PREVIEW: *post OoTP. turn back now if you haven't read it* Remus is the
last remaining, loyal, Marauder and feeling every bit of guilt for it, but
when given the opportunity to risk it all and bring one of them back, what
will he do? Magic can't bring a person back to life, but maybe the soul
can.
A LITTLE NOTE: Alright, I feel really guilty about starting this story b/c I still have the other ones that I have to finish, but the idea came to me and I had to write it. I will continue both It Was Never Mentioned and this one simultaneously. I am not sure, however, when this simultaneous action will begin. it may not be till September cause I am going away and may not have access to a computer.
RATING: PG-13 *language*
DISCLAIMER: I am only doing this once: All characters except for Lady Death and a few others belong to JK Rowling. Lady Death belongs to a poet somewhere that I can't think of the name too. also mythology and such, oh well, she's in lots of places.
Prologue- The Difference Between Reality, Stories, and the Truth
"You know, if you had the chance, would you take it?" a woman with long brown hair whispered into the quiet kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
Remus looked at the young Auror, "Don't you think I would?" His voice was harsher than he had meant it to be, although, he had been finding that more and more true these days. She was sitting cross-legged on one of the chairs around the table in Sirius's home, a place that Remus had been quite wary to enter for over four months. Now it was Halloween and why he had chosen the very worst day in his waking memory to return to a place that already brought on such great sorrow was a mystery to him. Or maybe he thought that the dim of Grimmauld would stamp out the history that Halloween held.
Tonks brooded for a moment on the conversation they were having, they were alone now, Molly was on duty, Arthur gone somewhere, Sirius dead, Dung out on 'business opportunities' etc. etc., the list went on and on. "Pity, isn't it? I mean, 'course magic must have its limits, but don't you think there's got to be a loophole somewhere?"
Remus buried his face into his hands, not really listening to what she was saying. It took a moment for it to register, "What d'you mean?" He said finally.
"Well, like 'magic' can't bring no man back from the other side of death, its like the dark side of the moon. But well, what if, you walked over and kept a string tied or whatever," she supposed.
Remus smirked, "You're a laugh, Tonks. You know that? No one can go on the other side of the veil and return, its been tried. D'you think that family of the convicted didn't try?" Remus took a swig of his drink, "You know, I think that room is the most awful creation of wizard kind, the veil should have never been built. Granted, it hasn't been used in ages, I really thought that they might begin again with Sirius."
Tonks nodded, "I was in school still when Sirius was caught, I remember me mum going on about how she couldn't understand how her favorite cousin could have gone so berserk and she didn't believe that he had really become a death eater. She was right, its pretty funny cause me da would go on about how he couldn't believe that his children were direct relatives of a murderer."
"Of course. My grandparents had been at the last execution done by the high court, Granddad said it was dreadful. The wizard murdered someone, can't quite remember whom, but he did it without magic and all. Awful from what they told me, his mum went running into the veil after he'd been kicked in. She didn't come back out neither," Remus said dolefully, picking an imaginary spot on the ceiling to stare at. The room in which Sirius had died with the black billowing veil was the old wizard execution chamber. It had been long since outlawed to execute someone but the wizards of five generations past put protective spells on it so that it could not be destroyed. It was one of wizard-kinds greatest shames. You see, there was no mess involved, no Unforgivable curses to be used, simply, give a little shove and a man was on the other side, there was no return.
Tonks shook her head, it seemed, still thinking of what Remus has said. The candlelight hit her features at odd angles and Remus was suddenly reminded of Sirius. She had the same eye shape and their mouths were identical. He had never realized it before. Tonks had always been like the little sister he'd never had, he had always felt like an authority figure in her life, always being the bigger person. But here he was, sitting at Sirius's kitchen table, with Tonks trying to be the one to comfort him. the world was screwed up.
Her eyes bulged suddenly, "But Remus, I'm sure its been done before. What about Perilus?"
"Perilus is a story, a story is all. A children's fairy tale so that they are not so afraid of dying one day. It is impossible for a man to make a deal with Lady Death, if such a woman exists."
"I am sure she does," Tonks said decisively. "And isn't there always a bit of truth in stories? I would have thought that you of all people would have believed this."
Remus rubbed his temple, shifting some graying hair out of his eyes, "I used to."
"What made you stop?" she asked tentatively, she was tipping on thin ice and she knew it.
Remus's slightly yellow eyes looked into the deep ice-blue ones of Nymphadora Tonks, "Reality and I suppose, the truth."
She looked confused, "Aren't they the same thing?"
A cold laugh that did not belong to Remus filled the hollow air of the basement kitchen, "Of course not. Reality is full of lies, there is no real world, just stealth, everywhere." He got up, his boots echoing across the stone floor, off the walls and ceiling. Remus put his glass down a little bit too hard and poured in more strong smelling liquor. He then raised the glass to his lips and drank all of it, putting down his glass again to pour more.
Tonks walked over to him and took the liquor filled goblet away, "When was the last time you drank anything Remus, besides butterbeer?"
Remus shrugged, "Dunno, I suppose Halloween, 1981."
"Right, I'm cutting you off," she whispered, pouring the liquor down a slightly rusted sink.
"Fine then," he wasn't in the least bit upset, though it was rather obvious that he had had a bit too much. He sat back down at the table, rolling an old butterbeer cork across the table from one hand to the other, "When I was seven years old, right after the full moon, my parents took me to America. We went away from all the big cities and drove down this windy, one lane road. Me da was muggle born and had been to this mountain when he was a kid. There was a stream and I took off my trainers and I stepped in there. I started climbing up and down the rocks until we got to this waterfall. It wasn't that far down and it went into this kind of lagoon. I started climbing down the rocks that the water ran over but I went to put my foot into a crag and it slipped, I was hanging on for dear life. But my parents were over down the path and didn't hear me calling over the sound of the waterfall. It was just too slippery and I fell, I ended up hitting my knee on a protruding rock and had a deep gash in it that went down to the bone." He lifted up his pant leg and showed Tonks a long scar that went down to the middle of his shin.
"'S there a point to this story there, Remus?" Tonks asked, fearing that he was much drunker than he looked.
Remus smiled, "'Course there is, that Tonks, is truth." He pointed at her than pointed out the window, "All the shit that goes on out there is just that, shit. No one tells you the truth, and when you ask they shunt it away as if it never happened. That's all you get out there is lies."
"How can you say that when there are things like love?" Tonks asked, her young ideas of how the world was.
Remus snorted, "Well, do you think that those raving lunatics who are running the ministry think about love and compassion or fear? All the truths in this world? No, they think about their image, the wrong kind of love. That's what our world has come down to and you know it."
Tonks shrugged, tears dancing on the brims of her eyes, she had to get off this subject. She had to bring back Sirius, had to tell Remus that she knew the way to bring him back, "If I told you that I knew a way, would you do it?"
"Fire away Tonks," and she took a deep breath and told him everything.
A LITTLE NOTE: Alright, I feel really guilty about starting this story b/c I still have the other ones that I have to finish, but the idea came to me and I had to write it. I will continue both It Was Never Mentioned and this one simultaneously. I am not sure, however, when this simultaneous action will begin. it may not be till September cause I am going away and may not have access to a computer.
RATING: PG-13 *language*
DISCLAIMER: I am only doing this once: All characters except for Lady Death and a few others belong to JK Rowling. Lady Death belongs to a poet somewhere that I can't think of the name too. also mythology and such, oh well, she's in lots of places.
Prologue- The Difference Between Reality, Stories, and the Truth
"You know, if you had the chance, would you take it?" a woman with long brown hair whispered into the quiet kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
Remus looked at the young Auror, "Don't you think I would?" His voice was harsher than he had meant it to be, although, he had been finding that more and more true these days. She was sitting cross-legged on one of the chairs around the table in Sirius's home, a place that Remus had been quite wary to enter for over four months. Now it was Halloween and why he had chosen the very worst day in his waking memory to return to a place that already brought on such great sorrow was a mystery to him. Or maybe he thought that the dim of Grimmauld would stamp out the history that Halloween held.
Tonks brooded for a moment on the conversation they were having, they were alone now, Molly was on duty, Arthur gone somewhere, Sirius dead, Dung out on 'business opportunities' etc. etc., the list went on and on. "Pity, isn't it? I mean, 'course magic must have its limits, but don't you think there's got to be a loophole somewhere?"
Remus buried his face into his hands, not really listening to what she was saying. It took a moment for it to register, "What d'you mean?" He said finally.
"Well, like 'magic' can't bring no man back from the other side of death, its like the dark side of the moon. But well, what if, you walked over and kept a string tied or whatever," she supposed.
Remus smirked, "You're a laugh, Tonks. You know that? No one can go on the other side of the veil and return, its been tried. D'you think that family of the convicted didn't try?" Remus took a swig of his drink, "You know, I think that room is the most awful creation of wizard kind, the veil should have never been built. Granted, it hasn't been used in ages, I really thought that they might begin again with Sirius."
Tonks nodded, "I was in school still when Sirius was caught, I remember me mum going on about how she couldn't understand how her favorite cousin could have gone so berserk and she didn't believe that he had really become a death eater. She was right, its pretty funny cause me da would go on about how he couldn't believe that his children were direct relatives of a murderer."
"Of course. My grandparents had been at the last execution done by the high court, Granddad said it was dreadful. The wizard murdered someone, can't quite remember whom, but he did it without magic and all. Awful from what they told me, his mum went running into the veil after he'd been kicked in. She didn't come back out neither," Remus said dolefully, picking an imaginary spot on the ceiling to stare at. The room in which Sirius had died with the black billowing veil was the old wizard execution chamber. It had been long since outlawed to execute someone but the wizards of five generations past put protective spells on it so that it could not be destroyed. It was one of wizard-kinds greatest shames. You see, there was no mess involved, no Unforgivable curses to be used, simply, give a little shove and a man was on the other side, there was no return.
Tonks shook her head, it seemed, still thinking of what Remus has said. The candlelight hit her features at odd angles and Remus was suddenly reminded of Sirius. She had the same eye shape and their mouths were identical. He had never realized it before. Tonks had always been like the little sister he'd never had, he had always felt like an authority figure in her life, always being the bigger person. But here he was, sitting at Sirius's kitchen table, with Tonks trying to be the one to comfort him. the world was screwed up.
Her eyes bulged suddenly, "But Remus, I'm sure its been done before. What about Perilus?"
"Perilus is a story, a story is all. A children's fairy tale so that they are not so afraid of dying one day. It is impossible for a man to make a deal with Lady Death, if such a woman exists."
"I am sure she does," Tonks said decisively. "And isn't there always a bit of truth in stories? I would have thought that you of all people would have believed this."
Remus rubbed his temple, shifting some graying hair out of his eyes, "I used to."
"What made you stop?" she asked tentatively, she was tipping on thin ice and she knew it.
Remus's slightly yellow eyes looked into the deep ice-blue ones of Nymphadora Tonks, "Reality and I suppose, the truth."
She looked confused, "Aren't they the same thing?"
A cold laugh that did not belong to Remus filled the hollow air of the basement kitchen, "Of course not. Reality is full of lies, there is no real world, just stealth, everywhere." He got up, his boots echoing across the stone floor, off the walls and ceiling. Remus put his glass down a little bit too hard and poured in more strong smelling liquor. He then raised the glass to his lips and drank all of it, putting down his glass again to pour more.
Tonks walked over to him and took the liquor filled goblet away, "When was the last time you drank anything Remus, besides butterbeer?"
Remus shrugged, "Dunno, I suppose Halloween, 1981."
"Right, I'm cutting you off," she whispered, pouring the liquor down a slightly rusted sink.
"Fine then," he wasn't in the least bit upset, though it was rather obvious that he had had a bit too much. He sat back down at the table, rolling an old butterbeer cork across the table from one hand to the other, "When I was seven years old, right after the full moon, my parents took me to America. We went away from all the big cities and drove down this windy, one lane road. Me da was muggle born and had been to this mountain when he was a kid. There was a stream and I took off my trainers and I stepped in there. I started climbing up and down the rocks until we got to this waterfall. It wasn't that far down and it went into this kind of lagoon. I started climbing down the rocks that the water ran over but I went to put my foot into a crag and it slipped, I was hanging on for dear life. But my parents were over down the path and didn't hear me calling over the sound of the waterfall. It was just too slippery and I fell, I ended up hitting my knee on a protruding rock and had a deep gash in it that went down to the bone." He lifted up his pant leg and showed Tonks a long scar that went down to the middle of his shin.
"'S there a point to this story there, Remus?" Tonks asked, fearing that he was much drunker than he looked.
Remus smiled, "'Course there is, that Tonks, is truth." He pointed at her than pointed out the window, "All the shit that goes on out there is just that, shit. No one tells you the truth, and when you ask they shunt it away as if it never happened. That's all you get out there is lies."
"How can you say that when there are things like love?" Tonks asked, her young ideas of how the world was.
Remus snorted, "Well, do you think that those raving lunatics who are running the ministry think about love and compassion or fear? All the truths in this world? No, they think about their image, the wrong kind of love. That's what our world has come down to and you know it."
Tonks shrugged, tears dancing on the brims of her eyes, she had to get off this subject. She had to bring back Sirius, had to tell Remus that she knew the way to bring him back, "If I told you that I knew a way, would you do it?"
"Fire away Tonks," and she took a deep breath and told him everything.