Chapter 38 ~ January, 1997
Remus sat by himself, a little ways off from the campfire. The villages close to where the pack had set up their new camp were smaller, and he hadn't been able to find another job. The legislation that passed under Fudge's administration restricting werewolf employment had finally trickled down to Obscurus Books' editors, and he'd been sacked from that job as well. Besides the extra free time that sat ill with him, he soon realized that if he wasn't able to contribute to the pack, they'd ask him to move on.
The deep sigh that rattled through his chest sounded hollow, and triggered a slight coughing fit. Remus knew he wasn't in the best of health right now, and without any work to distract him, found his mind overwhelmed with thoughts of his own mortality. Isak Horváth's arrival at the bookstore had pulled him back from the brink, but the vicious whispers in his head were only muffled, not completely silenced. A letter was written and waiting in his cloak pocket to send to Dumbledore asking for this assignment to end, but he couldn't bring himself to send it yet. He'd given up hope that the werewolf pack could be encouraged to choose sides until they were under a direct threat, and knew he would serve the Order better in another capacity, yet the letter remained unsent. Part of him was simply afraid to return to Grimmauld Place, and try to pick up the threads of his life there. At least with the pack they understood a side of him that the other Order members never could. And the pack didn't ask him to try and be more or better than he was at the moment. Remus knew they didn't all particularly like him. It was too obvious that he'd spent most of his life trying to reign in or hide the werewolf side of him, but they were also content to let him alone. Another cough shook his body, and when he looked up a steaming mug of tea hovered in front of his face.
"This is really a matriarchy in disguise, you know," muttered Alec McIntyre, as he sat beside Remus. "Sometimes I think being the Alpha only ensures that everything Circe and Deirdre want done is done." He smiled at Remus' confused frown as he accepted the hot drink. "My wife and daughter insisted that I check on you," he clarified, "and make sure you know that you're welcome to stay here as long as you need to - with or without a job. You were more than generous with your previous paychecks.
Remus stared at the grizzled older man in surprise. "Th…thank you." He took a sip of the tea, closing his eyes in appreciation as the honey and lemon coated his throat.
"When did you lose your mate?" Alec asked suddenly, and Remus almost dropped the mug in surprise, the hot tea sloshing over his fingers.
"Damn," he hissed, and a sudden memory played itself out - black hair and laughing eyes, burned fingers and a teasing reprimand. His eyes stung as he cleared his throat. "Um, I don't have a mate, exactly…she didn't know…it was more of a…well…it's been eight months," he admitted.
Alec sighed loudly. "Look, laddie, I'm not good at this emotional encouraging stuff, but that lass over there," he said, gesturing vaguely to where Deirdre sat with Circe outside their caravan, "is worried about you. And if my girl is worried, than I'm obligated to do something about it."
"There's nothing to be done. She's in America."
"If you don't find a new mate, this will most likely kill you," Alec stated bluntly. "Your depression, how sick and tired you feel, more violent transformations, are all symptoms that will worsen. Ignoring this for so many weeks…"
"Thirty-three weeks," Remus interrupted. "Two hundred twenty-four days."
Alec scrubbed his hand over his face. "I know you don't agree with how we live. And I don't agree with your war mongering. But you can't continue on like this. Deirdre has suggested I let you claim her, and while I am not inclined to agree, I have been overruled," he said, glancing ruefully back at his wife.
The shock rendered Remus mute for a full minute. "She's just a kid," he muttered, shaking his head.
"I didn't say you had to sleep with her," the older man growled, a scowl etched across this face. "You don't even have to provide for her. But the bond would make it easier on you."
"That…that isn't what I meant," protested Remus. "Deirdre's too young to waste her time worrying about me. It took me a little while to realize, but I know full well what's happening to me. I just haven't decided what to do about it yet."
"What's there to decide?" asked Alec incredulously. "If you claimed her by accident, and she's gone…"
"I love her!" Remus burst out, dropping the mug and burying his face in his hands. He looked up at the grey sky, blinking away tears. "I love her," he repeated softly, "and I'm going to die in this war anyway. So thank you, but no. I will not complicate your daughter's life or put your pack at risk for my own convenience."
A faintly impressed and pleased expression crossed Alec's face. "I wondered if that would occur to you. It didn't seem to occur to Deirdre."
Remus looked over at the red-haired girl, laughing in the distance, and shook his head. "She looks for the silver linings. But it wouldn't work, even if I were inclined to consider it. We aren't in control enough during the moon for you to allow it, and if you did your authority as Alpha would be in question. It wouldn't take two seconds for some of the others to challenge you."
"I agree. I think it's better you stick with your routine of leaving before the moon rises tonight." He raised his eyebrows as Remus stilled in surprise. "Didn't think I knew about that, did you? If it were anybody else I might worry that they're taking a page out of Greyback's book and intentionally trying to infect people. But you hate the werewolf too much for that. I figure you go somewhere you feel is safer for others."
Remus nodded dumbly. Alec stood and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, Lupin, that things worked out like this for you. I really am."
Remus watched Alec walk over to his caravan, and speak to Circe and Deirdre. Circe nodded, but Deirdre looked back over to Remus, her shoulders slumping a little. She moved to walk towards him, but Circe took her arm and said something, her face gentle and understanding. Deirdre shrugged and turned to enter the caravan. Sighing heavily, Remus retreated to his own tent to try and sleep a little. The owl winging its way down, landed between him and the opening in the tent. He untied the small scroll of parchment from its leg and apologized for not having anything to offer. The owl gave him a disapproving glare and took off again, quickly fading into the sky. Remus unrolled the letter and skimmed over what appeared to be a party invitation for Caroline Bingley. Lina wanted him to check in. He sighed again as he entered the small tent. Tonight would be soon enough. He was exhausted, and knew the difficult transformation would only add to his fatigue. First a nap, then he'd try to leave a little earlier than normal and see what was so important that Lina felt she needed to make contact.
Artemis' heart was racing and the entire reservation seemed electrified. Everyone was up and ready at dawn, most unable to enjoy their final breakfast together because of excitement or nerves. It was an underhanded move for MCUSA to move up the transfer date to a full moon. Artemis was sure they were expecting Ben, their spook at the Ministry, to report back some incident that would cement the American policy of magical beast containment. Well, there certainly wouldn't be any incident involving any of these werewolves, she thought to herself with satisfaction, as she waved a goodbye to the group. MCUSA officials had arrived promptly at eight o'clock. They would be traveling by portkey from the reservation to an International Apparation Site, where Aurors from the British Ministry of Magic would meet them to apparate the werewolves over. Kingsley had arranged that those Aurors would also be Order members who would then shepherd the entire group to Grimmauld Place. The entire process should take less than five minutes. Then, considering the time difference, they would have several hours to settle in at the house before the moon rose. As soon as they were at the house Kreacher would come for her. The butterflies flitted around her stomach again as Artemis thought about seeing Remus. She still hadn't decided on whether she'd use a glamour to hide the pregnancy until she'd had a chance to talk to him or not. Lina had told her he typically showed up just minutes before the moon rose, but she'd asked him to come early to meet everyone first.
It was 8:15 when Kreacher appeared with a loud crack. Hugging Nana and Grams, shaking Marcus' hand, and giving a final friendly nod to Alma, Artemis picked up the same small suitcase she'd arrived with eight months earlier and took Kreacher's hand. A dizzying moment later, they landed in the front hall of Number Twelve, greeted by a wide grin on Sirius' face.
"Ah, I missed you Kitten!" he said, pulling her close in a tight hug, at least as tight as he could manage with the baby between them. He pulled away and knelt before her, hands on either side of her rounded belly as he smirked up at her anxious face before whispering to the baby, "Your father has some explaining to do, doesn't he, Moonbeam?"
"Moonbeam?" asked Artemis, making a face.
"You're right, that's terrible," agreed Sirius, clambering back to his feet. "Don't worry, I'll think of the perfect nickname. It's a necessity for a second generation Marauder."
"Welcome home, love," added Lina, running down the stairs and grabbing her in her own embrace. "Everything went perfectly. They're all choosing rooms and roommates and checking the place out."
Kreacher suddenly appeared beside them. "Would Mistress like some tea?" he croaked, unable to hide the pleased expression on his face.
Artemis rested her hand on the top of his head. "That sounds heavenly, Kreacher, thank you."
"So, I'm bunking with you," Lina said, as the three of them made their way down to the kitchen. "Everyone's doubled or tripled up. If it doesn't work, Sirius thought we could add rooms to the top of the house, but one of the girls saw there was an old greenhouse and rooftop garden up there, and begged us not to mess with it."
"Um, I guess Remus isn't here yet?" asked Artemis softly.
Lina and Sirius exchanged a glance. "That is potentially a problem," began Lina slowly. "You know he's been staying with the pack, but they moved camp recently and we haven't been able to get a hold of him. He will most likely be back tonight, but…"
"He could show up and not be prepared for there being so many other werewolves here," finished Sirius. "We, uh, we weren't able to reach him in time to tell him any of you were coming. Hopefully you being here will help, but the werewolf's been quite the mess lately. If it gets close to moonrise, and he hasn't shown up yet, I think we should sequester everyone in their rooms with wards up, and Lina and I will handle him."
Artemis frowned. "But we think things have been so bad for him because we've been separated. It's a werewolf thing. Surely if he sees me, or the werewolf scents me, it will help."
"Possibly, but if he accidentally hurt you, he wouldn't be able to come back from that," said Lina firmly.
"How about we do this?" offered Sirius. "You have some tea and unpack your things. Then you can rest or read in his room for a while. That will leave your scent for him. If it seems to settle him down when he's transformed, then you can sit in the hallway with us and try to talk to him. But if it seems to make him more agitated, you're staying locked in with everyone else. Agreed?"
Artemis made a face and nodded unhappily.
"Ketzelah!" called Jane happily from the doorway, carrying in several boxes and dumping them onto the kitchen table. "You made it!"
"What's a ket za la?" asked Sirius, opening one of the boxes, and making a face at the packets of raw meat.
"Artemis said you called her Kitten. It's Yiddish for Kitten," replied Jane, offering her hand. "I'm Jane Novak."
"Sirius Black," he replied shaking her hand firmly. "What's all this?"
"Groceries. Ellie shrank everything down and we packed it up this morning with my things. I figured MCUSA could at least pay for a some supplies to start things off. You haven't had to feed this many werewolves after a full moon before."
Ellie and Kieran made an appearance moments later, also carrying boxes of food. Finn followed slowly, crawling down the stairs backwards. At the bottom he ran over to Kieran and held up his arms beseechingly. "Kiki, I hold you," he said. Kieran obligingly scooped up the little boy, who promptly began jabbering in toddlerspeak about my bed and big stairs.
"Say hello to Mr. Black," Ellie encouraged the little boy. "He's letting us stay here at his house."
Finn studied Sirius solemnly for a moment before smiling shyly and burying his face in Kieran's shoulder. "Hello there, young man," said Sirius with a smile. "I think I might have some biscuits hidden in here somewhere. Should we try to find them?"
"Finn, you help Mr. Black find the biscuits, and I'll get you a cup of milk, all right?" said Ellie, ruffling his hair.
The little boy wiggled in Kieran's arms to show his willingness, and as soon as he was on his feet, held out a little hand to Sirius, with a cheerful "I ha' cookie!" Finn and Sirius started on their biscuit hunt, crawling on hands and knees around the kitchen, looking in the fireplace, under the table and in the lower cupboards, finally meeting success with a package of jaffa cakes inside the pantry. Eagerly shoving the first one into his mouth, the little boy was then content to carry the package around, passing out biscuits to the others in the kitchen, while they put the remaining groceries away.
"So who's bunking with who?" Artemis asked, sitting at the table with the steaming cup of tea Kreacher had made.
"I'm on the top floor with Hawthorne. Xander and Xavier are next door," said Kieran, closing his eyes as he mentally walked through the house. Y'all are the next floor down. Oscar and Rosa are there too. Below that one is an art room, Sirius and Remus, and the younger guys are there. Then the girls are down one more across from the living room."
Artemis looked at Sirius and smiled gratefully. "You gave up yours and Regulus' rooms?"
Sirius shrugged. "It made more sense to keep Moony where he was, and it's closest to the studio. I can always sleep there if he snores."
After finishing her tea, Artemis unpacked her things in her old room, then climbed the stairs to Remus' room. She walked around the room slowly, running her hand over the desk top. At some point since she'd left, Sirius had added paintings to the walls. The peaceful forest scene now included a regal looking stag that slowly walked among the trees, and a happy-go-lucky black dog bounding around his legs. Then her breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed a mountain lion sitting at attention on an outcropping of rock off in the distance, a sleek red fox beside her. Sirius Black never ceased to amaze her. Remus had been locked up alone the last several full moons, so Sirius gathered friends around him the one way he could. She only hoped it had been helpful in some small way.
Even though she'd scarcely been awake about four hours her time, it was four in the afternoon in London, and she knew it would be better to try and sleep a little now so she could stay awake tonight. Her memory couldn't help replaying the last time she'd been in this bed, waking confused and then mortified. She slowly pulled back the covers, kicked off her shoes, and climbed in. The linens smelled a little musty from disuse, but she caught the faintest scent of him as she buried her face in his pillow. Her body gave in to sleep faster than she'd expected, and her last thought before she drifted off was that she had to remain hopeful, no matter what happened when Remus arrived.
** Thanks so much to all you lovely people that follow, review and keep reading! Guest, thanks for your reviews! I'm glad that last chapter helped with any confusion on the claiming idea. Let me know when you post your story - I'd love to read it! Little warning for you, the next several chapters will be a tad stressful with sort-of cliffhangers, but we're wrapping up the whole pregnancy, Remus/Artemis reunion storyline. Hopefully the resolution will be worth it. :)