Very Important Author's Note: Now, don't kill me… but this is pathetically short. I mean, pathetic… only about 5 pages long. There are two reasons why I'm posting it like this- (1.) At the rate I'm going, I won't finish until 2004. (2.) I'm struggling with writers' block. If I post it like it is now, I'm hoping that a new chapter will help break the block and let the story finish up. This fic is taking me twice as long as any other story I've done, both plot-wise and with such a different schedule than high school. Because it's taking so long, I've not only got writers' block but I also have what writers dread- boredom with the story. I feel so horrible that I have no enthusiasm to write this… perhaps because it's such a serious story and there is so much riding on it as far as canon, it takes a lot out of you. Please bear with me, all of you are so incredibly wonderful as far as patience goes that if I could I'd tackle you in a superbowl hug, I would. Anyway, the good news is, is that I have been bitten by the Timothy bug again and am working on planning out the 3rd Timothy novel! I'm not gonna start writing it until I finish this fic, though and I'm not gonna let myself rush through this just to get to that point. Anyway, enjoy what's here, and hopefully I'll get a complete chapter posted up sooner than this … thing.
Chapter 14
Shadows in Silence
The time after Lily and James got married would be the hardest to remember. Everything changed over the course of two years at such a fast pace that, years later, Remus never knew how he had made it through. The following summer after that joyous spring marked the beginning of the end.
Remus' work with the Order switched over to working his secret role full time. Dumbledore assigned Sirius to be partnered with Peter, much to his objection. James and Lily were still honeymooning in Paris, and Dumbledore made sure that the rest of Remus' friends were too preoccupied to suspect his absence. Meanwhile, life at the Den became noticeably tense. Alpha shouted orders at everyone without a second thought, his temper easily set-off with a look of murder in his eyes. Remus took to watching him silently from a corner, either helping one of the others with the various activities they suddenly had to undertake or one of his own. After consulting with Dumbledore about what was to come, Remus finally accepted what was going to happen. Beta gave him every detail she knew about Alpha that would help Remus overcome him at the right moment. He tried hard to swallow his nerves, for facing a larger and more experienced opponent made his very marrow tremble.
There was one full moon before the scheduled brawl the following month. Beta was elusive again, as well as Alpha. It tore Remus up to know what Alpha was doing to her, but she made Remus promise not to interfere. They couldn't let Alpha suspect anything until the final moment. Churo took to drilling the others on what they had to do in Alpha's frequent absence. If they succeeded in winning over D-Two, then that pack would have a choice. Either join theirs or be driven apart. Remus learned that this was rule, done for thousands of years as long as werewolves were outlawed from society. The members of the Pack were drilled on how to keep this logic in their minds while in their wild, transformed states. Churo also met Remus in secret, to teach him the same skills for what he would have to do.
"You're ten times smarter than he is," Churo commented one balmy evening. "You'll need that when you counter him. He's larger than you are, stronger too, but only in body. Your spirit, young Rogue, is stronger than his and that will persevere over anything!"
Dumbledore, on his last private meeting before that fated full moon, agreed with Churo.
"I trust your judgement, Remus. Churo is indeed a wise man. If you believe in yourself, believe in our cause, you can not only take on Alpha but the entire community of werewolves. If anyone can bring them to our side, it's you."
Remus spent many sleepless nights staring up at his ceiling thinking about what was to come. His small cottage remained dark and lonely, so he would go up to his secret room and hug his knees to his chest, remembering simpler times when more trivial things seemed like the biggest problems in the world.
The night before the full moon that June, Remus managed to slip up to his secret room once more, curling up in a corner and staring out the rosette window. He hadn't seen a glimpse of Beta for a week, although he wasn't sure if it was because he himself was busy with the others preparing or that she was away in some secret corner of the Den with Alpha. A chill ran down his spine when he remembered the last speech Alpha made vehemently to the Pack, a week before over the last meal they all had together.
"We will no doubt loose some of us in this brawl," he had growled, looking at everyone in turn with a crazed look in his eyes. How quickly he had changed in a few months. "It will be important to replace those lost. More importantly, it's about time this pack got larger. Not only will we win over that bloody pack, but those members will have to join us or die."
"But, that's against the rules!" exclaimed Thistle.
"The law says they either join us or get driven apart!" Ice had shouted.
"We're not barbarians, Alpha," Churo said with forced calm.
"Do you defy me?!" Alpha had shouted at the group, making everyone jump. "Those who defy me shall die as well on the battleground. A pack follows its Alpha male or else! I am the one who holds your pathetic lives in the palm of my hand. Go against me and you loose your place in the Pack with your life."
Everyone's face then took on grim acceptance. Beta had been staring hard at her plate, not saying a word.
"If you all are quite finished questioning my orders, this is also to be made quite clear. All females of the Pack are no longer under abstinence law."
Every person in that room had sat up frozen at that moment. Remus remembered that clearly, looking quickly at Beta with his heart hammering wildly in his chest. As he sat in his secret room, recalling that image, his heart cried at what Alpha was doing to her at that moment as Remus sat there.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Puck had then said slowly, a sick grin starting to spread on his face. Remus wanted nothing more than to hex him.
"Epson," Churo's calm had nearly lost it control at that point. "Abstinence law is not something you have authority to lift. It must be approved by the whole of the Network."
"This brawl is between us and that accursed pack," Alpha had said with deadly control. "The future of my Pack is my sole concern. I will have only our blood running through the veins of my members!"
Remus ran his hands through his hair as he forced that memory away. He focused on the shape of the rosette window, and not on the thought of Beta's face as she looked at Remus when Alpha declared all females bear children by that time the following year.
I will protect her. I will protect all of them. It's not only Voldemort I'm fighting now, it's Alpha as well.
Sunlight started to trickle through the glass, catching Remus' sleepless eyes and making him squint. The day of the full moon had arrived.
"Remus! Remus, you in there? Remus!"
Remus woke with a start. He sat up quickly, realizing he had fallen asleep shortly after dawn out of sheer exhaustion. Judging by the brightness of the light now beaming through the rosette window, it must have been mid-morning. Again there was loud pounding at his front door.
"Remus!"
His mind was so fuzzy that for some reason he thought it was Beta shouting his name. Heart pounding wildly, he stumbled down the small stairway and nearly fell into his bedroom, pelting out to the front door. But it wasn't Beta's slight and tall frame looming in the front window, it was Aaron Berenson.
Aaron had never stepped foot inside Remus' home, much less ever come there or expressed interest to. He opened the door, mouth falling open when he saw that the left sleeve of Aaron's wizarding robe was wet… and dripping blood.
"Where have you been?" Aaron gasped severely, slightly out of breath. "We've been trying to contact you!"
"What's going on?" Remus asked, quickly grabbing the closest robe he could find off the rack by the door and putting it on.
"There's been an ambush," Aaron said grimly. His fine black hair was wet with sweat and Remus noticed he was favoring his left leg as well. "The… Dumbledore said… you need to…"
"Where? Let's go." Remus quickly turned the young man around, ignoring his sharp intake of breath as he was forced to run on his injured leg. Remus led him to a safe area to disapparate and kept his hold as Aaron directed them there with a loud pop of displaced air.
Where they appeared, Remus couldn't tell. A torrent of shouts and cries of curses assaulted his ears and all he could see were people running in ten different directions at once.
"Sirius, James, and Lily are over there!" Aaron shouted over the din. He pointed Remus to an area twenty yards ahead of them, clouded with kicked up dirt and darting figures cloaked in black. Aaron then disappeared before Remus could ask him anything more, and he was forced to stumble through the confusion with his wand ready. Twice he had to hex what he now recognized as Death Eaters, sending them flying onto their backsides. He then bound their limbs together and disarmed them, not bothering to raise a flare to signal two captures. Finally, his friends came into view, and his heart nearly stopped.
Sirius and James were firing curse after curse as a mass of Death Eaters charged them. It was very unnatural for Voldemort's men to be so bold like they were acting. Both Sirius and James were caked with dirt and sweat; Remus still had no idea just exactly where they all were. Lily was crouched on the ground, hovering over a body, her wand shaking in her right hand.
"Sirius! James!" Remus shouted, taking down two more Death Eaters. Just as his friends looked up, he was knocked violently to the ground, his mouth instantly filling up with dirt and making him choke. Before he could gather himself up and get into a defensive posture, another curse hit him full on. Fire suddenly exploded inside his body, from his toes to his hair. He screamed, trying to roll the flames out. Yet he knew, as white-hot pain seared his eyes sightless, that this fire was nothing any amount of rolling on the ground could quench.
"Remus!" he heard his name bellowed from some distance far away. Agony held his body immobile, pain beyond pain, and he couldn't do anything but scream. Then, a wave of relief washed over him, putting out the internal fires.
"Remus?" It sounded like Lily but he couldn't tell. The screams, small explosions, and the fact that his hearing was fuzzy as an effect from the curse made it hard for him to make anything out. He felt himself being dragged across the ground and then gently laid back down. His eyesight was slowly returning and he gradually began to make out shapes standing above him. Remus groaned.
"I think he'll be OK," he heard Lily say.
"What about him?" That was Sirius' voice, although he spoke in a different direction.
"If we don't get him to a hospital, he won't make it," Lily replied.
"I thought… you said I'll… be OK," Remus managed to say, coughing up dirt.
"Shh, stay quiet," Lily cooed, smoothing out his hair. The gesture surely made him blush, he was certain. "I wasn't talking about you."
"We won't survive long enough to disapparate anywhere. Besides, I'm not sure Gates could handle it," James half-yelled over the noise.
Gates? Remus thought wearily. Charles Gates? He's Darwin Edwards' partner… the tall, silent man. He's hurt?
Remus struggled to turn over, despite Lily trying to push him back. He managed to clear his eyes enough to make out the features of the body lying next to him. Sure enough, the long blonde hair became recognizable despite the dirt and blood matted into it.
"Where's Darwin?" Remus croaked, allowing Lily to roll him off his side.
"He went to get help," Lily said. Her face was its usual fierce calm, however she was shaking from head to foot.
"We have to consider the possibility that… well, he may not make it back in time. We need to make a decision 'cause this scum won't let up and we can't hold out much longer!" Sirius shouted.
"Let me up," Remus said, forcing himself to sit upright despite Lily's efforts to hold him down. "I can help."
"You just got hit with an extremely powerful curse!" Lily shouted sternly, holding Remus back. "You're in no shape to do anything!"
"I'm fine!" he shouted back, making Sirius and James turn to look back at him. "Worry about Charles! He needs more help than I do!"
Disbelief flashed in Lily's eyes and her face screwed up in consternation. When Remus struggled to his feet, she caught his hand to steady him. He pulled out his wand and looked down at her, giving her a reassuring smile that she couldn't quite exchange. Then, he carefully stepped between Sirius and James, blocking a curse just in time before it managed to slip through their barrier.
