Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Search for Truth

Remus and Hermione experienced a few more tour stops over the next couple weeks. They were now on the last tour stop before the full moon. Remus thought of many ways that he could safely survive the experience, and had settled on a risky plan of sealing himself into the Paeton's indoor arena and soundproofing the walls. It certainly was not an ideal solution, but it was the best he could do.

He shuffled aimlessly down the busy Muggle street. Hermione was safely locked up in the trailer, and Remus had decided to go out for a walk and a bit of fresh air. Remus, before long, found himself standing in front of a floral shop. He had not planned on spending any money, but a desire emerged from the back of his mind. Increasingly over the past couple days, he felt tempted to convince Hermione to stay with him, and to approach her with how he felt. 'It's just some flowers. No harm in giving her flowers,' he reasoned. 'No, there is. You'd give her the wrong idea. You shouldn't try to convince her to stay with you. You have nothing to offer her,' another side of him insisted.

Remus felt someone tap him on the shoulder, jolting him out of his reverie. He spun around, only to come face to face with Linda, who was smiling knowingly.

"Who is the girl?" she asked teasingly. She had never believed his claim that he never had and did not have a girlfriend.

"Nobody, I don't have a girlfriend," answered Remus, embarrassed.

Linda stared at him unbelievingly.

"Really, I don't," Remus insisted.

Linda paused a moment, squinting her eyes thoughtfully. 'Perhaps he's too shy, he does seem to be the quiet type.'

"You know, Remus, being a girl myself, I could give you some advice. Girls always appreciate flowers," she advised. She smiled encouragingly and walked away.

Remus hesitantly entered the shop and browsed around. When he entered the third aisle, he stopped. Lilies. He instantly thought of the woman who had been named after the flower. He smiled sadly. She had died far too young, leaving Harry parentless. It still pained him to think of the loss of her life. Yet, it had been mostly because of her that Harry had lived through the Killing Curse. It had been through her that he had gained hope of Hermione's rehabilitation. The flower represented death, hope, and courage all at the same time to him, Lily's death, her courage, and the hope she had inspired.

He picked out some lilies and paid for them at the counter. He made his way back to the trailer, feeling nervous. How was Hermione going to take this? He opened the door slowly and walked to her room, where she was lying on the bed, sleeping. "Accio vase," he whispered, and caught it as it raced to him. He placed the lilies in the vase and left the room, closing the door.

Hermione opened her eyes as she awoke. The trailer was quiet. She noticed something in the corner of her eye. She wiggled her neck until she was able to change positions. Linda's hippotherapy was helping somewhat, the 'life' concept especially, and she had gained a bit of mobility over the past couple weeks.

Lilies. Remus had put lilies by her bedside! 'How sweet,' she thought, her heart warming. 'I wonder what made him decide to do that.' She gazed at them for a minute. 'Does he fancy me?' she wondered. 'Maybe I'm just making too much of this. I shouldn't jump to conclusions. It's just flowers, after all.'

After some time, Remus entered the room and found her staring at the flowers. "Do you like them?" he asked. She winked in the affirmative. Feeling that he should give some sort of explanation, he quietly added, "They make me think of Lily."

'Oh, yes,' thought Hermione. 'How silly of me to think that he likes me! Of course lilies would make him think of her. I should have known.'

"Would you like to watch some television with me?" asked Remus. He had discovered the Muggle contraption in the trailer last week, and had managed to figure out how it worked.

Hermione agreed, so he picked her up and took her to the living room, where he set her down next to him on the couch. He wrapped an arm around her to help her keep sitting upright, and turned on the TV. He flipped through the channels, glancing at her to see if she liked anything that was on. Finally they settled on a movie, "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

Remus let his thoughts wander as he watched the movie. Pat Paeton's tour would end soon, allowing Hermione to go back to Hogwarts. He would have to come up with some story to explain her absence. Then he would be alone again. Not only that, he would be a fugitive for the rest of his life. He probably would never see Hermione again, either, since he would have to keep his location tightly under wraps.

Tears filled his eyes at the thought. 'I mustn't cry,' he told himself firmly. 'Grown men don't cry.' His arm tightened around Hermione. 'Before she leaves, I want tell her how I feel about her. I don't want to make her feel guilty for leaving me, though. Either way, I'm going to regret it. I don't know what to do.'

Michael Judge entered a Muggle library, feeling quite disgruntled. Remus and Hermione, who he knew was still quite alive, had slipped right through his hands, despite tipping off the Ministry to their whereabouts and sending a whole Ministry squad after them. Voldemort certainly had not been pleased. Michael had exhausted all the Wizarding ways of finding them, so he now resorted to using Muggle resources, which he disdained. Right now, he was going to use something called the "Internet."

He sat himself down in front of an available computer screen, feeling clueless and scornful. This was probably going to be quite a waste of time. He stared at the strange array of buttons in front of him, all labeled with different letters, words, and symbols. He wondered why the letters were not in alphabetical order. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to them. Then, upon further examination, he found a strange instrument with two buttons on it, attached to a cord that seemed to be connected to the screen in front of him. He picked it up and turned it over, staring at the little ball underneath.

"Need some help?" offered an eager voice.

Judge set the odd ball-button thing down and turned to look at the teen, feeling annoyed at needing help from a Muggle. He was a boy who looked to be about sixteen, face full of pimples and an oversized set of glasses resting on his nose.

The kid, ignoring his annoyed expression, enthusiastically went on. "I'm Caton! I'm a volunteer! You probably have never worked with a computer before, right? I can show you how!"

Judge muttered a "no" shortly, making it unclear as to whether he was saying he never worked with a computer, or he was refusing the boy's help.

This didn't seem to matter at all to Caton. He brightly explained what the different computer parts were called. Judge hardly paid attention; he was bored out of his wits. He thought cursing the boy would be amusing, but that would draw too much attention to him, and he couldn't afford that.

"So! What would you like to use the computer for?" asked Caton brightly, startling Judge out of his thoughts.

"Internet," he said reluctantly, grunting. "To search for something."

"Really! I know of some good sites, we could try Yahoo and Google! Here we are!" His fingers were poised, ready to type.

"Damn Mudblood... invalid... half-breed..." he muttered incoherently. He felt like leaving, Muggles were not going to get him anywhere. What was he thinking when he came? They didn't know anything.

Caton stared at him for a second, trying to piece together what he had just heard. Mud, blood, invalid, half, and breed. He thought that was what he had heard, but surely he could not be right. Blood… Maybe he was looking for different blood types. But what about that bit with the mud and invalid? Perhaps it was some kind of animal that liked mud. Maybe he had a disabled friend who liked them. Proud of his own brilliance, Caton typed in different blood types into the search. He did not seem to hit on anything that made sense, until he typed in "blood" and "disabled."

A page came up, showing mostly results with horses. 'Of course, horses like mud!' thought Caton. He wasn't into horses, but when he drove by one once, it was rolling in the mud and appeared to be enjoying himself. He and Judge scanned the page. The words "warmblood" and "disabled" were highlighted. The summary read: "...Linda, riding her Dutch Warmblood, introduces a new program geared towards disabled riders." Caton glanced at Judge, who appeared to be a bit impatient. His foot was tapping, and his fists were clenched. Caton shrugged and clicked on the link. A short article and a picture came up.

At first, Judge gave him an exasperated look, and was about to get up and leave because, clearly, he was not getting anywhere; but when he saw the picture, his expression changed dramatically. There sat the Mudblood, riding double with some blonde Muggle. After reading the article, he had Caton click another link to check the dates and locations of the tour, quickly finding the information he needed. 'All I have to do is get some Ministry officials, a portkey, and my job will be done!' Michael thought jubilantly. He shook, or more like crushed, the boy's hand, and hurriedly exited the library. He had a mission to fulfill.

Dumbledore, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Mr. Weasley were all assembled in Dumbledore's office, discussing what to do about Remus and Hermione. To Mr. Weasley's knowledge, they had not been located yet. They, themselves, did not know even where to look.

"Let's put ourselves in Remus's position," suggested Dumbledore. "He wants to get as far away from the Ministry of Magic as possible. Yet, I think he'd stay in England, to keep tabs on things. I don't believe we'll be able to find them. I think it's better to investigate the strange happenings at the Ministry lately. The Minister of Magic has not been himself."

"What do you think is going on?" wondered Ron.

"I have my suspicions," Dumbledore said shortly. "I shall look into them further."

"But what can we do? We have to do something," insisted Harry.

Dumbledore looked at Harry intently. He knew very well, that if he did not give Harry something to do, he would likely go off and do something rash. 'Better to know what he is up to,' decided Dumbledore. 'Come to think of it, he could be quite useful.'

Dumbledore relented. "All right, Harry. You can come with me, and bring Ron and Ginny, and maybe a few trustworthy DA members."

"Where are we going?" asked Harry, exchanging triumphant smiles with his friends.

"To the Ministry of Magic, to pay a visit to certain people, and hopefully the Minister as well." Dumbledore shifted in his seat. "We'll go there in a few days, when I can get everything arranged." With that, the headmaster dismissed everyone except Mr. Weasley.

Harry had already decided what DA members he would invite, Luna and Neville. They had proven their loyalty and trustworthiness before at the Ministry, and he was sure they would not fail him now.

He first came across Luna Lovegood. They had found her in the library, reading.

"Hi Luna," started Harry.

"I'll ask her," said Ron suggested, blushing slightly.

Harry smiled impishly and nodded. He knew Ron had a thing for Luna.

Luna raised her eyes from her book, staring at them expectantly.

"We were wondering if you'd come to the Ministry of Magic with us and Dumbledore in a few days," announced Ron.

Luna continued staring at them intently, and then gave the barest of nods. "Yes." She paused. "You're rescuing the nargles, aren't you? I've read about it." She held up the latest publication of The Quibbler.

"We're going as a favor for Dumbledore. We can explain more later," Harry promised.

"Watch out," Luna responded, not seeming to take into account what Harry had just said. "Nargles bite."

"Okay," said Harry, shrugging his shoulders.

"Bye, Luna," said Ron. Harry and Ron left her to continue reading and searched around for Neville. They found him bent over, frantically searching for something on the ground.

"Lose something? Can we help?" Harry asked Neville.

"I've lost my Rememberall again. My Gran's going to murder me," Neville moaned in frustration.

"Accio Rememberall!" shouted Harry. It zipped out of the back pocket of Draco Malfoy, who had been nonchalantly walking away from them, and into Harry's hands. Harry, in turn, handed it back to Neville.

"Thanks, Harry," Neville said gratefully. "I never did master the Summoning Charm."

"No problem," Harry smiled, before looking at him seriously.

"We have a favor to ask, Neville," Ron said.

"Yes?"

"Will you come to the Ministry of Magic in a few days with me, Harry, Ginny, Luna, and Dumbledore?"

"Sure! But why?"

"Here, let's go to somewhere that's a little more private," Harry suggested, leading the way to the Room of Requirement. When they were safely inside, Harry began, and told him everything about Remus and Hermione and their current situation.

Neville felt a bit excited. Lupin was innocent of most of his charges! He felt certain that he could believe Harry, especially with Dumbledore involved and all. "I'll come with you, just let me know when," he said. He hoped it would be quite soon, or he would never remember. "I hope we can get to the bottom of it. We need Hermione back here."

"I know," said Harry sadly. "We should go back to the common room."

They walked out of the Room of Requirement. "I'm going to the owlery," announced Neville. He wanted to tell his grandmother about the latest development in Lupin's case. "See you later."

"See you," Harry and Ron echoed.

"I need to go to the library. I've got loads of homework," Ron stated gloomily. "I hope Hermione comes back soon, homework was so much easier with her around."

"Bye, Ron," said Harry, smiling to himself. He knew better. Ron was going to the library to be with Luna, not to do homework. Harry continued on his way, and once he reached the common room, sat down and pulled out his Charms book. He decided to get to his Charms homework first. He had an essay to write explaining the uses and origin of the Confundus Charm.

Replies to Reviewers:

Radingsouls4u: You're right, I do. I'm a bit of a know-it-all when it comes to horses, like Hermione with her schoolwork, LOL! I'm thinking about becoming a horse trainer. Thanks, great to hear from you!

Rane2920072: Oh, yes, they're in big trouble now! You have a good weekend too, and cheers for you! (lots of exclaimation points!)

Amber Hermione: Glad you liked my reviews. Yeah, poor Remus, things aren't looking up for him. Michael seems to be getting the upper hand, but we shall see. :) Thanks for reviewing.

MoonyNZ: Wow, thanks MoonyNZ, that was a really long review! I love those. :) Ooo, you caught that, good eye. Yes, that has proven to be important! Hehe I'm going to have to agree with you about Remus. But, that's not what the Ministry wants. (that would be scary) Glad you liked the pancake bit. Thanks so much, again, for the long review!

Oddballout: You're in luck! I was able to get this out quickly. My beta was really fast! Glad I had you in suspense. ;) Thank you for the great review!

JTBJAB: Great to hear from you. Thanks for being such a faithful reviewer!

Preview of next chapter: "Decided to take a break, sweetie, and help you," he said eagerly, pushing past her to get into the trailer. Linda, puzzled by his manner, followed him through the living room, where Pat paused. He stared at Remus and began to laugh in a rather disturbing fashion.

"Are you sure you got enough sleep last night?" asked Linda. Yes, Pat was eccentric sometimes, but this was just odd. Something was very wrong.