The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

T- Terrible - Terrible News

"Y-yes c-come in - come in," Newt waved his goopy-covered palms at them. "Don't - don't mind m-me, just a bit of - of arthritis tr-treatment." He waved his fingers.

"Sorry for the smell," Tina added.

It was rather repugnantly strong.

"I didn't know you had arthritis, Mr. Scamander," Lily said gently.

"Old - old men get such - such things," he said unceremoniously.

James and Lily crossed the room and Lily looked into the cauldron, taking a breath of the air. "Boswellia?" she asked.

"Ginger root, capsaician, boswellia, and just a tiny bit of moon calf dew."

"Moon calf dew?" James asked.

"Spit," Newt said.

"Ah." James nodded. He paused, then, "I'm sorry if we're catching you at a poor time... It's just, we've a bit of an emergency."

"What's the matter?" Tina asked, concern on her face.

"It's Remus."

Newt looked up, his face full of concern. "Is he okay?"

Lily looked at James expectantly - she'd been waiting to hear, too, what was going on. James took a deep breath, "Sirius Black did a stupid thing."

Lily closed her eyes in frustration.

"He works for Gomer's Degnoming down in Diagon Alley --"

"Y-yes I kno G-Gomer qu-quite well," Newt nodded. "He - he was an ap-appre-apprentice of mine for a time."

"Well, he worked for Gomer. He doesn't now."

"Uhoh," muttered Tina.

"Yeah. Well. See, he was degnoming a house and the owner - happens to be the administrative advisor at his uni, by the way - was gossiping on about some anti-werewolf sentiments --"

"Oh gods," Lily said, covering her face.

"-- and he's not the best at keeping his temper, see --"

Newt nodded, "I - I recall."

"-- and he sort of screamed at the woman about werewolf rights and that he hoped they all got bit by a werewolf..."

Lily, Tina, and Newt all gasped.

James took a deep breath, and said all in one rush, "And now the Ministry for Magic has sent one of their entrapment specialists to the flat in East London to look for Rey and luckily Sirius had got him out of there by the time they came and Peter thought quickly and said he'd moved away - here, actually, to Iceland, is what he told them - but the Ministry's got a taste for checking on Remus now and we're worried that they'll pick him up and he'll be in trouble for being unregistered all these years and Sirius will be arrested for harboring and Remus will end up in big trouble and --"

Newt was already standing up and wiping his hands with the cloth. "T-Terrible - Terrible news," he said as he grabbed his wand and his briefcase from the floor. "Tina, you stay here. Let's go." He turned toward the door, grabbing up his bright blue coat from where it was folded over a chair by the door.

Tina stared after him, "I'll put the rest of the potion in jars for you."

"Th-thank you Teeny."

She nodded. "Be careful."

He nodded, then waved for James and Lily and trotted down the hallway quickly.

James and Lily rushed to keep up with him.