The next day, Remus woke up relatively early, but Tonks had already left for work. She had left a note on the kitchen table, telling to make himself at home, and asking if he could find anything out about any of the werewolves who had disappeared yesterday. After breakfast, Remus set out to do just that. Being active would keep his mind off all of his other problems.

The Daily Prophet's list formed his starting point. He recognised most of the names on the list. Surprisingly, Quadrille's was not there. Nor was Methuselah Smith's. Remus frowned, and resolved to pay a visit to Sorrel's in the afternoon. The morning was reserved for visiting as many of the places on the list as he could find.

This proved to be tiring work, as Remus had to Apparate and then walk in most cases. Several of the names on the list had attracted no attention, as they lived far from other wizarding families. Some of them slammed the door shut in Remus' face, but others were pleased to see him, and asked him for all of the information he had. Of the other names, some had been threatened but remained in their houses. Most of that group were not at all happy to see Remus, and chased him away in short order, but some were a little more receptive.

The last category comprised those who had fled. After a lot of footwork, particularly important when avoiding any local residents who found his behaviour suspicious, Remus had established that three of the names on his list were dead, either directly, or as a result of running away and having an accident. Remus failed to establish contact with any of the others, but he had not really had the time to conduct a full search. That would have to wait for another day.

By the time he finished it was half past three. His stomach growling, he Apparated to the entry way to St. Mungo's. He stumbled on arrival, and crashed into a set of cardboard boxes, waking up a homeless man sleeping there. He retreated swiftly, aware of how close he had come to violating the International Statute of Secrecy. He doubted that he would be shown any leniency.

Passing through St. Mungo's, he arrived at Sorrel's, and was told that he would have to wait until four o'cock, for Quadrille and company to have their allotted afternoon tea break. Four o'clock duly arrived, and Remus raced through the corridors trying to find them. They were once more sitting in the 'garden'.

"Remus," said Timothy Hardin. "What are you doing here again? Can't keep away?"

"Hi guys," said Remus, once he had recovered his breath. "I wanted to check that you were all okay after yesterday."

Timothy answered straight away, tapping the side of his nose, "I don't think they managed to find my house." Remus looked at him curiously, and then nodded slowly. Timothy must have moved, or made up an address; he had always been paranoid about the Werewolf Registry holding too much information on him. With good reason, it appeared.

Methuselah Smith harrumphed, and said, "It was hardly unexpected, Lupin, what with everything that's been going on. My only surprise is that this didn't happen earlier."

Timothy turned to look at him, "What, always look on the bright side of life, don't you? Grumpy old codger."

"Watch your mouth, you little varmint." Timothy and Methuselah started to argue.

Quadrille smiled thinly and waved Remus over to sit by him. "I was really lucky, Remus. My name wasn't on that list. I guess they only leaked certain parts of the Registry."

"Yeah, I guess so." Remus tried to sound convincing, as he doubted that particular proposition. "Why, who else was missing?"

"Well, I don't know every werewolf in the country, but of the ones that I do know, erm, Methuselah, Jonquil Butterfield, Edwina something-or-other, Marcus Flint, you know that lad that works here sometimes. Not this time, but last month he was here. Who else? Peter Coggins, he's that young Muggle usually in the cell four or so doors down from us." He paused, thinking. "That's all I can think of."

Remus nodded, and was about to reply when one of the nurses came in, and ordered the three attendants back to work. Remus left quickly, and decided to take the bus back to Tonks' house. He was a little worried that he might splinch himself if he Apparated again. On the way back, he noted down all of the names that Quadrille had given him. Unless he was mistaken, they had all often been forced to work at Sorrel's to pay for their monthly ration of Wolfsbane. Pondering that thought, Remus made it to 54 Mulligan Street on autopilot.

Calvin let him in, and even seemed quite pleased to see him. "I wondered where you'd been all day." Calvin looked at him a bit more closely. "Crikey, you look done in, Mr. Lupin. Sit down and I'll get you a cup of tea."

Remus collapsed into a chair with great relief, and was profoundly grateful when Calvin brought him not only a cup of tea, but a selection of biscuits as well. He tore into them like a ravenous wolf.

Calvin smirked, and said, "Dinner will probably be at about six. Do you want anything before then?"

Remus shook his head as he swallowed. "Six o'clock should be fine."

"Well, I'll leave you to recover then." With that, Calvin disappeared.

At ten to five, the fire suddenly roared up, and Tonks marched through. Remus, who had fallen into a slight doze, jerked up and looked round in alarm at the noise. Tonks was a picture of fury, clenching her fists and looking like she badly needed a door to slam. She said tightly, "Remus." It was intended to be a greeting.

Calvin had obviously heard something, as he dashed back into the living room. "Hi Tonks. Bad day at the office?"

"Bad day? Bad day? Just about the worst." Tonks started to pace up and down in front of the fire. Remus could see her skin flexing and shifting, as if it wanted to morph. He had never seen Tonks this agitated, not even when they had argued. Tonks started to speak again. "They took me off the damn project. Said that the case had become too high profile. Apparenty I don't have the 'authority', someone 'like me' won't inspire confidence in the public. No, I have to go and investigate, Merlin knows what, cursed Muggle toilets or something." There was a brief pause, but before either Remus or Calvin could come up with something to say, Tonks was off again. "And then they've only gone and put Euan Abercrombie in my spot. Some wet-behind-the-ears newbie."

Calvin said, a tad hesitantly, "I'm sorry, Tonks." He half-smiled. "Curse of the Blacks and all that."

She laughed shakily. "I just don't understand. I put the hours in. I get results, more than most. But every time that I get close to a big time case! Every time I get something important ... Pfft – it just disappears. Curse of the Blacks is about right. Look at us all, Sirius, Bella, you, Draco. The most noble and ancient house of Black. Rotten as a dead tree." Tonks' voice was rising. "I wonder if I would have made it if I hadn't had all this stupid baggage."

Remus was by now feeling quite uncomfortable, and shrank backwards. Calvin said, "Of course you'd make it. You're a great Auror. And you're only half a Black."

Tonks snapped right back at him. "Half a Black! You can't be half a Black. Look at you – you're all Black, even if your name's Lestrange."

"It's not as if I asked for that to be my name."

"Well, you could make something of it. Do something with your life, instead of wasting it away in that fool pub."

Calvin's face shut down and he suddenly looked very scary. "I've tried. I've tried plenty of times. It's not my fault that your stupid world doesn't want anything to do with me." It was said very calmly.

"No, you just mope around here, thinking of what might have been. Well, it didn't happen ..."

"It might have if you hadn't messed things up." Calvin's voice was like ice.

"Oh come on. You didn't give her a chance, did you? Just walked away."

"Yeah. I know when I'm not wanted." And with that, Calvin turned on his heel and walked out.

Tonks sighed and sat down, putting her head in her hands, and remarking sarcastically, "Well, that went well." She leaned back with her eyes shut. When she opened them, she saw Remus and jumped. "Remus! You, er, saw all of that?" She looked rather embarrassed.

Remus nodded, equally embarrassed. "Erm, what was all that about?"

"Oh, ancient history." She smiled weakly. "He'd hate it if I told you. Basically, about a year and a half after he moved in here, I screwed up big time." She sighed again. "He never gets really mad. He just goes all cold. I wish he would shout sometimes. I think it would do him the power of good."

"Mmmm." Remus remained non-committal. Truth be told, he was a little shocked. He had never seen Tonks lose control like that before.

Tonks laughed at that. A bitter, angry laugh, but still a laugh. "Oh man. I thought I was making progress as well, with the case. The report on Quadrille Beaufort had just arrived, but now I guess it'll be Euan who flicks through it, trying to work out what possible relevance it has. I'd managed to track down a Muggle police report on abandoned children."

She snapped her fingers, trying to transport herself out of the funk she was in. "Well, I think I've got things to do. I don't want to start shouting at you, Remus! See you at dinner." She jumped to her feet and walked out. Remus shook his head and waited, rather nervously, for dinner.

Tonks called Remus into the kitchen about an hour later, where she was serving up some kind of meat covered in a strange-looking purple sauce. Remus looked at it with concern. Calvin was already seated at the table, and he smirked at Remus' look of suspicion. "Don't worry, Mr. Lupin. This is devilled chicken à la Tonks."

Tonks chirped in, "My own extra-special recipe."

Remus said, "I should I have guessed from the colour."

Calvin said, "Don't judge by appearances. It's fantastic." He glanced sideways at his cousin. "It's the only thing she can cook."

"Oh shush you," said Tonks, pretending to tap his head with the serving spoon. They all sat down to eat and Remus observed his hosts closely. They were acting as if the argument in the living-room had never taken place.

He said, "That was pretty nice after all."

Tonks laughed. "Complete accident. I was trying to make something else, chicken in mustard sauce, back when I was in Auror training, and I mixed in some red wine instead of white. It came out this great purple colour. Looks totally unappetizing. But when I tasted it, I knew it was alright." She started to clear up the dishes. "So, shall we all head out to the Green Dragon? I wonder how, ah, Bobby's getting along? What time's your shift start, Cal?"

And just like that, Remus found himself ensconced at the bar of the Green Dragon again, this time with Tonks for company. She seemed much more herself now, and spent most of the evening chatting with Bobby and Cal, and occasionally some of the other regulars.

At one point, Bobby said, "Hey, Mr. Lupin, you're very quiet. What's up?"

Remus opened his mouth, but could not think of anything to say. Calvin grinned, and reached over the bar to hug Tonks with one arm. "Tonks and I had a big fight – I think Mr. Lupin's still in shock."

Bobby covered his mouth in shock horror. "You two had a fight? Never. I don't believe it."

"Oh shush, you," said Tonks, ineffectually.

Calvin said in a stage-whisper, "She had a really bad day at work, and needed to yell at someone." He squeezed Tonks' shoulders and pulled away. "And if you can't yell at your family, who can you yell at." He looked at Remus for a second as he said that.

"Indeed," said Tonks. She reached over and patted Calvin's elbow.

Remus shook his head and hoped that it was true.