Title: Inter Canem et Lupum
Author: Tsukinoko1
Rating: T
Warnings: Will eventually contain references to child abuse, some violence, and minor coarse language.
Genre: Drama/General
Spoilers: Books 1-4, and parts of 5 (story is an alternate version of Harry's fifth year).

Summary: Harry's deepest most desperate desire is to have a family. Sirius craves to be free to take care of his godson. Remus has always wanted a child of his own. Can the three of them find happiness together? 5th year. Parental Sirius and Remus.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor am I in any way affiliated with her, or have her permission to write about Harry Potter. I am writing this story for my own enjoyment, and hopefully the enjoyment of others, but I am not writing this for monetary profit. This disclaimer applies to the story in its entirety, and will not be repeated in each individual chapter.

Chapter One - The Spiritusniffer

Wednesday, July 5th 1995 10:07pm

Kingsley Shacklebolt took a moment to stare out across the grounds in the twilight. The sun had set a short while ago, but the sky was still light and the remains of the impressive maze that had been the setting for the disastrous Third Task of the recent Triwizard Tournament could clearly be seen. He studied the maze for a few more moments before turning back to his younger colleague. Nymphadora Tonks's hair was currently a rather eye-shocking shade of blue, a sure indicator that she was feeling excited and more than a bit nervous. He supposed it was fortunate that the wizarding world didn't have the same prejudices as the muggle world did concerning hair color and professionalism, because the Metamorphmagus's hair often seemed to function like a muggle mood ring. The young Auror had good reason to be excited and nervous, for although she was unaware of it, tonight she would be tested and (in Kingsley's opinion) most likely inducted into the Order of the Phoenix. She only knew that she had been invited to a meeting with Albus Dumbledore, although she probably assumed that it had something to do with Dumbledore's claims of You-Know-Who's resurrection about a week and a half ago. She had no idea that she'd been recommended by both Kingsley and Arthur Weasley for her open mindedness, her carefully discreet contention with Cornelius Fudge's complete denial of Harry Potter and Dumbledore's claims, and above all her unwavering dedication to the fight against Dark wizards. She had been approved by Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody (well, "approved" was rather a stretch, but as near to approval as the paranoid wizard ever came, anyway) before being invited to tonight's meeting along with some other promising witches and wizards, many who had been too young to belong to the Order before You-Know-Who's temporary demise fourteen years ago. Although Tonks was rather clumsy at times, Kingsley was sure her abilities in Concealment and Disguise would make her very valuable to the Order.

"Come on, we should get inside. The meeting will be starting soon."

As they continued on towards the familiar castle, Kingsley caught sight of the moon in the sky and remembered the question he'd first wanted to ask a week ago. I wonder if Remus Lupin will be here tonight. The ground floor windows and a few others here and there were lit from within, but most of the castle's windows were dark. The students had gone home two days ago, and there was no reason to keep the entire castle lit with so few occupants. There was a small group of people inside the Entrance Hall already, seemingly waiting for something or someone.

"Bill! Charlie! I didn't expect to see you two! How's life abroad?" Tonks greeted the two eldest Weasley boys. The three of them chatted for a bit, Bill explaining that he had recently transferred to the London branch of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

After a few minutes Dumbledore came down the steps to welcome them and then lead the group into an antechamber off the Great Hall. They sat down in squashy armchairs arranged in a circle and Dumbledore offered them tea before he started to tell the tale of You-Know-Who's return. At first, Kingsley wasn't sure what he was doing because Dumbledore had already publicly announced all of this. Then he noticed the way that Dumbledore held eye contact with each recruit around the circle. Could the rumors that the elderly wizard read minds possibly be true? After Dumbledore finished the tale he nodded to himself and Kingsley had to assume that whatever the test had been, it was over, for Dumbledore stood and opened the door to the Great Hall proper, beckoning them to follow. Instead of the usual four House tables where the students ate meals, there were four relatively shorter tables arranged in a square, and already seated around them were many familiar faces. Minerva McGonagall, Alastor Moody, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Arabella Figg, and Remus Lupin, among others. Of course, not all of the members of the Order were in attendance; some were simply unable to attend at this time, some were undoubtedly on Order missions (Hagrid's large frame was conspicuously absent), and at least one was in hiding. Actually, Kingsley was fairly certain that no one but Albus Dumbledore even knew all of the members. The old wizard had many secrets and only revealed them as he thought necessary. Kingsley hoped he'd have a chance to speak to Remus sometime tonight. A bright flash, and Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, flew to perch on his shoulder, and the real meeting began.

The meeting had been very long. In addition to being the first major meeting of the Order in about thirteen years, there were also many things that needed to be told to the new members. Moody was currently lecturing the newest Order members on security, while older members started to get up and leave.

"Remus!" Kingsley called after the werewolf, "Do you have a minute?"

Although the kindly wizard was several years younger than Kingsley, his hair was graying. Kingsley thought it might have something to do with the lycanthropy.

"Sure, Kingsley. Did you need something?"

Suddenly Kingsley realized that his question might be quite offensive and took a moment to think how to word it. "Just a question, I hope it's not too personal." Remus nodded for him to continue. "I was wondering whether the Wolfsbane Potion is terribly expensive." The werewolf looked decidedly uncomfortable, plucking unconsciously at his patched robes.

"Severus is very kind; he makes the potion for me," Remus explained. It was clear that he thought Kingsley was trying to offer him charity, but that was actually not the case at all.

Privately, Kingsley thought that "kind" was not a term to describe Snape under any circumstances but he said, "That's very generous of him, I'm sure, but that wasn't why I asked. A man told me last week that it was very expensive, and I just wondered if it was true."

"Oh! I'm sorry," Remus said sheepishly. "Well, most of the ingredients aren't expensive, but the brewing process is extremely complicated, so not many people are capable of brewing it. The potion also has a very short shelf life, it needs to be prepared fresh every month. I'm not sure exactly what the going rate is, but it is surely quite expensive. Who was it that told you, that you thought to distrust him?"

"Well, I was on one of our Sirius Hunts last week, and I was searching a house when I found a little girl chained up in the basement. The father said that he had to keep her like that because he couldn't afford the Wolfsbane Potion for her every month. They seemed pretty well-to-do so I thought it was a little odd, but you've confirmed…" he trailed off because Remus was looking quite fierce. He knew Remus loved children, and he certainly didn't condone any form of child abuse himself, but it could hardly be safe to allow a transformed werewolf, even a child werewolf, to run around free.

Apparently Remus noticed his confusion, because his expression relaxed slightly. "Tell me exactly what happened," Remus demanded.

Wednesday, June 28th 1995 4:28pm (flashback)

With a crack! of displaced air, Kingsley Shacklebolt Apparated into the middle of Richman Lane. The wealthy wizarding neighborhood was hidden on the north-west side of London. The afternoon sky was cloudy and it looked like it might rain.

He turned to address the other three Aurors, "Alright, the tip said that Black was hiding out in one of these houses. We're going to have to search each one. Tonks and I will start at this end, you two start at the other end, and we'll meet back in the middle. Use your Sniffers and confirm everyone in each house. Do we all have a copy of the search warrant? Okay, call immediately if you have any trouble at all, or if you find anything. This tip will probably turn out to be another dud, but we can't afford to miss anything." They split up and Kingsley and Tonks headed towards the near end of the street. Her hair was a headache-inducing shade of magenta today; she was fully focused on the mission. Sometimes Kingsley wished that most of the young Metamorphmagus's moods didn't correspond to hair colors that were so... loud. When they reached the end of the street, he decided that there was no reason they couldn't split up to speed the search.

"Why don't you take that side of the street, Tonks," he directed.

The first house he entered contained only an elderly couple. The residents of the second house appeared to be on holiday. At the third house, the door was answered by a house-elf dressed in a green towel, and after showing the creature his search warrant, he was allowed in and shown to a parlor where he was asked to wait while the house-elf went to call its master. Kingsley pulled out his Sniffer. The device was a recent invention that had revolutionized Magical Law Enforcement. Despite their name, Spiritusniffers had nothing to do with detecting scents; the Sniffer projected a three-dimensional map of the immediate vicinity along with the location of all witches or wizards within range. It was the reason that Kingsley was completely confident that they wouldn't find Sirius Black here today. Even though he'd had no time to confirm that Sirius hadn't left his hiding spot, against Dumbledore's direct orders (something he had done just a few days ago), Kingsley knew that were Sirius actually foolish enough to be wandering around London, there was no way he wouldn't be in his Animagus form of a large black dog. Which Sniffers couldn't detect. Or rather, the devices could be set to detect muggles, and life-forms other than just humans, but they couldn't distinguish an Animagus from a real animal. And Sirius was not registered, so very few people knew that they ought to search for a dog. And anyway, Kingsley was almost certain that this tip was just another of the many, many false leads on the escaped convict, who was still reported sighted somewhere in Britain at least once a day. As far as Kingsley knew, not a single one was a true sighting, and the Aurors had certainly never come close to apprehending the only wizard to ever escape from Azkaban—not since he had evaded capture at Hogwarts over a year ago. It was starting to cause a lot of complaints to the Ministry, which in turn generated a lot of pressure on the Aurors (and Kingsley in particular, because he had been in charge of the search for several months now). He wondered if perhaps Sirius would cooperate in creating some more convincing false trails of evidence.

Just then, a vaguely familiar looking, tall, middle-aged wizard dressed in fine robes entered the room. He looked like he might be slightly nervous, but that was a common reaction to unexpectedly receiving an Auror in one's home. Kingsley explained that they were searching all the houses on the street for Sirius Black, and showed the man the search warrant before asking permission to scan his house with the Sniffer. That was entirely a courtesy, because the man couldn't refuse the search warrant, and actually Kingsley had already scanned the house once, as per procedure, before he even rang the doorbell, to prevent a subject from escaping before permission was given. The man gave his consent, and Kingsley reactivated the device, which rather resembled a purple hairbrush. A glowing blue model of the house popped up out of the bristle-like parts. There were three red dots inside the model; two were in the same room as the mark which indicated the Sniffer's location on the map, and a third dot was one level below them.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask to see your basement, sir." The wizard's golden skin paled and he definitely looked nervous. He was hiding something, the Auror was quite certain, although it wasn't likely to be Sirius Black.

"That's just my daughter. It's her naptime now and I'd really prefer if you didn't disturb her."

"I don't need to speak with her; I just need to confirm the identity of everyone in the house."

The man was looking a bit desperate now. "Well, then I must warn you that it's not very safe to approach her. My daughter is a werewolf, you see. The Wolfsbane Potion is extremely expensive, so unfortunately she hasn't been treated this month. I can't vouch for your safety if you insist upon going down there."

"I'll assume full responsibility for my own safety."

The man looked resigned and led him out of the parlor and down the hall, and stopped in front of a solid looking door. "I won't accompany you down, if you don't mind. Do try not to disturb her. She becomes very agitated around strangers at this time of the month. No telling what she'll do to you."

Kingsley opened the heavy door and cast Lumos to illuminate the dark staircase. As he quietly made his way down, he thought to himself that surely the wizard must have been exaggerating. He had known Remus Lupin for years and he had never seemed dangerous in human form (particularly near the full moon, he always just seemed sickly and weak). But he supposed that it might be different for children; they tended to have far less self-control than adults. And Remus had been a werewolf for many years, so maybe his body was slowly getting weaker. Lycanthropy was a disease, after all. At the bottom of the stairs he realized he had entered a large, dark, dungeon-like room.

Why would a little girl take a nap down here? This was definitely suspicious. He checked the Sniffer and headed cautiously in the direction of the other dot, holding his wand out in front of himself. He thought he heard a quiet metallic sound, and then his dot in the projection was very near the other dot and he could see what the sound had been caused by. There, on the bare stone floor in front of him, a little girl was lying curled up, naked, with chains around her wrists connected to rings embedded securely in the floor. The seasoned Auror suddenly felt slightly nauseous. Then the girl, who looked to be about six or seven years old, started stirring and sniffing the air. Suddenly, he was faced with a pair of feral, glowing amber eyes, but a moment later the child started and scrambled back to cower against the wall. Kingsley realized that she was probably blinded and spelled his wand considerably dimmer.

"It's all right, little one, I'm not going to hurt you," he tried to reassure her, but this only seemed to upset her further as she squinted at him warily. Kingsley thought to crouch down in hopes of making himself appear less threatening before he tried again.

"My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. What's your name, little one?" She was making a growling sound and there was no sign of comprehension in the wild lupine eyes. He decided it would be best to leave her alone for now; he had a few questions for her father.

At the top of the stairs, the man was back to looking nervous. Kingsley couldn't remember ever having to struggle so hard to keep a professional face in all his years as an Auror. This had nothing to do with the search for Sirius Black, but as a Magical Law Enforcer it was his duty to investigate any suspicions of child abuse. The magical community took child abuse extremely seriously (why else would Hogwarts be the most magically protected place in Britain?), although, unfortunately, crimes against Dark Creatures were generally not punished very severely.

"Sir, may I ask why you keep your daughter in such condition?"

"But she must be chained! Otherwise she could infect others!" the man exclaimed agitatedly.

"I realize that. I was referring to her being naked in a cold, dark dungeon."

"Oh, that. Well, she destroys the clothes she's wearing when she transforms, so it's just easier to remove them beforehand, and as for the dark, her eyes are very sensitive. She can see perfectly fine in the dark, and bright lights hurt her eyes."

Just then, Kingsley's gold earring began to vibrate insistently. The earring was charmed to function as a communication device for the Aurors. All of them wore one, but it took different forms for different Aurors; some were buttons, some were various pieces of jewelry, some even came in the shape of a fingernail, and could be worn unnoticed on a finger. Kingsley surreptitiously reached up and gently squeezed the small gold hoop to activate the device.

"Shacklebolt! Shacklebolt!" came Dawlish's voice. The charmed earring allowed only Kingsley to listen, but if he needed to respond, then anyone nearby could overhear.

"What's your situation?" he replied to the Auror whom he had sent to the far end of the street.

"Shacklebolt, you need to get down here. Savage's caught someone. It's an unregistered Animagus!"

"I'm on my way." What could Sirius be thinking? How could he be stupid enough to not only be seen in his human form, but caught in his Animagus form? And most importantly, how in Merlin's name was he going to get him out of this without losing his job?

Kingsley made a quick apology and Apparated back to the place they had originally arrived, and began running toward the opposite end of the street. Tonks was a few yards ahead of him, but he was quickly gaining on her with his longer stride.

A few houses from the end, on the right-hand side of the street, Dawlish was standing in the open front door waving to catch their attention. They rushed up the front steps and followed Dawlish through to the kitchen. Savage was pointing his wand at something in the corner near the sink.

As Kingsley approached with his own wand out, he spotted a bit of black fur past Savage's leg. There, huddled on the floor, was a furry black squirrel. Kingsley barely managed to restrain a burst of relieved laughter. It wouldn't do at all to show that he already knew this Animagus wasn't Sirius Black.

"Tonks, you know the spell to force an Animagus back to human form?"

She nodded, "Sure."

"Alright, Savage, Dawlish, you two keep your wands trained on him and be prepared to restrain him. Tonks, together, on three. One…two…three!"

(end flashback)

The squirrel had turned into a dark haired wizard, with a rather slight resemblance to Sirius. They discovered that he'd been sneaking into houses in his Animagus form to steal small valuables, mostly jewelry. That was why he'd panicked when the Aurors showed up. He thought they were after him. Which, technically, they had been, even if they had thought they were searching for Sirius Black. The tip had likely come from a fellow thief, trying to thin the competition in the wealthy neighborhood.

Kingsley brought his attention back to the werewolf in front of him, and noticed that Remus's expression was now approaching thoroughly enraged.

"Do you know what the current phase of the moon is?" There was quite a bit of growl in the normally gentle man's voice.

Kingsley probably wouldn't be able to answer that question normally, but as it had been noticing the moon tonight which reminded him of his own question, he was able to answer confusedly, "It's a quarter moon tonight, Remus."

"Yes, a first quarter moon." More of a growl that time. "The full moon is a week from tonight. That child was chained at the new moon!" Kingsley was horrified. How could he have forgotten which side of the moon waxed and which side waned? Astronomy had strong effects on certain kinds of magic, and the moon had the strongest effect of all, so wizards were generally more conscious of the lunar phases than muggles were, although the degree often depended on one's line of work. Since Aurors' work was not usually affected by the movement of astronomical bodies, Kingsley had rather fallen out of touch with the knowledge that was an essential part of any witch or wizard's education.

"Kingsley, where was this? I've got to go there—we need to get that poor child out!" Remus's voice carried an edge of something akin to panic.

­

"Hold on, Remus. We can't just show up there and take her without a warrant. Removing a child from parental custody is a very serious matter, and we'll need proof of abuse. We need to investigate. The house is on Richman Lane; I don't know the address but I'll check the maps first thing in the morning. I'll find out who lives there and make sure that really was his daughter, first of all. If she's not his daughter then removing her will be a simple matter. But if she really is his daughter… Remus, I have to warn you, the laws concerning Dark Creatures…" he hesitated, and a pained look crossed Remus's face. "Well, it takes a lot more to be considered abuse," he finished.

Remus looked both tortured and resigned. "How can you say that? I've been forced to accept the fact that the laws are stricter for me, but a mere child? I don't care if she is his daughter; it would be inhumane to leave her there."

Kingsley had nothing to say to that. He agreed that werewolf laws were inhumane. Most of the wizarding world did. That was the point; to most people, werewolves were not human, so it only made sense to them that laws to punish werewolves be very strict and laws to protect werewolves very few and much less stringent than their counterparts for "normal" witches and wizards. Unfortunately, people like Kingsley, who knew a werewolf personally and found the laws unfair, were vastly in the minority. And as an employee of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, he could hardly go around blatantly ignoring those laws and not expect to lose his job.

"Remus, I'll check into it first thing when I get into work tomorrow. It should be pretty easy to get a warrant to at least investigate the situation more closely. But you have to promise me that that you'll wait; that you won't go off halfcocked on some rescue mission until we know more. If we handle this right, you might be able to get custody of the child, at least temporarily. But if you rush it you could end up in Azkaban. Now promise me!"

Kingsley knew (as did all of Remus's friends) that Remus had been trying for years to adopt a child. Unfortunately, werewolves were almost never allowed to have custody of children. The only exception was when the child was a werewolf, too. Unfortunately—for Remus, anyway—there were not many known child werewolves in Britain. And the parents of those who were bitten as children typically kept custody of their child (and in fact, usually tried to keep the knowledge that their child had been infected a secret). There were also a number of children who had gone missing during a full moon, and it was tacitly assumed that many of them had been abducted by Fenrir Greyback and other werewolves of his ilk. Greyback was the type of werewolf who gave werewolves a bad name; he bit and abducted children, and then raised them in werewolf communities and taught them to hate wizards. He especially liked to attack children of people who had offended him, so he would purposely wait nearby right before transforming at the full moon. People felt the werewolf laws were justified when they read about him in the Daily Prophet. Kingsley was one of very few people who knew that it had been Greyback that had bitten Remus as a child. At least that had been before Greyback had gotten his idea to create an army of wizard-hating werewolves; he didn't start abducting the children he bit until after he met You-Know-Who.

"Honestly, I'm not Sirius," Remus said with a wry grin, but then his face sobered again, "I'll wait. But I want you to contact me as soon as you know anything, and I want to go with you when you go get her. I'll speak to Severus tomorrow about getting a dose of Wolfsbane for her, since it sounds like she hasn't been getting it, although I find it difficult to believe that someone who lives on Richman Lane can't afford it."

Kingsley did not comment on the fact that Remus had said "when" he went to get the child, as if they already had a warrant. "Where can I reach you tomorrow?"

"I'm staying with Sirius in his old house. Dumbledore wants to use it for Order headquarters eventually, but it needs a lot of work first. We've been cleaning it out, but it'll be a while yet before it's safe for human habitation. I'll probably Floo back here sometime in the morning to speak to Severus in person—you know how he hates talking over the Floo. But I shouldn't be gone long, and you can wait with Sirius if you miss me. You won't have trouble getting away from work for a bit will you?"

"Shouldn't be a problem, unless something unexpected comes up." Dumbledore had spoken to him about Sirius hiding out in his family's home, so that he could make sure Sirius wouldn't be discovered. If the house worked out for a headquarters, then it would in future be put under the Fidelius Charm, and he wouldn't have to worry about anyone searching the place for Sirius Black. Aurors had of course searched it after Sirius's escape from Azkaban, and once again a year later after he evaded the Dementor's Kiss, but it had been clear that no one but that crazy house-elf had inhabited the place for years. And after tonight he would have Tonks's help keeping Sirius safe. The fact that Sirius Black was innocent was one of the few things that all members of the Order of the Phoenix were told about, for the simple reason that if they for some reason encountered him, they needed to know not to harm him or contact the Ministry. In addition, it wouldn't do any harm if the information were leaked. The only reason he couldn't attend tonight's meeting was because Hogwarts was a bit too public a location—in contrast to Severus Snape, who hadn't attended because his role as a spy was kept secret from many of the Order members. If they could use the old Black house for headquarters, then Sirius would be able to attend meetings, which would undoubtedly please the escaped convict. But Kingsley had seen the condition of the house and knew that Remus and Sirius had their work cut out for them.

The two parted ways with a promise to meet again the next morning.

Story Notes: Please see my profile (click on Tsukinoko1 near the top left) for the full story notes, as this site does not allow story notes as a separate "chapter" like I would have preferred. I refuse to fill up space in each chapter with author's notes, so the only thing that will ever disrupt the flow of the story after this will be any credits for ideas that I borrowed/were inspired by.