Spring came with no unusual news.

The newest letter came in in the middle of the afternoon. Roughly a dozen people had been bitten and joined the pack. Word was spreading of a registry, funded by the ministry, mandating that all werewolves be filed and permanently remembered for who they were. Remus knew that this meant that their incomes, their property, their jobs, and their families would all be documented and slowly picked off one by one. This was going to slowly lead to having anything they have had being stripped from them just like the last war. The misinformation about who and what werewolves were was already spreading. People who got bit saw the pack as vigilant justice, that they deserved to fight back however they could, ignoring the fact that it was their own side, the people fighting for blood purity, integrating the laws.

Remus knew something needed to be done. Someone needed to intervene, to talk to them. More people were going to get hurt, if not bitten or killed. But what was he supposed to do? What could he do? It used to be that he could be the spy and it was eating at him to think that he was the only werewolf in the Order, now completely housebound.

Remus's nightmares gnawed at him every night. Every night, he would fall asleep and almost immediately see the face of Greyback. He would see him at his childhood home, in the woods the night he attacked Remus, in the hallway in the middle of the night. It frightened him to the point that he couldn't get up from his bed as long as it was dark outside. Tonks let him sleep in her bed just so he could try and get some decent rest. When she had to work nights, he found that her scent was still comforting.

Remus needed to be cutting himself off. He needed to be distancing himself. He needed to keep away from her, but he knew he was too weak, always crawling back to her bed to fight off his bad dreams. He didn't need to be crying in her arms for the second time this week, yet she was always there to soothe him without fault until they fell back asleep together or got up before the sun did. The full moon was inching nearer and nearer and it might've been the worst one for him yet.

Every inch of his skin was crawling when his woke up from his daily terror. Tonks laid beside him quietly and stroked his arm until he no longer wanted to crawl out of his own body. His head hurt due to there being a faint ringing behind his left ear and his lower back was hurting. He felt on edge about something, and his heightened senses were sure going to find it.

If it hadn't been Saturday, Tonks would've been gone to work, and Remus couldn't bring himself to think about what could've possibly happened if she had gone in.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" Tonks offered, rubbing his shoulders. The kitchen filled with the smell of fresh coffee. Arthur was sleepily flipping through the morning paper.

Remus shook his head. He picked up his glass and took a long drink. The Wolfbane potion only made him feel more nauseated. "Thank you." Tonks smoothed out his hair.

The water upstairs shut off. "Kingsley just got out of the shower. You might want to head up there before Sirius hogs all of the hot water." She mentioned. "That might help with your muscles."

Remus turned disdainfully towards his potion, drinking down the last of its contents. A hot shower did sound nice. It was relaxing for a moment, putting a break in his stressful morning, but when he got out, something was happening and it was very, verywrong.

"Tonks, get up, we need to go. Now." Sirius's voice gave of an impending sense of panic.

The werewolves had found him, was his first immediate thought. Remus turned away from his room and walked to the drawing room. "What happened? Where are we going? What's happening?"

"Harry sent word to Snape that something is wrong, Snape sent word here. Harry's headed to the Ministry and we have to go help him." Sirius said.

"We? What are you talking about? Sirius, what about the others?" Tonks asked, already pulling her boots on.

"They're coming with us! Hurry, we have to go now!" His voice gave off a sense of fear that Remus wasn't familiar with.

"Let me grab my jacket-"

"I'm coming too." Remus said abruptly.

"Sirius!" A voice downstairs called.

"You are doing no such thing." Sirius barked. He grabbed Remus by the shoulders and dragged him over to the couch. "Sit down, I said you aren't going anywhere."

Remus was terrified. There was a sense of real crisis in his voice. "You'll need help. I need to come with you-"

A finger pressed hard against his sternum. "If you make one more move, I will stun you, do you understand me?" Sirius's voice boomed with anger and with his own terror. "Snape thinks this is Voldemort's trap to corner Harry at the Ministry. There might be death eaters, and you are not getting killed over this, Remus."

Remus took a deep breath. "I can't fight, but surely I can help somehow, can't I?"

Tonks pushed Sirius out of the way and kissed Remus hard on the lips. "I'll be back as soon as I can be."

"Dora, wait, please-" She quickly topped away from his grasp. His instinct told him that were both going to be in tremendous danger and all he wanted was a proper goodbye.

"I'm sorry-" He heard her say.

Remus got to his feet, his mind still searching for answers. Everything was so normal a few seconds ago and that he couldn't wrap his head around what was happening.

"Pereificus Totalus!"

Sirius was the one who cast the spell, locking his body into place and knocking him backwards into his seat. Tonks let of a loud gasp. Sirius said something to reprimand her in a low voice and footsteps shuffled out of the room. Remus's chest was so tight, he wasn't sure he was even breathing. His neck ached from the angle it was positioned when he was hit and his legs were becoming shaky. The most he could do was blink his eyes between shallow breaths.

It felt like centuries ticked by in front of him. He kept replaying the last conversation he might've had with his two closest friends. He listened closely for any unusual sounds around him, his heart skipping beats at every mutter of Kreacher, every settling floorboard, every low grumble of Sirius's mother upstairs, or every nervous rumbling of Buckbeak. His faintly ticking watch was the only thing alerting him of how long he had been sitting there for. It had been hours by that point. If his skin had been itching before, he felt like his whole body was burning with pain.

Shouldn't they have been back by now?

Remus imagined Sirius in handcuffs, but that image was even too optimistic. If they found Sirius, he would have been killed or kissed by dementors on the spot. Tonks would've been arrested for assisting him. He didn't know any of the story, but he had a horrible feeling that there was no good reason for Snape to be reaching out to Sirius and nothing good was going to come from it.

The hex slowly loosened its grip on his body over time.

The light in the room shifted as it became afternoon.

A door downstairs slammed, waking up the portrait. Footsteps came up to where Remus was waiting, the person shushing the portrait was they walked by.

"Remus?" A voice asked, but he couldn't respond. It took Arthur a moment to undo the hex that Sirius had put on him.

"What happened? Where are the others? Where's Sirius and Dora? Did they go to the Ministry? Are they okay? Is Harry okay?"

"Calm—Remus, I need you to listen carefully." Arthur urged. He sounded gravely upset by something. "I have some bad news."

xxxxx

Remus wasn't quite sure where he was. He knew that it was a small room crowded with people talking. He knew that apperating made him feel ill. Arthur had a firm grasp on his arm.

"Remus Lupin?" A woman said.

"Yes, who is this?"

"Andromeda Tonks." Her hand wrapped around Remus's. "You do remember me, yes? Ted's here too."

"Arthur told me she was dueling." Remus sighed. "What happened? How is she? Is she awake?"

"She took quite the nasty fall." Andromeda explained. "Which sounds about right it you ask me. She hit her head on the way down."

"She's not up yet, but she'll probably be awake by tonight, if you'd like to stick around." Ted said. "The healers wanted to make sure she wasn't in pain and it was best for her to be asleep."

"Who was she dueling?" Remus asked.

"Lestrange." Andromeda spat. "Hit her in the chest with a stunning spell. She probably would've killed her if she wasn't after a different person of interest."

"Is she going to recover smoothly?"

"Healers said she should be up by dinnertime. Dora might be a little confused about everything she's done today, and I expect she'll be a bit loopy on those painkillers." Ted told him. "I expect this'll be no more than a bad headache this time tomorrow."

"You're putting a lot of faith in these healers, Ted." Andromeda said dryly.

"May I see her?"

Arthur helped Remus over to her bed so that he didn't fall over his own feet. Her snores sounded more nasally than usual, but she was completely unconscious. Remus placed his hand on her chest just to make sure that her heart was still beating and that her chest was still rising and falling. A wave of intense relief washed over him. "Dora, I'm so sorry..." He murmured, brushing his hand as lightly as he could over her forehead. Remus sat for a while, holding her hand. Arthur said he needed to visit a few other members before they left.

"Excuse me, Mr. Tonks?" He asked nervously.

"Is something wrong, Remus?"

"I was just curious. She told me that he hair changes colours sometimes when she doesn't mean it, when she's in a strong mood." Remus said. "What colour is her hair now? Is it still pink?"

"No," Ted sounded hurt when he turned to look at his daughter. "I didn't know you were aware that she wore her hair that colour."

"She told me a while back. She seems very guarded about being a metamorphmagus. I'm glad she felt comfortable enough to tell me. And I think it's very charming the way she uses her talent."

"Pink is her flavour of hair for the time being. Every few months or so she'll find a new colour and style she likes and toy with it until she's tired of it. She's always liked pink, though, but she thought it was too 'girly' for her when she was little." Remus couldn't read Ted quite as well as he could Tonks or Sirius, but he seemed to have a light spirit. "She started with her 'punk' look as a teenager and she never turned back. She's too tired to morph right now, but it looks darker than usual."

Remus nodded. "Does it normally change when she dreams? I'm not very familiar with metamorphmagi, but I know it's very closely linked with their emotions. I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions-"

"Oh, I don't mind." Ted replied. "It depends, I think. I know when she was younger it would change when she dreamt, but she was a little girl then. You never did get to see her before, did you?"

"No, Sir." Remus replied. "I didn't know her before my accident."

Ted chuckled. "Dora's quite the personality. She can be a little daunting at times."

Remus nodded in agreement. "She's very fierce. I don't know why I didn't expect her to wake up kicking as soon as she could." Tonks was so calm and still. Remus was worried he was going to lose his composure as soon as he came into the room. He still felt that he narrowly missed one of the worst things that could've happened to him. "Mr. Tonks?"

"You can call me Ted, Remus."

Remus nodded nervously. "Was she tortured? Did anything else bad happen to her?"

"I'm not sure. She took several hard hits, but she was never conscious when she got here." Ted explained. "She's a tough gal. She'll pull through. You're welcome to stay with her as long as you'd like and ask her when she wakes up."

"I need to go talk to someone else tonight, but I'd love to come back." Remus said.

"Will you tell him I said hello?" Ted asked. "I heard it was a hard day for him too."

xxxxx

Sirius didn't get the luxury of going to the hospital. The news was running wild with the word that Sirius Black himself had been spotted and nearly caught inside the Ministry.

"Sirius?" Remus said as he approached him. He was laying spread out on one of the couches at the Burrow.

"Remus! You're here. What are you doing here?" Sirius asked. "Hey, mate, I'm really sorry about earlier-"

Remus had tried to forget his own problems to take care of his friends, but the mention of it made it worse. "You left me frozen on the sofa for six hours, Sirius."

"What happened?" A voice from one of the arm chairs asked.

"He put a body-binding hex on me for the entire day because he was worried I'd try and help him-"

"In my defense, I thought it would wear off."

"Well it didn't!"

"If it makes you feel better, I completely shattered the bone in my leg. I'm going to be frozen here for a bit." Sirius said. "Does that count?"

Remus took a deep breath. "I'm just glad you're alive right now."

Sirius paused. "Have you seen Tonks?"

"I just came from there. She's asleep. They're going to assess her when she wakes up." Remus said. "Her mother said she was hit by a Lestrange?"

"Bellatrix, Tonks's aunt and mother's sister."

"That Lestrange?" Remus asked. "Bloody hell, who knows what she's going to wake up with now. I was hoping it was one of the others."

"Same woman that got me." Sirius said. "I'm... fine, by the way."

He didn't sound reassuring. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I mean the pain's bad, but what can you do about it? I've already had a potion for it, just have to wait for my leg to heal. Should be done by tomorrow." Sirius said. "I'm a little bruised, but aren't we all?"