Tonks and Cal walked in, disturbing his reverie. Tonks was looking rather worn, and sat down heavily next to Remus. "Oooh, a beer. That's a good idea. Cal, bring us a beer, will you?"

Cal mumbled something and then brought both himself and Tonks a beer before sitting down. Remus lifted his arm and Tonks squirmed next to his side, before relaxing with a sigh. Remus wrapped his arm round her shoulder, and then winked at Cal, who was obviously not too sure where to look. He asked him how he was, and Cal slowly started to relax. With that problem out of the way, he pulled out the petition parchment. "Someone at work had this. I was planning on signing it; thought you might want to as well."

Tonks chuckled. "I've got one in my bag too!" Remus signed his with a flourish, and passed it over to Cal, who read it carefully and then put it to one side. Remus looked at Tonks, wondering if he should say something, but she shook her head minutely. Instead, she stretched, and then said, "Hermione wants me to meet her this evening, about eight o'clock. She wants me to meet some dude."

They chattered about inconsequential matters for a little while, principally Tonks' Quidditch team, who had a match the following Sunday. When Tonks moved to ask about his day, Remus said that he would talk about it when they were with Hermione. In return, he asked about Tonks' day.

It turned out that she had been rather busy. Her team had made great progress on the dragon egg smuggling affair, and although Tonks could not give any details as the operation was still ongoing, she could reveal that Henrietta Valduc had been a very important figure in the smuggling chain, which was far more widespread than they had ever imagined. She hinted, however, that the case would probably be resolved by the end of the week.

Remus had noted that something else appeared to be bothering her, possibly several other things, and so he tried to persuade her to tell him. After giving him an uneasy smile, Tonks said that at one point during the day, she had been out in the field, on stakeout, when she had felt the alarm from the wards that she had set up around the house of the person she had imitated to get into Sorrel's on the full moon.

She had been unable to leave straight away, to avoid jeopardizing her co-workers, but had Apparated over as quickly as she could, only to find that the dead body of her unwitting helper. Remus studied Tonks with great concern, and saw that she was extremely upset. He turned and lifted her chin up, pulling her into a tight embrace. "It's not your fault, Nymph."

Tonks took a long, shaky breath. "Yes, it is. I put their life in danger, and the things I said as them led directly to this. If only I could have got their earlier."

"You didn't kill them. It's not your fault."

Tonks shook her head. "It is. But I can deal with it."

Remus looked at her. "With me. I'll be here." He paused, thinking through the issue. "Did you report it?"

"Of course." Tonks looked vaguely scandalized. "I made up a tip-off from a concerned passerby."

Tonks visibly pulled herself together. "That's mainly what happened to me today. I bumped into Hermione at lunchtime. Well, actually, I think she was looking for me. Oh, and I got this." She fumbled around inside her robe and pulled out an envelope. Inside was her new registration badge. It was relatively small, and if pinned to the outside of someone's robes, would not draw any attention. Remus could not think of anything to say, and Cal had apparently slipped away into the kitchen, so he just held her tight.

Dinner was served soon after, with one of Tonks' favourite dishes, steack au poivre with chips. She tucked in, and Cal and Remus kept up a stream of unimportant chatter, about Quidditch, Muggle football, the cinema, whatever they could think of. They all chipped in with the cleaning up, and soon it was time for everyone to leave. Remus insisted on accompanying Tonks, even though she feebly tried to dissuade him.

They Flooed to Hermione's flat, as Remus had never been there. The Floo Powder stock was running extremely low. After dusting off the soot, they both looked around. Hermione was standing in one corner with a tall wizard, with a well-tamed mane of dark blond hair. He was wearing an expensively tailored pair of black robes, and Remus thought that he looked like a lawyer.

This proved to be the case, for this was Cato Scrimgeour, son of Rufus, former Minister of Magic, and brother of Tonks' nemesis Cicero. Remus sneaked a glance at Tonks as Hermione finished the introductions. She was looking very calm and collected, and Remus could see no traces of her earlier distress. She caught him looking, and she took his hand to squeeze it briefly. He did feel reassured, but was rather wary of her apparent calm. He knew she was cut up about this dead person, and worried that he knew next to nothing about them. Cato Scrimgeour, on the other hand, was well known. He was a hotshot wizarding rights lawyer with a reputation for taking on difficult cases. He was also known for his incorruptibility.

Cato bowed solemnly to the pair of them. "I met Hermione yesterday afternoon – we are working together on building up support for a house elf rights programme – and we started to discuss the news that was released yesterday. We were both of like mind; the proposed registration programme is unacceptable, and must be combatted. Hermione mentioned that she knew a Metamorphmagus, and I asked her to arrange a meeting." He clapped his hands once. "And now I see that Remus Lupin is also here! If you are amenable, perhaps we can discuss some ideas of mine regarding werewolf rights later?"

Remus was rather surprised, but nodded an affirmative. Tonks said, "So how may I be of assistance, Mr. Scrimgeour? I am quite prepared to admit that I am strongly against the new decre, butI must also warn you that I am not currently in a situation where I can risk losing my job, much to my regret."

Cato arched an eyebrow. "Indeed. Well, for the moment I am principally interested in gathering information on how the decree impacts your general everyday life – testimony, if you like. No need for you to refuse to wear it just at the moment. If I can compile a report, it will provide ammunition for those trying to change this, and other recent decrees.

"If I may take the liberty, I have been following recent events with great concern. The degeneration of the werewolf situation, the recent Broom Control development, and now this Metamorphmagus issue, along with several other concerns. All of these things point to a serious breakdown in the controls we have in place to control the development of legislation. I am absolutely horrified by these changes that appear to be unnoticed by the vast majority of our populace.

Tonks smiled gracefully. "I am so glad that there are still reasonable people out there like yourself, Mr. Scrimgeour. I can certainly do as you ask, and we can see how we can take things from there."

Cato beamed. "Excellent. Excellent. Now, can you put me in contact with any other Metamorphmagi."

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I don't know any others."

"Ah well. I'm sure I'll be able to get in contact with some others. Well, I will keep you posted, Ms. Tonks." He then turned to smile at Remus. "I will take advantage of this opportunity, if I may, to ask you to provide me with similar information on the real treatment of werewolves at Sorrel's Institution. I have heard the most terrible of rumours regarding the behaviour of the wardens. All drug-addicts and ne'er-do-wells."

Remus did his best not to snort, and said, as calmly as he could manage, "It would be my pleasure, Mr. Scrimgeour. So few people are interested in the conditions that werewolves find themselves in. I do in fact have quite a lot of information, and good contacts with other werewolves. I'll send it along tomorrow."

"Very good. You do realise, of course, that werewolves are a bit less, media-friendly, shall we say, than Metamorphmagi. At least the humanity of Metamorphmagi is not in question," said Cato.

"Yes." Remus left his response deliberately tight.

"Well, this has been a most agreeable meeting, Ms. Tonks, Mr. Lupin. I look forward to having further contact with you. Good evening." He nodded to Hermione rather formally, and then Apparated out.

Remus looked at Hermione, and saw her mouth twitch. She said, "Well, his heart's in the right place, even if he can be a bit pompous at times."

Tonks spoke up. "Well, he's direct, and to the point. Always an advantage to my mind."

Hermione looked up at her with a bit of shock. "Don't worry, Tonks. We'll work it out somehow." When Tonks looked unconvinced, she continued, "I'll take that as a hint then. I am still having some trouble with the potion analysis. I know I said I'd have some news by Wednesday. Well, I can tell you about the common ingredients, but there a couple of things that I need to work out. They're quite difficult to decipher. Definitely not the normal Wolfsbane, though."

Remus started to pace, coming back to his earlier thoughts. "That makes it imperative to have somewhere to go next full moon. I'm not going to go back there if there's a risk I'm going to be kidnapped and used to attack people. And I'm damned if I'm going to let any others go through that." He looked up fiercely, as if daring them to disagree.

Fortunately, no one was inclined to disagree. They threw around some ideas, but nothing practical came up. The subject then turned to the Parkinson Manor. Remus pulled out his impromptu map, but the foundation outlines looked completely innocuous. The map had also made some headway with the inside of the Parkinson Manor, but Remus had not visited enough places to really get a grasp on it.

When he told the story, Tonks interrupted him at one point. "You just lay there, hoping that they wouldn't see you! That kind of operation is far too dangerous for you. You don't have the training."

He shrugged in the face of her wrath. "Needs must when the devil drives."

Hermione had something else to confess. With embarrassment clear all over her face, she recounted meeting Ron for coffee. Tonks raised her hands to the sky. "I'm surrounded by incompetents. That was really dumb, Hermione. What if the Parkinsons work out that we're on to them."

Remus looked at Tonks with surprise; that had been very harshly put. Hermione also looked rather surprised, and she took a step back, her eyes filling up with guilt. "I had to, though. I couldn't bear the thought of him getting mixed up in whatever it is they're up to. They must be using him somehow. I just wanted to give him a warning, for old times' sake. And then he startd saying the most horrible things about you, Remus, and werewolves."

Remus threw a hard glance at Tonks, and then stepped forward to hug Hermione. "It's okay. We understand. It's difficult when you think someone that you care about is doing stupid things."

She pulled away from him and said, "But how can he think such things of you, Remus? He knows you! He knows you're not a monster."

Remus tried not to let the hurt show. "Well, Hermione, a lot of people think that way."

"But I didn't think that someone who actually knew you could ever think like that."