Finding Answers

Chapter Four – Falling Pieces

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Between the full moon, the battle at Twittenham, and the shocking blow that Severus had known all along about Liz, Remus had fitfully tried to sleep on and off that night. When he had woken the next morning, feeling like he'd drunk his way through London, Molly Weasley ordered him back up the stairs with a dreamless sleep potion. That evening after the potion had worn off, his body was feeling remotely better. While his mind was still attempting to accept what was happening around him, he forced himself to go downstairs, not really wanting to deal with the looks of concern he was bound to get.

Sure enough, as he entered the kitchen, Sirius and Molly looked at him, trying to size up how he was feeling. He didn't mind those two looking over him, actually. Sirius had been doing so since their third year when his friends discovered he was a werewolf, and Molly generally had a motherly attitude toward everybody in the Order. He could have done without the looks of concern from Tonks, Kingsley, and Moody, though.

"How are you feeling?" Molly asked as he sat heavily in the chair across from Sirius.

"Much better, Molly," he replied. "Thank you for that potion."

"It was no problem, dear." She smiled warmly at him. "After taking care of seven children for so long, I can't help but fret when I see somebody going through any kind of pain or grief. I hope you'll forgive me for meddling."

Remus brushed it off with a wave of his hand, thankful for the light conversation. "I think some of us could use that attention. Merlin knows if you hadn't been here, I would have tried to carry on this morning. Sometimes we need a reminder to take care of ourselves. So thank you."

Mrs. Weasley patted his shoulder before continuing on her way. Sirius glanced over at him, still looking concerned.

"You sure you're okay, Moony?" he asked.

Remus nodded, and pulled a cup of tea toward him. "Still sore, but I'll manage."

"I mean, about what you learned last night."

Remus was quiet for a few seconds, and everybody at the table watched the pair carefully, positive they would have to stop the werewolf from visiting Hogwarts to do more than punch Severus Snape this time.

"I'm still processing it," Remus responded quietly, and most of the table seemed to relax and go back to their own conversations.

"Are you going to talk to Dumbledore?" Sirius asked. "The least the old man can do is tell you the truth."

Remus shrugged. "Something tells me that Dumbledore still won't give me the entire truth," he said, taking a sip of his tea. "Hell, Snape probably didn't tell him the entire story, either."

"Then maybe we should find somebody old Snivellus can't lie to," Sirius suggested.

"Let me know when you find that person."

"Well, we don't have to look far. She runs the apothecary in Diagon Alley."

It took Remus a moment to realize who Sirius was talking about. "I haven't spoken to Rose in years," he said, shaking his head. "Not since Liz's memorial service. And Severus probably hasn't spoken to her longer."

"Damn, I forgot they had a fallen out when she found out Snape was following Voldemort." Sirius sighed. "Can we do anything to make him tell the truth?"

"We have a better chance of finding Cassie," Remus scoffed. "Have you been searching?"

Sirius shook his head before bowing it. "Not lately," he admitted. "And now that the breakout has happened, I probably should stay around here for a few days."

Remus nodded. "I'm sure Mad-Eye will be happy to hear that." Down the table, Moody scoffed, listening to their conversation. "Have you heard from Harry yet?" he asked in a quieter tone. "You gave him the Two-Way Mirror, didn't you?"

"I think he may have forgotten, I did give it to him last minute. I know his mind was still reeling over everything that went on at Christmas," Sirius said. Remus could tell by his best friend's tone that he was trying to hide that he was upset. "I feel terrible, Moony. I offered the boy freedom from Dursleys at the end of his third year and I've barely spent time with him since. Lily and James would be cursing me left and right for mucking up my responsibility as godfather, among other things."

"I don't think so." Remus shook his head with a sad smile. "Lily would just hex you for being dramatic, tell Cassie, and let her hex you some more." Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "It's not your fault, Sirius. We trusted the wrong person. Cassie listened to you to protect your daughter. I know that, Cassie knew that, and I'm sure Harry knows that, too."

Sirius nodded, but stayed silent. Remus felt a slight guilt of his own, never really having talked to his best friend about this before. Until they had talked to Harry, Remus assumed Sirius had accepted things as they were and was trying to move on.

"The worst part is, I can't even bloody write him to remind him," Sirius finally said. "That damned Ministry hag has everything checked."

"Even if we managed to get a cryptic message to him via owl post, there would be a chance somebody could intercept it."

"Dumbledore wouldn't pass along a message, and I know Snivellus would wash his hair before attempting to help us." Sirius sighed. "Maybe a message to Ron or Hermione would be inconspicuous?"

"I dearly hope you're not planning on passing Marauder secrets to Potter, Weasley, and Miss Granger," came a voice behind them. "They get into enough trouble as it is."

"We'd never dream of it, Minerva," Remus said to their former Head of House. "Rather, I wouldn't. I can't speak for Sirius."

Sirius didn't reply, but looked at McGonagall like she was an answered prayer. "You can help us!" he exclaimed.

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Sirius, and Remus had the sudden feeling he was sixteen, about to receive detention. "I am not helping you pass on the Marauder legacy, Sirius Black. Your godson has done well enough to break his father's detention record on his own."

Sirius looked proud, and Remus finally caught onto Sirius's statement. "No, Minerva, we were actually trying to find a away to get a message to Harry past Umbridge's search." At the mention of Delores Umbridge, McGonagall scowled. "Sirius gave him a late package and we fear he may have forgotten about it."

"This package doesn't include a certain way you three managed to keep in contact during your detentions, does it?"

"Haven't got a clue what you're talking about." Sirius grinned, but then looked at her pleadingly. "Is there anyway we can bribe you?"

"Find a way to rid Hogwarts of Dolores Umbridge and I'll smuggle you into the castle as Padfoot," McGonagall muttered darkly. Remus and Sirius looked at the Deputy Headmistress with a shocked expression.

"Never thought I'd see the day," Sirius said.

Not wanting to press their luck, Remus continued. "If one of us gave you a message, could you see he got it?"

Professor McGonagall nodded. "I'll deliver it to him personally. I could keep him after Transfiguration, it's the only time he's not under...certain surveillance."

Remus and Sirius nodded. "Perhaps a charm where only he can read it, just in case," Remus added.

"We can just add a post script for hi to burn the message after he reads it." Sirius said.

"True."

"I'll go write a quick note." Sirius stood from the table and left the room, while McGonagall took the empty seat.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. "Unfortunately, I couldn't aid with the battle last night. Dolores would have gotten suspicious if three staff members had not shown for dinner."

"I'm better." Remus was getting tired of answering that question. "I'm sure you've heard about my run-in with Severus?"

"Ah, I figured it had been Mr. Black who had done that damage." Remus was sure he had seen the corner of McGonagall's mouth twitch upward. "Do you really believe she could be alive after all of these years, Remus?"

Unlike the tones of suspicions and skepticism, Remus was relieved to hear a tone of hope. "I really do," he answered. "Sirius and I lost so much those few years after school...everybody did. It would be nice to know that not all had been as lost as we thought, you know?"

McGonagall nodded. "You've managed to keep hope this long, don't lose it now." She smiled a wistful smile. "I just can envision what Hogwarts would have been like had both Mr. Potter and Miss Black were both attending. I honestly don't think the castle could have handled those two and the Weasley twins."

Remus laughed. "I shudder to think how Gryffindor House would have managed alone," he said as Sirius came back into the kitchen, holding a small scroll of parchment, and handed it to McGonagall, who had stood up.

"Thank you, Professor," Sirius said as he handed it to her.

"Sirius, you haven't been my student in 18 years," McGonagall chuckled. "You can call me Minerva."

"Habit," Sirius said sheepishly. "At least Remus broke it."

"We, we were colleagues for a year," Remus replied. "You get used to it."

"I'll make sure Mr. Potter gets this as soon as possible." McGonagall held onto the scroll tightly.

"You won't be found out will you?" Sirius asked. "We don't want Hogwarts to lose one of their best professors."

McGonagall smiled. "Once you go through an entire day under Dolores Umbridge breathing down your neck, you're ready to seek out Fred and George Weasley and aid them and Peeves with their brand of destruction." She bade them farewell, leaving the two former Gryffindors to to gaze after their former Head of House with great admiration.

Despite sleeping for most of the day, Remus was ready to pass out after dinner. Whether it was from his body still attempting to catch up with the past few days or Molly Weasley's insistence of second and third helpings, the werewolf slept through most of the night.

A few days later, he trudged down to the kitchen. It had been a quiet few days, and to keep from having Molly fret over him or having Order members watch him like he was going to go off like a time bomb, he had spent most of his time either taking shifts for the Order or roaming the streets of London. After dealing with the usual threats from Kreacher (thankful Sirius wasn't around), he made a pot of tea before sitting at the table, spreading out the contents of Liz's file in front of him. Now that he had a free moment to himself, he started to think about everything that had happened since the fight at Twittenham.

He was so positive that the death eater's voice had been Liz's. Remus had heard that voice almost everyday for four years since they had gotten together in his sixth year, how else could he have remembered it so clear? In the short six months they had gotten to spend their marriage, Remus knew there had been days Liz would come home from work angry about something, so he would let her yell and rant until she felt better.

To be a Hufflepuff, the woman had had a temper.

Shuffling a few papers around to pull his thoughts back to the present, he stopped at the last piece of parchment Mad-Eye Moody had added to the Order file. October 4, 1980. Confirmation from sources that Lupin was taken, killed by Voldemort. Unable to recover body. Location of demise unknown.

That passage was what confused Remus. It should have been enough for the werewolf to accept his wife was gone. After all, if the source (and Remus clenched his fist and found the urge to hunt down Severus Snape) had said she was dead, he must have seen it happen.

Unless Severus was just told in passing, Remus thought, shifting the papers around some more. It's possible that he was told that to avoid suspicion. Somebody must have known the two knew each other. Peter knew, maybe he had told Voldemort.

It was that thought that had kept Remus hoping for 15 years. He sure as hell wasn't letting go of it now. He put the file back together, giving up in learning any more information from the pieces of paper inside it. As he closed the folder, there was creak of a step behind him. Turning quickly, wand out, he relaxed at the sight of Sirius.

"Easy, Moony, it's just me."

"Sorry," Remus lowered his wand and sat back down. "Habit."

"I should have been graceful like Tonks and knocked something over on my way down." Remus snorted as Sirius sat across from him and summoned a clean cup to him. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Remus replied, pouring another cup of tea for himself. "Besides, being up this early meant I had some time to myself to sort...things."

Sirius glanced down at the closed file between them. "I can return upstairs if you want," he said quietly.

Remus shook his head. "I'm fine now, Padfoot. There's not much I can do with these." He pushed the file a little farther from him. "I've read over it so many times I've probably memorized it."

"What are you going to do now?"

Remus shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea. It's not like I can beat the answers out of Severus." Sirius scoffed and muttered a disagreement. "I'm sure there will be another battle, and we'll face off or some kind of confrontation will happen."

Sirius suddenly looked worried. "But are you prepared for that, Remus?" he asked. "If it comes down to your life or hers, are you willing to –"

"To what?"

"Do whatever means necessary to survive."

Remus looked at him with a blank look. Then it dawned on him. If he and Liz were to ever get into a duel, and he knew it was her, would he be willing to harm her, or even kill her?

"Yes," he answered, but there was no confidence in his voice.

"If you're sure that she's alive, what do you think they've done to her?" Remus paled suddenly, and Sirius gave him an apologetic look. "Bloody hell, I'm sorry, Remus."

Remus shook his head and let out a shaky breath. "I just don't like to think about it," he answered. "Too many nightmares."

"I should have known better, though. I spoke before I thought."

"Let's just...change the topic. You never said what you wrote Harry." Remus pushed his empty cup away from him to keep from breaking another one.

"I just told him to remember the package I slipped him before he left for Hogwarts," Sirius said. "I also warned him not to use it outside his dorm, and to put a silencing charm around his bed before calling. At the end I told him to burn the parchment."

"Hopefully McGonagall gets to give it to him today." They had received a letter from McGonagall that she had to delay giving Harry the letter since Umbridge had sprung a surprise inspection on the professors. It was taking all of Sirius's willpower not to smuggle a list of pranks to the Weasley Twins to help make the Hogwarts High Inquisitor's life a living hell.

Remus nodded. "When he calls tonight you may want to tell him to hide it when not being used. The last thing we need is for that mirror to get into the wrong hands."

"Good thinking. I figured he would be returning to his dorm after dinner, so that gives me some time to start looking again."

"I thought you were going to give it a few days," Remus said.

"I have."

Remus scoffed. "Mad-Eye is going to hang you himself."

Sirius grinned and banished the empty cups and kettle to the sink. "He'd miss me too much," he said. "It's only for a couple of hours. I'm sure that a few people will either be at the Ministry or back asleep before they realize I'm gone." He looked at Remus with a pointed look.

"I'm not going to go back to sleep," Remus muttered.

"We'll see," Sirius called as he made his way toward the front door.

Sure enough, an hour later when Molly came downstairs, Remus's head was in his arms, resting on top of Liz's file, fast asleep.

Sirius wasn't having much luck himself. Not only had he managed to escape dog catchers and a kid who had almost succeeded in dragging him home, but by the time he had returned to the park he discovered by a secondary school, it had started to drizzle. He took refuge underneath the merry-go-round, and by the time school had let out, the rain had stopped and he moved to the bushes outside the school door. He watched each student carefully, listening for names.

After the students had dispersed, Sirius sighed inwardly. There were hundreds of schools in the city. And there was no guarantee that Cassie thought about enrolling Robyn into school. He stood up from the bushes and shaking the water droplets from his fur, made his way back toward the park. He was getting ready to make plans to return to Grimmauld Place and search another school tomorrow when the sound of laughter caused him to turn around.

A handful of students, most likely involved with some muggle after school club had exited the schoolhouse. In the middle of the group of laughing students, was a girl. She had long, light brown hair, similar to what Remus and Cassie's had been when they were younger. He was now too far away to see her eye color, but Sirius felt like he was staring at a younger version of her wife.

The girl was still laughing at something her friend was saying, until she glanced at where Sirius was now standing. She called to her friends, "I'll see you tomorrow," and explained she left something inside the school. There was a collection of goodbyes (which none of them called her by her name, much to Sirius's dismay) and the girl dashed back into the school.

Sirius waited with baited breath for the girl to come back out, but after 30 minutes, she never returned. Figuring she had another way out of the school, Sirius was forced to give up and return to Grimmauld Place. His mind was racing. He was pretty sure that he had just found his daughter. She looked so much like Cassie it was insane. She had even tucked her hair behind her ear like Cassie used to do out of habit.

If it hadn't been Robyn, why had she darted back into the school? Surely Cassie would have told their daughter about the Marauders and his animagus for. She must have panicked, Sirius thought wildly. But wouldn't Cassie had told her that he had been innocent? After all, she was the only person besides Lily and James who had known he and Peter had switched a month prior to Voldemort's attack.

Of course she would have, a voice argued in his mind. You're jumping to conclusions, Padfoot.

He wasn't even sure it had been Robyn. As far as he knew, the girl had been deathly afraid of dogs or had actually left something inside the school.

His thoughts continued to drift to different conclusions as he made his way up the steps of Grimmauld Place, and after he transformed back to his human self and cast a quick drying charm on his robes, made his way down to the kitchen. Only Molly, Arthur, Remus, and Kingsley were in the room, much to his relief.

"Sirius," Kingsley greeted. "You'll be happy to know, I informed the Minister today that one of my sources said you were spotted in Greece."

Sirius grinned. "You know, I have always fancied a trip to Santorini." He flopped down beside Remus, was looking a bit groggy. "You fell asleep, didn't you?"

"Sod off, Padfoot," he yawned. "At least I'm finally feeling back to myself." He pulled a singular piece of Honeyduke's best chocolate out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth. "Any luck today?"

"I...I think I found Robyn." Sirius said, and he couldn't help but feel like his heart was going to jump out of his chest at the words.

Remus sat up in his chair, eyes wide. "Where? How do you know?"

"A muggle secondary school, not too far from here. She saw me, and she darted back into the school. She must have known another way out of the building, because she never came back out." Sirius smiled. "I swear, Remus, it was her. She looked like a splitting image of Cassie."

Remus looked at him, an expression of wonder and hope on his face. "Did you ever hear her name?"

"No." Sirius looked slightly crestfallen. "All of her friends she was with never said her name. Bloody kids."

Remus laughed. "How many times did we ever say goodbye to each other and say our names?"

Sirius shrugged. "Got a point. Even if they did, Cassie probably pulled an old Order trick and signed her up with an alias. That's why we probably haven't found her."

"Are you going to try to reach out to her again tomorrow?" Remus had the same hopeful tone and look he had when he talked about Liz still being alive.

"I have to try. This is the first lead we've gotten in well...ever."

"You may have to postpone that reunion," Mad-Eye limped into the room with Tonks, Mundungus Fletcher, and Billy Weasley. "We've gotten word that a couple of Voldemort's followers plan on meeting to exchange something in a village not too far from Hogsmeade. Lucius Malfoy and that Yaxley bloke were overheard down near the Department of Mysteries, the fools."

"You're going to try and head them off, then?" Molly said, her hands wringing in the washcloth she was holding. It was something many of them noticed she did when receiving bad news like this.

"That's the plan. Malfoy said there would only be about five of them, so we won't need the entire guard. Arthur, I'm sorry, but Dumbledore feels you're still in recovery from Christmas and needs you to stay put. Sirius, that goes for you too."

"Surprise, surprise," Sirius grumbled.

"Lupin, goes for you too."

"What? Why?" Remus said angrily.

"You're too close to this situation now."

"Like hell I am." Remus stood up. "If this is about stopping as many Death Eaters as possible, then I'm going to help! Whatever means necessary!"

"And do you have the means to stop somebody you think could be your wife?" Moody shouted. "Even if that means killing her?"

Remus glared at him. "If I have to," he ground out.

Moody scoffed. "I've seen stronger wizards in the past freeze and lose their minds because they were too close to the cause, Lupin. If she's imperioused, there's no hope for her."

"I'm going," Remus challenged. "If there's only five of them, there's no guarantee that she'll be one of them."

"It's your head, then," Moody snapped, and let the group to the door. Remus and Sirius shared a look, obvious their conversation from earlier was on their minds.

"Tell Harry I said hello if he manages to call," he said lowly. "At least you'll have that to look forward to." Sirius nodded, and Remus followed Kingsley and Bill to the door. He was just praying to any god that was listening that if Liz was alive and being controlled by the other side, he would have the strength to face her without dying himself.

Oh hey, I think this is my longest chapter to date. I'll try to keep that up.

I had more planned out for this chapter (another attempt at a battle) but since I've already had one chapter end with a fight, I don't want to overdo it. And yes, Sirius may or may not have found his daughter. Why did she run when she saw him? You'll have to stay tuned to find out, won't you?

I was so angry that Harry never used the Two Way mirror in Order of the Phoenix. And since this is AU of that book, I figured I'd change it up a bit.

Please review to let me know how you feel about the story so far!