A/N: I know you're all thinking, "Another chapter already?! Impossible!"

This is what happens when so many of you take the time to leave me a comment, it's incredibly motivating, so thank you all very much. I'm not even done with my replies yet because I just wanted to get this out.

Also, I hope everyone enjoys the brief return of a 169 fave in this chapter. His appearance in this chapter was very much reader driven. So many requests!

A spiffing Beta job by Mirabelle P xx

It had been two weeks since the night Remus's potion had failed, a whole fortnight, yet Sirius and Frank seemed no nearer to an answer of who, how or why. There was now only a week until the coming moon's batch of Wolfsbane needed to start being administered and only one day until Snape had to start brewing the observed and tamper-free potion.

Sirius still couldn't believe who Moody had delegated the job of observation to. Even if it did make sense, especially in the interest of keeping the whole sorry affair from the press, but Moody really seemed to have no idea about tempting fate. Or maybe he was just trying to piss James off.

With her credentials as first ever brewer of the Wolfsbane potion, trustworthy member of the old Order and friend of Remus with his best interests at heart, Moody had decided that Lily Potter would be the perfect candidate to check the progress of the potion Snape would be making. Understandably James was a walking fit of agitation at this. Lily and Snape could hardly be called friends these days – they hadn't been proper friends since school really. But she did tend to defend the Potions Master to Harry when he complained of unfair detentions. Lily only ever conceded that perhaps the number of detentions was unfair but the deservedness of them most certainly wasn't.

But since Lily and James owed Remus a great deal for keeping their family out of the limelight after the end of the war, James, however grudgingly, had agreed that Lily was the best person for the job.

Sirius was on his way downstairs to interview Draco as he thought about all of this – James's frustrated and sour expression still occupying most of this thoughts, except for the small part of his mind that was fixated on his lack of progress in regard to finding a culprit. The lift to level ten was empty thankfully so he could wallow in his Aurorly ineptitude alone. That was until the door opened and he was immediately confronted with an irritably huffing Frank Longbottom who was holding an armful of case files.

"Your sodding family!" Frank said to him at once. "You can deal with them. I've had enough." He shoved the files into Sirius's chest and stepped onto the lift, giving Sirius a hasty push out into the corridor. "Room four," he added as he pummelled the button to close the grill. "I'll give him reasonable cause," Frank muttered to himself. "Pompous arse."

Sirius watched, bemused, as the lift began to ascend. Frank made a shooing motion in the direction of the interrogation rooms, resolutely not meeting Sirius's eyes as the lift shuddered upward toward level nine. Sirius blinked in confusion at the dismissal and was still motionless as Frank's high-shine tan wingtips disappeared from view. He forced himself into action and turned to approach the fourth interrogation room, thinking dubiously as he went that surely Draco wasn't the cause of Frank's distress. He could be a sarcastic little whelp, but Frank dealt with actual criminals every day – any Auror was used to getting cheek, and much worse.

Sirius pushed open the door before he could expand on likely reasons for the unshakable Frank to have given up. He got his answer at once. In the small and grim room he found not just Draco and Narcissa but Pollux Black. The Black Patriarch was dressed in his full intimidation garb, black robes and starched collar, his liberally grey streaked hair was pulled back in a club and his expression was trained in lines of supercilious superiority.

Narcissa sat stiffly, back a bit from the table, and on first impression she looked quite serene. Her hands were clasped in her lap quite tightly however. Draco stood very near to Pollux. He was in his uniform, silver and green tie knotted much more neatly than Sirius had ever managed to knot his own red and gold one. Draco could have given even Frank lessons on personal presentation and neckwear symmetry.

"Alright!" Sirius said, dropping his folders on the table somewhat dramatically. "Grandfather, please tell me you aren't stirring up trouble just for fun. Frank is in a complete tizz. What did you do?"

"Ah, nothing illegal my boy," Pollux said at once, sounding much more amused than he had any right to be. "I'm merely here in support of young Draco. He has been wrongly accused of this mysterious crime."

"Granddad," Sirius said in exasperation, as he sat down and hauled out a smile for Narcissa, "Draco is not being accused of anything at all. He happened to be in the hospital wing at Hogwarts during a period that is under investigation. That is all. So please sit down and I'll ask Draco the official questions, and then he can go back to school. That's it."

"Sirius," Narcissa said, imploringly, "this really seems very traumatizing, dragging him in here, down to these wretched cells. He's only a little boy."

"Mum," Draco huffed, "I'm not –"

"Shh sweetie," Narcissa hushed. "I really don't see why you couldn't speak with him somewhere less … dank."

"Cissa," Sirius said, "this is an official investigation and a very important one. You said you did not wish to travel to Hogwarts so I arranged to meet you in London. The Ministry is the only appropriate venue."

"There are other rooms," she said in distaste, pleating her robe at her knee to keep the hem from trailing on the stone floor.

"I find the connotations of being forced into an interrogation room insulting," Pollux put in. "If Draco is not being interrogated then why could you not speak to him at the house?"

"No one is being forced anywhere," Sirius said, torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to throttle the man. "And Granddad you know why, stop being difficult. You've dealt with bureaucracy enough in your life to understand the reasons for protocol. Let me ask my questions and then you can go back to your day. I'm sure there is whiskey in dire need of ingestion waiting for you at home."

"No need to be cheeky," Pollux said, looking mildly affronted.

"And you don't need to make a fuss," Sirius countered, delighted as ever to get one over on his grandfather. He then addressed Draco as he opened the folder to find Frank's notes: "Draco, sit down and answer honestly," he said brusquely. "You'll be back at the castle in time for dinner."

Draco looked quite taken aback to be spoken to so sharply by Sirius, who was generally more likely to snicker than reprimand when faced with disobedience.

"Buck up," Sirius said, more kindly. "I promised you last week that you weren't going to be treated any differently than any other witness."

"Mr Longbottom already did," Draco muttered sullenly. "He thinks I'm up to something. I told you people don't forget. 'Your family,' he said, I knew –"

"He meant the Blacks," Sirius interrupted. "He said the same thing to me when I met him in the lift. He was just frustrated that Granddad wouldn't let him do his job." Sirius sent his grandfather a significant look. "It's nothing to do with your father's past."

"What would Lucius have to do with anything?" Narcissa asked in shock, looking displeased to have to mention her husband whom most of the time she pretended didn't exist.

"Nothing," Sirius said, emphatically, doing his very best not to lose his temper. "That's the point."

"But something happened to Professor Lupin, that's what this is about, isn't it? And who would want to hurt him except the old Death Eaters, the ones whose lives he ruined."

"Ruined?" Sirius repeated, more offended than he would have expected by Draco's words. "I assure you Draco, everyone who was locked up when Voldemort fell deserves to have their life ruined."

"But I didn't do anything, I could hardly even walk, why should I have to be punished for his mistakes, it's not fair."

"That's quite enough," Pollux said, his hand rested on Draco's shoulder and the boy fell silent. "Ask your questions Sirius. Draco, we can discuss the issue of your father later. Now is not the time."

Draco was sullen but obedient as Sirius repeated the standard questions to him – did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Who did you see in the time you were in the hospital wing? But it was all the same as they already knew: Fawley was there so Poppy was flustered; there were no other patients; no one entered the office while Draco was present. The only time he faltered in his almost bored sounding answers was after Sirius had closed his folder and smiled at him.

"Last one kid, then you can go." Draco almost smiled back, but the look froze when Sirius spoke. "What did you take from the storage cupboard on Monday evening?"

Draco kept looking directly at Sirius, but his pale eyes so similar to Sirius's own widened in surprise. "I –" he swallowed and became intensely interested in the table top for a moment. "Nothing to do with this Uncle, I swear." Both Pollux and Narcissa wore expressions of concern. Pollux's gaze was focused on Sirius, a very clear question on his face. Narcissa's hand hovered at her sons knee, seemingly in a gesture of comfort, but her lips were pressed together very firmly, and Sirius thought she looked quite disappointed – whether that was because Draco had done something wrong or because her son had been caught out, Sirius couldn't tell. Draco lifted his head again and repeated firmly: "Nothing to do with this."

Whether Sirius believed Draco or not he wasn't sure. Gut instinct said the boy wasn't lying, but as always gut instinct didn't impress Moody, or pass Frank's stringent box-checking systems. It was for this reason Sirius hadn't recorded the final question. He would conduct the final interviews before he mentioned this to anyone in the Auror department.

When Remus offered to help Tonks with her stealth and tracking study he'd had no idea what he was getting himself into. Not only was she clumsier than anyone he had ever met, but the bright, confident Auror he'd got to know during the last two weeks seemed unduly cowed by her difficulty with the subject. Remus was also unprepared for the amount of bodily contact involved in keeping a (very tiny) elephant from breaking all his stuff. Not that Tonks seemed to mind that part very much.

Currently she was all but straddling his lap in the middle of the sitting room floor after her ninth attempt at sneaking up on him. "Did I actually get you this time?" she asked hopefully, lifting her disillusionment charm and disentangling her legs from his.

"You did," Remus confirmed, as she stood up. "I thought you were on my left." He took her offered hand and she hauled him to his feet. "I don't know why you insist on tackling me though," he complained, rubbing his tailbone.

"Moody says if you pull your punches in training you'll be unprepared for the field," Tonks recited at once.

"I suppose," Remus allowed reluctantly, before he collapsed onto the sofa with a sigh. It was much more comfortable since Tonks had de-lumped it for sleeping on, but then any cushioned surface was an improvement for his repeatedly tackled arse this evening. "You've definitely proved your disillusionment charms are up to scratch," he said encouragingly, "I think you just get a bit too eager and move too quickly. That's what gave you away each time."

"I know," Tonks said doggedly. "I feel like I'm running out of time," she tried to explain, flapping her hands in illustration, "just the last bit, when I get near you, I'm sure you'll hear my breath or my shoe will squeak or something will alert you –"

"I get that," Remus said, stopping her there, "and I'll give you credit – by the time I knew you were there it was too late, and if you're trying to disarm someone without magic I think you're very competent, but that's only good in one-on-one situations. If you're trying to escape or move past someone unnoticed you can't substitute speed for stealth."

Tonks nodded seriously. She really was an excellent student, Remus thought. She was more focused than any he'd ever taught. This surprised him greatly because she reminded him so much of Sirius in her general attitude to the world. Sirius who only succeeded at anything he turned his hand to because he had a disproportionate amount of natural talent, and not because he ever really put any effort in – at least not in their youth anyway. But while Tonks presented herself as casual and unaffected, beneath the carefree exterior was such determination to succeed Remus found himself fascinated by the contradiction.

"There must be more to it than just going slow," Tonks insisted, interrupting his train of thought. "You can't have managed all your daring escapes from Filch with slowness."

"I guess not," Remus conceded, "there was a fair bit of running away at top speed. It really is the failsafe if you know the terrain – and no one knew the Hogwarts corridors better than us." It was strange how she made him proud of all the ill-advised adventures that made up his school days. She must have the same gene for inspiring misbehaviour as her cousin, Remus decided.

"Sirius told me you used to talk them out of trouble all time," she continued, confirming his theory. "He reckons he would have been expelled more than once if it wasn't for you."

"That's definitely true," Remus chuckled. "But you could hardly talk your way out of being captured or cursed by criminals in the real world," he said trying return to study before he started regaling her with the hundred and one times he saved Sirius Black's arse, just to impress her.

"I suppose," Tonks agreed, a slight disappointment on her face, like she knew what he was doing.

"Do they teach you spatial awareness in Auror Training?" Remus asked, trying to think of another way to help her.

"Like judging distances and stuff?" Tonks asked. "We do a bit, it's useful when you're scouting a suspicious location or a crime scene or something."

"Well, the same idea applies to this," Remus said. "I bet you never knew being sneaky would involve mathematics." Tonks lifted an eyebrow at him as he stood up and stretched his tackle-sore muscles.

"You're a strange chap," she murmured, but watched him closely all the same.

Remus backed his socked heels up to the base of the sofa and carefully gauged the distance to the bookcase across the room. "It helps when you are trying to be silent if you can measure with your eyes alone how many steps it will take you to reach the nearest bit of cover – if you know how many steps, then you know how long it will take you. That obviously gives you an advantage." He looked at the distance again, less than four metres he'd guess. "This really isn't the best place to practice silent movement though. Stone floors are your best friend for sneaking. Wooden floors provide the biggest challenge – you should probably practice on that."

"The exam room at the Ministry has wooden floors," Tonks said with a grimace. "Moody told us all on the first day that they had to rip up the carpet in there because it was too much effort to clean the blood out of it all the time."

Remus snorted as he tried to rein in his laugh. "Impale each other a lot do they, Trainee Aurors?"

"Well I know it's stupid now," Tonks huffed, "but Moody was a scary bugger on day one. I wasn't going to question him."

"I don't blame you in the slightest," Remus said, "but anyway, you'll need to test yourself on a squeaky floor before your exam, just so you get good at distributing your weight evenly and things."

"You really make this a lot more technical than anyone I've ever got tips from. Does it have to be so complicated?"

"And how are all those other tips working for you?" Remus asked, archly. Tonks didn't answer, she just scrunched her nose up and then flicked her long dark disguise-hair over her shoulder as she looked away in mock offence. Remus bit down his smile to reply, "I guess it isn't complicated once you know it because becomes second nature – you can't have needed to go unnoticed much in your life if this all seems so strange to you." Then he pointed to the bookcase and said. "Five silent steps," then crossed the room without making a sound. "Although I'm totally cheating, in my socks on a floor that can't make noise."

"Poor effort," Tonks said, good-naturedly, "and you're right, I haven't, I'm quite happy to be the centre of attention."

"Whoever thought self-confidence would be a hindrance in life?" Remus said, coming to sit next to her on the sofa again. "I on the other hand, spent my whole time at Hogwarts trying to slip away unnoticed. It's something that seems so stupid now, seeing that I'm the most famous of my kind, but I was so frightened that someone would figure out that I was a werewolf."

"But Sirius and Potter, they knew didn't they?"

"Yeah they did," and Peter, Remus couldn't help but add in his head, "but the rest of my year didn't. It got harder towards the end with Riddle terrorising the community outside Hogwarts – everyone was on the alert for suspicious behaviour, I had to be so careful."

"I'd never thought of that," Tonks said, suddenly pensive, "that there was a time when people didn't know you were a werewolf… so ironic that now it's the only thing people know about you." She smiled at him a little crookedly, "Or the first thing anyway."

"Ironic is a nice way of putting it," Remus said, faintly, a little dumbfounded by her insight.

"I think it's a good thing," she said sounding like her normal self again. "There would be so many disappointed fans if they knew you were really just like the rest of us… not to mention a bit geeky."

"Being well-read does not make me geeky," Remus said, more pleased than he should be to be teased by her.

"No, but this cardi does," Tonks giggled tugging at its hem. Remus frowned and Tonks giggled harder, "Oh don't look so offended, I think it's cute, very retro."

Cute? Christ this woman confused him. "It is retro," he said earnestly, not willing to comment on its cuteness. "I've had this since I left school, it's a genuine 1970's cardigan."

Tonks just laughed more, and hooted, "I don't know whether to pinch your cheek or roll my eyes!" before dissolving into giggles again. Remus was quite sure he heard the word "adorable" amid her snickers.

Remus hadn't been referred to as adorable in his entire life, he was certain of that. He didn't know if he wanted to be either, and he thought that Tonks probably shouldn't say such things while she was duty – just as he shouldn't enjoy her flirty attitude quite so much. But as he watched her shaking with renewed mirth every time she meet his bemused expression, all pink-cheeked and sparkly-eyed, he decided that if he was going to be adorable in anyone's opinion he was secretly glad it was hers. Someone who could be so happy over a cardi was definitely his kind of person.

A/N: I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading xx