I don't own Harry Potter, nope, nope, nope . . . how many more times must I rub it in?
***
Two nights after the full moon, Remus was already settling back into the usual pattern. He had James report him in sick so he could miss the day after (he didn't want to show up to work bruised, bloody, and immensely tired), but he returned promptly two days later. Lucius Malfoy's proposals still lay in a file on his desk, and he still had no further desire to pass them. He was starting to peruse through a bill banning overly personal questions in employment interviews- the types that always ended up discriminating against werewolves and vampires- and it was taking up much more of his interest.
He had just settled back in his most comfortable chair, prepared to read the evening Daily Prophet, when there was a knock at his door. Expected another visit from Sirus or perhaps James, he didn't bother to pick up his wand from the stand beside the chair.
He would have done well to remember it. As soon as he opened the door, he was pushed backwards by two black-cloaked figures. One intruder kicked the door shut while the other backed Remus at wandpoint to the wall. Remus didn't need to ask what was going on.
"Remus Lupin, you were given a proposal by a certain pureblooded society a few weeks ago, were you not? You have not passed it. The Dark Lord knows. He is waiting. Waiting makes him displeased," said the Death Eater furthest from him. The visit was clearly a backup to the proposal-- terrorism and intimidation.
Remus peered through the slits in the masks of the unwelcome visitors. He could see through the closest mask a pair of familiar eyes with dark vamp-like lids.
"Bellatrix Black?" Remus choked out.
"Actually, it's Lestrange now." With a swift motion, she pulled off her hood and mask, revealing her sharp, attractive face and dark curls. Her lips were pressed together tightly and her eyes carried a glow Remus had not noticed when she wore her hood.
"Bellatrix . . . " the other intruder admonished, keeping his hood on fast.
Remus recognized the voice; Lucius Malfoy was other Death Eater. Half out of fear, half out of pleasure, Remus forced a laugh.
"What is so funny?" the still-hooded Lucius demanded to know.
"Excuse me, Mr. Malfoy, but it's quite clear to me who both of you are . . . and if you both do not leave immediate I'm afraid I will have to turn you in to Mr. Crouch."
Lucius pulled off his hood, revealing tousled blond hair and a rather red face, but Bellatrix only laughed. "Dear Remus, you clearly do not know how to play this game, do you?"
"What game? You and your 'Dark Lord' are actually quite stupid to think I would ever pass those ridiculous proposals. In fact, with that document on my desk, I could send about half of you to Azkaban. Mr. Crouch is very keen to catch the lot of you, and that paper gives him both proof on old names and new names to look into. I wouldn't test me."
Bellatrix smirked. "So you think you have power over us? Clever, dear boy, but not clever enough. You could send half of us to Azkaban you say . . . I suggest you try it. Successful as you may be with that half, you forget that there are Death Eaters among you you never would have suspected. They will come find you, Lupin. They will rally about your door, follow you to your work, your home . . . You have no one to protect you."
"If you try one of those curses on me . . . if you got the other Death Eaters to come after me . . . the Ministry squad will pick up on it in a second. Amelia Bones only lives two doors down, and the Minister himself lives within a mile. Some of my best friends are Aurors."
"Ahh . . . James Potter, of course." Bellatrix's mouth twisted into an ugly smile. "Such a clever, handsome, young man. And his wife- with child, I believe? It would be a pity for tragedy to strike a family that young. Surely you couldn't be so cruel as to ask that of him? You have no one to protect you besides Potter, Lupin. Who else do you expect to come to come to your aid? Pettigrew?" she laughed.
Remus's stomach sank. Peter was useless with a wand. "You're forgetting Sirius," he said, slightly renewed by the idea.
"Sirius? My own dear cousin?" Bellatrix breathed in sharply and laughed. "Surely you can't expect my own blood to defy me to save you!"
"He hasn't been in your family for five years. He hates the lot of them, including you."
Bellatrix sniggered lightly. "Oh, you would be surprised at the ties that bind family. Particularly the Black family. Sirius and I have had our days of closeness." Bellatrix couldn't help smiling at her own cleverness; she had thought this out ahead of time. Her plot was brilliant. "Why, in fact, it was he who told me your little secret. A secret, I might add, that will be made known the entire Ministry if you do not comply with my wishes. Because, Lupin, in case you do not know . . . the general population does not want their laws made by a werewolf."
Remus gasped. Bellatrix laughed loudly.
"Oh, I'm sorry . . . have you lost now all trust you ever held in your friends?" she spoke in a soft mock-baby voice. "I'm terribly sorry, but it's high time you were disillusioned: The world is a dark, cruel place. You can trust no one, Lupin."
She turned away, pulling her hood up as she went. "But you can trust, Lupin, that we will know if you have not passed those laws. And you will watch as your life falls to ashes around you."
Remus remained against the wall as if he would faint were it not supporting him. He was breathing very heavily. Had Sirius really told her his secret? Had he really betrayed him?
How else could Bellatrix have known? She would have had to have been told by one of his friends. Who else but her cousin, who could easily have slipped it. She sounded so pleased by it that Remus wondered if he had done it willingly. "There are Death Eaters among you you never would have suspected," she had said.
By the following week, all of the proposals in question had been passed.