It was the longest that Sirius Black had ever stayed silently focused on something he was reading. Remus had to marvel a little bit at the level of concentration that his husband was displaying - for the first time ever - at reading a page with so much jargon that it seemed an unending sentence. Even Remus was getting a bit bored wading through the quagmire of the medical text in Anne Veigler's folder, but he trudged on, determined not to lose focus so long as Sirius was still bent over the pages laying on the table in front of him.

The only movement Sirius had made was to scratch absently at his head as he turned pages.

"Bloody hell."

Remus looked over at James, and so did Sirius. "What?" Sirius asked, "Have you solved it then?!"

"No but look at this. Anne Veigler was admitted to the Janus Thickey ward for claiming that the man visiting her wasn't her husband. They called her mad and popped her into the ward. They started looking into it, but then she just... snapped out of it and recognized her husband again." James lowered the sheet and looked from Remus to Sirius.

"Madness," murmured Sirius.

"More like imperius," Remus said.

"Ohhh. Yes." Sirius pointed at Remus, "That."

James nodded, "That's what I was thinking, too. But thing is, she was married to the Auror Grant for some time before going into Mungo's - and he's a mate of Underhill's - so she must've really been married to Grant... yeah?"

Remus pursed his lips, thinking, then said said, "Maybe the bloke's using polyjuice and has everybody blinded, ey?"

Sirius said, "But it would've been years he's been at it. Underhill would never have been fooled by an imposter of his own mate!" James cleared his throat and Sirius looked abashed, "Oh," he murmured, sheepish, his eyes clouding with guilt. "Right."

"Perhaps he's been himself until very recently," Remus suggested, "And has only been switched out so to say since Anne Veigler got sick?"

James asked, "So why's he been killed by the Deatheaters if he's part of their diabolical plots? And better, why would they be targeting Anne Veigler and Marjorie?"

Remus rubbed his chin.

Sirius asked, "To go after Ned?" He scratched the back of his shoulder and on up to the side of his neck as he spoke, head tilting either with the question or with the itch... perhaps a bit of both.

"Assuming Ned has any affiliation, really, with Anne," inserted Remus quickly. He leaned away as Sirius's scratching got more persistent.

James mused, then sighed and turned back to the document. "Well, it's interesting at any rate, and I'm sure it plays in somehow - just HOW is the question."

Sirius nodded, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling with a deep-thought sort of expression on his face. Remus figured that twenty minutes of concentration on Sirius's part was just about as much as anyone could've asked for, and turned back to his own sheets of information as Sirius tilted his chair backwards. The back of the chair rested against the sink counter and his face contorted and rearranged every now and then, twisting about, eyes slightly unfocused and heavy leather boots up on the extra chair at the table. He was thinking so hard that even his scratching ceased.

Remus's eyes scooted along the mumbo-jumbo of the text before him, flitting now and then up to check that Sirius wasn't about to tip himself right over leaning back like that.

Suddenly there was a shout and a thump and Sirius's chair came crashing forward as he sat up abruptly, his eyes wide. "Eureka!"

James and Remus both looked up.

"Eureka!" Sirius repeated, grinning. "I've got it."

"What?" James asked.

Sirius fluttered through the papers on the table before him without answering, madly tossing sheets aside as he skimmed through them, searching for something specific... "No, no... no... Merlin's erection, where is it...?"

"Where's what?" James asked.

Sirius continued shuffling.

"He's gone mad," Remus shrugged.

James said, "Gone? He's been mad, Moony."

"True," Remus agreed.

Sirius lifted up a sheet of paper in his fist and flapped it at James's face, then at Remus's, then back to James's. "EU-FREAKING-REKA!"

"Says the fleabitten scoundrel that smells of wet dog!" James quipped, smirking.

Remus choked on a laugh.

"SERIOUSLY!!! EUREKA, PRONGSY!"

"Will you stop saying that and just tell us what the bloody hell you're on about?!" James demanded, half standing up with excitement at Sirius's enthusiasm.

"OK SO -- what if.... what if Grant was researching werewolves and he was trying to get in on Ned Veigler... and Anne was like Ned's - I don't know, it doesn't matter what her relationship with him was, really, just that there's a connection, yeah? So Grant and Anne fall in love and all that and they get married but then Grant's targeted by the werewolves because he's in the Ministry and some fucking death eater tries at doing an imperius on him and Anne can tell because she knows her bleedin' husband - but Underhill doesn't see him during that time - then Grant like throws it off or some shit and voila, he's himself again, so Anne's let out of the Thickey ward and Grant's good because he's freed of the curse, but then of course bloody hell the wolves are rotters and they hold grudges tighter than anything and the next chance they get they murder him cold and steal the kid because she might have information that's useful to them!"

Silence fell over the table.

Remus reached out and took the paper that Sirius was flapping under his nose, scanning the sheet, then looked up. "How the hell did you get all that from this page? There's nothing here at all about any of that."

Sirius shook his head and pointed to a photo in the top corner of the sheet, showing Grant standing in his office at the Ministry for Magic. "Here," he said, jabbing the page to bring attention to a poster hanging on the wall just over Grant's shoulder. "Look. A moon cycle calendar."

Remus blinked and squinted at the page, then handed it to James, who took off his glasses and held the page close to his nose to inspect the detail.

"Who bloody else has a moon cycle calendar hanging about but someone with an interest in werewolves?" Sirius asked, scratching his collar bone as he spoke.

"Anyone interested in moon cycles - astronomers, astrologists..." Remus continued on, naming further reasons for an Auror - or anyone, really - to have a full moon cycle chart.

James handed the page back to Sirius, who paused scratching to take it from him. "Prongs, back me up. What's the first thing anybody asks about my tattoos?"

"What the fuck is a wolfstar?" James teased, smirking, knowing what Sirius was getting at, but taking the mickey out of him.

Sirius rolled his eyes and yanked his sleeve up to reveal the moon calendar tattooed about his wrist, jabbing at it with his finger. "THIS. They ask me about THIS."

Remus said, "Alright. Suspend reality and all questions that I might have about the unlikeliness of this situation a moment --"

"As we should," Sirius nodded, the jabbing turning into scratching as his nails dug into the skin at the heel of his hand, "Seeing as it isn't that unlikely..."

"-- This doesn't explain the mysterious visitor that came just before Anne Veigler died."

"Obbbbbviously it was Ned," Sirius answered, rolling his eyes. "OBVIOUSLY. Were we even questioning that?"

"Yes," Remus and James said at exactly the same time. Remus continued, "That is precisely what we were questioning, you mutt!"

Sirius paused. "Oh. Well then. Still, though, that doesn't foil any of the load I've just said anyways, does it? Everything I've said is still completely valid!"

"Why would the Ministry be trying to look into Ned? Ned wasn't even staying in London any longer. He was in Iceland and he was maintaining the werewolf quarantine required by the Restriction Act anyway! They had no reason to be spying on him, even if he was a werewolf!" Remus argued, voice passionate.

"I don't know WHY," Sirius answered, "But it makes sense that that's what Grant was onto."

"It doesn't though!" Remus argued.

James tuned them out. Any argument about Ned Veigler was likely to continue on until Remus won, which would take a very, very long time because of how rare it was that Sirius would admit he was wrong - or potentially wrong - about anything. James turned back to his sheath of papers, eyes scrolling over the page, thinking....

"Well hang on," he said, "What if the Ministry was on to the fact that Ned had been imperiused?"

"What?" Remus looked at James.

"Well, if Grant met Anne back when Professor Veigler was wanted for those missing children, during that whole misunderstanding with Newt and all - remember, in Fifth Year? Well, perhaps that's when he initially met her, fell in love, et cetera. But then, after she died, he catches wind of Ned possibly being imperiused," James flipped through the papers again, inspecting dates to see if they lined up, "Then he investigates, and of course Professor Veigler IS imperiused and him investigating stirs up a whole rot of trouble and --" He waved his palm at the case file on the table. "They kill him and kidnap the girl."

"No wonder you're the bloody Auror in this lot, you're just sooo bloody good. So - so - bloody - good." Sirius's words were punctuated by scratches.

"If they were investigating him," Remus argued, "There would be a --"

"A FILE!" James cried out, "A BLEEDIN' CASE FILE! The file I stole from Underhill's cabinets! And that's why Underhill wanted ME to do the investigation as I'm a training Auror and I can technically work unofficially, which means nobody's got to know I took the file."

Remus stared, flabbergasted by the revelation.

Sirius grinned, "Eureka, yeah?" He started scratching furiously behind his ear.

A shrill howl broke the night, echoing through the flat, and making several lights in the nearby building units light up with curiosity at the sound.

"It sounds like they're beating that dog up there!" Complained the man downstairs. He glared at the ceiling over his TV, frowning.

"They would not beat that dog; they treat it like a person sometimes!" argued the man's wife, lowering the book she was reading and glancing up at the ceiling, too.

Another howling cry rang loudly, as though the dog were screaming, followed by thundering running and shouting.

The man's brow furrowed.

"Watch your program, Artie," his wife commanded, "Dog is fine."

He grunted, and turned the volume up to mask the commotion.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! GET YOUR BLEEDING ARSE BACK HERE THIS SECOND!!!"

Lily's voice carried down the hall, soon followed by the witch herself, dripping wet and rather miserable looking, glowering after the huge black dog that was now shaking droplets of bathwater all over Remus and James. The water fell like a heavy rain and the two boys shouted protests.

Lily marched over and grabbed Snuffles by the scruff. "You are having a bath and you are getting that flea shampoo in every pore! I can't stand watching you scratch even one more bloody moment!!"

Snuffles struggled to get away, but Lily's grip was tight as could be and she dragged him away as Remus and James turned back to the files spread out over the dining room coffee table.

The howling cries of the dog filled the flat. James glanced at Remus, half expecting him to go and rescue Sirius from Lily's bath, but Remus simply went on reading.

"You're just going to let her drag him off like that?" James asked.

Remus shrugged, "Honestly, I'm sick of his incessant scratching as well."