Chapter 22

"How much longer do we have until you have to go?"

"About an hour. I only have to go from the lane out front into Redruth and then to Birmingham. The warehouse is in Wednesbury."

"Can't you just apparate straight there?"

He had forgotten that she hadn't gotten her apparation license until several months after she left school, so she wouldn't remember her lessons. "I could, however it is safer to apparate long distances from the nearest city to the largest city near where one is going, so if a mistake is made one has a larger margin of error."

"Oh. I've always been afraid that I'd splinch myself."

Remus smiled, "You passed your exam only a few months after you left school, I believe."

"I did? I wonder why I changed my mind. I had never intended to learn at all."

Surprised, Remus answered, "I don't know. We can begin lessons for you again, if you like. Since you have already done it, you may find it easier than you think."

"Do you work a lot?"

"I've been working from 10 until 6 every day. There wasn't any point in taking off the weekend. However, they know that I will be gone for the two days following the full moon."

"They know you are a werewolf?"

"No, Winnie, they don't even know that I am a wizard."

"Really?"

Remus laughed, "I don't look very much like I would be good security without a wand, do I?"

Edwina thought privately that he really did not. "They must have thought so."

Remus smiled mischievously, "Ye-es, but whether that thought was natural or whether it was put there for them is only for the wizard in question to know."

"You made them give you the job?"

Remus shrugged his shoulders, "Perhaps I encouraged them a little."

"Oh! Won't you get in horrible trouble?"

"Only if they ever put a trace on the correct wand."

"I thought that werewolves' wands were all monitored."

"Mm, yes. I think that the Ministry believes that, as well. However it is always possible to own more than one wand, Winnie."

Edwina gasped and spoke in a half-admiring, half-shocked tone, "You have an unregistered wand? Aren't they awfully hard to get?"

Remus shrugged his shoulders again. "In Britain, yes. However I haven't always lived in Britain, Winnie."

"Oh. So, so why didn't you just make the muggles give you the money? Why take a job?"

"Because that really isn't honest, is it? I may have given myself better odds at the job, but I didn't change the salary or do anything actually dishonest."

"Oh. I suppose that makes sense. So you just patrol the warehouse all day?"

Remus reached out his hand and moved a hair that was hanging in front of her face. "Yes."

Edwina budged up closer to where Remus was. She had pulled the ottoman for the flowered chintz chair over to the green chair and had seated herself on it so that she could lean on the arm of his chair while they talked. Remus smiled lazily and asked, "How did you find your plants?"

"Oh, quite half of them are unsalvageable. The poor, poor things. I didn't think of them even once the entire time I was gone, I really can't believe it."

"You had other things on your mind, Winnie. I tried a stasis spell, but I don't really know a proper one. I used the spell for keeping food from spoiling."

Winnie smiled, "That is nearly the right one, only slightly different. But some of the plants cannot be put in a stasis state. The ones I might be able to save were those that aren't so delicate."

"So the Simplex level plants?"

"Quite dead, except the solatia lunaris, of course."

Remus had no idea why that plant, whatever it was, would have survived, but it didn't really matter. She did and it was her specialty, so he would continue in ignorance and leave her to it.

"I have some questions about that magic."

Remus, who had been pleased with himself for successfully navigating the conversation away from his stigmat earlier groaned inwardly. He sighed aloud and said, "Fine, but I do not intend to discuss Vrăjitorie Noastră at length."

"Must you always call it that? Isn't there an English term, so I know what to call it?"

"There really isn't any English name for it. Vrăjitorie Noastră has a double meaning – "our bewitchment" and "our own wizardry". There isn't any real way to say that in English. I suppose that we could call it the Control. That is what they call it in Slovak."

"What language is that anyway?"

"Romanian. I studied the Romanian form of the Control. There is a Slovak version, but it uses more dark magic. Their stăpânire…I suppose Mastery is a close enough translation, is always for power and never to calm the beast."

"So you always worked to control it for good?"

Remus frowned, "That was my purpose in going there and that is all I use it for now."

Edwina squinted her eyes and said softly, "You tried the other?"

"Yes. I do not wish to do that ever again."

"Why? I mean, why did you?"

"That is hard to explain, Edwina. I would rather not delve into that now."

"Could I ask you some other questions?"

"Yes."

"Do we have friends? I mean, besides Sirius Black, did we have any friends or did we just sit at the house by ourselves?"

Remus smiled, "We did stay here a lot and I don't think it bothered either of us very much. I do have a few friends, but none of them are the sort that comes over for dinner, Edwina. The Weasleys came over once and we went there twice."

"The plump red-haired lady? She's nice, but…it was like having a kind auntie that you didn't even recognise. And I felt guilty when she came because I didn't like her sons. One of them once turned my hair purple and he thought it was terribly funny even when I cried."

Remus recognised the description of Fred Weasley. George would definitely have been affected by a girl's tears. "Fred and George Weasley never mean any harm by their pranks, Edwina, so I don't think that they always realise when they have actually hurt someone's feelings."

"Maybe, but I didn't like them or the other one. The dreary, poncy one who was head boy."

"No, well, it is best not to mention Percy around Molly or Arthur. He has renounced the family."

"He hasn't! I never heard anything so shameful. Why even my family didn't disown me after our marriage and you know what they are like! The Weasleys are kind people, aren't they?"

"The Weasleys belong to the organisation, Winnie. Percy does not."

"Oh. Do you really have to go to that meeting tonight?"

"I do. I promise that I would skip it if I thought I could. However, Sirius…I need to be there."

"What about tomorrow? Do you work again?"

"Yes. I need to work as much as possible, Edwina. I will be taking off almost two weeks in about two months. This sort of job doesn't give holidays."

"You'll lose your job then?"

"Unless I can find a substitute, yes."

"Why do you have to take off so long?"

"I have a job to do for the organisation. That is really all I can tell you right now. It is something only I can do, so there is no backing out of it."

Edwina pursed her lips and regarded Remus closely. After a few moment she asked, "Do you have any family?"

"Yes, an aunt and her five children, all of whom despise me. There is no relationship there."

"Oh. That is all?"

"I do have some muggle relatives, but again there is no relationship. They don't hate me, but they don't really care either. My mother's family never really understood the magical world and my illness frightened them. I think it is easier for them to ignore everything and everyone magical."

"I don't really mind the Bledsoe family having cut me. Most of them are cranks about one cause or the other. It gets tiresome remembering who hates what so you always say the wrong thing. But when I first woke up from the memory loss and I thought even Aldebaran had forgotten me…I don't think I could bear it if he did. He's the only Bledsoe that ever mattered, you know?"

"Yes, Winnie. I think he feels the same way about you, as close as a sibling."

"Yes, that's it. I couldn't have survived my first two years at Hogwarts without him looking out for me. I was so tiny then that they almost didn't let me go to school."

"You never told me that."

"I had a lot of trouble growing. Mum thought it was because of our house and Father doing too much dark magic or something. But the healers said that some Breochaidie girls never grow past 4 feet until puberty."

"I see."

"So Aldebaran was my bodyguard."

"A sixth year Slytherin bodyguard for a first year Hufflepuff must have raised eyebrows."

Edwina laughed, "It did! He wouldn't even let me carry my books, but he didn't want to carry them himself. So he would "enlist" a helper."

Remus smiled and said, "Very believable."

"I remember once my friends admitted that they were terrified of him, so I asked Aldebaran to get them sweets at Hogsmeade so they wouldn't think he was so scary. But you know Aldebaran."

"What did he do, get them cockroach clusters?"

"Acid pops. I could have killed him! But when he saw I really was upset he offered to make Geoffrey Wettle give them his chocolates."

Remus shook his head and said with amusement, "But not his own sweets."

"Aldebaran? He might have given them to me, but nothing else would part him from his nut fudge I think. It's his fault I got addicted to fudge. He used to bring me a bag every Hogsmeade weekend."

"Winnie, I wanted to talk to you about your family, actually."

"Oh? What about?"

"Several things. Did your family mention why none of them visited you when you were in St. Mungo's?"

"I asked Aldebaran. He told me that he hadn't heard I was ill. I know he was lying, but I didn't press him to answer."

"How about your uncle?"

"I didn't ask Uncle Wilfred. One doesn't really ask Uncle things."

"Do you think it is odd that they didn't visit?"

"Yes. I do. At first I thought that maybe they had all cut me when I got married. That was an awful thought, you know? To think Father was gone and Uncle didn't care for me and even Aldebaran…"

Remus touched her arm and said softly, "Yes, Winnie, I do know. I am glad that wasn't the case." Remus readjusted himself in the chair and continued. "When you were with your great-aunt, did your family discuss your parents?"

"Oh, you know I asked Great-Aunt what had happened and she was very odd about it. She told me that I had enough to worry about and that I should pray for my mother's soul."

"No one else mentioned anything else?"

"Well Aldebaran isn't a Leighton, so he really didn't have anything to do with Father, you know? He would never have discussed them and he rather hated Mum. Of course everyone hated Mum."

Remus nodded. Edwina's mother had been an awful woman. "I have been thinking about some of the unexplained things that have been happening to us. I have the beginning of an idea, but I'm not really certain yet."

"What is it?"

"I would like to investigate some things before I say more. But I think that everything is related. It is no coincidence that your family didn't visit and I think your mother's death and your father's disappearance are also connected."

"How?"

"I'm still thinking that through."

Edwina stared at him. "Remus, was I the same person before that I am now?"

Remus drew his brows together and tilted his head to one side. "Yes, you are. I would say you are the same person, but you haven't reacted the same way to everything."

"How so?"

"You are more afraid of me, but less in awe of me. You are less willing to defer to me."

Edwina blanched slightly. Her mother had told her repeatedly throughout her childhood that a pureblooded witch should always defer to the males of her family, especially her father and her future husband. The ideal had been instilled so carefully that Edwina had never questioned that this was right until her seventh year. Sophie had railed at her for being a doormat to Aldebaran, who, unaware of Edwina's desperate crush on Lupin, had wanted her to meet his friend at Hogsmeade. In the end, Edwina had flooed Aldebaran from the Hufflepuff common room to accept, but her cousin had seen her tears and immediately jettisoned the entire idea.

Edwina's mind came back to the present. Her mother would have had strong words for how Edwina had acted over the last month. But what did he mean precisely? Perhaps she should ask.

"Edwina?" Remus seemed very concerned. "I didn't mean that was a bad thing, Winnie. I tried everything I could think of to get you to open up to me beforehand. I always had a feeling that you had ideas or desires that you were afraid to tell me about."

"Oh."

"Listen to me, Winnie. Your opinions matter to me. I don't want you to keep things from me."

"Do you tell me everything?"

Remus shook his head, "No, I don't. I can't tell you everything, Winnie, because some things are not my secrets to tell. But perhaps in time I will tell you my own secrets. Honestly, there is a lot there so it will take some time."

"That isn't fair. I can't have secrets, but you can."

Remus frowned and placed his hand over hers on the arm of his chair. "My secrets aren't nice, Winnie. I don't enjoy them." Remus looked back at the moon clock and with a sudden movement he jerked himself up from the chair. "I'm going to be late. I have to leave, Winnie."

"Now?"

"Yes. Tonks will bring Blackie this afternoon, I think. Where did I leave my flask?"

Winnie raised her wand and the pewter flask flew through the air into her hand. "On the table. Here it is."

"Thank you, love. I will see you tonight."

Winnie placed her hand on his chest and said softly, "Ok."

Remus bent his head to meet hers with a small smile.