Note: Yeah I've been persuaded, and I love everything about this. Sirius/Remus/Elodie is still Remus/Elodie endgame if you squint, right?

On a full re-read before making this decision, I saw how fucking OFTEN I had foreshadowing for this. I literally am the last to know.


Chapter Thirteen: The Solution is a Problem

Waking up at Grimmauld Place was surreal. For one thing the bed was smaller, so naturally she was draped in Black. For another, there really was a deep sense of unhappiness that seemed to cling to the house, even after the Order had spent so many weeks deep cleaning there. Privately, Elodie thought some of that came from the family tree tapestry, which was a physical manifestation of all of the Blacks' relationship-ending disputes. She'd checked on it shortly after they'd arrived the day before. Sirius's name was blasted off of it, of course, which was a point of pride for him.

Elodie had always wondered if the magical connections were truly destroyed when a name was removed. If they weren't, of course, then her name might appear there sometime soon! In the books, Andromeda Black's name was a scorched black mark, and when Elodie had gotten a chance to check, that bore out in reality. No name was listed beside or beneath her. Since her husband Ted Tonks was a Muggle, they wouldn't have been able to have a magical ceremony. Would missing some of the marriage spells change anything?

Lying there in the middle of the night with Sirius's head heavy on her shoulder and his arm across her waist, Elodie had an idea. Once Voldemort was defeated, after a few years of happy prosperity, perhaps she could broach the idea of revitalizing the tapestry. Better yet, they could start their own, with hers and Sirius's names at the very top.

That thought gave her goosebumps. Picturing a passel of black-haired, vivacious children with Sirius's temperament and her love of books made her a little light-headed, but in a good way.

"Thinking too loudly," Sirius mumbled into her chest, burrowing closer.

"You're probably right," she murmured, settling back in to sleep some more.

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Elodie stopped by Phoenix House at a few minutes before eight the next morning, grateful she'd set an alarm in case Sirius tried to keep her in bed (which he did, but she hexed the blanket to triple in size and by the time he'd extricated herself, she was already casting the spell to Apparate). At home, there was a note on the dining room table from Remus.


Had dinner last night, had breakfast this morning.

Yes, already. Floor by the door in the brewing room is now clean. I'm doing research on how best to clean up the spilled Wolfsbane.

No need to check up on me. ~Remus


It was curt and felt less like Remus than any message she'd ever had from him, but she was grateful that he'd left her something at all. She wrote a message of her own.


Thanks for letting me know. Sirius has dared me to bake at Grimmauld (which may or may not alienate Kreacher further), so the chocolate bread I made yesterday is all yours. I'll either succeed spectacularly or… well, you'll find out if you're invited to the funeral. I'll be back just before eight in the evening.

~Ellie


Elodie had already written the nickname before she realized it might look too cutesy, but she'd always been shit at erasing charms, so she left it.

There was a bed in the empty cage when she went down to tend the Wolfsbane. She didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, if Remus was struggling with Moony, she wanted him to at least be comfortable. On the other, it seemed an awful lot like giving up.

Back at Grimmauld, Elodie could tell that Sirius was not going to handle six straight days there. She made a mental note to ask Remus if he was okay with Sirius dropping by to spend time with Buckbeak. The Hippogriff's living space was well protected by spells, but Parker was clearly not the bumbling official he'd presented himself to be. Flying with Buckbeak wasn't going to solve Sirius's hatred of Grimmauld, though, and neither was baking. She was somewhat comforted when he brought a chair into the kitchen to watch her, his studiously insubordinate lean violating the laws of positional physics.

"I was thinking," Elodie said, walking past him to set out some metal cooling racks on the table behind him. She trailed her fingers through his hair on the way back, dusting white flour at his temple. "You're going to go completely… what's the word? Starkers?"

Sirius fell off of the chair laughing.

"Wrong word?" Elodie hazarded, giggling.

"That depends. Do you want me to roam naked around the house? Or were you going for 'stark raving mad?' Sorry to tell you, love, but I'm already that."

"The second one, though please note, I'm only objecting to the 'around the house' part of you being naked," Elodie said, washing her hands at the sink. She laid out the dry and wet ingredients, ready to hand-mix them in lieu of trusting any of the arcane 'appliances' that remained in Grimmauld's kitchen. She suspected that when Molly cooked here, she brought her own supplies and took them back when she was finished.

When she looked back over at Sirius, he was still on the floor, but now his feet were resting on the seat. "What's your plan to help me keep my long-lost sanity?" he asked, his challenging grin just as handsome upside-down as right-side up.

"How about contacting Moody and seeing if he has anything you can help with? Surveillance as Padfoot? Sorting through old case files looking for possible Death Eaters?"

"Drunken arguments about the Quidditch season?" he suggested.

"File that under 'things I never want to picture,' thanks."

"You're trying to get rid of me?"

She turned around all the way. "Yes, honestly. I'm not sure you ought to stay at Phoenix House, and staying here is depressing and demoralizing for you, even with me around. And that's another thing…" Elodie paused, having come to a realization that was sudden, disappointing, and completely reasonable, all at the same time.

"That this is the world's worst honeymoon destination? Yes, I thought of that. Didn't know how to break it to you," Sirius said, rolling to his feet with catlike grace. He came over and simply stood in front of her, his grey eyes warm and loving. "It wouldn't be us if our lives weren't fucked up by outside forces."

She lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss him, keeping her floury hands away from his (always) black outfit. "Do you want to delay a little? It'd give me time to find a dress, I suppose."

"Go starkers," Sirius suggested, waggling his eyebrows. "Mad-Eye wouldn't mind."

"Ew. What is wrong with- no, I take it back, no, don't tell me, no!" Elodie squealed and covered her ears with her hands, despite the flour. She started running for the dining room with its long table and many chairs she could knock over behind her. Anything to keep Sirius from telling her the next thing in his long list of what exactly was wrong with him.

She got one chair down but forgot that Sirius really didn't care about the house and what it looked like. With a single spoken spell, he pushed all of the furniture to the side, making a terrible mess of placemats, upended chairs with their legs pointing in all directions. The table slammed against the wall and rocked back, leaving everything that had been on it in disarray. Both doors were now blocked, and Elodie caught a glimpse of Sirius's smug expression before he lifted her up against his chest and then over, sack-of-potatoes style.

She responded by making as many white flour handprints on his back and ass as possible.

A second later he Apparated them to the bedroom they were using that week. It was not the one with the naked Muggle posters.

"Sirius Orion Black, do NOT throw me onto the-"

In a fluid moment he pulled her off of his shoulder into his arms, with one arm at her back and the other under her knees. Then, instead of tossing her onto the bed as she expected, he ran toward the bed, turned his body, and landed on his back, speaking a spell at the last minute. It wasn't one she recognized, but she fell slowly, landing atop him in a gentle sway as they came to rest, instead of the bone-jarring impact she would have expected.

"I was baking, you know," Elodie complained as Sirius started kissing her on her stomach, pushing her shirt out of the way.

"The ingredients weren't mixed together yet. They'll keep," he murmured, nosing her shirt up further.

She hummed in acquiescence and was about to give herself over to not thinking about anything but him for a while, until she thought of something.

Sirius immediately sensed the change in her and stilled. "What is it?"

"It just occurred to me that… maybe don't mark me, this time? Save it up for the tattoo, all the- " she gestured with her hand vaguely, " -aggression you might feel in being told no," she offered, wincing.

"I'm a grown man. I can listen when you say no," he said, rubbing his hand warmly along her half-exposed chest. She felt that as a slight rebuke, and raised an eyebrow. "All right, point taken. I'd like to stop thinking about Moony right now if it's all the same to you."

"Good thing he wasn't interested in a Triad, then," Elodie teased.

"Wench!"

Sirius flipped them over. She reached up to help him take off his shirt before he spent time removing the rest of her clothing, methodically examining each new inch of exposed skin. Elodie thought he'd completely forgotten they'd been talking about the Triad thing until ten minutes later when they were both finally naked.

"I have a confession," he leaned over to whisper in her ear. He was arched over her, his hand between their bodies making her hips chase after his touch.

Elodie was barely able to nod; his voice was low, gravelly, and naughty.

His next words seared through her veins. "I would love to watch Remus touch you like this, see you come apart…"

Sirius's hand stilled at her indrawn breath and she stared at him, their faces so close she almost couldn't focus. "What?" she managed. Her shock mixed with the seductive taboo of the idea and left her breathlessly close to a sudden, tempestuous release. Somehow the weight of his hand on her was not enough and too much at the same time.

"That went better than I expected," Sirius said. Elodie reached up to brush his unruly black hair away from where gravity had pulled it into his eyes.

"I-" she shook her head, still speechless.

"Ever since Mad-Eye- I can't stop picturing it. Knowing Remus wouldn't even consider the merits makes the thought even more tempting." He started rocking his hips against hers, not quite lined up, and she copied the movement, feeling just on the wrong side of naughty. "What can I say? I'm not a good man," Sirius said, moving his fingers again, sloppy, distracted, and rough; exactly right. It was enough for her to ignore the hated phrase, and he knew it, the bastard. He lifted his head and looked down at her again, so caught up in his naughty suggestion that he wasn't even smug. "I want-" Sirius started, before he shook his head and dipped down to kiss her.

After one searching kiss, Elodie evaded the next. "Tell me," she commanded, shifting underneath him so she could hook her leg around his hip. The angle made her throw her head back, overcome. So close.

"Say I can picture it or tell me to go to hell. I need to get this out of my system," Sirius said, the words coming out in an almost embarrassed rush. She pulled in a breath, and he started to lean away from her. "Fuck. I'm-"

"Don't you dare stop!" Elodie ordered, making a snap decision to indulge his fantasy. He sucked in a groan, looking at her like she was the most precious thing he'd ever seen.

"I shouldn't drag you down with me, I-"

"What do you think he'd look like watching you touch me? " she interrupted impulsively. Sirius groaned, his entire body tensing up for a second before letting out a ragged sigh and leaning down.

"Watch out- I could persuade myself you're not just saying that to shock me, Sugarquill."

He kissed the endearment along her throat as he stroked her, shifting his weight to settle on his side, his legs tangled with hers, lips by her ear.

In a low, rumbling tone that amplified the sensation of his fingers, Sirius said, "Remus watched me once, by accident. He was snooping in my closet and got caught in the room when I stumbled in with a witch from the pub, drunk as doxies. Used the last of my sanity on a conjured blindfold, but she'd warded the door. Remus must've been so shocked he forgot to spell himself deaf, and I couldn't be fucked to bother." He chuckled, and Elodie arched her hips up at the rough, sensual rasp of it.

"You're kidding!"

"That's not all." Sirius's hand stopped moving as he pulled in a breath, and her whole body felt like a drawn bow waiting for what he'd do or say next. His voice was so quiet she barely heard him when he finally did whisper, "He wasn't just looking at her."

Elodie turned to look at him, noting the color in his cheeks, the manic light in his eyes. "Is that what the Wizard's Oath-"

"If it were, I'd hide the effects and make you work at getting sex noises out of me for as long as I could bear to," he interrupted with a devilish grin. "No, that was-" he cleared his throat, frowning in exasperation. "Something else. Merlin's fucking kidneys, settle down, blasted spell!" He sounded hoarse and out of breath.

She moved to nose a soft kiss under his chin, flicking her tongue out to gentle the place at his throat that rumbled with his groaning laugh. "The whole notion of a Triad seems so fraught, I can't imagine it ever working out!" Elodie said quietly. "I suppose either way I ought to see what's been published on the subject. Maybe tonight I can-"

"No library, no books, no notebook, only pleasure!" Sirius ordered, kissing her token protests away and moving up and over.

At his first thrust she could tell something was different. There was something so completely intimate and devastating about knowing a person that well. Elodie knew Sirius down to his encouraging gasp when she bent her leg to hold him as close as she could. His head was bent over her shoulder, and the cadence of his hips was different; stuttered and distracted. Elodie was emotionally washed away when it occurred to her that this might be because he usually locked eyes with her during sex.

Everything about this encounter was different, including the fact that he'd never let himself be so honest and raw at Grimmauld before. It was a breakthrough, perhaps even more so with the confession Sirius had offered.

Stop thinking so much! Elodie admonished herself. It was just in time, because Sirius's breath hitched and he slid his hands up to grip her hair and kiss her, his hips moving faster. She held on, kissed him back, and before she could change her mind, gave herself permission to picture the same thing he was.

Elodie imagined Remus standing beside the bed, bare chested, dressed only in low-slung pajama pants like the ones she'd seen him wearing once or twice. He'd be holding onto the bedpost with a deathgrip, his other hand dipped below his waistband, moving… moving.

"You see him?" Sirius asked. She opened her eyes and saw that he was watching her. His expression was knowing, and she tried to turn her head away, but he braced his forearms on either side of her head to pin her in his gaze. "Touching or watching?" he rumbled.

Elodie shut her eyes, her face flaming even as her veins flamed with heat at the audacity of his question.

Sirius's hips stilled.

She knew he was inexorable, and everything felt so good, despite how wrong it was, so she whispered, "Watching."

In response, Sirius suddenly started to drive into her as if possessed, tossing his head back in near-agony before kissing her, open-mouthed and imprecise. His enthusiasm fueled hers, building and building until she lost all sense of anything else. Sirius followed shortly after, moaning her name in a way that was incredibly gratifying. He collapsed on top of her, one hand tangled in her hair.

"Oh my god I'm going to need a million showers to feel like a not-trash human being after this, what have you done to me, Sirius Black?!" she whispered. In case he thought she was serious, she pressed her lips to the side of his head.

After a long moment he shivered, rolling off of her. Unfortunately, the bed at Grimmauld was much smaller than the one at Phoenix House, and he rolled right off.

"Shit, Sirius!" Elodie said, trying not to laugh. She scooted over to the edge and looked down at him. He was on his back on the floor, legs akimbo, a forearm over his eyes.

"Probably deserved that."

"Didn't it hurt?"

Sirius lifted his arm and looked up at her. "You think I can feel anything right now?"

"Very good point," Elodie giggled.

"At least you can still look me in the eyes. I worried," he admitted.

She made a pillow out of her forearms and laid her chin on them. "It was a little surprising."

"Bad boy with bad boy kinks, what can I say?" He raked a hand through his black hair and grinned up at her. "It's been a long time since I've felt comfortable enough to think like that."

"And here, of all places!" she pointed out, even though he looked like he was about to say something else.

"Mood-killer, Merriman," Sirius said, clambering to his feet. He stretched, completely unselfconsciously, and she couldn't help but admire both his confidence and his body.

"Sorry, about that."

"Your punishment is to do without me for a few days," Sirius said, reaching for his trousers. "I think you're right about staying here. There's only so much depraved shit I can persuade you into trying." He waggled his eyebrows at her so much she sighed and got up, retrieving her wand from her trousers on the floor. She quickly conjured a washcloth, wet and warmed it with a spell, and cleaned herself up.

"No double shower?" Sirius asked, his hand on the doorknob.

"Kreacher has been known to check up on whoever is in the loo, so that's a sincere 'absolutely no chance' from me, sorry," Elodie told him, making a face. "Just tell me you didn't confess that kink to me in an attempt to chase yourself away for a few days? I don't think less of you, I promise," she said as she pulled her shirt on over her head. She was telling the truth, as much as that fact surprised her. It seemed to surprise Sirius too, because once she'd gotten her shirt on, she saw that he was staring at her with his eyebrows lifted.

"Unconsciously, maybe? Truth is I don't think Moony likes me very much right now."

"He recognized your claim, you know. I saw it in his expression. Alastor's plan worked."

"These old bones are not sure about testing that," Sirius said, conjuring a towel and then casting the spell that kept it warm and cozy for a half hour.

"I understand. Just don't get caught, captured, or killed, deal?" she said, ticking them off on her fingers.

"On my honor as a gentleman," Sirius said, holding up a solemn hand. "I know you mean business when you phrase it in the form of a list." They both knew he couldn't promise anything more than to be careful, so she let the lightness linger.

"You'll talk to Mad-Eye about the vows?" she asked.

"I will. You hold down both houses, and keep away from Moony if you can help it."

She nodded, and he headed off to the shower. As much as Elodie wished she could have said more about the trouble he could potentially get into with the irascible Auror, she bit her tongue.

He loved her. He wanted to marry her. That was far more than either of them had the first time around.

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Sirius was on a firecall with Alastor for much of the afternoon, which meant that he wasn't underfoot as she puttered around in the kitchen. Her arms ached by the time she had taken everything out of the oven, but the fruits of her labor were many and delicious.

The wizard himself came over for dinner, and the three of them talked at length about the logistics of Sirius visiting him for a few days. The time she'd spent at his place during his duel tutoring was enough to persuade her that Sirius would be safe. Beyond that, Alastor's paranoia ran deep, and so did his knowledge of Auror tactics. Of all of the places Sirius could hide out, Elodie trusted Moody's house as next safest after Grimmauld- it wasn't under Fidelius, but it had so many wards and spells protecting it that she wasn't entirely sure Sirius would even get inside .

As she suspected, Alastor was embroiled in an in-depth investigation of Death Eater associates of figures such as Lucius Malfoy and now, Dolores Umbridge. Along those lines, he asked to do a debrief with Elodie about Parker, but she begged off; she wasn't ready, and might never be. After dinner, she packed up supplies for both men to eat until after the full moon. When he saw what she was doing, Sirius came up behind where she stood at the counter, turned her gently, and folded her into his arms for a long time.

"When I was young and stupid, I would have thought I deserved you," he said, kissing her shoulder when he finally stepped back. "I know better, now."

Full of self-recrimination about the way her heart was tugged in two directions, she focused on his unruly hair, trying to comb it down with her fingers. "You deserve someone uncomplicated, someone who will devote all of her love and attention to you. Just you."

"You are perfect for me," he said in a voice that brooked no disagreement. "Uncomplicated is boring and suspicious." Sirius reached down and brought her wrist to his lips, placing a hot kiss exactly where they'd agreed the soul-linked brand would go.

"Stop leaving paw prints all over her and let's go, Black!" Alastor grumbled, pushing past them toward the ornate fireplace. Once there, he grabbed a handful of Floo powder and turned to frown at her. "I told you your baking is almost as good as your dueling, yes?"

"No?" Elodie said, taken aback. "Thank you."

"It's a half-compliment. Too much Muggle nonsense in both, no matter how effective! Bury your head in some books while this one is gone, girl."

There was a gleam in his human eye that undermined the harsh tone, so she followed her gut instinct. "I care about you too, Alastor."

"Hmph."

The location he spoke into the Floo was so full of syllables that she worried Sirius would end up somewhere dangerous, but he'd either learned exactly how to say it or there was some kind of magic at work to guide him. The last thing Elodie saw was his teasing expression as he stepped backwards into the flames. If Moody had still been in the room, she felt sure he would have made a comment about her boyfriend falling on his ass once he arrived at his destination.

Instead, she pulled out the third care package of food she'd made on the sly and hopped into the Floo for Phoenix House.

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Remus was asleep on his bed in the basement when she got there, which made Elodie quite conflicted. Either he'd done it on purpose to thwart her desire to talk to him (the bastard was awfully good at that), or he had exhausted himself somehow. Because she'd rushed down to look for him, having left the food on the counter, she snuck back up and flipped the light on.

The kitchen was spotless, including every inch of the cupboards and the entire refrigerator.

Elodie fought a lump in her throat as she went through the house to find much the same thing everywhere. There was no more mildew in the grouting of the bathroom tiles. All of Sirius's clothes were laundered and put away. The books everywhere in the house were neatly arranged in logical order, each one completely dust free.

All but in Remus's own room.

"Goddamnit, you self-sacrificing knob!" Elodie said, too exasperated to feel pride at thinking of such a Britishism on instinct. When the best possible response came to her, she grinned so broadly the muscles of her face started to hurt. Elodie put away the food she'd made for him, and then ran some hot water, filling a bucket and conjuring the softest of washcloths. His laundry would have to wait till last, because if he caught wind of her activities, all thoughts of remaining in the cage would end in favor of stopping her. Thankfully, Remus stayed downstairs and/or asleep through the next ninety minutes, and Elodie was able to steal her way back out through the Floo when she was finished cleaning his bedroom.

Getting to sleep at Grimmauld without Sirius wasn't as bad when she could picture him fighting gleeful frustration with Moody and grumbling about the lumpy mattress in whatever dodgy place he was given to sleep. Elodie drifted off in the midst of devising various strategies to avoid Remus's stern wrath the next morning at eight.

When she got there the next day, though, there was a note on the kitchen counter.


I should have known better than to think I had outmaneuvered you.

Well played.


The fact that it was unsigned felt purposeful, but Elodie tried to tell herself this was because he was experiencing a genuinely unaltered full moon week for the first time in over two years. His identity, ideally something a person shouldn't have to find painful, was literally in question, both in his close relationships and in the eyes of the 'law.' Defiantly, she folded up the letter and crammed it in her pocket, noting in the process that the ink was dry. This reminded her about his job and whether he'd been able to do any of it while self-confining to the basement. The parchment rolls in his room had been dusty the day before.

All impish amusement faded, Elodie started down the stairs, speaking before she hit the bottom. "Remus, please tell me you didn't quit your job!"

She skidded to a halt to see that the same opaque mist that had suffused the house when Moody had rescued them days before was now neatly contained in the cage. He could neither see nor hear her, and if she was right, the cage would resist any and all magic cast from the outside-in.

Tearing the folded parchment from her pocket, Elodie conjured a quill and inkpot, kneeling on the floor outside the cage and smoothing out the creases before writing two words.


Check. Mate.


While the words mostly stood as a recognition of his one-upmanship of her, the truth was that in the Ministry's eyes, they were married, and she was there to check up on him. Remus was smart enough to catch both meanings. It wasn't until she'd marched over and shoved the parchment across the barrier of the bars and into his foggy sanctuary that Elodie thought about what Moony might think about the words.

Well, it was too late now.

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Sirius had known she would be happy to see his face, and his fire-call late that morning helped Elodie stop fretting about Remus. Seated on her heels in front of the fireplace as close as she felt comfortable, she pressed him about what he and Alastor were up to. Sirius was evasive, but said that Moody would be meeting with a Ministry contact shortly after lunch.

"How did you sleep?" she decided to ask, when her question about what the meeting might be about was met with more awkward avoidance from Sirius.

"The good: if you don't care about what the ingredients are, Mad-Eye's not a bad cook. The bad: I'm not entirely sure that his guest bed isn't made from the skulls of expired Azkaban inmates," he told her. Even rendered in flames and smoke, Sirius's wince was evocative.

"Wait! I don't want to know about the ugly!" she cut him off right as he drew in an animated breath to finish. "My imagination has run amok as it is."

"Wise witch," he told her admiringly. "How's the caged beast?"

"Sirius!" Elodie said, honestly dismayed.

"He doesn't need you to defend him, you know. Git's capable of taking my shit, always has been," Sirius said, unrepentant. Elodie crossed her arms, and the fire call actually shot a black jet of smoke from his magically represented head when he sighed dramatically. "Fine. For you, I'll avoid calling him a beast."

"You don't think of him that way anyway," she pointed out.

"He's got a beastly temper, which you well know. But I said I'll stop, so I will." Sirius had to speed up the end of that sentence, when he saw her outrage at his immediately broken promise.

"I think sometimes you forget that your time apart wasn't the same," Elodie said. "He thought you were the Secret Keeper, so any caring for you that he had was tempered by that- but for you, he was and always had been a true friend, no matter what misunderstandings happened right before losing James and Lily."

"You're lucky I love you, when you go poking around in my innards like that." With that, Sirius blew her a kiss, tossed her a wave that displayed like a ripple of vaguely recognizable body parts in the ashes of the hearth, and then he was gone.

"I'm the one who is lucky," Elodie said, too late for him to hear her. She'd forgotten to ask him about the marriage rites they needed to arrange with Moody, but Moony's possessiveness and Alastor's insistence on the Triad thing had made that a little too loaded for a faux face to face.

She dragged herself up to a stand, feeling weighed down and tired right down to her deepest heart. It was as if she'd grown a metal sheath of hope around it, only to have the whole thing turn magnetic and collect stress like iron filings. What she really wanted to do, what would really soothe her, was to snuggle into her bed at home, surrounded by Sirius's scent, and with the knowledge that Remus was safe.

Before she could let herself get emotional enough to make it dangerous to cast the spell, Elodie Apparated straight into her bedroom. Unless he had a spell to tell him anyone else was home, Remus wouldn't even need to know. Sirius was busy making mischief in Alastor's house, and Alastor himself had that meeting.

Feeling like a naughty child stealing sweets, Elodie changed into one of Sirius's t-shirts and a comfy pair of her own pants, casting a spell to block the sunlight. She curled up in the middle of the bed, clutching a pillow that filled her nose with the smell of comfort and security. There was plenty of time before 8 PM and another possible battle of wills with Remus, and this time, she'd be well rested for it.

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"Elodie, wake up." It was Remus's voice, but that wasn't possible, because he was busy being miserable in the cage downstairs.

"You're not really here," Elodie mumbled, pulling a pillow over onto her head. "I'm just dreaming you're here because I feel bad that you're punishing yourself in the basement."

The bed shifted like someone sat down heavily onto it, and Dream!Remus let out a long sigh. "This is not a dream, Elodie. Even if it were, I'm not sure in which direction I'd characterize it, at this point."

Suddenly, a thunderclap sounded directly overhead, and Elodie yelped, throwing herself sideways in half-asleep desperation. Strong, definitely real arms caught her mid-plummet to the floor.

"Merlin, Alastor, we can't afford a trip to St. Mungo's for any of us right now!" Remus chided. She gulped in a deep breath, disoriented and angry that she'd sought to leap away from her wand at the first sign of danger. Elodie knew it was Remus who had caught her, but even that was fraught, since he'd told her to stay away from Phoenix House, and she hadn't. She moved to get up, but Remus was saying something in another language to Moody, and he was still holding onto her fairly tightly.

What could be going on that Mad-Eye had come over and then persuaded Remus of all people to burst into her bedroom and wake her up? Had something happened to Sirius?

Almost as soon as she had that terrifying thought, Remus murmured a calming spell that sank into Elodie's skin with a sunny-sweet lethargy. She meant to complain that the spell was distracting, maybe even debilitating in a moment like this, but the feeling dissipated almost as soon as it hit, leaving behind a gentle positivity that also faded seconds later.

"What was that?"

"Wandless variation of a soothing spell. Most often used for skinned knees, practice duel recovery, and the like." He pulled away from her to a stand, and Elodie scrambled back toward the headboard where her wand was resting in a custom-built alcove. "Well thanks, Dad-" (At this, Remus winced and shook his head, but Elodie continued on) "-but you weren't even supposed to know I was here! What's happened to Sirius?" She didn't know whether to get up or pull the blankets close and hide in them. Please say he's all right. Please please please!

"He's safe, for now. Sent him on an errand to gather up supplies," Alastor said from the doorway. He was dressed strangely, even for him, with a combination of high-quality velvet and blackened leather. His hair was slicked back, all stubble gone from his face, and Elodie thought she could smell the faintest whiff of aftershave. "Wearing one of my best disgui-"

She was already objecting. "You sent him somewhere? He's a fugitive! He could be captured!"

"Elodie." There was an urgency in Remus's tone that scared her more than the thought of Sirius out and about, even with his identity obscured.

"What?" she asked in a small voice.

"There's been a-"

"Stop dancing around it, Lupin! Elodie, that Parker at the ministry, he's going to test you. Any deviation from traditional marriage rites and they'll take the boy."

Shocked by Moody's harsh outburst, Elodie looked to Remus, but he was walking over to the window. Every line of his body tense and unhappy, and more painfully, faced away from her. She tried to get up, but the tangle of blankets clung to her, and she had to take the time to rip it away so she could free herself. The symbolism was as cloying as the fabric.

With each jerky movement, she voiced an objection. "Can't we argue that I'm eccentric? Holding to an American Muggle tradition? Maybe I eschew obedience and archaic traditions! Maybe I've discovered the data on werewolf marriage indicates that the infidelity charms in particular risk false positives!"

"Tell me you made that up," Remus said in a choked voice. "Actually, don't."

Now standing, Elodie crossed to the closet and pulled out a skirt, stepping into it and doing up the zipper before pulling off the pants that had been underneath. She pitched her tone deliberately as that of an exasperated wife. "Don't be daft, Remus, we were posing as a married couple! Of course I looked up everything I could!"

He spun around and strode toward the older wizard, completely ignoring her. "Alastor, I-"

"Quiet, son! You've voiced your objections. Who would have guessed the mutt would be the least stupid out of the three of you!" Alastor snapped, pointing his cane at the bed. "Sit down."

"We should talk about this somewhere- anywhere else. I don't belong here."

"You will."

Elodie had been pulling on her favorite sweater when Moody said those last words, and she brushed her staticky hair away from her face to stare at the two wizards.

"Will one of you start making sense, please? I need to go find Sirius before he gets arrested and I earn my own spot in Azkaban by murdering both of you in retribution!"

Alastor stumped over, waving his first finger at her like he was scolding a child. "The Triad, witch! It's the only way out of this mess. You lot should have listened to me, we're almost out of time!"