He stood straighter than usual, his green eyes flicked to his watch twice as often, his accuracy was off by an inch or two, he hadn't eaten this morning no matter how much Hermione and Vaughn bugged him about him, but other than those few small things it was impossible to tell that Wolf was nervous beyond belief. It was the twenty-first, the day Voldemort would use someone to lure him to the Department of Mysteries for some unknown reason and the day of a Saturday meeting of the SET. His anxiety was doubled when a house elf was sent to retrieve Draco, the house elves were avid supporters of SET, well, they were supporters of anything against Umbridge. All movement in the room dwindled to a stop as a green origami swan flew into the room, it was Draco's warning of something bad that he couldn't tell them in person for fear of exposing his position as spy. Wolf sighed heavily as he unfolded the crane, feeling the eyes of every member of the SET on him, the message was simple: She knows, we're coming. Please be ready.
Wolf had known that this day would come eventually, no matter how they tried to keep it a secret, someone had told. He glanced on the parchment that had been attached to the wall, one name stood out from the rest, Cho Chang. The realization hit everyone else as well. Before panic could set in Wolf began giving orders he had planned to give in such an occasion, "I know this is rushed, but we need to do this right, use disillusionment charms to make yourselves invisible and circle the room, Cedric, I'd like you by the door with me since we need to close them in here. When I take off my charm, everyone else follow suit. We don't have much time, so for Merlin's sake don't stand around idiots."
Everyone hurried to their positions while Wolf added the final part, on a table the Room of Requirement provided in the middle of the room Wolf dropped a note before taking his spot at the door Cedric wasn't at. Now they had to wait, but it was less than a minute before the doors were opened slowly. Umbridge and her legion of followers looked at the seemingly empty room suspiciously before spotting the note and crowding over to it, Draco making sure he was one of the more zealous followers. Umbridge looked confused when she read the note, "The joke is on you? I thought that girl said that they would be here!"
That's when Wolf and Cedric slammed the double doors closed, instantly catching the attention of the group of Slytherins. The looks on their faces were a priceless mixture of confusion and fear. Wolf smiled as he took of his disillusionment charm, "Don't worry, we're here." Umbridge was closest to Wolf as each member of the SET revealed themselves, wands pointing at their outnumbered captives, Wolf's pointing at Umbridge. "And the joke is on you, you came here to ambush us, and somehow I don't think we're the ones captured." Wolf felt his scar prickle, a sure sign that Voldemort had decided that now was the time that Wolf know who he had to go save. He quickly sent a stunner at Umbridge, everyone sent a stunner at their intended target. Except Vuaghn, who sent a leg locker curse at Draco. While everyone else was tying up the victims Vaughn was apologizing that she had to stun him to keep his spy status a secret, Draco nodded glumly before she stunned him right between the eyes.
"Wolf is he...?" Vaughn asked Wolf, Hermione and Ron stood close because they understood what was going on, Luna and Neville were just listening in because it sounded important.
Wolf nodded before allowing the vision to enter his mind, it was the same dark corridor of the Department of Mysteries Voldemort always showed him, with the addition of someone writhing in pain- Wolf's eyes snapped open and he quietly breathed, "Remus... he's being tortured."
The effect was immediate to the five people that heard it, the rest of the SET was celebrating Dumbridge's downfall. They all decided that they should leave immediately, but were stopped by Hermione saying, "How exactly do we plan to get to London?"
This stopped them all mid step as they realized they hadn't gotten that far in planning yet, though they had messed around with some fairly ridiculous ideas, one of which included riding unicorns through muggle London. This is when another of their marvelous brainstorming sessions began, they went with the theory of starting at ridiculous and working back to plausible. Luna began, as always, "We could ride thestrals."
"Luna, you and Neville are the only ones that can see them, and Hermione hates flying." Ron argued.
"We could try apparating from Hogsmeade." Vuaghn offered.
"Yeah, and splinch ourselves, followed by being expelled." Hermione scoffed.
"We could-" Neville began before interrupting himself, "But those only grow in subtropics south of the equator."
"Perhaps if we ask really nicely, Snape will take us there." Ron suggested, receiving glares from everyone and an exasperated roll of the eyes from Wolf.
"You people make everything far too complicated." Wolf sighed, "Why don't we just use the floo in her office?
It was silent for a second before they all quickly agreed, Ron claiming he was just about to suggest that. They all began descending down stairs and got to her office to find it locked, and alohamora didn't work. Vaughn pulled a bobby pin out of her air and kneeled by the lock informing them all that they didn't want to know where she had learned to do this. That's when a certain double agent/potions master decided to give them all a heart attack, "I do hope you know that she might catch you."
Wolf was personally surprised that Snape was actually acting on their side, so decided to get a truthful answer instead of silence, "She's been taken care of, she's currently tied up behind locked doors elsewhere."
There was a sharp click and the door opened, Vaughn, who was oblivious Snape's presence said, "All of you teachers are the same, never think to lock your doors against muggle means." That's when she saw Snape, "You didn't hear that."
"I don't hear or see anything." Snape said before walking away with a vampire like grace, obviously with no intent to tell anyone what had just happened.
"Three questions." Ron said, "Who is he, what did he do with Snape, and can we keep him?"
The six quickly entered the office, Wolf went first, followed by Vaughn, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Luna locked Umbridge's door before following the other five. As expected there was floo powder on the mantel above the fireplace and a fire burning, which was strange because it was far from being cold now that it was practically Summer. They flooed to the ministry in the same order, brushing the soot off their clothes as they appeared in the wide entry to the Ministry with the fountain in the center. Wolf gave a dismal grin, "Now that we're here, we just have to break into the Department of Mysteries, save Remus, and somehow incapacitate anyone who tries to get in the way."
There was the clattering of many heavy objects falling to the floor and six wands pointed to the source. It was a squirrelly boy that couldn't be much older than them, he had dark eyes and black hair that was a little long to call neat. He had dropped most of the stack of books he had in his arms, and upon seeing the wands put his hands in the air, dropping the two remaining books in the process. His voice cracked as he spoke, "I surrender! I'll give you whatever you want!"
The group looked among themselves before Wolf shrugged and Hermione asked, "You wouldn't happen to know where the Department of Mysteries is?" The silent agreement was to ask for information, then stun him so he couldn't tell anyone.
The boy seemed to be searching his brain in a panic, "Tenth floor, immediate left, last door on the left- no right! And that should be it, or the department of Exotic Meats."
"What's your name?" Nedville asked.
"Benjamin Jax the second, but you can call me Jax, or anything you want to call me." He spat out quickly, ever wary of the wands.
"Well, Jax, I'm sorry to say we can't leave you here conscious, we can't afford to be ratted out." Neville replied sincerely.
Jax seemed to relax when Neville said conscious rather than alive, and he nodded, "That's understandable, I knew I never should have taken this job, this whole place has gone crazy." Neville quickly stunned the boy and they headed for the elevators, pushing the level ten button while wondering why exactly the Ministry needed an Exotic Meats Department. What was this, a grocery store?
As soon as they got to the tenth floor, Wolf began walking toward the end of the hall on the left fast, arriving at the last door on the right long before anyone else and flung the door open. The door hadn't even opened all the way when Wolf slammed it shut again and took a few steps back as if expecting the door to open again. His companions looked at him curiously before he replied panting, "Apparently they like to keep their exotic meat fresh, and dangerous. Very dangerous."
They looked to the door on the left that led into another room, with five other black doors they were hardly able to see because everything in the room was black, lit with a candle floating between each door. Instictively, everyone looked at Wolf, his eyes were closed as if remembering something deep in his mind. It was soon he began to speak, "Behind one of these doors is a room that sparkles, or glitters. That's the one we want to go through."
They looked around the room, which was now rotating so they couldn't even tell which door they had come from anymore, Ron asked, "And how do you suppose that we find that door?" Wolf shrugged.
"I have an idea!" Vaughn said and pointed to doors in sequence, "Eeney, meeney, miney, mo! Let's try that one." She was pointing to the door to the immediate left of what they thought was the door they came through.
Wolf contemplated it for a second as Vaughn followed the door, "Okay, Vaughn keep your finger on that door as it goes around, we'll try this one, if it isn't it, we move one to the left. Agreed?"
Everyone nodded and Wolf opened the first door, but this one was closed before anyone else saw what was beyond it. Wolf looked a little shaken, "Another door to the Exotic Meats Department."
"My turn." Ron said moving to the next door to the left, ducking under Vaughn's outstretched arm. He opened the door a crack in fear that it would lead to something like the Exotic Meats Department, and his jaw practically fell to the floor.
"What is it, Ron?" Luna asked, though she was watching Vaughn with detatched interest.
"It's a beach..." Ron began after gaining his ability to speak again, "With a mermaid... She's sooo pretty." Ron drawled out in a dreamy voice.
It took less than a second for Hermione to slam the door shut and slap Ron hard enough to leave a nasty red mark across his left cheek. Ron sullenly apologized to Hermione, saying she was much prettier than any mermaid could ever be. Hermione just glared at him, "Let's move on, shall we?" She said moving to the next door, opening it wide.
Through this door, there was glittering light, just as Wolf had said. The source of the glittering was a soft light reflecting of thousands of clocks, ticking loud enough you would think there were enough bombs to blow the entire Ministry back to the Stone Age. Wolf smiled and ignored everything, moving straight through the room to the door on the far side with confidence, the others following. The door opened at his slightest touch, revealing a room full of shelves with small shimmering orbs, the closest row with a fifty-four on it.
Wolf shook his head, "This way, it's at row ninety-seven."
"How do remember stuff like that?" Ron asked.
Wolf rolled his eyes and said pointedly, "Because I have half a brain."
"Hey!" Ron said, not missing the insult.
Wolf wasn't paying attention though, the anxiety he'd been holding in all day was showing as he counted the aisles, always a few ahead of everyone else. He stopped dead in his tracks as he reached the ninety-seventh. It didn't take them long to figure out what had stopped him, Remus was supposedly being tortured here from what Wolf had seen. There was no one here, not Remus, not Voldemort, just them. They checked a few in either direction, still nothing. Wolf's face was expressionless, "That bastard lured me here with nothing. Remus is probably perfectly safe at home with no idea about what's going on here. I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Same, and I would like to take back my earlier comment." Ron said, "It's still Snape, he wants us to die, and I don't want to keep him."
"Should we try to leave?" Hermione asked, "I know we came into this knowing it was a trap and all, but we've got to draw a line somewhere."
"Too late, they'll have gotten to us by then." Vaughn said trance like. Another stupid prophecy.
"Harry, what are these spheres?" Luna asked, eyes focused on one of them.
"How should I know?" Wolf said, a bit louder than was probably necessary.
"It has your name on it." She pointed to a little gold plaque that read 'S.P.T. To A.P.W.B.D. Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter June 18, 1980'. They all stared at it, not sure what to make of it. Wolf scowled.
"It's a prophecy." He said angrily, "Made by Sibyl Trelawny to Albus Dumbledore. This for some reason is why I was lured here, and I was stupid enough to fall for it." He picked it up and wiped the dust off to see what he had pained himself to get for an unknown reason.
"Very stupid of you Potter, now all of you, kindly drop your wands and turn around slowly." Lucius Malfoy drawled through a grin.
The other five obeyed and turned and dropped their wands immediately, sensing that they were surrounded, Wolf turned, but kept his wand and the prophecy in his hands. Lucius was not amused, "Drop your wand, Potter."
Wolf snorted, "He sent fifteen of you to deal with six kids? Voldemort must not think much of you."
"I told you to drop your wand."
"And I suggest that you don't demand things unless you want to tell Voldemort that I broke this." Wolf shot back, Lucius pursed his lips, but said nothing, "That's what I thought, now pick up your wands. If any of you death eaters try something, I'm not afraid to break this. It means nothing to me."
Five Minutes Later
"What were you saying Mr. Potter?" Lucius said smiling evilly. Four deatheaters had been taken out, but that didn't matter because Hermione, Neville and Vaughn had wands to their throats, Ron was currently a parakeet, and Luna had injured her leg and couldn't walk. Oh, and did I mention Wolf was surrounded by the remaining six deatheaters without his wand. It was a hectic five minutes.
"I think we could come to an agreement on this." Wolf said, just trying to buy time, someone had to come down here eventually.
"Okay, you give me the prophecy, I take you and your friends hostage."
"As comforting as that sounds, I want me and my friends to walk out of here safely and without being hostages."
"We'll see."
"How about I break the prophecy, me and my friends walk out on our own, and we won't use the information we have on you to get you taken straight to the dementors."
"Blackmail? That's childsplay, let's be serious about this."
" I believe that's my job." A voice growled, not to far behind the other deatheaters. It was Sirius of course, but the frown on his face was so deep people might mistake him for an actual murderer, and Remus made Sirius look happy. And the rest of the Order that stood behind them didn't look too happy either.
"Accio." Wolf's soft growl broke the silence and his wand flew to his hand surprising most present with wandless magic. In less than a second the man holding Vaughn had been stunned between the eyes. As trouble threatened, more deatheaters appeared to match the number of Order members.
Ten Minutes Later
The fight had moved to a circular room, where a large arch stood in the middle, the one that Sirius was fated to die in. Ron was no longer a bird, he and Hermione were taking on three deatheaters. Neville had taken Luna from the fight, concerned about her leg. Vaughn was taking on two deatheaters, and appeared to be winning. Wolf and Sirius were fighting Bellatrix and Lucius, all of them full of anger. Sirius and Bellatrix hated each other the way only family could, Sirius wanted to kill Lucius for threatening his godson. Wolf hated Lucius because he had threatened Vaughn, and Lucius hated Wolf because he was the boy-who-lived and had destroyed the prophecy. Wolf was now watching for anything going to close to Sirius so he could stop it. That's when everything slowed down.
Lucius sent a simple hex at Sirius, it was sidestepped with ease and a few curses of his own were cast. Bellatrix and Lucius didn't take much time to aim, they just sent spells in their general direction, not caring which it hit. When Wolf easily reflected a spell so it singed the edge of Bellatrix's robes, she threw the killing curse without a second thought. Wolf saw it was heading towards Sirius, but Sirius was busy dealing with Lucius' set of hexes. Wolf grabbed Sirius' shoulder and pulled them both down, the killing curse missing Sirius by inches.
The two locked eyes breifly, long enough for Sirius to realize what had happened. Long enough for Wolf to realize it wasn't just because he wanted to save Vaughn from dealing with seeing someone's actual death that he saved Sirius.
Unfortunately, curses keep going until they hit a target. Whether the target is intended or not. With the room so crowded the killing curse had no choice but to take a victim, Sirius' life could not be saved without a price.
Remus was dueling with Dolohov, and was standing right behind Sirius at the wrong time. The stray curse hit him in the center of his back, he was dead without any prior warning. His lifeless body fell to the floor, the first casualty. The noise caused both sides to turn their attention to him. Wolf paled, he was only the second to realize what was happening the first was his killer.
And that bitch was laughing.
-
(A/N: ...Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Please don't kill me for killing Remus! Next chapter will be up soon. Please review, even if it's a flame or a death threat.)