Chapter 22

"MOM!" The twins shouted in unison causing Mrs. Weasley, who had been stirring a pot of soup on the stove to nearly drop her ladle. The twins had apparated directly into the kitchen-slash-dining-room of the Burrow with an unconscious Poppy in between them.

"What in Merlin's bloody beard?!" Molly shouted while having drawn her wand.

"No time to..."

"Explain. We need your..."

"Help," Fred and George said as Molly suddenly found herself with an arm full of unconscious Poppy. The twins apparated out of the Burrow again with no more explanation just as Arthur ran through the backdoor, having felt his wards go off.

"Mollykins, what...?! Was that the boys?" Arthur looked as confused as ever until he recognized Poppy's unconscious form.

The sound of apparition echoed in the kitchen once more while Molly and Arthur had laid Poppy down on their sofa. Molly thought that it was the end of all this chaos and she could finally get some answers from her boys only to be met with even more frantic screaming.

"Mrs. Weasley, Ron got spliced! Where is your potions cabinet?!" Hermoine looked rather frantic while Ginny was pressing the hem of her skirt onto her brother's arm where blood was oozing.

"Dad lock down the Burrow and floo," George said. "I promise we'll explain but no one should be able to enter the house right now. Especially not the Headmaster or Sirius,"

"I can't just cut off..."

"Dad please, this is important!" Fred uttered while Molly came back with her first aid potion bag.

"Dad just do what they say!" Ron shouted through clenched teeth.

Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts Minerva was staggering up the stairway back to her quarters. She felt positively drained and just wanted to lay down in her favorite plush chair with some Firewhiskey to accompany her.

"Minerva?! Oh Merlin, what happened?" Lupin's voice broke through her thoughts.

"I'm fine... I'm fine..." Minerva uttered before she realized something "Wait what are you doing here in the dead of night?!"

"Uhm... it's a long story..." Lupin looked rather hesitant.

"I just really needed someone to talk to to make sense of it all," Lupin continued.

"Help me up to my rooms and we'll talk," Minerva muttered, a demand Lupin immediately complied with.

It took Remus a good seven minutes to help his former Professor to her rooms. All the while McGonagall had been tight-lipped about why she was so exhausted. It was only once they reached the safety of her suite that she flopped down into her wingback chair and summoned a bottle of Firewhiskey from a nearby cabinet. "Well don't just stand there, sit!" Minerva urged before pouring a good amount into the two tumblers she had also summoned.

"It's still weird, drinking with my former teacher," Lupin uttered though he did take a swig of the amber liquid.

"Remus, you've taught here before. You've seen what goes on in the teachers' lounge," Minerva said bluntly.

"And I can never unsee it," Lupin shuddered. "Honestly, what was the Headmaster thinking with weekly game nights? The Monopoly episode was bad enough!"

"Pomona is craftier than you think," Minerva warns while gesturing with her glass. "But you never saw Poker Night. That was the only game the Headmaster banned."

"So..." Lupin murmured.

"You're wondering why I'm not the spry-sexy-tartan-wearing-dove tonight?" McGonagall actually smirked when Lupin nearly choked. She was getting on in her years so she may as well get her kicks where she could. "If you must know, the Headmaster has sent a missive that he would be away from Hogwarts for the rest of the summer and the paintings of the former headmasters found it necessary to pick this year to recharge the wards, which is why I am currently very low on magic. Honestly, Albus owes me hazard pay,"

"So..." Minerva countered.

"I guess, it's my turn to explain now," Lupin stated while looking at the amber liquid with a frown. "The wolf in me... has been feeling conflicted," he confessed. "You might have probably already heard but I declined Albus's request to visit the werewolf packs to try to convert them to our side. Ever since Harry died my wolf side has been... inconsolable. Harry was part of my pack... he was my cub too," Lupin looked like he was holding back tears when he confessed this. "And Albus just brushing off his death to replace him with another Harry from another reality just a day after holding a service for him hurts a lot. Even Snape had more compassion and he and Harry didn't quite get along!"

"What's more..." Now Lupin hesitated. "Whenever Siri speaks, I just have this sneaking suspicion that he's lying. I don't know if it's just me, or the werewolf part influencing this notion but... whenever Harry's name comes up I can just smell the agitation,"

Minerva stayed silent as Remus downed the rest of the Firewhiskey in one go, savoring the burn down his throat. "I want... I want to understand just what is going on," Remus continued. "The Headmaster is so dismissive of our concerns and Harry's death, Siri feels agitated, this other Harry and Snape are missing.... We're very likely on the cusp of a war and it feels like the Order is fracturing."

"There's more," Minerva muttered. "Moody came by yesterday. He wanted my opinion on a certain matter... well matters," She continued as Lupin gave her his full attention. "Apparently Moody ran into Severus and our more mysterious Harry in Knockturn Alley. He confessed that Harry didn't look kidnapped at all. In fact, it was Severus who looked the more uncomfortable of the two. This is contradictory to what Albus told everyone in the last meeting apparently so he's going to look more into things himself."

"They were actually roaming around in public?" Lupin's brow shot up.

"What is Albus going to do? He can hardly cause a scene and whisk them away in broad daylight in a public space." Minerva scoffed. "The Order isn't an official group. We'd face the same public scrutiny the Deatheaters are facing right now if we tried to pull anything like that and I do believe our reality-hopping Harry knows this."

"How Albus was suddenly going to explain a 21-year-old Harry Potter to the world instead of the 15-year-old we knew and loved is still a mystery to me," McGonagall shook her head.

"The pressure from the Ministry isn't helping either," Lupin said softly and then blushed. "I... sort of... heard Albus ranting at Snape one time in Grimmauld. It seemed Fudge was trying to push Albus out of his Wizengamot seat and possibly the Headmaster position, claiming old age. Albus was ranting that it was a Ministry ploy to make Harry a ward of the State so that the Minister or one of his underlings could become proxy to the Potter seats,"

"This whole thing is going to become a mess, Remus," Minerva stated. "My advice, jump ship while you can. I might be friends with Albus but even I can spot a sinking ship,"