Hi...

*hides behind her laptop*

I know, it has been a while and I am so very sorry!

At first I just wanted to take a little break. I was totally blocked and nothing I wrote sounded right. The a little break took longer and longer and longer and ...

Anyhow, now I am back. The next chapter is finished as well, but it still needs some refinements. I want to try to update regularly again, but no promises, university is really stressful right now.

Chapter 15

Dora felt content as she snuggled against her husband. The last week had been jarring, to say the least. While the young witch had been very glad, that Remus had had a good moon this time, with injuries aplenty but mostly superficial and had started to bond with this particular pack, the aftermath had not been as pretty.

After coming back to the Lupin house in the afternoon – enjoying their time with the others – they had talked about what had happened the day before. Her husband had been miserable then, feeling guilty and horrified with himself. Dora had done her best to stop it – she had been expecting much worse from a werewolf shortly before the moon and her temperamental cousin, who full of mistrust was quick to anger- but if there was one thing Remus John Lupin was very good at, it sadly was hating himself and seeing a monster in the mirror.

Every attempt to fix things with Sirius had been met with resolute silence until yesterday a package had been brought by owl, addressed to Remus only by name. No address. Opening it had revealed all of the wizards' possessions left at the shared flat shrunken down and a warning to stay away from Peter Pettigrew. He had not said a word, but upon seeing this Dora had seen something in her love crumple.

But that had not been the only bad thing. Two days later they hadn´t been able to delay his report to Dumbledore anymore. So Remus had gone off to Hogwarts and talked to its headmaster. This meeting had also not gone well. As he recounted it, Dumbledore had clearly noticed the enormous change characterwise in his former pupil. That as well as the refusal to talk about what had actually happened at the packs seemed to have lost him a lot of the headmaster´s trust.

To say her husband dreaded the next meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was putting things mildly…

But not only bad things had happened. Dora was actually quite happy with how things had gone on her side. While her husband had kept himself occupied and afloat with caring for their son and visiting his packs, Tonks had been busy.

They had crafted her a believable birth certificate and all necessary papers. Soon she would be known as Pandora Lupin né Smith, the illegitimate daughter of Alphard Black and a muggle-born witch named Zeta Smith. Her mother´s uncle had been dead for a while, but during his time in Hogwarts had been sweet on said girl. Nothing had ever happened as far as Dora knew, because of the Black-ideals, but her mother had loved to tell this story about the only family member of hers, but Sirius, that had kept in contact with her. Apparently, Zeta was the reason Alphard had never married. Dora did not know the details but knew that Zeta had hastily left the magical world behind completely after graduating, breaking off all contact, and had died two years later in 1956 of sudden heart failure. It made for a great cover story for any traits and blood connection Dora had towards her mother's family.

Also, it had been easy enough to convince the tapestry of 12 Grimmauld – Place, that had not known what to do with her. After disguising herself as Narcissa Malfoy (she had grown up with pictures of her mother´s sisters), she had snuck inside, after making sure Walburga Black had gone to the ministry, representing the Black family and strengthening her power and influence, whenever she could- including trials. It had been easy to be on the lookout in the Daily Prophet and use the given time.

Fooling Kreacher had been nearly impossible, but after swearing to mean no harm to the most noble and ancient house of Black, she had been able to make a deal with him: she would fix up the problem of the tapestry – the house-elf had noticed it of course, but apparently, his mistress hadn´t yet. Kreacher had not understood been able to determine the problem, only that it was no danger. As house maintenance was one of his most important orders, he had been punishing himself quite severely for not being able to fix the Black-family tree. In turn for allowing her to do it undisturbed, she had given him something very important: the ability to carry out his beloved master Regulus's last order. She did not trust his word not betray to anyone that she had been there. She had trusted the look of pure happiness and admiration in his eyes upon revealing the information on how to destroy the medallion. Giving him the hint that a Basilisk could be found under Hogwarts, Kreacher had disappeared in utter elation.

With this Dora had gone upstairs, only to find her place on the tapestry (burned out of course) twitching and doubling, Teddy´s and Remus´s places reappearing and disappearing like a heartbeat. It had been easy to connect to the ancient magic and influence it slightly. It had wanted to righten what should be impossible, had been tearing at itself to find a solution, so slipping in a solution – even if a lie – was done quickly. Directly after, Dora had gone to the Ministry to set up her identity there.

Entering her former workplace looking to blend in as much as possible (she had copied her father´s cousin Elena – a muggle – woman with sandy hair and dark eyes, who lived in Australia) had been bittersweet. The place was roughly the same, but every familiar face had been missing. She had been able to recognize some people, but…

The Wizengamot Administration Services was situated on Level 2 of the Ministry of Magic headquarters. It was a part of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and everything important information would be documented here – from court documents, over dates and schedules to birth and marriage certificates. Though her knowledge of the schedule of the employees had been nearly twenty years out of time, the wizarding world was not known for change. It had been disturbingly, worriedly easy to gain entrance during lunchtime and match her look to the blonde curls and strong jar of the man working at the administration desk, when she was sure, nobody was watching. As an Auror, she knew a lot about the internal security measures of the ministry, but still, it was far too easy!

It had been easy to slip all the important data between folders, letting it look as if they had been lost in the masses of paperwork that cluttered the far to small archives.

What had happened could have gone worse, but…

Her blond hair was falling over dark greenish eyes as she turned around the corner down the corridor in direction of the elevator. She would only need to leave now, then this whole operation would be successful – without anything –

Crash.

She shook her head, adjusting to the new perspective. The first thing she saw was purple – or was it blue? No, those were dark purplish robes and…- and she was sitting on the floor.

Dora groaned, hiding her face beneath her hands and suppressing the urge to morph into an even more embarrassing colour scheme (bright pink… everywhere). Maybe the person she had run into would be kind enough to just go on and ignore what had happened? Could she not live one day without knocking anyone or anything over? One day? Or at least stay free of it at the ministry? Mad-Eye would have had her hide!

The rustle of moving robes could be heard. "I am truly sorry Miss…!" a familiar voice stated, calmly and apologetic. "Are you all right?"

" ´M fine" she murmured, before groaning anew. Of course, she would not only bowl over someone important while being on a technically very illegal mission – it had to be Kingsley Shacklebolt of all people. "It was not your fault. That is on me. I am so sorry! It is always the same…" Still, she had her face hidden behind her hands, not quite willing to face Kingsley yet.

That moment she heard a `huff` before his deep voice broke into laughter. Another rustling sound could be heard and a glance between her fingers revealed an outstretched hand. Finally giving up hiding her face, she took it and managed to get back on her feet without too much trouble.

Looking at her former (future?) colleague and friend, the difference was not as bad as anticipated. While the nearly twenty years difference was as clear as day, neither clothing style nor hairstyle had changed much. It had been whispered, that Auror Shacklebolt had lost his hair very early due to a curse while on duty – but Dora had never found out how much of that was true, if at all…

"I am Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt" he introduced himself.

"… Pandora L… Smith, nice to meet you! And sorry again!" she managed.

Meeting Kingsley could have gone much worse, Remus had consoled her afterward. And he was right, of course. Still…

Chasing away those thoughts, she got up. Their visitor would soon be here and she wanted to feed her baby before.