DISCLMAIMER: None of the characters of Harry Potter belong to me.
NOTE TO ALL: Lol, don't be too alarmed by the chapter title!!!! Dramatic me lol.
Chapter 13: An Ironic Way to Die
"I thought Remy would have been back ages ago," James said as he joined Sirius at the window. Sirius frowned as he stared across the darkened lawn. Peter joined them moments later.
"Why do you think Moony hasn't returned yet," he asked James and Sirius. Sirius sunk into the window seat and James and Peter crashed out on the ground before him.
Sirius had not told either of them yet about what had happened in the Dorm, where he had let Remus know he knew he loved him. He had been staring out of the window for a long time. James had questioned him why Remus had run from the Common Room before, but Sirius had kept it to himself, feeling it was too private for now and he'd like to speak to Remus first before revealing anything.
But this was all hours ago and Remus should have been back before now. Sirius had already watched a blood-red sun sink low in the hot pink sky and disappear beyond the horizon, and he was beginning to worry that Remus might not return to the Gryffindor tower to face him. He stared guiltily at the ground.
"Dunno Peter," said James, "his detention should have finished by now. I know Reficul doesn't like him, but he wouldn't keep him this long, would he?" Sirius looked at James.
He murmured, "Remus might not want to come back here tonight, Jamie. I don't think he wants to see me after what happened earlier ... "
James whipped his head around to look at him suspiciously, "What happened earlier? Is it to do with why Remus ran out of the room?" Sirius looked between them. Peter sat filled with curiosity whilst James looked at him with an accusatory stare. The worry inside him was growing somewhat rapidly and he knew it was time he told them.
"Prongs..." He said, running a hand through his hair. "After what happened in the Shrieking Shack, I said I'd lost my memory. Earlier, I admitted by accident to Remus that I'd lied. I remember everything --"
James sat in shock and interrupted, "Christmas? The kiss?" He cried out in disbelief, his expression horrified. Peter seemed to be very confused; nobody had told him any of this, so he didn't have a clue what they meant.
"What about Christmas? What kiss? Do you mean when Lewis kissed Sirius?" Peter asked quickly. Sirius and James ignored him and stared at each other.
"You mean you lied, Padfoot? You've known all this time that he loves you?" James asked in a whisper. Peter was all the more confused by it.
"Sirius didn't lie. He already told us that Lewis loves him --" Again, they ignored Peter as Sirius answered James.
"Well, I couldn't stick not talking to him. You've seen how he flinches every time I go near him or goes red. Is it not bad enough how awkward he is with me at times when he didn't know I remembered? Do you really think we could have been normal with each other after I found that out?"
"But you couldn't have pretended forever, could you? Pomfrey says your memory loss was only temporary anyway. Were you planning on bashing your head every month or so to keep acting like your memory was gone?" James said heatedly.
"Don't be stupid," Sirius cried, "I didn't know what I was going to do." Sirius lowered his voice again as he saw some people staring over at them. "I - I just figured I wouldn't have to. I thought that he'd get over it, realize how stupid it was to like me like that or that he doesn't really at all -- "
"What," James shouted, standing up, attracting the attention again. Sirius gave him a stern look so he'd be quiet. "Sirius, he continued, "you thought he was going to get over it? Siri, do you not get it? He loves you!"
Sirius looked away as James said it. All sorts of emotions were bubbling up inside of him at those words. He couldn't make most of them out, but he distinguished one of them as being confusion. Confused as to why Remus liked him so much, when he was only supposed to like him as a friend. "James ..."
"Lewis told Sirius he loved him after Christmas. What do you mean, and what is it to do with Remus?" Peter said, standing up too and demanding to be told. It then seemed to dawn on him, his mouth sank open. "You mean ... Remus loves -- "
"Yes Peter," James snapped. "And Sirius knows that fine well." Sirius couldn't look at James. "And I know fine well that Remus told you, Sirius, that he'd loved 'her' from the first time he saw 'her'. Now you know it means you, and you really thought he would just get over it?" James fumed at him.
"That's what I was hoping, James!" Sirius shouted, startling people in the room, including James and Peter. He calmed himself and spoke again, "How would you feel if you found out I loved you? Or Peter loved you, or Remus? Do you think you'd just say, 'Oh well, let's go get some lunch' or something? Would you not feel like shit because you know you can't love them back, no matter how much you know it's gonna hurt them? Knowing that you were the reason they feel miserable sometimes. He's one of my best mates, James, and when he kissed me, I knew it couldn't go back to normal. How could it? I'd seen how heartbroken he'd been over that 'girl.' I spoke to him about it and he was in a wreck over it at times. You know that James. So if I can't feel the same about him, how were we meant to go back to normal, with m knowing that and him feeling embarrassed to be near me?"
James' face had softened in sympathy as Sirius had spoken. "You could have talked to him about it," he said flatly.
Sirius gave a hollow laugh, "Oh, of course. Okay, Remus, mate, I know you love me and everything, but you're just gonna have to get over it or something, 'cos to be honest I'm not really gay ... How's about a nice game of Gobstones, then -- "
James closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. "Stop it Sirius," he said from behind them, "I get the point." He lowered his hands again, looking exhausted. "But this way hasn't worked either, has it? Maybe Remus is still in detention and has every intention of coming back up here."
"I'm going down to Potions class. I can't stick waiting here to see if he turns up or not," Sirius said and stood up, starting to walk away. He looked back as he saw James walking behind him, followed by Peter.
"We're coming too," said James and Peter nodded. Without speaking, Sirius led the way out of the Gryffindor Common Room.
Sirius broke into a run half way there and Peter, at least, struggled to keep up with him. Arriving at dungeon class, they all ran in. Reficul started as he looked up at them all, whilst they stared around the room.
"Sir, where's Remus?" Sirius asked him hastily once they had caught their breath. The Professor walked around from his desk, surprised to see them.
"Lupin left detention about," he consulted his watch, "one hour ago. He did his detention and left." Reficul looked curiously at them all as their faces dropped. "Why, has he gone missing? Has something happened? He seemed upset about something when he came down here ... He was early ... "
"Upset?" Sirius asked quietly. "An hour ago?" Reficul nodded at them, still looking between them, as though waiting for some explanation. Sirius didn't give it to him, he left the room again and heard on his way out as James spoke to the Professor, 'If you see him, let him know we're looking for him --'
Sirius walked towards the stairs, beginning to panic. What if he does something stupid, he thought. With a jolt to his heart, some alarming words came back into his head. Remus and he had been speaking of the 'her' Remus loved and he had said to Sirius, 'She's an amazing friend, one I'd die rather than not have.'
As he began to run again, up the stairs, he felt a hand grab his arm, preventing his progress. He turned angrily to see James holding him back, a tight grip on him.
"Where are you going," James asked as Peter came to a halt behind him. Sirius was feeling very impatient.
"Let go, I'm gonna look for Remus --" he said and he made to break free of his grip.
"Sirius," James said sharply, "stop!"
"Let - go!" Sirius cried and broke free, running back up the stairs. James ran up behind him and Sirius' arms were too far away to reach, so he dove forward and caught Sirius around the shins with his arms, bringing Sirius to land on the step before him with a thud. "What are you doing?" He shouted, "Remus might be doing something stupid to himself! He said he'd rather die than not have the person he loved as a friend, he thinks we aren't friends, he might try to ... Let me look for -- "
"No, Sirius! Can you just think for one second? I doubt you're going to find him by running in and out of all the classes. Hogwarts is kind of massive, it'd take forever."
"-- I DON'T CARE!" Sirius yelled. "I'll take as long as I need!" He began struggling up again and Jamie put all his weight on him, shouting for Peter to help him. Peter looked very reluctant to hold Sirius down, and he hesitated before eventually helping him.
"By the time you get to one room, he could be moving about in one you've already checked. I doubt you'd find him. Sirius, I told you to think. There's an easier way. You seem to be forgetting -- "
"The Map!" Sirius cried, stopping his attempts at escaping. James and Peter let him go.
"Right! And I don't think he'd do anything stupid anyway ..." But James was clearly beginning to worry too as his voice was full of doubt. Before they could say anything else, Sirius had begun running up the stairs again. James chased up behind him, not in attempt to stop him, just to keep up so they could get to the Marauders Map with him and see where Remus was. Peter was way behind, and wasn't even in view most of the time as he couldn't keep up their pace.
When they got to the Common Room, they darted up the stairs to their Dorm, Sirius in lead. He dived on the ground at James' bed and flung open the lid of his trunk, whipping out the blank parchment.
James sat down beside him as Sirius frantically called, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," touching his wand tip to the parchment. If anything happens to him ... Sirius was thinking as he waited on the lined of ink spread across the page to form the Map they had created. Before it had all appeared, the door burst open and they looked up hopefully, very disappointed to find only a heavily panting Peter.
Sirius scanned the page very quickly, every inch from the center to the edges. None of the many titled dots bore the name of Remus Lupin. Sirius began to shake and Peter, too, sat down to check the page. Sirius let the paper fall out of his hands and crumpled over on the floor, his back against the trunk. James picked up the paper and continued to look it over, but it was no use as Sirius knew Remus wasn't on it, not in the school or on the lawn, neatly drawn on the page to the very edge of the forest.
James handed it to Peter and sat against the trunk beside Sirius, placing a comforting hand on his arm. Peter looked up at them, still panting and said in a small voice, "Does the Map not only show people who are alive ... ? What if --" he began, worriedly.
Sirius and James were not startled at this. James reminded Peter, "The ghosts show up on it, Peter and don't think like that! Remus is fine."
"But he's not on the Map! Peter said. Sirius' head was buzzing with horror and Peter's stupidity was not helping things any.
"It only means he's not in the school," James said and Peter let out a small relieved 'oh.'
"What are we going to do?" Sirius said in frustration. He looked at James. "If he does anything ... It's because of me. Why could I not just have tried harder to accept it?"
"Stop blaming yourself for this, Siri," James said. "Remus probably just wants some time away from here. He'll be back later ... Or tomorrow. I'm sure he will. We just have to wait, it's all we can do."
Sirius knew he was defeated. He'd never felt so helpless before and stared, beaten at last, at the ground. He was lamentably aware of how right James was. For a long time they sat slumped against the trunk, just waiting to hear the door open again, but the only other person to enter the room at all was Perry McKinnon and he went straight to bed. So all they could do was wait.
.--.
Remus, unable to open his eyes, felt an acute pain across his face. He had just woken up and was in a desperate daze. Each time he tried to open his eyes, a dazzling light swept in, willing them shut. He had no idea where he was or how he had got there. Obscurely, he began to feel a tense pain travel through his arms and as he tried to move them, he realized they were behind his back and couldn't move -- they were tied together!
Alarm coursed through him as his mind raced to determine what was going on. He had been in his Dorm, worried about his detention when Sirius had come up to see him. Suddenly, like a rapid water, his memory swam back to him. He started and hit his aching head against something metal behind him. Using his hands, he felt it was a pole.
Calming himself, he tried to open his eyes again. The world was a blur. That light burned his eyes again, but, in a haze, he began to see the room in which he sat on the floor, quite alone and tied to a supporting pole of the clean worktop behind him. The last thing his conscious mind had seen was that wooden plank speeding towards his face. Sure enough, the plank lay a few meters away from him. Marissa had knocked him out!
Remus felt all the panic he ought at this, but still his mind was as bleary as his vision was. He had felt he must have been deafened by the blow because of the complete silence, but he began to hear a distant noise. It was getting closer and as Remus blinked at the room, he noticed that Marissa must be outside it. Why had she hit him? Remus was too confused to think of it, or anything but that noise growing closer to the door.
It was a voice. As it seemed to stop outside the door, the voice became clear and defined.
The cold drawl of Professor Reficul, his potions master, was the owner of the voice. Remus strained his ears to hear what he was saying.
"Yes, yes. They've just been looking for It. We should be thankful you thought of it, Selina. I certainly hadn't thought about them coming to look for It because It didn't return, it would have looked very suspicious had I not been there." Reficul sounded satisfied. Remus knew then that there was likely to be three wizards outside the door. It was confirmed when another voice told him Marissa was still present. The 'It' they spoke of, he didn't need to guess, referred to himself.
"Oh, It doesn't deserve to have Sirius as a friend," Marissa said bitterly. Sirius, Remus thought. It was more painful than the pain caused by the blow to his head. How horrible it was to think they would be silent with each other again. It didn't cross his mind to think he might never see him again, after tonight. The voice of Selina Reficul put a stop to his flow of thoughts.
"But Algen! They might be suspicious anyway. You were the last to see It at It's detention, they might go to Dumbledore and tell him!"
"Calm down, Selina. It seems this might have been a cause for alarm, for we really didn't think of that. But we've had a wonderful stroke of luck. You must have seen how upset It was when It came in earlier, Marissa? Something must have happened with It's friends to cause It upset, for they seemed very anxious about It already when they came to look for It. You see, they'll think It has run off because It was upset, they won't suspect a thing!" After his malicious delighted speech, three horrible sets of laughter buzzed outside the room. So The Marauders would think he had run off because Sirius had told him he hadn't lost his memory!
There was nobody to save him, and his protector probably didn't care anyway. But that's not true, he thought, Reficul just said that they came looking for me... He must still care. It was comforting to think, more than it should have been in such a situation as his. He should have been panicking more, but what could he do? What was even going on? Why had they tied him up?
The door swung open and in walked the blurry figures of Marissa, accompanied by his two teachers.
"It's awake!" Marissa excitedly exclaimed as she looked over at him. Had his senses been somewhat sharper, he may have pretended to still be unconscious. That way, he may have found out more, their plans for him...
All three walked over, Algen Reficul with a wide grin, and as he looked at Remus he said, "I see you've now met all three of my sisters." Three?
"Marissa?" He asked, his voice hoarse from lack of use. Reficul nodded assent. But still it didn't fully make sense. "But that only makes two sisters."
"Oh, It is stupid, isn't It?" Reficul said and his sisters smirked. "No, werewolf, perhaps you wouldn't remember. Doubt you'd even think of her at all," he said sourly and Remus didn't understand what he meant. He rambled on, "But, yes, you met all three of my sisters. Granted of course, you haven't seen my youngest for about four years..."
"I don't know who you mean," said Remus, struggling with his bonds behind his back. They were all snarling at him and before he could blink, a foot swung towards his side as Marissa had walked to the side of him and delivered a painful kick. He cried out in pain and more malevolent laughter was to be heard.
Selina retrieved the seat at the desk on the far corner by the door, whilst Reficul went to the cupboard. He watched them in silence. Marissa sat in the chair provided and Selina approached the cupboard too, saying behind her, "Feel free to do that again if It moves, Marissa. Or, for the fun of it if you wish." It was in a tone, wholly unlike anything Remus had ever heard her use in class.
Marissa grinned, "As fun as it was, I don't really like having to touch It." Remus didn't know what he could do. Selina turned back with an appreciative nod at Marissa. Remus turned his attention on the cupboard.
Reficul carried out a large cauldron and carried it to the worktop to the right of Remus, whose back was still turned to it. Behind him, Selina was carrying a large jug of water in one hand and a strange plant with pointed leaves and weird fruits in the other, also setting it down on the worktop. It occurred to Remus to ask what it was for and what they were going to do to him.
More laughter followed his inquiries. On receiving no answer, he repeated only to make the laughter louder. He remained ignored and instead, decided to twist around to see what they were doing beside him.
Selina had her wand out and was conjuring up flames beneath the cauldron and more to his alarm, Reficul had a 6-inch knife that he seemed to have had in his robes, glistening in his hand. He couldn't see what he was doing, but he saw that Reficul was cutting something, which he believed to be the plant. Selina had the water in the cauldron now, and seemed to be bringing it to the boil, stirring it magically with her wand.
"Marissa," called Reficul to his sister, "come take over this, will you." Marissa immediately walked over and Reficul instructed her, "Just add this gradually and stir for a while until the mixture turns a dark sort of emerald colour. I'll fill the werewolf in..." Remus cowered slightly, forcing his back into the pole to back off from the mad professor. Reficul noticed and seemed pleased at the reaction as he sat in the vacated chair.
"Yes, werewolf, you are right for once. You do have reason to cower -- "
"I wasn't cowering!" Remus said defiantly. Reficul smiled.
"I expect lies from a werewolf. I assure you, you cowered. I suppose you might have guessed why you are here then?" Remus didn't like to admit it, but to Reficul's delight, he shook his head. It was the only way Reficul would tell him.
"No? Then I suppose you didn't guess who I meant earlier." Remus looked away from the delighted teacher. Reficul began his shocking story.
"People aren't always who you think, werewolf. No, it's quite easy to change your identity as a disguise. So Selina and I found out anyway. Perhaps you might like to know who we really are. May I introduce us?" Reficul pointed first to his sisters in turn, then to himself as he said, "Marissa, Selina and Algen. Algen Fucirel."
Remus veered his head quickly back to face him. He obviously hadn't heard properly. "Algen who?" He asked. Reficul laughed. He turned to his sisters.
"Looks like you struck a nice blow with that plank, Marissa. It seems It can't hear correctly." He turned back to Remus. "Fucirel, werewolf. Reficul's an anagram, the disguise we've gone under. All necessary."
"You mean Phoebe -- "
"Is the third sister, yes." Remus' head was spinning. "And don't think you're worthy to say her name... You who took her from us!" Reficul said, getting quite angry very quickly. He took his turn in kicking Remus now, this time to his head as his sisters watched in contentment. Remus recoiled from him as much as he could. It's because she was their sister... Remus thought as the pain shot through him once again. Reficul returned to his seat.
"We'd have done this long ago had we known... I was quite impatient when we first found out. Selina wished to teach here, where Phoebe had gone. She knew Dumbledore wasn't likely to take her on if he knew she was only here out of sentiment. That's why she changed her identity. It was all simple and we're very thankful she did. Else, none of this would have worked.
"When she got here, she found even more reason to understand Dumbledore wouldn't have taken her on, knowing who she was. It's something you don't expect to hear about a person you love. 'Sorry, but your sister received a fatal blow to the head by a thrashing tree.' But the family weren't told that there was a person to blame though.
"All teachers at Hogwarts are told of the werewolf in the school and where it is smuggled every month," Remus flinched. "When Selina began teaching, she was told everything. That the Whomping Willow was there because of a werewolf -- "
"Because of you!" Selina suddenly shouted, diving on Remus and attacking him with her fists, scratching at him and punching. Remus tried to lower his head away from her clawing and closed his eyes. It stopped and he looked up to see Reficul holding her back, shouting in her ear. Marissa stood, watching in shock.
"Selina! We've waited too long for this, now we're doing this as planned. He'll get what he deserves, don't you worry." Remus' Divination teacher stilled and returned to the worktop, discomposed, as Reficul yet again returned to his seat and continued his tale.
"When Selina told us, our plan came into existence, as did another 'Reficul'. Me. I was perfectly qualified to become a Potions Master, but Hogwarts already had one. Luck favoured us yet again, with thanks to a man called Voldemort. It seems we owe him quite a bit -- "
"He killed Professor Melbourne?" Remus cried out in shock. Reficul smiled dreamily. It was disturbing to see.
"That would have been kind, but no," he said. "He more...made things convenient! Yes, easier for sure. I don't suppose you'll have heard about all the 'mysterious disappearances'? They suspect he may be the source of all the murders and it's a very helpful supposition that he might have killed Professor Melbourne. Though, only I can truthfully claim the honour of that one."
"You?" Remus whispered, traumatized. Reficul bore the look of utmost satisfaction.
"You only have yourself to blame, werewolf. None of this would have happened had you not insisted on presenting yourself to a school. A beast should be caged, not socializing with humans."
"I am human!" Remus said. Reficul's face twisted in disgust.
"If you were human, I'd be ashamed to call myself one. As you are not, I'm quite happy, thank you. How is that coming along Marissa?"
"I'd say it's ready, Algen. It's just this moment turned a dark emerald, as you asked," Marissa replied.
"What is that being made?" Remus asked, worried, "What are you going to do to me?" Reficul glared at him with his cold steel-grey eyes and chose not to answer at once.Instead, he left his seat to check Marissa was right.
"Good," he said, "this will be fine. Leave it to cool now." Reficul moved the chair back up to it's desk and came back, pacing a short distance in front of Remus, agitatedly impatient. Quite abruptly, he looked down at Remus, snarling again.
"I'm getting quite excited, you know! All year I've been planning this! And now, it's finally happening. We're finally going to kill you." Remus started and Reficul's sisters lined beside him. "It took a while to decide how to do it. When I found this way, I couldn't help but laughing, it's perfect! Have you ever heard of the Wolf's Bane plant, the Monk's Hood plant, werewolf?" Remus shook his head miserably.
"That does shock me. Wait to you hear it -- it's quite ironic. You have quite the unknown connection to this plant already. There are actually people in the world trying to cure your monthly afflictions of being a werewolf, help your transformation along a bit. An almost cure, if you like. An untested one has been spoken of, coming directly from the very plant we have here tonight.
"But don't suppose you're here to be cured, our intentions are all on murder, like I said. It is a plant of many names you know. Just like ourselves really," he smiled at his sisters who simpered beside him. "It also goes by the name of the Aconite plant. Whilst the plant can be helpful, as mentioned, there is also a poison in it. Contained in an alkaloid of the plant. It is this very poison by which your death shall be thankful for tonight!" He said delightedly. Remus felt sick to the stomach. Reficul didn't stop.
"Even better," he said, "It's a slow-acting poison and should be more effective on a werewolf. A small dose is quite harmful, large doses are lethal. No prizes for conjecturing as to the amount you will receive. A large dose."
"Algen," said Selina, looking on the worktop, "I think that will have cooled by now." Reficul went to the cupboard and procured a flask, into which he began to pour the Aconite Poisoning. He brought it over and crouched on the floor by Remus, who was slowly edging away from him.
"I'm not taking it!" Remus called. Reficul backhanded him and his head smacked again off of the pole.
"We're not stupid, werewolf. We didn't expect you to open your mouth willingly," Reficul raged. "Selina." Selina took out her wand and said something that Remus didn't catch. He didn't need to know what she had said to know what the spell did. As soon as she had uttered her words, Remus' mouth had sprung open, wide. He tried desperately to close his mouth, but his jaw stayed firmly in place, refusing to shut. He cried out in panic and Reficul took advantage of his panic and tilted his head back, forcing the lukewarm liquid into his mouth.
Resolved not to swallow it, Remus was very surprised to fine he did so and realized in his thrashing about wildly that her spell had covered this too. It seemed to take forever, but Reficul emptied the contents of the flask down his throat. The last swallow went down before Remus' attempt at spitting it out could be achieved. Reficul stood back up happily.
"Let me tell you your approaching symptoms. Initial symptoms include a tingling in the mouth and throat, followed by a numbness and an eventual suffocation of the victim, that's you." He said it in a matter of fact tone, full of delight and as Remus heard it, true to the professor's words, he began to feel a strange tingling on his tongue.
"Oh, so it's started," Reficul said excitedly in his drawl, catching Remus' expression of horror. "To think, something which might soon help your transformations as a wolf is the very thing which is going to kill you. I love irony, don't you?"
"It's a shame in a way though," began Selina in a cold voice, "that the poison takes a while to take full effect. Not that any more suffering to It is bad, just annoyed that we can't stay here and take full pleasure in seeing it happen. Suppose we're leaving him now?"
Remus' legs began to numb. They felt very heavy. He looked at them in horror, then back at Reficul. His eyes were glittering horribly and he moved to the worktop to retrieve something shiny. It was the knife!
Remus tried to move, but found his legs were stiff and it was spreading slowly upwards. Reficul brought the blade down to his face and ran it across it. His sisters cried out in protest.
"You said, Algen! All to plan!" Marissa called. Reficul merely lowered the blade down Remus' face and behind his back, and, unexpectedly, he cut the rope bonds holding him. "What are you doing?" His sisters cried together.
"He's going numb," he simply replied, they all looked at Remus. His lack of struggling proved him correct. "He's not going anywhere. Is it not funnier this way? Watching him trying to struggle when he can barely move? I know his legs are gone numb at least, it always starts from there and goes upwards I believe." His sisters smiled warmly at him. He lifted Remus' right leg and dropped it to show it was limp.
"C'mon, we have things too discuss. You," he spat at Remus, "Know this. We're only outside the room, not that there's anything you can do, but if you find something, we're only there, we'll know and you'll be killed straight away." With that they turned to leave.
As they closed the door, Remus sat, alone, in despair. The paralysis was still spreading upwards, by his knees ...
All made sense now in his head. That's why he's hated me, he thought, and that's why he likes Sirius, they all do. Because he was going out with Phoebe ... But Sirius said it wasn't my fault, and I believe him. She took the dare, that's what Sirius said. Sirius ... Tears began to pour down his cheeks. I'll never see him ever again ...
He began to feel really weak and his breathing became slightly harder to do. As the paralysis spread up his torso, it came to him suddenly. He could see Sirius!
Before numbness could begin to spread into his arms, Remus placed his arms in front of himself on his legs. The magic watch Sirius had given him at Christmas would allow him to see the pictures of Sirius and his other friends.
"Photo-album!" He called in a slur (the tingling was all over his mouth now), just as Sirius had done on Christmas Day, showing him how to work it. The screen turned blank and he called in his slur, "Marauders."
Despite his impending death, Remus couldn't help but smiling as up popped a small moving picture of all four of the Marauders. There was Sirius, hand on his, Remus' shoulder, smiling beautifully as usual.
His arms were numb now. It was a good thing that he had moved them in front of him already. "Next," he panted at the screen, his breath dragging now.
There were many pictures of the Marauders. Remus didn't think it the worst way to die. Not if he had Sirius to look at. As everything began to feel slow to Remus and he started to become dazed, he came to the end of the photos. The last one's were the two he'd taken of Sirius on his bed at Christmas. The first one where he'd caught him unaware, and the second, wonderful to see, was the one where Sirius had sexily posed. And his mind began to mist, he felt worried his vision would blur from seeing the picture. He concentrated on that Christmas morning, crying. Sirius, licking his lips for the picture to be taken, eyes bright behind his eyelashes. Out of the blue came something else Sirius had told him about the watch. It had an alarm!
Remus struggled to make a noise. He could no longer see the watch and his head was lolling on his chest now. He had to say it before he passed out! "A..."
It was only a whisper and he was fighting desperately to keep breathing, something that had become very hard to do now. He set his mind on it.
"Alarm!" He called in a quiet whisper before he fell sideways, limply to the ground, unconscious once more.
.--.
The Marauders had gone down to the Common Room soon after Perry had gone to bed, so as not to wake him up. It had been empty for a while now and they kept checking the Map, just to see if Remus was back in the school or not. It was all without luck.
"I can't stick this, Jamie!" Called Sirius, suddenly standing up in frustration. Something that looked suspiciously like a tear had formed in each of Sirius' eyes. James was all surprise, this was the first time he'd ever seen this.
Sirius cried for the first time in Jamie's memory. Instantly, James sprung up beside him and pulled him into a long hug. Sirius cried on his shoulder and Peter looked on, just as astonished to see Sirius so weak for the first time ever.
"If he ... If he kills himself ... I don't know what I'll do!" Sirius sobbed into James' shoulder. James started to cry too, filled with emotion. If Sirius thought it must be serious enough to cry, then it was a more worrying situation than he'd thought. Peter joined in too and for a while, all James could do was comfort Sirius.
Sirius shook beneath him and James was utterly mournful at the collapse of his best friend.
"He wouldn't -- kill himself," James cried as he supported Sirius' weight, terrified of his own uncertainty. "He'll want to see you again, try make it better. He wouldn't give up that quickly ... "
Sirius didn't reply.
It freaked James out how long it took him to calm Sirius down, and himself. Peter, to their annoyance, had fallen asleep and they were sitting down again, not speaking, when a sudden piercing high-pitched noise was heard, startling them all. As James looked around for the source of the noise, he was shocked to see Sirius had got up very quickly and was running up the stairs to their Dorm.
James immediately followed and as he ran up the stairs, he heard some people getting out of bed, to see what the noise was.
"Sirius!" James called after his best mate as he reached the room, "What are you -- what is that?" James cried at seeing Sirius having pulled a small metal object from a drawer on his bedside cabinet. Sirius had pressed something on the shiny metal and the squealing noise stopped.
"Sirius, that thing almost woke up the whole castle, what is it?" James asked as he watched Sirius sit, staring at the object and looking confused. He walked behind Sirius to see a tiny map on the thin strip of metal. Suddenly, Sirius shot up and grasped his shoulders.
"James, Remus must be in trouble," Sirius said and unexpectedly sprinted from the room, leaving James to follow him again. This time James was calling after him to find out why he said that. Sirius wouldn't stop, they ran from the Common Room, leaving Peter miraculously still asleep and a few students in their pyjamas, inquiring still after the noise.
"Sirius," James shouted as they ran down through the school. Sirius never spoke nor stopped until they were on the castle lawn. "Please tell me what's going on! Why's Remus in trouble? What's that thing with the map on it?" James only managed to say it once he'd caught his breath on the lawn.
Sirius looked gravely at him, his face oddly lit by the eerie moon. "He needs us now, Jamie! I gave him a magic watch for Christmas and it came with an alarm that I told him to leave at school. That was it going off, I recognised it straight away. He's really in trouble!" With that, Sirius ran off again, in the direction of the castle gates, leaving James to take it in. James ran after him again as soon as it registered.
"Padfoot, where is he?" He called and Sirius shouted back without stopping to tell him, running for the gates in the direciton now of Hogsmeade.
"The Fonne!" Was his reply.
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