Early in April, the Trio was invited to Shell Cottage, Bill and Fleur's home by the sea. The other Trio – Harry, Ron and Hermione – had arrived the day before, and they did not come alone: with them were Luna Lovegood, the renowned wandmaker Garrick Ollivander and a grumpy goblin named Griphook.

It was quite a story.

Unaware of the Taboo – or perhaps oblivious to it – one of them had uttered Voldemort's name aloud and triggered the curse. A band of Snatchers had caught them moments later – Snatchers led by Greyback. Evey wondered what would have happened if they'd been taken by Scabior instead, but it was pointless. What was done, was done.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had been taken to Malfoy manor right away, so that a proper Death Eater could decide what was to be done with them. Ensued questioning, torture and a rather brief captivity.

Quite frankly, Evey was astounded that Greyback had not kept Harry's capture to himself and negotiated directly with them. If he'd decided to trade Harry for Evey... The Wolf must not have been thinking straight, and she was immensely thankful for that. Maybe he wasn't as cunning as she thought, after all. Or not as evil, though that was less likely.

In any case, the kids had been rescued by a house elf named Dobby, whom Harry apparently knew very well. Sadly, the elf had been fatally wounded just before he left the manor for the last time; yet another victim to lay at Bellatrix Lestrange's feet. Harry had buried the elf outside the cottage. He'd dug the grave himself, without using magic.

Poor Harry. He just kept losing people dear to him, didn't he? Sirius, his beloved pet Hedwig, now another friend… Not to mention his mentor, Dumbledore, and Alastor Moody.

It seemed that Peter Pettigrew had met his end as well – for real, this time – although no one would mourn him, Evey was sure. Sirius must be turning in his grave. Or doing something of the like, wherever he was. He'd always vowed to be the one who would exterminate the rat, the so-called friend who had betrayed James and Lily Potter and ultimately caused their deaths.

In consequence to all of this, Ron having been spotted by the Death Eaters meant that the Burrow was no longer safe, and that he and his family were now officially considered traitors by the corrupt Ministry. They had settled at Aunt Muriel's place for the time being.

The good news was that Harry and his friends had managed to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and knew where to find another: in Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts. They were going to plan a break-in and steal the item, somehow, if they could persuade Griphook to assist them.

That ought to be fun. And insanely dangerous, of course, but mostly fun, in Evey's opinion. She offered to participate, but the withering look Walden gave her was enough to dissuade her. He did offer to help the kids with the planning, however: as Warden, he'd often been summoned to Gringotts to care for the various magical creatures that guarded the vaults. And yes, the rumour was true: there was at least one dragon, though Walden had never seen it and didn't know what species it might be.

Tony had taken the opportunity of this impromptu reunion to tell Harry about a potential eighth Horcrux – an Elfish trinket that Grindelwald had supposedly stolen from Middle-earth and that had in turn been stolen by Voldemort. Harry was quite doubtful; Dumbledore had assured him that there were only seven Horcruxes, because that number held much magical potency. Dumbledore was probably right, being Dumbledore, and yet, in Evey's opinion…the more Horcruxes, the safer for Voldemort, no?

Well. It was up to Harry to decide what to do with that information, anyway. It was his mission, his heroic quest. Evey had promised to help only if he asked her to, and she wouldn't meddle without Harry's consent. She didn't want to mess everything up; it was far too important. If Harry didn't destroy all the Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort, the entire world would suffer the consequences.

A couple of days later, Remus happily reported that Tonks had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Thankfully, Edward – or Teddy, as his father called him – hadn't inherited Remus's lycanthropy. He had, however, already changed his hair colour a few times. Evey, Walden and Tony once again joined the others at Shell Cottage to celebrate, and that was when Remus asked them if they could possibly stay with Tonks on 12th April, because he was loath to leave her on her own during his monthly transformation, so soon after their son's birth.

Which was how they found themselves surrounding Tonks and her wailing offspring on the night of the full moon. The new mother was not happy to have them here, they could tell. Tony had tried to tell her to get some rest, insisting that they would look after Teddy, but it was pointless. Tonks clearly didn't trust them with her son. He couldn't really blame her for that, but she looked exhausted.

"For Merlin's sake, Tonks, just go to bed," Tony said for the umpteenth time. "He's perfectly safe with us, I promise."

She hesitated again, but she seemed to be faltering. Eventually, she presented the screaming baby to Evey. "Here, just hold him while I go to the loo, will you?"

Evey took him gingerly. She'd told Tony earlier that she'd never even held a human baby in her arms before. Well, Tonks probably felt more comfortable leaving Teddy with another woman, rather than with a vampire. And former Death Eater.

He would always wear that tag, no matter what he did to redeem himself, wouldn't he?

The moment the boy settled in Evey's arms, he fell silent. Tonks, who had turned toward the bathroom, swivelled around, quick as lightning. "What did you do?" she demanded crisply, hands on her hips.

Evey was staring down at Teddy, baffled. "I…I have no idea. I didn't have time to do anything."

The baby smiled and made a happy gurgling sound. His mother looked somewhat disgruntled. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hands and sighed. It turned into a yawn. "Well, whatever it is, keep at it. I'll be right back."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Evey turned to Tony. "Take it, will you?"

"Him," he corrected her. "It's a boy, you know? No need to be gender neutral any longer. And I can't. She gave him to you; that means she trusts you with him, not me. You don't want to mess with a new mother. Especially this one."

"I've never felt more awkward in my entire life," Evey muttered. "Why on earth did Remus ask us to come? It doesn't make any sense. Why not Mrs Weasley, or Harry, or anyone else, really? Hell, the goblin would be better at this than I am."

Walden roused from his sprawling position on the sofa. He had been leafing through the Daily Prophet, which was as uninformative as usual. "Because if Greyback shows up, Remus knows that you two are the only ones who stand a chance against him," he said quietly.

Evey turned her head stiffly in his direction, but only slightly. She seemed afraid to drop the baby if she made any sort of movement. "The only reason Greyback would have to come here is me," she pointed out.

Walden grinned at her. "The world does not revolve around you, love. Greyback holds a grudge against Remus's dad, Lyall, so it's fair to believe he might come back for Lyall's grandson, if he's heard about the birth somehow."

Evey snorted. "Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that, actually. Greyback is incredibly contemptuous of Remus. He said it was a mistake to bite him, a waste of perfectly good saliva. He claims that Remus was not worthy of receiving this gift." She shook her head. "He takes turning people very seriously, you know. I think he was angry at himself for allowing that business with Lyall Lupin to cause him to bite his kid without proper consideration. He should have known that Remus would be a terrible werewolf. He can always tell." She frowned down at Teddy. "How did they know that he wasn't a werewolf from the start? Until tonight, I mean?"

"The fact that he was clearly a Metamorphmagus makes it almost impossible," Walden replied. "The odds that he would be both a werewolf and a Morpher are infinitesimal. But as for other kids born of a werewolf father, it's rarely a question. If the foetus is contaminated, the pregnancy will often result in either miscarriage or stillbirth. Sometimes the baby will be born deformed, too. All in all, werewolf babies – healthy ones – are quite uncommon. In any case, it's easy enough to detect, even in the early stages of pregnancy, if you have access to proper care." Remus and Tonks had had to avoid St Mungo. Partisans of Voldemort kept watch at the hospital. Madam Pomfrey had come to their house twice, at great risk to herself.

"Back in the day," Tony added, "and until not so long ago, in truth, people used silver to check whether a newborn baby was a werewolf or not."

"But…if the baby was a werewolf, that would leave a permanent scar, wouldn't it? And it would hurt like hell, too," Evey said, horrified. Reflexively, and likely unconsciously, she hugged Teddy closer to her and began to rock him slowly, although he made no sign of throwing another crying tantrum. In fact, Tony noted, he might very well have fallen asleep.

He was as puzzled as Evey. He'd assumed that Teddy would sense her…uneasiness, or something. Like an animal. Maybe he'd calmed down because of Evey's nature. It was her new superpower: getting babies to stop crying.

Maybe it was just her scent. If it was anything like the taste of her blood, as the Wolves had implied… But Teddy was just a baby, and not a werewolf. His sense of smell was barely developed.

Oh well. The important thing was that the house was quiet, now. Tony's ears were thankful for that. They had almost stopped ringing.

"You're so adorably innocent," he said in a lower voice. "V, if the baby proved to be a werewolf, it was abandoned in the woods." Her eyes widened. "I see that Professor Binns still doesn't mention that part in class." The ghost always left out the most interesting and gory bits. No wonder Tony spent most of his History classes asleep.

Tonks returned, and she was still yawning. Tony feared that she would dislocate her jaw if she kept at it for much longer. "I almost passed out on the bloody toilet," she grumbled. She smiled a second later, however, when she realised that her son was finally asleep. "Well, let's get you to bed, little one," she crooned as she took Teddy from Evey's arms. Evey sighed with relief.

"Let's get mummy to bed, too," Tony added softly. They would keep watch over the two of them until Remus returned, as planned. Remus had made them promise. He'd looked even more nervous than usual, but Tony couldn't blame him. With Snape out of the picture, the Order had run out of Wolfsbane months ago, which forced Remus to travel away, to the remotest place possible, during the full moon. Afterwards, he'd be exhausted and unable to Apparate for hours. He'd be vulnerable. Evey had offered to accompany him – she could turn into a werewolf and watch over him – but he'd insisted on having all three of them keeping an eye on Tonks and Teddy. He was going to be a great dad, that much was certain.

Provided that Greyback didn't get in the way.

Tony was working on a new cage, but it was proving difficult; the material he'd used to build the first one was hard to come by, especially nowadays. It was an alloy of pure silver and adamantine. Silver had no effect on Wolves, but combined with the enchanted adamantine, it provided the perfect material. The good news was that it was efficient on both Wolves and Ancients; the bad news was that they currently had Ancients to keep locked away.

Hopefully, someone else would come up with another solution, before Greyback could do any more harm.

"My boy. My precious boy," Cissy murmured as she brushed a stray lock of hair away from Draco's face.

Lucius patted his wife gently on the back, but she moved away from him and closer to their son.

Draco looked dreadfully pale, and he was shivering despite being drenched in sweat. He had been unconscious for hours. The Healer from St Mungo said that there was nothing to be done; if Draco made it through the first twelve hours, he would survive, but there was no way of knowing in advance. In the meantime, nothing could relieve the pain from the wound or quench the fever. And if he did make it, he would feel weak for weeks afterwards. Until the next full moon, that was.

Then he would have to survive that.

"Is this punishment for what happened last week?" Cissy wondered in a whisper. "For losing the Potter boy? We had nothing to do with it!" she cried out suddenly, turning to face him. "It was Bella's fault! Why does he punish us?" She looked at Draco once more. "This has gone too far. I don't care what he does to me, or to you, but to my son…" She trailed off. "I won't have it. No more. We must leave at once." She stood up, as if they would depart on the instant.

"Cissy, we can't just leave," Lucius pointed out. "He will find us. You know he will. What good did running and hiding do to Karkaroff?"

It wasn't Bellatrix's fault that they were being punished. The blame was Lucius's, and his alone. He should never have taken up with the Dark Lord in the first place, but his father had been quite insistent, and he'd threatened to disown him… And without his wealth and family name, who was he? Of course, he could have ignored the summons, three years ago, when the Dark Lord had returned. But the problem remained: what else could he have done? There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. His deepest regret was that Narcissa and Draco had been involved at all.

He still couldn't fathom what had possessed Draco to become a Death Eater while Lucius was in Azkaban, to attempt to make up for Lucius's failings. It had made things a thousand times worse.

Ironically enough, Abraxas would end up disowning them anyway, if Draco became a werewolf. He would never have a lowly wolf as his heir, and he would cast Lucius out if he stood by Draco.

All that hard work, all they'd had to sacrifice…all for nothing.

Narcissa had her fists on her narrow waist, eyes blazing with fury. "Your son was attacked, savaged by that…abomination, and you will do nothing?"

If you won't, I will, her expression stated as clearly as if she'd shouted it in his face.

Twenty years they'd been married, and their union had been more or less forced upon them, but she was as beautiful now as she had been when he first laid eyes on her. He didn't want to lose her. He would do anything for her – for them – but she had to see that there was nothing he could do. It was too late.

"My darling, I want to retaliate, believe me, I do, but what good will it do, if we end up dead – or worse? Draco needs us now more than ever." If they tried anything, the Dark Lord might send the cursed werewolf again, to finish the job, provided that the fever didn't kill Draco first.

Lucius placed his hands on his wife's shoulders, firmly enough that she couldn't shake him off, this time. "Cissy, listen to me. I will get us out of this…mess somehow, I promise. But we must wait for the right opportunity. We're trapped here, for now, there's no helping that, but our time will come. Soon," he added with more confidence than he felt.

"And if no opportunity presents itself?" she murmured, almost too low for him to hear. She looked defeated, exhausted, her rage and desire for revenge gone as swiftly as they had come. For once, she actually looked her age.

He didn't reply, but enfolded her in his arms instead, and for the first time in years, Narcissa cried, great heaving sobs that racked her slender body. She had never been very emotional, for a woman. The last time she'd wept was when Draco had caught a dire lung infection, when he was just a toddler. He had almost died. In fact, the present situation was eerily similar: they had been told that they would have to wait a few hours, that their son would be alright if he made it through the night. It had been the worst night he could remember – until today.

There would be an opportunity. There had to be. Lucius would create an opportunity, if he had to.

There was always the Order, or what was left of it, though at this point its ragged remains were unlikely to be much good in the war. Besides… Would they take them in, now that Albus "Second-Chance" Dumbledore was gone? Draco had never been kind to the Potter boy, and Lucius himself had mocked the Weasleys whenever possible. They wouldn't be welcome. The Order might even kill them on sight. Salazar knew, the Death Eaters had done worse to their people.

If the rumours were true, Macnair and Dolohov had joined the Order, but that had been Dumbledore's doing, to be sure. Now that the old fool was dead, they might have been arrested, or killed.

It was too risky.

His only other option, if the Order failed in its task – which was the most likely outcome – would be to…

To kill the Dark Lord myself. Show Cissy that I care enough to try, at least, before I die. I don't want her or Draco to remember me as a worthless coward.

Salazar… Merlin, Gods… Please, let Draco live. He would gladly give his own life for his son. His only son. Did Draco know that Lucius loved him? Had he ever told him? Abraxas had never been a demonstrative father, quite the opposite - and, in truth, Lucius didn't think that Abraxas had ever cared much for him.

Slowly, he released Cissy, who sat in her chair, weeping silently.

Lucius moved forward, closer to Draco, and fell to his knees at his son's side. "I love you," he said softly. His voice broke. "I'm sorry."