Status: Expired.

James stared at the line on the personnel record for the auror Xavious Grant. The wizarding photograph that stared back up at James, who watched as the photo rubbed the end of his nose and raised an eyebrow questioningly, tilting his head as though to look at the text written the edges of his photo frame, though James knew he couldn't see it.

He lowered the record back into the envelope that it had arrived in, tied to the ankle of a moulting gray owl who had pecked James for a bite of the orange Lily Evans had packed in a lunch sack along with a thick sandwich and some crisps. The food still sat spread out before him on the table and he sighed and leaned back, only picking at the meal. The word expired ran through his mind again and again, tumbling about and jostling through the crowd of thoughts that played for his attention.

"Blimey," he murmured. What a way to describe a death, he thought. As though the person were a bit of molded cheese or sour milk. Murdered. That's what it ought to say. The process of Xavious Grant's death was not at all a natural circumstance such as expiration implied, but rather a brutal thing that had been done to him. Life had not gone out like a weary candle, but had been torn away by a thief in broad daylight.

The file was quite interesting, though, despite that one odd choice of words for the current "status" of Mr. Grant. The man had been a wizard of great merit, an excellent auror, with a keen sense. James had learned from Frank Longbottom that Xavious Grant had been what they referred to as a Case Ender, meaning that once he was put on the case to find someone, the case would be closed within a week or two. Voldemort was the only wizard that Mr. Grant had been assigned to bring in that had not been caught. It was surprising to James, then, that such a hearty individual would be killed as easily as it seemed he had been - on the floor of the Ministry of Magic.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and flipped to the file of information he had about the little girl.

Marjorie Grant. Muggle-born, suspected witch. Adopted daughter of Xavious Grant, biological daughter of a muggle woman named...

James stared at the name a moment, then dropped the sheet back down to the table. He shook his head. No way. Couldn't be. Could it? Surely not. But then... He flipped opened the folder once again, eyes landing on the name, and then got up, scooping the file into his back, and hurrying to the door.

Remus, Peter, James, Sirius, and Lily stood shoulder-to-shoulder around the table in the kitchen of the flat, all staring at the open folder James had pulled from his bag. Silence had fallen on them all - even Sirius for once.

Now that they had a name to put with the face, it was quite obvious who the girl looked like - to all of them. 

Remus picked up the picture and stared into the little girl's eyes. "I don't know how I didn't see it before," he murmured.

Sirius reached over and squeezed Remus's shoulder. 

"I couldn't believe it either," James said. He paused, then added, "She has his eyes."

Remus nodded.

Anne Veigler. That had been the name on the file for Marjorie Grant's muggle mum.

James had run through the halls of the Auror Training Center to the floos and gotten home within minutes of his eyes landing upon her name. He had only half believed his glasses were working properly, but it had taken only moments of Lily, Remus, and Sirius looking at the picture before they all agreed that there was positively no mistaking the likenesses in the girl's face to those of the late Ned Veigler.

"Ned never told me about this," Remus murmured. He lowered the photo. "Wouldn't he have told me?" He glanced about the others.

"Maybe he didn't want to concern you," James suggested.

"Or maybe he didn't know," Lily said.

"Dumbledore would've known if nobody else did," Sirius interjected. "He knows everything, dunn't'e?"

"Not everything," Peter muttered.

Remus put the photo back down on the table. "He never once mentioned an Anne. It makes no sense, he was bit and taken by Greyback before he was old enough to have been married, and he certainly wasn't old enough to have done all that and had a kid that would be that old now. That would mean he'd just left them when he came to Hogwarts." Remus shook his head.

"Anne could've been his mum or his sister or an aunt," James pointed out. "Not necessarily a wife."

Lily nodded, "A sister would make sense - since Marjorie looks so much like Ned. The genes are closer."

"Or," said Peter slowly, "This is why he came to Hogwarts."

They all looked at Peter.

"I mean, if he left his family, maybe there was a reason." Peter shrugged.

"He would've gone back," Remus argued, "He would've gotten them if he had a family. He said I was his only family. He said --" He could feel his face flushing as he got defensive. "Ned wouldn't just up and abandon his family."

 "He was a werewolf," Sirius said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus turned toward Sirius with fire in his eyes. "Werewolves can have families and --"

Sirius put his palms up , "Hey, calm down Moonshine. The last thing I am is anti-werewolf, you dolt. I'm bleedin' married to one, aren't I?"

Remus's anger deflated a bit.

"What I'm saying is there's a lot of reasons why he might have left them, if he did," Sirius said.

"Or she might have left him," Peter interjected.

Sirius waved a palm at Peter, "The rat's right."

James sat down at the table and rubbed his eyes. "This must be the reason that Underhill assigned the case to me. He knew I knew Professor Veigler. He let me steal his bloody file."

Remus looked up. "The file. If this has anything to do with Ned, this would be in his file, wouldn't it? His family history? The fact that there's a bloodline?"

James sat up, "Yeah, possibly."

"Well for the sake of Merlin's nutsacks," Sirius exclaimed, "Where's the file?"

"It's - erm..." James paused. He knew precisely where it was. He'd hidden it at the house in Godric's Hollow, but he couldn't very well say that in front of Lily without ruining the surprise. He shrugged, "Dunno? I must've misplaced it. I'm sure it's around about here somewhere..." Before the others could respond to that - for Remus looked lethally upset at the thought that Ned's private information might have been misplaced - James said, "I would've put it in a safe place, don't worry. The fact of the matter is that, no matter what the file says or what the relation is to Ned, there's no denying that this kid is in somewhat related to him. You can see it in her face."

"Yeah," Remus said, "Her eyes. Like you said, James - she has his eyes." Remus looked down at the photograph again, directly into the girl's eyes, and he felt a twist somewhere deep inside. "Excuse me," he choked out, and he bolted from the room.

Silence fell over the others, and finally Lily murmured, "I'll go check on him," and she followed after Remus.

Peter turned to the fridge and returned to the table with three bottles of butterbeer, which he handed one each to the other boys before sitting down himself. Sirius leaned against the back of the chair in front of Marjorie's file, staring down at it as he twisted the cap off his bottle and took a long sip. Peter was struggling with his cap, so Sirius put down his bottle and took Peter's, opening it up for him before handing it back and returning to his own drink as he turned the chair and straddled it backwards, as he was keen to doing. Sirius looked at James. "So now what?"

James, who hadn't touched his bottle at all, stared at the tabletop, his eyes unfocused. "Dunno," he mumbled. 

Peter said, "Well obviously we've got to save her."

They both looked at Peter in surprise. Of course they were going to save her, but it wasn't like Peter to be the first to say it. He was usually the one hanging back, scared of stirring up trouble and getting involved too much. The tone of urgency that had been in Peter's voice was uncharacteristic. 

"I've seen the mess they make of people, of children, of girls like Marjorie," Peter said, and James realized that Peter was thinking of his little sister, Maggie. Peter's eyes were sad, but he continued, "And I don't want that to happen to her, too." He pointed at the picture.

Sirius nodded, arms hanging over the back of the chair, clutching his bottle. He pursed his lips, and sighed rather heavily. "Sounds like we're going on another rescue mission."

James said, "Well. Before we can go on any rescue missions, we need to figure out where they've taken her."

Lily knocked on the bathroom door. "Remus?" she called gently. There wasn't answer, just a shuffling sound from inside. "Rey?" Lily tried again. She heard him cough and snuffle and she took a deep breath, reached for the knob with one hand and covered her eyes with the other. "I'm coming in - if you're indecent you best tidy up real quick." She pushed the door opened, stumbling blind as she stepped inside.

"You can uncover your eyes, I'm not naked or anything for Merlin's sake," Remus said quietly.

Lily lowered her palm from her face. Remus was sitting, hugging his knees, in the dry bath, looking terribly forlorn. Lily went over and sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, her knees bumping against the ceramic of the tub. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Remus shrugged. "Yeah, I s'pose."

"It doesn't change anything - no matter what Anne and Marjorie are to Ned, you know," Lily said. "It doesn't make you anything less to Ned or Ned anything less to you. Does it, now?"

Remus closed his eyes. "I s'pose."

Lily reached out and touched Remus's shoulder. He flinched, like a cat being disturbed from a nap, and his brows furrowed, though his eyes remained shut. "Ned loved you. If he didn't tell you about this, there was a perfectly good reason why."

"I hate the idea that he would've left them," Remus murmured.

"There are plenty of reasons that he might have," Lily said quietly.

"And they're all horrible."

"But they don't make Mr. Veigler horrible."

Remus shivered and rested his cheek against his knee.

"He was a good man, Remus, you know that, and so do we. He loved you very dearly, and he knew that you loved him. Anything else is extra, anything else is stuff that never had time to be resolved. I am sure that once this is all untangled and everything's explained you'll see that Professor Veigler never meant to hurt you by never telling you."

Remus's words were muffled, "I never asked."

"Beg pardon?" Lily asked.

"I never asked him. I never had time to. I never --" Remus choked on the words and Lily saw tears squeezing from his eyes. "I barely knew him."