Remus John Lupin had the best luck in the world. After all, he had just found his nephew (sort of).
He was a werewolf. Had he not been a werewolf, then - while still friends with Peter and James (and The Traitor) - he would have met a nice girl, married, and never have caught wind of Harry's whereabouts. Which girl wants a werewolf? And he couldn't inflict himself upon these poor people that had no idea how to deal with him! Instead, he was going anywhere and everywhere, sniffing around to catch Harry's unique scent, trying to find him. Oh, he did try #4 Private Drive... Harry's scent was there. And it went down to the sewers. Remus knew what it meant - he was a werewolf, thank you very much, he went to London Below quiet often. So he followed the scent, came to the floating market, and what do you know? The Lady Door was taking care of his cub. Well, Lady Door may be Lady Door. But she wasn't doing this without his help, whether she wanted it or not. He knew how to fight, he could be a body-guard.
And, once they trusted him, he'll tell them about James and Peter and... Sirius... and he'll tell Harry all the stories about the Marauders. (It was strange that Peter smelled of fear and Blood and the salty tinge of not-trusty-ness and Sirius always smelled of, well, Sirius).
Not to mention, Lady Door's mansion was quiet big. Once he'd swore a blood oath (I swear to help protect Harry James Potter no matter what. I swear not to tell anyone about the location of Harry James Potter, Lady Door and Richard Mayhew. I swear to help and protect the three aforementioned people as much as I can, and to be loyal to them in all things, so long as the adults protect Harry James Potter. If I betray my oath, may Magic stop my heart and spill my blood and burn my body)... well, he it seemed they trusted him implicitly. Good.
Then Door dropped the bombshell: "My sister. Ingress. I don't know where she is, and I want to go looking for her. So we'll be in the mansion itself once or twice a month, a few days at a time. And we'll be traveling the rest of the time."
Well. That wouldn't do at all, would it? Harry needed a Home, and he could NOT teach Richard to throw spears and whatnot on the run.
"Do you have a bit of her blood? I can do a rather complex tracking charm... Hopefully, anyway." Judging from the surprised look Door gave him, she had no clue such a thing existed. It didn't. Remus had invented two versions, so the Marauders could find each other after drunk parties and nights in the forest on the Full Moon.
"What. Blood to do a tracking charm?" Richard was very muggle. And very lost. So very unlike Lily, who was willing to dive into anything.
"Yes. I may be a werewolf, but I was an in-betweener for a bit. Actually, we tend to call ourselves Witches and Wizards, and I just happen to have a few magic theory books in my bag, if you want to look thing up. I expect to teach Harry the less general things that aren't taught, like a few tracking charms, and warding, and how to fight, like I'll be teaching you. In return for a place to lock myself in during the full moons. And food, of course. Like we already decided." internally, Remus Lupin was tensing. If they tried taking Harry - his cub - away from him...
Richard opened and closed his mouth a few times. Lady Door straightened and cleared her throat.
"If I gave you the blood now, could you do the tracking charm now? What else can you do with her blood?"
"A small tracking charm would give her coordinates. But, if you give me a few hours, I'll set up a rune-ritual, and then you'd know her coordinates whenever she moved, her physical and mental state, whether she lives in Above, Bellow or Between London, and what she remembers of you and her family and such. Assuming she's in London, or in the general surrounding area, of course." Remus Lupin was fully confident he'd be able to do this - It wasn't too different from combining a Pensive, the Marauders Map, Blood Wards, the Patronus Charm, and a few healing spells. All things he'd studied before, whether with Lily (the first and third and last in-debth), or with James and Peter (and Sirius, his mind hissed)...
Door stared.
"All that?" Richard asked, blinking slowly. "Only a few hours?" Then his eyes narrowed. "What's the price?"
Ah, the boy was learning how Below worked.
"Chocolate. Lots of it. The chance to buy books every so often. And the chance to take Harry into London Between when he's five to get him his first wand - I want him to be ready to fight with magic."
Door frowned.
"Harry won't be going to Between London alone, and neither will he be going just with you. One of us will go too." Richard nodded, stepping up and straightening his back. He was already protective of the little tyke and no one would just the boy under his watch. While Remus was hurt slightly that they didn't trust him even after the oath, Moony approved. The Child was pack. The Humans were trying to protect Pack.
And if Moony approved, the Remus approved too. At least, in this particular case.
"Deal. When can I get started?"
While Door ran off to contact the Veela or whatever they were, to help Harry understand his Fae-quirkyness or whatever, Richard was left with bouncing the baby, offering him a bottle of formula and generally failing to sing. Meanwhile, as he watched, the Wolf - Remus, right, Remus Lupin - inked runes upon the floor of Ingress' room, then upon the ceiling, before taking a large sheet of parchment, waving a stick at it, and stepping back. The Parchment floated over and stuck to the wall, and then Wolf flicked a few drops of Ingress' blood at it.
Which Door had had in a vile. That wasn't creepy at all.
"It keeps us safe - that's how I knew, instinctively, that Ingress was alive. Her bottle hadn't shattered. When we die, our bottles shatter and the blood turns black. Speaking of which, we should make you and Remus and Harry a bottle, too. After I get the Veela." And Door ran off, muttering about Owls eating her poor rats and how annoying those tests were. And how the rats were muttering about a not-rat. She was muttering about three things at once.
Richard had ignored her.
Now, however, Harry was sucking at his baby bottle, which Richard held (rather awkwardly, too), while Harry held his sleeve. They still hadn't read the letter that was left on top of Harry, from some guy called Dumbledore. And now Wolf - Remus, dammit! - was placing blood carefully in the middle of some of the runes, before taking a basin (not silver, please, preferably pewter, actually...) and placing it in the middle of the floor. The runes formed a vaguely flower-like shape around the basin... which was filled with water after Wolf - Remus John Lupin goddammit - waved his wand and muttered something.
Then the water started to glow, and Remus - finally! - poured something silvery into it. ("Lady Door, for the ritual to work, I'll need your memories of Ingress. You'll still have them, I'll just have a copy. If you don't mind, I'll press my wand to you temple and just draw them out of your mind. Just think really hard about Ingress...") Richard starred.
Slowly, the flecks of blood on the parchment faded, then the inky runes unstuck from the floor and moved into the parchment, which began to read:
INGRESS OF THE HOUSE OF LADY DOOR:
PHYSICALLY HEALTHY; AGE 6; Is now a metamorphmagus due to a blood adoption
LONDON ABOVE - ADRESS: #44 Something Ave, Hyde Park.
REMEMBERS NOTHING OF LADY DOOR - Repressed all memories, was Blood Adopted by Ted Tonks and Adromeda Black-Tonks.
Current name: Nymphadora Tonks
Emotional State: Happy
Currently walking down Someplace Street to Hyde Park.
Richard stared. Remus stared. Harry gurgled. Then Door rushed back in, smiling happily.
"Aunt Apolline said she'll come over with her daughter to teach Harry about Fae on the condition that Fleur learns to fight! They're going to start coming every day in two years, when Harry's three and Fleur's six, every day! D'you know where Ingress is?" Richard recovered faster than Remus - he was used to Door, at least.
"Erm. The parchment there says some interesting stuff. I don't know what all of it means, but maybe we could get Remus here to slowly get her memories back?"
Door frowned at the parchment, muttering to herself. Then she nodded, sharply.
"Right. I can get the rats to give her her memories every night for... let's see... Hmm, if I hang a few proper dream-runes, then she'll remember certain things every night instead of dreams, and in two years, she'll remember everything. I can just pop in and hang the runes in her bedroom right now! Well, it'll take a few hours... but I'll be back in a jiffy with more formulas and my sister will remember in two years! Oh! Maybe she'll join us for training. And I'll ask the rats about the not-rat -man while I'm at it. Remus, Richard, I want you guys to figure out what Harry likes. And read Dumbledore's letter, while you're at it." And once again, Lady Door turned and spun away.
Remus and Richard gave each other semi-bewildered looks. Harry began to cry.
Neither men knew how to change a baby's... er... discharge. This would be a very long wait. At least Remus was patient, and Richard was willing to learn.
