Nothing is nor shall ever be mine except most of this story.

So...ACTION!

With the looks she was getting, she almost felt bad. Tonks put her now dark-haired head in her arms.

"Tact gave up on you a long time ago, didn't it?" She groaned.

"Yes, pretty much," Chessie agreed solemnly, then wrapped her arms around herself and started explaining to the pack.

"Part of the reason I gave you all an hour is because this morning- yesterday morning, by now- I gave Tonks the location of the camp and an abbreviated list of about how many wolves there were. She- hopefully- passed it on, and overnight there should in theory have been a rain on the camp for that new werewolf jail."

No one spoke, but all eyes and full attention were still on Chessie, and most eyes, especially Bartender's, were bright with anger. She got up and went into the kitchen angrily, arms across her chest. For lack of anything better to do, and a nagging suspicion that things could have gone better, Chessie got up to follow her, leaving Tonks to softly explain in better words what exactly had occurred.

"Bartender…." Chessie called softly from the doorway. Bartender was standing at Tonks' ink, staring moodily at some pink wildflowers, in a purple shirt and khakis that looked horribly strange on her. She didn't respond.

"Julia?" Chessie ventured, taking a step onto the cold tiles. "I, er…probably could have put that a little…less bluntly."

"No," Bartender sighed. "You couldn't. You're even more tactless than I am, which means we're both lost causes. But…jail? I mean…" she turned around, trying to signify through gestures what she meant with words. "That's a little extreme."

:Murder, kidnapping, rape, child abuse, torture," Chessie counted off on her fingers, feeling like a heel.

"Well, yes, but…oh, hell. I don't know. I didn't like them, but…I grew up with a lot of them." She paused to reflect, and her expression grew dark. "Maybe then…. Okay. In a sense I'm glad about that. In another, I'm not. Not with the…stuff that I had to go through, that Daisy and Hope did too. It's better this way, I think."

Chessie waited a minute, then spoke softly. "I don't know what I'm doing. I never have."

Bartender looked up at her, leaning against the counter. "I keep forgetting, you're not much more than a kid."

"Yeah, me too," Chessie leaned against the opposite counter. "I don't feel like I'm only nineteen."

"Life sucks like that," Bartender agreed.

Out in the living room a door slammed, and almost immediately several voices began shouting.

Chessie and Bartender ran back into the living room, where Verity- Verity?- was sobbing madly, surrounded by alarmed werewolves and a pissed-off Tonks, who was diving for a small, plain box on the mantle marked 'floo powder'.

"Verity?" Chessie asked as she stopped dead in the doorway in shock.

Her blonde friend looked just as she did in Chessie's memory- skinny but in a soft way, short blonde hair, and big blue eyes that rivaled Rose's. She was wearing khakis and a pink shirt that were stained with tears.

"Chessie?" She looked up through her hands and tears, and an expression of relief fluttered across her face. "Oh, Chessie-."

Chessie ran over to where Verity was sprawled on the floor and sat down by her. The blonde threw her pale arms around Chessie's shoulders and began to cry all over again.

"What happened?" Chessie asked. "Ver, what's happening?"

"I was going to pick Rose up from school because the nurse called on the muggle phone George had somebody install and said she wasn't feeling well again, so I told the twins I was going to get her and I went to the school and checked her out and-" she hiccupped and took another shaky breath, "- and when I was walking with Rose back to the Leaky Cauldron, a horrible…someone came and snatched Rose out of my arms and ran, so I came straight here but the flat's full and I don't know what's going on!"

"Rose is gone?" Chessie said dully. Tonks turned around from the fire, where she'd been talking by floo to someone. Lupin came and sat down on Verity's other side as Chessie awkwardly patted her on the back like a person being used as a Kleenex should.

"Verity- look at me- what did this 'somebody' look like?" Lupin asked firmly.

"Hmm?" Verity sniffed, letting go of Chessie. "He was big- well, I don't know if he was tall or not but he had lots of muscles and was sort of wide- and had eyes like Chessie and…and all of them," she said, noticing all the other werewolves for the first time.

"Greyback," Daisy said matter-of-factly. "It was Greyback, and they're going to the Howling. That old pub where Bartender works sometimes."

The room got silent. Chessie scooted over so she was sitting in front of Daisy, and held the girl's hands as though they were best friends.

"Daisy, are you sure?" she asked slowly.

"Yep," Daisy nodded, for once serious.

"How do you know this?" Chessie asked, studying the girl intently.

"I told you, I'm psychic. Do you believe me now?"

"You didn't?" Bartender asked wryly.

"I didn't have proof. I'm sort of fixated on that, having proof. I still don't know if I believe her," Chessie said.

Daisy pursed her lips, "I can't really think of another- wait…" she looked at Chessie, "Who're the redheads?" She asked. The other kids and wolves looked confused.

Chessie let go of Daisy's thin hands and sat back. How would she know? She couldn't. Chessie had been exceedingly careful to not mention them. Him. Up until now, not even Bartender knew Rose's name, she was just the 'little bird' back in London. So how would Daisy know?

She's really psychic, Chessie thought. We have a Seer in our group.

"It's a trap, you know," Marjorie said darkly, leaning over the back of the couch in a blue sundress and with her hair in a tidy French braid that trailed over one of her shoulders. "The kid- Rose- is bait. He wants you, I think."

"Why," Kel, the pale wolf with dreadlocks asked, "is Greyback holding some kid- sorry, Chessie- hostage, when he's supposed to be snowed in in northern England?"

One of the quieter wolves, who had been staring in curiosity at Tonks' antics in the background as she barked questions and orders at various witches and wizards via floo, spoke up in a voice so ragged he sounded like he was choking on cement.

"Chessie showed him up. She started her own pack and left, instead of acting like a sniveling dog like the rest of us. Greyback wants revenge for her ruining his powerbase."

Kel nodded slightly, "That makes sense, but how'd he get here?"

"It was a false sighting," Tonks said angrily through her teeth. "Damn rookies. It was someone else they saw of the right basic shape. Greyback's here in London." She seethed by the fire, hair turning blacker than a kettle.

"Now what?" Beau asked, sitting amongst the confused, scared children near Burt's feet. They all alternated between looking at Tonks, Lupin, and Chessie for solutions. Verity stared at them.

"Are they all…are you all werewolves?" She asked timidly, still sniffling. Several wolves froze. Chessie grinned ruefully.

"Out of everyone in this room, only Tonks and you aren't."

Verity looked around. "Oh," she managed a small smile at the children. "Hi," she said shakily. Beau, Hope, and Daisy moved closer, encouraged.

"Wait," Tonks muttered, "Where are the twins?"

"Closing shop."

"Closing shop?" Chessie asked incredulously. The twins only closed Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes for emergencies, such as quidditch and death.

"Yeah. We decided this constitutes as an emergency. Rose is kidnapped, you're back…."

Daisy pat Verity's back comfortingly.

"So now what?" She asked Chessie brightly, who frowned in thought.

"We need a plan," she said firmly, staring blankly at the carpet in concentration. "fast."