Altercations

By Neurotica

Six

The new Hogwarts term was quickly approaching. The staff was arriving to the castle two weeks before the students would join them, since Headmaster Dumbledore had called for a mandatory staff meeting. There still hadn't been an appointment for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and time was running short. Dumbledore had a few ideas about the position, but he was afraid the short list would all shut their doors in his face. He'd thought about asking one of his current staff members to teach Defense, and hiring someone new to a different post—perhaps then his candidates wouldn't be so hesitant to come back to the school. But who could he possibly use?

Severus was naturally the first idea that manifested in his mind whenever he thought of a new Defense professor. Unfortunately, over the last twenty years he'd needed many. For the last five years, he'd been rather lucky with his Defense selections—both Remus Lupin and Alastor Moody had been hits with the students, and between the two of them, the curse placed on the teaching position may have been broken. The only way to know for sure, though, would be to find someone willing to take the job.

A member of the Order was always a thought—with all the trouble Harry Potter usually found himself in during the school term alone, Hogwarts could always use more wizards trained in the ways of fighting Death Eaters.

Security was certainly one of the largest concerns on the old Headmaster's mind. He'd had many discussions with Minister Bones that past summer about increasing security around the school, and she would be stationing teams of Aurors in Hogsmeade to patrol both the village and the school routinely. Not to mention the wards and protections Dumbledore and select members of the Hogwarts staff had been placing around the school grounds. Since the Death Eater attack over a year and a half ago during the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore had become even more gripped with protecting the school and his students from further attack. None of the students had been seriously injured that night, thankfully, except Harry—he'd completely exhausted himself during his battle against Lord Voldemort.

Dumbledore was an intelligent man and he wasn't naïve enough to believe another attack on Hogwarts would never happen; but much like Sirius' and Remus' wish to put off Harry's final battle with Voldemort for as long as possible, he wanted to do the same with future attacks on his school. Hogwarts was protected by ancient magic; it was mostly good magic, but there was dark magic as well. Salazar Slytherin could be thanked for that. After the incident with the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore had kept his eyes wide open for any other hidden secrets or things that could potentially harm the residents of the school. He'd enlisted the help of Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick on his searches, but so far they'd turned up nothing.

The spot in the Forbidden Forest that allowed Apparition and Disapparition had been assigned a guard since Hagrid's return to Hogwarts. The Care of Magical Creatures professor had arrived back on the grounds battered, bruised, and in the company of a giant. Grawp was his name, and Dumbledore soon learned that he was Hagrid's half-brother. Unable to turn the creature away, Dumbledore permitted Grawp to reside in the forest under the strict instructions not to harm any of the other animals or beings that were now his neighbors. Grawp would also capture anyone who appeared in the forest who didn't belong there. The charms around the Apparition spot were strong—Dumbledore had performed them himself—but there was always a loophole or backdoor in magical wards, if one knew where to look. So Grawp was an added precaution.

But back to the task at hand: Defense Against the Dark Arts. Minister Bones had offered to assign a professor if Dumbledore continued to have problems finding Alastor's replacement, but the aged wizard had declined—he would find a suitable professor, even if he himself had to take on the extra duties himself. It wasn't as though he didn't trust the Minister's judgment on selecting a professor, but it would be a person from within the Ministry of Magic, and the Ministry just couldn't afford to lose any more of their employees.

"What about Emmeline Vance?" Minerva asked, jolting Dumbledore from his thoughts. "She's well-trained in mind defense, and the students could benefit from that sort of precaution."

Dumbledore had to fight to keep his lips from twitching as he saw Severus straighten in his chair. "That is a wonderful suggestion, Minerva; however, Emmeline is needed in her own department at the Ministry. Minister Bones has recently informed me that Emmeline is to receive a promotion to the head of the Department of Magical Transportation, and I do not think it wise to have two department heads out of commission at the same time."

"The Aurors are doing well enough without Black," Severus said, examining his fingernails. "He was only ever a pretty face."

"So you are admitting that he has a pretty face, Severus?" Dumbledore asked with a straight face, his twinkling eyes nearly blinding. Severus pursed his lips and turned away as the other professors laughed. "I'm sure you have all realized," the headmaster continued, "that the Auror squad has suffered without Sirius Black. The effects of this may not be painfully evident as of yet, but with time, I am certain we will see what a difference Sirius has made. Now that Rufus Scrimgeour has officially returned to our Ministry, I expect drastic changes to be made—"

"Scrimgeour can't make changes!" Pomona Sprout exclaimed. "For one, he's not the Head Auror. Two, he's merely a member of the squads; he has no authority to make changes."

Dumbledore inclined his head. "This is true, Pomona. However, Rufus Scrimgeour has much influence over Auror Dawlish, who, as you know, is acting Head Auror in Sirius' stead. Dawlish does have much authority to suggest changes."

"Black may be unbearable and irresponsible at times, but I do believe he is one of the best Aurors the Ministry has had in years," Minerva said.

Again, Dumbledore fought to keep his lips from moving. No matter how often his Transfiguration mistress said Sirius Black was nothing but a troublemaker, she would unfailingly contradict herself later by complimenting him.

"That is something we agree on," the Headmaster said. "One of my fears concerning Sirius' current condition and its effects on the Ministry is Harry Potter's safety. Dawlish is far more concerned with his own agenda rather than working to keep our world from harm."

"Perhaps Black would have been far more successful had he gone that route to begin with," Severus said. "With Potter on his mind constantly, it makes it quite difficult to concentrate on capturing the criminals in our world."

Dumbledore sighed. "I do hope, Severus, that you do not honestly feel that way. Harry's safety and protection is a crucial factor in this war, and without him, our community would lose its hope. Harry may not be aware of it, and you may not be either, but he is a figure of hope for many."

"That is why our community has not succeeded yet—" Severus began.

Dumbledore closed his eyes and sighed. This had been a topic of argument between himself and Severus for many months, and Dumbledore always had the same reply: "Surely, Severus, you know better than that, given your role in this war." Luckily, Severus was sitting close to him, and none of the other staff members were able to overhear the quiet exchange. As usual, Severus had no response. He averted his eyes from the Headmaster's and sipped a glass of wine provided by the house-elves for the meeting.

"I do not believe we've reached a decision on our Defense Against the Dark Arts predicament, but we can continue another day," Dumbledore said. "Dinner is approaching and I for one am famished. So if you will all follow me to the Great Hall, I'm sure our marvelous house-elves will provide us with a delicious feast."

Sirius was about two seconds from banging his head against a wall. He was trying to help Harry with his Arithmancy homework, but since it hadn't exactly been his best subject in school, he was quickly growing frustrated. Remus and Emmeline had left for the evening on a date Sirius insisted they go out on. Remus was hesitant to agree—no one in the cottage had forgotten what happened last time Sirius and Harry remained alone together. But Sirius forced him to go and wouldn't take no for an answer.

When his godson had brought in his textbook for help, Sirius had been willing to help in anyway possible, but he was beginning to regret his decision. Arithmancy had been Remus' and Lily's subject in school—James' being Transfiguration, and Sirius' being Astronomy and Defense. He recalled Naomi wasn't too shabby with the subject, but calling her for help was out of the question; she'd been summoned early in the morning to meet with Voldemort, and nobody had heard from her. She'd promised Sirius she would get in touch the first spare, safe moment she had, so Sirius was just waiting to hear from her.

"Harry, I love you to death, really, I do, but there's just no way in hell I'm going to be able to do this rubbish," Sirius said. "Can it wait until tomorrow, when Remus is free?"

Harry shrugged. "I suppose. But I'm going to Diagon Alley with the Weasleys for school supplies."

"Well, I'm sure Remus, being the prestigious professor he is at heart, will be elated to assist you with this. And by the way, Arithmancy is useless for an Auror. Why are you even taking it?"

Harry shrugged again. "Seemed like a good idea at the time..."

Sirius shook his head in mock-disappointment. "You become more and more like Moony every day."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Depends on who you ask and what traits you've inherited."

Harry laughed, but didn't have a chance to reply due to a knock on the front door. The two wizards snapped their heads to the door and glanced back to one another for a few seconds. "You answer it," Sirius said quietly. "Keep your wand out and be ready for anything."

"But the wards would have gone off," Harry said, grabbing his wand from the coffee table. "If it was a Death Eater, we'd know, right?"

"Better safe than sorry, kid," Sirius said, standing and moving quietly to the front window while Harry positioned himself at the door. Sirius pulled the curtain aside and craned his neck just enough to see who'd come to visit. His eyebrows rose on their own accord when he recognized who was standing at the door. "What the hell is she doing here?"

"Who is it?"

"Naomi."

Harry's eyebrows rose as well as Sirius left the window and opened the front door. "Hey, what're you doing here?" he asked the witch.

Naomi bit her lip nervously. "I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by..."

"You were in the neighborhood?" Sirius repeated slowly. "You do realize we are in a forest and our closest neighbors are a good thirty miles away, right?"

Naomi sighed. "Fine, I wasn't in the neighborhood. But I had some time before I have to be at work, so I thought I'd drop by and say hi."

"Ah, well, in that case, come in," Sirius said happily, stepping aside. He glanced over his shoulder at Harry, who still held his wand tightly, eyeing the witch distrustfully. Naomi entered, smiling at Harry who stared stonily back, and followed Sirius into the living room, with Harry bringing up the rear. "Anyone want a drink?" Sirius asked, moving towards the kitchen. Naomi said she'd take a shot of firewhiskey if he had one, and though he hadn't requested it, Sirius got Harry a butterbeer.

Sirius worked quickly in the kitchen, not wanting to leave Harry alone with Naomi for too long. He didn't think Naomi would hurt his godson, but he knew Harry didn't trust her. One of the few traits he still had from his time with the Dursleys was his shyness around strangers. He didn't trust easily, which was good in a war, and until he did trust a person, which could take months depending on the person, he was always very wary.

Upon reentering the living room, Naomi and Harry sat in a tense silence. Harry's homework still sat on the coffee table, and Naomi was looking nervously from the pictures on the mantle to Harry. "Here you go, Harry," Sirius said, handing the boy his butterbeer. "And Naomi…" He handed her a shot glass and sat on the sofa. "Cheers," he said, clinking his glass with hers, and then with Harry's bottle, even though Harry made no move to show he even knew what was going on. Sirius wanted to ask Naomi how the Death Eater meeting had gone, but decided to wait until Harry was out of the room. She looked all right; she didn't seem to be in any pain that could have been caused by a Cruciatus Curse, so maybe everything had gone well that night.

"So where are Remus and Emmeline?" Naomi asked, setting her glass down on the table.

"Out on a date," Sirius replied, frowning when he noticed the slight sneer on Harry's face at Naomi's mention of Remus. "They haven't had much of chance to spend time together alone for a while, so Harry and I kicked them out."

Naomi actually smiled. "Good for them," she said quietly. Sirius felt a slight stinging in his stomach at the hint of sadness in her voice. He mentally slapped himself; why should he care that Naomi was jealous? They weren't dating—hell, they'd just recently become friends again. "They deserve some time together, between work and taking care of you," she teased.

"I can take care of myself just fine, thank you," Sirius said loftily. "In fact, I made a rather delicious dinner of roast beef tonight and Harry didn't even get sick off it."

Naomi laughed. "That's a bit of a shock." Sirius glared playfully. "I think the last time I had your cooking was at Lily and James' when you and James tried to barbeque on Lily's grill."

"You know, I've still got the scorch mark on my head from where my hair caught fire..."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Naomi said gravely with a grin. "So who's doing homework?"

Sirius refilled his and Naomi's glasses, noticing Harry hadn't even taken a sip of his drink. "Harry. He's taking Arithmancy and I'm complete rubbish at it. I'm going to have Remus help him tomorrow."

"Arithmancy isn't that hard," Naomi said, picking up the book. "It was my best subject in school. Maybe I could help?"

"No, that's all right," Harry answered stiffly. "I'd rather Remus help if you don't mind."

Sirius frowned at his godson's frosty tone. It wasn't like him to be rude to people, no matter who they were. Snape didn't count. "Harry, why don't you go get ready for bed or something so Naomi and I can talk."

"It's eight o'clock," Harry said flatly.

"Well, then, go find something to occupy your time, please."

Harry glared at his godfather, visibly hesitant about leaving him alone with the witch—spy for the Order or not, Harry obviously had not one ounce of trust in Naomi. "I'll come by to say good night later. Please, Harry."

After a silent battle of wills, Harry folded with a sigh, sat his butterbeer bottle down a little harder than was necessary, snatched his book from Naomi's hands, and went to his room. Sirius watched him leave in disbelief. "Sorry about that. I don't know what's gotten into him..."

"Don't worry about it," Naomi said quietly. "It's understandable. He doesn't know me and he probably thinks I'm just Death Eater scum."

"Even still," Sirius said. "He's never like that..." He sighed. "So anything new going on in the Death Eater world?"

Remus and Emmeline strolled arm-in-arm along the seacoast in a comfortable silence. The wizard was thankful to his best friend for forcing him to go out that night—now that he thought on it, he and Emmeline had never been on a proper date since they'd gotten together. Every time they planned something, they would have to cancel due to an attack, or an Order meeting, or something related to Sirius and Harry.

Their night had been perfect so far. They'd started out at a nice French Muggle restaurant in London and then caught a film at the cinema. The plan had been to head back to the cottage after their show, but both were enjoying themselves, and who knew when they'd get another night out like this?

Remus glanced at his girlfriend out of the corner of his eye as they walked, still in awe at how amazing she looked that night. Her midnight black hair was pulled back, with a few curled strands hanging over her face. She wore a dark red dress that went up just past her knees with spaghetti straps and a low neckline. Neither of them had much reason to dress up anymore, so Remus rarely saw her in anything but Ministry robes and Muggle clothes. Of course, he didn't care what she wore—she was gorgeous no matter what, and just about all of her clothes brought out her warm brown eyes magnificently.

"Sickle for your thoughts, my love," she said, squeezing his arm gently.

He smiled and looked down at her. "I was just marveling about how incredibly breathtaking you look tonight."

She smiled back a bit shyly. "You're not looking too bad yourself."

Remus looked down at the simple button up shirt and slacks he'd borrowed from Sirius—they wore just about the same size clothes (Remus was only an inch shorter than his best friend), and Remus didn't have many dress clothes to wear on special occasions, so he'd raided Sirius' wardrobe earlier in the afternoon. The couple continued to walk down the beach, Remus trying to ignore the moon and the thought of how soon his next transformation would be coming. It was still a few days away, but he was already feeling tired and sore as his body prepared itself for the trauma of the transformation.

"Do you want to sit?" Emmeline asked.

"Yes, actually," he replied. He conjured a blanket for them to sit on and helped Emmeline lower herself to the ground before sitting beside her. He sighed happily as he laid back and Emmeline snuggled up against him, kissing his chest. He ran a hand through her hair, taking it out of the braid it was in, while his other arm supported his head.

He couldn't remember ever being this content and happy with anybody in his entire life. Of course, he didn't have much to compare it to—Emmeline and Naomi were the only serious girlfriends he'd ever had. He had dated a few times at Hogwarts, but ended the relationships before they became too involved. He always was afraid of being rejected when someone found out about his condition. But neither Emmeline nor Naomi had cared and they'd both told him so often—usually when he had doubts about furthering a relationship to the next stage.

Emmeline was so different from anybody he ever met. She was brilliant, beautiful, caring, funny—everything he ever desired in a woman. He tried not to compare her with Naomi—the two witches were almost complete opposites—but he realized that what he and Naomi had had didn't even begin to compare to what he had with Emmeline. Love wasn't a strong enough word to convey his feelings for Emmeline—he didn't think there were enough words in the English language, or any language for that matter, to describe his feelings for her. And it scared him a bit.

He was sure Emmeline was the one for him; the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with; the one he wanted a family with. They'd never discussed marriage in depth—Sirius teased them often about the subject, when they were planning on setting a date, and they'd jokingly reply. But Remus wasn't sure if Emmeline felt the same as he did. He knew she loved him, that much was obvious, but would she want to start a family with a werewolf?

"Can I ask you something, Remus?" Emmeline asked with what sounded like hesitance.

Remus furrowed his brow. "Of course. You can ask me anything..."

She positioned herself to be inclined beside him on her elbow and just watched him for a moment.

"What is it?" Remus asked, tracing a finger down her cheek.

She sighed. "Have you ever thought about having a family?" she asked. "A wife, maybe a few kids down the line..."

Remus shifted a bit to lie on his side facing her, wondering if she'd read his mind. "I've thought about it before, yes..."

"And do you want that?"

"I've always wanted a big family at some point, but every time I get the chance, I lose it." Emmeline nodded. Remus wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. "What about you?"

"Yeah, I've always wanted a big family, too," she admitted with a small smile. "I've got my brothers in America, but I haven't seen them in years. I don't know... I was just curious, I suppose." Remus watched her trace circles on his chest for a few minutes. She looked to be steeling up the nerve to say something else. "Did you and Naomi ever discuss children?"

"Yes," he said. "We'd planned on three kids at least. We were going to expand the cottage just after our wedding for more living space, but you know how that turned out."

Again, she nodded silently. Her next question was barely audible. "Do you regret not being with her?"

"No," he said promptly. "She and I weren't meant to be and I know that now. I'm not going to lie to you—my relationship with Naomi was a dream come true for me. I'd never loved anybody the way I loved her..." Emmeline bit her lip and looked away from him to the sea. "That was until I met you, though. Well, met again, anyhow. I sometimes wonder how life would have turned out if we'd have stayed together, but then I realized I wouldn't have had the chance to be with you, and there's nothing that could change how I feel about you, Emmeline." She nodded again. Remus reached up and turned her to face him. "I'm in love with you so deeply it hurts sometimes. I wouldn't trade our relationship for anything in this world. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want you to be the mother of my children, should I ever have any..."

Emmeline's jaw fell open a bit, and Remus grew a touch nervous. Maybe that hadn't been where she'd planned on taking the conversation. "If... if you don't want that, I understand," he said painfully, wishing it wasn't so dark that he couldn't see her expression.

"I do want that," she whispered, her voice catching a bit. Was she crying? Remus reached out a finger and felt warm tears fall from her eyes. "I want all of that, and I want it with you, Remus Lupin."

"You do?" he asked, not daring to get his hopes up.

"Yes," she said before leaning down to kiss him. He moaned softly as he realized his dream of having his own family might actually come true. Emmeline positioned herself on top of him, her legs straddling his waist, not once breaking their heated kiss. It was nearly sunrise before they returned to the cottage.