The Burrow was a bustling nest of holiday spirit. The boys had strung up golden lights in the trees, a festive new look adorning the front lawn. Gnomes were running around, quite agitated, since Fred and George had magically attached Christmas hats to their unwilling heads. A fussy moth eaten wreath was hanging from the front door to greet visitors and guests. And in the window was a crooked tree decorated with homemade ornaments that moved about, drifting and singing carols, as they fed off the warm energy inside.

Harry, Hermione and Ron were sprawled out on the floor, bellies full and eyes heavy as they stretched out by the fire, talking quietly. Molly was cleaning up the dinner mess, humming to the tune of an old song slipping through the radio. The Twins had retired to their room, heads ducked together with stacks of paper in their arms, wands stowed away behind their ears as they conversed about the Joke shop. Lupin was in a lazy conversation with Arthur Weasley, talking about Muggle contraptions that the patriarch couldn't quite understand.

Remus' heart wasn't in it, though. He had eaten more than he had in days and Molly's cooking always put him in a daze as he tried to stay awake through the food coma. But worry was nagging at the corner of his mind as he saw Mrs. Weasley's expression when he had arrived earlier, asking about whether Tonks had stopped by or not. She looked at him sadly and nodded her head, a knowing and comforting smile on her rosy lips.

"Don't play with her feelings, Remus, dear. Beneath the Order business and the Auror duties, she's still a woman," she had told him after she explained that Tonks only dropped by. Lupin bobbed is head in what he hoped looked like understanding and retreated into the living room to find the Twins. They always seemed to brighten his mood.

But now he couldn't help thinking about her. They had kissed the other day. And it was a wonderful kiss. Soon after that Remus had broke it to Tonks that he didn't think it was right for her to be dropping by all the time since she was stationed in Hogsmeade. He was too old, too poor, and just too abnormal for her. Tonks hadn't taken it well. She stormed out of the house that day and hasn't spoken to him since. He was hoping he could talk to her here. His hopes didn't last long.

Mr. Weasley excused himself from the room, heading into the kitchen to help Molly. So Remus was left there with the three teenagers who had relocated to the empty couches and chairs around him. Hermione had a book balanced on her knee, only vaguely listening to Ron ramble on about Quidditch. Remus gave a small smile as he caught her rolling her eyes.

"How have you been, Remus?" Harry watched his former Professor lean closer to him from his place on the couch, a tired smile brightening the scars along his face.

"I've been pretty decent, Harry. And yourself? I've heard about your wins as Captain this year. Well done." Remus gave an encouraging smile. "I'm just glad you don't gloat as much as James did back in the day. I've had enough of that for a lifetime."

Harry gave a chuckle. For several more minutes he had engaged in light conversation with Lupin, skimming over subjects that didn't bring Harry's worries to the surface. But soon enough he found himself confessing his troubles of Draco Malfoy's sneaking around. Rationally and sensibly, Remus reduced the matter to nothing but mischief. Harry knew different but he didn't press the matter as he noticed how tired Lupin had become. So he drifted away for awhile, retiring to his own thoughts about what Harry should do about Slughorn when he got back to school.

"Is there something else bothering you, Harry?" Lupin asked after a few moments of watching his young companion slip away from the present.

Yes, he desperately wanted to tell Lupin. But he couldn't. Dumbledore had asked to not to share his investigation on the Horcruxes with anyone but Ron and Hermione. He would honor Dumbledore's request but something in the back of Harry's brain told him that maybe Remus could help.

"Well," Harry started to lie, "I've been having a strange dream lately." It wasn't a true lie, it was stretching the truth. The dream had troubled him but the Horcruxes were his main concern. He just couldn't bring himself to shoot down Remus' offer to help.

"Tell me about it," Remus said lightly, crossing his legs and he leaned his aching back farther into the chair. As Harry gathered the words to say, Lupin thanked Hermione quietly as she slipped a cup of tea into his hand and slid into the seat beside him.

"I was standing in front of this table. It was dark all around me and I could hear creaks and groans as if the room was shifting around me," Harry recalled, squinting his eyes as he leaned forward on his knees. "I didn't want to approach the table. One light was shining down on the object, the only focus in the dream."

"What was the object, Harry?" Lupin asked, sincerely interested now that Harry seemed to have to concentrate really hard to conjure up the images again. Remus' blue eyes flickered to Harry's scar. Hermione's lips set into a straight line as she followed the professor's gaze.

"It was purple on the outside. Stained, with what looked like ink. Or blood. Immediately I thought 'Get away, don't open it.' But I couldn't back away." Harry looked up at Remus' lined face. "It was a book."

Hermione felt Lupin go rigid beside her. His back straightened and he was looking at Harry but not really seeing him. She could see his mind reeling, putting pieces together as Harry kept explaining what happened in the dream. Her annoyance flared slightly as she realized Harry had never bothered to tell her about this before. It could be a book to help in the finding of the Horcruxes.

"I could feel it pulsing beneath my fingers, like something was lurking in the pages." Harry rubbed the thumbs and index fingers of both hands together, mimicking the feel of paper beneath his fingertips. "There were more stains. Blood, ink, colored liquids; I couldn't make any sense of it."

"Were you searching for something?" Lupin asked gravely, his voice a whisper as he stared at Harry so intently it looked like he was trying to drill a hole and look inside his skull. His behavior was starting to make Hermione shift anxiously beside him. Remus spared her a worried glance.

"Yeah, yeah, I was looking for a certain page, a certain subject. And I was getting frantic, you know, like time was against me. I was flipping through the pages, faster and faster. I was giving myself-"

"Paper cuts," Remus said in unison with Harry, making the hair on the back of Hermione's neck stand up.

"Yes, paper cuts. And then-" Harry continued. But before he could spit the next word out, Remus interrupted.

"you stopped on a page. Evil reeked from the paper, invading your senses until you felt choked as you studied the picture of a baby in the corner. A perfect child that seemed right in all the wrong ways. You tried to read the instructions, the meaning but it was all in a foreign language."

The entire room had stopped breathing. They were staring at Remus with looks of disbelief and concern. For Harry or Remus' well being, they did not know. Molly and Arthur exchanged glances right before Lupin dived back into his story, the Christmas cheer snuffing out of the room like the dousing of a candle. The fire blazing was the only source of warmth as Harry's blood went cold.

"How do you know this?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes from the solemn blue of Remus' irises. He could feel color rising to his cheeks as his stomach churned uncomfortably, foreboding that something was approaching. Something big that made his nerves so uneasy that Harry was restraining himself from fidgeting.

Remus stared at Harry for a long time, the lines and scars on his face suddenly deep and gray as he refrained from answering. Arthur had opened his mouth to say something but Molly took his hand and gave it a squeeze, nodding to Remus for him to continue. But Lupin didn't want to say it, didn't want to throw out into the open that either something beyond explanation was occurring. Or that someone was intruding their minds.

"Because I dreamt it too."

"Molly, I've already told you everything that I know. I don't have one earthly idea that can explain this dream Harry and I shared."

Remus rubbed his tired face with his calloused hands, not wanting to see the distress on the mother's face. He knew what they were all thinking, what he was tossing around in his head. It was like a spider on the wall that kept jumping away when you tried to kill it.

They could not help but remember that Harry's dreams had saved Arthur's life last year. And no matter how hard he tried he could not squash this; that they had also ultimately led to Sirius' death.

There was a throb in his chest that he was thankfully able to ignore when he heard the sound of something crashing from upstairs. Molly, muttering under her breath, raced up the steps, no doubt going to the Twins' room to see what all the racket was about. That left Arthur and Remus alone.

"I know what you're thinking, Remus. But I don't think it's like that this time. What happened with Harry last year is ruled out because of one factor," Mr. Weasley said, cleaning his glasses on his shirt.

"That one factor being me."

"Voldermort would not let an Order member inside his mind. And it's even more unlikely because-"

"I'm a werewolf, right, but that doesn't explain why Harry and I shared the dream. Nor does it answer what this dream was specifically about." Remus massaged his temples. "We should tell Dumbledore about this."

Arthur gave a quick nod. "I'll send an owl right away."

Remus watched Mr. Weasley go fetch some ink and parchment to scrawl a synopsis of what had occurred. When the door swung shut behind him, Remus leaned back in his chair, his head pounding as he went over the same information over and over again. He couldn't get a single thing out of it, not even a sliver of what all this was meant to convey. So he sat there for a long time, watching the enchanted dishes wash themselves, pondering when Molly would come back down. He would very much like a cup of tea before he excused himself to bed.

That's when he found himself thinking about Sirius. He would've been there, sitting right beside him, balancing on the back legs of his chair. His best friend would be throwing whatever ideas crashed into his head, looking to Remus to either shoot them down or build them up. Brainstorming together had been a specialty of theirs. Since their Hogwarts days, it surprised him how much the pair could get done when they put their heads together. When you added Prongs into the mix there was hardly a puzzle left unsolved, a riddle too difficult to decipher.

Despite the falling sensation soaring through his stomach, Remus smiled at the thought of them. What would they be doing in heaven at this very moment? Playing Quidditch no doubt while Lily watched from the sidelines, only shouting encouragement time to time to feign that she was paying attention. She would be reading a book though, one from a grand library that was only accessible to the-

"Harry, stop!"

The shout yanked Remus out of his thoughts and spat him back out into the Weasley kitchen. Nearly sending the chair to the floor, Lupin shoved away from the table, drawing his wand. The yell had come from the front of house. He dodged around the furniture in the living room as a stampede of footsteps descended down the stairs, shouting to one another.

Remus couldn't get the door open fast enough as he clawed at the doorknob. Smoke slapped at his face, curled into his eyes until he felt the sting. He flew off the front steps of the Burrow, hurling himself to catch up with the Weasley's. He could only see the whipping of Ginny's hair as she jumped through the opening in the fire, no doubt running after Harry. As if on cue, the gap closed before Remus or Arthur could burst through. The flames licked his face and he nearly threw himself back, not wanting to burn his skin.

"Get back!" Remus shouted at Ron and Hermione who were prepared to fling themselves at the fire if it meant getting to Harry and Ginny. There was confusion all around him as he raised his wand, trying to tame the fires to allow another gate into the grasses around the Burrow. The Twins helped, flicking and thrusting their wands at the rising flames. It was like trying to bring a giant animal down.

And there it was, an opening.

"Kids, stay here with your mother!" cried Mr. Weasley as he set off beside Remus before the fire lashed out again. For he too had seen the black flying masses of the Death Eaters.

The grass was tall and the ground was damp from a recent rain. He shoes were sinking into the mud with each step but he willed his long body to keep moving. Harry and Ginny were out here with the enemy, prowling through the grass trying to find each other like Arthur and Remus were trying to find them.

"Ginny!" he heard Mr. Weasley calling yards away from Remus' east side. The sound of rustling grass and splashing mud was surrounding the area, sending Lupin's eyes in a whirl as he tried to register a face through this sea of the earth.

"Expelliarmus!"

That voice was unmistakably Harry's. He could hear Ginny's chiming after his, firing a defensive spell. They were together and firing at someone. Remus' found his feet moving in that direction, running to the sound of their voices. They were close, only a few feet away. Then a voice rang out, a chilling voice that sent Remus' teeth on edge and his heart into a painful rhythm of drumming.

"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black!"

With a burst of anger Remus heaved his body through an open circle where Harry and Ginny were back to back, wands out. They were sweating and adrenaline high as their eyes scanned the fields around them. He put his arm out to hold Ginny back, the other held out in front of Harry. His posture was like a cat's, ready to pounce at the next movement.

That's when a curse was sent flying past his ear. Harry ducked in response, throwing up his arm to wield a Protego shield. As a hex was whizzing through the air straight to Ginny, Arthur shot out of the tall stalks behind him and blew the spell away, standing in front of his daughter, ready to use his own body as a counterattack if he had to.

They could feel it. The danger in the air was so thick that Remus could smell it. His chest felt as if it were being pressed on, tightening as he realized there wasn't a sound other than their rapid breathing, their feet sloshing around in the mud beneath them, and the rustling of clothes as wands were rotating, waiting for the next curse, the next pair of luminous eyes amongst the jungle of grass.

But they never came. Like cannons, the Death Eaters shot into the sky in swirling black tunnels, laughing and taunting in the background of the crackling flames swallowing the sides of the Burrow. They could hear the sound of the Weasley sons trying to put out the fire and Molly crying out for her husband. Taking Ginny's hand and nearly dragging her along, he left Remus and Harry standing in the field, wet and tired.

"Remus, thanks for coming after me. I didn't want them to hurt Gin- Ow! What the bloody hell was that?" Harry shouted as he rubbed his hand against the back of his head, looking around for what had hit him. Remus was startled, looking around for what direction it had come from. Another Death Eater? He took a step towards Harry and he felt his foot sink down into the watery dirt. But most of all he felt his shoe contacting with a solid object.

He looked down and his heart nearly cracked a rib. Because there, right below him, was a stained purple covered book.