All right, here it finally is. Sorry for the delay, I encountered slight problems while writing the last part of this chapter. Hopefully, you're still with me out there! *g*

For the next chapters, I won't give you announcements that I can't stick to, but hopefully I've overcome all the "how am I supposed to do this" questions and am ready to finish this fic more quickly.

Enjoy!

Remember The Wolf Is A Hunter

At half past seven in the evening, Janus was still sitting behind his desk, staring at the board in front of him. During the past hours, he had rearranged the information from the files at least a hundred times, but he had the feeling that he hadn't come closer to solving the puzzle than he had been this afternoon. Slowly, it was getting unnerving.

His deadline to deliver the files into Ryder's office had passed, but Janus wasn't particularly worried about that. His boss was already angry anyway, and now that the news about Black being an illegal animagus had been broken, Ryder would have something else to do than worry about the files. After all Hopkins had copies of every file down in his archives, and quite frankly Janus wouldn't have cared if he didn't have them, either.

A knock on his office door made him look up just as he was about to move the contents of the board around again, hoping they would finally start making sense. His secretary Maggie stuck her head through the gap of the partly opened door and smiled sympathetically as she saw the mess of parchments and folders that covered Janus' half of the office.

"There's a fire-call for you."
Janus frowned. "Who?"

"Your wife. Shall I put her through?"

Maggie really needn't have asked, she knew the answer to that question already. Nevertheless she waited until Janus had nodded before she went back into the antechamber to connect the call. Janus got up from his chair and crouched down in front of the fireplace, a worried frown on his forehead. A moment later, the fire sprang to life and Serena's head appeared in the fireplace, smiling slightly as she saw her husband.

"Serena? Is something wrong?"

Hearing the worry in Janus' voice, Serena immediately shook her head.

"No, don't worry. Everything is alright. Something new about Harry?"
Janus shook his head and Serena's expression saddened.

"I've been digging through the case files for the past hours, but I just don't find any clue. And to top it all we've been taken off the case. I don't know how much I'll get to know about the investigations come tomorrow, and I have the feeling that we need to find Harry fast. Remus isn't holding up well, either."

Serena nodded.

"I know. I visited him this afternoon with Julia. I thought that she might take his thoughts off of things for a while, but I think seeing her with me only made it worse. I'm worried about him."
Janus nodded, running a hand through his hair.

"He had a row with Richard."

"What?"

Serena only shrugged. "Don't ask me what they were fighting about, but when we arrived at St. Mungo's Richard was pacing the cafeteria and it was a small wonder that there was no steam coming out of his ears."

Janus sighed frustratedly. He should have seen that one coming.

"This is getting out of hand. I don't want to imagine what it'll do to Remus if something happens to Harry."
For a moment, both silently fought down the images of what those consequences might look like, not really wanting to contemplate the idea that something serious could happen to Harry.
"When will you come home?"

Janus looked from his wife to the huge stack of files on his desk and back again. He had been brooding over those parchments for hours on end without finding something, and he desperately needed to try and take his mind off things. Maybe that would bring the answer.

"Just let me pack up those files and then I'll be home. Give me half an hour or so."
Serena smiled at him for a moment before her head vanished from the fireplace. With a sigh Janus rose to his feet again and began floating the spread files into the cardboard boxes. Surely nobody would miss them if he took them home overnight, just in case the missing connection would finally occur to him.

Ten minutes later Janus wished Maggie a good night and left the office, the boxes containing the case files shrunk and securely placed in his pocket. Usually, Ministry workers were not searched when entering or leaving the building, especially not the Unspeakables, and even if they were it was nothing unusual to take some work home with them.

But nobody even bothered to search Janus as he left the Department and stepped into the large courtyard from where he apparated home.

Serena was just coming down the stairs when Janus opened the front door and stepped into the hall. She smiled as she saw her husband and came over towards him. Despite all his worry and frustration, Janus couldn't help but smile back as he kicked the door shut behind him and took her in his arms. For a short moment he just wanted to forget that Sirius Black was out there, that he had Harry and that only Merlin knew what he had done to the child already. The worry about Harry and Remus was eating at Janus from the inside, and he just needed to let go for a moment. And the only place where he could do that was here, with his wife and daughter. He kissed her tenderly and for a long moment they just stood there in the hall, holding tightly onto each other.

"Julia is asleep already?"
Serena pulled back from the embrace and mock-glared at her husband, one eyebrow raised. Janus laughed.

"What? Wrong question?"

"I've been trying to put her to bed for the past hour."
"But?"
"But she insists that she wants her Daddy."

Janus smiled widely and with a definite note of pride.

"Then I'd better get upstairs and look after my girl."

"Yes, better do that. Would be a real shame if Daddy's little princess had to go to bed with nobody but her Mum to say her goodnight."

Janus laughed, knowing fully well that Julia was a Daddy's girl through and through already. No chance to get that out of her anymore. Not that he would have wanted to, anyway. He himself was completely and utterly in love with his little princess.

Serena stood on tip toe and gave him a kiss on the cheek before she turned around and walked into the kitchen while Janus went upstairs into Julia's room to put his daughter to bed.

As Serena had said, Julia was sitting up in her small bed and showed no inclination to go to sleep just now, though her eyes showed exactly how tired she was. Janus smiled as he tried to imagine the tantrum his daughter must have thrown when Serena had tried to put her into bed. Hearing the door being opened, Julia looked up from her teddy bear and her face lightened up as she recognized her father.

"Daddy!" Julia's small arms stretched towards him in the universal toddler demand to be picked up.

"Hello princess." Janus obediently lifted her up and cuddled the small girl close, placing a kiss on her dark blonde curls. Sitting down in the rocking chair next to the window he held Julia against his shoulder, smiling as he heard her sigh contently.

"What's that I hear about you not wanting to go to bed?" When he received no answer, Janus tickled Julia slightly along the ribcage. She giggled lowly and tried to move away from his hand.

"Story."
"You want a story?"

"Hmmm."

"Then let's see what we can do." Janus stretched slightly until he could reach the books that stood on a shelf to his right, taking Julia's favourite book down and opening it up with his free hand.

Ten minutes later Janus put the book away again. Julia was fast asleep in his arms, she hadn't even been awake to hear the first few minutes of the story, but he had no intention to put her to bed just yet. He'd rather watch the small chest rise and fall with every breath, look at her relaxed and content face and ask himself over and over again how he with all his faults and vices could have helped in bringing something so wonderful and perfect into this world.

As he watched his daughter sleep peacefully, Janus got immensely thankful that it was Harry who had been taken away and not his little princess, that while Harry was out there and possibly hurt or worse, his daughter was still here in his arms where he could protect her. As soon as that thought formed in his mind, Janus felt guilty for even thinking it, but he just couldn't help it. He loved Harry, no doubt about that, but no matter how much he did, Harry was not his own child. Julia was, and he was grateful that she was still here with him.

"Janus?"

Serena was standing in the doorway, softly calling out to get his attention. She was smiling at the sight of her husband and daughter, but the look in her eyes told that she had realized something was weighing on Janus' mind.

Carefully, Janus got up from the rocking chair, walked over towards Julia's bed and put her down into it.

"Good night, princess."

Julia was fast asleep already and only shifted slightly in her sleep as Janus softly kissed her cheek and tucked her in before he turned back towards Serena. They left the room, leaving the door open so that they would hear if Julia woke up at some point in the night, then they went downstairs.

"Do you want something to eat?"
Janus just shook his head, though he had not eaten anything since lunch that day, and instead went over into the living room and collapsed onto the sofa. The boxes with the case files were still in his pocket outside in the hall, but he'd not unpack them just yet. Serena was standing next to the fireplace, eyeing her husband attentively. After some minutes during which Janus unfocusedly stared into the fireplace, Serena sat down on the sofa next to Janus and put a hand on his arm.

"Janus?"

He turned and looked at her, forcing himself to smile. The look in Serena's eyes told him that it had not been one of his more convincing smiles.

"What's wrong, love?"
Janus tiredly rubbed his eyes and shook his head.

"Other than the complete mess that's been happening during the past days?" He sank back further into the sofa and allowed Serena to pull his head against her shoulder. It didn't happen often that Janus let his guard down completely, and hardly ever when he was not at home. But even here, with only Serena to witness it, it happened rarely that Janus admitted or even showed that he was overtaxed or exhausted. He could not afford to let his emotions take over at work, and it was hard to let go of that when he came home. He was still searching for the switch to turn off professionalism when he left his office.

Serena didn't say anything, she just sat there and softly ran her hand up and down his arm. Janus would start speaking when he was ready, she had learned quite early that it was of no use to push him into talking.

"I've caught myself thinking that I'm glad it's Harry and not Julia who has been kidnapped."

Serena nodded, though Janus could not see her in his current position. "And now you think you're an insensitive chunk because you're grateful that you're not in Remus' situation."

Serena felt Janus nod and shrug at the same time and tightened her arm around him.

"Shouldn't I? Remus nearly got killed yesterday, Harry has been kidnapped and could be dead by now and here I am, contemplating how lucky I am that it's not hit me and my own family. That's not a really sensitive reaction, is it?"
"No, but it's understandable."

"Is it really?"

Serena shifted slightly so that Janus' head ended up in her lap and she could look into his face. She ran her fingers through his short, dark brown hair and along his face, smiling sadly at the pained expression on his face.

When people described Janus, especially those who didn't know him more closely, they often used the words harsh, demanding, cold and arrogant. Nobody ever dared to describe him as 'emotional' or anything remotely resembling. There were only few people who knew that Janus' expectations on himself were even stronger than what he demanded of others, and that his strict emotional guard was an act of self-preservation rather than anything else. Serena knew that she was one of the few people who ever got to see him vulnerable and in need of emotional support. She herself didn't get to see him like that often either, but she knew that the events of the past days were nagging at him, eating him up from the inside though he did his best not to show it. Family had always been an ambivalent concept for Janus, but Serena knew that no matter how difficult things had been in the past between him, his father and brother, seeing things falling apart so rapidly was straining as well as hurting her husband. And it would not help things if he now started to think that he should feel guilty because it had hit Remus and not him.

"Janus, you are glad that nothing has happened to our daughter. That's not an objectionable or selfish thought. It doesn't mean you're gleeful that something has happened to Harry. I know that you're worried about him, as do Remus and Richard. And I know something else."

"Which would be?"

"I know that if the situation was different and Remus had been taken you'd not hesitate to swap places with him if you could. Probably you'd say because you know so much better how to handle such a situation but in truth because you wouldn't want to see your little brother get hurt. Just like you don't want to see Harry get hurt. But that's not how the situation is and it's only understandable that you would not want to see Julia in Harry's situation. That you care about your own daughter doesn't mean you don't care at all about Harry. You're thankful that Julia is still here with us, but that's nothing wrong. You want Harry back just as much as Remus wants it, so don't start brooding over what you're feeling. You're already exhausted enough as it is."

Janus closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, willing down the turmoil of his emotions. Serena bent down and kissed him, then she carefully got up and handed her husband a pillow.

"Try to relax a little, please. I'll make you something to eat and you just try to take you mind off things for an hour or so."

Janus nodded slowly and put the pillow under his head, trying to get the tension to leave his body. Serena turned and walked towards the door, but before she left the room Janus called her back.

"Serena?"
She turned around. "Yes?"
"I love you."
Even after nearly four years, hearing Janus say those words still made Serena's stomach flip around.

"And I love you, Janus. And now try to get some rest, or I'll have to drug you."
Janus laughed. "I'd love to see you try."

"Believe me, you wouldn't. Rest, Janus. I'll be back soon."

Obediently, Janus relaxed back into the cushions and closed his eyes. He already knew that he would not be able to sleep, but maybe an hour or so of rest would help him sort out the chaos of thoughts on his mind.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Harry was sick.

Now, that wasn't something completely new for Remus, during the past fifteen months Harry had been sick before, but that didn't mean Remus had to like it. On the contrary. And while the nearly four year old child had suffered from a couple of flu-bugs and stomach aches before, Remus had the bad gut feeling that this time it was something more serious.

During the past day, Harry's fever had constantly climbed up until it now nearly reached the border of what Remus would call alarming. Remus was not the type of person who dragged their children to the doctor at the tiniest sneeze, but if Harry's fever would not stop climbing in the next hour, despite all fever reducing potions and Remus' attempts to cool him down, then he would call the doctor. This was no normal flu, and Remus didn't like seeing Harry like that at all. The child had settled in so well during the past fifteen months, he had left most of his initial shyness and withdrawal behind, but seeing Harry this unwell and quiet in his bed reminded Remus too much of how things had been when he had fetched the child from his relatives to be comforting.

The last night had not been pretty, and Remus had not slept well – or much for that matter. Harry had cried out for him shortly after Remus had put him to bed, and from then on the child had refused to let him leave for longer than it took to fetch another potion or a cup of tea. Harry didn't like being sick, but from the looks of it he liked it even less when he was alone.

Just as Remus was making his way down the stairs, somebody knocked on his door. Frowning, Remus put down the empty tea cup he was carrying and opened the front door, for a moment staring completely bewildered at the two people standing in front of it.

"You do know that it's a lot easier to get into the house if you don't block the doorway, don't you Remus?"

Remus just nodded a bit dumbly and stepped aside, thus allowing Janus and his girlfriend to enter the hall. He was still staring at the pair, desperately trying to figure out why they were here, behaving as if this had been planned for quite some time now.

"Erm...Janus?" Remus' older brother turned from where he had been showing Serena into the kitchen.

"Yes?"

"Why exactly are you here?"

There it was again, the look that told Remus that he was missing something obvious here.

"Don't tell me you forgot about it Remus. You promised not to leave me alone with all those relatives I haven't seen in years. You promised!"

His aunt's birthday, now Remus remembered. And for the first time in a couple of years their father had gone all authoritarian and had told his two sons that he expected them to show up at the party. After all, he had reminded them, Estelle was his only sister and would only turn fifty-five once. Janus had answered that no doubt there would come a 60th and a 70th birthday to celebrate, but after working on his sons' bad consciences and a bit of downright blackmailing, Richard had his sons where he had wanted them and Janus and Remus had agreed to show up. Remus knew that as long as Harry was with him, all those elderly ladies who always surrounded his aunt would leave him alone and spend their time feeding Harry sweets, that's why he had not been overly concerned about it.

But now, with Harry sick, he had completely forgotten about it all.

"Remus?" Janus waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Did you hear just one word of what I've been saying? What's wrong with you? You look like hell, you're not dressed for leaving yet, you're unshaved and if I'm the one to judge you haven't slept at all last night. What is it?"
Remus sank down onto a kitchen chair and sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"That's because I haven't slept. Harry is sick."
"Sick?" Janus immediately turned towards the door. "What's wrong with him? The flu?"
"I thought so at first, but I'm not so sure anymore. I can't get his fever to break, and ever sine last night he's developed a skin rash that worries me. I wanted to call Dr. Mitchell this afternoon."

"Shall I have a look at him? Maybe I can find out what he has."

Remus looked up at Serena and she blushed a bit.

"I know I'm not a specialist on children's sicknesses, I just thought I might be able to find it out."

Remus raised his hands.

"No, it's a good idea. I'd be thankful if you could check him through."

He smiled at the blonde woman who returned the smile.

"He's upstairs?"

Remus nodded and the three of them turned towards the stairs, following Serena up into Harry's room. Janus rubbed his hands gleefully.

"As much as I hate it when the little one is sick, anything that keeps me from Aunt Estelle is something good."

Remus just shook his head, but when he looked at his bother he found that Janus wasn't looking at him, but had his eyes trained on Serena's – admittedly very attractive – backside. He shook his head again. Serena and her impact on Janus' life was still a complete mystery to him.

Serena Collins had entered Janus' life just like her many predecessors had. Just like Lucy, Sondra, Tabby, Sarah, Rita, Andrea, Katherine and all the others whose names Remus had already forgotten, Janus had met her and hadn't wasted much time to start one of his (usually short-lived) relationships with her.

From all that Remus knew, the two had met in a pub where Janus had enjoyed an evening out with an old school friend from Beauxbatons. Then he and Serena had run into each other on the way to the bar, and ten minutes later Janus had returned with her address and a date for the next evening.

But unlike her many predecessors, Serena simply had not left Janus' life after a week or ten days. Whether his brother had realized something was different during that time, or whether he had seen something different in Serena right from the start Remus could not tell, but he knew that something was different this time. His brother and Serena didn't seem to live in a short-lived fantasy bubble in which the world solely revolved around themselves until after a short time reality poked through and one of them chickened out, thus ending their affair. No, something about Serena was different from Lucy, Sondra, Sarah and all the others.

As a medi-witch in the last year of her training, Serena had quite a busy job working in St. Mungo's. The little spare-time she had she preferred to spend with Janus if his own busy schedule allowed it, but from all Remus knew about them Serena wasn't completely dependent of Janus being around. For all he knew, her world didn't solely revolve around Janus Lupin and a couple of times in the past four months she had already cancelled dates, telling Janus she had other plans. If that had left him angry or confused Janus hadn't shown, on the contrary he seemed to be glad that Serena was a woman who also had a life of her own besides him. After the first weeks had passed and it had become apparent that Serena had no intention to leave Janus anytime soon - as well as vice versa – Janus had insisted to introduce her to his family.

Richard had nearly had a heart-attack when Janus had come and introduced Serena as his girlfriend to him. The last time one of his relationships had lasted long enough for Janus to make that step, he had been seventeen years old and inwardly Richard had not believed that it would ever happen again.

Nearly five months had passed and they were still together. Remus sometimes wondered how two so strong-minded, stubborn personalities with big egos managed to get along with each other, but somehow it seemed to work. And though Remus wasn't close enough to Janus to be sure what was going on in his mind, he had the feeling that Janus had no intention to end that relationship. By now, Remus wouldn't be all that surprised if those two ended up married one day.

When they stepped into Harry's room Remus found that Harry was still lying there like he had left him, his face flushed and sweaty, grimacing slightly as he was caught in a fitful feverish sleep. Serena immediately went over and knelt down next to the child who slowly seemed to realize that he wasn't alone in his room.

"Hi Harry." Serena tried to sound cheerful despite the frown that had appeared on her face as soon as she had seen just how high his fever had climbed. Harry looked at her from glassy green eyes, after a moment obviously recognizing her from the few times he had seen her.

"Hi", he repeated weakly. Then, though a bit firmer also not just a little scared "Remus?"

Immediately, Remus was sitting down on the bed next to him and stroke the sweaty hair from Harry's forehead.

"I'm here, pup. Serena is just trying to find out what we can do to make you feel better again."

"Don't go."

"I won't go anywhere, I promise." Remus sat as close to the small child as possible and watched as Serena finished her examination. Her expression was getting darker and Remus saw his fears that it was a serious illness that was plaguing his godson confirmed.

"How long has he been like that?"
"He's not been well the day before yesterday, and yesterday it looked as if he was coming down with the flu. Only this night it got worse, and he got this skin rash since this morning."

Serena nodded.

"Did he eat?"

"Not much. Some soup and toast yesterday for lunch, after that he only took water and tea. He said he wasn't hungry."

Serena looked down at the child who had dozed off again during the past minutes.

"I'm fairly sure it's chickenpox", she said after a moment. Before Remus could say anything, Janus interrupted.

"What?"

"Chickenpox, Janus. That's a muggle children's sickness."

"But Harry is a wizard..."

"Oh, don't be daft, Janus."

Remus had to hide a smile at Serena's words. There weren't many people who dared to talk to Janus like that, and even less who could do so without really pissing Remus' older brother completely off. Obviously, Serena belonged to those few, a privilege Remus wasn't even sure he had himself.

"Just because he is a wizard doesn't make him immune against muggle diseases." She turned to Remus.

"He has muggle friends?"
Remus nodded.
"When have you given him the last fever-reducing potion?"

Remus checked his watch.

"Slightly more than two hours ago."

Serena felt Harry's forehead again.

"His fever is too high for that. He needs a different medication, something stronger. It'd be best if you called his doctor up and asked him to come over as soon as he can. I can recognize Chickenpox, but I'm not experienced in treating them."

Remus nodded thoughtfully.

"If it helps to make him better again. I just hate it when he's sick."

Remus swung his left leg down from the mattress again, but he didn't get much farther. As soon as Harry realized that his godfather's comforting presence moved away from him, he woke up from his fitful slumber and weakly grabbed Remus' sleeve with both hands.

"Don't go! You promised!"

"Shhh, it's alright Harry. I'll just call the doctor, I'll be back in a minute."
"NO! Don't go!"

Helplessly, Remus smoothed his hand through Harry's sweaty hair and looked pleadingly at Janus. "Could you call Dr. Mitchell, please?"

Janus grinned. "You'll let that old quack doctor treat Harry? I remember I've never felt worse than when he treated my Dragonpox."

"No Janus, you felt that bad because of the Dragonpox. Just imagine how much worse it would have felt without Dr. Mitchell and the potions he gave you."

Janus waved him off and turned towards the door. "All right, all right, I'll call him. And when I'm already downstairs, I'll try to reach Dad and tell him why we can't come to Aunt Estelle's party."

"We, Janus?"

"You don't think I'll go and have the time of my life at her birthday party while my little brother has to deal with a sick child all by himself, do you? Remus, really, not even I could be that heartless."

"Sure. And you have been looking forward to seeing her again that much, it's a real pity you can't go."

Janus just waved over his shoulder and walked out of the door. Remus turned towards Serena and could not suppress a grin as he saw her completely helpless expression.

"What was that all about? I already knew that Janus wasn't looking forward to that birthday party, but what is that with him and this doctor?"

Remus laughed out loud.

"Well, Janus hates Dr. Mitchell with a passion." Seeing Serena's still lost expression, Remus explained further. "Dr. Mitchell is an old friend of our father's, and he's always treated us as children when we were sick. And Janus – as you might already know – is the world's most horrible patient. He thinks he's about to die whenever he gets the flu, and when he's sick he suspects all doctors of treating him wrongly, making him feel worse on purpose. Dad and I used to call it the worldwide conspiracy of doctors against Janus Lupin. Doctors and Janus just don't mix...well, or at least so I thought until a while ago." He smiled at her. "Maybe it's just for certain doctors."

Serena smiled. "So far, he's not been sick, but now that you've told me, I can't help but look forward to it. It sounds like this could be fun."
Remus just shook his head.

"You don't even begin to know what you've let yourself in for."

He reached for the bowl with water on Harry's bedside table and began to wipe the child's forehead with the cold and wet cloth. As if knowing what was going on in his mind, Serena smiled encouragingly.

"As soon as the doctor comes he should be able to do something about the fever. Then the worst will be over and he'll sleep it off."

Remus nodded and was about to repeat something when raised voices started arguing downstairs and Harry stirred, risen by them.

"And that would be Janus talking to Dad. Shhh pup, it's alright. The doctor will be here soon and then you'll be better in no time."

Dr. Mitchell indeed arrived only moments later, followed closely by Janus and Richard who were arguing loudly without bothering to lower their voices. Harry watched them enter the room from fever-glazed eyes and began to cry silently at the sight. At normal times Harry was already extremely sensitive to people around him arguing and shouting. The child didn't like the sound of raised voices and always shrank back when Richard, Janus or Remus were arguing with each other, afraid it might have been him who had cause the argument. And now with the fever wracking through his body it was worse, making him even more touchy about it. Remus noticed Harry's discomfort immediately and soothingly ran his hand through the child's hair, his other arm protectively around Harry's slim shoulders. The glare Remus shot at his father and brother was extremely dark.

"Could the two of you be a bit more quiet?", he hissed, drawing Richard's and Janus' attention, "You're upsetting Harry!"

Both immediately fell silent and Richard stepped over towards the bed where Remus sat. He was already wearing his dress robes and seemingly Janus had just caught him before he had left for his sister's birthday. His expression softened immediately when he looked at the sick child who had buried his tear-stained face in his pillow, his shoulders still shaking slightly under Remus' hands.

"What's wrong with Harry? Why didn't you call me earlier?"
Remus rolled his eyes.

"Harry is sick, I didn't call you earlier because it only got worse this night. And now could you all maybe let Dr. Mitchell have a look at Harry?"

"Thank you Remus." Dr. Mitchell, an extremely small man who towered Filius Flitwick maybe by one head, tried to push his way through between Richard and Janus. "Maybe you all better wait outside while I have a look at the child. Sick children don't really need an audience, you know?"

Hesitantly, Janus, Richard and Serena left the room, but Richard's face clearly told that he intended to discuss the matter of his sister's birthday party and Janus' attendance further while Harry was being examined. Remus breathed a sight of relief when the three had left and no sound from outside indicated that further arguing was going on.

Dr. Mitchell unpacked his things onto the bedside table and then indicated that he needed to see more of Harry, who by now had completely buried himself between his pillow, Remus and his blanket, to examine the child. Mitchell hopped onto the bed and sat down, his wand lying on his thigh, while Remus gently nudged Harry.

"Harry? Come on pup, Dr. Mitchell is here and needs to look at you."

Slowly, Harry disentangled himself from his blankets and looked at Mitchell, his face scrunched up from crying and covered in red spots that had gotten more and more distinct over the past hours. Dr. Mitchell smiled at him.

"Hey Harry. How are you feeling?"

The four year old bit his lip and leaned his head against Remus' hip.

"Sick."

"Shall we look how to make you feel better?"

Harry shrugged and nodded at the same time, and Mitchell took this as an invitation to start the examination. For the next minutes, he waved his wand over Harry, muttered spells, wrote things down on parchment and frowned from time to time. After he had finished, he turned towards Remus.

"When did you give Harry the last fever-reducing potion?"

"It's been nearly two and a half hours."

"A normal children's dose?"

Remus nodded. Mitchell again wrote something down on his parchment, then he looked up at Harry and smiled.

"Well Harry, it seems that you indeed have the chickenpox. But don't worry, that's nothing we can't deal with. You'll have to stay in bed for some days and I'm afraid you'll also have to take some potions, but you'll be fine again in no time."
Harry just looked at the small doctor, his eyes already dropping close again.

"Remus, I'll leave you a stronger potion against the fever and something that lets him sleep better. As I said, Harry will be sick for a couple of days, but it should get better within the next twenty-four hours. He'll sleep most of it off on his own, you just have to look that his fever doesn't get too high and that he drinks enough. Did he eat regularly?"

Remus shook his head no. "Not during the past day. He said he wasn't hungry."

"Yes, that was to be expected. You should try to give him some soup later today, though. He needs some nourishment. His appetite should get better during the next two days, then you'll have to make sure he gets some fruit and juice, or vegetables. He'll need the vitamins."

Remus nodded. "What about the skin rash?"
"That'll be the unpleasant part about it. He'll get pustules all over his body, and they'll start itching. I'll leave you a potion to treat them with, an in about a week they'll be nearly gone again. He also shouldn't get in touch with other children for the next week, he's contagious. You and your brother don't need to worry about that, though. I clearly remember you and especially Janus having the Dragonpox, that should make you immune against them. It's kind of the magical equivalent of the chickenpox, so we don't need to worry about the two of you getting sick. Merlin help us should your brother just have a raised temperature by the end of the day!"

Both men laughed, imagining what kind of catastrophe that would be. Though, Remus had to admit, that would give Serena just the possibility he had been talking about earlier – getting to know the hypochondriac side of Janus Lupin.

While Harry was drifting off into a blissful, potion-induced sleep, Remus went downstairs with Dr. Mitchell to see him out. The rest of the family wasn't in the hall or kitchen when Remus bid the small doctor goodbye and again thanked him for coming over immediately, so Remus assumed they had settled down in the living room. He indeed found them there, settled on the sofa and in the armchairs, Richard and Janus lowly discussing what seemed to be the need for Janus to remain with his brother and Harry. They fell silent when Remus entered the room, eying him expectantly.

"And?"

Remus waved them off and let himself fall into his favourite armchair.

"It's the chickenpox, just like Serena said. Dr. Mitchell said it would take about a week until Harry's fine again. He left a different medication for him and right now the pup's asleep, and I think I'll do the same." He rubbed his eyes wearily. "Didn't get that much sleep at all last night."

Hesitantly, Remus raised his head and looked into his father's eyes.

"I really can't make it to Aunt Estelle's birthday tonight. I can't leave Harry alone, and bringing while he's sick just doesn't work. Besides, I'm dead on my feet, I don't make good company right now."

"That's all right, Remus, I'm sure she'll understand. You on the other hand", Richard turned towards Janus and glared a little at his older son, "will have some serious explaining to do to her. And don't expect me to come to your help when she comes apparating into your living room tomorrow with a lecture on her lips."

Remus frowned at his older brother.

"You're not going, either?"

Janus shook his head.

"No. Because you'll explain Harry's medication to me and then you'll get some sleep yourself while I have an eye on the little one."

Under any other circumstances, Remus would have told his brother that he didn't need to do this. But he knew that Janus wasn't really keen on going to the birthday, and if he was honest Remus would really appreciate the chance of getting some sleep back without having to worry about Harry. With Janus there he'd know the pup to be in the best of hands, and already thinking about his bed made Remus sleepy. So right now he merely nodded into his brother's direction, barely noticing that Richard and Serena said goodbye and left. He would have fallen asleep right there and then had not Janus nudged him awake again and seen to it that he got upstairs and into his bed.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The next morning found Janus still on the living room sofa, a place to wake up which made him frown. It had been quite some time since he had last been forced to sleep on the sofa, and that had been for a different reason altogether. If he remembered right, it had had something to do with him getting absolutely drunk and Serena getting absolutely pissed off about it. Janus frowned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The clock on the mantelpiece told him that it was quarter to seven, meaning he had gotten slightly more than two hours of sleep after all.

His head throbbed painfully, reminding Janus that he had spent the past night after waking up around nine and eating something with result-less staring, thinking, reading and rearranging of files. No matter how he turned it, the case around the Azkaban raid and Harry's abduction just didn't make sense.

With a loud sigh, Janus rose from the sofa, stretched his aching back and made his way towards the bathroom. On his way he made a stop in the kitchen, using one of the few household spells he knew to set the coffee boiling and the breakfast prepare itself.

The hot water of the shower was exactly what Janus needed after this night, loosening the knots in his stiff muscles. His thoughts drifted off to what he could possibly do today. He'd visit Remus after breakfast, to check out how his little brother was holding up. If Serena was right and Remus had been fighting with their father, Janus would have to see just how bad it was. The last thing they needed right now was them being at each other's throat.

After the shower Janus still didn't feel particularly ready to face the day, especially another one like the last two, but it wasn't as if he had a choice in that matter anyway.

When he left the bathroom, crying from across the hall attracted his attention. Janus quickly turned towards his daughter's room, intending to calm Julia down before she woke Serena up. But his wife too must have heard their daughter's crying, but as she stepped out of the bedroom and saw Janus heading towards Julia's room, she quickly turned towards the bathroom, one hand clamped tightly over her mouth and a sickly green colour visible on her face.

Janus frowned concernedly, but quickly turned his attention back to Julia's cries. When he reached her room, the little girl was standing up in her bed, trying to climb over the protective side-bars and wailing because she didn't manage. Upon seeing her father she stopped crying and stretched out her small, still somewhat chubby arms.

"Up! Up!"

Janus smiled and only too willingly complied. As soon as she found herself in her father's arms, Julia immediately stopped crying.
"Good morning, princess. Sleep well?"

Julia only snuggled closer to James, the pink teddy bears on her nightshirt clashing horribly with her father's dark red robe.

"How about breakfast? Are you hungry?"

Julia excitedly clapped her hands and her face lightened up.

"'tchup! 'tchup!"

Janus  laughed. "Princess, I doubt you'll get ketchup for breakfast. But I'm sure we'll find something else for you."

"'tchup!"

Janus sighed. His daughter had taken a sudden liking for ketchup during the past couple of weeks, demanding to eat just about anything with it, but so far breakfast had been the sacred exception from that liking. Until today, it seemed. He carried Julia down into the kitchen and poured himself some coffee. When he had finally convinced Julia that her cereal would taste far better with a banana than with ketchup, and he sat down with his own toast, Serena came into the kitchen.

She was wearing Janus' dark blue bathrobe which was a couple of sizes too big for her, and her face was extremely pale. Janus immediately hurried towards her, taking his wife into a long, steadying embrace.

"You alright, love?"

Serena nodded into his shoulder. "Yes. I must have eaten something wrong yesterday, that's all."

Janus led her over towards the table and poured her some tea, all the while watching his wife concernedly. Serena smiled at him.

"I'm alright, Janus. Really. I'll eat some toast now and in half an hour my stomach will be fine again."

As if to underline her words, Serena took a piece of toast and spread some butter on it. With growing concern Janus watched her add jam and peanut butter. Things didn't get better when Julia watched her mother and clapped her hands in excitement. "'tschup!" Serena smiled at her daughter.

"Sweetheart, that's a wonderful idea."

And she reached for the ketchup bottle on top of the fridge, pouring some over her toast.

Janus only shuddered but decided not to comment on Serena's strange breakfast combination. They finished eating without haste and Janus was glad that he could take his mind off of things for a moment. He already knew that the rest of the day would be filled with straining visits to Remus' bedside and even more desperate attempts to make some sense of it all, to find Harry. The least he could do was try and take his mind off for now.

They had just finished and Serena had come back downstairs with a washed up and dressed Julia on her hip when the fireplace in the living room sprang to life. There were only few people who knew the password to Janus' fireplace, in fact only Lucas, Richard and Remus, but nevertheless Janus' hand automatically moved towards his wand holster in his left sleeve.

I immediately let go off his wand however, when he saw just who had arrived. Richard came storming into the kitchen, as pissed off as Janus had ever seen his father. Richard's face was flushed and his eyes blazed with anger, warning every sensible person to stay away from him.

"Where is he?", he barked out harshly.

"Good morning dad, how are you? Do you want a cup of coffee?"

Richard stared at Janus for a moment, seemingly irritated by his light and conversational tone, then waved him off and was about to start a tirade when Julia interrupted him. Seemingly uncaring about Richard's obvious fury she struggled against her mother's hold and stretched out her hands towards her grandfather.

"Gran'pa! Gran'pa!"

Richard's expression immediately softened and he obediently took Julia out of Serena's arms, placing her on his hip instead. Thus calmed, Richard sat down at the table and accepted the cup of coffee his son was handing him, shifting Julia into a more comfortable position on his lap.

"Where is he?" Richard repeated, more calmly this time. Janus took a sip of his own coffee.

"Where is who?"

"Your brother."
"Remus?"
"You have another brother I don't know of?"
Janus sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"No. But last I heard, Remus was in St. Mungo's. You know that."

Richard shook his head.

"He isn't there anymore. I went over to visit him this morning, but his bed was empty. Scared at least ten years of my life out of me, I thought something had happened, that his condition worsened or that he had another seizure like yesterday."

A look of concern crossed Janus' face.

"What happened?"

"When I asked the doctor, I got told that he got himself released at his own risk first thing in the morning."

Janus gasped and stared disbelievingly at his father.

"What? He had a serious seizure not only twenty-four hours ago, not to mention that Black nearly killed him the day before that. I thought they'd keep him in hospital for at least another week or so!"

"I know." Richard nodded wearily, ignoring the way Julia was squirming in his lap, obviously unsettled by the sudden change of mood in the room. Serena took this as her clue to take the little girl away from her grandfather's lap and carry her upstairs. Julia protested a little against being taken away from her father and grandfather, but eventually allowed her mother to take her upstairs.

Janus went over towards his father, put a hand around his arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Let's go into the living room, it's more comfortable there. We'll think about something, I promise."

Richard followed his son wordlessly and sank down onto the sofa. Janus sat down bedside him and watched him with a worried expression on his face.

"I was hoping he had come here."

Janus shook his head.

"I don't think so, Dad. Just remember that Remus is still furious with me for not telling him about Black earlier. I don't think he'd come here if he had another choice."

"I was at his place, but he's nowhere around the house. I guess he has been there shortly this morning, because there were clothes lying around in his room and it looked as if he had been in Harry's room as well. I called up Claire and even went into the bookstore, but nobody has seen him today. I left messages for him everywhere to call me or you immediately, though. I don't know where he could have gone to. I just don't know."

Richard exhaled deeply, making it sound more like a weary sigh. It was obvious that there was something more bothering him and Janus could already guess what this was.

"Dad, what happened in the hospital yesterday?"

Richard looked up, frowning as if he didn't know what Janus was talking about.

"When? What do you mean?"

"Serena told me that she found you stewing angrily in the cafeteria when she went to visit Remus. The two of you were fighting?"

"You know your brother. When he woke up, he immediately wanted to get out of bed and do something to help search Harry. No wonder he got himself released this morning, I should have known how stubborn he is.

I...I told him that there was nothing he could do for Harry right now, and that he had to see that he himself was getting better, but he just didn't listen to me. You know how stubborn he can be. We got into a fight, I told him that not everything had to be done by him and that he'd be of no use if he collapsed again and his health only got worse. I got really angry and told him that I'd have something better to do with my time and strength than to help him patch himself up again if he collapsed needlessly. Then I stormed off and when I returned this morning he wasn't there anymore."

Janus squeezed his father's shoulder gently and then pushed him into a lying position on the sofa. It had not gone unnoticed by him that Richard looked more weary than he had ever seen him. There were dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, he didn't seem to have shaved this morning and his hands were shaking ever so slightly. And what they definitely didn't need right now was another member of their family collapsing from exhaustion, Harry's abduction and Remus' disappearance in his current state was more than enough to deal with already.

Richard tried to protest, but Janus just didn't give him a chance to say something. Instead, he picked up the blanket he had discarded earlier upon getting up and spread it across Richard.

"When was the last time you slept? And I don't mean dozed off for an hour or two."
Richard shrugged wearily. "I don't know. Not since all this happened, I guess."

"Try to get some sleep, Dad. I'll wake you as soon as I get to know something."

Richard tiredly nodded and leaned back into the pillows. He was sure that he couldn't sleep anyway, but for Janus' sake he'd at least pretend to be trying. He was weary beyond measure, that was true, but he was just too restless and worried to relax enough for sleep now. Janus seemed to guess as much as well, because a moment later he returned to the living room with a goblet in his hands. Richard eyed him warily.

"What's that?"
"Sleeping potion. You look as if you might need it."
Richard shook his head feverishly. "No. It's well meant, but I won't get myself drugged."

Janus just raised an eyebrow and looked down at his father, an extremely authoritarian look on his face. Were the situation any different, it might have made Richard laugh. How many times had he been the one in Janus' position, trying to convince one of his stubborn sons that what he intended for them was only the best. And now he was the one who was being stubborn, refusing to see that maybe sleeping now was the best for him, though he so desperately wanted to do something.

Janus pushed the goblet into Richard's hand, making clear that 'no' was not an answer he would accept from his father.

"Drink it. It's a small dose, hardly enough to make you sleep for two or three hours and weak enough so that I can wake you in case something happens."

With a sigh, Richard rose into a half sitting position and drained the potion in one gulp. He made a face, not unlike the grimaces Janus always made when he was forced to drink a healing potion, and sank back into the pillows.
"But wake me if you hear something. Promise."
Janus nodded and took the goblet from his father's hand again.

"I will. Now try to sleep."

Janus turned and left the room, heading for his study. There he sank down in his favourite armchair which he had removed from the living room and placed in front of the fireplace here. Often when he was faced with a problem, or had something on his mind Janus sat down here, stared into the fire and thought things through. It didn't bring him closer to the solution every time, but it helped him relax and get his mind sorted out.

It was just so weird, nothing in this case seemed to fit together.

Azkaban had been raided, by whom was still unknown, and Voldemort's most dangerous supporters – at least the ones who had not been turned into mad but empty shells in Azkaban – had escaped. Somebody in the Ministry must have helped the intruders, because the wards around the island had not been breached. There had been an internal investigation, Janus and Lucas themselves had been involved and interrogated the Aurors who were responsible for guarding the wards around Azkaban, but nothing had turned up about the leak in the Ministry. Somebody from their own ranks was supporting those who had freed the Death Eaters, but whoever it was had been clever enough to cover up all of their traces.

Black's escape was a mystery itself. The wardens had been killed in his cell, and even though that might have been coincidence there was still the one warden who had shown signs of being attacked by an animal. Now that Janus knew Black was an illegal animagus it made a bit more sense. Obviously Black had killed that warden in his animagus form, but why still wasn't entirely clear. If Black's former buddies had already been in the prison, killing the other wardens, then it had not been necessary for him to kill the single warden that brutally. But maybe Black just had seized his first opportunity to kill in more than five years, Janus could not know how that man's mind was working. Maybe it just didn't have a reason at all, maybe Black had gone mad in prison and had just seized his chance to kill. Maybe there wasn't a reason which a sane man could understand.

But Black had escaped that night and with him being an illegal animagus without anybody's knowledge it was no big wonder that he had not been captured. But then again, none of the other escaped prisoners had been either. Their number had been smaller than the Unspeakables had anticipated right after the raid, obviously truly only the ones who were still relatively sane or who could be useful to their purpose had been taken. The mad ones had been left in their cells, and the prisoners who had not been Death Eaters but who had been imprisoned out of different reasons or for minor crimes had been locked up in one part of the prison.

But somehow, Janus didn't think that Black had taken refuge with the other Death Eaters, at least not immediately. No, he imagined that after getting reacquainted with his former 'colleagues' and getting informed about whatever it was they were planning, Black had headed south, towards Kent. Apparating or the use of portkeys and fireplaces could have attracted unwanted attention to him, so Janus guessed that Black had travelled in his disguise as a dog, and when he had finally reached Highley he had headed straight to Remus' place, intending to finish what had not been finished five years ago. Maybe he had thought Remus dead or as good as dead after cursing him, he surely would not have left him had he considered the effect Remus' lycanthropy could have on him in that situation. But why he had not just killed Harry remained a mystery to Janus.

Five years ago, Black had delivered Harry's family to Voldemort, accepting that the Dark Lord would kill both his parents and the boy without mercy or remorse. If Black wanted to finish what his master had not been able to do all those years ago, why go the lengths and abduct Harry? And where to take him? If he had taken him to the Death Eater hideout, there had to be a reason for it.

And as if that wasn't enough, there were those two attacks that showed every sign of being the work of Death Eaters. Fudge had been very insistent on the investigations on those cases being ended as soon as possible, but as the Minister had been denying the possibility of Voldemort's return from the beginning on Janus wasn't surprised. Death Eater activity just didn't fit into that picture.

But Janus had seen the crime scenes, and every instinct told him that it had been Death Eater work, and throughout the years Janus had learned to trust those instincts. But the sudden closing of the cases had meant that Janus could not look into them as much as he had wanted to, and so he was just unable to make a connection between those murders and everything that had happened after the Azkaban raid. But there was a connection, Janus only had to find it.

So far, the only existing connection was Harry. Harry was not a seer and he had never had visions before, but somehow he had dreamt about those attacks. And now Harry was gone. Was that the reason why Black had taken the child instead of merely killing him? But where was the sense in that?

Janus sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumbs and forefingers.

He'd have another look into the files that had been left. As soon as Ryder got to know that he had not returned them yesterday evening as he had been supposed to, and that even worse he had not shown up for work today, he'd have somebody from the Department standing in front of his door to collect them. The solution was somewhere in those files, Janus knew, he just had to find it. There was something he didn't see.

Nearly three hours later Serena stuck her head into the room only to find her husband sitting on his desk, his head bent over a stack of parchments in front of him. Janus didn't even seem to realize her presence, so focussed was he on what he was doing. While he was reading, his right hand was busy writing things down on a spare piece of parchment. Janus wasn't even looking at what he was writing.

Serena cleared her throat twice until Janus finally looked up. He seemed a bit surprised to see her standing in the doorway.

"You've been standing there for long?"

Serena laughed. "About two or three minutes maybe. You were so wrapped up in your work you didn't notice."

"Sorry."

She waved him off.

"Nothing to be sorry about. Actually, I just wanted to know if you want to eat something, it's half past one."

Janus shook his head.

"No, I'm not hungry. And I need to get those files worked through before Ryder sends somebody to fetch them." He thought for a moment. "Dad is still asleep?"

"Yes, he's lying on the sofa, sleeping like a baby. I guess that even when the potion wears off, he'll be out of it for a while longer if nothing wakes him. Though I already had to restrain Julia from waking him up."

"Maybe you should give her some ketchup to calm her down for a while."
"Janus, that's not funny! Just because you let her get away with everything doesn't mean that there's no need to give her a bit of an education and some rules. Not eating ketchup whenever she likes being somewhere on top of the 'no' list."

"I know, I know. Sorry. I just have so many things on my mind at the moment, I might be neglecting the husband and father aspect of it all a bit."

Serena walked around the desk and put her hands on Janus' shoulders from behind, gently massaging them.

"You're doing quite alright, Janus. But you're brooding too much, you're wearing yourself out."

"It's just that I have the feeling that the solution to the problem is right in front of my eyes, but that I don't see it. And I can't stand the thought that Harry might get hurt because I didn't see the obvious clues in time." He turned around and looked into Serena's eyes, a tired and haunted look on his face. "The little one might be hurt, Serena. Or worse. He might be suffering somewhere, or maybe it's already too late because I can't find out where he is. He's all alone and helpless, and we don't come for him because we don't know where he is. We don't even know if he's still alive."

Janus let his head sink down onto his chest and Serena wrapped her arms around him from behind, holding him tightly. She desperately wanted to tell him that it was all right, that they would find Harry and bring him back, but she knew that Janus would not believe her platitudes. She herself didn't believe that it would all necessarily turn out all right. The longer they didn't find Harry, the smaller the chances became that they'd bring him back alive, Serena knew that. She didn't think it was Janus' fault, but knowing how protective her husband was of his little brother and of Harry, she also knew that it would be a hard thing to convince him of that. So she just held on to him tightly for some minutes longer, finally breaking the embrace and giving him a kiss on the top of his head.

"Maybe you should try to take your mind off those files for some time nevertheless. You've stared at them ever since yesterday afternoon and haven't found anything. You might be trying too hard, maybe it'll be easier to find something if you take your mind off for a while first."

Janus stared ahead for some moments, then he nodded.

"You're right. Maybe I should go and see what Julia's up to."

Serena rolled her eyes.

"I left her in the kitchen, and maybe you can convince her that there will be no ketchup with the food, no matter how many tantrums she'll throw."

Janus sighed heavily.

"Didn't we agree that when Julia is concerned you're the evil Mum who forbids her everything that's fun and I'm the good Daddy who allows her anything?"

"No, you decided that because from the very first moment on you were completely unable to say no to your daughter. About time you learned it, if you ask me."

Janus got up from his chair, playfully stuck out his tongue towards his wife and then left the room, heading for the kitchen. Serena looked after him, shaking her head, a slight smile on her face and one hand pressed against her belly. After a moment's hesitation she followed him into the kitchen, intending to make sure that at least just for once Janus would not give in to their daughter.

Richard woke up around three in the afternoon, a bit grumpy that nobody had woken him up. By then, Janus had already been through a quite upsetting shouting match with Lucas who had arrived shortly after lunch to collect the files Janus had failed to deliver. Lucas' mood definitely had not improved since the last afternoon, if anything he had been even more angry at his partner. The two of them had retired into the study, a silencing charm preventing anything form their conversation to reach Richard's or Serena's ears.

There had never been a time when Janus had wanted to throttle his partner, but that afternoon he came close. For all those years of working together, Janus had always thought he could rely completely on Lucas, no matter what the problem was. That his partner had gone telling on him at Ryder's stung deeply, and Janus was stubborn enough not to back down on that one. That was why he was not exactly polite to Lucas when his partner admonished him about not returning the files to their boss. Instead he just shrank the files, pushed them into Lucas' arms and told him in non too friendly terms what he thought of his attitude.

The previous afternoon, Lucas had told Janus that he didn't know if he could still trust him, but slowly Janus realized that this feeling was becoming mutual. Never had he imagined that when it came to the crunch, Lucas would not stand on his side. Surely, there had been disagreements before, about private matters between them as well as about different views on their respective cases, and surely they had shouted at each other before in the heat of the moment, but never before had Janus had the feeling that Lucas was not on his side. Never until now, that was.

Janus knew that he had overstepped a boundary when he had told Remus and especially Albus Dumbledore about Black's escape and yes, he knew that he was not as objective as he should be when Remus was concerned, but that this was enough to drive a wedge between him and his partner was still something Janus could not completely comprehend.

Before that conversation, Janus had intended to tell Lucas about Remus' disappearance and had wanted to ask him to keep his eyes and ears open in case he heard something about him, but after shouting at each other for about fifteen minutes he dismissed that thought. Janus had enough sources in the Ministry even without his partner, he really didn't need to bear his attitude at the moment. So instead he slammed the door shut behind Lucas, kicking hard against the wood for good measure.

After Lucas had left, Janus paced his study angrily, muttering curses under his breath until he had calmed down a little. Then he placed a couple of calls to the Ministry, telling Maggie and some acquaintances in the Auror Department about Remus' disappearance, asking them to notify him in case any news about him turned up. Then he called up the few hospitals in the area as well as St. Mungo's to make sure that his brother had not collapsed again and been brought to one of the hospitals, but he came up empty handedly. After calling up Remus' fireplace without result and talking to Claire and even Professor Dumbledore with equally little outcome, Janus was at a complete loss as to what to do.

That was when Richard woke up and grumpily complained about not being woken up earlier.

There were still shadows under his eyes, and it was obvious that he still lacked another couple of hours of sleep, but at least he didn't look about collapse anymore. Janus told him what had had happened while he had been asleep, and Richard's face fell as he realized that there was still no trace of his younger son anywhere.

"You think we should report him missing?"

Janus sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know if that would be effective. He's a grown up man and he's not actually 'missing' as such. Just because he's not been in contact for the past hours won't make the DMLE go searching for him. I asked a couple of people in the Ministry to keep their ears open, maybe we'll know some more this evening. Else, I don't know where to search for him anymore. He's nowhere where he's normally to be found, not even at Hogwarts. I'm afraid we'll just have to wait for him to come back."

The worried look on Richard's face didn't disappear despite all of Janus' reassurances, and Janus actually hadn't expected it to. Richard would always worry about Remus, and right now with everything that had happened this only increased. And there was nothing Janus could do about this, no matter how hard he tried.

"Dad, Remus will come back home as soon as he gets into his thick head that he won't find Harry on his own."

Richard just shook his head.

"That's not what worries me, Janus. I'm scared that while he is so absorbed in finding Harry, Black will find him."

Janus remained silent after this, there was simply nothing to say. If Black found Remus, he was sure that his little brother would not get away relatively unharmed again. He'd most probably not get away alive again, not with him being as exhausted and confused as he was right now. Janus didn't even want to consider the possible outcome if Black found his brother before he turned up again.

Half an hour later Richard left for home, unable to sit and wait anymore. Janus could understand that feeling, but at the same time he was aware that they had absolutely no idea what else they could do to find him. Remus was a grown up man, and surely able to defend himself should the need arise, intelligent enough to know when a situation got dangerous, but right now he wasn't quite himself and Janus' guess was as good as anyone's as to where he might be.

Serena did her best to try and distract her husband, but not even playing with Julia could make him relax. If there was one thing Janus really hated, then it was being helpless, and right now that was exactly how he was feeling.

That feeling still lasted on, the tension in the air so thick that it was nearly touchable when at shortly past five the front door to the house opened. Serena was upstairs with Julia, thus didn't hear it, but Janus immediately got up from the armchair in his study and hurried towards the hall.

Remus was standing in front of him, hanging his summer coat onto the wardrobe as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Remus?"

His brother turned and Janus flinched back a little as he took a closer look at him. Remus was still extremely pale, and despite the fact that it was a relatively cold day there was a thin layer of sweat on his brow. With one hand he held on to his coat at the wardrobe, as if to keep himself from falling over. Without another word, Janus took his arm and literally dragged him into the living room, placing him on the sofa Richard had vacated earlier. He left the room and returned some minutes later with a glass of water, some Pepper-Up potion and a sandwich which he all forced Remus to take, eat and drink before he spoke again.

"What the bloody hell did you think you were doing?"

Remus swallowed the last bite of the sandwich, then frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean?" Janus jumped up and built himself up in front of Remus, his posture every bit intimidating. Janus didn't even bother to lower his voice, and Remus obviously was quite surprised at being shouted at. But Janus wasn't quite finished yet.

"You're getting yourself released from hospital when it's obvious to everybody that you'd have needed to stay there for another couple of days at least, without telling anybody, you vanish for nearly an entire day in a bad physical condition, making Dad and me worry that you might collapse again somewhere without anybody there to help you and you have the guts to ask me what I mean?"

Not even giving Remus the chance to respond something Janus continued his tirade.

"Do you know how shocked Dad was when he wanted to visit you this morning? When he found your bed empty, got to know that you had gotten yourself released without anybody knowing where you had gone to? Do you have just the slightest idea what he and I have done to try and find you for the entire day? We called anybody we could think of, searched everywhere, called up the hospitals and I even asked some of my colleagues to keep an eye out for you! Do you have any idea how worried we've been? How worried Dad has been and still is? Fuck Remus, do you just once think about others before you storm off and do your own thing?"

Remus shook his head and stared at his brother in disbelief.

"Do I get this right and you are reprimanding me? Scolding me for not telling anybody what I was doing?"

Janus didn't even respond, instead he angrily stormed over towards the fireplace and threw some floo-call powder into it. He called up his father's fireplace, then knelt down and waited. It didn't take long until Richard responded.

"Janus?"
"He's here."
Without saying anything more, he got up and only moments later Richard stumbled out of the fireplace, his eyes darting through the room. As soon as they fell on Remus, a look of relief crossed his face, only to be replaced by one of seething anger immediately afterwards. He went over towards Remus and was just about to start his own tirade when Remus held up his hands in a defeated gesture to stop him.

"Stop it, Dad, please. I already got the lecture from Janus."

"You know what? I don't care about that! Not at all! Could you tell me why you just vanished without a trace, worrying all of us sick? Did you just take one moment to think before you did that? Why didn't you at least let us know where you were? And where the hell were you? Believe me, if you weren't too old for me to cream you, you'd have earned the spanking of your life for that stunt!"

Remus tiredly shook his head, knowing at least the last part to be an empty threat. Richard had never spanked them, that just was not like him. But both his brother and father were right, he had exhausted himself today and he felt it catching up rapidly.

Wearily, he leaned back into the sofa.

"I've been looking around, trying to find out where Sirius might be."
"What???" Two voices chorused from beside him.
Janus glared at him angrily, but before he could say something Remus raised a hand to stop him.

"I didn't seek him out, I was just looking around at places I thought he might have gone to. His parents' house, some places around Hogsmeade from our time at school and the like. I'd not have tried to confront him in case I had found him, but I just needed to do something. And you'll have to agree that I know more about Sirius than any other person involved."

But Janus wasn't pacified that easily. "Why didn't you take anybody with you? Why go there alone, instead of asking me to come along?"

"Would you have let me, had you known about it?"
"Of course not!" Janus weakly shook his head. This was not leading anywhere, and if he was honest with himself it was a line of thought he didn't want to pursue. Remus had not only been walking around on his own with Black on the lose, no – his idiot of a little brother had actually tried to seek Black out! And from what it looked like he didn't seem to realize how dangerous this had been. How bloody stupid it had been. And if Remus didn't understand that, Janus didn't have the will to explain it to him. He abruptly turned around and left the room, mumbling something about calling off the search for Remus before he vanished into his study.

There he called up Claire and Maggie, assuring the first that Remus was alive and well and asking the second to spread word about Remus' return to those whom he had asked to keep an eye out for him. Then he sank down into his favourite armchair, slowly counted to fifty, sang the national anthem twice and punched the armrests of the armchair a couple of times. After that, he felt calm enough again to face Remus without throttling him.

By he time he came back into the living room, Serena had come down, attracted by the sound of voices shouting downstairs. She was in the kitchen, from the looks of it scraping together a quick dinner. Richard and Remus still were where Janus had left them, Remus half sitting, half lying on the sofa with his eyes closed and Richard sitting in an armchair beside him, Julia in his arms and glaring daggers at Remus.

Janus sank down in another armchair and watched the two of them silently. Remus was back and he was still in one piece, that at least was something. But whatever he had done today, it had not brought them any closer to finding Black or Harry, either. They still had nothing, absolutely nothing, and slowly that thought was driving Janus insane.

The more time passed, the smaller chances became that they'd find the little one alive. Janus didn't know what the Ministry did to find Harry, but he knew a bit how the DMLE worked. And he knew that whatever they did, it might be too late or too slow, especially since they possibly neither knew about Black nor about the escaped Death Eaters. So all their chances to find Harry lay in the hands of the three exhausted men here in Janus' living room. That didn't exactly bode good.

Some time later, Serena called them into the kitchen and with a combined effort Janus and Richard forced a healthy portion of dinner as well as another dose of Pepper-Up Potion into Remus. It took effect, some of the colour came back to his face and he didn't look as if he was about to keel over any moment anymore, but nevertheless Janus had already decided not to let his little brother out of his sight for the next couple of hours. Remus had a tendency to overestimate his physical strength, something that went way back with him, and Janus had absolutely no intention to see him brought into the hospital again anytime soon.

He also planned to talk to Remus again, ask him to tell everything he could remember about Black no matter how painful it was. Maybe there was something in Black's common past with Remus that would bring them closer to finding Harry. It was some sort of last straw, Janus knew that. If that failed, then he didn't know what else to do. But he'd let Remus get some hours of rest first, his little brother still looked as if he could need it, despite all the potions.

After they had eaten, the three men returned in to the living room where Janus and Richard all but ordered Remus to lie down on the sofa and take a nap, something this sofa was used for a lot recently as it seemed, and Janus fetched his notes on the case from his study. He had already overstepped more than one boundary when he had told his family and Dumbledore about Black's escape, and right now he didn't think it would hurt any more to let his father know everything he had found out in the cases. Maybe Serena had been right this afternoon, maybe his involvement in the case and the fact that he had been staring at the files for hours on end had made him blind to the important facts. He handed his notes over to his father, asking him to read them. it was a slim chance, but maybe Richard would find something Janus had not seen.

It was half past nine when there was a tapping on the window, announcing the arrival of an owl.

With a frown, Janus got up from where he had been sitting and walked over to let the bird in. Richard stopped reading and Remus sat up from where he had been dozing off on the sofa.

As soon as Janus had opened the window, a large brown barn owl flew into the room and circled around once before settling on the table and stretching out its leg. A letter and a package wrapped in brown paper were tied to it. Remus who was sitting closest untied the bird's load, and without waiting for another beat the owl rose into the air again and soared out through the still opened window.

Again, Janus frowned. He knew that owl, he just could not place it at the moment. But something about the bird had seemed very familiar. If he only had had time to look at it more closely. And who could send him letters and packages right now, late in the evening, without waiting for a reply? Janus absent-mindly stared out of the window to where the owl had vanished.

A choked cry from behind himself made him spin around immediately.

Remus was holding the letter in his hands, his face white as the walls and his whole body trembling. Richard had sat down beside him and stared at the parchment as well, and equally shocked expression on his face.

Janus hurried over towards them, leaning over the back of the sofa between his father and brother and taking the letter out of Remus' shaking hands. It was a small and crumpled piece of parchment, and there were only three words on it. In a childish scrawl, a bit shaky as if the writer had had problems to keep his hand steady, there stood a message that made the hairs on Janus' neck stand up.

Help me Remus.

"Harry?"

Remus nodded slowly. "Yes. I...I think so, at least."

Janus got up into a standing position, the parchment still tightly in his hand. If Harry had really written that message, then at least he was still alive. Or had been alive long enough to write it, at least.

From the corner of his eye he caught movement and turned his head just in time to see Remus reach for the package that still lay on the sofa table. He unwrapped the brown paper as quick as his numb and shaking fingers would allow it, and Janus made a step towards him in alarm. He somehow had the feeling that whatever was in that package was not something Remus needed to see.

Btu it was too late for him to react, and before he could do something, Remus had finished unwrapping the package and with a shocked expression stared at the object it had contained. On the sofa table, in the middle of the brown wrapping paper, lay a stuffed animal. It's fur was battered and thinned out from years of use, and one of the glass eyes was hanging off loosely.

It was Harry's stuffed lion.

Remus stared at it for a moment, too stunned and shocked to do anything. There were tears streaming down his face, and after a moment's hesitation he stretched out his hand to reach for the lion.

At that moment all the alarm bells in Janus' head went off, every sense telling him that touching the stuffed animal was exactly the wrong thing to do. The back of his neck was prickling again and without thinking about it, Janus leaped forward.

"Remus, no!"

Richard turned towards them, frowning, but before he could do or say anything Janus had already thrown himself over the back lean of the sofa, his arm stretched out to swat away Remus' hand. He missed, though, because Remus shifted slightly to the side and Janus' hand came to rest on the lion at the precise moment when Remus grabbed for it.

Before he even hit the ground again, Janus had the sickening sensation of a huge tuck behind his navel as the portkey activated and took him and Remus away.