Landslide (excerpt)
Title: Landslide (excerpt)
Author: shimotsuki
Rating and Warnings: G for this excerpt
Prompt: "It's the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."
Word Count: 1154
Summary: The night Draco Malfoy smuggles Death Eaters into Hogwarts, everything changes for Remus. Everything.
Author's Notes: Another piece of the Kaleidoscope series, taking place about four months after Reaction.
I'm forced to admit that I can't possibly finish all of Landslide for the Showdown, but I thought at least I'd post the first bit now, and post the rest on my own journal sometime later.
Landslide
Remus Apparated into the fading twilight, automatically shifting his weight to keep his balance when he landed on the uneven ground. He stood motionless for a moment, holding his breath, watching and listening for anything amiss. He didn't much like arriving someplace unsecured with an audible pop, but time was short and he'd had no choice but to come straight here. At least he'd landed as close to the Hogwarts gates as he dared without risking an uncomfortable encounter with the school's anti-Apparition spells. That meant that anyone lurking nearby was likely to be a friend rather than a foe.
Probably.
Remus wasn't entirely sure what to expect tonight, actually, or who his partners would be for this mission. Three days before, it had been business as usual, foraging for food and usable rubbish with the rest of Greyback's pack. Then Moody had found him and passed on a completely unexpected request from Dumbledore: Remus was to invent an excuse to leave the pack for a few days so that he could wait at the Burrow. "Just in case," Moody had said, his magical eye never pausing in its restless surveillance of the rubbish-filled alley where they stood. "Dumbledore'll send you a Patronus if it turns out he needs you."
And Remus certainly wouldn't deny it had been a gift beyond price to find himself suddenly clean, sleeping in a soft bed, and eating as much warm, delicious food as Molly could press on him. Not to mention being surrounded by people he trusted-it was only when he finally had a chance to let down his guard that he realized just how exhausting true "constant vigilance" was. All in all, he'd been unable to suppress a sharp pang of regret when Dumbledore's Patronus finally arrived, knowing that it meant an end to his reprieve.
The message had been unusually cryptic, even for Dumbledore.
I must leave Hogwarts tonight on an urgent errand, so I am in need of three Order members to provide additional security at the school. If you are available, please reply at once and prepare to join your fellow guards at the main gates at dusk.
It hadn't been long before sunset when the Patronus had found him, so he'd barely had time to send back a hasty reply and put his few things in order at the Burrow. Now here he was, at the gates of the school, in the gathering darkness.
"Oi, Remus!" Someone hailed him softly from behind, and Remus recognized Bill's voice. He turned around, ready to smile at the friendly young man.
But the smile died before it had time to reach his eyes.
Bill was not alone. Standing beside him, in the shadow of the Hogwarts gates, was the one Order member that Remus had desperately hoped would not be on this mission.
Nymphadora Tonks.
She stood with the wide, solid stance of an Auror; chin up, shoulders squared, wand at the ready. But her eyes were enormous in her thin, drawn face. And her hair was still brown-stubbornly, distressingly brown.
To his shame, the shock of this unexpected encounter made him lower his defences. He let himself start drowning in those clear, dark eyes, and it seemed like ages before he found the strength to wrench his gaze away from hers.
He missed her so terribly much. He missed her cheerful laugh, their easy banter, the comfortable warm feeling he always got just from spending time with her.
And then there was the kiss, the one he never should have let her give him. The one he relived again and again in his dreams during long cold nights in exile.
The one he mustn't think about-not with her standing right there-or all would be lost.
He closed his eyes for just a moment, and when he opened them again, he was able to focus on Bill's face instead. "We should start for the castle," he managed. "It's getting dark. Dumbledore may already have left by now."
. * . * .
Tonks concentrated on where she stepped so that she wouldn't lose her footing on the rough ground. Bill, in the lead, was setting a brisk pace for the long walk up to the school. She and Remus formed the base of a triangle, wands drawn as they scanned for danger to the sides and behind.
"I see you've still got your wand." She didn't try very hard to keep the hurt and disappointment out of her voice, and she didn't care if Remus heard it. "Death Eaters haven't come for it, then?"
She'd been terrified for his sake when he first asked her to keep his wand for him, once he'd decided it wasn't safe to have it when he was with Greyback's pack-terrified, but also secretly exhilarated that she was the one he trusted with it. But that was months ago, now. When they'd still been friends, even though Remus insisted it was out of the question for him to let himself love her. When he still looked at her, really looked, instead of hiding behind that calm, mild face that he used with strangers.
At first, after her impetuous kiss last summer had shaken him to the core, she'd been so sure that she could make him see reason. However vehemently he protested that he had to live his life alone, she knew he loved her. He'd even admitted it once. She'd tried to convince him, again and again, that things could work out between them if only he'd give it a chance. He'd been unmoved by either logical or emotional arguments, but they'd still had their friendship, and that gave her something solid and precious to lean on in these frightening times.
And then things had changed. She didn't really know why. The last time he'd come back from the pack, he'd gone all remote and polite on her. And he'd asked for his wand back. Handing it over and watching him leave-without once really looking at her-was like having her heart torn out.
Now, he was clearly flustered by her pointed questions. "I-erm-the Burrow is my usual contact point with the Order these days, so Molly and Arthur have been keeping it there." At least he was embarrassed about what he'd done. But even so, he kept himself occupied searching the trees off to his right so that he wouldn't have to meet her eyes.
Tonks ground her teeth in frustration.
Still, she'd watched from the shadows as he Apparated to the school gates tonight. She'd seen how thin he was, and how tired and quietly sad he seemed when he thought no one could see. And he'd looked at her. Hadn't he? For just an instant, when he turned around and met her eyes, she'd felt that she was staring right into his soul.
Maybe things between them weren't so different now, after all.
. * to be continued * .
[ETA, January 2012(!): I've finally written the whole story -- you can find it here.]
Author: shimotsuki
Rating and Warnings: G for this excerpt
Prompt: "It's the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more."
Word Count: 1154
Summary: The night Draco Malfoy smuggles Death Eaters into Hogwarts, everything changes for Remus. Everything.
Author's Notes: Another piece of the Kaleidoscope series, taking place about four months after Reaction.
I'm forced to admit that I can't possibly finish all of Landslide for the Showdown, but I thought at least I'd post the first bit now, and post the rest on my own journal sometime later.
Landslide
Remus Apparated into the fading twilight, automatically shifting his weight to keep his balance when he landed on the uneven ground. He stood motionless for a moment, holding his breath, watching and listening for anything amiss. He didn't much like arriving someplace unsecured with an audible pop, but time was short and he'd had no choice but to come straight here. At least he'd landed as close to the Hogwarts gates as he dared without risking an uncomfortable encounter with the school's anti-Apparition spells. That meant that anyone lurking nearby was likely to be a friend rather than a foe.
Probably.
Remus wasn't entirely sure what to expect tonight, actually, or who his partners would be for this mission. Three days before, it had been business as usual, foraging for food and usable rubbish with the rest of Greyback's pack. Then Moody had found him and passed on a completely unexpected request from Dumbledore: Remus was to invent an excuse to leave the pack for a few days so that he could wait at the Burrow. "Just in case," Moody had said, his magical eye never pausing in its restless surveillance of the rubbish-filled alley where they stood. "Dumbledore'll send you a Patronus if it turns out he needs you."
And Remus certainly wouldn't deny it had been a gift beyond price to find himself suddenly clean, sleeping in a soft bed, and eating as much warm, delicious food as Molly could press on him. Not to mention being surrounded by people he trusted-it was only when he finally had a chance to let down his guard that he realized just how exhausting true "constant vigilance" was. All in all, he'd been unable to suppress a sharp pang of regret when Dumbledore's Patronus finally arrived, knowing that it meant an end to his reprieve.
The message had been unusually cryptic, even for Dumbledore.
I must leave Hogwarts tonight on an urgent errand, so I am in need of three Order members to provide additional security at the school. If you are available, please reply at once and prepare to join your fellow guards at the main gates at dusk.
It hadn't been long before sunset when the Patronus had found him, so he'd barely had time to send back a hasty reply and put his few things in order at the Burrow. Now here he was, at the gates of the school, in the gathering darkness.
"Oi, Remus!" Someone hailed him softly from behind, and Remus recognized Bill's voice. He turned around, ready to smile at the friendly young man.
But the smile died before it had time to reach his eyes.
Bill was not alone. Standing beside him, in the shadow of the Hogwarts gates, was the one Order member that Remus had desperately hoped would not be on this mission.
Nymphadora Tonks.
She stood with the wide, solid stance of an Auror; chin up, shoulders squared, wand at the ready. But her eyes were enormous in her thin, drawn face. And her hair was still brown-stubbornly, distressingly brown.
To his shame, the shock of this unexpected encounter made him lower his defences. He let himself start drowning in those clear, dark eyes, and it seemed like ages before he found the strength to wrench his gaze away from hers.
He missed her so terribly much. He missed her cheerful laugh, their easy banter, the comfortable warm feeling he always got just from spending time with her.
And then there was the kiss, the one he never should have let her give him. The one he relived again and again in his dreams during long cold nights in exile.
The one he mustn't think about-not with her standing right there-or all would be lost.
He closed his eyes for just a moment, and when he opened them again, he was able to focus on Bill's face instead. "We should start for the castle," he managed. "It's getting dark. Dumbledore may already have left by now."
. * . * .
Tonks concentrated on where she stepped so that she wouldn't lose her footing on the rough ground. Bill, in the lead, was setting a brisk pace for the long walk up to the school. She and Remus formed the base of a triangle, wands drawn as they scanned for danger to the sides and behind.
"I see you've still got your wand." She didn't try very hard to keep the hurt and disappointment out of her voice, and she didn't care if Remus heard it. "Death Eaters haven't come for it, then?"
She'd been terrified for his sake when he first asked her to keep his wand for him, once he'd decided it wasn't safe to have it when he was with Greyback's pack-terrified, but also secretly exhilarated that she was the one he trusted with it. But that was months ago, now. When they'd still been friends, even though Remus insisted it was out of the question for him to let himself love her. When he still looked at her, really looked, instead of hiding behind that calm, mild face that he used with strangers.
At first, after her impetuous kiss last summer had shaken him to the core, she'd been so sure that she could make him see reason. However vehemently he protested that he had to live his life alone, she knew he loved her. He'd even admitted it once. She'd tried to convince him, again and again, that things could work out between them if only he'd give it a chance. He'd been unmoved by either logical or emotional arguments, but they'd still had their friendship, and that gave her something solid and precious to lean on in these frightening times.
And then things had changed. She didn't really know why. The last time he'd come back from the pack, he'd gone all remote and polite on her. And he'd asked for his wand back. Handing it over and watching him leave-without once really looking at her-was like having her heart torn out.
Now, he was clearly flustered by her pointed questions. "I-erm-the Burrow is my usual contact point with the Order these days, so Molly and Arthur have been keeping it there." At least he was embarrassed about what he'd done. But even so, he kept himself occupied searching the trees off to his right so that he wouldn't have to meet her eyes.
Tonks ground her teeth in frustration.
Still, she'd watched from the shadows as he Apparated to the school gates tonight. She'd seen how thin he was, and how tired and quietly sad he seemed when he thought no one could see. And he'd looked at her. Hadn't he? For just an instant, when he turned around and met her eyes, she'd felt that she was staring right into his soul.
Maybe things between them weren't so different now, after all.
. * to be continued * .
[ETA, January 2012(!): I've finally written the whole story -- you can find it here.]