A/N: kay, so this is a short little oneshot i came up with. i found it on my computer from a couple months ago and finished it. i personally think it could have been written better, but tell me what you think. I was trying to focus on emotion, and hope that came across. Anyway, here's a tribute to my favorite Marauder, the amazing Remus. Enjoy!
Remus stared at the paper, not believing his eyes. The headline glared up at him: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Gone at Last. But Remus ignored this, the story underneath it being much more shocking. Black's Last Act For He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Remus skimmed the article, words and phrases jumping out at him. "Sirius Black;" "Supporter of You-Know-Who;" "Murdered thirteen people with one curse;" "Peter Pettigrew;" "Lily and James Potter dead;" "Taken to Azkaban."
"No," moaned Remus, his mind shutting down. It couldn't be. How could his whole world have changed in just one night? It had been the night of the full moon, and Remus had gone away to transform, sure that his friends were safe. Just one night, but it had destroyed his world.
Remus was incapable of coherent thought. His mind was black. He couldn't believe it. He was alone. Lily, James, and Peter were dead, and Sirius was responsible. Rage began to work its way into Remus' brain. Sirius was responsible, it was his fault. How could the boy Remus had thought he knew, the one who had been like a brother to him, betray them all in such a way?
He saw red, the wolf side of him taking over. The table crashed to the ground as he launched to his feet. He wanted to find Sirius, to make him pay. He had made Remus alone in the world, killed Peter, and caused Lily and James' deaths, leaving poor little Harry an orphan. Harry . . .
The rage began to ebb away, slowly leaving his mind at the thought of Harry. Harry would be all alone too, his family dead. Sirius was Harry's Godfather, and Remus knew that Sirius had loved the little boy. Why would he have done something like this to him?
Memories swam before Remus' eyes.
"So, Remus," started Sirius, throwing an arm over the blond boy's shoulder, "where were you last night?"
"Yeah," continued James, coming up behind them. "And last month, and the month before, and you know what? The month before that, too."
Peter stood a little ways back, looking as confused as Remus was scared.
"Um, my, uh, mother was . . . ill."
Sirius and James exchanged a look. "Don't lie," they said as one.
Sirius' arm steered Remus into a chair and the three faced the now trembling youth. "We know, and guess what? We don't care."
Disbelief flooded Remus' brain. He whispered, looking at his feet. "If you don't care, you obviously don't know."
The three other Marauders looked around to make sure they were alone then snapped their eyes back to Remus. In unison, they spoke one word that filled Remus' head with fear, disbelief, shame, and strangely enough, hope.
"Werewolf."
Remus shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. More moments presented themselves: The Marauders laughing by the lake, staying up late talking and eating sweets, spending hours in the library looking up charms for the Marauder's Map, sneaking off to the Shrieking Shack excitedly. These were happy memories, when they had all been there, all been friends. Not traitors or angels.
His mind shut down again, refusing to register the pain these thoughts caused him.
Through his blank mind, Remus heard a voice whisper to him. "Sirius couldn't have done this. Surely there's something else, some missing puzzle piece." The voice sounded strangely like James. Remus wanted to scream at the voice, punch and scratch it as if it was Sirius. He didn't want to listen to reason, didn't want to see sense. So what if there was a missing puzzle piece? Because even if Sirius was innocent, that didn't change the fact that he was in Azkaban. And he would be for the rest of his life.
James was dead.
Peter was dead.
Sirius was in Azkaban.
And he, Remus, was alone.
The last Marauder.