All the Linwoods turned around simultaneously to find Remus upright on the sofa. He was just sitting there patiently like a polite guest, his blood-stained lips had even formed a gentle smile. His broken nose had stopped bleeding but his stained moustache was still dripping with clotting blood. In general, the roughed-up werewolf looked quite chipper considering the fact he was in handcuffs.
"I wouldn't have said anything but the pain is quite unbearable", he said while trying to gesture to his face.
George hadn't noticed Remus wake up or adjust his sitting position, meaning he must have awoken during Dominic's intense cross-examination. Therefore, he must have had an entire argument between his foster parents to plan his escape. But instead of trying to break loose from his captors, Remus decided to announce himself for the whole room to hear. That would have been the last thing George would have done if he had been in Remus's position. What on earth was going through that man's head? Had Dominic's punch somehow knocked the self-preservation out of him?
No one answered Remus's request and instead opted to just stare at the man in bafflement. This reaction from the family must have made Remus feel a little uneasy so he averted his eyes and noticed the pile of suitcases beside Ellie.
"Ah, I see now. It appears that I have caught you at a bad time. If I had known your family was going on holiday, I would have come sooner."
George thought that was a suspiciously optimistic interpretation of his family's fleeing paraphernalia. He wasn't too sure if this was some sort of ignorant act Remus was putting on to lower their guard, or maybe Dominic really had hit him too hard. Speaking of which, Dominic was the first to break out of his stupor. He bounded over to Remus, picked up a piece of paper off the coffee table, and aggressively demanded.
"How do you know where George's room was!?"
Remus leaned back into the sofa to put some distance between himself and Dominic, but his composure remained miraculously intact. He unwaveringly stared back at his assailant and motioned with his head towards the paper Dominic was holding.
"Mr Linwood, if you had read that letter then you would already know the answer. I'm sure a man of your standing should be able to at least make an educated guess."
Some ominous vibes were coming off that piece of paper Dominic was waving around. George could only see the back of it but he couldn't help but feel like it was oddly familiar. On closer inspection, it wasn't any old piece of paper either. It looked a bit thicker than normal A4 sheets and it was discoloured like it had been dipped in a cup of coffee. If George didn't know any better, then he would have said that it was most likely to be a piece of... parchment. Wait... Hold on a second... Could that actually be what he thinks it is?
Dominic flipped the letter around before shouting, "do you honestly expect me to believe any of this shit!?"
Remus nodded his head, "indeed I do. Everything written in that letter is the truth, you can take my word for that. I'm sure you'll understand if you could just hand me my wand."
"Your word is worth nothing to me, I don't know you and I sure-as-hell don't trust you. I'm not giving you bugger all until you start telling me the truth."
Amanda walked over to Dominic and asked, "what is he talking about?"
Dominic looked back at her and explained, "he wants us to believe that some nonsense school has accepted George as a new student."
"This...", Dominic handed over the letter to Amanda, "is supposed to be his acceptance letter."
This revelation had driven George right past bewilderment and straight into an all-out rage. The past fifteen minutes had just been spent thinking that his entire plan to infiltrate Hogwarts had gone up in smoke. Not only that, but someone, probably a well-known all-powerful bearded wizard, had found out his secret and had sent his lap dog to snatch him up. The next few years of his pathetic life would be either spent arduously repaying his failure to his patron or being dissected, both mentally and physically, by the Ministry.
And now everything had been flipped back on its head. The transition between everything going to plan, to full-blown catastrophe, and back to ship-shape again felt like it had given George whiplash. What was he to do now? He still didn't know why Remus of all people was sent to give him his acceptance letter. George's best guess is that it had something to do with that 'great things' comment from earlier. Someone knew more about him than he had anticipated, it was just a question of to what extent.
As far as George could tell, there were two new possibilities. Either he was wrong about everything and this farse had been nothing more than a false alarm. Or, this letter was bait to lure him into a false sense of security. That conniving old man might already be suspicious of George and wants to observe him up close and personal. Once he became a student at Hogwarts, there would be few places for him to hide. It would be a perfect trap and definitely what George would do if the roles were reversed. But was this him overthinking things again? It was impossible to tell.
Whilst George's brain was sieving through a quagmire of doubt, Amanda quickly skimmed through the letter and looked back at Remus. Judging by her expression, she hadn't taken to the letter any better than Dominic.
"What is this? Some kind of sick joke?"
Remus's head hung limply for a second after hearing her damning interpretation of the letter. He must have held some hope that Amanda would be more open-minded than Dominic, but his optimism had been misplaced. He took a deep breath before looking back at the foster parents with clear desperation in his eyes.
"I don't know what else I could say to convince you without, at the bare minimum, performing a demonstration. I swear on my life that this isn't some sort of ploy or deception. You have to believe me."
Amanda hunched over so she was at Remus's eye level and plainly stated, "well, mister...?"
"Lupin. Remus Lupin, Mrs Linwood."
"Okay then, Mr Lupin. What you have to understand is my husband and I have dealt with a lot smarter and more devious men than you. And do you know what happened to them, Mr Lupin?"
Remus shook his head and Amanda leaned forward so only he could hear her answer.
She whispered into his ear, "nobody knows, Mr lupin. Nobody knows. They all vanished off the face of the Earth, never to be seen again."
She stood back up and glared down at Remus with a face void of emotion, "that was a long time ago when it was just myself and Dominic. Now I have a family. Two children I'm willing to do 'anything' for to ensure they live safe and happy lives. So I want you to think very carefully about the next thing you say to me."
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George was pulled out of his existential crisis after hearing the tail end of the foreboding speech by his 'kind and gentle' foster mother. The question if Remus was going to walk out of this house alive was now looking less and less likely. By the sounds of it, Amanda and Dominic might skin him alive if he doesn't tell them what they wanted to hear. Who the hell were his foster parents? The spiritual successors to Bonnie and Clyde? At this rate, George wouldn't ever have the choice to attend Hogwarts. Going to Azkaban for being an accomplice to murder seemed more plausible.
George had to make a decision right now before it was too late. Should he stay or should he go now? If he goes there will be trouble, and if he stays it will be double. George slapped himself on the cheek, now wasn't the time for silly songs to get stuck in his head. This was perhaps the most important decision of his life, he had to make the right choice. Or at least the one which had the lowest chance of death. It came down to finding the lesser of two evils.
"Surely you two must have already noticed something, anything? Like an unexplainable phenomenon near or around George. Maybe he got upset once and the room got colder, or he got angry and something mysteriously broke. That's his magic!"
"Even if we gave you the benefit of the doubt, nothing like that has ever happened. Not once for the eleven months he's lived under this roof."
"I've heard enough. Amanda, take George and Ellie to the car, you know the one. I'll just need five minutes with Mr Lupin and then we'll go."
Remus looked at them in disbelief, "that's impossible. With someone with as much potential as George, there had to have been signs. Please, you're making a mistake. I'm not here to hurt your family."
After weighing everything up, George decided Hogwarts was the best option. Even if it was a trap, he fancied his odds with Dumbledore over his patron any day of the week. The possibility that he hadn't been noticed by the headmaster still technically existed, even if the odds were practically zero. Now that the decision was made, he had to find a way to fix this disaster. What was the easiest way to make his obstinate and slightly homicidal foster parents believe in magic? Fortunately for George, he had been contemplating that very same question for over eleven months. Just like Remus, his answer came in the form of a demonstration.
Before George could make a move, he suddenly felt a light pulling on his pyjama sleeve and looked down to see a timid little girl trying to get his attention. The way that Ellie was shyly holding herself was so foreign to George that he hardly recognised her. He guessed that she must have been feeling scared and was looking to her older brother for reassurance.
Ellie looked over at Remus and her parents before quietly asking, "I think that man is talking about your eyes. You know, when they change colour."
George held his finger over his mouth and cheekily smiled, "shhh. That's our secret. No one other than us can know that, remember? Even mother and father can't know."
"But that man is saying that you can do magic. Can you?", she whispered.
George knelt and pinched Ellie's cheek, "let's find out."
With a new idea forming in his head, George stood back up and held his hand out to Ellie. He wiggled his fingers invitingly and gave her a playful wink, nothing other than confidence could be seen on his face. His light-hearted attitude got a smile out of his watery-eyed sister and she reciprocated by grabbing his hand tightly. He then steadily guided Ellie toward his foster parents while talking with her.
"You know if this works, your gonna have to stop calling me Sir George", he said softly.
She looked up at him perplexed, "why?"
George exaggeratedly tutted, "you can't go around calling your new court wizard Sir George, it sounds too knightly. I want something much more magical sounding like grand sorcerer or archmage."
He got another smile out of her, "okay, Arch Sorcerer George."
George scrunched up his face, "it doesn't sound as good when you say it."
"What's wrong with how I say it?", Ellie retorted.
He quickly corrected himself, "nothing my Lady. It's the name that is at fault, not yours. Maybe you could come up with a better one for me."
She looked at the ground in concentration before giving up, "I will. I just need some time to think about it."
"Take all the time you need, my Lady."
George and Ellie were now standing only a few feet behind their foster parents, he could feel her tiny hand squeezing his for dear life. He knew that she was scared but he needed her to be by his side, the demonstration was more likely to be a success if Ellie was with him. He lifted his free hand and poked Amanda on the back, startling her. She instantly turned around and relaxed after recognising her foster children.
"Oh! It's you two. I've just finished talking with your father and..."
George interrupted, "I think Mr Lupin is right and I can prove it."
That comment certainly got everyone's attention, both Dominic and Remus turned to face him with almost matching expressions of shock. Before anyone could rebut him, George lifted his hand into the air and snapped his fingers. As if a match had been struck, a golf ball-sized flame burst into existence and hovered over his thumb. He held his arm up like a torch and announced to his audience.
"I think we should hear what Mr Lupin has to say."