Jeanne opened the door and slammed it behind her, huffing as though she actually had air in her lungs.

Alice glanced up from her book and, after taking one look at Jeanne's face, marked her page and let the book fall on the small table at her side. "What happened?"

Jeanne didn't acknowledge her or her question. She rummaged through their assortment of blood vials until she found one to her taste and gulped it down, then carelessly wiped her mouth with her sleeve.

"What would you do, if you were me?" Jeanne asked after another minute of brooding silence. She was glaring at the empty vial in her hand as though it had personally offended her.

"About what?" It wasn't like Jeanne to ask for advice, or seek someone else's opinion about anything.

"You know about what," Jeanne grunted. "Imagine that I'm the fledgling, that I'm in mortal danger, but that the situation can be easily resolved, even if you also know that the solution would break my heart in two." Her knuckles whitened around the vial. "As my maker, what would you do?"

"Jeanne…" Alice said hesitantly. "The world doesn't revolve around you or the boy. You have to look at the bigger picture here."

The vial shattered in Jeanne's hand. Blood dripped from her clenched fist, but the wounds must have healed by the time the blood reached the carpeted floor. "You're not answering my question," Jeanne retorted. Then she frowned. "What bigger picture? Once we're rid of the hybrid and the Wolf, we can go on with our lives. Although mine will have to continue somewhere very far away from Antonin," she muttered.

Alice shook her head. "Even if you put aside the fact that Antonin and Walden will never forgive you and will likely demand justice to the Mother herself, not to mention set everyone against you," she said, "there's still the matter of Greyback being part of a pack."

Jeanne made a sound between a scoff and a snort. "Are you seriously worrying about what will happen to the bloody werewolves that he took under his wing? These irrelevant little puppies? Alice, you're-"

"I meant the other Wolves, you idiot," she snapped. "Do you really believe that there will be no consequences to killing one of their own?"

Jeanne's face was expressionless. She hadn't even considered this, had she? Gods, she could be so self-centred, sometimes. "Don't be silly," Jeanne said eventually. She didn't sound as confident as usual. "Malkoran doesn't give a shit about his Wolves. He's abandoned them. He might not even notice that one of them is gone. As for the rest…"

"The ones we met last November may not like Greyback, but that doesn't mean they want him dead. And that was not all of them," Alice reminded her daughter. Only half of the Wolves had been present that night.

"They disposed of Rasputin when he became a menace, didn't they? Greyback is a fucking menace!"

"They dealt with one of their own as they saw fit when they deemed him a danger to the pack," Alice rephrased. "The only thing we could do is request a second meeting, explain how the situation has evolved since we discussed Evey's rescue, and then let them decide of Greyback's fate. We are in no position to serve as judge, jury and executioner. Ancients and Wolves handle conflicts separately; we do not take common action against any specific member of either race. And we certainly do not take action against one of the opposite side without preliminary arrangement from higher authority from both sides."

"Nice speech," Jeanne said sarcastically. "So what? We take up the matter to the Mother, that's what you're trying to say? Then she demands that Malkoran, or whoever is in charge, take care of Greyback? And we'll just have to accept their ruling, whatever it is?" she said with a bitter twist of her mouth.

"I doubt that'll work," Alice said quietly. "Greyback hasn't actually done anything to harm us…"

"N'importe quoi!" Jeanne exclaimed. "That's bullshit, Al. If we consider that the hybrid is a member of our 'family', then Greyback has grievously harmed one of us." She must be truly desperate, to invoke the family argument and to pretend to accept Evey as a part of it.

"You heard the Wolves the last time, Jeanne. They were already questioning the fact that Evey belonged to us, and that was before we found out about her connection to Greyback and her ability to turn into a werewolf. If they knew about that, they'd tried to take her from us. Some of them would, at least. Why do you think Greyback hid her from his fellow Wolves in the first place? They're linked, sure, but beyond that, a female werewolf… It means nothing to us, but to them?"

"Greyback believes that he can procreate with her," Jeanne grumbled reluctantly. "I heard him this morning, when he was talking with Antonin."

Alice nodded. "My point exactly. And if Greyback believes it, the other Wolves soon will." She paused, scowling. "How much has Blackbeard told the Wolves about Evey, do you think?"

"He hasn't talked to any of them recently, as far as I know. But Musashi knows, doesn't he? Possibly Cortés, too. The hybrid wasn't exactly tight-lipped during that car drive, apparently," Jeanne said darkly.

"If the ones in charge knew – Moonsinger and his two acolytes – we would have heard from them already, don't you think?" Blackbeard called them "The Holy Trinity": Ramesses, Hannibal Barca and William the Conqueror. According to the pirate, with Malkoran unavailable, they made decisions for the entire pack. The good news was that the three of them were part of the group that heeded the Mother's plea for Evey's rescue. The bad news was that Alice had no clue how they would react to the new developments regarding Evey.

"What if they sent the pirate to spy on us?" Jeanne said. "Maybe they're just biding their time to claim her. Or what if…"

"What if Greyback told them everything in the hope that they would take his side," Alice finished for her. Jeanne nodded glumly. That seemed a likelier option; Alice didn't particularly appreciate Blackbeard as a person, but her instincts told her that he could be trusted – to a certain extent.

Jeanne sat down on the other armchair and put up her feet on the low table. "If we can't trust the Wolves, we can't demand a trial for Greyback. So taking it up to the Mother serves no purpose, does it?"

Alice pondered for a moment. "I suppose not." She hesitated. "Jeanne…I think there's not much we can do without starting a war."

"So we're stuck, that's what you're saying?"

"For now…yes, I'm afraid we are."

Alice's advice notwithstanding, she doubted that Jeanne would simply wait for the situation to unlock itself before taking matters into her own hands and doing something very foolish – and possibly doom them all. Patience had never been her daughter's strong suit.

Ted peered into the garage. He knew that Tony was there, but he didn't know if the lad had heard him. He was often lost in thought and paid no attention to his surroundings. Ted didn't want to startle him, especially after this morning's debacle.

The Ancient looked up from his desk as Ted stepped forward, but he didn't say anything. Ted kept moving until he stood on the other side of the desk, and he picked up a gadget at random just to keep his hands busy. It looked like a watch, but instead of the time, it appeared to tell the current lunar phase. "Another gift for Evey?" Ted asked.

Tony averted his gaze. "Could be useful," he mumbled. "You never know."

"Uh-huh." He cleared his throat. "Look, we should really talk about what happened with the cub this morning."

"I was just trying to help," Tony said in a low voice. "But I see now that it was a stupid idea, ok? I hadn't talked to Greyback in years. I guess I forgot what an unreasonable, sadistic asshole he was. Should have known better, after what he did to Evey, but…" He trailed off, passing a hand through his hair. It looked wilder than Ted's own beard, and that was saying something.

"You know what your problem is?" Ted said bluntly. He was done mincing his words. The lad needed a wake-up call. "Going behind everyone's backs. We could have told you that it was a dumb move."

There was a long pause. "I told Walden about it," Tony admitted. "He said it was insane."

Ted sighed. "Then why did you do it anyway?" Tony didn't appear to have an answer to that. Most likely, he was just that desperate to come up with a solution to Evey's predicament. "Let's just forget it ever happened, yes?" The Ancient nodded quickly in assent. Ted suddenly felt like a parent scolding his kid; to be fair, Tony had a boyish look about him. His Ancient-ness was partly to blame for that, ironically enough.

"Are you planning on ever telling Evey that…you know…" Ted said awkwardly.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Tony exclaimed, finally meeting his eyes. "Of course not. Evey can't ever find out. Walden can't ever find out. Please don't tell them," he added with pathetic urgency.

"Well, it's none of my business," Ted said gruffly.

"I'll leave as soon as I can," Tony went on. "I realise that it's…unhealthy for me to stay here with them. If the situation were different…"

"Yeah, it's best for you to be there for Evey, in case Greyback somehow breaches the wards." Jeanne and Alice were both staying at the inn down in the village, but Tony wasn't supposed to know that.

Silence stretched between them. Ted was about to leave when Tony spoke. "Have you ever regretted…that is, do you ever wish that Silver hadn't turned you? Or that he'd given you a choice, at least?"

Ted stared at him in incomprehension. "He did give me a choice," he said slowly. "You can't turn a Wolf without his consent. Regular werewolves, now, nobody really bothers to ask their opinion, but…" He cut off at the look on Tony's face. "What?"

"How is that fair?" he complained. "The Ancients don't care about what you want. They don't ask. They stalk you while you live, wait until you're dead, or straight out kill you, in my case, then they turn you and that's it. Deal with it, fledgling, they say," he went on sourly.

"I…didn't know that," Ted admitted. No wonder that the lad was so pissed off with his maker, then. A premeditated murder followed by a non-consensual turning didn't seem to herald the beginning of a healthy relationship.

Tony sat forward in his chair and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, elbows resting on the desk. "Unbelievable," he whispered. "Un-fucking-believable." He chuckled mirthlessly. "You Wolves are lucky bastards, you know that?"

Well…that was mostly true. "You can eat whatever you want," Tony said. "You don't look like you're barely old enough to walk into a pub. You can actually decide whether you want to live forever or not."

"There are a few…drawbacks, though. I mean, it's not all peachy, you know. You Ancients are a close-knit family. Ironically, you are the ones with pack dynamics. You help each other out when there's trouble. And, most importantly, you decide together who the next Ancient will be. Gorgo's work as a head-hunter…do you even realise how crucial that is? I wish we had someone like her. Grigori and Greyback would have never been turned, if we had a Gorgo." He paused briefly. "You have proper leadership, and the Mother cares about you. All of you." He grinned suddenly. "And you have women!"

"Well, I don't care about any of that, but I'm sorry you feel that way." For the first time, Tony shot him a genuine smile. "We can adopt you, if you want."

"I appreciate the sentiment."

"Yeah…" Tony coughed discreetly. "Um, Ted? Is Jeanne still… I mean, she hasn't actually left, has she? Sometimes I feel like..."

"Like someone's glaring at you and thinking of the best French insults to throw at you?"

Tony shook his head. "I knew it. I bloody knew it. I assume she knows about Greyback, then?"

"She knows pretty much everything there is to know," Ted admitted.

"You've talked to her?" Ted nodded. "Did she mention Evey again? And her…'solution' to get rid of Greyback for good? She won't really do it, will she? She wouldn't kill Evey. Right?" Tony said anxiously.

Ted shrugged. "I don't know, lad." Jeanne clearly hadn't dismissed the idea, and that was all he knew for certain.

"She couldn't even if she wanted to," Tony muttered to himself. "The wards would kick her out of the estate if she had evil intentions. I think."

"I don't understand how the wards work," Ted said, "but for the record, I don't think that Jeanne believes herself to be evil. She's just…trying to do the right thing, the way she sees it." He hesitated. "Just like you thought asking Greyback for help was the right thing to do."

"That was completely different!" Tony retorted. "I-" He cut off abruptly. "Is she here right now?"

"Nah. She's nowhere close enough to hear us." Tony looked visibly relieved. "But you should probably talk to her. Like Alice suggested."

Tony frowned. "Did you see Alice, too?"

Oops. "Ah…well, she's, um…" Ted stuttered. The two Ancient ladies would have his hide if they found out about this. Oh well. He'd survived so far. "They're both staying at the inn."

"I see." He didn't look too happy. "So you're spying on us for them, is that it?"

"What? No! Not at all." Tony stared at him blankly at the obvious lie. "I mean," Ted amended, "I wouldn't call it 'spying'. They're just worried about you, fledg…um, mate."

"Somehow, I doubt Evey and Walden will see it that way," Tony remarked wryly.

"Look, they're not doing anything wrong, alright? And by reporting your mundane activities to Jeanne, I also get to keep an eye on her," Ted explained quickly. "Evey's still alive. That's got to count for something."

"Are you willing to report Jeanne's activities to me?" Tony asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Well, she doesn't really do anything worth reporting. She's either here watching you, or she's in her room complaining to Alice about you and cursing in French."

Tony considered that for a moment. "That does sound like Jeanne." He shrugged. "Just let me know if she says anything about Evey, ok? Or if she does something she shouldn't be doing."

"Yeah, I will. We'll um, keep this between us, then?"

"If you don't say anything about the Greyback…incident, I won't say anything about Jeanne and the spying," Tony promised.

Evey moved a finger along the ragged scar that crossed over Walden's stomach. Funnily enough, he'd done that to himself. Swords were not toys. "Wal… Is Tony ok?"

Walden didn't wonder why she was asking. He must have noticed, too. "Not sure, love."

"He was really weird today. And he's been so distant, lately…completely submerged in his work, like he's trying to avoid having to face…something." She bit her lip. "Do you think he's mad at us?"

"I can't imagine why." Walden turned to face her. "It's probably the whole Jeanne business that's bothering him. He still hasn't called her. Not that I think he should but…"

"But you can tell he wants to, right?" Walden nodded. "Yeah. I can't stand her, but I try to think of her as…his mum, sort of." More like an evil stepmother in a Disney movie, in truth. But she went along with the mum metaphor. "I mean, I'm aware that he had an actual mother, but…"

"That's how I see it, too. But I think it's more complicated than that. He's obviously very conflicted about Jeanne, for various reasons."

"Ok, well, you know him better than I do," Evey said pragmatically. "What should we do or say? Or should we just leave him alone, let him figure it out on his own?"

"V, you know him as well as I do. Your guess is as good as mine."

"You've known him since you were five!" she argued.

Walden's expression darkened. "That was before…before Fabian and Gideon. Before Azkaban. Before Jeanne. He's not the boy I used to know."

"I think he's just depressed," Evey said. The very thought made her depressed. "But I've no idea how to help him with that. I mean, he can go out if he wants. Like, if he wants to…meet other people…" She trailed off, flushing slightly. That was a euphemism for 'sleeping with as many women as possible'.

"It's not safe out there, V. Not even for him. If Greyback gets his hands on Tony, he might not kill him, but he could use him as leverage to get you back."

"Oh." She hadn't considered that. To be fair, her brain wasn't wired like that of a serial killer, unlike Walden's, it seemed.

"Then…maybe I should just spend more time with him. Find out what he's doing in the garage. I could be his assistant, or something."

"Yeah. Sounds good," Walden said distractedly. It was almost dawn; he was getting sleepy.

"I'll do that," Evey decided. "Starting tomorrow," she added with a yawn.

"This is a beautiful watch," Evey said as she studied it appreciatively. There were minuscule stars on the dark blue bracelet, and they shone like the ones in the night sky. The dial showed a half moon, with tiny clouds partially covering it. "How do you even come up with those ideas? It's fucking brilliant."

Tony shrugged. "I don't know. I have a lot of time on my hands, I guess." He glanced up briefly. "You can keep it, by the way. I made it for you."

"Aw, Tony, you already gave me the locket for my birthday! And all I got you was a bunch of blood bottles," she muttered, angry with herself. She should have thought of something else, something more cheerful. Blood only served to remind him that he had to drink it, which Tony hated to do. No wonder he was a bit distant. He must think that Evey hadn't put a lot of effort in her gift to him.

"The blood was a good idea, V. Knowing me, I would have waited until the last moment to get it, and I would have been half-raving by then. Now I don't have to worry about that for a long time. Seriously, you did me a huge favour."

"If you say so." There was a minute of silence, which felt odd, even slightly disturbing. Tony always had something to say. "So…" Evey began, "what are you working on now?"

"I'm experimenting with different magical stuff to determine if they can be used as wand cores, or complementary wand cores," he explained. He showed her a frail, iridescent wing. "Fairy wing. From Walden's supply closet," he added hastily. "I didn't rip it off some innocent fairy."

Evey eyed the wing thoughtfully. "Just to be clear: you were an engineer, right? Not a wandmaker."

"That's right. But I figure that immortals have to try various career paths in their existence," Tony replied casually. "And I took wandmaking in university, as an elective. I always liked it, but there aren't many career opportunities in the field. Most English wizards only buy one or two wands in their entire lives, and Ollivander fabricates and sells most of them."

"It's good to diversify your hobbies and interests," Evey said encouragingly.

Tony shot her a strange look. "Did you…want something, V?"

"No, no, I was just…curious. And, um, I was wondering if, maybe, you wanted me to help, or…" She took a deep breath and tried to form a full sentence. "I mean, I don't know anything about engineering or wandmaking, but I can gather supplies and things like that for you. If you want." She smiled at him.

Tony looked uncomfortable, for some reason. Sure, Evey was notoriously clumsy, but she wasn't as bad as Tonks. And she wasn't completely stupid. If Tony took the time to teach her, she might actually learn something. As long as it wasn't Occlumency. Or Apparition.

"That's nice of you to offer, but I don't really need help. I'm not even doing anything important, you know, just…toying with weird magical ingredients and trying not to make them explode in my face." He returned her a smile that was merely a shadow of the one Evey had become so used to in the past two years.

"Tony, what's going on? Is something wrong?" Oh, very subtle, Evangeline. Very subtle indeed.

"Nothing!" He avoided her gaze. "I…I mean, you can help if you really want to…"

"You can talk to me, you know," she said quietly. "Or Walden, if you'd prefer to talk with another…male. There's also Ted. He's very easy to talk to." Perhaps too easy to talk to. Evey had told him things that even Walden and Tony didn't know about. She imagined that that was what it felt like to drink Veritaserum: you just rambled on and on and it wasn't until your throat begged for water that you realised what you'd done.

Tony shifted gingerly, his eyes still on the floor. "I don't need to talk to anyone. I'm fine. I swear. I'm just worried about…well, you know. Everything," he said with a shaky laugh.

"The wards are holding, Tony. There's nothing to worry about."

"No offence, but that's a rather naïve opinion, V. I'm glad that we're all safe, but I don't want to be stuck here for thirty years or more. At some point, we'll have to do something."

"And what do you propose?" He had a point; they were stuck here, and Greyback knew that. Evey couldn't think of anything to resolve the situation, though. Not unless they decided to follow Jeanne's idea, anyway.

"I don't know," Tony said wistfully. "Walden and you have been looking into old books about werewolves for weeks now, but I'm beginning to think that there's simply nothing to be found. Your connection with Greyback is very likely unique; it's never happened before. We'll have to figure it out on our own, but how we're supposed to accomplish that without having Greyback at our disposal, I have no clue."

"So you think we should capture him alive and…experiment on him? On us?" Evey doubted that the former was possible, and was certain that Walden would object to the latter.

"Ideally, yes," Tony said. "I can't think of another alternative. I do realise that it's pretty much unfeasible, though." He shrugged helplessly. "Maybe we should ask for suggestions at the next Order meeting? Dumbledore might think of something."

"It's scheduled for early July, after the end of the school year." Another few weeks, unless something important came up before that, of course. Evey sighed in frustration and annoyance. "Until then, it seems that all we can do is wait. Again." It seemed that all she'd been doing since her family had died was wait. They'd been waiting at Grimmauld place to be allowed outside, then Evey had been waiting to be rescued at Asgard, and now this. It wasn't fair. It was all Greyback's fault.

But the Wolf would pay for it, for everything, one way or another.