AN: This chapter does not continue in a flashback, just so you know. We're back to the present.

Disclaimer: Come on people, you know the drill. I DON'T own Harry Potter.

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Lyralei stepped up to the small, slightly run down house in apprehension; although she had no reason to be nervous, not really, anyway. She had come here straight from work, the same day as that meeting, as though driven by some invisible force.

Lyralei took a deep breath, steeling herself and fighting the mad urge to run away, and then knocked on the door, rapping the top left engraved gargoyle twice and hitting the middle square once, so as not to set off any safety wards. The door opened a few moments later, and Lyralei found herself looking into the face of one of her oldest friends, Remus Lupin.

Lupin stared at Lyralei, slightly shocked to say the least. Then he recovered rather quickly, looked beyond her into the empty street to make sure she was alone, and then hastily pulled the young woman inside, closing the door behind them.

"Hey," Lyralei said, rather shyly.

"Lyralei, it's great to see you."

"You too."

The pair just stood there, looking at each other for a while. Lyralei hadn't seen Remus in years. She loved him dearly, just like she cared for all her other friends, but they had grown apart, which was stupid of them both. They were almost all each other had of the past, but it had come to a point where memories were too hard to bear.

They stopped seeing each other after the original crisis ended, even though they had needed each other more than ever. Although, with all the fights they had gotten into before then, being distant was probably the only thing that had saved their fragile friendship.

Remus broke the silence first, going straight to the point, "You came to tell me about him, didn't you?"

Lyralei looked slightly startled. "So you know already..."

Remus simply nodded. Lyralei looked at him, and she felt a prickly feeling behind her eyes, so she turned away, back towards the door. Oh god, no Lyr, you haven't cried in years, don't start now damnit, at least not in front of him...

But then Remus tentatively touched her shoulder and began, "Lyri..."

The use of her childhood nickname after over a decade of detachment, and the effect of seeing Remus, who had always been like a surrogate brother to her after so long and everything that had happened recently all fell on Lyralei and before she knew it she was doing something she hadn't done in about 12 years; she started to bawl like a baby, all dignity gone, while Remus gathered her in his arms and led her to the couch, all the while trying to comfort her.    [AN: Whoa, talk about run-on sentences].

Lyralei stopped crying fairly quickly, completely disgusted at her behavior, but stayed in Remus's embrace for a while as both the friends gained some much needed comfort. Then she broke away, still sniffling.

"I'm sorry," Lyralei said, bending her head shamefully as Remus handed her a tissue.

"For what?" Remus asked in a surprised tone, although he knew perfectly well for what.

"For a lot of things. For crying like that in front of you, when I haven't done it at all in years. For coming and bothering you like this, for making you see me in such a state, for-,"

"Lyri," Remus said, interrupting her. Lyralei looked at him dully.

"Shut up, okay?" Remus said. "What you should be apologizing for is not coming to see me for so long, although I suppose in that case I owe you an apology too."

Lyralei persisted, "But still, I should never have broken down like that, least of all in front of someone..."

Remus looked at her, slightly exasperated. "Lyralei, look at me," he said firmly. "You are one of the strongest people I know, and it's perfectly all right to cry once in a while. It's almost unnatural that you don't, so stop being an idiot about it. And by the way, I'm not just 'someone'; I'm your friend. You can do anything in front of me, you know that."

"Yeah, I know," Lyr said, "but I never, I mean, since then, I don't..."

"I know," Remus said quietly.

Lyralei looked at her friend gratefully for a moment, then sighed and settled back into the couch, resting her head on Remus's shoulder.

"We're idiots, aren't we?" Lyr asked her friend. "I mean, to let things come to this stage."

"Yeah, we are," Remus agreed as he put a comforting arm around Lyr's shoulders.

The two sat in silence for a while, watching the yellow and orange flames flicker in the fireplace in front of them.

Then Lyralei spoke up. "So, what're we going to do then?"

Remus sighed, the firelight making him look older and wearier than he was. "I'm not sure. What part are you playing in all of this at work?"

"I'm, uh, honorary Second in Command of the investigation."

"I see," Remus looked down at her speculatively, "and you're looking to botch it up, I suppose?"

"You bet," Lyralei said without hesitation. "You know I can't let them get to him, Remus, no matter what the facts may be."

"Lyralei..."

"Don't start Reems, I'm already as screwed up as I can be about this, and we've had this discussion a million times before."

Remus sighed again and said instead, "Tea?"

"Sure," Lyralei said, thankful that he had decided to leave the subject alone for a moment.

Remus got up and led the way to his kitchen, while Lyralei followed him obediently.

The two settled themselves on opposite sides of the small round table in Remus's kitchen and drank in silence for a while.

"So how did you know, and how much do you know?" Lyralei asked.

"Well, the Ministry gave a red alert just about 2 hours ago on the WWN, as well as an emergency announcement on a special edition of the Daily Prophet. I have it right here," Remus replied, handing her the paper. "Didn't you know all of this?"

Lyralei shook her head absently as she scanned the paper. "No, I had a meeting with the Minister this morning about the escape, and after that I was completely swamped. I barely got my head together."

"So, how accurate is the article?"

"Pretty accurate actually, considering the Ministry doesn't know much themselves at this point. They have no idea how he's escaped, but..."

"What?" Remus asked wearily.

"Well, uh," Lyralei looked a little uncomfortable, "they, um, they think he's going after Harry," she stated bluntly, saying the last part in a bit of a rush.

Remus just looked at her, his face slightly disbelieving.

Lyralei tried to explain further. "You see, according to the dementors, he had been talking in his sleep, and he kept saying the words, 'He's at Hogwarts,' so the Ministry, or rather Crouch, thinks he wants to kill Harry to avenge his master's death, or something like that."

"So what's being done to protect Harry?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lyralei asked harshly. "You actually believe that bullshit?!"

Remus opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Lyralei leaned her forehead on her hands and said "Sorry. Bad day and all that. It's a valid possibility of course, but nothing is being done about Harry. He's safe as long as he stays where he is. Dumbledore's seen to that long ago, remember?" she said, stating the last part a little bitterly.

Remus replied softly, "Yes, of course."

They didn't say anything for a while. After that Halloween night, the question of Sirius's guilt was a very testy subject for both the friends, and discussions concerning it often ended in yells, and in one case, itchy purple fur and horns that didn't come off for a week. Remus, like Lyralei, didn't know what to believe when it came to Sirius. But somehow, when they argued about it, and someone had to take pro and the other con, Remus usually ended up supporting the guilty verdict. They both, in some way, believed in Sirius's guilt, but they both also wanted nothing more than to be proven wrong. The easiest thing to do was to reach an unspoken agreement not to go into that topic anymore, and each did their best to follow it.

"People will probably be checking on Harry periodically anyway." Lyralei added.

Remus nodded. "Yes, and I'll be able to keep a close eye on him soon as well."

Lyralei looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

Remus smiled, "I got a job offer. Dumbledore asked me to take up the Defense Against the Dark Arts post this year."

Lyralei stared at her friend in astonishment before her face broke into its first genuine grin in ages. "Remus, that's great! It's fantastic! You'll be perfect for the job! Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Remus said, grinning at his friend in return. "I'm really happy about this. Dumbledore's great, to hire me and all."

'And why shouldn't he?" Lyralei demanded. "Like I said, you'd be perfect for the job. DADA was your major after all, and you're great with kids."

"Yeah, but you know, the werewolf thing..."

"It didn't matter when you were a student, and it should matter even less now." Lyralei said matter-of-factly. "Besides, didn't they come up with that new potion recently? You know, the one that helps people with their transformations?"

"Yes, they did." Remus affirmed. "And that's the only reason I accepted this job. It would have been much too dangerous otherwise."

Lyralei just nodded, knowing Remus well enough not to get him started on his 'I'm too dangerous to be around people or to have a proper life,' werewolf crap. He was a highly qualified and perfectly capable wizard, but most people couldn't see past their natural prejudice towards lycanthropy, which made Remus's life quite miserable at times.

Then Lyralei glanced at her watch and reluctantly made to get up. "I'd better go, Reems. There's a chance someone might track me here to you and think we're conspiring or something. They've done that before, you know. Besides, I have to get back to work."

Remus nodded and took her teacup for her. "Sure Lyri, thanks for coming over."

Lyralei shook her head. "I should be thanking you Remus. This is the best time I've had in a long while."

Remus smiled as she stood up and gave him a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "If you need anything, you know where to find me," she said.

"Yeah," Remus replied as Lyralei walked towards the fireplace. Then he stopped her, "Lyri..."

"Yes?" she asked, turning around.

"Look, I know you're going to want to go after him, but if you do manage to find him, well, just be careful all right? No, don't look at me like that Lyr, you know perfectly well what I mean." he added as Lyralei fixed him with an icy stare.

"Don't worry about me Remus, I know what I'm doing."

"I hope so."

Lyralei conjured up a bright purple fire, and turned to face her friend in farewell as she stepped into the flames. Remus smiled good-bye, and then she was gone.

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AN: Remus!!! Yeah!!! Honestly, I didn't realize that I was writing Remus till the fifth paragraph or so. He just kind of slipped out of my fingers and onto the screen; sneaky werewolf. Still, gotta love him. :)

Oh yeah, great thanks to MWPP, Lyanire, and ANNE(v)79, my faithful reviewers for giving me feedback on the last chapter. Sorry about not getting around to individual replies, but the lethargy is really setting in, and I just wanted to get this thing posted before I delay it any further. Later!