When Emeline stepped off the Hogwarts Express, she wasn't sure what to expect. But there he was, flashing her a large smile and walking briskly toward her when they spotted eachother. She pushed through the crowd and ran to him with a hug that nearly sent him flying backwards.

"You came!" She grinned, Saffron flying to catch up and perch on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't miss it. I'm looking forward to hearing some exam grades from you." He stuffed his hands into his pockets after a flick of his wand set her luggage trailing after them as they began to walk.

Emeline rolled her eyes. "Can't summer break start for even a second before you ask about finals? Or perhaps you can ask when I go back Fourth Year. Or even better, perhaps not at all." She ended cheerfully.

"You failed Potions, didn't you?"

"Dismally."

"At least we know what to focus on this break."

"I'm spending the summer in Potions class? In my own home?"

"Just to catch you up. Least I can do, you know: the whole disrupting your life bit." He chuckled playfully while Emeline sulked.

"Dad! Not fair!"

"So fair."

•

When they arrived at the garden gate to their little cottage flat, Emeline basked in the scent of the flowers that were still blooming and even felt a familiar comfort at the site of the front door.

"Em," Remus stopped halfway up the gravel walk. "There is one thing we need to discu-"

Before he could finish, Emeline felt shag fur run by her leg and she let out an excited howl of laughter.

"-No. Way. We've got to take this ghastly stray in, eh? I'm sure he'd love a flea bath and to listen to the Weird Sisters!"

A disagreeing bark met Emeline's ears and Remus pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a quick sigh.

"Despite the headaches I am certain are on their way, yes. This is what I would've liked to tell you, Emeline, before our mangy mutt intruded first."

An angrier bark came now and Remus laughed, letting them all inside.

"I resent that, Moony. I really do."

"You'll get over it."

Emeline hugged Sirius in full human form now. He was wearing a grey shirt a size too large for him and old denim that hung loosely as well. His hair was still quite long and unkempt, but it was clean. He looked fresh and happy.

"It's great to see you, Padfoot. If I'm allowed to join in on that name calling, anyway."

She took off her cloak and tossed it on the couch, collapsing down on it with the sweet sigh of summer relaxation escaping her lips.

"I doubt Moony minds. I certainly don't."

Remus shrugged in response, grinning.

"Be our guest, Em." He took a seat on the chair opposite her and Sirius took the arm of the couch.

"However, there is one condition." Sirius added quickly.

"Merlin," she groaned. "If it's that bloody Potions final tutoring, I swear."

"Tutoring? In this house? Over summer?" He offered Remus a jokingly incredulous glare. "I would never allow it. But we do need a nickname for Remus' newest member. Our pup, one could say."

Remus mumbled something under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose yet again.

"She isn't ours, Sirius. And thank Merlin she is no dog like either of us, at that! Would it kill you to be more original?"

"I should have a say." Emeline mused wistfully, picking at her fingernails.

Remus and Sirius waited for a follow up comment, but when none came, they urged her: "And?"

"And I haven't a clue. However, if I was an animagus I'd like to be something dainty and majestic. Like a deer."

"We already had Prongs." Sirius quipped.

"Well, I'm a female." Emeline responded, insulted.

"What difference does that make?" Sirius asked, annoyed.

Remus laughed, flipping through a copy of the Daily Prophet lazily. "Fawn. It's perfect."

Emeline smiled and stuck her tongue out at Sirius.

"How come you've got all the answers, Moony?"

"He's educated." Emeline laughed, jumping up before he could swat her on the back of the head.

"Shall we fix something to eat? I'm rather good at heating leftovers."

•

When evening fell in the Lupin household, it found Emeline and Sirius losing miserably to Remus at Gobstones.

"Aren't I supposed to get one free pass to win? Like a daughter's credit or something?"

"First no summer tutoring, now you want to win by association? I thought I'd come to know you this year, Emeline." Remus joked back, taking yet another win for himself as they reset the game.

"Theres plenty to learn, I reckon." She mused, before divulging: "I can be a sore loser, for one."

"Well, I look forward to it." He grinned. "But I am surprised at that."

"Me being a sore loser?"

"Mhm."

"Well I can't imagine someone just 'looks like' a sore loser from the outside." She joked back; Sirius snorted.

"Oh, no, not at all." Remus responded, smiling up at her after his move. "It's just that usually sore losers care when they fail a class."

"That's low even for you, dad!" Taking her turn to beat him the first round, she huffed triumphantly. "I'll have you know I was very afraid of failing class when you pulled me aside for the first time."

"Right. Well, it doesn't do if you're only worried about one subject, now does it?"

With a roll of her eyes she threw her stones to Sirius.

"Finish him off." With an annoyed groan, she flopped back against the couch and crossed her arms.

"A sore loser, indeed." Remus smiled.

•

Just before bed, Remus slipped off for a shower and left Emeline and Sirius to their own devices. They spent some time tossing back and forth ideas for pranks that Sirius desperately wanted to unleash, which Emeline found highly amusing at his age.

She laughed continually at his outlandish ideas and childish excitement as she tidied up for her dad, already realizing what a tornado aftermath she'd been leaving around with the help of her ex-convict, honorary 'uncle'.

As they settled down for the night and Emeline was pleased with the living quarter's cleanliness, she curled herself into her dad's seat. Sirius took a seat on the coffee table to be closer to her and took in an unusually steadying breath for him. She knew he was ready to say something important, and the switch from his fun loving demeanor stirred up some anxiety in her.

"You know, Fawn - if we are really calling you that." He winked. She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that night."

A lump formed in her throat and stopping short in the hallway, Remus pocketed the chocolate he'd brought out for them and listened silently.

"I don't think that's necessary." Emeline said softly.

"It's very necessary. You can't do that ever again, Emeline. You should count yourself lucky."

"I don't plan to, Sirius. I've already promised dad." She replied, toying with a strand of hair absentmindedly.

"Oh," Sirius started, surprised, still hearing Remus as 'dad' creating a foreign buzzing in his brain. "Right then, that's a relief."

Upon closer inspection of Emeline's face, he realized he was missing something.

"What is it?"

Appearing increasingly uncomfortable, Emeline shook her head. "Nothing."

"No, there's something. It's eating at you. What is it?" Sirius' voice hosted some of his young hearted wonder again. He certainly felt the part of cool uncle, but Emeline was too distracted by her relentless stomach upset to care.

"I- well," as she began, Remus felt a similar lump forming in his throat. He sunk to the floor to sit in the hall, waiting to hear his daughter's cause for distress. "I've been having nightmares; at school. Madame Pomfrey has been giving me a memory draught to try and help. Sleep aids. Nothing has worked. I'm afraid to have those nightmares over summer. It'll break his heart."

Remus hung his head sadly, wanting desperately to hold her.

"Emeline, what about your heart?"

Her and her father were surprised at this. Emeline for a thought that had never crossed her mind and Remus for his best friend's wisdom. He took a calming breath, knowing she was in good hands for such a delicate conversation.

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Well," Sirius looked at her closely. "Your father is a grown man; a grown man who's been a werewolf nearly his entire life. A grown man who has known about you and the haunting pain of losing you your entire life. And here you are, a mere months into knowing him as your dad, as a werewolf. You've got to give yourself some credit. I'm not sure I could've even settled in with such ease so quickly. You're painfully devoted and very kind. And you have his playful sarcasm that only ever made all of us love him more. It's like you've had this family all together for years already. But you haven't. You've just found eachother and- well truthfully, you could've been killed." Emeline's eyes flashed with terror and she closed them briefly.

Remus swallowed painfully.

"I need you to understand Emeline, he had no idea who you were. When I say you could've been killed, I say this with the utmost love for Moony and respect for werewolves… I mean it. He was ready to hurt you. You could be a werewolf, too. Or dead."

All the blood left Remus' head and he felt cold as his heart raced.

"No. No." She responded frantically, shaking her head. "He knew me!"

His heart was shredding in two at her voice.

"He didn't. He couldn't have."

"He did! You saw it! For one second after he transformed, he knew me! He gave me as much time as he could!"

Tears stung at his eyes.

"And that split second would never have been enough! There's no way you'd have survived!" Sirius and Emeline were both on their feet now, his voice towering over hers.

"Mind your tone." She shot back. "You may know my dad, but you haven't the first clue about me or our relationship. I won't tempt fate again, but he spared me that night! I could care less whatever the hell you think it was."

"Your 'die on this hill' belief is dangerous, Emeline. I hope you mean what you say when you promise you'd never remain with him during a moon again."

"You don't strike me as the sensible type, so I have to ask if you're doing this on his behalf."

"He never set me out to this. But he's been a nervous wreck over wondering if you were certain you'd never pull a stunt like this again, so I thought I'd secure the knowledge for him."

"First of all, this was no stunt of mine!"

Remus' face fell.

"He came out that time of night; he forgot his potion, and he didn't run back to the shack when I gave him the best notice I could. He knows all of this! And I know that he kept his sensibilities intact for as long as he could to try and rectify every poor decision that night. I can't imagine how hard that was to fight. But despite the comfort I take from that, I assure you, I wouldn't seek him out on purpose."

Tears were gathering in her eyes now and her whole resolve started to melt away.

"Sirius, my nightmares are haunting. I can feel the pain of that night going differently. I've played it all over and over again: him not recognizing me, the other howl never coming, Professor Snape never grabbing me." She looked up at him. "You not putting yourself between us to jumpstart any last ounce of sense I had left. I am destroyed in these nightmares and I watch him see what he's done and - and it's terrifying!" Her tears were flowing now and Remus jumped to his feet.

In a second's time, she was in his arms, the familiar smell of chocolate and parchment encompassing her, and trembling. Tears stained his nightclothes and she sunk to the floor as he followed her to sit beside her. Sirius knelt behind them and put a hand on each of them.

'I'm sorry' he mouthed to Remus silently. Remus shook his head gently and offered him a pained smile in acknowledgment.

'No, I am.'

"Em," he started softly, pushing her tear soaked hair from her face and beckoning her to look up at him. "Breathe. Watch me. Breathe."

"I c- can't!" Her sobs were loud and wrenching. Her body still shook as she pictured the imaginary attack that had been haunting her.

"You can; we've done it before," he assured her quietly. She was missing from her gaze, her mind nowhere near their small spot on the living room floor. "Emeline," he reiterated, stronger. "You're home. You're safe. There's no moon. No pain. It's all in your mind."

She chanced a glance up at him and rested her hand on his chest. He laid his hand over top hers and nodded.

"Slow down, darling."

Breathing in rhythm with her father, the nightmare began to fade and reality set in. When all was well, she fell asleep slowly against Remus, who looked at his friend with sadness.

"Bloody hell," Sirius said quietly, moving to sit criss cross in front of them. "You're wonderful with her. I'm impressed."

"I don't know what I'm doing, Sirius." He murmured. "I'm just loving her and hoping it's enough."

Sirius was quiet for a moment as Remus looked back down at his sleeping daughter, moving to lean against the coffee table for support and stroking her hair.

"I have to ask, Moony. I'm sorry, bu-"

"- yes. I knew her. I haven't a clue how without Wolfsbane and it was terrifying."

Sirius nodded with a smile.

"Well, as you said. Love and all that nonsense."

With a sigh, he leapt to his feet. "I'll be taking your bed since you lot have the floor tonight."

He retired to sleep and Remus whispered 'nox'. Conjuring a blanket close to them, he draped it over Emeline and leaned back into the wood of the table.

For the first night in months, her nightmares were at bay.