Wednesday morning dawned bright and much too soon. Remus managed to shower, dress, and feed himself through the power of routine alone, only startled out of his stupor by a note he received at breakfast.

Remus,

Kindly meet me at four PM in my office.

Minerva.

Remus went from half asleep to wide awake in a heartbeat. Did she know-?

No; Minerva had definitely said something just days ago about reconvening Team Potter today, hadn't she? A surreptitious scan of the staff table showed Poppy nowhere to be found but Severus slipping his own hand inside his robes pocket. Well, at least this was likely about Harry, then, and not Sirius.

Still, the adrenaline lingered in his veins all day, just enough to keep him focused (and sweaty) throughout his Defense classes. By the time four o'clock rolled around, he had worked himself back up into a nervous mess. His anxiety was not at all appeased by the fact that Minerva was the last of Team Potter to arrive; Remus and Severus and even Poppy were all waiting outside her office by the time Minerva appeared around a corner, cradling a heavy-looking Pensieve in her hands.

"Is that Dumbledore's Pensieve?" Severus asked.

Minerva took the question for an offer to hold it and thrust the stone bowl into his hands so she could pull out her wand and unlock her office door. "Yes," she confirmed as she ushered them in, but offered no further explanation until she had poured everyone tea and prepared her minutes. "I managed to borrow it from Albus for the afternoon to show you all what Remus and I learned from Weasley and Granger."

Remus, who had only just started to recover from the stress of thinking he was about to be accused of aiding and abetting a mass murderer, panicked again. No doubt Severus would spend the whole memory looking for suspicious behavior, and, even worse, he would surely find it.

"Oh, please don't," he groaned at Minerva. "It's rather mortifying, isn't it?"

"Mr. Potter's got nothing to be ashamed of," Poppy replied soothingly.

Remus didn't even have to fake his blush. "It's embarrassing for me, actually."

Poppy raised her eyebrows at him, and then furrowed them in concern. "What did you do?" she asked.

Remus blushed deeper and studiously avoided Severus' delighted gaze. "I, er, had a bit of a… breakdown." He cleared his throat. "About James and Lily."

"Oh, Remus," Poppy's exhortation was laced with both care and disappointment. "Didn't I tell you not to react to what they say?"

Remus suddenly remembered Poppy's instructions from the last conference of Team Potter. His eyes widened and he looked at Minerva, whose face reflected his sudden guilt. Poppy peered between the two of them with her hands on her hips and increasingly narrowed eyes.

"Don't tell me you forgot the rest of it, too?" she demanded.

"I mean, it's not so much that we forgot to tell them all those things; more that we started explaining our purpose and the kids just jumped right in."

"They did give us precious little time to relay all of your suggestions," Minerva concurred.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Poppy huffed. "Never send two grown professors to do a healer's job!"

"More like never send a Dark Creature to-"

"That's enough, Severus!" snapped Minerva.

Severus sniffed. "I, for one, would like to see the memories," he said, eyes glittering with malice.

"You took notes, didn't you, Minerva?" Remus hurried to ask. She nodded in an affirmative.

"I suppose the notes will do," Poppy mused. "No point getting myself more worked up about you two if the conversation's already happened."

Severus glowered at Remus the whole time Minerva rattled off her notes from Hermione and Ron. Remus wished he could feel some sort of vindication when Severus, too, flinched at the part about Lily and James. Instead, he just felt sad.

"I also spoke to Fred and George Weasley yesterday," Minerva continued. "They confirmed Ron Weasley's testimony about bars on Potter's windows. They also reported the following observations: Harry's bedroom door was secured from the outside with six heavy locks, and they did indeed reach those locks through a cat flap in the bedroom door. Harry's school trunk was stored in the cupboard under the stairs, the door to which was also host to four heavy locks and a cat flap. Finally, the cupboard also contained a small toddler-sized mattress, which was lying on the floor under the trunk."

Poppy was frowning. "What's all this about cat flaps?"

Minerva pursed her lips. "I have my theories but I very much hope they're not true. Severus, when you… spoke with Petunia Dursley, did you get a sense as to their significance?"

Severus closed his eyes briefly. "When Potter was locked in the cupboard or the room, they passed him canned food, mostly soup, through the door."

Poppy gasped. "How long did they keep him locked up for?"

"He was locked in the cupboard for a week on several occasions as a child."

Remus's vision was taken over by grey static. He was going to kill them. As soon as he cleared Sirius' name he was going to kill Petunia, and then her husband, and then Dolores Umbridge, and then he was going to turn himself into the ministry and get sent to Azkaban, where he would kill Peter.

Petunia, Vernon, Umbridge, Peter. Petunia, Vernon, Umbridge, Peter. He repeated his hit list in a steady rhythm until the beat calmed him somewhat.

He looked up to see the rest of Team Potter watching him nervously (in the case of Poppy and Minerva, at least; gleefully, in the case of Severus).

"Er, sorry," Remus said. "Did you say something?"

"You were breathing quite abnormally," Poppy explained.

"Did I-?" Remus' hand reached up to touch his cheek before he could consider the implications; his fingers came off dry but Severus' eyes shone with vindictiveness.

"If Petunia's memories are useless in court, maybe we should just move on?" Poppy suggested, laying a comforting hand on Remus' shoulder blade. "I daresay we've collected enough admissible evidence by now to make a report, don't you think, Minerva?"

"I do," Minerva agreed.

"Is there no way to skip the usual channels for this process and raise Potter's case to someone higher up in the Ministry?" Severus asked. "I don't trust any old ministry employee not to partake in idle gossip," he finished with a sneer.

"Yes, I do rather worry about that myself," added Poppy.

"I may be able to call in Amelia Bones," Minerva said. "She's been quite busy since her promotion but we do correspond occasionally."

"Amelia Bones?" Remus echoed. "Isn't she leading the Sirius Black investigation?"

"Yes, she would be, as Head of the DMLE. But she's still, as they say, the best in the business, and I believe I can convince her to set aside some time for Harry Potter."

"Literally?" Remus asked.

"Pardon?"

"Would she literally come to Hogwarts, to meet with him? Or with us?"

"Oh, I don't know if we could arrange that without alerting Albus," Minerva said thoughtfully. "But I imagine I can persuade her to meet us in Hogsmeade this Sunday, especially since her niece will be there."

Remus groaned; he'd forgotten the kids had a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. "The Full's on Saturday," he explained.

Severus opened his mouth and Remus braced himself.

"Whatever you're about to say, Severus, I highly suggest that you don't," Minerva snapped.

He closed his mouth with bad grace.

Remus shot Minerva a grateful smile. "There's no way I'm missing the meeting with Bones. But if it's at all possible to schedule it for the afternoon instead of the morning, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course. I'll owl her tonight and ask for an audience."

"I imagine Madam Bones will want to know who Harry's alternative guardians are," Severus said suggestively, still obviously smarting from Minerva's earlier chastisement.

Poppy and Minerva turned towards Remus. "I've, er, technically made contact," Remus said, "but he has several affairs he needs to get in order."

"Who is it, then?"

Remus refused to flinch; he knew this was coming. "An old family friend."

"I won't wait all day for a name, Lupin," drawled Severus.

"I suggest you don't hold your breath," Remus replied, as calmly as he could. "He can't commit to anything right now, and I won't subject him to your scrutiny until he's ready to come forward."

Severus stood up to lean more threateningly towards Remus, ignoring the startled cries of the women whose laps he was leaning over. "I know you're hiding something, Lupin," he murmured, vowels elongated with hatred, a terrifying glint in his eyes that Remus hadn't seen since they were sixteen.

"Severus!" Minerva yelled. He finally tore his eyes from Remus' to give her a disdainful glance. "Can we not have one meeting in which you refrain from casting aspersions about a fellow staff member?"

"Are you so blind you cannot see the wolf is plotting something?" Severus seethed. "It is beyond me why you still refuse to go to Dumbledore-"

That was the wrong thing to say; Minerva stood too, drawing her shoulders back angrily and raising her chin in defiance. "Are you so blind you continue to place your faith in a man who has done nothing for Harry but set him up for danger, repeatedly, before he even learned how to defend himself?"

"Potter's thick skin has served him just fine so far-"

"Oh, I know quite well how you feel about his abilities, Severus! Have you not said yourself, repeatedly, that the boy has survived so far on sheer dumb luck in place of any notable magical talent? Are you not at all bothered that he has found himself in several situations where his survival hinged on said sheer dumb luck alone?"

Severus looked sufficiently cowed, but Minerva was not to be appeased.

"I, for one, had an enlightening conversation with Arabella Figg last Sunday. She's been watching over Potter since the day he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. Did you know she wrote to Albus with concerns eight times before Harry came to Hogwarts? And he told her the protection Potter has in that home outweighs the 'rather cool welcome' he received." Poppy scoffed and Minerva nodded at her sharply in agreement. "Albus has had his chances to intervene and chose not to. We'll tell him when we're ready to make the report and not a minute sooner."

Severus glowered at all three of them. "Very well."

Remus barely dared to breathe in the tense silence that followed. Finally, Poppy spoke up.

"If we're meeting Madam Bones this weekend, we should probably convene one last time to get our evidence in order and whatnot," she said. "Friday afternoon, perhaps?"

"Very well," Severus repeated. Minerva nodded her assent.

"My office is available," Remus offered.

"Thank you, Remus," Poppy said.

Severus stood, shot one last venomous glare Remus' way, and stalked out of the room, robes billowing dramatically behind him. That stare twisted a cold shard of foreboding into Remus' gut; it meant no good would come out of this. It said Severus would not be quick to forget nor forgive, and that Remus would pay dearly for his humiliation.

"Would you like to stay for tea, Poppy?" Minerva asked, casually as can be. "Remus has been demanding to know the full saga of Potter's exploits; you're welcome to join us."

"Oh, I'd best be getting back to the infirmary," Poppy responded. "I have some aspiring healers I've taken to mentoring in the evenings."

"Ah, yes," Minerva said. "Well, until Friday."

Minerva was oddly silent once Poppy left. She set about making another pot of tea while Remus fought down his urge to demand immediate answers about this thrice-damned troll.

"Thank you for sticking up for me," he finally decided on. "It means a lot to have coworkers I respect speaking up against bigotry."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say. "Don't think you're off the hook," Minerva answered coolly. "I won't have anyone spewing hatred about lycanthropes in my presence but I can't deny Severus has a point: you've been acting very suspiciously, Remus."

Remus' blood ran cold and his shoulders tensed for an instant before he forced himself to relax. Just when he thought he'd gotten away with his late-night visit to the shack…

"Is this because of the dog-?"

"I had quite an interesting conversation with a house elf named Tippy yesterday."

Bollocks. How had he forgotten to talk Tippy into covering for him?

"Ah. Well you should know, Tippy really has a mind of her own. She got it into her head that the food I was bringing to the dog was really for some mysterious lady friend. She was so excited about the prospect that I really didn't have the heart to talk her out of it."

"I don't like being lied to by my own colleagues, Remus," Minerva warned. "And you should know your predecessors have not endeared me to trusting Defense professors."

"I really am telling you the truth about Tippy," Remus protested.

"Oh, I have no doubt there's no lady friend you're taking on dates," Minerva replied.

Despite his determination not to react to her words, Remus felt a hot blush creep over his jaw and down his neck. He briefly wondered whether Severus' accusations, though certainly no less painful, would at least be less mortifying.

Remus cleared his throat several times. "Yes, well, I didn't mean to lie to Tippy. I just asked her for a lot of food, for the dog, and she thought it was for… a date."

"Let's recap, shall we?" Minerva straightened her shoulders and stared only at Remus as she counted lies off on her fingers; it was frankly terrifying for reasons Remus couldn't quite put words to. "You found a stray dog in the woods while looking for Sirius Black, a purely extra-curricular pursuit that you have not bothered to coordinate with nor inform any of your fellow professors about, even though we are all also actively looking for Black."

Remus gulped.

"You decided to keep the dog in the Shrieking Shack and have been bringing it food and human hygiene items in order to win over its trust, hoping to have canine company during the Full Moon."

"Technically the human hygiene items are for me, for after the full. I've just been stocking up the shack ahead of time."

Minerva raised her eyebrows at him but did not respond to this clarification, except to continue her list. "You let the kitchen elves believe that the food is for a mysterious woman you are taking on picnic dates in the middle of February, and you let Poppy believe that you were only paying the elves social visits until she saw you entering the tunnel under the Whomping Willow."

Remus did his best to hold back a wince. He did not succeed.

"Around the same time that you supposedly discovered this stray dog and started visiting the kitchens, you discovered that Harry Potter was being abused by his relatives."

"You know that's the truth though-"

"The timing remains suspicious, especially given you have repeatedly refused to disclose the identity of the mysterious family friend who you believe not only has a desire to take care of Harry but also a legal right to do so. And you have been adamantly against recounting any of this to the Headmaster until the last possible moment."

"You just said you agree that Dumbledore-"

"Only after I talked to Arabella Figg. You, on the other hand, never fully explained why you were so sure Albus couldn't be trusted from the outset," Minerva added.

"He's the one who sent Harry to live with them in the first place; everyone knows that!"

"Your mistrust runs deeper than that and you know it as well as I."

Remus snapped his mouth shut and stared at his old Head of House. When she laid it all out like that he did sound well and truly fucked. But. She still had no proof.

"Finally, you first brought your concerns to my attention the day after Sirius Black successfully broke into Gryffindor Tower."

It was almost a relief to finally be accused of something Remus had played absolutely no part in. It steadied him a bit; he always lied more successfully when he could tell a little bit of the truth.

"Minerva," Remus murmured, leaning towards her just slightly. "I lost all of my friends in one night to a man I thought I could trust with my life. I spent twelve long years alone, lost, grieving. Several of them I spent homeless. I'm still not quite sure how I survived; you've seen for yourself now that I never fully recovered."

"Remus-"

"I lost so many jobs due to my lycanthropy that I lost count many years ago. I'm used to keeping to myself now for my own survival. I found a starving dog alone in the forest and I couldn't just leave him there because he reminded me of myself. I like spending time with the house elves because I feel a sense of kinship with them that I sometimes struggle to find around humans."

"I don't-"

"Black's breakout from Azkaban has set me permanently on edge, and having Harry back in my life again, caring for him, has significantly raised the stakes for me. Now I'm terrified that Harry will be harmed again because I put my trust in the wrong people.

"I know I've been acting strangely, Minerva. I understand why you think my secrecy is concerning. But you've never been six years old and forced to learn that your worst, most personal tragedy would make grown wizards want to kill you if they knew about it. That kind of lesson changes you for life. I've kept my cards close to my chest for too many years now to just lay them out before I'm ready."

Remus paused to draw a breath and realized it felt strangely harsh in his lungs. Oh fuck, when did his improvised alibi become the truth?

Minerva leaned towards him, too. "Don't you know you can trust me, Remus?" she said softly. "Or Poppy, at least?"

"I thought I could trust P- Sirius. I did trust him, Minerva; for the first time in my life I had three whole friends I trusted inherently. I trusted Dumbledore, too! And he knew what they were doing to Harry and he did nothing. I can't trust anyone," he whispered.

Minerva sighed heavily. "You realize your insistence that you cannot trust anyone does nothing to raise you above suspicion?"

Remus chuckled. "When has anyone ever assumed the werewolf to be above suspicion?"

"Oh, don't let Severus get-"

"This goes well beyond Severus and you know it. Don't think I didn't realize half the Order thought I was the spy during the war."

She pursed her lips but Remus knew she couldn't argue with that.

"If you cannot trust me then you leave me no choice but to think similarly of you."

Remus leaned back in his chair to cover a flinch; her words, though not unexpected, still hurt.

"I really do want what's best for Harry," he said, almost like an afterthought. "There are some things I won't tell you right now but I swear I have never helped Sirius Black into the castle and I would never help anyone hurt Harry. I'll make an Unbreakable right now if you want me to. I vow to never put Harry in danger; I vow to protect him, always, to the best of my abilities; I vow to place his well-being above all other commitments and priorities."

The vow wasn't binding without Minerva's participation and the binding spell of a third-party witness, but still, he felt the weight of his words on his shoulders.

"I do believe you," Minerva said finally.

Remus allowed his eyes to close for several seconds in relief. When he opened them, Minerva was reaching for Remus' untouched mug of cold tea and vanishing its contents alongside her own. He watched her busy herself with preparing a fresh pot and felt the tension in the room slowly start to dissipate.

Once the tea was ready, Minerva handed him a fresh hot cup. "I do believe you want to protect Harry," she repeated. "Which is why I hesitate to tell you anything more about his first two years here, for fear of upsetting you."

A short bark of laughter escaped Remus' lips on the tail end of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Oh, go on then," he pleaded. "If I have to ask about the damn troll one more time I really will just go straight to Harry himself. And I'm sure that's not a good look for a professor."

Minerva eyed him steadily, and then relented. "Before we get to the troll, you should know some other things first," she said. "What do you remember about the philosopher's stone?"

...

Two hours later, Remus left Minerva's office in a regretful fugue.

He had really thought he wanted to know about the troll incident. And the quidditch incidents. And the flying car and the Whomping Willow incident. He hadn't exactly been looking forward to hearing about the Voldemort-in-the-Forest incident, but he had very much felt the need to know how the hell Harry had found himself in it at the tender age of eleven. And yet, even as he left Minerva's office in a daze, mind spinning and blood boiling in equal measures, deeply regretting his insistence on knowing everything at once, Remus still couldn't make himself not want to know why exactly Hermione had gotten herself turned into a cat, and how the hell Harry and Ron had been involved (because they undoubtedly were, even if Minerva could never prove it).

On the bright side, the (dog) person Remus most ached to talk to about Harry's exploits was probably already waiting for him in the shack. It was this thought alone that kept Remus from collapsing into his bed and hoping he did not wake back up for a very, very long time. Instead, with a giddy anticipation tempered significantly by weariness, Remus headed down to the kitchens.

"Hullo Tippy!"

"Master Remus! Another basket for your date?"

Remus would have expected the elves to be bored of, or at least used to, him by now, but if anything, Tippy seemed even more excited to see him with each passing day.

"Yes please," he answered.

Tippy instantly shoved an extra large basket into Remus' hands. "Tippy has prepared something extra special for Master Remus," she replied.

"Oh Merlin, what is it?"

"It has to be a surprise, Master Remus!" Tippy insisted.

"I don't like surprises," Remus lied, ignoring the fact that the best day of his life had been the day he blinked and found his three best friends replaced by a stag, a dog, and a rat.

"Too bad," Tippy declared. "The basket will not open for just one person! Master Remus will see the surprise when he is ready to eat with his lady friend!"

Remus groaned loudly, which seemed to make Tippy even happier. Remus found himself wondering whether Tippy had ever been on his side at all.

"Can you promise me there are no singing dahlias, at least?"

"Tippy promises there are no singing dahlias!" she affirmed with a smile that could worry even Fred and George Weasley.

With a heavy sigh and a heavier feeling of foreboding, Remus accepted the basket and trudged out of the kitchens. On top of everything else, he would really need to find Peter soon before Tippy got Remus inadvertently married to Sirius or something.

Remus came to a panicked halt in the middle of the entrance hall, then sprinted back down to the kitchens.

"Tippy!"

The elf had been reaching for something on the top shelf of the cupboard but she twisted around at Remus' voice and leapt off the small stool she had been standing on.

"Yes, Master Remus?" she asked with an exaggerated air of innocence.

"Please tell me there are no engagement rings in the basket."

Tippy grinned widely. "Master Remus is thinking about engagement rings?" she squealed, loudly enough for several other house elves to stop their tasks and look over.

"NO! No. I am very much not thinking about engagement rings. Please promise me you haven't snuck one in here anyway," he pleaded, holding up the basket.

"Tippy promises no engagement rings… Today."

The relief that flooded Remus was enough to lift his mood, though he knew he would have to be on high alert tomorrow.

"Right then. Thanks Tippy. See you later!"