A/N: People still reading? I hope so!


'You gave me a fright,' Molly said simply, placing down a mug of hot tea on the table in front of the shivering figure then sitting down opposite him at the small oblong wooden table. It took up most of the kitchen in this little house, barely leaving room for movement around it, and it was where she'd spent many a watchful hour awake recently listening to the sound of her own breathing.

'I really didn't mean to scare you, Molly,' Remus said softly, refraining from reaching for the mug with hands that were so obviously trembling from the biting December cold.

'I almost Stupified you,' she answered. 'I'm sorry.'

'No, don't apologise. I fully deserved it, sneaking around outside like I was.'

She watched his lowered head for a moment. 'Drink your tea, Remus.'

He complied with the request, though he was forced to put the mug straight back down as his hands were shaking too much to control it. Molly immediately stood and moved over to the cupboard by the door. This, she'd discovered, was full of various objects and one of them was… Yes. Taking the thick blanket, she returned to him and passed it over.

When he still didn't speak, she went on, 'I shouldn't be surprised. This is your home, after all.'

'Oh, I don't think you can call it that anymore,' he replied bitterly. 'A home requires living in. That's impossible.' Then he seemed to check himself. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…'

'You didn't,' she said quietly.

'I didn't intend to ever disturb you,' he continued finally. 'It was unfortunate this evening, I lost my footing in the garden.'

'I moved the stones,' she answered. 'I probably disorientated you a bit.'

His smile barely stretched his lips at all. 'Yes.'

'Remus,' she said after another lengthy silence, 'what are you doing here? You know they could check at any time.'

'Molly, I deserve some sort of…' He stopped and swallowed hard. 'I should be put down.'

Lowering her eyes so she wouldn't be forced to look at him as she asked this, Molly tightened her clasped hands. 'Did you remember it at all… afterwards?'

When he spoke his voice was barely audible. 'Not at first. I rarely can, it's an affliction that pained me, because I was petrified I would do harm. But I was far from Hogwarts when I became aware of my surroundings again. I was in the mountains. I knew, I knew without thinking, that something had happened. But I couldn't…' He paused. 'It wasn't clear in my mind. It was a haze. I travelled back slowly, I'd been injured a little in…'

'Sirius Black,' she muttered. 'He tried to…'

'Yes. I had thought it might have been him immediately,' Remus said in a low voice. 'I found an evening paper in Hogsmeade and… I discovered…'

Lifting her head, Molly saw his contorted face. 'It wasn't your fault.'

'Now you don't believe that anymore than I do, Molly.'

'I believe it more, I think. Do you know,' she went on quickly, 'that Arthur considered appointing you to be one of the best things Albus Dumbledore had ever done?'

If anything, that seemed to hurt him more. Picking up his mug, he gulped down more than half of the tea inside. 'I should never have accepted the post. I was too idealistic.'

'No. You were trying to live a normal life. I don't blame you for that. And I like to think that Arthur wouldn't. I know he wouldn't.'

Remus cleared his throat and continued his tale. 'There's a little-known potion, still rather in construction by the Ministry, but I had some in my office. For emergencies, you might say. I returned to Hogwarts.'

Molly lifted her head. 'You did?'

'Oh, no one saw me. I made sure of that. My rooms were already in disarray, I suspect Severus had been through them. But I retrieved the potion, left as quickly as I'd arrived.'

'This potion,' she said, 'what does it do?'

'It's intended for use on violent…' He trailed off and seemed to check himself. 'It was for use on werewolves, so they could recall what atrocities they commit on the full moon. The notion was that they would voluntarily accept Wolfsbane Potion and confinement if they saw the error of their ways, so to speak. I took it, and the full events of that night came back to me.'

Finding her throat dry, Molly swallowed. 'Right.'

'I'm so very sorry, Molly,' he said eventually. 'There isn't a word that covers it sufficiently.'

'Well, it wasn't your fault, Remus,' she answered, her voice quivering.

'I very much doubt anyone else sees it that way. And you have more right than anybody to…'

'I forfeited my rights to Arthur,' she cut in.

After finishing his tea, he drew the blanket closer around his thin body. 'You exiled yourself,' he said finally.

'So have you,' she argued softly.

'That's because I'm a coward. They won't send me to Azkaban, Molly. It'll be worse than that. And, I'm afraid to say, I couldn't stay and acknowledge that punishment.'

'There was no reason why you should. The Ministry are the same as ever, Remus. They don't recognise reason anymore.'

'Albus Dumbledore does,' he said quietly.

'At the funeral,' she said after a moment, 'he made that perfectly clear.'

'Yes, I know. I was there.' Then he added, 'You probably find that horrible.'

She shook her head. 'No, I just…' She frowned. 'You've been in the house before.'

He sighed. 'Guilty.'

'You know, I thought I was losing the remainder of my marbles. I knew there was more Polyjuice Potion in that cupboard.'

'I'm sorry,' Remus replied, his face creased. 'I needed rather a supply of the stuff in a hurry. Here was the only place I could think of to obtain it.'

'It was welcome to me as well,' she answered. 'I couldn't have attended the funeral without it.'

'You spoke to Minerva.' It was a statement.

Molly clenched her fingers that little bit tighter. 'Yes. But it made no difference.'

'I suppose you think it's immoral to even contemplate that.'

'Yes. So I haven't. It would tarnish Arthur's memory, I can't allow that to happen. And I can't allow the children to see it tarnished.'

'What did you do… afterwards? May I ask?'

'I saw…' Her eyes closed briefly. 'I saw Arthur. I remember screaming. Ginny screaming. I remember Sirius was holding Ron, trying to keep him away from…' Wincing at the memory, she nevertheless continued, 'I saw Minerva. I saw her eyes. I think she knew. I think she knew before I did that I'd run that very night. She knows me, better than Arthur I think.'

'I never imagined Minerva McGonagall would get herself into the situation she did.'

'It wasn't planned,' Molly said, with more bite than she'd intended. Softening, she went on, 'It just happened. It would be something if I could say I regretted it. But I don't, Remus. I don't. I regret the aftermath, I regret Arthur finding out like he did but… You know, I do believe I managed to make Minerva happy, even if only for a short time. I'd count that as an achievement.' Feeling his eyes on her, she took a moment to compose herself before adding, 'I went h… I went to the Burrow, picked up some things I couldn't do without. I didn't know where I was going, I didn't have a plan. I was thinking of you, that's how I came to be here.'

'You're welcome to stay here as long as you wish.'

'Thank you.'

He paused again, evidently evaluating what he was about to say. Then he asked, 'Why don't you go back?'

She almost scoffed aloud, but she restrained herself. 'I couldn't!'

'It'd be very easy, Molly.'

'No. No, it wouldn't be.'

'This isn't your life. You shouldn't be here.'

'Should you?' she questioned. 'Should Arthur be…' When she trailed off, she took a long steadying breath. 'It's the way it is.'

'And Minerva?'

'No, I… No, Remus.'

'You don't claim you don't want it.'

'I can't want it!' she said angrily, standing and turning away from him. 'Do you know what it would do to the children? Ginny and Ron would…'

'There's more at stake!' Remus replied, his own voice raised. 'Minerva is…'

'Minerva will survive,' she said with a degree of certainty she didn't really feel.

'And you?' Remus queried softly.

She still didn't look at him. 'You seem to think this is a choice.'

'Well, I do believe you're deliberately keeping yourself from Minerva, yes.'

'Because it's the right thing to do. And I haven't done the right thing for months now. The least I can do for Arthur is…'

'Is,' he interrupted, 'spend the rest of your life agonising?'

Turning back, she asked, 'Isn't that what you're planning on doing? You say you're too cowardly to face punishment from the Ministry. That isn't it. You're planning on torturing yourself with it, aren't you?'

Defeated, he nodded. 'Yes. Yes, I am.'

Seating herself again, she pleaded, 'Don't. Arthur would hate that.'

'Molly, you might be able to forgive me, and I don't know how you can, but I can't help thinking… No, I know I shouldn't have put myself in that situation. I wanted to be a teacher; I wanted to make a difference to lives. Well, I did that!'

'Stop it,' she said, finding herself growing angry. 'You don't have the right to sit here and decide your own punishment. What difference does it make now anyway? You won't bring Arthur back, Remus. You can't do that. So why do you think this is the solution?'

'Why do you?' he retorted quietly, looking at her again.

'I can protect the children,' she said, repeating the mantra she'd formulated over the last week.

'By abandoning them? I don't think that'll help anyone.'

She smiled softly. 'Hermione Granger said the very same thing.'

'So have you considered it might be true?'

A noise outside distracted her. Raising her wand, she instructed, 'Cloak yourself. Now.'

The door opened tentatively and a voice drifted through. 'He's not going to be here, is he? We're wasting time.'

With a jolt, Molly recognised the voice as Bill's. A moment later he came into view, followed by Charlie. 'I know but… We need to find him first.'

'We should have a closer look. We might find something.'

'Like what? A magic key to make all this go away?'

Bill shook his head. 'We've still got a duty. It's what Dad would've done. And Mum.'

Charlie seemed to glance at his brother as he came further into the room. Molly dipped her head so her Disillusionment charm wouldn't be spotted from her position behind the curtain. A few metres away, Remus did the same. 'Where do you think she is?'

'Knowing Mum, she's somewhere blaming herself. I just wish…' Bill broke off as he rummaged in a drawer Molly knew to contain Remus's address book. Pulling it out, he muttered, 'This seems as good a place to start as any. But,' he said, returning to his earlier point, 'I'd like to talk to her. See if she's alright.'

Feeling herself tearing up, Molly squeezed her eyes shut. A few minutes later they were gone into the night and she cautiously moved back out into the centre of the cottage. Remus appeared a few moments later. 'Perhaps we should've…'

'Perhaps,' she agreed falteringly. 'But…'

Remus approached her. 'Molly, I know you're not ready. But will you ever be? We have to go back, the two of us. If we don't, we're not just both cowardly, we're both martyrs. It's not a very fitting legacy.'

Looking up into his eyes, she nodded. 'Soon,' she murmured. 'Not yet. Soon.'