Anything for You
Epilogue
redwood
Disclaimer: It's J. K. R.'s.
Author's Note: For those of you who thought the last part was a lot to swallow, … read slowly, this one's a whopper. Right, so… we find out why Allya left (I'm sure you're all just dying to know… part of the problem, dying is…). No, Ally's not having twins just yet… all will be revealed. The end of this one leads right into 'I Don't Know You Anymore.' And it's really, really far fetched, so…
Author's Note II: Part of the end was written while listening to "I Hope You Die" from the Bob and Tom show, which I downloaded from Napster. It's extremely funny, so sorry if the end isn't serious enough for you.
Author's Note III: I decided, since you guys didn't give me an overwhelming response one way or another, to post this and chapter 23 of 'When and If' at the same time. Hope nobody minds.
P.S.: Yes, I know I'm starting off with the most overused song in fan fiction history. Bear with me, or scroll through it…
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong
And carry on
'Cause I know I don't belong
Tears in heaven
Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you understand
If I saw you in heaven?
I find my way
Through night and day
'Cause I know I just can't stay
Tears in heaven…
Beyond the door
There's peace I'm sure
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in heaven…
- Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton (once again, feel free to correct me on the lyrics)
The last concealment charm was finished- as far as the wizarding world was concerned, Allya Jade Nightrunner did not exist. There had, what seemed like a lifetime ago, been a rather good Auror by that name (two, actually- although the Ministry denied it vehemently. In fact, even as far as the Muggles were concerned, there was no Allya Jade Nightrunner. But she still existed.
The Nightrunner part of the name had been dropped. The Nightrunners were dead- 'twas no more use to be called by that name, and the name that Allya shared- genetically speaking- with her twin sister was as of yet unknown to them (they were adopted). So Ally set to work on it immediately after the last concealment charm.
As much as Ally hated to admit it, the crystal orb was not offering any insight on anything as of yet… suddenly, the fog cleared, and in the moonlight- it was a quarter-moon, not full- something was visible.
It was the dream again- only in clearer detail. The hospital, the day that Aylla and Allya had been born. Allya's gaze drifted from her childhood body, to her sister's, to her mother's… there on the table was a letter, probably from the father. Allya extended a celestial hand to pick it up.
Dear Red, it began. Allya frowned, then looked at her mother again. The bracelet around her wrist said, 'Clarysse Wood.' Clarysse? Unusual spelling, Allya thought. Didn't I meet someone called Claryssa at Hogwarts? The werewolf-ghost or something? She shrugged it off; obviously her mother was not a Hogwarts-aged ghost if she'd died after childbirth… Just to be sure, she looked once more at the woman on the bed… at her auburn hair and perfect complexion… Well, it was obvious where the nickname 'Red' came from, anyway…
I hope this letter finds you in good health. We both know that my own is failing… something terrible is happening, or will be happening soon enough, and I've got to help stop it. Be strong, my friend, for you know it's what Jonathan would have wanted for his little girls.
Jonathan, Allya thought dimly. Jonathan must have been my father's name…
One of them, I'm afraid, is destined to be dark. Do not fret, however; sisters are good for balancing things out. Especially twins.
Allya snickered. You're telling me… who is this lunatic, anyway?
I'm seeking out the one called Tom Riddle. Recently out of Hogwarts, I think, and I'm sure he's into something… unwholesome. Diviner's professional opinion? The boy needs help, Clarysse… and if I can't provide it I'll die trying.
Wonderful, Allya thought. Whoever she was, she died fighting our good friend Voldemort…
Keep careful watch over your daughters for me. You will know when the time comes… the legacy of the twins will live on… through one of them, at least.
Allya almost laughed out loud. Aylla's gonna have twins… ha ha. I have to make sure I see her when she's swelled up like a balloon… her train of thought darkened. They just better not be Lupin's.
Yours (figuratively speaking, of course)
Allya Jade,
United Ministry of Magic
Auror department
P.S. Don't you forget about that promise, either!
"Well, that explains a lot," Allya grumbled, unaware that she was speaking out loud in her vision. "It explains 'Redwood', the girl who was probably my aunt at school, even though she told me she'd only been dead for ten years…" She muttered something about lying Slytherins, "Then again, maybe she only remembered being dead for ten years… after all, its not as if she could ask someone what year it was, and it has to be pretty hard to keep track of." The dreamland dissolved, leaving Allya in the middle of her sitting room, holding the crystal the way she had been holding the letter. "Bugger. How'd I get in here?"
"Evil twins," Allya muttered, walking back into the kitchen to have Tiny get her something to eat. "Sounds like some B-movie cliché gone horribly awry." (A/n: And how right she is!- oh, and I'll say she learned the term 'B-movie' from Muggle Studies.) Still, the phrase, 'The legacy of the twins will live on' kept repeating itself in her head. It was possible- even likely- but she knew that she was not carrying twins. She also knew that the curse her sister had put on her had affected the one that she was.
The wolf cub was born the next full moon, a male with blue eyes and white-and-gray fur. Allya was unsure how this particular feat took place- the human child, logically, should have been born at the same time as its brother if they were carried during the same term. It made less than no sense. It was preposterous- and yet it was true. There being no one to answer the questions, the cub was accepted as a member of Ally's small family (herself, Tiny the house-elf, and the unborn child). Allya named him Lupus, and he proved to be a good companion and an obedient 'pet'… still, she couldn't help but wonder. (A/n: I know that whole paragraph is extremely unlikely to happen… but think about it: it makes sense! Just because the parents are werewolves, the human child won't be one; it could work both ways…)
Remus' son (not the wolf's son) was born the month after that.
Two days after her release from the hospital, Lupus awoke Allya at the crack of dawn by jumping on the bed. "Lupus!" she grouched, pulling her pillow over her ears. "Lupus, get off the bed, you early-rising lunatic… people- okay, a person, now- is trying to sleep…"
Lupus barked at her.
"All right, all right, I'm up," she grumbled. Lupus gave her a wolfish version of 'the look.' "So that's what you want," Allya said finally. "Let's get going, then…"
She snatched up the flowers from the garden that Tiny had cut and placed in a vase on the kitchen table, then walked dejectedly out the back door, Lupus following at a respectable distance.
The grave plots out behind the reflecting pools and gardens were mostly ignored, as it was a painful place for a person to visit. Tiny himself was forbidden to tend there, magically or otherwise, yet the grass was always short and the deep red (so red they were nearly black) rosebushes never failed to bloom. Many of the graves were completely covered with the creeping bushes, the only words being visible as Catalina Nightrunner and B. Morris Nightrunner, or other names of the Nightrunner family. The final plot was more recent, and neither the grass nor the roses had had time to grow thickly across it. Allya and Lupus reached the graveyard at exactly the moment the sun peeked above the horizon.
Here lies Jonathan Lupin, it said in a magical script. May he rest in the peace of heaven forever.
Tears fell for the first time from Allya's eyes, clouding her vision as she knelt near her son's body. "I can't even tell your father," she said quietly, speaking to him as if he were there, as if he could hear her and understand. "He'd be heartbroken… I can't break his heart again. Not anymore. Remus can't know." Lupus came up beside her, crawling into her lap and only barely fitting. He was quite large, in fact, for only a month and a half old. She stroked his fur. "I know," she said quietly. "Someday, Lupus… someday."
For whatever it was worth to Ally (And it probably isn't much, Lupin thought bitterly), Remus was also having a rotten day. Two of the Dark Wizards he'd brought in with Moody, the senior Auror he was apprenticing, had gotten off scot-free by listing the names of others involved in the Dark Lord's inner circle. James and Sirius were working double-time to get all of those wizards in for a hearing, and Lily was frustrated because James was gone so often and left her home alone with Harry. Mioré was with Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody, but on sympathy leave- Voldemort had gotten into her parents' house the previous week, and her mother was dead.
In short, everyone at the office was very much on edge. James and Lily kept talking about going into hiding; pulling themselves and their loved ones into a secure pocket of space and performing the Fidelius charm on someone to keep the secret. They decided, however, to wait until Harry was a little older or until Voldemort grew stronger still. The boy had to have fresh air and interaction with other children for part of his childhood, after all.
It was all rather frustrating, Remus had to admit, but it was nothing compared to the frustration he was feeling in the area of his existence he liked to think of as his 'love life.' (Quote, unquote, Remus thought to himself amusedly.) Now, Remus didn't have his eye on any new girl and hadn't since Allya left, and that was part of the problem with his 'love life'- he didn't have one, and it was mostly by choice. Not that most of London didn't already know he was a werewolf from that gossipy woman that worked behind the counter at the drugstore in Diagon Alley. And who would fall in love with a werewolf, anyway, besides another werewolf?
"She'll come back, you know," Moody had said thoughtfully over his coffee one morning in the staff room. "I knew her, too. And no woman like her is ever going to leave you for something that's not your fault. She just needs time."
Time, Remus thought ironically. The one thing in the universe we'll never have enough of together, and she's Maab-knows-where. He groaned and supposed that he would never really understand women… although he'd come quite close with Allya. He still had dreams about her; she'd visit him in the middle of the night and tell him about where she'd gone to, why she'd left. She'd take up the entire night's dream… and each time he woke, he expected to find her there. As she always had been for him. Each time he awoke, his heart broke anew.
He had interrogated her sister as often as could be arranged, though he hated making the trips to Azkaban. The Dementors were gone- they'd been summarily dismissed after Allya caught the one that had been about to administer the Kiss upon Remus- but their effect remained, in some eerily psychopathic scent that adhered to the very walls and floors of the prison. Aylla didn't know where Allya was. Remus was not surprised- if he were Allya, he wouldn't want Aylla knowing where he was, either.
Lupin did suppose, however, that it was high time he moved on. It was five o'clock, and time for him to head in- it was actually a Sunday, and he was working overtime. He pulled a small black book from his bottom drawer- one he'd rescued from the college files he'd almost thrown out a while back. As a matter of fact, had he actually succeeded in getting Allya to marry him he'd have had no reason to keep it, but as things were…
He paused. Would anyone else be an insult to her memory?
Sighing, he tossed the black book into the magical paper shredder, pulled his cloak around his shoulders, and left the Auror wing of the Ministry building, unable to shake off the chill.
Winter passed by so slowly one would have thought that sand had gotten stuck between the gears of the Grandfather-clock of time. At least, that's the way it felt for Allya.
Often times, reminiscent of her Hogwarts days, she would slip outside in wolven form with Lupus, who was most certainly not a domesticated animal once he was out of the house. He taught her to hunt- he already knew by instinct. She taught him to fight- the two of them against the many wolves in the forests surrounding the Nightrunner mansion. Of course, they got beaten several times, but that didn't take away from the sheer enjoyment of the situation. And Tiny was always there to patch them up afterward, provided they tell the tale of how they'd gotten each injury.
The house-elf seemed to find the canine pair amusing- bounding through the snow and leaping over logs and knocking over potted plants- wreaking havoc on the distant neighbors seemed to be their favorite pastime. Of course, all of the neighbors were wizards, too, and it was no skin off their noses to use magic to repair what had been broken.
On a cool morning in the early spring, Allya awoke to the sounds of rain pattering on the roof. It started slowly- but gradually built up to a crescendo.
During breakfast, a knife clattered to the floor. Company's coming, Allya thought to herself. A man- a man? Nobody's coming to visit me… getting senile in my old age. Still, she was getting out of practice… I'll do a tarot reading, she resolved somewhat unhappily. Probably just another one of those Muggles wanting advice on a magical gift for one of their Muggle-born children…
Just then, Lupus padded in from his room on the main floor- he didn't much care for stairs, although he'd climb them if Ally was on the other side. Lupus was a very devoted lapdog wolf. Except he was way too big to sit on a person's lap by now. Almost fully grown, he weighed in at sixty-five kilograms, which was heavier than Ally, much too heavy to sit on a person's lap. Ally expected him to gain only fourteen more kilograms before adulthood.
Allya sighed. Lupus was really getting too big to be treated like a baby- he'd grown up so much faster than she'd ever anticipated. "Lupus, could you play outside for the day? I'm expecting company, and I'm not sure if I'm to be helping more of the familiars… they might be intimidated if they find out I have a pet wolf."
Canis Lupus barked in agreement, and went outside through the vastly enlarged 'doggy door'.
Ally summoned her tarot deck from the corner of the room, shuffled, and pulled the top card.
Jack of Staves. Well, it figured. Only two people Ally knew registered as the Jack of Staves. She shuffled again, removed two of the suits, and decided on one suit for one person, the other suit for the other.
Deuce of Staves.
"Oh, stang it, I hate when I do this to myself." Allya sighed. "I suppose I'll get what's coming to me."
REMUS: THE END! Or, should I say, the beginning?
ALLYA: THE END! And good riddance!
SIRIUS: THE END! And it took her long enough!
MIORÉ: THE END! Until "I Don't Know You Anymore."
AYLLA: THE END! Because I'm finally in Azkaban where I belong!
JAMES: THE END! Unless RedWood's plotting something else!
LILY: THE END! And she better not be planning something else!
LUPUS: THE END! And I was barely even mentioned!
HARRY: THE END! And I didn't even have a single line for once! Thank goodness!
TINY: THE END FOR ME! Unless there's going to be "Tiny" chronicles… or I'm in I Don't Know You Anymore.
FWINKOVITCH: THE END! And thanks for not re-describing the office scene… that was really embarrassing.
JONATHAN: THE END! Why'd I have to die?
CATALINA: THE END! Ally better straighten herself out!
B. MORRIS: THE END! You're right, Catty, she better!
CLARYSSE: THE END! I knew Allya was right… one of my twins did turn out to be evil!
CLARYSSA: THE END! The Alpha pair will be together forever! ('When and If', if you don't recognize her.)
PETER'S GHOST: THE END! But the end of me was a while ago!
THE DEMENTOR ALLYA KILLED: THE END! The end of me was a while ago, too!
*R*e*d*W*o*o*d* - THE END! HOORAY! NOW I CAN LIVE AGAIN!!!!!
CAST: *phew!* Glad that's over!
*R*e*d*W*o*o*d* - It's not over till the fat lady sings and Aunt Marge won't be singing any time soon. And the Fat Lady guarding the Gryffindor tower promised never to sing… it'll never be over… never… plus, after this comes 'I Don't Know You Anymore' and it makes so much more sense after reading this…
CAST: Drat.
So, this series is over… what did you think? I notice that quite a few of you have me on AuthorAlert, many more than are reviewing my stories (how many shall remain undisclosed, as I don't want to get my FF.N account terminated), so if I could please ask for one thing… review if you like me (or hate me) enough to have me on AuthorAlert. Thank you!
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