As I post this, it's May 11, 2021. That means it's 20 years to the day since I posted my first fic on this site (for the love of all gods, don't read it). That's literally more than half my life. I think I've developed a lot as a writer in that time, though clearly I need to work out a more disciplined writing schedule.

Thank you all, old and new readers alike, for embarking on this journey with me. Here's to another (hopefully more productive!) 20 years.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

It was late in the day when Remus heard the first of the rumors. The folks out in the countryside didn't have much contact with the broader wizarding world, so news traveled slower. He wasn't sure what to make of it at first. It was just a half-spun tale saying that someone had heard that someone else said something about catching word somewhere that Voldemort had disappeared. He was ready to dismiss it, but then he heard others talking about it as well. No one was being particularly open about how they felt about it, not knowing where anyone else's allegiances lay, but the consensus seemed to be that something had indeed happened to the so-called Dark Lord.

As sunset approached, he decided he'd have to go find out for himself. The moon was only halfway between new and first quarter; werewolves tended not to be overly wary around this time, so he didn't think anyone would think it amiss if he happened to venture out into a town for an evening. He hoped not, anyway. He was finally starting to gain some people's trust.

He didn't make a big show of leaving; he just walked off like nothing was out of the ordinary. One of the few nice things about living among werewolves was that they tended not to poke their noses into your business unless you gave them reason to. Once he felt he was far enough away from the commune, he apparated to the city of Sheffield, which he chose because it was not far from his current assignment, it was large enough that there should be a substantial magical population that could provide answers for him, and there was an order safe house in the adjacent town of Stocksbridge whence he could contact Dumbledore or Moody if necessary (they being the only two who currently knew where he was).

He thought he would have to wander around for a while before he found anyone, but the moment he stepped out onto the streets he noticed something was off. People were walking about in wizard robes and cloaks in broad daylight (or what was left of it) in full view of muggles. They were getting some odd looks, but thankfully they weren't doing anythings else to draw attention to themselves. Hopefully the muggles would just assume this was a strange new fashion trend.

He approached a group of six witches and wizards, the youngest of whom looked slightly older than himself, and the oldest could easily have been his grandfather.

'Er, excuse me,' he said, butting into their conversation. They didn't even appear annoyed. 'Could any of you tell me what's going on?'

'My dear lad!' exclaimed the old man, throwing his arms wide and pulling Remus into a hug. He was too shocked to respond. 'Have you not heard?' the old man went on, releasing him. 'You-Know-Who has finally gone! Eleven years of terror are behind us at last!' The rest of the group cheered, and Remus was dumbstruck. This certainly backed up what he'd heard. What was more, by all indications, people had been out in the streets discussing it openly, which they surely would not have done had there been any doubt. And in view of muggles! Had everyone stopped caring about the Statute of Secrecy?

'How did it happen?' he asked, remembering why he'd come.

'No one knows,' said a man of perhaps his mid-thirties. 'He just...vanished.'

'I heard he was killed,' said a middle-aged witch.

'Codswallop,' said another wizard. 'Who could've done it?'

'I heard it was when he went after the Potters,' said the youngest wizard. Remus's heart turned to ice.

'Who?' asked another witch, also appearing in her twenties.

'You know, the Potters! The ones what fought him off at that gala last year!'

'Was that last year?'

'Might've been two years ago...'

Remus had stopped listening. There was a buzz in his ears and his vision was blurry. He started drifting away from the group without even realizing what he was doing or thinking where he was going.

His feet carried him away and he was running by the time he realized he'd been moving in the direction of Stocksbridge. Coming back to his senses, he found the nearest deserted alley and apparated. He'd still have a good ten minute walk due to the wards, but it was better than running all the way across town.

When he finally reached the safe house he was panting heavily, and he had to take a few seconds before he was able to call out the Hogwarts headmaster's office in the floo.

'Ah, Remus!' said Dumbledore as if he'd stopped by for tea. 'I was hoping you had heard the news. I had planned on sending Alastor to fetch you in the next few days if we hadn't heard anything from you.'

'James and Lily!' he cried out, having no patience for niceties at the moment. 'Are they all right?'

'They are safe and whole and healthy,' Dumbledore reported happily. 'As is young Harry. I should have expected that to be the first thing on your mind; my apologies. It has been a particularly trying day.'

Remus let out a breath so big the flames around him actually grew for a moment. 'That's such a relief,' he said. 'When I heard people talking...'

'Naturally, naturally,' said Dumbledore. 'No doubt you have heard the rest of the news, then.'

'Is it true then, Professor?' Remus asked, hardly daring to hope. 'Is he gone?'

'For the time being, yes,' said Dumbledore. That didn't sound promising. 'Hagrid and Sirius saw his body with their own eyes.'

'That sounds pretty definitive, sir,' Remus said. 'What do you mean "for the time being"?'

'If there is one thing I know about Voldemort,' said Dumbledore, 'it is that his life's ambition has always been to evade death. We do not yet know what experiments he has undertaken or what measures he may have put in place to accomplish this, but I am not yet prepared to believe he has gone for good. I may, of course, be mistaken, which would please no one more than myself, but I must act out of an abundance of caution.'

'I understand,' said Remus, though that was only half true. 'So you think he might come back?'

'I certainly believe it is possible,' replied Dumbledore. 'I definitely believe there are those among his followers who think it so. When, however, I cannot say. Perhaps even if he has the ability to return, our actions may prevent him from doing so such that he is never able to manage it. It is too early to say.

'For the time being, however, I do not believe it is wrong to indulge in some celebration. We have, after all, had very little to celebrate in these last eleven years. Take what measures you need to extricate yourself tactfully from your current situation, and then come to Hogwarts. There are some people here who would be delighted to see you.'

'I will, sir,' his heart lightening. 'I should be able to make it there by tomorrow.'

'Excellent,' said Dumbledore, smiling. Then his face grew serious all of a sudden. 'Oh, and Remus?'

'Yes, sir?'

'I consider it unlikely, but if you should happen to encounter your old friend Mr Pettigrew, do not trust him.'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

James embraced his friend enthusiastically. 'It's so good to see you!' he exclaimed. 'Lily! Come see who it is!'

His wife came out, and her face lit up the moment she set eyes on their newest visitor.

'Remus!' she cried, and hugged him just as James had.

'I'm glad to see you both,' he said. 'When I heard what happened…'

'How much did you hear?' James asked.

'Not enough,' Remus said.

'I shall leave you all to catch up,' said Dumbledore. 'James, I'll have word sent to Sirius to come and join you.'

'Thanks, Professor,' said James. The headmaster strode off down the corridor, and James ushered his friend back into their little temporary quarters.

'We've been worried about you,' he said to Remus. 'We had a good idea of what you were up to, of course, but we didn't know exactly where you were or how to get in touch with you'

'I wasn't exactly happy about it either,' said Remus, 'but it was necessary to build up the needed trust. What all has happened? I heard Voldemort came after you, but how was that possible? Weren't you using the Fidelius? And Dumbledore tells me not to trust Peter and to try and bring him in if I see him. What's that about? Have they gotten to him?'

James felt the smile slide right off his face. 'Sit down, Moony,' he said, gesturing to one of the armchairs. 'You're not going to like this.'

James proceeded to tell him about the altered Fidelius Charm, and Peter's betrayal, all the way up through trying to frame Sirius. Remus's pulsing veins were visible through his pale face by the time he finished.

'That little…I can't believe him! That traitorous little fucking rat! How could he?' Remus shouted. Harry cried out from his cot. 'Sorry,' Remus muttered, immediately looking contrite and ashamed of himself.

'It's all right,' said Lily softly, picking Harry up out of his cot to rock him and coo at him. She walked him around the room while James continued talking to Remus, who was visibly trying to calm himself down.

'I've been wondering the same thing,' he said. 'Sirius says he's too far gone now – and he was the only one who saw Pete murder all those people – but I still want to hear it from his own mouth.'

'I don't think it'll change anything, Prongs,' said Remus sadly.

'I know,' James said. 'But I can't help it. Whatever he is now, he was really our friend once. I have to believe that. I don't know how or why he chose to do this – maybe we weren't good enough friends to him and he felt he didn't owe us anything – but I need to at least ask him.'

'Don't you dare put this on yourself, James,' Remus said harshly. 'That he would ever even consider something like this was his failure as a friend, not yours. And maybe he was really our friend once. I'd like to think so too. But that just means that his own skin meant more to him than we ever did. Simple as that.'

'I don't want to talk about it anymore today,' said James sulkily. He didn't know what he was more upset about: that people kept saying things like that, or that a part of him knew that they were probably right.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Things turned awkward quickly again when Sirius arrived. He and Remus greeted each other enthusiastically, after which Sirius immediately stepped back and apologized.

'What horrible thing have you done now?' Remus asked, half amused, half concerned.

'The whole switching the secret keeper plan,' Sirius said. 'I thought it was the perfect bluff.'

'And it would have been, if Peter had been who we thought he was,' Remus said.

'That's not the point, though,' Sirius went on. I didn't tell you about it. I convinced James and Lily not to tell you about it. I mean we didn't even tell Dumbledore; the idea was that it was as complete a secret as possible, but what I'm trying to say is that...I doubted the wrong person, Moony. And I'm sorry for that.'

'What do you mean?' Remus asked, though he had a sinking feeling he knew.

'It's not that I thought you were the spy!' said Sirius quickly. 'Not really. It's just that...with all that undercover work Dumbledore had you doing, and all the stress you were under – we hardly ever got to see you anymore – I couldn't be one hundred percent certain you weren't the spy. Does that make sense?'

'It does, actually,' said Remus, somewhat relieved in spite of himself. 'And to be honest, I'm glad you were thinking with your head instead of just your heart. We know this one would never even consider such a thing.' He gestured at James. 'It's good he had you looking out for him. Truth be told, not telling me out of caution was the smart play with what knowledge you had available to you. We knew there was a spy somewhere, after all. And if I'm completely honest...if Wormtail's plan had worked – that is, if Lily and James were...were gone, and he blamed you and faked his death – I can't say for certain I wouldn't have believed it. I wouldn't want to, of course, but I'll never know.'

'I get it,' said Sirius. 'And really, I wouldn't have blamed you if you had. The little shit would have had me completely cornered. The perfect fucking crime. It'd almost be funny if it weren't so fucked up.'

'All right, I think that's quite enough swearing around the baby,' said Lily, coming over to join them. She had returned a now calm and dozing Harry to his cot.

Remus smiled. He knew she didn't really care what they said around him; she'd confessed long ago that it would be a losing battle trying to stop them. She was just trying to lighten the mood again and he appreciated it.

'How are you, Lily?' he asked. 'I haven't really had chance to to ask yet.'

'My family is alive and safe; I'm wonderful,' she said, smiling. 'And I want to hear all about what you've been up to – if you're allowed to say, that is – but weren't you three supposed to be getting a move on? James, you said you were going to visit the house and Ivy Hall; I want to set off for Alice and Frank's before it gets too late.'

'Right!' said James, slapping his knees and rising to his feet. 'Right, we were going to do that. Moony, Padfoot, care to be my bodyguards as I sort through a bunch of old junk?'

'Depends,' said Sirius. 'What's the salary?'

'I think we can work out some sort of arrangement,' said James.

'The last time you said that, I ended up with my trousers full of nettles!' Sirius groused. Remus laughed, remembering. No matter how much time he spent away from his friends, whenever he saw them again, it was as if no time had passed.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Twilight was fading as the four Death Eaters patiently observed the Longbottom house from a small wood just down the lane. It was not the sort of home one would expect from a pure-blood family like the Longbottoms, which of course was entirely the point. They were trying to hide, pretending to be middle class muggles At least, Rudolphus assumed this passed for middle class; who could say when it came to such ignorant creatures?

The fools had not been nearly as careful as they thought, however. Their location had been known to the cause for months now. Their status and the difficulty involved in attacking them had served to protect them so far, but now things were different. The Death Eaters could not afford to be patient or tolerant any longer. If they did not act, and act soon, the cause might be lost. It was too bad for the Longbottoms that they hadn't thought to employ the Fidelius Charm like the Potters, though it's not as if that had done them any good either. There was no hiding from the Dark Lord and his most loyal followers. No matter what measures you took, you would be found eventually.

The wards around the house were strong, and under normal circumstances wouldn't be worth the risk of trying to breach without several more wands at hand. He was confident they could do it; it just might take some time. Fortunately, with all the "celebrations" going on around the country at the Dark Lord's supposed "disappearance", most people had their guard down and any response was likely to be much slower than it would have been even a week ago.

The Longbottoms themselves also posed a potential threat. They were both aurors with formidable reputations, and it was well known amongst the Dark Lord's followers that they were not to be engaged save for the most elite Death Eaters without the advantage of numbers. In this area, Rudolphus was confident they had a clear advantage. He and Bellatrix (especially Bellatrix) could at least hold their own against anyone short of Dumbledore or the Dark Lord himself, and his brother and young Crouch were no slouches either. The four of them together should easily be more than a match for the Longbottoms, no matter how powerful and skilled they may be.

'We should do it now,' Bellatrix was saying. 'It's dark enough.'

'I thought we'd decided to wait until full nightfall,' Rabastan said.

'Yes, but the wards are flickering again,' said Bellatrix. 'They'll be vulnerable and easier to breach; we don't know how long we'd have to wait for another opportunity, if one came at all. It's dark enough.'

She made a good point. For the last hour or so, the wards had been behaving oddly. As if someone had been opening a door they couldn't see for a few minutes at a time and then shutting it again.

'I think you're right,' he told his wife. 'This is our best chance. Everyone disillusion yourselves and get into position.'

They had to run, since there were anti-apparition wards placed around the entire neighborhood. Once they were all positioned at the four corners of the house, he gave the signal and they attacked the wards. There was no turning back now. The Longbottoms may or may not be immediately aware of someone trying to bring down their wards, but it was only prudent to assume that they were. This had to be done quickly.

An advantage of knowing their quarry's location for so long meant that the wards had been thoroughly studied, and a strategy devised for bringing them down should the occasion ever arise. All told, it took only three and a half minutes before the wards collapsed, and the four of them rushed into the house. Their disillusionment charms were dispelled – evidently there were a few more wards than they'd thought – but this was of little consequence.

His job was to find Alice Longbottom and engage her. Crouch or Rabastan would be there to help him as soon as they could. Bella was tasked with Frank Longbottom, who had been judged the marginally stronger duelist.

He found her in short order in the drawing room and attacked at once with a burning curse. She appeared shocked and frightened at the sudden intrusion, but still managed to fend him off. She screamed and cried out for her husband, who by the sounds of it was already crossing wands with Bellatrix on the staircase.

Rudolphus flung curse after curse at her, conscious of the fact that they needed her alive and cognizant if any of this was to accomplish anything. She was as difficult a target as the reports indicated. Fortunately, Crouch appeared moments later and joined the fray. She immediately stopped counterattacking and switched entirely to defense. Rudolphus grinned. They had her now. It was only a matter of time. The look in her eyes said she knew it, too.

They pushed her into a corner behind the sofa, and Rudolphus registered Frank Longbottom backing into the room, being pushed hard by Bellatrix and Rabastan. He was impressed in spite of himself that the auror was managing to hold them off. He knew their opponents were trying to join up and fight together, but it did not concern him. They would still be outnumbered two to one.

A roaring sound rose from his right, a little behind him, and when he glanced to see what it was he just barely managed to duck a jet of red light headed straight for his face. A young woman with dark auburn hair was standing with her wand pointed at him and a look of fury on her face. He recognized her.

It can't be! What would she be doing here?

He had to deflect another spell, and then still another from the other side, as his moment of distraction had allowed Alice Longbottom to regain the initiative. This wasn't good, but the situation was still salvageable.

The roaring sound came again and he saw this time that it was the fireplace blazing to life as yet another figure stepped through. No mistaking it; this one was James Potter.

Rabastan looked over at that same moment, and gave voice to what they were surely all thinking.

'Oh, shit.'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

I know the duel is scant on details, which is particularly unlike me, but the most important thing this time was to give the impression that everything was happening very fast.