Remus tried to use one of the old wands they'd been teaching the children with. For the most part he could force his magic through it but it was a struggle. When he went to boil a kettle and instead sprayed the kitchen with droplets of superheated water, it was too much. Face and hands stinging, he swore, hit the side of a cabinet and tried not to cry.

"Are you injured?" asked Luna's perpetually calm voice as the young girl appeared in the doorway.

"I'm fine."

The tiny drops had reddened his skin where they'd hit but not caused any damage worth speaking of. He was still far from fine.

Luna turned on the cold tap, soaked a tea towel, rang it out and handed it to him. He pressed it against the scalded skin, thanking her.

"We need better wands," the small child stated.

Merlin... he wished it was that simple. "The Ministry controls access to wands," he explained. Mentally he added, 'and Voldermort controls the Ministry.' "We can't just pop down to Ollivander's anymore."

"My parents always said Kala Xavier is a better wandmaker than Ollivander."

"Who?"

"Kala Xavier. She was a friend of my mummy's but she moved to Norway when You-Know-Who took over everything."

"Who's this?" Sirius asked, making his way down the stairs.

"A wandmaker friend of the Lovegoods," said Remus.

"She's still there, making wands?" Sirius queried, distracted as he examined the pink blotches on his friend's face.

"I think so," Luna replied.

"Let's go there," said the animagus.

What? "Sirius it's too dangerous! If anyone recognised us... You know the Death Eaters can and will launch attacks outside of Britain to get at someone they want badly enough."

"Is it more dangerous than staying here? With the wands we've got?" He took his from his pocket and held it out, a stubby piece of dark turned wood. "I stole this after escaping Azkaban. It works but that's about the best that can be said for it. The kids would learn ten times faster with wands they could bond with and well – this!" He gestured to the drenched kitchen and the other man's burns.

Remus found himself irrationally grateful that Sirius hadn't mentioned his own suspicions that his lycantropy was at least partly to blame for every wand in the house's violent reaction to him. He had to admit, his friend had a point.

The plan was to get a muggle ferry to the continent. Severus had some polyjuice base, not a lot but enough to disguise the three adult wizards for the first leg of the journey at least. The children were far less recognisable, especially when bundled up in winter clothes.

Dobby was somewhat more of a challenge. As a non-human he couldn't safely take polyjuice. The best they could manage was getting him to dress like the children, covering most of his face with a scarf and dark glasses and instructing him to keep his head down.

And so with bags packed and Severus, Remus and Sirius transformed to look like three random muggles, they set off.

Still in the doorway Severus stopped. The man who's form he was borrowing had shoulder length dark hair, less severe features than the Slytherin's own and a tightly trimmed beard. The tremor was still evident, even through the heavy coat.

Remus remembered all too well what had happened the last time they'd left the house. "It'll be fine," he said, placing one hand lightly on the back of the other man's coat in what he hoped was a reassuring rather than a startling gesture. Severus didn't flinch away, which he took as a good sign. Instead he turned to Remus, a confused look on the face that wasn't his own and asked, "How? How can anything ever be 'fine' again?"

The question threw him. "I don't know," he admitted. After everything that had happened, all the people they'd lost, it seemed impossible to picture a brighter future. "I have to believe it can though."

They got to Portsmouth and found the harbour without difficulty. None of them had any sort of ID but a quick confundus from Sirius got them on board regardless.

The ferry journey itself was fairly uneventful. They found some seats in a quiet corner of the lounge deck and settled down there. Most of the other passengers had arrived with cars and – judging from the snippets of conversation Remus overheard – many were not planning to return to the UK.

The children were drawing and practicing writing. Remus helped them for a while but – even if Harry had to hold his face almost against the page – they all seemed to have gotten a decent handle on the letters and didn't particularly need assistance. He tried to make conversation with the other adults but Doby, attempting to go as unnoticed as possible, was pretending to sleep under one of their coats (or perhaps he really was sleeping, it was difficult to tell) while Severus was too focused on watching every move made by the other occupants of the lounge to speak. Sirius was happy to talk but Remus had to keep stopping him as he seemed to constantly veer into topics of a magical nature. After a while the animagus, annoyed with being cut off several times a minute, left to go check out the onboard shop and get them some lunch. He came back later with a selection of sandwiches, fruit, fizzy drinks and (far too many) chocolate bars and sweets along with a newspaper, a couple of books and three pocket sized soft toys.

After lunch the two of them looked through the papers together, silently pointing out murders and disasters that were almost certainly Death Eater attacks.

The evening sky was just starting to darken when they arrived in Le Havre.