Tranquila’s Choice
Dr. Montrose filled the prescriptions without saying a word to the clerks who handed them on to the patients. They had learned to accept her shy nature over the years. To them, Francine Montrose was a woman who tragically lost her husband and only worked part-time at the pharmacy to keep herself from remembering her grief and completely withdrawing from humanity. They didn’t realize that their little gifts and considerate words were a constant reminder of her late husband died for and that Dr. Montrose worked at the pharmacy not to forget his death, but to honor it.
Nor did they know that she was actually a witch named Tranquila, who spent her time away from the Muggle pharmacy in a medical magic research lab, trying to find a cure for lycanthropy. There were only two men outside of her family that Tranquila had ever loved. One was her late husband and childhood friend, who died protecting a group of innocent Muggles from being tortured by a band of Death Eaters and the second, a boy from school who happened to be a werewolf. Tranquila had not been able to save Darren, but she had every intention of rescuing Remus from his outcast status.
As her shift ended, Tranquila quietly cleaned up her area and nodded to the other two pharmacists on duty before going out the back exit and walking into a clump of tall bushes to apparate to her little cottage, hidden in the country under a heavy layer of kudzu vines. There she traded her Muggle lab coat, blouse and slacks for her more traditional robes and pointed hat. She ignored the magical photographs, wishing for a brief moment they were of the Muggle variety that had the decency to let the dead rest in peace. She would have packed them away, except that she never knew when her in-laws would decide to visit her from Scotland. Her own father had died a few years after Tranquila had moved to the United States. Her brother was still in Scotland, teaching at their former school, but Tranquila had not spoken to him since the day Darren died at the hands of his former school chums.
She blinked away her tears and apparated to the research lab, breathing a sigh of relief. Now she felt in her element. She and her fellow researchers had experienced a great deal of success over the years. Though still far from finding a cure, the Wolfsbane Potion they developed a few years back allowed lycanthropy sufferers to become relatively harmless wolves during their periods of transformation. Father would have been proud to know she was part of such a momentous discovery – assuming he could have gotten over the disappointment of her not returning to work with him in his potions shop.
“Hi, Tran,” greeted Monty, the head of their research team. “How was the pharmacy this morning?”
“Busy,” she said. “Allergy season is starting.”
“You like working with Muggles, don’t you?”
“I feel more comfortable here, but yes, I do. They’re decent people for the most part, just like us. Mrs. Johnson is still trying to get me to meet her son.”
“Do you like them enough to go back to Scotland?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I just received an owl today from Albus Dumbledore asking me to convince you to return home. You-Know-Who has returned, Tran, and if the one wizard he is scared of wants you there to help fight him again, then I want you there too. The question is – are you willing to go and help protect the Muggles your late husband died for?”
“I don’t see how I can help, but if Professor Dumbledore says he needs me, then I will go. How soon do I need to be there?”
“As soon as you can manage it, while still keeping your arrival a secret,” Monty said. “What message shall I send back?”
“Tell him that a Francine Montrose should be arriving at the Glasgow airport within a week,” Tranquila said.
“So, you’re planning to go back as a Muggle. Good. I’ll let him know.”
Tranquila returned to her cottage and called a travel agent to get a flight to Scotland that night. Then she called the pharmacy to tell them that she had to go back home for a family emergency. Changing back into Muggle clothes, she went to her Muggle bank to get some traveler’s checks, updated her passport and bought a few other Muggle necessities, which she packed in a suitcase full of Muggle clothing.
Then she packed a trunk full of her wizard things, which she apparated with to the hidden wizard shopping complex in downtown Dallas, just a stone’s throw away from Deep Ellum. She had her trunk shipped to Darren’s parents before going to the local branch of Gringott’s to transfer half of her savings to her old bank account in Hogsmeade. Finally, she went to a Muggle bookstore to pick up some reading material for the long flight.
In Glasgow, Tranquila decided to rent a room before contacting Prof. Dumbledore and announcing her safe arrival. It was tricky. She didn’t dare go to an owl post office and there was no fireplace in her hotel room to use Foo Powder in. She had left her own owl, Athena, with her in-laws in Hogsmeade. She didn’t even have her wand – it was in the trunk going to the Montroses, whom she didn’t want to bother until she heard from Dumbledore.
But Tranquila was not one to give up easily. She bought most of the herbs she needed from a health food store and a corner market. The few remaining, she found among the weeds of an abandoned lot. Back in her hotel room, Tranquila carefully made a tisane, which she poured into an ashtray. Speaking a few words, she added the last ingredient. The surface shimmered and then she saw the aged face of Albus Dumbledore. This mode of communication did not allow for sound, so she smiled and held up the hotel’s stationary to show her location. When he smiled back and nodded, she broke the contact. She started reading another book that she had picked up while herb shopping.
A dark haired man knocked on her door the next morning, with three teenagers in tow, asking if they could use her phone to call the hotel staff because they had locked their keys in their room. Though it was obvious that none of them were blood relations, Tranquila let them in because she had recognized the lightning bolt scar on the dark haired boy’s forehead. She shut the door and motioned them to sit down.
“You must be Harry Potter,” she said to the boy with the scar. “You look a great deal like your father did when we were at school together.” She looked at the man again. “Though I am surprised to see you with Mr. Black here.”
“He’s innocent, Dr. Montrose,” said the girl. “Peter Pettigrew is still alive and he was the one who killed the Muggles. He was also the one who betrayed Harry’s parents.”
“That’s right ma’am,” said the redhead boy. “He was my pet rat for awhile.”
“Well, I must admit it was more Pettigrew’s style,” Tranquila said, not taking her eyes off Sirius Black. “Mr. Black was usually a bit more careful with his crimes.”
“Tranquila,” Black said, “there is a lot you don’t know. Could you at least wait until you’ve talked with Dumbledore first before we get into a fight?”
“Might as well,” Tranquila answered, “since I am not speaking to the main victim of the one crime I do hold against you.”
“So Severus told you.”
“No, he didn’t. Not that it would have matter, because I already knew.”
“How?”
“Remus told me himself months before your little prank.”
Black looked at her in shock.
“And you didn’t say a word to Severus?” he asked.
“Why should I?” Tranquila replied.
“Because he’s your brother.”
“That didn’t stop his friends from killing my husband.”
The children were pasty white by now. The girl swallowed.
“That’s why you’ve been saying ‘Severus’ instead of ‘Snape’ all this time,” she observed. “She’s a Snape too.”
“Was a Snape,” Tranquila corrected. “And I suppose we should have some proper introductions here. As you probably already know, I am Dr. Tranquila Montrose of the Southwest Institute for Magical Cures. And you are?”
“Hermione Granger, Doctor.”
“Ron Weasley, Ma’am.”
“Pleased to meet you, Hermione, Ron and Harry,” greeted Tranquila in her most civilized manner. “Am I correct in assuming you all are attending Hogwarts?”
“Yes, ma’am,” answered Harry.
Tranquila smiled.
“I was in Hufflepuff,” she said. “What House are you in?”
“We’re all Gryffindors, Doctor Montrose,” answered Hermione. For some reason the boys had been rendered speechless. Black looked at Tranquila through narrowed eyes.
“I still can’t believe Remus told you about his being a werewolf,” he said.
“Whether you believe it or not is inconsequential,” she said. “The fact remains that it is the truth. We use to have late night talks in the owlery once a week, except during a full moon. I was bound to notice sooner or later.”
“He never mentioned it to me.”
“And I never breathed a word of it to anyone, but Darren. The talks, that is. I didn’t tell Darren about the lycanthropy. I gave my word to Remus.” She looked back over to the children. “Why did you bring them?”
“Dumbledore didn’t think you would be willing to come with me alone, so he wanted me to bring someone you might recognize without removing any of our people from their current assignments,” Sirius said. “And Harry rarely goes anywhere without Hermione and Ron.”
“Makes sense,” she said. “What do we do now?”
“There is a witch in town who is willing to let us use her fireplace. We will send the children to return Hogsmeade for the rest of their Saturday outing and then you and I will go to Remus’s place.”
“All right,” Tranquila said. “Should I leave my luggage here?”
“Well, we’re not coming back soon and it’s going to be a bit of a walk to the house,” Black said. “Maybe we could hide it.”
“Or maybe we could take a taxi cab,” she suggested. “It would be more Muggle like.”
Tranquila had only brought one suitcase, which Sirius carried as she checked out of hotel. Hailing a cab, Tranquila gave the cabby the address and sat with Hermione in the front, as Sirius and the boys sat in the back. Tranquila indulged the cabby’s need to chat by telling him about the pharmacy she worked at and the people there. She called Sirius her cousin and introduced Harry as his son and the other two as Harry’s friends. She countered all of the cabby’s questions to the others by asking him about himself. Once they were inside the witch’s house, Tranquila collapsed against the wall with relief.
“Are you all right, Dr. Montrose?” Hermione asked.
“Don’t worry, Hermione. I’ll be fine.”
The witch quickly sent the children back using Foo Powder. Seeing Tranquila’s pale complexion, the witch suggested she use the Foo Powder too. Sirius said that he would apparate to Remus’s house with her suitcase. Tranquila nodded and took some powder. Tossing it into the fireplace, she stepped into the flame and said, “Remus Lupin’s cottage”.
When she stopped spinning and the smoke cleared, she found herself in a small room filled with threadbare furnishings. Nervously, she glanced about until she met the familiar eyes of her first romance. He looked a little grayer in the hair and a bit grizzled, but there was no mistaking Remus. Suddenly her throat constricted and tears filled her eyes. She accepted his embrace and buried her head in his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“It’s all right,” he said, stroking her hair. “You’re just tired from the trip.”
There was a cough behind them. Quickly they separated and turned towards Sirius. Tranquila wiped her eyes and took her suitcase from him.
“My other stuff is being shipped to the Montroses in Hogsmeade,” she said. “Prof. Dumbledore didn’t mention where I would be staying.”
“Well, until he comes why don’t you lie down in my room for awhile and get some rest,” Remus said.
Tranquila allowed herself to be led to another small room whose furnishings were just as threadbare. She kicked off her shoes and slipped under the blankets as Remus shut the door. As she snuggled deeper into the pillow, she had a sense of peace she hadn’t felt for a long time. She didn’t remember dreaming, but her face was wet from tears when she awoke. She noticed as she washed her face that the sun was already setting.
The parlor held a surprise when she entered. As she expected, Remus and Sirius has been joined by Prof. Dumbledore. What she was not prepared for was the hooked nose man who accompanied Dumbledore. Nor did he seem prepared to see her. For the first time since Darren’s death, Tranquila and her brother Severus faced each other and it was hard to decide which of the two was more shocked. After a few moments of awkward silence, Severus stepped towards her.
“Tranquila,” he said softly, “please believe me that I would have never done anything to hurt Darren. Once I found out the whole story, I swore I would punish those responsible and immediately went to Prof. Dumbledore to offer to join his efforts against Voldemort.”
“That is correct, Tranquila,” Dumbledore told her. “Severus became a spy for us, helping us to bring your husband’s killers and their cohorts to justice – a position he has recently accepted again.”
Tranquila stared at her brother as the full impact of what she was being told hit her. Her brother had endangered himself for her sake.
“It is a very dangerous thing you are doing,” she said. “If you are found out, your death will be more painful than Darren’s was.”
“I have no choice, Tran,” he said. “There isn’t anyone else who can do it.”
She looked back at Dumbledore.
“And what am I suppose to do?” she asked him.
“I would appreciate it if you would take over some of your brother’s potion making duties, so he could be more free to do Voldemort’s bidding and gain his trust again. Remus will need the Wolfsbane Potion and it would be to our benefit to have a reserve of medical potions.”
“Not a problem,” Tranquila said. “Where am I to make these potions?”
“We created a make-shift laboratory just outside while you were sleeping,” Sirius told her. “The trunk you sent to the Montroses is already in your room above it, along with your owl.”
They led her out to the small tent structure next to the cottage. The inside was very spacious and nicely furnished. She had a parlor and a kitchen in addition to the bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor. Underground was a small potions laboratory with storeroom. Severus handed her an inventory list of supplies.
“You were very thorough,” she said, “but there are a few Muggle ingredients I want to get on Monday.”
“You studied pharmacology after all,” Severus said.
“I’m even a board certified pharmacist,” Tranquila answered. “I spend my mornings working in a Muggle pharmacy and the rest of my time at the Institute of Magical Cures. I am one of the people who created the Wolfsbane Potion.”
“You work with werewolves?” her brother sputtered.
“All the time.”
“Tranquila!” Severus started, but she held up a hand and stared him straight in the eye.
“Working with werewolves is a lot safer than being a Death Eater spy,” she pointed out.
“I don’t suppose you could make the potion taste better,” Remus said, interrupting the tirade Severus was about to launch into.
“We’ve been experimenting with a few Muggle artificial sweeteners and flavorings,” Tranquila explained. “I’ll pick those up on Monday too. What do you like better? Cinnamon or banana? The mints are out of the question - they reduce the potion’s effectiveness. And the citruses completely ruins the mixture.”
“What about butter rum or something like that?” he asked.
“The taste feedback wasn’t very positive,” she said.
“Cinnamon, I guess.”
“All right. I’ll pick up a few Muggle medicines for our reserve too. My bank account can handle it.”
“Remus, I need to speak with you and Sirius before Severus and I return to Hogwarts,” Prof. Dumbledore said. “Can we retire to your parlor?”
“Of course, Professor Dumbledore,” Remus said and they left Tranquila alone with her brother. The two siblings fidgeted for a little before Severus suggested they break in the new equipment by making some first aid potions.
“I thought you would have attended Father’s funeral,” he said. “Why didn’t you?”
“Father didn’t want me back here as long as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was in power. He made his friend Robert and everyone else swear not to tell me until after he was buried.”
“Call him Voldemort,” her brother said. “Dumbledore insists on it.”
“It tends to freak out my colleagues at the Institute,” Tranquila pointed out, “but since I will be working with those who also work for Dumbledore, I suppose I don’t have to worry about that. Of course, I don’t have to worry about it at all at the pharmacy.”
“You actually work with Muggles?”
“I do. It’s really not that much different than working with witches and wizards most of the time. We’re far more similar than we are different. People are people.”
“Werewolves and Muggles. I wonder what Father would have thought of that.”
Tranquila gave her brother an exasperated look.
“You never cared what he thought when he was alive,” she said. “Why care now?”
Severus turned his attention to the cauldron boiling before them. Adding some powdered willow bark, he stirred slowly for several minutes while Tranquila chopped up some comfrey.
“Do you have many friends in Texas?” he asked.
“I have several acquaintances, but no one I would call very close to me,” she answered.
“So, it wouldn’t be so terribly traumatic if you did move back here.”
“I’m comfortable there,” she said. “No bad memories.”
“You can’t spend your life hiding from the past,” Severus told her.
“It’s better than stewing over it. I’m glad you finally gave up those old grudges against James Potter and his friends. I never expected you to reach that level of maturity.”
She ignored the dirty look Severus gave her and added the comfrey to the cauldron. So, he hadn’t completely given up the grudges – only put them aside for the sake of more important things.
“You know,” she went on, “it wasn’t James you were really mad at, it was Father and his unrealistic expectations of you.”
“I can do without the psychoanalysis, thank you.”
“You started it.”
“We haven’t seen each other in over fifteen years. Couldn’t we at least get through one evening without a fight?”
Tranquila didn’t say anything. She began preparing the bottles for the potion they were making. Severus went back to stirring.
“We hardly ever fought when we were children,” he said.
“That’s because I was too afraid to upset anyone,” she said. “I didn’t want to lose you or Father after losing Mother.”
“You’re not afraid of losing anyone now then.”
“I don’t have anyone else left to lose.”
“That’s a very lonely existence,” Severus noted.
Tranquila bit her lip and turned away, trying to hide the tears.
“It’s better than the alternative,” she said at last.
“I don’t agree,” he said. “The potion’s ready. We better bottle it now.”
Silently, they filled the bottles and set them on the shelves. In the middle of cleaning up the lab table, Severus stopped and looked her in the eye.
“I don’t believe you, Tranquila,” he said. “You are not capable of shutting your heart off like that. Deep down inside, you still care for someone. It may not be your big brother, but there is someone. Who is he?”
Tranquila laughed.
“If there was someone, my dearest brother, I assure you he would be someone you would not approve of.”
Severus looked as if he had experienced an epiphany.
“Of course!” he exclaimed. “That’s it!”
“What in the world are you talking about?” she asked.
“You, my dear little sister, are still the same person you always were,” he said.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that whenever you were forced to choose between Father and I, you used to hide from us. You couldn’t stand disappointing either of us, so you would solve the problem by refusing to be around us until we sorted it out between ourselves.” Severus’s eyes glittered as he laughed. “And you are doing it again. Which means you still love your big brother enough to hide the fact that you love someone that he would consider an enemy. You are refusing to choose between us by insisting there is no choice to be made.”
He chuckled as he finished cleaning everything with his wand. Tranquila stood there with her arms folded, refusing to admit to anything.
“Come on, Tran,” he said, “let’s have some tea before I go back to the school. You haven’t lost your taste for peppermint, have you?”
“No, I haven’t,” she said, following him up the stairs and into the kitchen. Severus put the kettle on, while she took down the cups and saucers. As he added the leaves, he asked, “So, are you going to tell me who it is? Or do I have to guess?”
“You have lost your mind, Sev,” Tranquila said. “There isn’t anyone.”
“You always were a lousy liar, Tranquila.”
“Then let me put it this way – if there was someone – and I’m not saying there is – chances are he would be rejected by society in general and would not be willing to put me under that same stigma.”
“A werewolf?” he asked.
“Why not? I’ve spent the last fifteen years working with them. I could have easily met one I liked.”
“No,” Severus said. “You are still in frequent contact with Darren’s parents. Even though I don’t talk with them, I do know that they routinely travel to Texas to visit you. If he had been someone you met in the States, you would be visiting them here instead, to avoid an uncomfortable situation. Yet, you didn’t come back until there was an emergency – not even out of fairness to the Montroses’ finances. That’s not like you, not at all. So, he must be someone here in Britain.”
“Are you suggesting I was unfaithful to Darren?” Tranquila asked.
Severus wrinkled his brow in thought for a moment.
“Not if it is the person I think it is,” he said slowly. “Because the two of you would have met at school during the time you and Darren were only friends. And he wasn’t around when the two of you began to seriously dating each other.”
“And who is this person, pray tell?”
Severus sat back and smiled.
“I think I will wait awhile and see if my suspicions are correct. Now drink your tea before it gets cold.”
Tranquila rolled her eyes and took her cup. Severus was still as patronizing as he ever was. And it didn’t help that there was an annoying tiny voice in her mind telling her she was only angry because he might be right. She walked back with him to Remus’s cottage and watched him apparate with Dumbledore to Hogsmeade.
“Have you eaten yet?” Remus asked.
“No, we just had some tea,” she said.
“Then let me warm up the stew,” he said. “It’s not much, but under the circumstances…”
“It will be fine,” Tranquila insisted. “I’ll pick up some more food on my Muggle shopping trip.”
“It’s not necessary,” Sirius said. Tranquila looked at the two underfed men.
“I think it is,” she said. “Listen, unlike the two of you, I only need to hide from the Death Eaters. I have a legitimate and respected Muggle identity and a Muggle bank account that I barely touch outside of depositing my paychecks from the pharmacy. I live off my wizarding income. If we are going to be working with each other, the least I can do is make sure you have food and I have enough money to feed the three of us for years. I’ll just need to get the rest of it exchanged from US dollars to British pounds and wired to a bank over here.”
“We don’t need your money,” Sirius insisted.
“Are we working against the same enemy or not?” she asked. “I’m sorry if it hurts your pride to take anything from me, but we need to be at our best if we are going to defeat Voldemort and his followers. What’s more, we’re going to need to give our all. Well, this is part of my contribution. If it makes you feel better, I’ll give it to Prof. Dumbledore and then he can give it to you, but it would waste a lot less time and effort if you would set aside the act and just let me buy the food. If you want, I’ll save the receipts and you can pay me back whatever you think you owe me once your name has been cleared.”
The two men looked at each other.
“She’s not going to take no for an answer,” Remus told his friend.
“I’m beginning to see that,” Sirius replied. “It must be a Snape family trait.”
“Well, she does have some very good points,” Remus said. “Why don’t we consider it her rent for staying here?”
“We don’t charge rent,” Sirius said.
“You do now,” Tranquila interrupted.
Remus chuckled and put the stew on the fire. Tranquila dragged Sirius into her kitchen to raid the pantry there. She suspected that they had used some of their own supplies to fill it. Dinner turned out to be a very pleasant, though quiet, meal. Afterwards, Sirius announced he would clean up and suggested that Remus give Tranquila a quick tour of the grounds before they called it a night.
“This would be more useful to do in daylight,” Tranquila said as Remus closed the door.
“Sirius needs some time to himself,” he said. “He’s used to thinking of you as a shrinking violet. He wasn’t prepared to see you stand your ground.”
Tranquila accepted his proffered arm and began walking.
“Have I changed so much?” she asked. “Severus said I haven’t changed at all.”
“That’s because you are still all the things he loves in his little sister,” Remus told her. “So, in all the things important to him, you probably haven’t changed.”
“What about in your view of me, have I changed from the girl you knew in school?”
“You’re braver now,” he said, “and at the moment you’re being very defensive, but that’s only to be expected with battle that lies before us and the past that lies behind.”
“You’re not as nervous as you were when we were in school.”
Remus laughed.
“I was only that nervous around you.”
“Why? We were good friends.”
“You know why – your brother and my friends – and my lycanthropy.”
“And now we’re all on the same side and I am an expert on werewolves, so there’s nothing to fear except Voldemort.”
“Your brother still doesn’t like me much,” Remus pointed out.
“That’s his problem,” Tranquila said.
“Well, that’s one thing that’s changed about you,” he said. “You use to worry a lot about what he would do if he found out we were friends.”
“He’s not likely to risk Prof. Dumbledore’s wrath by killing you now.”
“True, and he’s already done the worst he could do when I was teaching at Hogwarts.”
“What did he do?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Remus said. “He just let the Slytherins know I was a werewolf. Chances were that someone would have found out sooner or later. Considering the frustration he was under, he handled it well, I thought.”
“You’re way too forgiving of him. I can’t imagine why you would dismiss such a petty act.”
“He had a valid point. My condition does make me dangerous. I had let myself be distracted by another matter and neglected my Wolfsbane Potion the night before he told Slytherin what I was. He did what he felt was in the best interests of the students.”
“Well, that won’t happen with me around,” Tranquila said. “If I have to, I’ll inject the Wolfsbane Potion in you with a dart gun.”
“Make it taste better and I promise never to forget it,” he said.
“Did you hear that we’ve been working on a werewolf vaccine?” she asked. “It’s not quite ready for public distribution, but our tests were successful enough that all of our group has been vaccinated. One of our wizards was bitten by a patient last summer and still shows no signs of lycanthropy.”
“You should tell your brother that. It would probably make him feel better.”
“I guess I should. What have you been doing lately?”
“Checking out the movements of some of Voldemort’s followers with Sirius, but at the moment, I’m suppose to make sure you are settled in properly.”
Tranquila smiled.
“Well, you’re doing a very good job of it.”
“All I’ve done so far is let you sleep in my bed, help the others erect your temporary lab and feed you stew,” Remus laughed.
“And let me burst into tears in your arms when I first arrived,” she said.
“That doesn’t count,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because I had ulterior motives.”
Tranquila looked up at Remus and fought to keep the giggles down at his wink. Though the trees behind them obscured the lights of the cottage, she didn’t want the sound reaching Sirius.
“You better be careful or Severus is going to think he’s right again,” she said.
“About what?” Remus asked.
“About why it took an emergency to bring me back to Scotland.”
“I’m not following. You’re going to have to explain better.”
Tranquila sighed, “Severus believes that the reason I haven’t come back until now is because my heart belongs to someone he would consider to be an enemy and staying away is my way of not choosing one over the other.”
“And does he have anyone in particular in mind?”
“He just said he believed it was someone who left Hogwarts before Darren and I became serious. He’s going to wait to see if his suspicions are correct.”
“And what do you think? Is he right?”
“You know, all things considered, this is a weird conversation,” she said turning her face away.
“Why is it so weird?” Remus asked.
“Because if Severus is right, that person would be you.”
He stopped and took a deep breath. Tranquila stepped away and faced him.
“I told you it was a weird conversation,” she said. “Why don’t we forget it and call it a night.”
But Remus didn’t move.
“I was at your wedding,” he said.
“You were?” she asked.
“I knew I would never have the chance to marry someone and I wanted to see what yours was like, so I could picture what it would be like if I could marry you.”
Tranquila stood there in shock as tears tried to come. She fought to find something to say.
“You would have had Severus as brother in-law,” she choked out at last.
“He’s not that bad once you get to know him.”
“You said yourself that he doesn’t like you.”
“He loves you and so do I,” Remus said.
“Is that why you can forgive him so easily?” Tranquila asked.
“I can forgive him because I understand why he does some of the things he does and because there’s no point in hating him.”
“Remus, you’re too good to be true.”
“No, I’m not and you don’t have to choose between Severus and me, if he is right. Because I would never let you ruin your life by being with me.”
The tears did come then.
“Don’t say that,” she said. “There is no choice to be made.”
“My point exactly,” he said. “Your brother needs you to stay here. Now let’s go back to the cottage.”
They didn’t touch as they walked back. His polite goodnight was answered by her shaky one as she entered her tent-like building. Athena greeted her like she had as a young owl, instead of the old one she was. Tranquila held her close to her chest and cried into her feathers. Finally she washed her face, pulled a nightgown out of her Muggle suitcase and went to sleep.
Sirius was the one who invited her to breakfast the next morning. Still dressed Muggle-style, she did her best to act as if there was nothing wrong and matched Remus’s civility with equal civility. She finished her meal quickly and began cleaning the breakfast dishes. Sirius kept shooting looks at the two of them as if he thought they were both insane. When the dishes were done, Tranquila returned to her room and began unpacking her trunk. Being a standard magical trunk, it contained the equivalent of seven Muggle trunks of the same size. The first lock reveled most of her witch’s clothes and her wand. The second lock brought forth her cloaks and lab wear. The third contained her favorite books and the fourth her research notebooks and papers.
She stopped and proceeded to make copies of the vaccine research for Severus to read. Packaging them carefully, she gave Athena them to deliver to her brother. Then she went to the cottage to see if she could help with lunch. Sirius shook his head and chose to ignore the act of normalcy between her and Remus. She spent the rest of the day unpacking the rest of her trunk, which contained some special instruments and more reference books. She made dinner easier to stomach by having the two men add to her shopping list for the next day.
It was a great relief to apparate to Glasgow. Tranquila went to the witch’s house there and asked permission to use that address for her Muggle affairs. Then she went to the bank and made arrangements to have most of her Muggle money transferred to an account there. It would take several days, but Tranquila had more than enough money on her to easily take care of her needs until then. Her only challenge now was to get her purchases into her magic tote bag outside the shops without anyone noticing. This was why she chose to go back to Glasgow, there were enough shops there that she could get her things two sacks per shop without arousing suspicion.
Back at the cottage, Remus helped her put away the groceries and began to fix dinner while Tranquila took her potion supplies back to her lab. Sirius had left to do something for Prof. Dumbledore. The two didn’t speak a word to each other during dinner. In her room, Tranquila read the warm letter Severus had sent back with Athena while she was gone. It appeared Remus was right, her brother did need her back in his life, but she couldn’t help but feel a small stab of jealousy when she read about the lady Severus adored, knowing that her own heart’s desire was beyond her reach. She chided herself. After all, she had been happily married to Darren. It was selfish to wish for two loves, when her brother finally found his one true love. She wrote him back a very encouraging letter and told Athena she could deliver it in the morning.
The next morning, Tranquila dressed in her witch’s robes and began making potions. She kept Severus’s letter with her, to remind her how much her brother needed his potions properly prepared by another Snape. Its presence also helped her to be around Remus without feeling so utterly abandoned. Before she went to sleep that night, Athena had brought another letter back from Severus. If she couldn’t have her own happiness, at least Tranquila could share her brother’s joy. The daily correspondence would give her something to look forward to.
Severus showed up for a visit right before the full moon to watch her make the Wolfsbane Potion with the artificial sweetener and flavoring. He talked all about his students and his love life, until Remus came to watch the last of the potion preparation. Tranquila gave Remus the goblet, who drunk it and made a face.
“Well, it is an improvement,” he conceded.
“Does it need more sweetener?” Severus asked.
“Maybe a little more flavoring,” Remus said.
“We can add that for the next dose,” Tranquila said.
Remus nodded and left the siblings alone. Tranquila sighed and began to put everything away with Severus’s help. Back in the little kitchen, they made a pot of peppermint tea.
“What’s wrong, Tranquila?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said. Severus shook his head.
“You have that look you get whenever you have resigned yourself to a hopeless situation. What is problem?”
Tranquila sipped her tea and didn’t answer him.
“I was right, wasn’t I?” he said.
“If I say ‘yes’, will you drop the subject?”
“No.”
“Then you’re wrong.”
“Where did you get such a perverse nature?” Severus asked her.
“You were a stunning example for me to follow,” she answered. Looking up from her cup, she saw that he was grinning.
“I was right and you just don’t want to admit it,” he said.
“You can be very unbearable at times, do you realize that?”
“I am only asking that you acknowledge that I do know what I am talking about occasionally.”
“Okay, you were right. Happy now?”
Severus frowned and set his cup on the table.
“Not really,” he said. “I don’t want you to be miserable because of me. It was horrible enough when Darren died. I wouldn’t want to put you through that again.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Tranquila told him. “You were right about me. I denied everything until the other party chose for me.”
She buried her face in her hands. Severus moved his chair closer to her and rubbed her back. Leaning forward, he whispered into her ear, “You don’t have to let someone else make the choice for you. I will always be your brother. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
Tranquila gave a strangled sobbed and hugged her brother’s neck. Severus held her as she cried. Finally she wiped her face and kissed his cheek.
“I do love you,” she said.
“I never doubted it.”
“Well, you better get back to the school. Thanks for visiting me.”
“Are you sure you will be all right?” he asked.
“Yes. I just need a good night’s sleep.”
“In that case, I’ll leave. Sweet dreams, sister.”
“You too.”
Severus disappeared. Tranquila cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. In the morning, she gave Remus his next dose of Wolfsbane Potion, before going back to mix some counter-curse potions. That night, she waited with him for the full moon to oversee his transformation. Years of watching other patients go through the painful process had left her a little jaded. She sat there calmly until Remus turned completely into a wolf. Then she sat on the floor next to him and began petting his fur.
“You know,” she said to him, “it really isn’t that scandalous of thing for a werewolf researcher to marry a werewolf. Half of my fellow researchers have a close relative who’s a werewolf. That’s why most of us are there in the first place.”
Remus looked at her with steady stare. She gave him a defiant look back.
“Severus says I need to make my own choices instead of hiding from them – that no matter what, he will always be my brother.”
A low growl came from the wolf.
“It’s my life. If I want to ruin it, then it’s my choice.”
He snapped at her. She folded her arms.
“I know what you are trying to do,” Tranquila said. “You are trying to convince me that you are too dangerous to be around. Well, if you’re going to bite me, do it now. You can’t turn me into a werewolf, I’ve been vaccinated.”
For a moment it looked like Remus was about to do just that, but instead he hung his head and walked into his bedroom. She covered him up with a blanket and then retrieved some from her room and went to sleep on the little settee in his parlor. During the three-day period, she fed him and talked to him. When the transformation reversed itself, she sat in the parlor and let him change back in the privacy of his own room. When Remus finally came out, he looked tired but determined.
“Tranquila,” he started.
“I’m not going to change my mind,” she said.
“I can’t let you do it.”
“I’ll make you a deal. If you can stand right in front of me, look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you don’t love me, then I will walk out that door and stay in my lab until Prof. Dumbledore no longer needs me to make potions.”
Remus stepped forward, but before he could say anything, Tranquila put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips.
“That’s cheating,” he told her.
“It is?” she asked innocently. “Surely one little kiss can’t change what you feel for me.”
“No,” he admitted, “but it can make it very hard to do what I should do.”
“Are you sure it’s what you should do?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you too much to do anything else.”
“Too late,” Tranquila said. “You’ve said it again and I’m not letting your Gryffindor nobility get in the way this time.”
“What happened to my sweet little Hufflepuff?” Remus asked.
“I’m still being loyal and hardworking,” she said. “I just decided to listen to my Slytherin big brother for once.”
“And what do you think your Slytherin big brother will say about us being together?”
“I’ll just throw his own words back at him,” Tranquila stated. “He will either shut up in frustration or be proud of my ruthlessness. Besides, I think he’s already figured everything out.”
“And if he hasn’t?” Remus asked.
“Then we can enjoy watching him face the fact that is he isn’t right all the time,” she said with another kiss.