Harry Potter: Lethal Injection

Chapter 4: Tranquility's Bane (Part 2)

Remus Lupin was not often given to skipping, in fact, he couldn't remember a single instance in his life that he had ever skipped. Apart from the time Sirius had put an enchanted bow -where he got it Remus still didn't know, although he wouldn't be surprised if he and James had made it together- on his werewolf form, causing him to skip all over the Hogwarts grounds until he finally transformed back. That didn't count, however.

Despite this, the normally calm and dignified bounty hunter couldn't stop himself from skipping across his sitting room to the modest brick fireplace he'd gone through so much trouble to get connected to the Floo network -apparently having a Floo connection in a block of muggle flats was a risk to the Statute of Secrecy, although he strongly suspected the woman was just prejudiced against werewolves and had noticed his amber eyes. With his wand, Remus lit the logs on fire, setting them crackling merrily in the quiet of the flat, before taking a pinch of powder from the box he kept on the mantelpiece and throwing it into the flames.

Kneeling, he took a deep breath and stuck his face into the fire "The Greenhouse." he said firmly into the now emerald flames, although he was careful to keep his voice low so as to not disturb Harry. Given how tired the boy had looked, Remus was sure he would be asleep within minutes if he wasn't already. His thoughts were interrupted by the dizzying spinning sensation that always came with using the Floo, until, finally, he was staring out into a spacious office with a large mahogany desk behind which sat a tall blonde-haired man with eyes the colour of Arctic-glaciers. "Tiberius!" Lupin called causing the man to start and look around the room for a moment, before pinpointing the fire as the source of the sound.

Upon seeing who had spoken, his otherwise somewhat grim face broke into a warm smile "Remus! How good to see you! I'm afraid Violet's putting the girls to bed at the moment."

"I found him!" Lupin almost yelled in excitement, Tiberius, for his part, dropped his quill, blotting ink all over the document he had been writing without even noticing.

"You found him?" he seemed caught between ecstasy and disbelief "How? Where?" Before his guest could answer any of his questions, Tiberius held up a hand "Wait" he said, "let me get Violet, she'll want to hear this." So saying, he rushed from the room stopping only in the doorway to say "Please, Remus, come in properly. I suspect we'll be talking for quite a while and I don't want you to have to stay on your knees the whole time."

"I can't." Lupin said apologetically "Harry's in his room and I want him to be able to find me if he needs me."

Tiberius' eyes widened "You found him and he's living with you?"

"Yes, Dumbledore dropped him off about an hour ago."

"Dumbledore dropped him off?" Remus hadn't thought Tiberius' eyes could get any wider, but apparently, he'd been mistaken "Now this is definitely a story worth hearing! Would it be alright if we came to you then?"

"Of course, I'll make some tea while you fetch Vi."

"Tea!?" Tiberius snorted "To quote Minister Bagnold 'I assert our inalienable right to party,' I'm bringing the Firewhiskey!" Remus couldn't help laughing at his friend's words: despite how painful that period had been for him, it had still made him smile when he heard of the former Minister for Magic's defence to the International Confederation of Wizards regarding the Statute of Secrecy breaches following Voldemort's downfall. Pulling his head out of the fire, Remus stood, rubbing his knees to try and knead away the slight stiffness that had built up there during his conversation. That done, he turned and cast a silencing charm on the door to Harry's room: Tiberius, although a great lover of Firewhiskey, was also infamous for his inability to handle the magical alcohol.

In his most well-known -and among his friends most-loved- incident, he had managed to sneak an entire case into the Slytherin dorms during his sixth year completely undetected, only to stagger into Professor McGonagall's office at three-in-the-morning wearing nothing but a small tartan kilt, and singing a very passionate, but exceedingly bad, rendition of "Donald, Where're your Fwoopers?" As far as Remus knew, Tiberius still held the Hogwarts record for longest ever series of detentions, although the Marauders had appreciated the story so much, they'd sent him an ever-full flask of the intoxicating beverage as compensation. They'd been careful to charm it to switch to water if held by another, or if its owner had become more than acceptably drunk.