At the knock on Madam Pomfrey's door, Remus went to the window. Outside was the other boy from Athena's pack. Since the full moon, he had trimmed the sides of his hair, leaving the top shaggy. He wore a T-shirt for the muggle band Pink Floyd under a denim jacket decorated with an absurd number of safety pins. His jeans were faded and worn much too low on his hips, and a chain hung from his front belt loop and back pocket, dangling to his knee. He saw Remus looking through the window and waved with an exaggerated grin.

Remus opened the door. The boy walked in, and stopped short when he saw Vinnie asleep on Madam Pomfrey's sofa. "Morgan's tailfeathers! They got him bad, didn't they?"

"I'm afraid so," Madam Pomfrey said. "It could have been worse, though. There were a lot of shards, but they weren't very deep. He may still be able to use that arm."

"Can I wake him up?"

"Go right ahead. We were just waiting for you."

He knelt in front of the sofa, but it took him a moment to figure out where he could touch to wake the boy without hurting him. Finally, he brushed Vinnie's hair back from his face, careful of a scar near the corner of his eye. Vinnie's blue eyes eased opened.

"Hey, Vin. Remember me?"

"Chris," Vinnie said in a raspy whisper. He started to smile, but it turned into a grimace. "I don't feel good."

"No, I bet you don't. Can you sit up for me?"

Vinnie pushed himself up, wincing. "Is Anissa all right?"

"Yeah, she wasn't hurt at all," Chris said. "You got in front of her, didn't you?"

"She's so little. And I thought it was going to be a Stunner."

Vinnie started crying, and Chris pulled him into a hug. "I know," Chris said, rocking him. "I know. You're safe now. It'll be OK. You're safe." He kept repeating "you're safe now" until Vinnie calmed down, then turned to Madam Pomfrey and asked, "Is he OK to travel?"

"I wouldn't do Side-Along Apparition for a few weeks, but broom, Knight Bus, portkey, that sort of thing should be all right." She reached into her medical bag and pulled out a large jar filled with green gel. "This salve will help with the pain. Put on a very thin layer once a day. When you run out, come back and get more. I've got plenty of it."

"Thanks, Ma'am. For everything." Chris cast a strength charm on himself and knelt in front of Vinnie. "Up in piggyback, Vin?"

Vinnie climbed onto his back. He stood and hefted him up, then looked at Remus and jerked his head towards the door. "You coming or what?"

Without waiting for an answer, he walked out the door. Remus grabbed his suitcase, made his own thanks to Madam Pomfrey, and ran to catch up with them as Chris turned down an alley.

"So they tell me you're not actually an undercover Hit Wizard," Chris said.

"Why would you think I was?" Remus asked.

Chris snorted and said in a mocking voice, "'Do you know a safe place to transform?' No one asks werewolves that in public except Hit Wizards and idiots."

"I suppose I'm an idiot, then. I was in a tight spot."

"Uh huh. For the record, the only reason I'm bringing you with is because Athena said if I didn't, don't bother coming back at all. And that's usually Eddie's thing, so I think she actually means it."

They had reached an isolated spot. Chris let Vinnie down, then took a mokeskin pouch out of his back pocket and put the salve into it. How could a werewolf who was selling his hair for potion ingredients afford mokeskin? He unhooked the chain from it and his belt loop, then gave one end to Remus and the other to Vinnie.

"I'm going to do a portkey on a count of 10. You want to give me a countdown, Vin?" He cast the spell and took hold of the chain near Vinnie's hand while Vinnie counted backwards from 10, his voice a raspy whisper.

When Vinnie reached '1', Remus felt the familiar sensation of a hook yanking around his belly and rushing him through space. When he stopped, though, there was nothing underneath him. He barely realized he was falling before cold water splashed up around him. When he came to the surface, Chris was laughing on a pier above the swimming hole he had fallen into.

"That was mean," Vinnie said.

"It's just a joke. You can take a joke, can't you, Officer?"

Little did Chris know that James had done this exact thing to Remus three times, and Peter once, until Remus learned not to give the reaction they were looking for. He swam to the bank and summoned his suitcase before it floated down the stream. "I'm actually impressed with your aim. Two feet off in any direction wouldn't have worked."

Chris frowned as Remus dried himself off with his wand, but waited for him to finish. He led him and Vinnie away from the swimming hole and to an empty clearing nearby, then took Vinnie's hand and grabbed Remus's arm. The back of a house faded into view in front of them. He took them inside into a wide hallway with a staircase. A wave of dizziness came over Remus, and he stumbled. Chris let go of his arm and would have let him fall if he hadn't caught himself.

"Welcome back," Athena said, coming out of a room to the left. She bent down to Vinnie's level and brushed his hair away from his face. "How you feeling, Vinnie?"

"It hurts."

"I bet. I've got some stuff that might help, OK?"

Chris took the salve out of his pouch and handed it to her. "Here's some more. The lady healer said I could come back and get more when this runs out."

"Thanks. You hungry, Vinnie?" Vinnie nodded. "Dinner's all ready. Why don't you go on in? You guys, too."

Vinnie went into the room she'd just left, but Chris instead started up the staircase.

"Chris, where are you going?" Athena asked.

"I'm going to split my room," Chris said. "Vinnie can bunk in with me, but I'm not sharing with him." He jabbed his thumb in Remus's direction.

"You can do that after dinner."

"I'll eat at the game."

"You need to eat some real food."

"You know Alban throws a wobbler if people don't eat his snacks. I think it's the fae blood in him." Chris shrugged. "He probably owns my soul by now, but oh well. I wasn't using it anyway."

"Chris, you ran full moon two days ago. You need some protein."

"You're not my mum, Athena."

Athena looked like he'd just slapped her. "Fine, do what you want," she said, going back into the adjoining room.

"'Thene, wait," Chris said, going after her. "I didn't mean it."

Dinner was awkward. Afterwards, Chris transfigured his room into two, and Remus settled into the smaller. He slept fitfully that night, each unfamiliar creak and groan of the house waking him, so the loud 'crack' of Apparition jerked him straight up in bed. Silence followed it, until he questioned whether he had actually heard something. He went to the window, which overlooked the creek and swimming hole. Chris was near the pier, his jacket missing. He stumbled towards the house with his head down and cradling his right arm, then fell. Remus heard the yelp of pain even through the window.

Remus ran out of his room, down the stairs and out of the house to him. "Chris, what's wrong?" he asked, kneeling beside him as he rocked back and forth.

Chris looked up at him. He was covered in bruises, and one of his eyes was swollen nearly shut. Blood oozed from a split in his lip. "My arm's broken. Can I borrow your wand to fix it?"

Chris had dropped his own wand when he fell. It was cracked in the middle and bent at an angle, barely held together by a strand of dragon heartstring. Only a miracle had kept him from splinching, apparating with that.

"That's advanced magic," Remus said.

"It's advanced magic I've done about a hundred times. Can I borrow it or not?"

Remus handed over his wand, but he didn't expect this to go well. A broken bone was more than a simple first aid spell could handle, and it was Chris's wand arm besides. Nonetheless, Chris cast the spell, and his arm strained and pulled together amid groans and choked-back grunts. After a minute, Chris flexed his fingers to be sure they were working, and handed back his wand. "Thank you."

"What about the rest?" Remus asked as Chris pushed himself to his feet. He lost his balance, and grabbed onto Remus's shoulder to steady himself.

"I'll take care of it in the morning."

"I could—"

"I'll take care of it in the morning. You coming or not?" He took a few steps towards the house, and Remus saw a folded parchment pinned to his back with one of his safety pins.

"What's this?" he asked, grabbing hold of the pin. It wasn't hooked into Chris's shirt like he'd thought. It was stabbed into his skin.

Chris said "don't pull that," but Remus had already pulled it out by the time he finished. A moment later, he realized the parchment was actually a Howler. The voice that exploded out of it echoed across the clearing: "Athena, train your dog!"

Chris groaned and let his head drop backwards. "Good one, Officer. I ought to leave you out here." He took hold of Remus's arm. Ostensibly it was to take him back into the hidden house, but judging by the weight he put on it, Chris needed the support.

Athena had reached the ground floor by the time Chris came in, with Eddie behind her, and her eyes widened when she saw him. "Merlin's Beard! Chris, what happened?"

Chris sighed. "I called out Narshank for cheating."

"What? Everyone cheats in that game! That's the point of the game!"

"Narshank wasn't even being subtle about it, though! He was putting it right in our face. That's just arrogant."

"No, arrogant is calling out Narshank the Nasty at his own poker game," Eddie said. "You seriously got beat up by a goblin?"

"No, I got beat up by a troll. The goblin just ordered it."

Selena leaned over the staircase railing, Vinnie clinging to her side. "Didn't we let him move in with us so he wouldn't do stuff like this?"

"Did you forget that the Ministry made my job illegal?" Chris snapped.

Athena put her hands up to stop everyone. "Let me handle this, please. Selena, would you please take Vinnie back to bed?"

"All right." Selena took Vinnie's hand and led him back up the stairs.

"Is he hurt?" Vinnie asked.

"No, just stupid," Selena stage whispered.

Chris crossed his arms and stared at the floor as Athena turned her attention back to him. "Go ahead and yell. I deserve it. I know I messed up."

Athena pulled him into a tight hug, as though fearing he'd slip away if she let go. He stood stiffly until a shudder went through her and she started crying, then he wrapped his arms around her. "Come on, 'Thene, don't cry. I'm not hurt that bad."

"My best friend died last night, and I don't want to lose you, too."

"You won't. It's not that serious, I swear."

"It could be." She let go of him, but kept her hands on his shoulders. "It's easy to forget when you're on their good side, but Narshank and Alban are dangerous. I thought I could trust you to do this alone. Was I wrong?"

"No. I'll be more careful next time, I promise."

Athena wiped her eye and cast a first aid spell to take care of his bruises. "Go and head up to bed. Eddie can yell at you in the morning."