Chapter 25 The Crest

He cried his eyes out. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He couldn't believe that he actually let his Godfather talk him into killing his own father, his Godfather's best friend! He couldn't deny the temptation that was enclosed in it, nor the satisfactory that he received afterwards, one that he knew could only be replaced by another death, by the death of Albus Dumbledore.

He pounded the man's chest hard as he cried into the other man's embrace. He could hear the soothing words but it didn't ease the pain. Nothing that he did could ease the pain, the sickness that had befallen his body.

He knew he could have easily turned his blast towards the headmaster and kill him. However he didn't and that surprised him because it would have been too easy. He wondered now about all the possibilities that could have happened, replaying the scene over and over again each with a different ending. Something was wrong with all of them though. Voldemort, no matter what he did ended up dead either from his hands, his Godfather, or from Dumbledore himself. Perhaps all this was meant to be. Perhaps he was meant to die whereas his son was meant to rise and reign.

He let his imagination wander as he tried to deny what he had just did.

"Thomas?" Black questioned as he tried to comfort his Godson. The teen didn't reply as he tried to do everything to let go of his pain and anger.

"I'm sorry." Black continued. "But they are waiting and we must deal with what is present. You must see the other Death Eaters."

"I don't want to."

"You must. Voldemort isn't around any longer."

"It's your fault!" Harry screamed.

"No. It's his last wish. It was his plan. I was merely taking out his order."

"His last wish? His last wish?" Thomas nearly exploded but held his temper down.

"Please Thomas, we cannot have a fake rebellion turn into a real one!" Black repeated. "You must see them! Afterwards I promise to tell you the truth."

"The truth?" Thomas breathed. "What truth?" he asked bringing his face closer to the other man.

"About what you should have known a long time ago."

"The VPMWPV?"Thomas breathed out softly.

"Yes, The VPMWPV." Black confirmed.

"What do you plan to do Albus?" A very anxious McGonagall asked, staring at the debris that was left behind. "His powers are unimaginable." The headmaster waived her off as he stared around searching for survivors.

"Igor"

"Hmm?" The Durmstrang headmaster asked.

"You look like you can walk. Why don't you take any injured to the castle."

"Of course." Karkaroff walked towards the dead trying and searched for the living.

"Viktor give me a hand."

Krum gruffly walked up.

"Hermione help me please?"

Hermione nodded as she made her way towards them.

"Miss. Granger can stay. I need a word with her." Dumbledore looked around the room. "Mr. Malfoy if you'll help." The headmaster nodded at Draco who reluctantly did as he was told. After gathering the injured, the three left towards the castle.

He panted hard as he made his way out of the Forbidden Forest. He couldn't believe what had just happened in the last 48 hours.

It had all began with his visit to Black. He had tried to get him out but things happened that weren't planed. He had been transformed into his other form and caused havoc and confusion. Harry and Wormtail had arrived and got Black out. However while escaping they had split up. From what Harry had told him, Wormtail and Cho died and Sirius' whereabouts were unknown.

He couldn't leave Harry in that condition so he had taken him in to take care of him. Dumbledore had come and gone with Voldemort doing the same, both in hopes of collecting Harry. How everything had gone wrong from there. He was now a foe to both his friends and enemies. He knew from now on that neither side would accept him.

Dumbledore, that bastard had accused him and now he was a fugitive, labeled both as a Death Eater and an Order member. A label which he knew would end up killing him. After all he was not Severus or Sirius, the only two of whom he knew might survive in the situation he was now being thrown at.

Lupin cursed at the stars. He cursed at his ill fated life or what's going to be left of it. Picking through his robes he found what he was looking for. It was the last piece of the Crest that belonged to the VPMWPV which the Dark side had not obtained. This was the last piece that would finally reunite them all.

Sighing he carefully made his way back to Hogwarts. He had to go to get a school owl to deliver it. Smiling slightly at the task at hand, he suddenly felt alive as an old and familiar presence washed over him.

The wolf in him was relentlessly trying to surface and take revenge on all the wrong doings that had accumulated throughout the years. It was an overwhelming experience but for the first time Lupin and the wolf was in sync and thus now he freely welcomed its presence. For too long had Remus thought of Moony as a separate and intruding presence in him but now it was different and now he understood that he was Moony and Moony was him.

Black stood towering over the others, standing protectively next to his godson who was now seated on his father's throne.

"Dumbledore killed my father." Thomas spoke quietly to the hooded figures before continuing "But we will avenge him." It was easy to blame the cause on someone else which he knew would cause the others to loath the man even more.

As the two expected there was restlessness in the group. Thomas knew that this would be the ideal time of rebellion from the Death Eaters. He needed to crush that thought before it even got the chance to ignite.

"I expect you all to follow me as you did my father." Thomas began. "It is quite unwise to want me as your enemy." He let the statement linger. To demonstrate his power the teen flashed his aurora, letting out his complete power which shook the whole manor and made all his followers tremble with awe. They knew that even their previous Dark Lord didn't have so much power and because of this, some of them had thought of joining the other side. However now seeing the power which the young man possessed, no one dared to betray him.

Two figures stepped up.

"Milord we exist to serve you" came the elder Malfoy's murmur.

"We dare not betray you. We are at your disposal." Bella's response lost its childish, playful tone. Thomas nodded knowing that if he had both of their support, the two which he had always felt suspicious towards, he knew he would not fall and would become greater then his father.

"You have the Dark Lord's gratitude" Thomas continued changing to the tone his father used regularly. He shifted in his seat as Black bent over and pretended to whispered something to him. The teen nodded, keeping his eyes on the others as he tried to depict their reactions towards this inequality. He was glad to find that there were no surprises. He assumed that it was regular for perhaps Sirius had been 'advising' his father all these years.

"Ah yes." Thomas continued as Black straightened up. "It seems to me that there is a high possibility that Dumbledore might take this chance to attack." There were a couple of scattered nods.

"I want them crush before they even reach this place."

"yes milord."

"However you will leave Dumbledore and his side kicks for me." He paused as he thought a bit more. "They should be the strongest of his men. I don't want them hurt just yet."

"Aside from Dumbledore who would those be?"

"I do not know yet. We shall see but make sure it is only 8 people. We shall see who the chosen ones are."

"Milord what do you plan to do with these stronger ones?"

"Ah Malfoy I have a gift just for them."

He bit the girl from behind and watched her fall silently to the floor. The wolf then transformed back to his human form. This was the first time he had tasted raw, human flesh and surprisingly he enjoyed it. The chase before the capture had been quite exhilarating and had invoke great pleasure then the final catch itself. Stalking, chasing, pouncing and the final act of tearing apart his prey had brought such pleasure that he couldn't wait to do it again. However the man suppressed his desire as he had more important business to attend to.

Taking a school owl roughly, he tied the crest onto its talons. He made sure it was secure. He didn't bother with a note knowing that the receiver would understand him perfectly.

"Take this to Sirius Orion Black." Lupin said softly and clearly. The owl hooted before taking flight.

Conjuring a sheet of paper he then transformed back to his wolf. Using his front paw, he wetted it with the hot blood that gushed from the dead body. Carefully he 'wrote' something onto the parchment. When that was done he transformed back to his human form, stuffed the parchment into the cold hand of his prey and then tied the other hand to another owl. He then placed a feather weight charm on the body. Making sure the bite mark was clearly exposed, Lupin spoke the owl.

"This goes to Albus Dumbledore." He said as he stared down at the owl with feral eyes. The owl hooted nervously. "Make sure he gets it tonight."

When it was apparent to the owl that Lupin was not going to speak anymore, it took off into the night sky.

Remus watched awhile before making his way to the only place that he might still be accepted warmly.

"Do you understand Hermione?"

"But Professor I know why there should be suspicions about Malfoy and Karkaroff but Viktor is not evil."

"He's from Durmstang." McGonagall said curtly. "And in being so you will not spend more time with him."

Mad-Eye continued. "They are all bloody traitors. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked.

Hermione hung her head as Dumbledore said that it was for her own good.

"Now what do you think we should do?" McGongall asked, changing the topic.

"We will attack them." Dumbledore replied.

"but"

"Tom just fell. It is the perfect time to attack. The boy is unstable. There will probably be rebellions. Black may as well be the only one who would stick by him. Now when they are all weak we shall conquer them once and for all."

At that moment a school owl flew in and dropped the body of a girl from the window. The owl did not wait to make sure Albus received the body or that it cared that it had dropped the body while still 40 feet in the air before it had taken off.

Dumbledore quickly sent a spell to slow down the body from its fall. When he had caught her in his arms, he found that the spell was unnecessary. By now the other's had gathered around Dumbledore to see who it was. All at once commotion occurred and some screamed or gasped in shock.

"Miss Jones!" McGonagall gasped in shock, being the first to recognize the 7th year Hufflepuff.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody barked as he stepped even closer to examine the girl.

"What do you see Alastor?" Dumbledore asked wearily. Of course he had his own suspicions but he needed them confirmed. He feared he knew the cause of this attack, but he didn't want to admit his mistakes.

"Werewolf attack." Alastor was saying. "The wound is still bleeding. It must have been less then 15 minutes ago."

"Werewolf?" Hermione asked. "But there is only one werewolf here. It couldn't have been…"

"Lupin wore her out good." Moody continued. He reached into one of her hands and pulled out the sheet of paper that was stained with a bloody paw print. "Toyed and tortured her as expected from a werewolf, as expected from a Death Eater."

"No." The headmaster said firmly. "Lupin was not a Death Eater prior to tonight. Yes, I did have my suspicions because all his friends and pup were dark and so there was no reason that he wouldn't be. I shouldn't have done what I did tonight. Now I have really driven him away from us. He will never return again regardless of him being able to obtain a place on the other side."

Black and Thomas withdrew to the Dark Lord's headquarters neither speaking to the other. Time and silence passed by slowly as each pondered their own thoughts.

"Tell me" Thomas said softly, breaking the silence at last. "everything."

Black inclined his head. Rummaging through his robes, he seemed to be looking for something.

At that moment an owl's screech caught his attention. Black went over and took a glance at the owl before his face widened into a sinister smile.

"Finally!" He exclaimed sounding quite happy as he took the item from the owl. "At last some sense has been knocked into that stubborn werewolf."

He stroke and patted the owl.

"How is the man who gave you this?" The owl seemed to shrug as if it didn't know what the man was talking about. Black sighed. "Very well go back to Hogwarts."

"Expecting something?" Thomas questioned as he watched the owl leave. Black's smile only grew. He couldn't help but laugh as he stared at what he held.

"Sirius?" Thomas asked, slightly worried about the other man

The laughing soon died down and Black turned to his Godson.

"What I hold in my hand is our chip to victory!" He handed it over to the teen who studied it closely.

It was a crest that he seemed to have seen before but he couldn't remember where.

"Look familiar?"

Thomas nodded, trying to remember hard. Sighing Black took out five more pieces of almost identical items. Thomas gasps as he realized that the six pieces actually fitted together to form one big crest.

The crest which the owl had just delivered had a wolf in the center. On the top was 'Moony' and below the animal was 'RL'. The one which was closet to Black had a picture of a fox, with 'Vulpus' on top and 'SS' on the bottom. The other four were quite similar only ranging in animal, nickname, and the letters. All the animals seemed to come alive and were either blinking, yawing, growling, or moving restlessly on the crest.

Sirius picked up one. It had a snake with blood shot eyes. The word 'Voldemort' shone on top. On the bottom was 'TR'

"This is the crest of the VPMWPV."

"What?"

"This was our crest, our symbol. It used to be one crest but after the group broke up, this was broken as well. Each person as it is proven now had kept their own piece."

Thomas fingered each one. Taking up first the crest of Sirius and then his father's followed by Lupin's, Snape's, Wormtail's and finally the last one which he held onto the longest. It was a stag, one that looked identical to his Protronus.

"Prongs" the teen muttered, fingering the initials 'JP'.

"There is a rumor" Sirius began, "which was passed on, but had died out once the Marauder's took shape" as he spoke he began to put the pieces together as if it was a jigsaw puzzle.

"Long after the fall of evil, when the Dark is about to be consumed and destroyed forever, one man will step forward and with his strength he will unleash the powers of the fallen VPMWPV." Black placed Voldmort's crest on the left, lining it up with his own. Then he took Lupin's and put it on the right side of his own.

"He will unite former foes, quench all childhood grudges, and gather the dead. With his powers, he will not only stop death in its tracks but bring back the dead." Taking Wormtail's crest, Sirius placed it next to Lupin's. Prong's crest came next and then followed by the last piece of Vulpus.

Now the crest was fully formed. It was a large crest shaped in a circle. Where the head began and the tail ended, could not be distinguished. On the rim were all the nicknames. Then came the letters. In the very center was the group of six animals. The dog was in the middle, blinking. Forming where North, South, East and West was, was Moony, Vulpus, Prongs and Wormtail, all in that respective order. The gigantic snake was coiled on the outside, the rim of the crest and was constantly hissing.

Sirius turned to his godson.

"You are that man. You will call upon the others."

"But they're dead."

"No matter" he paused, leaning closer to the other. "In whatever universe they may be in, beyond time, beyond words, beyond life we will all gather here. On the day the crest was made, we swore that when the time comes, when we are called, when we feel the essence of the VPMWPV, we will gather."

Thomas gently touched the crest, suddenly hopping that it would truly work.

"I, Thomas Jerry Reapt Riddle, hereby call forth the VPMWPV. Come forth my friends, come back to me."

Cold wind blew into the room. The candlelight which was lit by fire died out. From the depths of the shadows, the two could see something coming closer. Then there was a high and cold pitch laugh which echoed and shook what Thomas thought as the whole world.