The Last Joke 8/15 - 1st part
Pairing: Sirius/Remus
Summary: Falling in love with your best friend is never a good thing, especially when your best friend loves a girl. But when you find out that there is another friend who may like you, may that's the reason to try out whether the relationship would last... until the death will seperate us.
Warning: Spoilers to The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix books.
Disclaimer: I don't own the story or the characters. I'm just a fan who wants to have fun and fill the gaps ;)
Chapter Eight: Servants of Lord Voldemort - 1st part
“Remus, my dear lad, bring me the file MC1826D4, please. You know where to find it, don’t you?”
Remus smiled at the old, short wizard, the head archivist in the vast archive of the Ministry of Magic. “Of course! Magical Creatures Section, year 1826, the Irish Dragon Affair,” he said in one breath.
“Precisely!” said the old archivist, delighted. “You’re the best helper I’ve ever had.”
Remus blushed slightly.
“Really,” the old wizard went on. “You were able to learn the order of the whole archive in a very short time. You are a very smart boy.”
Remus blushed even more.
“I go and bring the file,” he said and quickly disappeared among rows of high bookcases packed with records about all the affairs, trials, cases and other public activities since year 1121 when the archive of the monastery in the royal town of New Camelot had been established.
After James, Lily and Sirius passed their tests for Auror study, Remus and Peter got work in the archive of the Ministry of Magic. Remus worked hard to familiarise himself with as many files as he could. When the old archivist noticed his effort, he gave him a special permission to take the files home, even though it wasn’t officially allowed.
Remus used to spend evenings reading the documents, trying to remember as much as he could, until Sirius made an end to his night studies for understandable reasons. Remus didn’t want to give up reading, so he had to find the way to share his free time between Sirius and his new hobby. Mostly, he would read when Sirius was busy with practicing new spells he had been taught in the Auror course. And when he managed to perform the spells without any mistake, he was eager to teach Remus, who enjoyed Sirius’s lessons as much as he enjoyed reading.
Remus would never have thought his life could have become so happy. He had work he liked, he had the person who meant very much to him by his side, and he had great friends, who didn’t mind his other self. He liked when he came to work where he met clumsy Peter, who used to get lost in a vast labyrinth of bookcases several times a day. He didn’t mind helping him with every task Peter had got, although it meant his own work became doubled. He loved the moments when they closed the archive and he could hurry home to spend a nice evening with Sirius.
Months were going by, and the only thing that could disturb their peaceful life was bad news wherever they went. As Remus noticed, records from various trials were coming to the archive too often. He read them and he could say there was something fishy about all of the cases. He told Sirius about it, and Sirius said the Aurors were much busier lately than ever before.
Remus was walking along the rows of high bookcases in Magical Creatures Section, looking for the file he had been asked for. At last, he spotted it on the highest shelf.
“Accio!”
The file jumped elegantly right into his hand.
A loud thud echoed from behind a corner. He ran there to find out what had happened. He found Peter buried under a huge pile of various kinds of files.
“Are you OK?” he asked as he was helping him on his feet.
“Yes, I was just carrying files to Dark Arts Section when I ran into this stupid bookcase,” answered Peter, annoyed. “Could you help me to tidy them away, please?”
Remus only shrugged helplessly.
“Here, take it to Mr. Libris,” he handed the file he was holding to Peter. “I’ll take care of this mess.”
“Thank you very much,” said Peter with relief and drifted away.
Remus sighed. He had to deal with similar situations every day. Nevertheless, he didn’t complain. He swept his wand lazily, and everything was in the right place.
Peter meanwhile brought the file to the archivist, who wrote down its call number into his notebook and then handed it to a wizard standing by his desk.
“Here you are, Mr. Bones. The Irish Dragon Affair, year 1826.”
“Thank you,” said the wizard and went to the one of the tables in a corner for readers.
Peter moved to a pile of files on the floor in order to sort them.
“You mixed the SG files with DA,” said Remus’s voice from behind his back. “Dark Arts are on the other side. Sports and Games are together with Misused Magic and Muggle Matters.”
“Muggle Matters! What does it have to do with Sports and Games!?” cried Peter, annoyed. He had big difficulties to remember the order of the vast archive.
Remus gave him some more advice how to sort the files and disappeared among the rows of bookcases again, for he had been sent for another document.
Two wizards who had come to the archive a while ago and now they were waiting for the file Remus had gone for stood not far from the place where Peter was sorting the files, so he could hear what they were talking about.
“Those filthy creatures! You can never trust a werewolf, they are treacherous,” said one of the wizards.
“You are right, Rookwood,” said the other one. “They may look like humans, but in fact, they are all animals.”
“Worse than animals,” agreed Rookwood with his companion.
Peter stared at them in surprise. They couldn’t be serious, those two!
The man called Rookwood noticed his look.
“What is it, boy?” he asked. “Do you want something?”
“I’m sorry,” Peter apologized. “I just can’t agree with you. Not all of the werewolves are as bad as you think.”
Both wizards stared at him in amazement.
“What do you know about them, boy? Have you ever seen a werewolf? Just in a book, I suppose,” said Rookwood in an insulting tone.
Peter frowned. “One of my best friends is a werewolf. And he’s one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met.”
The two wizards looked at each other and roared with laughter.
“Did you hear him, Travers?” laughed Rookwood. “Listen, boy,” he turned to Peter. “There is nothing like a kind werewolf in this world. They are a band of wicked existences. That friend of yours must be a really cunning guy, or you are such a fool to trust him.”
“I am not!” snapped Peter angrily. “If he was a wicked existence as you say, Dumbledore would never have allowed him to study at Hogwarts and become a qualified wizard.”
“Qualified wizard?” repeated Travers, surprised.
“A werewolf with a wand?” asked Rookwood incredulously.
“Yes,” said Peter with rising anger that they didn’t want to believe his words. “He’s over there. Remus Lupin’s his name.” He pointed at Remus, who had just returned from the maze and now used his wand to make one of the piles of sorted files to take off to the air and to fly the direction he navigated it.
“He’s a werewolf, then?” asked Rookwood now in a serious tone.
“As I say,” answered Peter firmly.
“Who did it to him?”
“Fenrir Greyback.”
“Greyback?”
Rookwood and Travers exchanged their looks once again, but this time they were the looks of curiosity.
“Are you sure about it?” asked Travers doubtfully.
At that very moment Mr. Libris called Peter to send him for another file.
“I am,” answered Peter shortly and set off for the maze.
“What do you think?” Travers asked Rookwood, whispering.
“We should find out the truth. If the boy didn’t lie, Greyback could gain a valuable ally.”
“If we were first, we could gain a valuable ally. We need only to persuade him. That brat’s worth more than that lousy Greyback.”
“What if he doesn’t want to be persuaded?”
“It would be his fatal mistake, then.”
The day was going by slowly. As the evening was coming nearer, fewer people were visiting the archive.
Peter sat down at one of the tables, exhausted, while Remus was standing by the entrance to the labyrinth, reading the file he was supposed to put into the shelf. Mr. Libris, the archivist, was controlling his notes once again and muttering something about unreliability of the court reporters who hadn’t handed in their records from that day’s trials yet.
“We’re lucky, it’s still open!” A group of three young people ran in, two boys and a girl. The old archivist gave them a frowned look to let them know he disapproved of their noisy arrival. They all made apologetic faces, and with broad smiles they went quietly to the table Peter was sitting at.
Remus put the file he had been reading back into the shelf, and with the same broad smile he joined the group.
“Hello, mates! We need your help,” said James, grinning.
“What help?” Peter asked cautiously. He didn’t feel like getting lost in the maze again.
“We have to find out who Tobold the Mad was and what kind of spell he used to defeat an unknown creature. And what that creature was, of course,” explained Lily.
“Never heard ‘bout him,” said Peter wearily.
“Nor we have, that’s why we’re here,” said Sirius, disappointed.
“I have,” said Remus, smiling. “We have a record about him here. If you wait a minute, I’ll bring it.”
James grinned. “Thanks, Moony, we knew we could rely on you.”
“You surely need a hand. I go with you,” said Sirius quickly.
Remus glanced at the archivist, who didn’t pay any attention to them. “All right, let’s go.”
Both of them set off for the labyrinth. Sirius looked over his shoulder to catch James’s grin. Lily smacked his head, but she, too, was smiling. Just Peter was watching them with a serious expression.
“The document is in Magical Creatures Section. I don’t know the year, but it should be the fifteenth century,” said Remus as they were walking along the endless rows of bookcases full of various documents.
“You’re pretty familiar with this maze,” said Sirius, amazed. “I’d get lost in a second.”
Remus smiled, but didn’t reply. He led Sirius deeper into the vast labyrinth.
“Here it is,” he said after a while. He reached for a file in one of lower shelves. “Year 1484, C25.”
“How can you know such a complicated order?” asked Sirius, wondering.
“It isn’t so complicated,” Remus turned back to him. “The only complicated thing about all of this is that too many documents are collected here. Knowing the contents of the whole archive is a matter of a lifetime.”
“And not just one, as I can see. You can’t spend your whole life reading, can you? You have to live as well,” said Sirius, and lustful sparkles flashed in his eyes. He made Remus lean against the bookcase behind his back, giving him a deep, passionate kiss. His hand wandered down Remus’s arm to the file he was holding, and when it met its target, it got hold of it.
“Let’s see who that Mad guy was,” said Sirius after he had finally let go of Remus, and he opened the file. “Oh! Everything’s in ancient English!” he cried, disappointed.
“Can’t you read ancient English?” asked Remus teasingly.
“You can?”
Remus laughed cheerfully. “No, of course not!”
“So?” Sirius was watching him suspiciously.
Remus took the file from his hand and turned several pages. “Can you read it now?” he asked, grinning.
Sirius looked at the text. “A translation! I could’ve known you weren’t so smart to read those scribbles.”
Remus chuckled.
“You like making fun of me, don’t you?” asked Sirius, looking insulted.
“Yes, I do,” said Remus and gave him a making up kiss.
“When do you finish work?” asked Sirius after a while.
“In an hour, maybe two, I don’ know. I should be at home at six in any case.”
“Well. I’ll cook something delicious while I’ll be waiting for you,” said Sirius with a smirk.
“Don’t you dare!” cried Remus, horror in his eyes. “Last time you tried to cook we weren’t able to air the house for more than two weeks!”
“But it wasn’t so horrible. At least, we didn’t suffer from lack of the fresh air.”
“It was in January. There were two degrees in the bedroom,” retorted Remus.
“All right then. I’ll buy something instead,” Sirius sighed with pretended disappointment.
“Great idea!” said Remus, smiling again. He knew Sirius was just making fun of him as well.
One more time their lips met in a sweet kiss before they set off for their way out from the maze.
“Wait a sec,” Remus said when Sirius put the file on the table their three friends were sitting around. He walked away to the desk where Mr. Libris was controlling his notes.
“How was it there?” asked James with a teasing grin.
“Do you really want to know?” asked Sirius with the same expression.
“Rather not.”
“Everything’s all right,” said Remus when he returned. “Padfoot, you can take the file home. I have to bring it back here tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Moony,” said James and stood up. “You spared us a lot of time.”
“You’re welcome,” Remus smiled. “And now out, all of you! We still have too much work to do here,” he hurried the group out from the archive.
James, Lily and Sirius left obediently.
“What can I do for you, Edgar?” Dumbledore asked the wizard standing in front of his table in the headmaster’s office.
“I accidentally witnessed a very interesting conversation an hour ago...” answered Edgar Bones.
“What about?”
“About a werewolf who studied here, at Hogwarts.”
“Oh!” Dumbledore smiled. “You mean Remus Lupin! Very kind boy, very clever, talented...”
“Yes, I heard something about his kindness. His friend and colleague in the Ministry archive, where they both work, was too eager to convince Rookwood and Travers that not every werewolf had to be bad...”
By hearing of all of that Dumbledore abruptly stood up.
“Send someone to keep an eye on the boy. He might be in a great danger!” he said in one breath.
“I’ll send Frank Longbottom.”
“Very well. Hurry!”
Edgar ran out from the office.
Dumbledore swept his wand smartly. A silver phoenix appeared and flew out from an open window.
Remus put the last file on a shelf at last. Peter had already gone. If he had been there, the work would have taken Remus much more time. He said goodbye to the old archivist, who used to stay in the archive until late night hours (and came to work very early), and walked out to the corridor.
“Can we have a word with you, lad?” asked a cold voice from behind his back.
He turned around. Two men, who had visited the archive that day, were standing there.
“Did something happen?” asked Remus cautiously. He didn’t like the looks of theirs, how they were sizing him up.
“No, we’d just like to ask you some questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Questions about you,” said the wizard who was talking to him while the other one was watching him quietly, playing with a wand in his hand.
Remus reached for his own wand in the pocket of his robes. “What about me?” he asked, frowning.
“You better leave that thing where it is,” said the wizard with the wand in his hand and pointed it at Remus. Remus let his hand sink along his body.
“Hold on, Travers! You’ll scare our young friend,” said the first wizard with a malicious smile. “You know, laddie, we found out something very interesting about you, and we’d like to check up on it,” he said in a friendly tone.
“What kind of things?” asked Remus and made a step backwards. He didn’t like those men; something sinister was looking from their eyes.
He didn’t need much time to realize his situation wasn’t good at all. It was useless to turn around and run away in the long, straight corridor lit by many torches. A well-aimed curse could have hit him any time. He felt the wand in his pocket; he’d love to pull it out and fight if necessary, but he was very well aware there was no chance as long as Travers had his wand in his hand.
Remus was trapped.
“Come with us to a more private place, and we can talk openly.”
“I’m sorry I can’t. I need to hurry back home,” he said politely, but firmly.
The wizard talking to him laughed. “Who’s waiting for you? Parents, girlfriend, or young wife?”
Remus frowned even more and made another step backwards.
“Uh-uh, laddie, you’re going with us, willing or not. Travers!” The wizard gave his companion a sign.
Everything happened in a second. Blue sparks shot out from Travers’s wand. At the very moment Remus pulled out his own wand, but didn’t have enough time to use it. He felt sharp pain in his chest as though a knife was cutting his lungs into pieces. He couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t do anything.
The wand fell out from his hand. He was staring at the both wizards in horror. His lungs didn’t want to be filled with air no matter how hard he was trying, and it was a hell good reason to start panicking. He was going to die for sure. The thought of Sirius waiting for him at home and looking forward to their evening in two slipped into his mind.
“Sirius,” he wanted to whisper, but no sound came out from his mouth.
“How are you feeling, little werewolf? It hurts, doesn’t it?” asked a cold voice. “You cannot breathe, and your lungs desperately call for air. You’ve got no choice but to go with us if you don’t want to die.”
They didn’t wait for his answer; there was no chance for Remus to say a word anyway. They made him stand up and dragged him somewhere into the depth of the Ministry where he had never been before. He was close to faint. Mist appeared before his eyes, he couldn’t see anything. He felt his own feet obediently walking the way the wizards were leading him. He couldn’t do anything; he was too weak. All the sounds around - rustling of robes, footsteps on the hard stone floor - everything fell silent. He expected to hear his own heart beating, but it was like dead as well.
No! I don’t want to die! Sirius, help me!
Suddenly, the pain in his chest stopped. He took a deep breath and started coughing. His stomach was about to let everybody know its contents.
“Damn! He’s going to vomit! Bellatrix will kill us if he dirties the carpet!” he heard a nervous voice above his head. At least, he could hear again. He felt a soft carpet under his body. The mist before his eyes was slowly vanishing.
He stopped coughing. He took several deep breaths. His lungs were filled with air, giving him the knowledge he was still alive. He felt sick and dizzy.
“Can you speak, wolf cub?” The wizard who had talked to him in the corridor was bending over him.
“How... do you... know?” Remus asked with effort.
“It doesn’t matter,” snapped the wizard. “We’ve got a few questions. You are Greyback’s, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Are you from Greyback’s pack?”
“I don’t understand. What is this all about?” asked Remus and tried to stand up. Lying on the floor wasn’t a very convenient position in a company of two dangerous madmen. But his legs betrayed him; they were like jelly, too weak to carry him, so he stayed sitting.
“Don’t lie to us, cub, I warn you. You’re a wizard and a werewolf in one. You’re too precious to Greyback to let you live on your own.”
“I’ve got nothing to do with Greyback,” said Remus firmly. “The first and the last time I saw him was when he bit me.”
The wizards exchanged their looks.
“What do you think, Rookwood?” asked Travers and gave Remus a suspicious gaze.
Rookwood rolled up the sleeve on his left forearm. Remus could see something like a vivid red tattoo - a skull, with a snake protruding from its mouth.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked and didn’t even wait for Remus to answer. “This is the Dark Mark. You surely know what it means, don’t you?”
“Yes, it means there are Death Eaters spying at the Ministry,” muttered Remus without thinking.
That was bad, very bad. In hands of Death Eaters his chance to see the sunrise tomorrow was very low. What did they want from him, actually?
“What do you want from me? Why did you bring me here?” he asked, frowning.
Rookwood straightened up.
“So you are not from Greyback’s filthy band, then?”
“I’ve just told you.”
“All right, all right,” said Rookwood quickly. His voice was much friendlier than a while ago. “Can you stand up? We can talk like equal men.”
Yes, equal men, thought Remus doubtfully. He used the chance and tried to stand up again. This time, holding on the wall with his hand, he managed. He looked at the two Death Eaters. He noticed Travers holding a wand in his hand - Remus’s wand!
Rookwood noticed Remus’s alarmed stare.
“Don’t worry, boy. It’s just a precaution. You don’t trust us and we don’t trust you. But we can change it. We offer you alliance.”
Remus looked at him, perplexed. “Excuse me?”
“You heard well. We’d like you to join our lines. Under the Dark Lord’s command you can get fortune, fame, and respect. He’ll give you anything as a reward for your loyalty.”
Remus was staring at him, confused. He didn’t know what to think about the whole situation. Death Eaters wanted him to join them! How ridiculous!
“As a werewolf, you’ll be disgraced, humiliated, hurt from the whole wizarding world. You’ll be an outsider without any right to desire. That’s what is waiting for you out there. Join us, and you’ll get whatever you want.”
“You really want me to join you?” asked Remus incredulously.
The situation started being too complicated. He needed to be extremely careful. One wrong word could cost him his life.
“Yes, join us. Become one of the Dark Lord’s servants. You’re a wizard. You can get rid of that filthy, treacherous Greyback and become the leader of the werewolf community instead of him. I’m sure they will follow you.”
Remus’s brain was working at full speed. If he made an impression he agreed, perhaps he would get his wand back.
“What about full moons? May I hunt freely?”
Rookwood laughed. “Indeed! So you agree?”
“I need some time to think about it,” said Remus evasively.
“There’s nothing to think about. Take it or die,” said Travers, who had been silent for the whole time Rookwood had been talking to Remus, and pointed Remus’s wand at its owner.
“Slowly, Travers!” Rookwood stopped him.
He turned back to Remus.
“Travers is right. We can’t afford to wait. We want your answer right away.”
“It is not so simple,” said Remus. He tried to play for time. “Where are we, by the way?” He looked around the spacious room. There was a long mahogany table in the midst, expensive tapestries on the stone walls, and a treasurable carpet on the floor. The light of many torches was giving the place solemn atmosphere. Remus was looking for a door. He spotted it in a distant end of the room.
Suddenly, the door opened and a woman with long black hair walked in. Her movements were as graceful as of a queen. There was no doubt about her aristocratic lineage. The look of her eyes was of someone who felt to be worthier than others around. When she spotted the Death Eaters with Remus, she stopped and looked at them coldly.
“What are you doing here? Who’s that?” she asked sternly and sized Remus up. “Do I know you? You appear familiar to me...” she asked him, giving no time to Rookwood and Travers to answer her previous question.
Remus stayed quiet. This woman might not have remembered him, but he remembered her very well. He had seen her once at King’s Cross station in the company of Sirius’s parents, and he could never forget the disdain in her eyes as she had pierced him with her look that time when Sirius had named him his friend right in front of her. She was called Bellatrix Lestrange.
The look of her cold, dark eyes was so penetrating that Remus shivered unconsciously, but he didn’t look away and bravely endured her questioning gaze.
“Hogwarts, was it?” she was guessing. “What was your house?”
“Gryffindor,” answered Remus truthfully.
Bellatrix snorted contemptuously. “My stupid cousin was in Gryffindor, too,” she said. “Have you known Sirius Black?”
Remus flinched a little.
“Yes,” he said cautiously. “Why?”
Bellatrix frowned. “I’m the one who’s giving questions here,” she said with hostility. “Were you two friends?” she continued the hearing.
“No,” lied Remus. As he knew about the relationship between Sirius and the rest of his family, admitting they were friends might have been too dangerous. “He was arrogant and bossy,” he added quickly when he had noticed Bellatrix eyeing him mistrustfully.
“Do you know him, Bellatrix?” asked Rookwood, using the pause in their conversation.
“I thought so. It seems I was wrong,” she said thoughtfully. “Why is he here, anyway?” she turned to the both Death Eaters.
Rookwood led her from the earshot of Remus.
“He’s both a werewolf and a wizard,” he whispered. “I thought we could use him.”
“Use him? What for?” asked Bellatrix incredulously. “If he studied at Hogwarts, he’s more likely Dumbledore’s man than Greyback’s puppet,” she said reasonably.
“I don’t think werewolves are able to feel something like gratitude. And what future can he have, anyway?”
“Of what kind of use could he be to us?” Bellatrix asked again.
“With the Dark Mark he would be directly under the Dark Lord’s command and other werewolves under his...”
“What about Greyback? He’s the leader...”
“We don’t need Greyback. Who’s better? A filthy, stupid half-breed or a young ambitious wizard?”
“Who said the other werewolves would follow the brat?”
“They’d follow the more powerful one, like dogs. And if Greyback accidentally disappears... He’s treacherous, I don’t trust him.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you trust him. Everything depends on the Dark Lord’s will.”
“But if Greyback gets to the cub, he surely won’t leave him alone,” Rookwood didn’t want to give up.
“Kill the brat if you are so afraid of him,” retorted Bellatrix, annoyed.
It seemed Rookwood wanted to say more, but he was interrupted by the sound of opening the door, and a wizard, not much younger than Remus, stepped in.
“Bellatrix, Rodolphus’s back and...” he started speaking, but fell silent when he noticed she wasn’t there alone.
“That’s all right, Regulus, come in,” said Bellatrix amicably.
Remus, standing by the stone wall under Travers watch, stared at Sirius’s younger brother in surprise. What was he doing so far from Hogwarts where he was supposed to be doing his homework in the Slytherin common room together with his schoolmates at the moment? Did it mean... did it really mean he was a...?
Regulus noticed Remus’s astonished look.
“You!” he cried in the same amazement.
“Do you know him?” asked Bellatrix and looked at Remus suspiciously.
This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. Remus cast a quick look at his wand in Travers hand. The wizard was watching him carefully.
“Of course I know him!” Regulus answered. “He’s a friend of Sirius. I used to see them hanging together at Hogwarts often.”
“A friend?” Bellatrix’s eyes narrowed. She glared sinisterly at Remus. “So arrogant and bossy?” she made a step forward. “You rude little beast!” she cried furiously. “I’ll teach you a lesson!”
She pulled out her wand.
“Crucio!”
Remus didn’t have much time to think. He jumped to Travers, and instead of trying to get his wand back as the wizard expected him to do, he just hid behind the bigger body and so confused him. Before Travers could realize what was going on Bellatrix’s curse hit him with its full strength. He fell down, writhing in pain.
Remus used the moment of surprise. He reached for his wand that had fallen out from Travers’s hand.
“Accio!”
The wand flew right into Rookwood’s hand.
“Crucio!” cried Bellatrix again, and this time she didn’t miss the target.
Never in his life had Remus felt a greater pain. Even his werewolf transformations were less torturing than this. His body was like on fire, his insides felt like being torn by a hungry wild animal.
“Crucio, crucio, crucio!!!” Bellatrix was shouting, berserk.
“That’s enough, Bella!” a clear man’s voice echoed from the door.
The pain stopped. Remus was shaking wildly all over, lying on the soft carpet, panting. He looked the way the voice had come from. Through the mist before his eyes he could recognize merely a silhouette of a tall man walking to Bellatrix.
“We have no time to play,” he scolded her.
“Leave me alone, Rodolphus! I’ll kill that lousy werewolf!” Bellatrix yelled.
“Dark Lord’s on his way here,” said the stern voice of Rodolphus.
Bellatrix calmed down at once.
“He’s coming? Is he staying here tonight?” she asked excitedly.
“Regulus, take him to the cellar,” Remus heard Rodolphus, and he saw a blurred figure leaning over him. His hands had been bound behind his back by Rookwood’s spell before Regulus helped him to his feet and dragged him out from the room.
“Tobold the Mad, in year 1484 he fought a chimaera that lived in a hole in mountains close to the village called Morgana’s Gate in Scotland. The local inhabitants suffered from the bloody attacks of the creature. Tobold was a wanderer. During his visit in Morgana’s Gate he sought the chimaera and killed it in a very cruel way - he used a Breathcutting Curse,” Lily read the notes she had made while together with James and Sirius she had been studying the document Remus had borrowed them from the Ministry archive.
“What’s that Breathcutting Curse?” asked James curiously.
“It’s a killing curse,” explained Lily. “It makes it impossible for the victim to breathe freely. Well, you can get a minute amount of air into your lungs, but it just lengthens your suffering. The cursed one dies slowly of lack of air in great agony.”
“How cruel,” Sirius said, disgusted.
“The curse was favoured until the end of the sixteenth century when it was substituted by the instant killing curse Avada Kedavra,” Lily finished.
“It was really more humane way to kill someone,” said James sarcastically.
Sirius looked at the watch on James’s wrist. “Half past six. Where can he possibly be? He said he’d be at home until six,” he said, unsatisfied.
“Don’t worry, he’s here in any minute for sure,” said James unconcernedly.
“He’s never late,” said Sirius, frowning.
“Well, we’re done here. We can go and return the file back to the archive if you want, and in case we meet Moony, we can tell him to hurry back home,” suggested Lily, seeing Sirius’s unease.
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” James agreed and stood up from the table in the kitchen in Sirius’s and Remus’s house.
Sirius nodded, saying nothing.
Lily took the file, and together with James they went to the Ministry of Magic.
The archive door was still unlocked. They were about to enter when a young wizard stormed past them into the archive.
“Frank!” cried James when he recognised the wizard.
“Oh! Hello James, hello Lily. I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry,” said Frank Longbottom hastily and hurried to the desk where the old archivist was sorting his notes.
James and Lily walked in after Frank.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Frank apologised to the archivist. “I need to know whether Remus Lupin works here?” he asked with urgency in his voice.
Mr. Libris looked puzzled. “Yes... yes, he works here. But he left already.”
“When?”
“It was about five o’clock or so.”
“Was he alone?”
“Yes, why?”
James and Lily looked at each other.
“What’s the matter, Frank?” asked James. “What’s up with Remus?”
The Auror turned to him. “Do you know him?”
“He’s our friend,” answered Lily.
Frank sized both Lily and James up.
“Come with me,” he said after a while.
Lily put the file she was holding on the archivist’s desk, and together with James she followed Frank Longbottom out from the archive.
“Dumbledore thinks he might be in trouble,” said Frank as they were walking along an empty corridor.
“What kind of trouble?” James asked.
“Well, he said Death Eaters might’ve been after him.”
Lily gasped.
“Death Eaters? But why?” she asked.
“It’s hard to talk about it. I don’t know whether he told you…” started Frank hesitantly, “… and I’m not sure if it’s really true, it might be rubbish, who knows...?”
“What?” James was impatient.
“He’s a werewolf,” said Frank at last.
“Oh, that...”
“You know...?” asked Frank, confused.
“Yes, we’ve known it for years,” said James calmly. “What about the Death Eaters?” he asked, but Frank just raised his hand to silence him.
They reached one of the side exists from the Ministry. Frank led them out. They were walking an empty side street when they heard a familiar voice.
“Here!”
It was Alastor Moody. Frank went to him, James and Lily at his heels.
“What are you two doing here?” asked Moody sternly.
“They are friends of Remus Lupin,” explained Frank.
“Classmates from Hogwarts,” added James quickly when he noticed Moody’s suspicious glare.
“You’ve really got an interesting friend. A werewolf,” said Moody, but not with hostility or anger. It was a mere comment.
A figure of a tall wizard with long silver beard and half-moon spectacles appeared on the pavement.
“I could expect to meet Remus’s friends here,” said Dumbledore with a smile when he came to the group.
“He wasn’t there,” spoke Frank Longbottom immediately. “He left sometimes around five and he was alone.”
“It doesn’t mean he left the Ministry alone,” said Moody.
“That’s exactly what I think,” agreed Dumbledore. “Rookwood and Travers took him with them.”
“What do Death Eaters want from Remus?” asked James nervously.
Dumbledore looked at him earnestly. “He is valuable to them. If I am right, they want him to become one of them. As their ally, he could establish his own army of werewolves directly under Lord Voldemort’s command.”
“Remus would never do such a thing,” said Lily, convinced.
Dumbledore looked at her. “That’s why he is in deadly peril. Unfortunately, I can’t go with you. Crouch insists on a visit tonight. I may catch up with you later,” he said.
“That’s all right. Frank and I will handle it,” said Moody and Frank nodded.
“We go with you,” said James and looked at Moody in a way that should have told the Auror he wasn’t willing to hear anything else than “yes” from him.
Moody raised his eyebrow and looked at Dumbledore, who nodded.
“You’ve got guts, Potter,” said the Auror in the end. “Well then. The more the better as long as not too many. What about you, lassie?” he turned to Lily.
She didn’t answer; she pulled the sleeve of James’s robes instead. “Sirius doesn’t know anything. Someone should tell him.”
“Lily’s right. As I know Sirius, he’d definitely go to rescue Remus,” said James to the Aurors.
It looked Moody was losing his patience. “We’ve got no time to waste,” he said, annoyed.
“Lily,” Dumbledore addressed her, “you go and tell Sirius, and then both of you can catch up with Alastor, Frank, and James. I’m convinced they took Remus to Lestrange manor. It is in the West London. It is the most pretentious residence in the vicinity. Now hurry!”
Lily nodded and Disapparated.
“Good luck to all of you. Be careful,” said Dumbledore to the rest.
They all Disapparated as Lily did a while ago.
Back to Chapter Seven:
http://yukiowin.livejournal.com/2534.html
Link to Chapter Eight - 2nd part:
http://yukiowin.livejournal.com/3182.html
Summary: Falling in love with your best friend is never a good thing, especially when your best friend loves a girl. But when you find out that there is another friend who may like you, may that's the reason to try out whether the relationship would last... until the death will seperate us.
Warning: Spoilers to The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix books.
Disclaimer: I don't own the story or the characters. I'm just a fan who wants to have fun and fill the gaps ;)
Chapter Eight: Servants of Lord Voldemort - 1st part
“Remus, my dear lad, bring me the file MC1826D4, please. You know where to find it, don’t you?”
Remus smiled at the old, short wizard, the head archivist in the vast archive of the Ministry of Magic. “Of course! Magical Creatures Section, year 1826, the Irish Dragon Affair,” he said in one breath.
“Precisely!” said the old archivist, delighted. “You’re the best helper I’ve ever had.”
Remus blushed slightly.
“Really,” the old wizard went on. “You were able to learn the order of the whole archive in a very short time. You are a very smart boy.”
Remus blushed even more.
“I go and bring the file,” he said and quickly disappeared among rows of high bookcases packed with records about all the affairs, trials, cases and other public activities since year 1121 when the archive of the monastery in the royal town of New Camelot had been established.
After James, Lily and Sirius passed their tests for Auror study, Remus and Peter got work in the archive of the Ministry of Magic. Remus worked hard to familiarise himself with as many files as he could. When the old archivist noticed his effort, he gave him a special permission to take the files home, even though it wasn’t officially allowed.
Remus used to spend evenings reading the documents, trying to remember as much as he could, until Sirius made an end to his night studies for understandable reasons. Remus didn’t want to give up reading, so he had to find the way to share his free time between Sirius and his new hobby. Mostly, he would read when Sirius was busy with practicing new spells he had been taught in the Auror course. And when he managed to perform the spells without any mistake, he was eager to teach Remus, who enjoyed Sirius’s lessons as much as he enjoyed reading.
Remus would never have thought his life could have become so happy. He had work he liked, he had the person who meant very much to him by his side, and he had great friends, who didn’t mind his other self. He liked when he came to work where he met clumsy Peter, who used to get lost in a vast labyrinth of bookcases several times a day. He didn’t mind helping him with every task Peter had got, although it meant his own work became doubled. He loved the moments when they closed the archive and he could hurry home to spend a nice evening with Sirius.
Months were going by, and the only thing that could disturb their peaceful life was bad news wherever they went. As Remus noticed, records from various trials were coming to the archive too often. He read them and he could say there was something fishy about all of the cases. He told Sirius about it, and Sirius said the Aurors were much busier lately than ever before.
Remus was walking along the rows of high bookcases in Magical Creatures Section, looking for the file he had been asked for. At last, he spotted it on the highest shelf.
“Accio!”
The file jumped elegantly right into his hand.
A loud thud echoed from behind a corner. He ran there to find out what had happened. He found Peter buried under a huge pile of various kinds of files.
“Are you OK?” he asked as he was helping him on his feet.
“Yes, I was just carrying files to Dark Arts Section when I ran into this stupid bookcase,” answered Peter, annoyed. “Could you help me to tidy them away, please?”
Remus only shrugged helplessly.
“Here, take it to Mr. Libris,” he handed the file he was holding to Peter. “I’ll take care of this mess.”
“Thank you very much,” said Peter with relief and drifted away.
Remus sighed. He had to deal with similar situations every day. Nevertheless, he didn’t complain. He swept his wand lazily, and everything was in the right place.
Peter meanwhile brought the file to the archivist, who wrote down its call number into his notebook and then handed it to a wizard standing by his desk.
“Here you are, Mr. Bones. The Irish Dragon Affair, year 1826.”
“Thank you,” said the wizard and went to the one of the tables in a corner for readers.
Peter moved to a pile of files on the floor in order to sort them.
“You mixed the SG files with DA,” said Remus’s voice from behind his back. “Dark Arts are on the other side. Sports and Games are together with Misused Magic and Muggle Matters.”
“Muggle Matters! What does it have to do with Sports and Games!?” cried Peter, annoyed. He had big difficulties to remember the order of the vast archive.
Remus gave him some more advice how to sort the files and disappeared among the rows of bookcases again, for he had been sent for another document.
Two wizards who had come to the archive a while ago and now they were waiting for the file Remus had gone for stood not far from the place where Peter was sorting the files, so he could hear what they were talking about.
“Those filthy creatures! You can never trust a werewolf, they are treacherous,” said one of the wizards.
“You are right, Rookwood,” said the other one. “They may look like humans, but in fact, they are all animals.”
“Worse than animals,” agreed Rookwood with his companion.
Peter stared at them in surprise. They couldn’t be serious, those two!
The man called Rookwood noticed his look.
“What is it, boy?” he asked. “Do you want something?”
“I’m sorry,” Peter apologized. “I just can’t agree with you. Not all of the werewolves are as bad as you think.”
Both wizards stared at him in amazement.
“What do you know about them, boy? Have you ever seen a werewolf? Just in a book, I suppose,” said Rookwood in an insulting tone.
Peter frowned. “One of my best friends is a werewolf. And he’s one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met.”
The two wizards looked at each other and roared with laughter.
“Did you hear him, Travers?” laughed Rookwood. “Listen, boy,” he turned to Peter. “There is nothing like a kind werewolf in this world. They are a band of wicked existences. That friend of yours must be a really cunning guy, or you are such a fool to trust him.”
“I am not!” snapped Peter angrily. “If he was a wicked existence as you say, Dumbledore would never have allowed him to study at Hogwarts and become a qualified wizard.”
“Qualified wizard?” repeated Travers, surprised.
“A werewolf with a wand?” asked Rookwood incredulously.
“Yes,” said Peter with rising anger that they didn’t want to believe his words. “He’s over there. Remus Lupin’s his name.” He pointed at Remus, who had just returned from the maze and now used his wand to make one of the piles of sorted files to take off to the air and to fly the direction he navigated it.
“He’s a werewolf, then?” asked Rookwood now in a serious tone.
“As I say,” answered Peter firmly.
“Who did it to him?”
“Fenrir Greyback.”
“Greyback?”
Rookwood and Travers exchanged their looks once again, but this time they were the looks of curiosity.
“Are you sure about it?” asked Travers doubtfully.
At that very moment Mr. Libris called Peter to send him for another file.
“I am,” answered Peter shortly and set off for the maze.
“What do you think?” Travers asked Rookwood, whispering.
“We should find out the truth. If the boy didn’t lie, Greyback could gain a valuable ally.”
“If we were first, we could gain a valuable ally. We need only to persuade him. That brat’s worth more than that lousy Greyback.”
“What if he doesn’t want to be persuaded?”
“It would be his fatal mistake, then.”
The day was going by slowly. As the evening was coming nearer, fewer people were visiting the archive.
Peter sat down at one of the tables, exhausted, while Remus was standing by the entrance to the labyrinth, reading the file he was supposed to put into the shelf. Mr. Libris, the archivist, was controlling his notes once again and muttering something about unreliability of the court reporters who hadn’t handed in their records from that day’s trials yet.
“We’re lucky, it’s still open!” A group of three young people ran in, two boys and a girl. The old archivist gave them a frowned look to let them know he disapproved of their noisy arrival. They all made apologetic faces, and with broad smiles they went quietly to the table Peter was sitting at.
Remus put the file he had been reading back into the shelf, and with the same broad smile he joined the group.
“Hello, mates! We need your help,” said James, grinning.
“What help?” Peter asked cautiously. He didn’t feel like getting lost in the maze again.
“We have to find out who Tobold the Mad was and what kind of spell he used to defeat an unknown creature. And what that creature was, of course,” explained Lily.
“Never heard ‘bout him,” said Peter wearily.
“Nor we have, that’s why we’re here,” said Sirius, disappointed.
“I have,” said Remus, smiling. “We have a record about him here. If you wait a minute, I’ll bring it.”
James grinned. “Thanks, Moony, we knew we could rely on you.”
“You surely need a hand. I go with you,” said Sirius quickly.
Remus glanced at the archivist, who didn’t pay any attention to them. “All right, let’s go.”
Both of them set off for the labyrinth. Sirius looked over his shoulder to catch James’s grin. Lily smacked his head, but she, too, was smiling. Just Peter was watching them with a serious expression.
“The document is in Magical Creatures Section. I don’t know the year, but it should be the fifteenth century,” said Remus as they were walking along the endless rows of bookcases full of various documents.
“You’re pretty familiar with this maze,” said Sirius, amazed. “I’d get lost in a second.”
Remus smiled, but didn’t reply. He led Sirius deeper into the vast labyrinth.
“Here it is,” he said after a while. He reached for a file in one of lower shelves. “Year 1484, C25.”
“How can you know such a complicated order?” asked Sirius, wondering.
“It isn’t so complicated,” Remus turned back to him. “The only complicated thing about all of this is that too many documents are collected here. Knowing the contents of the whole archive is a matter of a lifetime.”
“And not just one, as I can see. You can’t spend your whole life reading, can you? You have to live as well,” said Sirius, and lustful sparkles flashed in his eyes. He made Remus lean against the bookcase behind his back, giving him a deep, passionate kiss. His hand wandered down Remus’s arm to the file he was holding, and when it met its target, it got hold of it.
“Let’s see who that Mad guy was,” said Sirius after he had finally let go of Remus, and he opened the file. “Oh! Everything’s in ancient English!” he cried, disappointed.
“Can’t you read ancient English?” asked Remus teasingly.
“You can?”
Remus laughed cheerfully. “No, of course not!”
“So?” Sirius was watching him suspiciously.
Remus took the file from his hand and turned several pages. “Can you read it now?” he asked, grinning.
Sirius looked at the text. “A translation! I could’ve known you weren’t so smart to read those scribbles.”
Remus chuckled.
“You like making fun of me, don’t you?” asked Sirius, looking insulted.
“Yes, I do,” said Remus and gave him a making up kiss.
“When do you finish work?” asked Sirius after a while.
“In an hour, maybe two, I don’ know. I should be at home at six in any case.”
“Well. I’ll cook something delicious while I’ll be waiting for you,” said Sirius with a smirk.
“Don’t you dare!” cried Remus, horror in his eyes. “Last time you tried to cook we weren’t able to air the house for more than two weeks!”
“But it wasn’t so horrible. At least, we didn’t suffer from lack of the fresh air.”
“It was in January. There were two degrees in the bedroom,” retorted Remus.
“All right then. I’ll buy something instead,” Sirius sighed with pretended disappointment.
“Great idea!” said Remus, smiling again. He knew Sirius was just making fun of him as well.
One more time their lips met in a sweet kiss before they set off for their way out from the maze.
“Wait a sec,” Remus said when Sirius put the file on the table their three friends were sitting around. He walked away to the desk where Mr. Libris was controlling his notes.
“How was it there?” asked James with a teasing grin.
“Do you really want to know?” asked Sirius with the same expression.
“Rather not.”
“Everything’s all right,” said Remus when he returned. “Padfoot, you can take the file home. I have to bring it back here tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Moony,” said James and stood up. “You spared us a lot of time.”
“You’re welcome,” Remus smiled. “And now out, all of you! We still have too much work to do here,” he hurried the group out from the archive.
James, Lily and Sirius left obediently.
“What can I do for you, Edgar?” Dumbledore asked the wizard standing in front of his table in the headmaster’s office.
“I accidentally witnessed a very interesting conversation an hour ago...” answered Edgar Bones.
“What about?”
“About a werewolf who studied here, at Hogwarts.”
“Oh!” Dumbledore smiled. “You mean Remus Lupin! Very kind boy, very clever, talented...”
“Yes, I heard something about his kindness. His friend and colleague in the Ministry archive, where they both work, was too eager to convince Rookwood and Travers that not every werewolf had to be bad...”
By hearing of all of that Dumbledore abruptly stood up.
“Send someone to keep an eye on the boy. He might be in a great danger!” he said in one breath.
“I’ll send Frank Longbottom.”
“Very well. Hurry!”
Edgar ran out from the office.
Dumbledore swept his wand smartly. A silver phoenix appeared and flew out from an open window.
Remus put the last file on a shelf at last. Peter had already gone. If he had been there, the work would have taken Remus much more time. He said goodbye to the old archivist, who used to stay in the archive until late night hours (and came to work very early), and walked out to the corridor.
“Can we have a word with you, lad?” asked a cold voice from behind his back.
He turned around. Two men, who had visited the archive that day, were standing there.
“Did something happen?” asked Remus cautiously. He didn’t like the looks of theirs, how they were sizing him up.
“No, we’d just like to ask you some questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Questions about you,” said the wizard who was talking to him while the other one was watching him quietly, playing with a wand in his hand.
Remus reached for his own wand in the pocket of his robes. “What about me?” he asked, frowning.
“You better leave that thing where it is,” said the wizard with the wand in his hand and pointed it at Remus. Remus let his hand sink along his body.
“Hold on, Travers! You’ll scare our young friend,” said the first wizard with a malicious smile. “You know, laddie, we found out something very interesting about you, and we’d like to check up on it,” he said in a friendly tone.
“What kind of things?” asked Remus and made a step backwards. He didn’t like those men; something sinister was looking from their eyes.
He didn’t need much time to realize his situation wasn’t good at all. It was useless to turn around and run away in the long, straight corridor lit by many torches. A well-aimed curse could have hit him any time. He felt the wand in his pocket; he’d love to pull it out and fight if necessary, but he was very well aware there was no chance as long as Travers had his wand in his hand.
Remus was trapped.
“Come with us to a more private place, and we can talk openly.”
“I’m sorry I can’t. I need to hurry back home,” he said politely, but firmly.
The wizard talking to him laughed. “Who’s waiting for you? Parents, girlfriend, or young wife?”
Remus frowned even more and made another step backwards.
“Uh-uh, laddie, you’re going with us, willing or not. Travers!” The wizard gave his companion a sign.
Everything happened in a second. Blue sparks shot out from Travers’s wand. At the very moment Remus pulled out his own wand, but didn’t have enough time to use it. He felt sharp pain in his chest as though a knife was cutting his lungs into pieces. He couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t do anything.
The wand fell out from his hand. He was staring at the both wizards in horror. His lungs didn’t want to be filled with air no matter how hard he was trying, and it was a hell good reason to start panicking. He was going to die for sure. The thought of Sirius waiting for him at home and looking forward to their evening in two slipped into his mind.
“Sirius,” he wanted to whisper, but no sound came out from his mouth.
“How are you feeling, little werewolf? It hurts, doesn’t it?” asked a cold voice. “You cannot breathe, and your lungs desperately call for air. You’ve got no choice but to go with us if you don’t want to die.”
They didn’t wait for his answer; there was no chance for Remus to say a word anyway. They made him stand up and dragged him somewhere into the depth of the Ministry where he had never been before. He was close to faint. Mist appeared before his eyes, he couldn’t see anything. He felt his own feet obediently walking the way the wizards were leading him. He couldn’t do anything; he was too weak. All the sounds around - rustling of robes, footsteps on the hard stone floor - everything fell silent. He expected to hear his own heart beating, but it was like dead as well.
No! I don’t want to die! Sirius, help me!
Suddenly, the pain in his chest stopped. He took a deep breath and started coughing. His stomach was about to let everybody know its contents.
“Damn! He’s going to vomit! Bellatrix will kill us if he dirties the carpet!” he heard a nervous voice above his head. At least, he could hear again. He felt a soft carpet under his body. The mist before his eyes was slowly vanishing.
He stopped coughing. He took several deep breaths. His lungs were filled with air, giving him the knowledge he was still alive. He felt sick and dizzy.
“Can you speak, wolf cub?” The wizard who had talked to him in the corridor was bending over him.
“How... do you... know?” Remus asked with effort.
“It doesn’t matter,” snapped the wizard. “We’ve got a few questions. You are Greyback’s, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Are you from Greyback’s pack?”
“I don’t understand. What is this all about?” asked Remus and tried to stand up. Lying on the floor wasn’t a very convenient position in a company of two dangerous madmen. But his legs betrayed him; they were like jelly, too weak to carry him, so he stayed sitting.
“Don’t lie to us, cub, I warn you. You’re a wizard and a werewolf in one. You’re too precious to Greyback to let you live on your own.”
“I’ve got nothing to do with Greyback,” said Remus firmly. “The first and the last time I saw him was when he bit me.”
The wizards exchanged their looks.
“What do you think, Rookwood?” asked Travers and gave Remus a suspicious gaze.
Rookwood rolled up the sleeve on his left forearm. Remus could see something like a vivid red tattoo - a skull, with a snake protruding from its mouth.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked and didn’t even wait for Remus to answer. “This is the Dark Mark. You surely know what it means, don’t you?”
“Yes, it means there are Death Eaters spying at the Ministry,” muttered Remus without thinking.
That was bad, very bad. In hands of Death Eaters his chance to see the sunrise tomorrow was very low. What did they want from him, actually?
“What do you want from me? Why did you bring me here?” he asked, frowning.
Rookwood straightened up.
“So you are not from Greyback’s filthy band, then?”
“I’ve just told you.”
“All right, all right,” said Rookwood quickly. His voice was much friendlier than a while ago. “Can you stand up? We can talk like equal men.”
Yes, equal men, thought Remus doubtfully. He used the chance and tried to stand up again. This time, holding on the wall with his hand, he managed. He looked at the two Death Eaters. He noticed Travers holding a wand in his hand - Remus’s wand!
Rookwood noticed Remus’s alarmed stare.
“Don’t worry, boy. It’s just a precaution. You don’t trust us and we don’t trust you. But we can change it. We offer you alliance.”
Remus looked at him, perplexed. “Excuse me?”
“You heard well. We’d like you to join our lines. Under the Dark Lord’s command you can get fortune, fame, and respect. He’ll give you anything as a reward for your loyalty.”
Remus was staring at him, confused. He didn’t know what to think about the whole situation. Death Eaters wanted him to join them! How ridiculous!
“As a werewolf, you’ll be disgraced, humiliated, hurt from the whole wizarding world. You’ll be an outsider without any right to desire. That’s what is waiting for you out there. Join us, and you’ll get whatever you want.”
“You really want me to join you?” asked Remus incredulously.
The situation started being too complicated. He needed to be extremely careful. One wrong word could cost him his life.
“Yes, join us. Become one of the Dark Lord’s servants. You’re a wizard. You can get rid of that filthy, treacherous Greyback and become the leader of the werewolf community instead of him. I’m sure they will follow you.”
Remus’s brain was working at full speed. If he made an impression he agreed, perhaps he would get his wand back.
“What about full moons? May I hunt freely?”
Rookwood laughed. “Indeed! So you agree?”
“I need some time to think about it,” said Remus evasively.
“There’s nothing to think about. Take it or die,” said Travers, who had been silent for the whole time Rookwood had been talking to Remus, and pointed Remus’s wand at its owner.
“Slowly, Travers!” Rookwood stopped him.
He turned back to Remus.
“Travers is right. We can’t afford to wait. We want your answer right away.”
“It is not so simple,” said Remus. He tried to play for time. “Where are we, by the way?” He looked around the spacious room. There was a long mahogany table in the midst, expensive tapestries on the stone walls, and a treasurable carpet on the floor. The light of many torches was giving the place solemn atmosphere. Remus was looking for a door. He spotted it in a distant end of the room.
Suddenly, the door opened and a woman with long black hair walked in. Her movements were as graceful as of a queen. There was no doubt about her aristocratic lineage. The look of her eyes was of someone who felt to be worthier than others around. When she spotted the Death Eaters with Remus, she stopped and looked at them coldly.
“What are you doing here? Who’s that?” she asked sternly and sized Remus up. “Do I know you? You appear familiar to me...” she asked him, giving no time to Rookwood and Travers to answer her previous question.
Remus stayed quiet. This woman might not have remembered him, but he remembered her very well. He had seen her once at King’s Cross station in the company of Sirius’s parents, and he could never forget the disdain in her eyes as she had pierced him with her look that time when Sirius had named him his friend right in front of her. She was called Bellatrix Lestrange.
The look of her cold, dark eyes was so penetrating that Remus shivered unconsciously, but he didn’t look away and bravely endured her questioning gaze.
“Hogwarts, was it?” she was guessing. “What was your house?”
“Gryffindor,” answered Remus truthfully.
Bellatrix snorted contemptuously. “My stupid cousin was in Gryffindor, too,” she said. “Have you known Sirius Black?”
Remus flinched a little.
“Yes,” he said cautiously. “Why?”
Bellatrix frowned. “I’m the one who’s giving questions here,” she said with hostility. “Were you two friends?” she continued the hearing.
“No,” lied Remus. As he knew about the relationship between Sirius and the rest of his family, admitting they were friends might have been too dangerous. “He was arrogant and bossy,” he added quickly when he had noticed Bellatrix eyeing him mistrustfully.
“Do you know him, Bellatrix?” asked Rookwood, using the pause in their conversation.
“I thought so. It seems I was wrong,” she said thoughtfully. “Why is he here, anyway?” she turned to the both Death Eaters.
Rookwood led her from the earshot of Remus.
“He’s both a werewolf and a wizard,” he whispered. “I thought we could use him.”
“Use him? What for?” asked Bellatrix incredulously. “If he studied at Hogwarts, he’s more likely Dumbledore’s man than Greyback’s puppet,” she said reasonably.
“I don’t think werewolves are able to feel something like gratitude. And what future can he have, anyway?”
“Of what kind of use could he be to us?” Bellatrix asked again.
“With the Dark Mark he would be directly under the Dark Lord’s command and other werewolves under his...”
“What about Greyback? He’s the leader...”
“We don’t need Greyback. Who’s better? A filthy, stupid half-breed or a young ambitious wizard?”
“Who said the other werewolves would follow the brat?”
“They’d follow the more powerful one, like dogs. And if Greyback accidentally disappears... He’s treacherous, I don’t trust him.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you trust him. Everything depends on the Dark Lord’s will.”
“But if Greyback gets to the cub, he surely won’t leave him alone,” Rookwood didn’t want to give up.
“Kill the brat if you are so afraid of him,” retorted Bellatrix, annoyed.
It seemed Rookwood wanted to say more, but he was interrupted by the sound of opening the door, and a wizard, not much younger than Remus, stepped in.
“Bellatrix, Rodolphus’s back and...” he started speaking, but fell silent when he noticed she wasn’t there alone.
“That’s all right, Regulus, come in,” said Bellatrix amicably.
Remus, standing by the stone wall under Travers watch, stared at Sirius’s younger brother in surprise. What was he doing so far from Hogwarts where he was supposed to be doing his homework in the Slytherin common room together with his schoolmates at the moment? Did it mean... did it really mean he was a...?
Regulus noticed Remus’s astonished look.
“You!” he cried in the same amazement.
“Do you know him?” asked Bellatrix and looked at Remus suspiciously.
This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. Remus cast a quick look at his wand in Travers hand. The wizard was watching him carefully.
“Of course I know him!” Regulus answered. “He’s a friend of Sirius. I used to see them hanging together at Hogwarts often.”
“A friend?” Bellatrix’s eyes narrowed. She glared sinisterly at Remus. “So arrogant and bossy?” she made a step forward. “You rude little beast!” she cried furiously. “I’ll teach you a lesson!”
She pulled out her wand.
“Crucio!”
Remus didn’t have much time to think. He jumped to Travers, and instead of trying to get his wand back as the wizard expected him to do, he just hid behind the bigger body and so confused him. Before Travers could realize what was going on Bellatrix’s curse hit him with its full strength. He fell down, writhing in pain.
Remus used the moment of surprise. He reached for his wand that had fallen out from Travers’s hand.
“Accio!”
The wand flew right into Rookwood’s hand.
“Crucio!” cried Bellatrix again, and this time she didn’t miss the target.
Never in his life had Remus felt a greater pain. Even his werewolf transformations were less torturing than this. His body was like on fire, his insides felt like being torn by a hungry wild animal.
“Crucio, crucio, crucio!!!” Bellatrix was shouting, berserk.
“That’s enough, Bella!” a clear man’s voice echoed from the door.
The pain stopped. Remus was shaking wildly all over, lying on the soft carpet, panting. He looked the way the voice had come from. Through the mist before his eyes he could recognize merely a silhouette of a tall man walking to Bellatrix.
“We have no time to play,” he scolded her.
“Leave me alone, Rodolphus! I’ll kill that lousy werewolf!” Bellatrix yelled.
“Dark Lord’s on his way here,” said the stern voice of Rodolphus.
Bellatrix calmed down at once.
“He’s coming? Is he staying here tonight?” she asked excitedly.
“Regulus, take him to the cellar,” Remus heard Rodolphus, and he saw a blurred figure leaning over him. His hands had been bound behind his back by Rookwood’s spell before Regulus helped him to his feet and dragged him out from the room.
“Tobold the Mad, in year 1484 he fought a chimaera that lived in a hole in mountains close to the village called Morgana’s Gate in Scotland. The local inhabitants suffered from the bloody attacks of the creature. Tobold was a wanderer. During his visit in Morgana’s Gate he sought the chimaera and killed it in a very cruel way - he used a Breathcutting Curse,” Lily read the notes she had made while together with James and Sirius she had been studying the document Remus had borrowed them from the Ministry archive.
“What’s that Breathcutting Curse?” asked James curiously.
“It’s a killing curse,” explained Lily. “It makes it impossible for the victim to breathe freely. Well, you can get a minute amount of air into your lungs, but it just lengthens your suffering. The cursed one dies slowly of lack of air in great agony.”
“How cruel,” Sirius said, disgusted.
“The curse was favoured until the end of the sixteenth century when it was substituted by the instant killing curse Avada Kedavra,” Lily finished.
“It was really more humane way to kill someone,” said James sarcastically.
Sirius looked at the watch on James’s wrist. “Half past six. Where can he possibly be? He said he’d be at home until six,” he said, unsatisfied.
“Don’t worry, he’s here in any minute for sure,” said James unconcernedly.
“He’s never late,” said Sirius, frowning.
“Well, we’re done here. We can go and return the file back to the archive if you want, and in case we meet Moony, we can tell him to hurry back home,” suggested Lily, seeing Sirius’s unease.
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” James agreed and stood up from the table in the kitchen in Sirius’s and Remus’s house.
Sirius nodded, saying nothing.
Lily took the file, and together with James they went to the Ministry of Magic.
The archive door was still unlocked. They were about to enter when a young wizard stormed past them into the archive.
“Frank!” cried James when he recognised the wizard.
“Oh! Hello James, hello Lily. I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry,” said Frank Longbottom hastily and hurried to the desk where the old archivist was sorting his notes.
James and Lily walked in after Frank.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Frank apologised to the archivist. “I need to know whether Remus Lupin works here?” he asked with urgency in his voice.
Mr. Libris looked puzzled. “Yes... yes, he works here. But he left already.”
“When?”
“It was about five o’clock or so.”
“Was he alone?”
“Yes, why?”
James and Lily looked at each other.
“What’s the matter, Frank?” asked James. “What’s up with Remus?”
The Auror turned to him. “Do you know him?”
“He’s our friend,” answered Lily.
Frank sized both Lily and James up.
“Come with me,” he said after a while.
Lily put the file she was holding on the archivist’s desk, and together with James she followed Frank Longbottom out from the archive.
“Dumbledore thinks he might be in trouble,” said Frank as they were walking along an empty corridor.
“What kind of trouble?” James asked.
“Well, he said Death Eaters might’ve been after him.”
Lily gasped.
“Death Eaters? But why?” she asked.
“It’s hard to talk about it. I don’t know whether he told you…” started Frank hesitantly, “… and I’m not sure if it’s really true, it might be rubbish, who knows...?”
“What?” James was impatient.
“He’s a werewolf,” said Frank at last.
“Oh, that...”
“You know...?” asked Frank, confused.
“Yes, we’ve known it for years,” said James calmly. “What about the Death Eaters?” he asked, but Frank just raised his hand to silence him.
They reached one of the side exists from the Ministry. Frank led them out. They were walking an empty side street when they heard a familiar voice.
“Here!”
It was Alastor Moody. Frank went to him, James and Lily at his heels.
“What are you two doing here?” asked Moody sternly.
“They are friends of Remus Lupin,” explained Frank.
“Classmates from Hogwarts,” added James quickly when he noticed Moody’s suspicious glare.
“You’ve really got an interesting friend. A werewolf,” said Moody, but not with hostility or anger. It was a mere comment.
A figure of a tall wizard with long silver beard and half-moon spectacles appeared on the pavement.
“I could expect to meet Remus’s friends here,” said Dumbledore with a smile when he came to the group.
“He wasn’t there,” spoke Frank Longbottom immediately. “He left sometimes around five and he was alone.”
“It doesn’t mean he left the Ministry alone,” said Moody.
“That’s exactly what I think,” agreed Dumbledore. “Rookwood and Travers took him with them.”
“What do Death Eaters want from Remus?” asked James nervously.
Dumbledore looked at him earnestly. “He is valuable to them. If I am right, they want him to become one of them. As their ally, he could establish his own army of werewolves directly under Lord Voldemort’s command.”
“Remus would never do such a thing,” said Lily, convinced.
Dumbledore looked at her. “That’s why he is in deadly peril. Unfortunately, I can’t go with you. Crouch insists on a visit tonight. I may catch up with you later,” he said.
“That’s all right. Frank and I will handle it,” said Moody and Frank nodded.
“We go with you,” said James and looked at Moody in a way that should have told the Auror he wasn’t willing to hear anything else than “yes” from him.
Moody raised his eyebrow and looked at Dumbledore, who nodded.
“You’ve got guts, Potter,” said the Auror in the end. “Well then. The more the better as long as not too many. What about you, lassie?” he turned to Lily.
She didn’t answer; she pulled the sleeve of James’s robes instead. “Sirius doesn’t know anything. Someone should tell him.”
“Lily’s right. As I know Sirius, he’d definitely go to rescue Remus,” said James to the Aurors.
It looked Moody was losing his patience. “We’ve got no time to waste,” he said, annoyed.
“Lily,” Dumbledore addressed her, “you go and tell Sirius, and then both of you can catch up with Alastor, Frank, and James. I’m convinced they took Remus to Lestrange manor. It is in the West London. It is the most pretentious residence in the vicinity. Now hurry!”
Lily nodded and Disapparated.
“Good luck to all of you. Be careful,” said Dumbledore to the rest.
They all Disapparated as Lily did a while ago.
Back to Chapter Seven:
http://yukiowin.livejournal.com/2534.html
Link to Chapter Eight - 2nd part:
http://yukiowin.livejournal.com/3182.html