A/N: It's…a very long chapter. Be prepared.

Lost: One Godson, Answers to Harry

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Tonks was still staring at Lupin when Maud suddenly seemed to realise what she was clinging to. She looked up at Lupin, released her stranglehold on the front of his robes and staggered back a pace, out of his arms. Looking horrified, she rubbed her muddy hands on her equally muddy dress, with the result that neither got any more or less muddy.

"Where am I?" she snarled, but it came out in a hoarse sort of whine. Her eyes flicked from Tonks sitting with teary-red eyes at the table, to Sirius standing beside Tonks, looking bemused, to Lupin, who was still holding his arms up as if he hadn't noticed yet that they were empty. He turned his face towards her.

"Maud, it's alright…" Lupin began, but she flinched away from him and he let his arms drop. The girl glared at him with a savage sneer on her dirt-smeared face.

Sirius broke the silence with the startled exclamation, "She's a werewolf?"

Lupin nodded without turning to look at him. He picked up one of the blankets that had been discarded on the ground. "It's cold in here, Maud. Put this on." The girl eyed the blanket suspiciously before she snatched it away and wrapped it around herself. Lupin smiled weakly at her but she stared coldly back at him. He asked hopefully, "Do you want anything to eat?"

"I won't eat whatever muck you give me," Maud hissed, staggering back and curling up in the corner where she had been sleeping before Sirius and Tonks had arrived. When Lupin did not even shrug at her barb, she added unpleasantly, "Wizard-lover."

Lupin turned away from her and went back to the table. "I had to bring her with me when I Apparated away. The Aurors were going to kill anyone they could capture alive…"

Sirius didn't answer. Tonks rubbed her face to try and get rid of the tears stains and said in a croaky voice, "But who is she?"

Lupin glanced over at Maud, whose dull brown eyes were peering out from under the blanket, watching him.

"She's a muggle," Lupin answered. "At least, I know she's not a witch, and most of the non-magical werewolves following Greyback were muggles, not squibs. As far as I can gather, she's been living in Greyback's following since she was about ten years old. She doesn't really remember her parents."

"And you just decided to bring her home?" Sirius asked, a bit louder than he'd meant. "Like a puppy you found on the street?"

"Sirius, she was in the attack on the Orphanage! She could have died!" Lupin gasped, and gave a quick shudder. "And I couldn't just leave her with the other werewolves, either. It's not right for anyone to have to live among those…savages…especially not someone who didn't really have a choice…"

"I had a choice!" screeched Maud. They all turned to her as she lurched to her feet. She stood slightly hunch-backed, her shoulders lopsided, as if she was used to walking on all fours rather than on two legs. "Fenrir Greyback looked after me, and I liked living with our kind! Unlike you, you stinking traitor!" And with this last word she hurled herself at Lupin. Sirius and Tonks sprang forward to intercede and each grabbed one of Maud's skinny brown arms.

"Stop it! Let her go!" Lupin shoved Sirius in the chest and in surprise he and Tonks released Maud, who stood shaking in front of Lupin. She was shorter than him, and her lopsided posture made her look even more like some sort of animal. Lupin turned to Maud. "I know you don't understand yet, Maud, but taking you away was for the best. You'll see…" He reached out to put his hand on Maud's shoulder, and before Sirius could grab her, she had sunk her teeth into his wrist.

Lupin drew back without making a sound, quickly wrapping his sleeve around the tooth-sized gashes, in which blood was already welling up. Sirius growled and made to grab Maud, but she hissed like a cat at him and Lupin shouted, "Stop it!" again.

"Remus, she bit you!" Tonks exclaimed.

"She's exhausted. Let her get some sleep," said Lupin calmly. "Aren't there any spare rooms in the house, Sirius?"

Sirius folded his arms, but Lupin shot him a pleading look and after a moment, he sighed. "Yeah, come on," he said, beckoning to Maud. "I'll show you where you can sleep."

Maud leaned away from him. "I'm not going anywhere!"

Sirius clenched his jaw and grabbed her elbow, well out of reach of her teeth. Maud made a yowling noise but didn't kick or scream when he lead her up the stairs to the bedrooms of the Black mansion. He took out his wand and unlocked one of the smaller rooms. "Here we go. This is yours."

Maud stared at the wand. "Fenrir says magic corrupts men," she sniffed. "Turns them into human pigs."

Sirius thrust her through the door. "You bite Remus again, I'll turn you into a pig," he told her, and slammed the door after her. After a moment's consideration, he locked it. He didn't want Maud running around the house on her own – it would be as bad as having Kreacher back again.

Through the closed door, Maud shouted. "You filthy wizard! Fenrir will come and get me, you wait and see!"

He got back into the kitchen just as the fire in the oven flared up green and a rapidly spinning Hestia Jones flopped out onto the kitchen floor. She saw Lupin and her face broke into a grin. "Thank God! Dumbledore's been looking everywhere for you. He was so angry at Kingsley for sending you back to the werewolves, he thought you might have been injured."

"I'm fine," Lupin smiled at her. Tonks had her wand out and was healing the wounds where Maud had bitten and scratched him. Her face still looked pink from crying.

Hestia saw Sirius standing in the doorway. "Why's everyone looking so gloomy? Remus is back, isn't he? And that scum Greyback got himself blasted by Emmeline Vance, didn't you hear? I could hug her! They're still looking for Greyback, but he's probably lying dead in a gutter somewhere…seriously, this is good news!" she said angrily when nobody showed any signs of cheering up.

"Remus brought a feral werewolf back with him," said Sirius quietly.

"What?"

Sirius told Hestia about Maud. Her jaw dropped lower and lower as he went on. "…and now she's sleeping upstairs, threatening to bring Greyback's wrath down on us," he finished.

Hestia scratched the back of her head and glanced at Lupin. "Well," she said in a puzzled voice. "I can't say it wasn't tactless, bringing her here…"

"I was looking for help!" Lupin replied hotly.

"…to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Remus," Hestia finished overtop of him. "I know she can't reveal our location because of the Fidelius charm, but all the same… she's a werewolf…"

"So am I!"

"…what if she does get back to the other werewolves? She might have discovered all sorts of information about us," Hestia finished. She glanced at her watch. "Good lord, is that the time? I was supposed to be teaching my second-years ten minutes ago! And I've got to tell Dumbledore I've found you and you're all right… I'll see you later, Remus, Sirius, Tonks!" And with that she took a pinch of powder out of her pocket, threw it onto the flames, and disappeared with a cry of, "Dumbledore's Office, Hogwarts!"

"Oh, no, wait!" Sirius barked, but Hestia had already vanished. He swore. He and Hestia had been tracking down wizards who sold or made large silver chains, the kind that could restrain werewolves, once again hoping to find some clue of Harry's whereabouts. Hestia had promised to go across Britain to ask a particularly dodgy wizard jeweller who he had been selling silver chains to and whether he had installed the chains himself, as the jeweller was one who specialised in illegal magical artefacts. Sirius had yet to find out whether she had discovered anything.

A few minutes later, the fire once again glowed green to announce the arrival by floo powder of Albus Dumbledore, who climbed gracefully out of the oven, his long silver beard draped over one should. He straightened his pointed hat, then gave a short bow to Sirius and Tonks. "Remus," he said, taking Lupin's hand and shaking his whole arm. "Thanks goodness. When Kingsley told me you'd gone back to the other werewolves, I feared the worst."

He turned to Tonks and Sirius. "Though both of you have obviously been looking after my Professor very well, I would ask you to excuse yourselves from the room for a few minutes. I have many things that I must speak about to him. In private."

Tonks opened her mouth to protest, but Sirius tugged at the sleeve of her robe and indicated that there was no use arguing. He didn't really want to hang around with Dumbledore anyway. They both headed up the stairs.

Sirius tried to make light conversation. "Why's the house so empty, anyway?" he asked. "I thought the Order was supposed to make good use of the place."

Tonks shrugged noncommitedly. They passed the room where Maud was sleeping but there was no sound from inside.

They ended up sitting in the hall like a pair of children who had been sent to their rooms without supper, waiting for Dumbledore to finished talking to Lupin. Tonks didn't say a word. Sirius thought he knew what was bothering her, but he didn't have a clue how to reassure love-struck young women. He was beginning to understand why Lupin had brought Maud with him – and he knew it had nothing to do with what Tonks thought – but he couldn't be sure yet.

After about half an hour, Lupin appeared around the corner. "You can come out now, Sirius, Albus is gone," he joked, but his face was looking pale and strained. The newly healed cuts on his face were shining pink against his blood-drained skin.

"What was so important that he had to say it in secret?" Sirius asked, pulling Tonks to her feet.

"He says that if Greyback is alive I'm in danger. He wants me somewhere safe," Lupin shrugged.

"And? It can't have been just that."

Lupin glanced at Sirius and answered reluctantly. "He said… Harry has been seen in a vision, and he seems to be alive and healthy."

Sirius jumped as if he had been electrocuted. Even Tonks seemed to snap out of her gloomy expression and look interested. Sirius gaped. "What? By who? Was there any clue? Did they find out where he might be?"

Lupin shook his head. "Nothing…nothing that could help us find him. Just the news that he is alive."

"But…but they must have…surely…"

Lupin shrugged sadly. "I tried to get more out of Dumbledore, but he said there was nothing more. He just said didn't want to tell you himself, he wanted me to tell you instead."

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Dumbledore had recommended that Lupin stay in Grimmauld Place for as long as possible, and that he should not go out in public without at least two Order members accompanying him. This was for Lupin's protection against other werewolves.

"You heard what Maud said," Lupin sighed quietly. "I'm a traitor to my own kind. I told the Aurors about the attack on the orphanage. Even if Greyback is dead – and considering they haven't found his body yet, I'd say he isn't – there are still plenty of his followers who fled from the orphanage or weren't there that night. They'll be after me as soon as they find out where I am."

However, having Lupin living in the Order of the Phoenix headquarters meant having Maud live there as well, and nobody – absolutely nobody – liked this arrangement at all.

It was worse than having Kreacher back: at least Kreacher sometimes did as he was told. Maud had yet to take an order from anyone, and usually did the opposite. Even after Lupin convinced her to have a bath so that she did not look so muddy, there was something undeniably animal about the way she slouched down the hallways, her eyes constantly flickering to all the escape routes. She also had a way about her of saying the worst thing at the worst possible time.

"Don't pretend to be nice to me, I hate you too," she spat at Tonk when Tonks finally got up the courage to try and talk to her. Tonks did not reply, but the teacup she had been offering to Maud smashed in her hand because she was gripping it so hard.

The fact that Maud constantly whined that she wanted to go back to Greyback and the other werewolves was also a source of worry for Lupin and Dumbledore. There was a steady stream of Order members passing through Grimmauld Place most days, and though Lupin did his best to keep Maud out of the way, she never stayed put when told to stay put, and she had a habit of walking in on conversations that were supposed to be secret. No one could tell whether she understood what she heard, or would remember the faces she saw, but the fact was that no one wanted her recollective abilities tested if she somehow made her way into Death Eater hands. But of course, she always kicked up a fuss when told to leave a room, insulted anyone who attempted to talk to her, and tried to bite anyone who touched her, so keeping her from learning anything about the Order was easier said than done.

Being a werewolf, her bites were no laughing matter. Lupin was the only one who dared go near her, so he was the one who ended up with bruises from Maud's fists and cuts from her fingernails. Seeing this abuse, Sirius was ready to strangle Maud with his bare hands, and probably would not have been able to help himself if Lupin hadn't been there to protect Maud. The only good thing that came out of Maud's constant abuse of Lupin was that Tonks was the best person in the house for healing small wounds, and having Lupin come to her for medical attention had cheered her up considerably, despite the fact that Maud had taken to taunting her whenever they were in the same room together.

However, after barely three days, everyone had had enough.

"Give her to the Ministry, Remus," Hestia complained. "They'll lock her up where she belongs."

"Just let her go," Mundungus Fletcher suggested. "There's nothing she's seen that's of importance. Dump her in a forest somewhere and let her run wild."

"Please Remus," Arthur Weasley begged. "She's driving all of us crazy. Put her somewhere and leave her there. Sooner or later she's going to kill you, too."

Lupin protested feebly, and tried to make light of Maud's attempts to gnaw her way through locked doors, and ignored the complaints, but he could not deny that Maud was dangerous, and infuriating, and beginning to make perfectly stable people want to kill her. So he rented out a house in the London suburbs, had Kingsley bewitch it to keep out intruders, packed up his belongings and moved there with Maud. Everyone in Grimmauld Place breathed a sigh of relief, and then felt guilty about it because now Lupin was dealing with Maud all by himself.

Sirius went to visit him as often as he could. About five days after the attack of the orphanage, Lupin was still looking as if he had just come out of a fierce battle. He was not eager to talk about what he had been doing with the other werewolves for all those months.

"It wasn't all bad," he said. "I mean, I hated… but I did get to visit some lovely little villages, when Greyback first started planning his attack on the orphanage. We were supposed to be looking for villages with a lot of children, you see… but I did spend some time in a nice place called Little Hangleton, charming people… it wasn't all bad," he finished rather lamely.

Sirius could tell Lupin was doing his utmost to avoid talking about the rest of his experiences, and decided to leave off his questioning for another time. Deciding that fresh air was good medicine for troubled souls, he suggested they go to Diagon Alley to replace the clothes Lupin had lost when he had left the other werewolves behind.

"That's a good idea," Lupin said brightly. "I need to buy Maud some proper clothes. She can't keep wearing that horrid dress forever."

Sirius sighed, as his main intention had been to get Lupin out of the house and away from Maud. "Moony, you don't have any money to buy Maud clothes," he pointed out.

"Yes, well I'll just…I'll…"

"Look, how about this for a plan? We'll lock Maud in the house, you come with me to Diagon Alley, I'll buy you a new pair of robes and any clothes that Maud needs, and you'll have a relaxing time in the fresh air without worrying about whether or not that girl has set fire to her bedroom yet."

"Sirius, no, I can't accept charity – and besides, Albus said I wasn't to go out without at least two members of the Order –"

"I'll invite Tonks along too, then," Sirius said firmly.

And after a few more minutes of protest, Lupin agreed that leaving the house would do him good.

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Hestia and Tonks were waiting for them outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour. Tonks' hair remained grey and limp, and she was fiddling idly with the remains of a sundae as Lupin and Sirius approached. Hestia was leaning back in her chair, reading the Daily Prophet. She shut it hurriedly as she saw them and waved to attract their attention.

"Hello!" Hestia called. "Surprised to see me?"

Sirius pulled up a chair beside Tonks, who shuffled around to make room for him and Lupin.

"Yes, actually," Sirius replied. He had written to Hestia asking to meet her so he could find out what she had discovered from the jeweller who made silver chain, but he had not expected her so soon. "Why aren't you teaching?"

"The school term finished yesterday," Lupin answered quietly, before Hestia could open her mouth. He was resting his chin on his hand and staring wistfully down the street into the distance.

"My last day teaching," Hestia added happily, putting her newspaper on the ground beside her. "Not that I won't miss it, but I'm glad to give the post back to you, Remus. I've had enough of the Weasley twins to last me a lifetime. Lucky their sister isn't going in that direction is all I can say. Shall we get started, then?"

Lupin was still gazing down the street, but he seemed more alert. "What's going on down there?" He asked, pointing to a crowd gathered in the street. It was just outside one of the many shops on Diagon Alley that had been abandoned because its owners had vanished or been killed by Death Eaters. The crowd seemed to have just streamed out of the store and were mingling in the warm summery air.

"I dunno," replied Sirius, raising his head to get a look at the crowd. He turned back to Hestia. "Tell me you got some information out of the jeweller."

Hestia sighed and shook her head. "All I did was meet a lot of shady characters who didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about. I…" she stopped as Lupin suddenly pushed back his chair, stood up and walked past her. "Remus, where are you going?"

"I want to know what that crowd's about," Lupin replied over his shoulder.

Sirius rolled his eyes and got up to follow him. "Come on," he nudged Tonks' shoulder and she got out of her chair as well. Lupin was walking quickly and reached the crowd ahead of them. Sirius noticed that many people in the group were clutching small yellow posters, and by the way they were standing so quietly, they were listening to someone.

Just as Lupin reached the group, there was the pop of someone Disapparating and the crowd began to break up. He tapped a large warlock on the shoulder. "Excuse me, I was just wondering what the gathering is for?"

The warlock turned to him. "Public address by the Head of the Department," he said, looking down at Lupin without much interest.

"The Head of what Department?" Lupin pressed.

"The Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," said a wizard standing next to the warlock, who wore a wide-brimmed grey hat. "Dolores Umbridge. I'm afraid you just missed it, she's gone."

"I see," said Lupin coldly. "And why would she feel the need to address the public here? Surely she should be using one of the Ministry meeting halls?"

"Didn't you hear? The Minister of Magic banned her from organising a rally to promote her new anti-werewolf legislation," the wizard said angrily, his cheeks flushing red. "Blatant corruption is what I call it! Minister Moody is too afraid of losing his position in the Ministry, so he's bringing down an iron fist on the important work of decent, community-minded citizens like Dolores Umbridge!"

"I see," said Lupin evenly, as there was not really anything he could say to this angry speech.

"Here, now," said the warlock, squinting at Lupin's face. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

"No, I don't think so…"

The warlock was clutching one of the yellow posters in his hand. The grey-hatted wizard snatched the piece of paper off him and stared at it. The indignant red flush faded from his cheeks and his face turned the same grey as his hat.

"Blimey," he said, looking from the poster to a slightly confused Lupin. "It's you! You bloody –"

This was the moment Sirius and Tonks caught up with Lupin, just in time to see the grey-hatted wizard shout, "Werewolf!" and point his wand at Lupin's face. There was bang, Sirius roared, Tonks shrieked, Lupin gave a yell of surprise and pain and put his hands to his face, and the crowd surged in alarm. Tonks and Sirius, wands out, leapt to Lupin's aid. Sirius grabbed the back of his robes and pulled him out of the crowd before he was crushed in the confusion. Tonks jumped in front of Lupin just as the grey-hatted wizard, who had been knocked sideways by the warlock, regained his balance and raised his wand to cast a second curse.

"Protego!" she shouted and the wizard's curse rebounded and hit the warlock, who bellowed and stumbled sideways again. Sirius grabbed Tonks as well, and she grabbed the yellow poster as the wizard dropped it in his hurry to avoid the warlock.

Sirius pulled them both out of the crowd. Lupin was still clutching his face, covering his eyes with his hands. Angry shouts were rising behind them, so he and Tonks each took one of Lupin's elbows and steered him away as fast as they could.

"Why did he attack him?" Tonks was seething. "Remus didn't even have his wand out!"

"I don't know…he shouted 'werewolf'…" Sirius looked over his shoulder and quickened his pace. "Let's get out of here, I think some of them are going to start chasing us…where's Hestia?"

"I don't know! I thought she followed us!" Tonks squinted at the table where they had been sitting outside the ice cream parlour. Hestia's newspaper was still on the ground by her chair, but Hestia herself was nowhere to be seen.

"There she is," Sirius saw Hestia's black hair across the street. She was standing in the shadow of a large shop sign, talking to someone. It seemed to be a small man in ragged brown robes with a grizzled, unshaven face. Sirius steered Lupin in that direction, but before they got near enough to see the man's face properly, he had stepped away and vanished around a corner.

"Hestia!"

"What happened?" Hestia hurried over, goggling at the two of them leading the third like some kind of hide-and-seek game. "What's wrong with Lupin?"

"My eyes!" Lupin said, slightly muffled through his hands. "That's what's wrong with me!"

"They are following us," Tonks said nervously, looking over her shoulder. "They've got their wands out."

"Come on, in here," Hestia grabbed a handful of Lupin's robes and pulled him into the nearest shop, Florish and Blotts. Sirius and Tonks were dragged in after him. Hestia closed the door after them and she and Sirius peered through the window.

"Either they've decided its not worth it, or they didn't see us," she said after a couple of minutes. She turned back to where Tonks had dropped the yellow poster and sat Lupin down on a seat behind the counter. The storeowner was flapping back and forth while Tonks tried to get Lupin to lower his hands.

"What's going on?" The owner kept asking. "What's happening?"

"He's been hexed, you git, now get out of the way," Sirius snarled and pushed passed. "What was it, Moony?"

"Ow, ow, ow!" Lupin yelped as Tonks, wincing in sympathy, tried again to see what damage the curse had done. "It's just a conjunctivitis curse, at least, I think that's all it is…ow!…but it feels like my eyeballs have swelled up, I'm not taking my hands away in case they fall out…"

Lupin probably meant this last bit as a joke, but Tonks went into such a flutter of panic when he said it that Sirius had to pry her off Lupin before she hurt herself or someone else. He knew a bit about the conjunctivitis curse, and that it wasn't going to do any lasting damage, but it would certainly hurt a lot until they fixed it.

"I can't remember the counter-curse, Tonks, you'll have to go and look it up," he told her firmly, as much to give her something useful to do as anything else.

"Look it up? Where?" Tonks squeaked.

"We're in a bookstore, Tonks! It'll be here somewhere!"

"Oh…" Tonks grabbed the owner of the shop and the two of them went off in search of a book on minor curses and hexes.

While she was gone, Hestia and Sirius tried to get Lupin to lower his hands, but he continued to refuse until they had found the counter-curse. Greenish-yellowish pus was now oozing out from between his fingers.

"Ow! No, come on, Sirius, I'm fine…now tell me what's going on…ow! …that crowd was listening to a speech from Dolores Umbridge, he said something about her new anti-werewolf legislation. They'd just come out of the shop because Minister Moody has…ow!…banned her from using the Ministry meeting halls."

"He's what?" said Sirius. "Why?"

"Because she's a disgusting little cretin, I suppose," snarled Lupin, his voice still slightly muffled by his hands. "Anyway, my question is, how did that man know I was a werewolf?"

"This is how," said Hestia gloomily, picking up the yellow poster which Tonks had dropped on the counter. Tonks and the bookstore owner had returned now and were leafing through a thick book on counter-curses. Hestia read the heading at the top of the poster, "Werewolves among us: faces to look out for in your community. Don't let your family become a victim! Avoid these ministry-registered werewolves," she turned the poster around so that Sirius and Tonks could see it.

"What? What else does it say?" asked Lupin.

"It's got pictures of about twelve people," said Sirius heavily. "You're at the bottom. Remus J. Lupin: Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: one known victim…oh God, Moony, they mean Harry! And they've got your address and everything!"

"What? – ow – Not my new address?"

"No don't worry, it's your old one, from months ago…but surely the Ministry keeps tabs on you?"

Lupin nodded, slightly awkwardly with his hands on his face. "They usually record every place of residence. They'll find out where I'm living before long…not before they printed those posters, thank goodness. So that man recognised me off the poster?"

"And just attacked you on a street!" said Sirius bitterly.

"It's just because of the attack on the orphanage," Lupin grimaced. "I don't blame people for being paranoid about werewolves. Next time it could be Hogwarts…"

Sirius shook his head. "This is ridiculous! This is anarchy! People taking the law into their own hands…Minister Moody may be an Auror, but that doesn't mean he should be running a military government. Attacking an unarmed man on the street…"

"Well, if I turned around and saw Fenrir Greyback on the street, I'd probably attack him too," shrugged Hestia.

There was a loud bang as Tonks slammed the book on hexes shut, accidentally crushing the fingers of the storeowner. Her cheeks had turned bright pink as she rounded on Hestia and shouted, "Remus isn't Fenrir Greyback!"

Hestia blinked for a moment. She mumbled, "I didn't mean that…I just meant from that wizard's point of view…"

"Here, I've got the counter-curse," snapped Tonks, thrusting the book back at the storeowner, who was sucking on his crushed fingers. She strode over to Lupin. "Take your hands away, for goodness' sake," she ordered, and he did so meekly. It did not look as if his eyes were swelling up or falling out; they were just bright red and weeping a lot of pus. Tonks pointed her wand at Lupin and muttered something, and a moment later, the pus began to disappear and the red faded away.

"Oh, that's better," sighed Lupin, rubbing his eyes.

"Right," said Sirius, taking a long look at Tonks to make sure she was not about to explode. He turned to the storeowner, who flinched as if frightened he was going to be smashed with another book. "Do you have a floo connection?"

"It's in the back," said the owner, pointing at a door behind the counter. "But it's not for customer use…though in this case, I suppose…" he added when Tonks turned to glare at him.

"Where are you going?" Lupin asked.

"I'm not going anywhere. You're going home," said Sirius. "Your new house has been connected to the floo network, hasn't it?"

"Yes, but…"

"No buts," said Sirius. "The last thing we need is for you to get lynched by a mob of hooligans wandering around worshipping Dolores Umbridge. Then we'll have no one to get rid of Maud for us. Go home and we'll get you the clothes you need. Come on."

Hestia and Tonks watched him frogmarch Lupin through door behind the counter of Florish and Blotts. There was the whoosh of Floo powder coming in effect, and Sirius returned a few minutes later, dusting soot off his hands.

"And you," said Sirius, eying Tonks. "I need to talk to you about Remus."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks asked sharply, raising her head.

"Sit down, for God's sake shut up, and let's get a few things straight about him and Maud."

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TBC

A/N: Ok, I have an important announcement. I have said (possibly several times now) that Doloroes Umbridge is going to play an important part in this story.

This is no longer true.

Up until about half an hour ago, Dolores Umbridge was an important part of this story. In fact, she had an entire subplot in this story. I had three chapters written that were riddled with her. But as I finished the third chapter, I realised that Dolores Umbridge and I had some major artistic differences. Her subplot was no longer a vital part of the fic. And it was an enormously wasteful subplot. So I have taken a large carving knife, and she has been cut from the story.

She has been mentioned briefly in this chapter: she will probably not be mentioned again.

I'm sorry for those of you who were sharpening your pitchforks in preparation for her arrival. I feel extremely stupid for making this last-minute adjustment. But trust me, this is for the best – it would have taken at least another chapter to resolve Umbridge's subplot, and this way, we can return to Harry faster. I'm certain that is good news.

Once again, I apologise to those of you who were promised Umbridge. I hope I can make it up to you.

In other news, thank you so much to all reviewers.

Cheers!