Hunting The Traitor

by FairyTale

Would Harry's life have been better if he hadn't lived with the Dursleys? Seven year old Harry Potter's world collapses within the blink of an eye, and now it's up to Remus to hunt down the traitor responsible for it.

15. A Question Of Trust

A couple of people asked about the meaning of the title of chapter 14. I just hope that my sources are right, because my Italian knowledge is nearly non-existent.

"Cui ci sono dei mostri" is Italian (duh!) and roughly translated means "Here, there be monsters". In the middle ages those words were used by seafarers to mark the "white spots" on maps, meaning the places that had not been explored yet.

I've been told by a reviewer that it should be "Qui ci sono...", contrary to what the book from which I took this says. My Italian is not good enough to tell which one is true, maybe writing it with 'c' instead of 'q' is older Italian. *shrugs and stops her linguistic excursion*

I just thought that this title fitted every part of the last chapter in a sense, that's why I used it.

For those of you who have seen the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean", when Barbossa tells Jack during their fighting towards the end "You're off the edge of the map, mate. Here, there be monsters.", that's a direct reference to this.

I hope this clears up the questions – sometimes it pays out to study history. *g*

Okay, here is the revised version of this chapter. I didn't change anything before or during the flashback, so those of you who want to know what the changes are should look beyond that.

Enjoy!

A Question Of Trust

Harry had indeed fallen into a slight slumber after the man had left him alone, but the sound of approaching footsteps immediately tore him out of his restless sleep. His aching left arm still clutched tightly against his body Harry drew his knees up against his chest and looked at the door, by now not even hoping that it was anybody else than that man who had hurt him before leaving him here alone.

The door was unlocked loudly and even though he had expected it Harry flinched away as the towering form of the man – the only person Harry had seen since he had been taken from home - appeared in front of him.

This time there was no lengthy talking or the demand to write a letter, the man merely stepped beside Harry, roughly seized him around his middle and picked him up. Harry cried out loudly as the man's grip hurt the already bruised skin on his chest and stomach that stemmed from being dragged around earlier, and his hurting arm was also painfully jarred around. Tears shot into his eyes and he could not help the few suppressed sobs that came tumbling out of his mouth beyond his ability to hold them back.

They walked down the corridor which again was only illuminated by a couple of torches on the clammy walls. Beyond, it was too dark for Harry to see anything. He could not have oriented himself anyway even if he had wanted to, and he slowly understood that even if he could break free from the man's grasp it would be impossible for him to find his way out and get back home.

So he just limply hang over the stranger's shoulder and allowed himself to be taken away again, only hoping that whatever would come next would not mean he'd get hurt again.

After what seemed like a small eternity they stopped in front of a double-winged door that was illuminated by two torches on either side, and with his free hand the man grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.

Harry could not see what was in the room they entered until they had stepped into the middle of the large chamber and the man had deposited him quite unceremoniously on the ground.

Harry looked up and found himself facing a large circle of men, men who all wore dark robes with their hoods drawn over their heads and white emotionless masks covering their faces.

Harry swallowed hard in between his erratic breathing, sure his heart would leap out of his throat any moment, so fast was it beating in his chest.

Those were the men from his dreams, the bad men who had hurt the people in his dreams.

And now they had come to get him.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"Remus? Remus, can you hear me?"

Through the thick haze, Remus heard somebody call out those words from a distance, but it took him some moments until he even realized that the voice was calling out to him.

"Remus? Come on child, wake up."

Though it hurt, Remus took up the effort and turned his head towards the source of the sound. He didn't particularly want to open his eyes just yet, but the voice calling out to him was growing more and more insistent and he knew that he didn't have that much choice in the matter. Slowly, he opened one eye and immediately shut it close again as the brightness in the room assaulted him.

From out of nowhere, a cool hand touched his clammy forehead and soothingly ran along his face.

"Remus, are you awake?"

"Hmmm." That was the most eloquent Remus could do at the moment while his mind was still busy trying to find out why he was obviously lying in his bed in the middle of the day, feeling like shit, with his father calling out to him. Without consciously realizing it, he turned a bit and moved closer to the comforting presence of his father at his side. He felt Richard close his arms around him and for a moment he was hugged carefully, before Richard gently helped his son into a half-sitting position to better examine him. While he did that, Remus was slowly trying to keep his eyes open and get his thoughts a bit more coherent.

He was – no surprise there – in his room in the house they lived in, he, his father and his older brother. They had moved here only three or four months ago, one of the many places they had lived in during the past years. This time however had been the first time that Remus' mother had not moved with them.

Remus' mother had still lived with them near Poitiers, the last place they had lived in before they had moved here, into a very small town south of Bordeaux. Their house near Poitiers had actually been a rather nice place to live in, but when again their neighbours and the other people in the village had found out the one big secret of the Lupin family – the fact that their youngest son was a werewolf – they had been forced to move again. Remus had already known that his mother hadn't liked this nomadic and persecuted life, and in Poitiers she obviously finally had had enough. After another big fight with his father, Remus' mother had packed her bags and left her family.

His brother Janus was probably saddest and most angry about this as he had been a lot closer to his mother than Remus (or rather their mother had been a lot closer to Janus as she had been to Remus), but shortly after their parents had split up his new school year at Beauxbatons had started and he had left Remus alone with their father.

Janus had not spoken to Remus since their mother had left – not that they had been close anyway even before – and though nobody had spoken it out loud Remus knew that his older brother blamed him for what had happened with their parents.

What was even worse was that Remus knew his brother to be right about it. He had heard his parents argue and fight more often than talking civilly to each other in the months before his mother had left, and whenever they had assumed their children to be asleep or out of earshot they had been arguing about him. Remus had not always understood what exactly had been said, but he knew that his mother couldn't see him as her innocent little son anymore ever since the wolf had bitten him. She was always edgy and teary around full moon, there were no more exuberant hugs or spontaneous cuddles from her, hardly any physical contact at all to be honest. It had been as if his mother had been afraid of him nearly as much as all the strangers were once they had found out about him and forced them to leave their home towards another place.

His mother had fixed all her attention and affection on Janus after Remus had been bitten, but eventually Remus' older brother had started at Beauxbatons, leaving Nadine alone with her husband and lycanthropic younger son.

And three months ago Nadine had left them. For good and without saying goodbye properly.

"Remus?"

His father's voice and a gentle hand on his arm pulled Remus out of his musings.

"Yes?"

"You seemed to have drifted off a bit there." Richard smiled at him. "Come on, I need you to help me when I change those bandages."

Remus nodded and for the first time this morning leaned forward and looked down his own body. There were bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and middle, his thighs and upper arms. He could not remember when he had last been injured this badly after a full moon. Tiredly, he leaned his forehead against Richard's shoulder as his father unwrapped the bandages, cleaned his wounds with disinfectant, applied healing potions and in the end gently wrapped them with new bandages.

With his ten years, Remus didn't know that much about healing magic – though he knew far more than the average ten year old – but he had already learned the hard way that the wounds inflicted on him by the wolf could not simply be healed close. They healed far quicker than similar wounds would on a non-lycanthrope, but trying any healing magic on them other than the potions his father used was futile.

So he silently allowed Richard to treat his wounds, never once hissing as the disinfectant stung or complaining about any kind of pain at all. He stoically bore the pain until his father was finished and helped him lie down on his bed again.

"You need to sleep some more, Remus. But first I'll bring you something to eat and drink, do you think you can stay awake that long?"

Remus nodded and watched his father leave the room. A couple of minutes later he came back with a tray in his hands. When he set the tray onto the bedside table, Remus suppressed a small cry as he saw the left side of his father's face, the side which had been turned away from him during the past minutes.

"Dad, what happened to your face?"

Richard clamped his hand automatically over the swollen and bruised flesh around his left eye. It looked as if he had tried a healing charm on it to lessen the injury, but it was still plainly obvious that his eye had been badly bruised. Only Remus didn't remember it looking like that before he left for his transformation.

Richard smiled at Remus, his hand still covering the eye slightly.

"It's nothing, Remus. Nothing. You only worry about getting better now, all right?"
"But Dad..."

"No buts, Remus. You drink your tea now and eat your sandwiches, and then you try to get some more hours of sleep." Richard's face turned serious before he continued. "You had me worried there after I brought you up from the basement. You were unconscious for the entire day yesterday."

Remus frowned, surprised that his transformation had been this bad. Of course he could not remember it, though.

"It's been that bad?"

Richard stroke his hand through Remus' hair and smiled sadly down at his son.

"It's been worse than usual, yes. But please don't worry about that now. Just rest and see that you get better, please."

There was something in Richard's voice that made Remus hesitate, but after a moment he could not stop himself and asked again.

"Dad, what happened?"

Richard sighed and bit his lip, but before he could answer a voice from behind interrupted.

"Dad, where are the other empty boxes?"

Much to Remus' surprise, Janus suddenly appeared in the door. His tall form, which towered his little brother by nearly two heads since his last growth spurt, was leaning against the wooden frame. Janus didn't pay any attention to his bandaged little brother, in fact he didn't even look at him.

Richard didn't seem all that surprised by his older son's presence, instead he calmly turned around and looked at Janus.

"The empty boxes are lying on my bed. I'll come over and shrink your boxes later."

Janus nodded and pushed himself off the doorframe, vanishing from Remus' sight without another word.

Remus was confused. Janus was supposed to be at school until the Easter holidays at least, and those were still four weeks away.

"Dad, what is going on here?"

Again Richard sighed and smiled sadly, his hand still combing through Remus' hair.

"Your transformation was really bad this time, Remus. When...when I came into the basement there was so much blood. I treated your wounds as good as I could, but you simply had lost too much blood. By mid-morning you were also running a high fever which simply didn't break. I couldn't help you any more, that's why I called a doctor."

Remus bit his lip and nodded. He knew what that meant, he had experienced it before. His father had quite an experience with treating his wounds after his full moon transformations, and usually it was not necessary to call a doctor at all. Which was good, because doctors in small towns treated of course nearly every inhabitant, and as soon as they found out that one of their patients was a werewolf the whole village knew it. Especially if the people concerned were newcomers and not all that welcome in the town anyway. The direct consequence of other people finding out about Remus was that the Lupins were forced to move away again. People didn't want to live close to a werewolf, and they had already had to move three times during the past two and a half years due to events like this.

But no matter how often they moved around in France, they always moved from one small village or town to the next. Remus had asked his father why they didn't move to a bigger city, maybe even to Paris, but always Richard had said no without giving a proper reason. Not until a couple of years later did Remus eventually find out why they never moved into bigger towns or cities where living was more anonymous and thus would have been a lot easier especially for Richard and Janus.

Only years later Remus understood, when he learned about werewolf registration, monitoring devices lycanthropes had to carry around their arms or ankles, and about the enforced usage of public transformation institutions. Outside of the bigger cities such a tight and closely monitored system of werewolf control was not possible, so the werewolves there had only to prove that a safe place for the transformation was available and being used.

It would have been a lot easier especially for Richard without the constant worry of being chased out of town, or being mistreated or even physically attacked as it seemed to have happened that day, but he had chosen not to take that easy way for the sake of his son.

There were many things Remus thanked his father for, but sparing him the humiliation and pain of being constantly monitored and using the public transformation institutions for the sake of allowing him to remain at home and being cared for by his own father instead was what he was probably most thankful for. Richard had given up a lot without complaining to grant Remus that, and he had stoically bore all the harassment and the attacks that had come along with being the father of a werewolf.

But now, at the age of ten, Remus didn't know anything about those things yet.

But when his father had told him about calling the doctor he knew what would come next, and so Janus' presence and his question about empty boxes made sense.

They had to move again.

Remus turned his amber eyes on his father who was just about to hand him the sandwiches. Richard stroke his cheek encouragingly when he saw how misted over Remus' eyes were.

"What's wrong, Remus?"
"We'll have to move again, won't we?"

Richard nodded.

"Yes, I'm afraid we'll have to move again. We'll visit your Aunt Estelle and your cousins for a while until the house is sold and I've found a new job, and then we'll move to England."

"England?" Remus' eyes widened.

Richard nodded.

"Yes, England. We'll start all over again there, just like a huge adventure. You'll see that it'll be fun."

Remus' small forehead frowned.

"Why England, Dad?"

Richard sighed and leaned back in his chair, his hands folded in his lap. For a long moment he merely watched his younger son, noticed how small he looked on his big bed, how pale he was and how teary his eyes were. Remus seemed far too young to understand what was really going on. But Richard knew that Remus was far more mature than it looked and that he would understand it if Richard just found the right words to explain.

"We'd have had to leave France sooner or later anyway, Remus. The Ministère de Magie is about to change their werewolf regulations and I won't let them do that to you, Remus. And now that people here have found out, we'll just have to move a bit earlier than I had expected."

"What happened to your eye, Dad?"

Remus reached for his father from where he was lying on the bed and Richard took the small trembling hand between his own.

"Somebody thought they'd have to say something about you when I went shopping this morning, and when I tried to ignore them they chose to tell me a bit more physically what they were thinking of us. But it's nothing serious, just a slight bruise and one more reason to move away from here a bit faster.

The Beauxbatons headmistress even allowed your brother to take the next couple of days off while we move. So you will eat those sandwiches now and then get some more rest. We can pack your things tomorrow, all right?"

He squeezed Remus' hand tightly, but though it was meant to encourage and reassure Remus it only made him shake harder with his suppressed anger, fear and frustration.

"I'm sorry.", he finally managed to utter from between tightly clenched jaws, nearly too low for Richard to hear.

"What?", he questioned, leaning forward slightly.

"I'm sorry. All this trouble is only because of me. If I were normal, it would be different. I'm sorry."

Forcefully, but still careful enough to mind his son's injuries Richard pulled him into a tight hug, simply holding him close for a moment. When he finally held him at arms length and forced Remus to look into his eyes, his face was set and serious.

"Never, never ever apologize for something that is a part of you, Remus. Never apologize for being different, never apologize for something that is neither your doing nor in your ability to change.

And most importantly, Remus: never apologize because those idiots down there in the village are too narrow-minded and prejudiced to see you for what you really are.

You're a fine boy, Remus, and I'm sure that you'll grow up into a man who will make me proud. I'll give anything to help you achieve that, and what ignorant idiots like your neighbours think about that is absolutely unimportant. Do you understand me, Remus?
Nothing matters except from our own small family, nothing except you, Janus and me. And I for one could neither be prouder nor love you any more even if you were no werewolf. Do you understand me?"

Remus bit his lip and nodded, fighting down his tears. Nevertheless he allowed his father to pull him close again and rested his face against his father's chest. Richard held him for a moment, then gently eased him back against the pillows.

"Now how about you eat those sandwiches and then sleep some more? Do you need anything else?"

Remus shook his head as he listlessly picked up his plate, and with a smile Richard bent down and softly kissed his forehead.

"Mange ces et après couche toi. Je vais retourner plus tard."

"Oui papa", Remus responded, immediately soothed and more relaxed, as always when his father spoke French with him.

"Je t'aime, mon petit."

That brought a small smile on Remus' face and Richard smiled warmly in return.

"I love you too, Dad."
Richard smiled as he left the room, heading downstairs to pack up the things from the living room.

Remus took a bite from one of the sandwiches when a drawling voice in a teary and high-pitched imitation of Remus' own words made him look up.

"I love you too, Dad."

Looking up he found that Janus was leaning against the doorframe again, a stack of empty and folded cardboard-boxes leaning against the wall next to his left knee. Seeing that Remus was looking at him he pushed himself off the doorframe and came walking towards the bed. Janus had always been taller than Remus – no small wonder as he was four years older – but with his fourteen years he had hit puberty by now and his latest growth spurt made him literally tower over the prone form of his little brother.

"How very touching", Janus grimaced disgustedly, "how very touching indeed. Got Dad all teary again, and then those soppy declamations of love..."

Remus swallowed his bite of bread and stared up at his brother with wide eyes, intimidation written clearly on his face. In a way Remus looked up to his older brother, just like most little brothers do, but most of the times Janus scared the crap out of him.

"You've done it again, haven't you?"

"D...done what?"

"Oh come on Remus, don't pretend to be dafter than you actually are. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You've managed again to get us thrown out of town. Shunned away, call it whatever you like."

"But...but I...I mean I didn't..."

Janus sneered at his younger brother, enjoying the other's frightened confusion immensely.

"No, of course you haven't done anything. You never do anything, but somehow we still always get chased away. You didn't do anything, but I can't leave the house alone out of fear that the other kids beat me up or throw stones at me like it happened back in Somloire. And now we have to move again, or rather you and Dad move again. I simply get told that I'm only home for the holidays anyway, so I don't get a say in it. All just because you're such a freak.

No, you and Dad move to England now, isn't that great? Worked out all fine for you, didn't it?"

"You think I planned that, Janus?"

Remus wanted to say even more, he wanted to tell his brother that he surely didn't appreciate being chased away again, that he had never asked for that werewolf to bite him and that he could imagine something better than horrible agony every twenty-eight days for as long as he lived, not to mention being harassed by others as soon as they found out about it, and of course being hated by his older brother.

But the words just didn't come out.

"You think I planned that?", came Janus' mocking imitation again. "What do I know what's going on in that head of yours. But it's an interesting coincidence that whenever the world doesn't revolve solely around you, something happens to change that.

First we move away from all of our friends – from all of my friends – then every time I found new friends we have to run away again, then you even manage to chase Mum away while I'm off to school, and now you and Dad move over to England while I am left here in France.

Strange coincidence, isn't it?"

Remus shook his head feverishly, eyes misting up with tears.

"No, no Janus I didn't..."

"Do you really think I care what you have to say? No matter if you plan all this, fact is it happens because of you. Because others are afraid of you, afraid to let their children play with you or even become my friends.

I'm tainted because of you, Remus. People are afraid of me just as they are afraid of you. Because they know you are dark, Remus, and they're afraid to get tainted by it. Only that I never had a choice, I could never decide whether I wanted to have something to do with you.

People don't trust you and do you know what? I don't trust you either, whether you only transform once a month or not. The dark is in you every single moment, every minute of your existence, and I wouldn't trust to turn my back on you.

You might have wrapped Dad around your finger with your innocent pretence, but I keep my door locked at night.

And one day Dad will see what I see now, and then he'll find that I was right all along not to trust you. Then he'll see that it was wrong to care about you more than about me, because you are a dark creature. You are tainted and most important: you aren't even human anymore and will never be again."

Remus stared up at his brother in shock, he took in the other's flushed face and the hard lines around his mouth, but what stung most of all was the unbearable cold and even hatred in his brother's eyes. He tried to say something, tried to convince his brother that he was wrong, but though he opened his mouth, no sound came out.

Instead, their father's voice called from downstairs a short moment later.

"Janus? Could you help me here?"

Janus turned towards the door. "Sure! Just give me a moment!" Then, turning back towards Remus on the bed he smirked again.

"You know, when they called me to the headmistress' office and told me that I needed to get home immediately – one day after full moon no less – I thought for one glorious moment that you had mauled yourself for good this time."

A single tear escaped Remus' eye and rolled down his cheek. Janus turned to the door and added, like an afterthought, "And maybe one day it will happen and you'll solve the werewolf problem yourself and just don't wake up anymore after that night. I won't be sad Remus, and if I were you I'd not be too sure that Dad will be all that sad either."

And with that he turned around and left Remus' room, grinning gleefully as his brother's first suppressed sob reached his ears.

In his room, Remus curled up around his pillow and pulled the blanked over his head, wincing from the pain this caused him.

The tears now rolled freely down his face as he cried himself to sleep.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Janus had to fight hard against his urge to knock Black unconscious after he heard him say those words about Harry. A distant part of his brain had feared right from the start that no matter what they did they might not be able to find Harry in time, that the child might be dead even while they still searched for him. But to hear it confirmed by Black was something completely else and Janus felt as if somebody had knocked him forcefully into the stomach.
He had failed, and now Harry was dead.

But Janus could not allow himself that kind of thoughts right now, there would be a time for that later. Now it was more important that he found a way to bring Remus, Lucas and himself out of here. He couldn't allow himself to fail that task as well. He'd have liked to check on Remus at the moment, but that would have to wait. For the moment Lucas would have to look after him.

Black was anything but holding still and Janus had quite a struggle to keep him in check.

He pressed his wand firmly into Black's ribs and with a quick movement bound the other's hands together behind Black's back. That gave him a bit more freedom to move around without fearing that Black tore himself lose, and he had a relatively free reach with his wandless right hand. With a bit more force than necessary, he pushed the escaped convict's bound hands upwards behind his back.
If Black tried just one wrong move, he could reach for the knife in his right boot within a short moment, and he was pretty sure that Black was aware of this advantage, because he slowly stopped his struggles and seemed to save his strength for another moment.

Janus inwardly vowed not to give him a chance to escape, but first and foremost he needed to get whatever information he could out of Black. The more he knew about their situation, the bigger their chances were to get out of here as quickly and unharmed as possible.

"Okay Black", he hissed harshly into the other's ear, his wand poking Black's ribs for emphasis, "where are we and how do we get out of here again?"

At first, Black didn't even react to the question, just as if being addressed by another human being was something he was not used to anymore. When it finally trickled through that he had been asked a question, he tore his gaze away from where he had been glaring at Remus and turned his head slightly. Janus could not tell exactly, but he had the impression that Black's blue eyes were slightly clearer than they had been before.

"What?" Again, Janus had the fleeting recollection of the Azkaban prisoners' screams in mind, screams he had heard during one of his many visits to Azkaban while being on his duty. Even when the Dementors had been removed from the main part of the prison for the visit of Ministry officials, those horrible screams had lasted on, sometimes following Janus into his dreams at night. And facing Dementors himself was not one of his favourite pastime activities as well. Janus quickly pushed those thoughts aside. He simply couldn't afford thinking about what the presence of the Azkaban guards did to him and how hard his struggle was to keep his trademark calm and indifference when faced with them, not now.

So instead, Janus tightened his hold on Black and repeated the question.

"Where are we and which is the fastest way out?"

Black chuckled lowly – a definitely unpleasant sound – and shook his head slightly.

"What makes you think I know?"

It was the longest Black had spoken so far and his broken voice had the same effect like fingernails scratching over a blackboard. But it was what he said that threw Janus off balance. What was Black playing at?

"You planned this bloody even here, so don't give me an attitude! Tell me how to get out of here and I might not continue where Remus left off. But get cheeky with me and you will regret it. One last time: where's the way out of here?"

Black shook his head, his eyes solely fixed on Remus again.

"I don't know and I don't care how to get out of here, so why not get over with it, Lupin? Do what you think you have to do, but better pay attention that I don't rip your brother's throat out like that bastard of a traitor has earned it."

The next thing Black realized was that all the air was crushed out of his lungs as Janus roughly pinned him up against the wall.

"Stop fucking around with me, Black. Where. Is. The. Way. Out? Where?"

Black looked at him, then his eyes strayed through the room and glazed over opaquely again. Then, much to Janus' surprise, he began to laugh just as if their situation was extremely funny.

"You have no idea, have you? No idea at all what's going on here." He chuckled again. "Why don't you ask your brother for the way out? If you want to get out of here you'll bloody well have to search for your own way, unfortunately there are no more guided tours after six o'clock."

The last remark earned him a hard smack against the back of his head from his captor that threw Black's head to the side.

"I told you not to get cocky with me, Black!"

But frustration was quickly gaining the upper hand and Janus didn't like it at all how he was losing the little control he had over the situation. It became apparent that Black either really knew nothing that could help them, or that he was not willing to share whatever he knew. There were ways to get it out of him – if he really knew something – but Janus wasn't sure he was desperate enough yet to resort to those means.

But before he could spend more thoughts on that matter he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his head just in time to see Remus forcefully free himself from Lucas' grasp and storm over to where they were standing. There was a look in Remus' eyes that made shivers run down Janus' spine, and before he knew what was happening Remus had pushed him aside and launched himself at Black again.

Remus felt as if somebody had pulled away the floor from under his feet as he heard Sirius speak out the words he had feared to hear ever since Harry had been taken. The words that made his whole world collapse within moments. It was as if anything else in the room lost its importance, as if Remus' world was suddenly narrowed down to contain only Sirius and himself. Breathing suddenly became difficult, and for a moment he thought that his legs would give out beneath him. But then he looked at Sirius, looked into the face of the man who had taken from him the one person who had meant everything to him, and whatever weakness had shortly flared up was replaced by an anger like Remus had never felt it before. He felt numb, cold as if he had been dumped into ice water, but on the inside he was boiling, burning up with a rage unlike anything he had ever felt before. The only feeling he had was the overwhelming desire to lay his hands on Sirius and hurt him just like he had hurt Harry.

From far away he heard a voice shout something, whether at him or at somebody else Remus didn't know. Nor did he care. All he saw was Sirius' gaunt face with the hollow eyes like a grimace in front of him, he only heard the pounding of his own blood in his ears, and he heard Sirius' words over and over again in his mind, as if they were trying to mock him.

Harry is dead.

If Lucas still had a hold on him, Remus didn't notice it as he leaped forward again and crossed the room in three or four long strides.

Janus looked surprised as Remus launched himself at Sirius again, throwing the taller but thinner man onto the floor with the impact of his weight and fury before his brother had even the chance to react. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that there was his wand in his sleeve, that one single curse would easily end the life of the man who had taken everything that mattered from him, but magic was not what he intended to use on Sirius now. All he could think of was how he could possibly hurt the other as much as he had earned it, and before his former friend could even collect himself again after being thrown to the ground, Remus' first punch already hit him. Mindlessly, Remus hit, knocked, kicked and tried to choke Sirius, willing to cause him as much pain as possible with his bare hands.

The wolf was taking over, and for the first time in his life Remus did nothing to stop it.

Distantly, he heard Janus call his name, he realized that hands were pulling at him, trying to tear him away from Sirius, but as he pulled his arm back for the next hit his elbow collided with something and the attempt to hold him back was stopped for the moment.

Sirius struggled to fight back against Remus with equally much force, but he was in the worse position and could not get a good grip on Remus in between the blows that hit him. As long as the wolf was letting out its anger this viciously through Remus, a man of Sirius' size and frame in good physical condition would have problems fighting back against Remus, and Sirius was anything but in a good condition. He felt a grim satisfaction when one of his punches seemed to break Sirius nose, but not even this could stop his mindless frenzy. There was only one thought on his mind, and that was that Harry was dead and somebody would get hurt for this. That Sirius would get hurt for this.

"Petrificus Totalis!"

Significant for the extend of how far Remus had lost himself in his rage was that it took him a long moment to realized that hits course had been aimed at him and that he could no longer move his arms or legs. He seemed to have fallen down onto Sirius' prone and bleeding form and only when a pair of arms seized him from behind and pulled him upright did he realize that his legs had snapped together and his arms were resting tightly against his side.

'Full-Body-Bind.' A distant part of his brain provided him with that information, but amidst all of his confusion and anger he could not really place it as anything useful at the moment.

Remus' eyes wildly roamed across the room, never really leaving Sirius' unconscious form on the floor, but finally his thoughts became clearer and he settled his gaze on Janus.

His brother was kneeling by Sirius' side, checking his pulse and then prying an eye-lid open and looking at his eyes.

His wand was still trained on Sirius no matter if the other seemed unconscious or not, and with his free right hand we has wiping away the blood from his face and was gingerly fingering his nose.

It took Remus a moment to make the connection between Janus' bleeding nose and his elbow colliding with something, but even when he did it wasn't as if he lost all that many thoughts on it. A small healing charm was all it would take to remedy this little injury. His eyes fell back on Sirius, just waiting for a moment to strike again. He wasn't finished with his former friend yet, the wolf wasn't finished with him yet. Not nearly. Not after what had happened to Harry.

The feeling of Lucas' wand being poked into his ribs – hard – brought Remus' thoughts back to the present. As he could not see Lucas who was standing behind him he turned his eyes on Janus again, realizing with quite a start that his brother was obviously talking to him. It took a lot of effort for Remus to manage concentrating on Janus' lips enough to make his words reach him through the numb haze he was still caught in.

"...do you hear me?"

Remus blinked twice and tried to still his erratic breathing and heartbeat.

"What?", he managed to bark out between his magically clenched jaw.

"I said that you will calm down immediately. For Merlin's sake, this here is serious! Calm down now! I know what you feel like right now, but we won't get out of here anyhow if you keep attacking him at any given possibility! When will you get it into that thick head of yours: You. Are. Not. In. Charge. Here! Understood? I take the curse off now, but if you as much as look at him wrongly I won't hesitate to stun you and levitate you around, is that understood? This is not kindergarten here!"

Remus didn't nod, he couldn't have even if he had wanted it, but Janus didn't expect an answer anyway. It had been a rhetoric question, Remus was aware of that, and when Janus was being in charge and this professional things were going after his will, whether he had to enforce it or not.

"Finite Incantatem!"

As soon as the curse was lifted, Remus' knees gave away a little and only Lucas' grip on his shoulders prevented him from falling down. Still breathing harshly, he waited for the momentary weakness in his limbs to pass, aware of Lucas' wand which was constantly pressed between his ribs. He didn't look at Sirius, knowing that it would only make his anger flare up again.

But even if he had wanted to move towards Sirius again, Remus wasn't all that sure he could have. Lucas still held him in a death grip, the wand that was poking into his ribs with bruising force and unmistakable warning. But even if he had been able to move, Remus wasn't so sure whether he still had any strength left to attack him again.

He still felt numb, but it no longer was the kind of numbness that served to better channel his anger. He felt as if he was trying to wade through ice-cold water, and standing on his own feet was getting more and more difficult. Breathing already seemed like a nearly infeasible task to him, and the grip Lucas had on him now didn't serve to hold him back from attacking Sirius anymore, but more and more became the only thing keeping him upright.

Realization hit him hard.

Harry was dead.

Over the past days, the desperate search for Harry and the faint hope to find the child alive had kept Remus going despite his physical exhaustion and his own injuries.

But now Harry was dead and nothing made sense anymore. Whatever had been driving Remus over the past days had burned out and there was hardly anything keeping him upright anymore.

To be honest, Remus didn't know what still kept him going. He felt numb and drained, and was trying forcefully to push all his emotions, all the despair, pain and anger he felt upon what had happened to Harry into the background so that he would not break down under their weight. It didn't work.

Harry was dead, and that meant that nothing would ever be good again.

Only minutes ago, the wolf had been threateningly close to the surface despite the fact that full moon was still over a week away, but by now it had vanished again, retreated into the farthest corner of his human host's mind, whimpering and whining for the loss of its pup. Remus felt that he was starting to shake as slowly the realization trickled through.

Harry was dead.

Remus moved over towards the side and leaned weakly against the wall.

Lucas eyed him warily, but though he didn't let his attention stray from guarding Remus he didn't hinder him either. The exhaustion of the past days, the strain he had been under ever since the night of the attack was suddenly catching up quickly with Remus and his legs felt suspiciously weak.

Why should they still try and find a way out of here anyway? Janus maybe, he had a family to return to. But Remus could as well curl up on the floor here and wait for someone to come by and end his pitiful existence.

He had failed Harry, he had not been able to prevent his child from getting hurt and killed, he had not been there when his pup had needed him most. He had failed, and now he could as well hope to die soon. Without Harry, there was no sense in life anyway. During the past five years Harry had been the single most important thing in his life, but only now did Remus fully realize just how much Harry had meant to him. And without Harry, there simply was no sense in life anymore.

On the other side of the room, Janus was not paying any attention to his brother.

He had been forcefully pushed to the side when his Remus had thrown himself at Black again, and no matter what he had tried, he had been unable to tear Remus away from the convict. The only reward for his efforts had been a sharp elbow jab against his nose which had effectively knocked him back and nearly knocked him out as well.

As if through a haze Janus had watched, but he had not really seen Black's futile efforts to strike back, he had not really noticed any of Lucas' attempts to tear the two men apart. Until a couple of long moments after Lucas had immobilized Remus, Janus had not seen anything aside from Remus in his mindless rage.

Sure, he had definitely seen Remus angry a couple of times, especially when they had been younger. And though Remus had always been an extremely self-restrained person Janus was one of the few who could claim to have irritated him enough to get into a physical brawl with him.

Remus was thin and scrawny, a fact that hid his physical strength excellently, as Janus had experienced more than once.

But never – on not one single occasion in the twenty-eight years of his little brother's life – had Janus seen him lose control like that. Keeping his guard up had always been an important strategy to keep the wolf at bay for Remus.

That was it, Janus realized.

Remus had no longer done anything to keep the wolf at bay.

Janus and Remus had never been close, and even during the past five years Janus had forcefully pushed any thought about Remus' disease into the back of his mind, locked it up safely where he would not be forced to confront the thought. And now he had seen Remus lose control to the wolf, now he no longer had a chance to evade the painful truth:

He was afraid of Remus.

Afraid not of the little brother he knew, but of the potential that was slumbering inside of him. Afraid because there was a large part of Remus' personality he could neither predict nor control.

He wasn't even all that sure Remus could predict or control it.

And once that fear was now unleashed Janus realized that no amount of telling himself how irrational he was could make it go away again.

So after he had made sure that Black was unconscious and would stay like that for a while longer he eyed his brother warily.

Something else was nagging on him, something he could not really point his finger on at the moment. Nothing here seemed right, their whole situation was so...surreal, so artificial.

Lucas' voice rose him out of his musings.

"Black?"

Janus looked up. Lucas kept Remus under a pretty close watch since the Full-Body-Bind had been lifted, but right now he seemed to be sure that Remus would not jump at Black's throat anytime soon and had dared to look up inquiringly.

"Out cold for the moment."

Lucas hissed a curse at nobody and nothing in particular.

"Couldn't we wake him up? We really need to get going if we want to get out of here anytime soon."

Janus simply shook his head.

"Nope, I'm afraid Black is out for now. We'll have to move him around. Might be easier anyway, that way he won't struggle around."

"Bloody great! Exactly what we need now."

Janus didn't answer, he merely walked up and down the room, twirling his wand in his hands. Every other step he threw a wary glance into his brother's direction, but Remus wasn't looking at him – his gaze was still turned on Black.

After a moment of pacing, Janus beckoned Lucas to come over to where he was standing slightly out of earshot from the other two.

Lucas looked undecided for a moment, as if debating whether or not to leave Remus unguarded. In the end he did step over to his partner's side, but his wand remained trained on Remus.

"We ought to move, Janus", he said impatiently, whipping slightly up and down on the balls of his feet.

Janus nodded.

"Yeah, I know. I simply have a bad feeling about this, Lucas. There is something I don't see, or am I imagining things?"

Lucas didn't look at him directly, but let his eyes dart across the room.

"I don't like the idea of taking Black and your brother together, not if they're behaving like that. What is their story?"

Janus shrugged.

"Nothing you don't know already. Best friends ever since school – Black even became an animagus for Remus. Ever since Black betrayed the Potters and killed all those others there's only been hatred from Remus' side."

"An animagus?" Lucas shook his head. "Now that's something new." His eyes shimmered slightly in the dim light of the room as they darted back to where Remus was leaning heavily against the wall.

"I can't get rid of the feeling that there's more to it."

Janus' green-brown eyes turned on Lucas, eyebrows raised inquisitively. He had that feeling too, he just couldn't pinpoint its source.

"What do you think?"

Lucas hesitated for a moment, searching for the right words to express what he was thinking. He breathed in and out deeply.

"Black called your brother a traitor.", he finally said, not elaborating it any further. Janus didn't react, but it had not been a question anyway. It had been a statement.

"Twice", Lucas added.

Janus bit his lip and nodded worriedly. If he was honest with himself he had noticed that too, and it had been nagging at him silently.

By now Lucas was looking at him with an intensity that made a shiver run down Janus' spine.

I keep my door locked at night.

As much as Janus tried to force those thoughts aside, his mind kept on shifting back to a time when he would not have turned his back on Remus if it could have been avoided.

How much had truly changed since then?

An hour ago Janus would have argued that nearly everything had, but after seeing Remus lose control like he had only minutes ago, he wasn't so sure anymore. He simply didn't know.

Lucas' hand gently touched his shoulder.

"Black called your brother a traitor, Janus. Twice."

"I know", Janus finally breathed out. "I know."

"Why?"

Janus shook his head, as if to clear it from his unpleasant thoughts. "I simply don't know what to make of it, all right? But I intent to find out."

Lucas looked at him for what seemed like a small eternity, then he nodded.
"Just don't forget it, Janus."

"How could I?", Janus answered.

For a moment Lucas looked at Janus, an unreadable expression in his eyes. He breathed in and opened his mouth and Janus already thought that he wanted to say something else. But after a moment of hesitation he breathed out again and nodded towards the staircase in the corner.

"Let's go."

Lucas went back over to where Remus was still leaning against the wall and Janus followed him with his eyes.
Janus followed him with his eyes, still wondering what Lucas had wanted to say but then chosen to keep for himself, but after a moment he pulled himself out of those thoughts and went over towards where Black was lying. The escaped convict was still lying unconscious after Remus' assault. Blood was running from a split lip and he was featuring some nice future bruises around his eye and along his jaw.

Janus' hand automatically moved to his still aching nose and he gingerly fingered it. It wasn't broken – as Black's nose quite obviously was – but it was still aching nevertheless. Remus had given him a black eye once, years back, but even then he had had himself under a better control than earlier on.

Again, Janus tried to shake those thoughts away. He needed his mind in the here and now if they wanted to get out of here.

"Mobilis Corpus."

Black's body lifted itself a couple of inches off the ground and floated there. Janus watched him dispassionately while Lucas had moved behind Remus again, his wand inconspicuously directed at the younger Lupin brother. Janus didn't know exactly for what reason his partner did that, but he trusted Lucas with keeping an eye on his brother – in all possible meanings. However, right now he preferred to think it was to keep Remus from going at Black's throat again and for no other reason.

They didn't need to talk about where to head next – they had already made clear earlier that the best choice would be to try their luck with the staircase and see if there was a way out in the lower storeys. With a move of his wand Janus directed Black towards the corner, followed by Remus and Lucas who brought up the rear.

It was the only choice they had at the moment, and that was exactly what gave Janus such a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He liked to know his enemy, he liked to see them.

Right now he had neither luxury, only the sinking feeling in his stomach that they were walking straight into a trap.

And after what had happened during the past half hour he didn't even know whether danger could not also come from an unexpected source...from a source much closer than he had expected. He looked over towards Lucas and his brother, wondering what more revelations this evening would bring for them. He didn't have a good feeling about all this, not at all.

Janus held his wand tightly in his hand as they descended the stairs, ready and willing to let the levitation charm on Black drop any moment to turn his wand on any potential danger.

They reached the end of the staircase and with a gesture of his hand he told Lucas to take over levitating Black for a moment. Carefully, Janus rounded the corner, his wand outstretched in front of him. A completely bewildered look settled on his face as soon as he saw just what awaited them there.

Janus had expected them to find another corridor at the end of the staircase, just like the ones they had already walked through. But instead of a long corridor with doors to the left and right the staircase ended in what appeared to be one large chamber with stone walls and a damp stone floor. Torches lightened up the room from one side – Janus guessed that it was the northern wall. High into the ceiling of the opposite wall windows were set, too high to look out directly. All Janus could see was that the sky was dark and cloudy. But neither that nor the fact that they had obviously finally reached the ground level could hold Janus' attention for any longer than necessary.

What had been one of the first things to draw his attention was the fireplace located in the far off corner of the room.

They had finally found a way out of that mansion!

With a bit of luck it was connected to the floo network, but even if things continues with the bad luck they had had all evening, connecting it to the network was not all that difficult and time-consuming for somebody who knew how to do it. Fortunately, Janus did and so did Lucas.

But still he did not storm over to the fireplace blindly. The mere fact that no threat was to be seen in the room didn't mean that hey were alone, let alone safe here.

His wand raised, Janus deposited Black on the floor near the wall, and trusting that Lucas would keep an eye on things he slowly went over towards the fireplace.

Janus slowly crossed the hall, his footsteps echoing loudly off the walls and ceiling, no matter how silently he tried to tread. He reached the stone construction and warily eyed it for a moment as if expecting a trap. He still didn't like the idea that it had been rather easy for them to come down here, that they had not encountered any obstacles apart from Black – and he hadn't been that much of an obstacle, come to think about it. But surely the reason for Black to bring them here had not been to make it this easy for them to get away again.

Janus placed a couple of tracking and revelations spells on the fireplace, but they came up negative. No booby traps there, another piece in the ever-growing puzzle of what all of this meant. Not connected to floo network either, unfortunately. Well, if he hurried he could connect the fireplace in less than five minutes, so they should not be stuck here all too long. And if that for some reason should not work, Janus was willing to try levitating themselves out of the windows, he didn't care how they got out of here as long as they finally managed it.

With a short look towards the other side of the hall he tried to assure himself that things were still as he had left them. And indeed, Black was still lying against the wall, and Remus was leaning opposite of him with Lucas standing close by. Lucas' wand, he noticed, was still inconspicuously trained on Remus.

Seeing him turn around had drawn Lucas' attention, and now Janus gestured him that he would quickly connect the fireplace to floo network, using gestures rather than words. For some reason, he had the feeling that shouting around in the hall would be a bad choice. Lucas seemed to understand nevertheless, because he nodded and turned back to what he had been doing before –watching the entrance through which they had come and keeping an eye on Remus and Black.

Janus turned and started to work, allowing himself to go over everything in his mind again as he carried out the necessary spells and wand-waves with long-practiced ease.

Where was the sense in going the lengths of transporting them all into this mansion if it was only a matter of time until they found a fireplace and thus a way out? Okay, maybe Black had not planned to bring him here, but Remus and Lucas had obviously been targeted with the portkeys. Why?

He could understand that it had been about Remus for Black, but why Lucas? It simply didn't make sense.

And what was nagging even more at him was the question Lucas had thrown up again. Why had Black called Remus a traitor? Black had been the one to betray his friends to Voldemort, Black had nearly gotten Harry killed, not Remus. Remus had every right to call Black a traitor, but the other way around? That just didn't make sense.

It would only make sense if...but no. Janus could not allow himself even to think that. Sure, it would make sense if Black had at one point thought that Remus was on his side as well, but that just could not be. Janus knew his brother, knew that he would not have betrayed his friend and joined Voldemort's ranks, that thought alone was ridiculous. Not the Remus he knew, never in a thousand years.

But hadn't he thought a bit differently only a couple of minutes ago? He could say those things for sure about the Remus he knew, but only minutes ago he had realized that there was a large part of his brother's personality that he didn't know at all. Just how much control did the wolf have over Remus' mind? Over his actions and judgements? Was it possible, was there even the slightest chance that somehow his brother was more deeply involved in all this than he had thought so far? Not during the past years, that much Janus knew, but years back maybe? Had maybe something happened between the two of them all those years ago?

As much as Janus tried to think, he simply could not find a satisfying explanation as to why Black should call his brother a traitor. Maybe he was just plain mad, after all he had spent the better part of the last six years in Azkaban. But somehow, that thought didn't give Janus any comfort at all, as if he knew that this was a straw to cling to, but nothing more. Black had seemed disoriented, angry, confused, all that, but definitely not mad. If there was one thing Janus was sure about, then it was that.

There was something about the connection between Black and Remus that he didn't know about yet, and that was the cause for the uneasy, leaden feeling that had settled in his stomach.

Just as he was about to finally finish connecting the fireplace, a muffled curse behind him and the sound of his name made him turn his head.

"Janus!"

Turning around quickly Janus all but forgot the fireplace as his eyes fell on the scene at the other end of the room. Lucas was struggling to pull Remus back towards the far off wall, but Janus' brother didn't even seem bothered by that. Instead, he was violently trying to free himself from Lucas' grip, trying to get to where Black was lying. Looking at the escaped convict Janus found that Black had woken up again, but that didn't seem to be the reason for Remus' mindless anger.

Immediately, Janus hurried over to where Lucas was trying to keep his grip on Remus. Janus ran across the hall towards them, far less carefully than he had crossed it into the other direction earlier on. In a combined effort both Unspeakables managed to get Remus pushed against the far off wall again, though he not once seized his struggles against their hold.

"Remus! Remus, for fuck's sake, calm down! What is going on?"

Janus desperately tried to still his brother's frantic movements, he tried to make sense of the words and fragments Remus was shouting at Black, but as much as he tried he could not. He was actually surprised that his little brother still had so much strength left after all that had happened during the past week, but seeing him like that did nothing to alleviate his worries. Seeing Remus lose control like that twice in an hour's time scared him.

Mentally apologizing for it already, Janus slapped Remus hard in the face, then stepped into his line of vision and blocked his view on Black.

"Remus, come on talk to me. What in Merlin's name is going on with you? What is it this time?"

But Remus only twisted and turned his head, trying to get a good view on Black again, all the while cursing and shouting.

"Remus! What the fuck is happening?"

"The bloody bastard, I knew it! I knew something like that would happen. I knew it!"

"Remus, what the fuck are you talking about?"

But Remus only continued to struggle against him, shouting over and over again that he had known it and that he would strangle Black.

Janus could feel himself losing his control quickly, fighting hard against his urge to knock some sense into his little brother. His hand automatically reached for his wand and drew it, noticing from the corner of his eye that Lucas had his pointed straight at Remus. And while he was still thinking about what he could possibly do, Lucas was poking that wand hard into Remus' ribs, his eyes looking towards Janus as if seeking for an answer there. But Janus didn't know what to do, either.

Lucas forcefully pushed Remus back against the wall – again – and tried to catch the other's eye. Remus struggled against his hold, but Lucas grabbed his chin in his free hand and forcefully turned his head so that their eyes met. Lucas' glare could have frozen boiling water.

"Now the two of us will have a little chat, how about that? And you'd damn better have some good answers, because my patience is running thin, and I didn't have much to begin with.

What the fuck is going on here?"

Remus stopped his attempts to look at where his former friend was lying bound up on the floor and stared at Lucas with wide eyes, panting slightly.

"What?"

"I think you understand me. What is going on here?"
Remus shook his head.

"I don't...I know just as much as you do, all right? But listen, I don't know how Sirius did it but..."
"No, I get the feeling that you know a little more than we do, isn't it so?"

"What are you talking about?"
Remus' eyes darted over towards Janus, but his brother was merely watching his partner's interrogation silently, himself not quite knowing what would come next. But Lucas had managed to tear Remus out of his frenzy, and that was something he had not been able to do. Something was fishy here, had been all the time, and he got the distinct feeling that Remus knew the answer to all those questions. He still kept on telling himself that surely he was wrong and that Remus would never do something like that, but the more time passed the worse his gut feeling about all this became. What if Remus had truly...

Remus shook his head as he got not reaction out of his brother and turned back to Lucas.
"What the fuck are you talking about?", he repeated.

"I'm talking about the rather large number of things that simply don't seem to fit here."

"And what makes you think I know anything more than you do?"
"Why did Black call you a traitor?"

"What?" Remus' eyebrows shot up and nearly disappeared beneath his hairline.

"Black called you a traitor. Twice. Care to explain that?"
Remus would have laughed, had the situation not been so serious.

"How should I know? Sirius is mad, how should I know what made him say that? Listen, we don't have time for this, there is something you need to know!"

But Lucas completely ignored the last part of this statement, instead he kept on glaring at him. Remus' eyes sought out his brother, trying to find help against Lucas' senseless pestering there. They simply had not time for this, if they would only let him tell them! But Janus only looked at him with an unreadable expression.

Remus felt Lucas move behind him again, felt Lucas' wand which was pressed firmly between his ribs again. By now Remus was convinced that he would be bruised there tomorrow. If he lived until tomorrow, that was. And at the moment he was not entirely convinced of that anymore.

"What are you talking about, Janus? What are the two of you talking about?"

Remus didn't particularly like his situation at the moment. Sirius was still bound up on the other side of the room, Lucas was still pointing his wand at him though with Sirius out unable to move there was no actual need for that, and Janus had a look in his eyes which made shivers run down Remus' spine. His brother had not looked at him like that for a long time. And the two still didn't know what was really going on here.

"Remus, tell me that it's not true."

Janus' voice was merely a whisper, but it was weighing with something that scared Remus. He knew this side of his brother, knew the emotionally detached sound of his voice and the steely look in his eyes. He knew the professional side of Janus Lupin, only had he never thought it would ever be turned towards him anymore. Not after the past few years. Something was absolutely not right here.

Lucas' breathing sounded loud and harsh in his ears, but Remus only looked at his brother.

"What are you talking about?"
"Why did Black call you a traitor, Remus?"

"I already told you I don't know. If you'd finally let me explain..."

But again he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

"I only wonder", Lucas whispered into Remus' ear, "Why somebody who betrayed his friends – your friends, Remus – and sold them out to You-Know-Who, why somebody who managed to abduct Harry Potter despite all the protection around him should call you a traitor? That doesn't make sense, does it?"

Remus' heard beat so fast he thought it would jump straight out of his throat any moment.

"What???"
"That would only make sense", Lucas continued in the same threatening whisper, "if you had been working together with him at some point. When was it, five years ago? Did you support him in selling out the Potters and then let him take the blame for it? Did Black pay in Azkaban for something you both planned out while you made yourself a nice life? Or did you help Black to get out of prison two weeks ago but then left him on his own on the run from the Ministry? A combination of both maybe? Which was it, Remus?"

Remus was too stunned to say anything for a moment. Lucas could not be serious, could he? Remus' eyes darted from Sirius to Janus and back again, as if the answer to all his problems was to be found somewhere here in this room. His gaze fell on Janus, but his brother only stared back, his eyes hard and his gaze devoid of any emotion. Remus' throat constricted. This was ridiculous. Janus knew him, he knew that Lucas' idea was just plainly mad. He could not possibly believe that...

"Janus, it's not like that. Listen to me for a moment, okay? I..."

Remus realized how pitiable he sounded and he was aware that this didn't help him in his momentary situation. A pained expression crossed Janus' features and Remus felt Lucas' grip on him tighten painfully. Janus closed his eyes for a short moment and breathed in and out deeply.

"Fuck Remus, why? Why?"

"No Janus, you have to listen to me! It's not what you think..."

The famous last words of the guilty villain in any muggle movie. Remus' words died on his lips as he watched his older brother slowly raise his wand until it pointed straight at Remus' chest.

"Why Remus?"