Ha ha, it's been a while. And haven't you missed us while I was too lazy and work encompassed to finish this chapter? No? I didn't expect so.

Present - They go to see Remus' mahmmy.

Enjoy, review and recommend x

Morning came with a thud, a crash and the oh so uncomfortable feeling of Remus peeling himself from my chest and staggering out into the frosty December air. To no great surprise, the sun had barely risen – it was in a constant state of 'barely risen' around this time of the year and would still have been at about 3 in the afternoon, at which point, it would begin to set again – and, though the sky now began to show flickers of a shrill, wintry blue, it wasn't much cause for celebration.

My fiancé, who was currently on the other side of the room, appeared to be wrestling with the small, sliding window I'd so endeavoured to keep shut over the past few days for the sake of keeping the blood in our veins flowing. He grunted and strained and managed to rattle the frame upwards just enough for the room to fill with concentrated outdoors and a little grey owl to wiggle through the gap. Two yellow eyes, that had clearly outgrown the head, scanned the room and brought their scrutinising attention to my morning-face as it shook the snow from its feathers, before reaching under itself for a letter that had been tied with ribbon around its waist and addressed to a certain Remus Lupin. Something about the hand it had been written in radiated a warm familiarity, though the messenger seemed to be attempting to burn that notion out of my mind with a cold, unforgiving glare.

"It's a letter..." Remus uttered, maintaining a curious gaze upon the surface envelope as he returned to the bed. "I wasn't expecting a letter... You weren't, were you?"

His eyes drifted over to me – and my thirty bed-chins, no doubt. "I'm never expectinganything, Moons. So just get on with it – it's not gonna eat you."

He tore the seal and pulled a thin piece of paper from its packaging. Then the room died. He didn't speak. I didn't speak. And I waited, in utter silence, possibly without breathing – I knew he wasn't – listening to the birds in the trees and the cars in the snow and the clink and the clunk of breakfast below us. Maybe it was Tora, the thought had crossed my mind more than a thousand times since we'd last met up with her, and I'd been wishing and praying for good news for a long while now. Yes, yes, maybe it was Tora, maybe there was a baby, and maybe that baby was ours.

Remus dropped the letter on the duvet and crawled back over.

"Hmm, Remmie?" I mumbled as he placed a sloppy kiss on my cheek and snuggled further into me.

"Nothing... you smell delicious, you know that?" He nuzzled his face into my chest. "Oh, and Fabes wrote."

I cocked my head to one side. And then it dawned on me. How could I have forgotten about Fabes? He was Fabes! He was my backup James! He was the fifth Marauder that they forgot to write into the Bible!

"Oh, really, Fabes? And here I thought you were just staring at a blank piece of parchment."

He shook his head at me and waved an envelope, that was much smaller in cubic capacity than the one before but somehow still managed to hold the same enthralling prospect in its wake, in front of my face.

X

And the winner for the longest hide and seek game goes to:

THE PADSTER

People still call you that, right? Whatever. It's been a long time, things change. But as they say: 'once you go Black you never go back.'

Though I do have news for you. Good news... Bad news... I don't know... I can't really say that it's good news because it sort of goes against everything you taught me through my youth. And I can tell you're probably already guessing, but don't – it'll ruin the disappointment when I get to show you.

Loves and kisses from the Ex-Cuddlemuffin.

X

I rested the letter back on the bed and bit the inside of my cheek.

"I'm not going to be able to see him, am I?"

Remus' gaze flickered about the room. "Well-"

"The Ministry's upping their search and they know that I'm an animagus. So bluntly, I'm not going to be able to see him."

He drew me into a tight hug and pecked the top of my head, muttering something ridiculous about using the floo network.

"You naïve moonbeam, do you understand where the floo network goes? Or how it's monitored? We might as well just take me up and hand me in right now," I sighed.

Then he stood, spreading a strong smile across his face, and muttered "I'm going to find Peter."