A/N: Sorry this update is coming so late in the day. I spent all day at the Campus Gym helping out with our fencing club's first tournament in a long time. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and fencing is cool. Unfortunately, no one on the team did to well, but it was loads of fun to watch some of these people fence.
This chapter, I believe was written by me (Alexis) if I counted correctly. And please don't be too worried by the end of it. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Things always get worse before they get better . . .
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: The Hunt Is On . . .
"I can't believe it," Ginny murmured from her spot on the oversized bed, "Professor Lupin has a daughter . . ." Currently she and the other teenagers affectionately dubbed the "Order Brats" were gathered in George and Fred's room discussing their newest revelation.
"What's worse," George said in an extremely morose tone that was very unbefitting for his normally jovial attitude, "Pettigrew has got his filthy hands on her . . ."
"Which means," His twin, Fred, carried on in the same dead tone as his brother, "that You-know-who will get her."
"Poor Lupin," Ron said sadly from his seat on top of a closed trunk, "It sounded like he hadn't seen her for years. This had just got to be eating him up . . ."
"Of course it is Ron!" Hermione exclaimed as she began pacing, "From the sounds of it, the poor girl has no clue what kind of trouble she's getting into! The poor thing, she has no way to defend herself!"
"What do you mean, Hermione?" Fred demanded with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Yeah," piped up George, "if she's Lupin's kid, she must be bloody damn good at Defense against the Dark Arts . . ."
"Didn't you two hear what Moody told them?" Ginny asked looking at her brothers like they were the stupidest people on the Earth, "She was in a wizarding place, wearing muggle clothing, attempting to use a muggle device, and looking at magic like she had never seen it done before . . ."
"When he gave her up, he probably put her into a muggle family," Hermione explained, "Meaning that she's probably a squib and has no experience with magic at all."
"That doesn't make sense though," Ron said utterly confused, "Lupin is a powerful wizard despite the fact that he's a werewolf. This Liona had to be a witch, how else would he be able to get away once a month to transform without causing alarm."
"It happens, Ron," Ginny said softly, "Squibs can happen in any magical bloodline even in ours. You know that second cousin of ours, the accountant . . ."
"I feel really bad for the bloke," Fred said softly, "But wait just a tick, why wasn't she with her mum? For that matter, where is Mrs. Lupin?"
"What are the lot of you talking about?" a stern voice said from the doorway. All of the Weasley children sat up a little straighter and turned towards the door sheepishly.
"Hi mum," the red-haired children chorused trying to maintain an innocent look. Mrs. Weasley, on the other hand, was not fooled and looked at her children sternly.
"I am not going to repeat myself," she said harshly crossing her arms. The teenagers exchanged dark looks.
"You see . . ." Fred began slowly.
"It's like this mother . . ." George continued for his twin.
"We were on our way to the kitchen . . ."
"To get a few more rags for dusting . . ."
"Because we remembered that you had . . ."
"Asked us to dust the front sitting room . . ."
"At midnight?" Mrs. Weasley asked skeptically.
"Of course!" Both of the twins exclaimed before George continued.
"And being the good sons that we are . . ."
"We decided that doing it with dirty rags . . ."
"Wouldn't be a good idea . . ." the twins said together.
"We were about to go into the kitchen . . ." George broke off.
"When we heard people talking in raised voices . . ." Fred carried on.
"Deciding that it wouldn't be a good time to enter . . ."
"We waited outside the door for the argument to finish . . ."
"In doing so, we happened to overhear what was being said . . ."
"Hand over the Extendable Ears," Mrs. Weasley said extending her hand. The boys groaned and places several fleshy colored things in her hand. "Now what did you hear?"
"Well, mum . . ." George said unsurely and looked at his twin for support.
"Apparently Lupin has a daughter . . ." Fred continued. Mrs. Weasley didn't look surprised.
"And Moody watched helplessly as Peter Pettigrew kidnapped her," the boys concluded together. Mrs. Weasley turned as white as a sheet and put a hand to her mouth.
"Oh dear," she muttered before racing away, probably in the direction of the kitchen.
"Well," Fred said brightly, "I think she took it rather well . . ."
Molly Weasley raced through the house until she finally reached the kitchen, panting and out of breath. The three men standing in there looked at her oddly.
"Is something wrong, Molly?" Sirius asked with concern, hoping that they wouldn't fall victim to even more bad news.
"No," she said taking a deep breath as she looked at each of them, "The children overheard you talking. Remus, is it true? Did he really take Rahne?" Remus sighed sadly.
"Yes," he said softly, "she's gone. I'm going to talk to Dumbledore now about it." He said clasping his cloak about his shoulders.
"I am so sorry Remus," Molly said gently laying a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure she will be alright. Her parents are strong people; there is no doubt in my mind that she takes after you and Liona." Remus gave her a weak smile and a quick hug.
"Thank you, Molly," he said gratefully, "I'm off to see Albus now." He made towards the door.
"Moony," Sirius called and his friend looked back, "Try not to worry too much. I'm sure Rahne is giving Peter hell right about now."
XXXXXXXXXX
"If ye don' open this bloody, fucking door right now, Wormtail, I swear to all things good 'n mighty on God's green Earth that I will castrate ye in the mos' painful manner possible ever to 'ave been devised by the human mind," Rahne screamed at the top of her lungs as she beat on the locked door with her fists and kicked it with her feet, "Then I'll take yer man bits and feed 'em to savage, wild dogs. Af'er 'at, I'm gonna use a dull spoon to rip yer eyes from their sockets and feed 'em to the ravens at the Tower of London. I'll then use 'at same dull spoon to rip out that black, lying heart of yers ya bleedin', backstabin', good fer nothin' bastard of a man! Yer nothing but a filthy, blighter, naff, bullying toerag ye are!" Rahne gave the door one last good kick before sinking dejectedly to the floor.
After Peter had led her to the defunct house, he proceeded to lock her in a small dark room with no windows, light, and only one rickety door that was locked and barricaded from the outside. She had sat in blissful, warm, happy silence for all of about two minutes before the spell (she realized now that he had to have put a spell on her in order for her to go with him) had worn off leaving cold, in the dark, confused, and extremely angry. Since that moment, she had been unrelenting in her tirade of threats, insults, and beating on the door, which, she guessed, she had been doing for over half an hour.
The only things she had to show for her efforts were an extremely hoarse voice, sore throat, and bruised hands and feet. She gingerly probed her hands and felt a familiar warm sticky substance; she had no need for light to know what it was. Rahne carefully ripped two strips of cloth from her jacket and tied one around each of her hands. With a defeated air, she let the quiet darkness envelop her.
XXXXXXXXX
"YOU LOST RAHNE!" Scott demanded once he and Jean had been filled in on the situation. He was currently yelling at Remy because (as Scott had seen it) he had been the oldest therefore, he was supposed to be the responsible one, "AND YOU'RE COMPLETELY SMASHED! WHAT KIND OF ROLE MODEL ARE YOU, GAMBIT?"
"Keep it down, homme," Remy moaned clutching his temples, "Remy feels like mon head is goin' ta explode." Scott scoffed darkly.
"Serves you right," he snarled as he crossed his arms angrily. The others in the room just shook their heads. Ororo turned to Jean.
"The last place that Rahne was known to be was on Whitechapel Road," Ororo said calmly to Jean, "Just a block south from New Road. Perhaps you can focus your search in that area and slowly spread out from there." Jean nodded.
"Should be easy enough," Jean replied putting her hands to her temples, "Rahne's signature stands out and should be easy to find." The older red-head closed her eyes and began to concentrate.
She allowed her mind to open up, and she could see the spot where the fight had begun. She broadened her search looking for any brainwaves belonging to mutants. She began to pull back. In her mind's eye, she felt like she began floating higher and higher above the city, allowing more signatures to come into her view. The only problem was that they were all human . . .
Wait, what was that? She asked herself as she redirected her attention. She came across and odd phenomenon that she couldn't explain. She noted the location of the anomaly before she closed her mind back down. She opened her eyes and looked at the others in the room.
"Well, Red," Logan began gruffly, "did you pick up on anything?" Jean nodded.
"Yes, but . . ." she paused looking for the words, "but it was weird."
"Weird how, Jean?" Ororo asked fearing that something horrible had befallen one of her younger students.
"Well, it is nothing like I have ever seen before," Jean attempted to explain, "Like, it was her mental signature, but an echo or ghost of the original. Like she had been at that place and suddenly ripped away leaving only a trace behind. I really don't know how to explain it properly."
"Like she teleported?" Scott offered. Jean shrugged unsurely.
"Kind of," Jean began, "but when Kurt teleports, he doesn't leave a psionic echo in the place he teleported from."
"Perhaps it is another mutant," Ororo said calmly, "They may have seen Rahne's plight and helped her escape . . ."
"But that means that she should have been back by now," Logan said gruffly as he stood from his seat and immediately began to take charge, "'Ro, stay here just in case she finds her way back. I'll have my cell; call if she does make it back. Shades, Red, Gumbo, Stripes, and Girl you lot are coming with me. We're going to go check out the place where Red saw the 'echo.'" Logan grabbed his black leather biker jacket and headed out the door followed by Scott, Jean, Remy, Rogue, and Cadence. Once they were out on the street in front of the building Logan turned to Jean.
"Which way Red?" he asked as she pulled on a black cord jacket to keep out the chill. The telepath closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated.
"That way," she pointed down and alley and Logan started at quick walk in the direction that she pointed. The others followed him in a straight line as he led them through the back-ways of London at Jean's instruction. Finally they came out on another main thoroughfare and Logan came to a stop. He took a quick sniff of the air and so did Cadence.
"She was here," Cadence announced to the group. Logan grunted in assent.
"And she was scared out of her mind," Logan growled as he continued to follow his nose. The group made their way down the street following Logan's nose. Jean did another quick mental scan before coming to a halt and looking directly across the street. Logan and Cadence came to a stop next to her.
"What is it Jean?" Scott asked as the others joined the three trackers.
"The 'echo' is right over th-. . ." Jean tried pointing across the street, but her gaze turned and she stopped talking. Everyone looked at her in confusion.
"Is somet'ing wrong Jeanie?" Gambit asked unsurely. Jean looked utterly puzzled.
"No," she insisted, "Rahne's echo is coming from that shop over the-. . ." Once again, her gaze shifted and she was looking down the street.
"Ya mean that yar powahs are leadin' ya ta the-. . ." Rogue tried to say but she too averted her gaze unwillingly.
"Yes!" Jean exclaimed, "Over ther-. . ." And again, she looked away. The other four who were with them were completely confused at the girls' behavior. Getting frustrated Logan began to growl.
"Stop playing around," he ordered. The southern Goth and the northern prep exchanged glances. Suddenly Jean snapped her fingers.
"Look at the shops along the opposite side of the street," Jean said pointing to one end, "I want you to say the name of each shop as your eyes land on it. Then you'll see what's going on."
"Fine," Logan grunted looked at one of the farthest shops to the left, "The Gap, JJB Sports, Coincraft, Borders, uhherum, Tower Records . . ."
"Stop," Jean and Rogue both commanded. Everyone was looking at Logan before looking back to the two girls.
"That was really weird," Scott said before he too did the same thing Logan had done, only silently to himself, "It's like you're eyes are pulled away from whatever that place is."
"And that is where Rahne's echo is coming from," Jean said firmly.
"But if our eyes and voices don't want to acknowledge that it's there," Cadence reasoned out loud, "how do we get in? For that matter how did Rahne get in? This surely is not normal is it, father?" Logan furrowed his brows.
"No, kid," Logan growled, "That ain't normal by any stretch of the imagination. Rahne what have you gotten yourself into?"
"Any ahdeas?" Rogue asked aloud at each person kept attempting to look at the shop that their eyes seemed to just glide over.
"Oui, Remy has an idea," the Cajun said as he looked down the street in both directions. Seeing the coast was clear, he crossed the street. The others watched as he attempted to keep going in a direct and straight line toward the strange shop. He would only waver a little bit before forcing himself to look back at the hidden shop. To their utter disbelief, he reached the shop and appeared to have vanished.
"I get ya, Gumbo," Logan said after they had stood in stunned silence for a few moments, "You have to force yourself in its direction. C'mon." Logan and the other four began to walk across the street trying to keep their focus on the shop and not letting their gaze wander. To their relief, they finally reached a door and stepped inside.
XXXXXXX
Remus began weaving his way through the small burg of Hogsmeade before coming to the gates of the massive Hogwarts castle. Not hesitating for a moment, he passed through the gate and made his way towards the imposing structure at a sprint pace. Going quickly up the steps and through the main entrance, Remus paused for a moment to catch his breath. As soon as he was no longer gasping for air, he worked his way through the halls until he came upon a familiar stone gargoyle statue.
"Lemon drop?" Remus tried, the statue didn't move, "Sugar Quills," still no luck, "Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Blood Sucker, Fizzing Wizzbees, Cockroach Cluster . . ." Nothing was opening the passage to the Headmaster's office and Remus was getting quickly frustrated when . . .
"Jawbreaker," a familiar voice said from behind him. Remus didn't have to look to know that Albus Dumbledore had that little, ever-present grin on his face and that laughing glimmer in his eye.
"Jawbreaker?" Remus couldn't help but ask as he turned to face the older man who just chuckled.
"An interesting Muggle confection," Albus explained, "quite similar to a Lemon Drop, but bigger and not quite as sour. To what do I owe this sudden drop in, Remus?" The werewolf let out a tired sigh.
"It's Rahne," he said and the Headmaster's eyebrows shot up to his hair line in disbelief.
"She is in Scotland, Remus," Dumbledore said firmly, "I checked up on her just a month ago. She seemed to be fine, albeit a little downtrodden about something, but she was still in the Sinclair household." Again Remus sighed.
"Well something must have happened during that month," Remus explained, "because she was in London and somehow found her way into the Leaky Cauldron," again the eyebrows of the elder man shot up in disbelief.
"But, I am certain she is a squib," Albus stated as his bushy eyebrows furrowed, "How did . . . there's more isn't there, Remus."
"Yes," Remus nodded sadly, "It was Alastor's turn to watch the pub for any suspicious activity. He didn't see her until it was too late," the weary man sighed heavily, "Albus, Pettigrew took her." Saying the words had a profound effect on the already broken man. He suddenly began to sob uncontrollably as he sunk to his knees and buried his face in his hands. Something deep within Albus stirred as he comforted the normally mild-mannered man.
"We will get her back, Remus, I can assure you that," Albus said firmly as Remus's sobs died down, "First we need to figure out why and how she came to be in London. As soon as the hour is decent enough, we will go to the Sinclair farm and talk with Craig and Amelia." Remus nodded as Albus helped him to his feet.
"Thank you, Albus," Remus said softly which caused the elder man to smile.
"It is not a problem at all, Remus," Dumbledore said kindly, "You seem to forget that she is my goddaughter and her well-being is of my concern as well. Come now, you look exhausted. You may sleep in one of the extra teacher's apartments, follow me."
XXXXXX
". . . and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," Rahne prayed softly to herself as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She was very scared and sat on the floor of the small dark closet. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and she wrapped her arms around her knees and was rocking forwards and backwards. She let out a choked sobbed.
"I wan' ta go home," she whimpered to no one in particular, "I wan' ta see Logan, and Hank, and Storm, and the professor again. I miss Cadence . . . I miss me whole family . . ." She buried her face into her knees and continued to cry. She had tried everything within her power to escape her small dark prison, but it was all to no avail. She was still stuck in the same dark hellhole she had been for the past few hours.
She was beginning to think that Peter was some psycho killer and that he had left her in this closet to rot for the rest of her natural life. She laughed dryly to herself, she was probably right. A distant sound caused her to perk up he ears. She stopped crying and listened intently. It was footsteps, about three pairs of them, coming towards her. She stretched out her legs and stood up, immediately dropping into a battle stance. Whoever it was had a very angry, shape-shifting, teenaged mutant coming their way. As Rahne stood tensed in the darkness, she heard as a mumbling sound became distinct words.
". . . Wormtail, this had better be worth it," a cold high pitched voice demanded. His voice sent shivers down Rahne's spine, but not as much as what he said next:
"Because if it isn't, I will not hesitate to kill you and whoever it is you want to show me."
Rahne's eyes widened in panic and she took a deep breath to calm her out of control nerves. The voices and footsteps continued to get closer.
"M-m-m-my Lord," the familiar voice of Peter stammered, "I-I-I think you will be m-m-m-most p-p-pleased with what I have to s-s-s-show you." Rahne was shocked. No longer was he the confident, cool mannered man she had met in the pub. He was now a cowering, stuttering servant with seemingly no backbone.
"My Lord," a second unfamiliar voice spoke, "Peter has never been able to do anything right. He is nothing but a bumbling idiot." This voice was cold and had a sneering quality to it that Rahne instantly hated.
"Now we know that is not completely true," the cold high pitched voice replied, "He's done a few things right in his miserable life . . ." Rahne couldn't take any more, so throwing caution into the wind she decided to let her presence be known.
"Ye bloody fuckin' bastards," She yelled and pounded on the door, "Let me out of 'ere this instant or I'll . . ."
"Or you'll what?" the sneering voice asked, "My dear you aren't exactly in a position to be making threats."
"Trust me, bub," Rahne said using one of Logan's favorite expressions, "this is one little pup that ye don' want ta piss off." She was startled when the cold cruel voice began to laugh.
"I must say, Peter," he laughed, "Whoever she is she has obviously no clue who she is talking to . . . did you bring me here to show me some muggle girl?" The last question was asked with a tinge of simmering anger that made Rahne almost feel sorry for Peter.
Almost.
"M-m-m-my Lord," Peter stammered sensing the obvious threat in the man's voice, "I k-k-know that she isn't a witch, but her lineage was my source of interest in her . . ."
"Bloody 'ell," Rahne muttered as she realized that they were probably going to hold her for ransom or as a hostage, "Fuck this." Rahne transformed into her half-girl, half-wolf form and threw herself at the door. She was happy to find that the extra weight of her feral form caused the entire doorframe to creak and groan.
And I didn't think of this before because . . . she mused to herself as she slammed her heavier body against the door again.
"What is she doing?" the sneering voice demanded obviously to Peter. Silence hung for a few moments.
"I-I-I don't know," Peter stammered, "She is a petite girl. There's no way she could do that much damage . . ." Rahne's response to that was a low feral growl.
"Tell me now of her lineage," the first voice demanded as Rahne threw her body at the door again. She could hear someone approaching the door.
"She is the sole daughter of Remus and Liona Lupin," Peter said and Rahne could hear him smiling as he said it. Silence hung outside the closet for a few moments before Rahne rammed her shoulder into the door again.
"Really," the first voice said completely bemused. It was weird to hear such a cold voice be filled with that much entertainment, "Girl what is your name." Rahne just growled in response.
"Her name is Rahne, My Lord," Peter responded when Rahne slammed against the door again. Suddenly there was a screeching sound, like something heavy being moved across the floor. The cold voice then shouted, "Alohomora!" Rahne then heard the sound of the door unlocking.
"You can come out now, Rahne," the cold voice said venomously. Rahne smiled, or at least smiled as much as her slight muzzle would allow her too. With her foot, she nudged the door and it swung open with a long eerie creak. She stared out into the candlelit room as she stayed back in the shadows of the closet.
She quickly spotted Peter, he was off to her right and had his wand out, but it was trembling with fear. Rahne could smell it rolling off of him. There was a second man to Peter's left, and he too had his wand pulled out, but it wasn't shaking. Despite that Rahne could still smell his fear.
This man hand long, straight blonde hair that ended at his upper back. He had cold, questioning blue eyes and the most horrific looking sneer on his face. He, like Peter, was dressed in all black robes, but his looked like they were tailor made to fit him perfectly. Rahne quickly scanned the room for the last person.
He stood off to her right and had a very slender, yet still imposing figure. He too was clothed in black robes, but his were hooded. At the current moment in time, his hood was pulled up and cast dark shadows over his face and obscuring his features. Rahne took a quick sniff of the air once more and what she found startled her. Instead of fear, this last man smelled of amusement.
"Come on out, Rahne," the cold high pitched voice invited again. Rahne instantly detected that it was coming from the hooded figure. She immediately assumed that he was, by far, the most dangerous one of the group. Rahne let out another low growl as she stepped out of the closet in her feral form.
"Merlin!" the blonde exclaimed taking a step back and held his wand out further. Rahne let out a low gruff sounding chuckle.
"S-s-s-s-she's a w-w-w-w-w-werewolf!" Peter stammered as he too took several steps back. The hooded man laughed.
"I don't think so Peter," he taunted, "There is no full moon tonight. Although I must say that I am rather curious as to how she changed into that form . . ." Rahne had had enough and without warning lashed out at the hooded man with her claws. He jumped back just in time to allow her claws to slash at the material and rip it.
"Crucio," the hooded man yelled as he pointed his wand at Rahne. She immediately fell to the floor and whimpered as the sudden pain of the curse washed over her. It felt like her veins were on fire, that thousands of white-hot knives were piercing her skin. Her vision clouded and she saw stars as she felt like her limbs were going to be torn unceremoniously from her body. She howled in pain. It was so bad that she lost control of her abilities and morphed back into her regular human form and her howl melted into a young girl screaming in pain and agony.
As swiftly as the pain had come, it was gone. Whimpering, Rahne raised herself from her collapsed position on the floor to being on her hands and knees and glaring up at the hooded figure.
"Tell me," he asked and she could hear the amusement in her voice, "do you have the ability to change your form at will, Rahne?" Rahne spat at him and growled.
"Go ta 'ell," she snarled determined to not let the man in the cloak win. She could almost see him smirk.
"Crucio," he said almost happily and Rahne was once more writhing on the ground in pain and screaming her lungs out. Finally the pain stopped. She looked up at the man with the utmost hatred in her eyes. He let out a cold chuckle before turning his gaze, "Lucius, I want you to go to Spinner's End and retrieve some Veritaserum from Severus, then go directly into my inner chambers immediately." The blonde man nodded and vanished with a crack. He looked back at Rahne.
"This won't hurt a bit my dear," he said as he raised his wand and leveled it at her, "Stupefy."
Rahne's entire world slipped into a sudden darkness.