Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Hogwarts: Assignment #12, Games and Sports Task #2: Write about solving a crime (or trying to)

Content Warnings: Refers to off-screen violence

Bad Days

Whatever had happened, he knew that it would be bad when the owl arrived just before suppertime with a hastily-written note from Dora saying she wouldn't be home for supper. It was so hastily-written that it wasn't even as apologetic as her last minute notes usually were. He tried not to worry about it as he spent the night feeding Teddy mushy peas and building block towers on the living room floor.

He started worrying again when she came home without shouting her usual hello into the flat. She came to find them in the bathroom, where Remus had just finished brushing Teddy's teeth. She only smiled when Teddy spotted her and squealed, absolutely delighted to see her, but to Remus it still seemed half-hearted.

"Hello sweetness," she said. She scooped him out of Remus's arms and hugged him close, burying her face in his hair and taking a deep breath as Teddy babbled on happily about mama. She kissed the top of his head and pushed his turquoise hair back, but Remus did not miss how hollow and tired her eyes looked.

He was trying to find the best words to ask her what had happened, if she was okay, how work had been, and a thousand other questions when she took a deep breath.

"Do you mind putting him to bed?" she asked. "I'm just… I'm exhausted."

"Of course," Remus said. She kissed Teddy's head and then passed him back to Remus, kissing both of his little hands before disappearing.

"Alright, you," Remus said. "Let's get a fresh diaper and some warm pyjamas on you for the night, how does that sound? Maybe then you can pick a book for us to read from that pile of library books. Yeah?"

Their bedroom door slammed a little harder than usual. Remus chewed his lip but decided that he could only handle one thing at a time-and she'd asked him to put the baby to sleep, so that was where he would start. Teddy was not as cooperative as usual-he was probably wondering where his mother had gone off to-but eventually Remus exhausted him and sang the right combination of lullabies to put the little boy to sleep. Remus tucked him in, plugged in the nightlight, and slipped away.

Then he slipped into their bedroom next. The lights were off and Dora had collapsed in bed, under the blankets. She was so still that the bedroom would have felt completely empty and quiet, if the traffic of Muggle London outside their flat wasn't so omnipresent.

Remus lay down in bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey," he said softly. "I love you."

She burst into tears then, and Remus tightened his arms around her as she let it all out. He tucked his chin against her shoulder and moved closer against her so that she knew he was there.

"It was bad," she said. "We should have had him. We almost had him. But then there were Muggles involved, and... I don't want to talk about it. I can't…"

Remus's stomach twisted. Only two years after the war, there were still plenty of Death Eaters left to find, keeping the Auror Office busy. He had no idea who she was talking about, but he could use his imagination. He could fill in the blanks. When Dora had a bad day at the office, it was never just "bad." They were always the worst day of someone's life.

"Okay," Remus said. "We don't have to talk about it; I don't need to know right now. Just let it out."

And so she did, and he stayed as close as he could while it happened.

WC: 617