Storm Child

Author: Hex

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: As Standard

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to the resent 'decisions' made by FF.Net admin, this will be my last post on this site as I am boycotting. Please visit my site ( www.angelfire.com/anime3/hex ) for updates from now on.

Notes: Now actual plot, joy! (Why is it i only ever want to write when there is something ELSE I am meant to be doing?)

Warnings: Alcoholism, Slash (RL/SB) Resurrection, Angst, slightly evil Remus (he won't be a DE, promise!)

Dedication: Hermione (followed by a number but I can't remember which right now) and Nirva, my two sole reviewers.

********

Remus stood up so fast he knocked his chair to the floor with a bang that made them both jump. He was shaking from head to foot, staring at Sirius with the eyes of a hunted man.

"H-how? How can he be back!?"

Sirius looked away, his hands clenching and unclenching in his lap. "It was Peter. That little bastard performed some stupid ritual and...The net result is he's back and as powerful as ever."

Remus sank into another chair, still shaking like a leaf in a storm. "It can't be true..."

"Harry saw it with his own eyes, Remus."

"He was there!?"

Sirius nodded. "I told you, it was that damned Tournament. He won it by the way."

"I can't believe it...I don't want too believe it..."

"Dumbledore sent me here...He seemed to think it was better you heard about this from a friend."

"What...What action are the Ministry going to take?"

Sirius snorted. "None, of course. The official line is that Dumbledore is off his rocker, that he just wants to scare people. No one wants it to be true, Remus, so they're going to hide from it."

"They can't hide from him." Remus said, looking out of the window at the clear sky above, his voice shaking as much as his body. "No one can. He destroys everything in his path. No one was ever powerful enough to stop him...We were stupid to hope...Back then...And we'd be stupid to hope now."

"What are you saying?"

When Remus turned back his eyes were wide, the whites showing all the way around. He looked maddened. "Why bother fighting, Sirius? It will only lead to more p-pain. More suffering. We could end it if we joined him!"

Now it was Sirius's turn to leap up so fast his chair fell over. His face was white with total shock as he stared at Remus. "What the hell are you saying!? Join him?! He killed more people than I can count! People we knew! He killed Lilly and James!"

"I know!" Remus all but screamed, gripping the edge of the table and staring up at the man looming above him with insanity glowing in his eyes. "Even they were no match for him, Sirius! What hope to we have!?"

The punch came so hard and so suddenly that it caught Remus totally off guard and sent him tumbling to the floor, nose bleeding and possibly broken.

"You would betray them? Our friends memory? All those that have helped you? You would betray Harry?"

Remus was not to be cowed, however. "Don't you bring him into this...You know how much pain it causes me to think of him...So like James...He's just a boy, what chance does he have? We could give him happiness!"

"By helping the man who wants nothing more than to kill him?"

"By ending his suffering!"

It took a moment for the full meaning of this statement to sink in. Stunned, Sirius backed up until his back hit the kitchen counter. He stared at his friend whose face was soaked in blood as he stared at him with insane joy. "You mean...Kill him?"

"He'd be with his family! He'd be happy. I only want him to be happy." Remus slumped back to the floor, clutching his knees to his chest and rocking slightly. "This world only holds pain. There has to be something better...They have to be somewhere better..."

He jumped when Sirius knelt beside him and put an arm across his shoulders. "Remus...I know Lilly and James are happy, wherever they are. But I also know they would want you to protect Harry, not send him to them so soon."

They sat like that in silence for what felt like hours, Remus crying softly as Sirius tried with all his might to comfort his forlorn friend.

What has happened to you Remus? When did you become like this? You have been alone in this house for too long, to be having such thoughts.

Do you miss James and Lilly that much? Did you miss me when I was gone from you? Oh that I caused you such pain, my friend...

Darkness descended upon the house on the moor but still they did not move from their place on the cold kitchen floor.

Devastation. That was Voldemort's calling card. He had yet to make a move against the Wizarding world and yet his mere existence was enough to reduce a grown man to this. The mere mention of his name was enough to send thousands into spasms of despair.

I will kill you, Voldemort. Before you have chance to take hold once again, I will kill you. To protect Harry. To protect Remus. To protect their memory. You will die.

*****

It is a strange fact of the universe that stories, however complex and drawn out they may be, all hold one fundamental thing in common. They are all tales of struggle.

In stories of old, Knights fought evil dragons to free the beautiful maiden. In tales even older, powerful wizards were brought to their downfall by one mans quest to free his people and rescue the Princess.

Behind every good story, there is a girl.

There was a girl behind this story as well. But this story, this girl, were different.

The hero fought, as all Hero's do, night and day to keep her safe until all his strength was gone and he could fight no more. As his power failed, the story began to change. The girl shook of her chains and took up his sword and turned to face their evil.

And she was well matched to it, for in her heart beat...Something. There was no name for it. Some called it, Valour, others, Love, Passion and Honour. But these qualities do not make a true Hero. Only one thing makes a Hero.

*****

There was a storm tonight. It raged outside the window like the anger of the gods, thrown to earth. Rain attacked the ground, washing it clean as lightening lit the scene like the strike of a villains match.

From inside the safety of his home, a boy watched.

This boy was a boy unlike any other. This boy had seen and done things no other boy had ever done before. This boy had the makings of a true Hero.

And yet fate had resigned him to the simple category of 'sidekick'.

Ronald Weasley was, indeed, a boy like no other. There was no other boy whose best friend was faced, every day, with choices which could determine the fate of millions. It was a fact which lay heavily on the youngest Weasley son every day.

Would today be the day? The last day of his best friends life?

For the past five weeks, Ron had worried over the state of his friend. It was not that he worried for his safety, Harry often assured him in his letters that he was fine. It was the state of the boys mind which worried Ron. He knew Harry had taken Voldemort's rise very hard, however much he tried to hide it.

To make things worse, Dumbledore flatly refused to allow Harry to spend the remainder of the summer at The Burrow.

Ron could tell he was not the only one worried about Harry Potter. Mrs Weasley seemed to be forever sending him parcels of goodness-knew what and Mr Weasley was also sending him letters with the family owl, Errol. Even the twins, Fred and George, seemed strangely subdued.

Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley sons, had left the Burrow shortly before the end of term and then returned a week or two later, having quit their jobs. Now they, like Mr Weasley, seemed to be making frequent visits to Hogwarts.

However the thing which worried Ron the most was not the state of his family, it was the fact that, whenever he entered the room, everyone stopped talking and would look at him guiltily. His mother compounded this feeling of being out of the loop by subjecting him to spontaneous hugs all the time.

The storm was quieten now and Ron moved away from the window and clambered back into his bed, pulling the bright orange blankets up over his head to block out the distant thunder.

What was it everyone but him seemed to know?

*****

Oh aren't they nasty to poor ikkle Ronnie-kins? **Snigger**

'When oh when is the Resurrection gonna happen' I hear you cry. (Or is that just the voices in my head?) Never fear, the next part (available on my website ( www.angelfire.com/anime3/hex ) as soon as EO updates!) brings out the main plot.

Yay!

R&R Greatly appreciated!

Laters

Hex