won't," Remus promised, giving Sirius a smile before he opened the door. It was a genuine smile that reached his eyes, which was a feeling that Remus was still trying to get used to - being truly happy again.

When Remus closed the door behind him, he descended the three small steps to the grass below. An odd feeling of déjà vu swept over him, and he stood there for a while, staring down at the ground. Just last night, he had passed out there, wondering in the deep recesses of his mind if he was dying. When he blacked out there, staring up at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, he hadn't been sure if he would ever wake up again.

Remus shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He had something he needed to do yet, and this was definitely not the time to be replaying and rethinking everything that had happened. Remus finally took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and Apparated to just outside the front gates of Hogwarts.

It was exactly the spot where he and Harry had Apparated from the night before. Now that it was daylight and he wasn't running from Death Eaters, Remus got his first good look at the damage they had done to the castle. Windows were broken. A piece of one the towers had broken off, and the walls around it were crumbling. Remus could even see where a part of the roof had caved in. It had seen better days, but Sirius was right; at least it still looked useable, all things considered.

Remus sighed. He hated seeing a place that he loved so much, a place that had been his home at one point, looking so sad and dilapidated. It made him angry at the Death Eaters, that they had invaded one of his sanctuaries, and that of so many others, including Harry. If Remus was honest with himself, he even felt a tiny bit responsible, because he had been with the Death Eaters at the time. Perhaps he should have done something before they had even set one foot inside the castle. Remus didn't know what. He had been so vastly outnumbered and unarmed, and he'd had no clue where the Death Eaters were even headed at the time, but he still felt like he should have tried something.

Remus shook his head again. This was already shaping up to be a long day, and it was going to be even longer if he stood around, thinking about the past every chance he got. He tried to push those thoughts from his mind as he began his walk to Dumbledore's office.

He thought about going to the hospital wing first, but he was afraid. Terrified, in fact, of finally seeing Althea and even Bill, of finding out what kind of shape they were in. Besides, Remus knew he'd have to recount his entire story for Dumbledore, and in some ways, that part scared him even more. The last thing Remus wanted to do was relive it all, but he decided it was best to just do so and get it out of the way. Similar to the way he had always done his History of Magic homework first when he had been in school, because it was his least favorite subject.

When Remus arrived at the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office, he realized that he didn't know if the password had been changed recently. He could check with one of the teachers, but he decided to try the last one he had used. The one that had been in use when Remus came to talk to Dumbledore about going to spy on the werewolves. That now seemed like a lifetime ago. Had it only been two months?

"Red Vines," Remus whispered. He hadn't been expecting it to work, but surprisingly, the gargoyle leapt aside, and the wall behind it split open, revealing the spiral staircase. He stepped onto the stairs as they rose, everything that he wanted to talk to Dumbledore about racing through his mind. When he got to the top, he paused momentarily before reaching out and rapping the large brass knocker.

For a moment, a part of Remus had been hoping that Dumbledore wouldn't be here. That Remus would have an excuse to go home and come back another day. But Dumbledore's voice came clearly from the other side of the door.

"Come in."

Remus fidgeted, but then he forced himself to open the door and step into the office. Dumbledore was seated at his desk, poring over what looked like a ring with a cracked stone in it. He looked up when he heard the door open.

"Remus," Dumbledore greeted. "I thought you might stop by today. Come in." He quickly set the ring aside and gestured to the empty chair on the opposite side of his desk.

Remus took his time shutting the door and making his way across the room. He really wasn't ready for this, and he wanted to put it off for as long as possible. When he took his seat across from Dumbledore, Remus realized exactly how awkward this felt to him. Dumbledore's office was so pristine, and considering how filthy Remus had been the night before, it felt like he was sullying the place by being there. Plus, he didn't know where to begin. He thought it might make things even more uncomfortable if he just started dumping mounds of information out.

Dumbledore, however, chose to take the initiative. "How are you?" he asked.

Even that was a difficult question to answer. Remus didn't exactly feel comfortable spilling out the details of how he was, not like he had done with Sirius. But at the same time, Remus didn't think it fair that he should have to lie, especially when this had been Dumbledore's idea to begin with.

"All right," Remus finally decided on, his voice curt. "Not great, but all right. I'm getting there. Sirius is taking good care of me."

"What would we do without him, hm?"

"No idea."

Dumbledore pressed his lips together and leaned forward, staring down at his hands which were resting in the middle of his desk. "Remus," he said slowly, apologetically, "perhaps it was unfair of me to ask you to go there in the first place."

Remus also thought it was unfair for Dumbledore to tell him that now. It was a little too late for him to be sounding regretful, to be thinking about how much this would affect Remus. In fact, it was little too late for a lot of things. He didn't know why, but ever since he sat down, Remus had been feeling a powerful anger rising somewhere in his chest. Perhaps it was only now occurring to him that if not for Dumbledore, Remus never would have gone to live with Greyback to begin with.

Remus shook his head and then turned to look out the window, hoping the bright afternoon sun might offer him some solace. "I had every right to say no, and I didn't," Remus replied. "I knew going in that it was going to be hard. I didn't know how hard exactly, but I went anyway. I think you could have asked me to find the ends of the earth - something completely impossible - and I would have agreed. Because this is my side, and if there's anything in my power to help us, I'm going to do it. Even if the idea sounds completely ludicrous to me at the time, because believe me, this one did." He glanced back to Dumbledore and added, "That didn't stop me."

Dumbledore nodded. "I think I knew that. Perhaps that was precisely why it was unfair of me to ask you in the first place."

Taking a deep breath, Remus realized that his hands were clenched into fists. He slowly opened up his fingers, resting his open hands palm down on his legs. "For what it's worth, I don't regret it, Albus. Not in the least. Oh, don't get me wrong. I wish we didn't even have to do things like this, and I wish it had been easier, I wish it didn't affect my so deeply. I…wish a lot of things. But I told Harry just this morning that I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat for him."

Dumbledore started folding and unfolding his hands, not meeting Remus's eyes. "I know that, too. Which is one of the reasons why I asked you to do it."

Remus frowned. "I don't…follow."

Leaning back in his chair, Dumbledore moved his hands to his lap instead. Then he looked over this glasses at Remus before going on. "It's not a complete surprise to me that this is how things ended up. I knew they were going to make an attempt to get at Harry."

Any words that had been in the forefront of Remus's mind seemed to dissolve. His mouth fell open, and he sat that way for nearly a minute, trying desperately to find his voice again. "That's why you sent me in the first place? Because of Harry? And you didn't tell me?" he asked incredulously after a while, his voice barely above a whisper.

Humming in agreement, Dumbledore went on, "Because of how close you are with Harry, I thought it best if you didn't know just how much was at stake. I suspected it might make you nervous if you did, and you would have done things very differently if you knew Harry was involved. I doubted you would fail - indeed, that was why I sent you - but in the case that you did…I didn't want you to think that anything that might have happened to Harry was your fault."

Remus's mind suddenly went into overdrive, thinking about all of the decisions he might have made differently if he had known that they were leading to Harry. He could try to deny it all he wanted, but he knew that it would have made him a bit frantic, and that would have led to carelessness. As long as he thought he was only playing for secrets, it wasn't personal. It was safer, even if he did fail.

"I think you're right," Remus breathed. He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes against the rush of emotions it brought up. "I think I would have done a lot of things differently if I had known." When Remus opened his eyes again, he asked, "It was a hell of a chance to take though, wasn't it? Just letting me putter about aimlessly with the werewolves, hoping that we'd somehow stumble on to Harry?"

Dumbledore smirked, his blue eyes twinkling. "If you're good at anticipating the human mind, it leaves nothing to chance."

"Greyback isn't human. Nor are a lot of the members of his pack." It didn't even occur to Remus that he hadn't included himself in that non-human group, something he normally would have done. Perhaps some of the things Sirius had told him in the past twelve hours were indelibly sticking with him this time.

Tilting his head back and forth a few times, Dumbledore seemed to consider this. "I find Greyback easy to read nonetheless. I see you do, too. Otherwise you never would have gotten in as well as you did with him."

Remus was still finding it hard to form words. His mind was still spinning with everything Dumbledore had revealed, but he tried. "I thought I did," Remus said. "Other times, I wasn't so sure. There were times when it seemed like he knew exactly what I was doing. It was unnerving to say the least."

"The thing with Greyback," Dumbledore said, replacing his hands on his desk, "is that he's forgotten what a human mind is like. He likes to pretend he knows exactly what it is everyone is thinking. That's one of his defenses, I think, because it intimidates people. He scares them into submission with it." Dumbledore shook his head. "But I doubt he knows even the first thing about what goes on in your mind or anyone else's for that matter. Except, perhaps, for the most animalistic of his followers. They're the most like him, and therefore the easiest for him to relate to."

"I don't know if that's true," Remus disagreed, his mind immediately going back to Talon. However, he wasn't quite ready to share that particular story just yet, so he asked another question. "I still don't see how sending me to live with Greyback would have anything to do with Harry - or why you would think I'd have a chance to get anywhere near him at all as a result."

"The answer to that goes back many months," Dumbledore explained. "Back to the battle at the Ministry of Magic. Voldemort was angry, as we well knew, at yet another failed attempt to kill Harry. According to Severus, he became almost fixated on Harry, on trying to find a way to get to him once and for all. He was desperate enough to even ask for Greyback's help in the matter, something he hadn't done before, certainly not where someone as important as Harry was concerned. I wouldn't even have believed it if Severus hadn't told me. Voldemort hates Greyback with a passion. He doesn't consider him worthy of much, not even of carrying the Dark Mark. He uses him simply for another number on his side, and for the powerful intimidation Greyback provides. Nothing more."

Remus laughed. He didn't know why he found it funny, but he did. When Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, Remus clarified, "That's exactly what Greyback accused me of being to you - nothing but a number. He tried to use that as a reason why I should be loyal to him, because he would have treated me with more respect than that. He doesn't realize that he's nothing but that to Voldemort."

"Greyback gets prey in return for his services," Dumbledore said. "He doesn't care about much else. An animal's number one priority is food, after all. But Voldemort suddenly somehow became convinced that since Greyback's specialty was children, he'd do the best of job of bringing Harry to him. Nothing else had worked for Voldemort up until that point, so I suppose he felt he was running out of options. Why not see what Greyback could offer to the situation? That, however, was when I knew I was in a sticky spot."

"Greyback isn't around the rest of the Death Eaters on a regular basis," Remus supplied. He thought he could see where this was going. "He wasn't someone Severus could easily spy on."

"Indeed," Dumbledore hummed in response. "If Voldemort was going to use Greyback, and it became more and more apparent that he was, I needed someone close to him, keeping an eye on him. Severus has served me well as a spy, but this was something that was out of his league entirely. You were the only one I could possibly send. The only one Greyback would let get close to him."

Remus felt like he should be angry. After all, Dumbledore had planned this entire thing, and he'd even had a pretty good idea ahead of time where it would all end up, and he hadn't told Remus a thing. But Remus found that the initial resentment he'd felt towards the headmaster when he'd first come in had faded. It had all been for Harry. There hadn't been any earth-shattering secrets to find out at all. Remus's mission had always been to protect Harry, and Remus would never get tired of saying it - Harry was worth every bit of it and more.

They sat in silence for a long time, Remus still trying to comprehend everything Dumbledore had told him since he'd sat down. After a while, Remus broke the silence, sounding a bit desperate. "One of the reasons I came here today was to apologize for failing you."

"Remus-" Dumbledore interrupted, but Remus talked over him.

"I had been so concerned," Remus said, "with the fact that I hadn't found out any of the Death Eaters' secrets. I kept going over and over everything in my mind, trying to figure out what I could have done differently - how I could have possibly stayed there longer-"

"You did exactly what I sent you there for, Remus," Dumbledore cut him off gently. "Absolutely nothing about your time there was a disappointment. Nothing you've ever done has been a disappointment to me."

Remus had to wonder about that. He suspected that the headmaster had been at least a little disappointed in him at some point in his life, but Remus didn't interrupt.

"Besides," Dumbledore added, "let's not forgot that you saved a seven-year-old boy from being bitten. From going through what you go through every month. Not to mention, you brought Althea out with you, convinced her to leave behind the only life she's known for two years." Dumbledore let out a gentle breath. "That's a hell of a lot to do in only two months' time."

Remus couldn't stop himself from asking the question. He was still terrified of the answer, but he needed to know. "How is she?"

Dumbledore folded his hands together methodically, considering this. "She's okay," he said, nodding. "She had a bit of a rough night. She had trouble even getting comfortable and falling asleep, and then she had some nightmares when she finally did doze off. I think it was just the shock from being back in the human world. It was just very new and different to her, very uncomfortable. She did a lot of pacing around last night. She wasn't quite able to stay still."

"Yeah. I know the feeling," Remus interjected flatly.

"But she's doing a lot better today," Dumbledore went on. "She had a shower and ate breakfast when she woke up, and she seemed much better after that. She was rather excited about the doughnuts and coffee the House-Elves offered her."

Remus chuckled, partly from relief and partly from amusement. "She said those were two of the things she missed the most about the human world - doughnuts and coffee."

"She was calm enough to take a nap this afternoon," Dumbledore added, smiling in return, "and then she took a little field trip to the library. She's doing quite well if you ask me."

"I want to see her."

Dumbledore nodded. "I'm sure you do, but there's one more thing I must ask you to do for me."

"What's that?"

"I suspect you know already," Dumbledore said, "and that it's one of the reasons you came by today. It wasn't why I sent you to spy on Greyback, but any shred of information about him and the way his pack operates may just help us in ways that you never imagined. You must tell me everything that happened since the last time we spoke. Everything you can remember."

Remus had known that it was coming, knew that he wouldn't be able to leave Dumbledore's office until he bared his soul and told the headmaster everything. Some part of him had been hoping that he'd be able to put it off for a while, especially after he learned that Althea was doing okay. He was more anxious than ever to see her, but Remus knew this was necessary, and that the sooner he told it, the sooner he'd be able to put it behind him. That was all he wanted - to begin to put this mess behind him once and for all.

Remus took and deep breath and started to speak.

To be continued…