Remus woke finally feeling the effects of the full moon had worn off and with it came a feeling of increased productivity. He decided to put the energy to good use and check the unoccupied bedrooms for any dark matter that may have popped up in the absence of the Weasley clan. It would be summer soon and he suspected the bedrooms may be needed again. He started on the top floor since those bedrooms hadn't been used by Order members so were the most likely to have sprouted new life. The first bedroom had a very persistent dozy clan which he eradicated before cleaning the thick dust and cobwebs. Then he moved into the next bedroom, which was emitting a foul bitter sort of smell. He was glad he'd waited until the effects of the full moon had fully worn off before venturing up there, otherwise he was sure he'd have vomited violently at the odour. He was just racking his brains to try to deduce what could be causing the smell when he heard a rattling noise and his head snapped round to the source of the noise - the bedside cabinet. It rattled again and he noticed the cabinet shook ever so slightly as if there was something inside. He knew exactly what that was. Without thinking he flicked his wand to allow the door to swing open and braced himself for the white orb that was about to appear.

It all happened so quickly. The first thing he noticed was the bare, pale midriff, punctured by claw marks and stained with dark crimson. The figure lay on the floor before him, clad only in lemon lace lingerie that he recognised only too well despite the blood stains. He could barely bring himself to let his eyes travel over to her lifeless face. The bite marks were on her right cheek and the blood pooled out, running into her hair and mottling the bubble-gum pink.

His legs almost gave way as he stepped backwards, attempting to gasp for air but failing to take any in. And then the bloodstained figure began to writhe and jerk on the floor. She let out the first gut wrenching yelp of pain and Remus heard his own sob mingle with hers although he hadn't felt it escape him. She continued to cry out as her body started to shake more violently. He begged himself to look away, but he just stared, completely transfixed, as fur began to spring up over her midriff. Her wails were becoming less human, and Remus took another step back, promptly slamming into the wall and falling to the floor as his whole body shook, feeling her pain as if it were his own.

"Moony, what's..?" Sirius broke off as he took in the mangled form – half woman half wolf, on the floor just a few metres away.

"Boggart" Remus rasped.

Understanding dawned on Sirius's face as he promptly stepped forward to deal with it.

"Well that's embarrassing" Sirius remarked casually as he stowed his wand back in his pocket. "The son of the famous Boggart hunter can't deal with a Boggart"

Remus wasn't in the mood for humour, his heart was thumping in his chest and his lungs were desperately trying to take in some air, but it was though there was no air left in the room.

Sirius sighed as he took in the pathetic sight. "It's just a Boggart mate, you know that."

Remus made no attempt to move or even respond.

"Come on let's get a cup of tea, and I know you have some chocolate stashed somewhere if you just tell me where..."

Eventually Remus consented, recovered from the shock only for it to be replaced by complete horror.

"You alright?" Sirius asked handing him a mug of tea.

Remus pursed his lips.

"Oh come on you have to say something eventually"

"It's... changed" was all Remus managed in response.

"Your Boggart? Well yeah they do. When you find something else you're more scared of. You know that." Sirius rolled his eyes although he couldn't keep the hint of concern out of his voice. He'd seen his old friend in some states before, but never at something as simple as a boggart.

Remus shook his head, his mind was racing so severely he felt almost frozen by it.

Sirius sighed, "you really love her, don't you?"

Remus nodded weakly, feeling sick to his stomach "I've been such a fool."

"I'll be honest Moony, you do a lot of foolish things, you're gonna have to elaborate." Sirius's attempts at lightening the mood were once again fruitless.

"What am I doing Sirius?!" Remus moaned as he raked a shaking hand through his hair. "Am I a complete idiot? Or am I just so unbelievably selfish? Letting this go on this long when I know there's nothing I can give her, just taking and taking and letting her think that she..."

"What? Loves you back? She does mate, it's all over her face. And I'll tell you something else. The Moony I know is not an idiot and I don't remember him ever being selfish. But what he has in aces in spades is the tendency to overthink until he self-destructs. That's what you're doing now, don't do it."

"You don't get it, you never did. She has absolutely no chance of happiness with me - THAT up there is her future with me." he was getting angry now, why couldn't Sirius understand the gravity of the situation? Sirius had seen the exact same horrific sight that he had. Granted it wasn't real, not yet, but it was still a possibility, one too dreadful to even consider.

"You would never let that happen, you're too careful" Sirius said, willing himself to find the saint like patience that he knew he would need to get through this conversation.

"It doesn't matter how careful I am, it's not worth the risk" Remus insisted.

Sirius sighed. "Why are you so determined to be miserable? You finally have the chance to be happy and you're gonna throw it away?"

"I'm not determined to be miserable, I'm determined to not let her be miserable."

A solemn silence fell between the pair, both knew they'd reached a stale mate, they'd never be able to convince the other round to their point of view.

Sirius broke the silence eventually, muttering under his breath, "you're the biggest old sod I ever met, did I tell you that? You're-"

But Remus never found out exactly what he was for just then the fireplace burst into emerald flames and Snape's head appeared. "Black. You're here."

"Well of course I'm here! Where else would I-"

"No time." Snape cut across him. "Potter thinks you're being held at the Department of Mysteries, he's taken his possie to save you. I'll alert the Headmaster. Gather as many of the Order as you can" and with that the face in the fire disappeared.

The two men allowed themselves a moment to exchange stunned, horror-stricken glances before whipping themselves into action, sending off a patronus's to any Order member they knew were available.

Kingsley, Tonks and Mad-Eye were there in minutes and Remus's heart felt like it would escape out of his chest as her pink haired head rushed round the corner, very much alive and unharmed. For now.


Approaching the Ministry Remus felt his sense of dread double. He'd been to the Ministry more times than he'd have liked, and it was never under pleasant circumstances - after the first war for witness statements, and in more recent years for meetings with the Werewolf Registry Office. He'd always used the visitor entrance, but Dora had told him about the entrance through the public toilets. Knowing about it in advance however didn't make flushing himself down a toilet feel any less strange. When the five of them reconvened in the eerily empty main reception, him and Sirius hung back so they were covered by the 3 who would look less suspect having business at the Ministry. They crept quietly along until Kingsley flung his arm out to stop the group. A lone security wizard stood leaning against the reception desk whistling. He was a little younger than Remus and so far, hadn't heard sign of the intruders but there was no way for the group to pass to the lifts without him seeing.

"I have an idea" Tonks whispered, "wait here."

She strutted out boldly without a second thought and at the sound of her footsteps the security wizard looked around.

"Tonks!" He exclaimed, "what are you doing here?"

She rested her weight on one hip and spoke in a voice that seemed about an octave higher than normal, "oh hi Adam, I just left some papers in the copy office"

"Copy office is closed" he said puffing himself with the air of someone trying to look important as he rearranged his mop of dark hair.

"Oh right..." she responded in her faux ditsy voice, "I can't believe I forgot, Kingsley's going to kill me you know! Hey, you don't think you could go get them for me..." Remus could almost imagine her batting her eyelids at him as she played with her hair in a very un-Tonks sort of fashion.

"Don't see why not" he nodded as though trying to convince himself this was an acceptable thing to do.

"Great! I'll owe you. They're in a... pink folder" she kept up her girlish aura until he was out of sight. The second the lift doors closed on him she turned to face her Order colleagues, gesturing with a nod of her head that they were safe to come out and the 5 ran towards the lifts. "Don't look at me like that" she nudged Mad-Eye as they all piled in and Kingsley pressed the button to take them down to their intended location, "you're the one who told me to use every tool at my disposal..."

Remus wasn't sure whether to be grateful for her quick thinking, put off by having seen her openly flirting, or amused at how terrible and obvious the flirting had been.

Mad-Eye was whispering a hurried briefing as the lift made its way down to level 9. Remus wondered how much attention anyone was paying as Sirius's leg jiggled and Kingsley stared straight ahead looking ever composed. Dora on the other hand looked alert, eyes just slightly narrowed in intense concentration, posture upright, wand hand clearly ready to draw at a moment's notice. He had to hand it to her, she certainly looked like someone he'd want on side in a duel. He quickly had to look away from her to steady his thumping heart, none of them had any idea what they were walking into, it may be nothing too threatening, or it may be the biggest fight they'd faced together as of yet. And he couldn't think of Dora duelling for her life, he just couldn't.

Mad-Eye continued his hurried briefing as the lift doors opened and the group sprinted towards to door that many of the Order had spent nights outside under an invisibility cloak, but none of them had ever ventured through.

The door led into a circular room with identical doors all around them. They stood in formation, ready for an ambush, each waiting for someone else to shed some light on what their next move should be.

"How do we know which door?!" Sirius was clearly itching to get to Harry, he could barely stand still.

"They're underage and most likely using magic outside of Hogwarts, we can trace it" Mad-Eye growled under his breath.

Kingsley nodded once and raised his wand to perform some sort of wordless charm.

"There" Remus pointed to the door in front of him which was now emitting a dim blue glow.

"That one too" Tonks pointed in the opposite direction to another door that was emitting the same glow. "Maybe they've been separated?"

"I only traced Harry" Kingsley replied.

"Split up" Mad-Eye instructed them, "you three through there, I'll take Tonks"

Remus burst through the door with Sirius at his side. He barely had time to register the horror at seeing Harry and Neville Longbottom cornered by Death Eaters below them before a stunner was sent straight at Lucius Malfoy and the duelling commenced. The Death Eaters had the numbers, but the Order had the advantage of surprise and a higher vantage point. It had been a long time since Remus had duelled on such a large scale, but thanks to Mad-Eye's training sessions, his body seemed to know instinctively what to do. He gradually made his way down the stone steps firing all manner of wordless spells whilst still trying to keep one eye on Harry and Neville.

Sirius seemed to have the same idea as both men attempted to manoeuvre their duels to get closer to the dais where Harry and Neville were impressively holding their own. Out of his peripheral Remus saw Dolohov go down. He hazarded another glance towards Harry in between the curses he was firing off and realised that Sirius had succeeded in getting closer to his Godson. Then Remus saw who Sirius was fighting and stumbled, loosing focus for a moment at the panicked realisation that Dora had been the one fighting Bellatrix moments before. But Remus didn't have time to dwell on what that meant as Sirius was now so thoroughly engrossed in battling his deranged cousin that he hadn't realised Malfoy was now closing in on Harry. Steadying his footing and regaining his focus, Remus sent one last powerful stunner to the Death Eater he'd been duelling before making a beeline for Malfoy.

"Harry! Get the others and GO!" Remus called before he was once again immersed in battle, this time with Lucius Malfoy. As Remus dodged a jet of green light that brought him to the other side of the dais, he only now saw just how gravely they were outnumbered. He couldn't spot Mad-Eye or Kingsley anywhere and then... he caught a glimpse of pink, her body lay motionless on the ground not too far from him. And everything was a blur, the sounds that echoed off the stone all around them, a smash, a yell, a cackle, it all seemed so far away. And then...

"Dumbledore!"

It was a few seconds before he really processed the murmurs coming from all around him. Looking up, the old Headmaster stood looking like a true saviour framed against the light from the doorway behind him. The fighting had stopped as some Death Eaters tried to run. Remus heard a scuffle behind him and whipped round to see the one pair who hadn't yet noticed the Headmasters arrival. He'd turned just a second too late, just in time to see the look of triumph on that familiar face before his body fell.

He heard a yell reverberate around the room and he wasn't even sure whether it was his own. The body was falling, falling through the veil and Remus knew that a part of himself was falling with it. For a fraction of a second everything was still, until a blur sped past him towards the veil, and suddenly Remus's focus was razor sharp again.

"Harry!" Remus lurched forward. "Harry you can't save him, it's too late."

With each word he spoke, the realisation seemed to seep further into every inch of his being, until speaking the words was too painful and it was all he could do to muster enough strength to restrain the teenager.

Remus's words came out in rasps, "you can't save him because he's..." he would realise later that he was saying this to convince himself more than to convince Harry.

By the time Harry stopped struggling and dropped to the ground Remus almost wished he was still duelling. For then there was no time for thinking, just instincts and adrenaline. Now he had to face the aftermath and he really wasn't sure he had it in him. He didn't dare glance behind him, instead he gathered himself enough to focus on the two teenagers in front of him. Neville was in desperate need of help, Remus reversed the curse to still the boy's legs and asked where the others were.

But then once more, his plan was thrown off course. Harry had seen it first. Kingsley had fallen from where he was duelling Bellatrix and the incarnation of evil itself had taken off across the hall dancing and cackling and boasting of Sirius's defeat.

Remus tried and failed to restrain Harry as he took off after her, but Dumbledore caught his eye and nodded once before disappearing. Harry was safe now, he was in Dumbledore's care, but Remus forced himself to push on, there were still more kids who needed his attention. Rubbing his throbbing temples, Remus turned to properly survey the damage that he hadn't yet been able to face. Kingsley was hurt but conscious, he nodded to Remus whose gaze now travelled over to where that darling mop of pink hair still lay on the hard ground. Mad-Eye was next to her bearing blatant marks of injury which he was ignoring in his attempt to renovate his protégé. Mad-Eye looked up and caught Remus's eye, his expression grim. Remus couldn't bring himself to ask. "Get her to Hogwarts" Remus told Mad-Eye, already turning away from where her body lay, "I'll get the others".

He gestured for Neville to lead the way. Ron was in a state, garbling nonsense and fighting off some gruesome sort of brain tentacles which Remus blasted off of him before turning his attention to Ginny's ankle. Neville took him to Hermione and Luna, both of whom he revived without too much difficulty. Remus found his adrenaline hadn't quite subsided and that was the only thing that kept him going as he gathered the teenagers together and made a portkey out of a piece of rubble.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny sobbed.

"Dumbledore's with him" Remus replied, surprising himself at how gruff his voice came out.

"Dumbledore?" Hermione gasped.

"Just hold on to the portkey" he instructed. He didn't have it in him to explain, all the scenes of the recent battle whirled round his head, but he couldn't sort them into coherent sentences. He didn't want to sort them into coherent sentences for then he'd be forced to confront what he'd just seen, and he knew that the moment he faced that, he would break.