Cygnus Black used their private signal, a deep, slow pulse emanating from the locket his wife wore to call Druella to the study. It was the only place in the manor where no servants ever came. No one would overhear, no one could intrude, not even Bellatrix.

Bellatrix - the only one left. No one else was coming.

Across the desk, he passed Druella two rolls of parchment delivered by a nondescript brown owl just after dinner.

"It's from her," he said.

Druella held a parchment in each hand, her eyes flicking between them. They were written in two different kinds of handwriting. One was elegant, meticulously formed, but densely crowded, as if telling a story too long for the parchment. The second was written large but sloppy, as if printed by a child.

"Her? Her, is it?" Druella sneered. "No more of that, Cygnus. We can hardly refuse to speak their names in this house now that there are two of them and we need to tell them apart. Plus this one," she said, setting the crowded parchment down and running her fingers over the child's writing. "This was written by a her too, wasn't it. The little one we've never seen, never held…"

"Stop that," Cygnus said through gritted teeth. "I've already had anonymous correspondence from - from Andromeda earlier this year. When she wanted me to interfere between Narcissa and that - that…"

Druella drew in a sharp breath. "Even after all that's happened, our Andromeda wants what's best for this family."

Cygnus held his head in his hands. "No, she's changed her mind. Read the letter, Dru. It's all in there. All meant to convince us to forgive them, our girls and their husbands, if a werewolf can ever be considered something so civilized as a husband."

Nymphadora's hand-inked parchment fell from Druella's hand. "Husband?"

"Yes, this letter is Andromeda explaining how her sister is indeed a Veela, already bound by creature magic to a werewolf." He spat out the rest, sarcastic. "But not to worry, she's all set to marry him - "

"In Grandmère Rosier's dress," Druella finished. There was nothing to be gained from arguing the boy wasn't a werewolf, or that Narcissa wasn't bound to him. Carrow and Dolohov had seen him transform with their own eyes when they threatened Narcissa. There was no other explanation, and no way to hide it now. Everyone knew. Druella held up Dora's letter again. "And this is the invitation to the wedding, my granddaughter asking so sweetly for me to come meet her at last."

Cygnus raised a hand and summoned both parchments out of her grip. "Sheer manipulation on Andromeda's part. I never should have shown you. I should have known you'd be like this: sentimental, influenced by a creature heritage of your own - "

"I am not a Veela, Cygnus. And more pity you for it."

"I know that," he snapped. "But if it weren't for your Rosiers, Cissa would have fallen into line and - "

"And she would have succumbed to vicious madness, eating potioned sweets passed on to her in my name," Druella hissed at Cygnus over his desk. "My heritage saved her - saved us from having two daughters afflicted like Bella."

Cygnus was on his feet, stuffing Andromeda and Dora's letters into a drawer in his desk, making as if to storm out of the room.

"Don't you walk away from me, Cygnus Black," she said, rounding his desk and tugging him toward herself by the fronts of his robes. "Tom Riddle never meant to glorify this family. Not for one second. He has no honour. He ruined our Bella, and then instead of weeping for forgiveness at our feet he helped himself to our next, our finest, shining, angelic - "

"Stop it!" he roared at her.

They stood face to face, chests heaving. Druella's chin quivered, her eyes glistening. When she was like this, close to tears, the colour of her eyes changed. It was subtle but Cygnus could see it as they shimmering, lightening, misting. In these moments, her eyes were Narcissa's. Cygnus looked down at her from beneath a heavy, glowering brow and for an instant, he saw his youngest, most darling little girl.

He fell forward, as if in a faint. But Druella knew he was awake. She heard it in his voice, as he took a breath and sobbed against her neck.

In his childhood bed, Remus woke up with a smooth, warm cheek pressed to his back and a pale arm draped around his waist. He smiled and shook his head. Would this ever feel normal, like anything other than a miracle?

Narcissa seemed to be sleeping deeply, still catching up after that mad day they escaped from Malfoy Manor. It wasn't her that had woken him up but the sound of dishes moving in the kitchen through the floorboards they'd neglected to silence the night before. Rookie mistake.

As fluidly as he could, he slid out from beneath her and dressed himself, tucking her hair behind her ear before he crept out of the room.

Hope was in the kitchen, finishing her tea over a Muggle newspaper. She bounced to her feet at the sight of him. "Remus, there you are. I'll make you a fresh cuppa."

"Don't fuss, Mum. This is fine," he said, flicking his wand at the teapot to reheat it.

"Stop that," she said, carrying it away from him, pouring it into the sink. "I know for a fact it tastes terrible when you do that. Your father tries the same trick."

She worked with her back to him, as if she wasn't quite sure how to look at him this morning. And so she talked. "You know, your reheating charms are going to lose their novelty eventually. We non-magical folk have invented a new kitchen machine that uses microwave energy to heat food. It's so fast and easy it may as well be magic. Your Aunt Denise has just bought one and she says it's life changing - "

"Mum, come sit down," Remus said. "Come talk to me, not around me. And no more adverts. Please. Just be you. No one talks as nicely as you."

Hope's shoulders rose and fell before she turned to face him, smiling at his kindness.

"I know you think I'm young for all of this," he said. "And you're right. I am. I'm not ignoring your thoughts on that. But I want your opinion on other things as well. Like - Cissa. How do you like her?"

Hope tipped the kettle into the teapot. "It's not a fair question, darling."

"Because you know I'm going to marry her whether anyone else likes her or not?" Remus smirked.

Hope sniffed a laugh. "I suppose that's true. But what I was actually thinking of was my own bias. If a connection to Narcissa makes it possible for you to control your werewolf nature - the condition you've described to me every month for the past thirteen years as your personal hell - well, it wouldn't matter what she was like. I'd be begging you to stay with her just so you could live the way you've always wanted to, with full integration and agency over all sides of your identity. But," she said, adding another bag to the pot, "it is rather nice that you like her so much."

"Like her?" Remus marveled. "I'm well past that."

"Of course you are," she said, covering his hand with hers on the tabletop. "And being so young makes that even more intense. That is the bright side of coming to this at age eighteen."

"You must have thought I was exaggerating, or just out of my mind when I came here this winter, gutted over her being promised to that awful Malfoy," he said, talking fast, the way he would when he was a little boy and he'd just found a new creature while dabbling in the stream by the house they lived in before the attack changed everything. He hadn't spoken to her like that for far too long.

She laughed and held his face between her hands. "I am very happy for you, darling. Now then," she said, releasing him, "we have a little work to do before your grandmother's ring can be ready for Cissa."

From her pocket, Hope produced a gold ring with a dark stone in it, almost black. It was a good size but dull and without much shine. "Believe it or not, this is a sapphire," she said. "It's a good size, and the cut of this smooth, round carbuncle shape is skillfully done. The stone is sound and has no flaws in itself. But its colour is rather terrible."

He held the ring between his fingertips, squinting at the stone in the light. With the direct morning sunlight behind it, he could see it wasn't black but a dark, muddy blue. "Does it need to be polished?" he said.

"No," Hope said. "It's as clean as it gets. But there is a Muggle process where gemstones are heated, or sometimes electrified to improve their colour. It takes extreme heat, not the kind of thing I can muster in our kitchen. I wouldn't try it myself, but maybe with some magic…"

He raised his eyebrows. "What if I ruin it?"

"Without any flaws, it should survive whatever you cast at it," Hope said. "Try it. If we destroy this ring, I'll give her that little peridot of mine and you can replace it with something better as an anniversary gift someday."

At the thought of having anniversaries with Narcissa, years and years into the future, Remus grinned rather foolishly. "Alright then."

They went into the back garden, the neighbourhood still empty so early in the day. Hope laid the ring on the stump of an old rowan tree they'd had to cut down and Remus drew his wand. He hummed as he tapped the end of it against his cheek. "What do you think? A hot spell or a sparky one?"

"Sparky? You mean electrical?" Hope said.

"Yes, that's it."

"In normal situations, they tend to go together," she said. "But if you ask me, I'd say - oh, how about - a hot one?"

"Asterisma!"

Hope and Remus spun around in the garden to see Narcissa leaning out the window of Remus's bedroom. She looked less perfect and poised than she had the night before, dressed in an oversized T-shirt she'd rumpled in her sleep, her hair unbrushed and tossed on the breeze. Hope like her better for it.

But Remus gasped. "What are you doing, you mad thing? You don't go shouting spell names through a Muggle neighbourhood. The Statute of Secrecy clearly..."

She laughed down at him. "I'm sorry, darling. But if you're about to treat a gemstone for me to wear every day for the rest of my life, do it with Asterisma. Trust me." She mimed the wandwork, leaning even farther out the window.

"What?" he blustered. "Gemstone? You're not supposed to see - Oh, get inside before you dash yourself on the lawn. You need your sleep."

Hope laughed as Narcissa blew a kiss, flipped her wild hair, and shut herself back inside the window. She raised her eyebrows and turned to her son. "Did I teach you to speak to girls that way?"

He took one last glance at the closed window. "No," he said. "She did. She's quite a handful sometimes. You know - Moony's perfect partner."

"Very exciting, I'm sure," Hope laughed.

"Isn't it just?" he said. And then mimicking Narcissa's fanciful six-pointed flourish he cast the spell, Asterisma. It struck the ring and with a burst of heat that bent the air around it, the ring was blasted over the garden, higher than the fence. Forgetting to hide his wolfish reflexes Remus darted underneath it and jumped to snatch it out of the air. He landed on his side, rolling into a sitting position on the grass, tossing the hot ring between his hands.

Hope rushed to see the results. The ring was cooling quickly, and Remus passed it to her. The colour was now unmistakably blue, and the top of the stone's dome had revealed a silver star, six long thin, flashing arms. "Oh, Remus," she said. "It's a star sapphire. This was there all along, hidden in the dark colour, like a secret second nature."

"You never knew?" he said, slipping the ring onto the first joint of his own ring finger.

She looked up at him, rose onto her toes and kissed his cheek. "Maybe I did."

Andromeda's plans to charm the wizarding community with Narcissa's marriage were exacting and excruciating. She submitted an announcement of the wedding to the Daily Prophet. She paid for it to be printed in 14 point type but they published it much larger. This wasn't enough. The press needed more fodder and she intended to give it to them. On the day she and Narcissa went to Diagon Alley to try to move Narcissa's dowry out of the family vault and into an account of her own, Andromeda insisted that the entire family come along and linger in the streets together long enough to be noticed and photographed.

The plan worked. And the morning after their trip to London, the newspaper's Page 4 showed a picture of Andromeda, Ted and little Nymphadora Tonks eating ice cream on the pavements of Diagon Alley with no-longer-estranged sister Narcissa, her fiancé, and long lost cousin Sirius Black. Marlene had come along too but the paper had no idea who she was. The caption below the picture read "New Chapter for the House of Black?" and mused aloud on whether the family famous for bitter rifts would pull itself together for Narcissa's upcoming wedding to the lowly boy from Cardiff with the oh-so interesting scars on his face who had wooed her away from the Malfoy heir.

What the paper didn't know was that the sisters' day at the bank had gone smashingly well. Their parents had done nothing to prevent them from withdrawing Narcissa's dowry.

"It's a good sign," Andromeda said, speaking from behind her ice cream cone. "They may accept our invitation yet."

Narcissa frowned, trying not to get too hopeful. Even after they had let Andromeda take her dowry, years ago, her parents had still refused to speak her name.

"Dowries - stupid sexist wizarding society," Sirius said. "Where's my dowry? Ah well, at least I still have my rich friends. James and now Remus. Congratulations, mate." He clapped him soundly on the back.

Remus flinched, grimacing.

"Stop it, Rus," Marlene said. "No one wants to be known as a gold digger. Isn't that right, Lily?"

Lily laughed but didn't turn to face Marlene. She kept her seat in James's lap, feeding him ice cream with a tiny spoon. "My mother and father taught me that smart women always consider finances in a match. We have to in this male chauvinist world."

Remus couldn't help the gagging sound that escaped him. "They did?"

"Mm-hm," James agreed, taking the spoon from Lily and feeding a mouthful of ice cream to her. "They said it right to my face on my wedding day. And a few weeks later, I was liquidating our manor to pay for their new life in Canada. Turned out to be a sound philosophy."

"Enough, Potters, it's not a joke," Sirius said, pawing at Marlene to take her hand. "Is this why you would never officially go out with me, McKinnon? Because the good news is Regulus is the heir now so..."

Marlene cut his words short with the cold shock of a dab of ice cream smeared on the tip of his nose.

"Will you all stop. It is not gold digging," Narcissa said, threading her arm through Remus's. "A dowry is an ancient means of transferring wealth between generations of noble families. It's a simple, routine business transaction and nothing to be squeamish about. Tell him, Sirius. Lupin can't yet bring himself to look at the figures the bank gave us."

"He won't? Give it here." Sirius held out his hand and Narcissa passed him her account book. He whistled as he flipped through it. "Uncle Cygnus must have done well for himself. And now, as is his duty, he's blessing his family. What've you got left of your dowry Medie?"

"More than Father gave me in the first place," she said, producing an account book of her own. "A witch I know gave a Muggle businessman a tip on a new technology and I invested in it early. Have you heard of microwave cooking?"

"We're still flush too," James said, his bank book at the ready. "Setting up the Evans in Canada hardly made a dent, really."

"Will you put that away," Remus finally snapped, snatching Narcissa's book from Sirius as he was about to show it around to Marlene and anyone else who happened to be passing behind them where they sat on a bench. "What is wrong with the lot of you, exchanging bank books in the street?"

"It's our way, darling," Narcissa said, smoothing his hair as if he was Moony in need of soothing. "Come now. I spent an entire evening watching TV with your mother and now you have to watch my family openly admiring each other's fortunes."

"It is a bit odd," Lily said, pinching James's bank book shut before Sirius could catch a glimpse of the balance. She stashed it in her bag and gave James the rest of the ice cream to finish on his own.

Sirius laughed. "Don't tell us your culture shock is worse than Cissie's was in that Muggle flat in Cardiff."

"It's alright if it is," Narcissa said, still fixed on Remus. "Don't you worry about the money, Lupin. You stay focused on the lads' new project."

The new project was to find Regulus. It was open-ended and terrifying and had to be conducted without spending long times away from the safety of the school. The Potters' library had contained a set of massive magical atlases. It was on the enchanted but blank flyleaf of one of these books that they'd made their map of Hogwarts. With the remaining paper, they were making a much bigger map. It ranged not over a single building and grounds, but over the entire counties as Regulus roved about hunting for cursed objects related to Riddle. While the lads cared little for the objects, they cared immensely about finding Regulus.

A magical trace of Regulus already existed in the parchment of the Hogwarts map. The lads would transfer it to a blank parchment from the atlases and begin the new map, tracking his path, piecing together where he must be with clues from watching his behaviour. They set a few other magical traces from the Hogwarts map on it as well. Severus Snape was someone who might lead them somewhere promising, along with his cronies Mulciber and Avery.

They also added themselves to get a sense of how far away Regulus was. Making a new map would be a slow process full of guesswork and, hopefully, luck. But they would find him. Until then, as long as Regulus Black's dot remained on the parchment, they knew he was free to move about, alive and well enough.

The Black-Lupin wedding came soon. Andromeda and Ted reinforced the old protections set up around their cottage and its lovely gardens where the ceremony would be held. They left them transparent so the gossip photographers could chronicle the event. It would be officiated by Dumbledore, attended by a collection of people who were actually the Order of the Phoenix, and held in view of the pond Narcissa had remembered. The lads wore the same clothes they'd used for James's wedding, and Narcissa tried not to look cross in the Rosier wedding gown. Andromeda had done an astounding job with its repairs but it hadn't been easy.

"No Veela wings this time," she warned as she fastened the tiny white buttons all along Narcissa's back.

Narcissa promised her nothing.

"Dora, darling, your bouquet is not a wand," Andromeda called across the room to where showers of petals were flying from Dora's flower girl accessories. Dora went on dueling something from her imagination as if she hadn't heard. Andromeda clucked her tongue. "Little Miss is in an odd mood today," she muttered to Narcissa. "Mind how her hair keeps slipping into brown."

"The poor dear. She doesn't need to be in the wedding if she doesn't want to be," Narcissa said. "I only invited her because I thought it might be fun for her."

"Oh, she wants to be in the wedding," Andromeda said. "Only she'd like a promotion from flower girl."

"Whatever do you mean?"

Andromeda huffed. "I mean my little Tomboy may have a bit of a crush on your beastly husband."

Narcissa laughed. "Of course she has, a smart girl like Dora. She shares our excellent taste, doesn't she?"

"Hush, don't embarrass her over it," Andromeda said through a quiet laugh of her own. "I'm sure she'll find a creature bond of her own someday. In the meantime, we will all work hard to teach her the meaning of the word uncle."

Dora stopped her pantomime dueling when Sirius burst through the door. "Aren't you ready yet, women of the House of Black? Remus's Mum is bent on some Muggle tradition about not letting him see Cissie before the ceremony and he's losing his patience with it. He'll be full Moony by the time you - "

Dora skipped up to interrupt him, greeting him with a lot of noise and flower petals. He scooped her up. "Dora, aren't you beautiful today?" he boomed as her hair flared pink.

"Now let's practice, Dora," Andromeda broke in. "Sirius is part of our family. He is your…" She paused to let Dora answer.

Sirius grinned at her whispering the answer from between gritted teeth. "First cousin once removed."

She repeated it, all of it.

Sirius cheered. "Yes, that's right. But you can call me Cousin." He whirled around as Dora's hair turned blue and her eyes got large. Behind him, Remus was stepping into the room, dressed for the wedding and glancing over his shoulder, hoping not to get caught by his mother.

"Oh, good," Andromeda sang. "Here's Remus, Dora. He's in our family too so we can practice some more. Remus is your…"

She bounced in Sirius's arms. "Prince!"

"Him? No!" Sirius barked. "He's your stuffy old uncle. And you know what an uncle is? It's worse than a dad. Believe me. Your grandad is my uncle, and he is an awful - "

"Alright, Sirius, thank you," Andromeda called over his voice. "Remus, dear, what do you need?"

"Nothing," he blushed. "Just taking advantage of Mum being busy with my Granny Howell, slipping away to make sure that Cissa hasn't done a runner."

Narcissa threw a narcissus flower at him, laughing and scoffing. "You what?"

But Andromeda was still back at Granny Howell. "Howl?" she said. "You, Remus Lupin, registered werewolf, were born to a family already named Howell? Really?"

"Really," he said, retrieving the thrown flower and taking it back to Narcissa, tucking it into her bouquet and tugging one of the ringlets at her temple straight and then letting it spring into a curl again. She rose onto her toes, dropping a kiss on his chin as Dora covered her eyes.

Andromeda huffed. "Howell. Honestly, sometimes this is all too ridiculous for words."

"Stop!" It was Sirius, suddenly stern and calling for quiet. He froze, completely still, like a hunting dog. Dora slid out of his arms to stand on the floor, backing away so she could better read his face. He was tense, perhaps even scared. His scalp twitched as his ears pricked. "Remus, do you hear that?"

Remus stood taller, his nose lifted. He did hear something, and he smelled it too - unmistakable.

He and Sirius both dived for Dora but Remus had her first, lifting her up and swooping her through the air to Andromeda. "Take her and go," he said in a frantic whisper. "Now, fast."

"What? What is it?" Andromeda said.

"Greyback," Remus said, sprinting out of the room. "Mum!"

"He can't be here. We're warded against intruders," Andromeda argued as Sirius pulled her and Dora away from the window.

"These wards keep out intruding wizards but do they work for werewolves? Especially when you've cast them to accommodate Remus?"

Andromeda gaped at her sister. Narcissa's eyes were odd, wide and flickering with a gold light. "Go," she said to Andromeda, something high and metallic in her voice.

Andromeda needed no more convincing. She turned on the spot, and as she did a ragged, tormented howl filled the room. Fenrir Greyback came crashing into the place where she and Dora had stood, his arms closing in the instant barely after they disapparated to safety. His prey was gone, escaped, and he was left to turn on whoever was left.

Sirius leapt into his Padfoot form, snarling and barking, yipping at Greyback's hands.

Narcissa's skin was glowing, her eyes flashing, but she was still holding herself in human form, desperate to explain herself to the monster to whom she knew she owed her freedom and Lupin's life.

"The bride," Greyback growled at her. "The treacherous bride who promised me the chosen one knowing she hadn't taken the potions needed to conceive him."

"No," she said, "You will have your werewolf chosen one. Lupin and I, we don't need Tom Riddle's dark magic to have a child who can change the world. We're stronger without him. So are you."

Greyback scoffed, kicking at Padfoot in his rage. "You made me your fool. Stupefying myself for nothing while you slipped away with my gentleman. I was made to answer to the Dark Lord for it, punished and made to grovel for mercy."

"Yes, and we honor your sacrifice," Narcissa said. "We honor it with this wedding. Showing the world that a man can be a werewolf and a wizard of wisdom, honor, and peace. The whole country has been watching as our Lupin showed himself to be brave and beautiful."

"It is nothing. Nothing but gossip without my chosen one," Greyback howled. "Nice manners and fancy clothes won't free our kind." He lunged across the room and closed his hand on Narcissa's throat. Padfoot chased after him, snarling and sinking his teeth into his hard, ropey calf muscle. Greyback fought on as if the bite of the large, black dog was no more than a mosquito's.

Behind him, the door of the bedroom was torn off its hinges.

"Father Greyback!" It was Lupin, throwing the door aside and bounding into the room.

Greyback barked out a howl. "How dare you call me father, when you've just run ahead to make sure your pathetic blood parents are far from here, safe from me?"

"Father, let her go," Remus said, wincing as Narcissa's thin, white fingers worked to pry Greyback's claws from her throat. She could make no sound. "Please, if you - " His voice faltered and broke into a cough. He tried again, "If you don't let her go, I'll - " His voice shuddered out of language and into a growl.

Greyback spun around to see him, his hand still gripping Narcissa's throat, Padfoot's bite still holding him by the leg. His poison-green eyes were wide and wild. "What are you doing?" he asked. "You're not…"

Remus tried to speak through the gravel in his throat but couldn't, doubling over, thrashing his head.

"You can't be transforming now, boy," Greyback bawled at him. "It's broad daylight during a waxing gibbous moon."

Another sound escaped Remus, forced out, fighting for speech even as his fingernails grew and hair erupted along his jaws. "Let - her - go."

Greyback dropped Narcissa, staring dumbfounded at Remus sinking into a transformation out of time, writhing on the rug in a cottage on a sunny afternoon.

Narcissa gave a long, choking cough as she fell to her knees on the floor in a heap of Victorian silk. "Look what you've done," she scolded Greyback, crawling past him and Padfoot, the Rosier wedding gown tracking over the floorboards as she fought to gather Remus in her arms.

"There now, darling. Hush. I'm safe, and there's no moon. You don't need to change. Not for days. Hush. Hush now."

Remus grabbed at her as if he was falling backward off a ledge into an abyss, scrabbling and frantic, his clawed hands tearing the silk covering her arms. His breath was fast, with a sound like a whimper. His eyes were huge and green.

She swept them closed with her palm. "Listen to my voice," she said. "Don't fight your way back, just come to me. Let go and drift back to me."

Her eyes were still watery from Greyback's choke hold. The monster himself crowded them from above, looming over her shoulder, looking into Remus's face. Narcissa brushed her damp lashes with the edge of her finger. It was wet with her tears, and she wiped them against Remus's tongue.

He was only partly transformed and it was enough. He jerked at their taste, crushing Narcissa to his body. She let him keep her as close as he needed as his breathing quieted and slowed.

Greyback watched in awe as Remus's skin grew smooth again, his claws returning to human fingers. In a moment more, when Remus opened his eyes, they were brown and warm.

Padfoot had become Sirius again, standing down, spitting the taste of Greyback onto the floor.

For himself, Greyback continued to wonder at the pair at his feet. The young werewolf, his clever son, and the treacherous Veela - they had something no one else had ever found: control over transformation. They had told him the truth. They did not need Tom Riddle or any dark magic to change the lives of werewolf kind.

And as he stood considering this, a blast of green flashed bright enough to momentarily blind everyone in the room. Sirius raised his arm over his eyes, Remus hid Narcissa's face in his shoulder. And Greyback's head rocked back as he fell with a crash that shook the whole cottage.

In the silence that followed, the young people uncovered their faces. And in the doorway, their wands drawn, stood Cyngus and Druella Black.