They appeared in a dimly lit room and it took Freddie a moment to recognize it was her own office at St Mungo's before Lupin had rounded on them, his face a mask of fury.
"What were you two doing?!" he demanded. His normally kind brown eyes looked furious and full of fire. He raised his wand threateningly, pointing it between the two of them. "Were you trying to break in?"
"No!" Freddie yelped, stepping in front of Ada so that Lupin had his wand pressed to her chest.
"Did you send the dementors after Harry?!"
"No!" she shouted back. "No, Remus! They came after us first, ask Severus, ask Dumbledore!"
"It's true!" Ada said desperately from over Freddie's shoulder. "We were attacked earlier today."
"Then what were you doing at Azkaban?" he demanded, still not lowering his wand.
"It was my fault," Freddie said. "I thought – I c-couldn't cast my Patronus earlier, when the dementors were so close to us, I...I fainted." She grimaced. "I wanted to face them again, I needed to be sure I could do it, that I could defend myself against them if I needed to."
"So you decided to go to Azkaban?"
"Yes! I know it's stupid, but please believe me – I never wanted to go into the prison, I would never hurt Potter! I only wanted to practice fighting dementors. You know me, Remus, you know I've been doing everything I can to help the Order. Please, believe me."
"I believe you," he said, finally lowering his wand and exhaling slowly. "I think you're an idiot, possibly insane, but I do believe you."
Freddie groaned and took a few steps back to the sink onto the couch. Ada sat beside her and quickly dug a bar of chocolate out of her purse and handed it to Freddie before getting one for herself. Freddie's fingers still felt frozen and she was shaking as she tried to open the candy.
"Let me," Lupin said, quickly stepping forward. He unwrapped it for her before handing it back and Freddie took a big bite. "Well at least you went prepared. ...It was an incredibly foolish thing to do. Merlin's beard, Freddie, I thought you were clever?"
"But we did it," Freddie argued through her mouthful of chocolate. "I didn't pass out this time! Ada and I both cast Patronuses with dementors just a few feet away from us." She couldn't help but feel proud of herself and a little smug – never mind that she'd frozen at first, or the things she'd seen and heard, or the memory that had resurfaced in its entirety. She wasn't going to focus on that right now.
"It was still an incredibly foolish thing to do," Lupin said sternly, then relented a bit. "But it was impressive. There are full grown wizards who can't cast a Patronus that close to a dementor. I remember you." He turned to Ada whose cheeks flushed slightly pink as she swallowed the last of her chocolate bar. "You were in the Shrieking Shack. Miss Leroux, right?"
"Ada," she said with a nod. "Nice to see you again, Monsieur Lupin."
"Remus," he said with a faint smile.
"Thank you for getting us out of there, Remus. I...I tried to Disapparate with Freddie when she froze up, but I couldn't do it," she said, lowering her head. Lupin raised an eyebrow at Freddie and she scowled slightly.
"What were you doing there anyway?" Freddie wanted to know.
"Albus sent me to check on things," he explained. "You know what happened to Harry?"
"Severus told us he and his cousin were attacked this evening, shortly after we were."
"Albus wanted me to make sure the rest of the dementors were still at Azkaban and there was no one sneaking around."
"Well the dementors are definitely still there," Freddie said, taking another bite of her chocolate and chewing it thoughtfully. "Did you see any sign of who sent the dementors after him?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "The only people sneaking around there were you two."
"Are you going to tell Professor Dumbledore we were there?" Ada asked anxiously. "I'd hate to get into trouble with him. I haven't even gotten to do anything for the Order yet."
Lupin was silent a moment, thinking, as he looked between the two of them.
"No," he said finally. "I won't tell Albus. I don't see any reason to. No harm was done."
"You won't tell Severus either, will you?" Freddie asked uneasily. "I don't want him to know... He'd kill me...or worse."
"I won't tell him either – if you promise me you will never, ever do that again," he said sternly.
"I won't," Freddie swore. "I know I can do it now, I won't go back to Azakaban, not if I can help it."
"Good," Lupin said and sat down in her armchair with a sigh.
"Why did you bring us to my office?" Freddie asked.
"It was the first place I could think of. I couldn't take you to headquarters, since your friend has never been there, and I don't know where you live."
"Why could I not see headquarters?" Ada asked. "I am a member of the Order, Professor Dumbledore invited me to join after I graduated."
"Fidelis Charm," Lupin explained. "Only Albus can tell you where it is. If he hasn't done that yet then neither of us could take you there."
"Oo a Fidelis Charm," Ada said, her green eyes sparkling. "That's a complicated bit of magic. Professor Dumbledore is so clever."
"Indeed he is," he said with a smile, seeming faintly amused.
Freddie felt exhaustion creeping over her as Ada and Lupin talked together. After all the events of the day, she had to fight the urge to lay down on the couch. Instead she focused on finishing her chocolate bar, hoping it would perk her up a bit.
"Do you live in London?" Ada asked curiously.
"No – well, at the moment I'm staying at headquarters. I have a cottage of sorts in Yorkshire where I used to live."
"A cottage in Yorkshire sounds lovely."
"It's not particularly impressive," Lupin said, looking embarassed. "It's really just an old rundown shack, but it was the only place I could afford. I've never been able to hold down a job for very long – I get too sick around the full moon and I'm either forced to leave or am fired."
"That's awful!" Ada declared.
"I'm used to it," he said with a shrug. "It's been this way my whole life. The longest I ever held a job was when Albus hired me to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts year before last and the only reason I was able to stay that long was because Severus was brewing the Wolfsbane for me."
"Why did you quit? I bet you were a brilliant teacher."
"Some students found out that I was a werewolf and word spread," Lupin replied and Freddie carefully avoided his gaze, knowing that Snape had told the Slytherins. He'd never wanted Lupin teaching there in the first place and after he'd missed his potion one night he'd almost killed Potter and his friends...and Snape himself.
"They fired you because of that?" Ada asked.
"No, I quit," he said, shaking his head. "I knew Albus would defend me, he would've let me stay, but the parents would've been in an uproar... even if the students hadn't found out I would've quit anyway. I missed a dose of Wolfsbane one night, just one dose..." He sighed softly and looked wistfully towards the quietly simmering cauldron of Wolfsbane Potion Freddie had set up in the middle of her office. "I didn't hurt anyone," he added quickly, looking back at Ada. "But it was still bad. I couldn't risk something like that ever happening again."
"I'm sorry, Remus," Ada said softly.
"It was a fun gig while it lasted. I really enjoyed teaching. Never really thought of myself as the type before, but it was great, the students were great. I taught them about all sorts of creatures – grindylows, red caps, kappas, vampires, and boggarts – and how to defend themselves against them. It was the most practical Defense Against the Dark Arts class some of them had ever had. Harry's class had a particularly bad string of professors before me."
"Not just Potter's year," Freddie said, blinking through her sleepiness. "The position is cursed, you know? Nobody lasts more than a year and nobody good ever taught Defense at Hogwarts – not while I was there."
"But you're a great dueler," Ada insisted. "Someone must have taught you."
"Severus taught me how to duel," she said with a shrug, not missing the faint smile on Lupin's face. "But most of the spells I either learned in Charms or Daniel and I taught ourselves from textbooks."
"What about you, Ada?" Lupin asked curiously. "What was it like learning Defense Against the Dark Arts at Beauxbatons? Do they teach students to duel there?"
"Monsieur Cartier was the Defense professor every year I was in school. He taught us a lot of spells, but we weren't allowed to actually duel against each other, only mannequins," she said and was silent a moment, face scrunched up as she tried to think of the right word. "Practice dummies. The only real duels I've ever been in have been against Freddie, she taught me a lot."
"Ada's a great dueler. She learns quickly," Freddie said through a yawn.
"I'd love to hear about your duels," Lupin said interestedly and Ada beamed at him before immediately launching into a description of their first duel in the Shrieking Shack.