CHAPTER 38:
Reconciliation

We are the mirrors of each other
In a lifetime of suspicion
Cleansed in a moment, a flash of recognition
~Neil Finn

When Ginny next awoke, she wasn't at first sure where she was. She was in a large comfortable bed that was definitely not her own at home or at Hogwarts, and the room she was in was dark. Gentle beams of the moon provided the only light that came to her eyes. There were few sounds around her, but from outside the walls of house she could hear the night animals and the insects making their nocturnal symphony.

Though not completely certain where she was, she had a feeling of safety here despite the fact that she was naked between the sheets. All was well. She could relax and rest more. She was so tired…

###

"Remus Lupin, I want to see my daughter!"

"And a good morning to you, too, Molly," he said with a soft and exaggeratedly patient voice as he lazily leaned against the door frame.

"Good morning, Remus," she said, sounding urgent and put out. "I want to see Ginny. Is she okay?"

"I know she was sleeping before you came pounding on my door, and she might still be if the noise you made hasn't disturbed her rest," he chided. "Would you like to come in quietly?"

Molly Weasley couldn't help but feel like one of Professor Lupin's students might have felt a few years ago. She averted her gaze and came into his home meekly. Remus watched her thinking that he should write this particular experience in his book of days if he had one.

"Now we'll both keep our voices down," he modeled by example, "and speak like pleasant people while you ask me all your many questions. Would you like some tea?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. Then she changed her mind, "Yes. So tell me what's happening to her?"

"Molly, she's just resting deeply. Her magic is a powerful force that she can control, but when she uses it in the extreme, it drains her. I witnessed it several times while we were with Jonathan. The reason she isn't a werewolf like me is that her magic burned it out of her like a fever taking out an infection."

"So she's going to be okay then?" Mrs. Weasley asked with worried eyes.

"Yes, I promise. I just don't know how long it will take, but a small amount of time and she should be up and taking on the world again," he said.

Molly looked around his small home that seemed more lived in and loved with every time she visited. "But why did you bring her here? Arthur and I would have been happy to take care of her at the Burrow."

"I'm sure you would have," he conceded. "But the truth is I'm a selfish bastard, and I wanted her here with me. Conveniently enough, my portkey only came here. Ooops! So sorry!"

The cheeky smile he gave her told her he was definitely not feeling anything close to sorry.

"I'd like to visit her when she wakes up if I can," Molly said.

Lupin frowned at her disapprovingly. "She's your daughter. I'm not keeping her from you. Don't sound so pitiful. When you come back, bring some of her clothes. I have nothing for her. While I would find her fetching even in a tea towel, I doubt that is how either one of you wants her to receive guests."

Molly was quiet drinking tea for a while, and Remus did not interrupt her with needless words. He liked the calm feeling his home had since he had brought Ginny there. As he slipped his fire witch between the sheets of his bed, he felt something possessive and right about having the woman he loved in his domain. His world felt supremely right, and he was going to enjoy the feeling for as long as it lasted. With his luck, it had the possibility of not being very long.

"There will be one day I will come to you and Arthur and ask for her hand in marriage. Today is not that day, but it will come," he stated before taking a sip of his tea. He was so calm about it as if he was telling Molly the day of the week.

Uncharacteristically, she didn't fight or argue about it. She looked contemplative. "We may have to tell you yes. I have a feeling you wouldn't be interested in 'no' as an answer, but if you do anything to hurt my baby, there is no power in this world strong enough to bring you back from that death."

He smiled at her. "I don't know whether to laugh or be very afraid."

"Fear is always a good response around your intended's parents," she said.

"Well noted, Mrs. Weasley," he said. "There will be some time before Ginny and I are on the same page about things. The last time I spoke to her previous to Egypt was at Hogwarts when everything turned sour. We haven't really had time to clear the air, and that is also why she is here with me."

"And if she doesn't want to be with you?" Molly asked.

He fixed his gaze on her, knowing her meaning to be more than just this particular moment in time. "I'll have to let her go. What's that the poets say? A love that isn't freely given isn't worth having? She's not a possession, and she doesn't need me. But if she wants me and doesn't mind all the problems that go with having me, than that's a whole different ball of wax, isn't it?"

Molly sighed. "It goes both ways, Remus. You're going to have problems with her, too. I never told anyone else this before, but when Arthur and I were dating, I got cold feet before we were engaged. I wanted to see what there was to see to make sure I wasn't missing out on something. Of course we reconciled, but sometimes the path of true love has a detour in it. It will make you stronger if you let it. Or it will tear you apart if you let it do that, too."

She stared at the pattern on the cup before admitting, "I had hoped Harry would be her perfect match. I love that boy."

"I do, too. I don't think he'd believe me right now, though," Remus said.

"You are the only close magical tie he has to his parents. He still needs you. You might try reaching out to him," Molly suggested.

"I'll put that at the top of my do to list," he said without the full measure of sarcasm he could have put into it. She did have a point. What was it with Weasley women being right about things anyway?

Mrs. Weasley looked upstairs to where she imagined Ginny was sleeping and then glanced at the places downstairs that she could see. "You've made some nice changes here. It actually looks like someone lives here now."

He thought to himself that it happened hand in hand with his decision not to live his life in limbo any longer. Remus had never been the kind of person who said aloud every thought that came to his head, so he instead suggested that they take a walk outside so he could show her the progress of his greenhouse. Once they were there, he described the plans he had to improve various aspects of his home and the grounds that surrounded it.

###

The next day, Molly returned to Lupin's home with supplies for Ginny who had still not woken from her sleep. Remus asked her to stay with the girl while he did some specific errands not related to his job.

"What are you going to do?" she asked amiably.

"I'm going to take your advice, actually. I need to go talk to Harry, and while I'm there I should catch up with Albus. We'll have to control the spin of Ginny's new public image," he said. "I'll try to be fast and tell you and Arthur everything when I return."

The wizard departed to Hogsmeade to face his challenges head on. Given the time of day of his arrival at Hogwarts, he knew he could find Harry eating his lunch in the Great Hall. He walked in with a confident stride, and a few of the older students may have recognized him, but no one spoke to him directly.

Smoothly he sat down at the table opposite of Harry, who was sitting to the side of Ron and Hermione. "How much time do you have to talk to me?"

Potter pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose and said, "I don't want to talk to you at all."

Remus leaned forward. "Sometimes a person doesn't always get what he wants."

Harry shot him a green-eyed look of malice. "Like me with Ginny? I wanted her, but now what? Nothing."

"Touché," the older wizard said.

At that point, Ron leaned closer to them to ask, "Is it true that my sister is crazy for you?"

Lupin licked his lips while thinking of an appropriate response. "The last time we talked, she told me she cared for me, but that conversation did not end well. Perhaps she has realized I'm not worth her time. It's within her right to do so."

"Where is she right now?" he asked, full of brotherly concern.

"She's with Molly," he answered before adding with a sharp look to Harry, "at my house."

Potter clutched the fork he had in his hand as if he wanted to stab Remus in the hand with it. "Why do you always take everything that belongs to me? You took my godfather, and now you've taken my girlfriend. Haven't you had enough already!"

Lupin leaned back and did not rise to the bait. After counting a few seconds in his head to bring back the calm, he said, "I'd like to continue this conversation with you but in a place where there are less likely to be gossiping eavesdroppers."

"I'm sure that's because you don't want to admit to the world all the filthy and disgusting things you did to her," Harry accused.

Ron looked between the two, and his hackles came up. "What is he talking about, Remus?"

Potter, answered the question acidly, "He was with her, and I don't just mean holding hands."

Weasley jumped back in his seat, disgusted at the thought of his sister having personal relations with anyone at all. "Oh, that's just gross."

"You won't think so on your wedding night, unless you've already taken the broom out for a test drive," Moony said as he looked not at Ron but at Harry.

Hermione, who had been suspiciously silent up until that point, made her own noise of embarrassment and disgust. "That's none of your business!"

"No, it isn't," agreed Remus. "Just as my 'business' is none of yours."

"How could you do that to her?" Harry asked, not getting up from his seat to go finish the conversation in private.

"Do what? Love her? Loving her is easy as breathing. We both changed while we were gone, and she's the only other person who knows exactly what I've been through. You three know how that is. Your adventure as first years with a mountain troll is a school legend." Remus paused to look at the three friends when he reminded them of their shared and binding experience.

"Being in a relationship with her, though? Now that is difficult, and it's difficult from both sides," he acknowledged. "What's she going to do? Call me her boyfriend and invite me to school dances? I don't really see that as happening."

"Do Mum and Dad know about this?" Ron asked.

"Most of it," Remus confirmed. "I'd been able to avoid discussion of certain details that would be particularly embarrassing for all of us. But thank you, Harry, for bringing down the quality of the conversation."

Harry practically snarled at him but did not bark with that particular bit of jabbing.

"So are you together?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "We have to work that out ourselves."

"Then why is she in your house?" Harry asked.

"Because I want her there," Remus said with a sigh. To Ron he said, "When you and Hermione set up your own home, you'll know that feeling. The other reason she's at my house is that she's still recovering from using her magic. It. Was. Brilliant."

The look on his face changed as he was transported to his memory of the phoenix birth and Ginny transformed into her full energy state.

"She told me I helped her discover her magic. Do you know what she meant by that?" Ron asked, excited about this deviation from the other topics.

"Yes, I do! One of the specific things she remembered doing was heating up a cup of tea for you, so in the first days of learning to control her power, she kept thinking about tea. That gave me the most god-awful tea craving I ever had," he said with a laugh, "but it worked. She just had to think of you, and it helped."

Hermione gave him a confused look and shook her head. "Why would you get a tea craving from that?"

"Who cares about tea?" Harry said, still bitter and seething about the first offense. "You both came back, happy in your own little world with no thought to the rest of us, and then didn't inform people like me, her boyfriend, that you two were now a couple? That's a pretty rotten thing to do!"

Remus leaned forward so he could whisper his tirade. "Harry, we weren't happy. There was nothing good about anything she or I endured. If it had never happened, you and I would not be having this conversation. Ginny would be nothing more to me than my friends' pretty daughter who was also dating my other friends' son. But it did happen, all of it.

"I didn't set out to hurt you or steal her away from you. That's what I want you to know more than anything else. It's why I came here today. You are still important to me. You are, Harry."

"I don't believe you," he said full of hurt.

"Lucky for me you don't have to believe something for it to be true. Some things just are," he said. "I'm going to stay in your life, and that's a fact. We have a bond of our own that is separate from the one I share with Ginny, and I'd be a foolish man to let that shrivel up and die. I'm sorry I wasn't better at doing something about it. First it was grief over Sirius, and then it was all the problems that were still in my own head. I've made mistakes."

Before Harry could start a counter tirade about the mistakes Remus had made and how horrible a person he was, Lupin stood up and excused himself to go to Dumbledore's office.

###

At Lupin Lodge while Remus was busy at Hogwarts, Molly was whirling like a dervish all over the man's home. He wasn't by nature very dirty, but she had an urge to scrub and clean and set things in order. It was part of her nature. She had also set out a put of soup for him or Ginny to eat later.

It was when Molly was dusting the few photographs on his mantle, ones of his youth with the Marauders or older ones of James and Lily, that she heard the first stirrings from upstairs.

"Ginny?" she called out as she took a step to the stairs.

"Mum?" the voice answered softly. "Where am I?"

"Remus's house," she answered as she started walking up the stairs toward the master bedroom. "He brought you straight here from Egypt."

Ginny was sitting on the edge of the bed looking as weak as if she had just been through something devastating but still made it to the other side of it. Then she picked at her clothes and noticed that they were her own.

"I put them on you myself," Molly said. "What do you need, dear? There's a loo up on this floor, and I have food prepared downstairs. I can bring up a tray if that would be easier."

The younger witch nodded as she considered her options. "A tray of food would be really nice, mum. Thank you. I need to use the loo."

By the time Molly had returned, Ginny was sitting up in bed and looking longingly out the window as if she'd rather be in the fresh air. Molly set the tray down and then kissed her daughter, telling her it was good to have her back. Then the woman sat down in the wooden rocking chair that was part of the bedroom décor.

"Why am I here?" Ginny finally managed to ask. "I could be at Hogwarts or home. I'm confused about everything. What happened?"

"Remus and Albus both say that when you used your magic, you became too weak, so he brought you back here so not to be disturbed," Molly answered.

"Does that mean he's not angry with me any more?" the girl asked fearfully. "Or has he brought me here so he could tell me up close how horrible he thinks I am?"

"Ginny," her mother said patiently, "talk to him. When two people are in love, fights happen. Love isn't easy just because it's love. It's usually harder, to be honest. If it's worth fighting for, sometimes you fight the world. Sometimes you'll fight each other. I have a feeling you two will be doing a lot of both if you remain together."

The younger witch laughed because it sounded like a reasonable prediction.

"Mum, thank you for everything. You and dad have been really understanding about all of this. I know it's strange, but sometimes I feel Remus and I are two sides of the same coin. We've shared so much together, and you know what? I actually like him. If he were just Remus, your friend from the Order, he'd still be interesting to be around."

"Oh, we're not that understanding. Our first priority is you, and I told him yesterday that if he ever hurt you that I would kill him so dead even you couldn't bring him back," Molly said with a smile at the corner of her lips.

Ginny started laughing, and it felt good to laugh and release the tension that had been within her. Then she asked, "What day is it, Mum?"

"Tuesday today. You were asleep for nearly forty-eight hours," Molly said.

"That's not too bad. My recovery time is getting shorter, believe it or not." Ginny sat quietly again before declaring, "I'd like to take a bath now, please."

"Are you coming home to the Burrow?" Molly asked, somehow connecting that to the place Ginny would take her bath.

"If you're going to make me, that's one thing, but if I have a choice, I'll stay here and talk to Remus. I'll do what you told me to do," she replied.

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "I want you home, but I won't force you to be there. If you change your mind or need anything at all, you let us know, and we'll be right here. Your father has been practicing hexes strong enough to take out a werewolf in case that becomes necessary."

Ginny snickered at the thought. "I might have to learn some of them myself. Of course, I haven't tried my bat bogey hex on him yet."

###

Before Remus eventually got home in the early evening, he had to detour by the offices of the Quibbler to submit a follow-up article about the Fire Witch. He and Dumbledore had solidified their plan of attack when they had their conference together. It would be very vague but build up a positive reputation in counter to the darkness that was in the Wizarding world. The thought of this witch could be the anti You-Know-Who. They also wanted to posit that other forms of Elemental magic were possible and an untapped well of potential. Through all this, the personal identity of the Fire Witch was kept private for both reasons of mystique and Ginny's protection.

Xenophilius Lovegood had raved about the sales figures of the papers and how other news outlets had wanted the use of the exclusive Quibbler photographs. When he had sent Lupin to do the article, he had not expected such amazing benefits, and to show his appreciation, Remus would be receiving a small increase in pay and more choice of assignments he wished to take.

"You could be editor one day!" Lovegood said in a fit of praise.

Lupin did not share his dubious feelings with his boss. Instead, he said, "No one is ready for that yet, sir. I'm still learning the trade."

The thoughts of that success were gone as he arrived at the edge of his property and saw from a distance that the house was empty. It had an alone feeling to it like all the life that had been in it had been sucked out of it. This wasn't the normal feeling he got when he returned to his home after having been gone an afternoon. He wondered if Molly had taken Ginny away at the first opportunity, and had he been a parent, he would probably have done the same thing for his daughter.

He walked into his house with his wand drawn. Nothing was out of place. In fact, he could tell that Molly had cleaned and prepared food. Everything was put away as it should be. He went upstairs, and there was no obvious sign of Ginny at all. She was not resting in the bed, but it had been remade with fresh sheets, he noted. The house felt empty and strange without her.

Lupin went downstairs again in search of a note of some kind because it would be the polite thing to do, but he could not find one. He was at a loss, and he couldn't just Apparate to the Burrow and demand Ginny come back with him. He might want to, but she was a free agent and not a possession.

Remus decided to do something else that had become his own way of feeling close to the witch when she was gone away. He disrobed and set his clothing just inside his door. Then he stepped out on four legs so he could walk the property line and see the beautiful thing that she had created for him. No matter what would happen in his future, he would always have this.

His moon transformation had been relatively easy this time. He still contained his human nervousness about the possibility of seeing Ginny, but his werewolf life had become much easier with her presence in it. Gone was the moon madness and headache and mental fog that had always come the day after a full moon. He kept his faculties and realized he enjoyed his life. He was a happy werewolf, and that sense had started to erode the bitterness and hurt that had been buried deep within him since his childhood.

So the wolf-shifted Lupin walked the property following the colored ribbon of defense that fascinated his eyes. He walked slowly through the descending night finding himself stuck in the nebulous time between sun and moon, and as he walked he noticed the color becoming brighter somehow. He didn't understand it, but he kept his silent and stealthy journey to the source.

Then he saw her standing there at a weak point in the magic. Ginny was strengthening it and healing it. Her face looked peaceful as she swayed before the boundary, offering fire directly from herself with an open heart.

His wolf nature took over, and Remus remained on four legs. The primal sense of happiness at her return made him jump and yip in place. He seemed to be doing his own dance as he looked at her, though the idea of a dancing werewolf might have surprised the people who didn't know him. Because she didn't stop to recognize him, he sent out a wolf's howl that could hold the emotion his words could not always say. It was filled with the sounds of love, satisfaction, worry and even loneliness.

Ginny came to herself, and turned to her right to see Moony standing there looking at her. Sitting down on the ground, she said, "It seems you have found me."

He walked closer to her, and when he was almost close enough to touch he crawled on his belly until he put his head in her lap. The pure canine affectation of it all made Ginny laugh. "I wonder if Jonathan's little book about werewolf mating rituals had something that mentioned this."

She put her hand on his head and rubbed between his eyes and around his wolf ears in the silence. She didn't really want to speak yet, so this strange partnership they had worked for her just fine. Her comfort with him in his werewolf form was something she would never had predicted back when his furry little secret had been made public, but that could be said of most of their relationship.

Ginny would have been content to stay outside longer, but her need for food overrode that decision. She stood up to walk back to the house, and then Remus followed her while remaining in his wolf form.

A/N: The lyric quote for this chapter comes from "Whispers and Moans" performed by Crowded House on the album Woodface.