Author's Note: Thank you everyone who reviewed Chapter One (mj, Wild Witch, H.L.B., Destiny's Angel, and Voltora), it is amazing what a little positive reinforcement will do for the creative juices! To H.L.B., I'm trying desperately to avoid Sosia becoming a Mary Sue, but I don't know how successful I'll be! For disclaimers, see chapter one, most everyone here should know the drill (don't own nothing, etc. etc.). This chapter has been reposted after being beta-read by the magnificent bbennett (read her stories, she's under my Favorite Authors listings—she's an incredible writer)!
Enjoy, and please review in the nice little box!
Chapter Two: QuestionsShe stared at him, frozen to the spot.
"Sosia? Is it really you?" He hardly dared to speak, sure that she would disappear again if he broke the silence. She had aged since the last time he'd seen her, but he supposed that he didn't exactly look as young as he had then either. The last thirteen years had been tough, harder in so many ways than the years of Voldemort's ascent.
"Sosie?" She just stood there. "Sosie, sit down." She blinked and sank to sit stiffly alert in the other chair, not taking her eyes off him.
"Remus?" She whispered again and he flashed her an encouraging, if somewhat taxed, smile. She seemed as shocked as he, but she wasn't running away. That, at least, was a good sign.
"What are you doing here? How did you find me? What's happened?"
"Happened?" Remus asked, momentarily confused. "Oh, so you've heard about Sirius."
"About Sirius?" Now it was she who looked confused, "What's happened now? What more can they possibly do to him?"
"You haven't heard?" He wasn't prepared for any of this; his mind was in a whirl. He was definitely going to have a headache, he thought, once again massaging his forehead.
"Remus, what's going on? How did you find me? What's happened to Sirius?" The questions began spilling rapidly from her lips.
"One at a time, one at a time." He smiled again; she was still the Sosia of old. She had to know everything now. "I didn't find you, exactly." Remus frowned now, reviewing Dumbledore's instructions mentally, "Dumbledore requested that I go to that park across the way," he gestured in the vague direction of the street, "and wait to meet an old friend he needed me to contact. I was sitting there, lost in my thoughts and—I'll admit—not doing the best job of looking for Dumbledore's contact, and then," he paused, shrugging, "then you walked by. I couldn't believe my eyes, I'd about given up on ever seeing you again." He looked at her face; her eyes were averted.
"As to what's going on—well, that relates directly to your brother, and I think it would be better to discuss somewhere with a bit more privacy." He nodded towards the petite blonde who had seated him; she and a number of the rest of the staff were staring over in open curiosity. As if to prove his point, the blonde took his nod as an invitation to join their conversation
"Millie, are you all right?"
"What?" Sosia looked up as if she hadn't noticed her until then, "yes." She shook her head, "or rather no, or, oh I don't know, Renee." She sat back in the chair and looked at Remus. "I've... ah... just had some startling family news."
"Oh, I didn't know you had family." Renee sounded surprised, then she blushed, as if realizing that her words sounded rude. Sosia gave her a strained smile.
"We're somewhat estranged."
"Do you need some time? Off, I mean?" Renee questioned.
"Yes." Sosia hesitated. "That is, if it's not too much trouble," looking around the almost full restaurant.
"Don't worry about it, I really need to put some of these new hires through their paces anyway. You've earned your share of time-off, so take it." Renee winked conspiratorially at them both. "Get her out of here," she addressed Remus, indicating Sosia and smiling.
"Come on," Sosia rose abruptly and headed for the doors. Grabbing his coat, Remus followed her out the doors and across the street. Skirting the park, she headed towards a modest looking residential area.
"Millie?" Remus questioned, "wait, don't tell me, your middle name right?"
"Sosia Aemilia Black; I'm surprised you remembered."
'I remember everything about you." She glanced at him, startled, then continued on their way.
They walked on in silence for a while, Sosia moving along at quite a clip, leading him long the street away from the park and the restaurant.
"Sosie, where are we going?"
"Hm? Oh, my home is this way." She slowed her pace some, so that they could walk side by side. "Can you tell me about Sirius now?" They had reached the quiet streets between tall, comfortable looking houses.
"I suppose so," and, looking around, he began to try and make sense of the tangled web of deceit that had sent her brother to Azkaban and why he had broken out. "It was pure chance that Fudge gave him that paper, but it gave him the impetus he needed to escape. And his escape led to the proof of his innocence. If we could just find him again." He finished grimly, glancing sideways at her. He had told her everything—Sirius' escape and odd attacks on Gryffindor tower, discovering the truth about Peter, Snape's appearance, the full moon, the dementors, and finally Sirius' escape on the back of Hagrid's hippogriff.
"I only know what happened after the moon came out from the others." A pained look crossed his face, and he hunched over as he walked, shoving his hands deeply into the pockets of his coat. "I wasn't exactly in any shape to process events at the time. If I'd only remembered my potion... but I had other things on my mind." He gave her a sad half-smile.
"Here's my house," she turned in to a neat little garden and led him to the basement door. She seemed to be reflecting on all that he'd said as she let them into a small, well-furnished apartment. "Tea?" Without waiting for an answer she headed to the kitchen and put he kettle on. Remus began to follow her, but tripped over something that had appeared rather suddenly at his feet.
"Oof. Hello Gamaliel." He grinned at the sleek little cat of the Russian Blue variety that meowed at him imperiously, demanding a backrub now that he'd gotten Remus down to his level. Odd cat, it had never minded his being a werewolf. Normally, small non-magic animals avoided him, especially cats and dogs. Maybe that was it, because Gamaliel was certainly no common ordinary house cat. He was almost as intelligent as Hermione Granger's Crookshanks.
"Twu-woo."
"Twe-woo."
"And a hello to you two too, Ptolemy, Tarsus." Acknowledging the large twin owls perched nearby. He had wondered who had taken in Sirius' owl.
"So... It was Peter all along?" She came back into the front room, absently scooping up Gamaliel after handing him a mug of hot tea. He nodded; she let out a long held breath, and sipped her own tea, while stroking her cat. "It was Peter then, who betrayed Lily and James. And he set Sirius up when it all went in a handbasket." She seemed to be trying to digest this abrupt turnabout. Sitting on an arm of the sofa, gestured for him to take a seat as well. "Does Dumbledore know?"
"Yes, and so does Harry, all of it. He'd found out about him all on his own, you know." He sat in an armchair across from her perch. "About Sirius being his godfather and the reason he'd gone to Azkaban. We thought he was after Harry at first, and I think our collective over protectiveness brought out his father in him." Their eyes met and both smiled over memories of James' antics.
They sat in a companionable silence for a moment, sipping their tea. "Sosia, there's something I need to say to you," he paused, how to word this? "I have to apologize. You were right about Sirius, I should have... I don't know, I should have done something... investigated more closely what had happened."
She shifted uncomfortably. "You can't beat yourself up over the past, all the evidence pointed towards Sirius. That's why I left. I couldn't believe it was my brother, but I couldn't think of anyone else it could have been." She looked steadily past him, towards the unlit fireplace. "If I'd stayed, you and Dumbledore would have convinced me of Sirius' guilt and I couldn't let you do that. I couldn't accept it."
Remus looked at her in mild shock, "So you left because you believed us?"
"No... no, not exactly, I left because I knew you believed... that Dumbledore believed... and if that was so, then it must have happened and my brother was a murderer. I had to escape from everything that placed that knowledge where I could not avoid it." She shrugged, "it was the coward's way out and I took it. I should be apologizing to you."
"You certainly seem to have thought this through."
"Well, thirteen years is plenty of time to ruminate on the mistakes one has made in life!" She exclaimed self-deprecatingly. "Now, enough of that. What have you been doing since? Besides subjecting children to all sorts of bizarre creatures, of course."
He laughed, finally relaxed, his burgeoning headache vanishing. "Now who's beating themselves with the past? As to work, mostly it's been that or some Dark Arts protection work. My job record's a bit spotty, most people don't like the idea of hiring a ravening beast."
"Remus Justinias Lupin! You did not just say that!" Sosia exclaimed with mock severity, a twinkle glinting in her eye. "You are hardly a ravening beast, at least most days." She amended, grinning.
"Oh thank you," he replied with a sardonic nod. He didn't mention the fact that she seemed to have remembered his full name as well, but he was oddly heartened by it.
At that moment, the front door opened and a voice called in. "Millie, are you home?"
"Oh!" Sosia jumped up as if burned and dashed out of the room. Remus could hear her speaking to the unknown caller as they moved towards the living room.
"I wasn't expecting you!"
"I'm sure you weren't, you're supposed to be at work!" The man teased her as they entered the room.
"Well," she looked uncomfortably between Remus and the newcomer, "I had an unexpected visitor with some, ahm, family news."
"Ah." The newcomer, a tall man with curly blond hair and a penetrating brown-eyed gaze, looked curiously at Remus, who looked just as curiously back.
Seeing this, Sosia hastened to make introductions. "Sam, this is Remus Lupin, an old school friend. Remus, this is Samuel Carew. My fiancée."
Remus decided he was definitely going to have that headache now.
