A/N: I love writing Lupin.

Well, my big surprise didn't come as a big surprise to most of you, but I hope you liked it all the same. Guess what I just did? I Just wrote half a page of this chapter and then accidentally closed the window without saving and lost it all. Bangs head on keyboard stupid, stupid, stupid…

Lost: Small Boy, Answers to Harry

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While Sirius and Hestia sat up by night-time planning their rescue and escape from the cellar in London, a hundred miles away, the occupants of the cottage in the rain slept peacefully, warmed by the embers of the dying fire and soothed by the steady drumming of drops on the tiled roof. Charlie and Nymphadora top-and-tailed together on the sunken couch under a pile of blankets. Nymphadora drifted off feeling warm and safe, if not comfortable, since Charlie seemed to have sharpened his knees with the specific purpose of digging them into her back. She was consoled by the thought that her feet, which she knew for a fact did not smell of roses, were somewhere in the region of his face.

Harry slept curled on Lupin's single bed in the corner, cuddled into his friend's chest, a look of total contentment on his face. Lupin snored quietly, one arm thrown protectively over the small boy. The night passed without incident. When Nymphadora opened her eyes, the cottage was filled with warm sunlight and she could hear the universally recognisable sound of breakfast being prepared. Charlie was lying on his back with one leg draped over Nymphadora's waist, snorting as he slept. Nymphadora pushed him back to his side of the couch and rolled over. Harry was sitting on the edge of Lupin's bed, rubbing his eyes. His honorary uncle was not in sight.

She raised her head sleepily to look over the edge of the couch and ducked down at once. Lupin was standing at the end of his bed, pulling off his nightgown and reaching for a fresh shirt. He already had his trousers on, but for an instant there he had been completely naked from the waist up…She quickly closed her eyes, her heart thumping, trying to repress an involuntary smile.

Once she was sure he had put his shirt on and gone over to the stove to check on the breakfast she sat up and yawned dramatically, pretending to have just awoken. Harry trundled over and greeted her with a hug, "'morning, Tonks," he said, and headed over to the table where Lupin was tending to bacon and eggs. Charlie raised his head, blinking.

"Hey, man, don't I get a hug?" he asked, rubbing his face with the heel of his hand. Harry laughed and blew him a kiss instead. In the short time she had known him, Nymphadora has not realised the young boy could be so happy.

She had slept in her T-shirt and jeans, and she pulled on her jacket before joining Harry at the tiny table. There were only two proper chairs in the house, so Lupin had improvised with a large crate and the rocking chair. It was the latter which Nymphadora flumped down into, wiping sleep out of her eyes. Charlie got up and headed straight for the kitchen bench to give Lupin a hand.

"Don't be so lazy, Tonks," said Charlie, slapping her on the back on his way past, "don't you know you always help the host with breakfast?"

Nymphadora felt her cheeks blush bright red, "I didn't mean…" she babbled, finishing lamely with, "Mum never lets me help with breakfast because I'm always breaking things."

Lupin laughed and Tonks felt herself go a deeper shade of red, "it's alright," the young man replied, "I'm not used to having guests. I don't know the hospitality rules either. Your name is Tonks?"

"My real name's Nymphadora," she said, trying to sink down into the floor, "but…I mean…you can just call me Tonks, if you want. No one calls me Nymphadora."

"I think Nymphadora is a lovely name," Lupin told her.

"Oh, well, I mean, you can call me…whatever…you like," Tonks was now so red she was glowing like a muggle Christmas tree. Charlie sniggered loudly while he sliced up a loaf of bread.

"Well, Tonks it is then," Lupin wiped his fingers on a tea towel and offered Nymphadora his hand, "Wotcher, Tonks, it's nice to meet you."

"Thank you. I mean. Nice to meet you too," blurted Nymphadora, shaking his hand, "Remus," she finished. When Lupin turned around to flip the eggs, Harry saw her mouthing 'wotcher' under her breath, as if trying to commit the word to memory.

"And, let me guess," said Lupin, nudging Charlie with his elbow, "you're a Weasley?"

"You bet I am!" said Charlie, grinning, "Charlie Weasley, at your service."

"Yes, I remember," Lupin nodded, "I met you when you were just learning to walk. I think you took a bite out of my shoe."

"Say what?" Charlie blushed almost as red as Tonks and looked at Lupin's bare feet apologetically while Lupin laughed richly, "you're a friend of my parents?"

"I used to work with your father," Lupin said in his placid voice, "when I got a job at the ministry a few years back. I have a…condition…that makes it very difficult for me to work, and when the nature of my ailment was revealed your father was one of the only men who defended me. It did no good: I lost my job for withholding the information, and your father had his pay cut for insurrection, but I will be forever grateful to him all the same."

"Well, er, that's Dad for you," Charlie shrugged, "never thinks of what's best for himself."

"A very noble man," Lupin answered, "how many brothers do you have now?"

"Five," Charlie said proudly, "Bill, Percy, the twins, and little Ronnie, who's Harry's age, I think. And I've got a sister now as well, Ginny," his face suddenly became morose, "but Bill…he was on the train. I don't know what's happened to him."

Lupin's face also became grim as he dished out the bacon and eggs onto the chipped plates he had laid at the table, "then you should contact your parents at once. They must be worried sick about you. The floo powder is over on the mantelpiece," he nodded at the fire place, picked his wand up off the windowsill and pointed it at the hearth, which blazed into life. Lupin looked at Nymphadora, "you do the same. I could not stand it if your mother and father believed you were dead."

Tonks squeaked, "of course," and wolfed down the bacon hungrily. Harry noticed that every time Lupin spoke to her, her golden hair briefly turned to grey-flecked brown, the exact shade of Lupin's. If the young man also noticed this, he said nothing.

Harry turned around in his seat to watch Charlie kneel in front of the fire, which now blazed gloriously green, and stick his head into it, crying "the burrow!" After a few moments, his voice could be heard echoing back to them, though they could not hear who he was talking to.

"Mum! Yes, it's me and…urgh, ah, stop it! Look, you can give me a kiss when I get home, not yet…yeah, I'm fine. I'm not hurt or anything, and I'm safe. Has Bill…?"

There was a long pause, then, "oh," said Charlie quietly, "but, I mean, maybe he just hasn't been able to get a message through? No news it good news, right? Oh, Hello Ronnie – ow, Mum, he's pulling my hair."

Another pause, "Hey, Dad! I'm in a cottage with a guy named Lupin, says he used to work with you. I've got a couple of other kids with me. Yeah? Yeah, okay." Charlie withdrew his head from the fire and his face appeared once more, smeared with a bit of soot, "Dad says he wants to thank you."

"Tell him he is perfectly welcome," said Lupin. Charlie relayed the message, and then emerged again, "Dad asks if you want to come over for lunch. Mum says she'll make meatballs."

Lupin smiled, "I cannot resist Molly's meatballs. Tell him it would be a pleasure, and ask him if I could bring my, er, nephew along as well."

Charlie stuck his head back into the fire and, after what sounded like more displays of affection from his mother, got to his feet, coughing, "he says great, come over at once, he wants to thank you in person. Your turn," he shot at Nymphadora.

She got up from the table, went over to the fire and knelt down a little reluctantly. She looked back at Lupin, "I don't want to go home yet. I don't want to abandon Harry," she added hurriedly. "Couldn't I stay here with him?"

Lupin deliberated this for a moment, "it isn't up to me," he said finally. "You must ask your parents first. It would not do to put anyone in undue danger."

Calling her address as she plunged her head into the flames, Nymphadora greeted her father, and a moment later, her mother, with just as much joy and reassurance of her safety as Charlie had. Then they heard her voice asking to remain with Harry for a little while longer.

"No, it's alright, I'm staying with a guy named Lupin," she relayed to her parents, "he's Harry's…er…Uncle, and he's really nice…"

There was a long pause, and then Nymphadora said loudly, "oh! How can you…" she pulled her head out of the fire. "She wants me to come home at once. I think she knows who you are," she added, looking at Lupin, who sighed.

"Then you must go home," he said. "Mothers always know best."

"Well, that's just dumb," said Charlie loudly. "Tell her you're not staying at Lupin's house. You're coming over to the Weasley's house. Tell her that!"

Tears pricking at her eyes, Nymphadora put her head back into the fire and firmly informed her mother of this. They heard Nymphadora's half of a heated argument, and then Nymphadora emerged grinning, "she says I can stay with you, Charlie!" she whooped, and rushed over to throw her arms around him. "Thank goodness!"

"Hey, hey, that wasn't a marriage proposal," Charlie looked at Lupin imploringly, "little help here?"

"Sorry," Nymphadora pried herself away, still smiling, "I'm just so glad. Why does Mum think it's dangerous for me to stay with you?" she asked Lupin. "Are you a necromancer or something?"

"Not at all," Lupin said, trying to smile but failing, "I promise you I won't put you in any danger. It's just that my condition is contagious at certain times, and people do tend to have certain prejudices towards me because of it."

Tonks stomped her foot, "well I don't!" she said fiercely, "and I never will! You've been nothing but hospitable to us, and after all, Harry seems to like you."

"That's true," said Harry, with an arrogant smile.

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Nymphadora, who had grown up the only child of a messy muggle father and a witch mother who was tidy to the point of obsessive, had never been in a house quite like the burrow. After following Charlie into Lupin's grate, she emerged, coughing, from the fireplace at the other end and found herself ambushed by what looked, at first sight, like a pack of red-haired savages.

A rotund woman in an apron, the only one who didn't have flaming locks, had enveloped her second-eldest son in a teary hug, while a red-haired boy about four years old hung off his brother's arm, crying, "Charlie! Charlie!" in an overjoyed voice. Two identical freckled boys leapt on Nymphadora as she stepped onto the rug, each grabbing one of her hands and pulling her further into the room at the same time as bombarding her with questions about her identity. A fourth brother, who pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a sniff, watched her with a suspicious frown from a bulbous sofa not far away. And a small girl whose red hair was pulled into four frizzy plaits, and who could not quite walk in a straight line, tugged at Nymphadora's jacket, asking earnestly, "are you Charlie's girlfriend? Are you?"

"Er," said Nymphadora, but she was saved from answering by a red-haired man who grabbed her hand from one of the twins and shook it warmly, crying, "and you must be Nymphadora Tonks! Welcome to the burrow. I'm Arthur Weasley," he began to point at his family, "my wife Molly, Percy in the corner there, Fred, George – or is it George and Fred? – and Ginny down here. Ronald is the one with Charlie, who you already know – he tells us your father is a muggle? You must tell me all about it-"

At that moment Lupin stepped gracefully out of the fireplace, carrying Harry in his arms.

"Remus!" Arthur welcomed his old colleague, "you're looking – well, healthy!"

"Go on, Arthur, you can say it," said Lupin, setting Harry on his feet and shaking the red-haired man's hand, "I'm looking poor. I'm not ashamed."

"I'm not avoiding the subject," Arthur replied, "but I don't want to draw attention to our own financial shortcomings, you understand," he winked.

"Remus, it's wonderful to see you again," cried Molly, embracing the young man, "I do wish we hadn't lost touch."

"An unfortunate side effect of war," Lupin answered, "now, you must introduce me to all the new additions – a girl? Is that a Weasley girl?"

"The first for a number of generations," Molly smiled proudly, "come, come and have a seat, I've made lemonade and everything. I cannot thank you enough for taking Charlie in. Have you heard anything from Hogwarts? We hoped – with your contacts to Dumbledore – there's been no word from the school yet, you see…" she brushed away tears as she lead Lupin away into the kitchen.

The adults gone, Charlie sat down on the sofa with Nymphadora and began trying to keep the peace with his younger siblings. This was evidently not a job he was practised at, but one usually assigned to Bill, because not one of them listened to a word he said. The twins had pounced on Harry and sat him down to show him their toy broomsticks (one of which had been repaired with copious amounts of spello-tape) while Ronald demanded loudly that he be allowed to join in and Ginny watched, bubbling with laughter.

Percy, who looked about eight years old, was sitting on an armchair not far away, peering over the top of a thick volume. He caught Nymphadora's eye and quickly ducked down behind the book.

"Hello, Perce!" Charlie said loudly, "glad to see me?"

Percy's voice, rather muffled, came from behind the book, "of course."

"When I left, he was really angry I wouldn't teach him any spells. You'd think my life being threatened would have made him snap out of it, but Percy just loves to hold a grudge," Charlie whispered to Nymphadora, then he nudged her in the ribs and winked. "Looks like he's a bit smitten with you, huh?"

Behind the book, Percy's forehead flushed suddenly pick and Nymphadora glared at Charlie. "Don't tease him about things like that!"

"Why not? …oh, that's right! Remus!" Charlie threw back his head and laughed. Nymphadora pouted and looked away. Ginny crawled over and pulled herself upright on the older girl's jeans. The little girl looked at Nymphadora with wide eyes.

"You witch?" she asked.

"Not yet," said Nymphadora sadly, leaning down to look the tiny girl in the eye, "but it would come in mighty handy right now, wouldn't it?" she said, while Charlie continued to snigger behind his hand.

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TBC

A/N: What the heck is up with Moody? Moody is not Barty Crouch Jr., nor is he being controlled by imperious curse or any other mind control. That really is Moody leading the aurors and taking over the government. In fact, the coup doesn't even have that much to do with the story, although it probably will if there is a part 2 or 3. I simply felt that Moody always seemed like a military leader, even though he is on the 'good' side. I guess the coup is just an emphasis about there not being a 'good' side and a 'bad' side. Also, I wanted to split the 'good' guys into factions.