(A/N: This chapter takes place in the middle of Chapter Twenty-Four of "Consequences". Thank you.)

Emmeline slumped at her kitchen table, her head on her arms, sobbing quietly.

How could he? How could Remus do this to me? First kissing that... that Death Eater spy bitch, and then lying to me about it! I think I could have forgiven him the kiss, but he lied to me!

What if he's lying when he says it's over between them? What if everything he ever told me was a lie? What if...

"What if he charms a pig to fly and make a mess on your roof?" said a quiet, humorous voice nearby.

Emmeline jerked her head up to see a woman sitting across from her. "How did you get in here?" she demanded.

"You're asleep. This is a dream." The woman smiled at her. "Truth to tell, I think sleep's the best thing for you right now. That, and a handkerchief." She lifted her hand and plucked one out of thin air. "Here." She handed it to Emmeline.

Emmeline wiped her eyes and blew her nose. "Thank you," she said. "Who are you, anyway?"

"You can call me Danger. Most people do. And you're Emmeline Vance, correct?"

"That's right." Emmeline looked more closely at her visitor. "Are you any relation to Hermione Granger?"

"You might say that. You think a lot of Hermione, don't you?"

"Yes. She's a very smart girl, a very good one, and she didn't deserve what happened to her... oh, damn, here I go again..." Emmeline felt the tears start up in her eyes again. "No one deserves to lose both her parents at the age of sixteen!"

"No, and no one deserves it at the age of twenty, either," said Danger, standing up and coming around the table. "Or twenty-five, or fifty. No one ever deserves to lose people they love, but it happens to everyone." Vaguely, Emmeline heard the sounds of china clattering behind her. "Sometimes you have warning, but sometimes it just jumps out and ambushes you, and everything you cared for is gone."

Was she imagining the catch in Danger's voice, Emmeline wondered, or was it real?

"But when it does, there's two things you can do. You can sit in the middle of what used to be your world and cry. Or you can get up and start building it again. I'm not against crying – I've done my fair share, and I'm sure I'll do more – but there's only so long you can do it before it starts getting old. And crying doesn't put food on the table, nor clothes on your back, and it only helps things get better to a certain extent. After that, you have to start working again."

Emmeline looked up as something landed on the table beside her. It was a tea tray, loaded with a gently steaming pot, cups and saucers, the sugar bowl and milk pitcher, and a plate of biscuits.

"Of course, a cup of tea never hurts, either," said Danger, taking a seat beside her. "Would you like one?"

"Yes, please." Emmeline couldn't help but smile. "You're very... capable."

"I have an advantage," said Danger, pouring the tea. "Detachment. These aren't my people we're talking about. When bad things happen to my family, or to me, I'm not nearly so philosophical about it." She grinned. "I tend to swear a lot. Sugar?"

"Yes, please." Emmeline accepted her teacup and the sugar bowl. "Who are your people, then?"

"That's a bit of a long story, and not really what I'm here for. But you mentioned Hermione. I do have an interest in her. In making sure she's taken care of. I know finances won't be a problem for her, and she's of age in September, so she doesn't have to worry about custody. But she's going to need someone to look out for her. Someone to ask questions of. A mother figure, I guess you'd say." Danger blew on her tea. "I was hoping you could do that."

Emmeline looked a little askance at her guest. "You're not a ghost, are you? Mrs. Granger, or someone like that? Not that I'd really mind, but I'd just like to know."

"The last time I checked, I'm still alive," said Danger cheerfully. "Life's a little precarious, but isn't it that way for everyone? But enough about me. I'm afraid I eavesdropped just enough to figure out what you were crying about when I got here. You're upset because Remus kissed Naomi, then lied about it to you?"

Emmeline nodded, by the odd logic of dreams not at all upset that this total stranger knew exactly what was wrong. "Why would he do something like that?"

"Because he was afraid that you would react exactly the way you are reacting?" suggested Danger. "Men hate emotional scenes; they try to put them off as long as possible, but the silly clunches don't realize that only makes it worse. Trust me, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt you."

"But he lied..."

"Because there is no good way to say, 'Oh, by the way, I just kissed my Death Eater ex-fiancée, but it really didn't mean anything and I don't care about her at all,' especially not at midnight and only about a minute after it happened."

Damn it, she's making sense. I don't want her to, I want to stay mad at Remus, but she's making sense.

"And let me tell you something he never will. She set him up. She told him a load of emotionally charged stuff, stuff out of their past. She guilt-tripped him, making him think that he should have seen she was going Dark. And then she moved right up next to him and asked him for one last kiss."

Emmeline slammed her teacup down on the table, nearly cracking it. "That little bitch!"

"Now you're getting it," said Danger, setting her own cup down. "If it had been daylight out, if he hadn't been worried about Sirius, if she hadn't told him all of that, if any one of a thousand little things had been different, it never would have happened."

Emmeline nodded grimly. "When I wake up, I am going to find her. I am going to tie her to a hippogriff and have it drag her around the country a few dozen times. After that, I'm going to let rabid bowtruckles nibble on her for a while, and then I think I'll drown her in flobberworm mucus."

Danger cracked up. "I see why Remus likes you," she said through her giggles. "You're smart, you're pretty, you have a wonderful sense of humor, and you know your magical creatures."

Emmeline smiled. "Thank you." Something occurred to her. "What is Remus to you? You seem to know him pretty well..."

Danger stopped laughing abruptly. "That's... a hard question to answer truthfully," she said. "I care about him a lot. I want only the best for him. And in this... place, that's you." Her smile was suddenly back. "So if you wouldn't mind getting over this rather small and insignificant event, which has much less to do with him than it does with her, and accept the apology I am sure he'll be offering you as soon as he sees you next, I would be ever so grateful."

"Are you telling me to get my head out of my arse?"

"Yes."

Emmeline laughed. "I don't think anyone's ever told me that quite so politely."

"I learned from the best. Haven't you ever noticed how slyly Remus can put things so that you're never quite sure if he's making fun or not?"

"Oh, yes. And even with as long as they've spent living in the same house, Sirius still doesn't always get it."

"And believe me, he never will," said Danger, grinning. "No matter how long they spend together, Remus will still be able to zing him." Her eyes became tender. "And no matter how long you and Remus spend together, it will only get better. He's a very romantic man, in a quiet way. He'll bring you flowers for no reason, or your favorite kind of chocolate, or just surprise you with a kiss when you need one the most. Some people talk about love wearing out, but when you love Remus Lupin, your love wears in. He'll find new ways to love you every day."

Emmeline narrowed her eyes. "And how exactly do you know that?"

Danger blushed and flipped her hair over her face for a moment, apparently finger-combing a tangle out of it.

"Oh, no, you don't. Come out of there."

The curtain of wavy brown parted, revealing wary-looking brown eyes. "Yes?"

"What, exactly, is your relationship to Remus Lupin?"

"Damn it, this is exactly where I didn't want to be," muttered Danger to herself. She looked at Emmeline hopefully. "Are you sure you want to know? I promise I'm no threat to you, I won't show up one day and try to steal him away from you – though I doubt he'd let himself be stolen, if he'd given his heart to you. And he has, I can see that."

"But it's obvious you know him. And from the way you're talking, you love him, and he loves you, and has for a long time. I just want to understand what's going on here."

Danger sighed. "All right. You asked for it, remember."

She stood up, shook her hair back from her face, and motioned for Emmeline to rise as well. Then she uttered a trilling whistle.

Emmeline jumped as her kitchen disappeared, to be replaced by the study at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, where they kept the maps and documents needed by the Order of the Phoenix. There was only one other person in the room.

"Remus!"

"He can't see us," said Danger, her voice slightly strained. "This is a memory. My memory. It's the best way I know to explain."

There was no time to say more, as the door burst open and a pair of figures shot through, one in hot pursuit of the other. Harry was the pursuer, Emmeline realized as he launched himself through the air – but who was the pursued? Not Ron, certainly. That pale blond hair had never graced a Weasley head...

"Gentlemen," said Remus, rolling up the scroll he'd been reading. "That's enough."

The wrestling boys on the floor ignored him entirely.

Remus got to his feet, walked over to them, and in a leisurely fashion leaned down and obtained two handfuls of collar, hauling the combatants apart. "You can't fight in here," he said, with the air of someone repeating something for the umpteenth time. "This is the War Room. Now, what's going on?"

"Draco stole my homework," said Harry thickly through a bloody nose.

"Lean your head back and pinch it," advised Remus, letting him go. "Draco?"

"I was just borrowing it," said the silver-blond boy, rubbing a place on his arm and wincing.

"Oh, right, borrowing it," grumbled Harry. "And that's why you were turning all the ink invisible."

"It was on a timer! It would have turned visible again before holidays were over!"

"Is that Draco Malfoy?" asked Emmeline, staring in fascination.

"Yes. And no. Listen." Danger was leaning closer, her eyes flicking from one face to another.

"Fight somewhere else, you two," said Remus, drawing his wand. "Harry, come here. Episkey."

"Thanks," said Harry as his nose stopped bleeding. "You swear my homework's not really gone?" he asked Draco.

"Swear on my magic," said Draco, lifting his right hand. "I brewed the potion myself. Everything'll show up again two days before hols are over."

"If you're lying, I'll use that handwriting-transformation spell Sirius taught us over the summer and turn in yours instead."

"Which would make your Potions scores go up, but your Transfiguration scores go down."

"Come on, with Snape teaching Potions, you really think anything's going to make my scores go up?"

"Well, maybe if you got Hermione to write your essay for you..."

"But then he'd nail me for plagiarism. No thanks."

Remus chuckled quietly to himself as the boys left the room, arguing companionably over whether Snape would downgrade a really excellent essay that Harry himself had written.

"They're friends," said Emmeline in shock.

"No, they're brothers," corrected Danger. "Look, here I come."

"Brothers?" Emmeline would have stared at her, but the scene in the room drew her attention. It wasn't every day she got to watch the man she loved kiss another woman with both the ease of long practice and the heat of real passion.

Great Merlin. How can I compete with that?

Remus broke the embrace first, signaling a need for air. He smiled down at Danger with the look in his eyes Emmeline loved, the one which said the person he was looking at was all he was currently interested in, and he wouldn't be seeing anything else any time soon. "And I was just starting to wonder again why I married you," he said.

"Married?" repeated Emmeline, wondering how much more of this her knees would take. "You're married?"

"You've been saying that for fourteen years," said the Danger in the scene, leaning back against his arms with perfect assurance. "Don't you think you could have come up with a new line by now?"

Emmeline was vaguely aware that the woman beside her had moved quickly to provide her with the chair she was now sitting on, that otherwise she would have ended up on the floor, and that she really ought to thank the other woman, but her mind was busy dealing with one concept.

Fourteen years.

"Well, would you rather have a new line or another kiss?"

"Do I have to answer that?"

Someone cleared their throat in the doorway of the room.

"Go away," said Danger without turning around. "We're busy."

"I think I'll shut the door, then," said Hermione, making to suit action to word.

"No, we're not busy," said Remus, disengaging himself from Danger. She gave him a mournful look, but he winked at her, and she smiled and nodded, as if they'd held a silent conversation. "What do you need, Kitten?"

"It's not urgent, but I was just hoping you could look over my essay for Defense. I'm trying to make my points but still keep it respectful."

"Why bother?" asked Danger. "I know, I know, it goes against your nature to be really disrespectful to a teacher, but honestly..."

"Well, I have to do something or I'll scream," said Hermione as the adults left the room with her. "After what happened just before holidays..."

The room dissolved around them. They were back in Emmeline's kitchen.

Emmeline shook her head. "None of that is possible," she said with certainty. "Harry and Draco Malfoy hate each other. Remus would have told me if he'd ever been married. And I know for a fact he's never called anyone Kitten in his life, and certainly not Hermione Granger."

Danger nodded. "All of that is true," she said. "But what I showed you was also true. In another world."

"Another world? You mean like a parallel universe?"

"Yes. Exactly like a parallel universe. And my family would have been just as happy to let our two universes, yours and mine, go on being parallel. But we were somebody's problem. And that somebody decided to bend our universe enough that it touched yours, then shove us through the barrier between them and leave us here to die. I can't say who did it for certain, but I have my guess."

Emmeline nodded. "I assume you consider Harry part of your family?"

"You assume correctly."

"Then I also have a guess."

"I thought you would."

"Why do you say you were left here to die? Did something in the crossing of the barrier affect you badly?"

Danger gave a brittle laugh. "You might say that."

A few words sufficed to describe the family's fate. Emmeline needed to sit down again. To have that happen to yourself would be a horror – but to watch it happen to your love, to your friends, to your children...

Just as she finished, Danger's head snapped up. "Oh, dragon dung – I have to go. Someone needs me. Look, please don't tell anyone about this – they'll think you're mental. Just... just make up with Remus, please, and take care of Hermione, and you'll have my thanks, for all that's worth..."

"Where can I find you?" asked Emmeline. I might be able to help her. I might be able to help all of them. But I can't do it long distance. "In real life, in my world. Where are you?"

Danger shook her head. "You don't want to find me, trust me. It'll just make trouble."

"Tell me where to find you," insisted Emmeline. "Please." She had an idea. "I'll make up with Remus right away if you do."

Danger gave a short laugh. "You've only known me half an hour and you can already push my buttons. All right. I'm at Hogwarts, in the Forest. Ask Hagrid where you can find wolves. I'm with them."

And before Emmeline could say anything more, she was awake, in her kitchen, blinking sleepily at the clock.

Not quite ten forty-five. Remus never goes to bed before eleven. He'll still be up.

She got up and hurried to the bathroom to wash her face with cold water. Apparating while sleepy was an invitation to get splinched, and if there was ever a time she didn't want to deal with both the pain of the splinching itself and the Ministry red tape afterwards, this was it.

She may never know this, but her story was just as much incentive for me to do this as her asking me to. If something like that could happen to her, it could happen to us. Or if not that, something else. This is a war. And I don't want Remus to die thinking I wouldn't forgive him.

Not to mention, I'd rather not die myself without doing at least a few unmentionable things with him.

Once she was well awake, she stood in the center of her kitchen, thought hard about Number Twelve, and turned on the spot, disappearing with a small pop.

Draco Malfoy paced around his room, avoiding at all costs meeting his own eyes in the mirror which hung on one wall. He wasn't at all sure that he wouldn't see someone else looking back at him.

Pacing wasn't doing much for his temper and his nerves, but he had no other way to get rid of them. He would have thrown something, but everything movable had been magically fastened down, and he would have screamed, but his throat was still raw from all the shouting he'd done a few days before.

Why is this happening to me? And why now?

I had it all. I had my father again. I'd gotten over that stupid thing about being suspended. And I was going to be initiated in just a couple of days...

Now you're getting somewhere.

Draco froze, just about to take another step. You're back?

I never left.

Draco's throat closed. He had so, so hoped that the madness – the other voice in his head, which sounded like his own, but said things he would never say – had been temporary and was gone for good, but no, it was back, and he was going to stay locked in this room with Safety Charms on everything forever...

Why are you doing this to me? he demanded of the other voice.

Like I said, you're closer than you know. That whole 'initiation' bit.

Are you telling me I went mad because I was about to become a Death Eater?

Not exactly. Look, this is complicated. Are you allowed to have Sleeping Potions?

I think so. Why?

Because I have an idea of how we can do this a little more politely. If I can pull it off. If not, the worst thing that happens is you get a nap. All right?

Draco growled under his breath, but summoned Dobby and ordered a Sleeping Potion. The house-elf brought it, leaving it on the table, staying well out of Draco's reach at all times. What does he think I'm going to do? Murder him?

No comment. Have a drink.

Draco lifted the flask ironically. Here's to you, voice in my head.

I have a name, you know.

No, I didn't know. And I don't care. Draco downed the potion in two long gulps, then hurled the flask into the corner, shattering it.

That's odd.

What? If you throw something hard enough, it breaks.

But I would have thought they'd charm anything you might touch Unbreakable. So you couldn't get your hands on broken glass and hurt yourself. And no, that was not a suggestion.

Good luck taking it back. Draco considered going after the glass right away, but decided against it. It would still be there when he woke up, and the potion was going to take effect any minute now.

He lay down on his bed, closed his eyes for a moment or two, then opened them again with a groan. "Damn thing's not working," he said aloud.

"Are you sure?"

Draco sat bolt upright. That voice had not been inside his head.

"Greetings, O high exalted heir of the house of Malfoy," said the boy sitting at the table.

Draco stared. Except for a few details such as a shorter haircut and a vertical scar across one cheekbone, the other boy could have been his twin. "Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Draco Black. Pleased to meet you, I suppose. Though I have to say, you're not the easiest person to get along with."

"Get along with... what is going on here?"

"The potion worked. You're dreaming. I wasn't sure I could do this, but I've learned a few tricks from... a lady I know. I thought we could have a better conversation face-to-face than just you yelling at the voice in your head which ruined your life. Which I didn't, you know."

Draco couldn't decide which part of this statement to respond to first. "You have so," he retorted finally. "Ruined my life. They're never going to let me out of here. And they'll sure as hell never let me become a Death Eater now."

"And this means your life is ruined?" Black snorted. "Please. I just saved your sorry arse."

"Saved it? I wanted to be a Death Eater!"

"I doubt it. You thought you did, but I don't think you'd care for it much. Or didn't you catch what they wanted you to do for your first assignment?"

"Yeah, I caught it. And I could do it, too. I'm the only one who could – I have the perfect excuse to be close to him. All I need to do is get him alone for a little while..."

"And you really think you could do it? You could honestly hold your wand and look at his face and say those words, and mean it?"

"Yes!"

Black looked him up and down, as if he had all night to do it. "And you believe it, too," he said finally, shaking his head. "God, I'm so glad I got out when I did."

"Got out of what?"

"The trap you're caught in. You've spent your entire life trying to be somebody who doesn't exist. The perfect son that your parents want. You've never thought about what you want. Oh, sure, you think plenty about what you want in the short term, what would make you happy to have today or tomorrow or next week, but do you ever think beyond that? Have you ever really thought through what a life of serving Lord Voldemort would be like?"

"Don't say his name!"

"Why not? I'm not scared of it, even if you are."

Great. Not only do I have a voice in my head, but it's suicidal.

"Have you ever killed anything?" asked Black, leaning back in his chair. "With your own hands, or your own wand?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. But I'm trying to make a point. Have you?"

"No. What does that matter? I'm willing to."

"That's wonderful. You're willing." Black rolled his eyes. "You're willing to do something you've never done before, never seen done – you've never even been close to a dead body, have you?"

"That's disgusting. No."

"You say a body's disgusting, but you're willing to turn a living human being into one? Something wrong with that."

"I wouldn't have to look at it. I wouldn't have to get near it. I'd just do it and go away. Someone else could clean it up."

"Bull. What if you were in a battle? People would be dying all around you. How could you deal with that?" Black's eyes were fixed on Draco's own, almost hypnotic in their grey intensity. "And not just dying. People don't always die when they're hit with spells. Sometimes they get wounded. So you'd be dealing with blood. Blood and piss and vomit. It might even be your blood, your piss, your vomit. And your pain. You don't like pain, do you?"

Draco tried to keep his swallow inconspicuous. Just Black's litany was making him feel ill. "Why do you care?"

"Because believe it or not, I'm trying to help you. Trying to keep you from making a really stupid decision."

"So what do you think I should do, if you're so smart?"

"Why not join the other team?"

"Oh, and fight with the almighty saintly warriors of the light? What would I get out of that?"

"For one thing, you wouldn't get hit with a Cruciatus for an honest mistake. Voldemort–"

"Stop saying his name!"

"No. Voldemort likes to do that. Hurt people because they failed, or because they annoyed him, or just because they're there. The light side generally doesn't do stuff like that."

"And you think I wouldn't get hurt if I fought for the light side? I wouldn't have to see blood and pain and all that stuff you said?"

"No, you'd still see it. But you'd know it would stay on the battlefield. No one from your own side would be trying to do that to you when all you wanted was some rest and a meal. And no one would expect you to think it was fun. War's not fun, and it's not glorious. It's hard, disgusting work that no one in his right mind would want more of."

"And you're such an expert."

"More than you." Black's face curled into an expression of contempt. "You pampered little sissy. You've never had to fight for anything, have you? It all comes easy to you. Your mummy can buy you anything you want with your daddy's money, and the hardest thing you have to do is watch Harry Potter be a hero. Boo hoo. My heart breaks for you."

"Yeah, and what have you done that's so great?"

"Nothing you'd understand." Black turned away.

"Hey, that's not fair! I want to know!"

"I'm sure you do. And I want to go home. But there are always some things you want that you can't have." Black's voice had gotten so low it was hard to hear.

"What do you mean, you want to go home? You are home, aren't you? You're part of me. I'm stuck with you."

"Part of you?" Black turned around, looking honestly amazed. "Hell, no! I wouldn't be part of you if you paid me. I'm sick of you already. But we are stuck with each other, unless I can find some way to go back."

"Go back where?"

"To my world. My home. My own family, my own friends..." Black dropped his head in his hands.

"You have your own world?"

Black looked up. "Is this so hard to comprehend? I'm obviously not you. And no, I'm not some fragment of your personality, Mr. It's-All-About-Me. I'm my own person, and I used to have my own body, but it got destroyed when my family was shoved through to your world."

A wild hope rushed into Draco's mind. "Is there... could there be... do you know a way to send you back?"

"Don't I wish. But even if I did find a way home, my body's gone. My soul wouldn't have anywhere to go. I'd either become a ghost, or I'd die." Black looked back down at the table. "My sister died that way," he said very quietly. "My little sister. She was only just thirteen, and she doesn't exist here. So when her body disappeared, she died."

"You have a little sister?"

"I had a little sister. Her name was Meghan."

Draco felt a surge of emotion trying to rise in him – was it pity? He wasn't sure. It wasn't something he was used to feeling. He carefully converted it to anger – this idiot had ruined his life, no matter what he said.

"So your little sister died," he sneered. "How lovely. Why don't you die, too? Then you could be with her again."

"Believe me, I wish I could," said Black low in his throat.

"Well, why don't you?" Draco felt much more in control of the situation now. He would show this intruder, this interloper from another world, who was in charge here. "I'm only going to say this once. Get out of my head, and go to hell."

Black turned slowly and fixed his eyes on Draco again. "Go to hell?" he repeated quietly. "You want me to go to hell? Let's see here. My little sister, and both the women I think of as my mothers, are dead. I watched them die. I watched a wind blow them apart like they were made of dust."

Draco swallowed again, his mouth suddenly dry.

"The men I call my fathers, whose good opinion I value over anything, think the person wearing this face is a Dark-loving piece of crap without enough courage, brains, or loyalty to get sorted anywhere but Slytherin. My brother and my twin sister think the same. And you know what? They're right. So I'll never see them again either."

Brother? Twin sister? What's he talking about?

"I'm totally cut off from everyone and everything I care about, and I will be for the rest of my life. So don't tell me to go to hell, Malfoy." Draco had never, not even from Potter or Weasley, heard more venom injected into his name. "I'm already there."

Draco didn't know what to say. Fortunately, he didn't have to say anything, as someone else spoke next.

"If you're quite finished being melodramatic..." she said.

(A/N: No prizes for guessing who, now.

I disclaim the line about not fighting in the War Room. It comes from a movie I have never seen, entitled Dr. Strangelove, but it's such a funny line that I had to put it in.

Feed the author – review! And tell me what you want to see – it's the only way I know! I might even actually, for a change, do what you ask me to!)