Disclaimer: My name is not J.K. Rowling, and these are not mine. I just like to borrow them and play with them every once and a while.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so be gentle, please, but if you review, please also be honest. And I apologize profusely for any errors in the upload; I still think computers are just fancy cages for mirrors and gremlins, and I don't understand ANY of it.

Chapter One: An Unexpected Plea

When Remus heard the knock on his door, he didn't even glance up from grading his sixth year DADA exams. "Enter," he called, shaking his head at an answer so wrong as to be absurd. He had vaguely thought it to be one of the other professors, or perhaps Albus, maybe even Ginny, who had promised to come say goodbye before she left. His visitor said nothing, though his keen ears could hear quiet steps to the front of his desk, and he finally set down the parchment and looked up. He did not expect to see a student, namely a Slytherin, standing in front of him, nor did he expect that said Slytherin would be without the haughty superiority that they all seemed to have around him.

Frowning slightly, he quickly put a name to the face. "Can I help you, Miss Sleipak?" he asked.

"Sir, do you know the age limit for adoption?"

Not a question he was expecting. Taking his time, he neatened the stack of exams and set it on the edge of his desk. "Please, take a seat," he invited, pulling a chair up for her with his wand. "If I may ask, Miss Sleipak, why are you bringing this to me? As Head of House, Professor Snape would probably have been the better choice."

"Somehow I don't see Professor Snape knowing much about adoption laws," she replied dryly, and he had to concede she had a point.

"Why me, then? I don't know any more about it than he does."

Her shoulders fell ever so slightly, an insignificant reaction from anyone else but a scream from a Slytherin, and she looked down at her hands in her lap. "I overheard Weasley talking to some of her friends; she said you knew something about everything. I thought it was worth a try."

Remus leaned back in his chair, regarding her thoughtfully. "Why do you need to know?" he asked finally.

"I don't think that's really any of your business, Professor, I'm sorry to have wasted your time." She got up and started walking quickly to the door.

"Miss Sleipak."

His voice stopped her, and she reluctantly turned around to meet his eyes.

"If you explain to me why you need to know, then I can help you find out any other problems that might arise, as well. I'm not going ignore a student's request, even if she is no longer officially a student."

The girl hesitantly smiled and came back to the seat before the desk. "Thank you," she whispered.

That alone told him how important this was to the girl; a Slytherin saying 'thank you' to someone who wasn't another Slytherin? He would have said a moment ago that it was impossible. His mind skipped quickly over what he knew of this student. Heidi Sleipak, age seventeen, usually about average in his classes, came from a wealthy, pureblood family. Who could she possibly be wanting to adopt? "Miss Sleipak, I think it best you explain the request."

"Yes, sir," she sighed. She nervously crossed and recrossed her ankles, a fidget he never thought to see in the girl he'd taught for four nonconsecutive years. After several moments, she sighed again and looked back up at him. "I need to adopt my brother; our parents kicked him out."

He frowned, leaning forward. "How old is he?"

"Eight."

"And your parents kicked him out."

"Yes, Professor," she replied, her voice getting a touch impatient.

"Why?"

"It doesn't really matter why, just that they did," she answered tightly.

Relaxing back into his chair again, Remus simply looked at her until her gaze fell back to her lap. "Miss Sleipak, if you want my help, you will have to trust me," he pointed out.

"It doesn't matter why," she insisted, her glacier blue eyes flashing. "Simply that they did, and they're not going to let him come back."

"The reason why could affect whether or not they'll let you adopt," he explained. "Besides, surely there are older relatives willing and capable of taking him in?"

She shook her head. "None willing. We're the main branch of the family; they're not going to disobey my parents."

"But you will."

"He's my brother," she snapped. "He's my family as much as my parents are, and I've been raised not to forget that."

He let that pass for the moment, moving on instead to the next salient point. "Do you have your own money, Miss Sleipak, or are you dependant upon your parents?"

"I don't see how that-"

"If you adopt your brother against the specific wishes of your parents, what kind of financial support are you going to have? Were you planning on getting a job straight out of school?" he went on. "Were you planning on doing an apprenticeship, or going to uni? How are you going to be able to support both yourself and your younger brother on no money?"

Her face fell, and it was obvious that this was something she hadn't considered. He idly wondered if there were any Gryffindors in her family, as it was a mistake his former house tended to make. The supposition was given further credence with her next statement. "I'll figure out a way," she said quietly. "I can't leave him out on his own, he's only eight. He'll die."

"What about an orphanage?" he suggested. "Or perhaps you could look outside your family for someone to adopt him."

But she shook her head. "I already thought of that; no one will take him."

Remus often had reason to thank the fates that he'd been blessed with a fairly large supply of patience, and he found himself grateful for it again. The girl was obviously flustered, in such a way that her Slytherin logic was giving way to Gryffindor circulars, and he wasn't overly fond of repeating things. Then again, what professor is? "And why is that, Miss Sleipak?" he almost growled.

"They just won't," she returned stubbornly. "I'm the only one he's got."

"And are you prepared for your parents to disown you, as well?" he asked wearily.

Her mouth fell into a thin line, but she nodded tensely. "I'll do what I have to do."

He turned these things over in his head, consciously allowing the silence to grow uncomfortable, waiting to see if she'd fidget again. Yes, there it was, the quick cross and recross of the ankles, the sure sign that this was important to her. He couldn't help but worry about what she wasn't telling him; anything that kept people that didn't know the boy from adopting him had to be pretty terrible, and he wasn't sure if this seventeen year old girl, less than a day graduated from Hogwarts, would be up to it. There were a number of ways to go about getting the information, but she was in Slytherin after all, so he opted for simply laying his cards out on the table.

"Miss Sleipak, you have to trust me," he told her calmly and firmly. "Children are very precious in our world, and the Ministry is not going to allow their custody to be shifted lightly, especially not to a newly out of school seventeen year old who's entirely likely not to have a way to support said child. That you want so desperately to help your brother no matter what speaks very well of you, but even if you were able to gain custody of him, how would you take care of him? At the expense of yourself? You'd be scraping for Knuts, and I don't think it's fair for you to condemn either of you to that kind of life, unable to do anything you want to for the sake of what you have to. I will help you in whatever way I can, of course, but I cannot do so in ignorance; that will not accomplish anything."

He gave her time to sift through what he had said, applying her intellect to it, then her instinct. Her gaze remained fixed on her hands, carefully arranging her fingers into a neat interlock as the thoughts raced through her mind. For what was not the first time in his life, he almost wished he'd been sorted into Slytherin, purely for the analysis they all seemed gifted with. Well, almost all, he amended, hiding a smile; there were always your Crabbes and Goyles. He snapped his attention back to her when she looked up, her lower lip caught anxiously between her teeth.

"You'll help me in any way you can, sir?" she asked, and he had the feeling he was about to let himself into a trap.

"Any way I can," he repeated.

"Then would you be able to take him, Professor?"

He blinked rapidly. This girl was constantly surprising him, and he was getting distinctly ruffled by that fact. "I'm not sure I heard you entirely correctly, Miss Sleipak. You want what?"

"Would you be able to take him? Everyone says you take really good care of Potter," she continued on in a rush. "He's really very sweet, very quiet-"

"If he's sweet and quiet, Miss Sleipak, why did your parents-"

They both jumped at an energetic pounding on the door. Remus glanced briefly at his former student, then back at the door. "Enter," he called.

A slim figure bounded in, followed by a long mane of flowing red hair, and threw itself at him, hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get up here, Remus, but you know my mum, she just wouldn't stop and let me go," it said all in a rush.

Laughing, Remus returned the embrace. "It's quite all right, Ginny," he assured her, his warm blue eyes twinkling merrily. "Your mum is understandably proud of you, and besides, it's not every day that her youngest child and only daughter graduates."

"Well, she actually made me promise to come straight back, but the Headmaster invited us to stay at the castle overnight, so I wanted to tell you that I'll see you at dinner and we can talk more then, okay?" She fondly kissed his cheek, nodded politely to Heidi Sleipak, and raced back out the door again.

Remus looked after her affectionately. He loved Ginny like a niece. Albus had once asked him why a niece, and not a daughter, and he had glibly replied that he would feel guilty teaching a daughter all the pranks and hexes he had secretly passed on to the girl over the years. With an effort, he pulled his mind back to the task at hand.

Heidi sat in the chair, slightly nonplussed at the scene she'd just witnessed. "That was…enthusiastic," she commented finally.

"I'm very close with the Weasleys," he explained. "I've taught most of them at one point or another, and Molly mothers me the same ways he mothers everyone else who comes within ten feet of her kitchen." He smiled, but his gaze was sharp as he looked back at her. "And if your brother is sweet and quiet, why would your parents throw him out of the house?"

She flushed scarlet, a painful color against her pale skin, and mumbled a reply.

"Miss Sleipak-"

"He got bitten."