Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.
A/N: Yay for reviews!
This is a Remus chapter… with some Severus on the side… and it's one of my favourites, so I hope you like it!
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The wolf shuddered, whined once, and then curled up in front of the fire.
Warm, it thought. Good.
His mate was warm also, though she was not here. He remembered her well - he had liked her, had told the human so in the library. Of course, the human had forced him down, like he always did, but the wolf did not forget. The wolf never forgot.
He felt sleepy and docile. The potion the human drank always made him feel like that. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, was a craving for blood, for meat, for human flesh, but it was hidden, safely buried away.
But what the wolf really wanted was some companionship.
He knew his mate could not join him. She had no wolf inside her like the human did, and so could not curl up beside the fire with him this night when the moon shone bright. But he had memories of other companions, his pack… a stag with many-tined antlers, a big black dog, and a rat…
The wolf growled. The rat is no longer pack. No longer brother.
The human hated the rat. The wolf knew this with black certainty. The human had cast the rat out of his heart and stamped on his memory. Bad, the wolf thought. Traitor to the blood covenant.
He shuddered. He had the rat's blood in him, just like he had the dog's and the stag's. It had been a covenant, the sacred blood covenant, the promise that made them, an assorted motley crew of animals, pack.
But the rat had broken that covenant, had broken the blood bond, even though the rat had in him the blood of the wolf and the dog and the stag.
He went against his own nature, some deeper, rational part of the wolf thought. He is an unnatural being now.
But the human part of him wondered if the rat still flinched at the sight of silver, still shivered at the full moon. All four of them did, once the blood covenant had been taken. The blood of the wolf made them share his weaknesses as well as his strengths, even to a tiny degree.
I cannot call back my blood, the wolf thought, even if the rat is no longer pack.
He whined. He had not run with his pack as he once had for more than fifteen years.
The evil took the stag, he thought. The rat helped them kill him.
He whined again. He missed the stag, missed him terribly. Missed how the stag would lift him on his antlers and throw him, in play - though it was sometimes in earnest, to stop him from hurting humans. Prongs, the human whispered inside him.
But Prongs was gone. His packmate was gone forever.
The wolf rested his head on his front paws. Even now, it was hard for him to accept that the stag was not coming back, that they would never run and gambol and frolic together as they had so many years ago. It is because of the rat, he growled within himself. The rat broke the bonds of pack and now packmates are dead.
The dog, too. The evil that the rat followed had pushed the dog through into another place, and now that packmate was gone also.
Padfoot, the human whispered, but he is not dead.
The wolf whined again, but this time there was hope. The human believed that the dog would come back.
There are still two left in the pack, he thought, even if we run apart on this night. Blood bonds will hold strong.
He thought, once more, of the rat, who had broken the blood bond. Who had refused all he was, and who now wore a silver hand. He wondered if it burned. He hoped it did.
My blood is still good for that, he thought vehemently. He willed that it should be so, that the silver would burn the rat because of the wolf's blood still in him.
The pack will have revenge on those who break the bonds of pack.
And the door opened.
*
The wolf yelped and backed away into a corner of the room. Please, the human prayed within him, let it not be Aemilia.
But it was not his mate. It was a man with long dark hair. He looked vaguely familiar to the wolf. Friend? he thought, and padded up to him, sniffing his boot.
"Get out of it," the man growled, and the wolf retreated. Smells wrong, the wolf insisted. The smell of enemy, of danger.
The man's lip curled. "I'm not a fool, Lupin," he snarled. "I wouldn't come within ten feet of a werewolf - even one doped up on Wolfsbane - without aconite."
The human understood this. The wolf did not, and did not really care. Smell of danger, it thought, and retreated to the fire.
The man sat down in one of the chairs near the fire. The wolf shuffled away. The smell of danger was strong on him.
"Do you understand me, Lupin?" the man snapped suddenly.
The wolf just looked at the man, not comprehending.
The man sighed. "Do you understand what I am saying?" he barked. "This is ludicrous, but - one yip for yes, two yips for no, all right? Do you understand me?"
The wolf, at the human's prodding, yipped once.
He smells of danger! the wolf insisted.
He is not the enemy, the human replied.
The man sighed again. "Good."
What is he doing here? the wolf demanded. He is not pack!
No, he is not pack, the human agreed. I do not know what he does here. But he is not the enemy.
"I am in a very interesting position, Lupin," the man said. The wolf noted that he looked exhausted. There were black circles under his eyes and his robes hung limply off his frame. "A very interesting position indeed, and I find myself with no-one to turn to."
Why does he just sit? the wolf snarled. Why does he not play? If he wants to become pack -
He does not want to become pack, the human said forcefully. Be careful with this one. He does not like us, but he loved our sister.
The wolf remembered the sister. She had not had a wolf inside her, but she had been gentle and calming, almost pack. The wolf had never met her, but he knew the human's memories of her, comforting the human after his transformations, wiping his sweaty brow, calming him with hands white like lilies. The sister was good. The sister was like pack.
The man fixed the wolf with a black stare. "Sixteen years I kept myself faithful to your sister, Lupin," he growled. "Sixteen bloody years. And then - the instant I find out that she might be coming back… then I go and knock some other woman up when I barely knew what I was doing."
That is interesting, the human mused. Very interesting indeed.
He wanted our sister as his mate, the wolf observed.
But he has a new mate now, a mate he does not want, the human said.
"My life is a bloody mountain of irony," the man observed. He tipped his head back and drank something, and the wolf's keen nose recognised the tart scent of alcohol. "Not only do I break my vow to myself, but I find out that your sister -" his voice cracked, "- your sister had a child, and I never knew."
The wolf snarled. What?! the human thought.
Our sister had a mate also, and a cub, the wolf remarked. And we did not know.
"There's a child out there somewhere with Regina Lupin stamped all over its DNA," the man said, laughing bitterly. The wolf could tell he was drunk. "And Sirius Black."
The human seemed shocked.
It is not so bad, the wolf commented. Our sister's mate was our packmate.
I did not want to find out like this, the human said.
The man laughed again. "And now, because I was bloody stupid, there'll soon be another child. This time with Severus Snape written all over it. The priestess's child."
Outside the window, the moon was setting.
*
Severus was gone when Remus awoke the next morning. His back was stiff - he had fallen asleep in an odd position by the fire - but he didn't care.
Sirius and Regina had a child, he thought in wonderment, and I never knew. Sirius never told me. But then - maybe he didn't know either.
And Snape… Snape got the priestess pregnant.
Remus could barely stop the grin spreading over his face, much as he knew the situation was not funny. There was a bitter irony in it that was so black that it made him laugh.
But then he something occurred to him, and all thoughts of Snape's impending fatherhood were swept clear from his mind.
There is one person who would know what became of Sirius and Regina's child, he thought. My mother.
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