November 7th, 1981

"Merlin's Pants! What were you thinking?"

James groaned at Sirius' exclamation, almost sinking into his armchair. Lily on the other hand let out a snigger, which she regretted when her glass of wine went down the wrong pipe. Remus alone managed to hold back a dramatic reaction, though he grinned at the now pouting Sirius. The four of them were sat around in a little cabin tucked away at the end of the Longbottom's garden, usually used for storing brooms and gardening equipment. Aside from a large dent in the hardwood table and the part of the ceiling that leaked, it was a cosy little place.

This was just as well since James and Lily were staying in the cabin while figuring out where in the country to move. Neither of them were willing to stay at Godric's Hollow after Voldemort's attack on the property, since the likelihood of Peter having only told You-Know-Who the location was way too damn low. Besides which, they'd had to remove the Fidelius Charm to allow the aurors and reporters access.

Sirius continued to pout in his corner, tucked away with a mug of coffee. James had wrestled the last pint of beer away from him, barking that he'd already had enough to drink today.

"Seriously, James!" he cried, "Its Lucius Malfoy! I'll grant that letting him go isn't as bad as letting Bella or Greyback run free, but he's still a murderer twenty times over! One of You-Know-Who's favourites!"

"I feel like I've already had this conversation" James muttered, looking to Lily for support. The still spluttering redhead gave him none whatsoever.

"You have" Remus replied, leaning back in his own armchair; "And I'd like to remind you that I did – eventually – agree with you." He could not conceal his smirk this time.

"Eventually!" James spat back, "It took a bloody hour!"

In fairness to James, Remus had relentlessly grilled him on his meeting with Lucius Malfoy, forcing his friend to recount details he hadn't even picked up on. Initially, he had been horrified at the prospect of a high-ranking member of the Death Eaters walking free, had James forgotten just who they were? Leaving a single member outside of Azkaban was bartering with the lives of hundreds of wizards and thousands of muggles!

However, once he'd heard all the details about the deal James had made, he had relented and agreed that it was a necessary sacrifice. Unlike the other members of their group, he'd never been quite as happy to leave things to chance, but the possibility of that book being important was definitely too much to pass over. If it gave any hints to how Voldemort might still be alive, then any cost was acceptable. And Remus said this as a man who's life had been scarred more by Voldemort than any of the others, through the Dark Lord association with one particular werewolf.

Even now, after fifteen years he could still picture Greyback clearly; a hulking mass of black fur with pale eyes and yellow teeth.

Sirius was still getting over his own shock.

"This deal, what is it?" he said, a shaking hand pointing at James.

"We've told you at least twice since you arrived!" Lily replied, "The book about Voldemort. Wormtail handed over the Aurors. That stupid law about Remus dying a horrible death!"

"I was hoping there was more to it!" barked Sirius, running both hands back and forth through his hair; "You realise who Malfoy is, don't you?"

"Unsurprisingly yes, Sirius" James barked back, having finally gotten over his exasperation; "Since I'm the only one of us who's been in the same room as him in the last five years!"

"I've been on the battlefield with him" Sirius glared, "Or, rather, against him. And don't pretend, James, that one short conversation means you know him better than I do. I had to put up with him growing up, always coming over to chat up father, or Dromeda, or Narcissa when they started getting it on-"

"You have told us this, Sirius" Remus interrupted, gently; "And I'm sure James took that into account when talking to the man. But what we're trying to deal with here is far bigger than Malfoy could ever be."

Sirius turned his glare on him. "Couldn't we just break into his house and steal the book if its that important?!"

"At the time I didn't consider that…" James admitted, "But even I had done, it wouldn't have changed my mind. We would never be able to pull it off."

Lily hummed in agreement, placing a reassuring hand on James' arm. "We might know where Malfoy Manor is, but that doesn't really help us. We'd need to know what they have protecting the grounds, what they have protecting the house-"

James cut in, leaning slightly into his wife; "Bear in mind that the Malfoy's have had that land in Wiltshire for…what, ten centuries? – so they've had plenty of time to dig themselves in."

The combined intentness of their stares resulted in a sigh from Sirius.

"I suppose that getting the Ministry to perform a raid wouldn't work either?" he said, not really wanting an answer; "Not only can we not tell them about what we suspect about Voldemort-"

"If we tell them, we're also telling the remaining Death Eaters" James stated.

"Yes, I know" said Sirius, "So even we did get manage to arrange a raid on Malfoy's property, they'd have no idea what to look for." He sighed again. "I swear, it didn't use to be this complicated."

James grunted in response.

"Do you agree that James was right, Sirius?" Remus asked, speaking up again.

The man didn't respond.

"Sirius?" Remus tried again.

"Reluctantly..." Sirius replied while staring at his coffee, probably wishing it were something stronger. He looked at Remus, then questioned "You're okay with the whole thing about the law, aren't you?"

Remus' face tightened, as he thought of an answer. It was a more difficult subject than the others might have appreciated, having never been as endangered by prejudice as the werewolf was, except for Lily. "I'm touched that James included the law in his demands against Malfoy." He nodded at James, who nodded back. Remus had already accepted his repeated apologies for not instantly accepting Malfoy's offer to block the law targeted against his kind – he agreed that it would not have been worth it, though for reasons different to those James might have expected. "I'm glad he didn't make that his only condition for letting the man go free, however; I wouldn't want to be responsible for any of you having to make a decision like that. And he could have gone back on his word the moment his own freedom was assured, anyway."

Looking around at his remaining friends, Remus continued; "But I do not expect Malfoy's agreement to stop this law to come to anything, even if he puts all his efforts towards doing so. Even if all his cronies refuse to vote on it, the Ministry has enough people who hate my kind to get it passed – especially after this war, and especially with Greyback still running around Connacht."

"We could speak up on your behalf?" Lily suggested, "James and I could get a lot of people on side and Sirius…well…"

"Even a banished member of the House of Black would get a lot of respect from certain people" Sirius muttered, as bitterly as he could; "Its what happens when you grow up among these people, you learn how they think."

"It still wouldn't work" Remus replied, "And you'd have to reveal that I'm a werewolf anyway. Don't worry about it, I'll manage."

"You shouldn't have to" James said.

"It's my burden" Remus stated, "Not yours. Not anyone else's." Not even his father's, though Lyall Lupin had always blamed himself for his son's infection. "The only thing we can do is get Greyback thrown behind bars. So long as he's free, there's no chance for my kind being spared anything save the axe."

None of his friends looked happy at that comment. Still, sensing the dark mood that had settled on the group, Lily stood up.

"I'll go get us another round of coffee – not beer, James – since everyone's mugs are empty. Start telling them about what Dumbledore said while I'm away." She grasped James' shoulder briefly, then drew her wand to levitate the drinkware back to the house. "I'll check on Harry while I'm there."

"He should still be sleeping" James said, smiling after her.

"What's this about the Professor?" Remus asked, curiously. He didn't know that James had been to see the man today.

"Before telling you and Sirius, Lily and I went to see him" replied James, "We spoke about the book and what it might be, as well as a few other things he's been looking at; other ways to 'prevent' death." He added air quotes to the latter statement, making it clear just how stupid he thought the idea was. "We also spoke to Alice and Frank briefly, since they deserve to know if we're boarding here and…maybe they might know something?"

"I assume you had no luck?" Sirius questioned, looking very much as if he already knew the answer.

James nodded. "We managed to reject a few possibilities and might be able to reject a few more if this book, whatever it is, is important…but yeah, we couldn't be sure of anything. Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort probably used some kind of potion to 'anchor' himself to the world, as according to him potions was You-Know-Who's favourite subject when he was at Hogwarts."

Remus blinked in surprise. "I didn't know he went to Hogwarts" he said, "I always thought he was foreign to be honest, the name sounds vaguely Italian-ish – 'mort' translates to death if I remember correctly. But if he was at Hogwarts then he couldn't have been, otherwise he'd have gone to Casamanso."

"Casa-what?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The Italian school of magic" Sirius replied in place of Remus, "Somewhere near the 'boot', I think." James and Remus looked at him in surprise. "I was raised in High Society remember, you pick up these things – Emilia Zabini went there for four years, remember her?" He waggles his eyebrows at James, who waggled them back.

Unlike Sirius and possibly James, Remus didn't remember the woman, though he got the point of their interaction regardless.

"But" Sirius coughed, "Voldemort isn't bastardised Italian – its French! Literally 'Flight of Death' which is appropriate for a mass murder I suppose."

"Charming" James muttered, scratching at the nape of his neck.

"Back on topic" Remus said, "Did Dumbledore have idea what kind of potion Voldemort might have used? My first thought was the Elixir of Life, though the Flamels are still alive so I doubt he got hold of that."

James nodded. "We rejected that possibility. There are a few other ones we couldn't reject and so are looking into at the moment; Chinese alchemy and variations thereof, several regeneration potions, unicorn blood – that's actually the one I'm checking on next weekend, I'll spend it going around the various sanctuaries here and in France and the Low Countries to see if they've been taking casualties."

"I, in the meantime am paying a trip over to Ireland" Lily said, returning with four mugs of steaming coffee; "There's a lake there that supplies a large amount of Wizarding Britain's more specialised potion ingredients, including several we think might be relevant."

"How's Harry?" James asked.

"Still sleeping" Lily replied, "Alice moved him and Neville to the same crib."

"This lake; Lough Erne I assume?" Remus stated, to which Lily replied with a nod; "I've been there before, I could go with you if you'd like?" It had been nearly fourteen years ago, when his father had been desperately searching for a cure to the lycanthropy his son now suffered. Obviously, he'd failed – though Remus would never have considered blaming him, even if his poor dad continued to blame himself. He made that clear every time he visited, though those had been far between recently with the Order taking up most of his spare time.

Lily shrugged. "Its up to you. We'd be going by portkey, which I'll arrange tomorrow – the office at the Ministry closes at 4 so I couldn't make it today. Would that be okay?"

"That'll be fine, I'll manage." Remus replied, "Just need to remember to pack something so I can relieve my chest at the other end." Saying it like that made it sound like travelling by portkey was a more serious matter for him than it actually was. He just needed to pace himself, he was hardly a…what did the muggles call it? Ass-math-tic?

His thoughts were interrupted by Sirius leaping to his feet, having poured coffee into his lap. He hopped around the room, spewing a hail of curses – his friends, ever sympathetic, failed to smother their laughter.

James pulled out his wand and tried to get the man to stand still; "Let me Sirius – stop it – stop moving – Come on!" Remus stood up and managed to grab hold of the Black long enough for the Potter to cast a cooling charm on the other man's pants. Lily was still cackling.

"It wasn't funny!" Sirius fumed, his pout resembling the dog he occasionally turned into.

"Let's agree to disagree" she said, pressing a hand to her mouth.

Remus had a thought, while returning to his armchair. "How's house-hunting going for you two?" he asked, gesturing at James and Lily.

James grinned. "We've narrowed it down to either the house in Falmouth or the one in Tinworth. I like the property in Tinworth, but-"

"I want an attic to work in" Lily interrupted; "And the property in Falmouth has a perfect one, with a lovely view over-."

"But it doesn't have a field attached" James interrupted, "So where would I be able to teach Harry to play Quidditch!"

"That doesn't really matter, James" Lily groaned.

The three men immediately turned away in denial of that statement.

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From my notes for context:

Casamanso is the magical school for Italy and parts of the Balkans. It was founded in 1004AD by the relatively short lived Republic of Amalfi and used to be a contender for the most influential European School due to specialising in exploration, but has fallen from influence over the centuries as the corners of the world were progressively reached. It has been located within the Grotta dello Smeraldo since 1138, after Amalfi was conquered by Pisa.