Note: It's gone 1am and I'm still writing...good thing I'm not at University in the morning!

I think there will be about...2 or 3 more chapters and then we are done here!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

21: An Unusual Morning

Teddy Lupin reached to clamp his hand over his mouth as he squinted through the gap of the sitting room door, hoping that he wasn't breathing anything like as loudly as he thought he was. He watched his mother ease Carrow-Smyth down into a seat upon the sofa, before reaching to tug the pale pink dressing gown closer around herself, the wizard's hold upon her having pulled the garment somewhat loose.

"Just sit here a minute," Teddy heard her instruct wearily as Carrow-Smyth slumped forward, holding his head in his hands. "Take a few deep breaths, alright? You've had a shock..."

"I...I tried to...to stop them!" the wizard complained miserably as the witch reached to run a hand through her disheveled hair with a frown. "I...I told them...I told them Theodore lied...I...I told them Remus told him what to...what to say..."

"You did WHAT?" Tonks cried, eyes widening in fury, free hand balling into a tight fist. "Artemis! That's a bloody serious accusation to make! You can't just...LIE like that! If they come round here and haul Remus back off to the Ministry, I swear...!"

"What does it matter?" Carrow-Smyth whined, sounded rather like a small child who didn't like to be scolded. "Your husband's a slippery bastard, he'll talk is way out of it, just like he can everything else."

Teddy was pretty sure that he had never heard somebody sound so terribly bitter.

"I just wanted to...to buy some time!" Carrow-Smyth complained, gazing up at the Auror forlornly. "But...but I'm not sure it's working...I...I don't know what to do, Dora, I just...I just don't know..." He reached to grasp hold of her by the hand, and Teddy waited for her to jerk away from him, but to his surprise she didn't so much as flinch. "I...I need your help. They'll listen to you, Dora, I'm sure of it."

Tonks sighed heavily, gazing up towards the ceiling searchingly for a moment before deciding:

"I don't know, Artemis..."

"Please!" the wizard pulled her forwards a few step by the hand, holding it just short of his lips as he murmured: "We're friends, aren't we? I know we don't always see eye to eye but...but we are friends, the best of friends...more than that, even, I...I love you and...and you...you love me..."

At the deep frown that he was offered at this assumption, he pulled her closer still, pressing their clasped hands to his lips as he insisted: "You do love me, I know it."

"Come on, Art, don't do this." Tonks said, eyes once again on the ceiling as she attempted to gently ease her hand free from his hold. "We've been over this, haven't we? I don't love you, I've not loved you for years, and I'm married now, aren't I? This is all completely inappropriate."

"Inappropriate?" he sounded as though he ought be outraged by the suggestion, but was far too upset to show it. "And what about that time all those years ago? Was it inappropriate when you dragged me into that broom cupboard at work..."

"That was very appropriate." Tonks interrupted impatiently, and he gawped at her for a moment before she said: "How else do you reckon I kept Umbridge for finding out about Remus and I for a few more days?"

Carrow-Smyth looked as though she had just slapped him around the face. He took a minute to find his voice before he finally choked:

"Sweet Merlin...!"

Tonks sighed again, still attempting to ease her hand free, but he continued to cling to her despite his shock.

"Look Art, I'm not proud of what I did, but..."

"You manipulative little...! Oh Merlin! No, no, no...I...I've...got it all wrong. So, so wrong..."

Teddy bit his lip as the man let out another loud sob, at last releasing Tonks' hand so that he could bury his face in his hands again.

"You're not going to help me." he whined despairingly. "You won't. I thought...I thought you...you cared! But you don't, you just...you just care about him and...and...oh Merlin!"

Though he had yet to grasp what on earth Carrow-Smyth needed help with, and though he loathed the man beyond all others, Teddy felt his stomach clench in sympathy, only for it to twist into knots at the sight of his mother stooping to wrap her arms around the wizard, hugging him tightly.

"Don't be daft, Art." the pink haired which murmured, biting her lip awkwardly when Carrow-Smyth buried her face in the front of her dressing gown. "Just because I don't love you, doesn't mean I don't care."

"But you'd help Remus over me any day." Teddy heard him mumble, and Tonks frowned over the top of his head at the back of the sofa for a long moment, before sucking in a deep breath and deciding:

"Not necessarily."

As Teddy's eyes widened at her declaration, Carrow-Smyth seemed entirely unconvinced.

"Of course you would. If you had to choose between us, if you could only save one of us..."

"Well sure, if somebody dangles the pair of you off the top of the Hogwarts Astronomy tower and I've only a second to save one of you from plummeting to your deaths...I'd save Remus, obviously..."

"See..."

"But we're not talking about something absurd like that, are we? We're talking about taking on the Wizengamot. And like you said, Remus could talk his way out of his own grave if he tried hard enough. You, on the other hand...well let's be honest, Art, looking at you right now I doubt you could talk your way out of a paper bag."

Carrow-Smyth drew back to stare up at her with wide, somewhat awed eyes and she took the opportunity to sit down beside him, reaching to rearrange the dressing gown around her knees.

"You're amazing." he said, just as he had done all those years ago back in the Hogwarts courtyard, and just as she had done then, Tonks said:

"I know I am. First things first though, and you have to be absolutely honest with me because I'm not sending my husband to prison for no good reason...are you SURE he isn't the Child?"

At the mention of the Child, Teddy leaned closer towards the door, curiosity rocketing as he wondered who they were talking about.

"Of course I'm sure!" Carrow-Smyth cried, sounding bordering on offended, and Tonks folded her arms firmly across her chest and said:

"Seriously, Artemis, how can you be sure? Because..."

"How can you be sure Theodore isn't the child?"

Tonks gave an impatient huff, turning to fix the wizard with a raised eyebrow.

"You have met my son, haven't you?" she said, to his clear irritation. "Not really the fire and brimstone type, is he?"

"And you're saying Elijah is?" Carrow-Smyth cried, half rising from his chair in outrage, and as the pieces finally fell into place for Teddy, Tonks reached to pull the wizard back down with a firm hand upon his elbow.

"Elijah is a very sweet boy, don't get me wrong." she said. "But after what happened...well...come on, Art, he's deeply disturbed."

Teddy reached to clamp a hand over his mouth to suppress a gasp of realization as he recalled his encountered with Carrow-Smyth's nephew in the corridor at St. Mungo's...

Do you hate them too?

Auntie Dora doesn't hate them...

That was it, the boy realised excitedly, taking a small step back from the door, fidgeting excitedly.

Elijah had been talking about werewolves. He seemed convinced that the world was out to get them, and wasn't that just what the Child would believe?

Elijah and Artemis might have been at the wedding mentioned in the Daily Prophet where the fire had broken out, they might have been related to the best man just as Teddy and his friends had theorized back in the Hogwarts library. What if Elijah had started the fire?

And Elijah's parents were dead. Who was to say that his father hadn't been a werewolf?

It was at that moment that Teddy heard creaking steps upon the landing above him, and he jumped at the sound of a hoarse voice softly calling:

"Teddy?"

Teddy spun around to find his father stood at the top of the stairs, seemingly on his way towards the bathroom. Before the boy could mumble something fitting about fetching himself a glass of water, the werewolf instructed:

"Bed."

Teddy reluctantly began a slow ascent of the stairs, and by the time he reached the top he paused to glance across the landing into the bathroom, find Remus leant before the sink, hot water rushing from the taps as he coughed violently into the rising steam, clutching the side of the basin with both hands. With a heavy sigh, the metamorphmagus wandered back to his bedroom, pushing the door shut behind him.

If Remus Lupin were entirely honest, he would have admitted that the following morning did not turn out the way that he had imagined.

He'd imagined a rather average morning, waking up reasonably early, going down to put the kettle on to make a cup of tea before retreating back to bed for a little while to talk to his wife about mundane, everyday things. After that he'd supposed he'd probably have a shower and get dressed, then he'd wake Teddy up and the three of them would have breakfast before he and Teddy headed back to Hogwarts.

But Remus' imaginings could not have been more far from reality.

When he looked back upon that bizarre and downright surreal morning, he always suspected that he should have known it was all going to be wrong from the moment he opened his eyes.

Because that had been the first strange thing that had happened that morning. When Remus had awoken and reached to rub the sleep from his eyes, he'd glanced sideways to find the bed beside him empty.

Not that Tonks being awake and up before him was particularly strange, it was just that she seemed to have an uncanny ability to stay asleep for as long as possible when she had no cause to rush off to work in the morning.

Stifling a yawn, Remus reached to throw the duvet back from around him and slowly sat up. His throat burned, he felt an overwhelming urge to cough, and as he spluttered into the palm of his hand he recalled the events of the night beforehand, how he been awoken from a dream by Tonks shaking him by the shoulder as she leant over him, calling him loudly by name.

I was close to slapping you, she'd informed him breathlessly, you're wheezing something rotten!

He'd sat up in bed for some ten minutes, inhaling medicine from a paper bag to try and ease the tightness in his chest, and had felt only marginally better when he'd lain back down to go to sleep.

You worry me, you know, Tonks had murmured as she lay back down beside him, eying him fretfully through the darkness. It's this bloody court business, isn't it? The healer said, didn't she, that you need to be calm, you mustn't have stress.

He'd told her somewhat croakily that she was talking nonsense, he'd probably been having a nightmare, that was all, and they'd settled down to go to sleep again, his arm hugged to her chest, only for somebody to hammer upon the front door downstairs and he'd made to get up to answer it, only for Tonks to insist he go to sleep, she'd see to it. He'd watched her hastily don slippers and attempt to locate her winter dressing gown, only to curse and snatch up the less than conservative summer one instead. As she'd pulled the distinctly flimsy garment on, he'd commented that he didn't see why she bothered wearing it, for it didn't cover much more than her nightdress already did. She'd offered him a knowing smile as she'd slipped out of the door, murmuring: Precisely, Sweetheart.

He'd been so tired that he'd not given much thought to just how long she was gone for, and after a while his breathing seemed to worsen again and he'd decided to resort to inhaling steam in the bathroom sink because the healer had suggested it would be more effective. He'd caught Teddy out of bed, but hadn't given that much thought either, he felt much too drained, and by the time he'd stumbled back to bed he'd not really noticed that Tonks had yet to return, he was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Remus got slowly out of bed and reached to snatch up the dressing gown that he'd left draped across the old wooden chair in one corner of the bedroom. He made for the stairs as he pulled his arms through the sleeves, thinking just how wonderful steaming hot tea would be when he felt so rough. Who needed potions, he wondered as he descended the stairs, when you could stick the kettle on instead? Tea was a universal cure-all...

And that was when he'd spotted the unfamiliar black coat lying discarded upon the floor beside the front door.

It took him a moment of staring before it occurred to him that the coat was not entirely unfamiliar, and then he recalled the way that Teddy had been stood beside the living room door, and he'd wandered over to peer into the room, just as he had seen the boy do many hours previously.

And that was the next thing that was unexpected that morning.

No indeed, of all the possible things that me might have come across that morning, laying eyes upon his wife lying fast asleep upon their sofa with Artemis Carrow-Smyth had not been what Remus had expected at all.

He stared.

His first thought was that he ought feel completely mortified, or furious, or at least angry enough to throw the door wide open with enough force to make it bang against the wall and startle the pair wide awake.

But his second thought was that really, he didn't feel like that at all. In actual fact, Remus wasn't entirely sure how he did feel, indeed the whole scene seemed somewhat difficult to comprehend...it was...unsettling...

This may not be the most desirable scene you've ever laid eyes upon, but there's probably a perfectly logical and reasonable explanation for it, the voice in the back of his head announced firmly, and Remus supposed he ought agree with it, but...

But what in Merlin's name was this supposed to be? It was just...

Upsetting, perhaps, because it didn't do much for his imagination, if truth be told. Not that he suspected that he had just stumbled across some sort of elicit affair that was about to end his marriage, he trusted his wife, after all...

He just didn't trust Carrow-Smyth. Knowing what Tonks and the others he knew from the Ministry had to say about him did not cast him in a trustworthy light. Not even a dim one.

He wondered where that left him, if he trusted Tonks entirely and Carrow-Smyth not at all. Did that mean together he trusted them a little bit? Or did it mean that one lot of trust or lack of it could cancel out the other? Or was that just stupid? It was stupid, it was illogical...

It wasn't as dire as it looked, he was sure, but he had no idea what else it could possibly be.

So then what? What did he...do? Think? Conclude...?

Remus' mind boggled. The only conclusion that he could manage was not a very helpful one:

Tea.

He went and put the kettle on.

He was just splashing milk into three cups, wondering if he was supposed to make an extra one for his apparent guest and musing how downright stupid that sounded when he thought about it like that, when he heard a whispered voice from the kitchen doorway.

"Dad...?"

"Morning Ted." he said, milking another cup despite himself. "What do you want for breakfast?"

There was a long pause before Teddy told him:

"Mum and Carrow-Smyth are asleep together on the sofa."

"Mm, I had noticed."

There was another pause before Teddy took a few steps into the kitchen, bare feet slapping against the tiles.

"Why?" the boy asked, sounding about as confused as Remus felt, and the werewolf told him:

"Because I looked through the gap in the door just now and saw them."

"No, I mean...why are they...like that?"

"I expect they were tired talking and just...fell asleep." Remus decided, and it seemed reasonable enough, he supposed. If it was good enough to pass off as truth to Teddy, it would be good enough for him, for now.

More silence.

"You don't think..." Teddy began apprehensively, shifting his feet and chewing rather nervously upon his lip, "you don't think...like...they were...kissing again, do you?"

"Of course they weren't." Remus said, at last entirely sure of something. He could be sure of that fact, he trusted Tonks, she wouldn't dream of it, if anything of the sort had occurred he'd have probably woken up to a note explaining how she'd been taken off to the Ministry to be charged for assault, for real this time...

I wonder who fell asleep first...because if it was Dora...

Oh Merlin, don't...

"Why don't you go and get dressed and I'll make you something to eat?"

Remus was glad when Teddy traipsed back upstairs and left him to be confused in peace. He decided that he'd just have to wait for Tonks to wake up and explain everything...he wouldn't go and wake them himself, that would probably cause a scene of one kind or another.

But when his wife finally made an appearance some ten minutes later, shuffled gingerly into the room as she reached to smooth her disheveled hair with little success, quite possibly the most unexpected thing of all happened.

It had started off rather as Remus had expected. He'd mumbled a vague good morning and handed her a cup of tea and she'd gone and perched upon a chair at the table and announced in a deadly serious tone:

"We need to talk."

He'd gone to take a seat opposite her and waited to hear some sort of embarrassed confession about whatever it was that he'd come across in the living room, but instead she had set her mug firmly down upon the table, folded her hands in a oddly business-like fashion in front of her, and asked him:

"How would you feel about spending a couple of days in Azkaban for me?"