[Fic update] All Will Be In Order, ch 3

[shimotsuki]

.
All Will Be in Order
When Remus Lupin moves in at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, he must come to terms with Sirius Black and a friendship too long submerged by mistrust, loss, and Azkaban. He must learn to work with Molly Weasley, who seems to be nearly as frightened of werewolves as she is of Voldemort. Clearly, adjustments will have to be made. ( Remus, Sirius, Molly | GoF>OotP | gen )

---

Chapter 3: A Long Summer (5490 words | PG/mild profanity)

Author's note: Many thanks to katyhasclogs for help with British food culture. Additional notes are at the end of the chapter. (Revised, September 2011.)

Sirius tipped his head back, closed his eyes, and let the liquor slide down his throat, burning all the way. He sat still for a moment and waited for the tingle in his hands and feet that spoke of really good firewhisky, well aged.

Sighing in blessed relief, he looked up to find Remus watching him, eyes twinkling in his tired, slightly grimy face.

"That bad, eh?"

"Gah." Sirius poured himself another three fingers. "Mages preserve us from that woman!"

( 1. The Perfect Flat ) | ( 2. The First Mission ) || ( Chapter Index )

All Will Be In Order

3. A Long Summer

He heard a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls.
—Order of the Phoenix, chapter 4
. * . * .
"A werewolf?" whispered Mrs. Weasley, looking alarmed.
—Order of the Phoenix, chapter 22

"You awake, Padfoot?" Remus rattled the knob of the door to the second-floor bedroom that the heir of the House of Black had chosen yesterday. It wasn't, he thought, Sirius's boyhood room. "They'll be here any minute."

The door opened and Sirius slouched through, dressed but still yawning. "Bugger this. I don't see why we have to start cleaning at nine in the bloody morning."

Remus chuckled and gave him a nearly gentle nudge with a convenient elbow. "Molly's owl promised something nice for breakfast. Surely that's worth waking up for."

Sirius looked unconvinced, but he grunted and led the way downstairs.

It was a sunny morning, Remus knew, because he'd managed to charm open the heavy floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains in his own room. But the corridors and stairways of the house on Grimmauld Place were dark as midnight. The soft glow from his wand fell on what appeared to be gas lamps mounted here and there on the walls, but they were not in working order. Not yet, Remus amended firmly. Light would be a priority.

Cobwebs clung to their robes as they brushed past. They had simply been too busy the day before, working with Moody and Dumbledore to check the old security spells and set the necessary new ones, to make any headway on the housecleaning beyond their own two bedrooms and a place for Buckbeak. And so the rest of the house was thick with cobwebs—except for the lowest few feet, where Kreacher the house-elf appeared to have kept them cleared away. Some of the webs had occupants, too, hairy black spiders a little larger than Remus would have liked. He shot a Shrinking Spell at every one he saw.

"I wonder how Molly and the children feel about spiders," he mused.

Sirius shrugged. "Not my fault if they don't know what to expect in an abandoned house."

Remus rolled his eyes under cover of darkness. It would be a long summer indeed if certain people planned on being uncooperative the whole time.

Or maybe Sirius was just sleepy. He never had been one for mornings.

They reached the ground floor, followed the hall to the back of the house, and picked their way down one more stairway, because the Floo connection in the basement kitchen was the only one Dumbledore had allowed them to keep open. It would be safe enough; with the house itself under the Fidelius Charm, only those who knew the Secret could Floo in at all.

The kitchen was pitch-black beyond their small circles of wandlight, and it was hung just as thickly with cobwebs as the rest of the house. A carpet of dust covered the stone floor, except for the places where they had disturbed it yesterday in the course of their spellwork, and another spot by a low cupboard where there were many sets of house-elf footprints.

"Kreacher could be keeping things just a bit cleaner." Sirius scowled. "Little blighter."

Remus raised his wand, illuminating the heavy iron chandeliers above the long kitchen table. Wonder of wonders, they still held candles.

It took multiple applications of Evanesco—the cobwebs were thick and sticky enough to resist even magic—but he got one chandelier cleaned up and lit it. The sudden increase in light, dim as it was, made him blink. Now he could see Sirius across the room, emerging from a deep cupboard with a dusty bottle of firewhisky in one hand.

"How's this, Moony?" The scion of the house grinned rather wickedly. "It'll be just what we need tonight, after a full day of ruddy housecleaning."

Remus grinned back, glad that Sirius was recovering his sense of humour. "I see you knew right where to look for that."

The old grandfather clock upstairs began to groan out the chimes for nine o'clock. With a sigh of resignation, Sirius stashed his bottle back in the cupboard and went to light a fire in the fireplace. Remus moved further into the shadows, attacking another chandelier with a series of rapid and persistent Evanescos. He was determined to make the kitchen a little less gloomy, if it was to be the first part of the house that Molly and the children would see.

Almost as soon as Sirius had the fire lit, though, a spinning figure appeared in the grate, and then a small plump woman clutching an enormous wicker basket stepped out into the kitchen. She looked a little breathless from the Floo trip, and her eyes widened as she took in the dust and the cobwebs, but her face wore an expression of relentless friendliness.

The new arrival squared her shoulders and offered her hand with a bright smile. "Hello, Sirius. I'm Molly Weasley." Even in the feeble light, Remus could see her turn rather pink. "We, erm, met in the hospital wing at Hogwarts."

Sirius had told Remus, with great glee, about Molly's bloodcurdling shriek when he reverted to human form at Dumbledore's request. Remus paused in the midst of his scramble to illuminate the kitchen, wondering if he should ride to her rescue, but Sirius merely bowed over her hand and took the basket with effortless grace.

"It's a pleasure, Molly." He smiled, only slightly bitterly. "Welcome to the Gloomy and Most Filthy House of Black."

Remus grinned to himself and turned back to the cobwebs clinging stubbornly to the stubby candles in the second chandelier. It was always amusing to watch Sirius play the role of gracious host, and it fit him all the better in this house, no matter how much he might hate being here.

"I need to Floo the children and have them join us—I didn't want to bring the whole crowd through at once—but do have a crumpet first." Molly gestured at the basket. "There's butter, and my strawberry jam." She smiled perkily again, reminding Remus of a newly Sorted student worried about finding a seat at her House table. "I thought it might have been a while since you'd had fresh crumpets."

Sirius's eyes lit up, just as they had always done when James or Peter nicked something particularly good from the Hogwarts kitchens. "Ta. We love crumpets with jam—" He stopped and looked around, frowning. "Remus? Where'd you go?"

"I'm right here." With a nonverbal Incendio, Remus lit the now-clean chandelier, and the flare of light made Molly jump. "Sorry about that." He gave her an apologetic half-grin as he crossed the room to join the other two by the fireplace. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Molly," said Sirius expansively, still in full lord-of-the-manor mode, "this is my old friend, Remus Lupin."

"I'm delighted to meet you, Molly." Remus extended a hand and a warm smile. He had liked the Weasley children very well at Hogwarts, and he knew the whole family had been good to Harry. "We certainly appreciate your kind offer to help with the decontamination."

But Molly merely stood and stared, making no move to take his hand. Her eyes were huge and dark, and her pulse beat wildly in her throat; she looked for all the world like a small animal that had been cornered by a—

Remus lowered his hand and concentrated on keeping his smile from slipping, his face from reddening. Stepping back, he turned away, toward the table. "Let me see if I can clean this off a bit, so we'll have a spot to set the basket down." He busied himself with Evanescos again. "The crumpets smell lovely."

He heard Molly start breathing again as he moved further away from her. "Th—thank you, Remus."

Sirius deposited the basket onto the table and crossed his arms over his chest, looking sullen.

Oh, for Merlin's sake, Remus sighed inwardly. Someone had to remember his manners, and it clearly wasn't going to be the lord of the manor after all.

His stomach felt like lead, but Remus reached into the basket and extracted a crumpet. It was still hot. He broke it in two, balancing the pieces in one hand, and waved butter and jam onto it with a twist of his wand.

"Delicious," he pronounced, smiling carefully at Molly again—the mildest, least threatening smile he could produce; he was pretty sure he'd even been able to keep the resignation out. "Go on, Sirius, have one."

There was no response.

Remus looked from Sirius, in the midst of a fit of the sulks, to Molly, edging slowly away from him even as she pasted a nervous grin across her face.

It was going to be a very long summer.

. * . * .
About a century later, the first day of housecleaning was finally over.

The Weasleys wouldn't be staying overnight until enough bedrooms had been decontaminated—which meant a reprieve, at least for tonight. Even as the last redhead was disappearing into the Floo, Sirius hurled himself at the spider-filled cupboard and came out clutching the bottle he'd been dreaming of all ruddy day long.

He performed a perfunctory cleaning charm on a pair of antique tumblers and poured three fingers of whisky into each, pushing one across the newly cleaned kitchen table toward Remus. Then he tipped his head back, closed his eyes, and let the liquor slide down his throat, burning all the way. He sat still for a minute and waited for the tingle in his hands and feet that spoke of really good firewhisky, well aged.

Sighing in blessed relief, he looked up to find Remus watching him, eyes twinkling in his tired, slightly grimy face.

"That bad, eh?"

"Gah." Sirius poured himself another three fingers. "Mages preserve us from that woman!"

Remus laughed and reached for his own glass. "I know Dumbledore essentially forced all these Weasleys on you. But really, decontaminating the house would be a lot more work if it were just the two of us. And Molly means well."

"Does she?" Sirius heard how hard his voice sounded, but he didn't much care.

Remus sipped at his drink and nodded firmly. "She does. She's only getting on your nerves because she's trying too hard to be nice to you."

"Shows what you know." Sirius slammed his tumbler down on the table, spilling blue flame. "I'm hacked at Molly because of how she's treating you."

Remus blinked at him, looking surprised.

Surprised.

Sirius felt rage come boiling up like a cauldron full of seething Stinksap Potion. "Bloody hell, Remus!"

"Sirius—"

"There's no way you haven't noticed. She has no right to tiptoe around you acting all suspicious and afraid. This is my house and you are my friend and you are worth a dozen of her with her meddling questions and her picky little household spells—"

"Sirius."

There was steel in that voice. Sirius stopped short, mid-rant.

Moony wasn't twenty-one any more. Sirius forgot that, sometimes. Now he stared at the greying hair, at the new lines carved into a once familiar face. At the brown eyes whose spark of laughter had suddenly been replaced by weary resignation.

"This is how things are, now." Remus took another sip of firewhisky, and smiled at him, although the smile was bleak. "People know what I am, and they...react accordingly."

Sirius thought of a twelve-year-old boy, tall and gangly, white with shock and terror one post-moon night in Gryffindor Tower. "You've got to promise me. All of you! Promise me you won't tell anyone—ever. If people find out, that's the end. I'll never finish school, never find a job—never have a chance to prove I'm just as good as everyone else."

"It's a relief, in a way." Remus reached for the bottle and poured himself another drink. "I never realised how much effort it took, always hiding things and worrying about being exposed. Now there's no need for any of that."

Sirius watched his friend's face settle into a mild, neutral expression. It might as well have been a brick wall for all that Sirius could read in it.

Moony had changed, all right. He had always worked to keep his face and his voice under careful control, thanks to the dark secret he carried. But it hadn't taken long for his friends to learn to read him. And Sirius had been the best of the lot at knowing what Remus was thinking.

Now he couldn't see through the mask at all.

Sirius took another gulp of firewhisky to cover a sudden shiver.

"All right," he said, "so you're known as a werewolf. That doesn't mean you have to expect people to treat you like rubbish." He scowled. "And it certainly doesn't give Molly the right to act like you're some kind of criminal. For Merlin's sake, Moony, the children aren't like that! They know about you, and they like you well enough."

"They do." Remus's smile warmed a little. "Today was the first I'd seen them since I left Hogwarts—I didn't know quite what to expect. Ron wasn't exactly thrilled in the Shack that night, you'll remember."

"Yeah," Sirius granted, "he had a bit of a shock at first. But then he offered to be chained to the rat, alongside you. Ron's a good kid."

"Hermione will be all right, too, don't you think?" Remus fiddled with his glass. "She said she had figured me out long before she told Harry and Ron, and it didn't seem to bother her when she spoke with me after lessons."

Sirius laughed. "That one? Not a problem. Once Harry's here, you should ask him what she got up to last year, about the house-elves."

"You see, though," said Remus, his smile turning wry, "the children all knew me before they knew what I was. Molly, on the other hand, met a werewolf today." He shrugged. "It makes a difference."

Sirius shook his head. "Then she's a closed-minded bigot, condemning you before she knows a thing about you outside of what happens one night a month."

Remus was suddenly very interested in his drink. He tilted the tumbler and turned it in his hands so that the pale golden firewhisky left brief ribbons along the sides of the glass. When he spoke, his words were almost too quiet to hear.

"It's human nature to be distrustful of a werewolf." One corner of his mouth turned up again, but he kept his gaze fixed on his whisky. "You lot were, too, when everything started going to hell around us."

"Is that what you thought?"

Sirius felt as though a heavy fist had slammed into his stomach.

Had Remus believed, for the two long years since that night in the Shack, that all his friends had turned against him?

Because of his lycanthropy?

"It's what happened." Remus looked up now, but his face was unreadable again.

"No. It was not because you're a werewolf." Sirius swallowed. "And it wasn't everyone. It was only me."

Remus stared.

Sirius stared back as understanding began to dawn. "Of course you don't know. I was the only one who could've told you." He held his old friend's gaze. "You need to hear this, Remus."

Remus set down his tumbler.

"I swear to you, on the graves in Godric's Hollow, that James and Lily never doubted you. Never. They gave me hell for being such a suspicious bastard." Sirius ran a hand over his face. "They were right, and I was wrong, and it was all of you who had to pay for my blindness." He shuddered, overcome by a wave of loss and grief and the soul-deep cold of dementors keeping watch.

The warm touch of a hand on his shoulder brought him back.

"Those were bad times," said Remus quietly. "No one knew what to think."

"It wasn't that I thought for sure you were the spy," said Sirius desperately. For all that Remus's hand was gentle on his arm, the mask was still very securely in place. "It was only that I couldn't shake the worry that you might be."

Remus nodded slowly and sat back, lacing his fingers together around his glass.

Sirius felt his jaw clench. "Not to make excuses, but the rat didn't help. He was always nosing around, making innuendos about you—making me wonder where you were, and why you weren't with the rest of us."

Remus sighed. "Peter did a good bit of damage to you as well, telling me he thought it would be too hard for you to abandon your family forever. Saying that maybe you were having second thoughts about fighting on the side of the Order. I thought he was being ridiculous at the time, but after...after, I thought about his words again, and he had made me think I didn't really know you. He made it too easy for me to believe you had been the traitor."

"Where were you?" The question that had plagued Sirius for fourteen years came bursting out. "All those times we couldn't find you? Those Friday evenings you didn't spend at James and Lily's?"

Remus gave a small, tense smile. "Hillards."

Sirius stared. This was not an answer he'd ever imagined. "Hillard's? Who the hell was Hillard?"

Remus laughed humourlessly, a small huff. "No, Hillards. It was a Muggle grocery, up in Sheffield. Tesco bought them out, eventually, but that was...after."

Sirius drew a breath and let it out slowly. "So your deep dark secret was that you were minding the till in a Muggle grocery."

"Stocking shelves and sweeping floors, actually," said Remus. "But yes." He shook his head at his glass, and Sirius reached over to refill it. "I was ashamed, Padfoot. I was breaking Wizarding law by working at a Muggle job, and even so I was barely able to cover the rent on that horrid little flat I had. I didn't want you lot to know."

They stared at each other again. Such small things, Sirius thought; the fragile pride of a poor young man, and the sly careful sowing of seeds of doubt.

"Look at them, sitting there brazen as anything," came a low hoarse mutter. Both of them jumped. Sirius twisted in his chair, and there was old Kreacher the house-elf, poking his head into the kitchen. "What would poor Mistress say? There were blood-traitors in this house today, Kreacher saw them, and now Kreacher sees Master, who broke Mistress's heart, and that werewolf friend of his. Scum and filth in the house of my Mistress! What should Kreacher do?"

The elf turned away, and the door slammed shut behind him.

Sirius took one look at Remus's startled expression and began to laugh in spite of himself. After a moment, Remus joined in.

"Well, Moony," Sirius choked, "there's someone who won't treat you differently because you're a werewolf. Kreacher hates all of us equally."

Remus laughed again, and Sirius thought that, just maybe, some of the wariness might have gone from his eyes.

. * . * .
The first few days at Grimmauld Place simply flew by. Molly didn't think she had ever been so busy in her life. But they were finally beginning to wrestle the great gloomy house into submission.

She felt a certain glow of pride on the third evening, climbing the mostly cobweb-free staircase with hissing gas lamps to light her way. There was an unimaginable amount of work left to do, of course, but there were enough usable bedrooms for all of them now, and the part of the kitchen nearest the fireplace was clean enough to cook in if you weren't terribly fastidious.

"Ron?" Molly poked her head into the bedroom that Fred and George had claimed. All four children were in there, playing a game with Exploding Snap cards—which might actually be Exploding Snap, or might be something a little more...creative. She decided not to look too closely. "It's about time for Hermione to arrive."

"Oh. Right." Ron jumped to his feet at once.

"That's a forfeit!" George looked smug.

"Is not." Ron scowled. "Ginny's still in—she can play my hand too." He pushed his cards at Ginny, who accepted them with a raised eyebrow, and then he turned to follow Molly down the stairs.

In the kitchen, Sirius and Lupin—Remus, Molly corrected herself hurriedly; be polite—were sitting at the table, sharing sections of the Evening Prophet. Sirius looked up and nodded, more at Ron than at Molly, while Remus smiled a quiet hello to both of them.

Taking care to keep the table between herself and the werewolf, Molly settled down on the far side to wait. She pulled out another chair for Ron, but he ignored her and went to stand by the fire, fiddling listlessly with the tarnished silver tankards that crowded the mantelpiece.

Molly stole a glance across the table at her two companions. She frowned a little at the tumblers of firewhisky they were nursing. At least she hadn't ever seen either one of them drink too much. She did wonder what would happen if Fred and George got their hands on the bottle, but Lupin—Remus—had insisted (with something of a twinkle in his eye) that that would not be possible. "Not even for the twins," he had said, quite firmly.

Sirius finished with his section of the Prophet and pushed it aside, disordered and crumpled. Wordlessly, Remus passed Sirius the section he'd been reading, and reached for the discarded one. He spent a moment straightening each page, and then refolded the section, creasing it neatly, before he began to read it.

That was very like Remus, somehow. Molly had been surprised when she saw just how skilful his housecleaning spellwork was—she didn't mean to be the old-fashioned kind of witch who thought that men couldn't be trusted to keep a house up properly, but honestly, Remus was faster and more precise with his cleaning charms than most women she knew.

He seemed to like things very tidy, Molly concluded, studying the way he folded the newspaper in half again after he turned the page. It wasn't at all what she would have expected of a werewolf.

Remus looked up and spotted her watching him. He smiled again, apparently unconcerned, but Molly felt her cheeks grow warm. She was glad when the flames in the fireplace suddenly turned green.

"Hullo!" came Arthur's voice from the hearth. "Hermione's arrived at the Burrow—shall I send her through?"

"Hi, Dad," said Ron. "Yeah, go ahead."

"All right." Arthur paused, looking sheepish. "I'll be another hour or two, Molly. There's something I need to finish tonight."

"Be careful, dear." Molly sighed. Arthur seemed to be bringing more and more work home with him these days, and until they could get the library cleaned out there was simply nowhere for him to work at Grimmauld Place.

Arthur's head disappeared and was almost immediately replaced by a bulky rotating shape, which resolved itself into a mass of bushy hair and rather a lot of luggage. Ron leapt back hastily, dodging the spinning sharp corners.

"Hello, Ron—Mrs. Weasley—Sirius—Professor Lupin!" Hermione was pink-cheeked and beaming. Molly went to hug her—or at least, the closest she could get to a hug, since the girl was carrying her cat Crookshanks in his cage in one hand and dragging her school trunk behind her with the other. But when Hermione tried to hug Molly back, she dropped the cage. The door sprang open. Crookshanks bolted and made a beeline for Sirius, hopping up on his lap and butting his hard little head up against Sirius's unshaven chin, purring all the while.

Sirius broke into a boyish grin that erased years from his gaunt face. "Look, Hermione. He remembers me!"

Molly frowned at this reminder that her youngest son and his two best friends had been very friendly with a fugitive from Azkaban—for heaven's sake—for the better part of a year.

But Hermione merely set down the trunk and righted the cage. "Of course he does. He's very intelligent, you know."

"I know," said Sirius quietly, scratching Crookshanks behind the ears. The ugly orange cat (or was he a Kneazle?) closed his eyes and preened.

"This is so exciting," said Hermione breathlessly, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "Helping Professor Dumbledore! Doing something that will really make a difference!"

"Yeah," Sirius muttered, "like polishing the old family silver!"

Molly saw Remus shoot his friend a quelling look, but Hermione was busy peppering Ron with questions about the house and didn't seem to have heard.

"Oh," said Hermione suddenly, turning toward the table again. "Professor Lupin, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."

"Certainly." Remus smiled at his former student—perhaps a little cautiously, Molly thought. "What is it?"

"I was reading through the latest issue of the Annals of Magizoology," she began.

Molly, looking the right way at the right time, saw Remus exchange some sort of glance with Sirius. But Hermione missed it, because Ron snorted and she paused to glare at him.

"Anyway," she continued, turning her back on Ron and crossing her arms, "there was an anonymous article about grindylows."

"Was there?" Remus's expression was completely bland. But Sirius was sniggering.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at the werewolf who had been her teacher. "You did write it. Didn't you?"

"I did," he admitted, the neutral facade shifting into a wry half-grin. "How did you work that out?"

"Well, first of all, the article covered lots of things you taught in your classes!" Her eyes shone. "I had no idea at the time that you were teaching us original research. That's brilliant!"

Molly thought Remus looked slightly bemused by Hermione's excitement. "That's not exactly unusual, you know," he said quickly. "Professor Flitwick developed some of the Charms he teaches, and the same is true for Professor McGonagall and her Transfiguration spells."

"Still," said Hermione, "those spells have been taught for years. But we were the very first students to learn these new things about grindylows." She beamed at him again. "Anyway, the article sounded like you. I could hear your voice in my head as I was reading it." Then she frowned. "But why didn't you sign your name to it?"

Remus smiled again, but this was a weary smile. "Can't you work that part out for yourself as well?"

Hermione's face fell. "I was hoping there was some other reason." She bit her lip. "You're saying the journal wouldn't have published it if they knew who the author was?"

Remus lifted one shoulder in acknowledgment. "Or what."

Sirius, who had been rubbing Crookshanks under the chin with one bony finger, glanced up sharply.

But Remus drew a deliberate breath and settled into another smile. "I quite enjoy doing the research. I'm just glad it can be published at all."

Hermione looked like she wanted to argue, but Molly didn't know how much time the children really ought to be spending with these two—Sirius swore rather a lot, and Remus was, after all, a werewolf. "Come along, dear," she coaxed. "Let's get your things upstairs. You'll be sharing a room with Ginny."

"And we're all playing—er—cards, in the twins' room," Ron broke in. He pounded on up the stairs, leaving Hermione and Molly (levitating Hermione's luggage) to bring up the rear.

"Don't you think that's stupid?" Hermione persisted, pausing halfway to the first-floor landing to turn back and look at Molly. "If an article's good enough to publish, why should it matter if the person who wrote it happens to be a werewolf?"

But Molly was only half-listening; she was bracing herself, because Hermione was about to come face-to-face with the house-elf heads mounted on the wall.

. * . * .
The next morning, Remus went to Diagon Alley for groceries, with the key to Sirius's Gringotts vault shoved deep in his pocket. "If we're feeding the entire ruddy Order," Sirius had insisted, "we're definitely using the Black family fortune. Because my sainted parents would drop dead at the thought, if they weren't already long gone." He had cut off Remus's attempt at a protest before it even got started. "It's not charity. It's for the Order. Shut up and get on with the shopping."

When Remus returned to the house two hours later, his pockets full of shrunken parcels, he could hear Molly's voice and various thumping sounds coming from somewhere upstairs. He deposited the groceries in the kitchen, where Ron and Hermione were busy pulling all the dishes out of the cupboards and giving everything a thorough scrubbing. Then he slipped carefully past Mrs. Black's portrait and found Molly, Ginny, and the twins clearing cobwebs in a small study on the second floor.

"Oh, Remus," said Molly, breathless and a little wild-eyed, "I'm glad you're back." She hurried over to him, in her agitation standing a little closer than she normally dared. "I need to ask Sirius about these"—she gestured at a row of cabinets that were humming and quivering ominously—"but he's, erm, upstairs with the hippogriff." She bit her lip.

This was not a good sign. "What happened?"

"Well, Severus Snape stopped by, and he said some things, and then Sirius started shouting..."

"Ah." Remus sighed. "I'll see if I can get him to come back down." He crossed over to the stairway. "Oi! Padfoot!"

Behind him, he heard a choking sound, and someone dropped a broom. But there was no response from above.

He tried again. "It's about time for lunch! Why don't you and I take a turn making sandwiches?"

"I'm not hungry," came faintly—and sulkily—from the third floor.

"That's what you say now, but if you don't eat with us, you'll be nicking Buckbeak's ferrets long before teatime!"

Silence again.

A slow grin spread across Remus's face. He'd just realised that he had a secret weapon. "Never mind, then," he called. "I'm sure I can find someone else to drink the hot butterbeer I've brought you from the Leaky Cauldron."

Nothing for a moment. Then, thumping footsteps on the stairs. Sirius appeared, trying not to smile. "All right, Moony, you win."

Remus clapped him on the back. The two of them turned away from the staircase only to find their way blocked—Fred and George had emerged from the study and stood, transfixed, with the oddest expressions on their faces.

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"What's the matter?" Remus asked, concerned.

The twins exchanged a glance.

"Er," said one of them. "We wanted to help you make the sandwiches."

"Well. Thank you." This was the first time that either Fred or George had shown the slightest interest in helping in the kitchen, but Remus decided to accept the offer at face value. Now that he was no longer their teacher, he preferred not to inquire too closely into the affairs of the twins. "Just let us have a look at these cabinets first."

When they reached the kitchen, they found Ron and Hermione, still surrounded by piles of sudsy crockery. The sandwich-makers claimed the table and began slicing bread, ham, cheese, and cucumbers.

"All right, George," said the twin who must be Fred, "go on, then."

George looked up from his jar of mustard and caught Remus's eye. "So if you're Moony—"

Unable to keep still after all, Fred turned to Sirius.

"—and you're Padfoot—"

"—then who's Prongs?"

Remus looked over at the dish-washers. Hermione shook her head. Ron shrugged.

Sirius, wielding a long bread knife and looking every inch the mad convict, grinned at the twins. "You saw Harry's Patronus at the Quidditch match that time, right?"

"Yeah," said Fred, "it was—oh! Prongs was Harry's dad, then?"

"Right in one," said Remus, breaking into a wide smile himself. He suddenly understood how Harry had come by the Map.

But the smile vanished when he realised what the next question was going to be. And he wasn't the only one—Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth, and Ron frowned hard at his brothers.

They didn't get the message.

"What about Wormtail?" Fred asked cheerily.

Sirius actually growled. His eyes narrowed, and he spat into the fireplace. "Wormtail is a rat."

Five seconds too late, George caught Fred's eye and mouthed, Scabbers. Fred went green.

The kitchen was frozen in painful silence. Remus took a step nearer Sirius. He saw Hermione draw a breath and try to think of something to say.

In the end, it was George who swallowed hard and soldiered on. "But that Map, though. It's absolutely brilliant! How did you lot work it out?"

Sirius blinked, met George's gaze, and began to chuckle. "Well. That's a rather long story."

Remus relaxed.

And then he realised that both of the twins were gazing, with expressions of profound awe, not only at Sirius—but at him, too.

It was Remus's turn to blink.

"You'd have time to tell us, though," said Fred, hopefully, looking from one Marauder to the other. "It's going to be a long summer."

. * . * .
( On to Ch 4 ) ( Up to Chapter Index )

---

Author's notes: The twins-meet-Marauders scene is based on two drabbles originally posted to the Official Drabble Thread at the (late lamented?) Sugar Quill. It was jesspallas's "Oblivious" (chapter 4) that first made me think about how the twins might have discovered who the Marauders actually were, although I've taken a different approach to that revelation.

Regarding first-war backstory, we see Remus move into his dreadful Sheffield flat (which makes the one he's got in this story look positively palatial) in Erosion, and Peter makes Sirius start to wonder about Remus in Seeds of Suspicion.

.

Comments

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I loved it! Read it between eating oatmel and getting dressed this morning, and was almost late for work. I will leave a better comment later. ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if it made you late for work! But I'm very happy you enjoyed it.

(How are things going in the new job?)

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

All right, I'm back. :D

I really like this world you are building.
Physically, Grimmauld Place seems very real as you describe its dusty interior, the heavy drapes, the cobwebs and how it is (relatively) clean where Kreature has his habitual haunts.

In terms of time, I love how it reaches back and forth between events of the past that have influence on the present. How Sirius suddenly realises that Remus doesn't know the truth of how they all felt back before it all went wrong, and how that may influence the friendship they are rebuilding now. That sentence where Sirius is suddenly all despondent and thining of the Dementors and is brougt back by Remus reaching out to him, is just wonderful. And also how the childrens' history with Remus make them act so differently with him than Molly.

What is really great about this story though, are the relations between the three central characters. Molly rings very true with how she cannot get past her prejudice against Remus even though we know her as a kind and caring woman, and also that Remus is a much more likely candidate for her affection than Sirius. Sirius' relationship with her getting off on a bad note because of her fear of Remus is also very well done, and seems entirely likely. It would be the kind of thing to make him really angry and unforgiving of any other small characteristics that might not have annoyed him as much otherwise. Sirius and Remus are wonderful together - knowing each other so intimately and yet not. I love how Sirius realises this:

Moony wasn't twenty-one any more. Sirius forgot that, sometimes. Now he stared at the greying hair, at the new lines carved into a once familiar face. At the brown eyes whose customary spark of laughter had suddenly been replaced by a look of weary resignation.

And still they know how to coax each other to laughter once more. And then lastly there is Remus and Molly. I think Remus was taken by surprise at Molly's fear of him. Because he knows her children and has heard of how she has cared for Harry perhaps he didn't expect this from her, but of course he is too nice a man to hold it against her.

I look forward to seeing all their relations evolve/devolve more. Thank you for the update that I have eagerly awaited and enjoyed very much! Now when is the next one? ;)

(edited for readability.. that was a long paragraph)

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

I was finally headed to bed much too late last night when you posted this, though it required a lot of willpower for me to wait to read it till breakfast! What a great treat to start the day off with! I've not read a lot of genfic, but I'm really enjoying this one.

It's great to see all the Order members coming together, and to see the central role Remus takes in getting things organized, while Sirius is so quickly falling back into feeling useless. Really sets the tone for the tensions that exist and the lines that have been drawn when Harry arrives. Great choice to make the bad blood start between Molly and Sirius be about her reaction to Remus -- it shows Sirius' dogged loyalty so much, as well as is completely right for Molly, as Ron had to learn that prejudice somewhere, and I don't see it as likely to have come from Arthur.

The bits of backstory here really fill in the gaps, too. Poor (literally!) Remus, working a Muggle job and being too ashamed/afraid of being caught breaking the law, to tell the boys about it. And I'm sure Wormtail was sowing seeds of doubt in both his and Sirius' minds about each other. :( I wish I had a Time-turner so badly so I could go back and stop it all!

Such a great update. I'm really looking forward to more! Especially the introduction of a certain pink-haired girl. ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I was up much too late myself posting this, but I really wanted to get it done before tomorrow!

I'm very glad you liked this take on the tension between Molly and Sirius. She's already jealous of him over Harry (in Ch 2), and now if he starts to snub her because of her treatment of Remus, it isn't going to endear him to her at all. My underlying goals for this story were to explore how Remus and Sirius put their friendship back together, and how Molly came to be hostile toward Sirius and trust (love?) Remus so much. The things you've mentioned bear on these themes, which makes me feel relieved that they are coming through.

Especially the introduction of a certain pink-haired girl. ;)

Uh-oh! ;P That's the very point where Kaleidoscope is going to start, so no Metamorphmagi here, I'm afraid! (We'll see her talked about a little, though, in a later chapter.)

Thanks so much for reading and commenting even though it's out of your usual area!

[(Anonymous)]

Lovely!
It is heartbreaking to watch Remus so easily accept being feared and mistrusted by 'normal' wizards and witches. You've done a very well characterized Molly, nothing too banal or shrill, just a well meaning but unfortunately prejudiced woman.
I'm looking forward to more of this - hopefully we don't have to wait too long for that!
Love Nicole

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading, and for the kind words! I'm glad you liked Molly here, because in canon I find her both warm-hearted and fussy/annoying/narrow-minded at the same time, so that's what I was trying to show.

My next writing project is for metamorfic_moon, and that will keep me busy for October, but I think I can manage another chapter of "Order" before the holidays. I actually have large sections of chapters 4, 5, and 6 written already, so things should start moving faster now that the two hard-to-write chapters (2 and 3) are done. I hope!

[katyhasclogs.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love it!

I thought your take on 1981 was really interesting. It's so hard to picture what must have happened and how everyone could get it so wrong, but I love your theories.

I also enjoyed Molly's POV and reactions. I love Molly, but part of me knows that she can be really intolerant and also that Ron must have got his original anti-werewolf attitude from somewhere. I instinctively feel that she'd really like Remus though, once she got beyond the issue. Anyway, it was really interesting seeing it all from her perspective.

Small brit-pick though - scones for breakfast would be slightly bizarre and almost the equivalent of having cake for breakfast. I understand they're something quite different in the US?

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the comments. I've spent probably more time than is healthy :P thinking about 1979-1981, because it really is interesting to know what could have happened. And I'm having so much fun writing Molly here, planning out how her attitude toward Remus is going to change as events develop...

And thank you for the Britpick. I don't know that scones themselves are that different in the US (unlike famous cases like "biscuits"), at least judging by the fruit scone I ate in Heathrow at 5:00 one morning, and the scones I had with a cream tea in the Cotswolds -- but I didn't know they wouldn't be a breakfast food over there!

So do you have any suggestions for a replacement? What might Molly bake to take along for a sort of picnic breakfast to get them all ready for housecleaning? I was thinking of something that would be warm and comforting or tasty, but could be held in your hand and eaten casually. Is this a good context for crumpets, and if so, would one spread anything on those, or eat them plain?

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

You seem to have a lot of people reading en route to bed or elsewhere, and I'm one of them! I will be back tomorrow to leave a proper review, but I SO enjoyed this after a fairly grotty day. :)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry you had a grotty day, but I'd be very pleased if this chapter did cheer you up a little... I hope things are better soon.

[duck-or-rabbit.livejournal.com]

oh, i needed to read some sirius today! (somehow i manage to contort remus fics into sirius fics.) and, i must say that i enjoyed hermione's line about prejudiced peer reviewers, lol.

i'll comment tomorrow night when i have more time but wanted to let you know that i read it because i love this wip of yours....

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for commenting! I may come to regret these rash words, but I am fairly optimistic that I'll be updating again sometime next month. (I know it's pitiful that I think that's a quick update, but such is life...)

And I'd be happy to think of this as a Sirius fic! ;)

[Edited because I meant to also say:]
i must say that i enjoyed hermione's line about prejudiced peer reviewers, lol

LOL! But I was thinking more about editors than peer reviewers -- the Institute for Magizoology was the first job Remus got sacked from after Hogwarts in my ficverse (that was in Letting It Matter), and I've decided his old boss there has risen to be the journal's editor now... Yes, I am a personal-backstory geek.

[riveroad.livejournal.com]

This is incredible! Your characterizations are just so spot-on - you really mesh what we know of Molly from the books and make it so very believable that she's nervous around a werewolf. I love that. Hermione's ernestness too is very honest here and I love how endearing you've made her. And around all the amazing characterization is the fact that this is essentially, a very sad story but the characters are finding humour where they can too.

It's realistic for both Remus and Sirius to have, at some point, suspected each other and of course now, to be looking back with 20/20 vision and see all the mistakes that were made. It just makes you ache for both of them and you've got this incredible way of making me hurt for them without feeling like they're getting too mopey. It's wonderful.

But the very best part of this? How long it was! lol, seriously, I was so happy that there was so much of it to read. Seeing the relationships between all your characters evolve are what I look forward to most in your future chapters!

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness, thank you for such lovely comments! I'm having a lot of fun with Molly, so I'm happy you think her characterization is working.

making me hurt for them without feeling like they're getting too mopey

I'm so glad to hear that. It's awfully interesting to write characters dealing with complicated emotions, and I do try not to get too mopey or sappy, but I'm always kind of worried about that, so I appreciate the feedback.

But the very best part of this? How long it was! lol

LOL! This is the longest single fic I've ever tried to write, which is part of the reason it's been taking me so long to post chapters -- but I have high hopes for another update before the end of the year.

[norwegianblue47.livejournal.com]

Just Friday night I was thinking that I missed Harry Potter. I saw this posted on genfic_hogwarts, and it intrigued me, and this was just what I needed. I loved it. It is very, very canon compliant, and I can easily see all this happening. I'm particularly interested in how Molly is acting. It is very interesting in how she originally acted around Remus, how Remus understands it, and how it is gradually changing.

Also, if you are looking for the SQ's drabble thread, you can find it at sq_drabblers.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to leave a comment! I'm happy you found this canon compliant, because I try hard to be. (um, except when I'm writing post-DH Remus/Tonks AU... *whistles innocently*) And I'm especially glad you like the interactions between Molly and Remus -- given how nervously she reacted when she learned there was a werewolf in Arthur's ward at St. Mungo's in OotP, it's intriguing that she so obviously trusts Remus by the time OotP starts, and even thinks he should marry Tonks by HBP.

Also, if you are looking for the SQ's drabble thread, you can find it at sq_drabblers.

I'm so glad the Official Drabble Thread has a new home! Since I started writing longer things, I've gradually stopped spending as much time there as I did at first. But except for a few posts at MuggleNet, that was my first real public activity as a fic writer, and I really appreciate all the work you and ... was it Honeybee? ... did to keep that running.

[(Anonymous)]

I love this! I hope you write more soon. I especially love the interactions between the Weasleys, Remus, Sirius, and Hermione. I love the fact that Fred and George are warming up to Lupin even more, knowing that he along with Sirius made up two of the marauders.

I like how Hermione recognized Lupin's lecture on Grindylows when she read the article. Poor Lupin, though. He's treated horribly by most of the wizarding world, and yet he's one of the best wizards around not to mention one of the kindest.

Anyway, I love this fanfic so far. And please update more soon!:)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the interactions between the characters.

not to mention one of the kindest.

I think that's why I like Lupin so much as a character -- even with all the difficult things he's had to put up with, he still manages to be a kind and caring person.

Thanks again for the encouragment, and I think there will be more soon -- I'm planning at least one more update before the end of the year. (I'm also working on something for metamorfic_moon this month.)

[duck-or-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Now that I have solved all the world's math problems and am now once again temporarily unemployed, I have time to do things I want to, like review your story.

I must say one aspect of your storytelling style that I think needs recognition (although others have undoubtedly done so before) is how completely you fill in a scene. For example, you have the moment when Sirius lights the fire, then in the next paragraph you remind readers with just the smallest statement, about the fire. Every word you lay down is relevant, and though it requires our attention -- no drifting off -- it makes a thoroughly told story. There is so much brevity, bleak explanations in fanfiction, and it's a credit to your writely talent that you follow through consistently with every detail. It matters.

My first reaction to this chapter, as I told you, was this is Sirius' story, which it still is, but on my second read, the Twins are the stars of this chapter, lol. A missing moment in canon for me is how George and Fred became as handy with the Map as they did, and furthermore, if they knew who the mapmakers were, and that you addressed this here wholly delighted me! I love this reaction:

"Yeah," said Fred, "it was—oh! Prongs was Harry's dad, then?"

You put a bounce, a spring into the Twins' dialogue and I can hear them clearly with distinctly different voices apart from the other two males who speak in this scene.

Such a wonderful chapter, filled with humor and insights. Well done, as always.

Sorry that it took me almost a month to follow up my original comment. I hope you are able to secure some time before the year's end to polish off another chapter. :)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Sorry that your job is over, but at least having time to do things you want to is good. Thanks so much for using some of that time to come back here and leave me such kind and encouraging comments!

I'm really reassured to hear that you liked the twins' voices here, and thought they sounded different from the Marauders. The twins have a distinctive style in canon, and it's kind of intimidating to try to match that.

And thanks so much for commenting on details and continuity. With most fics, before I write a word, I've worked through imagining the scene as a kind of mental movie, so it's pretty visually concrete in my head, at least -- and lately I've been working on trying to include more visual details in the actual writing. So it's great to hear that you like the way that's going.

I hope you are able to secure some time before the year's end to polish off another chapter. :)

I'm going to try! I have large chunks of the remaining three chapters written already, so after the Meta fic (fingers are crossed that I'll finish that one by the deadline) and then one more R/T fic that's already about 80% finished, Order is the next thing on the list. :)

[tegdoh.livejournal.com]

Moony wasn't twenty-one any more. Sirius forgot that, sometimes.
...
"It's a relief, in a way." Remus reached for the bottle and poured himself another drink. "I never realised how much effort it took, always hiding things and worrying about being exposed. Now there's no need for any of that."

Gah. Your observations on Remus here are so painful, and so true. Which would be more difficult? Hiding who you are, always being afraid of being found out, or dealing with open prejudice? And of course Sirius is going to see him as the 20 year old boy he knew once, not the man who's gone through so much in the interim. (Does Sirius get, even now, how hard it must have been on Remus in the aftermath of that Halloween?) You've done a great job in showing how they rebuild that relationship slowly, dealing with the old scars as well as plenty of new ones.

Molly's reaction doesn't surprise me at all - I think you've characterized her very well. As much as we see her as the loving mother for the Weasley brood, she's a bit old-fashioned and would take some time to warm up to Remus. It just shows how deeply ingrained such prejudices can become, that someone as generous as Molly would have that reaction, in spite of the glowing reports she must have gotten from the kids about Remus.

And then we have the twins, for some lovely (and much needed) comic relief combined with hero worship.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the summer at Grimmauld develops.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

The friendship between Remus and Sirius absolutely fascinates me. By the time Harry sees them together in OotP, things seem fine between them, but before that point they must have had to deal with whatever went wrong in 1981, plus the stark difference in experiences they've had over the twelve years Remus was alone and Sirius was in prison.

In my ficverse, Sirius does have real empathy for what Remus has gone through. But unfortunately this point in the timeline is the most stable he'll ever be. Now that he's back in the family house, his own boredom and despair are gradually (not fully within the scope of this one story) going to start clouding his judgment and making him less dependable of a friend to Remus than he wants to be.

It just shows how deeply ingrained such prejudices can become, that someone as generous as Molly would have that reaction -- I like the way you've put that; it's exactly the kind of idea I've been going for.

Now I just hope I can get Ch 4 finished before the year-end holidays, heh.

[(Anonymous)]

Aw, this is so amazing. I love the way you write, and I adore the way you understand these characters so well, and makes me feel like I know them even more than I already do (HP obsessed as I am). I love your take on the Weasleys too. I've always adored your Remus and Sirius, but to explore his relationships with the Weasleys is really interesting, and I can't wait to read more of this.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate the kind words -- thanks for taking the time to read and leave a comment! It's great to hear you think the characters are plausible here.

(I have made a start on the next chapter, but things are going to get a little busy over the holidays, so I'm hoping to have an update ready maybe by early January.)

[zia-montrose.livejournal.com]

This was a pleasure to read, start to finish. For those of us who wonder what went on at Grimmauld Place amongst the adults, not all of which could have possibly been witnessed by Harry, this story expands into the cracks of canon like a trusty can of Fix-a-Flat. I know that takes a lot of time and diligence to accomplish, so Kudos! It is also what makes fics indulgent to read.

One thing I specifically liked about your Chapter 2, which I didn't manage to leave a comment on, is how you rooted through Molly's psyche. You do that again here with this and it's funny: Molly didn't know how much time the children really ought to be spending with these two—Sirius swore rather a lot, and Remus was, after all, a werewolf. Not to mention that you gave nice backstory to Ron's initial revulsion toward werewolf!Lupin.

It's also fun to see the twins interacting with the Marauders and showing a touch of reverence. You wrote the twins so nicely too.
And for a Sirius fangirl like myself, these lines were just priceless:
"If we're feeding the entire ruddy Order," Sirius had insisted, "we're definitely using the Black family fortune. Because my sainted parents would drop dead at the thought, if they weren't already long gone."

Sirius, wielding a long bread knife and looking every inch the mad convict, grinned at the twins.

Some people are dying for the next movie to come out. I have little interest in the movies, so I think I’ll just look forward to your Chapter 4. : )

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for your detailed and encouraging comments. I really appreciate the feedback! I've been having a lot of fun trying to get inside the heads of these characters -- Molly and Sirius especially, since I don't write them as often -- so I'm happy to hear you think they are plausible.

Molly in OotP has always been a puzzle to me, the way she's obviously afraid of the werewolf in Arthur's ward at St. Mungo's, but at the same time trusts Remus enough to sob on his shoulder. So this story is kind of my attempt to explain that.

And Chapter 4 is about two-thirds written. I really should finish my piece for fandomfusion first, but this one shouldn't be too much longer, I hope. :)

[lenaf007.livejournal.com]

This is a really fun story. I'm loving how complex its getting with Sirius, Remus, Molly, and now all the rest too. The twins realizing they were the Marauders was great too. I'd be interested in seeing how they explain that one without giving the twins "too much" information. :)

Great fun! Now onto the latest chapter. I'm getting through them slowly. ;-)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks again for the encouraging words! It's fun to think about how Sirius, Remus, and Molly got to where we see them in canon with respect to their interactions. And I do really hope the twins found out at some point who Padfoot and Moony were.

[paulamcg.livejournal.com]

I’ve recced this story quite a while ago – and only now do I get to comment on this chapter with so much Remus-and-Sirius goodness!

It’s wonderful how you make me suddenly realise that, of course, Sirius’s resentment of Molly is due to how she (first) treated Remus, not so much (or at least not only) related to Harry – whereas it’s natural that in canon, from Harry’s perspective, we get a different impression. In general I must admire you for making everything in your writing fit perfectly with canon, while enriching it, too.

My favourite scene is probably the one with Hermione. Her interests and opinions as well as her lack of hesitation to declare them are exactly what we can expect from the Hermione we’ve got to know – and, essentially, they serve here to help us and Molly understand Remus’s situation and character better.

Above all, I can’t help loving this Remus. And it’s impossible for me to be disappointed with the nature of his relationship with Sirius (or with his rather predictable expertise in magizoology and in cleaning charms). On the contrary, I’m eager to see how the two of them will rebuild their friendship – as well as how Molly’s attitudes towards each of them will evolve. Oh, I like the detail about Remus’s Muggle job that it was illegal, too.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks once again for your thoughtful comments. I've enjoyed trying to work out how Molly would see Remus initially, and what it would take for her to develop the level of trust with him that we see in OotP.

I'm glad you like Hermione here, too -- given her past experience with SPEW, and the way she covered for Remus in third year, she certainly seems like she would be deeply sympathetic.

And it’s impossible for me to be disappointed ... with his rather predictable expertise in magizoology and in cleaning charms.

Thanks for your honesty! But I must counter that the expertise with magizoology is essentially canon -- Remus took the third-year DADA curriculum and essentially recast it as Defence Against Dark Creatures; those kappas and redcaps and grindlylows may have been standard in the third-year textbook, but I had the impression in PoA that actually bringing the creatures in and having practical lessons was Remus's own personal touch. Which seems to indicate a certain amount of experience in magizoology -- actually, while I haven't written too much (yet?) about Remus between leaving Hogwarts and Halloween 1981, the Institute for Magizoology (whose journal this is) features prominently in one of the stories I have written.

As for the cleaning spells, you're right that this is common in fanon, and it's entirely legitimate to argue that it might have been more interesting for me to take Remus in another direction. But by way of explanation, let me say that extreme tidiness is an important aspect of my version of Remus, not just a random detail -- I see it as part of a larger personality trait that values order and control in all things, as a response to the lycanthropy being something he has absolutely no control over. (In any case it's a plot point in this story, since Remus's cleaning skills were Sirius's ostensible excuse in Ch 1 for inviting Remus to stay at Grimmauld Place.)

I'm glad you liked the Muggle job having been illegal. I find it difficult to explain why Remus didn't just go get himself Muggle jobs when he was having so much trouble making ends meet. So I invented this law, thinking that Remus wouldn't choose to break that law except in times when he was especially desperate.

Thanks again for your comments, and for the very important reminder of the value of originality in developing characters in fanfic!

[jobey-in-error.livejournal.com]

I wish I could use Shrinking Spells on my spiders. *sigh* (Though a Summoning Charm is always the magic I'm most jealous of. I hate looking for things, and I lose them all the time.)

Er, way to start this review on a high note. I love this chapter. So many fabulous details that it's hard to pick them out, but after this the third-or-fourth reread, I'll give it a shot: Sirius's lord-of-the-manor-mode, Molly looking like a recently Sorted student, Remus trying so hard to act normal (btw, I'm not sure we've ever seen him blush; I suspect he's one of those people that isn't prone to it, which would have been a small blessing all those years); the whole come-downstairs-before-you-start-nicking-Buckbeak's-ferrets conversation (which was somehow so wonderfully them, and, oh God, "Can we help you made sandwiches?" Temporarilysubdued!FredandGeorge were incredibly adorable. Love the consistency of the "long summer" theme throughout this too.

Do you know, you're the only writer I've seen who answered the question of "If Remus was indeed acting suspicious during the first war, what exactly was he doing?" the way you had. But one you put it together for me, it seems so very obvious.

(BTW, though I hate to keep quoting some other, probably unknown ficcer at you, this is another point in this fic where I remember Iniga's take on the same scene, this time the Sirius-and-Remus-discuss-all-their-first-war-suspicious-and-clear-the-air-talk. Sirius assured Remus that he and he alone suspected him of being a spy, and that for his suspicions James said he was "crackers" and Lily was furious. Remus, who had been playing it cool till then, suddenly collapses into a chair and says, "I didn't realize how much I needed to hear that." For me that scene is one of the fandom standard bars in "the telling moment," and I've always loved how you did the same thing, since Sirius in this chapter confesses the same thing to a Remus that was similarly in the dark. Ooh, those two...)

Anyyyyyyyway, this chapter is my favorite in the whole fic. It's almost unadulterated brilliance, and it had been well worth the wait.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I really appreciate the thought you put into your comments. So much so that I kept saving them for "when I had time to write a decent reply". And now it's more than a month later, which shows what a brilliant strategy that was. :/

I'm totally going to go looking for this Iniga over the holiday break. Definitely intrigued!

Very glad you like the "long summer" theme. It grew out out of me trying to figure out how the heck to give some continuity to what were rather unconnected little vignettes in this chapter, but I can pretend that it was a plan from the start?

Another writer I know who has Remus avoiding his friends out of shame stemming from poverty is GraceHasVictory, who used to write at the Sugar Quill and MuggleNet. It does seem like the kind of thing he might do.

And thanks for your comments on the characters. I like trying out the idea that some of Molly's dislike for Sirius is rooted in insecurity. And yeah, Remus seems to be extremely good at not revealing much emotion (his breakdown in DH notwithstanding) -- I think of his understated reaction to Ron's "Get away from me, werewolf!" as the (um, as it were) canonical case of this.