Chapter Two

Remus entered the diner at half past 1 AM. A long, hot shower and shave plus excellent clothes laundering by Molly Weasley as a favor had left Remus much more respectable and sober than the last time he'd entered the establishment. Finding time on his hands, he surveyed the room, discerning it to be half full with poor college students and other unsavory characters. Tollie, however, was nowhere to be seen. He had just ordered a water, when Tollie drifted in, pulling golden stars out of thin air to the last remnants of his crowd.

The door closed behind him, and his strode over to the teacher triumphantly, "18 pounds 3!" He exclaimed, slamming a pile of cash onto the table, coins flying every which way. He plopped down onto the vinyl seat, and looked at the older man. "Why Professor Lupin, I do believe that you are almost respectable looking. And what's this? An ironed shirt! There's a woman in your life somewhere."

Remus laughed at the boy's antics. "Merely an old friend. Though with seven children, she's no mere mortal."

"I could imagine." Tollie grinned, taking a soda from their previous waitress.

"So, how have you been this week?"

"Living. I do a show twice a week now. Oughta give it up for three card Monte- now that's a money maker."

"I am surprised that the Ministry hasn't picked you up yet and shipped you off to Azkaban."

Tollie stiffened at the prison's name, but quickly regained his cool. "Shield charm. As long as you can't see me physically performing magic, I'm invisible to their sensors. There are so many holes in the Ministry that it's no wonder that it took them two years to catch on that Voldemort was back."

"I suppose you're right," Remus frowned. "Fudge has become ineffective in dealing with Voldemort's return."

"It's much simpler to pretend that he doesn't exist; sleep comes much easier that way." Tollie replied. The two grew quiet as they looked over their menus, neither unsure as to how to resume their conversation.

"So... about this shield charm," Remus finally asked.

"Well, we all have secrets, and I won't tell you all of mine, but I've had it since I was 8. My parents thought that it was prudent that I should practice during the summer than just during school. And they were right. I have much more control than most people my age. It's not because I'm better, but it's because I didn't waste three months out of the year not doing anything, and then have to relearn everything from the previous year all over again."

"I know that some American schools are initiating year-round schedules. Haven't heard any results yet, though."

"So you won't turn me into the Dementors?" Tollie asked only half joking.

"Like you said, we all have our secrets, Tollie. My friends broke so many rules at Hogwarts that I was made Prefect just to try to control them."

Tollie laughed, "Did it work?"

"No, it just made them worse," Remus laughed back.

"Sounds like my kind of friends."

"We were the absolute worst. Two of them were best friends, completely inseparable: Super Ego and Extreme Ego. They were absolutely uncontrollable- out to cause as much mischief as humanly possible. I was their conscience. I guess that when they'd go too far, they always knew that I would be the one to stop them, or at least pick up the pieces afterwards. They were truly insufferable prigs."

"So what happened?"

"Well, we were recruited about 15 years ago. Straight out of Hogwarts, no less. Even I, for all of my faults. But it changed us. We grew too old much too fast. One got married almost immediately and started a family. The most inconsiderate of the four of us turned into a father. Then he got murdered along with his wife. This was at the height of the Death Eaters, you see. We'd lost 28 in less than a month, and not just members, but entire families were being wiped out- parents, children, siblings. Anyone and everyone was a target. But the four of us were still on the last vestiges of our teenage immortality, so we got even more reckless. And we paid for it. Every single one. And you were right earlier- this war is carrying into the next generation."

Tollie looked at his melancholic friend, then began to reply. "I'd heard about Voldemort's return through my family. I didn't want to believe it. They were so happy about it," he lowered his eyes, unable to look at the teacher. "I was too."

"But not now?"

"I've seen too much of the world to believe in anything anymore. But I was raised a Pureblood, and I was only 15 when he came back."

"I understand."

"You do?"

"Oh, yes. My two best friends were both Purebloods, both from the great family lines. I think that was why they were so close- one of them fought his heritage up until the day he died, and the other always helped him when it got too bad. It's much easier to believe in a cause when you have family support, and he only had the four of us. In the end, he ran away from his home, and lived with the other's family. I think it was the happiest days of his life."

"I think that I would have liked him."

"Probably, maybe when he was older. You know, he once charmed a motorcycle into flying? It's still around somewhere."

Tollie laughed, "Thanks for the tip."

"Now that will get you caught by the Ministry."

"Not if I don't actually use it."

"Now that particular philosophy," Remus replied quite seriously, mopping a water stain on their table, "has already been tried, and it ended up with seven Muggles watching an Anglia fly in the middle of the afternoon."

"True. Temptation is much harder when access is easier."

"You are in a good mood today. No more diatribes against the wizarding world?"

"I made 18 and 3 today; always a good return."

"Yes, I know- 'it's a living.'"

"Well, I like your stories. I wish that I could have been part of it."

"No, you don't." Remus countered, his voice mellowing. "You would have been much too cerebral for us. We'd have destroyed you."

"Now that I can't see."

"All you can see is fifteen years of rose colored memories and my own maturing. We were brutes- part of the Popular Crowd- the inner circle of jocks, well connected brains, slackers, hanger ons, and near delinquents. You would have been bored with our antics in no time. Nights running wild, tricks played on professors and Slytherins, and extreme persecution on anyone we wanted. We were true barbaric mongrels then."

"I've never been a child."

"You're still a puppy," Remus retorted, watching the boy flit through the usual sundry extreme emotions play out on his over expressive face until he finally smiled softly.

"It's odd." He said after a bit. " I generally detest being condescended, but you're different. Quiet, I suppose."

"I am a teacher. I've met all kinds of children, and each one of them needed to be dealt with individually."

"I bet you're a great teacher."

"Well, I'm not currently employed at the moment."

"What happened?" Tollie grinned mischievously. "Snogged a student?"

"Don't be insulting." Remus snapped back.

"Sorry."

"I have... well, let's just say that a few parents objected to my particularly rare bloodline. And, so in order to keep the peace, I quit."

"Just like that?"

"I am still in contact with a few of my old students. Family of old friends, you might say."

"Let me guess," Tollie leaned forward, and put his hands on the table. "The next generation of noble soldiers for the grand cause of this most honorable war."

"I was wondering when your penchant for cynicism was going to erupt." Remus stated,

"But I am right. And you know it. Because you can't look me in the eye and tell me otherwise. You haven't it in you. You might be able to lie and evade about certain things- little things like why you really quit your job, but fundamental truths? You're incapable of such behavior.

"And children wanting to 'fight the good fight' will always want to be one of those truths. You try to stop them, protect their youth, their innocence for just one more day, but you can't. Not forever. Especially now. They always want play grown up games like love and war and death. That's why we try to deter them from their inevitable maturing, but they're already on that path of righteousness. It happened to your generation, and it's already happening to mine. We just happen to be younger."

"I see that you include yourself now."

"I can no longer escape this war anymore than you can."

"But you're only seventeen."

Tollie stopped the conversation, just sitting there, his back slumped against the booth. He stared off into a glop of catsup coagulating next to his soggy French fries. "One of my younger cousins was picked up an auror Wednesday. She's in Azkaban now."

"That's not possible!"

The boy looked back up at the teacher, his eyes dead at the sight. "I watched her being taken-Coward, that I am. I just stood there and watched as they caught her and her parents. I was hidden in one of their secret rooms, and had a clear view of the scene. They did nothing to alert the aurors of my presence. Found out two days ago that they got eight years and she got three. Not that the little git didn't deserve it." Tollie threw in offhandedly.

"But the Ministry wouldn't do that to a mere child."

"Wouldn't they?" was the only response. Remus seethed at the question, trying to deny the answer, but only sat there, impotent and mute until the boy answered his own question. "Fudge has bungled this whole war from the beginning, and now he's making up for lost time. This is another fundamental truth, Professor Lupin, one that you can't even lie about to yourself let alone the rest of the world. Wouldn't even be the first time that they've declared unofficial Martial Law on the innocents and not-so-innocents."

"But how do you know of all of this?"

"I grew up in a hardcore Pureblood family. This whole war is much too complex and older than just not admitting so-called Mudbloods into the Wizarding Schools. Voldemort's Pureblood fetish is simply the newest rallying sigil. And the Ministry, in its infinite stupidity, refuse to look beyond him. The truth is that they like him- they like his easily digestible evil power trips and inane solutions to fix the wizarding world. As long as he's around, they've got a scapegoat and the ability to ignore him at will."

"I- I'll see what I can do for your cousin." Remus responded after the diatribe left the boy breathing hard and looking slightly cracked.

At that, the boy focused back on the older man, his sudden gallows smile surprising the teacher "An unemployed teacher with no prospects and nothing better to do than to meet a two-bit magician at two in the morning?"

"You might have relatives, but I have friends," Remus replied defiantly.

Tollie's earlier somber mood had evaporated almost instantly, his confident attitude bricked firmly back in place. "Ah, yes. I forgot- the Four Compadres, two of whom are dead, and one, in all likelihood, is now probably batting for the other team now."

"How-?"

"'Ultimate betrayer' is a bit unambiguous." Tollie's smile grew almost carnivorous, his eyes turning pure black. "I'll bet that I can even venture a guess as who it is- can I have three chances?"

"Stop it." Remus ordered.

"I'm sorry." The boy's face changed immediately- his eyes falling through the color spectrum to a less savage color. "Nothing spreads like good gossip at a Deatheaters' potluck," Tollie explained, his voice completely contrite.

Remus felt his own rare temper flare lessening much too slow for his own liking. "You know too much about these matters, Tollie."

"If it helps, Pettigrew's detested by pretty much everyone. Especially by the Malfoys," the boy explained

"Is this why you're out here- in London?" Remus asked. "Because of what you know?"

"No, I just like to entertain Muggles" The boy said. "Nothing's better than watching a fifty year old CPA get blown away by second year magic."

Remus's last vestige of anger dissolved completely, leaving the man in a myriad of mostly optimistic emotions. "I might be a closet cynic, but you're a closet romantic." He stated.

"No, that's just part of the charm of being a cynic. Otherwise, I'd just be a pessimist, and nothing kills a party like a true pessimist."

"Tollie?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you here?"

"Because I'm hungry?"

"That's not what I mean."

"Well, it's not for the actual taste of this so-called food."

"Tollie, you're much too young for being here with me at this time of night, and much too old for elementary evasion tactics. If you need help-"

"Hey, look: the check's here." The boy replied, gladly picking up the tab from their now regular waitress. "Guess they want to kick us out. Same time next week?"

"Tollie-" Remus started, then changed his mind. "No, not next week." The boy started, taken aback by the rejection. "I have a prior engagement," Remus added weakly.

"At 330 AM?"

Remus only grinned tactfully "You have your secrets, and I have mine. But I promise that I will be back in two weeks, barring any problems. And, Tollie, if you have any problems of your own, go immediately to Hogwarts. Tell them that you know me."

Tollie slid back into annoyance, his eyes blazing green, then went to pay the check. He had calmed down by the time he had returned to the table, and the two walked comfortably silent outside before parting.

Remus strolled back to his alley. It still oozed smells of vomit and cigarette smoke, but it was empty at that time of day. He entered it from the street, then heard something behind him. Turning around, he saw two identical twin girls staring at him with huge violet eyes. Remus felt his hackles rise as the girls sauntered towards him. He grabbed for his wand. "We know that you're visiting our cousin." The left one reported, "you're to leave him alone," the right one followed.

Remus was taken back at the sight. "Shouldn't you two be in bed?" He asked dumbly.

"You are not to see Tollie again." The left one reiterated, this time both girls withdrew their matching wands in a way that was invisible from the naked eye, but wholly useable from their new position.

"I'm not generally in the mood to follow the advice of eight year olds." Remus replied sardonically. Studying the two girls' wand movements, he tried to place their training.

"We're nine and a half!" The right one corrected.

"I see that you have your cousin's sense of humor." He replied patiently, unsure if he should feel threatened or amused. The two began to spread apart, their wands suddenly held in a predatory fashion. "Expelliarmus!" He diswanded the girl on the right; her wand flying twenty feet through the air. She yelped at the loss, and chased after it as the left one yelled and raised her own wand.

Remus turned toward her just as she yelled "Crucio!" The curse slammed into him just as he apparated out of the alley.