Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
(A/N): This story was rewritten and reposted on 1/6/15.
The Last Marauder
"We've only got half an hour until midnight so we need to act fast!" Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice rolled through the Great Hall like a peal of thunder. The man's imposing figure commanded attention, and Remus found himself being snapped from his inner thoughts into the present moment.
Kingsley relayed the plan that the Order of the Phoenix—or what was left of it—had created for the battle. McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick were to lead groups of fighters into the towers. The height advantage would give them both a good vantage point to spot enemy combatants from, as well as some protection from spellfire below. The fighters in the towers were probably the lucky ones. They had the safest job out of everyone.
"Remus, Arthur, and I will take groups into the grounds," Kingsley said, point to each of them in turn. A hundred of eyes turned to Remus as his name was spoken. He did his best to project confidence that he wasn't feeling. The feral part of him—the part that he ignored until the full moon dictated that he had no choice—relished the battle that was to come. There were few times in life that being a werewolf could be considered an advantage, but perhaps this was one of them. Remus allowed a predatory smile to reach his lips. Better for his allies to think him a little crazy than a little cowardly. Cowardice didn't tend to breed confidence.
In truth, Remus didn't think much of his, or anyone else's, chances of lasting throughout the night. Reports of Voldemort's strength coming through to the Order had been grim, and that had been before he took over the Ministry. Now he appeared to have the majority of Magical Britain's power at his back. What the side of light had in numbers it lacked in strength. Many of those who would oppose Voldemort were ordinary people—people who spent their days behind a desk, not fighting for their lives—compared to those at the dark lord's back, who were seemingly bred for war.
The one thing that the light had always had that seemed to hold Voldemort at bay was Dumbledore. Dumbledore, the only wizard whom Voldemort had ever feared. Dumbledore who was The Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot, vanquisher of Grindelwald, and the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen. As long as his presence stood over the defenders of the light, they felt invincible. But Dumbledore was gone. Dead for almost a year now, and with him seemingly any legitimate hope of preventing Voldemort's crusade against muggleborns and blood traitors.
In Dumbledore's absence, the Order had looked to Moody for leadership. But the old Auror had died only a month after the headmaster, leaving the secret society rudderless. Remus had privately hoped that Harry might step into that role. Dumbledore had always spoken of him as the most important person in the fight against Voldemort, and he seemed to draw allies to him naturally. A push into a leadership role might have been just what he needed to mature into the kind of wizard that could take down a dark lord—Merlin knew that his father had flourished under pressure—but those hopes were dashed when he had vanished, along with his two closest friends, on some sort of secret mission.
The last time Remus had seen Harry the two of them had had it out. Part of it was frustration that Harry had gone off without the help or consent of the Order, leaving them directionless, and Remus feeling useless, but most of it was just stress. Stress at the thought of having to fight in a war that would most likely take his life. Stress at the thought of potentially losing the woman he loved and the child they were having together.
Remus shook his head. He couldn't afford to think about Tonks and Teddy. He had to stay focused so that he could come back to them in one piece.
Harry was in the castle right now. From what Remus had heard from Kingsley, he was supposed to be searching for some sort of magical artifact that would be vital in the effort against Voldemort. Whatever it was, be it some sort of weapon or otherwise, Harry couldn't inform the rest of them until the time was right. Remus would just have to trust his best friend's son. The boy had a good heart, and Dumbledore had trusted him. But then again, Dumbledore had trusted Snape, and look how that turned out. Ultimately, Remus didn't see that he had any other choice.
"Okay, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops." Kingsley had concluded his outline of the battle plan.
There was a rush of motion as the students who remained in the hall, and any fighters that the Order had managed to contact, stood and made their way towards the teacher's table at the front of the hall. Calling the bunch of them "ragtag" would have been high praise. The bulk of the army was comprised of sixth and seventh year Hogwarts students. The rest were mostly professors and the odd Order member. Most of the good fighers—Aurors and some Unspeakables—had died when Voldemort had taken the Ministry.
Remus saw McGonagall step down off the platform and hurry over to a familiar messy mop of black hair. Remus had to start slightly as he saw Harry for the first time in months. James's son looked thinner than he ever had, and he was skinny at the best of times. There were dark circles under his eyes, and it looked like he might be blown away by a stiff wind. Yet there was a look on his face that Remus recognized. He wasn't sure if it was the look James wore when he was on the Quidditch pitch, or the look the Lily wore when she was about to take someone to task, maybe it was even a combination of both, but Remus knew that look meant that whoever got in Harry's way was in for a hell of a fight.
McGonagall exchanged a few words with Harry and then the latter nodded and hurried out of the hall. Remus sent a silent wish of luck his way. Whatever happened in the coming battle wasn't going to matter. In the end, it would be Harry's actions that won or lost the day.
"Alright, that's ninety of us," Kingsley said after a quick headcount. He did a quick bit of division and then began assigning people to groups. "Alright! Everyone from you over are going with Professor Sprout," he pointed at Neville and then swept a small arc with his arm. Five similar divisions later, and Remus found himself in charge of the lives of fifteen other people. Kingsley asked if there were any objections. None were raised and so the former Auror dismissed them all with a wish of good luck and a reminder to rely on each other.
People began to file out of the hall as they followed their assigned group leaders. Remus lingered so that he could address his own fighters before heading out. The group seemed to consist completely of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw seventh years. Remus searched his memory, but although he could recognize a few faces from his time as a teacher, he didn't think could pair any names with them. Kingsley had probably given him many of the students on purpose, figuring that his teaching experience would allow him to coordinate them better than Arthur or himself might have been able to.
"Okay, listen up," Remus said. He always liked to be informal with his students as an instructor at Hogwarts. He saw no reason to resort to stiff speech now that he was going to be shedding blood with them. "Our group is supposed to patrol the edge of the Forbidden Forest by Hagrid's Hut. Anyone know where that is?" The majority of the group raised their hands, and Remus nodded in satisfaction. "We think that a group of Death Eaters might be trying to penetrate the forest to get to the castle. It's our job to make sure that that doesn't happen." He paused for a moment to let that sink in.
"There's something else that you should be aware of. We think that the Death Eaters might have dementors aiding them." A shiver seemed to run through the group collectively at that announcement. Remus didn't blame them, hardly anyone could profess to be completely unafraid of the guards of Azkaban. "Do any of you know how to conjure a Patronus?"
Four of the students raised their hands. Remus said a mental thanks to Harry for that. If not for the organization he had formed to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts two years ago, Remus suspected that the number would be zero.
"Good. For the rest of you, think of the happiest thing you can and then use the incantation 'Expecto Patronum.' It's a highly advanced spell, but someone with sufficient will can conjure a rudimentary Patronus even without practice. Even basic effort is useful against dementors, so keep that in mind."
Remus looked at his fighters and saw a bunch of scared kids nodding at him. He shook his head sadly. Though the first war against Voldemort had been in full swing during his own seventh year at Hogwarts, the school had been considered something of a safe haven. Voldemort had never even threatened an attack, let alone carried one out, against the magical institution. Now he had arrived in full force, and these kids were being forced to fight for their lives. There was nothing he could do for them though, other than to lead and protect them to the best of his ability.
He led the group out of the Great Hall and then through the front doors onto the grounds of the castle. The stars in the sky above twinkled as though joyously taunting the mortals below. Other than their light, the night seemed to be eerily still. The air was warm, and there was no hint of a breeze. Remus could hear the footfalls of himself and his young followers, even against the soft grass the sat between the castle and the gamekeeper's home. The journey was made in silence, giving Remus's thought plenty of time to wander.
As it always seemed to, his mind landed on Tonks. He had to grin to himself as he thought about her. They had come to know each other as closely as two people possibly could, gotten married, and even had a child together, and yet she still insisted he not call her by her first name. He had once asked her why she didn't simply change her name and be done with it, but hadn't gotten anything more than an angry curse-filled rant in response.
That had been the day that she had told him she was pregnant. Remus didn't think that he had ever felt so many conflicting emotions at once. Simultaneously being terrified and joyous was a delicate balance, but somehow he had managed it.
Right now he wasn't feeling terror so much as an impending sense of doom. A fear that he would never get to see the other two members of his small family again. Were he in his wolf form he suspected that every hair on his body would have been standing on end. As it were he settled for tapping his wand hand against the side of his thigh rapidly. It was a nervous tick that he had developed even before his time at Hogwarts, and one that the other Marauders had mocked during their friendship. He usually tried to stop when he caught himself doing it, but this once he allowed himself to continue. At the moment it was one of the few things he could do to make himself feel better. Other than that all he could do was cling to the knowledge that Tonks and his son were safe and hidden. Neither of them would be in danger tonight.
The group of them had reached Hagrid's hut, so Remus took the time to turn and address the students. The border of the forest stretched too far for them to effectively cover it together, so Remus split his fighters into groups of threes and assigned each of them a swath of ground to cover. He made sure that each group had someone in it who could cast a patronus effectively, and then took the three most frightened looking students as his own group.
"Don't try to be a hero," Remus said to them. "If you spot any Death Eaters, do not engage unless you have to. Send up red sparks and then get to cover. The rest of us will come help you out."
The students under his command nodded and he sent them on their way. He tried to take note of each face before they disappeared. Odds were that not all of them would live through the night, and Remus didn't want to forget anyone who had been brave enough to give their life for the cause.
Remus had always been the most patient of his friends, but that didn't make waiting for the coming battle any easier. His wand hand was twitching madly as he slowly guided his three students up and down along the outskirts of the forest. It wasn't quite a full moon tonight, but Remus almost found himself wishing that it was. It would have been so much easier to disappear and let the beast handle things until sunrise. The animal side of him was still spoiling for a fight anyway, against his better judgment.
It turned out that he didn't have to wait very long to see some action. There was a small vibration through the ground, and Remus stopped abruptly, holding up a hand to ensure that the three with him followed suit. There was another vibration, then another. It was as if the heart of the earth was beating madly underneath him, and Remus found his own matching pace. But then his ears picked up the sound of snapping tree limbs in the distance. Whatever was creating racket wasn't coming from beneath, but from within the forest.
Remus dropped into a defensive stance, and saw the students beside him doing their best to do the same. He motioned for them to stay behind him. He might be more likely to take a curse in the back from them that way, but at least they would be marginally safer.
The noise from the forest had intensified now, and it was loud enough to be clearly heard even without the benefit of werewolf-enhanced senses. If this was the Death Eaters attacking then they sure weren't trying to be stealthy about it. Remus sniffed and almost recoiled when he got a whiff of what was coming their way. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he had a pretty good idea of what they were about to be up against.
CRASH, CRASH, CRASH.
A giant came rushing out of the forest, knocking down entire trees in its path. It skidded to a halt as it reached open ground and looked around dumbly. Remus heard gasps from the three teenagers behind them, and evidently the giant did too as it turned its gaze on them. Remus had a defensive spell on the tip of his tongue when he spotted the figure that seemed to be riding on the massive creature's shoulders.
"Stand down!" Remus commanded. "They're friendly!"
The students looked around nervously, but complied with the order.
"Hey, Hagrid," Remus called to the Hogwarts Gamekeeper. He was sitting atop Grawp's shoulders with Fang slung over his shoulders. The half-giant looked intimidating in his own right, and the effect was greatly magnified when he was sitting on top of his fully-grown brother. Remus hadn't been formally introduced to the giant, but he did remember the stories that Harry had told about him, as well as seeing him at Dumbledore's funeral almost a year ago.
"Tha' you, Remus?" Hagrid called out, peering out from behind Grawp's massive head.
"Yeah, it's me. Are you here to help?" Remus had to admit that, despite some reservations about giants in general, it would probably be nice to have one on their side.
Hagrid grunted an affirmative.
""Yeah, we her' Yeh-Know-Who from all the way up in the mountains. We figured we oughta come an' help." The massive man seemed to have adopted an even more wild look than usual. His beard and hair were filled with leaves and twigs that had snapped off in the trek through the forest, making him resemble a force of nature more than a wizard.
"Wer goin' up ter' the castle now. You lot be careful out here. Come on Grawpy!" The giant had been giving Remus a confused look, but at his brother's command he stood as though at attention and began a quick, but somewhat more controlled, march towards Hogwarts.
There were a few anxious exhales from behind as the students released their bated breath. Remus turned and reminded them that they still had a job to do. By his reckoning it was almost midnight, and that meant that if an attack came it would be coming soon.
The waxing moon slid out from behind a cloud, giving the defenders a better view of the area they needed to watch. The werewolf part of Remus fought to come to the surface for a moment, but he crushed it with an expertise that could only come with years of experience. Despite his control, he had a feeling that his animal side would be getting the blood it wanted soon anyway.
As if on que, Remus caught movement along the treeline out of the corner of his eye. At first he wasn't sure if it was just shadows shifting in the moonlight, but as he focused his gaze he realized with a sinking feeling that the attack was commencing. Around ten dark figures had slowly emerged from the forest and begun slowly making their way across the grounds toward the castle.
Remus hissed at his fighters to get their attention, and then indicated his head in the direction of the Death Eaters. The wide-eyed students nodded slowly as they caught sight of their targets.
"We need to attack while we have the element of surprise on our side," Remus told them at a whisper. "It's vital that we take down as many as possible, so don't attack until I say the word. As soon as I do, fire off as many offensive spells as you can and then send up red sparks. Understand?"
Again he got slow nods all around. He turned and slowly moved in the direction of the Death Eaters. There was a small knoll between them and their enemy, and the shadowy figures disappeared momentarily as they dipped beneath the lip of the hill. Remus dropped into a half-crouch and moved to the top of the hill. When the Death Eaters were in sight again he dropped down onto his haunches and motioned for his students to do the same.
The Death Eaters were now no more than twenty meters away. Remus counted a dozen of them in a quick pass. He slowly drew his wand and took aim when something caught his eye. Thirty meters beyond the Death Eaters, another group of his students were walking along the treeline, seemingly oblivious to their impending collision with the enemy that they were looking for. Remus began cursing internally. The idiots were going to get themselves killed. Finally, one of the three turned his head and spotted the enemy group. Then he gasped. Loudly.
"Hey, did you hear something?" One of the dark wizards near the rear of the group had spoken, and the rest of his companions came to an abrupt halt. As though the spirit of Dumbledore himself was watching over the defenders of Hogwarts, a thick cloud passed in front of the moon, darkening the night considerably. Now there was a chance that the idiots across the way might not be seen.
The leader of the enemy formation whirled around. He spoke with a harsh and commanding tone.
"Damn it, Barnes. If this is another deer you're going to wish that it was the dark lord himself punishing you." The man flicked his wand and a bright ball of light flew from the end back towards the forest.
It stopped in mid air, directly above the three students that had given their position away. There was an awkward moment where it seemed that neither the dark wizards nor their newly-found foes knew what to do, and then Remus broke it.
"NOW!" he shouted.
Three bellows of "Stupefy!" later there were three bolts of red light shooting across the small gap between them and the dark wizards to join with Remus's own silent spell. The students with him might have been aiming to stun, but he wasn't. This was a war, and right now protecting the lives of those out here and in the castle was more important that worrying about the health of your enemy.
It looked like two of his students had managed to connect with their stunners, but Remus's own expulso did far more damage. It detonated underneath the middle of the group, and vivid blue light filled the air as an explosion rocked the enemy formation. Remus shielded his eyes and then squinted to survey the damage. It looked like he had managed to take out around half of the Death Eaters. The rest of them had either managed to shield themselves from the explosion or had been far enough away from the center to escape mostly unscathed.
The leader of the group wasted no time retaliating for the unexpected attack. A green jet of light from the tip of his wand made Remus drop to the ground in order to dodge it. He hoped that one of his students had remembered to send up red sparks, but he didn't have time to check as he rolled to the left to dodge another nasty curse. Remus sprang to his feet and started sending off a stream of stunning spells at the Death Eaters in front of him, who were still mostly grouped together.
"Spread out!" Remus called out to his students, who were, to their credit, standing firm and continuing to badger the dark wizards with spellfire.
Only one of his stunning spells hit home, but it thinned the ranks of the dark wizards even further. Most of the figures at the bottom of the hill didn't seem to have much dueling experience, with one notable exception. The leader of the group had unleashed quite an arsenal of dark magic, and seemed to be focusing his fire on Remus. Ultimately that was a good thing. The more attention that he drew the less likely one of the students he was in charge of would get themselves killed. But it was hard to see the bright side of being the target of a killer in the moment.
A dark hex that Remus didn't recognize splashed off his shield, but its follow-up blasting hex destroyed his defenses. Rather than trying to conjure another shield, Remus went on the offensive. Another barrage of stunning spells proved ineffective, so he sent a flurry of cutting curses in the direction of his opponent. Those got blocked easily as well. Remus lifted his wand sharply, and a half dozen jagged shards of stone came flying out of the ground. He brandished his wand at his opponent and sent his makeshift daggers at the man. With using a conventional shield out of the question, the man resorted to blasting the rocks out of the air. He responded to the attack by sending what looked like a bolt of lightning in Remus's direction.
Lightning and people tended not to mix well in Remus's opinion, so he side-stepped the strike. He sent a reducto at the man's feet. As he suspected, the dark wizard saw that the attack was going to come up short and didn't bother to shield. He was rewarded by a spray of dirt that showered his opponent from head to toe, including a fair bit that blew his pale mask off, striking him in the eyes. Remus heard an audible swear from the man, who hurled his own reducto in return as he struggled to regain his vision.
Remus blocked the attack and leveled his wand at the dark wizard, who had managed to clear the dirt from his eyes quickly. Without a mask, he presented no less of an intimidating visage. His face was twisted in anger, and had a cruel look to it by nature. Remus felt a jolt in his stomach as he realized that he recognized the man he was fighting. Antonin Dolohov.
Dolohov was one of Voldemort's most feared servants, and for good reason. He had been responsible for nearly as many heinous acts as Bellatrix Lestrange, and like her had chosen to face Azkaban willingly rather than denounce his master. Remus recalled hearing Dumbledore mention that the man had personally slain both of Molly's brothers—Gideon and Fabian Prewitt—during the first war, both of whom had been powerful wizards in their own right.
Behind Dolohov it there was a shout of pain, the dark wizard threw up a shield and glanced behind him; Remus found his own gaze drawn as well. It appeared that reinforcements had arrived in the form of the rest of Remus's students. They now outnumbered the Death Eaters almost three-to-one, and the odds were dramatically increasing as the students overwhelmed their foes with a barrage of magic.
Dolohov's face betrayed no fear at the fact that he would soon be surrounded by foes. He whirled back to Remus and made a wide sweeping arc with his wand. An arc of flame spewed forth and took the form of a twisting serpent. The snake reared back and hissed at Remus, baring flaming fangs at him.
Remus swore heavily. Dolohov apparently had thrown caution to the wind and decided to use fiendfyre. Fiendfyre couldn't be extinguished by normal means. The only options were to evacuate the area and let it run its course, or try to take control of it magically. On a battlefield like this, there was no telling what kind of damage the fire could do if it went unchecked, so Remus decided to match the boldness of his opponent step for step.
Rather than recoiling from the flames, Remus took a hard step forward, brandishing his wand. What he was about to try was advanced magic well beyond the scope of a normal Hogwarts education, but it would have been practically second nature to a wizard like Dumbledore, and Remus had read enough to be familiar with the concept. He tried to channel magic into his wand without actually casting a spell, and then send it outward towards the mass of flames. There was something like a shuddering sensation in his arm and Remus knew that he'd been at least partially successful.
The snake lunged forward and to the left, but Remus slashed his arm the opposite direction and battered the flames back. It tried to strike again, and Remus slashed downward, trapping it against the ground. He took another step forward, and the flames started to diminish. The snake struggled to break the hold his magic had over it, but Remus clenched down tightly. A third step and the serpent looked no more dangerous than a large campfire. Finally, Remus took a deep breath and then tried to collapse the spell inward. It was a strange sensation, and it took a lot out of him, but the fire shrank rapidly before finally popping out of existence.
Remus cast a quick glance around for his opponent, but Dolohov was nowhere in sight. In front of him, three of his students were engaging the lone remaining dark wizard in a duel. As he watched, one of them slipped a stunner past the dark wizard's shield, and the man crumpled to the ground unceremoniously. Remus hunched over and put his hands on his knees. Fighting the fire had been exhausting, and he was finding it hard to catch his breath at the moment.
"Sir?" one of the students he was in charge of—a Hufflepuff—was standing in front of him with a look of concern.
"I'm fine," Remus said, straightening up. He was still short of breath, but he knew from experience that he'd get a second wind soon. "Take their wands," he said, pointing to the group of Death Eaters lying in various positions on the ground.
The Hufflepuff nodded and hurried over to begin collecting the weapons. Remus waved his own wand and gathered up the unconscious Death Eaters. At least four of the bodies on the ground were clearly dead, so Remus let them lie. When he had all of the dark wizards positioned in a circle with their backs to each other, he conjured a great deal of rope and magically bound each of them both to themselves and their comrades. The end result looked somewhat comical, but it would be effective in a pinch.
The next order of business was tending to the wounded. Of his own fifteen, it looked like four of them had taken the brunt of a spell. Two of them were moaning on the ground in pain while their friends tended to them as best they could. The other two were lying still, and Remus didn't want to think about what that meant. He hurried over to the two that were clearly in need of aid.
The first one had taken a slicing hex to the torso, and was rapidly losing blood. Remus pushed aside the two Ravenclaws that were trying basic healing magic and immediately set to work mending the boy on the ground as best he could. He was no healer, but he had picked up a trick or two from his time as a member of the order. He managed to close the wound, but the shaking pale hand that clutched at his robes told him the boy wasn't going to make it long without a blood-replenishing potion.
The other student was a Ravenclaw girl that Remus seriously doubted was truly seventeen. She was wide-eyed and grabbing at her leg. Ironically, she only let out a cry of pain when one of her friends tried to heal whatever damage had been done. Remus was pretty sure he knew what she had been struck with, and a quick look at her leg confirmed his suspicions. On the surface, she appeared fine, but beneath the skin her veins were slowly taking on a sickly black hue. The dark lines were creeping outward from the original infection, right now stopping shortly below her knee. Remus took his wand and drew a line across the girl's leg at that point, muttering a counter-curse. Immediately she sighed in relief.
She might not be so relieved if she knew what would happen later. Remus had seen that curse before. Unless treated by a healer promptly, it couldn't be treated. All he had managed to do was stop its advance. The only thing that could be done at this point was to amputate the affect area. It was how Moody had lost his own leg. From the look of the infection she had probably been hit early in the fight, and not even noticed until after it was over.
Remus glanced up at the castle. Flashes of light and faint shouts from the front courtyard informed him that the Death Eaters were close to breaching the castle. By his estimation, it wasn't likely that any more would be approaching from this area, and his group would probably do more good back at the castle. On the other hand, he couldn't leave a good number of Death Eaters just lying around.
"You two," Remus said, pointing to the two boys that had been trying to help the girl below him. "Take this one and hide out in Hagrid's hut. Watch over the Death Eaters we captured and make sure they don't get free."
The boys looked slightly miffed that they'd be missing the action, but they nodded and picked the Ravenclaw up off the ground. Slowly the three made their way towards the hut.
"You and you," Remus indicated another two students, the boy and girl who had been trying to assist their classmate who had taken the slicing hex. "I want you two to try to get your friend to the Great Hall. Madame Pomfrey should have setup triage there." Remus conjured a stretcher under the pale boy. "You're going to have to go through some of the fighting, but everyone else should be too distracted to notice you if you're quick."
The girl began levitating their wounded friend and the three of them quickly moved towards the castle.
"The rest of you." Remus raised his voice to ensure he had the attention of the remaining seven students. "We're going to be heading up to the castle. We need to hold the courtyard as long as possible. Remus jabbed a finger towards the front gates of the castle. The fighting there seemed to have gotten more intense, as there was almost a steady stream of pulsing light.
Without waiting for their acknowledgment, Remus lead by example and began heading to the courtyard at a brisk jog. He still hadn't fully recovered his strength from his duel with Dolohov, but being a werewolf meant that he had just a bit more strength to draw on than the average wizard, especially close to a full moon.
When he was about halfway to the courtyard he ducked instinctively as he felt the displaced air of broom riders speeding past overhead. They were difficult to see in the night sky, but as they reached the courtyard they began raining down spells from above that illuminated their positions. Remus had no idea if they were friend or foe, but it didn't really matter at this point. The people on the ground were a far bigger problem.
The courtyard itself seemed to have descended into chaos. There were stone fragments littering the ground everywhere from stay spellfire, and duels had broken out across the entirety of the area. Remus dashed into the space, firing off stunning spells at Death Eaters as he moved. In a crowded battle like this, it was a much better idea to use non-lethal spells, just in case you hit someone you didn't mean to. That didn't seem to deter the dark wizards though. He saw more than one distinctive green flash flying around.
"Werewolf!"
Remus whirled around and found himself face-to-face with Dolohov once again. His visage was no kinder than it had been before, and he spat the word with such venom that it sounded like a slur.
"I think we have unfinished business," the Death Eater said.
Remus responded with a stunner that Dolohov barely managed to deflect in time. If the dark wizard wanted to waste time talking, that was fine with Remus, but he wasn't going to pass up an opportunity for a free shot at his opponent.
Dolohov was obviously angry about the attack, and responded with a crucio that bounced into the ground off of Remus's shield. Remus blasted a chunk of stone out of the arch that Dolohov was standing under, intending to bury the man, but his opponent waved his wand and redirected the stone towards Remus, who was forced to dive to the left to avoid them. Dolohov followed up with three quick severing curses while Remus scrambled to regain his footing. The first two were absorbed by his shield, but he didn't manage to completely black the third.
There was a sharp pain and a warm sensation as blood came rolling out of the fresh gash in Remus's leg. He ignored the pain and sent a stunner in Dolohov's direction. It went wide of the dark wizard but by a stroke of luck it connected with a Death Eater that had been engaged with another member of the Order.
"When I'm done with you I think I'll give you to the Dark Lord as a pet. Or maybe Greyback. He's sure to have some interesting ideas for dealing with traitors." Dolohov was apparently feeling confident after scoring a hit. The taunts didn't do anything more than make Remus angry, and an angry werewolf generally wasn't someone that people were lining up to fight. Dolohov didn't seem to care, he continued his tirade.
"What's going to hap—"
Whatever the dark wizard had been going to say was lost as acromantulas began swarming into the courtyard. Remus was tackled to the ground by one of the giant spiders, and from the muffled swear that came from Dolohov's direction it appeared the dark wizard had fared no better.
"Reducto!"
Remus put more power into the spell than he usually would, and was rewarded by the sight of the spider flying away from him, a smoking hole punched in its abdomen. He quickly scrambled to his feet and looked to where he had last seen Dolohov. In the dark wizard's place he found the corpse of an acromantula whose head had been severed from its abdomen. Dolohov himself was nowhere to be found.
The front gates had been blown apart, and the fighting was beginning to spill inside the castle. Remus moved in that direction, intending to reinforce the defenders, but he was cut off by two unmasked Death Eaters who looked eager for a fight. The two of them combined might have reached Remus's age, but he was somewhat doubtful.
One of them fired a curse at Remus. He conjured a shield that deflected the attack into the dark wizard's ally, who immediately collapsed and did not stir. The first Death Eater's jaw dropped, and he looked at his friend in shock. Remus took the opportunity to drop him with a stunner as well before trying to navigate his was towards the doors once more.
Spellfire filling the air made any quick movement a risky prospect, and there were so many angles to cover that he felt like he was going to take a curse to the back and be dead before he even knew what had hit him.
Suddenly Remus felt something large smash into his side. He stumbled to the right but managed to keep his balance enough to turn and bring his wand to bear on whatever had attacked him. But instead of a dark wizard he found himself staring into the face of.
"Wotcher, Remus!" his wife yelled cheerily.
"Tonks?!"
Surprise couldn't begin to cover his reaction at her presence. He had been fighting this battle safe in the knowledge that she was at home with Teddy. He had thought that there was no way either of them could be harmed tonight, and yet here she was, putting herself in harm's way. At the same time, he couldn't believe that he hadn't expected it. Tonks was never one to sit down and let other people fight her battles, especially when people she loved were in danger. Of course she would come. Remus didn't think Hagrid and Grawp together could have stopped her from leaving once she'd made up her mind.
She smiled cheekily at him and threw a stunner towards a Death Eater. Her attack reminded Remus of the fact that they were still in the middle of a war zone, and that he'd be dead if he didn't pay attention. There would be time for him to be angry at her later. He whirled around and placed himself back-to-back with Tonks, trusting her to protect his flank while he did the same. The two of them turned together, firing off spells rapidly. Remus sent a stunner at a dark wizard, and then hurled a shield in front of a Hogwarts student on the brink of being overwhelmed by his opponent. Behind him Tonks sent stone flying at an acromantula who was roaming about the courtyard. The spider reared back in anger, and she deftly levitated it right into the middle of a pack of Death Eaters, whom the creature promptly began attacking.
The entire earth seemed to shudder as an explosion rocked the side of the castle nearby. The battle seemed to pause for a moment as everyone's gaze—light and dark alike—was drawn towards the portion of Hogwarts that now resembled a smoking crater. The wall had collapsed entirely, allowing those outside to catch a glimpse of movement within. It was hard to tell from this distance, but Remus thought he could make out a handful of people rising from the rubble in the middle of the corridor. He started slightly as he spotted a mop of red hair on one. Another figure was skinny with dark hair, and Remus had watched James play Quidditch enough to be able to identify his spitting image from this distance.
At least some of the Death Eaters seemed to have some idea of who was in the corridor as well. They began throwing curses towards the figures above. Remus tore his gaze away from Harry and focused on defending him as well as he could from here. Tonks followed his lead, and the two of them managed to drop as many dark wizards before the enemy took notice and the battle on the ground started in earnest once again.
A familiar high-pitched laugh made his ears perk up, and Remus whirled to see Bellatrix Lestrange fending off two Hogwarts students as she pushed her way up the stairs towards the front gates of the castle. Tonks swore beside him, and before he could move to stop her, his wife had dashed off in the direction of her murderous aunt. She attacked as she moved, and her first spell went wide, alerting Voldemort's second to her presence. Remus could swear he saw Bellatrix's eyes light up at the approach of her niece. The two of them began dueling in earnest, but Remus's own attempt to step in was foiled by jet of green light from the side that forced him to drop.
He fired off blasting hexes at the source of the distraction, and ground his teeth as he locked eyes with Dolohov once more. The dark wizard seemed to be out for his blood, and Remus's wolf side was urging him to return the sentiment. His opponent conjured a long snake, but it was quickly beheaded by Remus's severing hex. He made an intricate movement with his wand, and a length of rope appeared hanging in the air above Dolohov. It wrapped around the man's neck like a noose and lifted him off the ground. Dolohov's eyes widened, but he didn't panic as he threw up a shield and attempted a counter curse.
Remus began battering away at the man's shield, trying to get anything he could through it. At last he had a piercing hex puncture the dark wizard's defense, but it came just as Dolohov escaped from the Hang Man Curse and flew over his head. Remus's reward for his efforts was a spike of ice from Dolohov's wand. The spike was intercepted by a stone that Remus summoned up of the ground as a makeshift shield. Using a trick that James had been fond of, he transfigured the stone into a flock of birds and set them on Dolohov. Feathers exploded everywhere as Dolohov tried to take out his avian attackers, but one of the birds made it through and began pecking at the dark wizard's head. The distraction was all Remus needed to use a levicorpus and have the Death Eater hanging from the air by an ankle.
"You bitch!"
Remus knew that he had the upper hand on Dolohov. He knew that he could likely put take the man out of the fight at that moment. He knew that it was the smart and logical thing to do. But when he heard his wife scream those words, stress evident in her voice, he couldn't fight the impulse to search her out. It was more than impulse, it was instinct.
He found her blocking a barrage of Cruciatus Curses with Bellatrix's laughter tearing through the sounds of battle around them. The witch's long dark hair stood out in stark contrast to Tonk's short and bright style, and the two of them couldn't have looked any less related if they had tried. The only similarity they seemed to share was skill with a wand, as both duelists were employing advanced magic to try to gain an advantage on the other.
Then it happened.
One of Bellatrix's crucio's slipped past his wife's guard, and Tonks dropped to the ground screaming in agony. Remus froze at the sound of the woman he loved in pain. The sound ripped through him, and he felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Realizing he had to act, he began to raise his wand, but he was too late. The distinctive green light was already blazing across the distance between the witches, and it found its mark.
The screaming stopped abruptly, but the silence that replaced it was more horrible than anything Remus had ever heard. The feeling in his gut became a twisting knife, and his heart jumped into his throat. Tonks lie on the ground completely still, and Remus let out a primal scream as he rushed towards Bellatrix.
Bellatrix had taken a moment to marvel at her work. She screeched her horrible laugh at his wife's corpse, and Remus knew what he was going to do.
He knew that he was going to kill her. The werewolf in him was urging him to rip her limb-from-limb, but the rational part of his brain told him that he already knew the spell he needed. He knew he could do it. There was more than enough hatred built up inside of him to perform the spell, and at that moment it didn't feel like he would ever be able to feel anything else.
The incantation was on his lips when was hit from behind. Remus pitched forward awkwardly, and landed prone, with his head turned. He had landed next to Tonks. He stared into her dark eyes, but there was no hint of the twinkle that he had come to love in them. Instead they were cold and glassy, staring at him but unseeing.
Remus struggled to move himself. To get away from the horrible sight. To avenge the death of the woman he loved. His arms and legs refused to budge. He knew that he'd been struck with a Piercing Hex from behind. He knew that Dolohov's spell had damaged his spine. He tried to move anyway, willing himself to get up and kill Bellatrix. The wolf inside of him was howling in hatred and anguish, but even its strength couldn't overcome his injury. He saw blood spreading outward towards Tonks, and realized absently that it was his own.
"One less werewolf." Dolohov spoke from above.
Remus didn't hear him. His eyes were locked on Tonks'. He willed himself to imagine that she wasn't dead. He imagined that they were waking up together from a long night of restful sleep. He imagined the tired smile that she had given him after the first night they'd ever spent together. For a moment, he wasn't in the courtyard anymore. He was with her, as he would be forever.
There was a flash of green light.
(A/N) I always hated that Lupin and Tonks didn't get "proper" deaths. I get that people die in battle and it wouldn't exactly be realistic to witness every single character death, but it felt like a slap in the face that my favorite character didn't get any sort of closure in canon. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading.