So yeah it's all J.K Rowling's. I don't own anything except maybe the inability to update on time like a normal person... Enjoy though!

Elizabeth drove home in a daze and lay in bed for a long time thinking about their conversation. Her morals were telling her that she should call protective services and get Harry taken away; but she liked Remus enough that she trusted him to make a good call. After all he had known his parents and he had seemed adamant that Harry was safer with his Aunt and Uncle than anywhere else. But that didn't make sense. Why would he be safer with them than with another family that liked him more? Slowly doubt began to creep into her mind as she realized no one was being honest with her. Either the Dursely's had lied about the car accident or Remus had lied to her about the fire. Either way she needed to find out the truth to keep Harry safe. She was terrified of defying Remus and calling the authorities but equally scared of what might happen if she didn't. She fell into a fitful sleep praying that Remus was the man she thought he was.

Across town Remus was sitting wide awake in an armchair by a fire. He had been staring at the fire for hours and still had no idea what to do. It had seemed like a good idea at the time to tell Elizabeth not to involve the authorities but now, with Harry's assignment still in his hand, he wasn't so sure.

'Dumbledore thinks he's safest there,' he reasoned. But what if Dumbledore was wrong?

'He's protected by Lily's blood at that house. Voldemort can't touch him.' But Voldemort was gone. At least for now he was.

'You know he'll be back,' said the nagging suspicion in his mind. 'He was never gone for good.' But he had to trust Dumbledore because... because he had to trust someone. Because Dumbledore seemed to have all the answers. As he sat he couldn't help but notice that the glowing embers were the exact shade of red that Lily's hair had been.

"Please help my baby Remus," he could hear her saying. "Please."

"He's my son mate," James's voice whispered. "You have to do something."

In the end he decided to write Dumbledore a letter explaining the situation. The old man was the one who gave him to the Dursley's instead of letting him live with Remus like he knew the Potter's would have wanted. It was sort of Dumbledore's fault in the first place so maybe he could come up with a brilliant solution. It seemed sort of like giving up or cheating in a sense but Remus didn't know what else to do. He loved Harry to death but had too much respect for Dumbledore to defy his wishes. He sent his owl with the letter and fell asleep as the sun began to rise.

At quarter to eight the next morning Remus knocked on Elizabeth's classroom door.

"Hey," he forced a smile. "I brought you some coffee. I was hoping we could go over the lesson plan for A Wrinkle in Time. I don't want my kids to go too much faster than yours." She looked up from the papers she was grading and nodded. She looked just as tired as Remus felt and quite grateful for the coffee.

"Remus," she said slowly, "We need to talk. And not about lesson plans." He felt his breath catch in his throat. He knew she was going to say that.

"I take it you didn't sleep much either?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I was up all night worrying."

"Yeah me too." They sat in silence for a minute. Elizabeth took a deep breath.

"Tell me one more time how Harry's parents died." He was startled. Whatever he had been expecting her to say it wasn't that.

"Why?"

"Because, well to be totally honest it's because something isn't adding up and I need to know that you're not a liar." He stared at her incredulously.

"I thought you trusted me." She bit her lip.

"I do trust you it's just that I'm new at this and I want to do it right and if I let personal feelings get in the way and one of my student's got hurt I would never forgive myself. I mean, how could I live with that knowing that I could have intervened and I didn't? I care too much about Harry to-" Remus interrupted her angrily.

"Are you saying I don't care about Harry?"

"No I didn't mean-"

"Because I do. He's like a son to me."

"All I'm saying is that-"

"You have no idea what it's been like for me for the past nine years! I have spent every single day wondering if I could have done something to save James and Lily so that Harry could have had a normal life. So that I could have my best friends back. I mean, why didn't I notice that something was up with Sirius? He betrayed James and Lily, he murdered Peter and all those innocent people, and he's the reason Harry is stuck with his horrid relatives."

"Remus don't-" She tried to say but her cut her off.

"I didn't notice anything was wrong with him! It's my fault and I know it. I don't need anyone to tell me because the guilt is always there. I'm haunted by the ghosts of my dead friends and all I can do to save their son in write one stupid letter that's not going to change anything." He voice caught in his throat and he buried his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth. I didn't mean to dump all that on you." She reached out timidly put her hand on his arm.

"You can't take all the blame for what happened Remus. You're only torturing yourself."

"I don't know how to stop it," he half whispered. "I don't know how to make it right."

Elizabeth rubbed his arm comfortingly and struggled to find something to say. She had no idea how to help him. Suddenly a sharp tapping on the window made her jump. She pulled her arm back and accidentally knocked over her coffee.

"Crap! Oh I'm so sorry. Did it spill on you?"

"No no it's fine. Here let's get these papers out of the way." She glanced up at the window.

"What was that?" Remus had a sinking feeling that he knew what it was and sure enough-

"It's an owl!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "What's an owl doing outside the window in the middle of the day?"

"Um, delivering a letter." She stared at him.

"What?" He walked slowly over the window and opened it to let the bird in. The owl hooted feebly and hopped onto his arm.

"Elizabeth meet Winston my pet owl. He delivers letters for me." She stared at him for a minute.

"Are you kidding me?"

"I am one-hundred percent serious." The owl hooted again and Elizabeth started to laugh. She laughed and laughed and eventually Remus joined in too. From her perspective the whole thing was kind of ridiculous.

"What's wrong with the post system?" She asked catching her breath. He shrugged.

"Winston's faster."

"And he really just goes wherever you want?"

"Yeah he's really smart."

"Can I touch him?" She held her hand out hesitatingly. Remus nodded and she stroked his head with two fingers.

"His head's soft," she said. "Hi Winston."

"I think he likes you," Remus smiled at her.

"Well I like him too." She dropped her hand and it brushed the letter tied to his leg.

"Hello. What's this?" Remus untied it carefully and pulled it off.

"It's from Dumbledore. He responded a lot faster than I thought he would."

"Who's Dumbledore?" Elizabeth asked. Remus slit the letter open.

"Just a friend of mine. I asked him for advice about Harry."

"Couldn't you have just called him?" Remus looked up.

"What?"

"Your friend, wouldn't it have been easier to just call him and ask him for advice?"

"Probably," Remus admitted. "Except he doesn't have a phone."

"Really?" Elizabeth was surprised. "How come?"

"Well he's really old," Remus answered. "Truthfully I'm not sure he knows how to use one." It wasn't really a lie because technically both of those statements were true. They were just completely unrelated to each other. Elizabeth accepted it though and glanced at the clock.

"The kids are going to be here soon. Is your bird going to stick around?"

"That would probably be a bad idea huh?"

"Probably." Remus strode over to the window and threw the bird into the air.

"Go home," he told the already flapping owl. Elizabeth just stared.

"Can he understand you?" Remus nodded.

"I told you he's smart."

"If you say so."

Remus turned back to the letter from Dumbledore and finished reading it in frustration. It said exactly what he thought it would. Don't do anything rash, don't take Harry away from his Aunt and Uncle, he's protected by blood there and Voldemort can't touch him, blah blah blah. He crumpled it up in disgust.

"Bad advice?" Elizabeth asked. Remus sighed.

"No. It says everything I figured it would. I was hoping that he would surprise me though." Elizabeth nodded and finished cleaning up the spilled coffee.

"Hey Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about calling you a liar and well about everything. I do trust you I promise." He smiled.

"Thanks. And I'm sorry too. I don't want you to think I'm...I don't know."

"I don't think you're... whatever"

"Thanks."

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes until the first few kids started to trickle in and make noise.

"Guess what guess what!" Sophie shouted bouncing up and down. "We got a puppy!"

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