From the playlist:

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

The Fold - Wickerbird (continues into next chapter)

Chapter 33 - The Assignment

February 18th

A few weeks passed, and the train incident began to fade into an unsavory memory. The passengers who survived had their recollections modified and returned to their normal lives. The Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee had managed to convince those involved that the train had been attacked by the IRA, and after getting briefed by the Minister of Magic, the Muggle Prime Minister returned safely to London. The Muggles, the Ministry, and the Marauders were on the mend.

One Saturday morning, breakfast was in full swing at Remus and Emmeline's house. Some days they fought for their lives, others they tried to maintain some sense of normalcy. Even people at war have to eat breakfast.

"Why do you scramble your eggs right in the pan? That's barbaric…" Marlene remarked disapprovingly.

Still concentrating on the stove, Emmeline scoffed. "This is a perfectly fine way to scramble eggs."

"Naw, I'm no havin' it. You're supposed to whisk them before they go in the pan. Everyone knows that."

"Apparently not. I learned this way from Remus."

"Well that explains it, doesn't it?"

"It saves time."

"The whites and the yolks are all uneven."

"Fine. Tie breaker. James, Lily, how do you scramble eggs in your house?"

"I'd actually prefer it if we could stop talking about eggs," Lily practically gagged as she sat with one hand hovering over her mouth and the other resting on her stomach.

"Emmie, did you guys get the Prophet this morning?" asked Sirius, standing from his seat in the front room.

"I think…Yeah, Remus set it on the counter over here."

"Since when do you read the paper, you geezer?" James teased.

"...I just check for news on Regulus," he replied humorlessly as he passed him on his way into the kitchen.

James dropped the joke. "Right...Still no word?"

"Not yet."

"How long's he been gone now?" Lily asked.

"Since sometime in December, so a month, maybe two…"

Silence crept into the kitchen.

"...They'll find him…" Lily said, trying to be encouraging.

Sirius plucked the paper from the counter and rolled it up to take back to his seat, hitting it in the palm of his hand. "...You know Reg, he's probably just gotten himself tangled up in something stupid. Always had a talent for that..."

Marlene was still monitoring Emmeline's cooking. "Once you've finished with that batch, I'll scramble my own."

"They taste the same, I promise."

"Fucking hell," Sirius exclaimed suddenly, having unrolled the paper before he made it back to the sofa. He was now staring bug-eyed at the front page. "They're replacing the Minister of Magic."

"Replacing Minchum?" Marlene echoed in disbelief, leaving Emmeline's side. Suddenly the method by which her eggs were cooked wasn't of such importance anymore. "Wasn't he supposed to be the 'tough guy' fit to take on the Dark Lord?"

Sirius had turned back around, and his eyes were now darting back and forth along the text of the article. "Apparently, the train was the last straw."

"Can they do that?" asked Peter.

"They ousted Minister Jenkins a few years back, remember?" Emmeline reminded him.

"Oh yeah…"

James got up from his seat and joined him, combing his wild hair back with his hand to see the paper for himself. "...This morning, 'Millicent Bagnold was named the new Minister for Magic.' I'll be damned."

"What's her story?" asked Marlene.

"Dunno, but I reckon Thatcher had something to do with this," Emmeline added.

"Alice was telling me last week that the Wizengamot felt Minchum hadn't ended the war as swiftly as they'd hoped he would," Lily mentioned. "I didn't know that meant they were going to replace him."

Just then, a burst of green flames crackled in the fireplace as Remus arrived home. "What's all this?" he asked, coming up behind Sirius and James to peek at the paper over their shoulders.

"Minchum's out," Peter called from the table, before taking a bite of toast. James pointed it out in the paper for Remus to see.

Remus squinted at the article. "I'm not the least bit surprised after what happened last month."

"How was your personal meeting with Dumbledore?" Marlene asked him, grinning.

Remus frowned at her from the paper. "Not quite as exciting as you're making it out to be." He doubled back and hung his coat up in the closet before joining the others in the kitchen.

"So what was it about?" she questioned him further.

Everyone's eyes were on him, but he just shrugged. "It's classified."

"You're no fun," Lily pouted.

He came up behind Emmeline and planted a furtive kiss on her cheek. "Those eggs look delicious."

"Thank you," she jeered, shooting a dirty look at Marlene.

…

When their friends had gone and the dishes were cleaning themselves in the sink, Emmeline traipsed upstairs to lie down for a few minutes. There was an Order meeting later that afternoon, and she wanted to rest for a bit beforehand. She'd been having trouble sleeping at night - every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Wilkes' face.

Remus hadn't been sleeping well either, but he supposed that was normal after his altercation with the monster from under the bed. The battle at the train was the first time he'd encountered Greyback since he'd been attacked at four years old, and to say the "reunion" hadn't gone as planned was an understatement. Truthfully, he would've been perfectly satisfied to continue pretending that Greyback didn't exist; but once Remus saw him in the snow with those two boys, something had possessed him to take him on. Instead of emerging triumphant from his fated showdown, Greyback had once again put him through the stuff of nightmares, and Remus's inner four-year-old hadn't stopped shaking since.

And yet this made him all the more certain about what Dumbledore had asked of him.

Remus followed Emmeline up and leaned in the doorway with his arms crossed while he watched her climb into bed. There was a sadness about him; though that wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary.

Nevertheless, Emmeline noticed him looking and patted the spot next to her on the bed. When he obliged and sat down, she scooted closer. "You were quiet at breakfast."

Chuckling, Remus turned to her and stroked her hair. "Sometimes I wonder if you're a Legilimens."

"What's wrong?" she asked again. "What did Dumbledore say?"

Albus had given him permission to tell her…he just wasn't looking forward to her reaction. "I'll warn you in advance, you're not going to like it," was a sufficient place to start.

Emmeline crawled out from under the covers and sat up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. "Try me."

"Dumbledore's given me a…special assignment," he reported, looking at her over his shoulder.

"Oh...What sort of assignment?"

In a very James-like manner, Remus decided to rip the bandage off in one fell swoop. "...He asked me to go undercover among the werewolves."

He felt the atmosphere in the room shift.

Emmeline rotated around to get a better look at his face. She tried to control her expression, but the brief moment of horror which flashed across her eyes was not as inconspicuous as she might have hoped.

"...Tell me you're joking."

"Why would I joke about that?"

"You turned down his offer though, I hope?"

"Of course I didn't."

She rose frantically from the bed, holding her hands out towards him. "You cannot seriously be considering this after what happened at the train-"

"I told you that you wouldn't like it."

"I'm finding it really difficult to see why this is a good idea."

"Since the start of the war, Voldemort has been manipulating the werewolves, and Dumbledore thinks he's using Greyback as a mouthpiece. If I spend some time with the clans, I could glean valuable information for the Order, and maybe help plant some doubts about Voldemort's allure-"

"I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, but you can't just waltz into a pack and expect them to befriend you. They'll make what Greyback did to you seem like a tea party," she argued, her voice raising in her frustration.

"Not all of them are hostile," he corrected her, a bit nettled. "Many of them are just trying to make the best of their situations, and Voldemort has made them irresistible promises."

"But some of them will be, especially if Greyback considers them allies. Remus, they'll kill you."

"That is a possibility, but I'm the only person-...well...the only one in the Order who can do this for Dumbledore. He wouldn't delegate a task like this just to send me to an early grave."

Emmeline chewed the inside of her cheek, and Remus watched as her entire posture sank into the disappointment. He didn't want to let her down, but no amount of her disapproval was going to keep him from this, and Emmeline knew it.

"It won't be long term, just a few weeks here and there," he added, hoping this might make her feel better.

But she started to pace. "That's even worse. There's no way they'll trust you."

"You're just going to have to trust me, and Albus." He stood and gently took hold of her hands to steady her. "Emmeline, I want to do this."

"Why in Merlin's name would you want to do this?"

She was surprised to see the corner of his mouth turn up a little.

"Because for the first time in my life, my condition might be of some use."