Ahem… umm… Merry Christmas?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chapter 11: Alaurmed by his Sentinel the Wolf
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Severus Snape would never admit to anyone that he had saved Remus Lupin's life. It was, quite frankly, embarrassing.
And it wasn't embarrassing because he hated Remus Lupin, because back then of course he hadn't known what he was. Back then he had probably hated Romulus more, but the thing was he was embarrassed about was that he had done nothing to stop it.
Despite many rumours about his home life, Severus had, up until then, never seen one person stab another, and especially not twins. He had frozen, upon seeing it… the dagger had been partially silver but he assumed that Romulus had charmed it with a heat spell, because how else could there have been those burns? The twin thing had made it especially bizarre, it was like a mirror had shattered or something.
He had never liked Remus Lupin. One could say he detested the werewolf, but still upon seeing him stabbed there had been that little voice, /do something/ it had told him, /you may not like him but you can't let him die/ He had frozen though, he couldn't do anything… Romulus had barely thrown him a glance after brutally stabbing his twin, and Severus had watched as the marauder slumped to the floor.
Severus decided to run for help. He had brought professor McGonagall to the scene of the crime to deal with it. He had then been forced to stay at hospital wing until the rest of the moronic marauders and Lupin's crazy sister had appeared to accuse him. Perhaps it was Minerva's hope that it may finally bring Slytherin and Gryffindor together in the bonds of love and friendship…
Yeah right.
One may wonder, he supposed, why on earth he had preferred the goody-goody heart-of-gold pathetic nerd Remus to his fellow Slytherin, Romulus. Looking back on it now it had been the most stupid of anything he could think of, but the fact was that shortly after Tom Riddle left, and argument had broken out between two Slytherins on…something, no one was quite sure. This had inevitably lead to a schism in the happy house, two rival gangs working against each other, much like Slytherin and Gryffindor had been for… well forever really. The two gangs called themselves the 'Pythons' and the 'Vipers'. Severus had been a member of the viper group for most of his time at hogwarts, hanging out with fellow vipers, Bellatrix, Rosier, Rudolph… all those bastards.
Romulus, in case you haven't guessed, was a python. Both sides were constantly picking at each other for no apparent reason. The quidditch team were all pythons but the average viper was twice as smart. What a load of bollocks that episode in Slytherin history was.
And he had to admit; Romulus would have been a death eater if he'd stayed in England. There was no doubt about it, he hated muggle-borns, Gryffindors, muggles in general, and of course half breeds. Like his twin, he was skilled, would have made the perfect death eater.
He also had to admit that he still hated Romulus Lupin more than the werewolf. But that didn't matter really; the moron had dragged his pet and the dumb and dumber twins over to Romania to deal with some insane people with out any idea who they were. Nitwits.
So once again it had been left to Severus to deal with the overlooked crucial details, and oh bollocks would you look at that.
Ivanova Manor, Property of Leon Ivanova and…
Oh bugger it,
"Albus!" He called, his voice betraying his frustration and annoyance, "Guess who Potter managed to end up with this time…!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Nacho, what are you doing here?!"
The dark-skinned man gaped and made fish movements with his mouth, then he laughed, "Ola, amigo…I did not expect to see you here…let alone two of you!"
Remus grimaced and shook his head as if in disapproval, but it was Sirius who explained the problem,
"Remus has an evil twin"
Nacho remained expressionless, "Oh," He commented "That would explain much, I suppose…" Nodding his head he seemed to accept the fact and glanced quizzically at Sirius
"Oh yeah, I'm Sirius Black,"
"The mass murderer?"
"Yeah, that's me"
"Oh."
There was a pause "Not really," admitted Sirius, "And that's Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Kids accidentally got themselves transported here… didn't really consider that Remus' psycho-relatives were living here"
Harry cleared his throat in an effort to say something along the lines of 'wasn't our fault' and 'who is this guy?' He looked pointedly at his godfather and former teacher. The twins were still unconscious and Sirius couldn't move. Ron was sitting near his brothers looking worried while Hermione remained near Harry. Remus, as per usual whenever anything stressful happened, was concealing his emotions beneath a pensive mask. Luckily, He seemed to understand exactly what Harry meant.
"Children, this is Nacho, he's another werewolf, from Spain. We… erm… met last February with Dolores Umbridge and the rest, but Nacho was released early on account of Spanish politics,"
Nacho smiled, "Unfortunately, The government has no idea I'm out here, so bad luck for me. I was here on holiday—" For some reason Remus laughed at this, "And I got lost in the forest, trying to find a colony… unfortunately, I met up with a man with one eyebrow instead, name of Andre. Brought me here, alarm go off and boom—here I am,"
"Might I suggest you stay at home next time Nacho?"
The Spanish werewolf grinned, "How is the Mad-girl?"
"Maddy's fine, Nacho—and so is everyone else"
"Even Theodosius?" He said, his tone of voice giving away that he hoped that was not the case,
"Turns out," Sirius cut in, "Weasel eyebrows was working for Voldemort!"
"Ahhhh, I am not surprised,"
Remus took a deep breath and surveyed the situation. He dragged Sirius (engaging in a short sequence of jibes about weight along the way) to one side of the room. The stunning spell had been rather sloppy so it would eventually wear off. Fred was beginning to come around while George also started to stir. Harry, Ron and Hermione helped them up.
Remus then looked at the trio with raised eyebrows, "Questions?" He inquired
Harry blinked, trying to figure out what he was saying. Questions? What would he have questions about? He had already seen—oh yeah, Lupin didn't know he had seen—"No professor, err… Romulus already told us most of the story, although I don't quite understand the bit about Snape helping you, or being a…a viper?"
Remus looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened in recognition, "Oh that?" He laughed, "That was one of the stupidest… well Harry, a few years after Voldemort left Hogwarts, an argument about god knows what broke out amongst the Slytherins, leading to the formation of two rival gangs—the vipers and the pythons, Severus and Romulus were on opposite sides"
"Really?!" Harry gasped, "I had figured that Snape and your brother were friends!"
"Good lord no!" Lupin chuckled, "Now Harry, how is it that I, an unemployed fugitive earn the title of professor while Severus, respected potions master of Hogwarts is known only as 'Snape' to you? Hmm,"
Harry grinned; Sirius snickered, "Because he's a slimy git, Remus!"
Remus rolled his eyes.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
At what Fred guessed was the middle of the night, mostly everyone else had fallen asleep thinking of escape. There had yet to be any genius plans put forth, even from Hermione who had been a bit traumatised by the day's events, but Sirius and Remus were confident that something would come up. Good old Moony and Padfoot. Hah! Moony and Padfoot, Fred remembered his and George's reaction when they first found out. Imagine that.
But Fred wasn't thinking about the marauders map or the true identity of Moony and Padfoot, he was thinking more of the true identity of Remus Lupin, because in Fred's experience, when you had a twin, you were never known as 'Fred' It was always 'Fred and George' Not that he minded, of course he didn't mind, he enjoyed it actually—made him stand out a bit more from the crowd.
The ties of family were hard to break. True, Percy had stretched them a little last year, but after his aid in setting Lupin and sixteen other werewolves free, all was forgiven and forgotten.
He doubted that this was the case with the Lupins. Percy had made a bad decision regarding loyalties. Romulus, or so Fred had heard, had been nudged in to attempting fratricide by his own father! The sheer physical impossibility confused Fred to no end. Of course it did, how could he understand when he and George had barely fallen out over anything in their lives.
But why? A voice inside his head yelled, why would anyone do that to his own twin? It made no sense. He glanced over at Lupin, sitting next to Sirius' still struggling-to-move form, fast asleep (As far as he could tell)
His little brother and friends were huddled in a corner, opposite from the weird Spaniard.
George was right next to him, looking him straight in the eye.
"Hey," He whispered
"Hey," George whispered back
"No matter what… I'd never do that to you," He clarified with himself and his twin. Of course, George knew he wouldn't but it seemed like under the circumstances that they needed to say it out loud.
"Me neither…"
They sat in a comfortable silence for the next few hours, listening to the steady drip from the ceiling (what the hell was that drip anyway) and doing nothing much of anything. Fred wondered at one point if he had even fallen asleep.
Well, if he had, it sure didn't last.
BOOM!
Eight pairs of eyes snapped open at the horrendously piercing explosion. It took them a little time to realise that where there had once been a wall…there was now a large smoking pile of dusty rubble.
Unable to think of what this may mean due to the unexpectedness of the disturbance, Fred watched in shock as a young woman leapt over the wreckage.
"We've disabled the forcefield," She announced in a heavy Romanian accent, flicking a strand of dust coated fringe from her eyes, "But you need to move fast if we're going to get you out of here!"
Lost for any words, Fred mechanically rose to his feet and stumbled over to the newly made 'exit'. Remus Lupin however, was not so lost for words. Waving his hand through the suffocating dust cloud he cried out "Who are you?!"
The woman smiled, "My name is Nadezdha, but you may call me Nadia," She paused, "I'm your little sister, Remus,"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Birdie: Reaper is busy cowering in a corner right now but she asked me to thank her reviewers and extend her hopes that 2005 will be a better year for finishing this fic. She'd also like to recommend a fic called 'Oblivious' by Jess Pallas to everyone, because it's much better than this piece of crap (Her words, not mine… I swear it!) Merry Christmas everyone!