Chapter 14: Better Than All Right

Sirius looked at Malfoy Manor, sitting cozily ensconced on its grounds, and didn't bother to repress a growl. He wanted to run in there, find Harry and make sure he was safe, and then punch Lucius Malfoy in the face and kick him into Azkaban.

Directly, from here.

"This is odd," said Frank Longbottom from behind him.

"What?"

"I've been here before a couple of times, official visits and such. And the Malfoys always had a pair of... well, I guess they were guard dogs, but they didn't look like dogs exactly. More like wolves. They were always roaming the grounds, singly or together, and they looked fairly savage. There's a few charmed paths they can't come on, but I wouldn't put it past Lucius Malfoy to occasionally deactivate the charms – by accident, of course."

"Of course." Sirius peered around, not seeing any trace of animal activity. "Frank, can you keep a secret?"

"Depends on what it is."

Sirius grinned. "You know Letha's dog?"

"The one she named after you?"

"That's the one."

"What about it?"

Sirius changed forms.

Frank stared at him for one instant, then started laughing. "You son of a bitch – literally! When did you learn to do that?"

Sirius turned back. "In school," he said. "Peter learned from James and me."

Frank nodded. "That does explain a lot. So you want to go scouting?"

"I'll see if I can tell where these wolves of yours are, or if they're even out. He might have taken them in for some reason."

"I'll cover you." Frank drew his wand. "If I can see you. Sun'll be down before too long."

"I'll be back before then." Sirius transformed again and began sniffing around. Frank had been telling the truth – the grounds were rife with the scents of a pair of wolves, male and female, quite possibly mates. They had not been through here for several hours, and they shared a sly sense of humor and a love of literature...

What the hell?

Sirius changed back, shaking his head. "I think I'm going fwoop on you, Frank," he said, using a wizard slang term for crazy.

"What do you mean, going?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Anyway, they were here, but they're not now. No scents less than a couple hours old."

"Just be ready, in case they come at us out of nowhere," Frank warned, starting to move up the hill towards the house. "I didn't like the way they were looking at me the last time I visited."

But nothing jumped out at them as they walked along the path. The sun was at their backs, casting a red glow over everything, which Sirius didn't entirely like. It made him think of blood, of that day in London, the worst day of his life...

It's over, he reminded himself firmly. Everyone knows the truth now. You'll never go back.

He reached for the door knocker, but the door swung open before he could get there.

"Sirius," said the woman in the doorway.

"Narcissa." Sirius carefully did not sneer at her. He might not like her much, but there was no need to make enemies. "We're here to see Lucius."

"About Harry Potter?"

"Yes, actually," said Frank, as Sirius was momentarily unable to speak.

"The boy is safe," said Narcissa. "His friend as well. I will take you to them, if you will come inside."

Sirius felt for his wand unobtrusively. This is too easy. There has to be a trick to it. A glance at Frank showed that he had come to the same conclusion, and was shifting his robes to be able to get at his wand quickly.

"Or perhaps you would first prefer to arrest his kidnappers," said Narcissa, stepping aside to allow them entrance. "My husband and Patroclus Nott are the guilty parties. I can bring you to them as well."

Sirius rubbed his wedding ring, something he only did when he was highly nervous. This was incredibly atypical behavior for Narcissa. What had gotten into her?

"I am prepared to cooperate fully with the law," said Narcissa, as if she had read his thoughts. "If you would prefer, I can bring one of you within, and the other may wait in a place of his choosing, to send for help if no word comes within a chosen amount of time."

That's not a bad idea.

"Excuse us for a moment, Mrs. Malfoy," said Frank politely, and drew Sirius off to one side. "That sounds like a decent idea," he said. "We don't know what kind of game she's playing here."

"My thoughts exactly." Sirius looked back at Narcissa, who was examining the decorations on a wall panel closely. "You're senior. Do you want to go in, or stay out?"

"You're the expert here, she's your cousin – and it's your boy we're talking about, to all intents and purposes. If you think you can be objective enough about Malfoy and Nott... and I doubt anyone at Headquarters would mind too much if they came in with a few bruises they picked up 'resisting arrest'..." Frank's tone was utterly bland.

"Where will you be?"

"Off their grounds for sure – shall we say down by that old willow where we Apparated in?"

"That sounds good. I'll send you a message when I'm sure the boys are safe, another when I've got those two all tied up, and if you don't hear from me in half an hour..."

"Call the cavalry. Best of luck."

"Thanks." They shook hands, then Frank gave Narcissa a slight bow and walked back out the front door.

"The children first, or my husband and his accomplice?" asked Narcissa.

"I think I want to see the boys first, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. One moment. Dobby," she called aloud.

"Yes, Mistress Narcissa?" The Malfoys' house-elf appeared in the hallway.

"Bring our two young guests here. Alone."

"Yes, Mistress." The elf was gone.

"Who are they with that you don't want me to see?" asked Sirius bluntly.

"No one that I do not wish you to see. Those who do not yet wish you to see them." Narcissa was being equally blunt, if rather cryptic.

It was only a few minutes before Sirius heard running footsteps down a hall, and Harry shot out of one of the cross-passages and charged at him. He caught his godson thankfully in his arms. "You're all right?" he asked, holding him close.

"Fine – you won't believe it – I saw Voldemort!"

"What?" exclaimed Sirius, discounting the small frightened noise coming from farther up the hall. "Where is he?"

"He's dead. I think I killed him."

"You killed him?"

"With a thrown rock, if I understand correctly," said Narcissa, a certain level of cool amusement creeping into her tone.

"Nice work," said Sirius appreciatively.

Harry looked at the floor. "He was hurting Ron," he said in a mumble. "I had to do something."

Sirius turned his attention to the tall, red-haired boy waiting in the shadows. "Sirius Black," he said, holding out his hand.

"Oh – Ron Weasley."

"I've heard a great deal about you," said Sirius, firmly holding in his urge to laugh hysterically at the mixture of commonplace and unbelievable this scenario was unfolding before him. "Nice to meet you."

"Thank you, sir. You too."

Sirius drew his wand and conjured a small version of his dog Patronus, which he imbued with the thought that he had seen the boys and they were all right, then sent it off to Frank. "Now I'll see Lucius," he said, turning to Narcissa.

Narcissa nodded. "I shall take you where he is."

Harry and Ron stayed close to Sirius as they moved through the long, dark hallways. Sirius was starting to regret putting such a long time on his and Frank's agreement. Half an hour? A lot could happen to a man in half an hour. A lot of bad, painful things. Or to a boy. He looked at Harry and knew he couldn't bear it if anything really horrid happened to him...

"There is another in the house whom you might be interested in seeing," said Narcissa conversationally. "Peter Pettigrew has joined us."

Sirius almost dropped his wand. "Wormtail? Here?"

"He escorted the Dark Lord from his hiding place, and was ordered to remain here."

"But Voldemort's dead," said Sirius. "Why would he hang around? Or doesn't he know?"

"He knows," said Harry. "He watched me do it. But... somebody caught him and caged him up."

"Somebody had better have done a good job of it," said Sirius. "I swear, if he gets away again..."

"He shall not." Narcissa sounded certain. "The magic used was formidable." She came to a halt. "Lucius is in this room," she said, pointing to a set of double doors on her left. "Be on your guard. He is not alone, and he may be expecting trouble."

Sirius nodded. "Thank you, Narcissa. I think that's everything I need from you."

"I know," she said quietly, but did not leave.

"It might not be a good idea for you to hang around," said Sirius frankly. "You've been helpful, but I don't expect you to go hexing Lucius for me, and that's the only help I'm likely to need in there. So if you're not prepared to do that, I'd really rather you left."

He might have imagined it, but he thought a flicker of a smile crossed her face. "Very well. I shall depart." She turned and walked quickly away.

"Stay in the hall," Sirius warned the boys. "I don't want you caught in crossfire."

"We will," said Harry, as Ron nodded.

Sirius turned the door handle with his right hand and stepped boldly into the room.

He was grateful for Narcissa's warning, as he immediately had to shield himself from two nasty-looking curses. Malfoy and Nott had constructed some kind of shield-fortress at the other end of the room, and were firing spells out of it. Sirius spent a few moments simply dodging their spells and trying to get a good look at it before he started returning fire.

Time to start the standard good guy-bad guy dialogue...

"Give up!" he called over the sound of spells firing and debris crashing down. This room of Malfoy Manor was never going to look the same.

"Never!" shouted Malfoy back at him.

"The Dark Lord cannot truly die!" shouted Nott, apparently feeling more vociferous than Malfoy.

Sirius snickered. "No, he just gets defeated," he called from behind a large chair, where he had taken momentary refuge. "Once by a one-year-old, and once by an eleven-year-old with a rock."

Malfoy snarled and blasted Sirius' chair, forcing him to dive out of the way of flaming upholstery. All right, maybe taunting them isn't the way to go.

But it's sure fun...

He threw a Stunner at them, willing all his magic behind it, and was amazed to see it penetrate their shields and take Nott down.

In the next instant, he was knocked backwards, his wand flying from his hand.

Shit – how did he get me?

Malfoy emerged from his fortress, smiling triumphantly. "Never stop to gloat until the battle is over, Black," he said, pointing his wand straight at Sirius. "A lesson the Dark Lord taught me. Ava–"

A streak of grey shot past Sirius' eyes, landing squarely on Malfoy's chest and dropping the man like a rock, resolving, now that it was no longer moving, into the figure of a large grey wolf, snarling into Malfoy's face. A second wolf ran up to him and clamped its teeth around his wand, yanking it from his hand.

I think I've just found those guard wolves Frank was telling me about...

Something nudged his hand. He looked down.

A third wolf, a bit smaller than the other two and with the look of being not quite fully grown, was holding his own wand in its teeth. He held out his hand, and the creature dropped the wand into it.

"DAD!" The cry came from the entrance to the room. Sirius turned to look and saw a boy who could only be Malfoy's son, staring horror-struck at the tableau of his father with a wolf on his chest, teeth inches from his throat. "NO!"

"It's your own fault, boy," wheezed Malfoy, glaring at his son. "Why did you uncollar them? Did you not know they would turn on us the instant you did?"

"Who are you including, when you say 'us', Lucius?" asked Narcissa, appearing in the doorway behind her son. "So far, they have threatened no one but yourself."

Sirius blinked. That was true. The wolf who had taken Lucius' wand was sitting on the far side of the room, guarding it – the one who had restored his to him was pressed against Malfoy's son's legs – he recalled from Harry's letters that the boy's name was Draco, but that he liked to be called Ray – and thinking of Harry seemed to have conjured him, for he and Ron were peering over Ray's shoulders into the room.

I'm not about to kill him, Ray, said a man's voice. But we'll never get this done if you all just stand there. Come on in, everyone.

Sirius stiffened. He could not have heard what he thought he'd heard. Not only had it been in his mind rather than his ears, but it was just bloody not possible. The man was dead. He'd been dead for twelve years...

The wolf on Malfoy's chest looked around at him as the four people in the doorway came into the room and started finding places to sit down. Its eyes were a brilliant blue. By the way, Padfoot, I give up. How do you get an elephant into a refrigerator?

Sirius was grateful that he was leaning on the wall, or he would likely have fallen down. "It's pretty simple," he said weakly. "Open the door, put the elephant in, and close the door again."

I should have seen that coming.

Yes, you should have, said a woman's voice, equally familiar, equally impossible, and clearly coming from the brown-eyed wolf sitting on Malfoy's wand. Sirius, since you have a wand and hands, would you mind tying these two morons up? Just so we don't have any sudden "Oh-look-I'm-awake" moments?

"I can do that." Sirius bound Nott first, then carefully directed the ropes he conjured to restrain only Malfoy, not the creature sitting on his chest.

Thank you. The wolf removed himself. Now, sir, I believe you wanted an explanation, he said to Malfoy.

"He's not the only one," muttered Sirius.

You drop your wand tip right after you cast, Padfoot. Always have. It's a bad habit. And then it takes you a second to get it back up –

Remus! There are children present!

Who's got the dirtier mind, Danger, the one who says it or the one who interprets it?

The boys were snickering, while the smallest wolf looked shocked, and Narcissa vaguely amused.

"Thank you. But that's not what I wanted explained, and you know it."

Oh, you mean this? Remus waved a paw at his surroundings. What we're doing here, and looking like this, and how long, and why didn't we ever tell you – that kind of thing?

"Yes, that'd be nice."

Does anyone mind if we go into it a little? asked Danger, looking around the room.

No one responded.

All right, story time it is. Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

The Death Eaters left us for last when they took the four of us, Remus began. They took Evanie first, then Peter. But I'm sure you know at least some of that. When they came for us, we were petrified that we were going to be separated, but it didn't happen. They hauled us away together. When we got where we were going, we found out why.

Lord Voldemort, said Danger, giving the title quite a sarcastic spin, had come up with a new spell. One for use on werewolves. It would do two things – turn them into their wolf form without the moon being up, and lock them there permanently, so that he could unleash them any time he wanted.

Sirius frowned. "That doesn't make sense. How would he control a werewolf? They're resistant to magic, shake off hexes and curses and such..."

Ah, there's the real genius in the spell. It was designed to change only the body of the werewolf. Not the mind. The mind would still be human, and thus capable of being, as he put it, trained. Danger's tone made it entirely clear what she thought of Voldemort's training tactics. Except on actual full moons, when the typical werewolf transformation would take over.

And I got to be the lucky test candidate, said Remus dryly. With Danger in the enclosure with me, of course, so that he could see if it had worked – if I'd kept my human mind – and if I had, he'd try and Imperius me to make me kill her anyway.

Well, I wasn't about to just sit there and let it have him, said Danger. I tried to knock him out of the way, in wolf form, of course, in case he lost his mind anyway, but I mistimed it, and the spell hit both of us. Hurt, too.

When the dust cleared, we were both standing there looking like this. Remus indicated himself and Danger. We found out we could talk to each other like this pretty quickly.

I think my first tip-off was when I heard you say that about my tail.

What? It is nice-looking.

Wolves couldn't blush, but Danger was managing anyway. In any case, Voldemort got pretty mad and Crucio'd a couple of people because they hadn't told him I was an Animagus, and ended up ordering that they put us away and watch us for a couple of days, to see if the spell wore off.

And we thought it had, said Remus. Because when we woke up the next morning, we were human. But around sunset, we got a shock. Turned back into wolves, the pair of us.

So we made it our business to be awake early the next morning. And sure enough, right around sunrise, we got unfurry and two-legged again.

A couple of days turned into a couple of weeks, and it became pretty obvious that this wasn't going to wear off, Remus continued. Humans during the day, wolves at night... I think our biggest surprise was on full moon night, though.

"What happened?"

Well, it seems that the spell managed to spread out Remus' were-ness, if that's even a word, to the both of us. So we both go about halfway out of our minds on the night of the full moon. We get touchy and grumpy and more likely to hurt someone, but we don't lose it completely.

Remus wolf-grinned. Honestly, on her, it's barely noticeable.

I'll pretend I didn't hear that.

"So what are you doing in wolf form?" Sirius looked out the window. "It's still light out."

We're getting there, hold your horses... anyway, the Death Eaters had a bit of a problem. Imperius didn't work very well on us. Nothing worked very well on us. Until Lucius Malfoy thought of those bracelet and collar sets they sell to control dangerous magical animals. Since they're specifically designed for magical creatures, and we're only half werewolf each, they worked. If we had been full werewolves, of course, I don't think they would have.

Sirius growled under his breath, suddenly understanding what Malfoy had said about uncollaring them.

But they didn't work quite the way they're supposed to. Remus seemed to be putting it together as he spoke. The person wearing the bracelet could stop us doing things. Like magic. We've been forbidden to do any kind of magic, all this time. But he couldn't quite make us do things.

He could, however, withhold our food if we didn't do things, said Danger bitterly. Or hurt us.

Still, it wasn't enough for us to be used reliably as weapons. Remus sighed. Thank God, we were able to avoid that. So Malfoy came up with another idea.

He made us part of his household, said Danger. That was around Christmas. We spent nights roaming the grounds, watching for intruders, and days in a little basement room with a bed and table and chairs, and a bathroom attached. Dobby brought us our meals. She yawned. Got boring after a while, looking at the same four walls. So we asked Dobby, ever so nicely, what his orders about us were.

He said that he'd been ordered to give us what we needed, said Remus with a chuckle. It didn't take us too long to convince him that "what we needed" could be stretched to include things like books.

It helped, of course, that we'd always been polite to him. Danger looked down at Malfoy, who was staring across the room at her. Got a problem? she inquired politely.

"Books? You've been pilfering from my library?"

Not pilfering, said Remus. It would only be pilfering if we didn't return them.

Of course, we thought of seeing if we could get Dobby to take a letter out, said Danger. But you thought of it first, she said to Lucius. Or maybe not that exactly, but you thought of something like it.

He started layering more prohibitions on our collars, said Remus. Prohibitions against us leaving the grounds, or telling anyone we were human in any way, or even against people speaking our names. We haven't been able to say our own names aloud for years. For the first time, his tone was bitter. We've been using the names he gave us. Caesar and Calpurnia. Slave names.

We always had this, said Danger. We could always say them to ourselves. But then... She stopped. Well, then it became a good idea not to for a while.

"Why?" asked Sirius, totally fascinated by the story.

Tell you later. But I forgot one thing about our lovely collars. They were set up rather uniquely. If one of us disobeyed, the punishment struck the other one. Small punishments for small crimes, larger ones for larger. So I could have run away at any time. If I didn't care that Remus was going to die for it.

And then there was Hermione.

Yes. Then there was Hermione. Danger sighed. We knew about her already, from your letters, of course.

"Yes. Please explain that to me. How in hell were you getting those letters?"

Oh, we did forget to tell you something, said Remus, sounding chagrined. It happened one day not too long after Malfoy took us over. Since we were out all night, we usually slept during the day, and... I suppose it was a dream, but it was so real. Maybe a vision would be a better word.

"Vision of what?"

We don't know, said Danger. They looked like ordinary people, but they seemed to have a lot of power. They told us they couldn't do anything about our captivity, that was our business, but they could give us things to make it better. We each got one specific power. Remus' was control over fire. Mine was control over dreams. And since our minds got cross-linked when we were hit by the spell, we can both use each other's.

Of course, since we were wearing the collars, we couldn't use the magic actively if we didn't want to make each other ill. We've only used the powers fully once each in all the time we've been here.

"Control of dreams," said Sirius slowly. "Not the night..."

You were in Azkaban. Yes. Danger nodded. We couldn't leave you like that. We couldn't do anything else about it – do you know how much we wanted to tell you that Peter was the spy, all that time? But you wouldn't have believed just a dream telling you so.

Sirius sighed. "No, probably not. So when did you use yours, Moony?"

I'll tell you later. It would just get in the way right now. But in any case, it turns out that Danger giving dreams to just the two of us doesn't count as using her power actively, so we've been dreaming together for years. And she can craft dreams and send them out to people, because that doesn't count either – it only counts if we interact with you. That's how we've been answering your letters.

Suddenly the connections closed in Sirius' mind. "And you've been getting them through your power – because we always burn them!"

Exactly. It's a little strange, seeing your handwriting in the fire in the kitchen fireplace, but it works.

Sirius laughed at the image.

Now, I want you to promise me something, Sirius, said Danger earnestly. Promise me you're not going to hurt anyone.

"I promise."

Severus Snape makes the potion that keeps us in wolf form.

Sirius regretted the promise immediately, as rage boiled up in him. "And he's never told us? All this time, he's never bothered to tell us where you are?"

Sirius, he doesn't know. At least not that it's us.

Lucius put it to him as an interesting challenge, a test of his skills, said Remus. It took him nearly two years to come up with what he did, and it's still not as perfect as Lucius would like. We have to take it every twenty-four hours, and once a month or so we need a day off from it, to let some of the ingredients flush out of our systems so they don't build up and become toxic.

"A day off?"

A day to be human, Danger clarified. We spend it in our lovely little room.

Of course, it would work just as well to hold us human most of the time, said Remus. We keep whatever form we're in when we take it for that twenty-four hours.

Sirius nodded. "I understand. But you were just talking about Hermione. Is she alive?"

Well, I think I am, said a third voice.

Sirius whipped around. The wolf sitting at Draco Malfoy's feet was regarding him with amused hazel eyes. Hi, Padfoot, she said.

They transfigured her into wolf form, said Danger. And then used the same spell on her and Evanie that they did on me and Remus. Only this time they meant it to do what it did.

Aletha's story about Evanie suddenly made sense. The change at sunset, the speaking mentally... no wonder Remus and Danger's story sounded familiar. "And then Malfoy collared her, and renamed her, and gave her to his son."

Yes. Remus had a tone in his voice Sirius knew well. It meant "I know something you don't, and you're not going to like it, and I like that." Yes. His son. Narcissa, do you want to take over here?

"I believe I would like that." Narcissa was sitting at a table across the room. All eyes turned to her now. This was what she liked best, Sirius knew – to be in the spotlight.

She smoothed her hair a little before she looked at her husband. "No woman of the House of Black has been repudiated in four hundred years," she said. "Even my sister Bellatrix managed to escape that fate when she was found to be barren. I was determined that it would not overtake me. So I was quite relieved when I conceived a child, in September of the year our friends came to us." She indicated Remus and Danger. "You recall I was brought to bed late in the day on 5 June of the next year, and upon the following day you arrived in my room to see your son and congratulate me."

"Yes, of course I remember," said Lucius impatiently. "What about it?"

"You recall how we have lived for the last eleven years," Narcissa continued, ignoring this. "You seldom see the boy, he is tended day to day by the house-elf. The house-elf who has access to all portions of the house, and who can, if he is asked politely, transport things – or people – from place to place."

Lucius looked slightly ill. "Are you telling me that these... creatures... have unduly influenced our son?"

"No, Lucius, I am not. Kindly allow me to finish. Did you ever, during the first year that our friends were here, see them in human form?"

"Of course not. What would have been the point? I locked them in their room before sunup and let them out again after sundown."

Narcissa's lips curled slightly in a smile. "Are you familiar with the way a female wolf looks when pregnant?"

"No, I am not. Where is this all leading?"

Sirius glanced at the children. The wolf – Hermione – was excited, bouncing in place on her front paws. Ray looked like a Quidditch player waiting for the whistle. Ron seemed confused, but Harry was looking carefully from Remus and Danger to Ray and back again.

"The sun is setting," said Narcissa, looking out the window. "It will be down soon." She looked back at Lucius. "I did not bear you a son that night," she said. "I bore you a daughter. A stillborn daughter. And the Healers told me I would never bear another child. I was devastated, not only for the loss of my child, but for the loss of everything I had ever valued. I knew you would turn me out of doors without a Knut and take another wife. I wept."

Lucius looked like a landed fish, Sirius thought maliciously. His mouth was opening and closing in just that way.

"Then a voice spoke to me. A polite, quiet voice. It was the wolf I knew as Caesar. The only time, to interrupt myself, that he has ever entered my bedchamber," said Narcissa, a trifle maliciously. "He was sorry for my loss, he said. He knew what it meant to me. And he wondered if perhaps a bargain could be made, acceptable to both sides."

Ray shifted in his chair, scratching one elbow.

"I asked him what he could mean. He told me to summon Dobby. I did so. When the elf arrived, he was carrying a bundle of blankets. I opened it and found within a newly born wolf cub. Healthy, vigorous, and male."

Lucius was shaking his head, as if trying to deny what Narcissa was saying.

"Calpurnia had borne him earlier that day, Caesar told me, and they had been searching desperately for a way to keep him safe. Surely I was a powerful enough witch to make the child resemble you. Surely I could find ways to keep you from discovering how he changed at nights. I bribed the Healers attending me to keep quiet about my daughter. I buried her body myself, later that night. And I took their child as my own."

Ray looked fiercely triumphant now, staring down Lucius with scorn in every line of his face – that couldn't be what he really looked like, Sirius realized, it had to be a glamour.

Poor kid. Probably hates what he sees every time he looks in the mirror.

"They had already named him Reynard. After some consultation, I settled on the name Draco. The nickname of Ray could conceivably stand for both. I was indeed able to charm him to resemble you during his human hours, and to keep you from his nursery at night – not a terribly difficult proposition, as you seldom went near his nursery in any case." Narcissa smiled. "If you had, you would not have liked what you found there. His true parents spent most days with him, returning to their room only when there was a chance you might discover them. And Calpurnia – my apologies, Danger – often came indoors at night to feed him."

Sirius had to fight to keep from laughing aloud at Lucius, who looked so pitifully horrified at this moment that Sirius was tempted to lean over and pat his head.

"When the aforementioned potion was discovered, my life grew easier. Ray could remain human for longer spans of time, reducing the risk of his being discovered as a wolf. As well, you no longer insisted that... Remus and Danger... be confined during the day. Much of the time, one of them patrolled the grounds, while the other stayed with the child. Or children, I should say. Griselda – Hermione – was added to the equation near this time, and she and Ray bonded quite strongly, more strongly than you were aware of, becoming like brother and sister rather than master and servant. And thus matters remained for quite a number of years."

Thus, Reynard and Griselda, said Remus. And you thought we were making it up.

"The sun is setting," said Ray, standing up. "Watch me, Father. Watch me change."

Lucius spoke at last, one word, forced out through an obviously choked throat.

"Draco..."

Ray looked at him in contempt. "That's not my name," he said. "And this isn't my face, either." He looked back at Harry and Ron. "I can't wait until I see what I really look like," he said. "Mother could never take the charm off me. It was always too dangerous."

The sun is setting, said Danger quietly.

And it was. Ray went to all fours, then lay down on his side. His body twisted – it was slower than an Animagus transformation, but it didn't look any more painful than one, Sirius thought, watching in fascination. Within a few moments, a wolf slightly larger than Hermione, but still smaller than his parents, was getting to his feet, looking exhilarated.

Hello, everyone, he said. My name is Reynard Lupin.

Lucius looked rather as if he'd been punched in the stomach. Obviously, he'd been hoping that Narcissa was lying, but here was indisputable proof that her story was true. Feeling merciful, Sirius drew his wand and Stunned the man.

Motion by his wrist caught his eye. A silver badger, Frank's Order signal. Sirius held up his wrist, letting the message sink in.

Everything all right in there?

Sirius grinned and created a return message.

Better than all right. Come on inside.

He looked fondly at Reynard and Hermione, now wrestling on the floor, and gave Harry a slight nod when he saw his godson eyeing the game wistfully. In a moment, the two-wolf romp had turned into a two-wolf-and-one-boy romp, and by the look of Ron, it would very soon be two wolves and two boys.

Oh yes, that's right, said Remus in response to something Sirius had missed. Padfoot, are you and Letha doing anything tomorrow night?

"Not that I know of. Why?"

Because we have a little excursion to take care of, and we were hoping you'd come. Danger's mouth came open in a wolf-grin. We're going to Godric's Hollow. To deal with Lord Voldemort's unfinished business.

(A/N: Any guesses on what that unfinished business might be? And be honest – who had the whole thing with Ray pegged, and who's totally amazed?

This story, in case you can't tell, is winding down. One or two more chapters, I think, and not for a little while – because I have to write some LwoD now! I promised before the weekend was over, didn't I? So please review, and watch your inboxes carefully!)