A/N: Yay, next chapter, thanks to BlookenBslk. I was planning on posting this chapter next week, cause I had not written the next chapter, but then I got the review. It made me want to update so here it is. Before I started writing this story, I had no idea how important reviews were for the author. I was a horrible reader, I never reviewed. Now I know that Review is like the price for letting you read our story. They allow us to gauge whether people are actually reading or not. Whether they like it, love it, or are just okay with it. Since I started writing I try my level best to review every story I read. So THANK YOU to every one who reviewed. Thanks to everyone else for sticking with this story. To my guest reviewers, look at the end where I have responded to your reviews. :D

I am responding to a review here, which ALL of you might want to read, because this chapter has information that makes a portion of my reply invalid in a way... well just read it. :D

LYRA: You asked about Severus, and the unfairness towards him.(If any one wants to read the full review, please do so)

REPLY: You are right about that. This chapter will probably make you more sympathetic towards him. Fact is, I did not make him a bad guy in this story. He is not bad. He has his reasons for doing what he did. I don't know if anyone picked it in the last chapter, but it was never said by anyone that Voldemort killed Regulus. Official story (also in canon) is that Regulus disappeared, rumors suggested (started by Dumbledore, no doubt :P) that Voldemort killed him. Voldemort never denied it but he never took credit for it either.

Everyone is now aware that Severus betrayed Voldemort. Lucius suspects it might be because of the rumors, but is not sure. In the previous chapters I have mentioned that the story that spread was the Regulus disappeared, The Black tapestry showed that he died.

If Severus heard the rumors, the logical thing to do would be to go to Voldemort and ask him. He never asked, that is his fault. As AntiTamed reviwed, he should have had more faith in the Dark Lord.

Betraying someone aside, he did not just betray the dark Lord, He created and used a potion which led him to his madness. That is not something that can be forgiven. As for Regulus, yes as I have said in a previous chapter, it is also his fault for not informing the important people that he was alive. That in no way absolves Severus, because he did the unforgivable.

Still, he is also not completely to blame. He is at this moment stuck between a rock and a hard place. Time is required for Marvolo to calm down and for Lucius to convince him to use Severus rather than kill him. ;)

All mistakes are mine, Harry Potter is not.

Chapter 26

(NIGHT OF THE BIRTHDAY, AFTER THE PARTY)

HOGWARTS, (SEVERUS SNAPE)

Severus Snape entered his quarters in Hogwarts fuming.

He stripped of his cloak, the buttons flying everywhere in his haste. He strode into the sitting area, where he took out his stash of alcohol. It was the holidays so he could get drunk without repercussions.

He fell on the sofa, used his wand to increase the flame of the fireplace, and chugged half the bottle in one go.

He let his head fall back and allowed his emotions to run free.

When he had seen Lucius coming towards him, he had wanted to run. He now wished he had run.

He felt tears gather in his eyes and blinked them away. No, he would not cry, but he felt as if he had lost everything.

Regulus and the Death Eaters had been his family. He was the heir to the prince line, but his father had been an abusive drunk muggle. He had been happy when he found Lily and made friends with her, but with the Marauders always on his tail, it was not long before he lost her.

Regulus and the Death Eaters had saved him from the Marauders on more than one occasion. When the Dark Lord had come to him to ask him to join, he had gladly done so, along with Regulus.

Now he had nothing left. No Regulus, no Lucius, no Draco...

He had wanted to kill Lucius when he said that his father had forced him to take the mark. How dare he!? When Severus had always thought him loyal.

Most would probably not understand how he could condemn Lucius when he was the one betraying the Dark Lord, but he had his reasons for doing so, Lucius did not.

It could be argued that Lucius had never betrayed the Dark Lord, but he was in no mood to be logical.

When Lucius had asked him why he decided to betray the Dark Lord, he had not known what to say. He could not tell the truth. No one other than Lily had known that he and Regulus were together, he was not about to go tell someone as straight as Lucius Malfoy that he was gay.

He had given the only excuse he could think of, the fact that the Dark Lord had decided to attack a child. Malfoy had looked mad at that for some reason, before he had gone back to his cold self. Next thing he knew they were fighting and he was not allowed to see his godson.

He loved Draco and wanted to stop him from becoming as cold as his father. Lucius never showed his emotions or love. He doubted he had ever seen Malfoy touch his wife out of care or to comfort her. Hell he did not even touch her out of anger. Sometimes it felt as if he had no emotions for his wife and child. He had rarely seen him with Draco either. Now that he was pushed out from their life, he did not know what do do.

He had hoped that Draco would give him a reason to move on, to live, but Damn Malfoy!, he had taken that as well. As much as he liked Lily, he could not rely on her. She did not believe in the Dark.

As for her kids, he had promised Dumbledore that he would protect the chosen one, but that did not mean he had to like them. Spawns of Potter. He hated Potter, probably more than Black.

At least Black had the courage to come to him and apologize for the incident with the werewolf. Black had taunted him and had acted like a slytherin. He had not forced him to go looking for the werewolf.

Potter though, he had threatened him afterwards, telling him how he owned Potter a life debt and to stay away from Lily. Turned out the only reason Potter had saved him was to protect the mutt and the wolf.

Potter had told him that he would not have cared if Snape vanished from the face of the earth, as long as his friends did not get into trouble for it.

He did not have anyone anymore, his life seemed bleak to him. The only reason he had not killed himself was because the Dark Lord was still alive somewhere. The day the Dark Lord died and he had his revenge for Regulus, he would kill himself. Regulus had decided to betray the Dark Lord as well, so he would not be mad at him.

As much as he hated himself for betraying the Dark Lord, he hated the Dark Lord more.

He got up from the sofa and went to his desk. He opened the first drawer and pressed the panel to release the hidden compartment. He put his hand in and took out a folded parchment.

He took it to his seat and read it again, to give himself comfort that he was doing the right thing. He held Regulus's last letter to him, in which he had explained everything, and gave in to a troubled sleep.

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(BLACK COTTAGE)

Remus Lupin sat on the roof top of the cottage and watched the moon. He had shared this cottage with Sirius for so long that he felt lonely without him. At the same time, he was glad, as he could think and mope without someone asking him what was wrong. Sirius Black could get on his nerves with his questions.

Remus had not gone to the party because it bought home the fact that in the midst of all those light people, he was dark. Even though he did not want to be, his werewolf side was dark.

He had not been shocked when Sirius told them about dating a guy, but he was surprised that it was Rabastan. It would explain everything though, why Sirius left him, and why he got together with Rabasatan again.

Rabastan did not have the dark mark thus there was no reason to avoid him.

Remus rested his head against the chimney, letting the heat warm his back. No one probably realized that there was more to werewolves than just turning into monsters once a month. They had their own secrets which they kept to themselves.

Although he owed his very life and everything else to Dumbledore, he had been unable to betray his werewolf half by divulging those secrets.

Remus did not remember much about his childhood. All he knew was that Greyback had decided to turn him into a monster when he was only a child.

His father Lyall Lupin had saved him during the attack. He was too late though, Greyback had already bitten him, but he was in time to stop Greyback from kidnapping him. He sometimes wondered what would have happened to him if Greyback would have taken him along with him.

During his childhood he had tried asking his father why Greyback had attacked him and the only answer he ever got was, "Werewolves were soulless and evil. They were mad and did not have any reason for attacking children. They deserved nothing but death."

Remus had often wondered if that was what his father thought about him. His mother had been a muggle, and it was only her love for him that had allowed him to stay with his family. It was because of her that he had not died somewhere in the gutter. She fought with his father and refused to let him go.

It had been her support that had allowed him to remain stable and sane.

He remembered his time after the bite, always moving from one place to another, as if running from something.

He also remembered the painful transformations. The first time he had been 5 and had not known what was going on. He had felt so alone and afraid, howling for something to fill the emptiness in his chest.

The marauders had filled that something and he had realized that it had been his need for a pack. He had never had a pack as a child, never making friends as he had always been kept secluded to avoid suspicions.

His family had not been his pack either. He had loved his mother, but being a muggle, she did not have the magical strength for his wolf to accept her as pack.

As for his father, he had avoided him for most of his childhood, only meeting with the man when the other locked him up during the full moon and using magic to control him, which got harder as he grew up.

He had always thought that he would never get to go to Hogwarts but one day Dumbledore had shown up at his house, barging in and demanding that he be allowed to attend. He had never been more happy in his life. He had thanked Dumbledore and promised himself to do everything in his power to help the man and repay his dept.

So here he was 11 years later and still trying to pay that debt. Dumbledore had done more for him than anyone else and if he had to go through the painful experience of spending time with a werewolf pack without actually joining them, then so be it.

Although he knew that Sirius thought differently. Dumbledore had not been kind to Sirius and Remus understood why he would be wary around the man. Still, even Dumbledore was allowed to make mistakes.

Remus let out a sigh, feeling sorry for himself after a long time. He had wanted to go to the kid's birthday but he had a lot to think over. He had overheard James mumbling to himself about Sirius being gay. It seemed as if James was of those few prejudiced people in the wizarding world.

He was depressed because he knew that James would overlook Sirius being gay, as he was his best friend, but he might not give him the same concession. Another thing he would have to hide, unless Sirius let it out unknowingly.

He was too tired nowadays. With the war over, he had left the packs, and the full moon was very hard on him. Being with a pack eased the pain for some reason, the pain that never left even when he transformed with the Marauders.

Remus broke from his thoughts by the wards around the cottage ringing, informing him of an intruder.

He sat up straight, sniffed the air, trying to smell who it was. Not recognizing any smell, he jumped from the roof, only to land softly on his feet. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, someone was here.

He unwillingly let out a growl in response to the threat, it was no one he knew. He had felt that aura before but he did not recognize it. He smelt the air again before letting out another growl, "Come out, whoever you are"

Remus was not aware that he was turning feral as he had never before.

He felt movement behind him, and turned to attack just as another body crashed into him, and a solid arm pushed him against the wall, pressing into his neck.

Remus was lost in a haze, he growled and kicked out his legs, hitting the man on his shin, whose hold loosened enough for Remus to twist and throw the person against the wall, getting his first look at the man.

The man was over 6 feet tall, broad around the chest and thigh, all bulging muscles. He had brown hair falling messily on his head to his shoulders, and yellow eyes. Those eyes told him everything, this was another werewolf.

"Who are you?", Remus growled, as he used all his strength to hold the man against the wall, even though he could feel as if the person was allowing himself to be held in this position and could probably break free at any time, had he wanted it.

"Ah, little Remus does not recognize me", the person spoke, with a smirk twisting on his lips.

Remus scowled at being called 'little'.

"I ask again, who are you?"

The person leaned forwards until their lips were almost touching and Remus stepped back to avoid it. Taking advantage, the person pushed forward and Remus fell to the floor, fighting and growling as the other tried to pin him down.

The person quickly had Remus subdued. Remus was on his back, hand on the ground above his head, and his legs pinned by the other guy. Remus fought to get out, regretting not having his wand on him. If he had his wand this would not have happened.

"You have lived with wizards your whole life, that you can't even fight like a werewolf. You have become a weakling Remus Lupin". The person above him spoke shaking his head, his hold firm.

Remus opened his mouth to ask the person who he was and what he wanted when the other spoke.

"I am Fenrir Greyback", Remus's eyes widened, "Your maker, and I just wanted to see what you had turned into after all these years"

Remus's eyes shifted to molten lave, fury blazing in them, as he renewed his fight to break free.

"You monster", Remus choked out.

"I am no monster", Fenrir growled angrily. "Do not speak of things you don't know. I know you have questions, but I can not answer them now, because you are absolutely unwilling to listen"

Fenrir tightened his hold, having to use more force than he wanted, because the cub was fighting back.

"Listen to me!",he demanded, "You don't know anything about me or why I turned you. NO! I am not attracted to the flesh of children", Fenrir spoke up before Remus could accuse him.

"I only bite children who are dying with their parents permission", Remus scoffed at hearing that, not believing a word, even though he had stopped fighting very hard, because Fenrir was doing nothing but sit on him.

"I know you don't believe me, and I wont try to convince you. I know you have joined packs to convince them to join Dumbledore's side. Listen to me!", Fenrir scowled when Remus tried shaking his head,

"I know!The reason they never joined is because they knew that Dumbledore would never do anything for them. If he cared so much, why were you the only werewolf that was ever allowed to attend Hogwarts? I also know that you did manage to convince a pack not to join the Dark Lord. It has been months and the Dark Lord is dead, why is there nothing being done for that pack? hm? Go ask Dumbledore, or is it that you don't care about them as well, just like him", Fenrir spat, before letting go of Remus and jumping back.

Remus was angry again and tried to attack Fenrir, "You are lying. Dumbledore would never do that. He cares about the people!"

Fenrir avoided the punch and grabbed hold of the fist when it came again and squeezed it.

"You are weak Remus, which is not all your fault.", Fenrir's eyes softened minutely.

Remus then used his free hand to punch, but Fenrir caught that as well. He twisted Remus and turned him around so that his back was to him, with his hands crossed to his front. Fenrir held his legs between his own. Remus could not move at all.

He was breathing hard by this point. he felt Fenrir come close and breath in his hair causing him to freeze. His eyes widened when he felt Greyback press a kiss to his head. He shook his head, trying to dislodge himself.

Fenrir suddenly let go and Remus stumbled back. He quickly got his balance and turned around to face Greyback,

"Maybe its time to talked to your father as well. It's his fault you never had a pack, but now that I have you, I am not letting you go"

Fenri then walked backwards, ready for when Remus attacked,"If you want to talk, you'll know how to find me"

Fenrir smirked as he gave him a salute and vanished, leaving a confounded Remus behind.

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Fenrir knew he could get in trouble for what he just did. When he heard the Black and Rabastan were dating, he knew that his wolf was free.

It had been difficult staying away knowing that it was not the right time.

It had still not been a good time, but he had to sow the seed. Remus needed to learn to think for himself. His father had arrested Fenrir once, and called werewolves foul and worthy of death. Because of him, the ministry had been thinking of having werewolves killed on the spot.

Fenrir did the only thing he could, to get revenge, and stop the travesty from occurring.

He turned Lupins son. He had thought that he had enough time, but Lupin had found out about it and stopped him before he could take the cub with him. He had planned on leaving a note to threaten him that if he followed through with the killing he might end up killing his own son.

It had all gone wrong from there. He and his pack had tried tracking the man down, but he always kept moving. He had been shocked when he heard news that his cub was going to Hogwarts. He knew then that he was out of his reach, but not anymore.

His cub would have his family, he would make sure to teach him everything he should have already known.

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(LONGBOTTOM MANOR)

Bella was pacing the receiving hall in Longbottom manor. Rodolphus sat on the sofa and watched her in amusement.

"Oh do shut up Rody", Bella snapped.

"What!? I did not say anything?"

"You were thinking it", came the retort.

Rodolphus looked at his wife and let out a smile. How things had changed. It had been easy getting Bella out of the hospital with Frank and Alice agreeing to take her into their care. Bella had never been happier. She and Alice awed and cooed over the baby while Rodolphus could have interesting political discussions with Frank.

Although both were on slightly opposing views, what with Frank being a light supporter and Rodolphus a Dark one, their debates lasted well into the night, trying to convince each other of their opinions.

The most tiring time had been when Augusta had tried to attack Bella. The women had accepted them calmly enough and then one day when Alice, Frank and Rodolphus had been out working, leaving Bella with Neville, the old women had tried to kill Bella.

What Augusta seemed to have forgotten was that Bella was the Dark Lord's inner circle. That position was not easy to get. Even without a wand, Bella was formidable. Bella had avoided the curse and had the women's wand in her hand, she then crucio'd the witch.

Luckily at the time, Narcissa had arrived at the Manor with Draco.

She entered the nursery in time to see Bella cast the Crucio. She charmed the nearest table to come between the two women. The table broke into splinters from the impact with the curse.

Narcissa quickly managed to disarm Bella, bind Augusta and obliviate her memory. She then used a spell the Dark Lord taught all inner circle members to remove the obliviate from her wand. It was wandless and would leave no imprint.

The wards had already informed Frank of the situation.

By the time he arrived with the aurors, the situation was such that; Augusta had cursed Bella who had avoided it and then tried to crucio her. Narcissa had arrived in time to magick the table to protect Bella, disarm Augusta and bind her.

As Bella did not have any wand, there was no other explanation. Narcissa allowed her wand to be checked over, and it showed the three spells she had cast.

Permoveo to move the table, Expelliarmus to disarm and Incarceratus to bind her. Augusta's wand on the other hand, showed confringo, the blasting curse and the crucio.

The aurors had been impressed that Narcissa had managed to do what she had with a baby on her lap. Narcissa's presence had Lucius involved and that sped up the whole process of shutting the case.

Since Augusta did not remember using the curse, and no one had been hurt, she was sent of to Scotland to heal. Frank and Rodolphus made sure that the details of the curses remained hidden. The newspaper only reported that she had been attacked and no details were give. Frank did so to save his mother and Rodolphus because he knew Bella had done something; she was still trigger happy.

Things had calmed down after that. They managed to live in relative harmony while Bella enjoyed having a child as much as she could.

"Bella, they are coming. Quit pacing". Rodolphus grasped her arm as she crossed him and pulled her into his lap.

Bella had just gotten comfortable when the floo activated and Alice exited the fireplace. She had not even stepped out of the fireplaces when Bella jumped from her husbands lap and took the baby.

"Hello, little one", she cooed.

"Aunt Bella", Neville spoke up, giving her a wide smile. Bella smiled back at him before pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Rodolphus helped Alice take off her cloak, as Bella seemed to be useless, when Frank came through.

"You are not trying to take my wife are you?", He teased.

Rodolphus let out a chuckle, "My own wife would castrate me, if I even tried"

Frank winced at that, knowing that it was true, before he chuckled.

"Good incentive to keep you to your wife's bed"

"Alice, let these men talk about such an interesting topic, tell me everything about the party", Bella said.

They all moved to the sitting room, where Alice summoned toys for Neville, and Bella sat on the ground to play with him, listening to Alice.

The men sat and listened as well, Frank adding his own observations once a while.

"You know it seemed as if he did not want Harry cutting the phoenix cake", Alice commented.

"Hmmm, there was something strange about that. Though Dumbledore has not even looked at us since we took you in. I can only take that as beneficial for us. Maybe he won't harass us anymore." Frank said.

Rodolphus spoke at that,

"With Dumbledore, you never know"

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(GRIMMAULD PLACE)

Sirius entered Grimmauld place and let out a tiring sigh. He stretched his back and heard a pop. Rabastan came out from the direction of the kitchen, a class of firewhisky in his hand.

"Hey," he said.

He gave Sirius a kiss on the lips and offered a glass which Sirius refused.

"What took you so long I thought you would have come home a while back. You were not cheating on me were you?"

Sirius let out a huff at that, "You are the cheater in this relationship. Beside I had a long chat with Lilly. I told her everything".

Sirius fell on the sofa just as Rabastan choked on the sip he had just taken. Sirius got up and patted him on the back waiting for the other to get his breath back, "You TOLD her! Everything! How much is everything?!"

Rabastan was worried, What had that mutt told Lily?

Sirius just looked confused, he was tired and he really had no idea what was bothering Rabastan, "Well, everything. As in everything that I did not tell James. She figured out about Irene when I - might've- sort of- mentioned- that she was your problem, and I was dealing with it."

Rabastan let out a sigh at that. "And?"

"That's it really. I told her how I found out you were having a kid, got mad, ignored you, you came, told me everything, well somethings, and then we had sex"

Rabastan took the glass away from his mouth, before he choked again, "You told her about us having sex!?"

"Not in detail!", Sirius glared at him, "But she got the idea, its not like she doesn't know what happens"

Rabsatan just shook his head, "Anything else I should know about?"

"I told her about me having the women bought here. I made sure she know, that there was nothing between the women and us. "

Rabastan shivered at the thought, ugh, thank the Dark Lord he did not remember that night.

"You look tired", Rabastan said as he looked towards Sirius only to see that the other had fallen asleep. It was well past midnight, and he had kept Sirius up the previous night as well.

Sirius had barely had any rest in the past months, always catering to that pregnant witch, when he was not catering to Rabastan.

He really needed to get some time for himself, what with keeping an eye on the Black estate, and working on taking his votes back from Dumbledore, which was not as easy as it seemed. They were having difficulty finding the exact copy of the contract so that they knew how to act.

Rabastan cleared such heavy thoughts from his head, as he watched Sirius sleeping, while he finished his glass.

He picked up the glass to take it to the kitchen when Kreacher popped up and took it, "You be putting Master to bed"

Rabastan let out a chuckle, a house elf liked to order him around, how the mighty had fallen. He picked up Sirius, deciding not to use his wand and jostle him too much, and took him to his room.

Irene had the room two doors down in case she needed anything. It was all the mutts idea who was running himself ragged.

He changed Sirius's clothes, leaving him only in pajama bottoms, and tucked him in. He was just about to get in bed, when there was a knock on the door.

He winced, quickly going to open it, before Sirius woke up. Irene was standing out side, belly prominent, being seven months pregnant that she was.

"What?" he demanded, not bothering to soften his voice. This women had tried to kill herself along with his unborn child, not that she would have succeeded, the magic would have informed him, but it was the principle of the matter. On top of which, she acted as if she owned the bloody place, just because Sirius let her stay.

"Oh. I thought I heard the floo. Has Sirius come home yet?"

"He is sleeping. This is not your home. What do you want from him?" Rabastan was curt in his response. He did not like this women, something about her bothered him. She was too soft, especially when she went running to Sirius, about her aches and cravings.

He had to talk to Lucius, he needed to know what she was planning, and Lucius would probably see something that he was missing.

"Oh. Don't worry, it was just something he asked of me. I'll talk to him tomorrow. See you.", she gave him a sickly sweet smile, that made him want to snarl, and walked back to her room.

He closed the door and looked at the man sleeping on the bed. He hoped everything went okay, he wanted his kid and he wanted that women out of here.

A/N: To Master-of-Masters; hope this clears up the Irene business. Next chapter is mostly going to be Sirius and Rabastan, so fans of that pairing will like the next chapter. I think this is one of the few chapters where there is no Lucius. For some reason, I like having Lucius in almost all of my chapters. What do you think? A little insight into Severus Snape, What was that letter? (evil grin). Another pairing, Remus/Fenrir. I kind of twisted the history a little bit. All original info is from Harry Potter wiki. So? Reviews. Let me know what you liked.

GUEST: I think you should do a scene as an introduction to Dumbledore's mind.

REPLY: Hey. Thanks for reviewing. I already have a chapter from Dumbledore's POV. It is Ch#16. I will not have Dumbledore's POV much, because I don't like being in his head(shiver). I can't show what he is thinking now because that might have some spoiler as it might reveal his plans. Some times in the future I will have a chapter that will be only from Dumbledore's POV which will show his thoughts on the whole time period, from here to then, till then you are going to have to stay in the dark on this topic though. Sorry. :(

REPLY TO noelnoel2:It was actually a continuation to the warning in my A/N. I have heard that some people like to complain about it, so I was politely asking those people to Skip :P. I am removing it though, I don't want other people to laugh in the middle of the scene, as you did. :D:P

GUEST: About my quitting.

REPLY: Sorry if I scared you and sorry for the miss communication there. I did not mean quit the story, I am not quitting this story.I meant that I quit trying to force myself to show a time skip. I just let it come to me rather than running after it. :)