Author's Note:  You all must be having a collective heart attack—I actually updated!  So sorry to have been so long about it, I ended up moving all the way across the country—from North Carolina to California!  The next chapter will be up much quicker, and be quite a bit longer… I hope.  Many thanks to my most excellent reviewers—Emlizanne, Voltora, Sosia Camillina, Rugi, Torquemada, and Heloise. 

Reviews are so heartening!

Oh, and for those who have been requesting Sirius' presence, fear not!  He will be showing up eventually, at the moment he is spending his efforts keeping a close eye on his accident-prone godson as he struggles through the second task.

Now for the usual drill… Don't own it, not being paid for it… blah, blah, blah…. sigh…

Chapter Five:  Confrontations and More Questions

Staring into the refrigerator, Remus pondered his reactions this evening.  He still wasn't sure what had gotten into him.  He was usually so in control of his emotions, given his nature, he felt a deep need to keep himself under control.  But something this evening, something in all that had happened had shaken that control.  And when Sam had questioned Sosia's veracity, well....

"You're avoiding the issue.  If you are really a witch, prove it."

"May I?"  Remus asked calmly, surprising even himself as he stepped back into the room.  They both glanced over at him, Sosia suspiciously and Sam with skepticism written plainly across his face.

"I don't know.  Can you?"  Sam asked bluntly, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, maintaining eye contact with Remus.

Remus broke eye contact to glance at Sosia.  White around the lips, she looked positively sick with anxiety.  Returning his gaze to Sam, Remus pulled his wand out of his coat.

"This is a wand," he held it out for inspection.  Sam leaned forward, looking slightly surprised that Remus seemed prepared to go along with what he obviously viewed as foolish charade.  "Each wand is unique to the witch or wizard who owns it and each contains a core of some kind of magical substance.  In the case of my wand, it is made of oak with a core of dragon heartstring."  Remus closed his hand around the wand and drew it back.  "Now, is there anything in particular you would care to see?  I cannot transform at will into any sort of animal, so please put that from your mind."  He added, forestalling any animagi-type requests.

Sam appeared intrigued almost despite himself, "Can you transform other objects?  Such as.... this chair, perhaps."  And he gestured towards a green striped armchair sitting in a corner of the room.

"Certainly.  What shall I transform it into?"

Sam mused on this for a moment, then smiling slowly, he replied, "a wolf."

Remus' head jerked up and he looked sharply between Sam and Sosia, wondering how she could have told a stranger about the wolf.  But she looked just as astonished and he, staring open-mouthed at her fiancée.  Shuddering slightly, she glanced toward Remus and minutely shook her head; she had not revealed his secret.

"May I ask why?"  Remus requested cautiously, unsure of how to proceed.  "Why a wolf?"

Appearing mildly confused by their violent reactions, Sam replied, "It was your last name that brought it to mind.  'Lupin', it is similar to 'Lupus', which translates..."

"Wolf, of course."  Remus straightened, fairly confident that it had been a mere coincidence.  "I suggest that you stand away from the chair.  Over here would be best," indicating a spot near himself and the door.

Remus raised his wand as Sam vacated the area, pointed it at the designated chair and recited, "Lupus et Carcer."

Instantly, the chair disappeared.  In its place stood scrolled wooden cage, which appeared to have been constructed in the same style as the piece of Queen Anne furniture it had been a moment before, and a green striped wolf, looking rather put out.  Remus blinked as Sosia stifled a slightly hysterical laugh. 

"Sorry, my concentration is not what it should be for a complicated transfiguration tonight."  He glanced at Sosia, who gave him a rather strained smile of commiseration; then back to the cage and the wolf, which glared at him out of its green striped eyes.  He sighed; his night was not going as planned at all.

He turned to Sam, who had sunk down onto the sofa next to him, eyes riveted on the oddly patterned wolf pacing the cage across the room.

"Is that real?"  He whispered, all skepticism gone from his voice.

"Would you care to touch it for confirmation?"  Remus inquired amusedly.

Sam continued to stare at the wolf for a moment, then, "yes, I think I would."

He looked up at Remus, who could not conceal his surprise; and with pure determination in his every step, rose and crossed the room.  Pausing as he reached the cage, Sam looked back.  "Is it safe?"

"Just a moment."  And with a muttered Inconcessus Morsus, Remus conjured a muzzle onto the wolf's head.  If anything, this caused it to look even more put out.

Sam put out his hand hesitantly, and slowly lowered it to the bars of the odd wooden cage.  He started a little when he came in contact with the wood, then he wrapped his hand around it and looked up.  "It's real," he breathed.  Kneeling down, he reached through the bars and touched the wolf's fur.  "They're both real."  Drawing his hand out quickly as the wolf turned its muzzled head towards him; Sam sat back, stunned.

Remus whispered Priori Forma and Sam didn't so much as flinch as the wolf and cage returned to their rightful form.  He sat for so long that the silence began to feel rather uncomfortable and Remus was just about to attempt to break it when Sam said hoarsely, "How is it possible?"

"What do you mean?"

"How did you do that?  How did you cause that chair to become a wolf?"

"I used a transfiguration incantation, customized to your request."

"A what?"

"Transfiguration, a spell designed to change one object into another."

Sam was staring at Remus now, with the same intense gaze that had previously been focused on the wolf chair.  But this look had none of the suspicion or skepticism that had colored his prior attitude.

"So then you're a.... what?  A wizard?  And that would make Sosia a… "

"Yes, Sosia's a witch.  Just as she told you."

Sam remained seated on the floor, gazing up at them both.  Then, letting his breath out slowly, "This is going to take a bit of time to adjust to.  Are there very many, ahm... what do you call yourselves as a group?"

"The Magical community is a small portion of the general population; but there are quite a few of us, yes."

"The Magical community," Sam looked to Sosia, "why didn't you tell me about this before?"  There was no accusation in his voice; rather there was a note of curiosity.

"You didn't believe me now.  Why would you have believed me before?  Besides, I left the magical community behind thirteen years ago."  Sosia was standing in the same spot she had occupied when Remus had returned from sending off Ptolemy, standing stiffly with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. 

"I suppose you are correct there." He acknowledged somewhat sheepishly, finally getting up off the floor.

The odd closed expression on Sosia's face was worrying.  She, like her brother, had always shown her emotions openly.  You could tell exactly how either of them was feeling just by looking at their faces.  In contrast to himself, they had never felt the need to develop an iron self-control.  She had laughed earlier at the little hiccup in his spell, but now.... He had no idea what she was thinking or how she felt about his little demonstration. 

And that disturbed Remus.