An owl flew through the dark, mountainous forest, gliding through the mists and dodging around rocky outcrops and ancient trees. The massive barn owl carried in its large talons a thick package wrapped in simple brown paper, and a bundle of letters tied tight with twine. The loyal bird of the night had one destination in mind for these treasures, a simple cabin tucked far into the wilderness. A cabin far away from soft exposed throats and loud, clumsy prey.

"Ah, there's my big boy, Goliath! Do you have the package I've been waiting on?" A strong and deep, yet deceptively soft voice asked as the indeed truly massive owl called Goliath swooped into the window of the lonely cabin.

"Hoo~" Goliath cooed, the sound almost comically deep and reverberating in the little cabin.

Remus Lupin chuckled softly as he reached out to ruffle the thick rusty and white feathers on Goliath's outstretched head, marveling at his familiars heavily muscled physique. Not for the first time Remus wondered how such a large and heavy creature managed to fly at all, let alone at the speeds he had seen Goliath reach to keep up with him on his monthly jaunts.

"Lets see what you have for me then old friend" he chuckled after another moment of petting, and took the offered package and bundle of letters from the owl.

Remus calmly untied the twin on the package and then carefully unwrapped the brown paper without tearing a single piece, before placing it whole and unmolested next to the box it had once encompassed. He smiled ruefully for a moment, thinking of how Sirius or James might have chastised him for wasting so much time on protecting simple paper instead of ripping it apart swiftly to reach what it covered.

The smile swiftly turned into a pained frown as his mind rushed to remind him of what else James and Sirius were willing to tear apart without a second thought.

Remus shook the grimace of his face and recentered his focus on the here and now, carefully opening the thick charmed tape holding the boxes lid shut with a swift swipe of his hand, releasing a thin and concentrated burst of red light from the tips of his fingers that cut a neat razor thin line through the magically enhanced seal. The rush of wandless magic flowed through his veins even with the simple cutting curse, just as exhilarating as the first time he had directly channeled raw magic, and Remus couldn't help but let a smile return to his face as he busied himself with removing the carefully packaged potion ingredients in the box.

They had cost a pretty penny, and if he hadn't needed the potion they would soon become for his experiments he never would have dropped such a ridiculous sum for them. But his newest business venture had been going well enough and he'd certainly never had more money in his Gringotts vaults than he did right now, so it was certainly the time to do it. Remus began placing the ingredients for his potion into his storage cabinets mostly on instinct, each carefully marked bag and bottle finding its place on his meticulously organized shelves as his mind drifted to the letters on his desk.

He always got a few letters every time Goliath came home, which was expected considering he did all of his sales Order By Owl only, but this time there were more than the two or three he had come to expect. There were at least eight letters in the bundle Goliath had carried, and that was abnormal to say the least. Four of the letters were the standard potion orders he was used to filling, and an additional letter was a custom order for some kind of ethereal form potion with complex brewing requirements.

Remus set the five potion orders to one side and spread out the three others that appeared to be of a more…personal nature. He tossed the first letter into the trash bin next to his work desk the moment he saw Dumbledore's name on the parchment, the old man had been hounding him to take up the Dark Arts position for years, and Remus didn't even bother reading the meddling bastard's letters anymore. He deserved nothing less, after what he convinced James to do to his god son. Hell, he probably deserved a whole bloody sight more, but Remus knew that was just the rage and regret talking.

The man once called Moony tried to shake off the rage bubbling inside him, and turned to the last two letters, the first bore the name of a nice young girl he had met in Diagon a few years ago who had been bitten by a werewolf just a month before, and had been abandoned by her family. Remus had helped set her up with the basics that their kind needed to survive outside the corrupted and posturing packs, and they had stayed in contact ever since. He tore the letter open and read it slowly, savoring her happy descriptions of her idyllic life among a small muggle village in the Irish hills.

But even going slowly, the letter was soon finished and Remus found himself staring at the last letter on his bare wooden table. A simple creme-colored envelope with no extra decorations. A simple creme envelope sealed with the wax signet of the Ancient and Noble House of Black, with the name "Sirius Orion Black" written in a familiar, spidery scrawl under the "Sender" portion of the envelope's address and other whatnot in the corner.

Remus stared at that letter for what felt like minutes, but was likely hours, as by the time he had finally mustered the courage to open it the sun had already begun to set behind the mountains overlooking his home.

"Some Gryffindor you are." he muttered to himself as he finally tore the envelope's seal and pulled out the single sheet of parchment that rested inside.

Remus smoothed out the creases of the letter with both of his hands against the hard oak of his desk, and took a deep breath before sighing and finally pulling his eyes to the first line of messy handwriting.

"Moony

Remus

Lupin,

I know we don't write to each other much anymore after your and James' fight, screaming match, disagreement, and I doubt you want to hear from me either if our talk last halloween is anything to go by. To tell you the truth I wouldn't be writing to you at all if it was just for me, I'm not even sure if you'll even read this before tossing it, but like I said, I'm not writing for me. And I guess I'm stalling, so I'll get right to the damn point: Jacob has been begging and guilt tripping me every which way he can to be able to talk to you.

Obviously I know the Pup's trying every single trick in the book to get me to take him, so clearly I can't fall for it. But what's getting me is that he seems almost desperate to see you, and he doesn't want his Dad to know. I promised him I wouldn't tell, and obviously I won't, but he's never been this desperate about anything that I can remember. And I mean ever, Moony.

So, long winded explanation aside, I need your help. I know we've had our disagreements over one issue in specific regarding Jacob, but I'm hoping you'll be at least willing to talk to the boy long enough to get him to tell you what has him so worried.

I don't know what your answer will be, but Jacob could really use your help, so for his sake I hope it's yes.

Padfoot

Cordially,

~Sirius Orion Black"

Remus read the letter over, and then read it over again just to be absolutely sure he had read it properly. He tossed the parchment onto his table and then leaned back in his old beaten chair, body hanging limp as he tried to process everything he had just read.

Goliath, seeing his wizard clearly in distress, flapped his way over to Remus and hooted in concern. The massive owl nuzzled against Remus' shoulder, and finally managed to pull a soft chuckle from him, and was rewarded by a gentle head pat for his efforts.

"What am I supposed to do, eh Goliath?" he asked as petted the muscular birds smooth, glossy feathers.

"~Hooo~" Goliath answered, leaning into the petting hand.

"I suppose you're right" he sighed as he finished petting his familiar and stood from his seat, grabbing a sheet of parchment from his shelf and fumbling around in a nearby drawer until he found an owl mail envelope "There's only one thing I can do. As much as I can't ever forgive James, Sirius, and Dumbledore, I can't take that out on Jacob. It's not his fault that he was the brother that that dark bastard decided to off first. And well, Sirius sure as hell wouldn't write to me if it wasn't worse than he made it sound in that letter."

Goliath hooted once more, and flapped his way over to the desk where Remus had once again set down. The owl peered down at the parchment, quill, and ink as Remus Lupin began to pen a response to his former friend. A short letter, but to the point.

" Sirius,

Like you said in your own letter, if it was just you asking, or even James, the answer would be no with no room for discussion. But for Jacob, well Merlin only knows how bad he has to be if you're desperate enough to write to me in search of help. So fine, I'll see him. But only him. Send him through the flu at exactly 1 in the afternoon next Saturday. With any luck I'll clear everything up within the hour and send the boy back through without ever having to burden you or myself with each other's presence.

The flu address is Wolf's Cabin, and it'll have changed by the visits end, so don't bother trying to reach me via it again.

-Remus Lupin"

He set down the quill and folded the parchment up and stuffed it unceremoniously into the waiting envelope.

"Goliath?" the owl perked up at Remus' voice "First thing in the morning, take this to Sirius Black alright? But wait till then. He can wait long enough for you to get a nice night to yourself."

The large owl hooted his understanding, and Remus smiled before standing and cracking his back. He had dinner to make, and then he could start to work on the Wolfsbane he had just gotten the ingredients for before he went to bed. He'd leave the worrying about Jacob and Sirius until Saturday, for now, he had a delicious beef stew to cook himself.

A/N

And so ends another chapter of our story! I'm really appreciating all of the support this work has been getting, and I promise you we'll finally be getting to the more interesting parts of the story soon! We'll hopefully begin to see Jacob trying his best to aproximate clever time travel knowledge shenanigans in the next few chapters, as well as get our first glimpse of this worlds Harry! And for those of you dislike a long period of Pre-Hogwarts in their story like I do, fret not. We'll only be focusing on this period for a little bit longer. As always, thanks for reading, and please leave me a comment if you liked the story or have some suggestions!

Oh and before I forget, someone asked last chapter why Jacob doesn't just apparate to Harry wandlessly, and while that answer almost borders on spoilers, I can tell you this much: Jacob never got the hang of Wandlessly aparating. The why behind that is, I'm afraid, one of those dreaded spoilers. But all will be explained in time!