Remus was looking through a pile of scrolls he had been sent by one of the members of the pack who had a contact at the Ministry for Magic. Dust settled on the beams of sunlight coming in through the stained-glass windows in the Sanctuary of the church where he sat in one of the pews side-ways, one knee bent on the seat in front of him. He shook his head in frustration as he let the scrolls roll back up, rubbing his right temple with his fingertips, arm propped up on the back of the pew beside him.

More anti-werewolf legislation being proposed, more sections to be added to the Restrition Act, further increasing the oppression against the community. It would lead to even further unrest among the pack. How could Dumbledore expect the werewolves to do anything except rebel against the Ministry with the pressures that were constantly being placed upon them? Convincing them to help the Order, which had so many ties to Ministry officials, would be nearly impossible. Hell at this point, even Remus was starting to feel bitter.

Suddenly the door of the sanctuary banged opened and Spencer Stewart's voice carried, echoing off the high beams. "You cannot go in there! He isn't available for talking to at the moment, you simply must come back at another time! I --"

The irrational part of Remus thought it had to be Sirius Black. Who else would go banging into a known werewolve's lair? Especially on the morning after the new moon, when the lunar pull was at it's worst and therefore Remus was at his crankiest?

Remus sprang up from the pew, his knees cracking as he did, and turned 'round quickly, eyes wide, heart thumping emotionally - ready to accept Sirius's explanations and apologies that he'd thought would never come and --

But it wasn't Sirius.

The next best thing.

"Nymphadora," he said, surprised, as the pink-haired pixie of a woman rushed up the aisle between the pews toward where Remus was standing, shaky on his legs. Behind her, lingering in the doorway, was the red-haired form of Charlie Weasley.

"Don't CALL me Nymphadora!" Tonks said in frustration. She spun about as Spencer Stewart came up behind her. "And you - will you relax, I --"

"You HAVE to come back another time, Remus is very busy --" Stewie was still shouting.

"Stewie!" Remus called, "I have time."

Stewie slowed to a stop and looked even more frustrated, "She doesn't have an appointment," he said stiffly.

"I always have time for Tonks," Remus said patiently and Tonks stuck her tongue out at him and waved her arm for Charlie, but Charlie continued to stay back and shook his head. "What is going on, Tonks?" He lowered his voice as she came nearer, "You know you aren't supposed to come here."

"Never stopped me from showing up at your door, did it?" Tonks said. She paused. "Charlie. C'mon."

Charlie stepped just into the sanctuary doors, keeping his back to the wall. "I'm okay," he murmured.

Remus looked at Charlie, then back to Tonks. "This is a bit different than appearing at my flat back in the day, Tonks," he said quietly, "Having a Ministry Official around here so close to the moon isn't exactly favorable."

Tonks stared at him for a long moment, then replied, "I don't give a bleeding toad if it's close to the full moon or not, it  isn't as though you're changed now, is it?"

"No but I actually meant because the Ministry isn't very popular among... the - the, er - pack." Using the term around somebody not in the pack felt strange, and Remus had this sudden feeling as though he led two very different lives. A life of a normal person who didn't have a use for the term pack, and the life of a man who not only had a pack but led one and had to think about the consequences of one of the pack members - like Storm, for example - seeing him fraternizing with a Ministry Official.

Tonks paused, then said, "Well you're going to hate what I'm here for then."

"What is it?"

"I think somebody's done captured Mad Eye," Tonks said.

Remus blinked in confusion. "Captured Mad Eye?"

"Yes," Tonks said, nodding, "And I think they've sent an imposter to Hogwarts in place of the real one."

"Mad Eye Moody?" Remus said.

"Yes," Tonks answered.

"Why?" Remus asked.

Tonks laughed, "Why? Because he's Mad Eye Moody. He's one of the most powerful -- I mean, why not!?"

"I mean, he's been let go by the Ministry, hasn't he? They say he's gone mad truly since --"

Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Since Sirius escaped? Since the incident at Hogwarts in June when you were there and you saw he was perfectly sane? Also known as the same amount of time that the wizarding world has been duped into believing you've somehow changed, become something less than the man you've always been?"

Remus stared at her. He shook his head, "You mean realized I am the monster they never knew I was."

She rolled her eyes, "And people say I'm the dramatic one."

"Alright so what makes you think Mad Eye's been captured and has been replaced by an imposter?" Remus asked, forcing himself to be patient.

His knees were aching, so he lowered himself into the pew nearest to them and Tonks flung herself down in the one in front of him, kneeling on the seat bench so she was facing him as he rubbed his sore knees. Footsteps echoed through the sanctuary and Charlie Weasley walked forward up the aisle and sank tentatively into the row of pews on the opposite side of the aisle from Remus and Tonks, his flight leathers tight around his torso, making Remus's eyes flicker to Charlie's biceps and strapped chest fleetingly before darting away again, back to Tonks.

"Fish Fingers." Tonks said darkly.

Remus had all he could do not to laugh.

The expression on his face must have twitched with the effort of it because Tonks said adamantly, "It isn't funny. I've had about a hundred fish fingers with Mad Eye and I'm telling you ever time I've ever had a fish finger with the man, he's drowned the poor thing in ketchup. Mad Eye loves ketchup on his fish fingers, Remus, and when I said to the imposter that I'd be 'round for Fish Finger Fridays, which isn't even a real thing, mind, I made it up on the spot; but when I said I'd be' round for it, I asked him - ketchup or tartar? And the imposter said ketchup on fish fingers was nonsense." She looked quite smug at this.

Charlie intoned from the other pew, "I still think if you're serious about it we should go to the Ministry, Tonks."

"They won't listen to me about my fish fingers theory!" Tonks said, "They'll just say Mad Eye's gone mental, just like they've been saying all summer. They'll say this is the sort of thing that supports their argument he's mental, even." She looked at Remus, meeting his eyes and holding the stare steady, "But Remus listens to me. Isn't that right, Remus?"

Despite him thinking exactly that - he sighed and said, "Yes, that's right," because he'd promised her long ago that she could always talk to him, and that he would be there to listen when she told him something, no matter how far fetched it sounded.

Tonks nodded smugly at Charlie, who sighed and leaned forward, resting his chin on his arms on the back of the pew in front of him.

"Oh bugger," Tonks said suddenly, she turned to Remus, "And the most disturbing bit of all of it. I was there at Hogwarts to talk with him on account of the fact that last night they drew names from the Goblet of Fire for the Triwizard Tournament --"

"Yes you mentioned they were doing that again," Remus murmured, concern on his brow. He'd read a couple articles on the event preparations in the newspapers that Tonks had chucked through the floo to their shack in Costa Rica. He remembered how brutal the previous events had been - studied them briefly in History of Magic during fourth year, when they'd gone over Hogwarts' history for a term. Even with all the excitement and gore from such an event, he still hadn't been able to get Sirius and James to study, he thought. "Who was named Hogwarts Champion?" he asked, thinking of his sixth year students from the year before, mind rushing over the faces.

"Harry Potter," said Tonks flatly.

Remus felt like his brain came to a shrieking halt at the name drop. "Excuse me?"

"Well, and Cedric Diggory - a Hufflepuff, mind," she added, as though he'd made some derogatory remark against Hufflepuffs and she was coming to defense of them.

"Two?" Remus stammered, "And how did Harry -- I thought they had an age limitation in place this year?"

"They were supposed to," Charlie said.

"And now they want Charlie's nastiest dragon for the first task! They want these kids to fight mother dragons whose eggs have been stolen from them!"

"And I can barely keep Zuzu tamed myself," Charlie said quietly.

Remus looked between the pair of them. "You're - you're not joking?" he asked.

Tonks shook her head. "We went to Mad Eye to tell him, to try to get Harry taken out of the running."

Charlie spoke up, "He isn't really supposed to be eligible, he's not old enough."

"But the Ministry's set on letting him compete," Tonks said, "Maybe it's press they're after."

"It's already gathered a great deal of attention," Charlie nodded.

"Or there's something more sinister ahand," Tonks said darkly - and for a flash, Remus could see every ounce of the Black family blood running in her veins written right there upon her face. Her grey eyes flashed so familiarly that he felt a thousand old anxieties rise up in him.

"More sinister?" Remus asked, his placating tone well practiced, albeit the tiniest bit rusty after thirteen years of little use.

Tonks nodded and said levelly, "Ketchup on fish fingers."

"So you think there's -- what, a Fake Moody?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow, "Who... wants to endanger children with dragons?"

"Mother dragons whose eggs have been stolen are quite violent," Charlie said, "Once, a mother dragon destroyed an entire village in Greenland after --"

"I THINK HE'S AFTER HARRY POTTER!" Tonks burst. She covered her mouth and looked apologetically at Charlie, who looked surprised. Tonks never interrupted his dragon-droning. "Sorry Cha-cha," she said, "But --" she turned back to Remus, eyes desperate, grabbing onto his arm to implore him, "Please. You positively MUST believe me Remus, you must! Nobody else will --"

"I do," Charlie offered.

"-- and somebody absolutely MUST help us do something about it before whatever the nefariousness that is afoot can be fully realized!"

Her voice was on the border where surely hysterics and panic met for tea, Remus thought, and he took a deep breath, looking down and smoothing the front of his shirt as though it were the most fascinating line of buttons he'd ever seen as he considered how to approach this situation without upsetting Tonks any further.

He looked up and met her eyes with his calmest expression. He opened her mouth to speak and --

"Oh bugger, you've got to be kidding me," she snapped before he'd even spoken any words. She scowled.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"You! You!! You're going to side with THEM."

"With who now?" Remus asked.

"THEM! Them - the establishment, the man, the powers who be, the idiots that think I'm mad just because I know Moody enough to know that the bloke loves vinegar-tomato-paste slathered on his fingers of fish!"

Remus blinked. Was it possible she was more dramatic than Sirius Black?

"You know. THE ADULTS," she said with deep emphasis.

"I've rather been an adult a good deal of the time that you've known me, actually," Remus said.

"Not the point, Remus," she said.

Charlie cleared his throat and they both looked at him. He turned a bit pink about the ears - something which looked quite odd, Remus thought, given the stature and over all good looks of Charlie Weasley... usually people of his sort didn't flush like that when given attention. But Charlie did, and he swallowed nervously before he stammered, "There's no harm in - in helping us out, Remus, if you think even a bit that we're right because shouldn't it be better that we act upon a whim and find out we are wrong than it is to not act and find out we were right and something of a terrible nature occurs to Harry Potter or one of the other champions?"

"Yeah, what he's said!" Tonks said, pointing at Charlie.

Remus thought, for not the first time, that Tonks was the Sirius to Charlie's Remus. Poor bloke, Remus thought looking at Charlie, who looked quite ready to melt into the carpet.

Remus sighed, "While I do agree that it should be better to act on the matter --"

"Thank goodness, he sees reason!" Tonks said.

"-- I can't," Remus finished.

"Can't?" Tonks echoed.

"Or won't?" Charlie asked, and his freckles nearly disappeared for the color he turned.

Remus said, "Cannot. The Ministry is looking for me. Quite ravenously, I'm afraid. I'm actually very concerned how easily you've found me."

Tonks waved her palm. "Only because I remember this place from before."

Charlie added, "And she's a Puff after all. They're exceptionally good finders."

Tonks glared at Charlie and he smirked a little thing that barely twisted the corners of his lips.

Remus said, "If Chase Volsung finds me, I'll be in quite a lot of trouble, I'm afraid, and may even end up --" he faltered.

"So you're so afraid of the Ministry that you're willing to endanger the life of Harry Potter --" Tonks started in, but Remus interrupted her.

"I'm not afraid of the Ministry OR willing to endanger the life of Harry Potter. First of all, I would not be of much help in any of this - I am a werewolf and nobody is going to listen to me and a couple of teen agers --"

"We aren't teenagers!" Tonks snapped.

"-- when there are perfectly respectable wizards who are speaking counter to what we've got to say. Furthermore. They can send me to Azkaban for evading orders to register. At least for a time. But any sentence there --" he shuddered. "I would be much more of a burden than an asset in your endeavor."

Tonks stared at him, her mouth twisted with frustration. "Fine," she said. "Fine. I -  I thought --" her lower lip trembled, then she shook her head and she turned away, grabbed onto Charlie's leather cuffed wrist and pulled him after her down the aisle and away from Remus Lupin.

"Tonks," Remus groaned, "Don't be like that, don't --"

"Don't be like WHAT?" she asked, whirling around.

Charlie reached for her hand, but she shook him off and stomped up the aisle back to Remus.

"Don't be disappointed?" Tonks demanded, voice harsh, "If you don't want me to be LIKE THIS, then don't BE disappointing!"

Remus looked at her with shock and hurt.

"I should've tried at finding Sirius instead. He would burn the castle down, regardless of any pressure from the Ministry, to save Harry Potter."

Remus couldn't deny that truth.

He knew that better than he knew anything else about Sirius Black these days, he thought.

Tonks whipped back to her dramatic exit.

Remus drew a deep breath, "Go to Dumbledore."

"What?" Tonks paused.

"Go to Dumbledore. Tell him what you've told me. Tell him you saw me and tell him that I said I believe you and I think that he needs to investigate this and that it's imperative that he do so if - if he wants the werewolves to remain unconditionally loyal to his causes."

Tonks stared at Remus.

"Remind him that I could go home any time," Remus said.

Tonks nodded. "Alright. Thank you."

Remus nodded.

There was an awkward pause and then Tonks rushed back up the aisle to him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek. "I could never really be disappointed in you, Remus. I - I hope you know that?"

Remus shrugged and pulled away from her, uncomfortable, his hands lowering her arms from his shoulders. "Thank you, Nymphadora, that means quite a --"

"But I might have to overcome the challenge and become disappointed in you if you continue to call me Nymphadora," she growled.

Remus laughed as he dropped her arms to her sides and released her.