They had initially planned to spend a quiet Christmas day at the manor, just the three of them, but at Mrs Weasley's implacable insistence they'd finally agreed to join the others at the Burrow for supper.

And now Evey knew why Mrs Weasley had insisted. She didn't doubt that Mrs Weasley sincerely wanted them to be present for the occasion, but there was a hidden motive. Not a pleasant one.

The day after the wedding, Tony had put up several new wards around the Macnair domain, and "freshened up" the old ones, and they had also elected Evey as their Secret Keeper. Presently, only Ancients and Wolves with no ill intents were able to enter the area – in other words, if the wards worked properly, Greyback shouldn't be able to get in.

Even the few scattered members of the Order of the Phoenix were not allowed within the protected zone. Evey had assured them that it was a mere precaution, mainly directed at Greyback and Voldemort, and that they would lift it the moment the war was over – and when Greyback had been dealt with, one way or another.

However, the news that Mrs Weasley had to deliver on this snowy Christmas day was better delivered in person, or so she claimed.

Personally, Evey would have preferred to be at home when she found out, surrounded by her husband and her best friend for support, instead of being about to have a five-course meal with a bunch of people she didn't know that well.

Mrs Weasley asked her to sit down in the kitchen – the other guests were in the living room, being entertained by Mr Weasley, who had acquired a Tamagotchi and was showing it around to everyone, marvelling at its "Muggle magic" – and forced a cup of tea in her hands. According to Mrs Weasley, a cup of tea could fix everything. She'd wanted to talk to Evey in private, but Evey had pointed out that, whatever she had to say, Walden and Tony would know of it in a matter of minutes, if not right away, considering their enhanced sense of hearing.

"It's frightful news, I'm afraid," Mrs Weasley said. "I'm terribly sorry to bring it up on Christmas, dear, but…" She trailed off, anxiously stirring her tea.

Evey couldn't stand it a moment longer. "Mrs Weasley, what's going on?" she prompted the older woman.

"Your house…that is, your parents' house…Professor Dumbledore was there last night…one of the magical alarms went off…" She moved her hand forward and laid it on Evey's. It took all of Evey's self-control not to recoil. She hated to be touched without warning or having given her express consent, but Mrs Weasley was obviously distraught. "It burned down. There's…there's nothing left of it."

Evey stared at her in shock and incomprehension. "I don't…I don't understand. Who would do this, and why?"

It struck her at the same moment that Tony spoke. "Greyback. He must've returned, and found you gone. That's his way of demonstrating that he's not too happy about it, I guess."

Mrs Weasley nodded. "That was also Dumbledore's conclusion."

Walden had put his good arm around Evey; he looked as puzzled as Evey felt. "But it doesn't make any sense. Greyback's a lot of things, but he's not stupid. The house…well, he should have used it to bait you. By destroying it, he's severely reduced his chances of ever finding you again. Not that I'm complaining," he added hastily.

Evey had indeed considered going back to her old house, her childhood house, now that she was allowed outside. Mrs Weasley had made a compelling argument about the three of them remaining at the manor house at all times, for their own safety, but they didn't have to follow the Order's rules any longer. That didn't mean that they weren't careful, of course. In truth, both Walden and Tony were reluctant to let Evey go anywhere beyond the reach of the wards.

But now she could never go back. The house, like her family, was nothing but ashes.

It wasn't about retrieving memorabilia or clothes or family heirlooms. Going back would have been torture. Evey would have cried the entire time she was there, her head full of happy memories, and of all the things her parents and her brother would never share with her – like her wedding.

It would have been about closure, about saying goodbye. She'd never gotten the chance to say goodbye.

Tony seemed to read her thoughts, and he put a hand on her shoulder. She hated to be touched against her will, but Walden and Tony would always be the exception to the rule. "I know it's not much comfort, but you have the photo album, at least."

"Going there would have torn your heart apart," Walden said quietly. "Maybe it's better this way."

"You'll always have your memories, V," Tony added. "No one can take that away from you."

"Walden's right, though," Evey said slowly. "As much as his ability to think like a psychopath creeps me out, he is right. Why would Greyback burn it down, when it was the only place I might visit that was also accessible to him?"

"To send a message?" Tony surmised. "To let you know that he's back, and on the lookout for you?"

"More likely," Walden said, "he seriously didn't expect you to escape, overconfidence being one of his known weaknesses, and he was so furious when he found out that he decided to do something he knew would hurt you."

Evey studied him for a moment. "It's really creepy, you know."

"Well, it's part of my job," Walden said defensively. "I've hunted rogue werewolves in the past. I know how they think, how they behave. Wolves and mere werewolves are not so different. Greyback may claim to be in perfect control at all times, but he's only deluding himself. Cunning or not, he's not always rational. He makes rash, spur-of-the-moment decisions, just like the rest of us."

'It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.' Yes, Greyback had admitted to that before, it was true. The attack on Evey's family had been unpremeditated, according to him. Her irresistible scent had drawn him in, supposedly, and had caused him to…do what he had done. "I think you're both right," she said eventually. "It was a message. He wants me to know. He wants me to be afraid. And he was trying to hurt me, that much is certain."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Tony assured her, at the same time that Mrs Weasley said, "We won't allow him to capture you again, dear."

Walden smiled, and his smile was both fierce and incredibly tender. "What they said." He tightened his grip on her, and Evey leaned forward into the embrace. "The only thing he succeeded in doing is to let us know to be on our guards. And we will. He won't ever touch you again, that I promise you."

Evey wanted desperately to go home – surely, Mrs Weasley would understand, given the circumstances – but if she did go home, she would only mope around, feeling sorry for herself and terrified besides, no matter what the others said. It wasn't simply her own safety that worried her, it was that of everyone else: Walden, Tony, possibly Mrs Weasley and her family, but also Greyback's pack. How had the Alpha reacted to her unexpected disappearance? Had he blamed Scabior for it, and if he had, what had he done about it?

Evey had to find out, otherwise she would never sleep properly again. She needed to go to Asgard, but she doubted that Walden and Tony would agree to that. Or perhaps she could ask Ted to go and have a look around?

"Hey, try not to think about it now, alright?" Tony said softly. "Enjoy the meal." He glanced longingly at the glazed ham. Evey sometimes wondered how he could stand being so near the food without being able to taste it. It would certainly drive her mad, were she in his situation.

There weren't many people around the table. Harry and his friends had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays, and most members of the Order were busy – either celebrating Christmas with their own families, or working. George and Fred were there, and their brother Bill - his fiancée, Fleur, was in France with her parents and little sister - as well as Remus Lupin. Tonks was spending her day off with her family. Kingsley Shacklebolt was at the Ministry, and Alastor Moody had rejected Mrs Weasley's invitation.

And yet the person whose absence struck Evey the most was Sirius. She thought she'd hidden it fairly well, but the news of his death had been like a punch in the guts. After everything she'd been through, it had been the last straw. She hadn't talked about it to anyone, though. There wasn't much to say. He was gone, and there was nothing to be done about it.

It was one of the reasons why she had decided to sit beside Remus, who looked a bit...lonely. Of course, Walden and Tony were seated on the other side of her.

"We didn't really get a chance to talk since I got back," she told Remus. Well...except that one time, at her welcome-back party, when she'd yelled at him for being so suspicious of Tony. When she'd more than implied that they were hiding things from the Order.

Hopefully, he'd forgotten about that.

"I'm sorry about Sirius," Evey went on quickly, before he could interrogate her. "I know you two were close."

Remus sighed. "I feel so guilty, you know? He was my best friend for so long, my very first friend, one of the few people in this world who loved me for who I am, despite what I am, but it never occurred to me that he was innocent, all those years he spent at Azkaban. I failed him as a friend. Completely. And yet he forgave me, though I hardly deserved it." He paused briefly, glumly pushing his food around. "I failed to save him in the end."

Evey wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't expected such raw honesty from him, such naked vulnerability. They weren't close at all. After all, Evey barely knew him – he'd been her professor for a year, and then she'd seen him a few times at the Grimmauld place, but that was it.

But sometimes talking to a relative stranger was easier.

"It wasn't your fault. You know that, right? I know the feeling, believe me, but it wasn't your fault. Don't burden yourself with unwarranted guilt. Sirius wouldn't want that." Remus knew Sirius better than Evey did, certainly, but she was the one who'd spent the last months of his life in his company. "He was never angry at you. He was just glad to have you back in his life – you and Harry. Gods, how he doted on Harry." Evey smiled, remembering the dozens of pictures Sirius had taken with his godson during the previous Christmas holidays. "He would have adopted him, if he could. Once they cleared his name, he would have." She cleared her throat roughly, before she started crying. She was supposed to comfort Remus, not make him feel worse. "He would want you to carry on. To be Harry's godfather in his stead. I know he would." Remus remained silent, but his eyes were shining. She was making it worse. She glanced at Walden. Help.

"Change the subject," he murmured.

Evey wracked her brain for a less heart-breaking topic of conversation. "Um, Tony told me that you worked hard on getting information regarding my situation, despite the obvious danger to yourself. He said that you were infiltrating a pack?" Remus was very sensitive about being a werewolf, so perhaps this wasn't the best question to ask, but what else was there? Besides, she was curious. What was Remus hoping to achieve by joining a pack? The werewolves were unlikely to help the Order. Society had been hard on them; it always had been. Evey hadn't needed Jabbar or Croyd to tell her that.

At least hunting and killing them was illegal now. In most countries.

The werewolves of Great Britain were divided in three categories, each roughly equivalent in numbers. There was Greyback's pack, largest and foremost in the British Isles, and possibly in Europe; there were the werewolves who belonged to other, smaller packs (of which there were about forty, scattered across the kingdom); and finally, there were the lone wolves, who were not affiliated to any pack and lived a solitary existence, for the most part.

The lone wolves, or rogues, as pack wolves called them, were unlikely to take part in the present conflict unless they were to gain something from it. Voldemort, of course, knew that very well and had acted on it during the First War. It had been one of Walden's first tasks to recruit them. It was only a matter of time before Voldemort started recruiting them this time around, if he hadn't done so already. He would promise to allow them to live as they wished, without constraint. It had worked the first time, so there was no hoping they would turn him down now. They were like mercenaries, keeping to themselves in times of peace but selling themselves to the highest bidder in a crisis. Of course, there were some who were different, like Remus, who thought of the bigger picture. A few had even abandoned their packs to ensure their families' safety. After being cloistered at Asgard for so long, that last part didn't make much sense to Evey. Pack members always looked out for each other, and for each other's spouses and families, although having children was not exactly a common occurrence among werewolves – for good reason, since the odds of giving birth to a healthy child were down to 50%.

The werewolves who belonged in other packs were not likely to act unless they were compelled to do it. They preferred to keep to themselves; they helped each other out and made do with what they had but rarely involved themselves in affairs that did not directly affect them. They would turn down Voldemort for as long as they dared, but Greyback might be enough to convince them to join the dark wizard's ranks. They hated Greyback, true, but they feared him more than they despised him. And if an Alpha decided to go over, his pack would follow.

And of course the Order had little to offer to either of those categories. They couldn't keep them safe from Voldemort or Greyback, and they could make no promise for a better life in the future. The werewolves had received enough empty promises over the centuries to recognise them.

"I was trying to recruit them," Remus explained. "Being accepted by the pack alone took me months, however. They still don't trust me, for the most part. I've been away too long." He grimaced, his voice turning sour. "I was hoping to join Greyback's pack, to tell you the truth. He was the one who turned me, so I thought he might be more compliant. But no one would let me know where he is, or how to find him. They hate him, you know. But they are also terrified of him, even the pack leaders."

"Which is exactly why they hate him," Evey pointed out. She already knew all that. Greyback had been quite frustrated with these other Alphas who wouldn't submit to him and join his pack because they were too prideful and, according to Greyback, that was why the wizarding world refused to grant them any right, because they were not united. Greyback often threatened to take over their packs, but had never followed through with his threats.

Remus nodded gravely. "He could be a true leader, if he wanted to," he murmured. "I hate him for what he did to me, you understand, and for what he's done to you and to so many people over the years, but in spite of that…he could shake things up, if he bothered to do it properly. If he sought the people's respect, instead of their fear; if he tried to compromise, to negotiate, instead of sending messages via the trail of bodies he leaves in his wake…"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I told him and his pack." To no avail, but she had tried.

"It's too late now, of course," Remus went on. "He should have done that from the beginning. His alliance with Voldemort during the First War destroyed any chance of ending the werewolves' stigma, and his continued loyalty to the wrong side is making it worse, even now. He has likely doomed us all." He shook his head ruefully. "You are too young to know what it was like during the war, and in the years that followed. When Voldemort was brought down by Harry, we celebrated for weeks, but that is only the part people want to remember. There was a long period of paranoia, of general distrust as the remaining Death Eaters were hunted down. And since Greyback had so publicly declared his support for Voldemort, and because his pack was so large, the rest of the world lumped all the werewolves together. What little betterment we'd earned for ourselves before the war was annulled, as if it had never existed at all. We were back to where we were in the Middle Ages, or near enough."

"That must be what prompted Belby to create the Wolfsbane," Evey said. "To allay the general backlash following Greyback's treason."

"Indeed. Belby's grandfather was a werewolf, you see. He was assaulted in the aftermath of the war, and badly injured, because his attackers employed silver." He exhaled deeply. "Unfortunately, for all that it is quite effective, the potion is too difficult to brew, and too expensive by far. Few werewolves were given proper education, almost none can keep a steady job, and most live in poverty. Not to mention that not all of them are wizards." He shrugged. "The introduction of the Wolfsbane helped, I suppose. A little. What we need now is for it to be made easily and cheaply available to all." He let out a bitter chuckle. "I don't see that happening any time soon."

"But the other werewolves," Evey said, "they're not allied with Voldemort, are they? The ones from the pack you joined, for example."

"Not yet, but Death Eaters are pressuring them on one side, and Greyback on the other. It won't be long until Benjamin – our Alpha – gives in. If he doesn't, they'll just kill him and replace him. By one of the rogues, most likely. I received recent tidings that recruiting among their ranks is going well. I don't know why Voldemort even bothers with the smaller packs. He already has half the werewolves of England on his side, at the very least."

"Greyback's pack is not exactly at his disposal, though. That's what I've been told, anyway." Scabior claimed that Greyback never sent any of his wolves to do Voldemort's bidding, and wouldn't, unless they volunteered.

Remus didn't say anything for a minute. He appeared to be considering. "Greyback likes to give his subordinates the illusion of free will," he said eventually. "But make no mistake," he went on earnestly, leaning forward. "They are being misled. He's using them to get what he wants, although exactly what that is I have only the vaguest idea. Greyback plans in the long run, but in the end his wolves are mere pawns." He scowled faintly. "Did he tell you anything that might help the Order? I'll understand if you'd rather not discuss what happened when you were there, but any scrap of information you might have gleaned could be useful."

Evey thought it over for a moment, then glanced at Tony. He was looking at them, obviously listening in on their conversation. Should she tell Remus what she knew about Greyback? The Wolves had not made her promise not to reveal their existence, but it seemed implied. How much should she share with the Order? Tony shook his head slightly, as if he'd read her mind. Exposing the Wolves would almost certainly lead to discovering the Ancients. And what was worse, they would find out about her.

Then again, it was likely a matter of time before Mrs Weasley revealed what she knew.

Could the Order be trusted with that knowledge? Evey had no reason to doubt Remus, or any of the others for that matter, but she was reluctant to betray the people who had rescued her. Besides, what advantage would that piece of information yield? Knowing that Greyback was immortal and nigh-on invincible was of little relevance to the conflict at hand, as were Evey's…peculiarities. It was on Voldemort that they should be focusing. Evey would take care of Greyback herself, somehow. Their fate was linked.

"He never discussed his alliance with Voldemort or anything even remotely connected to his plans." That was entirely true and, in fact, Evey didn't think that Greyback had much insight regarding the dark wizard's intentions. He wasn't a Death Eater, after all. No matter how highly Greyback thought of himself, Voldemort only considered him as a tool, and an inferior, expendable one at that. Of course, Voldemort had no idea what he really had in Greyback, otherwise he would have him locked up and kept under constant watch. He would want to find a way to transfer, extract or contract Greyback's immortality somehow. It was a wonder that Voldemort hadn't realised something was off about the werewolf when he had first captured him, all these years ago. Croyd said they'd done all sorts of experiments on him. How had they not understood that he was more than he appeared?

"Evey…" Remus began hesitantly. He paused to clear his throat. "If you need to talk about what happened, I–"

"I don't," she assured him. "There's nothing to tell. Really." She probably sounded too vehement. She tried to slow her speech. "He didn't do anything to me."

He looked confused. "I just don't get it. Why did he take you? Is it related to what happened last year? He recognised you, and–" He frowned. "But why take you? Why not kill you? Is it possible that he or Voldemort had something in mind for you? But what could it be?" He chuckled weakly. "I mean, you are a gifted young witch, Evey, but you are not the only one, and you're Muggle-born besides. Why you?"

Her choice was now between an outright lie or the honest truth. If she remained vague, Remus would know she was hiding something, and if she lied… Could he tell when people lied? Scabior had explained that a werewolf's senses remained sharper even in human form if he didn't take Wolfsbane for a long period of time, but Croyd had added later that it was only true of the wolves who had been turned by Greyback himself. Jabbar and he, for example, did not share that particularity with Greyback's second. Evey assumed it was because of the Wolf blood.

She looked toward Tony again, then turned to Walden, who sat next to her. He hadn't said anything, but he had been listening, she was certain.

"The Order ought to know," Walden whispered. "It's time. What's the point of keeping it secret?" he asked Tony. He was speaking very softly; Evey could barely catch his words, but that wouldn't matter to Antonin.

"Keeping what a secret?" Remus demanded. His tone was cool. Well, apparently he did benefit from a keener sense of hearing, at least.

Evey shifted in her seat to face him again. His face had hardened, and he looked angry, suspicious. "We'll tell you everything if you include us in future Order's meetings," she told him on a whim. That sounded a lot like blackmail, but what the hell. She was bluffing, in any case. Mrs Weasley could easily explain everything, but Remus didn't know that. It was worth a try.

Remus was silent for a long time, studying her with a dark scowl, so long that Evey shrugged and turned her attention to her food.

"There will be a meeting in a few days," Remus said eventually. "I'll talk to Dumbledore."