Chapter 21

The door slowly opened and a man stepped through the doorway. He had slightly greying brown hair and a stoop to his shoulders. Nell couldn't tell how old he was just by looking at him. He could have been anywhere from thirty to fifty, as far as she could tell. Looking at his eyes, though, she would have said older, rather than younger.

He caught sight of Harry first; Nell was still mostly behind the door.

He gasped, a low sound that was nearly a sob. "Harry?" he asked quietly.

Harry just nodded, his eyes wide in astonishment.

"Who are you?" Nell demanded. "What are you doing here? See here--"

He turned slightly and raised his hand to stem the flow of questions. "My name is Remus Lupin. I didn't mean to alarm you, Miss Burton. I had heard that Dumbledore might put you up at one of the Order's safehouses. I've been checking around all of them this afternoon. I wanted a look at Harry; I've heard that he looks like his father. You do, actually, quite a bit," he added to Harry.

"Why would you want to do that?" asked Nell, her voice still tight with suspicion and mistrust. After all, he had just waltzed in, and she still had nothing but his word that he meant no harm to Harry. She started casually edging toward the desk.

"He and I were friends at school together, that's all. I thought I might stop by." He shrugged, as if this was the most reasonable thing in the world.

This explanation stretched the bounds of Nell's credulity. She had finally reached the desk, and as quickly as possible, she reached over and snatched up the sharp letter opener. She grabbed Harry's shoulder and pulled him behind her as she pointed her makeshift weapon at the strange man.

He blinked and took a half step back. "Professor Dumbledore did tell me I might come by," he said, as if he were explaining something to a small child.

"He certainly didn't tell us," said Nell shrilly, keeping the point of the letter opener directed toward him. "And besides, I'm sure he would have told you exactly which flat he'd put us up at. Didn't you say that you'd been trying them all afternoon?"

He grimaced. "I'd hoped you'd forgotten that, actually. It's true that Professor Dumbledore gave me permission to visit, but I may have anticipated a bit too much."

"So why exactly are you here, then? And don't try to feed me any bullsh--" she remembered Harry standing behind her -- "any bull about knowing Harry's father."

He smiled easily and walked back to the door to close it. "Wouldn't you be more comfortable if you put that thing away?"

"No, I would not be more comfortable if I put it away. I would be more comfortable if you told us why you're here, and then flooed Dumbledore to confirm it. That's what would make me more comfortable," she bit out, her outstretched arm shaking slighly.

"Why don't I go ahead and floo Professor Dumbledore, then?" he asked. "Where's your Powder?"

Nell indicated the flowerpot with the tip of the letter opener, then watched him warily as he walked over to the fireplace. It hadn't escaped her attention that he had avoided the question of why he was there.

He tossed a handful of the Floo Powder onto the fire and called out "Professor Dumbledore!"

A few moments later, Nell saw Dumbledore's head appear in the flames, just as he had said. And just as he had said, it was disconcerting and alarming. She looked over at Harry and saw his eyes wide in astonishment.

"Hello, Remus," said Dumbledore calmly. "Paying a call?"

"Er, yes, Professor," said the man. "But I forgot to ring ahead. Would you do the honours?"

Dumbledore twinkled. "Certainly, Remus. Is Nell nearby?" He craned his neck the best he could from the fireplace.

Nell stepped forward, into his line of sight. "Yes. I'm right here. Who is this, and why is he here?"

"This is Remus Lupin, Miss Burton. I had hoped that he could help you with your friends. You were concerned about their well-being, and Remus is something of a freelance sleuth."

"At times," the aforementioned sleuth nodded. "Although usually it is not my clients whom I intend to frighten, you know."

"He's quite trustworthy, Miss Burton," said Dumbledore. "So you can lay down your arms."

She blushed and put the hand holding the letter opener behind her back. Remus grinned at her. Reluctantly, she smiled back.

"Did you really know my dad?" asked Harry.

Remus smiled at him as well. "I did indeed."

Dumbledore chuckled. "They were inseparable, Harry. Why, the stories I could tell..."

"Well!" said Remus quickly. "Why don't we work on this puzzle, Miss Burton? Don't want to keep you, Professor, I know you have a lot of work to do."

Dumbledore smiled, but agreed with him, and in a moment the fire was head-free once more.

Suddenly all business, Remus pulled out a small notebook and sat down on the settee. "Please tell me why you're concerned about your friends."

Nell sat down next to him and began to tell him the whole story, and Harry perched on a nearby chair, listening attentively. "So when I first got Harry, I took him to meet Emma and Audrey and a bunch of my friends from uni. They loved him, of course," she said fondly, looking over at him. He blushed. "Anyway, so yesterday, right before I gave my Daily Prophet interview, I went to London and had lunch with Emma. She was perfectly normal, and she told me to ring Audrey if I needed a place to stay." She broke off and paused, then jumped up and began to pace. "I want a cup of tea. Do you want tea? Remus, Harry?"

"Sure," said Harry eagerly. Remus only nodded, his head still bent over his notebook, although Nell had yet to actually give him any useful information. She busied her nervous hands, and all too soon their tea was ready.

Once she had a mug to grip, she was able to continue telling her story. "So I rang Audrey that afternoon. She didn't answer. I didn't think anything of it, but I couldn't reach her hours later, and that's not like her, if she's said she'll be home. So I rang Emma and asked her to go check on Audrey, see if everything was okay." She stopped and sipped her tea. "Oh, and I couldn't reach my mum, either, but that's not really a cause for alarm quite yet -- she tends to jaunter off if the mood strikes her. The timing is suspicious, though," she added as an afterthought. She paused again, trying to recollect the thread of her story.

"Then Emma rang back this morning," she continued, "telling me to leave her and Audrey alone. And she said something curious. She said not to contact her 'until you've gotten rid of Harry'. But she liked Harry! So I'm not sure what's going on."

She'd run out of momentum, and just sat sipping her tea while Remus frowned at his notebook and jotted down notes. She had a silent but pitched battle with Harry for the last biscuit, only conceding when they both had a fistful of crumbs.

"How did your friend's voice sound when she called you this morning?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Oh!" remembered Nell. "It was different. She sounded like she had a cold or a sore throat, and it was a bit like she was reading a script or underwater or something. Her voice was all flat."

Remus's eyebrows arched and he made a few more notations. "Have you tried to call your mother again?"

Nell shrugged. "I'll try now." She flipped open the mobile. She spared a momentary pang for her phone bill as she dialled.

"Hello?" came her mother's voice.

Mrs. Burton's voice was rough, and a bit flat, as if she was reading the word instead of saying it.