Disclaimer: This chapter may contain passages from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Those passages and ideas belong fully to J.K. Rowling.
Third Year
"Another round, for the two of you?" Madam Rosemerta asked Tawny and Remus. Nearly two weeks after Sirius's break-in, the two had decided they needed to make sure their dinner plans were actually carried out this time. With Tawny working late and the commotion with Sirius, they hadn't been keeping it up regularly since he and Harry returned to Hogwarts. But, now, was one night they truly needed it.
"Yes, please, and make it strong," Tawny said, finishing off her current glass of firewhiskey.
"Not for me. But, you can bring her as many as she wants." Remus said, knowing showing up tipsy at the castle was probably not the best of ideas. Although, if he had, it wouldn't have been the first time (thanks to Sirius and his love of prohibited school items; firewhiskey and fireworks being his favorites.).
Tawny, on the other hand, would be drinking his share. Nothing had been going right for her lately. There had been no sign of Sirius for the past few weeks, she had been drowning trying to find someone to train the new healers, and the tension between her and Arthur had been keeping them at odds. She had barely spent any time at the burrow, and when she did, it was mostly to sleep or to pop in while she knew Arthur and Molly were out. Tawny and Arthur had barely spoken two words to each other since their fight in Dumbledore's office, mostly due to neither of them knowing what to say. She had been spending most nights asleep in either her office chair or an empty bed or gurney if it was a slow night.
Remus, on the other hand, had been consistently in Dumbledore's office trying to get any updates the ministry had on Sirius. Each time, Dumbledore was lacking information. Even with the increased dementor presence, and hyper-alertness of the ministry, there had been no progress on finding Sirius. He had fallen completely off the grid since that night. Also, Remus continued to plead Tawny's case with Dumbledore about Sirius, but it was less convincing than he hoped. Both of their doubts were growing, and the longer they went without hearing even a rumor of Sirius's presence somewhere on the castle grounds, the worse it got.
Madam Rosemerta dropped off another glass of firewhiskey in front of Tawny, and she quickly began to drain its contents. "You know Harry's got a match coming up after the Easter holidays, maybe I can convince Dumbledore to let you attend. It would do you some good to spend some time with Harry. You haven't seen him since the Christmas holiday."
"I doubt the Ministry will allow Dumbledore to let me anywhere near the castle right now. I'd be surprised if there weren't undercover aurors scoping out the place right now to keep an eye on me." Tawny grumbled, taking another large gulp of her drink.
"You'd be there to see Harry, not Sirius. Surely, it won't be a conflict of interest. I'm still on school grounds."
"For now. Wait a few days, they may have you fired out of 'suspicion of harboring a fugitive'." Tawny mocked, doing her best Dolores Umbridge impression, complete with her signature evil smirk. "They've already done a sweep the hospital. If the ministry had any reason to believe Sirius left the castle grounds, I'm sure Umbridge would have me fired and thrown in Azkaban faster than you can say quidditch." Or slur it in Tawny's case.
"They have no proof of us helping him."
"They had no proof to arrest him either, look how that turned out."
Whatever Remus might want to believe, Tawny did have a point. At this moment, the ministry didn't care about their claims of Sirius's innocence. All they believed was that Sirius was guilty and dangerous and that anyone aligned with him must be the same. He couldn't help but think that Tawny was right. If Sirius was being as reckless as he was being now, both of them would be in the hot seat sooner rather than later.
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Trying to look on the positive side, Remus said, "It won't hurt to ask Dumbledore. He loves you. Maybe he'll make an exception."
"You heard him, Remus. The ministry is in charge now. Our fate and Sirius's is no longer in his hands. We are just going to have to sit back and wait for the Aurors to come and haul us off to Azkaban now. I don't know about you, but I'd rather keep drinking until that happens."
"Rosemerta," Remus called, gaining the bartender's attention, "I changed my mind. I'll take a firewhiskey."
"Coming right up."
Remus stayed true to his promise of not getting drunk. He finished his one drink with Tawny before apparating with her to the Burrow, tucked her in, and returned to the castle.
Yawning, Remus pushed through his office door. Dinner with Tawny had gone much longer than he expected...
"LUPIN!" Remus jumped as the fireplace roared, bright flames spitting Snape's words at him. "I WANT A WORD!"
"What the bloody hell does he want at this hour?" Remus sighed before, throwing a dash of floo powder from the jar on the mantle, and following the voice into the flames. Moments later he had walked directly into Snape's office, brushing ash off his already tattered coat. "You called, Severus." Before Snape had even answered, he knew it couldn't be good once he spotted Harry across the room.
"I certainly did. I just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this." Snape held out the parchment, which Remus immediately recognized as the all too familiar Marauder's Map. Instead of its usual appearance, the map had hidden its secrets and instead chose to insult Snape (a precaution that Sirius and James had thought up in case the map ended up in the wrong hands).
Remus knew the moment that Snape read Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs that regardless of not knowing the parchment was a map, that it belonged to the marauders. Snape had heard those nicknames too many times before not to recognize them. Remus tried to keep his face expressionless while he searched for an answer to keep Snape at bay.
"Well?"
He was also realizing, Snape only had the map because he had taken it from Harry. Somehow, after all these years, the map, which had been confiscated by Filch his last year at school, had ended up in the hands of the descendant of one of its creators.
"Well?" Snape called once more, trying to get a response from Remus. "This parchment is plainly full of Dark Magic. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do you imagine Potter got such a thing?" Snape glared at him, clearly believing Harry had received it directly from the source.
Before answering, Remus looked directly at Harry, doing his best to tell him silently to keep quiet. "Full of Dark Magic?" Remus scoffed, "Do you really think so, Severus? It looks to me as though it's a parchment that insults anyone who reads it. Childish, but surely not dangerous? I imagine Harry got it from a joke shop-"
"Indeed?" Snape questioned, appearing to have a new shade of red flushed on his face. "A joke shop? Do you expect me to believe that Potter got this from a joke shop? How daft do you think that I am Lupin? I know he must have gotten it directly from the manufacturers!"
Quickly, Remus asked, "Severus, as Harry's acting guardian I can assure you that he does not know a Mr. Wormtail or Mr. Moony. Do you Harry?"
"No, I've never met them," Harry replied, his voice shaking.
"You see, Severus? It looks like a Zonko product to me-"
Remus was cut off as Ron burst through the door, just long enough to take responsibility for the map. So, he knows about the map to? Of course.
