Someone was following her. She was almost certain as she dragged herself through whatever dingy alley she had wandered into. It wasn't safe at this time of night in any city, let alone London at this godforsaken hour. It wasn't muggle criminals she was worried about anyway, although right now a stiff breeze could blow her over. Her fears were confirmed when she took off in a run down the passage, two more sets of footsteps thundering after her.
Her breathing came in jagged gasps as she turned down this way and that, tripping and crashing as she went. The footsteps persisted. She was too terrified to look back. At some point, her curly hair had been freed from her top knot and it stuck to the snot and sweat on her face, blocking her vision. Not that she could see where she was going anyway; the only light in the darkness was the telling glow of a lit wand behind her. They were close. Ironically, she mused how easy she was making it for her hunters, she was as vulnerable as a wounded deer. The frigid English weather didn't help. Neither did the heroin.
Vomit was rising into her throat as she tried to race away and her eyes streamed. She couldn't do this for much longer. Words were being called out to her from behind but in her state she couldn't make them out and if anything they made her propel forward faster. There was a bend coming up and she prayed it would lead to a busy street, somewhere with people where she could scream and shout for help. It was doubtful anyone would help her, she would be dismissed and brushed to the side like every other smack head in London. She made the bend, her bare shoulder scraping against the brick. Blood trickled slowly down but she felt nothing but the sinking feeling in her stomach as she realised her mistake. What lay before her summed up her whole life since the war. There was nothing but a black brick wall and she was going to crash into it.
Her only option was to fight. She slowed, swallowing the nausea that was close to overwhelming her and drew her wand, her shaking fingers barely strong enough to keep a grip. She turned in time to see her followers enter the mouth of the alley, slowing as they achieved in trapping her. They flanked either side, leaving her no room for escape.
"I won't go back", she shouted at the two men, her wand raised towards them as if she was coherent enough to string together a hex. "You can't make me".
"The Order needs you, Valerie", a calming voice called out to her, like a father trying to reason with a hysterical child. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be".
"No. No, I won't go back to the dark", she screamed back, tears falling in torrents. A sharp jet of uncontrollable magic shot towards the men, the accidental wandless kind she had only used as a young child in self-defence. It knocked one man back onto the cobbled floor but the other expertly deflected. She knew they would send him.
"Its different this time. We can help you", he called back as he closed in, never raising his voice.
"Please", she croaked out in reply, her back hitting the cold wall. Her wand clattered to the ground. She couldn't fight anymore, she thought she might die at that instant. She wanted to as she slid down the wall, slipping into the dirty rain water. She had dreaded this day from the moment she had left but she always knew it would come; the decision to turn her back was always going to be begrudgingly temporary. She had seen too much, she would emknow/em too much to be left alone, to be forgotten. She cried out.
"There is too much at stake", he murmured apologetically to her, as the other man stooped to pick up her discarded wand. She looked up to the sky as the first drops of rain hit her face. There was nothing left. "I'm sorry, cousin".
She could feel herself leaving her body as fatigue took over. Her eyes had already shut when she heard him. Her own flesh and blood.
"Stupify!".
/||||\\\\/
"The extraction went well, I presume".
"As well as could be expected", was the resigned reply. The man sat at a creaking kitchen table, in front of three others, his hunched shoulders the only tell tale sign of the intense sadness he felt.
"Well. Have some respect would you, Snape? He wasn't just popping out for a midnight stroll", an irritated voice shot out, her pink hair turning a light shade of red.
"While Lupin's feelings of betrayal are truly commendable, it can not distract from the the fact that she is essential to the Order's survival and apparently a woeful liability if left unchecked", a man with greasy hair sneered from under his hooked nose. He had no patience for the werewolf's useless moping in regard to what was needed to be done. There was no time to be emotional.
The young woman narrowed her eyes at him, her hair morphing into a furious crimson at the potion master's lack of tact and complete disregard for what Remus might be feeling. One look at his ashen face was enough to tell that the 'extraction' had been awful and that the man warranted some sympathy. The scathing retort she had mentally prepared was cut short by the soothing words of the man sat central at the table.
"Enough, Severus", a bejewelled hand was held up in Snape's direction, silencing any further words. "Remus has made a crucial sacrifice tonight, at great personal cost. To which the Order will be continually grateful".
Remus Lupin had not moved his eyes from the worn wood in front of him. He was scared to look into the eyes of the Hogwart's headmaster lest he saw what would be reflected in them. He would see a man with the same scars across the same worn face, the same brown hair that had more grey flecked in it by the day. But more than anything he would see a man that had betrayed his own kin, his last living relative, to a cause that had already broken her once. He had delivered her straight back to the devil. And that he could not bare. Only when he was alone would he allow himself to cry.
"Remus", Dumbledore addressed him, so softly as if it were only them in the room. "I am sure that what happened tonight will never leave you, as nothing from war ever truly does. But understand that Valerie is instrumental to our cause, uncountable lives may be saved. Including her own".
"She is safer here with us, Remus", Nymphadora agreed, smothering the urge to touch his hand.
Remus could only manage a nod in response.
"Her power is too great for her to be alone, Remus. Her protection is of equal importance as Harry's. Severus will do what he can for her", Dumbledore concluded before directing Snape and himself out the door.
For a while, the remaining two sat in silence, staring into thin air.
"How is she?", Nymphadora asked, daring to place a hand on his arm.
Remus's breath hitched, his green eyes glazed with tears, "You wouldn't even recognise her".