All right people! Chapter four!
Not going to bother with a long authors note this time...
Viewers (And Birdie) : Yay!
Reaper: Yeah yeah yeah... on with the story
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Chapter four: Or Day's Shame
**************************
Tatiana had disappeared to look for her mother some time ago, leaving the three teenagers to sit thee, immersed in their shock and horror.
Harry could not believe that whole families dedicated themselves to such a horrific way of life. First the practice of sculpting psychotic models, then the practice of murdering werewolves.
This was what Harry liked to call, 'A typical day in the life of famous Harry Potter'
"Sooo..." said Ron, breaking the silence.
"So..." Agreed Hermione
"Yeah..." Said Harry
And so they sat there, in silence.
***************************
Number 12 Grimmauld place, London.
*******
"Are you coming or what Remus?" Asked Sirius, highly annoyed at everything and everyone.
"Yes Sirius..." Sighed Remus, running a hand through his hair. He was tired, and understandably so, as the full moon had been just two nights ago. But Sirius, in his maddened worry for Harry, seemed to have forgotten about that.
Remus could hardly blame him, and it gave a nice release from all the mothering Sirius had been doing lately. Now, if they found Harry, Sirius could turn his overprotectivness to him.
No... Wait... WHEN. When they found Harry. Because they would. Of course they would.
They had to.
Remus took one more look at poor Molly, weeping in a corner, and promised himself that he'd bring the children back to her. Then he made his way to depart.
He was halfway through the door when Mad-eye came bounding down the stairs, yelling at the top of his voice.
"HOLD UP LADDIE!!!" He roared. Sirius obtained a look of utter desperation and frustration, making him look slightly insane.
"What NOW?" He moaned exasperatedly
Mad-eye gave a little 'Hmph' and rolled his magical eye around his head, probably checking for enemies, possibly showing his disdain at Sirius' bad mood.
"It's that Granger girl," He said gruffly "She's set up a fireplace connection from... wherever those silly children are-"
Remus didn't hear the last part of the sentence as he had already joined Sirius and Molly in their mad dash up the stairs.
********
"Good luck Harry," Smiled Tatiana, and for the first time Harry noticed that she had an eerily familiar smile. Something about the shape of her face was also familiar. She turned round to walk through the door,
"My father, grandfather, and uncles will be back soon, so, maybe we can sort something out then if this doesn't work..." She smiled and disappeared.
Harry sighed. Tatiana's mother, Anastasia, had kindly allowed them to use their fireplace.
What she didn't mention was that the fireplace had been built sometime around the fourteenth century, and had never been used since, so it... didn't really work.
On the upside, they would be able to contact someone through the fireplace so they could come and get them. Unfortunately they couldn't pass through themselves. But Harry was sure that Sirius would come and get them if they asked, so they resolved to try it.
Hermione was chosen to be the communicator unanimously, as she would probably tell them where they were instead of how disgustingly creepy the place was.
It took a lot of weird spells and charms to stabilise the gateway so sound could pass through, and Harry and Ron took the opportunity to talk whilst Hermione did all the work ("Typical" Muttered Hermione)
"I don't believe it..." Said Harry disbelievingly
"I know," said Ron in the same tone "How on earth could people... their whole family?"
"It's just plain cruelty, I bet none of them has ever met a werewolf, well, an alive one anyway..." Ron nodded in silent agreement
"Are there werewolf exterminators in Britain?" Harry asked him
Ron wracked his brains for a minute; trying to remember anything his dad had told him about the subject "I don't think so..." He said uncertainly "Not to this degree anyway, maybe one or two in charge of keeping werewolves under control, but nothing like this... the whole family..."He broke off
"What's so different?" He asked Ron contemplacently
"Well, from what dad says, Romania is like some sort of werewolf, vampire, monster land. There are non-humans and half breeds running around everywhere... especially in Transylvania..." He trailed off when he noticed Harry shaking his head vehemently.
"No no no, you misunderstood..." He sighed, "I meant, what's so different about werewolves? All they do is turn in to a wolf once a month, I mean what's so bad about that anyway? Why can't all these stupid bastards like Malfoy and these people" He gestured towards the door Tatiana and her mother had disappeared through, meaning to chastise Tatiana's family "Just leave Remus and Will and Maddy and the rest alone. They're no harm to anyone, it's not their fault they're werewolves, not like they asked for it..."
Ron nodded with an uncomfortable look in his eyes,
"People fear what they don't understand!" Hermione called to them "They can never understand unless they become werewolves too..."
Harry nodded, Hermione's words making perfect and bitter sense. Try as they might, they couldn't really understand. Probably not even Sirius knew what Remus had really dealt with during his life. And Harry also remembered their own reaction when they first found out, he was ashamed to think of it now, but he and Ron had completely lost it when Hermione revealed he was a werewolf. Then again, given the circumstances, Harry would've acted the same way even if he wasn't a werewolf. And he had learned his lesson by not giving a second thought to Hagrid being a half giant.
"Anyway, I think I've got the connection up..." She grabbed a handful of ancient floo powder and chucked it into the fire. The flames swirled a little and went a strange pale green colour. Hermione looked suddenly down heartened, but nevertheless took a deep breath and yelled out "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, London, England!"
"Europe, the world, the universe..." Muttered Ron. Harry gave a short laugh.
Hermione rolled her eyes and put her head in the fireplace.
At first, all she saw were the sickly green flames, but then suddenly the fireplace at Grimmauld Place came in to her line of vision, and by some divine stroke of luck, Mad-eye Moody was smoking his pipe right next to it.
"MAD-EYE!" She shouted as loudly as she could, but still only coming through faint and crackly, like a bad radio connection.
Perhaps it was not the smartest thing to do. After all, Mad-eye Moody had a little bit of a paranoia problem...
"STUPEFY!" He yelled, jumping up and knocking one of the pictures off the wall, a mad glint in his eye. Hermione almost rolled her eyes.
***
"ARE... YOU... ALL... RIGHT?!" Thundered Sirius at the fireplace, as if talking to morons, "WHERE... IS... HARRY?!" Remus' ears rang as Sirius' yells attacked his sensitive hearing.
"I'm not deaf Sirius, and Harry and Ron are just fine..."
"WHERE... ARE... YOU?!" Demanded Sirius. Remus' hands flew up to his ears.
"Please don't shout Sirius!" He yelped. Sirius, predictably, ignored him.
"Stop shouting Sirius!" Ordered Hermione "We're in Romania, about fifty miles-"
"ROMANIA!!!???" Sirius roared
"- North-west of Alba Luila, you won't be able to miss us, it's the only house for miles..."
"DO... YOU... WANT US... TO COME... AND... GET YOU...?" Sirius continued. Remus smacked himself in frustration. Sirius was really missing the point here.
"Yes, that would be nice... can you come ASAP? Only, no offence to these people, but I think they're clinically insane..."
/Well done Hermione/ Thought Remus /You've really gone and said it now.../
"INSANE?" Screamed Sirius "WE..."
"Sirius-"
"WILL BE..."
"No wait Sirius-"
"RIGHT THERE!"
"No... Sirius... Connection... Losing... Professor... Unconditionally..." Hermione seemed to want to get something through pretty urgently, but (Most annoyingly) the connection was breaking up.
"What? What are you trying to say Hermione?" Remus asked her worriedly (And with good reason)
"You don't understand," She tried again "On no account... Professor Lupin... These... Hunt-"
"WE... CAN'T... HEAR YOU..." Sirius yelled, he seemed to want to say something else, but just then the fire went out completely, leaving them with nothing but the echoes of Hermione's 'Hmph' of indignation.
"Right..." said Fred, glancing around "So what do we do?"
Sirius looked at him as if he was a complete idiot, he raised his eyebrows and shook slightly "Well..." He said, almost insanely cheerfully "We..." he waved his arms and waggled his fingers "Rescue them!" This part was said as if it was a major breakthrough in world peace or something.
Fred's ears turned slightly red and he exchanged glances with his twin. Then George said something that surprised them all.
"Fred and I will go with you," Fred nodded.
Molly let out a vehement exclamation, but Sirius silenced her with a look
"This shouldn't be too dangerous, and they are members of the order,"
"And it is their brother," Remarked Moody
Sirius turned to his best friend, "What about you Remus? Are you coming?"
Remus frowned, under any other circumstance he would come in an instant, but something Hermione had said, the tone of her voice...
"Moony, you can't leave Harry-"
"I have no intention of that Sirius, I'm just nervous about embarking on a mission with this much-"
"Reeeeeeemy..." Sirius whined
Remus rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the 'Remy' bit.
"All right then" He smiled softly, despite his apprehension "I'm with you..."
Another fatal mistake.
******************************
Romania...
******************************
It had been about half an hour since the botched communications attempt and Harry and Ron still couldn't believe that Hermione, supposedly the smart one, had failed to mention that the entire family they were staying with were murderous werewolf killers.
And knowing 'Moony' and 'Padfoot', Lupin would definitely be here within the next few hours, and these people probably had some werewolf detection charm, and would have his head mounted on the wall before he even walked through the door.
Then Sirius would have an uncontrollable emotional attack, sink into depression for the next twelve years, and refuse to be within an 'Avada Kedavra's length of Harry, for fear that he would use that very spell on him.
This was why Hermione was sitting with her head in her hands, sobbing silently.
"Is she all right?" Asked Anastasia worriedly, they had long since put some sort of translating spell on the house so they could understand Romanian, seeing as only Tatiana, Robert, and several cousins could speak a word of English.
Tatiana's family rivalled Ron's in numbers, and that was /without/ all the men, who were still 'at work'. Harry tried not to dwell on what 'at work' meant.
As well as Anastasia and the twins, the three students had met Tatiana's paternal step-grandmother, Paloma, who was where the werewolf hunter blood came from, although her husband and stepson were just as fierce and bloodthirsty on the job.
Then Paloma's daughters Bernice and Victoria, her sister in law, Alexandria, her niece Ariadne, her niece in law Natalya, and her son in law's sister in law Anetka. There was also a maid, Vassilena and her son, Kirill.
Only three of Tatiana's cousins (And a little brother) were there, the rest still being at Durmstrang, and said children were all infants.
"Oh, she's just a little... stressed..." Said Harry.
Anastasia nodded, and glanced up at the clock. As if on cue, the front door opened.
Harry's thoughts immediately flew to Sirius, but he quickly reconsidered when he realised that Sirius wouldn't just walk in through someone else's door. Then again, knowing Sirius...
If only it had been.
If only they had managed to warn Remus.
If only they had ended up somewhere else after Malfoy's spell.
If only Malfoy had never been born.
If only certain disagreements responsible for the schism in certain families had been avoided.
If only certain people had never been bitten.
If only a certain person had been an only child.
Then it never would have happened. But as several men came prancing in to the room, and subsequently had the situation explained, Harry had little time to marvel over how familiar one of the older men seemed before somebody even more familiar came in to the room.
If it had been a confusing day so far, Harry felt like this new development was enough to make him go insane.
But it wasn't a death eater, or Voldemort, or anything like that...
It was Remus Lupin.
"Papa!" Cried Tatiana and Robert simultaneously on seeing him.
"Oh shit..." Commented Ron.
Harry couldn't have described the situation more admirably.
*******************
Ahh! My mum is yelling at me to go to bed, and I haven't spell checked yet!
Hope everyone's o.k. And I'm devastatingly sorry for the long wait, please forgive me!
This Parrot has ceased to be: Thank you for your support, hope you enjoyed, and please don't give up on me, the next chapter will be here soon enough.
Flying High: Ummm... Thank you for taking time to review me, but I'm not exactly sure if you were complementing, criticizing, or flaming me. Please explain to me if it was one of the first two, and I'm sorry to have offended you if it's the third.
See you all next week!
Not going to bother with a long authors note this time...
Viewers (And Birdie) : Yay!
Reaper: Yeah yeah yeah... on with the story
**************************
Chapter four: Or Day's Shame
**************************
Tatiana had disappeared to look for her mother some time ago, leaving the three teenagers to sit thee, immersed in their shock and horror.
Harry could not believe that whole families dedicated themselves to such a horrific way of life. First the practice of sculpting psychotic models, then the practice of murdering werewolves.
This was what Harry liked to call, 'A typical day in the life of famous Harry Potter'
"Sooo..." said Ron, breaking the silence.
"So..." Agreed Hermione
"Yeah..." Said Harry
And so they sat there, in silence.
***************************
Number 12 Grimmauld place, London.
*******
"Are you coming or what Remus?" Asked Sirius, highly annoyed at everything and everyone.
"Yes Sirius..." Sighed Remus, running a hand through his hair. He was tired, and understandably so, as the full moon had been just two nights ago. But Sirius, in his maddened worry for Harry, seemed to have forgotten about that.
Remus could hardly blame him, and it gave a nice release from all the mothering Sirius had been doing lately. Now, if they found Harry, Sirius could turn his overprotectivness to him.
No... Wait... WHEN. When they found Harry. Because they would. Of course they would.
They had to.
Remus took one more look at poor Molly, weeping in a corner, and promised himself that he'd bring the children back to her. Then he made his way to depart.
He was halfway through the door when Mad-eye came bounding down the stairs, yelling at the top of his voice.
"HOLD UP LADDIE!!!" He roared. Sirius obtained a look of utter desperation and frustration, making him look slightly insane.
"What NOW?" He moaned exasperatedly
Mad-eye gave a little 'Hmph' and rolled his magical eye around his head, probably checking for enemies, possibly showing his disdain at Sirius' bad mood.
"It's that Granger girl," He said gruffly "She's set up a fireplace connection from... wherever those silly children are-"
Remus didn't hear the last part of the sentence as he had already joined Sirius and Molly in their mad dash up the stairs.
********
"Good luck Harry," Smiled Tatiana, and for the first time Harry noticed that she had an eerily familiar smile. Something about the shape of her face was also familiar. She turned round to walk through the door,
"My father, grandfather, and uncles will be back soon, so, maybe we can sort something out then if this doesn't work..." She smiled and disappeared.
Harry sighed. Tatiana's mother, Anastasia, had kindly allowed them to use their fireplace.
What she didn't mention was that the fireplace had been built sometime around the fourteenth century, and had never been used since, so it... didn't really work.
On the upside, they would be able to contact someone through the fireplace so they could come and get them. Unfortunately they couldn't pass through themselves. But Harry was sure that Sirius would come and get them if they asked, so they resolved to try it.
Hermione was chosen to be the communicator unanimously, as she would probably tell them where they were instead of how disgustingly creepy the place was.
It took a lot of weird spells and charms to stabilise the gateway so sound could pass through, and Harry and Ron took the opportunity to talk whilst Hermione did all the work ("Typical" Muttered Hermione)
"I don't believe it..." Said Harry disbelievingly
"I know," said Ron in the same tone "How on earth could people... their whole family?"
"It's just plain cruelty, I bet none of them has ever met a werewolf, well, an alive one anyway..." Ron nodded in silent agreement
"Are there werewolf exterminators in Britain?" Harry asked him
Ron wracked his brains for a minute; trying to remember anything his dad had told him about the subject "I don't think so..." He said uncertainly "Not to this degree anyway, maybe one or two in charge of keeping werewolves under control, but nothing like this... the whole family..."He broke off
"What's so different?" He asked Ron contemplacently
"Well, from what dad says, Romania is like some sort of werewolf, vampire, monster land. There are non-humans and half breeds running around everywhere... especially in Transylvania..." He trailed off when he noticed Harry shaking his head vehemently.
"No no no, you misunderstood..." He sighed, "I meant, what's so different about werewolves? All they do is turn in to a wolf once a month, I mean what's so bad about that anyway? Why can't all these stupid bastards like Malfoy and these people" He gestured towards the door Tatiana and her mother had disappeared through, meaning to chastise Tatiana's family "Just leave Remus and Will and Maddy and the rest alone. They're no harm to anyone, it's not their fault they're werewolves, not like they asked for it..."
Ron nodded with an uncomfortable look in his eyes,
"People fear what they don't understand!" Hermione called to them "They can never understand unless they become werewolves too..."
Harry nodded, Hermione's words making perfect and bitter sense. Try as they might, they couldn't really understand. Probably not even Sirius knew what Remus had really dealt with during his life. And Harry also remembered their own reaction when they first found out, he was ashamed to think of it now, but he and Ron had completely lost it when Hermione revealed he was a werewolf. Then again, given the circumstances, Harry would've acted the same way even if he wasn't a werewolf. And he had learned his lesson by not giving a second thought to Hagrid being a half giant.
"Anyway, I think I've got the connection up..." She grabbed a handful of ancient floo powder and chucked it into the fire. The flames swirled a little and went a strange pale green colour. Hermione looked suddenly down heartened, but nevertheless took a deep breath and yelled out "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, London, England!"
"Europe, the world, the universe..." Muttered Ron. Harry gave a short laugh.
Hermione rolled her eyes and put her head in the fireplace.
At first, all she saw were the sickly green flames, but then suddenly the fireplace at Grimmauld Place came in to her line of vision, and by some divine stroke of luck, Mad-eye Moody was smoking his pipe right next to it.
"MAD-EYE!" She shouted as loudly as she could, but still only coming through faint and crackly, like a bad radio connection.
Perhaps it was not the smartest thing to do. After all, Mad-eye Moody had a little bit of a paranoia problem...
"STUPEFY!" He yelled, jumping up and knocking one of the pictures off the wall, a mad glint in his eye. Hermione almost rolled her eyes.
***
"ARE... YOU... ALL... RIGHT?!" Thundered Sirius at the fireplace, as if talking to morons, "WHERE... IS... HARRY?!" Remus' ears rang as Sirius' yells attacked his sensitive hearing.
"I'm not deaf Sirius, and Harry and Ron are just fine..."
"WHERE... ARE... YOU?!" Demanded Sirius. Remus' hands flew up to his ears.
"Please don't shout Sirius!" He yelped. Sirius, predictably, ignored him.
"Stop shouting Sirius!" Ordered Hermione "We're in Romania, about fifty miles-"
"ROMANIA!!!???" Sirius roared
"- North-west of Alba Luila, you won't be able to miss us, it's the only house for miles..."
"DO... YOU... WANT US... TO COME... AND... GET YOU...?" Sirius continued. Remus smacked himself in frustration. Sirius was really missing the point here.
"Yes, that would be nice... can you come ASAP? Only, no offence to these people, but I think they're clinically insane..."
/Well done Hermione/ Thought Remus /You've really gone and said it now.../
"INSANE?" Screamed Sirius "WE..."
"Sirius-"
"WILL BE..."
"No wait Sirius-"
"RIGHT THERE!"
"No... Sirius... Connection... Losing... Professor... Unconditionally..." Hermione seemed to want to get something through pretty urgently, but (Most annoyingly) the connection was breaking up.
"What? What are you trying to say Hermione?" Remus asked her worriedly (And with good reason)
"You don't understand," She tried again "On no account... Professor Lupin... These... Hunt-"
"WE... CAN'T... HEAR YOU..." Sirius yelled, he seemed to want to say something else, but just then the fire went out completely, leaving them with nothing but the echoes of Hermione's 'Hmph' of indignation.
"Right..." said Fred, glancing around "So what do we do?"
Sirius looked at him as if he was a complete idiot, he raised his eyebrows and shook slightly "Well..." He said, almost insanely cheerfully "We..." he waved his arms and waggled his fingers "Rescue them!" This part was said as if it was a major breakthrough in world peace or something.
Fred's ears turned slightly red and he exchanged glances with his twin. Then George said something that surprised them all.
"Fred and I will go with you," Fred nodded.
Molly let out a vehement exclamation, but Sirius silenced her with a look
"This shouldn't be too dangerous, and they are members of the order,"
"And it is their brother," Remarked Moody
Sirius turned to his best friend, "What about you Remus? Are you coming?"
Remus frowned, under any other circumstance he would come in an instant, but something Hermione had said, the tone of her voice...
"Moony, you can't leave Harry-"
"I have no intention of that Sirius, I'm just nervous about embarking on a mission with this much-"
"Reeeeeeemy..." Sirius whined
Remus rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the 'Remy' bit.
"All right then" He smiled softly, despite his apprehension "I'm with you..."
Another fatal mistake.
******************************
Romania...
******************************
It had been about half an hour since the botched communications attempt and Harry and Ron still couldn't believe that Hermione, supposedly the smart one, had failed to mention that the entire family they were staying with were murderous werewolf killers.
And knowing 'Moony' and 'Padfoot', Lupin would definitely be here within the next few hours, and these people probably had some werewolf detection charm, and would have his head mounted on the wall before he even walked through the door.
Then Sirius would have an uncontrollable emotional attack, sink into depression for the next twelve years, and refuse to be within an 'Avada Kedavra's length of Harry, for fear that he would use that very spell on him.
This was why Hermione was sitting with her head in her hands, sobbing silently.
"Is she all right?" Asked Anastasia worriedly, they had long since put some sort of translating spell on the house so they could understand Romanian, seeing as only Tatiana, Robert, and several cousins could speak a word of English.
Tatiana's family rivalled Ron's in numbers, and that was /without/ all the men, who were still 'at work'. Harry tried not to dwell on what 'at work' meant.
As well as Anastasia and the twins, the three students had met Tatiana's paternal step-grandmother, Paloma, who was where the werewolf hunter blood came from, although her husband and stepson were just as fierce and bloodthirsty on the job.
Then Paloma's daughters Bernice and Victoria, her sister in law, Alexandria, her niece Ariadne, her niece in law Natalya, and her son in law's sister in law Anetka. There was also a maid, Vassilena and her son, Kirill.
Only three of Tatiana's cousins (And a little brother) were there, the rest still being at Durmstrang, and said children were all infants.
"Oh, she's just a little... stressed..." Said Harry.
Anastasia nodded, and glanced up at the clock. As if on cue, the front door opened.
Harry's thoughts immediately flew to Sirius, but he quickly reconsidered when he realised that Sirius wouldn't just walk in through someone else's door. Then again, knowing Sirius...
If only it had been.
If only they had managed to warn Remus.
If only they had ended up somewhere else after Malfoy's spell.
If only Malfoy had never been born.
If only certain disagreements responsible for the schism in certain families had been avoided.
If only certain people had never been bitten.
If only a certain person had been an only child.
Then it never would have happened. But as several men came prancing in to the room, and subsequently had the situation explained, Harry had little time to marvel over how familiar one of the older men seemed before somebody even more familiar came in to the room.
If it had been a confusing day so far, Harry felt like this new development was enough to make him go insane.
But it wasn't a death eater, or Voldemort, or anything like that...
It was Remus Lupin.
"Papa!" Cried Tatiana and Robert simultaneously on seeing him.
"Oh shit..." Commented Ron.
Harry couldn't have described the situation more admirably.
*******************
Ahh! My mum is yelling at me to go to bed, and I haven't spell checked yet!
Hope everyone's o.k. And I'm devastatingly sorry for the long wait, please forgive me!
This Parrot has ceased to be: Thank you for your support, hope you enjoyed, and please don't give up on me, the next chapter will be here soon enough.
Flying High: Ummm... Thank you for taking time to review me, but I'm not exactly sure if you were complementing, criticizing, or flaming me. Please explain to me if it was one of the first two, and I'm sorry to have offended you if it's the third.
See you all next week!