Chapter 7: 27th July 1991, Saturday: Part 7

Utterly bewildered, George didn't know what to think. Ever since Dominic's pager had been activated, he had only foreseen two outcomes. Either some poor delivery man had gotten the wrong address or a member of Hogwarts staff had arrived to give him an acceptance letter. He knew that the letters started arriving at non-muggle-borns' homes on the 24th of July, which happened to be three days ago. There were probably in the region of two dozen muggle-borns joining Hogwarts' ranks every year. Therefore, he had assumed that it was bound to take the gravely under-staffed professors at least a few days to pay him a visit.

Knowing that a wizard, or witch, would arrive any day now and kindly inform his obstinate foster parents that magic was real, George had made plenty of preparations. Whether it be his reaction to finding out he was a wizard or his excitement to attend the other-worldly school of witchcraft and wizardry, he had it all finely scripted and ready to perform. He had arrogantly thought that he had devised an answer for every possible question that may be asked of him. No matter how negatively Ellie, Amanda or most likely Dominic had reacted to the Earth-shattering revelation, George could deal with it. Oh how atrociously wrong he had been.

It goes without saying that Remus Lupin was not a professor at Hogwarts, he has never been and only will be two years from now. George was pretty god-damned sure that Hogwarts didn't give any old werewolf acceptance letters to deliver. That would seem unprofessional for a school that many claimed as the safest place in magical Britain. And yet here Lupin was, telling George that he had heard 'great things' about him. Was that a hidden threat or maybe some sort of blackmail disguised as a compliment? Or the absolute worst possibility, Lupin could know of his secret and was sent to deal with him.

Remus stepped forward, presumably to 'greet' George, only to be impeded by a firm hand planted against his chest. He looked down to see a bulky fist tightly squeezing the life out of his tie and shirt.

"If you step one more foot towards my family, I'm going to put you on the floor. Now back off, I won't warn you again."

Dominic appeared to be on the same page as George, clearly he was considering Remus a potential threat as well. Although, it couldn't have been for the same reasons. Why did his foster parents act so defensively to their unannounced house guest? George highly doubted that they knew who Remus was since the muggle and magic world hadn't clashed since the sixteen hundreds. The number of muggles without magic relations who knew of the wizarding world in Britain could be counted on one hand. Their obsessive isolationism surely couldn't be related to magic, could it?

This knee-jerk reaction to intruders did answer some questions George had built up over the past 11 months. For example, why did Ellie only visit her friends' houses and never the other way around? Why did his foster parents never order anything to be delivered to the house? And why didn't the front door have a doorbell or a knocker? Now that he thought about it, not a single person other than Dominic, Amanda, Ellie and George had ever stepped foot in that house. He hadn't really questioned it before since the peace and quiet had only ever benefited him until now.

After hearing George's name leave Remus's mouth, Amanda reclaimed her unyielding grip on his arm. This time she was crushing his wrist with enough force to cut the circulation off to his fingers. The yelp from Ellie suggested that her arm was being squeezed equally as hard.

She exclaimed in a shaky voice, "how do you know George's name?"

Having seen the look of fear and fury on Amanda's and Dominic's faces respectively, Remus held his arms up as a gesture of surrender. Just like he had been ordered, he took one step back and Dominic reciprocated by letting go of his shirt. Remus appeared to be trying to defuse the heavy tension with slight success. At the very least, Dominic didn't look like he was about to knock the werewolf out anymore. Silence remained for what felt like an eternity as everyone remained on a hair trigger. Even George was thinking of running away if Remus reached for his wand. He would have to abandon everything and start a new life, maybe even flee to Europe just to be sure.

"I can see that my presence has caused you all a great deal of distress. For that, I am deeply and sincerely sorry.

That being said, I've been given a task of vital importance and it is imperative that I complete it today.  I'm afraid there's no avoiding it.

I do indeed know young Mr Linwood over there and by extension his address. As to where this information was acquired... All your answers are right here?"

After that rather ominous speech, Remus started to unhurriedly lower his raised right arm and guide it towards his breast pocket.

George had already painted a good picture in his head of what form these 'answers' might come in. As long as Remus stuns Dominic first, he might be able to retreat through the house. Hopefully, Amanda and the maze-like corridors would do a good job of temporarily slowing the werewolf down. Then he could use the escape route he had planned out months ago to reach the nearby forest and collect his get-away bag. Assuming that George hadn't been snatched by that point, he could take the train to Hull and board a ferry to the Netherlands before lunchtime.

While George was in the midst of planning his new Dutch identity, Amanda was starting to lose her composure. She must have noticed Remus's subtle movements and had come to a similar conclusion to George.

She yelled, "Dominic, what's he doing?"

Dominic kept his back to Amanda but he responded nevertheless, "everything is under control. I'll deal with it."

"This is just a massive misunderstanding. I'm positive that all will be made clear if I can just..."

Dominic took a step forward and got right in Remus's face, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"I don't care what you think. You will keep your hands up, turn around nice and slowly, and then walk away. You will forget this house and my family ever existed. Do you understand me? Answer before I lose my patience."

Remus and Dominic locked eyes with each other in an intense staring match for a solid 10 seconds. All George could hear was the wind rustling through the bushes in the garden and the faint cooing of doves. Remus sighed and then continued to let his hand drift down into his jacket pocket.

"It's not as simple as that. If I leave then others will come in my place. There is no hiding from this, it's for the boy's own good. Mr Linwood, if you could only read..."

Within the blink of an eye, Dominic plunged his fist into Remus's stomach. The momentum of the powerful strike had been enough to fleetingly lift the man into the air. The words, along with all of Remus's vital organs, seemed to have been stuck in his throat. He fell to his knees and stared up at his attacker in disbelief, even the ex-Order of the Phoenix member hadn't seen that punch coming. Dominic cocked his arm back and tightened his fist once again, ready to strike.

"You were warned."

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And those were the last words Remus heard before Dominic's fist landed squarely in the centre of his face. The crack of his nose breaking was presumably the point where he had blacked out. Remus's eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body fell face first onto the concrete driveway. George's brain froze as he stared at the body laying limply on the floor like a corpse. One-too-many surprises today had caused his mind to overload and cease to function.

The only comprehensible thought he could muster was, "well that was unexpected."

As if this was a weekly occurrence, Dominic casually shook the blood off his hand and removed the brass knuckle duster from between his fingers. He must have slipped that on without George or Remus noticing or maybe he had worn it the entire time. It was hard to say since their attention had been elsewhere. Then Dominic pulled out a pair of handcuffs and proceeded to tightly secured them around Remus's wrists. So it turned out the bulge in his foster father's back pocket wasn't a large wallet, who would have guessed?

Now that Remus had been restrained, Dominic hoisted the unconscious man onto his back and carried him towards the house. Amanda pulled George and Ellie to one side to allow Dominic to pass unobstructed. Due to the way he was being carried, Remus's head slammed into the door frame on the way past the threshold. He was going to have one hell of a headache when he woke up. Actually, considering everything thus far, it was probably more apt to say 'if' he woke up. God knows what insane thing George's foster parents were going to do next.

By this point, George had gone mentally numb. What was the point of speculating anything when everyone around you was an anomaly? It was an exercise in futility and a waste of energy. Maybe the best choice he could make is to go with the flow and see how things panned out. His foster parents seemed to weirdly know what they were doing, perhaps he could leave the decision-making in their capable hands.

Dominic kept on carrying Remus through the entry hall and into the living room. On the way, Amanda dragged her foster children along and had a lengthy discussion with her husband. Ellie remained silent and unusually cooperative, her only form of expression came through her hesitation to follow her father. The sudden bout of violence from Dominic must have shaken her up a fair amount.

"How did they find us? You said that..."

"I know what I said. I must have made a mistake."

"It's been nearly thirty years, why is this happening now?"

"I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with George?"

"What are you saying?"

"He knew his name, Amanda. He recognised him."

"Are you saying it's George's fault they came!?"

"Of course not. I must have messed up the adoption papers or... something, I don't know."

Dominic then threw Remus face up on the largest living room sofa and began pacing around the room. One hand was cupping his chin and the other was rubbing the back of his bald head, his expression was of utter concentration. After a few seconds, Dominic stopped and stared at Remus.

"We have to leave. Right now."

Amanda looked mortified, "is this happening all over again?"

"He said that more would be coming, we can't afford to wait for them."

Amanda took a deep breath and offered, "I'll go pack the suitcases."

Dominic shook his head, "there's not enough time. Go and grab the emergency supplies, and take the kids with you. Don't forget the rucksack with the passports, we can't come back for them once we've left."

"What about you?", Amanda asked whilst glancing at Remus.

The still unconscious man was lying on top of her favourite Persian cushions, his bent nose was dyeing the intricately woven fibres with blood. The only sign that Remus was still alive was the slow movement of his chest. If it wasn't for the caved-in face, he would have looked like he was taking a light nap. Dominic walked over to Remus's body and started to root through his pockets.

"I'm going to see if he's got anything on him that might clue me into how they found us."

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