A New Definition of Family
Chapter 7: The Best Laid Plans…
Disclaimer: This may come as a shock to you, but I don’t own any of JK Rowling’s characters. They do, however, seem to want to play around in my head, hence this story. Any characters or places or book titles you see here that you don’t find in her books, well, they are products of my fertile and fevered imagination.
Remus Lupin was strolling the last few blocks to Rinna’s house deep in thought. He hadn’t seen her since the last planning meeting before removing Harry from his Muggle family, and he hadn’t heard from her since, either. Today he had a different reason for seeing her, for which he was glad because he’d realized he was gong to miss those tactical meetings. He had enjoyed having an excuse to see her every week. Not that he needed an excuse; she was his oldest friend, after all.
He was concerned for her. She was still distancing herself from the wizarding world, although she had conceded to allow her fireplace to be added to the floo network. That was a start. And she’d brewed them a hangover-relief potion last month, once she could finally stand up. But those instances notwithstanding, she was still keeping herself aloof.
He knew that she had come back to England a bit, well, spooked. As if she’d seen and experienced things she just wanted to forget. She had insisted on removing herself from the wizarding world, and fortunately, Albus Dumbledore had hit on a brilliant plan for her to be able to enter the Muggle world, yet maintain her wizarding ties. Despite that, he reflected, she had not been able to escape her demons.
Remus had hoped that meeting Harry would have pulled her out of her funk, even just a little bit. He had been the one who suggested enlisting her help to Dumbledore, who also had hopes of pulling her out of her shell. The two men became co-conspirators in their attempt to shake her from her reticence.
Her door swung open and she practically pounced on him as she eagerly pulled him inside. “I’m glad you are your usual prompt self, Remy! I’ve made a few changes to our plans, and we need to get going right away!”
“If you kept the hours of a normal person, and not some nocturnal creature, then we could have started much earlier, you know,” he replied, amused.
She pulled a face at him, and then swept into the living room, carefully avoiding knocking over the parchments that were in stacks on her coffee table and couch. Remus surveyed the room in wonder: there were piles of papers, old leather bound books, an old ratty-looking trunk, is that her broom from school?, and many cauldrons of various sizes (and very well made) all marring the usual neatness of the room. He thumbed the nearest book; it was Who’s Who in the Wizarding World. The one underneath it was Ancient Magical Family Trees: the Wizard’s Complete Guide to Pureblood Genealogy, annotated. The other books seemed to be various texts, but on closer inspection of the titles, he knew they weren’t from any classes she had taken at Hogwarts.
“What in Merlin’s name…”
She interrupted him, “Could you grab those three medium-sized cauldrons and bring them to the kitchen for me, there’s a good lad.” She raised her eyebrow at him as she carried her largest cauldron with two hands and made for the kitchen.
He grinned at her suggestive look. He had to admit to himself that his infatuation for the red-head had not diminished at all. Frustratingly, they had not been able to explore any possibilities of progressing their relationship further; every time they had seen each other there had been others present. He was rather looking forward to having her all to himself for the rest of the day. He moved across the room to comply with her request.
His momentum was arrested by a very official looking parchment on the coffee table. It was brand new, freshly inked, and read: Curriculum Vitae for Arinna Dunlevy. He paused to glance at it in curiosity, carefully picking it up and reading. She had written him at least several times a year for those ten years she had spent studying abroad, and had told him some of the classes she had been taking, some of the Magical Arts she had chosen to pursue…but a quick glance showed him she had not been forthright in all that she had undertaken. Left out some of the more interesting subjects, didn’t you, Rinna dear? Her academic record made his credentials to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts look rather puny, indeed. And he was no lightweight in the Dark Arts.
Her voice calling him from the kitchen interrupted his disturbing reverie. “Sorry! Hang on, I’m coming,” he said quickly as he grabbed the cauldrons by the handles and double-timed it to the kitchen.
“I thought I said we were in a hurry?” she said acerbically as he set the cauldrons on the table with a clang.
“I was distracted by the mess out there,” he smirked. “What are you up to, anyway?”
“I am taking a page out of the Remus Lupin book of employment. And no, that doesn’t mean I’m going to get all hairy once a month and get myself sacked!” she teased playfully.
“I was not sacked. I resigned,” he said with dignity. “And what in the hell are you talking about?”
She laughed at his puzzled expression. “I…am going to be an educator!”
“What?”
“An educator. A teacher, a professor, a tutor…” she huffed with some impatience.
“Yes, I know what an educator is, silly. But just where are you planning on embarking on this new career?” His eyes widened as he made the connection between what she was saying and what he’d seen in the living room. “You are not considering what I think you are considering…”
Now it was her turn to look puzzled. “What do you mean? How could you know what I’m considering? I only just told you…”
He stepped up to her and took her by the shoulders. “I think you are looking to hire yourself out as a private tutor in the Dark Arts to a Dark Wizarding family.”
Her mouth fell open in shock. She blinked stupidly several times. Remus almost smiled at how comical her expression was. She closed her mouth with a snap and said, “I know I am a top notch Occluomens. There is no way you could have pulled that from my head. How in all the bloody moons of Jupiter did you…”
“I saw your curriculum vitae out there.” He let go of her, rubbing her shoulders where he had been gripping rather tightly. “I must say, with your credentials, you are the dream tutor that all the top Dark families are looking for…the Malfoys, the Notts, the Goyles would all be giving their eyeteeth to have you…”
“None of them have primary school-aged children anymore.” she smirked, feeling a bit disturbed that she was secretly pleased at his praise.
He stopped to consider her. “Well, you have certainly been doing your homework,” he said. “But seriously, Rinna, don’t you think it is just a bit counter-productive to our plan of routing Voldemort if you are out there teaching little future Death Eaters the Dark Arts?”
“No, no, that’s not it. I would be on the inside again, able to get information on what Voldemort is planning…” The look on his face stopped her.
“Are you drunk?” He asked bluntly.
Now she was mad, and insulted. “What?”
“I asked, are you drunk? Because that’s the only explanation I can think of for this insane plan of yours. In case you don’t recall what happened to you the last time you were ‘on the inside’ let me just remind you that you ended up in the hands of Voldemort himself…”
“I know…”
“And you were abused, and you lost your m…”
“I KNOW!” She glared viciously at him.
He absorbed her glare impassively. “I will be damned,” he said clearly and deliberately, “if I ever let you get involved with Death Eaters or near that crazy bastard Voldemort again.”
He held her gaze, and she saw the determination in his eyes. She would not be able to persuade him of the validity of her plan, she could see that. She sighed and slumped into a chair at her table, leaning forward and smacking her forehead onto her arms crossed on the tabletop.
He sat next to her, pushing the cauldrons out of his way, and bravely reaching over to stroke her hair. “What has gotten you into this frenzy all of a sudden, anyway? I thought you were keeping a low profile.”
She liked the way his hands felt in her hair, so she didn’t lift her head to speak. “Something that Harry told me. I’m convinced that we will see the Dark Lord quite hale and hearty in the near future, Remus.”
“What did Harry tell you?” he wondered.
She reluctantly lifted her self up and proceeded to tell him about the prophecy made by Professor Trelawney.
Remus thought for several moments about what Rinna had told him. He took a deep breath in through his nose. “I’m afraid I’m rather of the same mind as Hermione about Sybil Trelawney,” he said. “I wouldn’t put much stock in what…”
She cut him off. “Where else will Peter go? He’s always gravitated to someone big enough and powerful enough to protect him. Besides, I just know it is true.” She gave a little shudder.
He looked at her sharply. “Having a moment of precognition, are we?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “You know I’ve been right about Voldemort in the past…”
He felt goosebumps prickle his skin. “All right. I’ll agree that this changes things. But I would feel much better if you talk with Albus before you send out any letters of intention to any wizarding families.” He took her chin in his hand and turned her to look at him. He locked her eyes with his. “Will you agree to that?”
She considered a moment before nodding her head in acquiescence. Remus breathed an inward sigh of relief. He stood up from the table and looked at the cauldrons. “So, have you decided that brewing potions in your saucepans is an inferior art form?” he teased her, again remembering the potion she had whipped up to relive the agony left by the fire whiskey they’d consumed.
His words brought her back to the present task. She quickly stood up, snapping her fingers. “We have got to get to Diagon Alley! We have an appointment! And yes, I want to make sure this next potion I brew is absolutely perfect. So I did a little unpacking.”
Remus grabbed her hand. “Thank you for taking this on for me,” he told her quietly.
“The Wolfsbane potion? Of course I would take it on. I need to watch out for you, you know. If I’d known you were going to use an old potion that was supposed to be used up in June, I’d have pulled out the cauldrons sooner,” she chided him. She had been upset when he owled her to tell her that his last transformation had not gone well because the efficacy of the potion Snape had brewed him had worn off a bit in storage, and would she consider brewing him a new batch?
She lifted her hand to his face and patted his cheek. “And thank you for going all protective on me a few moments ago, you chivalrous old wolf, you.” She smiled at him.
“I need to watch out for you, too. You’re the only school chum I have left.” He placed his hand over hers and pressed her hand into his cheek. She put her other hand on the other side of his face and pulled him down, brushing his lips with a sweet, chaste kiss.
“You are too good to me, Remus Lupin,” she said to him lightly. “And I’m not the only one you have left, or have you forgotten that you have Sirius back?”
Her phrasing was not lost on him: you have him back, not we have him back. He sighed. “Sirius is on the run, and hopefully well hidden. And I hope he stays that way until his name is cleared. There isn’t much chance of me seeing him till then.”
“All the better for me to hog your protective person to myself, then,” she said with satisfaction and smiled up at him.
Seemingly of their own accord, one of his hands cupped her jaw while the other slipped to the back of her neck. He pulled her in for another kiss, this time not so chaste. “Hog me all you want,” he said hoarsely, before kissing her deeply again.
Her arms were slipping around his neck when the hall clock bonged once. Much to Remus’ dismay, Rinna tore her lips away from him. “Damn it! It is half past eleven! We have an appointment right now!” She grabbed his wrist and tugged him back to the living room, snatching up her money purse and a shopping list on the way.
“What appointment? What are you talking about?”
“I’ll tell you after we floo. Let’s go!” She indicated the bowl of floo powder on the mantel.
----- -----
Soon they were walking quickly down the sidewalk in Diagon Alley. “We are meeting Dorrie for lunch at the Rusty Rapier!”
Remus groaned. Well, there go any plans for “alone time,” he thought frustratedly. “Thanks for giving me so much advanced warning!”
“Oh, shut it. She is my only girlfriend. I’ve missed her since I moved out.” Suddenly, Rinna stopped in her tracks.
“What is it?” Remus asked with concern.
“I was just thinking. Do you think we should tell her…” she leaned closer to Remus, “about Sirius? He was her favorite cousin and she was very upset about what happened with him…”
“I suppose. But not here in Diagon Alley…too much possibility of someone overhearing us.”
“Agreed.” She frowned in thought. “Let’s invite her to my place for dinner and tell her then.” She did not see Remus’ face fall, nor any of the emotions that flickered briefly across his face. Remus schooled his features to an impassive look, grunted an affirmative, and they resumed their brisk walk, arriving shortly at the little out of the way pub Dorrie favored.
“Sorry we’re late,” Rinna apologized as she slipped in the booth next to her former roommate. “Remus and I were…uh…”
“Discussing employment options.” Remus interjected smoothly.
“Wotcher, Remus, Rinna!” they were greeted. “I wasn’t waiting long.”
“Hello, Tonks. Long time, no see,” Remus replied. He took in her short black hair shot through with streaks of burgundy and purple. Somehow, she always managed to pull off her outrageous styles without looking ridiculous.
“Sorry that it didn’t work out for you at Hogwarts, Remus,” Tonks told him.
He glanced at Rinna, then back to Tonks. “Well, you’re all caught up with my life, then. How is the Auror business going for you?”
“Well, at least I’m not considered a newbie any more.” She smiled. “It is going fine, I think.” She turned to Rinna. “So tell me, how did ‘Operation Extraction’ go?” Tonks’ eyes twinkled in anticipation of a good story.
They took a moment to order lunch, then Rinna recounted the story of retrieving Harry from the Dursleys. They were all careful to not say any names; secrecy was second nature to these three.
“So, what do you think of him?” Tonks asked. Remus had been about to ask that very question. He leaned in to hear Rinna’s answer.
“Well, he reminds me very much of his mother.”
“You think so?” Remus asked. “He reminds me very strongly of his father.”
“Oh, no. He may look a lot like his father, but he is more like his mother,” she argued.
Remus snorted. “Well, you haven’t seen him in action at Hogwarts; has a real knack for mischief, that one.”
It was Rinna’s turn to snort. “Methinks that is the pot calling the kettle black! It takes one to know one, Remy.” Everyone laughed. Rinna sat back with a sigh. “I think I frustrate him. He wants to know everything, and he doesn’t let up. It’s been really hard…to tell him…things…”
Her companions nodded, discerning what she meant. It was nice, to be sitting here with the two people who knew her best, Remus and Dorrie, and not have to explain anything because they already understood. She reflected on the brilliance of the circumstances that had connected her with Dorrie almost three years ago.
Nymphadora Tonks had been living at home while pursuing her Auror training, and, quite frankly, her parents had been driving her mad. She had desperately wanted to get a place, but could not afford it on her meager salary as a part-time barmaid. Her former headmaster had provided the solution: Arinna Dunlevy. The two women had gotten a flat (which Tonks still rented) and Tonks had tutored Rinna in the ways of Muggle living. She had helped Rinna find a job at the same pub she worked at; it had turned out that Rinna had a knack for bartending, which Tonks had laughingly attributed to Rinna’s aptitude for Potions.
Fortunately, Tonks’ mother, Andromeda, had been all for the arrangement, as she had met Rinna many years before on the arm of her dashing young cousin, Sirius. Andromeda was a shrewd judge of character, and felt Rinna might be a good influence on her daughter. Rinna and Dorrie had hit it off well, despite an eleven year age difference, and became fast friends, and later, confidantes.
The arrangement probably could have gone on indefinitely, but Tonks had graduated to a full-fledged Auror and was making a decent salary finally and could afford her own place, which had been a dream of hers. Rinna had become quite comfortable in the non-magical world, and felt confident she could live on her own. She had harbored a longing for a cute little house for a while. So the two went house shopping for Rinna and that was that. Rinna had moved out a year ago, but they kept in touch at least once a week and remained close friends.
Rinna was pulled back to the present by the snapping of fingers in front of her face. “Hey, Dunnie! Come back to earth!” Tonks teased.
“Sorry! Was daydreaming for a minute, there.” Rinna grinned sheepishly.
Remus leaned back in the booth and watched as the two girls playfully bickered. He grinned. Dunnie and Dorrie they called each other. No one else was allowed to use those names. They were, he realized, the two women he’d ever felt the most comfortable around. They each know my secret and accept me in spite of it. He enjoyed the company of both of them, he decided, very much. He determined he would forgive Tonks her unwitting disruption of the agenda he’d had for the day.
“Are you planning on finishing that?” he asked, pointing to the remains of Tonks’ lunch.
“Nah,” she said, pushing it across the table to him. “You can have it.”
Rinna frowned. “I knew you were going to starve if you stayed at Mundungus’ place,” she said darkly.
Tonks grinned as Remus responded, escalating the conversation to a full-scale wrangle. They went at it like an old married couple. She was awed to think their friendship spanned more than twenty years, although she knew they’d been apart for ten of those years. She wondered why they just didn’t give in to the inevitable and hook up. Tonks certainly found Remus attractive, and Dunnie had confessed to having a schoolgirl crush on him in their days at Hogwarts…ah well, maybe now that Remus isn’t up north at Hogwarts. She would give her friend six months to get her act together and date the handsome Professor…if she didn’t, well then it is open season on a certain wolf for me.
“Listen, Dorrie,” Rinna had turned to her, “would you like to join us for dinner tonight? We have something we need to tell you.”
Wow, that was fast! Tonks thought. “I have nothing planned, so I’d love to.”
They paid the bill and left the pub.
“All right, then,” said Remus, offering an arm to each of them, “where to?”
“Potion ingredients first, then to a stationery store for Duplicating Parchment, and I have got to find a birthday present for Harry,” Rinna said firmly.
“Did I tell you that I have been invited to his party?” Remus asked her.
“Fantastic! But were you invited to the pre-party Quidditch match?” Rinna grinned. “You should come watch. I’m sure it will be very entertaining…”
The three turned and worked their way down the street arm in arm.
It was late when Tonks emerged from her fireplace in the living room of her flat. She stumbled clumsily to her room and flopped on her bed. It had been a long and enjoyable day, and the young metamorphmagus had been anticipating dinner with her friends the entire time. Much to her chagrin, however, there had not been any confessions of a torrid romance, but instead the rather startling news that Sirius was innocent and had been framed.
Now that would take some getting used to. She sighed and realized she probably wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight as she was going to be busy trying to wrap her head around all the implications of this news: how it would affect her, Rinna, Remus, the entire wizarding world that she was now pledged to protect and serve…
She sat up abruptly with a snap of her fingers. Of course! I have connections! A self-satisfied smile began to take over her face. She vowed she would certainly be using her spare time and resources in an all-out effort to clear her cousin’s name.
“Hey.”
Remus was startled to find Rinna at his elbow holding the now nearly empty bottle of wine from dinner. “Hey yourself.” He was in a somber mood, thinking of Sirius and worried for his friend’s safety. Retelling the story had brought Sirius to the front of his thoughts, which, in turn, had made him very conflicted about his feelings for Rinna. He turned from the window he’d been staring out of to her, and noticed she had changed into a low cut blouse and tight skirt. Great. She has to work tonight.
“Want to help me finish this off?” she asked, “There is enough for a few swallows for each of us, and I have a little bit of time before I have to go to work. My shift starts at eleven.”
“All right,” he agreed, taking the bottle from her and taking a few sips from it.
She lightly slapped at his arm. “Ewww. I meant for you to drink from a glass, you know!”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “So you’ve kissed me before, on more than one occasion, I might add,…spanning several decades, I might add…and you are squeamish about sharing a nearly depleted bottle of wine with me?” He handed the bottle to her with a challenging gleam in his eye and gestured for her to drink up.
“I say! That is so very unfair: bringing up things I did as a silly little thirteen-year-old.”
“Actually, if I recall correctly, it was your fourteenth birthday, although I was under the impression it was your fifteenth at the time…”
She pulled the bottle from her lips and smiled. “I had such a crush on you then.”
He took the bottle from her again. “Really?” he looked at her closely.
“Really.” Her smile widened.
“Wish I had known that about twenty years ago.” He swigged the rest of the wine, and handed the bottle to her.
She eyed the empty bottle in her hands. “Of course,” she said teasingly, “you were much more of a gentleman back then…”
“I’ll have you know,” he said in his most stately manner, “that I am still a gentleman.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, and I’ll prove it.”
She cocked her eyebrow and smirked, “Go ahead, then.”
He raised a finger in a most professor-like manner. “Case in point: You have been standing in front of me in that outfit, looking dead sexy, for nearly five minutes now, and I have not yet ravaged you.”
Rinna threw her head back and laughed merrily. “Point well taken,” she said with a saucy grin. “With ‘yet’ being the operative word, I presume?”
“It certainly could be.” He leered wickedly at her. Then, his expression softened. He took the bottle from her hands and set it on the coffee table, and took her now empty hands in his.
“Look, Rinna. I’ve spent most of today hoping to get you alone so that we could talk about whether or not we should try to make a go of this…”
“Don’t.”
He stopped, taken aback. “Don’t what?”
She looked at him seriously. “Don’t ask me how I feel about us. I am afraid to feel…When I feel…it hurts…”
He took her in his arms and held her tightly.
“It hurts…except…”
“Except what?” he whispered.
“Except when I’m with you. When I am with you, Remus, I almost feel like I might be all right again.” She wrapped her arms around him and sighed.
He held her close, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Hey,” he said eventually.
She pulled away from him a little and looked up at him, a ghost of a smile on her face. “Hey yourself.”
He grinned at that. Then his face sobered. “I’m not going to rush you, or anything. I can be patient when I set my mind to it…”
Her smile still played at her lips. “Really? Because that is a virtue that I’ve never seemed to acquire.”
“I’m trying to be serious, here, Rinna.”
“Remy, I don’t want to analyze or strategize or whatever. I’m tired of analyzing everything, every thought and emotion that pops into my head. I don’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to scrutinize it. I just want…”
“What? What is it you want?” he murmured. The clock in the hallway bonged once. Half past ten.
She sighed. “I just want us to snog each other senseless until I have to go to work, and revel in how good it feels.”
Remus Lupin was not an idiot. He pulled her back tightly in his arms and said in a most gentlemanly way, “Your wish is my command, my lady.”
A/N: Please head to the “review” button and tell me what you thought of it. Now I know I stated in the summary that this was SB/OC (and I think I mention a little RL/NT)…and I know it looks like I’m not headed that way…but trust me. It’s just that Rinna and Remus kidnapped me and forced me at gunpoint, uh…make that wand-point, to write about them, and they just seem to have so much chemistry that I couldn’t disappoint them, now could I?