Hogsmeade at Christmastime was generally a cheerful, bustling postcard, with fairies lining the doorways and evergreen boughs wrapped around the windows. Wreaths were lavish affairs, and entertainers sometimes came to the Three Broomsticks to take advantage of the nostalgic witches and wizards shopping where their grandmothers and great-grandmothers had shopped.

This year, the streets were empty.

Madam Rosmerta had put up her decorations, but the fairies couldn't be convinced to stay, with so few passers-by to admire them. There was snow, but it had a dispirited, muddy look to it, and clumps of it occasionally slid off the eaves in small, muffled avalanches.

"I'm doing well enough with the orders by post," Ambrosius Flume told Tonks when she stopped at Honeydukes to put together a care package for her parents. "I can't complain about the gold. More people shopping by post this year; I suppose they decided they may as well order from me as get their sweets on a day in Diagon Alley." He sighed. "And of course, without Florian there, I suppose..." He picked up a box of strawberry sugar quills and wrapped it in bright red paper with a tap of his wand. A coat of brown shipping paper went after it, and he checked an address, squinting at it and writing it carefully. "But it's usually people in here, not owls. Sometimes they bring their little ones, to have a look over toward Hogwarts and tell them stories."

"I remember," Tonks said. "Mum and Dad brought me here when I was eight or nine."

Flume grinned. "Yes. You tripped over a box and spilled an entire barrel of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. We were still finding them in June."

"Sorry."

He tapped her nose with a gnarled finger. "Don't be sorry. If I didn't like the little ones--even the clumsy ones--I'd be in the wrong business." He picked up another order scroll. "Do you reckon this will be over soon?"

"I don't know," Tonks said, and went back to her search for Dad's favorite sweets.

The bell above the door rang, and Flume looked up hopefully. He smiled. "Why, Bill Weasley! I understand you're to be married. I remember you when you were just a little thing."

Tonks turned, surprised. Bill, dressed in Muggle clothes, was unwinding a scarf from around his face.

He grinned at Flume. "Well, even my littlest brother and baby sister aren't exactly little things anymore. I actually came to pick up some Fizzing Whizbees for my little sister. She always used to like them."

"I've got some in the back room," Flume said, and scurried off, looking excited to have two customers in his shop at the same time.

"I didn't know Ginny liked Fizzing Whizbees."

"She did when she was very, very small. I have no idea whether or not she still does."

Tonks nodded, understanding immediately. "You came to find me?"

He nodded, but put his finger over his mouth and nodded toward Flume, who was just coming out with two full boxes of Fizzing Whizbees. "Here," he said happily. "Buy one, get the second free, just for coming in."

"Thank you," Bill said, taking the boxes and handing Flume some gold. "Say, Tonks... it's been awhile. Care to have a bite?"

"Sounds lovely." Tonks quickly paid for her purchases (Flume threw in a free wicker hamper and nearly begged her to come back soon), then followed Bill into the snow. He led them toward the Hog's Head, but turned off just before Gladrags, beside the empty Zonko's building.

He looked up at it uneasily. "Zonko's at Christmas," he said. "And empty. This isn't right."

"No. What's going on?"

"Are you free to leave, or were you just shopping on a break?"

"I'm on the evening shift tonight. I go on duty at three."

Bill checked his watch. "That should be enough time."

"What's going on?"

"I had an owl from a Muggle priest," he said, and cast a distraction charm, though there was no one nearby. "He said Lupin told him I was helping. His brother is a wizard. Tonks, he's where they are."

"He's with them? With Greyback's people?"

"No. In a village in the wood. Huntsford. And one of them--a woman--is with him. She wants to help. She'll know what's there."

"Do we trust them?"

"Well... yes." Bill shrugged. "In his letter, he wrote that Lupin told him to say, 'Auntie isn't listening today,' and he doesn't know what it means, but we do--"

"Which means Remus trusts him. And he trusts this woman."

"It's the best luck we've had so far."

"I have to disguise myself," Tonks said. "I can't be seen... recognizably. Greyback knows me."

"Oh. I could go alone."

"Not likely." She frowned and shrugged off her cloak (not one of the official Aurors' cloaks anyway, as she was off-duty), examined it, then Transfigured it into a cheap black Muggle coat. "Hold this."

Bill took the coat. "Aren't you freezing?"

"Yes." She was wearing a set of knee-length robes and blue jeans, and she quickly transfigured them into black stockings and a black dress, then put her coat on. There was nothing left to transfigure, so she just Conjured a less than perfect wimple, going from her memory of Muggle movies more than any real experience. All it needed to be was something to cover her hair and cast shadows around her face.

Bill laughed out loud as she put it on. "Make way for Sister Nymphadora!"

"Oh, shut up, do I look like me, or should I attempt to morph?"

He got serious. "Does it still hurt you?"

"Yes."

"Then don't. No one will be looking for a nun."

"You'd best get your hair. It's recognizable."

He shrugged and just wrapped his scarf around his head, tucking his ponytail under the collar of his coat. "Greyback hasn't any notion who I am."

"Where are we going?"

"There's a safe Apparition point less than a mile from the church." Bill held out his arm. "I took a test pop over there earlier--just come along for the ride."

Tonks took his arm and let him Apparate for both of them. She was squeezed into nothingness, and opened her eyes at the side of a snow-laden forest road. The snow here was clean and untouched, except for the strip which had been plowed. A sign pointed toward Huntsford.

"Come on, Sister," Bill said, his amusement returning. "Time's wasting."

There was no traffic on the road, and they made good time despite the snow. It was eleven in the morning when they reached the run down forest village of Huntsford. A few houses were clumped around cross-streets, and the church, its bell tower lopsided where several stones had fallen from it, stood at the edge of the woods. Tonks, ahead of Bill now, went up the front steps and opened the heavy wooden door. Bill slipped in behind her and closed it.

Tonks blinked in the dim light, blind after the snowy afternoon, seeing only the dots of candles near the altar.

"Sister," someone said behind her. "I wasn't expecting a call today."

A pleasant-looking young man in a clerical collar was coming up behind them. Tonks squinted at him. "Father Montgomery?" she said.

"Yes. May I help you?"

"Our Auntie sent us," Bill said quickly.

"Ah. Well, we can't ignore Auntie, can we?" Montgomery gestured through a door into an office, where Tonks could see a hunched female figure sitting in the shadows. The door snicked shut behind her, and Montgomery, no longer smiling, went to the woman and said, "They've come, Mag."

As Tonks's eyes adjusted to the light, the woman stood up and came forward. She was painfully thin, with coarse gray-blonde hair that rested in an unkempt tangle on her shoulders. Her face was lined deeply, and when she offered a frightened smile, Tonks could see that at some point in her life, her teeth had been sharpened, though it was long enough ago that they were simply dull curves now.

"What do you know?" she said. "Lupin said they'd come, but I didn't rightly believe him." She touched Tonks's face. "Aren't you a pretty thing, Sister."

"I'm not really a nun," Tonks said. "I... well, my name is... Dora. Dora Lewis."

Bill looked at her oddly, then said, "Bill. Er, Prewett."

Mag raised her eyebrows at Father Montgomery. "Here," she said, "but lying their lips off."

"It's better for you if you don't know exactly who we are," Tonks said. "I promise, it is. When we've got you out--"

"Oh, I'm not going."

"What?" Montgomery interrupted.

"I'm not going," Mag said simply. "I've been alone a long time. I reckon I know this world now. Greyback's given me a home. I'll help the pups--I reckon they never had any choice in the matter--but I'll stay where I belong." She looked at Tonks and Bill. "You're friends of Lupin's?"

Tonks didn't answer. She wanted to trust this woman--the instincts Dumbledore had commended her for were telling her she could--but if she was wrong, and she confirmed Remus's involvement to someone spying for Greyback...

"We know Lupin," she said.

Mag smiled. "And you're trying to keep his cover. Doing a better job of it than he is of late, as well."

Tonks's blood seemed very loud in her ears. "What," she said carefully, "does that mean?"

Mag laughed. "Oh, don't worry, dear. He's a clever bloke."

"What do you mean about his 'cover'?" Tonks asked, trying to keep her voice steady. She felt Bill's hand on her elbow.

"Well, if he's spying--and I reckon he is, if he can get fine folk like yourselves helping him--then no one's the wiser. Except me now. But his mouth's been running all right. Ever since the men got back from wherever they went. I hear someone made him talk against Greyback's friends, and now folks are asking him questions, and the fool of a man is answering them, pert as you please. He even told Mina how to register, if she'd a mind to. She thought it a fine joke, and laughs whenever she sees him now." Mag put her hand to her head suddenly and swayed alarmingly.

Father Montgomery put his hands on her shoulders and led her to a chair. "Are you all right, Mag? Do you need something to eat?"

"If you've some fruit, I'd do well with it," she said. "There's been nothing but meat since the first snow came. And not much of that."

Montgomery nodded and left quietly.

Tonks sat down on an ottoman across from Mag. "He's trying to turn people?"

"Oh, yes. He treats it like it's a joke, but I think even Greyback is starting to catch on to how often he's doing it, and just how much he's telling people while he's joking."

"What sorts of 'jokes' does he tell?" Tonks asked through clenched teeth.

"Oh, nonsense about going to school and jobs and so on. Like he's had it much better than we have out there." Mag shook her head. "The little ones listen to it like fairy tales, but the others think he's going soft in the head."

"And Greyback believes he's trying to change minds?"

"Well, I think Greyback was perfectly relieved when Lupin said he was going off for a week or so to forage." She shrugged. "Lupin's got some notion about storing dried fruit. He's tried to talk Greyback into letting him use that wand of his to make a dry cellar or something of the sort. Greyback said he could bloody well learn to do it himself, and he's been back practicing it."

"Greyback has a wand?" Bill asked.

"Oh, yes. His friends promised us all wands. I hear your sort snapped Lupin's." She smiled and raised her eyebrows. "But I reckon that's not quite the truth now, is it? No, no. Never mind. I don't imagine you'd tell me that."

"Did Remus send you here?" Tonks pressed.

"He's been talking to the father, and just before he went off, he told me to talk to the father, and the father and I talked about what he's doing, so I suppose you could say he sent me. It's about Alderman, isn't it?"

Bill looked at Tonks. "What do you think?"

"I don't know." Tonks leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, and studied Mag's face. Her eyes were sly and sharp, her smile playful... but there were none of the nervous tics she would imagine in a woman telling a lie. A part of her was tempted to use Veritaserum--as an Auror, she was authorized, and she had a tiny vial of it in her bag--but she didn't want to do that without some reason to suppose she couldn't trust the person in question. One forced session on the nasty stuff to test her metamorphosing skills had left her with a visceral distaste for it. "Mag, will you answer something truthfully if I ask you?"

Mag nodded.

"Why don't you want to leave Greyback?"

"I was bitten when I was thirteen," she said. "They turned me out of Hogwarts, and my parents turned me out of their home. The things I did to stay alive... no one should have to do them. Greyback found me. I was one of his first, when he was just young fellow. He gave me a place. And the others... they got a place, too. It's not a great place. But little Evvie and Sweet aren't going to have to do what I did."

"No, they might just have to kill people," Bill said.

"I know." Mag sighed. "That's why I want to help them out. The last time Greyback had friends on the outside--he got the others doing things." She wrinkled her nose. "Oh, hear me lie. It wasn't just the others. I was with them. I was there as much as they were. And he's got worse. He started taking the little ones again a few years ago. He hadn't done that for a while. And I'm afraid that he'll have them..." She sighed and looked at Tonks. "I'll stay, because it's the only place I ever belonged, and I owe him that. But the little ones don't owe him. He brought them without their leave, and sooner or later, he'll turn them out on the world. They don't deserve that, though I make no claims about what the world deserves."

Tonks took a deep breath and nodded. "All right," she said. "We have a place for them. I won't tell you where, but I need your help to know how to get them out."

The door opened, and Montgomery came back in, a tray laden with fruits and vegetables balanced on one hand. He set it down on the desk. "Shall I stay?" he asked.

"Yes," Tonks said. "We might need your help, depending on what Mag has to tell us."

Mag took an apple and began to gnaw at it, the juice seeping out around her mouth. "First, you might need to hurry. Little Sweet... she knows what's happening. I know because she knows. I've got her as quiet as I can and Lupin's asked her to keep quiet. The child would walk off a cliff if Lupin told her to, but keeping a secret for a little thing like that is a bit more difficult."

"Sweet?" Tonks asked.

"Little Vivian Waters," Bill said. "Remember, the name on the drawing?"

"Waters, yes!" Mag said. "I'd forgotten that, but that's her name. I didn't know her first name was Vivian. Doesn't quite suit her, but I suppose she could grow into it."

Tonks frowned. "Why does she know about this already?"

"Oh, she follows Lupin around like his own little shadow. It's cute, actually. Though he doesn't think so." Mag laughed. "Like every little girl doesn't find some grown-up man to moon about over."

"No pun intended?" Bill asked, grinning.

"Ha! No. No pun intended. And she could do worse than Lupin. Shows fine taste, in my opinion."

Tonks blushed, remembering her own days as Remus's "own little shadow." Did he think of that as well, when little scarred Vivian looked up at him? She hoped not. "So," she said, "Vivian was following him and overheard something."

Mag nodded. "You couldn't get both of them out, could you? Sweet's a good girl, and if Greyback finds out she's keeping things from him--"

"We're going to get them all out," Tonks said flatly. "Every last one of them." She stood and went to the window, looking out of the diamond-segmented panes at the eaves of the forest. Was Remus walking about in that darkness? Was the little girl following along at his heels? "Mag, I'm going to ask you a question which may seem odd."

"All right."

"In the forest... have you ever seen a gate? It's not part of a wall, just standing on its own--"

Mag was nodding vigorously. "Right. The clearing gate. Hope you don't plan to use that, though--it doesn't do a damned thing when we're human, and when we're turned, it throws us halfway to the lake."

"I know how to fix that," Tonks said. She'd expected to have to search for the gate, but it was there. Right there. They knew it already. "We just need them to go through it turned, and without Greyback or anyone trying to stop them..."

Mag laughed. "Oh, there's a plan. And just who's going to drive a pack of turned werewolves where you want them to be? Are you going to do it, Sister?"

"I don't know yet. We'll need to know where Greyback is, of course. And... well, I can control werewolves. Perhaps Wolfsbane Potion that month, to help them control--"

"Oh, no. The stink of that damnable poison would be on them for days."

"All right, then I'd have to use something a bit less subtle," Tonks mused. "There are... well, I could prod them along. Or... well, I could be bait. And Apparate away..."

Mag looked at Bill. "Has she always been mad?"

"Can you take me there?" Tonks asked. "I just need to see it."

"No," Bill told Mag. "This is a whole new level of madness for her." He took Tonks by the elbow and led her to the corner of the room, waving his wand to cause a buzzing in the air. "Have you lost your mind?" he asked. "You can't go into the forest."

"Do you have a better idea to know what's there? I'm going to have to go eventually, and stay long enough to do the spell, and then get the children through. It'll go a lot better if I have some idea what's there."

Bill cursed under his breath. "All right," he said. He broke the spell.

Mag had stood up and was watching them guardedly. "I'll take you, Sister. Your friend will need to stay behind. It's in the women's place."

"All right, then."

"Wait!" Father Montgomery said as they headed for the door. He pulled a burlap sack from his desk and started scavenging through a cardboard box in the back corner. Scarves and mittens and dolls flew through the air. "I was going to give these to Mag anyway," he said, "but if you carry them--if anyone asks, you're just on an errand for Mother Church." He thrust the bag into Tonks's hands.

"Thank you," she said.

"And you should morph," Bill said. "Now. Whether it hurts or not."

Mag frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Hold this," Tonks said, and drew in a sharp breath. She concentrated as hard as she could and felt the flesh in her face begin to ripple. It was working--she knew, because she heard Mag gasp--and she forced her cheekbones up to a severe angle, her nose into a scimitar. She dulled her skin and changed the color of her eyes. Her head felt like it was on fire, and she had to keep her jaw clenched to keep from panting. She took back the sack and opened her eyes. "Let's go," she said.

Mag, looking terrified, led her out, looking over her shoulder as they made their way deeper into the forest, flicking her eyes up at Tonks's face and then flicking them back down. Tonks thought there was something ironic about a werewolf being afraid of a shapeshifter, but she found it more sad than amusing. Neither of them said much as they walked--Mag was too nervous, and Tonks was concentrating all of her energy on holding a morph she could have held in her sleep six months ago.

After fifteen minutes of kicking through the snow and dead leaves, Mag slowed and entered a clearing. In the center of it, its lines softened by clumps of clean white snow, was the gate. Beyond it, Tonks could see the gray sheen of a pond or a lake. Mag cocked her head to one side and held up her hand to indicate that Tonks should stop.

"Girls?" she called. "I've charity for you!"

There was no answer.

Mag nodded and gestured Tonks forward. "Reckon you can undo... whatever it is you did. If they were about, Evvie'd be out here already."

"I'd best not," Tonks said tightly, and knelt by the gate. Like the one in the Forbidden Forest, it had no particular distinguishing features, except that it was standing by itself in the middle of nowhere. She flicked her wand at it and caught the traces of the spell. It was real. "We can use it," she said.

"Still leaves a question of how."

Tonks stood and looked around. There were several high evergreen trees, and the clearing was wide down to the side of the pond. "I could circle on my broomstick," she said. "Use some prodding jinxes." She wrinkled her nose. "I can't say I fancy using dragon-prodding jinxes on children."

"Werewolves, Sister," Mag said, apparently forgetting entirely that Tonks wasn't really a nun. "Don't you start thinking you'll cuddle them when they've got their claws out."

Tonks nodded vaguely, listening with half an ear and scanning the clearing for other resources. If she prodded them along from above, they might run for the woods instead of the gate. She sighed. "Mag, how do they feel about fire?"

"Fire?"

"Flames, you know."

"We're mostly dead afraid of it. Got my fur singed once, you know. In a right uncomfortable place, too."

"If there were a fire blocking the other exits, would they try to get away from it?"

"You can't burn down the forest, Sister. The ones of us left will need it."

Tonks turned to her and smiled. "I can contain magical fires. They won't burn anything I don't tell them to burn. And it's just Dora. You don't have to call me 'Sister.'" She went back to the gate and walked around it. She would need to meet with Maddie, learn the spell she would need to open it to dark creatures. And then she'd need to destroy it before Greyback could use it.

That would mean people on the other side. She supposed she could count on Bill and Fiona--Fiona had experience and would be exceptionally helpful--and possibly Fleur and Sanjiv. It would be on school grounds, so perhaps McGonagall and Snape could help. Well, McGonagall at any rate; Tonks didn't want to imagine Snape's reaction to helping a dozen young werewolves. Hagrid would be useful and--

"Hallooo!" Mag called suddenly, and Tonks straightened up, grabbing Father Montgomery's bag of charitable donations just as a woman and two little girls ran into the clearing, pelting one another with snowballs.

Well, the girls were, at any rate. The woman, who wasn't much older than Tonks and might have been pretty before her teeth were sharpened and her expression fixed in a sullen sneer, looked like she was ready to do bodily damage to them, and to Mag, on whom she advanced. "Who is this?" she demanded, throwing her arm in Tonks's direction, but not looking. The girls stopped their game and watched it all, wide-eyed. "Who is it, Mag?"

"This is Sister Dora, from the church," Mag said, looking genuinely frightened. "The Father wanted to send her to talk to the girls while she gave them their Christmas charity! She means no harm, Mina."

The woman--Mina--stalked over to Tonks and grabbed the bag, dumping its contents unceremoniously out on the snow. She tossed the toys aside without looking. "You got food?"

"Not today," Tonks said. "Just clothes and toys for the children."

"And what were you meant to talk about?"

"Why, the Christmas story, of course!" Mag said. "Why else would she be here?"

"Christmas story? You don't mean that rot Lupin's got them reading about ghosts and money and suchlike?"

"No, the real one."

Mina shrugged, unconcerned, and picked up a colorful woolen scarf. She wound it around her own neck. "All right," she said. "They can have the clothes, but I think they've had enough stories this month. If I have to hear one more thing about Tiny-bloody-Tim out of their mouths..." She shook her head. "Coral, get the other girls. Go ahead, Evvie. You can pick first, on account of catching all those fish yesterday."

One of the little girls ran back, and the other came forward, eyeing Mina nervously. She glanced up at Tonks and smiled brightly. She was an extraordinarily pretty child, with a turned-up, freckled nose and a cloud of curly reddish-brown hair. She patted Tonks's arm. "I like your dress," she said. "Mine has holes in it. Have you any new dresses?"

"Well, let's see," Tonks said, and started through the pile of clothing. "I imagine this might fit you..." She held up a blue dress. "It's a bit light for winter, but let's see if there's a coat..."

Coral returned with four other girls, and as Mina didn't question anyone's absence, Tonks guessed that was all of them. Six girls. One, who hung behind, was the scarred girl who had once been Vivian Waters. She approached the pile gingerly, darted her hand in without looking, and grabbed whatever was nearest at hand.

"Don't you want to look?" Tonks asked.

She turned away, so that the scarred half of her face was in the shadows. "No. It doesn't matter. This is a warm coat. I was lucky. The other girls can be prettier." She drew away.

"Are there any boys?" Tonks asked, deciding that feigning ignorance would be an excellent way to get information.

"Not here," Mina said, her eyes narrowed.

"There are five boys," Vivian muttered quietly, then bit her lip and added quickly, "I mean, if you have clothes for them or whatnot."

Mina glared at her. "You didn't catch anything yesterday, Sweet. Put on your coat and go hunting, or you won't have anything to eat."

"She can have one of my fish," Evvie said.

"She needs to hunt," Mina corrected, and there was no further discussion of the subject. Vivian pulled on the coat (which was far too big for her) and slunk away.

"I do have some things for the boys," Tonks said, putting half of the toys and all the boys' clothes back into the bag. "Could I see them?"

Mina looked at her coldly, then shrugged. "I reckon they're up at Lupin's. The men are all off foraging."

"All of them?" Mag asked.

"He went off this morning," Mina answered, not bothering to specify who she meant. "Reckon he doesn't want to be out-thought by Lupin."

Tonks tried to imagine Greyback out-thinking Remus on any issue and came up blank. "This Lupin keeps track of the boys?" she asked.

"No, he's off, too. Didn't I just say the men were off?" Mina shook her head. "He lives in a little house sort of thing, and the boys like to go there. He's got them books," she spat the last word. "The girls go as well, when Lupin's there watching them. But I wanted them hunting instead."

"All right," Tonks said.

"Well, are you going or not?"

"I don't know where..."

"I'll take you!" Mag jumped in.

"I think not," Mina said. "I'll take you."

The tromp through the forest this time was sullen and angry, and the wordlessness concealed no curiosity. Mina clearly wanted the intruder in and out as quickly as possible. They rounded a low hill, and Tonks heard boyish laughter just before she saw the run-down old tool-shed. A skinny blond boy was sitting on a rock by the broken door squinting at a tattered paperback. Inside, Tonks could see three more boys. These seemed to be playing cards.

Mina shoved her forward. "All right, then. But no stories. They've had enough stories."

The blond boy heard this and stood up, putting a twig in his book to mark his place (as she got closer, Tonks realized he was about a third of the way through The Hobbit). He looked at her warily. "Who're you?"

"I have presents for you!" she said, not wanting to identify herself as "Sister Dora" to anyone else, and wishing she had taken the time to make up a different name. She hadn't intended to meet anyone other than Mag today.

"You can come in then," the boy said pompously. He wore a skull on a string around his neck. "My name is Blondin, and I'm in charge here while Lupin is gone."

"Is that so?"

"Is not so!" someone else yelled. "He said we were all in charge of it."

"We can't all be in charge," Blondin said. "That's stupid."

Someone made a wet raspberry sound as Tonks followed Blondin into the shed. It was very distinctly Remus's space--he'd made a little stone table, and there were sums tacked to the wall and battered books piled in a dry corner. A half-filled barrel of fruit stood at the foot of a tattered blanket, topped by a sign that said, "Don't touch. For drying." The boys were playing with a new deck of cards, and Tonks considered asking where they'd scrounged it from, but Mina was still standing impatiently at the door. She guessed the boys to be between nine and thirteen years old. Bobby Alderman was not among them.

"What a nice place for you to play," she said.

"Lupin's all right," an olive-skinned boy told her. "Lets us use his things, anyway."

"For all the good this rubbish does you," Mina grumped.

"Well," Tonks said, "I've brought some winter clothes, and I think there are some games. Some plush animals, though I suppose you're all too big for those."

"We could chew on them," Blondin suggested, pulling a stuffed bear out of the bag and tossing it to the olive-skinned boy, who bit its ear and growled.

"Watch your mouth, Blondin," Mina warned.

Tonks got down to her unexpected business of the day, helping the children sort through Father Montgomery's charity. She learned some of their names, and was helping the one called Hamilton find a pair of gloves when they all heard footsteps outside.

"What's all this?" a perfectly familiar voice said, and Tonks swallowed hard.

For a while, while she'd been doing her work, she hadn't thought about her morph at all, and she assumed it hadn't shifted, as no one had made any comments about her face melting, but now she was suddenly very aware of it, and the strain of holding the false face became paramount in her mind. She stood up and turned to the door. "Hello," she said.

Remus, his arms full of fruit, eyed her suspiciously, then with dawning horror. "And what," he repeated, "is all of this?"

"Sister's bringing charity," Mina said. "She's just about done."

"I apologize if I'm disturbing your home. It was an impromptu visit, and Mina thought the boys would be here." Tonks lowered her eyes. "You must be Mr. Lupin. The boys have been telling me about you."

"Yes." He went around her and dropped the fruit into the barrel, lifting the sign and replacing it after the augmentation with a graceful little move. His shoulders were tense. He looked at the pile of clothing. "It was good of you to bring them clothes. They need them."

"They're from the father," she said. "He sent me."

"She came with Mag." Mina snorted. "Like Mag couldn't have come back on her own. She was supposed to tell stories."

"Perhaps some other time, Sister," Remus said. "It's nearly two o'clock, and I'm sure you have somewhere else to be."

"Yes, I do."

Remus nodded. "All right," he said to the boys. "This time I really am going away for a few days. Keep the fruit in the cold. I'll be back around the full moon."

"That's almost a week!" Hamilton complained.

Remus reached under his table and pulled out a spiral notebook. "I've left sums here, and if you look in the last section, I wrote out some things for you all to get. We'll try a science experiment when I get back, if we have what we need."

There was a great deal of jostling for the notebook, and Tonks was entirely forgotten.

Remus looked at Mina. "I'm headed toward the village. Perhaps a bit of foraging in their shops, if you follow."

"Get sweets," Mina said.

"I'll walk the sister back."

Mina shrugged and sauntered off, and Remus grabbed the nearest boy, who happened to be Blondin again. "You're in charge. Don't rip the pages. It's the only notebook I could find."

Blondin nodded.

"And thank the sister."

The boys all shouted thank-yous over their shoulders, and Remus led Tonks out onto a path that she supposed led for Huntsford.

"I've seen no one I know for a long time," he said.

"Well, I--"

"Which is a very good thing."

"Oh."

"Because people I know have no business being in this forest."

"Well, some of them just might, Mr. Lupin. In theory. They may have business here that doesn't directly concern you, whether you know them or not."

He stopped. "I suppose that's true. Still, I'm glad I haven't seen anyone. It's not safe. You never know who else might be lurking about."

They walked in silence for some distance, Tonks a few steps behind Remus. "The children seem to love you," she offered.

"They're good children."

"I want to help them."

He stopped. It was beginning to snow, but already Tonks could see the shapes of the village behind the thin white veil. "I know you do," he said. "The village is just ahead. Follow the road."

"All right." She pulled ahead of him onto a narrow strip of snow-dusted road that curved away toward a steeple, then turned and looked him full in the face. "Happy Christmas, Mr. Lupin."

He smiled faintly. "Happy Christmas. Whoever you are. And be careful." He disappeared into the snowy wood.

Tonks started down the road, but wasn't even halfway to the village when a tall, thin form materialized out of the worsening snow. She recognized a flash of red hair, and then Bill Weasley was pulling her off the side of the road. "I saw you from the bell-tower," he said. "Montgomery let me go up there to keep watch." He looked over his shoulder. "There are other men moving about in the woods. Off to the other side. I think they're just watching you, but I think we should go. Now."

"Yes, it would be brilliant to Apparate out while they're watching," Tonks said. "Come on then. We'll go back to the village and find some quiet spot. But not from the woods."

"And if they get to you before we hit the village..."

"I don't know about you, but I'm not unarmed. They are."

Bill looked at her crossly, but seemed to see the sense in it. They set a quick pace back to the village, and, though Tonks heard the leaves rustling several times, no one came out to attack them. She sang some nervous Christmas carols, hoping to make it seem that Bill was just "Sister Dora"'s assistant, coming to look for her, and she supposed it must have worked. Greyback's people certainly wouldn't have let her out of the forest if they'd really thought she was a spy.

They reached the church at two-thirty and Apparated out from the cellar, getting back to Hogsmeade as a different squall coughed out its last snowflakes.

This will work, Tonks thought as she went back to her room and got ready for her shift. I have what I need. All I need to do is cast the spell, and hope we can get them out before Greyback is suspicious.

But she couldn't shake the feeling that it just couldn't be that simple.