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~ Chapter 1 ~

June 1998

Teddy woke, fussing.

Tonks dropped her quill and scooped him out of his basket, cuddling him for a minute, but he was hungry and let her know that in no uncertain terms. So she tucked him against her shoulder and carried him out to the kitchen, away from the dining room where three heads bent low over dusty books and piles of parchment.

She had just finished feeding Teddy when an unfamiliar, slightly pompous voice filled the kitchen. "Floo call for Mr. Remus Lupin from the Minister for Magic. Will Mr. Lupin take the call?"

"I'm his wife," said Tonks. "Will I do?"

"Wotcher, Tonks." Kingsley's head appeared in the flames, smiling. "Is Remus there?"

"Wotcher!" She grinned back. "He's here, buried in Wizengamot records."

"All right if I come through and talk with him?"

Tonks blinked. Kingsley was much too busy these days for casual chats. "Of course." She stood and shifted Teddy to one hip.

Kingsley emerged from the fireplace, brushing soot from his robes. "How've you been?"

"It's—" She sighed, and smiled a little, leading him toward the dining room-turned-library. "It's been really good, actually. I'm giving Harry and Ron some tutoring on Auror procedures." And healing from the battle, and spending time with her husband and son and mother. "And I'm helping with the J.M.L.C. project as much as I can. On a strictly volunteer basis, of course."

"J.M.L.C.?"

"Oh." Tonks grinned again. "The Justice in Magical Legislation Committee. Hermione named it." At least the budding activist had learned to stay away from pronounceable acronyms—it could easily have been the Werewolf Injustice Mitigation Program...

Remus, hearing voices, had left his seat at the table and come to meet them. "Hello, Kingsley! I'm glad to have a chance to introduce you at last—this is Matthias Malkin. Matthias, Kingsley Shacklebolt."

"Minister," said Matthias politely. He stood and shook hands courteously enough, but he looked wary. For all Remus's assurances that Kingsley was sincere in commissioning their research project, Matthias had spent more than five years with Greyback's pack and wasn't completely ready to believe that the Ministry would ever do anything about discrimination.

"And—Hermione?" Kingsley raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm an intern! I'm on the project until I go back to Hogwarts in September."

Remus grinned. "She just turned up one day and appointed herself—as a volunteer—but she's been an enormous help, and Matthias and I are certainly not complaining."

Hermione smiled brightly. "I want to study magical law and civil rights once I've taken my N.E.W.T.s, and this is a marvellous way to start learning about actual legislation."

Kingsley snorted. "I suppose so." Remus's little group was tasked with nothing less than locating every single law that discriminated against non-human magical creatures, so that they could eventually be repealed and overturned. "I can't even start paying Remus and Matthias for their work until the anti-werewolf employment legislation is repealed, and even then I won't have very much of a budget for the project, considering everything else that needs to be done in the aftermath of the war. But as long as you're volunteering, it's good to have your help."

"Did you want an interim report?" asked Remus. "We're making good progress, but our notes aren't necessarily in a very polished form at the moment—"

"I can see that it's, erm, work in progress." Kingsley eyed the haphazard stacks of parchment, covered in notes scribbled by four different people, and couldn't quite suppress his smile. "Actually, I'm here for another reason."

He took a seat at the table, and the others sat down as well, Tonks settling a now-sleeping Teddy back into his basket.

"As you know, a number of children were infected with lycanthropy during the war," said Kingsley quietly.

Remus and Matthias both flinched. Greyback and his pack—or at least, those who hadn't taken to Remus's trick of chewing aconite leaves to suppress their appetite during transformations—had been the main source of new cases, especially among children.

"I want to start an education and support group, to help the children and their parents deal with their condition, and to make it easier to keep them supplied with Wolfsbane. I'm picturing a sort of monthly group meeting, maybe with some games and sweets to make it more fun for the children." Kingsley looked Remus straight in the eye. "And I'd like you to run it."

Tonks drew a breath. Remus would be perfect for this—he'd always been a natural teacher, and who better to help the children with their lycanthropy than someone who had been managing the condition for decades?

But Remus was shaking his head.

"I'm honoured that you would ask me, Kingsley," he said, slowly. "But I have my own child to think of, now. Doing research behind the scenes is one thing, but if I were to become some sort of public face for werewolf activism, I might become a target. If I were on my own, that wouldn't be such a problem. But I can't expose Teddy to that kind of risk."

Kingsley stared. He had plainly not expected this. "Will you think about it for a few days?" he asked, finally.

"I will," said Remus, carefully, "but I don't expect my answer to change."

Tonks put her hand on his arm. "Teddy isn't any more likely to be a target for crazy people, if you start helping werewolf children, than he already is just because I'm an Auror."

Remus met her gaze; his eyes were troubled. "Even if the risk is minuscule," he said, "it wouldn't be right for me to put Teddy in any extra danger."

Tonks thought he was making the wrong decision.

But it was, after all, his decision to make.

~o~

Three days later, the J.M.L.C. had adjourned for the full moon.

Tonks sat in the kitchen, sipping tea and keeping a judicious eye on Remus, watching his bouts of restless energy grow shorter and the exhaustion begin to take over. Waiting for the right moment to persuade him to go lie down.

When the Floo turned green, it made both of them jump.

"Remus?" It was Kingsley himself putting the call through, this time. He sounded tense.

"I'm here." Remus dropped stiffly to his knees and peered into the fire. "What is it?"

"We've just had a report of a case of accidental magic by a five-year-old-girl—she's closed herself inside some kind of bubble. The mother's a Muggle and can't get her out." He glanced at a sheaf of notes in his hand. "The father was a wizard, but he died in the war." He turned back to Remus. "Would you go handle it?"

"I—" Remus looked unhappy.

"Kingsley," Tonks broke in, "it's full moon in just a few hours. Remus doesn't have the energy to spare, and he feels like crap. Can't you send someone else?"

Kingsley sighed. "That's just it. The little girl is a werewolf, and it seems she's panicking about the transformation."

Remus swallowed, rubbing at his temples—he probably had a headache by now, too. "It's all right, Dora. I'll go."

"Thanks," said Kingsley. "I owe you, again." He passed a slip of paper with the child's name and Floo direction through to Remus and cut the connection.

"We're going with you," said Tonks, before Remus could say a word. "In case you need help Flooing back." She slid Teddy into his infant sling and peered at the note Remus was holding. "Caroline Kimball, eh?"

~o~

They spilled out of the Floo into a small but comfortable living room. A slight young woman with dark hair pulled back and hazel eyes bright with unshed tears was there to meet them.

"Oh, thank goodness—you must be from the Ministry," she quavered. "Please help—there's not much more time before moonrise..."

In one corner of the room stood a large blue luminescent bubble, giving off a sort of agitated shimmer. "That's Caroline?" asked Remus. At the woman's nod, he went straight to the bubble and began casting exploratory spells.

"Mrs. Kimball?" said Tonks. The woman nodded again, and Tonks gave her the friendliest smile she could conjure around her worry for Remus. "That's my husband, Remus Lupin. I'm Tonks. And, erm, this is Teddy."

"Elspeth Kimball," the woman said, and even managed to spare a small smile for the sleeping baby. "He's a new little fellow."

"Born just before the end of the war," said Tonks, softly, mindful that the war had brought something very different for this young widow.

By now, Remus had carved a sort of porthole into the bubble and was peering through it. "Caroline?"

"I'm Callie," came a petulant voice from inside.

"Hello, Callie. I'm Remus." He smiled a little. "This is quite a lovely bubble you've made, but it's time to come out now. I need to wave my wand and make it disappear. Are you ready?"

"No." Tonks could hear the pout, all the way across the room. "I'm hiding."

Remus grimaced, but he kept his voice low and calm. "What are you hiding from?"

"The moon." Now there was a little sniffle. "If it finds me, I have to turn into a wolf. But I don't want to! It hurts!"

"I know," said Remus, still gently, but with an undertone of raw anguish that made Tonks blink, hard. "I know. But the bubble won't stop it, Callie. You've got to come out."

He swept his wand in a rapid circle, and the bubble vanished. Now Tonks could see a thin little girl, huddled on the floor. Tears streaked her face.

"You're a brave girl," said Remus, his voice gone hoarse. "You'll be all right."

"I don't want to!" Callie was sobbing now. "I don't want to turn into a wolf!"

"I know." Remus folded himself down to sit on the floor, wincing slightly. "I have to turn into a wolf, too, and I don't want to, either. But we have to—there's no way to stop it."

Elspeth Kimball's hand clenched tightly on Tonks's arm.

"He's a werewolf?" she gasped. "The Ministry sent a werewolf into my house?"

Tonks stared.

The woman had started to shake. "It was a werewolf that killed my husband, and did this to my little girl!"

Tonks forced herself to take a very deep breath.

"And it was a werewolf that did this to Remus," she said, levelly. "When he was four."

Mrs. Kimball flinched, but then she let go of Tonks, and nodded, jerkily.

"Remus is no monster." Tonks kept her voice quiet, but her fists had clenched. "Just as Callie isn't, and won't ever be, because she has a mother to love her, and people like Remus—" Merlin willing—"to learn from."

Across the room, Callie was staring at Remus now, her own tears forgotten. "You're a werewolf, too?"

"I am." He reached out and smoothed a hand over her hair. "We can't stop the change, Callie, but there are things we can do to make it hurt a little less. I only have time to show you one thing today, but—"

He shot a slightly guilty look at Teddy, and then at Tonks.

But she grinned a very wide grin and nodded, hard.

Remus smiled, a little wryly, and turned back to the little girl, who had decided to creep up close to his knee.

"I'll come again soon," he promised, "and show you some more."

~o~

Author's notes (2012): Written for the Not-So-Bleak Midwinter Drabblethon at the day_by_drabble community on LiveJournal. Matthias is an OC werewolf who first appears in Part II of my canon-compliant Remus/Tonks WIP series, Kaleidoscope (which you can find on my LiveJournal, shimotsuki).

Author's notes (2017): Slightly edited to take into account information from Pottermore about how old Remus was when he was bitten. Also, this chapter was originally written as a one-shot, but now there's at least one more chapter. And I should note that, as of 2017, Part I of Kaleidoscope is posted here and I've begun posting Part II as well; we first meet Matthias in Chapter 7.