The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

Tea with Frek

Frek looked up at him thankfully as Remus shouldered the bag. He followed Frek up the familiar steps to the DADA teacher's office. Frek fished about in his jacket with his remaining arm for the key and finally produced it, unlocking the door and pushing it open. It was the first time Remus had been in the room since Ned Veigler had been here and he looked around it with a sad sort of awe. It was quite different, of course. Garm and Frek had set it up as they saw fit and the books lining the shelves were theirs and the papers and instruments about the room belonged to them and not to Ned Veigler.

Remus realized that the office had never changed in his head, even as the DADA teachers had. Some part of him had expected the office to have been preserved as much as Derek Bell's playboard had been... But of course it hadn't, no part of Ned Veigler had been preserved here, not at Hogwarts. He was still alive when he'd left the school - thanks to Newt Scamander, that is. There'd been no reason to preserve Ned Veigler's presence then. Remus closed his eyes and breathed deeply to keep from crying.

"Care for a cuppa?" Frek's voice broke through Remus's thoughts and he opened his eyes.

"I - yeah, okay," Remus nodded and when Frek motioned him to have a seat, Remus dropped heavily into the chair, his knees sort of giving out as he stared down at his hands in his lap.

Frek drew a wand from his robes - it was new, freshly purchased from Ollivander's since his old was lost with his arm. The magic was a bit clumsy, he was still very unused to doing magic with the arm that he was now forced to, but he produced a pair of tea cups and saucers. He studied Remus's sad form a moment, then said, gently, "Aconite?"

Remus's eyes moved upward to meet Frek's.

"Don't you worry Messer Lupin, Frek ain't be goin' to tell no soul about it," he said, seeing the worry in Remus's eyes, "I know from Messer Garm's 'sperience that ain't summat you want everybody to be knowin' about the school."

"Yeah," Remus murmured.

"And besides, we was knowin' a long time ago, me and Messer Garm," Frek said.

Remus hesitated, "Is that why Professor Tyr was in the woods that time? During the summer?"

Frek's face twisted as he shrugged a maybe sort of shrug - a yes and no sort of response. He magicked a teapot of hot water, poured both cups nearly full, then opened a drawer and produced a snuff box of powdered aconite leaves and a tea bag for himself, sprinkling the leaves over Remus's cup.

"Why were  you if not because of me?" Remus asked.

"Cuz of them other wolves," Frek answered. "We's been tracking 'em for the Ministry, see, and thems wolves were some of Greyback's - 'spectin' they was trying to find which towns near to London was best to be infiltrating. They was lookin' for a safe space to transform loads of them at a time - and Godric's Hollow's got them nice woods surrounding it."

"Because it's a wizarding town, keeps the muggles to a minimum," Remus said, remembering James babbling on about Godric's Hollow ages ago.

Frek nodded, "Access to floo network at hand, loads an' loads of them woods... So we was trackin' 'em, takin' 'em to the Ministry for the testin' program since they wasn't technically doin' nothin' illegal, Messer Garm thought it the closest he could to do incarceratin' 'em, legally any how, and then let the Ministry track'em for us. Brilliant, he was." Frek shook his head and lifted his tea cup with one shaking hand.

Remus looked down at his cup, waiting for the leaves to fully dissolve into the water like Ned Veigler had taught him to.

Frek lowered his cup suddenly. "Wait, you know whats you'll be wantin'..." he drew a key out of a pocket and unlocked one of the desk drawers and produced a small vial. "'Spect Messer Garm would prefer if you're having this here." He held it out.