Remus sat with Minette and her father in a semi-awkward silence for dinner on his second night with them. So far, even with the eternity spent in the car coming back from the station, nothing had been brought up about Remus' lycanthropy. He wondered if Minette had told her father that he was a werewolf or kept it from him. Remus felt that it would be the wisest to wait until his last day here and tell Mr. Espoir then, but, unfortunately, the moon was waxing so he had to spend one full moon with them. Remus looked down at the peas his had been stabbing while he thought and found they had turned into a green paste. So he moved on to stabbing his carrots.

"Er- Remus, are you alright, there?" Mr. Espoir asked, seeing the hole-filled foods littering Remus' plate. "You seem rather distracted."

"Oh, no," Remus said quickly. "Well, actually, yes. I was wondering- I mean, well, did you know… did Minette ever tell you…"

Both father and daughter looked at Remus with a raised eyebrow. Remus tried to stop and straighten out what he was saying, but his mouth didn't seem to want to cooperate.

"I mean, about, I mean- that I'm a- a werewolf?" Remus finished with a wince and tried to gauge what Mr. Espoir's response was going to be, to no avail.

"Oh…that. Well, yes, of course she told me that you were a werewolf," Mr. Espoir replied uncomfortably. "That was rather the reason that I invited you here for part of the summer: to see if you were a good lad, I mean. I mean, not that I had any reason to think you weren't, but, you know, rumors fly, and you can't help wondering if they're true sometimes, right? Obviously, they aren't. I mean, not that I'm so quick to judge all werewolves by just you… because, we're all people, right? Not everyone's good or bad and… and…"

"I think Remus gets the point, Dad," Minette cut her father off, and he blushed slightly.

"Yes," Remus said, with a smile hiding at the corners of his mouth, now. "I was just wondering if you knew or… Also, the full moon's coming and did you have any place in mind where I could, um…change?"

"Oh, er, I suppose," Mr. Espoir said, thinking, "you could use the cellar. Would that be alright?"

"Yes, of course," Remus said politely before excusing himself and going to sleep.

The next morning Remus came out to find Minette reading the Daily Prophet with a frown and a look of worry spreading across her face.

"Good morning," Remus said to her, and she jumped in her seat.

"Remus! I didn't see you there!" Minette said quickly, putting on a false smile and shoving the Daily Prophet under the table. "Did you sleep well? What do you want for breakfast? Want some eggs? I'll make you some eggs!"

"Minette, is something wrong?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"Wrong? Of course not!" Minette said, still talking quickly and holding the paper farther under the table and out of view. "How about toast? Do you want some toast? I'll go get some bread." Minette stood and walked toward the cabinet, still holding the morning's copy of the Daily Prophet tightly in her hand.

Remus swept forward and snatched the newspaper from her hands. Minette spun around and lunged at it, but Remus darted backward and Minette ended up tripping and landing on the floor.

"What's so bad that's in here?" Remus asked skeptically, searching through the pages. "More deaths and attacks, of course… attack, attack, atta-" Remus cut off suddenly as his eyes fell upon an article he hadn't been expecting: a new piece of legislation had been passed, limiting werewolf rights. The main point seemed to be about not being able to get jobs at the Ministry, but there were other new laws restricting travel, salaries, marriage, and the list continued on to another page. Remus looked up and forced a smile.

"Well, at least they're still allowing me food, right?" Remus said in a voice that he had meant to be cheery but had ended up sounding bitter. Minette looked as though she were about to cry just from the look on Remus' face, so he turned and pretended to busy himself with straightening the things on the kitchen table.

"Don't- don't pay any attention to it, Remus," Minette said slowly. "It's just- they're all biased. They don't know how to approach anyone different from them, so they just try and keep everyone who they don't understand from getting near them. That's all it is…" She trailed off, and Remus turned and smiled at her.

"It's alright. It's not like this has come as a surprise, really," Remus said, bitter again, "This 'D.J. Umbridge' person has been trying to pass a law like this for years. He's already gotten a few passed on vampires, centaurs, giants, and other, er, half-breeds."

"Well he must have serious problems or something," Minette said, frowning. "He should learn that you can't solve your problems by moving them away and pretending they don't exist."

"Right, well," Remus said after a pause, searching for a change of subject, "do you want to get started on schoolwork later? Get it out of the way, early on, you know."

"Sure," said Minette, still looking slightly upset. "I need help with the Potions essay."

"Right. We should both research some job requirements, too. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do after next year, are you?"

"Well," Minette started thoughtfully, "I was actually thinking about working in the Apparation Test Center in the Ministry. I really liked learning to apparate, and I hear they're rather short of staff at the moment, since most employees are devoting more time to the war, and all. I'd rather work with younger people and stay out of the war, anyway, and I'd be horrible at teaching. All I'm good at is Charms and I doubt Professor Flitwick is going anywhere anytime soon." Minette smiled. "But you really have no idea what you're going to do?"

"No, not really. I was thinking about getting into something at the Ministry, but I doubt I'd be able to do that, now. Maybe some job at Gringotts, or something…" Remus' voice trailed off as he tried to think of a job that would interest him. Nothing came to mind at all. Remus was shocked as he realized he hadn't thought much at all about getting a job. He really had no plan for anything after Howarts.

"We can look through some of those brochures later, too, okay?" Minette said, sensing Remus' uncertainty.

"Okay, then," Remus said, smiling and truly grateful at that moment to be with Minette.

I am truly sorry that I keep taking so long to update. I really would promise that another one's coming soon, but I would probably just break that promise, especially because school is starting up again. I really hope that you are all still reading, and please leave a review!