Ties
Remus did not expect to see Jason Stark –now, Black– at his door. That is, he had heard the rumors of his return and his rise to the title of Lord of that family, but never imagined that his former friend was interested in him when it had been obvious that Jason no longer care about the pack when he moved to Bulgaria.
So yes, the sight of him standing on his porch was a surprise and he could only say the alien nickname showing his stupor.
To which the other wolf just responded with a brief "Moony" that only served to make him feel sick as the sad memories that brought with him and shrink because it brought that connotation of "I find your talk boring and pathetic, so it will be better than correct your actions or I will make you regret having wasted my time", the same one he had been accustomed to hear from his three pureblood friends –not addressed to him, never did he or Peter– when they were teenagers. So Remus quickly invited Jason to enter into his cabin and offered him a cup of tea, which was accepted and so he get to the kitchen and actually took the time it took to prepare it to calm his growing panic at the presence of the dark-haired man in his house.
Remus had always found Antares intimidating, even though the character of the other boy was rather calm and somewhat soft, contrasting with the personalities of his cousins (Sirius and James) even though he shared his sense of humor. This was because, his inner wolf allowed him to feel on a much more personal level the essence of "Alpha" or "Leader" that was natural for Jason.
Which made his own nature of "Beta" susceptible to the presence of the other wolf.
And now, that feeling had multiplied, because contrary to when they were teenagers, Jason had stopped hiding himself and had (finally!) accepted who he was, what he was.
"Ah…Lord Black? What do I own this visit?" he asked nervously once he found himself sitting in front of Jason. He tried to be polite, but it felt strange to address the other man with a different name than the nickname he had acquired within the Marauders.
He flinch when Jason raised one of his eyebrows in question and threw a not very subtle dark look at the polite but distant form that he had used at talking to him. Remus could understand why the other wizard was irritated, tough. Since among the marauders to be called by something other than their nicknames was similar to an insult and seeing the expression of the other wolf, Remus quickly corrected himself.
"Sorry. Uh, I mean…Hati, Why are you here?"
"Can I not visit a member of my pack, Moony?"
The question made him make a face because while they never said anything about stopping being pack, having past almost eleven years apart and taking into account everything that had happened, to say that Remus was not sure to consider Jason part of his pack was to be short, since for him all of his pack had died that terrible day; in a way or another.
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His question was met by a heavy silence and a bad look, so Jason sighed and resisted the urge to rub his temples. Why the hell was talking so hard with Moony? Ah, yes, probably was because they always had had a complicated relationship, this because although they were similar in essence they could not be more different at the end and of course, the other had something they wanted with fervor, even if this was more something subconscious on Remus' part.
Jason had wanted the possibility of being special to Sirius. That Padfoot returned his feelings and have a happy ending. Instead, Moony craved control over his wolfish part. He longed for the freedom of being born Direwolf instead of having been infected and having contracted lycanthropy
And obviously it hadn't help that the last time they met face to face, Jason had been rather rough and aloof. Giving Moony a rabid look that made Sirius growl at him and take a defensive stance in front of the blond, which only made his anger increase and made him decided to ignore them both to concentrate on saying goodbye to the rest of the pack.
That had been the last time he had seen them all together.
He remembered hugging Wormtail and mess whit his hair affectionately; he remembered having embrace Lily and after that making her promise that she would take care of all the idiots –And he had said it in the most affectionate way possible– that made up the pack, after that he had embraced James in a hug before kissing his cheek in an act of respect and appreciation, after all, at that time Prongs had been "Alpha" the undisputed leader of the marauders.
"Listen, Moony." He started with a tone between resigned and tired, but tinted with seriousness. "I know we do not say goodbye in the best conditions, but that does not mean I don't worry about you. You're part of my pack, you always were and you always will be."
"You have a very special way of showing it." Argument Remus, his eyes shining golden with emotion behind his words. Anger and resentment evident in his voice. "You left! You give us up! You abandoned the pack!"
"I didn't leave you! You were the ones who decided to stay and fight for Dumbledore as his personal army!" he responded with intensity Lord Black while responding to the challenge of other wolf, leaning slightly forward and flashing his eyes to gold, to then expose his teeth.
Wolves are creatures that act by instinct. And unfortunately the aggression as a sign of power and dominance was something natural for both of them. That's why Jason had not been able to avoid reacting heatedly to the words of the other man. After all, He was Alpha and there was no way he was going to let Remus dare to imply that he forgot about his pack.
"You decided to stay and fight a war that was not yours. All of you decided to fight for the light and all those idiocies. You were the ones that decided to put others before the pack and that's why James, Lily and Peter are dead! That's why my mate is rotting in Azkaban! Do not dare to imply that what happened was my fault, Omega!" Each word is fraught with pain, but they also contained deep anger. In those moments Jason exposed everything that made him suffer, everything that had happened to the Marauders, but he avoided mentioning his cub, because at the moment Harry was a Black family secret and although Remus was part of his old pack, he was not part of the current one.
And Jason was not just Hati anymore. Now, he was Lord Black and had a whole family to think about; although that did not mean that Remus was not important to him.
He saw with some satisfaction the shock of the other man as he hear the word he had use to refer to him, taking a vindictive pleasure to see him turn pale and open and close his mouth to be speechless, understanding perfectly why.
The relations and ranks among the Marauders had been a point of discussion during the first year of the conformation of the pack, because two of its members were wolves and had a much closed mentality of what meant pack. And for the other Animagi, even with their animal forms, it was difficult to see things in that mentality. It had cost them a lot of work, but in the end they could achieve an agreement on what rank each of them occupied:
Alpha was a leader, which without a doubt had been James; and Lily when she joined them. Both formed a strong and well-balanced Alfas couple.
Delta meant second in command; which meant Sirius, who was not exactly a follower, but at the same time didn't have the abilities to be able to lead them because of his personality. Since he was not responsible enough to be able to take care of them the way James did, since from time to time he also needed to be taken care of and have someone to see for him.
Beta were followers; Remus, Peter and himself. In his case it was a decision, more than anything else, since he did not want to challenge James for the right to be Alpha and was satisfied with simply following his cousin guidance. On the other hand, with Moony and Wormtail, it was an entire different matter as it had to do more with his personality and with the fact that they had huge complexes that prevented them from trying and accepting themselves entirely.
Omega was an insult; It was the lowest of the low. A moderately educated way of saying The bitch. It was a term that had only been used on one occasion, since everyone was aware of the consequences of being labeled as one.
It meant being excluded from the pack, being treated like scum and trash; it meant losing the liberties that your rank contained. It was not a pleasant experience. It was something terrible to presence, because once the Alpha dictates that someone was a Omega there didn't exist a going back and the other members of the pack were forced to abide by the decision.
James used it as punishment, as the worst punishment. The punishment for those who committed treason and endangered the others members. It had only been used on Sirius, after the incident with Snape, when the Slytherin was about to lose his life and discovered their secret; Remus secret.
It had been about five months of hell for everyone, but they had understood why Prongs was forced to exercise punishment even though Sirius was not entirely to blame for what had happened. Oh do not misunderstand, Jason was not blinded for his love at the dog animagus as he saw Padfoot as he was: An arrogant young man who would do anything to prove that he was not like the rest of the Blacks; someone impulsive and aggressive, but he also knew that Sirius had a big heart and firmly believed in helping others.
That why Hati knew that while Sirius comment about the secret passage had malice against Severus, he did not really expect the Slytherin to be stupid enough to dare try to sneak in full moon and that he had been genuinely terrified of what would have happened if James and Jason hadn't save Snape's life that night.
Padfoot had been devastated when he thought about the consequences that the incident might have had.
For the pack.
For Remus
The affection of his mate had for Moony had never been a secret. As it was as obvious as the worship he felt for Sirius, so it really wasn't a surprise to learn months after graduation that they were together.
However, that did not mean that it had hurt less.
Even with all this, Hati´s intention was not to punish or take revenge on Remus, only to force him to listen. As he had expressed before, Moony had been, was and always would be important to him, because he was his brother in everything but blood. It was pack. And now that Jason was Alpha it was his duty to ensure that he was happy and safe.
"You're going to close your mouth, you'll hear what I have to say, and you'll answer only if I ask you a question." easy and concise orders, as he wanted them to be very simple to Remus to follow them. After a long moment analyzing the figure of the other wolf, he allowed himself to relax his position when he saw that the other had decided to obey his demands. Letting out a sigh, he closed his eyes for a moment, organizing his thoughts before speaking.
"I came here to offer you a place in the Black family, Moony. The Blacks are my pack and I plan to make our name go back to its former glory, I plan to change things around here. I'm going to make sure that the cubs have a carefree and bright future where they can be happy. I am also going to rescue Sirius from Azkaban and to destroy anyone who has had to do with that imprisonment." His voice was serious and in his eyes there was a sadistic glow that put a macabre perspective, because it assured that he intended to comply with what he had said.
" Now, you and I know that Sirius would be unable to betray Prongs and Whiskers, that there must be a logical explanation for what happened that night other than the stupidity I've been hearing since I returned: ´Sirius Black was an undercover Death Eater´, ´The Second in Command of the Dark Lord´, ´A murderer in cold blood´ Because come on! Padfoot hates the Dark Arts so much that he would rather take his own life than use them and his reluctance to surname Black guarantees that he will do everything contrary to what our parents wanted, which means cero services to the bald, red-eyed bastard. And why in hell would he serve the man who murdered Regulus?" While exposing him point Jason´s aura went from being dangerous to remembering the one of an exhausted father who had been arguing with his little one about something meaningless.
This because in his eyes what he was saying was so obvious that he could not believe that the English were really stupid enough to believe the string of nonsense that was said of his mate.
After all, Sirius had never been subtle with his hatred/resentment against certain traits that the Black family and the Slytherin's held in high esteem, as well as his absolute disgust about the Dark Arts –which actually had always caused problems between them as it was Antares favorite subject– and his anger and repugnance about the fact that Regulus had let himself be marked as won by Voldemort.
Not that that particular point had not been a matter that failed to hit Jason close to home because when he found out that Bellatrix had convinced Reg to join the Death Eaters and that Mother had allow him do it, well, he was very tempted to go and murdered both witches and incidentally curse his little brother until sanity returned to his head, but the news came when they were all together (and with some members of the Order) so James forbade him to go and do just that.
Looking back, he should have disobeyed him and followed his instincts. Maybe that would have changed things for better…maybe not, he would never knew now because it was impossible to change the past and his little king had been dead for more than a decade.
"So I want you to tell me everything you know about that night," he continued, returning to his serious business tone.
He had heard the rumors from his cousins, of course. But it was obvious that there was something wrong. The story that he was told did not make sense.
Oh, he did not doubt that Sirius would had been able to cause the death of Peter and twelve Muggles if he had wanted to, after all, his mate was a powerful wizard and although he never used them, his knowledge of dangerous and obscure curses was not poor. After all, he had been raised in the Black family and Jason was an avid researcher, and he always had share his theoretical knowledge with the other members of his pack and they listened without feeling horrified the majority of the times, because it was a part of what he was, of whom he was and his pack had always accepted him without reservation.
Overlooking the obvious problem of alleged betrayal. Why would Peter go against Sirius? Peter never had been a good duelist; he also had neither the power nor the control to face a well-trained Auror as his partner was. In addition, Wormtail despite being a Gryffindor did not have a great courage and Jason could not see him act like an avenging angel and charge idiotically without first thinking of an escape plan.
So, in case that Peter truly believed to Sirius be the traitor. Why go alone? Why not contact Moony, Jason or a strong member of the Order of the Phoenix? Why get in the front line when he knew Sirius was stronger than him?
Antares knew something was wrong, but he could not understand that as he had not been there that night and for that reason the only thing he could do was listen to the stories of people who did not know Padfoot as he and Moony did.
That is why he wanted to know from his pack brother what he knew. And if Jason tried to find out why being together Remus let Sirius be dragged to Azkaban, well, that was an entirely different matter.
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Omega…
Omega…
Remus listened to the echo in his mind and could not be more affected, his feelings varied from horror to anger, going through sadness and rebellion, to end up becoming resignation. The golden glow disappeared from his eyes and he bowed his head submissively.
Jason was Alpha.
His Alpha
And no matter how much he fought against it or it hurt to accept it, Prongs was gone and Antares was the only one who could take his place as leader of the pack. It hurt, but at the same time he could not be more relieved, he had spent almost twelve years in solitude and that for him was his own personal hell, and he was really relieved that Jason's presence in his life would mean that it was over.
Even with his current position. And even when the anger came back to hear that he was going to do everything possible to get Sirius out of Azkaban –And Remus did not doubt even for a second that Jason could do it with all his influences and both political and magical power– but the resentment he felt for his ex- lover happened to be insignificant when his Alpha mentioned destroying the people responsible for Padfoot´s incarceration.
Remus knew that look and that tone, Hati had used them before going to rescue Prongs and Sirius when they were caught on a mission by the Carrow twins. He had gone alone, refusing to accept the help of the members of the Order and even threatening Dumbledore so that the Headmaster would stop insisting on sending someone with him arguing that taking company would only slow him down and hinder his path.
Jason had managed to free them and send them home with a Portkey. James and Sirius had returned alone, making the pack's concern go to the sky, but Prongs had been sure Hati was fine and would be home soon. Two hours later it was seen that James had been right.
Antares had returned with his clothes somewhat torn and powdered, with a cut on the cheek, but no injuries other than that. His eyes shone with satisfaction and proud announcement that the Carrow brothers would not be a problem again.
He had forgotten how terrifying Jason could become and paled at the tough of an angry Hati running free in England, as that part of Hati was something that he would have been glad not to see again. The only fortunate thing about the situation was that it was not aimed at his person.
However, the next thing he said made him cringe and brought treacherous thoughts, because yes, Hati was right. He knew all that. But on the other hand, a cruel and dark voice whispered in his mind that Sirius was guilty. That he had witnessed as Dumbledore performed theFidelius Charm. And that Sirius was the only one who could have betrayed James and Lily, since only he knew the secret and was in a position to give it.
Even so, he decide to obey his instincts and follow the order his Alpha had given him.
It was painful to remember how he had learned what had happened, for he had learned what had happened at dawn the next day courtesy of Professor Mcgonagall, when it was too late to do anything but cry at his loss.
"By then, the war was at an all-time high, the number of deaths was increasing every week and there was much more discord within the pack since the Prongs and Whiskers went to hide and go to hide as the missions for the Order began to be secret because there was the suspicion that there was a traitor in our ranks." He started in a controlled voice. "My relationship with Sirius had cooled because half of my time was out, trying to agree with the northern herds to stop fighting in the company of the Not-To-Be-Named and Sirius was also absent a lot because of the missions, he never said where he was going or what he was doing. That night was the same…"
"We ate together, but then he left without saying anything ... I assumed he had a mission ... not that he would go ... to betray our pack "his last comment was said with great difficulty because it still hurt to think about what had happened." The next morning, Professor Mcgonagall informed me of what had happened, I knew that James and Lily were dead, that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been defeated, that Harry had been taken to Petunia's house and that Sirius had been imprisoned for the murder of Peter and twelve Muggles, that night my pack was destroyed and I could not do anything about it!" His eyes were full of tears and his voice wobbled.
That night he had lost everything. His world ended in a blink. An instant everything was fine, they were not exactly happy, but things were not so bad and they had hope that everything would get better, and the next everything was a nightmare; a nightmare he would not be able to wake up as it was real.
"At first I did not want to believe it," he admitted with a bitter smile. "But Professor Mcgonagall explained to me everything that had happened and I could only accept reality, James, Lily and Peter were gone, Sirius had betrayed us and that was why they had left ... that Harry would stay with Petunia…and that I could not do anything but resigned myself to be alone as the Ministry would never allow me had our cub"
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"I see," muttered Jason, seeing whit pity and concern at the sand-haired boy, for he could understand in a certain way the pain the other was feeling. Even if the blow he had felt when he heard about the Potters' deaths was much milder than having heard about everything else, he couldn't imagine how painful it had been for Moony to found himself alone once again.
"Do you happen to know the details of what happened between Peter and Sirius? My family does not have much information about it." He said with some frustration, remembering how her cousins had not been able to give her the details, because being members of the Black family were kept in the shadows about the events that led to the imprisonment and condemnation of Bellatrix Lestrange and Sirius Black.
He could see Remus' reluctance to talk about it, but he ended nodding and beginning to relate what he knew about the incident.
"The official reports say that Sirius was fleeing after the death of Tu-Know-Who and Peter found him near Britxbock Street. Peter accused him loud enough for Muggles to hear. The Aurors say that he had probably lost control when he learned of the death of James and Lily, and that Sirius reacted violently, executed a spell that blew up the street, killed Wormtail and twelve Muggles. The destruction caught the attention of Aurors who were chasing Sirius' trail, when they found him laughing like crazy Among the remains of the streets destroyed"
"I understand ... Could you describe the scene to me, Moony? If I could find out what spell was used it would ease thing for Sirius"
"It was as if a bomb had exploded, only one finger remained from Peter, the little finger ..."
That information made him freeze in horror.
"What?" Jason murmured mostly to himself, still trying to made sense of the information he had. His reaction confused Moony, who looked at him disoriented and uncertain at his reaction. Quickly his mind analyzed what those words meant and he paled slightly at the terrible thing of what he had discovered.
"Sirius is a skilled duelist and knows many nefarious spells." Hati started to explain "He would not occupy his magic in that way, because what you say speaks of a loss of control or an explosion intended to destroy ... There is no spell that causes so much damage in the surroundings and much less there is a curse that only leaves a finger as proof of the existence of the person ... "With a tone that with each word became colder and more distant, but anger and fury raged inside him.
Remus let a fearful "Hati?" still confused and a little enervated for his Alpha reaction.
"Wormtail is alive" Antares stated in a cold and murderous tone.
"What? That's not ..." Moony try, but was interrupted by an very mad Antares.
"Think about it, Moony. Peter shouted in a Muggle town that Sirius was guilty, thus breaking the secret status. He then cut his own finger and caused an explosion, making sure that everyone thought Padfoot had killed him ... while he could get safe because it had an alternate shape that only the marauders knew, a rat, nobody would think to look for it that way ... Also, our pack was broken by then. You would not say anything about it, probably Sirius either and I wasn't close to be able to mention it." His argument was so logical that it made the lycanthrope pale several shades.
"We were right, there was a traitor in our ranks ... only it was not Sirius ... it was Peter ..." he said in a strangled whisper.
"And who better than Peter to be a double agent, Peter with his angel face, Peter with his innocuous aspect, Peter with his cowardice and his apparent inability to be a threat."
"That's ... no…Siri..." Remus understood the implications and was reduced to tears and a trembling form in a few seconds. Sirius was innocent and had spent eleven years in Azkaban! He had let the man he loved spent more than a decade in hell!
Jason had always knew that Sirius was innocent, but the knowledge that Peter was responsible for his imprisonment and probably the death of Prongs and Whiskers, was a very strong blow. Wormtail was his brother, they were part of the same pack and he had betrayed them.
Holding his own desire to mourn, to cry and scram, he rose from the chair and proceeded to approach Remus, surrounding his figure with his arms and pulling him in a tight hug. He could not afford to let the tears fall. Not now. As it was his duty as Alpha to be strong and to ensure that the members of his pack were well.
"Shh. Don't worry, Moony ... I'm going to fix things, everything's going to be fine. I´m going to take care of it. We're going to get Padfoot out of Azkaban and then we'll chase that traitor and once we finish with him, we'll be back home ... we'll be happy again, I promise. We'll be a strong pack again and I'll make sure everyone is safe, "he vowed with fierceness and determination shining in his eyes.
His magic covering Remus in the same way he had done with Harry in the morning, promising love and protection
