Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I appreciate your feedback. And I do declare, lavender-skyes, that it's about time Remy got a little romance. Never fear, for I will be continuing this fic. I've got tons of chapters uploaded and ready for execution. Thanks again for reviewing. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for Remus and Piper.


Walking home Piper was still in a state of shock. She had not even begun to contemplate what had transpired between them. Indeed, what had transpired between them? What had she done? And for goodness sakes why? Questions without answers, but Piper would change that…when she could bear to think about it.

By the time she emerged from the forest it was drizzling, a nice refreshing sensation, walking through the meek rain. Piper liked rain, the freshness, the sense of cleansing. She found it comforting. For this reason she strolled to her house, slowly, sedately. Perhaps she was reluctant to once again imprison herself in the confines of her home, especially when it was so nice out.

It was with much regret that she entered her vacant house.

As she trudged over to the old, beaten sofa, she felt her knees weaken, and when she was within safe nearness to the couch she allowed her legs to buckle and collapsed onto the couch. She was now leaning back onto the couch, her eyes itchy with tiredness, her body lax with lack of fuel, she realized how utterly exhausted she was. For painful reasons she had not slept the previous night at all, and now for the first time she felt it.

Allowing her head to loll and her eyes to close, Piper drifted into slumber reevaluating her…first kiss.

Her eyes snapped open at the sudden violent shake. It took her awhile to focus but when she did she saw her father standing over her, expressionless. It was a good sign when her father was expressionless, better then a sardonic smile that always preceded and insult, better than an obnoxious laugh which accompanied a ridicule, or worst of all a misleading, casual tranquility, which always forewarned an attack. But it was this vacant, empty expression that promised temporary safety.

Sitting up slowly, while rubbing her eye she greeted him.

"Hi Dad."

"Are you hungry?" He asked quietly.

Piper now realized how dark it was outside. And how hungry she was.

"Yes."

Her father moved off into the kitchen and began preparing food while Piper located a quilt near the hearth of the living room fireplace. She returned to the couch and huddled up under the soft knit yarn.

"You were gone for a long time," Piper observed, projecting her voice so that it could be heard in the kitchen.

"I had a lot of business," he replied from the kitchen.

"How did it go?"

"What?"

"Your business. How did it go?"

"Fine," he replied in monotone.

Curiosity overcame Piper, despite her better judgment she ventured, "Who were you meeting with?" An unperturbed silence fell. Her father did not respond. Piper dared not ask again. "How was brunch?"

"Fine," he replied quickly.

"Where did you go to eat?"

"The Ruby Dragon. It's a small establishment in Diagon Alley."

"Was the food good?" Piper asked.

Emerging from the kitchen with two bowls in hand, steam rising from each, Piper's father entered the room and handed her a bowl. Piper carefully leveled to bowl of soup in her lap. A rich salty aroma wafted from the yellow chicken broth. Piper stirred it, lifting spoonfuls to her mouth to blow on at random intervals.

"The food was well enough," he replied, downing the simmering substance without so much as a flinch. "The company was staid and the progress debatable," he murmured.

"Progress for what?"

Piper's father took another spoonful and ignored Piper's question. Finally, under Pipers probing gaze he dropped his spoon and said, "Enough about my day, let's talk about yours."

He knows! Piper panicked. This was the beginning of his manipulation. He would provoke her to admit what he already knew before punishing her. He knew! When he raised his head back to her gaze she realized she was staring fearfully. She blinked and looked away. Maybe he didn't know. She was just being paranoid. Besides, he wasn't exhibiting the normal traits that determined his anger.

"Uneventful," Piper replied. "The whole time I was in the house, and for the majority of the time I slept," she said dully avoiding his gaze.

"Really?"

"Hmm-mmm." She replied, spooning scalding soup into her mouth.

"Did your school list come yet?"

Piper almost sighed at the change of subject, so great was her relief. Instead she shook her head from side to side. "The school list won't be sent for maybe another week or so."

"So no mail today?" The question was posed pointedly, and Piper thought fearfully of Adelle's invitation.

"No," she replied cautiously. When her father did not question her further she embellished, "None, whatsoever."

"Then what was that owl doing in our house this morning?" Piper's hand stilled. She met her father's glare. Gone was the emptiness of expression replaced by a victorious glint shining malevolently in his eyes. Piper had no idea ho he knew about Remus' owl but she knew she could not lie about its arrival now, could not deny that it came. But she could fabricate why it came.

"Broken wing," Piper said quietly.

"Pardon?"

"The owl had a broken win. I fixed it and sent him on his way."

"Funny. He didn't have any splints or bandages when he flew back out the window."

Piper knew it was over, she knew she had been caught, but was curious as to why he wasn't acting as he always did before punishing her. Maybe it was because he had yet to learn where she had gone. But he would discover that soon enough. He always did. She could never endure his interrogations. Never.

"I'll ask you again, Piper. Why was that bird in our house?"

"Dad…" Piper began desperately. "It was his birthday." She pleaded.

"His birthday?"

"Remus."

"The werewolf," just went over to celebrate with him, that's all," Piper's words gained momentum as she spoke, rolling over one another as she mumbled hurriedly in explanation. "Adelle made muffins and we just ate and then I…left." A quick, frantic memory of her aggressive overture surfaced distractedly in her mind. "That's all, I swear."

Piper saw the bristling anger that lingered just below the surface of the cool and distant reserve. She had defied him and he was furious. She knew this time it would be awful.

"You're going to stay with your cousins for the next week or so," he said quietly. After Piper got over the initial shock of his lack of action she contemplated his words. Cousins? What cousins? Duff MacPherson had no siblings and therefore Piper had no resulting cousins. Her late mother was an only child as well. What was her father talking about?

"What cousins?"

With a wave of his hand his bowl disappeared. Rising from his chair he said, "I suppose cousins is an improper term. They're friends of the family."

Piper was becoming more and more wary of this idea with every passing second. What was even more unsettling was her father's neglect of punishment. Why wasn't he doing anything? That same sense of foreboding that had assailed her this morning upon coming home returned to her now. There was something very wrong with this situation.

She loathed to ask, loathed to even speak in this uncertain territory, but found no help for it.

"Who are these people?" She question.

Piper immediately cowered as her father came at her with a quick forcefulness. He wielded his wand and she instinctively winced, knowing that she had provoked him. Nothing happened. Then a sudden coldness assailed Piper's lap. She looked down and found her half-devoured soup non-existent, She met her father's condescending smirk. He had tricked her into believing he was going to attack her when all he intended was to make her bowl disappear.

"These people," he began suddenly, "Are friends of mine. They have agreed to look after you for awhile."

"Why?" Piper asked in a tiny voice.

With a mad glint in his slanting eyes Duff replied, "Because I refuse to see my daughter gallivanting with a werewolf and as it has become apparent that my authority does not weigh with you, I must take the precautions I deem necessary in order to see that my wised are seen to."

"So you're sending me away?" Piper blurted. She was mollified at the idea of strangers, even more so then she was of her father.

"Precisely."

"For how long?"

"As long as I feel fit."

Feeling defeated, Piper glanced around her, trying desperately to quell the tears that threatened release. Taking a steadying breath, Piper asked, "When do I leave?"

Duff's lip curved malignantly. "Now."

Piper felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Her lungs ere deflated and her head felt very light and dizzy. Now? Right now? Strangers. But Remus? How would she tell him? Perhaps by owl once she arrived at her destination. Her unknown destination infested with complete strangers. She shivered.

"Go to your room and pack a small trunk. Quickly."

Piper slid slowly from the sofa and sulked to and up the stairwell. How could this be happening? Why? Piper hated strangers. She could identify with Adelle Lupin on that respect. Strangers were scary.

Piper even wondered if she too, like Adelle, had a social anxiety disorder.

Opening her bedroom door, Piper drifted into the room like a mournful ghost, and located her trunk. She propped it open and began packing her things.

Of course, Piper always reacted unreasonably at the thought of meeting people or being with a large group of people. In her mind she panicked, and dreamed of all the horrible things that could happen with unfamiliar strangers. But once immersed into the situation she handled herself fairly well- with the exception of the fact that she tried to avoid people and conversation, or any form of contact with them. She especially loathed being touched, by any and everyone, stranger or not.

But Piper assured herself that her fear of strangers wasn't nearly as acute as Adelle's. Piper clearly remembered a day over ten years ago. Remus had just transformed back into a boy, but he had seriously injured himself during his werewolf state, a deep gash in his abdomen. At the time Remus' grandfather had still been alive and living with them. It was he who had called the Healers. He also wrote to Piper, telling her that her play date with Remus had been cancelled because he was hurt. Piper had immediately fled to Remus' aid, but when she arrived at the flat she had found three Healers being held at bay by Adelle, who was threatening to curse them all if they so much as stepped a toe into her home, meanwhile her son lay in the cellar bleeding profusely with no one to heal him.

Piper would never forget that day as long as she lived. The horror of what she witnessed while crouching in the edge of the forest was forever branded in her mind as one of her worst memories. She would never forget the pale translucence of Adelle's once beautiful complexion, as she eyed the startled Healers warily. Never would she forget the white knuckles that grasped her wand like a vise as she jabbed it in the direction of the Healers yelling cruel obscenities at them. Never would she forget the way Adelle's entire, regal body shook with spasms before finally collapsing onto the ground in body wracking sobs. Never would she forget the way Remus' grandfather had stunned her from behind in sheer desperation to subdue her.

When Piper had been little it had been this scene that haunted her, knowing what soft spoken Adelle was capable of. Fearing the entire ordeal she had witnessed. But as she grew older and recalled the situation the entire impact of what had happened struck her. Because of Adelle's severe horror of strangers; she had neglected the dire needs of her son, her own son, because she feared the wizards that had come to heal him. Piper never quite respected Adelle ever again, and doubted that Adelle could ever be redeemed in her eyes.

It had truly broke Piper's heart to realize that one of the few people she had believed to be good could be as selfish and scary as her own father. No, Adelle could never be restored to her former glory. Never.

A meek tear over flooded her lid, but did not have enough momentum to slide down her check, so it remained in the crook of Pipers under eye and cheek, before she flicked it away with an angry finger. She didn't want to leave.

Hauling her trunk downstairs, while trying to force the lump in her throat to disappear, Piper's father came into view. He was standing over the fireplace, his left arm extended forward, leaning on the mantle. In his right hand he held a small strip of parchment, which he was eyeing until Piper's trunk announced her arrival as it slammed onto the bottom step. Piper gazed at the fireplace warily, standing stock still behind her trunk.

"Well, come here," Duff beckoned. Piper began to lift her trunk, but her arms had been exhausted from carrying the trunk downstairs. She pulled out her wand from the waistband of her jeans and with a minor blast from it, sent her trunk sliding across the weathered wooden floor to the fireplace. She followed the path her trunk had journeyed. Once she was standing next to her father, he turned to her, gazing at her wand contemplatively.

Without warning he plucked it out of her grasp, and pocketed it.

"You won't be needing it," he said in response to the bereft expression. Bending over, he seized her trunk and pushed it into the fireplace. "Get in," he murmured. Piper obliged, still not believing the hastiness of her father's actions, or his drastic actions themselves. Once standing in the hearth her father held out a small satchel of Floo Powder. Piper grabbed a handful, and held her hand face down in front of her, the powder sifting between the crevices of her fingers.

"Ar-are you coming too?" She asked.

With a careless wave of his hand he replied, "Only momentarily, I'll need to discuss a few things with your new caretakers. I'll disapparate after you."

Knowing that her father would be accompanying her offered an odd comfort to Piper.

"Where am I going?" She asked.

After a quick consultation with the parchment in his hand he replied, "15 Adlivum Avenue."

Piper released the powder from her fingers and in a herald of green flames dictated, "15 Adlivum Avenue."