Remus decided he was going to be the better man and lose gracefully. Thus he Apparated to the Burrow to congratulate his opponent. So this was why he found himself standing in front of Charlie Weasley, who had come to tell his family in person about the wedding and spend a couple of weeks with them.

“I heard the news, and I wanted to extend my and of course the rest of the family’s congratulations,” he said politely.

“Thanks Remus,” Charlie said grinning widely.

“You seem excited,” Remus said forcefully.

“Of course I am. What’s not to be excited? She’s smart, beautiful, we have tons in common and I just love her so much.

“Of course you do,” Remus said, his hands in tight fists and his nails digging in his flesh.

“She’s perfect,” Charlie said dreamily.

“Yes she is,” Remus said under his breath. But he Remus John Lupin was above all a gentleman and as such he opened his fists and extended his hand to Charlie, “I wish you both all the happiness in the world and please take care of her.”

“Of course I will,” Charlie said smiling and shaking Remus’ hand.

“Nymphadora is a very special woman,” Remus said firmly.

“Yeah, Tonks is,” Charlie said puzzled. “But I thought we were talking about Natasha.”

“Natasha?” Remus asked puzzled.

“Yes, my fiancée.”

“You mean the brunette dragon handler?” Remus asked grinning widely. “You are marrying her?”

“Yes,” Charlie answered slowly.

“You are not marrying Tonks?”

“No, what gave you that idea?”

“But you two at the cup… and Sirius said…and Harry said… and she said she needed a dress!”

“Yeah, she is going to be Natasha’s bridesmaid,” Charlie explained getting more confused by the second. “Natasha doesn’t have any close female friends, since she is a bit of a tomboy and Tonks is my best friend. Like my sister.”

“Like your sister,” Remus smiled and hugged a very shocked Charlie Weasley.

“Hum, Remus, mate, are you okay?”

“Better than fine,” Remus said smiling. “I have to go. Have to kill Sirius you know? See you.” And with that Remus John Lupin left the Burrow a very happy man.

---

“SIRIUS ORION BLACK!” was the roar heard inside Black manor.

“Quick Harry, hide me,” Sirius said ducking behind the couch.

“But dad, I am supposed to be sick remember? Aunt Poppy has only now authorized me to limp around a little- Oh hi Uncle Moony,” Harry smiled innocently.

“Where is your father Harry?” Remus asked with a scary smile.

“I don’t know,” Harry said pointing backwards with his thumb. “Haven’t seen him.”

“Severus?”

“Down in the lab.”

“Good, he’ll be busy and won’t interfere,” Remus said quietly rubbing his hands. He looked at Harry and smiled dangerously, “Why don’t you go to your room or to the kitchen or anywhere but here? I thought you were tired of sitting on that couch.”

Harry smiled widely; he would love to see this but he complied nonetheless. He got up gingerly, his new nerves and muscles still a tad tender and, with the help of a cane that Poppy left behind and ordered Harry to use until he was completely finished with the treatment, he limped out of the room. Remus calmly walked around the couch and raised an eyebrow at Sirius who was crouching there drumming his fingers on the back of the couch.

“Care to tell me why you led me to believe Charlie and Tonks were an item?”

Sirius smiled sheepishly, “I never said they were.”

“Yes you did, at the world cup. You said you trusted Charlie!”

“I said I trusted Charlie will always make sure Tonks is happy. I never once said they were together,” Sirius said straightening up. At Remus’ glare he said, “I may have let you make your wrong own conclusions in the hope that you would be jealous and act before you lost the girl, yes, but this little talk just proves I was right. You fancy Tonks and she fancies you. That’s perfect!”

“She doesn’t fancy me Sirius,” Remus said bitterly. “Why would she?”

“Lots of reasons,” Sirius said ticking off with his fingers, “You’re smart, you’re funny, you have that all ‘I’m a perfect gentleman’ going on for you, and according to Hogwarts female and male population you are quite handsome. Couldn’t say so myself because you’re not up my alley but I do know for a fact that Tonks has had a crush on you for at least the last year and a half, maybe longer.”

“Oh yes, and how do you know that?” Remus asked crossing his arms.

“She told me,” Sirius grinned mischievously.

“She did?” Remus asked hopefully.

“Yup.”

Remus bit his lips, “But I’m too old for her.”

“Moony! You are thirty-five, she is twenty-two. That’s a thirteen year difference. That’s nothing for us.”

“But I’m-“

“What? Dangerous once a month? Haven’t been for a year now and even before that, you were fine when you took your potion.”

“People will look down to her if they know she is involved with a werewolf.”

“Moony that ship has sailed,” Sirius said making a motion with his hand to emphasize his words. “Everyone knows you are part of my family, and by extension hers. If they ever find out about you, which they won’t, she’ll be involved even if you never get together. Besides that is her choice to make not yours. You’ve run out of excuses.”

“Well,” Remus flustered. “I don’t know. Just let me think and stop meddling! And don’t think I didn’t figure out you brought Albus in your little schemes. Security, humph.”

---

Albus called a staff meeting to prepare the school for the students who would be returning in three weeks. They discussed all little matters regarding the school and discussed where Cedric Diggory would be placed since the Diggorys had owled Albus to say he would be returning to school. It was decided that during the first couple of days of classes, each teacher would test Diggory to find out what level of knowledge he retained in each subject. At the end of the staff meeting Albus turned to Severus.

“Severus, you haven’t applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position this year,” he said calmly. The other staff members all stopped what they were doing to hear the young man’s response. It was well known that Severus Snape applied for the DADA position every single year. Some students had started the rumor that Snape was the one to jinx the position.

“Of course not,” Severus answered.

Albus looked lost, an unusual look for him, “Why ever not? With Voldemort dead the curse will have been lifted.”

“Exactly,” Severus said calmly.

“I don’t understand.”

“You no longer have a reason to deny me the position,” Severus smirked.

“Exactly, now I can give you what you want.”

“Whoever said I want it? I am quite happy with the one I hold now.”

“But you applied every single year.”

“Yes I did,” he answered smiling.

“Why?”

Severus looked at him and smirking, calmly answered, “To annoy you Albus.”

Albus Dumbledore, supreme Mumgwump and Chief of the International Confederation of Wizards, scowled, pouted like a child and glared at Filius Flitwick who was laughing shamelessly and Sirius Black who was beaming and saying how proud of Severus he was.

---

“So what is he going to do for the Defense teacher?” Harry asked.

“I’ll take the position temporarily while he finds a suitable candidate,” Remus answered. “Since the job isn’t jinxed anymore he could take his time to look for someone who is good. And this year no one applied. He has to go after them.”

Harry nodded, it was understandable, with the job’s reputation. And he knew Remus liked his tutoring position because it allowed him more time to do research and write his articles than being responsible for seven years worth of students. Aside from that, this year Remus had the added responsibility of tutoring Hagrid, who after procuring himself a new wand had started getting ready to take his OWLs.

 “I want to see Grandpa’s face in a Pensieve,” Harry said dreamily.

“I highly doubt Albus will be lending his Pensieve for that,” Severus snorted.

“Ah, he will, Uncle Sev. He already has. It’s upstairs in my room. I asked him if he could lend it to me so I could show you the memory of being with mom and dad. He doesn’t need to know what else we see,” Harry said mischievously.

Sirius bounded out of the room and practically ran upstairs and entered Harry’s room where the Pensieve was sitting innocently on Harry’s desk. He took it and went back to the drawing room at a more sedate pace. He put the Pensieve on the coffee table.

“Go on. It’s already there. I put it in when Grandpa gave it to me,” Harry said and Sirius, Remus and Severus all entered the Pensieve. Some time later they all came out and their eyes were shining. Severus coughed, Sirius complained about the dust irritating his eyes and Remus hugged Harry.

“Thank you cub.”

When he had managed to control his voice Sirius said to Remus, “Told you James would never tell me to let Harry date. Puft!”

---

Harry was eating the left over chocolate sauce from the pan that Twinky had given him in the kitchen. He loved scraping the pans when Twinky made cake. Twinky had a soft spot for Remus, probably because in the Black household Remus was the one that gave her less work, so every now and then Twinky made his favorite dessert: chocolate cake, with chocolate filling and chocolate sauce.

“Now young man, did Madam Pomfrey approve that?” came an amused voice from the kitchen’s door.

“Grandpa,” Harry smiled and extending the wooden spoon he had been licking asked. “Chocolate sauce?”

“I think I might have some thank you,” Dumbledore said as he took a seat and summoned a spoon. He dipped the spoon in the pan and scraped some chocolate. “I love the left overs. They’re crunchy.”

Harry smiled, “What brings you here today Grandpa?”

“I would love to tell you I came for a social visit but I am afraid I have some bad news to deliver to you, your father and Uncles. Are they around?”

“Like they’d leave me here alone,” Harry snorted bitterly. “It’s not like I am fifteen years old and can take care of myself when they’re gone. Nope, I’m pretty sure I am a toddler.”

“It’s understandable that they are a little overprotective after all that has happened,” Dumbledore said with a smile.

Harry frowned, “I don’t get it Grandpa. I know why the first Killing Curse didn’t work but what about the second? I thought there was no deflecting the Killing Curse.”

“Ah, that Harry was a mistake of Voldemort’s. He used your wand. Remember when I told you that when you win a wand you become its master?” Harry nodded. “A wand recognizes its master and won’t work properly against him. So when your disarming spell hit Voldemort’s Killing Curse, it made his curse rebound on him. If he had used his wand, your wands would have connected in Prior Incantatem since you used your original wand at the graveyard. But if you had been using the wand you won from me you would have been struck by his curse.”

“So it was luck?” Harry said.

“Yes, and a little arrogance from Voldemort’s part.”

“How so?”

“Remember when you told me Voldemort was interested to know were you got that wand?” Harry nodded. “I am guessing he recognized it as being the one I usually use and thought that by using the wand of a powerful wizard he would be unbeatable. Just like he thought putting pieces of his soul in trinkets belonging to the founders would render him immortal,” Dumbledore said. He was confident that Voldemort had never had any interest in the Deathly Hallows to know that it was actually the Elder wand, but had been in his presence enough times to actually know his wand well. “Lord Voldemort often enough failed to realize the small things in life. He had your wand but he never thought he had to actually win it from you, which he never did. He just picked it up off the ground.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully and then smiled, “I’ll go get the others.” He got up and limped from the room. In the hall he bellowed, “DAD! UNCLE MOONY! UNCLE SEV! GRANDPA’S HERE!”

He limped back as they heard another bellow, “HARRY JAMES POTTER BLACK, NO GRANDSON OF MINE SHRIEKS LIKE THAT! THEY DEMAND A HOUSE-ELF GO FETCH THE REQUIRED PARTY! ACT BEFITTING TO THE HEIR OF THE MOST ANCIENT AND NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK!”

“Oh mother, do shut up! Harry isn’t even listening!”

Sirius, Remus and Severus walked inside the kitchen and Remus quickly sat next to Harry and summoned a spoon. Harry started swatting his hand away and brought the pan protectively towards himself.

“That’s mine, you got a whole cake there. Stop stealing my chocolate Uncle Moony!”

“I expect you didn’t call us here to watch Remus drool Albus?” Severus drawled as he took a seat.

“No,” Albus said grimly. “Unfortunately Remus you will keep your school obligations as they are. The Minister has just passed an Educational Decree where the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher has to be Ministry appointed.”

“What?” Sirius cried.

“He says that with Defense Against the Dark Arts being such a sensitive subject, it needs to be Ministry approved. Especially considering my lack of capacity in keeping a teacher for more than a year and the fact that I hired two teachers that thought they were working for Voldemort, as he puts it.”

Severus sneered, “I am surprised he didn’t add Potions to that list.”

“Fudge is desperate but not that stupid. If he sacks you right away you will become a martyr. No I bet whoever he appoints will be instructed to keep close watch on you so they can find a valid reason to do kick you out,” Remus said grimly. “You’ll have to be careful.”

“Not only Severus,” Dumbledore said without the usual twinkle in his eyes and staring straight at Remus, “Fudge has appointed Dolores Umbridge to the post.”

“Bloody hell,” Sirius blurted.

“Indeed” Dumbledore agreed.