Disclaimer:
[Chinese Fan] My fic sails from my brain
Though it's not owned by me
They are J.K's treasures I've loaned them you see
I use them for my plan
Just imagine my bliss
T' get t' write weird disclaimers like this, like this, like this, like this....
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PLEASE NOTE: the mean nasty fanfiction isn't letting me use my backslashes for some reason so the dementor language quotes only open with "/ and don't end with another slash. I'll work around it next time, but I'm tired tonight, so leave me alone about it.
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Chapter 7: Explanations and Excuses
Harry's life had fallen out from underneath him. His best friend was dead. Not even
dead... worse than dead. His soul had been sucked from his body. All Harry was left with
was the empty husk of what had once been his irreplaceable companion. He looked up at
Romulus with eyes filled with horror. This was the man who had embraced the
dementors, who had a connection, who did not feel their cruel touch...
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Romulus looked around at the circle of his companions which had distanced
themselves. In the naturally evil sounding dialect that Harry could not understand,
Romulus spoke to the mass of black cloaks:
"/All right... Which one of you has it? " He could feel the presence of each
figure and the pure unenergy of the void of their souls. They were beings of curse matter
and also consumers of it and its opposite; the same as Romulus.
Turning to one of his fellows, Romulus saw it immediately. The vivaciousness
where there should be none. A freshly swallowed soul still traveling through the dark
while not yet digested.
"/Yes you, come here." Romulus ordered in a scolding voice. The figure stood forward among the crowd, hooded head slightly hung. "/I told you, I don't know how
many times before I left you all. These souls are NOT for eating. There will plenty other
souls for you later, not to mention death curses..."
A ripple of excitement flitted through the crowd at the promise of the delicious
green lightning.
"/Now give it back." Romulus said sternly.
"/Forgive me, Romulus." Rasped the dementor. "/I lost power over my hunger for
a moment. I've been guarding the outside grounds of Azkaban and haven't fed much."
Romulus nodded his compassionate understanding. He extended a hand and drew a
phantom's breath as the dementor exhaled.
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What Harry saw before him, he couldn't quite understand. All he absorbed was the
shock of two death clawing voices talking briefly and then Romulus extended his hand.
With the shiver of two dementors' rattling breath, light slowly began to flow out of the
dementor to condense and rest meekly in Romulus' outstretched palm.
Crouching down by Ron in his comatose state, Romulus held his palm before the
blank boy. Twisting in its fluid way, the light of Ron's soul twirled back within him. As
the spark of spirit snapped back into Ron's eyes, the boy gasped. Looking at his DADA
teacher in a sort of baffled outrage, he edge quickly backwards away from him.
"What are you doing? You let dementors on the grounds? They nearly killed Ron!
How come you don't feel them like we do?" Apparently, the Gryffindor do gooder had
found his voice. The dementors were slowly edging away, making for their temporary
home in the forbidden forest.
"/I will send the master to speak with you soon." Romulus called to his friends.
Temporarily ignoring his newly revived friend Harry jumped to his feet in the
sickeningly bold style of Godric's descendants. Puke.
"Are you listening to me?" He shouted as Romulus rolled his eyes. "We know your
fresh from Azkaban and we know you and Snape are doing something for Voldemort!
What are you going to say to Dumbledore? He'll be down here any minute you know!
He's aware of everything that goes on in this school!"
Romulus was fed up with this righteous indignation. His eyes darkened as they
turned on Harry.
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Draco, who had managed to find his feet as the dementors had left the field, was
rewarded with a sight one didn't see every day.
Harry was panting slightly from his outburst. He faced Romulus Lupin stubbornly,
even when the man's eyes sharpened on him harder than it seemed possible.
Romulus gave a long, rattling intake of breath, as though trying to calm himself before he
knocked Harry senseless. When the darkness clamped tightly around Harry and he was
drowning in his mother's screams, he realized too late what had happened.
Draco was filled for a moment once again with that feeling of unrestrained
depression, that permanent misery. Only for a moment. His world stood firmly beneath
him, while all the Gryffindor Sixth-years lay unconscious on the ground.
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Severus Snape sat in Romulus' office, listening to the other man explain the events
that had taken place. He couldn't help but smirk at the thought that Ron Weasley had
nearly been killed.
Oh well, better luck next time.
"So, once the children are out of the hospital wing, how WERE you planning to
explain all this to the headmaster?" He asked Romulus.
Romulus, Draco and the true Dark Lord all watched Severus for a moment, until the
sallow skinned man rolled his eyes. Even among curse coated conspirators, there was
sometimes no subtlety.
"FINE. But if I'm to tell the Headmaster, who will be going to speak to Voldemort?
He sent a letter to me yesterday. Something about why more than half his dementors just
walked off without notice?"
"I can't go." Romulus said. "If I leave, more than half of "Voldemort's" dementors
have no reason not to come waltzing out of the forest and take over the school. Before
schedule, I might add. They are my friends, but they don't have the self- control that a
quarter-bloodlike me has."
"I could go." Draco said, facing the rest of the Two, with a clear certainty. "I may
be young, but as a Malfoy I will be taken seriously."
Severus shook his head firmly.
"No, it can't be you; we need you to keep tabs on Potter. We can't have him or you
leaving the school before we've wrapped up our curse. Not to mention we could use
some stronger efforts on your part to keep his nose out of our plans." Draco nodded. It
may put the situation at a stale-mate, but what the potions' Master had said was correct,
he couldn't leave Hogwarts.
"We have to contact Voldemort somehow, before we have another attempted
murder. MacNair was feet away from Draco's dormitory."
"I have a way to solve this problem with Voldemort, Potter and Remus Lupin all in
one go." The Dark Lord's voice was not over confident. His smooth and shrewd voice
stated pure fact.
"How?" Said Snape, as the previous sort of statement really demands such a
question.
"With your daughter." Was the swift reponse.
Severus slid from the edge of Romulus' desk where he'd been sitting and had to scramble
to keep from tumbling to floor. Standing and straightening his robes, Severus' pale
complexion had departed, leaving the teacher's face utterly colourless.
"You've gone mad in there!" Snape spluttered to the true Dark Lord. "My daughter
is a squib, she's a half-blooded... well... she's criminally insane!"
The Dark Lord nodded in satisfaction.
"And she's already hiding amongst the students, isn't she?" Severus protest fell dead.
"You're right," he said humbly, "she'll be perfect for the job."
Romulus laughed.
"Quarter-blood this... half-blood that... says who that Slytherins are purists?"
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Severus sat in the Great Hall two days later, a migraine flaming at his temples. Hisjob of talking with Dumbledore, however, was through.
Quite surprisingly, the old man had bought the excuse that the dementors were on
the "light" side and that they had merely been a little over zealous from their long
journey.
The forces of good were far to trusting these days.
The forces of evil, however, would take a few more days to persuade. Voldemort
was going to make sure he had strong bonds of loyalty had Hogwarts. It was not going to
take a five minute discussion like it had with Albus. Voldemort was not that stupid.
Well, in the Two's eyes he was pretty damn close.
What was really nagging at Snape wasn't the fact that Romulus had gone of into the
forest to converse with his fellow curse creatures. Romulus would manage his overeager
friends. He was far more concerned about his daughter.
Rachelle had been at one point incarcerated for being insane and homicidal. Severus
had seen to it that she was delivered from the Asylum, knowing that she wasn't truly as
bad as they thought she was.
She was worse.
Being a squib had certainly not impeded her potential in slightest bit. She was certainly a
quite capable sixteen year old. Very resource full and quite a find as an assistant for the
Two's plot. She understood the cause her father fought for and was eager to help.
Severus hoped she didn't kill anyone.
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Trying hard to forget the events of two nights ago, Harry, Ron and Hermioneenjoyed the party that was in full swing in the Great Hall. It was celebration that was a
cloud over many people's minds. It was the 35th anniversary of something, but anyone
Harry asked wasn't quite sure what exactly.
'Oh, too bad, happy 35th whatever.' Harry thought to himself, determined to have fun.
When a Gryffindor is determined to have fun, they tended to miss certain important details. Such as; a Professor at the head table rubbing his temples in pain he would never
usually show.
Another thing they may miss is the ever attentively listening (and, it seemed
repetitively fortunate) blonde Slytherin who was behind him as he whispered to Ron.
"I've had enough of all this guessing, tonight, I say we break into Professor
Lupin's- uh- Romulus Lupin's office we need to uncover the truth."
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Once he was finished explaining to his fellow dementors that excuses were beingmade to Voldemort and that they should wait for his word before making their presence
known, Romulus Lupin made his way back towards the castle.
As he walked over frozen turf, he walked over what he mistook for a shadow, and t
ripped. Looking back o inspect the place, his widened with shock.
The poor Hufflepuff Fourth-year was not dead, not yet. She had been attacked by
some sort of sharp object, the were bloody cuts all over her. As Romulus dutifully helped
the startled girl back up to the school, she kept mumbling something about being lucky
that she had the flu.
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Seeing in the light of the school's front hall torches how bad the student had beenbloodied up, Romulus mumbled to himself:
"/Criminally insane, eh?"
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Et puis, c'est tout! I know this chapter was a little bit comme si comme ca, but I've been otherwise engaged in other things. I also am aware that I took forever to write this but since no one reads this anyway it's really more like rambling to myself anyway. R&R! Oh yeah : You're the best Outay! Next Chap: A Full Moon and a Jar Filled with Lollipopsps: I'm sorry if the spacing is funked up this time, from my laptop I can't really tell. [Screen is screwed]