Chapter Four: Explanation, Preparation, and Accusation
Elodie and Remus ended up leaving the room via the ladder.
Moody hadn't been altogether clear to Remus about what would lift his wards, and after judging the time based on the position of the moon outside, Remus had realized that he would miss his Wolfsbane dose if they didn't do something drastic. They searched for their wands and Apparated home after walking out of the range of Fidelius.
Before going upstairs from the basement where they'd Apparated in, Remus told her he wished he could see the look on Moody's face when he went in to 'rescue' them.
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Elodie followed Remus up the stairs to the main floor of the house, but once he had gone into his bedroom, she stood in the hallway and looked out at the living room. She couldn't see Harry and Sirius, as they were behind the back of the Gryffindor couch.
She didn't feel like she could sleep on the bed she shared with Sirius until she talked to him about what had happened, about kissing Remus- about wanting to kiss Remus. At the same time, she didn't want to sleep in the basement bedroom, because that sent the exact wrong message about how she felt.
Shaking her head against the worry about Sirius's ultimate reaction, Elodie went into the master bedroom and shut the door. She walked over to the wardrobe and traced her fingers over the motorcycle carving. Impulsively, she used her wand to call over her pillow and the giant comforter they slept with.
Elodie curled up right next to Sirius's side of their wardrobe, right next to the wood panel he'd chosen for himself. The blanket was big enough to act as a cushion and covering, and after banishing several anxiety-induced thoughts, Elodie finally drifted off to sleep.
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"Elodie, love?"
Elodie opened her eyes to see Sirius crouching over her, the light from the bedroom window creating a bright halo around his head.
"Saint Sirius," she murmured, smiling. "If I'm lucky."
"It must have been a bad night if you couldn't find the bed and you're seeing visions," Sirius said, barking out a laugh. Then, he reached down and lifted Elodie into his arms, massive blanket and all.
"You're going to fall flat on your face," she warned, rubbing her eyes with her fists. "This blanket is like a living thing, and it probably weighs the same as Buckbeak."
"Remus isn't the only one with spells up his sleeves," Sirius said loftily. Then he cast a quick spell Elodie couldn't make out, and the blanket around her started to float like it was infused with helium.
"Moody's the tricksy one," Elodie said, yawning deeply. Somewhere in the recesses of her waking mind, she remembered that it was important to find out if Mad-Eye had said anything to the Order as a whole or Sirius in particular. Suddenly she was falling, and she threw her arms out to catch herself, only to land in the middle of the king-sized bed. The huge comforter ended up bunched all around her like a melted throne.
"So were you and Remus really trapped in one of the bedrooms at Grimmauld? Or did the two of you leave for a mission and no one in the Order knew about it?" Sirius asked her. There was no worry or suspicion in his eyes, and that told Elodie that Moody had probably not said anything. She wanted to be sure, though.
"Yes, we were really stuck in a room. Did you get a chance to see Moody last night at all?"
Sirius finished arranging pillows with sticking charms before he answered her, reclining on his own makeshift throne. "Ahhh. Brilliant. Moody? No, he said he was off right before dinner. Part of why we wondered if the three of you were up to something." He was close enough to touch her hand with his, their feet in a jumble of occupied space.
Thankfully, his weren't cold, this time.
"A mission would have made sense," Elodie said. "But, no, he- wow, there's just a lot to tell you. How about I do a band-aid version? Err, a plaster? Just a summary of events really quick, then I'll go back and explain? Without commentary," she added, reaching out and squeezing his hand.
"Tell me," Sirius urged. "I'll try to keep quiet."
"All right. You sent me upstairs, and I ran into Remus, except it wasn't Remus, it was my Boggart. He told me you were pushing me away, toward Remus, so we wouldn't have to lie to the Ministry about being a couple."
Sirius whistled and shook his head, but stayed quiet.
"The Boggart said some other awful things and I ran out of the room into the real Remus. Who immediately wanted to talk to me, but I ran away and shut myself into one of the bedrooms. I cried so hard I fell asleep." Sirius made a sympathetic sound, but she fisted her free hand in the blanket, twisted it viciously, and continued with her story. "When I woke up Remus was there. He said Moody had let him in and made some inappropriate suggestions about the two of us and trying to look authentic in front of the Ministry. He demanded that I talk to him, and I refused, so he-" Elodie broke off and was about to prevaricate, say something to soften the coming words, but Sirius shook his head at her.
"The plaster isn't off, Elodie. Rip it."
"Remus said he knew how to make me respond to him, and he said, 'damn Sirius back to Azkaban for showing me how,'" Elodie said in a rush.
Sirius grunted in surprise, but didn't comment on the reference to himself. "He kissed you?"
"Yes."
"And your Boggart was me rejecting you in favor of Remus. Bloody hell, woman, you do love to tip the world on its side, don't you?" Sirius said, letting out a long breath. He tipped himself sideways as he spoke, landing on his back beside her, looking up at her face. "Do I have your permission to give him relentless shit for what he said about me?" he asked, his eyes dancing with mirth.
"Sirius," Elodie said, biting her lip.
"You'll have had to kiss him, that's part of being a couple. I knew that. Remus knew that. Moody clearly knew that…" Sirius stopped talking, but dangled the end of his last sentence for her to finish.
"Yes, I knew that, but this was…" Elodie couldn't help but shake her head.
"What did Moody tell him to do?" Sirius sat up.
"I don't know, but whatever it was, that was the compromise, which is really saying something," Elodie said, throwing her head back against her pile of blankets.
"I've heard enough!" Sirius said quickly. "Do you still trust Remus?"
"Of course!" Elodie said immediately, confused.
Sirius didn't elaborate, but instead said, "Then I trust Remus."
There was a knock on the door. "Sirius? You told me to check on you?"
It was Harry. Elodie cast a Tempus charm and winced at how early it still was.
"No wonder I'm still sleepy!" Sirius kissed her quickly, as if he'd been about to leave, but as soon as their lips met, he deepened the kiss possessively, as if he were helpless to resist the urge to.
A few minutes later, Harry knocked again.
"Right, yes, soon, Harry. I'll be right out," Sirius called out, his lips hot against her splinching scar.
"Sirius?" Elodie said, blushing at how husky it sounded.
"Dearest?" he answered.
"I love you," Elodie said, simply. "I- I know you need to go, but I wanted to tell you-"
Sirius had sat back on his haunches from kneeling to listen to her. He looked touched and vulnerable, and she reached out to push back his unruly hair.
"There's time," he said in answer to her unasked question.
"I cared about the two of you before," Elodie said, unwilling to cast a silencing charm but aware of the unlikely possibility that Harry could hear her words. "-but the things that made me fall in love with you, with Sirius Black? Those weren't written anywhere. You should know that. I love the way you feed Buckbeak, dragging out the bag without magic. I love the way you plan for the worst but use sheer force of will to make the best happen, no matter what. The way you love Harry, mistrust Albus, adore Minerva, hate Peter, care for Remus, and miss James, all of that makes me love you in ways I never could if I'd just read words on a page. You make it all real, you're real, and I would waste away to nothing if I were sent back home without you."
Sirius had stood up in preparation to leave with Harry, and as she spoke he'd sat on the bed, then slowly slid down off of the mattress to kneel, facing her, on the floor, listening to her as she continued.
"You are my Patronus, my happy thought. On that cold day, months ago, you said 'it's too late, I've fallen for you. It's done,' I understand that so well, now. No matter how angry I was!" Elodie sniffed back the congestion that came from holding back happy tears. "And somehow of course that's the angriest I've ever been at you, at the same time."
"Perfect," Sirius murmured, leaning his face against her hand where it lay, palm up, on the bed. "My lioness." He grinned, and she could feel it on her hand, though she couldn't see it thanks to the mane of tousled hair that covered his face. He raised his head up, and she saw his eyes were moist. "You have my heart, but I have to leave, so I'll rip it open sometime tonight and read you what it says on the inside, all right?"
"No ripping!" Elodie managed to say, though her breathing was affected by the look in his eyes and the passion in his tone of voice.
"Just like a plaster," he said. Then, he flicked his wand at the door to their room and revealed Harry, his hand poised to knock for the third time.
"Good morning," Harry said awkwardly.
"Good morning, Harry," Elodie said, glad she'd gone to sleep in something respectable. "I'll see you at the house later."
"Off we go, then," Sirius said. As he walked to the door, he turned and walked backwards for a few paces, his hand covering his heart. Elodie nodded, and his grin was, to her, brighter than the sun.
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An hour later, Elodie walked into the kitchen at #12 and saw Remus there, smiling and laughing with Bill Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Good morning Remus, Bill, Mr. Shacklebolt," Elodie said.
"No," Bill said, putting both hands on her shoulders and walking her out of the room to the laughter of all three men.
"Wait, what?" Elodie tried to protest, but Bill said nothing. He simply propelled her back into the kitchen and let go.
"Good morning gang," Elodie said, an impish smile on her face.
"No," Remus said, grabbing her hand and tugging her out into the hallway.
"Honestly," Elodie said, but she was tugged back into the room and positioned so she stood in front of Kingsley.
"Why Kingsley Shacklebolt, I DO declare!" Elodie said in her best southern belle voice.
As Bill and Remus laughed, Kingsley took her hand and kissed it with extreme deference.
"Please, dear lady, call me Kingsley," he murmured in a passable southern accent.
"If you insist, dear sir," she drawled. Then, to the rest of them, in her normal voice, she said, "I'm glad I could provide some entertainment. I imagine you're pleased to be done with the doxies?"
"Delighted, yes," Remus said.
"Good!" Kingsley (she had gotten the message, loud and clear) stated with enthusiasm. "Time for the two of you to work on your cover story, then."
Elodie barely had the chance to set down her mostly full tea mug before she and Remus were hurried into the small library on the second floor past the portrait of Sirius's mother.
After she walked through the doorway, she turned and crossed her arms.
"I'm not a very compliant person," she said.
Remus started to cough loudly, and walked farther into the room to stand by the back wall.
"Ignore him," Elodie said in a sweet voice. "As I was saying, I'm not very obedient. However, I'll overlook this and proceed to do the thing I was planning to do already in the time and place of your choosing if you promise you'll tell me when Moody gets here, and agree not to tell him I'm looking for him?"
Kingsley looked at her gravely. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, until she'd studied his face for a full minute and saw the crinkling at the corner of his eyes. As soon as she relaxed, he relaxed.
"Agreed."
Then, he nodded respectfully at her, then at Remus behind her, and left.
"I actually finished with the doxies yesterday," Remus said. "Spent an hour this morning talking to Albus about the trial. He says that when couples are there for their children, the interrogators expect that the father knows the law, and the mother advocates for the child."
"That's convenient, given that I'm not British," Elodie said, walking over to the desk and tracing her fingertip over the various items resting there.
"You are now," Remus said.
"Right, by marrying you. Except we're not married, and I assume magic is involved, so how does that work?"
"Albus suggested claiming a Muggle civil ceremony," Remus told her, rubbing his neck with one hand. "Magical weddings can be as simple as one of those, or an elaborate affair with multiple spells cast that requires a large number of the attending guests to participate."
"So we could say we're planning one of the crazy elaborate ones, but wanted to get the legal part taken care of for my family, since I assume you can't invite a large number of Muggles to one of the fancy ones," Elodie said with some relief.
"Correct. It also seems that while they won't see a Muggle ceremony as holding as much weight as a magical one, they don't dis-qualify it as binding, they just won't care to see the documentation," Remus said cheerfully. "Albus has amassed quite a bit of evidence in Harry's favor. He plans on showing up as a witness for his defense, which should go better now, because we'll be standing up with Harry as his legal guardians," he added.
"Won't Minister Fudge think Albus is pushing his luck, since he called in that favor to place us as guardians?" Elodie asked. She picked up a small, round object that looked like a stamp with no ink.
"Possibly. I think it's more likely that Fudge will appear as though he's against Harry to keep the others from suspecting the influence Albus had on declaring guardianship," Remus said, pushing off from the wall. "If it turns out to be a lesser favor -if Harry is expelled from Hogwarts and loses the right to use magic within a week of granting that favor…"
"Then he's still beholden to Albus, nice," Elodie said, nodding. "That shouldn't be as encouraging as it is, but I'll take it." She turned the stamp-thing over to look at the bottom of it. Like a flash, Remus was beside her and taking it from her hand. He wasn't even out of breath.
"Nothing to worry about, just a bit dangerous to aim at your face," he told her.
"I suppose no matter how true it might be, I probably don't want to show up at Harry's trial with a magical stamp saying 'Property of the Black Family' on my face," Elodie joked.
"Sirius is completely horrified that you've pleased his mother, you know," Remus said, amused.
"Honestly, there are too many Gryffindors in and out of the house if no one thought of that before," she said defensively. "She's quieter when she's happy, and not one person who comes through here thinks it's because I actually like the woman." She looked up at Remus and saw he was nodding. "Sirius is less stressed out when she's not screaming, too. If he's determined to sleep on the floor for a week, it's the least I can do."
"You know it's not about-"
"Yes, Boggart notwithstanding. I talked to him this morning," Elodie said, feeling a strong desire to cross her arms or tense up defensively, which she resisted.
"Should I expect to be hexed or punched?" Remus asked in a neutral tone.
"Neither. He knows how important it is for everyone to believe us."
"Speaking of which?" Remus said, letting the statement hang.
"Are you sure you want me to direct the substance of that conversation?" Elodie asked, walking over and sitting down on the ornate two person couch.
"On second thought, no. When did we first meet?" Remus asked her. His voice was full of mischief and smugness, as he'd neatly tricked her into being the person stuck answering the questions.
"At Hollyfield House, last June," Elodie said. Then, she added, "It was a few days after the full moon." If Remus wanted be smug, she could be smug, too. She knew things he didn't know she knew.
"That's true," he said, sounding impressed. "Did anyone introduce us?"
"A poorly written book on wizarding history has that honor, I suppose," Elodie answered ruefully.
"-and Ruth, at dinner," he said.
"True." She watched as he adjusted the way he was standing to slide his hands into his pockets. Remus looked uncomfortable, and she knew why. "Want to swap roles?" she offered.
"No," he said. Adopting an officious tone of voice, he asked her, "Tell me about your first date, please."
"It would serve you right if I decided to be obtuse and tell you about my first ever date with anyone," Elodie said. "To answer, though: I'm not sure we really had dates. We would meet and talk about books, and slowly those meetings got more important to me, I guess? Then we had an opportunity to rent a house instead of paying room rent at Hollyfield, and you don't really have to go out somewhere on a date when you're living with the person."
"That's well put, that, uh… works well," Remus said.
"I'd say thank you, but your ears are turning red and you look like you've just been called an inappropriate name by a portrait," Elodie told him. "Are you uncomfortable with what I said?"
"No. Yes. Well…"
"Breathe, Remus," she said, trying not to sound like she was amused.
He stood up and came over to sit beside her on the couch. "You're a truthful person, and I like that about you," he said. When Elodie quirked her eyebrow at him, he smiled and let out a short sigh. "You're telling the truth, or as near to it as you can, and I assume you're doing that so that whoever speaks to us will be able to draw their own conclusions?"
"Are you afraid that my answers will reframe our friendship for you in a negative way?" she asked, biting her lip.
"Not negative," he said quickly. "Not negative. Your sincerity is disconcerting, that's all. There is not much difference between you and the false persona you've constructed, and it's taking some getting used to."
"I hear you. This is definitely harder than it looks!" Elodie said. She reached out and grabbed his hand in both of hers. "Firstly, you're my friend, and that's the most important part to remember, in my opinion. When and if I touch you, I want this to be your first thought: 'That is Elodie. She trusts me, and I trust her.' Can you do that for me?" she asked.
"I can do that," he said. She looked at his face for a few seconds and saw the look he made when he was reading a book that challenged his perspective on something. It made her feel like she was on the right track.
"Secondly, it might help both of us to be on the other end of this. What was the next question you were planning to ask?"
"May I have this back?" Remus asked her, squeezing his fingers around where her hands were grasping his. She let go, and instead of pulling back and away from her like she expected, he reached forward and hugged her with both arms. "I trust you," he said, into her hair.
Elodie gulped back the tears that threatened to turn the moment super awkward again. When he pulled back away, he didn't look uncomfortable anymore.
"I was going to ask about proposing, which I suppose should be mine to answer anyway," he said, sitting back and resting his ankle on the opposite leg above the knee. "I could ask you what you prefer the answer to be-"
"-but that would come too close to the things that made you uncomfortable in the first place," she said, shaking her head.
"Fair enough," he laughed. "You're right. Then I will say I proposed when you finally woke up in St. Mungo's. The truth is that the house wasn't the same without you."
"Realistic and romantic, well done," Elodie said. "Is there a system in place to track overseas travel? Would the Ministry know if either of us used a transatlantic portkey?"
He nodded. "Better to imply that your family used Muggle transportation means to come here. I'm not sure I could creditably pretend I'd been able to fly in a Muggle aeroplane for as long as those flights must last."
"A British werewolf in Boston? Yes, I understand completely," she laughed. "We can shrug off any questions as to why none of our magical friends attended, because, well. Can you even imagine that?"
"Given the political leanings of most of our friends, we would probably do well to not mention them at all," Remus pointed out.
"Is it political to fight against a dark lord bent on eradicating everyone but a select few?" Elodie asked in amazement.
"It is now," Remus said grimly.
The two of them went over mundane things like food likes and dislikes (which they'd mostly known simply by virtue of being housemates) and other incidental things. Once the subject of books came up, Elodie and Remus spent the remaining hour of time before lunch discussing their favorite parts of the Nelson Mandela biography.
"One of my favorite coworkers at Orion's Belt used to work for his campaign," Remus said.
"Wow," Elodie said, a bit starstruck at the thought of talking to someone who had worked closely with Mandela. "I'd love to talk to them sometime. Though I don't know what I would even say!"
"If she lived here she'd be a candidate for the Order, honestly," Remus told her, getting up from the couch and stretching. "She'd be delighted to find out I'm Harry's guardian, but my plan is to keep that mostly low-key at work. Anonymity is hard enough without his surrogate father working with journalists."
Remus froze completely still for a few seconds and then steadied himself by walking over to the desk.
"What?" Elodie asked, concerned.
"I never… I hadn't framed it that way yet. In my mind."
"Oh, 'father.' Yeah I'm due for one of those moments too, I imagine," Elodie said, smiling at him. "Though I at least hoped to someday earn the title on my own."
He looked over at her, his emotions still clearly roiling right under the surface. "You'll be a wonderful mother, Ellie."
"I'm rubber and you're glue," she said impulsively. He frowned, confused. "It's a children's saying. Meant to imply that the words bounce off of me and stick back to the person who said them."
Instead of dismissing the implication, Remus leaned in while still destroying her argument. "Ahh, but it's difficult to sire children without a mother to bear them." He turned and opened the door. Once open, she could hear the sounds of the other Order members walking through the house, probably all heading for the kitchen area. When Elodie saw Remus was holding the door for her, she walked past him and tossed a final statement over her shoulder.
"Hard to find a woman to bear your children if you're in the house writing all day."
"Exactly," Remus replied.
He looked unbearably smug as he sat down for lunch.
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It turned out that Kingsley didn't have to inform on Moody's whereabouts after all. Elodie went to the bathroom half-way through lunch, and when she returned, Mad-Eye was seated with his back to the wall, his head faced away from her.
"Incarcerus!" Elodie cast, and thick ropes flew from her wand tip to bind Moody around his middle, locking his arms in place and making them immobile.
"Merlin's fucking balls!" Mad-Eye cried out, turning his head this way and that to see who had cast on him. Elodie was standing, but she'd lowered her wand hand and schooled her face to look neutral. Around her, several Order members had taken out their wands, but Kingsley stood up and put his hands out placatingly.
"Wait," he said to them.
"Elodie," Mad-Eye finally said.
"Yes, Alastor?" she said, using his first name for the first time.
"Lupin!" Moody called out in exasperation.
"Oh, no, I don't think so," Elodie countered, walking around the table and using her wand to turn his chair so that he was still facing her. "He had his chance to talk to you, now it's my turn."
"Cor, what in Merlin's name did you do?" Tonks asked Mad-Eye. He looked up at Elodie and gestured with his head at his protégée. She nodded.
"I told Lupin what to do to deceive the Ministry," he grunted. "Some of the advice was… lewd."
"'Obscene' might be a more accurate word. And no, I didn't tell her exactly what you said. You're welcome," Remus said, standing and walking over to stand behind Elodie. He was eating an apple, and he continued to bite into it as though Elodie threatening the powerful ex-Auror was an everyday occurrence. A few of the other Order members got up and walked over, as well.
"Well! I imagine being bested in a room of colleagues should be enough to overcome such an indignity," Elphias Doge said. He looked profoundly uncomfortable to see someone of Moody's stature bound at the lunch table.
"Maybe it would be, if that was the extent of it," Elodie said. In a calm, loud voice, she continued, "Tell me, Alastor: what would have opened the door of the bedroom you warded us into? Can you say it out loud in mixed company?"
Remus laughed and shook his head. The room was silent except for the unnaturally loud sound of him taking another huge bite of his apple.
"You locked them in a room?" Kingsley asked.
"How did you get out, is what I'd like to know. The door's still warded!" Alastor demanded.
"I imagine it'll stay that way until you manage to convince two people to Apparate in and do unspeakable things to each other," Elodie said, shuddering. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius leaning over to whisper something into Tonks's ear. Tonks slapped him. Moody still looked upset when she focused her attention back on him, so she leaned over and looked into his face. "You really don't know?"
Moody's magical eye glared at her with unsuppressed venom. It stayed fixated on her even when he shook his head in answer to her question.
"A ladder," she said.
"Impossible," Mad-Eye snapped. "Every magical house has anti-ladder wards on the ground outside!"
"My ladder never touched the ground," Elodie said, grinning.
"Not even floating-"
"Hooked onto the windowsill," Elodie said. She cast Finite on the binding spell. "Muggle fire escape."
Moody's sound of interested disgust was music to Elodie's ears.
"I promise I will never attack another Order member at lunch if you'll promise you won't try to persuade Remus to do any of the things he's too horrified to tell me about," Elodie said. "Or Sirius, either."
"Aww," Sirius said, too loudly.
"Agreed," Mad-Eye said, adding, "But you have to call me Alastor." Around them, the other members of the Order started to relax and find their chairs again, though some of them came over and clapped Moody or Elodie on the back with respect.
"Agreed," she said, finally lowering her wand. "I probably could have handled that better, but I was angry.
"Constant vigilance!" he said ruefully. "Got complacent."
"You should feel safe here-" Elodie started to say, but Alastor waved her off.
"You saw what I did as an attack. I didn't. That was my mistake in judgment. I could have foreseen this," he said, jabbing his finger back and forth between them as he pointed to her, then himself. "And you!" he said, pointing at Remus. "You know her well. Good lad."
Right as Alastor finished speaking, Ron came skidding into the room, Harry and the twins close behind him. "Someone said there was a fight?"
"You missed it," Bill told his brother. "Elodie turned Moody into an eagle and forced him to eat crow."
Elodie joined the rest of the adults in the room in laughter as Ron stood looking from face to face in confusion.
