A/N: Harry Potter and his world belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers and anyone that has received licensing rights. I am grateful she gives us the privilege of playing in her world.

A/N2: As always, a huge thanks to my beta Ravenclaw Midnight Blue. There are some good stories at his page.

-oOo-

Chapter 71

-oOo-

April 16, 1996

London, England

Most witches and wizards thought that Knockturn Alley was the centre of all the low lives of the Wizarding World. It was more like the economic capital of the wizarding underworld. The true underworld was not a place as grand as the open-air alley. It also wasn't as pleasant.

Remus pulled the cloak over his head. His wolf was close to the surface. It was a part of him he never embraced. He was always afraid of what might happen. That one time he had almost bitten Severus when they were young had scared him for years. It always drove him away from people. Lily had always seen more in him. After James and Peter died and they all thought Sirius had betrayed them, he had gone to ground. He had gone deep to ground, not really resurfacing for more than a year.

It had been Lily to find him on that cold night in Moscow. He had been taking work from Dumbledore and a few others, and was narrowing in on a vampire coven that had been running rampant. The Russian Ministry was in a bit of a meltdown at the time after a major breach of the International Statute of Secrecy in Severodevinsk when a major crime syndicate had tried to take it over. The ICW was involved, but they were more concerned with the almost ten thousand muggles that had seen a few sea serpents attacking two muggle submarines just off the coast, and the following fight with wizards trying to take them out.

He still remembered that December night, with the snow falling and a very hard-faced witch with bright red hair. She had been upset he had just run away, to say the least. He had seen Lily upset and dangerous, but it had never been towards him.

After that night, Remus had continued his role as ferret and Dumbledore's detective. He had had to learn how to survive in the worst places with many that would sooner put a knife into your chest than use a traditional cutting hex. It was a side of him he feared and never brought home. Harry was too innocent and looked up to him. Lily must have known what he was like, but she always accepted him. It wasn't forgiveness she gave him. It was absolution. She didn't hold anything against him, accepting it had to be done.

Now, for the first time he could remember, Remus was embracing that side.

It wasn't like he didn't know that Voldemort and his lackeys wanted his family, or that people hadn't tried to kill his family before. This time it was different. His wife. His daughter. His stepson. The other girls he considered daughters. It was his pack. Remus had never been an Alpha, but now he felt the call. He would challenge anyone he needed to get his family back... or seek revenge.

"You sure about this, Moony?" Sirius asked next to him.

"I don't care about the cost. Madam Rose and the others hear everything," Remus told him.

Sirius followed him as he approached the old boarded entrance to the St. Mary Station. It was an abandoned part of the London Underground. It was a muggle place that had been abandoned in the 1930's and quickly claimed by those trying to avoid the calamity of the Great Wizarding War. Now it was the true heart of the wizard underworld in Britain. Respectable wizards, like the Malfoys, would not be found here. The low lives the Malfoys use, they would be found here.

They both raised their wands to see the old brick building sandwiched between much more modern buildings. The boarded doors turned to mist as they passed through. A few burly looking men in coarse woollen cloaks watched them as they went to the stairs and descended below ground. The old station was sandwiched between active Underground lines, so it was shaking or echoing the sound of the squeal of steel wheels on steel rails from time to time.

For a wizard it should be easy to get rid of the sound, but the point of this place was that it should be undetectable by magic, so instead of using magic to hide it, it used magic to make it as unmagical as possible. It was ingenious in its execution. By making it look like any other muggle place when magic tried to detect it, it just looked like it didn't exist. No Fidelius. No wards. It just wasn't here. Unless you knew about it, and finding out about St. Mary's Station was not a secret that most criminals knew. It was really only for the worst of the worst, or those on the run and given the secret.

The station was busy this time of the night. The crime families were either doing their recruiting for the nights activities or making contracts for other deeds. One of the doors led to a bar that was noisy and raucous. Another had two large looking men. Remus could smell they were werewolves, probably with wands. It was the only dealer in stolen goods that others would not touch down here. It was the place to sell anything.

The door they wanted was the last one on this side of the old platform. There was a wide birth around the door and only the truly desperate would dare to enter.

"Remus, this doesn't feel right," Sirius whispered, grabbing his arm.

"If you want to leave, then leave," Remus told his oldest friend.

"What is in there?" Sirius hissed.

Remus could feel his own hackles rise. "Hags," Remus replied.

"This isn't the way to find them," Sirius argued.

"It has been five days. If they are all still alive how much longer do you think that will be?" he growled back, looking hard at Sirius.

After a moment Sirius nodded and let him go. "I am not going to let you sell yourself. You have Calla and Harry that need you, never mind Lily. She will castrate me if I let that happen."

Remus didn't find the humour in that today, especially since Lily might really do that.

"I have something they will want," Remus told them.

Sirius pursed his lips and followed into the dark door. It led to a set of stairs that went deeper under the ground. The bottom of the stairs opened into a dank room that smelled of rotten meat, had a dirt covered floor that he saw bones sticking out of and several other doors. Remus walked out into the centre of the dark, dank, dirty room. "I wish to speak with a sister," Remus called out. "Madam Rose?"

They stood there and waited. Remus could smell them, even over the stench. This was a perversion of the old covens, but it was a coven that still practiced the old ways of the Witch Covens.

Sirius shuffled uncomfortably behind him. "Remus, no one is coming, we should go," Sirius whispered.

"You call us and then want to leave without a word," a harsh voice called from a doorway next to the stairs.

"My companion may go, but I come to parley," Remus answered back.

There was laughing from a few directions. "A wolf comes to parley with one of its masters? Where is your pack," came from a different door.

"I run with no other wolves," Remus confidently replied.

There was cackling this time. "You cannot lie to us, slujitor al zeilor. We can tell you are Beta of a pack. A powerful pack. Where is your Alpha? We would like to meet your mate."

He growled, feeling the pull of the call to the hags. It was very dangerous for him to be here. Because of their marriage bond, he could endanger Lily too. "I am not here to expose my mate. I ask for a boon from the old pacts. We once were your protectors and in turn you owe a wolf for services rendered," Remus called to them.

There was a hissing sound. A werewolf did not talk back to its Masters. "You dare claim a reward when it was you that betrayed us! You and your kind still owe us a thousand upon a thousand generations for your betrayal."

"A wolf would look at it differently. If you don't want what I can offer, we will leave," Remus snapped back. He needed them as much as they needed him.

There was another round of hissing before a voice cut over all of them. "Enough! The wolf has come to parley. You know the rules of the Chief Goddess. If he plays us, he is ours."

Remus reached into his pocket and removed a bag. "Fur of a true wolf, and silver of three of your sisters."

There was a ringing silence.

"What is the boon?" the voice asked after a few moments.

"I need to know where my family is, and for you to never search us out when this deal is done," Remus told them.

There was a wave of muttering. It was indistinct words that made his skin crawl. Sirius moved another step closer to him.

"Do we need to run?" Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head.

It was a while before the main voice came out of a different doorway this time. "The coven has agreed and will swear on the Chief Mother. From this day forward you will be eliberat de serviciu."

Five women came out. They all looked the most disgusting woman he had seen. Rotting teeth and gums, long or gnarled noses, sallow looking skin... Remus could tell none of them had had a proper meal in a long time. That was a good sign knowing how they liked human flesh, particularly young or virgin maidens. "Sisters, the bones," the one in the middle of the five called out. A myriad of finger and hand bones were thrown onto the disgusting floor. The magic of the coven crawled over his skin as they worked to find his family.

-oOo-

Night of the new moon...

The Stone Circle

Tears leaked out of Luna's eyes. Harry was hurting. Calla was just huddled into her. Astoria and Lily were barely able to get up with how much power the sappers had drained from them. Both felt close to magical exhaustion. She was trying to focus through the visions in her head.

She felt it getting close. It was a few hours away from the new moon rising. It was usually a sign of birth and prosperity. Tonight, it was going to be used for death. The clean life that usually came with the birth of light would be forever tainted with the rebirth of an evil so foul it would rule for a thousand years.

She had heard the Prophecy she had made last night, in the dark, feeling alone and trying to comfort her sisters. It had knocked her out for a while. When she woke, Calla had been curled up into her side and Astoria was panting on the floor.

Luna had thought all might be lost, until she had been able to work a screw loose from another shackle in the wall. Now, as Calla slept on her, she tried to scratch away at some of the runes on the shackles holding Astoria. They didn't feel as warm as they did a few days ago.

When the lock on the door to the cells loudly slid over, she quickly put the screw in her pocket. With the door opening, she blinked, finding herself momentarily overwhelmed with the probabilities of tonight. Most were dark and showed death. Lots of death. The Shadow would cover most things. She tried to focus. There were paths to get through the night, but all those she loved went black, no matter what she saw.

A few people walked in. "Take one manacle off. They should be drained enough now," a man ordered.

"Can I play with them?" Bellatrix asked, eyeing Astoria and her. She moved to put an arm over Astoria.

"You know our orders. Get them into those robes," the man ordered. "Give the little brat to her mother."

The cell opened and Calla moved, whimpering into her. Two men entered the cell, smiles on their faces. "Time to get changed, girlies," one said with a lecherous grin.

"You hurt them, and I will kill you myself, Winters," the other man warned.

The man didn't look happy. "Fine. Change yourselves," the man groused, throwing two white cloaks down. "Strip to nothing under them. If you don't, I get to help you."

Luna swallowed. The other man moved to Astoria. "Don't hurt her," Luna cried out as a man grabbed for Calla, taking her arm roughly and dragging the girl to the next cell. Calla started to cry out. "Don't hurt her!" Luna cried out again, getting up to help her sister. A wand was pointed in her face, and she stopped.

"Give me a reason," the man said with a smile that scared her. The other man moved to Astoria, grabbed her left arm and a second later the manacle on her wrist fell off. Her wrist was bloody, scabbed and raw looking. He threw some bandages down.

"Bandage that and get changed. We will be back in twenty minutes. If you aren't, we will change you," the man said, clearly hoping he would have to follow up on that threat.

Astoria groaned as they walked out, the cell door clanging shut. Lily was forcing herself to sit up, one of the manacles removed, and her arms wrapping around Calla. There were no white robes in her cell. Luna looked at the robes. Her heart sank as she realized what was going to happen.

"What is going on?" Astoria asked, sounding very weak. Luna had given her and Calla as much bread and water as she could. Her own stomach pangs were starting to recede. All the food she had got she had tried to give to Astoria and Calla, only taking enough for what she knew she needed to survive.

"Astoria, you need to sit up. We need to change," Luna told her.

Astoria tried and only managed with Luna's help. "Change?"

Luna nodded, trying to remove Astoria's clothes. "Luna, what is going on?"

"We have one chance to escape, but we have to play along. Get this over your head," she gently pulled Astoria's shirt over her head and then undid her bra.

"Luna, what are you doing?" Lily asked, sounding weak and tired.

"We need to take off everything and put these on," Luna told them, not wanting to say what might happen if they didn't.

Calla was hugging Lily tight.

Lily just watched them. Luna could see Lily knew what might be going on. She hugged Calla tight, tears threatening at the edges of her eyes. Luna tried to keep her own in as she forced Astoria's clothes over her wrist.

"Luna, if you get any chance to run. Run. Take anyone you can. Get that thing off Astoria," Lily told her. Luna just nodded.

"What is going on?" Astoria was starting to look a little more awake as she slipped the robe over her head before Luna started to take off her own clothes.

Luna tried to keep a tear in. It was taking a lot out of her to stay in the present. "Voldemort wants his consorts and a new body," Luna told her.

Astoria, already pale, paled more. "Harry?"

"He is still alive. Help him when he needs it."

Astoria just nodded.

They didn't get to say anything else as the doors opened again. She grabbed Astoria's hand, who still seemed woozy. "Time to go, little slags," Bellatrix said in a sing song voice, her face not looking at all pleased.

"Leave them alone," Lily demanded.

Bellatrix snarled. "Shut it, mudblood. It is only my master keeping me from gutting you and using your own intestines to kill that abomination you have."

Lily hugged Calla closer.

Astoria, looking a little more aware, stood up. Luna felt some of her magic returning. Having only a single dampener was not working as well. "You touch her and I will come after you," Astoria stated. There was no hesitation and the magic around them seemed to recognize her words.

Bellatrix's lip curled up in the first sign of real amusement. "Oh, I will get time to play with you, once my Lord gets through with you. Now, move," the woman snapped.

They walked out of the cell, Lily watching them with worry and concern. Calla was still cradled against her. "Don't give in. Tell Harry I love him if you get away," Lily said.

Bellatrix laughed. "Oh, your son is perfectly fine. For now," she cackled.

Astoria took her hand and they walked before the insane woman. It was a warren of old passages made out out of roughhewn stone and rough archways evenly spaced. They passed two intersections and many doors, before they were indicated to go through a door at the end of the hall. The whole time, Bellatrix kept up a string of insults and threats.

"Once the Dark Lord has claimed you, I will make you bleed. Pity I still need to keep you in shape enough to bare his spawn. That should have been my reward," the woman spat.

"Oh, you will not look as pleasing when I am done. My Lord has promised I can show you the way to respect him. When you kneel, you'll be begging for him and then you'll beg for me to release you when he is finally done."

Luna squeezed Astoria's hand as tight as she could. The visions were starting to assault her. Visions of a red-eyed Harry. Visions of a red-eye Voldemort. Visions of what could happen if they were given to Bellatrix. A tear escaped her cheek. What might happen to her Aster was more than she could bear - but she walked, the hand of Astoria steadying her.

"Just you wait, my sweets. We will become very good friends." The tone of her voice sent a chill through her. "Now, you are going to go in, let us chain you up like the brood mares you are. If you don't, I promise my Lord will not be pleased. He would prefer you to be unmarred, but that is not a requirement of this ritual."

Astoria grabbed her hand as tight as she could. Her dark haired girl moved to put herself between Bellatrix and Luna. "If you hurt Luna or Harry, I swear you will suffer," Astoria threatened Bellatrix.

The woman rose her wand, acting as though she was fighting something. After a moment, the look of absolute rage on her face lessened. "You are my Lord's. Once I get to play with you, you will be just barely able to do anything anymore."

"Astoria, don't fight. Not yet," Luna said softly.

Astoria didn't take her eyes away from Bellatrix. Luna felt Astoria's magic push on the suppressor cuff. Bellatrix wasn't understanding what trouble she might really be in. Luna really didn't feel bad for the woman, but worried for Astoria. Her Aster didn't need to do anything she would regret.

When the door opened, they turned and Luna gasped. She went to run, but found herself come up short as a full body bind hit her. Luna looked at the prone figure in the centre of a large circle as she fell.

It was enough time to see Harry spread out in the centre of the circle. His arms and legs were spread wide. He had no clothing on him or glasses except two power sapping cuffs on his wrists and ankles. Where it had taken two to control Astoria and Lily, it was four they had to use on Harry.

His skin was traced in runes and symbols that looked to be blood. Whose she was not certain.

At his head stood a bone white figure in black robes who was chanting in a language that made her skin crawl.

Luna fell face-first, her nose hitting the ground hard. Astoria fell besides her. The pleased voice of Bellatrix came to her ear. "Don't worry my dears. Soon you will have your boy. Or, should I say, soon he will have you." The woman started to cackle.

-oOo-

Ritual Circle...

Groggy, sleepy, weak as a newborn lamb... none of those described the way Harry was feeling as his eyes opened. He was on his back, his body shivering as it lay on the cold stone. The sky above him was dark with stars everywhere.

Harry was so tired, he couldn't even moan as he heard some strange chanting. Three or four voices... maybe three?

A strange sensation was running through his body. His skin was pricking in strange patterns. There was a bone deep pain that radiated through his entire body. His muscles felt like they were stretching to a point of almost tearing.

As he concentrated, he realized he was panting as the chanting grew louder.

It didn't register that the collars on his ankles had been removed, and that was probably the only reason he was even awake...

-oOo-

Ritual Circle...

Astoria was scared. Over all the tiredness... all the pain in her body from her magic being so drained... all the concern she had for whatever was going on... above all she was scared.

Her head was the only part she could really move. The rest of her was bound to the table, her arms out, her legs spread and a restraint around her midsection. The table had a wide V cut into it and her crotch was right at the point. It had felt so unclean to have the man with the red eyes painting things on her body with what looked like blood. Runes and symbols on the inside of her calves, on her stomach, on her breasts. Voldemort chanted as he painted the symbols, looking totally disinterested in her body and only touching her as much as he needed.

She felt dirty.

She wanted to scream, but couldn't.

As the men chanted, she felt her skin prickling and her stomach roiling.

Looking to her left, she could see Luna in the same state. The girl's eyes were rolling up in her head and she looked to be in a state that she was going to make a prophecy. Astoria's heart was pained to see her like that.

To her right was Pansy Parkinson. The girl's eyes and face spoke of the terror she was feeling. Astoria had no love for the girl, but this was more than anyone should have to go through.

They were equally spaced around a series of circles. The men in black robes and silver masks were equally spaced between them.

Above all, her eyes kept being pulled to the centre of the circle. You-Know-Who was chanting and doing some weird dance through parts of the rune array as he circled Harry. He was as nude as the rest of them and had his own runes and symbols painted on his body.

Harry was just lying there. His ankle braces had been removed and for a few minutes now his eyes had been open and he was staring up into the night.

In her panic, there was enough of her aware of what was going on to feel her magic was slowly filling in. The sapping cuff couldn't pull off her magic fast enough. For some reason You-Know-Who needed them to have some magic.

In the chanting, she suddenly heard Luna's voice mix in. She couldn't hear what Luna was saying, but Voldemort skipped a beat in his chanting, looking towards Luna. Astoria felt the sudden shift in the magic around them. It was subtle, but there was a small drop in the static charge she felt. She also knew the silencing charm had been broken as a groan escaped her mouth.

Something told her it was now if she was to fight.

Pulling on the magic she could, Astoria willed her magic. "Interrumpere malos magicis," she demanded in a voice that sounded weaker than it should. Her magic responded to her want though. She wanted a way to stop or make an interruption.

What happened she was not prepared for.

Her magic rent through the stone table, cracking below her. It ripped through the section of the outer circle she was in. She felt the stone crack and shift below her, giving out a scream of pain as her arm was pulled as a section of table fell off. The binding snapped, but she was sure her arm had too before it had.

As the magic overpowered and destroyed the table, the outer circles all lit, bright white and almost blinding. She heard Pansy scream in terror and then the screams of the men as lightening sprung up from the edges of the circles they stood in. The lightening arced over their bodies.

Their screams were ones of pain.

"NO!" A voice bellowed over the screams and zapping of the lightening. She rolled, to lift her arm and whimpered at the pain and the way it refused to move.

"YOU UTTER FOOL!" she turned to see Voldemort, the most feared wizard she could ever think of, stalking towards her, his wand in his hand and a murderous look on his face. Over the din, she couldn't hear what he said as a light leapt from his wand. It made it a few feet before the spell veered and crashed into the floor, causing more runes and an inner circle to glow and pop before a section blew up in stone bits.

The man screamed as though in pain, and a section of runes on his chest burst into flames.

The outer circle suddenly made a loud crack, and the room was filled with a blinding light for a second.

When she was able to blink her eyes open, Pansy was crying. There was a retching stench filling the air. Smoke rose from the lumps on the floor where the men in robes had been standing. You-Know-Who was sprawled on the ground as though he had been tossed on his back. She cried at the pain in her arm, looking towards Luna, whose eyes were still rolling in her head.

The half dozen circles, runes and hieroglyphs were still pulsing with energy. Small white arcs of electricity crackled sporadically along the surface.

"Custodi intra foveam extra circulum," a soft voice called out. She felt the magic. The magic that was still in the circle jumped up to the new command. A white dome formed on the circle just inside of where Luna and herself were. Turning her head, a swaying Harry was standing in the centre. He pulsed with power, but at the same time he looked horrible, as though he was sick or gravely hurt. The power sappers on his wrists were glowing white.

Something sounded like it blew up outside the circular room they were in. The stone table she was on shook and groaned, as though it wanted to split. She knew she had to get off it.

Voldemort groaned as he rolled over. "I see my mistake now. I was going to let you all accept me of your own free will. The ritual would take better that way. Now you will all pay before I get what I want."

Harry blinked, turning towards the bone white man that was getting up with his arms below him. Voldemort reached for his wand.

"Over my dead body," Harry said, his voice sounding stronger.

Voldemort pushed himself to his feet. "I only need your soul to die, not your body. Avada Kedavra!"

-oOo-

interrumpere malos magicis= interrupt the bad magic

slujitor al zeilor = servant of the god (Romanian)

eliberat de serviciu = Freed of the service (Romanian)

Custodi intra foveam extra circulum = Protect those outside the circle and trap those within

A/N: The talk and relations between werewolf and hags are things I stole from my own story Night of the Wolf. There is too much to explain here, but the short of it is that the hags were part of what made werewolves. It was originally a mutually beneficial relationship between the werewolves, Witch Covens and Druids. Now, werewolves can be controlled by a hag coven, making it very dangerous for what Remus did.