This chapter kind of sums up my personal characterization of Dumbledore. I want to emphasize that I don't headcanon him as evil, just unintentionally callous. I think of him as someone who ultimately aims to make the world better, but has become so accustomed to thinking of people as a collection of talents to put in strategic positions that his sense of ethics has gotten pretty iffy over the decades.

Content warning for what could be interpreted as Dumbledore bashing. Just in case some people really like him, I guess?

Remus slumped over his desk with an exhausted groan. Part of his fatigue was from the residual ache of his lunar transformations, but the rest was from the growing realization that he'd been banging his head against a brick wall for the better part of a month. The files of information he'd gathered for Harry's custody case formed an uncomfortable pillow under his cheek. Useless. They were all useless.

He'd gone to Albus to argue his case. Harry was very clearly being mistreated by his family. There were medical records proving it, he had the memory of Harry's confession, and there were several witnesses who could corroborate what form the boy's Boggart took. His case was firm enough that he would have felt comfortable bringing it to the Wizengamot.

And yet, he'd been stonewalled. Albus wanted Harry to stay with the Dursleys and he wasn't going to budge. Oh, he was willing to speak with them—a notion Remus had vehemently and repeatedly shot down—but relocating the boy to a decent household was out of the question. He had a million kindly-spoken reasons why, of course. Harry was safest under his mother's blood protections, there were people after Harry who could find him more easily if he lived among wizards, moving the boy to a new household would cause him to suffer undue stress...and so on, and so on. Remus would lay out his evidence and Albus would sweep it aside like a cloud of gnats. He'd spoken to the man three times and made absolutely no progress in convincing him.

It wouldn't have been so bad if Albus Dumbledore were just the Headmaster of Hogwarts. If that were his only title, Remus would have been able to accept his inability to change the man's mind and gone on to appeal to the wizarding courts. But who was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the highest court in the land? Albus bloody Dumbledore, of course. If he submitted Harry's case to the court system (assuming he got Harry's consent to do so, which was unlikely at this point), then the file would inevitably shoot right up through the system to wind up on Albus's desk. The Boy Who Lived deserved nothing less, after all. And then that case would be rejected for review because Albus had better ideas.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his tired eyes. What could he do, short of kidnap the boy? And hell, he couldn't even do that unless he wanted to risk getting the Dementor's Kiss or spending the rest of his life in Azkaban! He was a magical creature! A werewolf kidnapping the Boy-Who-Lived would make front-page news in everything from The Daily Prophet to The Quibbler.

Tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling, he exhaustedly declared, "I just don't understand." Why did Albus want Harry to suffer? Lupin had told him the boy was being underfed, neglected, and generally treated worse than the average house-elf. Any one of those things should have been enough to have the Dursleys' custody of the boy put into question. Harry was the son of two of Albus's most loyal followers during the Wizarding War. He was the boy who, by Lily Potter's final act of magic, had vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. How could Albus not want to keep him safe?

Remus didn't know what to do. The legal route entailed getting Harry's consent to "cause trouble," as the boy would likely phrase it, and coaxing Albus to let the case be reviewed if (and when) it went all the way up to the Wizengamot. The illegal route would only lead to him and Harry becoming fugitives until Remus was put in chains and Harry was returned to the cold clutches of his relatives.

He blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his already-mussed hair. All he could do at this point was talk to Harry, hopefully get the go-ahead to submit his case to the Muggle Liaison Office, and pray it didn't wind up going straight to the highest level of the justice system. Maybe, if the Wizengamot was called upon, he could convince the Minister for Magic to have a look at the file after Albus tossed it out. Cornelius Fudge was well known for snapping up any opportunity for positive publicity, and saving the Boy-Who-Lived from his hostile Muggle relatives would make a fine headline.

There was a knock at his office door. Remus, leaned far back in his rickety chair, had to catch himself from toppling over backward. He used his desk as leverage to drag himself upright and then swept the mess of papers sitting atop it into a drawer.

"Come in," he called out.

The door opened to admit Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. The girl strode in with a sense of confidence in her stride, the boy entering with more trepidation. He paled at the sight of the large fish tank holding the subject of their next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. In Ronald's defense, Grindylows were an alarming sight even to people familiar with the wicked little water demons.

"Oh, a Grindylow!" Hermione remarked, peering at the creature with fascination. It tried to strangle her through the glass. "Did you capture it yourself, Professor?"

Remus laughed. "Goodness no! I've always been a weak swimmer. I just had it shipped in for our next class. Somehow, the delivery made it on time."

"The curse on the castle is lifting," Ron said. "All the mail can get through now." He puffed his chest out with pride. Remus suppressed a smile. He'd had an inkling the notorious Golden Trio might have had a hand in loosening Vaati's hold. Their beleaguered Head of House had fretted about their close involvement with "all this bloody Hylian rubbish" in the staff room more than once. While the staff at Hogwarts had been doing their best to stay away from the Hylian strangeness affecting the castle, he couldn't blame the students for fighting their way through it. What were they meant to do, not defend themselves?

"With luck, it might lift entirely before the end of term," Lupin said. "I'm sure a great many students are looking forward to going home for the winter break." From the flash of longing that appeared on Ron's face, he was one of those students.

Remus wondered how many children would be willing to return for next term, though. They were still making an effort to get to class, bless them—Remus knew many of his classmates back in the day would have preferred to hole up in their dorms and mope the year away. When monsters and traps had begun appearing, the students had adapted by clumping together in groups of four or five and traveling everywhere together. Some started carrying Beater's bats; others learned spells with physical effects strong enough to break through Hylian beasts' magical resistance. The most courageous students braved dens of monsters and searched for hidden puzzle-rooms to find Hylian spells that would let them fight back more effectively. It was a remarkable show of fortitude from the children of Hogwarts, but he didn't know how many of them would have the energy to keep up the fight until the end of the first term, let alone the back half of the school year.

"We came to speak to you about Harry, Professor," Hermione said, stepping up to his desk. "We think he's having trouble at home. You know about that, don't you?"

The girl had a very direct way of speaking. It reminded him of Lily, back in her fiery school days. "I might," he said evasively. While he could speak freely to the Headmaster about Harry Potter's welfare, that didn't carry over to the boy's friends. "His boggart concerned me, so I've been looking into some things."

Ron joined Hermione in leaning over his desk. "Well, we can tell you some more. His family's rotten," he said. "They put bars on his window. They locked him in a cupboard for a weekend just because he ruined a shirt. He thinks getting medicine and school supplies is an extra thing!"

"They've raised him wrong." Hermione shook her head. "The way he thinks…He didn't want us to say anything to anyone because he thought it would just cause him trouble. I don't think anyone has been able to help him anymore." She looked stricken, a feeling Lupin deeply empathized with. "We want to get him away from the Dursleys. Ron's family can take him in. The Weasleys are good people, Professor, and they already care about him so much more than his relatives do."

The Weasleys…They were incredibly loyal to Dumbledore, a pureblood family with a long history, and had a good reputation for child-rearing. There were some members of the Wizengamot that would protest Harry's placement with a low-income household, but Remus imagined that Arthur Weasley's employment in the Ministry of Magic and the remaining Potter fortune could be used as leverage somehow. They were certainly better candidates for gaining custody of Harry than Remus, a poverty-stricken werewolf bachelor with no living family.

"I will see what I can do," he said neutrally. Behind his calm exterior, his mind was spinning. Could he actually do something? Was there a way to save his honorary nephew from four more years of misery with the Dursleys?

"This is really serious, Professor Lupin. They might hurt Harry if they found out he tried to get help," Ron said gravely. "They hate Hogwarts and magic. I called over the summer and said I was a friend from school, and Harry's uncle just about bit my head off."

"They hate magic, you say?" Remus asked. The boy's testimony added weight to an argument Remus had already tried against Albus. Remus was familiar with Petunia Dursley's envy-fueled prejudice against magical folk; Lily had had many stories of her sister's unpleasantness to share after her summers home from school. If Petunia's husband hadn't already had his own dislike of magic, Remus was sure that harpy would have convinced him to adopt her way of thinking. "I'll add that to my notes."

"If we can do anything to help, just tell us what we can do," Hermione entreated. "And please, if you've already spoken to Professor Dumbledore, warn him not to let the Dursleys know about this. It might seem unfair not to inform them of the investigation, but they'll take their anger out on Harry if they hear he's told people at the school about them."

Remus had already given Albus such a warning, but he didn't know whether the man would follow it. As a consequence of his age and long years of teaching, Albus had a habit of listening politely to the advice of younger people and then ignoring it entirely in favor of whatever course of action he thought was best. It was a kind of arrogance that came with too many decades of making grand, long-term plans and regarding younger people as students under his tutelage.

"Thank you for your advice, Hermione. I'll urge him to be careful with this case, you can be assured," he said with a smile meant to soothe. "Your concern for your friend is heartening. It's good to know he has some people in his corner. Although," he puzzled his hands on his desk and raised an eyebrow, "does Harry know you're speaking to me about this?"

Both children shifted on their feet and looked away. He took that as a "no".

"We figured you were already looking into it, since you made him go to Madame Pomfrey for a check-up," Ron said. "That's why Hermione asked if you knew anything first."

Remus nodded. "Ah, I see. Well, I'll give ten points to each of you for your determination to help Harry, but…he wouldn't approve of you speaking to me, would he?"

"His brain's all twisted, so we're doing this for him!" The boy stubbornly set his jaw. "Even Blue—the smart one—is acting stupid about this. If Harry can't figure this out, we can do it instead. Blue already said he hates the Dursleys and they hate him. They'd be happy to get rid of each other. That's all we need for this kind of thing, isn't it?"

Remus suppressed a sigh. If only! "Unfortunately, the court system is more complex than that," he said. "The proceedings are further complicated by the fact that Harry is under the custody of Muggles, who have a separate court system of their own. The Ministry of Magic can step past some of the red tape of that system, of course, since it wouldn't be too difficult to make Harry 'vanish' from Muggle society, but it's another round of approvals that the case would need to pass through."

"Couldn't Professor Dumbledore push things along? The Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot surely has some power to bring things to the discussion floor more quickly, doesn't he?" Hermione asked hopefully.

He wished he could share her trust in the man. However, Albus had done nothing but chip away at Remus's faith for the past month.

Should he break these students' belief in the kindly mask of their Headmaster? It was tempting, given the bitterness coiled around his heart, but he reigned in the urge. These children were thirteen—hardly the age to start having their trust in respected authority figures be shattered. Besides, Remus knew that Albus wasn't doing this to their friend out of malice. No, he had some long-running plan in the works that required Harry to be right where the man needed him at the right time. It was always a chess game with Albus. His cause was ultimately just, but he had a habit of seeing certain people as sacrifices that needed to be made for the collective good. The Potter family were among those unfortunate pawns.

"The current situation at the castle, as well as the unknown whereabouts of Sirius Black, are making his job difficult," Remus said diplomatically. Among his friend group, he had always been the best at smoothing situations over and covering up for mischief. Albus's benevolent callousness wasn't exactly mischief, but it fell within Remus's wheelhouse. "Once Black has been apprehended and Albus can resume attending Wizengamot meetings, it should be easier to make some progress."

"Sirius Black again," Ron growled. "How can nobody find him? He's a crazy killer, isn't he? You'd think he would have done something to get caught by now."

Remus's lips tightened. He had an idea of why no one could find his traitorous former friend. The barrier around Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the Forbidden Forest refused to let anything but objects and small living things through. Magical creatures were not exempt, and Dementors weren't exactly diminutive beings. In his walks around the perimeter of the grounds, exploring the edges of the invisible cage, he had occasionally sensed the wraiths passing by beyond the shield, made unseen by the strange magic. With no Dementors able to search the grounds and no Aurors able to Apparate in and conduct a more organized manhunt through the castle, Sirius had a vast sprawl of land to hide in. On top of that, he was an Animagus with an animal form well-suited for surviving in harsh conditions. Remus doubted the man would be found until the curse on Hogwarts lifted.

He did wonder why Sirius hadn't gone for Harry yet, though. He had killed the Potters by giving up their location to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and he'd blown up a street full of people. Why was killing one boy too much for him? He hadn't even made an attempt, to Remus's knowledge. Sirius had never been a patient, planning man. He acted on impulse and laughed off the consequences. Mentally wrecked as he must have been from spending so many years in close proximity to Dementors, he had to have been even more impulsive than ever, and yet he'd done nothing. The man had escaped from prison and vanished like a ghost.

"I would prefer not to start a chain of rumors," he gave the children a hard look, "but there is a possibility that Black was within range of Vaati's curse when it trapped everyone on the castle grounds. As long as he is within the barrier, the Dementors can't apprehend him." His students paled. "I'm telling you this so you know to defend yourselves. Harry is better protected now that there are four of him, all armed with swords, but I would advise that you two and all of him stay on your guards. If you see anything suspicious, tell the nearest teacher." As an afterthought, he added, "…And if you see something akin to a Grim on the castle grounds, tell me, Professor McGonagall, or Professor Dumbledore. It isn't common knowledge, but Sirius Black—" his hesitation to admit this information was ingrained and automatic, even after all these years, "—is an Animagus. His animal form is a black dog."

The two of them suddenly looked ill. Remus looked between them, his heart beating faster. They had seen something—he was sure of it. "Did you see him? A shaggy, wolfish dog? Probably starved and mangy-looking?"

Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance. "Just a minute, Professor," Ron said. They scurried into a back corner of his office to confer.

His ears, still a little sharper than normal due to his transformations over the Halloween weekend, caught some of their conversation.

"…really be him, though? He's been around Harry loads of times and all he does is ask for pets."

"But his name…map said his real name was…"

"Why… letting him treat him like a pet for? No one's that crazy."

"Could be coincidence, but…name is so distinctive."

"…turn him in? What if we're wrong? I'm not getting some poor dog Kissed."

"Maybe Lupin can just tell, though?"

"Maybe?"

They went back up to his desk. He fixed them with a respectable look of expectation, even though his insides felt like they were burning. The traitor was here, right under his nose? Remus cursed himself for spending so much time in his office. He could have found Sirius before the dangerous man had made contact with his students, but instead he had been acting like an eccentric recluse! His interlocked fingers tightened painfully as he wrestled to keep himself from exploding in front of the children.

"Okay, so don't tell McGonagall or Dumbledore this, but we've been fixing Hogwarts by finding these hidden temples that Vaati hid around the place," Ron said. "The first one, we wandered into it on accident. We just blinked and wound up in a cave somewhere, probably under the school."

"The total group of people who wound up lost in there consisted of us, the Harrys, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle," Hermione listed off.

"Forgot Crabbe and Goyle had first names," Ron muttered.

"Our group—me, Ron, Yellow, and Blue—didn't meet with the others for some time. When we did, Malfoy's group was accompanied by a large, starved black dog and Harry and Red had a magical map that said the dog's name was Sirius Black."

Remus wanted to scream. He took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. "You found a dog named 'Sirius Black' and didn't think to tell anyone?" he asked neutrally. His voice was a little too flat too pull it off.

"Malfoy said he was chained up when he found him, and the dog's still wearing a metal collar that no one can take off. Why would Sirius Black chain himself up in a cave and decide to sit there until he starved to death? And why would Vaati single out some random bloke to chain up in a cave?" Ron asked. "Also, he's a black dog named 'Black Dog'. People give their pets stupid fancy names all the time! I've got a cousin with a barn owl named 'Tyto'!"

"Given Dog's demeanor, it made the most sense for him to be a Crup with an unfortunate name," Hermione said, although he could see her faltering under his expression of disapproval. "He's been nothing but friendly to everyone he meets, Professor, and he's helped us in lifting Vaati's curse."

"I might've died in the second temple if Dog hadn't saved me," Ron concurred. "Even if Malfoy's the one taking care of him, Dog's a decent sort. All he's done to Harry is ask for attention."

Now Remus was losing his certainty. Again, Sirius was not a patient man. He was intelligent, but his cleverness was meant for the short-term, not the kinds of plans that required a significant amount of long-term investment. Acting like a dog for any period of time longer than a few days would have been beyond him back in their school days. Now, after he'd spent over a decade in Azkaban, Remus doubted the man would have been able to maintain that façade for even a few hours with his goal so tantalizingly close. Maybe they really had come across a coincidentally-named Crup in a magical cave, as far-fetched as that sounded.

"Where can I find this 'Dog'?" Remus demanded. "You said that Draco is keeping him as a pet?"

"Malfoy keeps Dog in his dorm during classes, but he takes him on walks after school," Hermione said. "Since he's had a falling-out with Crabbe and Goyle, he keeps Dog on hand for protection from the monsters in the halls."

It was currently four o'clock in the afternoon. Remus would normally be grading papers at this time, but he could afford to spend a few hours hunting down Draco Malfoy and the possible mass-murderer he was keeping as a pet. "Thank you for informing me," he said. "I'll pass this along to—"

"Could you hold off on that until you're sure?" Hermione asked timidly. "Dog is…I think he's been a good influence. Malfoy's going through a lot right now, and I think having someone on hand that he can spill his feelings to is keeping him sane."

First Harry was having problems, and now Draco? Remus wouldn't have expected that overindulged boy to be suffering from circumstances severe enough to need an emotional support animal. "What difficulties do you think Draco is going through?" he inquired.

Ron seemed curious, too. "Is this about him coughing up blood on Saturday?" he asked. Remus's heart rate hit the roof. Draco had been coughing up blood?! It wasn't uncommon for students to jinx one another in the halls, but there was a difference between pantsing someone as they went up the stairs and causing someone to bleed inside their lungs.

"Ron!" Hermione hissed, punching him hard in the arm. "Malfoy is just fine, Professor. Madame Pomfrey treated him and released him from the Hospital Wing, and she wouldn't have done so if he were still sick," she said to Remus. "He just walked into a Hylian trap, is all."

From the suspicious frown Ron was giving her, Remus doubted that was all there was to the story. He made a mental note to ask Severus about it the next time he saw his former classmate skulking the halls. While he was at it, he'd ask Madame Pomfrey, too.

"What he's going through is something he would have to tell you himself," Hermione declared. "I'm just asking that you don't take Dog away unless you're sure he's a criminal in disguise. Personally, I'm not convinced. He's had enough time and enough chances to do whatever he came here to do, and yet all he's done is be an unusually large Crup. The man I've read about and seen in the papers was severely affected by Azkaban's Dementors; he wouldn't have had the mental fortitude not to follow his impulses, no matter how irrational they might be."

Remus winced. The girl wasn't wrong. It just hurt to be reminded that his former best friend, the handsome goofball among the Marauders, had become a homicidal madman.

"I will make an effort to restrain my judgment," he said stiffly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I'll be cutting my office hours short today. I have a dog to find, after all."

Draco stood by the Black Lake, a tableau of self-restraint and quiet suffering. He wanted to swim in those deep, dark waters so badly, and yet he despised the notion with just as much fervor. Giving in to the desire to swim would mean indulging beastly instincts unbecoming of a (former) pureblood. And so he stood rigidly on the muddy, rain-beaten shore while Red and Dog happily splashed through puddles behind him. Dog had insisted on following him outside, his recent bath be damned, and Red had sought him out in the halls and decided he was going wherever Draco was going. He reminded Draco of Dog that way.

There was a joyful bark behind him, followed by a particularly deep-sounding splash. Draco sighed. He wouldn't be swimming in the Black Lake today (not if he had anything to say about it), but he would certainly be scrubbing down Dog later. Maybe he'd order the foolish Crup into the lake to give himself a head start on getting all that mud out…

"Mister Malfoy!"

Draco perked up. That had to have been a teacher, but he couldn't recognize the voice over the sound of the torrential downpour. He squinted into the rain.

"Professor Lupin?" he muttered to himself upon recognizing the figure's shabby brown suit. His sodden, shabby brown suit. Was the man too mired in the poorhouse to own an umbrella? Or at least borrow one?

Lupin ran up to him, wheezing like he'd just sprinted the entire length of the Black Lake. There was a particularly frazzled air to him today, although that might have just been a consequence of him being soaked to the bone. If Draco had taken a spare umbrella with him, he would have handed it over, if only to give the wretch some small measure of dignity.

"Your dog," Lupin panted, "Where is he?"

"What business is that of yours?" Draco asked. "Professor Snape said I could keep him."

Lupin flapped one hand. "This isn't about that," he said. "I just need to check something."

"Check what?"

"Draco, please. I would rather not have to take points from Slytherin to get you to cooperate."

Slytherin was already lagging behind the other Houses in points due to poor attendance. A fair number of Snakes would rather skip class than face the dangers of the school halls. "Alright, fine," Malfoy conceded. "He's over there with Red, trying to roll in as much mud as possible before I give him another bath."

It was hard to see through the rain, but Lupin seemed to pale. "You've given him baths?"

Draco gave his supposed teacher a look that plainly questioned his intelligence. "Have you seen how thick his fur is? If I didn't wash and brush him, he'd collect enough stink to foul up the whole dormitory."

Lupin started looking around. "I-I see. And he lets you? Brush him?"

"Professor Lupin, have you never interacted with a Crup before?" Draco asked slowly. Maybe he had suffered a head injury on the way over. "He understands what 'sit' means and he knows he'll get a sausage at dinner if he behaves. It's not that hard."

"I see…" He trailed off when he spotted Red and Dog gamboling through another puddle and took off running again.

Intrigued by his teacher's odd behavior, Draco followed him across the lawn. Why on earth was he so frantic?

Red stopped stomping around when he caught sight of the man. "Professor Lupin? Why don't you have an umbrella?" he asked. His clothes and pointed hat were all waterproof, courtesy of Granger. Meanwhile, the teacher was doing an excellent impression of a drowned cat. "Are you okay?"

Lupin only had eyes for the mud-coated beast romping behind Red. He muttered something, waved his wand, and pointed it in Dog's direction. Draco drew in a sharp breath, ready to threaten the teacher with being sacked, but nothing happened. Whatever spell the man had used, it had no effect on Draco's pet. From the look of astonishment on Lupin's face, that was far from the expected outcome.

"What did you do?" Draco demanded.

"I-It should have worked," Lupin stammered studying his wand. "How didn't it work?" Draco scrutinized the length of wood as well, and sniffed disapprovingly at the state of it. Like its owner, it looked worn and older than it probably was. No wonder the man's spell hadn't worked; that poorly-maintained wand probably failed a quarter of the time!

Lupin's strange behavior drew Dog from his play without Draco having to call him over. The canine sneezed the mud out of his nose and sniffed the professor curiously. Then he stood up and circled Lupin, investigating him more avidly. In response, Lupin knelt down to his height. Draco cringed at the thought of the mud creeping into those woolen trousers. Those were probably his only half-decent pair! How could someone so poor be so careless?

"Do you recognize him?" Draco asked his pet. Dog was friendly toward most people, but the only ones he had taken such a clear interest in so far had been the Potters. Lupin didn't have any level of fame, though, so Draco could only assume Dog had come across him in person before.

An unsure whine was the answer. Dog buried his cold, wet nose in Lupin's neck to get a better sniff, making the man shiver.

"You don't know?" Draco inferred.

Dog stood in front of Lupin, tilting his head back and forth in confusion, before dropping into a play bow. Lupin flinched for some reason.

Draco rolled his eyes. Perhaps the man didn't recognize the pose for what it was. At worst, it was a sign of shenanigans to come. "You already have Red to play with, you lummox," he told his pet. "Lupin isn't here to go puddle-stomping with you." He eyes the teacher. "What are you here for, Professor? Are you out to acquire another bout of illness so soon after your last day off?"

"I just had to check something," Lupin said faintly. He stared at Dog with a haunted expression. "Just…Just one last thing." He leaned forward. "Sirius? It's Remus. Do you recognize me?" he asked, a pleading note in his voice. "Is that you?"

Dog whined and pawed at his gold collar. "Rrff?" His ears tucked anxiously and he gave Draco a pleading look.

"That's enough." Draco led Dog away from Lupin and put himself between the two. "Just because his first owners named him Sirius, that doesn't make him an Animagus. If he were a killer in disguise, don't you think he would have bitten my throat out by now?" He turned to scratch his pet behind the ears. "Good boy. You can go play with Red," he said. "I'll give you an extra chicken leg at dinner for having put up with this." Dog perked up happily and then bounded off.

Red stood staring. "What's going on?" he asked. "Is Dog in trouble?"

"No, it's fine," Draco said firmly. If it wasn't fine, then he was going to make it so. For the time being, he still had his father's influence to wield. "Go frolic. I'm sure the other Potters are going to come out here to complain about their headache soon, anyway."

The boy looked between Draco and Lupin before shrugging. "Okay. Let me know if you need something," he said. He ran off in a patter of slapping footsteps.

"Are you going to get out of the mud sometime today?" Draco asked Lupin. "You're ruining your only suit."

The professor staggered to his feet. "I apologize for interrupting your afternoon. Five points to Slytherin for indulging my curiosity," he said dully. He shuffled off toward the castle with a dead look in his eyes.

'He runs out here, all huffing and dramatic, interrogates my dog, and then just shambles off like an Inferius? What on earth has gotten into him?' Draco thought, bewildered. Lupin was decent, as far as teachers went. His lessons were interesting, even if the man himself was a threadbare eyesore. One of the traits Draco liked about him was his ability to remain calm and collected when his classroom was in chaos. Why had that calm, collected man looked so shaken when his assumption turned out to be wrong? He wasn't an Auror; his only connection to the Sirius Black case was his duty as a teacher to protect his students.

Draco frowned. Actually, how had Lupin learned about Dog's original name?

"Red, did any of your brothers meet with Lupin today?" Draco shouted over the rain.

"How would I know? I've been out here!" Red replied. He stooped down and measured the depth of a puddle with his sword. "Wow, this one's practically a pond!" he proclaimed. "This rain is pretty crazy isn't it?"

Draco shrugged. Storms were storms. They would lash furiously at the castle for a few days and then either blow away or go out with a whimper. This storm was more rain-heavy than usual, but unless it went on for a week or more, he wasn't going to worry about it. He gazed out at the black Lake, his attention turning back to Lupin's strange behavior and Dog's reaction. Why had that man been so emotionally invested? Why had Dog half-recognized him? It was just so strange.

Notes:

-I have no idea how the wizarding court system works, nor the real-life English one. There are certain topics that never fail to confuse me or slide out of my memory when I research them, and stuff having to do with laws is on that list. Because of that, I'm imagining the Wizengamot as working similarly to the US Supreme Court, as the highest court in the land with lower circuits for less major or more specialized cases underneath it.

-Hi, Remus! Bye, Remus! With the setting shift coming up after the next temple and the major NPCs I have lined up for that side of the story, I honestly don't know what to do with him (or Peter Pettigrew, for that matter). I refuse to put him on a bus and have him vanish completely from the narrative, though, so he'll pop back into existence every now and then.

-Next week, it's Zora Time as the Temple 4 arc kicks into action!