Previously in the Darklyverse: Peter turned himself in to the Ministry as a Death Eater spy, but they used his information to arrest all the vigilantes in the Order. Alice's investigation into Runcorn's embezzlement of funds from Canada was leaked to the Daily Prophet.

xx

June 6th, 1982: Remus Lupin

"We were trying to help," says Remus for what has to be the hundredth time. "We delivered countless Death Eaters to you on a damn silver platter—"

"And how many of them turned out to be under the Imperius Curse, huh?" snaps Dawlish. His black hair is mussed and his back is hunched; they've been at this for hours, and there's no end in sight. Remus isn't sure how much time has passed, but he's so tired he can barely keep his eyes open, and his stomach is growling urgently, so it has to have been a while. "How many of them were arrested by Marlene McKinnon while she was employed as a Hit Wizard? Improper use of government resources would be another charge against her, by the way, if she were still alive."

"Marlene never arrested anybody on the Ministry's authority unless she was called in to do so, and Alice and Frank and Doc always recused themselves from Auror investigations involving any Death Eaters who had been in contact with members of the Order outside of the Ministry."

"Failing to inform the Ministry of those contacts is obstruction of justice, Lupin, and your Auror friends were breaking the law every time they shared classified information about known or suspected Death Eaters under investigation by the Auror Office with the Order of the Phoenix. Besides, Longbottom didn't recuse himself from the investigation when Dearborn went missing," Dawlish points out. "In fact, he specifically requested to be transferred to that case, didn't he? Withholding information he had about Dearborn fighting Death Eaters outside of an official capacity is obstruction of a lawful investigation. That's not to mention inappropriate bias in official decisions—misuse of power—illegal diplomacy, when Mad-Eye authorized Abbott to go to Canada and investigate the missing funds—"

"That had nothing to do with either of them being in the Order," says Remus, rolling his eyes.

"Multiple unregistered Animagi!" Dawlish continues. "Unregulated use of the Fidelius Charm!"

"Are you even allowed to be listing other people's charges off to me? If you want to talk about inappropriate—"

Dawlish smirks. "Let's get back to your charges, then, shall we? Battery and assault of the persons you delivered to the Ministry—"

"They were Death Eaters! They were torturing and murdering innocent people!"

As if he hadn't heard Remus, he forges on, "Illegal fortification of buildings used as organization headquarters—"

"That law is a holdover from medieval times when Muggles required a license to crenellate, and you know it—"

"Reckless endangerment—"

"Copout," Remus mutters. "You're just tacking that on so that you can add a year to everybody's suggested sentence."

"It isn't funny," says Dawlish, who by now is absolutely beside himself. "You do realize that supporting Evans's campaign for Minister and Crouch's campaign after it without revealing your political affiliations counts as a conspiracy charge, don't you? I don't like going after your lot instead of Death Eaters any better than you do—"

"Oh, really? Then why are you doing it instead of listening to us when we tell you about all of the actual Death Eaters you should be going after? Lucius Malfoy—"

"—Is a revered pillar of the British wizard community, and your attempts to deflect attention away from your own charges—"

"I'm not deflecting anything! I'm telling you, Malfoy has killed people! He put Emmeline Vance under the Imperius Curse and orchestrated—"

"Well, it's a damn shame that Vance isn't here to provide us with her memories of the incident," says Dawlish. "You have no evidence. You can't just go after the interim Minister of Magic without—"

"Wait. Back up," says Remus. His heart is pounding; his skin is hot and tingling. "Malfoy's been named interim Minister of Magic?"

"You didn't really think the Ministry would keep Runcorn in office while he's under investigation, did you?"

That's right—amid the chaos, Remus completely forgot that the Daily Prophet had leaked news of Alice's investigation to the public. "So you got all of this from Peter Pettigrew, did you?"

"Please. We've had plenty of time to round up almost everybody Pettigrew named. Sirius Black seems to have disappeared off to wherever he's been hiding the Potters—" Remus feels a sudden rush in his head "—but in the last day, we've already begun investigating building records in the names of anyone in your organization. We may not be able to get the Potters, but we'll get him."

"Wait—in the last day?"

"Before you ask, no, we're not giving you any nap time—or a lunch break," says Dawlish impatiently.

"What day is it? Is it Sunday night already? Because I—"

"What does it matter? We'll hold you here as long as it takes to—"

"I'm a werewolf, dumbass," snaps Remus. "The full moon is tonight. You have to let me leave here so I can go home and take my last dose of Wolfsbane Potion."

Dawlish's eyes go huge and round. Gone is the easy, arrogant swagger in his step—he shrinks back against the wall and raises his wand in his hand. The ropes binding Remus are chafing his skin raw, but suddenly, he doesn't care—he's got leverage. "You're lying," says Dawlish.

"I'm not. Why do you think I never applied for a Ministry job—why I could only find work when I started looking outside the country? You people would have looked me up and never would have employed me."

A smile creeps back onto Dawlish's face, but it looks forced, like he's anxious underneath it. Remus doesn't blame him—even Remus knows untamed werewolves can be murderous, and he's not the one who grew up with a stigma against them. "You're not using this to run from the law, if that's what you're thinking. We can detain you here overnight, and your questioning can resume in the morning."

"Really, you think? Because my wolf self can break through glass—" he indicates the window, on the other side of which a few Aurors are watching them with wide eyes "—and force through locked doors."

"No, you can't."

"Do you really want to test me and find out?"

He's absolutely bluffing—these doors lock from the outside, and given that he will have missed two doses of Wolfsbane Potion, there's no way Moony will have the presence of mind tonight to try to devise a way to get through. Dawlish doesn't seem keen on proving him wrong, but he's not about to back down, either. "We'll… we'll station someone outside both adjoining rooms to monitor you and, if need be, put you down."

"Put me down? Like—"

"If we need to use force," says Dawlish heavily, "we will use force."

"You can't kill me just because I'm a werewolf. People will find out. My friends will—"

"Your friends will all be tucked away in Azkaban where they can't avenge you," growls Dawlish. "You better sleep while you can. I'll be back in the morning."

And he Disapparates.

Is Remus seriously worried that he's going to break down the door, assault a bunch of Ministry officials, and be put down like an animal? No. Not even Moony has that kind of strength. But he wouldn't put it past Runcorn's administration to claim it happened and use that as an excuse to kill him anyway. If Moody has been arrested, who knows which Auror is leading the Auror Office? How can Remus know exactly how unsympathetic that person is to the vigilantes in the Order—to werewolves?

Remus's situation may be bleak, but he doesn't envy any of the Aurors in the Order right now, least of all Moody. For the millionth time in the past day, he curses fucking Peter Pettigrew and his fucking testimony. Did Peter really grow a conscience—want to pay for his crimes—or did he just decide to stop running from the inevitable and take everybody in the Order down with him? Why would he do this to the only people in the world who know how to take down Voldemort?

Dawlish said that the only Order members Peter knows about whom the Aurors haven't managed to capture are Lily, James, and Sirius—so that must mean that Dumbledore and Snape are somewhere in the Ministry, too. The diary is still out there and intact somewhere, probably in Snape's flat, and as far as Remus knows, the Sword of Gryffindor is with the goblins, who are working on a way to detach the attached piece of Voldemort's soul in order to destroy it. There are only three people outside these walls who know what needs to be done and can do it—soon to be two, once the Aurors think to check property transactions outside of Britain and find Sirius's name on the deed to James and Lily's house. They'll probably deduce that the Potters are there with him, but if the Fidelius Charm is intact—and it should be intact—Dawlish and company could be standing right in their living room and not be able to see any of them.

There are a few people left in the Order who probably haven't been arrested since Peter shouldn't know about their involvement—the Weasleys, the Tonkses, Kingsley Shacklebolt—but none of them know about the Horcruxes. Remus is absolutely kicking himself for not sharing the plan for Voldemort's destruction outside his immediate friend group. They had the right idea, teaching themselves about the Horcruxes and not just leaving it to Dumbledore to destroy them—but they should have taken it further, looped in the entire Order. He can only hope that James or Lily will be able to get in contact with them so that somebody can destroy the last two Horcruxes and go after Voldemort, because if they can't, and they're the only two people left in the world who know what needs to be done—

It'll mean Lily and James will need to reenter the country, and the second they do, all bets are off. Remus doesn't think he can stand it if Lily or James gets killed because of this. He's already reeling from losing Em and Mary, and he never really recovered from Marlene's death, even in the months he's had to process it. What is he going to do if another one of his friends gets murdered? How is Remus supposed to survive if his friends, his soulmates, don't?

He fixates on Lily and James's safety—on Sirius's freedom, however fleeting—because it's better than remembering all the deaths, than wondering whether he's going to survive the night as a werewolf in the Ministry. If they decide they'd rather see him dead than imprisoned—

Thanks to Lily (and formerly Belby), he hasn't had to face a transition without an operational batch of Wolfsbane Potion in a good five years. He'll feel the pain of the initial bones breaking and reshaping themselves, but his surroundings will quickly fade out and leave him with no more memories until the morning—if he even sees tomorrow morning. For all he knows, everything will go black and never come back—the beginning of the pain of transformation will be the last thing he's ever consciously aware of.

He has no idea how long he has before the full moon—how many hours are left on his clock. When Death Eaters were torturing them, did Em and Mary welcome the loss of consciousness, or did they cling to every last tormented breath, not wanting it to be their last? Surrounded by her dead family, did Marlene beg a god she didn't believe in to let her survive and carry their memory, or did she lose her precious last few moments in her haste to defend herself?

Maybe it would be easier if Remus could black out now—that way, he wouldn't have to keep worrying. But he's glad he's still got time left. If he only has hours, minutes, seconds left, he doesn't want them to run out. Not yet.

xx

A/N: Shoutout to Acts of Tekla and other OTW volunteers for help with various aspects of Books 4 and 5, but particularly with coming up with the list of offenses in this chapter.