Hadrian Ables was nervous; there was no other way to put it. This was his first real assignment as an auror, and he was terrified that he would cock it up. Of course, he did have two other very experienced wizards with him, a middle aged witch named Belinda Mendelsohn and top auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, but he still couldn't help feeling that how he reacted today would define the rest of his career, as he had purposefully volunteered to take the case. He ran over the details of the case again in his head.

It had been mere hours after the announcement that the mass murderer Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban when Shacklebolt had presented the assignment. "It's fairly straightforward," he had said, "When Black went to Azkaban he left behind a wife, Marianne; Rose to her friends. She's a sweet girl, I've met her before, and was in no way connected with the murders her husband committed."

One of Hadrian's mates raised his hand. "How can you be sure, sir?"

"Because she's a muggle," he answered calmly, shocking the room into silence.

Something immediately rubbed Hadrian the wrong way about the statement. He-who-must-not-be-named had been staunchly against all things muggle, and it didn't make sense that his number one supporter would be married to one.

"The task," Shacklebolt continued, "would be to go and inform her of Black's escape and search the premises for any sign of him, though I doubt he'll be there, as she's since remarried. This is the part where it gets complicated. I don't expect any trouble from the husband, but he has assaulted aurors in the past, and I won't fully disregard the possibility. I also feel it my responsibility to warn you that her current husband is a werewolf, and may get territorial when we enter his home."

A shudder ran through the gathered aurors, and whispers erupted. Just last month one of their top aurors was killed in a werewolf-related disturbance. His body had been ripped to shreds, and the image still hung in the minds of his coworkers.

"I will state again though," Shacklebolt reiterated, "that I do not expect trouble from the husband and I highly doubt Black will be hiding there. We'll just walk in, ask some questions, do a quick once-over of the house and leave. It will probably only take a couple hours, maybe less. Now, I'll personally be going on this one, and I'd like two of you to come with me, preferably people with knowledge of werewolves or muggles."

Hadrian looked around; no one seemed to be volunteering so he did some quick calculations in his head. He didn't think the full moon would happen for another week, and though werewolves were resistant of magic even in human form, he reasoned three aurors should be able to take one out without a lot of difficulty. While he ran over the variables in his head, Belinda Mendelsohn raised her hand and said in an only slightly shaking voice, "I'll go."

Auror Mendelsohn usually didn't go into field work anymore, as she had an old war wound and preferred paperwork anyway, but she was currently writing a book about muggles, and was keen to interact with them whenever her job allowed. Emboldened by Mendelsohn, Hadrian raised his hand and said the same. Shacklebolt raised his eyebrows at him, but when he spoke, he was not judgmental.

"Auror Abels, what makes you want to take this job? This would be your first venture into the field, yes?"

Hadrian nodded, but spoke as confidently as he could, "I did my N.E.W.T. Essay for history of magic on the history of werewolves, and got an outstanding."

Shacklebolt's eyebrows lowered, and he nodded, looking satisfied. "That suits me. Aurors Mendelsohn and Abels, meet me in my office in fifteen minutes; the rest of you, back to work. The minister wants Black caught as soon as possible, and so do I."

So now Hadrian was walking toward the little house that the couple occupied, trying to swallow the rock that had settled in his throat.

The house was in the countryside, and the nearest neighbors were a mile away, making it a good place for a werewolf to settle down. Mendelsohn had suggested that they apparate a quarter mile away from the house, so as not to startle the muggle, and so the three aurors walked down the lane, not talking to each other. Hadrian wished that his heart would stop beating so loudly, as he was sure that his companions would hear it, but he couldn't help it, he had never actually met a werewolf or a muggle before, and was unsure what to expect.

Finally, they rounded a small corner and came face to face with the little house. It was painted a peeling yellow, and flowers blossomed plentifully in the many flowerbeds surrounding it. It was not the flowerbeds they were interested in, however, but the couple sitting in front of them.

They were already looking up at the approaching aurors, expecting and wary looks upon their faces. Typically, Hadrian would have found this strange, but, considering the man's affliction, Hadrian assumed he had smelled them and informed his wife of their coming. The man appeared to have been reading The Daily Prophet, as it was spread out before him, and judging by the dirt on the muggle's hands and knees, she had been gardening. Now that they were able to see the aurors, the pair stood up.

They were utterly unlike anything that Hadrian had expected.

The man was tall, at least 6'3", and he had scars littering every inch of skin that Hadrian could see, but was wearing brown slacks and a white button up shirt, rolled up at the sleeves. He supposed it was prejudiced, but he hadn't expected to meet a werewolf wearing casual business attire. The rest of the werewolf was also surprising. He had brown hair streaked with gray, laugh lines, a large nose, and handsome mustaches, giving him the appearance of a kindly professor or favorite uncle, but his strong jaw was clenched and his amber eyes were guarded. Hadrian realized with a flash it was because he was scared of them.

He switched his gaze to the muggle woman, and suddenly understood why Black had defied his beliefs to be with her; she was ethereal. Her hair hung in soft blonde curls that fell just past her chin, framing her upturned nose, plush lips, and dark brown eyes. What was truly astonishing about her, however, were the tattoos that covered the top half of both her arms, tree branches that magically swayed as though by a breeze, occasionally punctuated by a tattooed caterpillar inching along or a bird cleaning its feathers. She stood short next to her husband, not quite reaching his shoulder, and Hadrian was reminded of the forest fairies his mother used to speak of in his bedtime stories.

Surreptitiously, she placed her hand on her husband's arm, stopping him from reaching toward his wand, and smiled, revealing pearly white teeth.

"Kingsley!" she exclaimed, and the hard line in her husband's jaw disappeared when he realized she knew their unannounced visitors. "Kingsley Shacklebolt," she reiterated, stepping forward to shake his hand, her green sundress swishing with the movement. "I haven't seen you in years! How are you?"

Hadrian was surprised to hear an American accent but Shacklebolt simply sighed and reached forward to shake her hand. "I could definitely be better. I'm afraid I'm not here for just a social call. Maybe we better take this inside. Somewhere where you can sit down."

The smile on her face slowly slipped off and she took her hand out of his. "Is this about Remus?" she asked, her once butter soft voice turning to steel. The werewolf in question curled his fingers around the wand in his pocket and Hadrian saw Belinda go for hers.

"This has nothing to do with your husband or his condition," he said, before Shacklebolt had a chance to, "In fact, we're only here to ask you a few questions, Mrs. Lupin.

"Mr. Lupin, may we be allowed inside your house?" he added, remembering that werewolves preferred to be asked before you entered their territory. A flit of a smile appeared on the werewolf's face, as though he knew Hadrian was trying to play him, but he nodded and gently put his hand on his wife's back, urging her forward before following her, shielding her from any possible attack with his large body as she opened the door and stepped inside.

The inside of the house was again a surprise. Though both the house and the furniture were old and secondhand, everything was clean and well-cared for; the floral wallpaper with filled bookshelves leaning against it and the mantle littered with photographs, both wizard and muggle. Hadrian noted that though Mrs. Lupin had been married to Black for three years he was in none of the pictures.

"You have a lovely home," Mendelsohn commented, the aurors taking a seat on the sofa and the Lupins sitting on the loveseat. Apparently this was the right thing to say, as Mrs. Lupin beamed and started talking. "Thank you, dear. It was a wreck when we found it, hadn't been lived in in years, but magic, as you know, is just so handy, and Remus has a specialty for fixing things. Of course, he's very strong too, and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. We did things my way when he didn't know the spell."

Belinda looked intrigued for the first time since arriving, but Shacklebolt was quick to change the conversation. "Unfortunately, we are not here to talk about your house. ...I am very sorry to tell you this, but there's simply no way around it. Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban."

Whatever the couple had been expecting them to say, it had certainly not been that. What surprised Hadrian, however, was the way that they both reacted. Mr. Lupin sprung up immediately from the loveseat and began pacing almost violently, running his hands through his hair. Mrs. Lupin though, stayed seated, looking as though the head auror had just said a particularly distasteful joke.

"That's impossible," she explained to them, "it's impossible to escape Azkaban, everyone knows that. Nobody's done it before."

"Regardless," Shacklebolt continued, keeping a wary eye on the pacing werewolf, "He has done it."

"What's he after?" Mr. Lupin asked, abruptly stopping, "Is he coming after her? Is that why you're here?"

Shacklebolt shook his head. "No, we think he's going to Hogwarts. We think he's going after Harry Potter."

The couple again acted strangely, with Mr Lupin instantly calming and his wife's eyes bulging rather unattractively. "He's going after Harry?" she exclaimed, the color leaving her face, "But he's just a child! Why the hell are you here? You should be with Harry!"

"Rose," Remus soothed, "It's going to be alright; there's no safer place on earth than Hogwarts. Harry should be safe there, even Voldemort feared Dumbledore."

The three aurors shivered at the carelessly disregarded name, but Rose did not flinch. "He escaped Azkaban though!" she protested, "If he can slip by that many dementors I'm sure that he can get by one wizard!"

Shacklebolt shook his head. "Potter is currently being heavily guarded, and if Black is still free by September, which we are working our hardest to make sure does not happen, then Hogwarts will have the highest security possible."

Mrs Lupin still looked shaky by the end of Shacklebolt's statement, but Mr Lupin's eyes had narrowed, and he was staring at them suspiciously. "You're not here because he's coming after Rose, you think we're housing him. That's why you're here! How dare you! How dare you come into my home and upset my wife simply because you think we would stoop low enough to help a convicted criminal! One that killed my best friends no less! Get out! Get out of my home!"

His last word had dissolved into a snarl and Hadrian could see Belinda go for her wand, but before anyone could make a move he stood up slowly, his hands in front of him and his eyes downcast; signs of submission.

"Think about it Mr Lupin," he said, "Sirius Black is a dangerous man, and I have no doubt that you are too. Do you truly think that we would only bring three aurors to face down the two of you?"

"The boy is right," Mrs. Lupin said before her husband could respond, reaching up to grab his wand arm, "Kingsley has seen you both fight, he knows they would be dead if they went against you."

Out of the corner of his eye Hadrian saw Mr. Lupin relax slightly, and chanced to meet his eyes. Mr. Lupin was staring at him ferociously, and it took all of Hadrian's willpower not to look away.

"We're just here to ask your wife a few questions about him," he clarified, "Where he might be going, behaviors, patterns, that sort of thing. She did know him better than anybody. And, while she does that, we would like to search your home. But," he added when the werewolf opened his mouth, "we will only do it with your permission, and it is only so we can rule it out with 100% certainty."

The werewolf did not look convinced, but before he opened his mouth his wife interlaced her hand with the one he had placed on her shoulder.

"Please, Remus, they're just doing their job. Let them look, for me if for nothing else."

Mr. Lupin did not look any less skeptical, but he softened when he looked at his wife, and finally he sighed.

"Alright," he agreed, "but I'll be following you, and it will be the woman that stays with Rose."

"Aye," Hadrian replied, "that's what we had planned."

"My name is Belinda Mendelsohn," Belinda told them, looking at the muggle instead of the werewolf, "and I'm an expert on muggles, I'm writing a book about them, so you'll be in good hands Mrs Lupin."

"I'm sure I will be," Mrs Lupin replied with a strained smile, "and please, call me Rose."

Mr Lupin nodded, seemingly satisfied, and unlaced his fingers from his wife's, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "Right, follow me," he told the two remaining aurors, and they headed into the kitchen.

Hadrian and his boss fruitlessly searched through the cupboards, cabinets, and even the muggle refrigerator, but there was no sign of Black, so they moved on to the dining room, the bathroom, the guest bedroom, and then finally the master bedroom, looking around in unnerving silence as the master of the house watched with unwavering eyes.

Though the rest of the house was charming, it was the couple's bedroom that truly had the most character. The bed was unmade with a thick handmade quilt thrown over it, and books were scattered everywhere, piled next to the bed, jammed into bookshelves, and tossed on the desk, which was stained eccentrically with different colors of ink. There were two bedside tables, one with a vase of daisies and the other with a pile of newspapers. There was a beautiful white fireplace with a mantlepiece filled with photographs as well, just like in the living room, and it was in one of these that Hadrian found a way to break the silence.

It was an old muggle photo of what Hadrian presumed was their wedding day. They were standing under an outdoor archway smiling at each other like they couldn't believe their luck. Mr Lupin had considerably less scars than he did now, and was clean shaven, with a muggle suit on, looking decades younger, though Hadrian assumed the picture could have only been ten years old. Rose, however, looked as though she had barely aged a day, though had perhaps gained a few freckles, and was wearing a beautiful white dress that went only to her knees, with a purple ribbon around her waist and a bouquet of purple roses in her hand, her veil pushed back from her face.

Hadrian noted with some interest that the neckline of the dress dipped to show scars running right below her collarbone, looking as though an animal had tried to attack her. Hadrian considered asking Mr Lupin if his wife was a werewolf too, but decided to go with a more tactful question, as Lupin seemed to have finally calmed down.

"How did you meet your wife, Mr Lupin?" he asked, trying to ignore Shacklebolt flattening himself to look under the bed. Hadrian was unsure if Lupin would look at this as an invasion of his privacy, but the werewolf discredited this idea by chuckling.

"It was quite like something out of a film. I was walking with three of my friends in London and I saw her heading towards us. She was so small and fairy-like, still is really, but she was wearing a spiked leather jacket and had this determined look in her eye and I just thought, 'this is her, this is the girl I'm going to marry.' ...Then, of course, she reached our group and kissed my best friend."

Hadrian laughed, and then cautiously asked, "Why do you think he was with her, if you don't mind me asking, was it to disguise himself or-"

"No," Lupin interrupted, "He loved her. There were a lot of things I questioned about him after we found out what traitorous scum he was, but I never doubted that. She's just that sort of woman; you'd change everything you believe in just to see her smile at you. And when she says she loves you, well... there's no feeling like it in the world."

Lupin grinned at him and Hadrian thought back to when he first saw Marianne Lupin just an hour ago on the front lawn, looking for all the world like a fallen star. Hadrian decided that what Lupin said was probably true, and watched as the man in question dug out something from a drawer and handed it to him.

Hadrian looked down at the object in his hands and saw that it was a picture, a wizard one, of Rose and Black standing in front of Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor on Diagon Alley, laughing and kissing each other. Rose looked the same, if a bit younger, but Sirius Black looked like a totally different man.

In the wanted poster all the aurors had been shown, Black looked like a demon straight out of hell, with a skeleton frame and long, knotted hair that fell to his elbows, not to mention his rotting teeth, wild eyes, and laughter that looked like screaming. However, in the picture Hadrian was holding now Sirius Black was devilishly handsome, a healthy young man with shining black hair and a bad boy grin, with eyes looking at the now Mrs Lupin as though she were a drop of sunshine.

"She doesn't know that I know she still has it," Mr Lupin said, interrupting Hadrian's musings, "but I don't blame her; they were like fire when they were together, it was beautiful to watch, even though I was pining over her at the time."

"Well," Hadrian said, handing the picture back, "this whole situation worked out well for you then."

The wistfulness of Lupin's eyes suddenly turned to sharp anger, and he snatched the picture out of his hand.

"Three of my best friends died," he told Hadrian, "and the man I trusted most turned out to be a traitor. If that's your definition of well I would hate to see your definition of bad."

"Right," Hadrian said, blushing and clearing his throat, "sorry. I wasn't thinking, this must be incredibly difficult for you."

Lupin stared hard for a minute, and then let out a sigh, putting the picture back in the drawer he had taken it from.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm usually not like this, but stress always makes me lash out. Now, I suppose you'll be wanting to see the cellar?"

"Yes," said Shacklebolt, startling Hadrian, who had almost forgotten he was there. Lupin nodded, gave another sigh, and lead them out of the bedroom, and out of the house.

The cellar was around the back of the house, and though the small home the Lupins kept looked like something out of a daydream, the cellar door looked like it was from a nightmare. A thick metal door in the ground was locked by at least eight heavy chains, which Lupin summoned the key for from his house. After unlocking the chains and door, he lit his wand and started down the wooden steps, his mouth in a grim line. Hadrian and Shacklebolt followed.

The cellar was unlike anything Hadrian had ever seen. What seemed to be furniture was torn up, wrecked, and chewed. Blood stains were splattered all over the walls and dirt floor, and it smelled as though a dead animal was rotting away there.

"Don't worry," Lupin said with a self-deprecating smile, "the blood's all mine."

Neither Hadrian nor Shacklebolt responded, and Hadrian started to look behind the broken furniture, trying hard not to throw up. When he was finished Shacklebolt did the finding spells he had done in every other room, and, when nothing came up, the two aurors quickly left, emerging into the warm summer air with Lupin right behind them.

While Lupin locked the chains again, Hadrian stared blankly into the distance, gut wrenching when he imagined Mr Lupin bidding goodbye to his wife and descending into the cellar, the kind Mrs Lupin locking the chains, them both knowing he would soon tear apart everything in the room, along with himself, and having to do the same thing a month later.

"I'm sorry," he told the werewolf when Lupin turned to face him, sadness welling in his chest, "I'm so sorry. I don't know how you do it."

Lupin smiled, the sort of sad smile that takes your breath away, and said, "It's alright, I've done it for over twenty years now, there's no need to be sorry."

"But I still am," Hadrian countered.

"Then I thank you for it," Lupin said. Then, turning toward Shacklebolt, he added, "If your department requires you to contact me again, I'd like it to be this young man that comes. If I have any say in it of course. Now, I'm to go see how Rose's holding up, you can follow if you like."

The three of them entered the house again and were greeted by the sight of Rose and Belinda on the loveseat together, holding cups of tea while the muggle tried to explain to the witch how televisions worked. Rose's face was red and blotchy, as though she had been crying, but she brightened when she saw her husband, and a tenseness Hadrian hadn't even realized Lupin had been holding disappeared when he saw his wife.

"Would it be alright if Belinda came over next week?" Rose asked her husband, "She's writing a book about muggles and she wants to write about wizard-muggle marriages. I've agreed to help her, but we can meet somewhere else if you like."

Mr Lupin shook his head. "Here is fine, just not on-"

"Wednesday, I know," Mrs Lupin finished, and Hadrian remembered that Wednesday was the full moon.

"Thank you for letting us into your home," Shacklebolt said as Mendelsohn stood and brushed off her robes, "It was good to see you Rose, sorry it was with such bad news."

"That's not your fault Kingsley,"

"But still." Shacklebolt countered, "And remember, if you remember anything or if Black tries to contact you-"

"I'll floo, or get Remus to apparate."

Shacklebolt nodded, and with three little pops, the aurors were gone.

Hope you like it! The chapters won't regularly be this long, but I'll try to update every week or so. The story will alternate between the books and flashbacks and will hopefully go from the third to seventh book. Reviews are appreciated!