FIC: Once in a Blue Moon - Ch 69 (WIP)
Start of the story, including full ratings, warnings, pairings etc. Here
Summary for the new readers watching my journal: An AU Remus/Sirius story set in a world where an eleven year old werewolf named Remus Lupin never got his Hogwarts invitation, and where Sirius Black was not accepted by the rest of the Gryffindors. The two outcasts form a friendship despite overwhelming odds, but will their friendship survive when Sirius finds himself falling in love with his best friend...his friend who wants nothing more than to be 'normal', despite the passion he feels for the heir to the Noble House of Black.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise. J K Rowling retains all copyright.
Waiting for the Day to Break (PG13)
Remus was pacing in his cell in the Ministry, waiting for his trial to start, and more importantly waiting for Sirius to arrive.
Things were still hazy in his mind and he was struggling to fill in the gaps as to what had happened. He remembered the bike hurtling towards the ground - and had relived that moment in his nightmares - but he had no memories after that point until the time he had woken up in the same cell he was now in.
He had been told that he had been injured, and that he had transformed in the muggle hospital, but he remembered nothing of the night of the full moon at all.
He had also been told that several Healers had been brought in and worked on his injuries in the muggle hospital, and as soon as he was well enough to move, they had transferred him to his current cell in the Ministry. He had woken up there and had seen nothing outside of that small room since.
Romulus had been with him from the moment he had woken. He told him that he had not left his side for a single minute, though he had heard enough from the comings and goings of the officials to learn that Sirius had been taken to St Mungo’s. Remus had sent him to see him, and Romulus had reluctantly complied. He had returned a few minutes later with the news that he could not get in to see Sirius. Although most of St Mungo’s was accessible to him, someone had put up wards to prevent spirits from entering the private wing that Sirius was in.
Remus had scowled at the news. Wards to keep out ghosts seemed like too much of a coincidence. Someone knew that he was going to be sending Romulus to see Sirius, and someone was going to a great deal of trouble to make sure that he couldn’t get in there.
At first he had been sure that even though Romulus couldn’t get in there, one of his other friends could. He sent Romulus to James, hoping that he would have better luck.
James had come to see him, bringing Lily and Peter with him.
Lily had thrown her arms around him and promptly burst into tears. James and Peter had looked everywhere except at the two of them. The fact that James wasn’t teasing him about getting too close to Lily was just another sign of how serious the situation was.
Remus explained, as best he could, what had happened, and James took off immediately to St Mungo’s.
He was gone for a long time, but when he returned it was with the news that he had been unable to get in to see Sirius at all. He had done his best, but he had been thwarted at every turn. It seemed that no one could get past his guard dog of a Healer, who insisted he needed peace and quiet to recover, and would let no one in to see him.
Remus tried not to let the others know how scared it was, but the truth was that he was terrified.
Then James had received the note.
Remus had been relieved beyond words that Sirius was all right, but hurt at the idea of him going to stay with James, instead of going home with him.
James had gone to the hospital as soon as he had received Sirius’s message, but once again he had been denied access to see Sirius. Not even the note that he waved in front of the Healer’s nose could change her mind.
As a last resort he had attempted to sneak in under his invisibility cloak, but he wasn’t quite quick enough to slip through the door. He had been thrown from the hospital and sent on his way, and his cloak had been confiscated to ensure he didn’t try again.
James had assured him that his father would be able to get the family heirloom back, but it might take a few days, by which time the trial would be over, and it would be too late.
It was frustrating, and Remus was becoming more and more concerned, not only for himself, but also for Sirius. And that was why he had now resorted to pacing back and forth across his small cell. Deep down he knew that something else must have happened, that an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle was missing, but his trial was starting that afternoon, and he was starting to panic.
James and Peter were still trying to contact Sirius, and Romulus was searching the Ministry for Orion Black, and any clue as to what had happened to Sirius. As such, Remus was on his own when he heard a tentative knock on the door.
He turned to see Alana standing nervously in the entrance.
“Thanks for coming,” Remus said, waving her inside.
“I couldn’t let my favourite employee down,” Alana replied with a smile.
Remus snorted. “Your only employee, you mean.”
Alana took a seat opposite Remus. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Remus nodded. “I want you to do a little - what do you muggles call it? - Detective work for me.”
“I’ve already tried to get to Sirius’s parents’ house. I just can’t see it on the street, even though Romulus says it’s there.”
Remus waved his hand to dismiss her concerns. “Muggles can’t see the Black family residence. I didn’t expect you to even try.”
“So, what is it you want me to do?”
“I’d like you to try and find out what happened to my brother after he was sent to Azkaban,” Remus asked.
“You mean you don’t know?” Alana questioned. “That he’s never told you?”
“He’s frustratingly stubborn, and has perfected the art of avoiding the subject. But, I have to face it, this time I’m in more trouble than I think I can handle, and with no real hope of getting out of it unscathed. Dumbledore has warned me that things are looking bad; at best I am facing life in a Dangerous Creatures’ Camp, at worst…”
Alana nodded. She didn’t need to hear the unspoken words to know what they were.
“There are wards that keep spirits out of certain places, places like the camps. Romulus won’t be able to visit me in the camp, if I’m lucky enough to be sent to one. I don’t want to spend my life wondering what happened to him.”
“Perhaps you could ask him again…” Alana suggested quietly.
“I’ve asked him a hundred times or more,” Remus muttered with frustration. “He refuses to talk about it. Please, will you try to find out for me?”
Alana nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“He’ll tell you if you ask,” Remus assured her.
“Why would he tell me, when he won’t tell you?”
“Because it would be you asking,” Remus told her with a small smile.
Alana blushed and ducked her head.
“He’s been visiting you a lot, hasn’t he?” Remus asked quietly.
Alana nodded. “I like having him around. He’s nice and…”
“And you fancy him, too,” Remus guessed.
“I know it’s a mistake to get so attached, but I can’t help it.”
“You can’t help who you fall in love with,” Remus told her.
“I’m not in love,” Alana quickly argued. “I’m not, and even if I were, it’s not like Rom would ever want to be tied down to someone like me.”
“Did you know that only me and our little sister ever called him Rom?” Remus asked.
Alana shook her head. “He said to call him that,” she replied. “I didn’t mean to steal your nickname for him.”
“It’s okay,” Remus said. “It was strange at first to hear you say it, but the point I’m making is that Rom never let anyone else call him that. Even Sirius doesn’t call him Rom, but he let you.”
“So, you don’t mind?”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, and you know that you can’t have any sort of a future with him.”
“I know.”
A knock at the door stalled Remus’s next words and he looked up as Dumbledore entered his cell.
“Any luck?” Remus asked, even though the expression on the older man’s face was answer enough.
Dumbledore shook his head. “My owl has been returned unanswered, and my patronus can’t seem to penetrate Grimmauld Place.”
“You’re sure he’s there?”
“He left St Mungo’s by floo from St Mungo’s with his mother; I see no reason to believe he went anywhere else.”
“Have you checked our flat again?”
“Mr Pettigrew has been keeping watch there, but there’s been no sign of him.”
James appeared behind Dumbledore, his expression equally sombre. “We should have snatched him from St Mungo’s as soon as we found out he was in there,” he muttered. “The note he sent made it clear he wanted to come and stay with me for a while. I should have hexed that bloody Healer and smuggled him out.”
“Can I see the note again?” Remus asked, again feeling a stab of hurt that Sirius wanted to stay with James, and not with him. Did Sirius blame him for the accident? Was that why he was staying away?
James nodded and pulled it out of his robes. “Doesn’t say much. Just that he was being released from St Mungo’s and needed a place to stay.”
“But why would he need to stay with you?” Dumbledore questioned, speaking more to himself than to James.
“This isn’t Sirius’s handwriting,” Remus exclaimed, unable to believe that he hadn’t realised this before.
“I didn’t think it was,” James agreed. “Wasn’t entirely sure though. Not like I copied his work all the time or something.”
Dumbledore gave him a look at the comment.
“I didn’t,” James insisted, though the flush of colour on his face said differently.
“At least he’s okay,” Remus said, not for the first time. “They wouldn’t let him out of St Mungo’s if he were still badly hurt.”
Dumbledore nodded. “I spoke with the Healer in charge of his ward. She assured me that he was well enough to return home.”
“In that case, I don’t understand why he isn’t here,” Remus said.
“Had you had a fight?” Dumbledore asked. “Even a small argument?”
Remus shook his head. “We were fine. We’d been out for the evening and were on our way home when we crashed. I don’t remember anything after that; not until I woke up here in the Ministry anyway.”
A knock sounded on the door and an elderly man poked his head into the room. “We’re about to start,” he said.
Dumbledore nodded. “Are you ready?” he asked Remus.
Remus nodded and stood up. James and Alana left the room, promising to continue to try to get in touch with Sirius.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Dumbledore told the man, but holding Remus back for the moment.
“What is it?” Remus asked.
“You do know that you’ll have to speak up for yourself?” Dumbledore asked. “This isn’t going to be like the last time you were here. I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself.”
“And this time Sirius isn’t going to be here to get his father to swing the vote,” Remus added miserably.
“We’ll keep trying to get a message through to him,” Dumbledore promised and they walked through the doors and down the corridor to the Wizengamot. Remus tried to ignore the wizards trailing along beside them, their wands drawn in case he tried to escape.
“Back again?” the Chief Warlock commented. “This is becoming a habit, isn’t it, Lupin?”
Remus squirmed in his seat, feeling the hostility in the room and wishing that Sirius were there.
“Failing to take the appropriate precautions during the full moon is a very serious offence,” the Chief Warlock stated. “To transform in front of numerous muggles breaches the Statute of Secrecy and is equally serious.”
Remus wanted to say something, to argue his case, but Dumbledore prevented him from speaking with a cautious look. As long as the lecture continued, they had a little more time to try to get a message through to Sirius.
Eventually, the trial began and Remus waited for his chance to speak as he listened to the reports of what had happened during the lost days.
“It was two days before the full moon that the accident occurred,” Dumbledore stated in answer to a question from a middle-aged wizard.
“This accident was while driving a muggle contraption?” a witch on the front row of the Wizengamot asked.
Remus nodded. “A motorbike.” He didn’t add that it was crashed into the ground from the air - they really didn’t need to know about Sirius’s magical modifications to the bike, especially when he didn’t have permission to make them.
Dumbledore turned back to the room. “Remus Lupin was unconscious from the time of the accident until the transformation. His injuries were serious enough that the muggles were able to restrain him when he did transform.”
“Those muggles are extremely lucky that he didn’t bite them,” Umbridge called out.
Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the murmurs of agreement rippled through the room. He knew that it was true; he had been very lucky that his injuries had been so extensive that they had probably saved the muggle doctors and nurses who had been present.
“They are indeed,” Dumbledore agreed. “But my point is that Remus was unconscious and unable to take the appropriate precautions for the full moon only because of that. To execute him in these circumstances would be tantamount to murder.”
There was a lot of nodding heads in the room and Remus felt the knots in his stomach untangling slightly at the first real sign that he might get out of this alive.
The Chief Warlock was also nodding his agreement and a quick vote followed, confirming that Remus was not going to lose his life for this latest incident.
Remus stood up, thinking that the case was over, but it seemed that he was wrong.
“It’s quite clear that the werewolf needs someone to supervise him,” the Chief Warlock stated, and Remus sank back down into his chair. “If this were the first incident on his record then perhaps we could let it go, but it isn’t, and the safety of the population, both wizard and muggle, must be taken into consideration.”
Remus leaned forward to whisper to Dumbledore. “Sirius will supervise me.”
Dumbledore nodded and turned to the Chief Warlock. “In anticipation of this happening, we have been attempting to contact Sirius Black, the Accused’s partner. Unfortunately, he was injured in the same accident and we have been unable to contact him.”
The Chief Warlock turned to his papers. “Our records show that Black was only discovered to be in the muggle hospital after he regained consciousness. This was several days after the werewolf had been removed. Black was transferred to St Mungo’s where he remained until he was discharged two days ago.”
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. “That is what our own enquiries have revealed,” he confirmed. “We have attempted to locate Mr Black in order that he may apply to supervise Mr Lupin, but we have been unable to do so.”
“Perhaps he does not wish to take on the responsibility of a werewolf?” one of the younger members of the Wizengamot suggested.
Dumbledore shook his head. “He was prepared to take on that responsibility when he was still in school. I believe that if he were here today, he would not hesitate to do the same.”
The Chief Warlock turned to whisper something to the man sitting beside him and Remus realised that it was Sirius’s father he was speaking to.
“Does Lupin have anyone else who would be prepared to supervise him?” the Chief Warlock asked.
“I will!” James called out.
“And your relationship to the Accused?”
“He’s a mate.”
Remus watched as several heads began to shake at this declaration.
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough,” the Chief Warlock announced. “Are there any blood relations prepared to step forward?”
Remus looked across at Romulus, who was sitting next to Alana, and wished that ghosts could apply.
“May I ask whether Warlock Black can shed some light on why his son isn’t here?” Dumbledore asked.
“Senior Warlock,” Orion corrected. “And my son is recuperating at home. He is still suffering greatly following the accident, and in no position to be supervising a werewolf.”
“Suffering?” Remus asked.
“Depression mainly,” Orion replied. “He’s at home with his family, where he belongs.”
“I’m his family!” Remus shouted.
“You are merely an indiscretion. My son has finally come to his senses and realised the close shave he has had.”
“He’s my husband!” Remus yelled, rising to his feet.
“A foolish mistake,” Orion said. “My son is back with his family and I would strongly suggest you forget about him.”
Remus glared at the older man. He was sure he was lying. “I want Sirius to come here and say this to my face,” he demanded coldly.
“You are in no positions to make demands,” the Chief Warlock stated. “Is there no one else who can apply to supervise you?”
Remus shook his head.
“Very well.”
Remus listened quietly as the Wizengamot voted to send him to a Dangerous Creatures’ Camp. He glared at Orion Black, who was looking more and more smug with every single word. He was sure he was lying, but he had no idea why. Sooner or later Sirius would find out what had happened, and when he did, nothing would stop him from tracking Remus down. He just had to be patient.
Then, when he thought things couldn’t get much worse, he heard a single word that told him that it could.
Cheshire.
With that single name, Remus realised he was being sent to the same camp that Fenrir Greyback was being held in.
-o-xXx-o-
Later that day, Remus followed after O’Brien as she hurried him through the camp towards the cell that was to be his home until Sirius came to fetch him.
“You’ll be in Section B,” O’Brien explained, pointing to the building they were approaching. “You’ll be transferred with the rest of the werewolves to the high security wing one hour before sunset on full moon nights.”
Remus looked to where she was pointing at another building, that one containing no windows and looking as bleak as he imagined Azkaban did.
“Section B isn’t locked except during an emergency. Your wand will remain in storage until such time as you are released back into the community.”
Remus nodded mournfully; he’d not had a wand of his own for long, but he was already missing it.
A couple of minutes later and Remus was standing in the small room that would be his home for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t a particularly bad room, all things considered. The bed looked large and comfortable, and there was also a couple of cosy looking chairs. The bedside table contained a lamp and a box of tissues, and on the wall there were several shelves with an assortment of books and magazines on them.
Remus ran a finger along the spines of the books. Was it even worth starting one of them, when Sirius would be coming to collect him at any time?
“I’ll leave you to get settled.”
Remus turned back to O’Brien, realising that he’d missed most of what she had said. Unfortunately the woman was already disappearing out of the door.
Remus stood in the middle of the room for several long minutes. The sound of a cough in the doorway pulled him out of the thoughts of his imminent rescue. He turned to see a young man about his own age, leaning casually against the doorframe.
His hair was long and black with streaks of silver within it. Remus suspected that the silver had been added, rather than grown that way. The man displayed an easy grin and Remus wondered what he was finding so amusing.
He stared at the young man, waiting for him to speak. Green eyes stared back at him, making it clear that the young man was doing the same as he was.
Remus didn’t want to be the one to break, and eventually the other man spoke. “You’re Lupin, right?”
Remus nodded cautiously.
“Aaron Winters.” The man held out his hand and Remus shook it politely. “I was asked to come give you the tour,” Aaron explained.
“Oh, don’t trouble yourself,” Remus replied. “I’m not going to be here for long.”
“You’re not?” Aaron asked in surprise. “The evening edition of the Daily Prophet says you’ve been sent here for life.”
“It’s only until my husband can apply for supervision,” Remus explained. “Something must have come up and he missed the hearing.” He tried to make his words as casual as he could.
“According to the Prophet, Sirius Black hasn’t left his London home in weeks. What could possibly have been so important?”
“The Prophet never gives an accurate report,” Remus replied. “He was only released from St Mungo’s a couple of days ago. I’m sure he had a good reason for missing the hearing.”
“Well, anyway, the tour.” Aaron gestured towards the door, clearly indicating that Remus should follow him.
Remus shook his head. “Thanks anyway, but I won’t be here that long.”
Aaron looked like he was about to insist, but then a voice calling his name from further down the corridor pulled his attention away from Remus. “I’m on my way,” he called, before turning back to Remus briefly. “The cafeteria’s down the corridor and second on the right.”
Remus nodded and smiled politely. He wasn’t hungry and spent the remainder of the day in his room. If the case had really been reported in the Prophet, it was only a matter of time before Sirius saw it and came to get him. He was awake most of the night, listening out for any sound of someone coming to fetch him, to bring him the good news.
By the next day, he was a little less sure that his rescue was imminent.
The morning dragged on and he began to wonder what was keeping Sirius from coming to get him. Surely he’d arrived at the Ministry by now? If the case had really been reported in the papers already, then he must be aware of what had happened and where Remus was. It was simply a question of being patient, if only Remus had ever been in possession of that particular virtue.
Remus skipped lunch entirely, spending his day idly skimming old editions of Quidditch Quarterly, but by the time the sun started to go down he realised he was too hungry to forego dinner as well.
The cafeteria was crowded and Remus joined the end of the long queue to patiently wait his turn. He had just reached the trolley where the trays were stacked when he heard someone saying his name. He turned round curiously and saw a group of three men staring blatantly in his direction. He offered them a tentative smile. The glares that were returned to him wiped the smile from his face and he turned away quickly, picking up a tray and choosing his food without any real thought as to what he was taking.
He pushed the thoughts of the three men away, resolving to keep his distance from them as much as possible. Unfortunately, they were not prepared to let him do that, and whilst he was searching for a place to sit they suddenly surrounded him.
“Well, well, well,” the largest of three men commented with a smirk at his friends. “If it isn’t the most famous werewolf in Britain.”
Remus frowned and tried to side step the men.
“What’s the matter Lupin?” the second man said. “Not good enough for the rest of us animals?”
“I just don’t want any trouble,” Remus replied, scanning the room for the best way to manoeuvre round them.
The third man laughed. “You got that when you were bitten.”
“What would you know about it?” Remus snapped.
“Oh, we know a lot more than you think,” the first man laughed, shooting a glance behind him to where an older man was sitting alone at one of the tables. Remus recognised Fenrir Greyback, and recalled their last meeting with a feeling of cold dread. Greyback was glaring across at them and looked about as sociable as the trio in front of him.
“Too good for the rest of us,” the second man concluded with a knowing nod. “Just because you got to go to the famous Hogwarts and pretend to be a wizard for a few years-”
“I am a wizard,” Remus interrupted.
“So are eighty percent of the werewolves in this camp, though not according to the bigots at the Ministry. You’re the only one who got any training after they were bitten. The rest of us weren’t that lucky.”
Remus had always known that he was the first and only werewolf to be allowed to attend Hogwarts. He had even known that there were almost certainly other werewolves his own age, or thereabouts, out there who weren’t so lucky. What he hadn’t known was how they felt about the special treatment he had received from the current headmaster.
He squirmed under the hostile glares of the three men and looked around the room again. This time his gaze settled on another familiar face. Aaron was watching the four of them with some interest, though it was clear that he had no intention of approaching them. It looked like this was something Remus had to handle on his own.
He turned back to the apparent leader of the group and drew a deep breath. “I didn’t ask to be treated differently to the rest of you.”
“But you were, weren’t you?” the leader snarled. “Got to go to a proper school, got to do magic without being arrested by the Ministry for it, and all because you’re shagging a Black.”
“Sirius had nothing to do with it.”
“Didn’t he?”
“Of course not!”
“You sound pretty sure about that?”
“Sirius was fourteen when I got to go to Hogwarts, he was hardly in a position to sway the decision of the Wizengamot.”
“But, it’s amazing how those of us who aren’t shagging a Black got rounded up and sent here as soon as we were bitten. And all the time we get to read about how the lucky Remus Lupin - the poster boy for the Werewolf Division of the Ministry of Magic - is doing. How does it feel to be dumped in here like the rest of us?”
“I’ve not been dumped here.”
“Your pureblood lover’s got tired of you, and now you’re slumming it with the rest of us.”
“Sirius is coming to get me.”
“But he’s not here right now, is he?” the leader snarled, punctuating his words with a poke to Remus’s shoulder. Remus stumbled and struggled to keep the glass on his tray from toppling over.
“That’s enough Higgs,” Aaron advised in a firm and quiet tone. Remus shot him a grateful smile and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, well,” Higgs sneered. “If it isn’t our fearless leader...”
“Come on, Remus. There’s room at the table over here.” Aaron pointedly ignored Higgs and steered Remus towards the empty table.
“Thanks,” Remus offered as he sat down.
Aaron shrugged and settled down in the seat across from him.
“Higgs and his cronies are a bunch of idiots,” Aaron commented, scowling across the room to where the trio were now arguing with the staff behind the counter about something.
“I gathered that much,” Remus replied with a snort of laughter. “I take it most of the people in here are less hostile?”
“Yeah, this place isn’t so bad. I should know, I’ve been here since I was ten.”
“You were bitten when you were ten?” Remus asked quietly. He wondered why Albus Dumbledore hadn’t gone out of his way to allow Aaron to attend Hogwarts as well.
“No.” Aaron shook his head. “I was born with Lycanthropy, my mother was a werewolf and - lucky old me - I got the gene, too. She looked after me until I was ten, then she got killed and I came here.”
“You didn’t have any other relatives?”
“None that wanted to be saddled with a werewolf,” Aaron replied with far less bitterness than Remus might have expected. “I’m the second longest resident here in Section B.” Aaron looked quite proud of this fact. “It’s why I got asked to show you around.”
Remus nodded as he picked at his dinner. The encounter with Higgs and his friends had had a rather detrimental affect on his appetite.
“I’m not really a leader,” Aaron commented. “I’ve just been here for so long I sort of got the label.”
“So, I guess that makes me the new boy?” Remus guessed.
Aaron shrugged. “Here’s a tip for you, don’t back down. You were doing okay when I came to meet you; you were showing a bit of spine at least. But, you’ve got to keep doing that or they’ll eat you alive.”
“I thought you said this place wasn’t so bad?” Remus commented.
“Not as bad as the Prophet likes to make out,” Aaron admitted. “They make it sound worse than it is to try to keep all us half breeds from misbehaving. But that doesn’t mean its some sort of holiday camp. You need to stand up for yourself, don’t take any crap from idiots like Higgs, and for the love of Merlin, don’t tell anyone else that your pureblood lover is coming to get you.”
“But he-”
“Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t,” Aaron interrupted. “But take my advice and keep it quiet, or your life won’t be worth living. The way you’re going, you won’t make it a year.”
Remus nodded reluctantly, though privately he thought his life wasn’t worth living anyway, not if he was going to be spending it stuck in here.
-
Chapter 70
Summary for the new readers watching my journal: An AU Remus/Sirius story set in a world where an eleven year old werewolf named Remus Lupin never got his Hogwarts invitation, and where Sirius Black was not accepted by the rest of the Gryffindors. The two outcasts form a friendship despite overwhelming odds, but will their friendship survive when Sirius finds himself falling in love with his best friend...his friend who wants nothing more than to be 'normal', despite the passion he feels for the heir to the Noble House of Black.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognise. J K Rowling retains all copyright.
Waiting for the Day to Break (PG13)
Remus was pacing in his cell in the Ministry, waiting for his trial to start, and more importantly waiting for Sirius to arrive.
Things were still hazy in his mind and he was struggling to fill in the gaps as to what had happened. He remembered the bike hurtling towards the ground - and had relived that moment in his nightmares - but he had no memories after that point until the time he had woken up in the same cell he was now in.
He had been told that he had been injured, and that he had transformed in the muggle hospital, but he remembered nothing of the night of the full moon at all.
He had also been told that several Healers had been brought in and worked on his injuries in the muggle hospital, and as soon as he was well enough to move, they had transferred him to his current cell in the Ministry. He had woken up there and had seen nothing outside of that small room since.
Romulus had been with him from the moment he had woken. He told him that he had not left his side for a single minute, though he had heard enough from the comings and goings of the officials to learn that Sirius had been taken to St Mungo’s. Remus had sent him to see him, and Romulus had reluctantly complied. He had returned a few minutes later with the news that he could not get in to see Sirius. Although most of St Mungo’s was accessible to him, someone had put up wards to prevent spirits from entering the private wing that Sirius was in.
Remus had scowled at the news. Wards to keep out ghosts seemed like too much of a coincidence. Someone knew that he was going to be sending Romulus to see Sirius, and someone was going to a great deal of trouble to make sure that he couldn’t get in there.
At first he had been sure that even though Romulus couldn’t get in there, one of his other friends could. He sent Romulus to James, hoping that he would have better luck.
James had come to see him, bringing Lily and Peter with him.
Lily had thrown her arms around him and promptly burst into tears. James and Peter had looked everywhere except at the two of them. The fact that James wasn’t teasing him about getting too close to Lily was just another sign of how serious the situation was.
Remus explained, as best he could, what had happened, and James took off immediately to St Mungo’s.
He was gone for a long time, but when he returned it was with the news that he had been unable to get in to see Sirius at all. He had done his best, but he had been thwarted at every turn. It seemed that no one could get past his guard dog of a Healer, who insisted he needed peace and quiet to recover, and would let no one in to see him.
Remus tried not to let the others know how scared it was, but the truth was that he was terrified.
Then James had received the note.
Remus had been relieved beyond words that Sirius was all right, but hurt at the idea of him going to stay with James, instead of going home with him.
James had gone to the hospital as soon as he had received Sirius’s message, but once again he had been denied access to see Sirius. Not even the note that he waved in front of the Healer’s nose could change her mind.
As a last resort he had attempted to sneak in under his invisibility cloak, but he wasn’t quite quick enough to slip through the door. He had been thrown from the hospital and sent on his way, and his cloak had been confiscated to ensure he didn’t try again.
James had assured him that his father would be able to get the family heirloom back, but it might take a few days, by which time the trial would be over, and it would be too late.
It was frustrating, and Remus was becoming more and more concerned, not only for himself, but also for Sirius. And that was why he had now resorted to pacing back and forth across his small cell. Deep down he knew that something else must have happened, that an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle was missing, but his trial was starting that afternoon, and he was starting to panic.
James and Peter were still trying to contact Sirius, and Romulus was searching the Ministry for Orion Black, and any clue as to what had happened to Sirius. As such, Remus was on his own when he heard a tentative knock on the door.
He turned to see Alana standing nervously in the entrance.
“Thanks for coming,” Remus said, waving her inside.
“I couldn’t let my favourite employee down,” Alana replied with a smile.
Remus snorted. “Your only employee, you mean.”
Alana took a seat opposite Remus. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Remus nodded. “I want you to do a little - what do you muggles call it? - Detective work for me.”
“I’ve already tried to get to Sirius’s parents’ house. I just can’t see it on the street, even though Romulus says it’s there.”
Remus waved his hand to dismiss her concerns. “Muggles can’t see the Black family residence. I didn’t expect you to even try.”
“So, what is it you want me to do?”
“I’d like you to try and find out what happened to my brother after he was sent to Azkaban,” Remus asked.
“You mean you don’t know?” Alana questioned. “That he’s never told you?”
“He’s frustratingly stubborn, and has perfected the art of avoiding the subject. But, I have to face it, this time I’m in more trouble than I think I can handle, and with no real hope of getting out of it unscathed. Dumbledore has warned me that things are looking bad; at best I am facing life in a Dangerous Creatures’ Camp, at worst…”
Alana nodded. She didn’t need to hear the unspoken words to know what they were.
“There are wards that keep spirits out of certain places, places like the camps. Romulus won’t be able to visit me in the camp, if I’m lucky enough to be sent to one. I don’t want to spend my life wondering what happened to him.”
“Perhaps you could ask him again…” Alana suggested quietly.
“I’ve asked him a hundred times or more,” Remus muttered with frustration. “He refuses to talk about it. Please, will you try to find out for me?”
Alana nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“He’ll tell you if you ask,” Remus assured her.
“Why would he tell me, when he won’t tell you?”
“Because it would be you asking,” Remus told her with a small smile.
Alana blushed and ducked her head.
“He’s been visiting you a lot, hasn’t he?” Remus asked quietly.
Alana nodded. “I like having him around. He’s nice and…”
“And you fancy him, too,” Remus guessed.
“I know it’s a mistake to get so attached, but I can’t help it.”
“You can’t help who you fall in love with,” Remus told her.
“I’m not in love,” Alana quickly argued. “I’m not, and even if I were, it’s not like Rom would ever want to be tied down to someone like me.”
“Did you know that only me and our little sister ever called him Rom?” Remus asked.
Alana shook her head. “He said to call him that,” she replied. “I didn’t mean to steal your nickname for him.”
“It’s okay,” Remus said. “It was strange at first to hear you say it, but the point I’m making is that Rom never let anyone else call him that. Even Sirius doesn’t call him Rom, but he let you.”
“So, you don’t mind?”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt, and you know that you can’t have any sort of a future with him.”
“I know.”
A knock at the door stalled Remus’s next words and he looked up as Dumbledore entered his cell.
“Any luck?” Remus asked, even though the expression on the older man’s face was answer enough.
Dumbledore shook his head. “My owl has been returned unanswered, and my patronus can’t seem to penetrate Grimmauld Place.”
“You’re sure he’s there?”
“He left St Mungo’s by floo from St Mungo’s with his mother; I see no reason to believe he went anywhere else.”
“Have you checked our flat again?”
“Mr Pettigrew has been keeping watch there, but there’s been no sign of him.”
James appeared behind Dumbledore, his expression equally sombre. “We should have snatched him from St Mungo’s as soon as we found out he was in there,” he muttered. “The note he sent made it clear he wanted to come and stay with me for a while. I should have hexed that bloody Healer and smuggled him out.”
“Can I see the note again?” Remus asked, again feeling a stab of hurt that Sirius wanted to stay with James, and not with him. Did Sirius blame him for the accident? Was that why he was staying away?
James nodded and pulled it out of his robes. “Doesn’t say much. Just that he was being released from St Mungo’s and needed a place to stay.”
“But why would he need to stay with you?” Dumbledore questioned, speaking more to himself than to James.
“This isn’t Sirius’s handwriting,” Remus exclaimed, unable to believe that he hadn’t realised this before.
“I didn’t think it was,” James agreed. “Wasn’t entirely sure though. Not like I copied his work all the time or something.”
Dumbledore gave him a look at the comment.
“I didn’t,” James insisted, though the flush of colour on his face said differently.
“At least he’s okay,” Remus said, not for the first time. “They wouldn’t let him out of St Mungo’s if he were still badly hurt.”
Dumbledore nodded. “I spoke with the Healer in charge of his ward. She assured me that he was well enough to return home.”
“In that case, I don’t understand why he isn’t here,” Remus said.
“Had you had a fight?” Dumbledore asked. “Even a small argument?”
Remus shook his head. “We were fine. We’d been out for the evening and were on our way home when we crashed. I don’t remember anything after that; not until I woke up here in the Ministry anyway.”
A knock sounded on the door and an elderly man poked his head into the room. “We’re about to start,” he said.
Dumbledore nodded. “Are you ready?” he asked Remus.
Remus nodded and stood up. James and Alana left the room, promising to continue to try to get in touch with Sirius.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Dumbledore told the man, but holding Remus back for the moment.
“What is it?” Remus asked.
“You do know that you’ll have to speak up for yourself?” Dumbledore asked. “This isn’t going to be like the last time you were here. I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself.”
“And this time Sirius isn’t going to be here to get his father to swing the vote,” Remus added miserably.
“We’ll keep trying to get a message through to him,” Dumbledore promised and they walked through the doors and down the corridor to the Wizengamot. Remus tried to ignore the wizards trailing along beside them, their wands drawn in case he tried to escape.
“Back again?” the Chief Warlock commented. “This is becoming a habit, isn’t it, Lupin?”
Remus squirmed in his seat, feeling the hostility in the room and wishing that Sirius were there.
“Failing to take the appropriate precautions during the full moon is a very serious offence,” the Chief Warlock stated. “To transform in front of numerous muggles breaches the Statute of Secrecy and is equally serious.”
Remus wanted to say something, to argue his case, but Dumbledore prevented him from speaking with a cautious look. As long as the lecture continued, they had a little more time to try to get a message through to Sirius.
Eventually, the trial began and Remus waited for his chance to speak as he listened to the reports of what had happened during the lost days.
“It was two days before the full moon that the accident occurred,” Dumbledore stated in answer to a question from a middle-aged wizard.
“This accident was while driving a muggle contraption?” a witch on the front row of the Wizengamot asked.
Remus nodded. “A motorbike.” He didn’t add that it was crashed into the ground from the air - they really didn’t need to know about Sirius’s magical modifications to the bike, especially when he didn’t have permission to make them.
Dumbledore turned back to the room. “Remus Lupin was unconscious from the time of the accident until the transformation. His injuries were serious enough that the muggles were able to restrain him when he did transform.”
“Those muggles are extremely lucky that he didn’t bite them,” Umbridge called out.
Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the murmurs of agreement rippled through the room. He knew that it was true; he had been very lucky that his injuries had been so extensive that they had probably saved the muggle doctors and nurses who had been present.
“They are indeed,” Dumbledore agreed. “But my point is that Remus was unconscious and unable to take the appropriate precautions for the full moon only because of that. To execute him in these circumstances would be tantamount to murder.”
There was a lot of nodding heads in the room and Remus felt the knots in his stomach untangling slightly at the first real sign that he might get out of this alive.
The Chief Warlock was also nodding his agreement and a quick vote followed, confirming that Remus was not going to lose his life for this latest incident.
Remus stood up, thinking that the case was over, but it seemed that he was wrong.
“It’s quite clear that the werewolf needs someone to supervise him,” the Chief Warlock stated, and Remus sank back down into his chair. “If this were the first incident on his record then perhaps we could let it go, but it isn’t, and the safety of the population, both wizard and muggle, must be taken into consideration.”
Remus leaned forward to whisper to Dumbledore. “Sirius will supervise me.”
Dumbledore nodded and turned to the Chief Warlock. “In anticipation of this happening, we have been attempting to contact Sirius Black, the Accused’s partner. Unfortunately, he was injured in the same accident and we have been unable to contact him.”
The Chief Warlock turned to his papers. “Our records show that Black was only discovered to be in the muggle hospital after he regained consciousness. This was several days after the werewolf had been removed. Black was transferred to St Mungo’s where he remained until he was discharged two days ago.”
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. “That is what our own enquiries have revealed,” he confirmed. “We have attempted to locate Mr Black in order that he may apply to supervise Mr Lupin, but we have been unable to do so.”
“Perhaps he does not wish to take on the responsibility of a werewolf?” one of the younger members of the Wizengamot suggested.
Dumbledore shook his head. “He was prepared to take on that responsibility when he was still in school. I believe that if he were here today, he would not hesitate to do the same.”
The Chief Warlock turned to whisper something to the man sitting beside him and Remus realised that it was Sirius’s father he was speaking to.
“Does Lupin have anyone else who would be prepared to supervise him?” the Chief Warlock asked.
“I will!” James called out.
“And your relationship to the Accused?”
“He’s a mate.”
Remus watched as several heads began to shake at this declaration.
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough,” the Chief Warlock announced. “Are there any blood relations prepared to step forward?”
Remus looked across at Romulus, who was sitting next to Alana, and wished that ghosts could apply.
“May I ask whether Warlock Black can shed some light on why his son isn’t here?” Dumbledore asked.
“Senior Warlock,” Orion corrected. “And my son is recuperating at home. He is still suffering greatly following the accident, and in no position to be supervising a werewolf.”
“Suffering?” Remus asked.
“Depression mainly,” Orion replied. “He’s at home with his family, where he belongs.”
“I’m his family!” Remus shouted.
“You are merely an indiscretion. My son has finally come to his senses and realised the close shave he has had.”
“He’s my husband!” Remus yelled, rising to his feet.
“A foolish mistake,” Orion said. “My son is back with his family and I would strongly suggest you forget about him.”
Remus glared at the older man. He was sure he was lying. “I want Sirius to come here and say this to my face,” he demanded coldly.
“You are in no positions to make demands,” the Chief Warlock stated. “Is there no one else who can apply to supervise you?”
Remus shook his head.
“Very well.”
Remus listened quietly as the Wizengamot voted to send him to a Dangerous Creatures’ Camp. He glared at Orion Black, who was looking more and more smug with every single word. He was sure he was lying, but he had no idea why. Sooner or later Sirius would find out what had happened, and when he did, nothing would stop him from tracking Remus down. He just had to be patient.
Then, when he thought things couldn’t get much worse, he heard a single word that told him that it could.
Cheshire.
With that single name, Remus realised he was being sent to the same camp that Fenrir Greyback was being held in.
-o-xXx-o-
Later that day, Remus followed after O’Brien as she hurried him through the camp towards the cell that was to be his home until Sirius came to fetch him.
“You’ll be in Section B,” O’Brien explained, pointing to the building they were approaching. “You’ll be transferred with the rest of the werewolves to the high security wing one hour before sunset on full moon nights.”
Remus looked to where she was pointing at another building, that one containing no windows and looking as bleak as he imagined Azkaban did.
“Section B isn’t locked except during an emergency. Your wand will remain in storage until such time as you are released back into the community.”
Remus nodded mournfully; he’d not had a wand of his own for long, but he was already missing it.
A couple of minutes later and Remus was standing in the small room that would be his home for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t a particularly bad room, all things considered. The bed looked large and comfortable, and there was also a couple of cosy looking chairs. The bedside table contained a lamp and a box of tissues, and on the wall there were several shelves with an assortment of books and magazines on them.
Remus ran a finger along the spines of the books. Was it even worth starting one of them, when Sirius would be coming to collect him at any time?
“I’ll leave you to get settled.”
Remus turned back to O’Brien, realising that he’d missed most of what she had said. Unfortunately the woman was already disappearing out of the door.
Remus stood in the middle of the room for several long minutes. The sound of a cough in the doorway pulled him out of the thoughts of his imminent rescue. He turned to see a young man about his own age, leaning casually against the doorframe.
His hair was long and black with streaks of silver within it. Remus suspected that the silver had been added, rather than grown that way. The man displayed an easy grin and Remus wondered what he was finding so amusing.
He stared at the young man, waiting for him to speak. Green eyes stared back at him, making it clear that the young man was doing the same as he was.
Remus didn’t want to be the one to break, and eventually the other man spoke. “You’re Lupin, right?”
Remus nodded cautiously.
“Aaron Winters.” The man held out his hand and Remus shook it politely. “I was asked to come give you the tour,” Aaron explained.
“Oh, don’t trouble yourself,” Remus replied. “I’m not going to be here for long.”
“You’re not?” Aaron asked in surprise. “The evening edition of the Daily Prophet says you’ve been sent here for life.”
“It’s only until my husband can apply for supervision,” Remus explained. “Something must have come up and he missed the hearing.” He tried to make his words as casual as he could.
“According to the Prophet, Sirius Black hasn’t left his London home in weeks. What could possibly have been so important?”
“The Prophet never gives an accurate report,” Remus replied. “He was only released from St Mungo’s a couple of days ago. I’m sure he had a good reason for missing the hearing.”
“Well, anyway, the tour.” Aaron gestured towards the door, clearly indicating that Remus should follow him.
Remus shook his head. “Thanks anyway, but I won’t be here that long.”
Aaron looked like he was about to insist, but then a voice calling his name from further down the corridor pulled his attention away from Remus. “I’m on my way,” he called, before turning back to Remus briefly. “The cafeteria’s down the corridor and second on the right.”
Remus nodded and smiled politely. He wasn’t hungry and spent the remainder of the day in his room. If the case had really been reported in the Prophet, it was only a matter of time before Sirius saw it and came to get him. He was awake most of the night, listening out for any sound of someone coming to fetch him, to bring him the good news.
By the next day, he was a little less sure that his rescue was imminent.
The morning dragged on and he began to wonder what was keeping Sirius from coming to get him. Surely he’d arrived at the Ministry by now? If the case had really been reported in the papers already, then he must be aware of what had happened and where Remus was. It was simply a question of being patient, if only Remus had ever been in possession of that particular virtue.
Remus skipped lunch entirely, spending his day idly skimming old editions of Quidditch Quarterly, but by the time the sun started to go down he realised he was too hungry to forego dinner as well.
The cafeteria was crowded and Remus joined the end of the long queue to patiently wait his turn. He had just reached the trolley where the trays were stacked when he heard someone saying his name. He turned round curiously and saw a group of three men staring blatantly in his direction. He offered them a tentative smile. The glares that were returned to him wiped the smile from his face and he turned away quickly, picking up a tray and choosing his food without any real thought as to what he was taking.
He pushed the thoughts of the three men away, resolving to keep his distance from them as much as possible. Unfortunately, they were not prepared to let him do that, and whilst he was searching for a place to sit they suddenly surrounded him.
“Well, well, well,” the largest of three men commented with a smirk at his friends. “If it isn’t the most famous werewolf in Britain.”
Remus frowned and tried to side step the men.
“What’s the matter Lupin?” the second man said. “Not good enough for the rest of us animals?”
“I just don’t want any trouble,” Remus replied, scanning the room for the best way to manoeuvre round them.
The third man laughed. “You got that when you were bitten.”
“What would you know about it?” Remus snapped.
“Oh, we know a lot more than you think,” the first man laughed, shooting a glance behind him to where an older man was sitting alone at one of the tables. Remus recognised Fenrir Greyback, and recalled their last meeting with a feeling of cold dread. Greyback was glaring across at them and looked about as sociable as the trio in front of him.
“Too good for the rest of us,” the second man concluded with a knowing nod. “Just because you got to go to the famous Hogwarts and pretend to be a wizard for a few years-”
“I am a wizard,” Remus interrupted.
“So are eighty percent of the werewolves in this camp, though not according to the bigots at the Ministry. You’re the only one who got any training after they were bitten. The rest of us weren’t that lucky.”
Remus had always known that he was the first and only werewolf to be allowed to attend Hogwarts. He had even known that there were almost certainly other werewolves his own age, or thereabouts, out there who weren’t so lucky. What he hadn’t known was how they felt about the special treatment he had received from the current headmaster.
He squirmed under the hostile glares of the three men and looked around the room again. This time his gaze settled on another familiar face. Aaron was watching the four of them with some interest, though it was clear that he had no intention of approaching them. It looked like this was something Remus had to handle on his own.
He turned back to the apparent leader of the group and drew a deep breath. “I didn’t ask to be treated differently to the rest of you.”
“But you were, weren’t you?” the leader snarled. “Got to go to a proper school, got to do magic without being arrested by the Ministry for it, and all because you’re shagging a Black.”
“Sirius had nothing to do with it.”
“Didn’t he?”
“Of course not!”
“You sound pretty sure about that?”
“Sirius was fourteen when I got to go to Hogwarts, he was hardly in a position to sway the decision of the Wizengamot.”
“But, it’s amazing how those of us who aren’t shagging a Black got rounded up and sent here as soon as we were bitten. And all the time we get to read about how the lucky Remus Lupin - the poster boy for the Werewolf Division of the Ministry of Magic - is doing. How does it feel to be dumped in here like the rest of us?”
“I’ve not been dumped here.”
“Your pureblood lover’s got tired of you, and now you’re slumming it with the rest of us.”
“Sirius is coming to get me.”
“But he’s not here right now, is he?” the leader snarled, punctuating his words with a poke to Remus’s shoulder. Remus stumbled and struggled to keep the glass on his tray from toppling over.
“That’s enough Higgs,” Aaron advised in a firm and quiet tone. Remus shot him a grateful smile and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well, well,” Higgs sneered. “If it isn’t our fearless leader...”
“Come on, Remus. There’s room at the table over here.” Aaron pointedly ignored Higgs and steered Remus towards the empty table.
“Thanks,” Remus offered as he sat down.
Aaron shrugged and settled down in the seat across from him.
“Higgs and his cronies are a bunch of idiots,” Aaron commented, scowling across the room to where the trio were now arguing with the staff behind the counter about something.
“I gathered that much,” Remus replied with a snort of laughter. “I take it most of the people in here are less hostile?”
“Yeah, this place isn’t so bad. I should know, I’ve been here since I was ten.”
“You were bitten when you were ten?” Remus asked quietly. He wondered why Albus Dumbledore hadn’t gone out of his way to allow Aaron to attend Hogwarts as well.
“No.” Aaron shook his head. “I was born with Lycanthropy, my mother was a werewolf and - lucky old me - I got the gene, too. She looked after me until I was ten, then she got killed and I came here.”
“You didn’t have any other relatives?”
“None that wanted to be saddled with a werewolf,” Aaron replied with far less bitterness than Remus might have expected. “I’m the second longest resident here in Section B.” Aaron looked quite proud of this fact. “It’s why I got asked to show you around.”
Remus nodded as he picked at his dinner. The encounter with Higgs and his friends had had a rather detrimental affect on his appetite.
“I’m not really a leader,” Aaron commented. “I’ve just been here for so long I sort of got the label.”
“So, I guess that makes me the new boy?” Remus guessed.
Aaron shrugged. “Here’s a tip for you, don’t back down. You were doing okay when I came to meet you; you were showing a bit of spine at least. But, you’ve got to keep doing that or they’ll eat you alive.”
“I thought you said this place wasn’t so bad?” Remus commented.
“Not as bad as the Prophet likes to make out,” Aaron admitted. “They make it sound worse than it is to try to keep all us half breeds from misbehaving. But that doesn’t mean its some sort of holiday camp. You need to stand up for yourself, don’t take any crap from idiots like Higgs, and for the love of Merlin, don’t tell anyone else that your pureblood lover is coming to get you.”
“But he-”
“Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t,” Aaron interrupted. “But take my advice and keep it quiet, or your life won’t be worth living. The way you’re going, you won’t make it a year.”
Remus nodded reluctantly, though privately he thought his life wasn’t worth living anyway, not if he was going to be spending it stuck in here.
-
Chapter 70