Chapter Twenty-Nine: Blood Sacrifice Part Two
Remus yawned as he rolled over in his bed one morning. The yawn soon turned into a groan as something repeatedly hit his neck.
"Sirius! I'm awake, stop hitting me with the blasted pillow," he groaned.
Opening his eyes, he saw that he wasn't in the Gryffindor dormitory, but in his bedroom, a rather small den looking room in his mom's house by the woods; and he wasn't being bombarded with pillows, but pecked by his owl, who was clutching a package. Remus tore open the package and read the letter that went along with it.
Summer had so far gotten off to an uneventful start. Saying goodbye to Aria felt harder than ever, and every day he longed to hear from her. His heart lept at the sight of the owl, and he immediately tore open the letter.
Dear Remus,
Hope you're having a good summer! Mine's been rather dull, I haven't done a single thing. I'm beginning to get the feeling last year was all a dream, since it's been a whole month and I haven't heard from anyone. Of course, my friends and I weren't exactly on that great of terms this year, all that sneaking around we did. Oh well, life goes on. I really miss school, you know. I don't like not having somewhere to go to all the time, never thought I'd be saying that. Do you want to meet me in Diagon Alley sometime at the beginning of August? Of course, if you're going with the others that's fine. Well, I imagine you're halfway asleep reading this so I'll just be waiting for your reply.
P.S: I made Prefect! Can you believe that? Any idea who the other is?
Love Always, Aria
Remus smiled. He couldn't help it. Aria's had actually been the first letter he had gotten all summer, and he too was beginning to question his friends and was starting to think that they were doing something behind his back. Not even Peter had written to him.
Remus was more than pleased about the letter- he was going crazy over it.
I feel like James, he thought to himself as he got out of bed.
Love always, Aria had put. Did she mean it literally, or was it just a closing? A small part of him even began to hope that he had been picked for Prefect, though it wasn't an idea that had occured to him before. A rush of guilt suddenly overflowed him.
Betraying Dumbledore, a voice in his head hissed, he brought you into school, now look at you. Three boys and a girl know what you are- three out of four of them are risking their lives so one night a month poor little Lupin can be safe...and who knows what the fourth is doing?
What was Aria doing? He thought suddenly. She could just as well be doing something incredibly stupid to try and help him. Remus could just imagine Aria turning into a Animagus- only to be stuck halfway through. Remus shivered.
A loud tap interrupted his thoughts, and Remus' head whipped around towards his window facing the sunlight woods east of him. It was a Hogwarts owl. Remus hurried to the window, unlatched the lock, and let the owl fly in. He took the letter it carried, and let her rest on his bed.
Dear Mr. Lupin,
As your head of house I'd like to congratulate you on making Prefect this year-
Remus didn't even finish the letter but dropped it in both joy and surprise. There was a clank, and Remus looked down to see a golden Prefect's badge laying there that must've fallen out of the envelope. Picking the badge, he began staring from Aria's letter to the badge and then tilting his head up, feeling as if his life had just been complete...then his gaze turned towards the forest outside his window..except that...
"No," Remus muttered to himself.
He wasn't going to let that ruin his perfect moment. Remus shook his head. He had been picked for this for a good reason, which felt surreal; made he really would be able to make something of himself.
But then he remembered his friends, their sneaking around, and their distaste for authority. Remus grinned.
They're going to kill me, he thought.
"Remus are you awake yet, it's ten in the morning! A voice asked, banging on the door. It was his uncle.
"Oh, yeah," Remus said quickly, hiding Aria's letter in a desk drawer.
"Anything wrong?" His uncle asked, sounding more amused then worried.
Remus jerked his thumb into his mouth as he accidently slammed it into the desk drawer, letting out a stream of curse words.
"Fine," Remus said, swinging open the door, "I made prefect," he added, showing his uncle the badge.
"That's great!" John said, "listen, we will have to celebrate later, your mom and I have to go out somewhere, will you be fine alone?"
"'Course," Remus said, "where're you-?"
"We will be gone most of the day," John interrupted, "just promise me that you'll stay in the house, okay?"
"Sure," Remus shrugged. It wasn't like he had anywhere to go.
"Don't go into the woods," John said seriously.
"'Course not," Remus said, "puzzled, the only time he went into the woods was full moon, I've been alone at home."
"And no girls," John said, grinning wildly. He even winked.
If his uncle had been his father instead, this would've been the point in the conversation where he would've whined dad, but instead, he just glared. His uncle laughed.
"Only joking," he said, "see you this afternoon, don't eat up the kitchen."
Remus nodded as his uncle turned to leave. It was obvious what they were up to, going after his father again...
Meanwhile, at the Potter Mansion
"Peter's here!" James mom called around two in the afternoon.
"Finally," James sighed as he and Sirius ran down the spiral staircase into the main living room.
Peter was standing in the doorway looking slightly flushed and embarrassed.
"Paul had to work late," Peter explained.
James and Sirius turned to see Paul shaking hands with James' mom, whose face was covered in dirt from gardening.
"Potion's upstairs," James whispered.
The three rushed off to James' bedroom.
"Don't blow anything up!" Mrs. Potter yelled.
We won't Mrs. P! Sirius yelled back.
James grinned.
"You know she absolutely hates that name."
"Really?" Sirius said sarcastically. "Never knew."
When they got into James' room, he carefully brought the cauldron, which was a nasty red color, and pulled it out into the center of the room.
"This should only take a second," James assured Peter, who looked slightly nervous though James wasn't nervous at all.
"So you're not going to worry his blood sacrifice are you?" Sirius demanded. "You were going to sit there and let me do it and possibly do it wrong and accidentally kill myself?"
"Oh put a sock in it," James muttered as he shot a sock out of his wand. "Sirius, do you have the knife?"
"Here," Sirius muttered, handing James the knife.
James handed it to Peter, who took it with a trembling hand.
"Calm down," James said, "you'll make it worse than it is! Just hurry up and do it!"
In a quick motion, Peter ran the knife across his arm, and Sirius caught the blood in a Potion's tube, which he poured into the cauldron and stirred. James quickly helped Peter with the healing charm.
"Did McRight say anything about the Animagus blood?" James asked.
"No," Sirius answered, "I guess we can do it now, as long as you can do the charm."
"I can," James said, turning a chair into a fake deer and back, "but I'm not stupid enough to try it on myself, I probably wouldn't be able to turn myself back without the blood. Give me the knife."
James did the same quick motion as Peter did, and Sirius hurriedly stirred it into the cauldron.
"Excellent," he muttered, performing the healing charm, "now all we need is the werewolf blood, and it's all system's go."
Sirius turned to Peter.
"What time are you leaving?"
"Around four I guess," shrugged Peter, subconsciously rubbing his arm where the knife had just been, though there was nothing there to rub.
"Great," James said, "Quidditch?"
