Making Progress

Remus Lupin couldn't sleep. This in itself wasn't unusual, as the full moon wasn't far off. What was unusual was the fact that 'Chatanooga Choo Choo' had been in his head on a loop for the past hour. Remus attributed this to the fact that he was once again living in the house of his late best friend. He wasn't completely sure how the two things were connected, but he supposed that his subconscious had its reasons.

'I want a one way ticket down to Tennesee…'

Sighing, Remus slid out of bed and wandered downstairs, in search of some warm milk.

As he walked past the drawing room, he was surprised to see a light glowing under the crack in the door. Curious as to who else could possibly be up at this hour, Remus entered the room cautiously. A small girl was sitting on the sofa with her back to him. Remus stood still for a moment, both because he didn't want to startle the child and because he was trying to work out who she was.

As would be expected, Molly and Arthur had several grandchildren, but to Remus' knowledge none of them were staying at Number Twelve. Fleur had left earlier on, after a loud argument with Bill, declaring 'I weel not stay in zis reediculous place a minute longer!' Bill had later informed everyone that Fleur had taken Marianne, eight, and Olivier, three, and was staying with her parents in France. Charlie's wife had taken her cue from Fleur, and had departed soon afterwards with their two-year-old son for Leicestershire. Fred, George and Percy had decided that they would all be safe enough at home with their respective spouses, but only after promising Molly that they would check in with her every day. That only left…

Remus mentally kicked himself. He had only met the little girl a few times, but Harry talked about his god-daughter incessantly. Not to mention the fact that, being the daughter of Sally Weasley, Emily was relatively famous in her own right.

Unsure what to do, Remus stepped forward, causing Emily to turn round. Remus stopped moving again, as the little girl stared at him.

"Hi," said Remus, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible.

Emily said nothing, still staring at him.

"You're up late," ventured Remus.

No reply.

"I'm Remus," he tried, sensing that he was rapidly losing this battle.

Emily put her head to one side and looked at him quizzically.

Remus waited, unsure if this gesture meant that she was warming to him or if it was a prelude to a screaming fit.

"Can you play chess?" asked Emily, speaking for the first time.

Right, I've officially entered the twilight zone, thought Remus.

"Yes, I can."

"Good. You be black, I'll be white."

Now it was Remus' turn to stare at the little girl. "How old are you?" he asked disbelievingly.

Emily held up four fingers and a thumb, having reverted back into silence.

"And you can play chess?"

Emily shrugged and nodded at the same time.

Resigning himself to the strangeness of the situation, Remus sat down and began to arrange his pieces.

"So remind me what we're doing here?" asked Harry.

"Theodore Nott as been traced as far as here by Bulgarian intelligence," replied Tonks, sipping at a Gillywater.

"Bulgarian intelligence?" asked Bill, raising an eyebrow.

Tonks blushed. "Fine, Vlad the barman said he saw him in here. He thinks."

Harry gave a snort of derision.

Sally returned from the bathroom and sat down at the table with the others. "Have I missed anything?"

"Not really," replied Harry. "You feeling any better?"

Sally nodded. "It's probably just something I ate on the plane."

"So what are we going to do about Nott?" asked Charlie.

"We have to find him first," said Tonks, "but then it gets a bit more difficult. The fact that he's in Bulgaria indicates that he's trying to join his father, which means that he probably has information that we need. But the minute that he gets wind of the fact that we're a rescue party for the hostages, he'll tell the Death Eaters and…and we don't want that to happen."

Before anyone could say anything else, a waitress approached the table holding a cocktail with an umbrella in it. She placed it in front of Sally, saying, "Man over there sends drink," and pointed to a tall thin man who was sitting at the bar. Once he realised that Sally was looking at him, he waved in a way that he obviously thought was seductive. Embarrased, Sally waved back quickly and turned away.

The other four stared at her, open mouthed.

"What?" said Sally, turning a deep red.

"That's…that's him!" said Harry.

"Who?"

"Theodore Nott," clarified Tonks. "What are the odds?"

Everyone looked at Sally again, but she was deep in thought. Suddenly she turned to Harry.

"Could you do a spell to hide my wedding ring?"

"Why…"

"Could you?"

"Well, yeah, a glamour should do it, but…"

Sally held out her left hand. "Go on then."

Confused, Harry performed the spell. As soon as he was finished, Sally picked up her cocktail, took a deep breath and walked over to Theodore Nott.

"What is she doing?" asked Charlie, incredulously.

Tonks shushed him. "I know exactly what she's doing. And it's brilliant."

"Checkmate."

It took Remus a few moments to register that he had lost to someone who could count her age on one hand. He looked up, expecting Emily to look smug, but instead she smiled at him – the first time Remus had ever seen her smile.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?"

"For playing with me."

"You're welcome. Who taught you how to play chess?"

"My daddy."

"Of course," said Remus. "He was brilliant at chess as a teenager, I seem to remember. I taught him Defence against the Dark Arts, you know."

Remus almost laughed at the expression of surprise on the little girl's face. "Really? And Harry and 'Mione?"

"All three of them." Suddenly, Remus had a brainwave. "Do you want to hear a story about them when they were younger?"

Emily nodded vigorously.

"Well then, go back to bed and I'll tell you one."

In a rush of excitement, the little girl ran out of the room, closely followed by Remus.

This parenting thing isn't as hard as it looks thought Remus, as he entered Emily's bedroom and sat on the end of her bed.

"It all started," he began, "when Harry decided to use one of the secret passages out of Hogwarts to sneak into Hogsmeade – with his invisibility cloak of course…"

Harry looked over to the bar, unsure whether to be shocked or mildly impressed. Theodore Nott was getting very red in the face and laughing uproariously at something that Sally had just said. Laughing as well, Sally flicked her hair back and then let it swish forward.

"She's…she's…flirting with him!" exclaimed Charlie, horrified.

"Well done, Sherlock," said Harry. "She's good at it too."

"A bit too good," muttered Bill, clearly unimpressed by the fact that his sister-in-law was trying to seduce someone who wasn't his brother.

"I don't think the flirting is the point," said Tonks. "It's just a good way of getting him…"

"Bartender, another bottle of your finest…finesht…." slurred Theodore loudly across the bar.

"...drunk," finished Tonks, grinning.

As if on cue, Theodore got up and stumbled off in the direction of the men's toilets. Looking very smug, Sally got up and returned to the table where the others were sitting. She sat down and held up her right hand. Dangling from her index finger was a large brass key.

"Men," she said, rolling her eyes.

A/N: I am being terrible about updating, I really am. However, I'm not planning on making this as long as Fated, and the next few chapters will be getting to you a lot quicker hopefully. Many thanks to Rubber duckies-ofdoom, Emma Barrows, juno malabre and Fippets, my spectacular faithful reviewers!