CHAPTER 36:
Quibbles, Conversations and Tidbits of Truth

Talk to her, that's nice
Or you could make a murder begin
Breathe on her, that's right
Once more you will be her friend
~Neil Finn

On the last day of March Remus was sitting at his kitchen table busy scribbling away on parchment. His ink stained hands reminded him of how they had looked when he was a student too busy with assignments. He had enjoyed school not just for the friends but also for the classes. His new job had given him a certain sense of satisfaction that he didn't realize he could feel.

He had started working at the Quibbler of all things, and it had started because of his regular visits to Molly and Arthur during February while Ginny was back in school. It had been a strange turn of events for the three of them. While Remus was already considered a friend, his relationship, such as it was, with Ginny made them reconsider their opinions of him and see him in a new light. In a sense, he was courting the parents while the real object of his affections was otherwise occupied.

Lupin had met Mr. Lovegood quite by accident one day when the eccentric wizard had stopped by to give a neighborly gift to the Weasleys. When Arthur asked him the polite questions about his newspaper, he had mentioned needing help because the reporter Arjuna who had done the fire beast article had disappeared.

"I'm available," Remus had said impulsively.

He had to have some source of income, and, thankfully, Lovegood was rather pleased with the idea of having a werewolf on staff. It was a winning situation for all that had resulted in him working on an article to submit by the deadline for the April Fools Day edition of the paper.

Lupin heard a knock at his door and frowned as he wondered who it could be at that time of night. His small circle of friends usually came to call on the weekends, not on a Tuesday night. So he walked to the door with his wand drawn defensively and saw Arthur Weasley standing on the other side.

"Hello, Arthur," he said and looked the other man up and down. "Is there something I can do for you? I was just in the middle of finishing an article for the Quibbler."

"If you don't have much work left, I'll wait until you're done. I want you to be focused when I talk to you," he replied.

Remus looked at him suspiciously, but waved him in to his home. Then he sat back down at his table and wrote and rearranged the words until they were perfection. Weasley only had to wait an hour while it happened, and during the waiting he was looking all over Lupin's house at the various repairs and enhancements he had made since taking residence again there in January.

At last, Remus finished his work and sent it by special owl to the Quibbler offices. He waited for Arthur to make his opening move since he was the one who had come here with thoughts on his mind.

Arthur splayed his fingertips together as he spoke. "I'm here about Ginny. Have you changed your feelings for her?"

"I've had time to rethink them," he said evasively.

"Remus, I don't know what happened between the two of you any of the times that things happened between the two of you. That's because a relationship is personal, and there are sides to it none of the rest of us can see because we simply aren't there. I do know she is heartsick right now, and I have my guess as to what happened since you and Harry both seem to be on the outs with her. But I don't know for sure," Mr. Weasley said carefully. "It's possible I could be seeing something that's not there."

"What are you trying to get at, Arthur?" he asked wearily.

"I'd like to help you not make a mistake you might regret," he said. "I know you stepped far out of your comfort zone and took a chance with Ginny, and I recognize that it took bravery on your part to be honest with Molly and me about your intentions toward her. Don't give up so easily. If you've got a good thing, you've got to hold on to it."

"What makes you think I've given up? You just told me that the only people who really know what is in a relationship are the two people who are actually involved," he counter argued.

Arthur opened his hands and shrugged with his palms up. "Maybe you haven't. Tell me your side of the story then."

"I think I'd rather not," he grumbled. "Or are you going to stay here until I do?"

"I am a patient man with many sons, a demanding wife and a headstrong daughter. I know how to wait you out," he said with a self-amused smile.

"Be that as it may, I am not one of your sons. I am too old for that, and your daughter is too young for me. She's still in school, and she has some growing up to do," he said, sounding very final about it.

"I see… And what did she do that was so immature? Do you want me to tell you one of my guesses? It seems that when she went back to her old life, she went back to her old ways. Would that be fair?" Arthur suggested.

Remus kept his face impassive, but Weasley continued.

"But it also seems she realized her old ways just weren't good enough for her any more. People change and grow even if we don't always want to see that they do. So… did she come back to you?" he asked.

"Yes. She asked my forgiveness," Lupin said stoically.

"Then why haven't you forgiven her, man? I don't know what happened, but I do know it takes a lot of courage to admit you've done wrong and stand there to take your licks. That sounds like a very mature thing to do, in my opinion."

Remus finally let down his defenses enough to admit, "This relationship with her is just an invitation to insanity! What if I'm just setting myself up for heartache? What if she decides she didn't really care about me all that much after all? I've already lost too much."

Arthur sucked in a long breath of air. "None of us have any guarantees in this life except that it ends. As much as I like you, Remus, it is no surprise to say I would never have chosen you for Ginny. I had very different dreams for her. Despite that, you two make a certain kind of sense together in your own way. Have you stopped loving her?"

"No!" he said as he pounded his fist on his thigh. "If I had, I wouldn't feel so miserable right now."

"Oh, well, good!" Arthur said with a smile. "You should feel miserable."

"How in hell can this be good?" Remus asked with annoyance, very much disliking the older man in that moment.

"Because you still have a chance to be with her if that's what you really want," Weasley declared. "I'll tell you one more thing as a man who has been with the same woman a long time. Problems will arise as surely as the sun in the east. It's not the problems that define you but how you deal with them."

"Well, thank you for sounding so wise," Moony said with an eye roll.

"Grow up, Remus!" Arthur finally barked in frustration with him. "Decide if you're going to forgive her and be with her or not, and then move on. Sometimes it really is that simple."

Mr. Weasley stood up as if to leave but had one last remark in him about the subject. "When you get it all put to rights, don't tell me about it. You may think I'm an overbearing and over-interested father, but there are things that I will not want to know under any circumstances, such as your sex life, dear god. Let's just agree never to talk about that."

Lupin looked like he had sucked a lemon. Then he did his own involuntary shudder. "Why would I tell you about that? You just ruined what could have been one of those classic mentoring moments with something that's so…"

Arthur heartily laughed at his discomfort. "That wasn't me giving you my permission, by the way. That was just me wanting to stay in blissful ignorance. Do you understand?"

Remus stood up himself and walked to his door. "Go home. I'll figure myself out in my own time."

Weasley nodded his agreement before asking, "Is Xeno sending you to Egypt to write about the phoenix birth?"

"Not that I'm aware," he replied. "So far we've done well to keep Ginny's magic the secret it needs to be, so it hasn't made it to his attention. I really would like to see her pull it off, though. Do you know I can see her in the dark? It's the most amazing thing."

"You or your werewolf?" Arthur asked.

"Same thing," he replied before showing him all the way out.

###

Ginny had been unaware that her father had argued on her behalf with Remus. She had tried to keep that disappointment as private as possible because she had some sense of pride. Of course, her broken heart couldn't help leaking out on the sides of everything she did, including her Floo calls with her parents. With everything else, she tried to keep herself too busy to think of it all.

The witch had completed the last of her old assignments and gotten good marks on them. Once she had the goal of Egypt to work toward, she had done as much as she could to finish before she left. Hermione had approved glowingly at Ginny's academic mastery, though she was still envious of the fact that the younger witch was doing an unnamed special magic project.

Harry and Ron were equally as ignorant about what she had been doing with her fire magic. If Harry watched her suspiciously, it was because of his spurned heart, not because he knew of any extraordinary abilities she possessed. He was aware, though, that she stayed extra hours in the Quidditch pitch doing nothing that directly affected how she played the game.

After April's first Saturday practice Harry stayed behind to see exactly what Ginny was doing up there. Unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore had picked that exact moment to come up to him and strike up a jovial conversation. When Harry had turned his eyes back to the sky above them, it seemed that the red haired witch had already left for the showers.

"Ah, Harry! It's such a lovely day, isn't it? I never did play Quidditch myself, but it is an exciting game," Albus had said.

"Sir, you don't just visit me any more without a reason. Is it Voldemort?" Potter asked.

He looked rebuffed and very grandfatherly. "I just wanted to see how one of my special students is doing. Can't I want to check on you?"

"Do you know why Ginny is going to Egypt?' Harry asked, side stepping Dumbledore's question.

"Yes! If you want to know about it, you can ask her yourself. She may even tell you in her own time. It's quite exciting, if I do say so myself," he said with his eyes twinkling behind his half moon glasses.

"We're not talking to each other right now," the boy admitted.

"Mr. Potter, true friends are hard to find, and she would be a good friend to you eventually if you let her. Consider it food for thought," Dumbledore said before looking to the sky again with his eyes taking on a fascinated daze.

"Sir, what is it?" Harry demanded.

"It's beautiful, the most frightening and beautiful thing I have ever seen," he said sounding wistful.

There were times that the rest of the magical world thought Albus Dumbledore to be quite mad. As Harry looked again to the empty sky that had his Headmaster so enraptured, he thought this was maybe one of those times. He excused himself and left to the showers.

###

On Palm Sunday with one week to go before the phoenix hatching in Egypt, Ginny's energy was high in her practices with Dumbledore. She had run through all the things he had asked of her, and they discussed contingency plans in case things went wrong.

"You have done excellent preparation, Ginny. Now we just wait for time to come. It seems that a few of your friends are aware of your trip. Harry was asking me questions yesterday," he said as he sat behind his desk and offered her lemon drops.

She took one and said, "That was unintentional. Remus mentioned it in front of them, but I told Hermione it was a special project and left it at that."

"Your parents and Remus rightly want to protect your identity, but you can speak about it to your friends if that is your choice," he said.

"Sir," she replied with a sigh, "I really haven't talked to them about much of anything. Since I've come back, I've kept pretty much to myself."

"I know," he said sympathetically. "You shouldn't be afraid to open up to your friends. Sometimes a person really needs to talk to someone. It might be exactly what you need."

"I think…" she started hesitantly. "I think I know of someone. Is it okay if I use your Floo? I'd like to have some privacy."

"Certainly," he agreed, letting her pass on to his inner chambers.

When Ginny got to the Floo, she sat down on the Oriental rug in front of it and steadied herself before calling her brother's house. When Bill answered the call, he was quite surprised to see his sister.

"Hi, Bill," she said with a slow spreading smile. "Is Fleur home? I'd like to talk to her, please. Just us."

"Is this a girl thing?" he asked with his eyebrow raised.

"Yes, Bill. I'm going to ask her about boys and talk about menstruation," Ginny said sarcastically.

Seeing his sister's humor in place made him feel much better about how things were going. With a wide smile, he replied, "I'll go get her."

A few minutes later the witch in question was sitting on her side of the Floo ready to have a long personal talk with the red haired witch. "Allo, Ginny!"

She looked at the French witch and smiled in relief. Then Ginny began to talk, and once she started talking she didn't stop for several hours. She told Fleur of the captivity, including details she had not yet mentioned to others. There would always be things she never shared with anyone, but the former Beauxbatons champion got one of the first complete stories of what actually happened.

Ginny told her, too, about falling in love with Remus and how that had been unexpected and very strange. Her love for him could bring her the highest highs and lowest lows. Fleur was the first witness to of the depth of her feelings for the werewolf since she could speak about it more openly and sincerely than she had done with Harry. Though Ginny's parents were aware of the feelings between her and the werewolf, they hadn't actually discussed it explicitly.

The younger witch stopped during that part of the conversation and blushed. "You probably think I'm being silly, don't you?"

"Non," Fleur replied. "I think you already know what your heart feels. You want someone to listen to you and not judge you."

"Yes, you're right," Ginny agreed. "I don't have many close female friends, and I never had a sister. I didn't have anyone else, but it is good to talk to you. You were the right person."

The woman practically preened in pleasure at the compliment.

"I have something else to talk to you about if you still have time," Ginny said.

Fleur started laughing. "I do! You have kept much bottled up inside you. So I will stay until it all spills out."

"I am going to Egypt in a few days because I can do fire magic. I don't need a wand, just the force of my will. I'm the one who started the fire that burned down the mansion where Jonathan had me," she said.

"That is very strong magic!" Fleur replied looking quite interested and impressed.

"There's more," Ginny said with nervousness and excitement. "I have learned to move my entire being within flames. I can jump from fire to fire to fire. Well, I think I can. I am still practicing, but I can do amazing things."

"So you are fireproof?" she asked. "Could you be burned by a fire someone else made?"

"I don't know," Weasley said as she thought of it. "I'm not afraid of fire, but I hadn't ever touched one just to find out."

"That would be interesting, I think," Fleur said with a nod of her delicate head. "You could have much you could do if you had no fear of fire."

"I am already doing much. I get to ignite the eggs of three phoenixes!" she said with flailing excitement.

"But… do they not make enough heat on their own to continue without our help?" the witch asked.

"This is a special birth, and one parent can't produce enough heat and fire for three separate eggs. Perhaps it is possible with two, but not three," Ginny explained.

"I see," Fleur thought. "And what is your weakness? There is no strength without weakness."

"And no weakness without strength," Weasley replied, pleasantly surprised to find herself in agreement with her. "I can sometimes become really tired. The magic is still new to me, too, so I don't know all my reactions yet. Sometimes when I use it too much, I must sleep deeply for a long time. At other times, I feel ravenously hungry."

Ginny then confessed one of her darkest secrets. "The others don't know about my magic yet. Sometimes when I see everyone around me looking happy and normal, I hate all their smug little faces. Jonathan took me, and I changed. I think that's why Professor Dumbledore wanted me to talk to someone. If I tell, maybe then I won't explode at the other students or set Harry's broom on fire even when he really deserves it."

"I know how he likes his broom," the French witch commented since she had seen Potter use it so spectacularly in one of the Tri-Wizard tasks. "That would be funny to see, I think. Not very nice, but funny."

"Fleur! You're not supposed to say something like that," Ginny laughed. "But I'm glad you did."

"Do you feel better now?" she asked with true concern.

"I… do," she said after thinking about it.

"Very good. We shall be great friends, I think. Much better than before. You call me again when you need me. I will enjoy that, too. I have not so many female friends, either," Fleur confessed.

"I will do that. I promise." And she meant it.

When Ginny emerged from Dumbledore's private sanctuary, she was surprised to see the passage of time. She had completely missed supper, and a few of the portraits were yawning, though they always appeared sleepy to her anyway. One of the livelier ones woke up enough to tell her she had permission to go to the kitchens to find something to eat. So she left quietly, trying to make sure nothing was disturbed.

###

In the Gryffindor common room, Harry was trying to get information out of Ron if he knew anything at all about Ginny's trip to Egypt. The interrogation wasn't getting very far because Weasley didn't have much to tell.

"When I ask mum or dad, they say I should wait to talk to Ginny. I mean, it's great that they know, but she's got a history with finding herself in a lot of trouble when she keeps secrets. They're not acting like it's anything bad, but what if it is?" Ron asked.

"You could just ask her," Hermione said as she flounced down in the chair beside them. She pointed to Ginny coming through the portrait hole.

"Where've you been?" Ron demanded to know.

"I was talking to Fleur. Not that it's any business of yours," she replied, looking rather pale. She hadn't been able to find much in the kitchens despite her usual luck with things, and the work of the day was starting to catch up with her.

"So she is your best friend now," Ron said while Hermione looked on with a tinge of jealousy. She hadn't liked the subtle power shift in January when Ginny had shown Bill's wife such favor.

"She might become my best friend one day," she admitted. "She's a good person to talk to. She isn't just pretty or really demanding."

"Are you ever going to tell us what you're going to be doing in Egypt?" Harry asked with as neutral of a voice as he could muster.

Ginny shrugged. "I can start fires with my mind. I'm going to go there and start fires. It's what I do."

Ron squinted his blue eyes at her. "That's a pretty good story, Gin. Have you told that one to mum and dad?"

"Yeah. They thought it was a good story, too," she said with a yawn. "I need to go to sleep. Goodnight, everyone."

After she went up to her room, Ron was still shaking his head at her story. "Would be kind of cool if she really could do that, though, don't you think?"

"Elemental magic like that doesn't really exist," Hermione intoned as part of her role as group know-it-all. "That's just what Muggle children and some game players like to think is real."

"Maybe she's telling the truth," Harry said with a contemplative expression. "I overheard Tonks talking about how bad everything had been burned where they used to be. If I could have started a fire, I might have done that, too."

"Well, yeah. Me, too, but that doesn't mean Ginny was being serious," Ron said with only the wrong-headed certainty a big brother can have.

###

When Remus Lupin entered the Quibbler offices the next Monday, he was already feeling the pressure of the full moon's impending change that Saturday evening. It was an odd and out of sorts feeling that dogged him. He wasn't as libidinous as he had at times been, and he considered that a good thing for now. He didn't want to make any inappropriate contact with his new coworkers.

"Mr. Lupin!" Xenophilius Lovegood said happily when Remus came to his office. "I think I have a special assignment for you that could be an interesting opportunity for all of us."

Sitting down politely, he asked, "What is it you want me to do?"

"I have a contact who is willing to put advertisements in the paper if we get coverage of his wife's pet project. It's nothing important. Something about a birth. But if you go there and get the interviews and details about it, we will have money in the coffers to last us until the end of July," he said. "So it will benefit all of us."

He wrinkled his nose at the thought. Writing about that didn't seem appealing on a personal level, but sometimes a person new on the job had to take a job none of the others wanted.

"Is there anything unusual I need to know about this job?" he asked just to be sure.

"Unfortunately, yes. The timing does not work well for your particular condition, but my other reporters are either busy or on vacation since they have seniority," he said. "The event is supposed to be on Sunday…"

"The day after the full moon," Lupin said with a nod.

"And it takes place in… ah. Luxor," Lovegood said as he consulted his notes.

"Egypt? Are you kidding me?" he asked. "Is this the planned ignition of three new phoenix hatchlings?"

Xeno looked impressed with his new reporter. "Good work, Mr. Lupin. If you are that fast with a tip, then you should find this easy to write. I will make sure a portkey is arranged for you to use as soon as you have completed your moon cycle Sunday morning."

"Thank you," Remus said in disbelief as he got up from his chair. He was excited at the prospect of seeing Ginny's magic in use for such a wondrous event, and now that he had the opportunity, there would be little that kept him away.

A/N: The lyric quote for this chapter is from "Transit Lounge" performed by Crowded House on the album Time on Earth.

The idea for Lupin's job came from AJRoald. I'd mentioned his new job in chapter 34 but had no idea at the time what it actually was. So AJ came to the rescue with an idea that gave me lots of possibilities.