Chapter 5

Wendy crept towards the room, wand at the ready, and peered around the doorframe. She could see Sirius and Remus fighting with an enchanted blanket, and leaned against the doorframe to watch.

Remus caught a glimpse of her standing in the doorway. "You could lend a hand," he said as he fought with the blanket.

She laughed at their predicament. "I could." The blanket was wrapping around the two of them much like a boa constrictor.

"Are you?" he asked.

She considered their predicament for a few seconds, tapping her lips as she thought. "No," she finally replied.

"Why not?" Remus asked impatiently.

"I want him to ask." She pointed at Sirius.

Remus gave Sirius a pleading look. The blanket was constricting tighter.

"I won't ask her for anything," Sirius growled.

She sneered at them. "I wish I'd brought popcorn. This is quite a show."

"Wendy, please," Remus begged as he tried to keep the blanket from wrapping around his throat. "Sirius, we need her help."

"All right, fine. Would you please lend a hand?" Sirius asked.

She stood up and pointed her wand at them, acting like this was not a particularly important task. "Since you asked ever so nicely," she replied sarcastically. "Impendimenta." The blanket immediately stopped moving and she watched the two men untangle themselves from the now still blanket. "Do I even want to know what kind of stupidity was involved in the two of you ending up in that predicament?"

Sirius was about to say something when Remus stopped him. "That doesn't matter."

She shook her head and chuckled. "I'll wait for you in the drawing room."

They could hear her laughing as she walked away from the room. "Don't get started with her, Sirius. I have to spend a good chunk of the night with her and I don't need her in a bad mood."

"Sounds like she's in a right good mood now. Watch your back." He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I will." He headed down the stairs. When he entered the drawing room, Wendy broke into a fresh fit of laughter. As she calmed down, he asked, "Have you got it out of your system, now?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I think so. Oh, the sight of the two of you. I'm going to remember that for a long time. I'll have to share that with Severus. He'll appreciate it like no one else I know."

Remus winced at the thought of Severus learning about their failure to control the constricting blanket. "I would really rather you didn't."

"I'll think about it, but it may be too good to pass up. Ready?"

"Yes." He took a look at her clothes; they were shoddy and masculine. "Trying a different tactic?"

"We're going to some rough places. It's a little too dangerous to pose as a whore."

He was still amazed at how easily she referred to herself as a whore. "So what is our cover tonight?"

"General criminal. I'll hint at doing violence for money, but nothing specific. You'll be my partner."

"I can't pretend to be a criminal," he said incredulously.

This was frustrating. "Damned Gryffindors. You lot are so hard to work with. Well, then you can pretend to be a mute or you have to act like you don't know me. But the type of places we'll be going, it's really best if you arrive with someone."

"Worried about your safety?" he asked.

"No. I'm worried about yours," she replied seriously. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial. "Here, drink this." She watched him stare at it. "I'm not going to poison you. Honestly, quit being paranoid. You've been listening to Black, haven't you?"

"Well, he does know you better than any of us," he replied.

"No, Kingsley knows me better than anyone else. Black knew me when I was a teenager. Are you the same person you were back then?" She was truly tired of her past coming back to haunt her, thanks to Black's inability to let it go. Briefly, she considered slapping Remus upside the head in hopes of getting it through his thick skull that she was not like her classmates. Unfortunately, that would be counterproductive.

Thinking back to his teenage years, and some of the things the Marauders did to Severus, the guilt he felt for not stopping his friends came to the forefront. He wasn't sure he was any stronger now, but he still knew the answer. "No. I suppose we should go."

"Right. Now, which role did you want?" she asked impatiently.

"I'll be your partner," he replied reluctantly. He wasn't sure he could be convincing, but it seemed to be the best course of action.

That was really the best solution and she was glad he realized that. "Good. Do you have a common middle name? Remus is a little unusual and might draw too much attention."

"John. Is that common enough?"

"It's great. Let's go," she said abruptly.

They went outside and Apparated to a place that Remus would describe as worse than the Hog's Head. It most definitely smelled worse, and that was from the outside. "We're going in there?" he asked skeptically.

"Isn't this what you wanted when you joined up?" she asked dryly.

"And you did?" he asked.

She shrugged. "This is what I do for a living. Though, I generally prefer to spend my days off doing something different."

"Sorry if I'm keeping you from your busy social life," he replied sarcastically.

"Ha. Not bloody likely. I'm not date material. Let's quit standing around outside. Just follow my lead." She really didn't want to discuss her lack of a social life.

Remus found that hard to believe given how she had looked the other night. The interior of the pub was very much what he expected from the exterior. It was dark, smoky and looked like it had never been cleaned. He could feel his shoes sticking to the floor with each step and dreaded having to drink out of any of the glasses. "Are you sure about this?" he whispered as they headed to an empty table.

"Perfectly, just don't wipe the chair off before sitting down and don't make eye contact with anyone," she replied.

He looked at the chair and desperately wanted to perform a cleansing charm, but he would have to trust her judgment on how to avoid the wrong sort of attention. Looking around the room, he saw that it was a very unsavory clientele. He had no wish to meet any of these people in a dark alley. Since he had no idea how being a criminal for hire worked, he decided to follow Wendy's lead and behaved in a very similar manner.

Within five minutes, they were in a fight. One of the men had come over and propositioned Wendy. For his trouble, she had rammed his head into a wall and then the table before he collapsed to the ground. She kicked him in the stomach for good measure. "I'm not that kind of woman," she growled.

Once they were seated at a new table, Remus leaned forward and whispered, "Perhaps we should head to the next place."

"Not on your life. That was exactly what we needed. We should start getting some interest from the sort of people we want to talk with." She was energized from the adrenaline rush.

He glanced nervously about the room. "Are you sure about this? I don't exactly feel safe here."

"Relax. Don't worry about it. Just glare menacingly at anyone you see staring at us. After that little performance, people will think twice about messing with us. After all, if little old me can wipe the floor with a big bloke like that, imagine what they'll think about you," she sneered.

"I'd rather not," he replied as he stared at his ale, thankful it had come in a bottle. He decided to make some small talk to pass the time. "How did you get that scar?"

She pointed at her left cheek. "That one? I have my brother to thank for that."

"Your brother?" That sounded to far-fetched to be true.

"A little thank you for what happened to his daughter. It was poisoned so it wouldn't heal properly. He was actually trying to kill me, but since Aurors are trained in more conventional fighting techniques, I was able to deflect the blow. Company coming." She nodded her head slightly to her right.

It was after eight when they left. They hadn't really learned anything interesting, though a man had solicited them to kill his mistress. Wendy had led him through a series of questions that drove the price to something more than he was willing to pay. "That was a waste of time," he said as they left.

"That's what a lot of this business is. I need to get something to eat before our next stop. I know a little place where the food is edible, but we won't attract attention."

She led him to small, out of the way establishment that he probably would have never noticed.

The man behind the counter gave them a friendly wave as they entered. "Wendy! Good to see you, girl. Wasn't expecting you. Isn't it your night off?"

"Hey, Lou. Yeah, but I'm helping a friend out. This is John."

Remus waved at the man behind the counter.

"Usual?" Lou asked.

"Two," Wendy replied.

They sat at a table in the back corner of the room. When Lou set the plates in front of them, Remus picked up the top piece of bread and looked at the contents of the sandwich. "What is this?" he asked.

"Eat it or not, doesn't matter to me."

He sighed. He really wished she wouldn't be so difficult. After taking a bite of the sandwich, he had to admit that it wasn't bad. "I take it you come here frequently?" he asked between bites.

"Lou's a retired Auror. That's pretty much his entire clientele, too. He knew that we needed a place where we could take a break in peace. It's actually very quiet tonight, but then again, Sunday's tend to be his slow night."

"I'd like to thank you again, for helping with the blanket." While she may not demonstrate the possession of manners, he had been raised to be polite and wasn't about to change the way he behaved.

She set down her sandwich and looked at him curiously. "How exactly did you end up in that predicament? I mean, I could see one of you getting tied up in the blanket, but both of you?"

"As you said, it was stupid. We were cleaning up the room and we both reached for the blanket at the same time. It was jinxed to react to touch and had both of us wrapped up before either of us could reach for our wands."

She started laughing again. "You've been living in that house how long? And you haven't figured out that anything could be jinxed?"

"And you would have known better?" he asked snidely. They did know that many things were jinxed, but had just been careless.

"You'd better believe it. Odds are, I'm responsible for some of the jinxing around there, though the blanket was not one of mine," she said before taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. "You've jinxed things around that house?"

"Remember, I used to spend time during the summer with Bella and Narcissa. We, uh, had some unusual ways of entertaining ourselves," she admitted with a great deal of embarrassment.

"Perhaps you could give us a hand in getting rid of some of your handiwork?"

She shook her head. "Not with the way my schedule is. Besides, that was more than twenty years ago. I don't remember every little jinx we did back then and I'm sure Black would really love to hear that I'm responsible for some of his misery." She smiled wistfully at the thought of twenty-five-year old pranks annoying Sirius. That had, of course, been the original purpose behind most of them.

"It would really help get Headquarters in order and you wouldn't have to spend too much time helping. I, er, wouldn't mention to anyone your initial involvement," he offered.

"I'll think about it, but I have to go back to work tomorrow and my five days on call can get rather hectic. Especially since I didn't really get any proper rest."

They ate in silence for a few more minutes before Remus put down his sandwich. "You know, Sirius is not that bad a person. He's just in a bad situation. He was wrongfully imprisoned for twelve years and now he's been forced into hiding for the last two."

"You don't need to defend him to me. He's always been an arrogant little git and I don't think he'll ever change. We've never gotten along and since he is incapable of forgiveness, I think we never will. Are you about ready? It's time to get to the next round of fun." She watched as he quickly finished off his sandwich. "Charming," she said sardonically.

He used his napkin to wipe the crumbs and took a drink of pumpkin juice to wash down the rest of his meal. "Sorry. As you can imagine, I've not led a life of privilege and I've learned to eat quickly."

She gave him one last glare, recognizing the insult, before getting up from the table. "Lou, catch you later."

"All right, Wendy. Take care of yourself. I've got a bad vibe about tonight."

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied casually before leaving.

"What was that about?" Remus asked.

"Nothing much. Lou is always having a bad feeling about something. Most of time it's nothing so we just humor him."

Thankfully, the rest of the night until closing was uneventful. Remus was actually quite pleased at how the evening had gone. They didn't get involved in any arguments, though several people did try to recruit them for murder or mayhem, and he actually got her to open up a bit, telling him some colorful tales from previous undercover assignments. He stayed away from what he thought would be the more sensitive subjects.

He was actually a little sad when closing came. They hadn't really learned anything, but it had been a rather pleasant evening, despite the unsavory surroundings of most of the establishments. She hadn't brought up the blanket again and almost seemed to have forgotten that he was a werewolf.

"I'll see you at the meeting on Saturday and we can head out after that."

"Right, Saturday. If you have the time, we would appreciate any help you could give cleaning house. The kids are helping, but there is Dark Magic there that they aren't ready to handle."

She replied dryly, "Neither are you. I'll see. But this is not a personal favor. It's only to make the Order's headquarters livable."

"Of course," he replied quietly and watched her disappear into the night. He had a strange feeling that she had not just been referring to the blanket when she said there was magic he couldn't handle. They had already found many nasty surprises and he hated to think there were worse things to be found.

The following week was very busy for Remus. Since he was currently unemployed, he ended up running a lot of errands for Albus and the other members of the Order. He didn't mind. Besides, Molly was a good cook, and other than his time at Hogwarts, this was one of those rare occasions where he was eating on a regular basis and had a decent roof over his head. He enjoyed being useful and accepted. In the evenings, a part of him kept waiting to hear a knock at the door. He knew it wasn't likely that Wendy would stop by, but he kept hoping. Even though she presented a gruff exterior, much the same way Severus did, he knew there was more to her, that she was hiding the pain of her past. She had hinted at that when she mentioned her brother's attack. He was positive that was a contributing factor in her extreme hatred of werewolves, along with the fact her niece was one.

They had made significant progress on the house, even with Kreacher continuing to take items they were trying to throw out. The drawing room and three-quarters of the bedrooms were declared clean. The library, dining room, and other bedrooms were still off limits. In fact, none of them had figured out how to enter the library, yet, but that wasn't important. Molly had plans to ask Moody about it the next time he came by, but he was busier on Order business than anyone else.

Friday afternoon there was a knock on the door and he went to answer it. He smiled warmly when he saw who it was. "Wendy, glad to see you here."

"I was able to get out a little early. It's been a busy week. Seems the Death Eaters are continuing their Muggle baiting. They've had to enlist some of the Aurors to Obliviate people; it's been that busy. I thought I'd stop by and see if there was anything specific you needed help with before I headed home. I'm wiped out and I'm taking the night off before we recommence our pub crawl."

By now, they had walked upstairs to the drawing room. "Actually, if you could give a hand with the library, it would be appreciated. Tonks hasn't been able to give any good advice and none of the rest of us has any ideas, either. Even Sirius is at a loss."

She snorted derisively. "There's a surprise. What's the trouble?"

"Well, we, er, can't get in," he admitted with some embarrassment.

She started laughing. "You have got to be kidding me? Not even Black? They never told him how to get into the library?"

"He left home when came of age and his family more or less disowned him. I would think you would appreciate that," he defended.

"You know, I think I was thirteen or fourteen when we figured it out. Though truthfully, it's probably best to leave the room locked up. If you thought the drawing room was bad, the stuff in there is ten times worse. I wouldn't want those kids anywhere near that room."

"But you used to go in there," he said.

"Yeah, and look how I turned out. I've met the Weasley twins. I don't want them anywhere near that room once it's been opened. No. Once they're gone, I'll open it up and Order members can clean it out."

"I think we should at least go in there and take inventory to make sure there's nothing useful."

She replied sarcastically, "That's a good one. Trust me, there's nothing useful in there."

"What if the kids get in there? They are incredibly curious," Remus countered.

"I wouldn't worry about it. It took us a long time to figure it out and a lot of research in books that they don't have access to. Let's just say, that without the help of my library, we never would have gotten in there. My parents didn't much care what sort of books I got into. They thought my pursuit of the Dark Arts was admirable. They never questioned what I was doing with it."

"They sound like wonderful parents," he replied sarcastically.

"Now you see why I had such a hard time becoming an Auror. I probably should have just given up on it, played Quidditch a few years and then opened a flying academy or something."

"Why did you become an Auror?" he asked, since she had broached the subject.

"Knowing what you know of my family, do you really have to ask? The easy answer is familial guilt. Of course, I could have reverted back to my maiden name and really driven the shame home, but one reformed Leah wasn't going to atone for the rest of the family. On the other hand, the Westin line is at an end. For all his faults and weaknesses, Edgar wasn't that bad a man and the Westin family was once great. The least I can do is give them a clean mark to end on.

"Now, is there anything else around here that needs an Auror's touch? If not, I'll go home and get some rest." She really didn't want to talk about her past; it was too painful. Edgar had been weak and foolish. The Dark Lord had found it quite easy to manipulate him.

Remus could tell he had touched a sensitive spot. "We've had some trouble with the dining room, too. The furniture seems to go feral when anyone tries to use it."

She laughed again. "That, I can help out with. It's not as hard as you think, though I don't think you can remove that particular jinx."

"Minerva tried and gave up when the chair started ripping apart her dress," Remus replied. He didn't think he had ever seen Minerva stumped by a spell.

"Yes, I can see that. It's an obscure bit of Dark Magic used to ward off intruders. Mrs. Black didn't like us playing in the dining room and jinxed the furniture so that it would attack between meals. Of course, if you used the right counter jinx between meals it was no problem. You seriously mean to tell me that Black knows nothing of any of this?" she asked incredulously.

"He knew it was jinxed and told us to avoid the dining room, but he never told us why. Again, he left before they would have told him the family secrets." He followed her back downstairs.

Wendy drew her wand and prepared to enter the dining room. "Desinere animalis," she said as she opened the door. The furniture had started to move, but stopped immediately once the spell was cast. "The effects will last for half an hour after the last person leaves the room. The curse that started this mess is animare animalis, but I don't know of any way of permanently removing it."

"It seems that Mrs. Black's efforts to keep you out of the dining room failed," he observed.

"Let's just say there was little the three of us couldn't figure out given time and the resources of my parents' library." She walked over to the cabinet on the far wall and ran her hand along the door. "You'll want to be careful cleaning out the cabinets. The china's fine, but most of the other stuff is dangerous. Mrs. Black liked to display Dark Artifacts, just like she did in the drawing room. There is some really nasty stuff here. Black should know about most of it."

He watched her open the cabinet, hold her hand over a ring, and mutter an incantation before picking it up. "I'll take this to the Ministry for destruction." She then pocketed the ring.

"What was that?" he asked suspiciously. Despite the fact he was starting to trust her, she had not kept secret her interest in Dark Magic.

"You really don't want to know. There's nothing else immediately deadly in the room that I'm aware of. If that's it, I'm going to head home."

"You could stay for dinner," he offered quietly.

"No thanks. I'd planned on eating at home for once." It was a nice gesture, but she really didn't feel comfortable around the other members of the Order, and she was almost positive that Black would have told the children about her, how she had been in Slytherin, and undoubtedly he would have told them she had been a dirty Quidditch player, like the rest of her teammates. She just wasn't in the mood to deal with all of that.

He tried not to sound dejected. "I... just thought you might like the company."

"Given the fact that Black will be here, I'll choose eating alone. Make sure everyone that needs to knows how to disarm the furniture. I'll be back tomorrow for the meeting." She looked at his clothes and saw how shabby they were. "I'll bring something for you to wear, too, unless you have something better than that."

He hated the way she could make him feel self-conscious. "That would be appreciated," he replied quietly. Once again, he was embarrassed by the fact that he was perpetually broke. He received a small stipend from the Order to take care of personal necessities and he took most of his meals here, but it wasn't enough to replace his tattered wardrobe.

Sirius was coming up the stairs from the kitchen, when he saw Wendy coming from the back of the house and out the door. He headed down the hallway and found Remus in the dining room, examining the contents of the cabinets. "What was she doing here?" he asked.

"She showed me how to disarm the furniture," Remus replied. He was still stung by the way she had treated him as an inferior.

"Hmph. Why doesn't it surprise me that she'd know how to do that?" He pointed at the empty spot in the cabinet. "Where did the ring go?" demanded Sirius.

"She said she was going to take it to the Ministry for destruction."

Sirius grabbed Remus' lapels. "You let her take it? Do you have any idea what that was?"

"She didn't say. She only indicated it was the most dangerous thing in the room." Remus was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"That's an understatement. It was probably the most dangerous thing in the house. That's why it was here. How did she get it out of the cabinet?" Sirius demanded.

Remus was struck by depth of emotion in his friend's voice. "I don't know exactly. She held her hand over it, said some sort of incantation I couldn't make out and picked it up."

Sirius started pacing and ordered, "You need to go get it back from her. We can't let her have it."

"Why not?"

"Just trust me on this. I know Dumbledore and Kingsley say they trust her, but if that ring were to fall into the wrong hands, it would be very bad. She shouldn't have been able to pick it up," Sirius said anxiously. Of all his mother's possessions, she had been most proud of that ring. That's why it had been given a place of prominence in the dining room and had a powerful sticking charm applied to it.

"We talked a little and she admitted to having studied Dark Magic extensively, with...your cousins. She even said she could get in the library," Remus said.

Sirius scoffed. "That's an understatement about her studying Dark Magic. Do you see now why I say she's dangerous and can't be trusted? Did she let you into the library?" He had no idea what could be found in the library. His parents had always kept that room warded. Since he hadn't been much of a reader, it hadn't bothered him.

"No, she said she wouldn't open it until the children were gone."

"Go get the ring from her. I'll let Dumbledore know what's going on," Sirius said urgently.

"Sirius, I don't think she's going to give it to me because I ask for it. I'm going to need some sort of order from Albus. She doesn't exactly like me, you know," reminded Remus.

"Then go and stay with her. Don't let her leave the house with that ring. I'll let Dumbledore know to send the order to her." He couldn't believe she had taken the ring. Well, actually, yes, he could. He just hadn't been aware that she could get in the dining room or he would have mentioned something about not letting her in earlier.

"What is this ring? If I'm going to be carrying it, I want to know what it can do," asked Remus.

"No, my friend, you don't. If she was able to pick it up, she must have cast some sort of protective charm on it. It should be safe for you to handle. Just go, there is no time to lose."

Remus sighed. He could tell that this was an argument that he was not going to win. If he didn't agree to stay with Wendy, Sirius would probably leave the house on his own. "Fine. But before I go, the spell for the furniture is desinere animalis. It lasts a half hour after the last person leaves the room." He headed out of the house.

Standing before her door, Remus tried to imagine the type of reaction his arrival would spawn. He knew she would react poorly to his demanding to stay with her until Albus replied to Sirius' request. He rang the bell and waited.

Cappa cracked the door. "Mr. Lupin, what can I do for you?"

"I need to see Wendy."

The little elf looked over her shoulder, as if trying to decide what to do. "Mistress is not in and has not told Cappa when she will arrive." She looked over her shoulder again and finally opened the door. "Come, Mr. Lupin. You will wait for Mistress in the drawing room."

Remus followed the elf into the house and took a seat in the drawing room. In short order, Cappa returned with a tea tray and left the room without a word. With nothing else to do, he inspected the contents of the room as he wondered where Wendy could have gone. When she left Grimmauld Place, she had indicated that she would be coming here. He began to wonder if Sirius was correct and if Cappa was being completely honest. She had seemed very nervous, though that could have something to do with the fact that her mistress didn't like him.

A/N: Desinere animalis = cease being animals from desinere=to cease animalis=animals

animare animalis = become animals from animare=to animate