Remus Lupin~

He aware of falling. Falling and falling. He carried on falling long after his knees had hit the wooden floor. His eyes widened, unseeing, as he began to tremble.

"No..." The word died on his lips as the tears begun.

He looked up, pleading. "Please... Tell me you're lying... It can't be..." He stared up at the robbed man. When the man stayed silent, he became angry. "Dumbledore! Tell me you're lying! Why are you saying this!?"

Dumbledore gently lowed himself next to the young man. "Remus... When have I ever lied to you?" He spoke as if speaking to a frightened child.

"It can't be... It can't be..." Remus buried his head into his hands momentary, before jerking up again. "You promised! You promised they would be safe"

He voice shook with angry, and Dumbledore met dark green eyes with his sky blue ones. "Someone betrayed them."

Remus made eye-contact for a few more seconds, but breaking it. "No..." His voice ragged. "Sirius... He wouldn't!" He stood up abruptly, and turned to face the still sitting Headmaster. "You're wrong Dumbledore. Sirius... he loved them more than anything." Remus vigorously shook his head, before repeating "You are wrong Dumbledore."

Slowly, as if not to startle him, Dumbledore reached into his robe. Remus wanted to look away suddenly, but found his eyes glued to what Dumbledore had drawn out and held up, as if an offering.

A wand.

"That doesn't mean anything. that could belong to anyone!" Remus voice picked up a notch as he gestured to the wand.

"Look closer Remus." Irrationally, Remus was suddenly irate by Dumbledore's calm and steady voice. He wanted to jink him, to hurt him.

He shook his head, as if to displace such thoughts, and gingerly reached out to pluck the wand from Dumbledore's hand. Like a bomb, Remus held it away from him. But no distance could change the truth. Begging himself not to, he recognised it. The exact weight of 11", the smooth feel of mahogany; he could even pick out the slight dent received from the Whomping Willow.

Shaking, his hand closed around James Potter's wand, briefly, before handing it back to Dumbledore. For a moment, the two men looked at each other.

"Both of them?" His voice barely loud enough to be heard, and Dumbledore's returning nod barely noticeable. But he still saw it, even through the tears.

Suddenly Remus sprung into action. In a blink, a still warm cup smashed into the wall opposite; tea and china dripped and mingling on the bare wood-boards. Next Remus picked up the chair and threw it against the door.

Dumbledore watched with quiet understanding, and only went to move when everything was, at least partly, destroyed.

Remus stood in the middle of the small room, breathing heavily. His tears dripped off his chin, and splattered on the floor, leaving a stain.

When Dumbledore approached him, Remus felt no shame in buring himself into his Headmaster chest. Dumbledore patted his back as Remus clung to him, crying into his midnight-blue cloak.

"There is one star in this darkness." Dumbledore gently said.

Remus pulled away, and scrubbed at his face with a sleeve, before a thought hit him with so much force he staggered back into the wall.

"But what of Harry?" His eyes, a forest green, seemed to be the only thing alive against his scarred face. "Please, not Harry..."

Dumbledore gently placed a hand on Remus' shoulder. "The boy lives".

Remus sank against the wall, his relief so strong he could barely stay standing.

He rubbed away the last of his tears, and stood up straight, staring Dumbledore in the eyes. A young man who had suddenly aged beyond his years.

"Then perhaps not all is lost then."