Meet the Werewolf Registry

The sound of the front door opening had not drawn their attention away from their furious game of chase as they raced about the driveway kicking up gravel in their wake, but the firm thud that sounded a moment later made both Carrie Winters and Teddy Lupin pause.

It was early on a summer Wednesday morning in the town of Eddington and the two young friends had met upon their shared driveway as was custom to make elaborate plans for the day. It had seemed to Carrie that the werewolf's son had looked out of sorts, no doubt owing to the occurrence of a full moon the night beforehand, and she had endeavoured to cheer him with good humour and provoking a game of tag for which she suspected they were both fast growing a little too old. If her brothers were to catch them, the thirteen year old muggle supposed, they would no doubt tease her dreadfully. Nevertheless, Teddy had seemed quite cheered by such silliness, which was unsurprising because Teddy Lupin was without doubt a silly boy at times, and Carrie was quite disappointed at the interruption that made her friend stop dead in his tracks.

The two watched Remus Lupin slowly straighten up from having reached to set a small suitcase firmly down upon the doorstep. As the werewolf turned stiffly round to face the two women stood in the doorway, an ashen-faced Molly Weasley anxiously inquired:

"Is this really necessary, Remus dear?"

Remus seemed to consider this question for a good few seconds, eying his shoes in consideration. Then he looked up at the witch at Molly's side before deciding:

"Yes, I believe so."

Molly's expression was positively anguished at this conclusion and as he retrieved the suitcase and turned to walk carefully down the drive the elderly witch demanded:

"Oh Tonks, say something!"

Carrie, who along with Teddy had slowly gravitated towards the scene, spotted Dora leaning heavily against the doorframe, dressed in a faded pair of leggings and a black vest top that appeared to have had a sizeable gash ripped through it towards the hem. Her arm appeared to be in a sling.

Having known the Lupins for quite some while, Carrie was not entirely unaccustomed to seeing Dora appear injured. Of course some injuries were worse than others, some Carrie found upsetting, some made her panic. Today, however, it was not Dora's physical appearance that the muggle found so troubling – indeed her brother Thomas had spent a number of weeks with his arm in a sling just a few months earlier after falling out of a tree and breaking his arm. The injuries themselves were altogether unconcerning, and yet Carrie felt deeply unsettled.

It was, she realised, the look upon Dora's face...

She looked so unbearably bleak.

"Tonks!" Molly hissed again, reaching to press a pleading hand to Dora's arm, and the mousy haired witch blinked.

"I love you." she informed her husband's back hoarsely, and Carrie found the words stinging.

She had heard Dora say those words to Remus on so many occasions over the years, sometimes with such intensity that the force of them was positively striking, sometimes so absentmindedly that they seemed to slip from her tongue subconsciously.

But never before had Carrie felt as if Dora didn't mean them.

"What's going on?" she found herself asking, utterly confused by the entire scene, only for Remus to beckon to Teddy, who hurried forward to his father's side.

"I'm going to Harry's for a few days, Ted." the werewolf told his son simply. "I need you to look after your mother for me."

Teddy looked over at his mother, his brow crinkling in confusion.

"And...who's going to look after you?" the boy wondered, once he had turned back to look at his father, who looked rather as if the small suitcase was rather a large burden to be carrying. "The day after a full moon..."

"Never you mind that." Remus told him dismissively. "Your mother's had quite the night herself! Behave yourself, won't you? I won't have any silliness when she's...when she's under the weather."

"Doesn't sound like the best time to be off to Harry's house, really..."

"Never you mind."

Teddy huffed and reached to fold his arms firmly across his chest.

"The last time you went to stay at Harry's house, Mum set fire to your best set of dress robes." he recalled sourly. "You're not getting a divorce, are you?"

To Carrie's relief, and subsequent bemusement because she promptly realised that she couldn't honestly have been thinking anything of that kind herself, surely, Remus gave a huff of laughter.

"That fire was an accident, as I recall, and I was staying to help Harry put the shed up in the garden. Our marriage was rock solid at the time, precisely as it is right now, I'm sure, and that's quite enough nonsense, thank you."

"Is that why you made Mum cry at breakfast this morning?"

"Teddy." Dora interrupted, before Remus could draw breath to respond, her voice having grown far less feeble, and Teddy flinched a little.

"Be good." Remus insisted, and with that he continued on up the driveway without so much as a backwards glance.

Back at the door, Molly was growing increasingly frustrated with every step Remus took.

"I really don't see what this is going to achieve, Tonks dear." she was complaining as Dora watched her husband's progress in silence. "I mean really...!"

"Let him go if he wants to, Molly." Dora said, sighing heavily, only for Molly to cry:

"But why?! Surely it's not what you want!"

And Dora shook her head and Carrie just about caught her muttering:

"I'm not sure I know what I want."

"You didn't say they were arguing." Carrie said a few minutes later once Dora and Molly had disappeared back inside, Molly having left firm instructions to the pair that they keep the noise down for Dora, back from night shift, would be going to bed.

"They weren't." Teddy reasoned, shaking his head.

"Then what on earth is the matter?"

"I don't know. Every time she looks at him she just...bursts into tears..."

Come the next day, Molly had gone home and Carrie felt as if she and Teddy had the Lupin house to themselves – Dora, still adjusting to the end of her stint of night shifts, had taken to sleeping in the afternoon, and whilst Teddy went to raid his bedroom in search of an elusive set of gobstones to entertain the two of them for a while, Carrie had found herself wandering aimlessly around the house. As she often did, she found herself peering into the study. It was her favourite room in the house, for it was lined with bookshelves stuffed with all manner of interesting volumes on magic, it was dimly lit and distinctly Dickensian in appearance, with the heavy wooden desk complete with inkwell and quill pen all laid out upon the top.

It was there that Carrie came across a letter left upon the desk, written in Dora's unmistakable hand, and though Carrie only glanced at the top of it to see to whom it was addressed, the letter's opening immediately drew her in. She found herself sinking down onto the leather backed chair and leaning to squint at the page in the dim light.

Sweetheart,

I cannot make out this tactical retreat of yours, but that is hardly surprising when I cannot even seem to make out myself. I do at least know that I miss you already. Please come back. I do want you home, but although I know how it hurts you, I cannot promise not to cry.

I am so glad they sent me straight to Mungo's and had the whole sorry business over with before you were even aware of yourself, let alone what happened to me. It would have killed you, I'm sure, to have waited in that room with me, waiting to hear the results. I try not to think too much about what it might have meant, if it had used its teeth instead of its claws, in fact I try not to think about any of it at all. If only they had obliviated me at the hospital, maybe I'd be able to look you in the eye. Harry says he'll never send me on such a raid again, but I know I would have done it all again if I had the choice. An Auror's job is an Auror's job, after all. Who am I to pick and choose? Frankly I don't know why this has all struck me so hard, it isn't the first time I've had trouble out during full moon, but every time I close my eyes I can see that face just before me and when I sleep I can hear the terribly sounds it made when the other Aurors came to drive it away.

Robert sent a Howler yesterday. Luckily the children were out of the house. He was terribly angry with me for losing my nerve and said I'm lucky I'm not dead or worse. It didn't bother me, anything he said about missing all those opportunities to stun it because I was too busy just staring, I know he's right. It was just the 'or worse' that got to me. How dare he say such a thing, to me no less! When you might very well have been listening too! The insensitivity is overwhelming, he could win medals for it! Perhaps I deserve one too, after all I am relaying what he said to you now. I could not muster the energy for a Howler back, but I did write to him instead. I wrote some awful things, Remus. I suspect Robert and I are not talking now.

Come home, Remus. I need you home more than anything right now. I feel wretched enough you leaving when you were not well without you staying away. I realised only thing morning that you must have apparated to Harry's house. Please let me know you are alright, I'm worried you might have splinched yourself again and I know Harry and Ginny wouldn't tell me if you did. You'll have sworn them to silence about everything and here I am in the dark, entirely blind and on my own.

Please come back. I know you'll mend things the second you walk through the door. It'll be just the two of us for a day or two, we'll send Teddy to Mum's house and have the place to ourselves. We'll talk about everything or maybe I'll take one look at you and the trouble will all melt away and we won't talk about anything at all. I am so tired, I cannot sleep. I want to lie all wrapped up in your arms and stay that way all day and all night long, and when I wake I want there to be nothing but you.

All my love,

Dora

Carrie stared down at the letter for many long minutes, not even looking up to hear Teddy's footsteps on the stairs, nor did her friend's appearance in the doorway startle her.

"You shouldn't read that." Teddy told her.

"I know." Carrie said. She carried on staring dismally until Teddy said:

"I know what it says. I read it this morning."

"Why do you suppose she hasn't sent it yet?"

"I don't know."

"D'you think she's alright?"

"I don't know..."

"Maybe you should go up and check on her. You know...just in case..."

"In case of what?"

"I don't know..."

The two children stood in baffled silence for a moment, before Teddy sighed and turned on his heel to dash back up the hallway and up the stairs.

Carrie, feeling the need to do something useful, went and put the kettle on. As she stood staring at the steam that slowly began to rise from the kettle's spout, the muggle chewed thoughtfully upon her lip and wondered why the sense of panic in the pit of her stomach seemed so dull. She supposed it was because this seemed to be a simple situation to fix.

Dora wanted Remus to come home. If he did, everything would immediately be better. Dora had written as much herself.

It was at that precise moment that there came a knock on the front door. Carrie hastily took the kettle from the stove and then went to answer, thinking that it was likely her mother or some other neighbour, for most of the Lupins' magical acquaintances used the Floo.

When she opened the door, Carrie found two women stood upon the doorstep, both dressed in long coats a sickly shade of grey-green. One of them was clutching a clipboard to her chest. The other was holding onto a bag that looked rather like the sort that would accompany doctors on their rounds from years passed.

"Hello there," the younger of the two, who had hold of the clipboard, greeted cheerfully. "We're looking for Mrs. Lupin, is she home?"

In contrast to this cheery tone, Carrie thought the second woman, a rather stocky, imposing figure with iron-grey hair and a squint, looked rather intimidating.

"She's um...she's upstairs..." Carrie mumbled, feeling a stab of apprehension as if she ought really keep Dora's whereabouts a secret.

"Could you pop up and fetch her?" the woman with the clipboard said. "We can wait in the sitting room."

Before Carrie could protest the woman with the bag had stepped purposefully across the threshold and the pair were making a beeline for the sitting room door, as if they knew precisely where they were going.

"Um..." Carrie said, shuffling reluctantly aside. "Who...who shall I say is here to see her?"

"Werewolf Registry." the older woman said sharply. She had a deep, gravelly voice that didn't seem to suit a woman at all.

Carrie fled up the stairs without another word.

Dora was fast asleep when she tiptoed into the master bedroom a moment later. Teddy was curled up upon the bed beside her, hugging one of her arms to his chest. As soon as Carrie entered, the Auror's son shifted to look round at her.

"There's two women downstairs!" Carrie hissed, her eyes growing wide. "They're from the Werewolf Registry!"

Teddy paled. He reached to shake his mother gently by the shoulder.

"Mum? Wake up."

"Hm." Dora mumbled, reluctantly stirring.

"Wake up, Mum. There are people downstairs."

"Hm?"

"It's the Werewolf Registry."

Dora's eyes snapped open.

"What?" she said, as over in the doorway Carrie rocked nervously back upon her heels.

"In the living room, Dora." the muggle explained. "They sort of invited themselves in and..."

Carrie trailed off as Dora reached to fling the duvet back and scramble out of bed. The witch cast a brief glance in the mirror upon the bedside table, reaching to flatten a stray strand of hair, before snatching up a pair of discarded Auror robes that had been left upon the bed.

"Stay up here, both of you." she instructed as she shrugged into the robes and despite this both Carrie and Teddy hurried after her as she made a beeline for the stairs. The two children stopped halfway down and crouched to peer into the living room and as Dora reached the bottom of the stairs, Carrie whispered to Teddy:

"What're they doing?"

Their view of the room was somewhat obscured, but they could just about make out what looked to be a paper sheet that had been carefully lain across the sofa and a series of pointed, metallic implements were being lined up upon the coffee table. Before Teddy could pass comment, Dora had swept into the room and, without bothering to exchange greetings, announced:

"You can't be here."

"Routine, Mrs. Lupin." the older woman announced grimly, and her companion began:

"It's nothing to worry about, Mrs. Lupin. It'll be all over in a flash..."

"I don't think you quite understand." Dora said, hand pointedly coming to rest upon her hip. "I have two children in the house, you can't be here."

"Let's not get ourselves upset, now..."

"I wholly expect my thirteen year old son to be exceptionally upset at the prospect of his mother being poked, prodded, scraped and stuck under a microscope like some sort of science exhibit! Now you can pack all of this away, I won't be consenting to an examination."

"Mrs. Lupin," the squinting woman said sternly, her squint fast becoming a scowl, "Ministry regulation states..."

"I know precisely what Ministry regulations states, thank you very much." Dora interrupted briskly, only for the woman to agree:

"Yes, I expect you do." She leant forward a little, her squint upon Dora intensifying as she asked: "I wonder, Mrs. Lupin, did your husband spend the night before last in an approved Ministry centre or had he other arrangements in place?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand your question." came the smooth response. "How is that in any way relevant to anything that happened to me that night?"

A icy silence fell upon the sitting room. The younger of the two intruders attempted in vain to break the ice.

"Have you bathed or showered since the incident?" she asked Dora. "I'm sure the hospital would have mentioned how important it is not to..."

Dora sighed in such a manner that the children peering into the room were very certain that she was rolling her eyes.

"It might have been important, had I been bitten. But as you well know the hospital did examine me – you'll have read their notes extremely carefully of course – and I wasn't bitten, I suffered a few scratches at most..."

"Your arm appears to be in a sling, which is hardly a few sc..."

"...and frankly you've hardly showed up promptly! Quite how long you thought you could leave me to wallow in a total lack of self hygiene, I don't care to imagine..."

"Am I to assume, then, that you have washed?" the older woman interrupted irritably and Dora seemed to take a degree of pleasure to tell her:

"Of course! Thoroughly!"

It was the squinting witch's turn to sigh then and her colleague hastily said:

"Not to worry, not to worry! We must try to salvage something! Because of course this isn't only about your injuries or whether or not you were bitten. It's as much about who did this to you as it is what they did to you..."

"Who did this to me?"

"Precisely! It is important to identify who..."

"Sorry...I didn't catch your name...?"

"Oh! Oh yes, my name is Ellie..."

"I see. Well, Ellie, it seems there has been some sort of terrible misunderstanding here..."

"Oh?"

"Yes, you see nobody did this to me. A person did not do this to me. A werewolf under the light of the full moon without the aid of Wolfsbane potion can hardly be accused of the sort of clear and rational thought processes that you and I stood here possess. Of course usually for their sake we cannot loose sight of the fact that they are indeed a person, but given your current line of thinking I do wonder if it would be more sensible for us to do away with that idea. A dark creature did this to me, Ellie. No person is to blame for what happened."

"It was inexcusably irresponsible for a lycanthrope to fail to take Wolfsbane and not sign in at a Ministry approved centre for the night. Unregistered werewolves, Mrs. Lupin, are a shameful and selfish blight upon public safety!" By now the scowling woman had her hands upon her hips and was positively glowering at Dora, but it seemed to have little effect.

"I disagree." Dora insisted, every inch stubborn. "I have been employed at Auror Headquarters for almost the entirety of my adult life, I've been the Deputy Head of Aurors for many years and by now they pay me more than just a decent wage. Despite that, my husband and I have a monthly struggle to keep this roof over our heads and to keep him safe and supplied with Wolfsbane every month. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to buy reliable Wolfsbane from a reputable apothecary that isn't going to fail come full moon or just make the drinker horrifically sick?! It is astronomically expensive! Throw rampant unemployment into that bargain and I think the chances of your average werewolf being able to be responsible enough, as you put it, to take Wolfsbane every month is vanishingly slim! As for your approved centres – every time my husband has come back from one of those accursed places he's been in a dreadful state! The last time he went in there he ended up being admitted to St. Mungo's and wasn't discharged until the following week! What about your responsibilities?! If you can't be responsible for their safety in your care, why on earth would anyone voluntarily go to you for help?! The werewolf who attacked me was unlikely to be another Fenrir Greyback! I very much doubt he or she purposefully positioned themselves in such a way as to put me in danger! We're talking about hopeless, desperate people who have nobody to look out for them other than they themselves!"

There was a somewhat deafening silence in the wake of this declaration in which Ellie became very interested in her boots, and she was just sinking down to sit upon the sofa, ruffling the thin paper sheet that she had so carefully lain out upon it some minutes earlier, only for her older companion to hiss:

"Get up!"

As Ellie scrambled hurriedly to her feet, the other witch turned back to fix Dora with an unblinking stare as she drew a deep breath and inquired:

"Mrs. Lupin, where precisely was your husband on the night in question?"

Dora began to shake her head.

"I'm not required to tell you..." she began, only for the witch to ask:

"Were you with him that night?"

"No, I..."

"Mrs. Lupin," Ellie interrupted, voice suddenly very soft as she took a step forward, reaching out a hand as if she might pat Dora reassuringly upon the shoulder. "Did...did your husband do this to you?"

"No!" Dora declared, sounding utterly exasperated. "Absolutely not! I've already told you, he always takes Wolfsbane, I wasn't with him, I wasn't anywhere near him, I was at work! I was the other side of the bloody country! I told the hospital everything..."

The intruders turned to squint down at their clipboard, sifting through the papers upon it whilst Dora turned away, reaching to run a weary hand over her face, only to catch sight of the two children peering at her through the gaps between the bannister out in the hallway.

"Is your husband here, Mrs. Lupin?" one of the intruders asked, and Carrie thought Dora was beginning to look rather flustered as she said:

"N...no. No, he's not..."

To Carrie and Teddy the Auror clearly mouthed: Get upstairs!

"It seems the hospital records we have received are not quite up to standard, Mrs. Lupin." the older witch announced as Dora turned back to face her. "A full body examination did take place, I assume?"

"I'm pretty sure there's not an inch of me that hospital doesn't have on record."

"These notes seem a little sparse..."

"That's hardly my fault, is it?"

"There's very little mention of checks for puncture marks on the skin, other than your arm being broken. If we could just take a quick look at you...?"

Dora ran one more frustrated hand through her mousy hair before her hand dropped sharply to her side and she asked:

"And will you leave straight afterwards?"

"Certainly."

After a moment's consideration, Dora sighed again and began to shrug the robes from her shoulders.

"Fine," she said, flinging the robes onto the nearest chair and turning back towards the door. "Let's get it over with, then." And with that she reached to push the door firmly closed.

Carrie had barely turned to look at Teddy when they heard the distinct sound of gravel crunching upon the driveway outside and the children both turned to hear a key click in the lock.

"Dad!" Teddy hissed the moment his father appeared to step over the threshold, and as Remus turned to look up at them, Carrie noted that he had not brought his suitcase with him.

"What're you two doing?" Remus asked as he reached to push the door shut behind him, only to pause when Teddy demanded:

"Shhh!"

The boy rushed down the stairs, coming to a skidding halt at his father's side.

"It's the Werewolf Registry!" he hissed, pointing at the living room door. "They're asking Mum all sorts of questions and they're making her have an examination!"

Remus visibly paled.

"I think they're going to cut her open or something..." Carrie began fretfully, only for Teddy to demand:

"You have to tell them to leave!"

"They were asking if you were here." Carrie recalled, chewing upon her bottom lip, and Remus reached to pull the front door open again.

"Both of you get upstairs and stay there." he said, only for Teddy to demand to know:

"Where are you going?!"

"I can't be here, Theodore..."

"You can't go! What about Mum?!"

"Get up those stairs, Theodore."

"Aren't you going to go and rescue her?"

"I'm exactly the last thing your mother needs right now. She's perfectly capable of looking after herself. Now get upstairs, I'm not going to ask you again." And with that, Remus disappeared back outside, pulling the door shut behind him. The sound of crunching gravel a moment later suggested that he had left at a jog.

Carrie saw little of Teddy for several days after that, for his mother, after scolding him quite terribly for eavesdropping and general disobedience, had soon made arrangements for him to go and visit his grandmother for a day or two. Carrie couldn't help but wonder if Dora had done this to indirectly punish Carrie for her similar crimes, or if she was simply so furious that she wished to be left entirely on her own. The timing could not have been worse as far as Carrie was concerned, for it just happened to be the week upon which her friend Cleo was away on holiday and not available to visit, so Carrie was left to amuse herself. She found herself often looking out of the window at the driveway or into the Lupins' back garden for any signs that Remus had returned home, but saw nothing for almost three days. It was not until the third evening, just as the sun was beginning to set after dinner, that Carrie finally found herself with a shred of hope.

It was a hot evening and Carrie had stepped outside to pop up the road and post a letter for her mother, and as she made her way down the driveway, glancing as she usually did sideways at the Lupins' house, she found the sitting room windows had been pushed open wide in the heat and she could hear the distinct sound of two people laughing. Heart leaping in her chest, she rushed to flatten herself up against the wall beside the window, before leaning carefully to peer inside, desperate to set eyes upon the scene inside, desperate to spot Remus and Dora sat upon the sofa together, laughing and cheerful...

There were indeed two figures sat somewhat sprawled upon the sofa, and Dora was indeed one of them. At the sight of the witch's companion, however, Carrie's heart sank.

"I could get used to this." Dora was saying as she reached to pour herself another glass of wine, and beside her fellow Auror Robert Wilde observed:

"I rather think you've had enough."

Dora ignored him. She poured herself a generous glass, set the bottle back down upon the side table with a worrying amount of force and snatched the glass up in a way that made Carrie wince.

"No work," she witch observed, settling herself back against some cushions, "no children..." She paused then, as if considering whether or not to continue, before venturing: "No husband..."

Robert visibly winced.

"Careful now," he told her, reaching to grip hold of her elbow to try and stabilize her somewhat whimsical hold upon her glass. "You're drunk and you're going to say something stupid. And then you're going to see me at work and it'll be awkward."

Dora puffed her cheeks in consideration.

"You're probably right, as usual..." she said, taking a generous mouthful of wine. The thought seemed to have sobered her enough that Robert let go of her elbow and reached for his own glass.

"I'm glad you came over. I thought you might still be cross, after what I wrote to you the other day." Dora said, leaning until her head had come to rest upon her fellow Auror's shoulder. "I'm so glad you're not. It's no fun getting roaring drunk alone."

"Well you've always been my favourite person to get drunk with." Robert confessed. "You're twice as giggly as Jasmine, but not half as violent..."

The two of them dissolved into the sort of giggling that Carrie expected of children half her age.

"Oh Merlin!" Dora declared a moment later, having stifled her laughter by downing the rest of her glass. "I really am gone, aren't I? How the bloody hell am I going to face my mother in the morning when she shows up with Teddy?"

Robert did not seem to have any good advice, and as she sighed and slumped further against him he reached to pluck the empty glass from her hand.

"I think it's time for bed." he said, leaning awkwardly to put down the glasses, and Dora groaned, reaching to clamp her hands across her eyes.

"No..."

"Tonks for goodness sake, look at yourself! Come on, get up. I'm taking you to bed..."

"I'm never going to be that drunk, Robert!"

"Putting you to bed! I mean I'm putting you to bed! Bloody hell, come on..."

There then began an odd sort of dance as Robert heaved the witch up out of the chair and they set about staggering towards the hallway. Despite their struggle, they maintained surprisingly sober conversation.

"How long are you signed off work for?"

"Just until the end of the week."

"Is that long enough?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine."

"I know you will. You're a tough one, and Remus'll be back before you know it."

"I don't see what difference that'll make."

"That's the wine talking again."

"Is it? I don't know. I can rely on my husband for a lot of things, but even he has his limits. Sometimes, Robert, you've just got to pick yourself up on your own."

There was a long pause before Carrie heard the witch suggest:

"We should do this again, sometime."

"I don't think you mean that. But you'll send an owl, won't you? If you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

"If you need...someone, I mean."

"Oh. Well. I suppose. It's just...y'know..."

"What?"

There was a pause and a loud thumping noise as the pair stumbled into a wall.

"It's just you're not really the right someone." Dora said.

Carrie wandered up the driveway and down the road to the post box on the corner, her mind whirling. She was just wandering slowly back towards home when she heard the distinct sound of apparation. Carrie sped up her pace a little, just in time to spy Remus walking up the road towards her, suitcase in hand.

The werewolf was just heading up the driveway when Robert came to step outside. Carrie observed them from a distance. She thought Robert looked distinctly sheepish. They exchanged a murmured Evening with one another, before Robert explained:

"I was just...Tonks asked me to come for a drink, so..."

It was not, Carrie recalled, Robert's custom to get tongue-tied, and Remus smiled as if to try and put him at ease.

"Be careful," the werewolf said, "She's rather dreadful on wine."

"She is, isn't she?" Robert agreed a little weakly. "I had to...well...she's a bit worse for wear, you see, so I had to help her to bed. She's all tucked up...fast asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, so..." he trailed off, clearing his throat a little noisily and Remus said:

"Thank you, Robert."

Robert smiled then, visibly relaxing.

"I can't say I'm entirely sober myself," he confessed, "so I'd better be getting myself home. Goodnight!"

The two men parted ways, Robert shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers as he set off, and Remus went to unlock the front door, only to pause to look round at the Auror's retreating back. He watched Robert disappear around the corner, before turning his attention back to the door, whereupon he disappeared inside and shut the door firmly behind him.

Carrie visited Teddy at home rarely over the following week, and witnessed Remus and Dora together only twice. On both occasions she thought it was as if they were attempting to ignore one another without making it obvious. They were not, to Carrie's mind, doing a particularly good job of it. The only thing they seemed to do convincingly was scold Teddy, who seemed to have yet to forgive his father for not coming to his mother's rescue the day the Werewolf Registry had visited the house. All instructions or indeed questions Remus directed at his son were met with scowls or answered with distinctly bad-tempered retorts.

"Don't speak to your dad like that, Ted." Dora had murmured half-heartedly over lunch one afternoon, after Remus' request that Teddy pass him the salt had been met with: get it yourself.

"I'm just saying," Teddy protested, glaring daggers as his father rose to his feet with a heavy sigh, "I'm sure he's perfectly capable of looking after himself."

"Where are you going?" Dora asked as Remus made a beeline for the hallway, and when he did not immediately answer she told him: "You know, you can't keep running away like this, Remus, it isn't going to help."

In response, Remus disappeared into the study and shut the door firmly behind him.

Dora set her knife and fork down upon the table with a clatter and fixed her son with a positively withering look.

"I have had quite enough of you." she informed him, snatching up a napkin to wipe furiously across her mouth. "One more word like that and you can kiss goodbye leaving your bedroom for the rest of the week."

"You could cart me off to Gran's to get me out the way entirely, if you like." Teddy suggested, only to wince when his mother flung the napkin down and got sharply to her feet, declaring:

"You know what, love? I might just do that!"

Teddy slumped back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest as Dora strode out of the kitchen and disappeared into the study after her husband, closing the door behind them.

"I think you should leave them both alone, Ted." Carrie whispered, and Teddy screwed his eyes shut and admitted:

"Yes, I know I should..."

"Maybe you ought to apologise." Carrie continued, fixing the side of his head with an expectant look, and he fidgeted terribly in his chair for almost a full moment before huffing and getting to his feet. As he went to the study door and reached to push it open, Carrie followed him.

"...I know it was difficult and I know all the things that were...that are still swimming round and round in your head like a pack of bloody sharks, but for Merlin's sake, Sweetheart, I don't care about all that!" Dora was saying as she stood before her husband, her hands grasping fistfuls of mousy hair in frustration. "I get that you didn't know what to do! But really, you didn't need to do anything, Remus! You just had to bloody be there for me! Can't you see that?! Can't you see?! Look, for Merlin's sake!" The witch thrust a hand to gesture at the letter that had been languishing unsent upon the desk for days, and as he sat staring down at it, Remus visibly slumped in his seat.

"I just wanted you to be there for me!" Dora insisted. "Even if you didn't know what to do, or even if you thought you were making things worse, it didn't matter, I just wanted you!"

Remus considered all of this in unnerving silence. Dora glanced round to spot their audience and Carrie fully expected to be scolded again, but instead Dora sniffed and said:

"Apologise to your father, Theodore."

"I'm sorry, Dad." Teddy said, wringing his hands anxiously, and after another moment's thought Remus straightened up and looked over at his son.

"Go to your room." the werewolf told the boy, voice barely above a whisper, and Teddy hung his head and turned to make a swift beeline for the stairs. Carrie slunk after him and went to pull her shoes on. The two friends parted without a word, he shuffling upstairs to his bedroom and she disappearing back to the relative calm of her own home.

Though all three Lupins remained at home that week, Carrie spotted no signs of life again until Sunday, where whilst climbing the tree in her back garden she spotted Remus amongst the flowerbeds next door, digging up weeds with a garden fork. Gardening was one of the few tasks the Lupins habitually did the muggle way, for fear of magic being too obvious for their neighbours to spot, and Carrie sat watching him for some while, the sun beating down upon him as he worked, the sweat soon beginning to glisten on his brow. Before long, the back door of the house opened and Dora appeared, dressed in baggy jeans and a distinctly scruffy vest top that she often donned for cleaning. She was carrying a tall glass of iced water and Carrie sat, hugging tightly onto her tree branch, watching the witch advance down the garden. Remus paused in his work upon noticing her approach, and she held the glass out for him to take. He downed the icy water in a series of large gulps before reaching to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing dirt upon his face. She reached a thumb to wipe the dirt away, before leaning to press a kiss to his cheek.

Remus caught her about the waist, muddy hands be damned, and pulled her close until he could press such a fervent kiss to her lips that watching him left Carrie's cheeks to go pink.

Dora broke the kiss laughing, reaching to sweep the damp hair from his brow with a smile before turning to stride back towards the house, and Remus retrieved the garden fork and impaled it once again into the soil. Without looking up, the werewolf called:

"Morning, Carrie!"

Carrie scrambled down from the tree and rushed back inside, her spirits lifting with every hurried step. She thought perhaps she could hear Remus chuckling to himself the other side of the garden fence.

"Mum says it'll take time." Teddy explained the following morning as they sat upon the front step of his house together, a bowl of strawberries set just before the open doorway behind them. "She'll make him grovel for a while and then she'll properly forgive him..."

"Your mother will do no such thing." Remus' voice informed them from the hallway as he passed, and Teddy almost choked on the strawberry he had just popped into his mouth.

"Didn't see you there, Dad."

"Evidently." The werewolf paused to lean against the doorframe, peering down at his son with a frown. "Don't fret, Ted." he said. "Your mother forgave me a long time ago. I did all my grovelling before you were even born. We shall be fine, the two of us. As she says, these things can simply take a little time."

"You're going to have to buy her a lot of flowers, Dad." Teddy pointed out, and Remus gave a soft huff of amusement and shook his head a little.

"She's not terribly bothered about flowers, as you well know."

"Well what are you going to do, then?"

"There really is only one thing we can do when we let down the person we love, Ted." Remus admitted, reaching to rub a hand across his eyes. "That is simply: try our upmost never to do it again. Invariably we will fail. I've let your mother down many times over the years and no doubt I'll let her down again one day, I'm only human, after all. But if I can honestly say I've tried my best, we'll get through it all, one way or another."

Teddy sighed heavily, as if he didn't find this all particularly satisfactory as an answer. And then he said:

"Well a box of chocolates probably wouldn't hurt."

And Remus reached to ruffle the wayward mop of caramel coloured hair upon his son's head and admitted:

"No, I suspect it wouldn't hurt at all."

The werewolf reached to extract his wallet from the pocket of a coat hanging upon the cloak-stand beside the door, before stepping carefully over the bowl of strawberries and out onto the driveway.

"Come on then, both of you." he suggested, without so much as a glance at the children.

"Where are we going?" Teddy asked as Carrie hurriedly reached to push the bowl further into the hallway so that they could pull the door shut, and Remus was already halfway down the driveway when he told them:

"Honeydukes, of course."

Teddy leapt to his feet and as she puleld the door shut, Carrie heard the boy dashing to catch his father up.

"You know, Dad," Teddy said as Carrie hurried after them, "I'm still quite angry with you too."

"I see." Remus said, as if he rather knew where the conversation was headed, and Carrie suspected he was entirely unsurprised when Teddy asked:

"Are you going to buy me some chocolates, too?"

Finish.