Question: Remus and Tonks' living arrangements during book 7

[starfishstar]

Hello fellow fans who love Remus as much as I do! I'm pondering a few logistical things for a fic I'm writing (yes, for rt-morelove!) – for the purposes of this particular story I may just leave the details vague, but it does seem like things I ought to figure out at some point. I'm curious what any of you think of any of these questions:

1. Any idea where Remus and Tonks lived once they were finally (permanently) together during DH? Personally, I imagine them having a tiny flat somewhere in London, but I know living with Andromeda is also a possibility, as are various other options. What strikes you as most likely?

2. Where does Remus go to transform at the full moon, during DH? I could imagine him using the Shrieking Shack again, but if they're living, say, in London, then surely there's somewhere he could go that's closer and more convenient than Hogsmeade? If you've written fics about them during this period, where did you have him transform?

3. Wolfsbane Potion?? He wouldn't have access to it, right? That was only as part of the deal while he was working at Hogwarts? (Unless, of course, we go the route of assuming Tonks learns how to make it for him... but if not, then he doesn't have it, right?)

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

1. For some reason I was under the impression they were sort of in hiding. Like Bill and Fleur? I sort of imagined the Order having a few hidden "strongholds" if you will. It never occurred to me that maybe they weren't. I guess I see them being with Andromeda, or maybe a few places? I think Tonks would have to hide, at least, given that they'd want her to do DE stuff. (I can't imagine "I'm pregnant" would fly with them. No pun intended.) But then, them being in hiding seems to sort of make Ted's running away pointless, unless he had to at the last minute before they could make arrangements...

2 & 3. I think someone in the Order would find a way to make it work... maybe it was in the black market during the war? Or someone was able to make it? That's such a good point. Tonks might learn to make it, but I don't think Remus would be comfortable with that, because it's Remus. (I mean, he'd give in because he'd rather have that than risk killing someone, but still.) He might accept Andromeda, or even Molly Weasley - I don't know, I guess I just see her as good at Potions. Ooh, or Slughorn!

And if he didn't have it, I don't know. Perhaps a shed with extra protection or something? A room?

[starfishstar]

Thanks for chiming in!

Huh, I hadn't thought of them as being in hiding (but rather that that was specific to the Weasleys, because they're too closely associated to Harry via Ron), though definitely I imagine them trying to keep a low profile. Probably staying with Andromeda makes more sense, but for some reason they keep having their own flat, in my head. But you raise another interesting point: If other people could go into hiding at home (by having a Secret Keeper) then why did Ted have to go on the run? Ugggh! Ted's story makes me so sad.

I do like the idea of Remus having access to the Wolfsbane Potion, though somehow I've always figured that wasn't "canonical," wasn't something JKR seems to have thought of. And I love the idea that Andromeda could brew it! Clever lady that she is.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I've really wondered in general why hiding wasn't easier. I've also wondered why wizards couldn't have simply gone to any of the other wizarding nations, but it occurred to me (and I may write this into a fic) that they might have the same laws that exist in the real world - and actually, perhaps fewer, given that they are so secretive and protective, if GoF's any indication. So while in the muggle world Ted might have had a shot at amnesty, the concept may be nonexistent in the wizarding world. And meanwhile, there might have been so many people who needed to go into hiding, Ted needed to hide faster than he could find somewhere to go. It really is so sad.

Them having a flat works! Might be nicer for Teddy too, assuming someone keeps the flat for him.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

If other people could go into hiding at home (by having a Secret Keeper) then why did Ted have to go on the run? Ugggh! Ted's story makes me so sad.

Yes, this! I find it pretty hard to come up with a plausible reason for why Ted ran off into hiding the way he did, although I've got some notes roughed out for a fic on this theme. (I can't help thinking that there are so many things about what people do in DH that don't really make sense, alas.)

[starfishstar]

Yes! I can't help thinking this is one of those things that's done for plot reasons, but just doesn't really follow any internal logic.

These logic holes do create opportunities for clever, thoughtful people to craft something that makes sense out of the disparate pieces that really don't make sense, sometimes in quite creative ways, too. (As I'm sure you'll do!) Sometimes, though, I can't help but wish that it all just made sense on its own, no fixing needed...!

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

1. I don't think there's a whole lot of clues in canon about where Remus and Tonks were living during DH, so I think we ficwriters can pretty much put them anywhere we like. ;) For my own ficverse, I decided it would be interesting to have them living with Andromeda, but by no means do I think that's the only option. (Someone -- I'm pretty sure it was mrstater -- had Mad-Eye leave Tonks his house! I thought that was pretty clever.)

2. Likewise with where Remus spends his transformations -- we get no information, so I think we can do anything we want with that. I've got him hanging onto his little basement flat from "All Will Be In Order" for that purpose (there's a whole fic I need to write someday about why his landlady lets him have it so cheaply, and why he and Tonks don't just live there...). The Shrieking Shack works fine, although as you say, it's awfully far north, and anywhere secure (and soundproof??) ought to work. (I've seen some ficwriters posit a secure transformation space at St. Mungo's for stories set at other times, but that wouldn't have been an option for Remus in DH once the Death Eaters had taken everything over.)

3. I think you're right about the Wolfsbane, too. Canon seems pretty clear that Snape stopped making it for Remus once he'd left Hogwarts, and that at the time he's talking to Harry at Christmas in HBP he hasn't had it since. But we don't get any information about DH one way or the other. I've got yet another plotbunny about how I think Remus does get Wolfsbane in DH, but I haven't written that one yet either, heh. (Aconite is pretty nasty stuff, and I'm not sure it would be smart for Tonks to brew with it when she's pregnant. But there might be magical ways around that, too.)

I think you're three for three -- these are all things that seem to be left completely out of canon, so I think it's up to ficwriters to play it any way we like. ;)

[starfishstar]

All good suggestions! The idea that St Mungo's has a secure werewolf transformation space is one I've seen in other fics and find quite intriguing, but haven't explored, myself, yet... I think it could raise a lot of interesting issues in terms of the wider society's treatment of werewolves. (Is it run anonymously? Or would Remus out himself publicly by going there? How public is the Werewolf Registry, anyway? All stuff I haven't explored fully yet.)

I, too, think canon makes it pretty clear that Remus doesn't have access to Wolfsbane after Hogwarts – though I'm down with anyone who wants to invent a plausible scenario that says otherwise! (Especially in DH, since we see so little of them during that year, so anything goes, I suppose.)

And finally, I love that you know your werewolf background research well enough to be able to say things like "Aconite is pretty nasty stuff, and I'm not sure it would be smart for Tonks to brew with it when she's pregnant." :-)

[solochan.livejournal.com]

Hello, here's my head-canon for this sort so of thing, but I think it's more a general feeling

Remus still has his derelict cottage in Yorkshire and Tonks most people seem to give a "ministry flat" so whether they live in either one until they stay with her parents when they find out she's pregnant.
I personally believe they stay and never leave the Tonkses just because Tonks probably needs mental and phyiscal support due to the baby, due to the fact that their whole family is targeted by Bellatrix and that even when Lupin "returns" to them, it just doesn't seem to make sense for them to find somewhere else to stay if Andromeda is grieving the loss of her husband and they'd leave her on her own. That and also I believe, after their torture after Bill and Fleur's wedding I think Remus and Tonks would want to be close to them considering the family is a target. Voldermort makes it obvious in the first chapter of DH that he wants Bellatrix to concentrate on pruning the family tree...

Here are some quotes, I hope that support this theory?


“What say you, Draco?” asked Voldemort, and though his voice was quiet, it carried clearly through the catcalls and jeers. “Will you babysit the cubs?”
The hilarity mounted; Draco Malfoy looked in terror at his father, who was staring down into his own lap, then caught his mother’s eye. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, then resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.
“Enough,” said Voldemort, stroking the angry snake. “Enough.”
And the laughter died at once.
“Many of our oldest family trees become a little diseased over time,” he said as Bellatrix gazed at him, breathless and imploring. “You must prune yours, must you not, to keep it healthy? Cut away those parts that threaten the health of the rest.”
“Yes, my Lord,” whispered Bellatrix, and her eyes swam with tears of gratitude again. “At the first chance!”"

- The Dark Lord Ascending


“So what kept you? What happened?” Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.
“Bellatrix,” said Tonks. “She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I’d got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus. … Then we got to Ron’s Auntie Muriel’s and we’d missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us —”
A muscle was jumping in Lupin’s jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.


- The Fallen Warrior


Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.
“Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don’t we? They shouldn’t be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction.”

- The Fallen Warrior



"...They used the Cruciatus Curse on Tonks’s family. Again, trying to find out where you went after you visited them. They’re all right — shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay.”
“The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?” Harry asked, remembering how effective these had been on the night he had crashed in Tonks’s parents’ garden.
“What you’ve got to realize, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now,” said Lupin. “They’ve got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we’d cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they’d come.”

- The Bribe




“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” said Ron in surprise. “Bill told me Lupin’s living with Tonks again! And apparently she’s getting pretty big too. …”

- The Deathly Hallows


(tbc in another comment hehe)

[starfishstar]

Hi, thanks for all these thoughts!

Ooh, do we know for a fact that Remus still has that Yorkshire cottage later on? I actually have him moving back to it between PoA and OotP in one fic, but in my head I was thinking of it more as a rental than as a place he owns and can go back to whenever. If he owns it, yeah, I could totally see him going there to transform! Far, far away from his family...

As for where they live, in my head they keep being in their own little flat somewhere, at least at first – I guess it just seems nice for a newly married couple starting their lives together – but I could also believe them living with Andromeda; certainly after they find out for sure that Ted has been killed, though I think that doesn't happen until sometime in the mid/late spring. I wish there were clearer information on when, exactly, Ted had to go on the run – sometime in autumn? And yes, if Andromeda stayed behind specifically so she could help Tonks, then that does imply them living together, or close by. I'll ponder that.

Shoot, even after writing this many stories about Andromeda, I manage to forget that she and Ted were tortured for information. That just kind of gets lost in the flood of all the other horrible things that happen to them, doesn't it?

But yes, very clear that the family was targeted (thanks for the quotes!), and would need to look out for each other. And awww, I love how Remus' use of the word "we" in that second to last one implies that he had a hand in casting those spells to protect Tonks' family. Aw. Looking out for each other indeed.

[solochan.livejournal.com]

(And part 2!)

As for Wolfsbane Potion, it's tricky. JK says to us from the Pottermore Bio the following and it's not mentioned again:

"One development in the wizarding community gave Remus hope; the discovery of the Wolfsbane Potion[...]However, the Wolfsbane Potion was complex and the ingredients very expensive. Remus had no chance to sample it without admitting what he was and so he continued his lonely and itinerant existence. "

- The Wolfsbane Potion, Remus Lupin Bio, Pottermore



it's difficult to buy - expensive to do so, so my prerogative tells me that he as it's so tricky to make and still in experimental mode and and because at the time werewolves are still considered more dangerous than ever it would be extremely hard to get hold of now Snape isn't on their side and Dumbledore gone, hence why I think Remus would go back to the semi derelict house in Yorkshire to transform. Somewhere he's probably transformed before.

>.> As it's described as semi derelict I can only assume the werewolf is the reason.

And now I've bombarded you. I will leave you alone. I hope this helps even a little?

[starfishstar]

Yes, all thoughts tossed into the mix are great!

I guess one (small) advantage Remus has after being outed as a werewolf at the end of PoA is that, since his condition was no longer a secret anyway, he could "sample" Wolfsbane without "admitting what he was" being an issue... That's if there was an opportunity to sample it, which I doubt there was.

I do love the idea that someone around Remus might have cared enough about him to insist on making the potion for him during DH, though I admit I doubt that's canon.