Nuts dropped into bed beside her husband with a tired smile, nudging him until he moved his arm so she could rest her head atop his chest. It had taken ages for their little ones to fall asleep tonight. They'd spent all evening with binoculars pressed to their faces watching baby sea turtles make their way to the sea.

They'd put it off as long as they could, longer than they maybe should've, but it was time now. Time to return to England. Time for their little ones to join their peers at Hogwarts.

After Reggie's final act of rebellion against the dark lord, with the help of his faithful house elf, who had decided Nuntis didn't count as telling anyone, he'd escaped with his wife out of Great Britain. Well, with his wife and child. Not that he'd known that until they were safely away and she'd told him.

That felt like a lifetime ago now. A lifetime of sunshine, beaches, family. A life he'd never really known before.

Regulus smiled, rubbing a hand along her back. "Sirius will be excited," he mused happily. "What's it been, eight months now since he came round? Little ones will love having their uncle nearer."

The little ones certainly would but Nuntis was worried. Things had never really settled as she would've preferred. There were celebrations, joy filled the streets, but was he really gone? The muggle adage, no body no crime, always came to mind when she thought of it. There was no body. She feared he was still out there, lurking, biding his time, waiting for the chance to rip away everything they clung so tightly to.

"I want to take a small trip when we return," she signed above them so he'd be sure to see. "Just a quick one. I'll be back before the littl'ins leave for school..."

Regulus smiled. "This about Remus?" He guessed. "Sirius says he doesn't talk to anyone, love..."

"I'm not them. He wouldn't ignore my letters. I know he wouldn't. I have to check, at least, Reggie. I have to be sure he's alright..."

How could he argue? Remus was as much her brother as Sirius was his. All but blood, at any rate. You didn't spend every full moon transforming together, watching his suffering, trying to help in whatever way you could, without forming a bond. By the end of their school days they'd considered one another siblings. It was why he couldn't really question anything she'd said. She was right. Remus would reply to her. Always. The question now was, why hadn't he done so in the last ten years? "Alright. But after we've fetched their supplies, alright? I know you want to be along for that and I know they don't have much more waiting in them."

Nuntis leaned up to kiss him happily. "Maybe prepare for my dragging him home for supper," she beamed.

Regulus chuckled. "Well, if anyone can, you can."

______

Nuts hated that her trip to find Remus fell so close to the full. She could picture just how he'd be as she perused the phone book for any clue as to exactly where he was. Sirius had thought he was still in London but, as far as she could tell, there wasn't a single Remus Lupin in the entire city. She managed to get hold of the Manchester pages with no better luck there. Sirius couldn't be right then. Remus wasn't in either of the cities she imagined he might've tried to lose himself in, he wouldn't have gone to a wizarding village, most wouldn't have welcomed him. That left the cottage and she returned the phone books to their appointed shelf with a nod. There was simply no other explanation.

She sent a folded paper duck flying along to her husband to alert him of where she was off to and aparated to the outskirts of the village she expected to find him near.

______

Nuntis smiled absently as she walked along the little gravel road winding its way from the village toward a small woodland further north. She hadn't spent a lot of time away over school holidays but there'd been a week or so one summer out here with Remus and his family. Werewolf or no they'd been so thrilled their boy had friends and had welcomed her with open arms.

She remembered those summer evenings fondly. Soft lights pouring from the cottage and out into the little garden. His mother had herbs growing nearest the back stoop, many of them hanging in a little room just off the kitchen where she kept many a preserve and a large bin of potatoes.

They'd spent much of their time helping her there in the garden or wandering the forest. The pair of them had crafted tiny men from sticks and pinecones or acorns and scattered them around, like a tiny village that inhabited the place. Nuntis remembered his mother had laughed every time she'd found one and had taken to greeting the little, "guardians of the garden", as she'd called them, any time she came across one. She very much doubted any still remained now. Likely lost to time and nature. But it had been a lovely visit.

A little bird startled from the overgrowth under a fence that ran alongside the road and she smiled after it as it winged its way away. No matter what had happened, or would happen, little birds would be. That, at least, was an assurance.

Nuntis let out a silent but happy sigh as she stopped at the end of the garden gate and smiled at the cottage before her. It had never been hers yet there was a recognition within her that still called it home. Not for the building, but for the person inside.

She unhooked the bit of string from around the top post of the gate and it swung open easily. Nuntis imagined the soft creak was to say you're here, you've come at last! It's been too long.

Certainly then, Remus was here after all. The place was too well kept, too tended to mean anything else. Bushes of deep red roses and glossy evergreen leaves lined the boundaries of the cottage walls. The door too was painted a fiery red while in a smallish and twisted tree in the front right of the garden there hung a bird house with a little bird cheerfully singing its song.

Nuntis paused on the front step to listen for a moment and lifted her hand to knock.

_____

(Hello friends! In this, the sunshine and rainbows edition, clearly we get our lovely and brilliant Nuntis in our lives far earlier than in the original! Yay! I nearly wrote her as before, on her own but that wouldn't be right! This is the sunshine and rainbows edition! If everyone is getting their happy ending that CERTAINLY includes the she wolf herself 🩵 alright. I'm out. I hope you enjoy