Saturday proved to be a rather strange day. On the Friday night, Remus had put aside his memories, and looked at the Werewolf Register that Tonks had stolen. It had approximately twenty more names on it that the list published in the Daily Prophet. Remus had recognized enough of the names on that list to guess that all of them worked at Sorrel's to pay for their Wolfsbane and lodging at the full moon. However, as Tonks had pointed out, that applied to several of the names that had been published in the Prophet as well. On that inconclusive note, they had both retired for the night.

Remus had dallied in bed on the Saturday morning, reluctant to get up and face the world. He eventually made it downstairs, to find Tonks sitting at the kitchen table with a swathe of papers in front of her, a pen gripped between her teeth. He also noted that her hair had changed from her now-customary dark brown to a redder shade. He stood in the doorway for a few moments, spying on her as she wrestled with some idea.

She took the pen in her hand and started to scribble furiously on a piece of white paper, and then sighed and looked up, suddenly noticing Remus. She smiled enthusiastically. "Remus, you're up! I've just been doing a bit of brainstorming. Oh, Cal left some fresh bread over there before he went to work."

Remus settled for murmuring, "Morning, Tonks." He then sidled over to the sideboard to investigate the bread.

Tonks turned to watch him. "This was preying on my mind all last night and then this morning, I suddenly though – what if there's something in the Wolfsbane? You said it tasted sweeter, right? Compared to what you'd had before? Well, what if it's not doing what it's meant to?"

"That seems rather doubtful. I mean, I haven't suffered any funny transformations, and I've been taking the same potion as everyone else."

"Perhaps its not intentional. I don't know. But if the potion tastes different, that means that it has something else in it, right? I remember that much about potions."

Remus leaned back against the sideboard, trying to give the ridiculous idea some thought. "Well, I only tasted the potion previously when I was at Hogwarts, and it was made by Snape. As you might imagine, bearing in mind what I mentioned yesterday, he would not have been inclined to make anything that he had to give to me taste nice."

Tonks' face fell. "That's true enough. That does explain why he aways hated the sight of you, at any rate. But it's something that we should follow up. It's not as if there are a million and one leads anyway. Are there any books on Wolfsbane?"

"Not that I know of. It's a recent potion. But I daresay any master potion maker should be able to give details. There's one at the Ministry isn't there?"

"Yeah, but I can't ask him. I'm not supposed to be working on this case any more, and he'd report me straight away. There aren't all that many British master brewers at the moment. Probably because Snape was such a bad teacher. I'll have to think about that." She threw the pen on to the table in disgust, and chewed on her thumb for a few seconds before standing up. "Okay, I'll see you later Remus. Quidditch practice."

"Quidditch?"

"Yeah, I've been playing for a local London team in the local league for a while now. Practice or match on a Saturday afternoon when I can make it."

"Chaser?"

"Yep! Wouldn't want to play anywhere else."

"Good luck."

Tonks dashed about the house for a little while before leaving with a cheery, "See you later."

Once she had gone, Remus settled into the living room and decided to watch the WWN. It took some Floo powder to make the connection, but he figured that he could pay Tonks back later. He managed to catch the start of a new-ish adaptation of Blood and Blindness, a classic of 17th century wizarding literature.

That distracted him until Calvin returned home from the Green Dragon. He looked at Remus, sprawled in front of the fire. "Good show?" Remus nodded. Calvin paused, leaning against the door frame as if he wanted to say something, but finally he turned and went upstairs.

A little later Tonks bustled back into the house, looking rather red-faced. "Hi, Remus. Is Cal back? Of course he is. I 'spect I ought to nip into the shower quickly before he starts to get ready for his night out." She moved past onto the stairs, calling to Cal, and then disappeared up them. Remus sat and watched the flames; he felt as if he had wandered into a twilight dreamworld.

He was hardly able to raise himself when Tonks returned downstairs, her hair now gleaming with moisture. She had a towel slung round her shoulders to stop her shirt from getting too damp. She was still rosy-cheeked, highlighting her heart-shaped face. Remus watched her bite the right-hand side of her lip as she scanned the room, and he sighed.

Tonks started to babble. "I said I'd cook dinner tonight, so that Cal doesn't have to worry about it. Not sure what there is in the kitchen. Let's see." She dashed into the kitchen, and Remus heard the cupboards open and close. She called out, "There's a bit of mince, and some pork loin. Then, oh, peas and broccoli, and some sprouts." She stopped speaking. A second later, her head peeked back round into the living room.

Remus didn't notice until she said, more quietly, "Remus, are you okay?"

Remus moved slowly to look at her, and had to wait for an agonizing moment before the words came to his lips. "Yes." That did not seem sufficient, so he surged up, saying, "Never better." The blood rushed to his head and he felt very dizzy.

He vaguely heard Tonks say, "Are you sure? It's just that you seem a bit spaced out, that's all."

The dizziness faded, and Remus felt some of his strength and focus returning. "Never better," he repeated, and marched over to the kitchen. "Let's see what there is then."

Dinner was duly prepared, and Cal complimented the two chefs. He then dashed upstairs to 'get ready'. Remus was not quite sure what took so long, but then he had onlyhalf understood Calvin's description of 'clubbing'. It sounded thoroughly unpleasant to him.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. Tonks jumped up and opened it, crying, "Hello! Cal's just finishing up. Come on in to the kitchen."

Remus watched as the young Muggle Bobby walked in, and was quite surprised. Bobby had removed the pink tips to his spiked blond hair, and they now appeared to be white, as far as Remus could judge against the blond background. He was dressed in a smart pair of black trousers with a thin white stripe running down each side. His V-neck shirt had short sleeves and was also a bright white. "Hello, Mr. Lupin." He flashed a shark-like grin. "Still padding around here then?"

Remus nodded, and had the impression that if Bobby had been wearing a pair of bracers, he would have been twanging them. Tonks said, "Crikey. You're looking rather shiny."

Bobby's grin widened. "I'm gonna get me some good strobe lighting. That's the best thing." He perched on the back of a chair, and raised his eyebrows. "You're not coming along then, Tonks? I'll dance with you if you like!"

She snorted at that. "That desperate? Are you afraid all the girls are going to run a mile from that hair cut?"

Bobby sniffed and affected a cut-glass accent. "I should have known that someone with no breeding like yourself would fail to recognise the dazzling magnificence of this particular hair cut."

"Pot, kettle, black." Tonks said the three words slowly, with a light laugh hidden behind. Bobby made a dismissive gesture.

Cal walked into the kitchen then, with his darker hair also gelled up into spikes. Remus had to admit that he looked rather sharp. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Bobby Drake, in the flesh."

Bobby stood up and slapped Calvin's hand rather exuberantly. "Indeed it is. Shall we go and have some fun?" He walked towards the door, stage-whispering, "I tried to persuade old Tonks to come along, but she wasn't having any of it. Obviously thinks she'll have more fun in the kitchen with Mr. Lupin over there."

Calvin shook his head in mock anger, and then smiled at Tonks, a real, cheerful smile. "Okay, we're off to that club I mentioned the other day. The journey's about half an hour. Then, I'll be back before eight."

"Gotcha. Take care, and have fun. But not you Bobby, you have too much fun already."

There was a defiant, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," as the two boys left the house.

Tonks was smiling as she turned back to face Remus. "Just ignore Bobby. His heart's in the right place, even if his tongue rarely is."

"Aren't you worried about letting a Muggle into this house?"

Tonks shrugged. "Cal's always careful. And I like to see him smile like that. It doesn't happen all that often."

Remus agreed; Calvin had looked more animated in those last two minutes than he had for the entirety of the previous days. "You know, you don't have to stay in just because I'm here. Do whatever you'd usually do."

Tonks laughed. "I told you, just ignore Bobby. I usually go down to the Green Dragon though; do you want to go and grab a pint?"

Remus did not really want to go, but thought that it would be rude to decline. A white later, they were seated at a small table in the pub, which was extremely noisy. Remus shouted, "You spend quite a lot of time in Muggle places, don't you?" He had no fear that anyone else would hear his use of the term 'Muggle'.

Tonks leaned forward. " Pardon?"

Remus repeated his question, and pulled his chair closer. To communicate, he and Tonks had to practically shout into each other's ears. She replied, "Yeah. It's a bit less claustrophobic. Plus, it's easier for Cal."

"Did he really mean eight in the morning?"

"Yep. Those places don't shut till well after dawn. He'll crawl in while I'm having breakfast."

Remus was quite bemused at the idea. Sure, he had stayed up late many times in his youth, but never in such an organised fashion. "How come he always tells you when he's going, and when he's coming back? It's quite peculiar."

"You said you saw the appeal, no?" Remus shrugged, not following Tonks' logic. She continued, "It was a condition of his release from Azkaban. He has to tell a Ministry official where he is at all times. After the appeal I went straight round and volunteered for the job."

"Oh." Remus assimilated this. He did not remember this from the appeal, but it had happened several years ago. "Did you know him before, then?"

"Yeah, we'd met up a few times. He even came round to my parents a few times for Christmas and the like when he was at Hogwarts."

Remus saw a shadow steal over Tonks' eyes at the mention of her parents, and, emboldened by the beer running though his veins, he covered one of her hands with his own. "That was really good of you, to take him in."

Tonks withdrew her hand to pick up her glass for a drink. "He's a good lad."

"So what happens if he doesn't report in?"

Tonks smiled sourly. "I've got an enchanted bit of paper. If he doesn't report in, or leaves the place he's supposed to be for more than ten minutes, I think it is, with an exception for getting from place to place, the paper starts to shout. It can be quite ... alarming. Then, it's spelled so that the paper shows an image of where he is if I speak the command word."

"You mean you can spy on him whenever you like? That's a pretty complicated enchantment."

"You could put it like that. But I don't see the need to check in on him like that." She sighed heavily. "It's awful that he has to report every day. He was exonerated at the appeal."

"Well, not really." Remus started to speak before thinking. "I mean nobody really believed him, they just weren't willing to argue with Minerva and Filius."

As the silence lengthened, Remus could see that he had quite effectively killed the mood.